Chapter 9 Aspen
ASPEN
The stars sparkled overhead. They should’ve been a comfort. Autumn and I had always loved the stars. It didn’t matter if we were living in a car or a shelter or a studio apartment, the stars were our one constant while apart from each other.
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and looked down at my phone.
Me
I’m here. Do you need help with your stuff?
I’d sent it four minutes ago. I told myself I’d give her five and then go in.
John was at a business dinner, but he could come home at any time, and I wanted Autumn and my niece out of here first. My phone clicked over to five minutes to seven. My stomach cramped.
God, I hoped she hadn’t changed her mind. All she’d ever wanted was a family. To create the environment we’d never had growing up. It made it that much harder for her to walk away. Even if it was the only thing she could do to keep her and her daughter safe.
I slid out of my car and headed up the front steps. This McMansion in the suburbs was never something I’d pictured Autumn in. She had too much heart and soul. She was more the type for an old farmhouse with a wraparound porch and notches in a wood post where she’d measure her growing kids.
But John had wanted big. He’d said they needed to keep up appearances, which meant a pristine home without a single thing out of place. I gritted my teeth at the memory as I searched my key ring for the pink one Autumn had given me. Sliding it into the lock, I opened the door.
“Autumn?” I called.
A light was on down the hall, but everything else was dark. Too dark. Shadows danced along the walls. My heart hammered in my chest.
“Autumn?” I tried again. “Where are you?”
I heard nothing but the drip of a faucet somewhere down the hall. I moved toward the faint light in the direction of the kitchen.
A soft cry sounded from upstairs. Lucy.
I turned, heading quickly up the stairs, and moved on autopilot toward my niece’s room. The door was open, the faint glow of a nightlight shining through.
As I stepped inside, I pulled up short. A figure sat in the rocker. Autumn had hemmed and hawed over what color she’d wanted for the nursery, changing her mind at least a dozen times before settling on a pale purple. But the person in the chair now was too big to be my sister.
And they were completely ignoring the now-wailing baby in the crib as a faint breeze ruffled the gauzy curtains.
“Hello, Tara. I didn’t hear the bell.”
The voice froze me to the spot. It was so calm yet admonishing. The familiar line John so often walked.
“What’s wrong with Lucy?” I croaked, my palms sweating.
He didn’t turn to look at me, just fixed his gaze on a spot over the crib. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”
My throat constricted, tightening to the point of pain. “Where’s Autumn?”
I could barely get the words out as blood roared in my ears.
John chuckled, the sound light and airy. “I’ve given everything for my family. Worked myself to the bone to provide a good life.” He tapped a finger on the arm of the rocker. “And this is how they want to repay me?”
“Where is she?” Hot tears filled my eyes.
He laughed again, but the sound was darker this time. “I don’t know… Where’s Mommy, Lucy? Where is the traitorous whore?”
The fury broke free then, forcing him straighter in the chair. The moonlight caught on his crisp white shirt. But it wasn’t just white. There were red smears and splotches.
John slowly pushed to his feet. The moonlight illuminated his face. Red spattered what I could see of it.
Blood.
Bile surged into my throat.
“They’re mine.” His hand twitched.
A gleam of silver.
A knife.
Coated in a deep red.
John took one step and then another. “You think you can take them from me? I’ll send you all to hell first.”
And then he lunged.
I shot up in bed, face beaded with sweat, a scream lodged in my throat. My fingers fisted in the blankets as I struggled to breathe.
“Just a dream.” I murmured the words over and over. John wasn’t here. He was thousands of miles away, locked up tight.
My nightlight cast a sea of stars across the ceiling. I hadn’t been able to handle the dark after that night.
I threw back the covers. The sheets and my pajamas were damp. I wrinkled my nose, glancing at the clock. Five-thirty in the morning. Too early to start the wash, but I could at least strip the bed and get cleaned up.
Chauncey looked up from his dog bed in the corner.
“It’s okay. Go back to sleep.”
My muscles trembled as I stood, and I took a moment to get my bearings. I pulled the sheets off the bed and left them in a pile, putting fresh ones on. Then I tiptoed across the hallway to my bathroom.
Cady always slept deeply. It took a wrecking ball to wake her up most days. But that didn’t stop me from worrying about disturbing her.
