Wraith

by Gwenan Haines

  Or a lot worse, depending on which problem I chose not to think about. If Hunter and I went on standing there like that I was in grave danger of kissing him again. On the other hand if we went inside I would have to see Liv and Gavin.

  Coward that I am, I went with the lesser of two evils. “So are you hungry?”

  “I was hungry six hours ago,” Hunter said distractedly. “But I seem to remember somebody didn’t want to eat.”

  I took a step back from him and started down the path that led to the Blue Moon. “Well, I’m hungry now. Care to join me?”

  When Hunter didn’t follow me, I stopped halfway down the walk and turned around. Why was my stomach suddenly full of butterflies? “Aren’t you coming?”

  He stood there on the sidewalk, his gaze fixed on a point just behind me. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Not exactly a resounding yes. More like okay-but-I-don’t-really-want-to. “Are you worried I’ll say something to the Michaels again?”

  “No. I figure you won’t, not if you want to keep drinking gingerbread lattes.”

  “Then—” I broke off without finishing the sentence. The “Is it me?” part had to be pretty obvious and I didn’t feel like completely humiliating myself in the middle of town on a Saturday night.

  Hunter smiled and came down the walk after me. “No, it’s fine. I’m just kind of beat. It’s been a long day.”

  It had been a long day and not exactly in a good way. Yes, I’d learned a few things but did I really want to know them? Then there was the kiss. “If you want to head back home, it’s okay with me. I eat here by myself all the time.”

  Hunter caught up with me. “I’m sure you do,” he said, finally meeting my eyes. “C’mon, I’ll buy you a burger.”

  “I can pay for myself.” I almost winced at my words. I didn’t mean to seem so distant but that’s exactly how I sounded. “I mean, I’ve got real money on me for once.”

  He shrugged and mounted the front steps, pulling the door open for me. “Suit yourself.”

  After spending so much time outside, the warmth was almost too much. My cheeks burned as we waited for a table, though I wasn’t sure if it was the heat, Hunter or Liv’s penetrating stare that was responsible. She waved when she saw me from across the room but she didn’t come over like she usually did. Granted, the place was even busier than it had been the last time Hunter and I were there. But I knew it was more than that. I just wasn’t sure how to fix things.

  The crowd around us was talking and laughing. We were like an island of silence amid an ocean of happiness. I watched as one of the waitresses pointed Liv toward a table of married couples. From their blissful expressions, I guessed they wanted to compliment her on her cooking.

  “Give it time,” Hunter said under his breath, which made me jump.

  “Since when did you become the psychic?” It was a little creepy, the way he read me so well. Was I really that transparent?

  “Trust me,” he said. “It doesn’t take a psychic to figure out what’s going on inside your head. It’s written all over your face.”

  Well, I guess that answered my question. “I was only trying to help.”

  “I know that. She knows that too. She’s not avoiding you because she doesn’t like you. She’s avoiding you because what you said scared her. What parent wants to hear their kid’s in danger?”

  “You’re right,” I conceded. “As usual. But what choice did I have?”

  “You did the right thing,” he reassured me. “Don’t worry about it. She’ll come around eventually. Where else can she get quality gossip?”

  Plenty of places. If anything, I was way out in the margins when it came to knowing what went on in Amarok. Which is one reason Liv’s distance stung. I wasn’t exactly the poster girl for trust. I could count on one hand the people I’d let get close to me and Liv was one of them. It hurt to feel her pulling away.

  “Do you think I should tell her what I saw today?” I asked, not wanting to say out loud what I’d been thinking about since we left the caves. “About Annie being in the cave.”

  “No,” Hunter said firmly. “I don’t. You’ve already warned her once. If you keep making an issue of it you’ll really upset her and that’s not going to help anything.”

  “But I feel like it was important. We have a location.”

  “You don’t know that. You said yourself you never have visions when you’re awake.”

  “So you’re saying I imagined it?”

  “No. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is I don’t think it’s a good idea to start telling Liv about her daughter being taken to some cave in the middle of nowhere when you’re not one hundred percent sure that’s even what you saw.”

  “I am sure. She was there.”

  “You say that now. But you probably haven’t processed the images yet. What you saw might mean something entirely different. Just because you saw a girl with red hair doesn’t make it Annie. And even if it was Annie it doesn’t necessarily follow that she’ll be taken to the same cave. You were pretty emotional at the time.”

  “You think I don’t know how to interpret my own visions?”

  “With all due respect, no, I don’t.”

  I bit my lip to prevent myself from saying anything that would escalate into a real fight. Hunter wasn’t trying to upset me, he was only trying to make me see the situation the way other people would. In his way, he was looking out for me. The only problem was I didn’t want anybody looking out for me. I didn’t need someone watching over me, not even Hunter. I’d been taking care of myself for most of my life and I wasn’t about to start playing the princess-in-the-tower now.

