Strange in Skin

by Zook, Sara V.

  “No, probably not.” He gave me a wary look as if trying to figure it out but regretting doing so. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “I would’ve been for the whole thing had I even known or had I …”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “Like I said, never mind.”

  A sudden anger burned within him as I could tell he got the general concept. He hugged me tight again, pressing his head down against mine. I wasn’t sure who was watching us. I’m sure people were staring, but this was one time I absolutely had no cares about anyone else but the most important person holding me in his arms. I had craved for this moment for months. I had tried to even forget about him, but Emry Logan wasn’t someone to just cast out of the mind so easily.

  “We can let it all go now,” he whispered, putting his hand underneath my chin and pulling my face upwards next to his. “We have our beginning now. Nobody can stop us.”

  “No, Emry, wait …” But my words were interrupted by his lips pressing down on my own in a kiss that made all the bad dissipate from within my mind at that moment. All I could focus on was this beautiful moment and the way his lips felt against my own, the way his breath felt hot on my tearstained cheek.

  “I almost thought you’d given up on me,” he whispered.

  I blushed just then, feeling the shame of what he didn’t know, that I had, well, at least tried to. I had been so convincing that I had almost tricked myself into believing it as well. What an idiot I had been. “I love you, Anna James.” He smiled at me again.

  “I love you, too,” I whispered and pushed up to kiss him again.

  “And who is this?”

  Emry released his hold on me at the sound of the voice. He put his hand on my back being cautious of my crutches holding me up. He turned me around to face his attorney, Ben Hanley. “This is Anna,” he said proudly.

  Ben extended his hand out to me. I slowly balanced my crutch against my hip so I could have a free hand to shake his. I gritted my teeth together but tried to force a smile and be polite. “It’s nice to meet you, Anna. I’m Ben Hanley, Emry’s attorney. He’s told me so much about you. You’re pretty much the only thing that got him through all the time he spent in prison,” Ben said. He had a warm smile and a gentle face. He looked very professional. It was hard to hate him as much as I did at that moment when he was such a likable guy. Looks were so deceiving sometimes, I reminded myself. I couldn’t let his pleasant personality sidestep my attention to the task at hand. I had to tell Emry about his untrustworthy lawyer and his evil intentions. I hoped he was going to leave, at least give us a moment to ourselves.

  “I don’t know if that’s entirely true,” I managed to get out, the words feeling like they were sticking to my tongue.

  Emry laughed. “Yeah, right. You’re so modest.”

  Ben clasped his hands together. “Well, all right, let’s get you out of here. I’m sure you’re anxious to go.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Emry replied. The panic overtook me again. Ben Hanley wasn’t going to leave. He was actually going to be the one to guide us out the doors. I had to do something, but before I knew it, Emry had his hand firmly on my back again as he led me toward the doors out of the room.

  “If I didn’t think you’d be embarrassed, I’d carry you out of here so you didn’t have to use those things,” he joked.

  I didn’t smile. I couldn’t think of anything else but that something terrible was about to happen if Emry got near the front entrance of the courthouse.

  “Emry, I need to …”

  “Hey, congratulations, man,” a guy said quickly shaking Emry’s hand making him incapable of paying attention to what I was trying to tell him.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Emry said. Before I knew it, we were already outside of the room and in the hallway. There were a lot more people out here, most of them not happy about the verdict and glaring at Emry, especially now that they saw that I was by his side. My father and Buck were leaning up against the wall. When Buck saw us together, his face turned pale. I looked away from them. I refused to worry about what they were thinking right now as I continued to get dragged along by Emry.

  Ben, who had only been a few steps ahead of us, turned quickly on his heels and faced us. “Listen,” he said in a low tone so nobody else could hear what he was saying. “I think we should go out through the other doors, the back way out.”

  Emry raised his eyebrows suspiciously at him. Ben frowned. “I just think there’s going to be too much publicity, even more when the press sees her.” He nodded toward me.

  Emry wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. “You’re right, Ben. Where’s the other exit?”

  “Let’s just try to do this discretely,” Ben suggested.

  “Emry,” I tried to say.

  “You do want to come with me, don’t you?” he asked as we moved slowly but steadily toward the back of the courthouse. “Yes,” I answered. “But shouldn’t we …”

  “They’re following us,” he said.

  “Who?”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Pastor James and Buck Brady.”

