Snowstorm Confessions

by Rachel Lee

  “Ain’t nothing working, not even the radio,” Jack said as he squatted and began to lay the fire.

  “You shouldn’t be out in this,” Luke said quietly.

  “Maybe not, but I figure the cops are looking in on the old folks. It’s the others I got to worrying about. Like Bri here. She’s got you to take care of.”

  That was almost a slap in the face. Bri stared hard at Jack’s back, then looked at Luke. He’d apparently reacted the same way, but quickly smoothed his face.

  After a moment, Luke spoke. “I’m glad Bri has you to look after her.”

  “Yeah?”

  It almost sounded like a challenge. Instinctively, Bri moved closer to Luke, but he gestured her to step away, as if he didn’t want her too close. But why? She could see he was tensing in his chair, and knew he could get up out of it, but what good would that do?

  And what was going on with Jack?

  He successfully ignited the tinder and applied the bellows. The wood, well-seasoned, quickly caught, sizzling occasionally as some remaining ice melted and water evaporated. Soon a nice blaze was going.

  “I’ll bring in more wood onto your mud porch,” Jack said as he stood, brushing his hands together. “No telling when that power will come back on.”

  Bri could feel the heat from the fireplace begin to sting her face, but she didn’t pull back her hood. Every instinct she had was on high alert, but she really couldn’t find a reason for it.

  She listened to Jack tromp out through the kitchen and mudroom, heard the door open and close behind him, then his heavy tread on the outside porch and steps.

  “What is going on?” Luke asked. “And don’t tell me he’s just being helpful. There was a reason they were telling everyone to stay indoors, and from what I can tell that reason isn’t going away.”

  “I know.”

  “This is weird.” He reached for his cell phone again and checked for a signal. “Nothing. It’s either a power problem or the tower collapsed under all this ice.”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me.” She reached for the cordless set and got the same dead line. “Nothing.”

  “Maybe you should try the regular line in the kitchen. It only needs the power from the phone line to work, right?”

  “I should have thought of that!” Sometimes old-fashioned technology was better than new. It had been precisely for that reason that she’d left a regular phone in the kitchen. No external power needed.

  In the kitchen, she caught sight of Jack bringing more wood up to the porch. She also noticed he’d pulled the pickax out of her garage. It wasn’t an item she needed most of the time, but the last owner had left it in the garage and she had just kept it. You never knew when you might need to dig a deep hole to plant something...or break your way through ice to get to the woodpile. Apparently Jack had needed to loosen the logs.

  The landline in the kitchen was still dead, too. Not knowing what else to do, she started a fresh pot of coffee on the stove. At the very least, even if Jack was making her uneasy, she should offer him a hot drink before sending him back out into this cold.

  He might be acting a little oddly, but she was equally certain her judgment of him might be colored by what Luke suspected and what had happened last night. She almost felt like a guilty kid who’d been caught making out in Daddy’s car.

  Damn, was she ever going to really grow up? Her lovemaking with Luke was nobody else’s business, and she had had every right to enjoy it. She needed to quit questioning herself about everything and accept that her needs and desires were normal, a part of her. Whether they meshed with someone else’s or not didn’t really matter.

  She and Luke had failed to mesh in important ways. He was hinting that he’d like to change that, and she kept running from the idea. Maybe she should give it a try along with him. After all, giving him up, whatever her reasoning, had been painful beyond belief. She really hadn’t wanted to do it until the Barbara thing, and that had apparently been a nasty lie. The real problem had been her inability to fix the problems in their marriage.

  But now he was saying he’d been self-centered, and that he had missed her during her absences as much as she had missed him. If they could find a way to be together more, maybe they could fall in love again. And if spending more time together didn’t work, either, maybe they could both finish falling out of love. What a thought.

  Either way, it could be the cure. They needed to try it, she decided. He hadn’t just shown up on her doorstep to defend his honor. Not after all this time. Maybe he’d believed it was his reason, but she didn’t because she knew how uninterested she had been in men since her marriage. No one measured up to Luke, for all his failings. Divorce hadn’t severed the most important things, apparently.

