Chapter Five
Istep outside the gates and close my eyes, taking in a deep breath. I jolt when they close behind me with a clang.
Freedom has never felt more like an illusion than it does right now. A car approaches, kicking up dust in its wake. I watch as it gets closer before stopping in front of me.
“You coming or what?”
“Jenny?”
“You were expecting someone else?”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone, actually,” I answer, pulling open the passenger door and climbing in, tightening the carrier bag in my hands as I do.
She looks me up and down and frowns. “You didn’t have anything else to wear? Not that orange doesn’t suit you.”
“I was a little smaller when I was sixteen.”
“Weren’t we all?” She grins as she speeds off before I’ve even gotten my seatbelt on. “You ready for this?”
“No. But I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m sure you will, though a lot has changed since you’ve been gone.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.”
“So, I took care of some of the things you asked for. I’m not sure what your thought process is here, though. Most people would just hire a security team or something.”
“I don’t want a team of people around me. I want to be left alone.”
“Still…I worry about you.”
I look over at her and grin. “It’s not me you should be worried about. I’m not the same naive little girl I once was.”
“Hey, I was rather fond of that kid. She was a lot stronger than you gave her credit for.”
“Hmm…maybe.”
I gaze out the window and watch the world pass by in a bland vision of browning grass and winding road as far as my eye can see.
“How did the eviction process go?”
“There was resistance.”
“I didn’t expect anything else.”
“There were also mentions from various sources of suing you.”
“Anything I should be concerned about?”
“Nope.” She flashes me the patented grin that earned her the nickname barracuda.
“Good.”
We drive in silence for the next ten miles or so before I ask, “You ready to tell me now?”
She looks over at me briefly and frowns before fixing her eyes back on the road. “Tell you what?”
“How a lawyer in your price range ended up with me as their client.”
She’s quiet for a minute before she curses under her breath. “Smart people are really annoying.”
“You think?” I give her a pointed look.
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“Tough.”
“Why do you have to be so stubborn?”
“You’ve been my only contact with the outside world for fifteen years, Jen. You’ve clearly been a bad influence on me.”
She huffs out a laugh, but the tapping of her fingers against the wheel gives away how tense she is.
“I thought about it a lot over the years, you know. But I knew I needed someone in my corner, and as long as you didn’t screw me over, what did it even matter?”
“We’ve come a long way since then. I like to think we’re more than just lawyer and client. I think of you as a friend.”
“And that’s why I’m asking, as a friend, who hired you to represent me?”
She sighs, admitting defeat. “Austin Dyer.”
I fist my hands at his name, though I had my suspicions. Only he or my father could have afforded her. As my father was the reason I was there to begin with, it wasn’t him. I don’t understand why Austin would do that…unless he was getting Jen to report back to him about me.
The plastic bag crinkles under my fingertips as I keep my temper leashed. Nothing good will come from my losing it now. “You’ve been reporting back to Austin this whole time? Telling him everything I told you?”
“Hell no. I don’t care who hires me. I don’t abuse the client’s privileges with anyone. Besides, I haven’t worked for him since you were sentenced.”
“Wait, really? Why?”
“Same reason you were suspicious. He made me feel the same way. I couldn’t find a shred of evidence that Austin knew you or had any kind of relationship with you, especially not one that would warrant him paying a huge sum to have someone like me represent you.
So I dug further. I found out you and his younger brother had issues.
It made me ask myself: what would motivate a man like Austin to pay that kind of money to a stranger?
And all I could come up with was that he either owed you or felt guilty.
I couldn’t figure out what he could be guilty of until I remembered the part of your report that the defense kept trying to skate over, the condition you were in when you were arrested. ”
I swallow and look away, not wanting her to see too much.
“Did Austin rape you, Calliope?”
“I…I’m.”
“Shit. It was the brother, wasn’t it? He raped you, and Austin covered it up.”
“I don’t know who it was. Maybe it was Austin, but maybe not. It could have been Andy—”
“I don’t understand.”
“It was Austin who drugged me,” I admit.
She sucks in a sharp breath. “You’re sure?”
I nod.