  I didn’t bother to look myself. I took his word for it. I found myself distracted. Emry wasn’t listening to me. I wasn’t being forceful enough. But what should I do? I couldn’t make a scene in front of Ben. I was afraid he’d kill him right then and there if I confronted him. I could be making it worse. But why had he suggested the back way? My heart thumped wildly in my chest. He probably had someone out there waiting for Emry, maybe even waiting for the both of us. The back door was now in sight. Adrenaline raged within me as I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to stop it. I was sure that we were both about to die.

  My eyes darted around madly for something, anything that would be able to help me in my moment of pure desperation. There wasn’t even anybody down at this end of the hall. I could hear footsteps behind us though, and I knew that it was my father and Buck hot on our heels to come retrieve me, to convince me of what a horrendous mistake I was making.

  We were almost to the door now. It was just up ahead. A door opened at the corner of the hallway. A woman stepped out just ahead of us. She had long, sleek brown hair and appeared to be in a hurry. She looked up at me just then, her green eyes with a hard stare toward Emry. A feeling that I had seen her face somewhere before at one time or another filled me. I had seen that face before. A pretty girl with a hard face and grim expression. Then it hit me. I had seen her at the hospital when my mother had been admitted for her heart. That same woman had been sitting outside in the hallway of the hospital and had given me the same cold stare that I now saw she wore. And then I looked down and saw the shimmer of a silver knife blade gripped tightly in her hand. She was coming directly at Emry. Without even having time to panic or even think about what I was doing, about what was happening, I released my crutches and swirled around. Buck and my father had caught up to us. I reached toward Buck and ripped the gun viciously from his holster, and in another split second, turned back around. Ben and Emry had stopped dead in their tracks, distracted by what I was doing. They weren’t even facing the woman. They had no knowledge that it was about to happen. The woman lunged directly for Emry, the knife held out in front of her, and I felt my finger instantly find the trigger as I aimed and fired Buck’s gun at her. The noise of the gunshot echoed off the walls of the hallway and pierced through my ears. I watched the look of surprise on the woman’s face as the bullet had sliced through her body and she fell backwards onto the floor, her blood gushing from the wound that had ended up very close to her heart. I heard people screaming down the hall.

  I knew I had got to her before she had got to Emry. I knew she was dead, that I had been the one to have killed her, and that I had saved Emry. My mind was now overwhelmed with emotion as I realized that I was still standing there with the gun aimed upwards, my finger still locked securely on the trigger. I felt someone wrap their arms around me, forcing my extended arms down as
their hands quickly wrapped around the gun and squeezed, forcing me to release my grasp on it. I felt my legs buckle underneath me and the sudden pain in my bad ankle as I had accidentally put weight on it. I fell down to the ground, hunched over and sobbing.

  “I have the gun,” I heard Buck shout.

  “Anna!” Emry rushed over to me as other people rushed over to the woman. He picked me up in his arms and cradled me to his chest. “Anna, please talk to me. Are you all right?”

  I looked up at his marvelous face and I shook my head and started laughing at the same time as I was crying. “Oh, Emry,” I sobbed. “I’m just so glad you’re still alive.”

  “That girl tried to kill him,” Ben Hanley said.

  Emry turned around and I could see the small group of people that now surrounded her, most of them police officers.

  “There’s the knife,” Buck said. “She was definitely almost up to Logan. She almost got him and would’ve if …” He turned around and looked at me. “You saved my life?” Emry asked me.

  A state of confusion settled as everyone tried to figure out what had just happened. “Is she all right?” my father asked, coming over to us.

  I nodded.

  “I think she’s just shaken up,” Emry told him.

  “I thought he was going to kill you,” I managed to say.

  “He?” my father asked.

  I pointed to Ben who, shocked by the accusation, gave me a horrified look.

  “Ben?”

  “Yes. I thought he was Mrs. Anderson’s brother.”

  Ben now narrowed his eyes at me. I guessed by his reaction that I might have been right about the relation to her.

  “What?” Emry asked, stumped by what I’d said. “Ben’s a good man, Anna. He’s very trustworthy, believe me.”

  I still had my eyes locked on Ben who stared back at me, and then I looked down at the woman lying motionless on the floor in front of us. “Put me down, please.”

  Emry gave me a worried look.

  “It’s okay,” I reassured him. “I’m fine.”