Stripping out of my sleep clothes, I turned on the water and waited for it to warm. The old pipes in this house took forever, but it was finally habitable. I took my time washing away the residue of my nightmare. Only it wasn’t a nightmare. It was a memory.
My stomach roiled, and I had to fight back the bile that surged up my throat. I shoved my head under the spray, breathing slowly and deeply. Eventually, the shakes and nausea subsided.
My fingers played across the scar that curved over my collarbone and down my side. It had faded over the past five years, but it would always be there. A reminder of hell on Earth. But also that I had survived.
I shut off the water and stepped out of the shower-tub combo.
I took my time drying off and getting ready for the day.
My eyes burned from lack of sleep. Not only had my nightmare woken me early, but I’d also had a hell of a time falling asleep.
Images of Roan’s panicked expression as he fled last night played in my head.
Something had him on edge; I just had no idea what.
Taking the hairdryer into my bedroom, I finished preparations for the day. I went out to give the animals breakfast and Dory her medicine before coming back inside and making breakfast for my chick.
Maybe it was because I had extra time today, or perhaps because of my dream, but I made the meal extra special. As I placed the last berry on the plate, I grinned at my creation. There was something about forcibly turning around a day that started rough that helped me feel more in control.
I headed down the hallway and slowly opened Cady’s door. A smile instantly curved my lips. My girl slept wildly: red hair everywhere, arms thrown wide, legs like a starfish. Her glittery pink nightlight made the room sparkle.
Crossing to her bed, I knelt and brushed the hair out of her face. “Morning, Katydid.”
“Mmm,” she mumbled, smacking her lips.
“It’s time to wake up.”
“Nuh-uh,” she argued, still half-asleep.
“I made your favorite…” I tried enticing her.
Cady’s eyes fluttered open. “Cady pancakes?”
I chuckled. “Cady pancakes all the way.”
She beamed. “Today is the bestest.”
I tapped her nose. “I agree. You want to eat first and then get ready?”
Cady bobbed her head in a nod, and I helped her sit up. I slid on one slipper and then the other. Grabbing her robe off the hook on her door, I got her into it.
She stumbled slightly as she made her way down the hall, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Waking up was always a challenge. Chauncey hurried over to greet her, and she patted his head as she slid into her chair.
Cady grinned down at her breakfast. A stack of two pancakes made to look just like her. Raspberries for her red hair. Green grapes for her eyes. Strawberries for her mouth. Nose and eyelashes drawn on with chocolate syrup.
“I almost don’t want to eat it,” she whispered.
“Well, that would be a waste.”
Cady giggled and cut off a bite. Then she paused. “Do you think Mr. Grizz has someone to make him pancakes?”
My heart clenched. “I don’t know. He can probably make them himself.”
But that was a lonely proposition, day in and day out. And I knew how that felt.
Cady’s lips pursed. “We should invite him next time. Pancakes would make him less grumpy, for sure.”
I choked on a laugh. My girl always told it like it was.
“I miss my glitter boots,” Cady said with a sigh as we pulled up to the school.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “It’s going to be pretty muddy out on the playground since the snow is melting. Do you want to risk ruining your favorite boots?”
They were already getting too small for her. I would have to hunt for something similar that wasn’t ridiculously expensive.
“Mud does not go with glitter.”
This time, I couldn’t hold in my chuckle. “No, it doesn’t.”
I climbed out of my station wagon, dreading that I needed to stop by the mechanics’ to get it looked at. I opened Cady’s door, and she hopped out.
Catching sight of the woman walking toward me, I winced. “Morning, Katelyn,” I greeted with as much warmth as I could muster.
She scrunched up her nose at me as she tossed her perfectly curled blond locks over one shoulder. “That car sounds horrible. Doesn’t look much better.”
I didn’t let my smile dim. “It gets us from place to place.”
The woman rolled her eyes, looking more like her six-year-old daughter than an adult.
Heather looked up at her mom. “Susanna and Lainey can come play after ballet, right?”
“Of course, honey,” Katelyn said, ushering her daughter toward the school building.
Cady’s shoulders slumped, and I had the sudden urge to deck a six-year-old. It wasn’t that Cady wanted to be friends with the mean girls, but they were all in her ballet class, and they made a sport of excluding her.
