26. Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-six
Charlie Gibson
T he heat of Remi’s breath right behind my ear, makes the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up. She licks over the artery in my neck, taking my earlobe in between her teeth, “Charlie?”
Oh, my God. “Yes?”
We just rolled around for over an hour on my bed, making out so much that I thought I’d burst. I need to be inside her. “Can you fuck me, please? Now?”
Sitting up, I look her over. She’s flushed, her mouth glistening, her eyes dilated. My hand traces over her new artwork across her abdomen. It’s a tree limb covered with a squirrel, three frogs, three birds, and a dog paw pulling it down. She’s an artistic genius. I’ve heard that Wilder takes photos of the drawings now. I’m going to start after we’re done making love. I pull her in closer, my hands cupping her ass. “Now?” I ask her teasingly.
Managing to roll a condom on, while we’re attached at the mouth proves difficult. We stop a couple times laughing. By the time I’m entering her, we’re both worked up and on the brink. “I can’t get enough of you,” I whisper, my forehead against hers. Never enough.
Stroking in slowly, her pussy gripping me as she spasms, my tongue playing with one of her nipples. Her limbs start to quiver when my hand finds her clit. I feel my orgasm building. I want to hold it off, keep myself inside her longer.
We move together with slow strokes, going deep. The sound of her breath, the moans I relish in, and the feel of her skin making me cum hard. I put a hand out to steady myself, pleasure rolling through every part of me.
Sticky with sweat and her cum, we lay tangled together, sharing long lazy kisses as our breathing calms down. “I love you, Remi.”
She says it back. I believe her, I do, but what happens at the end of the summer? Art school half a country away or is she remaining here? I never considered staying here in Lake Hollow, but I could do it for her. I don’t think she’d be happy here indefinitely, and that could be a problem. But I’ll go anywhere for her.
Then there’s the danger she inadvertently put herself in. It’s not even that stupid necklace, she’s been trying to get answers about the past like I have.
Is that going to make her the next drowning victim?
It’s a fleeting thought, but once I think it, it nags at me.
Six years have passed, why would it start up again?
An eerie chill comes over me. We’re all back in town again. What better time for it to start up?
I pull Remi closer, kissing the top of her head.
Cal didn’t want to listen, Wilder is acting suspicious as fuck, maybe I need to talk to Grady. She needs to be kept safe.
When I was a kid, The Bends wasn’t someplace I enjoyed spending time. We’d often get put to work mowing or cleaning. The Funpark was another story. I knew every inch of the place inside and out. My friends and I would run around after closing time being little shitheads. The cabins called The Bends and the lodge felt ominous. Daniel had passed away there. I grew up hearing all about it and then when more drownings happened talk of the hauntings didn’t sit well with me.
Walking up to Grady’s cabin door, I ignore that gut feeling that I’m being watched. A shadow of unease pulls in tight over me. The handful of times I’ve been at The Bends with Remi, I can’t look at the lake without wanting to get as far away as possible.
Grady’s screen door is open, he’s playing a song on his guitar, making marks on paper. Singing softly to himself, then writing more. That’s the strongest memory I have of him, always making music. Katie loved to collaborate with him, her playing piano while he’d accompany her on guitar.
Knocking lightly, I notice Grady look my way startled. He must not get many visitors. “Got a minute? I was hoping we could talk.”
It strikes me that we’ve never had a one-on-one talk before. Not ever. It didn’t matter that our family was close to his aunt, Carlotta, Grady wasn’t the kind of person to go against his parents. Not when he was growing up anyway. Lala made it a point to keep in contact with him, not the other way around.
We don’t get to the point right away. Making small talk, which I profusely detest. There are all kinds of things I want to ask; Are things repaired between him and Wilder? Does he see Remi every day? When is he leaving? Why is he really here? But I keep it to myself. I wouldn’t appreciate those types of questions from him, so why ask them?
“I need to bring something up, I’m sorry if it’s triggering. I can’t stop thinking about it. Cal thinks I should drop it, and I can’t. I just can’t.” We’re sitting near the window overlooking the lake. Midsummer sunshine glinting off the ripples on the lake. It looks peaceful, deceptively nonthreatening.
He folds his hands together, leaning back with his mouth screwed up to the side. “Can’t say I’m looking forward to what you’re about to say but go ahead.”
“What do you make of Wilder’s visions?”
There is a risk that Grady will be on his side completely, his feelings blinding him to shadiness, like Remi has been. But I know how much Sara and Katie meant to him. There’s a possibility he will listen to me.
In a careful tone he responds, “He’s had them since he was a kid.” Adjusting in his seat, he glances at me before cocking his head slightly, eyes narrowed. “What specifically do you mean about his ‘visions,’ because I don’t know much about them. He’s not very forthcoming.”
Damn it. I wasn’t trying to cause an issue. I’m worried. “I’d never seen him have one until the night at the Drive In. Then when we were at the Country Club, he said the name Mia. Maybe Mia Kelley. He says he doesn’t understand what he sees. Could he… what I’m trying to figure out is… these things he sees could they be memories?”
Grady stills, his hand falling into his lap from where it propped his head up. “You think he blacks out or doesn’t remember doing what he’s seeing during his seizures?”
“I’m concerned that’s the case.”
I watch as Grady gets up, walks to the door to secure it more tightly since the wind off the water is picking up, making it rattle. “I wouldn’t know. He’s not a talker. Add to that, I’m the one that told the police about his visions, he’s not about to confide in me.”
My anxiety over what’s been happening to Wilder Lee just escalated considerably. “I know that he had a rollercoaster relationship with Sara, but… Katie? They were friends. I don’t know what to think anymore.” Hemminger looking into the drownings has sparked a renewed fervor to get to the bottom of what happened to my sister.
She was scared of dark water, there was no way she was on that dock, in the dark of her own free will.
Grady looks at me sadly. “Me, either.”