“Max!” Simon called.
I ran outside as a firetruck emerged from the narrow road, knocking dead branches from the trees overhead. An ambulance followed shortly behind, and a team of paramedics sprang out. Their leader, a stout man with blond hair, approached us.
“Where’s the crash?” he said.
“You didn’t see it?” I asked. “You would’ve passed it on your way here.”
He threw a confused look over his shoulder. “We didn’t see anything.”
“Do you have eyes?” I demanded.
“Relax, babe,” Simon said. To the paramedic, he replied, “I’ll show you.”
“Where’s the driver?” the paramedic asked. “Did you find them?”
“She’s inside,” I answered.
He lifted a wary eyebrow, no doubt, because we disobeyed general common sense by moving her away from the crash site.
“It’s freezing,” I said. “I didn’t want her to die of pneumonia. Are you going to help her or chide me?”
The paramedic signaled to his team. “Check the woods for others. Meet back here.”
“She’s in the lobby,” I said, leading Simon and the paramedic inside. “I’m worried she hit her head hard against the—”
As we cleared the hallway and turned the corner, I stopped talking. The leather couch was empty. The woman was gone.
The paramedic crossed his arms. “You two know it’s illegal to make an emergency call when there is no emergency, right?”
“She was right here!” I checked the closest rooms for any sign of the woman. “I left her on the couch.”
“No injured driver. No crash that I can see,” the paramedic said. “Admit it, you’re either pulling my leg, or the two of you are hitting some pretty good drugs right now.”
Simon’s shoulders rose like the hackles of a dog. “Sir, I can assure you we are not addicts. There was a crash and an injured driver. If my wife says she was on the couch, she was on the damn couch.”
The paramedic took a step back. “I’m going to join my team, do a sweep of the woods. If we find anything, we’ll let you know.”
He stepped out, but Simon’s posture remained stiff. I laid a hand on the middle of his back.
“Hey, he said it offhand,” I told him. “He didn’t mean anything by it. He doesn’t know how you grew up.”
“That’s a shitty thing to assume of someone,” Simon spat.
“I know, baby. It was a stupid comment.”
He tucked me into his side and pressed his cheek against my hair. “How could they have missed the crash? It’s right on the side of the road.”
“It’s dark out, and the smoke’s gone,” I said. “Maybe they drove past it. More importantly, where did that woman go?”
Simon reluctantly detached himself from me. “I’m going to help them look. Apparently, they need someone with twenty-twenty vision.”
I hugged myself in Simon’s absence, watching through the open door as the paramedics disappeared into the woods. When a floorboard creaked behind me, I jumped and whirled around.
The woman swayed in the center of the room as if she’d been there the entire time. “Sorry to startle you,” she said, gazing vacantly past me. “I don’t feel well.”
I rushed toward her and slipped my arms under hers as she fell. Carefully, I lugged her back to the couch. “Why did you run? You need to let the paramedics look at you.”
Her long lashes fluttered. “I can’t let them find me. Please. I’ll be okay. I promise.”
As she grasped my forearms, I had every intention of calling the paramedics back inside. Despite her protests, she was exhibiting signs of serious injuries. But as she pulled me closer, her strength stalwart, and I gazed into her eyes, assurance washed over me.
“You’ll be fine,” I said. “I won’t call the paramedics back, but you have to tell me your name.”
“Lily,” she whispered. “I’m Lily.”
“I’m Maxine.”
“Max,” she said before I had the chance to tell her I preferred my nickname. “Thank you for taking me inside.”
“Of course. What happened to you out there?”
Lily’s cheeks slowly regained a bit of pink. “I got lost. The roads are confusing.”
“It’s one way up to the Lodge,” I said. “All you would have had to do was turn around. Did you mean to come up here?” Her eyes flickered toward mine again, locking me in like a weird gravitational pull. I resisted. “You said someone was chasing you.”
“He’s gone,” she said. “It’s fine. I got lost in the woods, and my car hit a patch of ice.”