“You wouldn’t talk about it, just that you’d been assaulted and you refused to name them. I think some people assumed your lack of wanting to say it out loud meant it was your father who did it.”
“And yet people cheered when I was convicted of killing him. It’s a strange world we live in.”
“Calliope…”
I sigh. “My father had beaten me. I was heading to the clinic in town when Andy knocked me flying. Austin was with him and carried me to the clinic. He defended me, was mad on my behalf, and when I was done, he drove me to his house, knowing I didn’t want to go home.”
I pull my hands into my sleeves, feeling chilled.
“He made me a sandwich. How fucking stupid is it to lower your guard around someone just because they do something basic like that?” I shake my head before leaning it against the glass.
“He told me to take a break afterward, to watch a movie or something while he did some work in his office. I didn’t know the iced tea he brought me was drugged until I woke up with someone on top of me, tearing my underwear away, all while I couldn’t move an inch to stop them. ”
“Oh, Calliope.”
“So you see,” I carry on, not able to bear her pity. “I don’t know which of the two brothers raped me, but I do know which one drugged me. The same one who whispered to me that he was sorry. He either raped me himself, or—”
“Or he set you up for his brother. That motherfucker.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“I’m usually better at reading people. Fuck.”
“I don’t know what he’s like now, but he was smooth. Charming almost. I felt no danger from him, and given what my home life was like, I thought I had good instincts. But I was wrong.”
“Why didn’t you say something back then?”
“I already had a town full of enemies. What was the point of adding another? No way Austin would have gone down quietly. He’d have discredited me and twisted it until I was the perpetrator instead of the victim.
And then that would have likely had a knock-on effect.
Instead of sitting beside you right now, I’d see out the rest of my days in prison. ”
I sense she wants to argue, but she knows I’m right. She might not be a witch, but she wove her own kind of magic, getting my charges dropped down to a lesser offense than the one I initially faced.
“People suck.”
I look over and smile. “Not all people, Jen.”
“Behave. You won’t make me cry.”
I bite my lip to hide my chuckle as a thought occurs to me. “What would have happened to my inheritance if I’d died?”
“I’d have to look it up. Usually I’d know this shit, but as you’re not dead and I had a million other things to do for you, it hasn’t really taken priority.”
“There’s no rush. Just have a look when you can.”
She eyes me suspiciously, but I keep my expression neutral and my eyes forward.
“Question. If you quit working for Austin, who’s been paying you to look out for me?”
“I talked my company into taking you on pro bono.”
“Why would you do that? You didn’t owe me anything.”
“You were sixteen. I’ve represented a lot of people over the years, but none of them had eyes that haunted me quite like yours did.
It’s not my job to believe my client is innocent.
It’s my job to make a jury believe they are.
But with you, I just knew. I never doubted you.
It’s why I cannot, even after all this time, understand how the town turned on you like it did, and why I’m so damned opposed to you going back. ”
“You know I love you, right? You and Mama Ray are the only two people I’ve said that to. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did for me.”
“Mama Ray?”
“She was my cellmate.”
She’s quiet when I don’t say anything else. I can practically hear her gathering her thoughts together.
“I’ve been to Crowhurst a handful of times. Once when I was hired, once when I quit and returned the money.”
I swallow at that, feeling tears prick my eyes.
“Afterward, I only came back if I was doing some digging or working on the legalities of the ranch.”
“Okay, and?”
She looks at me, her face paler than before. “And there is something not right about that place. When I said it was dying, I wasn’t kidding. It feels…god, this is going to sound ridiculous. It feels almost like…”
“It’s been cursed.” I finish for her, the words coming out softly without a hint of inflection.
“Yeah, that’s exactly it, and I have no idea how you guessed that.”
I paste on a fake smile. “The town always felt cursed to me.”
“So why not start fresh somewhere else? You can have a life and never look back at that shithole.”
“No. I can’t explain it, but I have to go home. At least for now,” I concede. “Maybe it is a mistake, but it’s mine to make.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’ll need my services again in the not-so-distant future?” she responds, looking worried at the prospect.
“Because you’re a smart woman. I’m not looking for trouble, Jen. I’ll stay out of people’s way if they stay out of mine.”