  The hostess pushed her way through the crowd and crooked her pointer finger at us. “Table’s ready,” she said, ignoring the dismayed expressions on the other customers’ faces. “Follow me.”

  Our table was near the fireplace, right next to a window that looked out across the bay. At the center of the checkered tablecloth, a candle burned behind red glass.

  “Well, I guess she can’t be too mad at you,” Hunter said. “I get the impression we may have bumped a few people.”

  I looked around for Liv but she was nowhere in sight. The minute she saw me she’d disappeared into the kitchen and hadn’t come out since. Even if she had arranged for us to get the table, it didn’t seem as if she planned on talking to me. I raised my water glass and tipped it toward him. No matter how much Hunter might exasperate me, I needed him in my life. He was one of the few people I knew I could count on to tell me the truth. “To friendship.”

  Hunter’s face darkened but then the mood passed and he smiled crookedly. He clinked his water glass against mine. “To friendship.”

  I opened my menu, determined to choose something sophisticated and elaborate. Maybe it was time for me to climb out of the box I’d put myself in. At least when it came to culinary choices.

  Hunter took a sip of his water. “Ah,” he said. “2017. A wonderful year.”

  I looked up.

  Sometimes I wonder how things would have turned out if I hadn’t. If I’d kept my nose buried in that menu in search of a dish I couldn’t pronounce. But I didn’t. I looked up and saw Annie hanging onto the banister as she descended the stairs that led to the Michaels’ apartment. She clung to the hand of a girl I guessed was her babysitter as the two of them made their way across the room. Annie wore a pink fleece footie sleeper and her auburn hair hung loose around her face. I think that’s what pushed me over the edge. She looked so damn innocent.

  I pushed my chair back from the table and grabbed the wolf hat out of my jacket pocket.

  “Be right back.”

  They were waiting outside the swinging doors outside the kitchen. Annie was staring at the doors as if she were waiting for her mom to breeze through them, like she always did. The babysitter’s eyes flitted across the restaurant, looking for people she recognized. Then she turned back toward Annie and smiled down at her.

  Liv appe
ared just as I reached Annie and the sitter. Her eyes locked onto mine and even Annie could read the warning there. Stay away from my child.

  Annie turned to see who her mother was giving the evil eye to. She glanced up at me in confusion. Wasn’t I the lady who flew planes in the sky? The pilot her mommy talked to while she colored? Her eye caught on the wolf hat in my hand. “What’s that?” she asked.

  “Liv, I need to talk to you.”

  “It’s not a good time.”

  She leaned down toward Annie and brushed her hair back from her forehead. “Ready for bed, sweetie?”

  But Annie was not to be diverted. “Is that a wolf?” She reached for the battered hat in my hat. “Can I see it?”

  “Um, sorry, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “It’s kind of yucky.”

  Annie rested her gaze on the hat. “What happened to it?”

  “It was in a cave for a really long time.”

  “What cave?”

  Liv rose to her full height and turned her body so she was blocking Annie’s view of me “Kira’s sorry, honey, but she can’t talk to you anymore. She has to get back to her table,” she said. “Don’t you, Kira.”

  It wasn’t a question. And from the way her eyes blazed I knew I’d crossed a line.

  “I just need five minutes of your time.” I lowered my voice so Annie couldn’t hear me. “I’m not going to say anything to your daughter. I just didn’t know how else to catch your attention. You’ve been avoiding me ever since I got here.”

  If Liv had been angry before, she was furious now. “Has it ever occurred to you there might be a good reason for that?” she said, forgetting to lower her voice. “That I might not want to spend a lot of time talking to somebody who is on some kind of mission to convince me my child is in danger.”

  The words were out before Liv could take them back. Behind her, Annie’s eyes were wide. “Is something going to happen to me, Mommy?” she asked. She didn’t sound scared exactly. More like curious.

  Liv knelt down and laid both hands on Annie’s shoulders. “Nothing’s going to happen to you,” she said. “I promise. Kira was just telling me a scary story.”

  “I like scary stories,” Annie said. “But not about me.”

  “Me either.” Liv kissed Annie on the cheek and gave her a hug. The hug went on a little longer than goodnight hugs usually did. When Liv finally released Annie, her daughter looked relieved. “That was a big hug.”

  “Yep. Now you let Ashley take you upstairs to bed, okay?”

  “Okay,” Annie said. “Night, Mommy.”

  “Night.” Liv smiled brightly. “Sleep tight.”

  “Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Annie called back as the sitter took her hand and led her back through the crowd. This time Ashley wasn’t scanning the room for friends. She kept glancing back over her shoulder at the two of us as if she were waiting to see how much worse it was going to get. She reminded me of a driver slowing as she passed a car crash. I watched as the two of them disappeared upstairs, returning Annie to a world of sweet dreams and sanity.

