Chapter 19
Tacy
My resurrected husband slept beside me last night. I still can’t shake the idea that maybe this isn’t real. That’ll I’ll wake up from this dream and he’ll still be dead. In the ground over at Bantree Cemetery. That I’m alone and will have to fight off the men who tried to kill me a few days ago. But I stretch, sit up, and pinch myself. I’m not dreaming. And Sol…or Aris…is just opening his eyes. Sunlight pours into the room, lighting up the dark corners and casting a glow on his tan face. In the light, I can see even more scars than before. I met him when he was a fighter, so he already had quite a few…but now…
He reaches up and touches my cheek. “You’re so beautiful. It killed me not being able to touch you. Talk to you. Wake up beside you every day. My body has been put through a lot, but that was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. Like a fucking knife right to the heart, a twisting, searing pain I had to relive every damn day.”
I smile at him as I climb out of bed. “Well, I hate to say you deserve it. But…you sort of deserve it.”
“All right,” he sighs. “You’re probably right, Doll.”
It’s Saturday and even though the kids typically sleep in, I’m just realizing their supposedly deceased father is in bed with me and I don’t know what I’m going to tell them. Hey, kids. Remember Daddy? Well, he’s not dead after all. Surprise!
“Thank you for acknowledging it. But you can’t be here. You know that, right?”
“The kids…”
“Yeah, the kids. They’re already confused as it is. They’ll probably need therapy for the rest of their lives after this.”
“I’ll leave. Let me get my stuff together, and I’m gone,” he says and pulls himself out of bed. “Like a thief in the night.”
“I don’t even want to think about thieves. Speaking of…was it you who came in and took your birth and death certificates?”
Aris is lacing up his black work boots but pauses and looks at me. “No, it wasn’t me. Was that what they took the first time?”
“Yes, that was all they took. I was really hoping it was you.”
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t,” he says and zips up his jacket.
I bend over and grab the JFK mask that had fallen behind the headboard. Aris smacks my ass as I’m standing up. I hand it to him, laughing. “Here you go, President.”
“Thank you.” He stuffs the mask in his hoodie pocket. “That’s Mister President to you.”
Aris turns towards the door, but I lunge towards him and throw my arms around him. “I know you have to go, but I don’t want you to. I don’t want this to end. I thought I’d lost you, and now that I have you back, I’m fucking terrified you’re going to walk out that door and I’ll lose you forever. You’re playing dangerous games, Aris. Maybe we should just back out of all this entirely. For our own sakes…for the kids. I’ve put myself at risk and the kids just by asking about this medication. Just by mentioning it to…”
“Declan?”
I nod.
“Yeah, don’t talk to him anymore, Tacy. You and I both know he’s fucking crooked. The Org is in his back pocket, and he’ll do whatever they tell him to. And now he has real pull, being the governor and all. That prick was always jealous of me. He always wanted everything I had. Including you. And if he can’t have you, I don’t know what he’ll do. In fact, it might’ve been him who put that skinhead Starkey up to the job.”
I glance at the clock. Eight-twenty-two. The kids usually sleep until nine, so we have a little time.
“Likely,” I agree. “There’s…something I need to tell you. I think the cops might try to pin Starkey’s death on me.”
“There’s no way that’ll ever work,” he says. “You were kidnapped. There will evidence on the cameras, as well as evidence in the house.”
“Yeah…but the problem is, I sort of…knew Starkey.”
He cocks an eyebrow. “You knew him? From where?”
“Back in Washington. From high school,” I gaze out the window. How do I get out of this one? Should I just tell him? My pulse quickens.
“Was he in…the coven with you?”
I swallow and feel the tears well up. Damn it. I’m tired of crying.
“Was he… the guy? The guy who….?” He asks and smooths the hair back from my face. Even though I want to lie and make this all go away, I know Aris won’t judge me. Can’t judge me.
“Yes,” I say. “Which means they have motive. And if they dig deeper, they might even discover things about me that could put me in jail.”
“I’ll turn myself in before that happens. And anyway, whatever you did, Tacy, you were a child still. They can’t convict you of that crime now. It’s been over fifteen years,” he says. “I doubt it was that bad. Was it, Sweetheart?”
I gaze into his eyes. I can see his love for me. Feel it in the air all around me. In his touch. He looks at me and sees a good human being. A nurse. A loving mother. A dedicated wife. No, I can’t tell him. It would destroy his image of me forever.
It’s not like I was born a killer. There weren’t any signs. My parents didn’t have to take me to a shrink because I was threatening other kids or harming animals for fun. I was a normal child and a normal teenager. But, when my dad left, never to speak to me again…something inside of me broke. I searched for something to fill the void. Because when a parent leaves you behind it doesn’t just break your heart, tears your soul asunder. It leaves an opening for things to climb in. Dark things.