by Alice Sabo
Ellie was quiet for a few heartbeats. Asher was about to panic when she finally spoke. “You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. You were on your own before I came back.”
He had to think about that for awhile. “I guess.”
“What was the first thing you thought of when you were rescued from the rock slide?”
“That whoever is doing makeup was going to kill me?”
Ellie chuckled. “Well, they aren’t going to be too happy with you. That welt on your forehead looks horrible.” She patted his hand again. “You refused to go to the hospital, so you wouldn’t be tempted by all the drugs. You got help from the right people. I know you hate being alone, but Bunny and Oscar are here to help. And Imre, whenever he gets here.”
“It’s not the same as you,” he said wistfully.
“I know.”
“I miss you and the kids,” he grumbled. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be to be so far away from them. Away from you.”
Something about Ellie changed. She seemed lighter, all of a sudden. Her mouth curled in that special smile that he always had to earn. “It’s perfectly normal to miss your family. You love them, and you’re lonely without them. That’s something you can talk about to anyone. And talking about it might help.”
“Okay.” Asher rolled that thought around in his head. There were lots of subjects he avoided. Talking about how much he loved his kids and missed them was apparently an approved topic. “I really, really miss them.”
“They miss you, too. I promised I’d try to get a laptop set up, so you could read them a bedtime story, but I don’t know if you should.”
Asher’s heart went still. “Why?”
“You look like you went three rounds with a cement block.”
“You think I might scare them?”
“I don’t want them to see you so badly injured. You scared the crap out of me. Thomas is upset that you’re gone. I don’t want him to make a connection between being gone and being hurt.”
“Okay. Whatever you think,” he said sadly. It had been easy to agree to come out here when he was spending the whole day with his children. The reality was a lot lonelier. They had a routine. In the morning, he made breakfast for them, then Ellie took Thomas to school. There was bath time and story time and play time, and he longed to go back.
“But you can call them. We can do it over the phone.”
Asher smiled, forgetting about the injuries, splitting open his lip again, but he didn’t mind.
Chapter 15
After a rough night alone in the cottage, Bunny was more than a little prickly. It was too early in the morning for accusations. He crossed his arms and scowled at George. “Don’t you cross-examine me. I’ve barely finished my first cup of coffee.”
“Something’s not right here,” George grumbled as he paced the confines of Bunny’s small living room.
“There are a whole lot of things not right in the world. You wanna narrow that down?” Bunny shot back.
“Don’t you think this is pushing the coincidences a little too far?”
Bunny stomped past him to the kitchen to refill his coffee. George wandered after him. “If you want to line up the coincidences then add me,” Bunny snapped. “I was here when the body was found. I was here when the meth lab blew up. My Oscar was driving that car. Think somebody’s out to get me?”
“Well, when you put it that way.” George held out his cup for Bunny to top off.
“Listen, Asher’s doing fine.” Bunny patted George’s shoulder before returning to the living room. He’d taken over the big oak table that sat in a bay window looking out over the back lawn. The table was covered with bolts of cloth, baskets of notions and stacks of drawings.
George stayed in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the jamb. “You sure?”
“He’s amazingly honest. I have to admit that when you asked me to keep an eye on him, I was absolutely dreading it, but he’s a hoot. We’ve been getting along like a house afire. Oops. Shouldn’t have said that.” Bunny sat down at the table and started cutting swatches off each bolt.
“He’s a magnet for bad luck,” George said as he wandered over to inspect the work table.
“I think Ellie might refute that.”
“Yes, well, she is the exception to the rule. I wish she could stay longer. He’s a lot better when she’s around.” George pulled a sketch loose from a pile, but Bunny snatched it back from him.
“You don’t trust him on his own?” Bunny asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He tries.” George shrugged. “It’s just that I remember who he was.” He circled the table, coffee mug in hand. “As, I am sure, you do, too.
“I think I can honestly say that he isn’t that man anymore. He’s been through a lot already, George. From the ludicrous to lethal, and he’s still sober.”
“He went through worse last year.”
“I heard the gossip, but I doubt he ever set a house on fire or killed anyone.”
George choked on his last sip of coffee. “He was actually accused of all of that and more. But yeah, you’re right, he stayed sober.” He examined his empty mug. “I’ve got to meet with the carpenters, paint and the mayor, I think. Some new permit we forgot. My PAs are coming in tonight. If this damn rain doesn’t stop soon, we’re gonna be up shit creek. Thank God, we’re not filming this week. When’s Oscar due back?”
“I’m picking him up this afternoon. He’s bruised, but I think he got away with less damage than Asher.”
“That happens to drivers. I know of a couple people who walked away when their passengers were killed.” George stared out the window with sad eyes. “Awful when that happens. Especially when they’re so young.”
A heavy silence settled over them. Bunny couldn’t help but think of Ian. How he’d wasted his career and his life over the quest to get the perfect high. It made him wonder what made a man finally stop destructive behavior like that. Maybe he’d ask Asher what his turning point had been. Bunny lined up his swatches before sorting his drawings. He handed one to George. “I think this cape will be stunning on him.”