  Jack opened the back door and stepped inside with three more logs and the pickax.

  “There’s plenty of wood on your porch now, but the snow is turning icy again.”

  “Thanks a bunch, Jack. But why did you bring the pickax in?” Just looking at it inside the house creeped her out.

  “Because of the ice. I don’t want it to rust. I’ll put it back when I’m done.”

  That made sense, so Bri summoned a smile. “Coffee? You must be freezing.”

  “Coffee would be great. Food, too, if you have it.”

  The request surprised her because Jack was usually so undemanding, so careful not to put her out in any way. But as he threw back his hood, she thought that not only was he acting differently, he looked different. Something about his dark eyes. A hardness.

  She shook herself, sure she was imagining all of this. She poured him a coffee and cut him a thick slice of coffee cake. “Let’s go in the living room,” she suggested. “There’s a table in there you can use and the fire will make it warmer.”

  “Sure. We wouldn’t want Luke to feel ignored.”

  What the... In all the time she had known him, Jack had never said anything like that, and it didn’t sound courteous. It sounded...harsh? She didn’t know what exactly possessed her then, but what came out of her mouth surprised her. Him, too, evidently. “You have some objection to Luke? So much that you’d rather sit in the cold kitchen?”

  The challenge was unmistakable. Jack’s eyes narrowed for just an instant, then his face smoothed over. “He’s your ex. He hurt you.”

  “Maybe I hurt him more.” She couldn’t believe this conversation.

  “You wouldn’t hurt a soul.” Then he headed for the living room with his plate and cup. She followed quickly.

  Things had changed when she got back there. Luke now perched on the edge of his bed, crutches on either side of him, legs to the floor. He appeared relaxed, but she could see tension around his eyes. Only someone who knew him as well as she did would realize that he was ready to spring. On Jack? What was troubling him?

  How could she even wonder? This entire situation was troubling, but damned if she could really put her finger on why. Jack out in a storm that was dangerous? Okay, maybe he wasn’t so bright about some things. But he also wasn’t usually this pushy. He’d started being pushy right about the time he’d offered to build a ramp for Luke, but that could have just been friendliness.

  So could this, but it didn’t feel like it.

  It was almost as if there was a shift in the air in the house, as if a power center had moved. As if it were no longer her house, but Jack’s.

  What a crazy thought to have.

  Jack had taken the office chair and was using the TV tray. Bri, for some reason, didn’t want to sit on the couch. Finally she decided to perch on the bed near Luke. Slowly, she unzipped her jacket as she realized the fire was quickly heating the room again.

  Jack finished half his chunk of cake before he spoke. “So you two are getting back together.”

  All of a sudden, no fire in the world would have been able to penetrate the chill that ran through her.

  Luke spoke. “Why do you care?”

  Bri tensed even more, wondering why Luke was being s
o challenging. All he had to say was no and it would let the strain out of the room, but instead he had raised it. Was this some kind of machismo thing? Was she missing something important? All she knew was that for some reason she was becoming edgy, so edgy it bordered on fear. Fear of Jack, who had never been anything but kind and helpful? She must be losing her mind. But the anxiety lingered anyway. Something was definitely wrong.

  “Just curious.” Jack went back to eating his cake. A few mouthfuls later, he said, “Not much of an answer, though.”

  The words were almost like a thrown gauntlet. She felt a huge relief when Jack stood, picking up his cup and plate. “I’ll see myself out, Bri. Keep warm.”

  “Thanks for all your help, Jack.” Basic courtesy dictated she walk him to the door, but she couldn’t have moved to save her life. Just as Jack reached the hallway, Luke took her hand to give it a squeeze. Jack glanced back, saw their linked hands, nodded almost as if to himself, then continued on his way.

  Bri heard him put his dishes in the sink, heard him open the door to the mudroom. Then it closed.

