Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
“Excuse me?” Donovan says, his scowl deepening.
I. Want. To. Die.
In a desperate effort to make things right, I blurt, “She said ‘text spreadsheets nigh!’ She’s in an, um, futuristic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream . It’s very cutting-edge.”
Oh, no. Where the hell did that come from?
Both of them are staring at me, Charlotte with knowing amusement, Donovan with horror. So, of course, I dig myself a deeper hole. “She plays, um, Thisbe. Right, Charlotte?” I glare at her, daring her to contradict me.
“Of course.” Charlotte’s tone is deadpan. “This is my favorite line: My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones .”
Forget wanting to die. Now I just want to kill her.
“Why…why would you ever text a spreadsheet?” Donovan clutches my laptop to his chest, his expression appalled. “And why would you show up at someone’s door to ask them to send a text?”
Of course, that’s the part that upsets him. Once an anal-retentive data engineer, always an anal-retentive data engineer, I suppose.
Charlotte snickers. “Why, indeed. You are just adorable . Rune, where are your manners? Introduce us, please!”
Right. Because my manners are the problematic ones here. “Charlotte,” I say, resigning myself to my misery, “this is Donovan Frost. He and I are working together on a new project for Ethan.” I emphasize the words, hoping she’ll take a hint.
“You don’t say.” Charlotte pushes the pizza at me and extends a hand to Donovan. “Charlotte Reid, attorney and Rune’s best friend. Lovely to meet you.”
He takes it, sizing her up. “Donovan Frost, data engineer and laptop repairman. I assume you’re the one who bailed Rune out this morning?”
“And you’re the one who crashed a car with her in it.”
I’ve had enough of this pissing contest. “Yes, yes, everyone here has had a stressful day, with me at its epicenter. Got it. Luckily, Charlotte has arrived with pizza and ice cream—which Donovan can’t eat. Alas, poor Yorick, he must depart.” And not a moment too freaking soon.
“That’s from Hamlet , not A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,” Donovan says, quirking a dark eyebrow. “And I still have to take a look at your laptop.”
Oh, for the love. “Can you look at it tomorrow? Charlotte and I have to, um, debrief about the play. And we have to stress-eat.” I wave the pizza box. “I’d ask you to stay, but, you know, lactose intolerant and all.”
“So sweet of you to remember.” The words come out in a low rumble that I really, really shouldn’t find as sexy as I do.
“I’m very sweet,” I tell him, and Donovan snorts.
“Sure you are.” He sets my laptop down on the coffee table, a considering look on his handsome face. “You know what you’re like, Rune?”
“No,” I say, my tone wry. “Do tell.”
“You,” Donovan says, “are like a chocolate bar with cayenne pepper in it.”
Without another word, he turns and walks out, closing the door behind him.
“What the hell?” Charlotte says as Donovan’s Prius pulls away from the curb.
I sink down on my couch and grab a slice of pepperoni straight from the box. Three premonitions in one day have left me starving. “Don’t ask me.”
“He’s not wrong, you know. But he really hasn’t known you long enough to say something like that. What in the name of God did the two of you get up to today? The Facebook page is on freaking fire.”
I take another bite of pizza, nearly moaning at how good it tastes. We Knead Pizza guards the secret recipe for their tomato sauce closely. They won’t even tell Charlotte’s mother, and she’s the mayor. “Please say Mrs. Grant didn’t see Donovan carrying me inside.”
She strides back to the kitchen, grabbing a couple of wine glasses from the rack and a bottle of red from the pantry. Pouring us both glasses, she hands me one and settles on the couch with her own. “Of course she did. I swear, it’s like she has a telephoto lens. And sex radar.”
“Ugh,” I moan, burying my face in my glass.
“Anyway, tell me everything. Because it definitely seems like tall, dark, and grumpy’s got a thing for you.”
I almost choke on my wine. “He doesn’t! He’s dating Jenny Abruzzo.”
“Saint Jenny?” Charlotte muses. “Well, that’s too bad. He was looking at you like you were his own personal spicy chocolate bar.”
“He was just excited to work on my laptop. Technology gives him a boner,” I say, but absently. I have bigger things on my mind.
I don’t want to tell Charlotte about the monster. She doesn’t know what happened that night; I’ve never talked about it to anyone, beyond what I had to say in court back then. I’d much rather eat pizza and drink wine than revisit the worst time in my life. But maybe Charlotte can find out more than Julia knew—like, exactly when he’s getting out and if there’s a way to keep the bastard away from both of us without getting me locked up a second time.
“Earth to Rune.” Charlotte waves a hand in front of my face. “You okay?”
I blink, startled back to myself. “I’m all right. Today was just…a lot.”