“Yes. I like this, but can he fight in it?”
“He doesn’t wear this for any of the fight scenes. This is for the skulking around the castle in disguise scene.” Bunny pulled over two bolts of fabric. “Black or this midnight blue?”
“Black,” George said as he handed the drawing back. “Has Imre arrived yet?”
Bunny put the drawing back in the pile. “His flight was canceled again because of that storm. He changed it and flew into Atlanta. The weather report said these storms are sticking around for awhile.”
“What’s he going to do in Atlanta?”
“He’ll drive from there. I need to know what weapons Asher has to carry. What’s he got? Long sword, broadsword, belt knife, poignard?”
“Long sword for the battle scenes.”
“He’s got two?” Bunny demanded. “He’ll need different scabbards then.”
“I found this gorgeous saber. He’ll wear that for the court scenes.”
“Why am I just hearing this now?” Bunny shuffled the bolts of cloth slamming a stack to one side.
George shrugged. “Don’t think he’ll need a scabbard for the battle scenes.” He wandered back into the kitchen.
Bunny pulled out all the drawings for Asher and put them to one side. There were two pages of scabbards he’d researched while waiting to hear confirmation on the exact type of weapons. He heard George’s cup clatter into the sink. All this rain was causing problems. Aside from the rockslide, several people had flights canceled which reminded him of Imre. The refrigerator door opened and shut. George’s phone rang.
Thinking about Imre driving up from Atlanta made him think of Asher’s pond incident which made him think of the subsequent discovery of the bloody foot. “What about the driver?” he asked, when George came back into the room.
George blinked at him. “Which one?”
&nbs
p; “The dead one.”
“I don’t . . .”
“Asher’s driver. Here. Pond. Remember?”
“Oh. Right. I spoke to the sheriff. They still don’t have a body, only the, um, foot.” George grimaced, then rubbed his mouth as if the words had a bad taste. “They’re running DNA, but he said that could take a week or so. Just because the driver’s missing doesn’t mean he’s dead. He could be hitchhiking to LA for all we know. There’s no way to say the foot is his until the tests come back.”
“Mm.” Bunny pinned a swatch to a drawing then put it on a different pile. “That’s a coincidence that I am going to bet isn’t one. Have they checked around that meth lab? Those people are all kinds of crazy. If Brent went up their driveway, it wouldn’t surprise me if they killed him.”
“You knew him?”
“No. Sheriff told me his name.” Bunny upended a box of elaborate, gold frog closures across a bolt of burgundy velvet. “And before you get started, it wasn’t Asher’s fault that they ended up in the pond. From what I heard, Brent was on the phone and going too fast to make the curve. Ran right off the road. He’s lucky it was a pond and not a cliff.”
George groaned in annoyance. “Yeah, I already got the lowdown from the insurance people. If Brent hadn’t disappeared I would have made sure he was fired.”
“Who hired him?”
“He was a temp,” George grumbled. “I bet he probably quit. You know how hard it is to get people with a brain in their heads.”
“And he’s a prime example?”
“Of what I have to put up with,” George snapped back.
“If he was from around here, then maybe he had a particular reason for going up a certain driveway.”
George snorted. “You don’t know that he did.”
“I’m just saying.” Bunny’s tablet chimed from somewhere on the table. He lifted a stack of papers to unearth it.
“And I’m saying kids in general right now are a bunch of morons.” George picked up a frog. “These are fancy.” He picked up a second one. “What’re they for?”
“Closures, for the cape.” He patted the velvet.
“Kinda flashy.”
“It’s for the witch.”
“Witch?” George gave him a puzzled look.
“What is she? Sorceress?” Bunny shifted more fabric in the hunt for his tablet.
“Oh right. Yeah, that’ll work.”
“Anyway, Asher has found a pair of kids that seem to be quite handy.”
George rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t trust Asher’s judgment. He’s hired a few doozies in his time.”
“Mm.” Bunny retrieved the tablet and scanned through his email. “Oh this is ridiculous. I told her I needed the lavender voile by this week!” He glanced up at George who tipped his head in question. He waved him away. “Off you go. I’ve work to do.”
Chapter 16
Bunny had just sorted out the crisis of the missing voile, when there was a knock at the door. Ellie poked her head in. “Got a minute?”
Bunny beckoned her in. “Only if you will make another pot of coffee. George drank all of mine.”
“I can do that.” Ellie went into the kitchen.
“Where’s your battered husband?” Bunny called after her.
“Still asleep.” When Ellie finished in the kitchen, she circled Bunny’s work table looking at sketches and fingering fabric.
“Is he okay?” Bunny asked.
Ellie shrugged. “I hope so. This is so important to him. To both of us, really. And every time he tries to do something good, all hell breaks loose.”
“I hope you’re not asking me to put a leash on him because I don’t have time for that.”
“No.” Ellie shook her head. “I wanted to ask you about everything that’s happened.”
“You don’t like Asher’s version?”
“I’d like a second opinion.”
