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Raising his brows, he went to look and came back a few seconds later with her carpet bag. Tess put it on the counter to retrieve her comb from a side pocket. Standing just behind her, Danny ran an eye over her mess on the table.
“You remember a lot from those letters.”
“Huh?” she asked, still combing her hair, moving around to his side to see what he was looking at. It was nothing specific, though her notebook was there on top of everything else. “I read them a bunch of times. And I know there’s a lot I missed… What I really remember are the questions they raised.”
“Questions?”
“Yeah,” she said as he finished his beer and went to get another. “Whoever this H was or is, he’s angry about something. I don’t know what. My mom told me there was something behind us, you know? Something we should be afraid of.”
“Maybe it was him,” Danny said, propping a shoulder on the fridge.
“Maybe,” she said, her focus drifting back to the notes and Xeroxes she’d taken from the library. “But he loved her… For as long as I can remember, every time we moved to a new city, we got a new last name. I’ve had so many that I can hardly keep track. I’m wondering if maybe when I was little, or maybe before she had me, if my mom changed her first name too… Maybe that’s why he calls her C.”
“And you think H is Hades.”
She shrugged and turned to him. “I don’t know, Danny.” Tess sighed. “If it is, then my mother was telling me to go to him or warning me to stay away from him.”
If that deduction was true, she had a hell of a choice. It was one extreme or the other. H would save her or kill her.
“What do you think?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know. I’m going back to see Figgs tomorrow. Hopefully, he’ll remember something my mom said, something useful. After that I’ll go around the places she worked. She did cleaning jobs for a bunch of places and worked in a nursery. She knew so much about plants…” Referring to her in the past tense stung. “I’ve searched the house and there’s nothing there, but she could’ve left something at work.”
“Woman with a plan,” Danny said, opening the closet to reach into the back. When he pulled out the guitar case, his proud smile made her laugh. “You’ve got it covered, baby.”
As he passed her on his way to the recliner, he kissed her head. He put the case down and opened it up to produce a guitar from inside and his smile grew again. Simple pleasures.
NINE
THAT FRIDAY, DANNY made himself known the moment he entered the trailer. “Where’s my dinner, woman!”
After finishing with the buckle of her sandal, Tess sprang to her feet. “Make it yourself, hick,” she said, striding down the trailer.
When he noticed her outfit, his head tilted. Throughout the week, of the two of them, he’d cooked most often. Always something quick and easy, which was just fine. Her priorities lay elsewhere.
Each day, she buried herself in her notes and lost track of time. The infuriating mystery remained unsolved. Her mother’s workplaces had yielded no results. Russell Figgs had disappeared. Snap. Just like that. Gone. Every day that week, his office was locked up. Empty. Abandoned. She’d tried to trace his home address, only to find he was unlisted.
Her mess on and around the dinette was just part of the trailer’s décor now. She’d stuck anything significant on the day shades. Danny hadn’t complained. He never complained about anything. The only thing on the other side of those windows was the concrete wall of the office building. It wasn’t like she’d blocked out any exciting vista.
Her intention was to go past him, but he stepped into her path and reached up to press play on the music system. The Pointer Sisters track that vibrated through the air was his way of letting her know what was on his mind. Like she needed a hint. Sex was always on his mind.
The familiar tune complemented the curl of seduction on his lips and the light in his heavy eyes. Though the latter was probably less related to being horny and more to the lingering scent of weed in his aura. Seemed that was how he got through most days in the junkyard. She didn’t blame him. Being stuck in the office couldn’t be riveting work.
Tess put a hand on his chest as he bent his knees to curve an arm around her. “No,” she said, but he took her hand and moved them to the music. “I’m going out.”
“I got everything you need right here,” he said above her ear, dipping lower to kiss her neck.
The guy was insatiable. How had he ever survived without a woman on hand twenty-four seven? Not that she was complaining. Being wanted so much was a novelty, she’d never felt so desired or welcome anywhere. And their intimacy did ease her worries. Whenever they were screwing, Tess could forget and just be with him.
“Danny,” she whined.
Time was running short. But if he kept kissing her like that… His splayed hand slid down to gather her dress up out of the way of her ass so he could squeeze and stroke her.
“I can be quick,” he mumbled in her ear.
Raising her hand to look at her watch over his shoulder, Tess exhaled. “Okay.”
Spinning her around, Danny tossed her dress out of the way as she bent over to grab the sink. He pulled her panties down to her knees and rubbed her clit a few times. To speed things along, she opened the cabinet above to retrieve a condom and offered it to him over her shoulder. After Danny grabbed it, she heard him spit out the pack he’d probably torn with his teeth, then his fingers were slipping into her, testing if she was ready for him.
