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“That’s what I see when I close my eyes at night, when I think of you, of being with you, all I can feel is love.”
“Memories of your body, of being inside you, it is my curse and my salvation.”
“You don’t deserve this and I can make it right. I can free the Light. Give me purpose, Angel. I can get us back together again. It’s time. I miss you too much to wait any longer. I’ve already missed my chance to be with you. One day I’ll turn around and you’ll be gone for good.”
Emotion wasn’t the only thing revealed. Hints of knowledge teased her.
“You are my meaning and my reason. Tearing me away from you ignited a fire they’ll never be able to control.”
“Angel, I pledge my love to you, but can only promise you vengeance.”
“If they suspect anything, I’m worried they will take preemptive steps. You need to get out. Leave where you are as soon as you get this message.”
“You can’t snatch a man’s hope from him and expect to get away easy.”
The vague statements frustrated her desire for answers.
“You hid yourself well, but you can’t stay put, it’s still too dangerous.”
“They have no fucking idea what you saved them from.”
“…life wouldn’t hurt you that I ever would’ve let you go? That sacrifice wasn’t for nothing. I won’t let you erase two decades of sacrifice.”
Wearing a persistent frown was giving her a headache. Rubbing her forehead, Tess went back and forth on whether the letters belonged to her mom. A big piece of the puzzle was missing. Figuring it out would take more than reading a few letters. Her focus snagged on the urn.
“Who is he?”
If she’d found the letters while her mother was alive, maybe a reply would’ve been forthcoming. Reading H’s absorbing words again, Tess tried to get a deeper sense of him.
“My word is steel that was no lie.”
“You told me I didn’t have to choose, that you would never ask me to.”
He carried a burden of his own.
“My nightmares are filled with images of your devastation, of witnessing your heart breaking. Watching you walk away broke mine.”
“I don’t doubt that we’ll go down one day, maybe soon, who knows? When we do, we’ll go together. I have to be there, C. I have to.”
Anne had always been aware of something behind them, something chasing them, watching them, tracking them. The letters confirmed the danger was real. Whatever the threat, it was no fantasy. Maybe it was this H. Maybe he was their pursuer; the shadow stalking them.
“Run far away, as far as you can get, as fast as you can. Lose yourself so I will never be able to find you.”
“Don’t tell me to admit any truth! I love you and if I have to smother the Darkness with my own bare hands to keep you safe that’s what I’ll do. This isn’t over, C. No fucking way. If you think that I’m going to give up and forget…”
Tess wouldn’t forget either. The journey ahead would have to be thought out one step at a time. Her mom didn’t carry a purse, but the cops had given Tess what they found in their Corvette. At least what was found by people who weren’t really looking.
Gathering up the letters, she put them back in the cosmetics clutch and shoved it to the back of a nightstand drawer. After a quick stop in her room to grab the necessary ID, Tess was down the stairs and out the door on a mission.
Her purpose was to identify the threat. It may be one Anne never wished her to have, but she would live with disappointing her mother’s memory if it meant uncovering the truth.
THREE
IT DIDN’T OCCUR TO Tess to look for a payphone; her mother’s conditioning was still in full force. There probably weren’t any nearby anyway. She’d been at the police precinct asking questions when the sight of one on the wall put the idea in her head.
The desk clerk initially tried to redirect her to their website and requested she send an email. No one understood another person not having an email address or a smartphone. Faced with her dogged persistence, the guy relented and gave her the answer that she wanted.
Pausing at the open chain-link gates, Tess read the sign. “Buckhorn Parts and Towing,” she said. “Salvage and scrap.”