  He set me down and Ben bent over and retrieved my crutches and handed them to me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to Ben, realizing that he may have not wanted to harm Emry. “I just assumed … and then I saw that woman with the knife. I’d seen her before at the hospital. She must’ve been following me then.” I know I wasn’t making sense to them. It was just a bunch of garbled-up words as they tried to listen and understand.

  “Wow,” Emry mumbled. He put his arm around my waist and held me tight. “You saved my life, Anna.”

  “Indeed she did,” my father said as if not completely happy about it. Emry turned my face away from the dead woman and the pool of blood that was pouring out and coming close to where we stood. “You must really love me or something.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes as I felt the warmth of his hands cupping my face. I felt the stresses of the day melting away now. The joy of being together with him again filled me and I let myself just be happy, savoring the moment for what it was.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “That must be it.” The rush of the wind danced along my skin as we walked barefoot on the pearly beach of Evadere. Crystal clear waters rushed up underneath my feet. I made my grip tighter on Emry as we continued on hand-in-hand and marveled together at the beauty of this wondrous world before us.

  I looked at him. He flashed me a grin and I gave him one in return. He glowed here in this light as the red sky hovered above us and a million white stars that never seemed to go away danced in between the clouds. I couldn’t imagine him looking more happy than he did at this very moment. We were here, away from everything, and it was just the two of us. We could linger as long as we desired and had no one to answer to when we got back. We could just be us.

  “You look overly happy today,” I teased him. He tugged at my arm and pulled me into his chest in one swift motion. I felt the hardness of his muscular body against mine as I gazed up into his shimmering blue eyes and touched the dimple in his cheek as he just couldn’t seem to wipe the smile from his face.

  “I am. Aren’t you?”

  “Hmmm …” I put my finger up to my lips as if I had to think about it. “Extremely.” “The happiest you’ve ever been in your whole life?”

  “Without a doubt.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he admitted, his fingers tracing the outline of my face. “You’re stuck with me now, you know.”

  “I don’t know how I’ll ever manage being stuck here with you.” He grinned and then leaned in and wrapped his strong arms around me. He lifted me off the ground so I was face to face with him and then we kissed again and again, the breeze swirling around us, drops of sunlight falling on our skin.

  “Hey there!” He instantly dropped me to my feet in shock at the sound of someone else’s voice. We both looked over and saw a figure standing in the distance. It was a man wearing white clothes that matched his white hair as he waved his arm wildly in the air to make sure he had gotten our attention.

  Emry took hold of my hand. We were both surprised and feeling a little guarded at the sight of someone else on Evadere. Never in his entire time here had Emry ever seen a single soul, even a single animal or even an insect. This had always been just his own private secluded beach. The man walked over closer to us.

  “Hi. Please don’t be afraid,” he said cheerfully.

  Emry eyed him and had put me slightly behind him making himself a barrier in between the man and I. “Are you lost?” he asked.

  We both just gawked at him for a moment.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked when not getting a response from either one of us.

  “No,” Emry finally managed to say. “You just surprised us is all.”

  “Oh.” The man smiled warmly at us. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. The name’s William.” He extended his hand out toward Emry. Emry shook his hand. “Emry, and this is Anna.”

  “Nice to meet you folks. Where are you from?”

  Emry and I just turned and looked at each other, reading each other’s minds. So we weren’t all alone on this beautifully strange world. There was life on Evadere.

  Acknowledgements This journey would not have been possible if not for the two biggest supporters of my dreams, my mother, Harriet Muir Payne, and my husband, Bradley Zook. Thank you for being there for me and for the encouragement to keep writing.

  Also, I would like to thank my two closest friends, Jill Lichtenfels and Melissa McFeaters, for being my guinea pigs and giving me their honest opinions. Melissa was the brains behind the idea and symbolism for the cover.

  Brenda Sedore and Jonas Saul, I thank both of you for being such wonderful people, believing in me and my manuscript and for your willingness to be so insightful. Brenda did an awesome job capturing the right images on the cover, and Jonas is a delightful editor whom I’ve had the honor of working with.

  “With God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

  Good reviews are important to a novel’s success. If you enjoyed Strange in Skin, please be kind and leave a review wherever you purchased the book.

  Sincerely,

  Sara V. Zook

  About the Author:

  Sara V. Zook was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania and moved to the center of the state after marrying in 2005. Sara and her husband have three beautiful children. Contact Sara V. Zook

  Website: http://www.saravzook.com

  Email: saravzook@gmail.com

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaraVZook

  Beginning

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapt
er 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  About the Author