“That is not as reassuring as you think it is.”
“Well, right now, that’s all I’ve got.”
Ifeel the change in the air the moment we approach the ranch. My skin tingles with anticipation, and despite the tension I feel in each of my muscles, a sense of rightness moves through me.
“Shit!” Jenny curses, making my attention snap to her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Static shock. Dammit, that hurt,” she complains as she shakes out her hand.
I lift my own. Tiny sparks move over my skin, but instead of hurting, it feels like a warm caress, welcoming me back.
Oblivious, Jenny mumbles about this place hating her as much as she hates it.
I hide my grin and keep my focus out the window.
It takes a while for my brain to put together what Jen’s been trying to tell me.
There is bleakness here that wasn’t there before.
It might have been a place of nightmares for me, but visually, Crowhurst has always been picturesque.
One of those small towns with huge ranches and a view that went on for miles.
If you squinted hard enough, you’d see peaks and hills that almost looked like they stood sentry for the town, but the rest was all flatlands perfect for keeping cattle and growing crops.
Now, as we pass the first ranch on the outskirts of town, the place that had once been vibrant and full of color looks desolate.
A field of mud and a dilapidated house stand where a beautiful family home once stood, with its orchards and flowers looking like something out of a magazine spread.
Now it looks like it had been shrouded in misery and abandoned.
“Any idea what happened here?”
“No. But this isn’t the only place like this.
It’s as if darkness rolled into town and slowly started sucking the life out of everything.
You think I’m being dramatic, I know. But I swear, when I said nothing seems to grow here anymore, I meant it.
Another few years like this and the town will have to be abandoned, or people will die. ”
So this is what she was talking about. I had thought maybe she was exaggerating, but if anything, it looks like she underplayed it.
I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to cry, and it takes me a moment of sifting through my feelings to realize the emotion isn’t mine. “It’s sad,” I murmur.
“Downright tragic if you ask me. And yet it couldn’t happen to a more deserving town.”
It’s sweet that she’s mad at the place on my behalf, but that’s not what I meant.
The land itself is sad. I can feel it. As if it’s in mourning.
We keep driving, thankfully avoiding the center of town itself and Main Street.
She’s right. This whole place is off. Everything feels wrong—cursed even.
An instinctive part of me knows I’m the reason.
My eyes slip closed as I flash back to that night so long ago. Crawling on my knees, collapsing in the dirt, pressing my hands to the ground, and pouring all my anguish into the soil as sheets of rain tried to wash me clean. Did I do this? Is that possible?
As we move along the winding road that leads to the ranch, something else stirs inside me, something achingly familiar. Before I can dwell on it, I see the sign looming before us—Corvis Wing.
The feeling inside me intensifies. Before I can figure out what it is, a police cruiser pulls up behind us with a second one right behind it.
Jen pulls over, her eyes glancing down over my orange jumpsuit, making her sigh. “Well, you were always going to make a splash regardless. Might as well get this over with.”
“Be careful. Sheriff Andrews was in my father’s pocket. He knew he beat me, saw it with his own two eyes, and did nothing to help me.”
“In that case, I’m glad the fucker’s dead.”
“Wait, really?”
“A couple of years ago. Heart attack, if I remember correctly. I hear he pulled an Elvis.”
I frown, not knowing what that means.
She sighs. “Kids today. It means he died on the toilet.”
“Oh.” I’m not sure I’m supposed to feel anything but mild surprise. The man had no business being a cop, as far as I’m concerned. The town is better off without him.
Jenny responds to tapping at the driver’s side window by lowering it. “Can I help you, Officer?”
“License and registration, please.”
Jenny sighs, pulling down her sun visor where she has both things stashed. She holds them out to him. He dips his head lower to take them, and I get a flash of a vaguely familiar face. I wonder for a second if it was he I was sensing, but shake it off. It doesn’t feel right.
He flips his flashlight on to look at the documents, which has me rolling my eyes. It’s broad fucking daylight, for goodness sake.
He hands them back before he shines his flashlight in my face. “You want to state your business?” he asks sharply.
I have no idea if he’s talking to me or Jenny, but I reply anyway. “I’m coming home.”