I crouched low, getting to eye level with Cady. “Remember what we talked about?”
She nodded. “When people are mean, it’s because they’re hurting.”
“That’s right. They’re hurting so badly they have to turn that pain somewhere else.”
Cady worried her lip between her teeth. “I don’t know why she hates me so much.”
I wanted to lift my girl and run fast and far so no bratty classmate could hurt her again. “It’s probably hard for her to see you shining so brightly.”
“Cady!” Charlie yelled as he ran toward us.
Cady’s face instantly transformed. “Hey!”
They were immediately lost in the chatter of everything they’d missed in each other’s lives over the past twelve hours, and I knew Cady would be okay. I pushed to my feet, watching them head into school.
“Everything okay?”
I turned at Lawson’s deep voice and sighed. “Heather Beasley.”
He grimaced. “I wouldn’t normally say this about a six-year-old, but she’s awful.”
“Her mom’s worse.”
“It’s probably where she learns it from.” Lawson glanced at the school. “I could have a word if you think it would help?”
I shook my head. “I think it would probably have the opposite effect.”
Katelyn emerged from the school, a scowl on her expertly made-up face. But the moment she saw Lawson, she pasted on a fake smile. “If it isn’t the chief of police. How are you, Law?”
Lawson fought back another grimace. “Good. You?”
“Doing just great. You know, you and Charlie should come over for dinner on Friday. Heather would love it, and so would I.” Katelyn batted her eyelashes as if she were sending out Morse code.
I struggled to keep my laughter at bay.
Lawson shifted uncomfortably. “We’ve got plans this weekend.”
Annoyance flickered across Katelyn’s expression. “Another time, then.”
“Maybe,” Lawson said noncommittally.
Katelyn shot me a glare as she headed for her Mercedes SUV, as if it were my fault Lawson had rejected her.
“You trying to get me shanked?” I muttered.
Lawson shivered. “That woman is slightly terrifying.”
“She’s certainly determined.”
But she wasn’t the only one. Lawson had single women of all ages trying to tie him down. But in all my years in Cedar Ridge, I hadn’t seen him date a single one.
“She shows up at my house with meals sometimes and tries to get an invitation to stay,” he grumbled.
I winced. “Not a lot of boundaries.”
Lawson shook his head. “Everything good with you?”
I nodded. This wasn’t an abnormal question. It was simply the kind of man Lawson was. Checking in to make sure the people in his life were taken care of. It was what made him so good at his job.
“Everything’s fine.” I glanced at my watch. “I need to head out.”
“You startin’ early today?”
“I have to drop off my car at the mechanics’. Something’s going on with one of the cables.”
Lawson straightened. “Want me to grab Cady from school later?”
“You don’t have to.”
“I’m happy to. We can swing by and get you, too.”
I glanced at my station wagon. “If you could get her, that would be a help. They’re just going to look things over today so I can get the car at three, but I don’t want to be late here.”
“You got it. I’ll take them for a snack and then drop her at your place on the way home.”
“Thanks, Law. Just let me know when I can take the boys off your hands for an afternoon.”
He shook his head. “You don’t want my three maniacs all at once. They bring terror and destruction when they travel in a pack.”
I barked out a laugh. “I’ve officially been warned. But I really am happy to help.”
Only I knew Lawson wouldn’t take it. A playdate with Charlie? Sure. But he never seemed to want to burden me with more.
“Thanks, Aspen. I’ll let you know.”
I gave him a quick wave and headed for my wagon. It took two tries for it to start, but the engine finally caught. I eased out of the parking lot and turned toward town.
Checking the time, I pulled over in front of the post office. I dashed inside and waved to Jules behind the desk. “How are things?”
“Boring as ever,” the woman in her sixties called back.
“Boring is good,” I told her.
“I think I need to get me one of those younger lovers.”
I choked on a laugh as I retrieved my mail from my PO box. “Sounds like a good plan to me. Let me know how that goes for you.”
“Oh, I will. In great detail.”
I sent her another wave and headed back to my car. I quickly flipped through my mail as I went and began opening things. Electric bill. A notice from Cady’s school about a play. There was one envelope with no return address.
I tore it open and tugged free a piece of paper. My blood went cold as I took in the scrawl.
You think you can take her from me? You’re going to pay. In blood.