Flicker (Defying Death Book 1)

by Courtney Houston

  “What do you need to take care of?” He hadn’t mentioned any plans before. I didn’t want to sound clingy, but my curiosity was getting the better of me. “Something with Denny?”

  “No, nothing with him,” he said. The noisy wind on his side of the call was making it hard to hear him. “I really have to go. I’ll see you later.”

  “Fine. I guess I’ll talk to you later,” I said, reluctantly hanging up and heading into the kitchen. Something about that conversation didn’t sit right with me. He was purposely keeping something from me and it bugged the hell out of me.

  Jilsey was hard at work cooking, and it smelled divine, if not a little much for just us, even if Gavin were here—which he wasn’t. I grabbed a handful of olives from a bowl on the counter, stuffing half of them into my mouth at once.

  “Get me another jar from the pantry if you are going to eat my appetizers,” she said, shaking a bag of mozzarella cubes with some type of vinaigrette.

  “What’s with the fancy dinner?” I asked around my mouthful of olives.

  “Oh, you know how I like to tickle my cooking bone every now and then,” she said, placing the bag of marinating cheese, a bowl of pepperoni, and the olives in front of me. “If you’re going to insist on being in the kitchen while I’m trying to work then make yourself useful. It goes cheese, pepperoni, olive, and toothpick.”

  We sat in silence, her mixing olive oil and various spices in a dish and cutting chunks of French bread, while I made the little antipasti. We were having breaded chicken breast stuffed with ham, with a tossed Caesar salad, and some type of little fruit tart for dessert. Even for Jilsey, this was a little over-the-top for a weeknight.

  Midway through making the appetizers, I startled when the doorbell rang, and dropped a cluster of toothpicks. Jilsey, on the other hand, didn’t seem shocked at all.

  “Oh, hmm. I wonder who that is,” she said with faux casualness, setting down the pepper grinder. “I’ll get it. You just finish those appetizers.”

  Umm. Okay. Were Gavin’s parents in town? Were Jilsey’s? Parents or bosses coming over were usually the only occasions this particular brand of crazy showed. I heard the front door open and the sound of murmured voices coming through the hallway. That instinctive pull I’d come to associate with Telor formed in my stomach. A second later, Jilsey entered the kitchen followed by the object of my affection himself. She was practically beaming at him like he was a rock star, and he seemed to be perfectly at ease.

  “Lina, look who stopped by!” she exclaimed. “And he brought wine,” she said looking at the bottle. “Moscato. Did you know that’s Lina’s favorite?” she asked, ushering him to the seat next to me.

  “As a matter of fact, I did.”

  I looked at Telor. He had a sly little smile on his face. Leaning over to me, he kissed my cheek and took one of my hands under the table. Jilsey pretended to be too engrossed in her bread tearing to notice.

  “I thought you said you had something to take care of?”

  “I do. Jilsey called me last night and invited me to dinner,” he said, trying to hide his amusement.

  “And how did she get your number?” I asked, directing my attention to the sly little fox herself.

  “Oh, I took it out of your phone while you were in the shower,” she admitted, shamelessly.

  “My phone is password protected,” I pointed out.

  She scoffed, “Yeah, by our street number. You might as well have used your birthday.”

  I just shook my head at them both. In truth, I was glad he was here, and that Jilsey seemed to like him. I was under no illusion that Gavin would accept Telor as part of my life simply for the fact that he meant something to me. My conviction that Gavin would forgive me and we could go back to being friends was slowly fading with every day we didn’t speak.

  Dinner was amazing, as always. Telor and Jilsey kept up a steady stream of conversation. Telor stroked Jilsey’s ego by complimenting her cooking, and she was already treating him like one of us, like part of our family. It warmed my heart and made me love her that much more. After we had dessert and cleaned up, we sat in the living room with glasses of wine—well, Jilsey and I did, Telor settled for iced tea—talking about how Telor liked the museum.

  For the first time in a while, things seemed like they might be okay after all. I went three glorious hours without thinking about Denny, Tori, Gavin, or the army of Guides stalking me daily. It was refreshing.