I recalled the wrecked car on the lonely road. “You need new tires. Yours had no tread left on them.”
“I can’t afford it,” Lily murmured. She began to drift off, sleep pulling her down swiftly. “Don’t let them find me, please. Don’t let them…”
She released my arms and sank into unconsciousness. The clouds in my head cleared. Confused, I arranged her head on the pillow and backed away. Something about Lily was strange.
“You’ll never believe this,” Simon said, returning from outside. He shook the snow off his shoulders. “The car’s gone. It’s like it never happened. The paramedics think we’re crazy. Where’s the girl?”
“On the couch, asleep. Her name is Lily.”
He peered around the corner, brows scrunched. “Did she say where she disappeared to?”
“I think she hid because she’s scared of the police,” I answered. “She adamantly insisted she didn’t need to see them.”
“That’s stupid.” Simon took out his phone. “I’ll get a doctor in here.”
“No!” I smacked the phone out of his hand. It clattered to the floor.
“What the hell, Max?” He picked it up and showed me the cracked screen. “What was that for? I can’t afford to fix this right now.”
“I—I’m sorry,” I said, genuinely bewildered by my behavior. “I don’t know what came over me.”
He pocketed the phone, staring at me with equal confusion. “It’s okay. We had a long day. What do we do with her then?”
“Let her sleep,” I suggested.
“Max, she can’t stay here.”
I watched Lily doze, her chest moving to the subtle sound of her breath. “Why not? She’s not bothering us?”
“For one thing, this place isn’t livable yet,” Simon replied. “We’re practically camping upstairs.”
“Maybe she doesn’t mind camping.”
“We don’t have insurance,” he went on. “This is a construction zone. If something falls on her head, she could sue us. We don’t have the money for a lawsuit. We’d be homeless.”
“She won’t sue us.”
“You don’t know that.”
“It’s one night,” I insisted. “She’s scared, hurt, and alone. Who knows what might happen to her if we send her away? What if she has nowhere to go?”
Simon sighed. “That’s not our responsibility.”
I looped my arm around his waist and leaned my head against his chest. “Tell me the story about you and your brother again. The one I like.”
“Why?” he asked warily.
“Because I asked you to.”
He guided me to a big armchair across from Lily’s sofa. We wrapped up in a thick blanket and sat together.
“You know the beginning,” Simon said quietly, playing with my hair. “My parents cared more about drugs than their kids. They used to send us out to pick it up for them. Morphine, codeine, whatever they could get their hands on. Drug dealers knew Casey and me from the time we were eight years old. As long as we had money, they handed over the goods. Didn’t care that we were kids.” He held me tighter, the skin around his mouth tightening. “Anyway, Casey and I got sick of it and ran away when we were fourteen. That first night was the hardest. Dad had broken my nose, and Casey had fractured his wrist defending me. We were in bad shape.”
I gently ran the pads of my fingers along the inside of his arm, just to
remind him things were different now. He was safe here with me.
“It was the middle of the night,” he went. “We were in a strange neighborhood, way nicer than we were used to. All of a sudden, a porch light comes on, and this guy steps out of his house. I thought he was going to call the police.”
“But?”
“But instead, he called out to us,” Simon said. “I remember his exact words. ‘Get in here, boys. My wife’s a doctor. She’ll fix you up.’”
“And you almost ran.”
“Almost.” Lost in the past, his eyes glazed over. “I was sure it was a trick. Casey automatically trusted him—Saul—though. We staggered inside, and Saul woke up his wife. We explained what happened as she set my nose and Casey’s wrist. They fed us and let us sleep in their son’s old bedroom.”
“If it weren’t for them, what do you think might have happened to you?” I asked.
“I don’t want to know,” Simon replied. “My nose definitely would have healed crooked, and I wouldn’t have gotten those modeling opportunities in high school. It was freezing that night, too. We might have died if Saul hadn’t taken us in.”
I took his chin and turned his face toward Lily.
“Ah,” he said. “I get it.”