“Did you hit your head in the crash?” she says, channeling Worried Charlotte again. “Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking wine. I could call Jess and tell her I need to stay here tonight?—”
Part of me wants to beg her to do just that. But I don’t want to be a burden to Charlotte or her wife, especially after what I’m getting ready to say. Who knows—when Charlotte’s heard the truth, maybe she won’t even want to speak to me again.
“No need,” I say firmly.
“Really?” She narrows her eyes at me. “If you’re not concussed, and you and DJ Blue Eyes aren’t doing the nasty, then why was he carrying you?”
It’s now or never. “Charlotte, do you remember when we were in high school, and I got, um, sent away?”
My voice shakes despite my effort to keep it steady. Sensing my anxiety, Valentine jumps into my lap, curling up. I stroke her fur as Charlotte says, “Yeah, of course. Our junior year. After the fire at your foster family’s house. What does that have to do with anything?”
I draw a deep breath. “That fire? I set it.”
Bracing myself, I tell her almost everything. How the monster would sneak into my room at night. How his wife never stopped him. How, when I threatened to report him, he left me alone but turned his sights on Julia. How, before he could get his filthy hands on her, I confronted his sorry ass with a lit match in my hand.
I don’t tell her about the vision that consumed me, the premonition where I saw him doing to Julia what he did to me. About how I knew that interfering with the natural order of things would cost me, if I could manage it at all. I could stop the monster from hurting Julia, but I would pay for it with my freedom. Just like I saved Officer Asshat and wound up in jail. Not for long, but still.
In my experience, magic—if that’s what you want to call my gift—always has a price.
But Charlotte wouldn’t believe any of that, so I don’t bother with it. Instead, I just tell her about how he refused to let Julia go, how I screamed for her to run. And then I dropped the lit match right on top of those stupid baseball cards he was obsessed with and watched them burn.
“He came for me after that,” I say, seeing not my cozy living room but the house that always stank of dirty dishes and cigarettes. Hearing the monster’s bellows of rage as he chased me through one smoke-filled room after another, out into the tiny dirt courtyard. “But Julia ran, like I told her. Straight to a neighbor’s house. They called 911.”
Charlotte’s voice is softer than I’ve ever heard it. “And did he catch you, Rune?”
“He tried,” I say, petting Valentine’s soft fur. “But, spoiler alert. I had a lot of other matches.”
“You lit him on fire and burned his house down. And for that, they sent you away.”
I nod, not brave enough to look at her face. “But he went to prison. Julia and I testified, and she…well, you remember her back then. Pure as the driven snow. Turned out there were a lot of other foster kids he’d abused. A real saint, that one.”
“God, Rune.” Charlotte’s voice catches, and when I steal a glimpse at her, tears are pouring down her cheeks. “How could you keep this inside, all this time? I’m your best friend! You were going through so much, and— Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to think about it. It was separate from my life with you, you know? I didn’t want it to contaminate what we had. I was afraid you’d look at me differently if you knew.” I swallow hard, then force myself to hold her gaze. “Do…do you hate me, Charlotte? Now that you know what I’m capable of?”
She’s still crying, but when she meets my eyes, the expression in hers is fierce. “Hell, no. You were so, so brave, Rune. You should’ve been awarded a goddamn medal for what you did, not gotten locked up. Personally, I wish you’d burned the son of a bitch to ashes.”
She throws her arms around me, holding me close. Between us, Valentine chirrups, none too happy at being squashed, and Charlotte draws back with a tearful laugh.
“I’m glad you told me. But…why now? And what does this have to do with Donovan?”
“Julia came back tonight,” I tell her. “She’s doing so well. She went to Harvard , if you can believe it. She has this amazing career… But she told me the monster’s getting out of prison early, for good behavior or some shit. And I—I guess it just got to me. I passed out, and Donovan happened to be driving by, and he caught me.”
“That bastard’s getting out?” Charlotte has her don’t-fuck-with-me attorney face on now. “Oh, hell no.”
“That night, he made so many threats…” I swallow hard. “I’m scared of what he’ll do, Charlotte. I don’t want him anywhere near me, or Julia either. She and I put him away for years. I’m afraid he’s going to come after us. And I just wondered if maybe you could look into it. Find out when exactly he’s going to be released, and the conditions…”
She takes my hands, gripping them tight. “Of course I will. That man will never touch either of you again, Rune. I’ve got your back.”
I hear her. I know she means it. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t forget the moment that the ocean of blood consumed me, the waves sweeping over my head, dragging me under. Or that implacable voice, ringing in my ears: Our day will come.
I hope neither one has anything to do with the monster.
But I’m terrified I’m wrong.