  “Well, I have to work early, so I think I’m going to turn in.” Jilsey subtly excused herself. “I wouldn’t linger in the living room too much longer. It’s almost eleven, if you know what I mean,” she said, staring at me meaningfully. I did know what she meant. Gavin would be home just after eleven, and I was not prepared for that confrontation.

  “Goodnight, Jilsey,” I called as she headed up the stairs.

  She was almost to the top when the front door opened and shut. Keys jangled and boots scuffed across the floor in their wake. Oh no. No, no, no. Jilsey hurried back down the stairs, stopping Gavin in the foyer.

  “Gavin! You’re home early. I made Italian for dinner. Your plate is in the fridge. Here, I’ll heat it up for you,” she said, her panicked eyes meeting mine.

  If she could get him to the kitchen, I could get Telor out the front door. The stupid part of my mind scolded me—I was an adult who paid rent, and I shouldn’t have to explain why I had a guy over for dinner. The smart part of me told the stupid part to shut up—now wasn’t the time for a pissing contest between Gavin and me. He and Telor in the same room would not end well for any of us.

  “I did it, Jilsey! I made detective,” he said. “Is Lina here? I can’t wait to tell her.” Pushing past Jilsey, he made his way into the living room. He rounded the corner, his eyes zeroing in on me. Closing the distance between us in three steps, he gathered me in a huge hug, spinning me with him. “Lina, I did it!”

  “Gavin that’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you,” I said, turning my head slightly.

  This sudden show of affection was making me increasingly uncomfortable. Especially in front of Telor, who Gavin hadn’t seemed to notice yet. I gave him an apologetic look. He didn’t seem upset. He had a rueful little smile on his face. With my eyes glued on Telor, I attempted to struggle out of Gavin’s arms. Following my gaze, he spotted Telor and set me down.

  “Oh, we have company. I’m Detective Gavin Hollow,” he said, holding his hand out for Telor.

  This was beyond awkward. My heart thundered in my chest, and my breaths were becoming shallower and faster. I’ve imagined Telor and Gavin in the same room before, but it usually involved Telor being shot. Jilsey seemed to be thinking along the same lines because she was gradually moving toward Gavin, as if she would do any good if things got out of hand. Telor, ever the gentleman, took Gavin’s hand and shook it firmly.

  Gavin stood a head taller than Telor and was his opposite in almost every way.

  Gavin was tall, ivory skinned, with blond hair and blue eyes, his heart-shaped face bearing a straight nose and sculpted jawline. He was so buff he almost ripped the seam of his medium shirts and secretly, he loved it. Pretty much the picture of the Aryan race.

  Telor, on the other hand…

  He was still quite a bit taller than me, with his sun-kissed skin and faceted eyes that I couldn’t put a color on—I wondered if his eyes were like that before he died and made a mental note to ask him later. His dark hair curled slightly around his forehead and ears, his strong Roman nose completing the European look that his square jawline started. He was from Wales, but certainly there was some Mediterranean blood in there somewhere.

  “Telor Conway, it’s great to meet you Detective Hollow,” he said, shaking Gavin’s hand firmly. I noticed he purposefully failed to mention why he was in our house and how he knew me. “Lina and Jilsey have told me a lot about you.”

  “Lies, all of it,” he said, smiling, as he sat down on the couch. Jilsey and I both physically relaxed at his good mood, th
ough my stomach still knotted with the anticipation of this being over. “So…are you a friend of Lina’s or Jilsey’s?”

  Maybe we jumped the gun a little, cue pre-panic attack, again.

  Telor seemed as relaxed as ever as he took a seat next to me. I mean, directly next to me, and put his arm around my shoulders to draw me in closer.

  “I’m a friend of Lina’s. Jilsey invited me over for dinner,” he said, stretching out ever so slightly, making himself comfortable in Gavin’s house, and on Gavin’s couch.