  She had just begun to let out a huge breath of relief when she heard his returning footsteps.

  What the...? She looked at Luke, whose face had gone hard as rock. He released her hand. “Maybe you’d better get behind the couch or something.”

  “What is going on?”

  Jack appeared in the doorway, and this time he was carrying the pickax.

  Bri gasped. “Jack, what...?”

  “I tried to save you from him,” Jack said. “I know how much he hurt you. Everyone knows about it. Everyone was talking about what a mess you were when you came back home.”

  “Jack...”

  He shook his head. “Guess I didn’t save you. You were always nice to me, Bri.”

  “I like you,” she said with growing desperation. “You’re always nice to me.”

  “Not nice enough, apparently. I was giving you time to realize how good I could be for you. Taking it slow because I knew you had to get over a divorce. Then this. The guy who cut out your heart shows up and just like that you can’t see me anymore.”

  “See you? I never stopped seeing you.”

  “Yeah, you did when he came back. You looked at me different. Do you know how hard I worked to be the man you’d want? Do you have any idea? Hell, I spent a lot of hours up in your attic listening to you, watching you, figuring you out. I’ll bet he never spent that much time on you.”

  The hole Luke had noticed in the ceiling. Not a claw hole at all. Bri’s stomach turned over as she realized that Jack had been stalking her for a long time, invading her privacy in the most unthinkable way. She feared she might vomit.

  Luke remained silent, but even with a foot between them, Bri could feel him coiling. He couldn’t do anything. He had a broken leg and arm. What could he possibly be thinking? But she wondered what he had sensed that had made him suggest she get behind the couch.

  Think! There had to be a way out of this, a way to talk Jack down. She was a nurse, damn it. She’d talked a lot of people down over the years. Of course, none of them had been holding pickaxes, either.

  She scrambled for soothing words. Useful words. She tried to stand because it helped her to make a calm approach, but the instant she moved, Luke’s hand yanked her back. “No,” he said.

  “So he’s ordering you around again?” Jack said. He shook his head. “You’re a strong woman, Bri. You shouldn’t take orders from him.”

  “I’m not taking orders. I’m wondering what’s going on here.” She tried to keep her voice as soothing as possible, but no amount of effort could entirely prevent a tremor from becoming audible. “Jack, you know I like you.”

  “Sure you do. And I thought it would become something more once I knew exactly how to care for you. That’s why I tried to get him out of the way. I don’t know what excuse he used, but the minute he came to see you I knew he was up to no good.”

  “Get him out of the way?” At last it penetrated and Bri understood exactly what she was dealing with here. “Did you push Luke off the cliff?”

  “Of course I did. If he’d died, there wouldn’t be a problem, would there?”

  She felt Luke moving, almost infinitesimally, beside her. What did he think he was going to do?

  “Jack,” she said, “we can talk about this. Luke is only here until his job is over. And didn’t he offer you work?”

  “Just to keep an eye on me. He figured it out, Bri. He knew I wanted you. I could tell. Guys know those things.”

  “But he’ll be moving out as soon as he can take care of himself!”

  “Too late. You think I can’t smell what you two were doing in here? Sex. The place reeks of it.”

  Bri sucked air, her mind scrambling for some way to defuse the situation. If Jack hadn’t been holding that pickax, she’d have known they could work it out. The fact that he’d brought it in here meant his idea of working it out meant someone was going to get hurt. Maybe killed.

  Being a nurse had made her physically strong, but she doubted she was strong enough to take out a stronger man wielding that kind of weapon.

  Luke spoke. “So what you want to hear is that I’m leaving and I don’t want Bri back?”

  “That’s a start.”

  Luke edged forward on the bed, his hands closing on his crutches, not as if he were about to stand, but as if planned on swinging them.

  “There’s just one problem, Jack,” Luke said.

  “What’s that?”

  “What makes you sure Bri will want you after you’ve threatened her with a pickax?”