“One night,” I said again. “It won’t hurt to let her stay. We’ll figure out what to do tomorrow, along with everything else.”
He took my face between his palms and laid the gentlest kiss on my lips. “You are beautiful in every way. You know that, right?”
I flipped my hair over my shoulder. “Oh, I know.”
He studied Lily. “We should move her. It’s too cold for her to stay in here. Can you wake her? I’ll fix up one of the rooms.”
Were it not for Lily’s health, I wouldn’t have moved off his lap. The warmth of his grip was too alluring to give up so easily. As it was, I climbed out of the chair. Simon headed upstairs to gather materials while I tended to our unexpected guest.
“Lily?” I softly shook her shoulder. “Can you wake up?”
She let out a quiet moan and rolled toward me. “Yes, Max?”
A rush of affection—the kind I usually associated with Simon—came over me as I caught sight of those deep, dark eyes again. “Can you stand? We’re going to set up one of the rooms for you so you won’t be so cold out here.”
“Can I run a bath?”
“The water’s not on,” I said apologetically. “We have to replace the pipes first. I have some baby wipes, though.”
She took my hand as she stood, swaying slightly.
Simon appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a blanket, pillow, and the extra portable heater we’d brought along. “Hi. I’m Simon. We didn’t officially meet.”
Lily smiled demurely. “Yes, I’m Lily. I’m so sorry to impose on you like this, but I am grateful to you and your lovely wife.”
Simon, to my shock, blushed. He wasn’t so easy flattered normally.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “Sorry about the state of the place. We literally just started fixing it up today. It’s not meant to look like this.”
Lily gazed upward to the exposed beams. “I think it’s beautiful.”
Simon cleared his throat. “Um, follow me? One of the rooms on the first floor isn’t in terrible shape. We’ll put you in there for now.”
Together, we escorted Lily to one of the king suites not destroyed by the elements midway down the hall. Simon stripped the bed and flipped the mattress over to the clean side while I set up the portable heater.
“It’s not much,” I said as Lily looked around. Embarrassment made my cheeks flush. I hadn’t intended our first guest to have such a dirty, dingy welcome. “I hope you’ll be comfortable.”
“You might get some visitors,” Simon warned her. “We haven’t bombed the place for bugs yet, and I’m sure there are some rats around.”
“Rats don’t scare me,” Lily said. Standing without help exhausted her. Her bones sagged toward the floor. “I’ll go to bed if you don’t mind.”
Simon and I quickly finished up and excused ourselves. Outside her door, Simon paused. “She looks sick,” he whispered.
“She was in a car accident,” I reminded him. “It’s probably stress.”
“No, she looks sick,” he said again with more emphasis. “I’ve never seen anyone that pale. Do you think she has a pre-existing condition?”
“If it was something she was worried about, I’m sure she would have told us.” Worry gnawed at my stomach. “Maybe she’s hungry. Do we have any leftover pizza?”
“A few slices.”
“I’ll bring her some.”
While Simon went to bed for the second time, I crafted a miniature oven out of aluminum foil and our hot plate to warm up the pizza. I also warmed a cup of water and dropped a teabag in it. From my suitcase, I drew a sweater and pajama pants. Lily looked to be about my size, and she shouldn’t have to sleep in dirty clothes.
When I went downstairs to Lily’s room and knocked, no answer came. “Lily?” I called, tapping on the door again. “It’s Max. I brought you something to eat.”
Anxiety riddled holes in my head as the silence remained. I swallowed hard and let myself into the room.
The bed was empty. Lily was nowhere to be seen.
“Not again,” I muttered. “Where does she go?”
As I set the pizza on the side table and the clothes on the bed, trickling water caught my attention. The bathroom door was cracked open. I inched toward it without realizing I was holding my breath and peeked in.
A candle glowed on the edge of the bathtub, where Lily washed in hot, steamy water. She looked up as if she sensed my presence, and her black eyes connected with mine. My breath left my lungs.
