Page 93 of Just Like the Brontë Sisters

Chapter 61: Mitch

My morning had been rough.

It wasn’t enough that Gavin nearly strangled me to death before he pummeled me with Skylar’s least-favorite coffee mug. He then put me in the hot tub to die.

“Mitch!” Jo Beth hollered at me and I swear she also yanked on a fistful of my hair to lift my face out of the water. It was the first physical contact we’d had since she’d died.

I spluttered out a liquid cough before I gasped for air. “What’s going on?” I managed to rasp.

“Gavin left you in the hot tub so it would look like you’d drowned,” Jo Beth explained. She made a tsk-tsk noise. “Seriously. Did he think nobody would notice the bruises around your neck or that gash on your temple?”

My head started to droop. Sitting up required way too much energy. But then Jo Beth drew back her hand and slapped my cheek so hard it stung. “Ouch!” I cried. “That was sort of unnecessary.”

“You need to climb out of here!”

I looked around to get my bearings. Gavin had tried to make my drowning scenario seem realistic; I’ll give him that. There was a towel neatly folded on the nearest patio chair and my sweat pants lay in a heap on the ground, leaving me naked in the hot tub. I caved my body in and turned from Jo Beth. She noticed my actions and laughed. “Now is not the time for modesty, Mitch.”

“The last time we were alone before you died, you broke up with me. Remember?”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Now get out of here! Skylar and Bijou are both in danger!”

The bubbles were on full blast and the heat of the water produced steam against the chilly morning. That blow to my temple still felt like a knife through my brain and my throat burned. But more than anything, I was tired. I could just sink down in the bubbly warmth and drift away.

It would be so soothing.

Another wet, stinging slap. “GET UP!”

“All right, all right.” I hoisted myself out of the hot tub and went for the towel, my movements slowed and pained. I began to shiver but that quickly turned to shaking, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to get back into the safety of that warm water. But I resisted temptation, dried myself off, and put on my sweat pants, which were damp from sitting in a puddle.

I went for the door, my wet hand sticking to the freezing metal of the doorknob. “It’s locked,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jo Beth said. “You can’t go inside now, anyway. Gavin is still in there.”

It felt as if there was a wrecking ball swinging inside my head. Teeth chattering, I said, “So what do I do?”

Jo Beth gave me an exasperated shrug. “You figure it out!”

“Thanks, but that helps me not at all!” I pried my hand from the doorknob, but now my bare feet were sticking to the frozen pavement. “Do you have any constructive suggestions?”

Jo Beth was still in the hot tub and steam swirled into her ghostly form. “I’m doing the best I can, okay? But Bijou is your responsibility now, Mitch. It’s up to you to protect her. Make sure you protect her from Gavin.”

Then the hot tub started bubbling over like a witch’s caldron, and the steam became so thick, so intense, that it swallowed Jo Beth whole. The world began to spin at a breakneck speed, but I stood still, my feet frozen to the ground. I had to place my faith in science, in the belief that the universe perfectly supported my life form. I could only forecast future trends and life-changing events if the world was designed for me, as opposed to my being a victim of a happy accident. But speaking of happy accidents, I reached down into the pockets of my sweatpants.

And I found my cell phone.