  If Telor could sense the dangerous waters he was entering, he didn’t show it. Instead, he was as at ease as ever. If Gavin’s expression could be defined, it would have said, “Challenge accepted.” What I was feeling could definitely be defined—it was a mixture of terror and panic. My teeth were tingling, I felt like I might throw up…

  I could work with that. If I got sick, it might divert their attention to me rather than killing each other.

  “Funny, she’s never mentioned you,” Gavin said, kicking off his shoes.

  “Maybe that’s because you’ve barely spoken to her since she broke up with you,” Telor responded, sounding deceptively casual.

  Dear God, it was going to be a bloodbath.

  Gavin’s jaw clenched as he attempted to bite back his retort. “Well, Lina and I have been together so long that our relationship has its ups and downs. This is just one of those downs. No worries.”

  “Of course not,” Telor said. “I’m sure being roommates takes its toll on a friendship. Don’t worry, if I’m lucky, living arrangements will soon change, which would eliminate the roommate stress from the friendship.”

  “I beg your pardon?” Gavin asked, moving forward in his seat, as if ready to lunge.

  I was paralyzed by the awkwardness of the situation. I should have said something, done something, anything really. But I didn’t, couldn’t. Talk, dammit, talk. Frozen, I just watched the scene unfold.

  “I was just referring to my relationship with Lina,” he said. “Hopefully, at some point in the not-so-distant future, she’ll be calling my place home. It’s close by though, so she’ll still see you guys as much as she wants.”

  Why on earth would Telor think it was okay to say any of this to Gavin without talking to me first?

  I was pretty sure if I were to will my frozen body to move, it would break the very thin line of tension hanging between the two men. I really wanted Telor and Gavin out of the same room; Gavin looked as if on the verge of spewing fiery rage all over the living room.

  A chill settled over the living room. Gavin and Telor were the only ones not squirming in their seats. They stared each other down, trying to pick out the other’s weakness so they could jump on it. Their silent showdown was overwhelming. I almost wished they would yell, anything to break the silence. I could hear the tick-tocking of the grandfather clock standing in the corner of the living room. I envied that clock. What I wouldn’t have given to blend, unseen, into the room.

  I shot Jilsey another panicked look, silently begging her for help. “Well, it’s late and it’s been an eventful day. I think it might be time to call it a night,” she said, standing up and stretching her long lean body.

  “Of course. We do all have to be up early,” Telor said, standing as well. This was not really what I had in mind for diffusing the situation, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. “Goodnight, Jilsey. Thank you so much for dinner. Sometime soon, I will have to repay the favor and have the three of you to my place for dinner. Gavin, it was good to meet you as well. Congratulations on making detective,” he said, like the entire conversation between the two of them hadn’t just happened.

  He took my hand and led me out of the living room. I turned toward the front door, assuming I’d say goodnight to him on the front porch away from the prying eyes of my roommates. Instead, he pulled me into his arms in the middle of the foyer, running one hand through my hair, his other arm wrapping around my back. He tilted my head gently so my face was turned up, and then he leaned down and kissed me. Made a show out of kissing me. It wasn’t a sweet little goodnight kiss, either.

  Even with my reluctance to do this in front of Gavin, my body responded to him, melting into his just a little. Suddenly, he was yanked away, and I recovered in time to see Gavin’s fist connect with Telor’s jaw, sending him stumbling backward into the hall table. His glasses flew from his face, landing somewhere near the front door.

  “Stop! Now!” I screamed at the same time Jilsey did. I flew to Telor’s side to inspect his cheek. It would bruise but I didn’t think there was any permanent damage. My fear faded as my anger bled through. “What the hell is wrong with you two?”

  They both had the decency not to answer. “Telor, I think you should go home.”

  “Lina—” he started, before I cut him off by putting my hand in the air.

  “I’ll be right behind you in thirty minutes,” I said. His face lightened in triumph, which I quickly shut down, speaking much steadier than I expected from myself. “You better wipe that cocky smile off your face. This isn’t over.”