“Sorry!” I yelped, turning away. “I didn’t mean to spy.”
A light chuckle emanated from the bathroom. Water rushed as Lily got out of the bath and emerged with one of our towels wrapped around her. Steam rose from her delicate shoulders.
“I don’t mind,” she said, lightly touching my hand. Her fingers were warm from the bath. “I like visitors.”
“The water’s turned off,” I said robotically. “How did you draw a bath?”
She shrugged. “I turned the knobs. Hot water.”
“Huh. Maybe there are two water sources.”
“Perhaps.” She spotted the pizza and the cup of tea. “Is that for me? How kind of you.”
I cleared my throat. “I thought you might be hungry after such a crazy day. I also brought some clothes of mine for you to wear.”
She caressed the soft fabric of my sweater. “That’s so sweet of you.” Without preamble, she dropped the towel.
Surprised, I performed a quick about-face to give her privacy. “Um, anyway. I hope you’ll be comfortable.”
“You said that already,” she replied in a teasing tone. “You can face front again.”
In my forest green sweater and billowy silver pajama pants, she looked like a nymph who’d arrived at the Lodge from out of the woods. I was sure I didn’t look so ethereal in the same outfit.
“I meant it,” I said, teasing back. “You’re our first official guest here at Silver Creek Lodge. I want it to be special.”
“It already is.”
A blush crept up my neck. “I’ll leave you to it. See you in the morning.”
“Good night, Max.”
5
Sunlight touched my cheeks. I pulled the sheets over my head and reached to the other side of the mattress to find it empty. Simon had gotten up already. The bed was cold. The heated blanket had automatically shut off to prevent a fire hazard. The portable warmer had run out of battery power, too.
I put on my winter coat and cozy slippers before getting out of bed. In the bathroom, I jiggled my legs to stay warm while I did my business. The cold was no joke. We needed to get the electricity up and running before the winter grew worse.
Simon was in the kitchen downstairs, doing his best to make breakfas
t with our limited supply of food and materials. By the sound of his constant muttered swearing, it wasn’t going so well.
“Stupid stove,” he said murderously as he held a match beneath a propane camping stove. Unlike the hot plate upstairs, the stove didn’t need a generator to work. “Why—won’t—you—light? Ouch!”
The match had burned down to his finger. He dropped it on the floor and stepped on it, sucking on his wounded appendage.
“It’s finicky,” I reminded him, stepping forward to help. I lit a match and held it under the propane stove’s lucky spot. A second later, it caught, and I turned up the dial to keep it burning. “There you go.”
“You have fire magic,” Simon said and stiffened when he realized what had come out of his mouth, but I didn’t react. He filled a kettle with water and set it on the stove. “I was trying to surprise you with coffee, but you beat me to it.”
I picked up the can of instant coffee, lifted the lid, and sniffed it. “Are you sure this stuff’s going to do the trick?”
“It’s got caffeine,” he said. “That’s all we need to get going, right?”
“It also has to be drinkable,” I added. I looked around. “Have you seen Lily this morning?”
“Nope. Quiet as a mouse. I think she’s still sleeping.”
We ate cold bagels and cured ham for breakfast—items that wouldn’t go bad without refrigeration. The instant coffee wasn’t terrible, though I stirred in twice the recommended amount.
“Let’s tackle the wiring today,” Simon proposed. “I’m not sure I can handle another night like the last one. The temperature’s dropping more each day. We won’t last two weeks out here if we don’t get the heat fixed.”
“And the water,” I added. “I am in dire need of a hot bath.”
He jerked his head toward the back. “Got those hot springs out there if you’re desperate.”
“Not quite there yet.”
Simon chuckled. “I’ll call Keith. See if he’s up for a twelve-hour day. Do you want to check on our guest?”
“Sure. Hand me the instant coffee.”
With another offering of food in hand, I made my way to Lily’s room. Once again, she didn’t answer when I knocked. I was starting to think this was how things were going to be with her.
The Haunting of Silver Creek Lodge Page 5
