AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I decided when we got back to my house, I'd open a bottle of wine and just lay it all out there, tell her I knew the truth, and then beg her to stop this, whatever it was. If she needed to come clean about something, she should. Before I had to find out another way.
Her phone rang again as I was wiping away one wayward tear, hoping she wouldn't turn and see. With a sigh, she pulled the phone out of her pocket and stared at the screen, deliberating. Finally, she answered. “Yeah?” I watched her fingers stray to the volume button and turn the sound down. She didn't want me to hear whoever was on the other end of the line.
She said nothing, only listened, giving a small nod now and then. Finally, she sighed, closed her eyes, and put the phone in her lap, then said, with her eyes still closed, “When you get to the light, head toward the bridge. We're going to Jekyll.”
“Why?” I asked.
Her eyes were still closed. “He wants to see you.”
“Oh,” I said, unsurprised. “So it’s all going to happen sooner than I thought. I finally get to meet the infamous Guthrie, aka Guth, aka Gus.”
She opened her eyes and looked at me. “How long have you known?” she asked, her voice low and shifty. Her posture was tense and stiff, like a bratty teen who just got caught coming in late; I half expected her to open the truck door and fling herself out.
“Since about five minutes ago when I got to the parking lot and figured it out.”
She looked at me in surprise. “You mean you didn't know before? Wasn't that the point of going to see Renee?” Renee?
“I knew she was Guthrie's sister,” I answered. “But I didn't know that Guthrie and Gus were the same person, and I certainly didn't know that you were in cahoots with him this whole time to betray me.”
“I didn't -” she started. “I never-” She flushed deeply. Apparently, I'd rendered her speechless for the first time in…well, forever. “Well, anyway, he got your message. And he wants to see you.”
“Lucky me.” I couldn't keep the bitterness from my voice. “It's all coming up Millhouse today, isn't it? I lose the love of my life and my best friend in a twenty-four-hour period. And now after weeks of manipulating me from afar, a drugged out, evil, crazy man is summoning me to his house. I can hardly contain the excitement.”
“He isn't evil,” she said, swallowing. She looked guilty as hell. “I mean...I don't think...he doesn't want to hurt you or anything. He said he just wants to talk.” She chewed her fingernail. “And anyway, wasn’t that what you were hoping he’d do?”
I didn't answer. The truth was, I wasn’t sure what I was trying to accomplish by advertising my presence to Guthrie. I only knew that I was tired of hiding from him, tired of Lee popping through like the Kool-Aid man every time I exhaled, telling me to go here or go there to stay safe. Coming home and “turning myself in,” so to speak, had been an act of protection for Phillip more than anything else, though I did have a few ideas up my sleeve. Sloan didn’t need to know about those, especially not now. Now that she’d betrayed me.
I turned onto the road that led to Jekyll and concentrated on driving. “How long have you known?” I demanded. It was getting dark. I flicked my lights on, a sudden sense of unease filling me. For two years she'd said as little about the man as possible, her affair with him the one secret she'd ever kept from me, and I'd just let her. I’d never pushed her to reveal more about him or asked any questions. My chest felt tight.
“Known what?” she asked.
“Who he was, what he wanted with me. About him and Phillip...and Lee and Lydia...” I stuttered. “All of it. How long have you known?”
Her face softened a little. “Just a couple of days, actually,” she answered. “I'm sure it must seem...you must think I... But no, I didn't know. I tried so hard to keep you apart from him, because I was ashamed.” She stared out the window again, but I could see her pained expression. “He did ask about you sometimes, but it was casual, like he was just showing interest in my life, you know? He said he wanted to meet you, but I always put him off. I was embarrassed. About what you'd think. He's so much older, and he deals drugs, and he's still married to his crazy ex-wife.” I thought back to Lydia and smiled grimly. I could only imagine the stories Sloan had heard. “But I swear, Storm, I never knew that he had such a fixation on you. I never knew about Phillip, or the spell, or any of it. He kept me in the dark. He only told me about it the night you left. I went to see him that night and I mentioned that you'd gone to Boston, on a trip with some guy, and he hit the roof. He started screaming and yelling, and the next thing I knew he'd called in Tess and Shank and his son, Lee. He had us all lined up like little ducks, and he was screaming at everybody. I didn't know what was going on.”
“Then what happened?”
“Lee pulled me aside and told me everything. He told me that he'd kept your trip from his father to give you time to get away. I didn't believe him at first – it all just seemed so crazy. But his story matched the one you tried to tell me, you know, the night we got pizza. He told me how Guthrie and his mom knew Phillip from back in the day, how they'd given him that spell, and how the two of them had basically been fighting over it ever since, with him caught in the middle. And then you did the spell and all hell broke loose.”
“I know what Lydia wanted with us,” I said bitterly. “But as for Guthrie, I'm still in the dark.”
“You'll have to ask him,” she said. “I don't know, either. But I do know he's obsessed with you. He knows so much, Storm. He's been watching you for a long, long time. He's had Tess feeding him info, and I didn't know it, but he was getting stuff from me, too. He's been grooming you for this from afar. He knew you were going to do the spell long before you ever decided to. It's so fucked up.” That was the truth; I felt it in my bones. But how? It was impossible, but every cell of my body felt it was the truth.
“What happened after he got everyone together?” I asked, gritting my teeth.
“Guthrie sent Lee and Shank after you guys. He told Lee he'd better fix his mistake, or he'd answer for it. He sent Tess and Roberta, too.” I wondered if she'd really known Roberta all along, had known Tess worked for her boyfriend, and just hadn't wanted to tell me. “Lee didn't want to go, he pleaded with Guthrie to leave you be, but he insisted. He told them to get you and bring you back here – without Phillip. By any means necessary.” She swallowed. “Did you know that Lee was the one who knocked on your door that night when I was there?”
“I had assumed as much.”
“He kept trying to warn you. He was so desperate for you not to do the spell. But when I answered the door, he bolted because he knew I'd recognize him. And then after you'd done the spell, he tried to warn you again. He wanted you to get away from Guthrie, but you wouldn't be any safer in Boston, really. Not with his mom there. He was really upset. He wants to see you safe, but he keeps fucking shit up. I think...I think he has a thing for you.”
“Poor thing,” I said, not bothering to hide the acid in my tone.
She didn't seem to notice. “Guthrie's been making me stay at his place in case you got in touch with me. I've been keeping my phone dead on purpose so I wouldn't get your calls and texts. After a couple of days, though, he noticed, and made me charge it. He changed, Stormy.” Her face was wistful and sad, but there was something else there, too, something furtive and calculating. I wasn’t sure if I was getting the whole story, the truth, even now. “He was a cool guy at first, but after a while he just wore me down. I tried to get out of the relationship, but he kept drawing me back. But nothing in the past two years compares to what he's been like this week. I never knew he could be so...awful.” She shuddered.
“I guess that explains why you totally abandoned my cat with no food or water,” I retorted.
“I couldn’t exactly get to your house, as I’ve just said,” she shot back. “But he’s fine, Stormy. He’s a cat. He can take care of himself. It’s not like you were gone a month.”