  After grabbing his jacket, Telor gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and left. I stayed staring at the front door until Gavin cleared his throat. A swirl of unwelcome emotions swam around me as I turned to stare at him—anger at him and Telor both, fear of what would come from this inevitable conversation, frustration that nothing could be simple. Worst of all was the fear—fear that this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, for both of us.

  Jilsey was still standing like a sentry on the stairs.

  “Jilsey, Lina and I need to talk,” Gavin said to her, pulling me by the arm into the kitchen. “Alone.”

  “Gavin, I think you both need time to think about things before you say something you don’t mean,” Jilsey said, her face tormented.

  “I said alone. Now!” Gavin repeated. Jilsey raised her eyebrows in question to me, and I nodded to her. This had been a long time coming, and I needed to deal with it.

  “So…,” he started, barely concealing his anger, “this is the real reason?”

  “Listen, Gavin, we don’t have to do this okay?” I said. “I know you guys aren’t going to be friends anytime soon, and I’m not asking you to be. All I really want is for things between us to go back to the way they used to be. No more ignoring me and pretending I don’t exist. No punching Telor. No sulking around the house when you think I’m not here. Just go back to being my friend.” I hope he got that. I was not sure how I mustered the balls to say it all in the first place, and I certainly wasn’t going to repeat myself. The small burst of adrenaline that had powered me had fled just as quickly.

  “When did you meet him?” he asked, which was honestly the last question I expected.

  “I met him on New Year’s.” I needed to tread carefully. Technically, there are several right answers.

  “So, this was going on while we were together?” he asked incredulously. He was on the verge of losing his cool and I couldn’t say I blamed him. And I had to give him props for trying to stay calm.

  “No!” I tried to assure him, vainly, but still. “No, we just started…I mean, it wasn’t going on until after we broke up.”

  “What, the day after we broke up?” he sneered and I flinched. His anger was completely justified. Regardless of how much I didn’t want to answer, I did, and nodded my head. I owed him honesty.

  “You should have told me, Lina. I shouldn’t have found out the way I did,” he said. “Don’t you think I at least deserved that courtesy?”

  “You’re right. I should have,” I said, tossing my hands in the air. “But I didn’t and you know why? Aside from the fact you haven’t really spoken to me in weeks, I didn’t want to hurt you. You’re my best friend and I wanted to be so much more than that with you. For so long, I wanted it so goddamned much. But things changed, I changed, and forgive me for wanting to spare your feelings.”

  “Oh, so this is all about me, right?” He closed the microwave do
or and it slammed, making us both flinch. “You barely know him, Catalina.”

  His words struck a chord. He was right. I barely knew him. But I knew without a doubt that I loved him more than I would ever love another single person in my entire life.

  “I love him,” I said strongly, my voice in contrast to my thoughts. “I don’t get involved in your dating life, I don’t tell you who you should and should not date, and I expect you to show me the same courtesy.”

  “You were my dating life,” he said. I wished he would just yell, it would be better than the low calculated words he was shooting at me. “Have you not noticed that I haven’t dated anyone in months? Just waiting for the perfect time to move forward with us.”

  “I’m with Telor, the end,” I said, wanting out of the room, hell, even the house. I couldn’t keep doing this with him. There would be no winner in this conversation. “I’m sorry that things didn’t work out between us.”

  “You’re acting like an infatuated sixteen-year-old girl. You jump right into a relationship with the first guy who shows you some type of attention,” he said, huffing and puffing his anger under a thin veil. This was how Gavin worked. He cut you right at the knees. “He wants one thing from you, Lina. When he gets it, he’s going to be out the door, and you’ll be left with a broken heart.”

  “Is it so hard to believe that he might actually feel the same way?” I screamed.

  “When you guys just met a few weeks ago?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, it’s a little hard to believe he might have any sort of feelings where you’re concerned that aren’t related to his dick.”

  My hand cracked hard across his face. I think it took him a moment to figure out exactly what had happened. When he did, though, his eyes blazed with fury and...satisfaction? Something that I wanted to smack off his face again, that was for sure. He turned his burning eyes on me, waiting for me to say something.