“Well I can’t tell you anything about the pond incident. Although that story shot through the grapevine like wildfire. Mrs. Wheatly was out here in a flash telling me all about how Asher tracked mud through the main house and got her carpets all wet. Soaked through and covered in pond scum.” Bunny smirked. “That must have been a sight.”
“And everybody thinks the driver is dead?”
Bunny sighed, shifting his stacks of drawings. “He’s missing and a body was found and lost.” He twitched a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Nothing but the damn foot left. Revolting.”
“Could someone be after Ash?”
“Oh please, not you, too? I just had this discussion with George.”
“It happened before, Bunny. People died, and it all pointed to Ash.”
“Nothing’s pointing to him now. Unless he’s a secret engineer and figured out how to make that rockslide happen.” Bunny looked at her across the table. It was obvious that she was more worried than she’d let on.
Ellie’s mouth drew up in a reluctant smile. “Ash can do a lot of things, but engineering isn’t one of them.”
“Mrs. Wheatly said that a lot of the locals have been expecting that section of road to go for years now. So it wasn’t a surprise to them. The meth lab that blew up, well isn’t that what happens to all of them eventually? Did Asher ever mess with meth?”
“No,” Ellie said fervently. “Pills were his usual.”
“There you go. The missing driver and the body in the woods aren’t really connected to him any more than the rest of us.”
“So you think I’m jumping at shadows.”
“I think you’re worried about your husband who has been in some very peculiar accidents.”
“He is rather a bad-luck magnet.”
“Well,” Bunny said, hoping that was an end to the discussion.
“You’ll let me know if something else happens?”
“Sweetheart, everything that was going to happen has surely happened already because I don’t think I can stand much more.”
Chapter 17
Asher was relieved that Bunny agreed to drive Ellie to the airport, so that he could go along. Her flight happened to coincide with Oscar’s release from the hospital. Bunny said something about killing two birds with one stone, but Asher didn’t care for that metaphor. He’d like to keep any kind of killing out of his life right now. Although he got a little extra time on the trip to the airport, Asher was sad about Ellie leaving. Sometimes he had so much emotion welling up in his heart that he didn’t know what to do with it.
The previous night went by too quickly. They had a quiet dinner at the cottage, then a lovely soak in the hot tub. The heat had released a few more kinks, so he had fallen asleep too fast. He had wanted to lie in bed with his wife for awhile. Once she saw the bruises across his chest, she had offered to sleep on the couch. He pointed out that the cottage didn’t have a couch. They called the kids, and he read some Dr. Seuss to them. By the time they hung up, he was exhausted, out like a light when his head hit the pillow. Now they were on the way to the airport in Asheville. Time kept slipping away from him.
“You’re going to be okay,” she said as though reading his mind. She smiled at him from the front seat.
He tugged on the seat belt nervously. Bunny was driving very carefully. It wasn’t raining. They were on a six lane highway, but still he was uneasy. “When are you coming back?”
“Nothing has changed. You know what day I’m coming. We planned this all out before.”
Asher grumbled his assent. She was right. He’d memorized that back in LA. “I wish you could stay.”
“Not in the cards right now.”
“Your mom could watch the kids for a couple more days.”
“Mom’s happy to watch the kids whenever,” Ellie said, giving him a stern look. “But that’s not what we planned.”
He sighed as melodramatically as possible which, considering his acting skills, was remarkable.
They arrived at the little airport sooner than he had hoped. Bunny stayed in the car giving them some time a
lone. He walked Ellie to security, exaggerating a limp, so that it would take as long as possible. The Asheville airport was tiny compared to LAX. He wished it was larger, so they would be able to have a longer walk together.
Ellie squeezed his arm. “Love you.”
Tears burned his eyes. It happened almost every time she said it. He was always surprised by how much it meant because she did love him. And he loved her right back. He hadn’t always known how to do that. He was learning about love from her and the children. It wasn’t like the movies he made. It was something so much a part of him that he felt it in his blood. “Love you more,” he said in a rough voice.
“Don’t you cry, you big wuss,” she said with a sweet smile. “Call me tonight. You can read some more Dr. Seuss.”
He pulled her close in a hug that hurt every bruise on his arms and chest. “I will call you from the cottage.” He tapped his temple. “I stored the number where it won’t get lost again.”
“Well done.”
He held his arms tightly at his sides to keep from grabbing on to her.
“Be careful!” she said as she walked away, watching him over her shoulder.
He stood there until she got through security and disappeared down the hall to the gates. He felt instantly lonely. It was only two weeks before she would join him. They would bring the kids out soon after. If he had his phone, he could pull up all his pictures of them. He made a mental note to check in with the electronics repair guy as he limped back out to where Bunny was parked in the drop-off lane. A uniformed security guard was standing at the driver’s window. Even though Asher wasn’t driving, and was still sober, he felt a jab of alarm.
“I’m sure they’ll be hiring any day now. We’re going to need a lot of security,” Bunny said with an encouraging nod to the guard.
Asher got into the front seat, pondering whether he’d feel better in the back.