  “I didn’t threaten her!”

  “No? Then why are you standing there holding it?”

  Silence filled the room. The keening banshee of the wind was the only sound, filled with foreboding.

  Jack looked down at the pickax he held, and for just an instant Bri thought he was going to drop it. Hope died swiftly when he looked up again.

  Never had she seen such hardness in Jack’s face. His eyes looked almost blank, as if he had gone somewhere else. As if his body were inhabited by something besides the Jack she had always known.

  “Too late now,” Jack said, his voice curiously flat.

  “It’s not too late,” Bri said quietly. “You can walk out of this house right now and nothing will change.” Desperation and nausea warred within her.

  “No, it’s too late,” Jack said. “I tried to kill him. Now you both know that and you’ll tell on me. He should’ve just died and things could have been okay then, but not now.”

  “Jack...”

  “Shut up,” he snarled. “I should have guessed you weren’t good enough for me. Cheap, like every other woman. But I thought you were special, Bri. You’re not special at all.”

  This time she didn’t even try to speak. She was watching Jack intently, every muscle in her body tensed to respond if he moved. She could shove the hospital table at him. The TV trays were useless. There was the office chair. But overall, the room was devoid of weapons and protections.

  Luke let go of his left crutch. She hardly noticed that it flipped over and landed right beside her.

  “Why make things worse for yourself, Jack?” Luke asked, sounding amazingly reasonable. “There’s a world of difference between getting in trouble for assaulting someone and actually murdering them.”

  “I don’t care anymore. Bri was everything to me. If I can’t have her, no one can.”

  The room filled with ice in an instant, seeming to Bri to become so cold that the fire might never have been lit.

  Jack hefted the pickax, gripping it with both hands. The time for talk had apparently passed. Bri looked quickly around, desperate to find a way to stave off a blow from that ugly tool. She had to protect Luke, as well, because he was still in casts, and they had no idea whom Jack was going to come for first.

  Then she glanced down. For the first time she noticed that Luke had removed the rubber feet from the crutches. All of a sudden
she got why one of them had rolled to her side. Moving slowly, she closed her hand around it.

  Jack’s eyes darted from Luke to her and back, as if he were making a decision. “The cripple or you?” he mused aloud. “Probably you. The cripple can’t move that much.”

  Now he was turning them into objects. Distancing himself from their common humanity. Bri recognized it and a shudder ran down her spine.

  She eased forward so that her weight rested on her feet more than the bed. She had to get between Jack and Luke. She had to protect Luke at any cost. Not that she’d be able to withstand more than a single blow from that ax. Somehow she had to get it out of his hands. She’d only have one chance to do it.

  “Jack, you’re a good man. Do you think I never noticed? I relied on you. I counted on you. Don’t disappoint me.”

  Wrong thing to say. She saw it instantly.

  “Disappoint you? What do I care about your disappointment? You disappointed me. I thought you were better than this.”

  “Better than what?” She was gauging distance now, trying to decide how best to move. It was then she noticed that Luke was nearly standing, as well. On his broken leg? My God...

  A switch flipped in her. All the fear vanished as fury rose blindingly in her. This idiot was going to hurt Luke. Not without killing her first.

  She tightened her grip on the crutch. If she could tangle it with the pickax before he hit either of them... Thought gave way to action before the idea even finished forming.

  Jack lifted the ax and started to move in. He was eyeing Luke, as if planning to strike him first, then Bri. Not while she had a breath in her body. She straightened, raising the crutch, and started to move toward Jack.

  Surprise flickered over his face, then it twisted into fury. He charged.

  Luke moved, striking as fast as a snake. He shot his crutch forward, catching Jack in the knees. At a near run, Jack fell forward onto the floor. Bri jumped aside just quickly enough to miss the falling pickax that might have hit her leg.

  Then Luke rose from the bed, astonishing her, and fell on Jack’s back, pinning him.

  “Get the ax,” he demanded. “Get the damn ax away from him.”