  When Liv spoke again her voice was pure ice. “I’m sure you mean well. I think you really believe you are psychic and that you’re not doing this deliberately to upset me. I don’t know why you came over here holding some child’s old hat and I don’t want to know,” she said in a rush, her voice controlled and distant. “You should get some help, Kira. Your problem will only get worse if you don’t do something about it now. There are medications—”

  We were so far beyond that line now I couldn’t even see it. Around us conversations quieted. Everyone within a ten-foot radius was listening now. From his seat at our table Hunter watched me, his lips drawn into a thin line. Fuck it. What the hell did I have to lose at this point?

  “I do not need meds,” I said, punching each word. “I have a gift and that gift is telling me I should help you. Your daughter is going to disappear if you’re not careful. If it makes you feel better to tell yourself I’m crazy then do it. But if you have the slightest doubt in your mind—if you think any of what I’m telling you might be true, then do something about it.” I held out the hat in front of her. “Do you know what this is?”

  “I already told you I don’t give a damn what that is.”

  I ignored her and went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “This was my brother Miki’s hat. He was wearing it the day he disappeared sixteen years ago. It was in a cave where the men who took him held him. After they took him I never saw Miki again. When I went there today and held this in my hand I saw Annie. In my vision they took Annie. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen if you don’t believe what I’m telling you.”

  There was so much hostility in Liv’s eyes it was hard to meet her gaze. Her open palm rose from her side and for a moment I thought she was going to slap me across the face. The restaurant was quiet now, too quiet.

  “You should get back to your table,” she said finally, her voice flat. “I have work to do.”

  She turned her back on me and pushed through the kitchen doors. On the other side, I could hear her calling out orders to the cooks as she returned to her station. Now that the fireworks were over, everyone returned to their conversations. After a few minutes the noise level was back to its former level. The place was loud and lively, though there was an unspoken tension beneath the surface. By the time Gavin walked over to me and guided me toward the back hallway, nobody seemed to be paying attention anymore. Except for Hunter, who rose from our table just as we exited the dining room.

  “Listen, Kira,” Gavin said, leaning back against the freezer door and crossing his arms. “I’m not going to tell you you’re crazy or that you should be on meds or anything. Liv only believes in what she can see but I’ve come across some pretty crazy stuff in my travels. So don’t think I’m judging you, because I’m not.”

  “Thanks.” He hadn’t said he believed me but at least he wasn’t angry.

  “Here’s the thing,” he went on, glancing sideways toward the kitchen to make sure nobody was heading our way. “Liv is my wife and I love her. I can’t have somebody upsetting her. I know you’re not trying to cause problems and I know you’ve been through more than most of us go through in a lifetime. So I don’t want you to take it the wrong way when I ask you not to come back here. At least not until things between you and Liv settle down. Would you do that for me?”

  “You could just ban me from the restaurant, you know.”

  He smiled but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I know. But I don’t want to do that because I like you. So I’m asking you a favor—I’m asking you to stay away for a few weeks until this blows over. Promise me you won’t mention this stuff to Liv ever again. Not by phone or in an email or on Snapchat. I need to know you’re going to leave my wife alone.”

  “I’m so sorry, Gavin,” I blurted out. “I didn’t mean for everything to turn out this way.”

  “I know. But I still need to you to make that promise.”

  “I promise.”

  “Do I have your word on that?”

  I walked over to him and held out my hand. “You have my word,” I said. “I won’t talk to Liv about any of this ever again. I won’t come in here. I won’t call or text her. Unless she contacts me, I won’t make any attempt to see her at all, even as a friend.”

  Gavin took my hand in his and held it. “Thanks, Kira,” he said quietly. “Liv will get past this. One thing you don’t know is that she was raped by her stepfather as a child. It really screwed with her head—took her a long time to trust anybody after that, even me. Especially me. She wouldn’t even agree to go on a date for a full year and we worked together every day. She’ll never tell you this but she’s terrified of something like what happened to her happening to Annie. That’s actually the biggest reason we moved here. Not that there aren’t rapists and murderers everywhere, but she thought this town would be safe to raise a family in. She can’t let go of that idea because it terrifies her. Just give he
r some time.”

  “I will.” I released his hand. “Thanks for telling me that. I had no idea.”

  “Nobody does. I probably shouldn’t have told you but I wanted you to understand where Liv’s coming from on this. I trust you not to say anything.”

  “I’d never tell anybody that.” I backed toward the doors that led to the dining area. “But I’m really glad you trusted me. Thanks.”

  “And Kira—”

  “Yeah?”

  “I will be watching out for Annie.” His eyes were as serious as I’d ever seen them. “Trust me on that one.”

  Hunter was halfway across the restaurant when I emerged from the back room. He’d put on his jacket and grabbed my parka off the back of my chair.

  “Here.” He walked around behind me and draped the parka over my shoulders. “We can eat someplace else.”

  Easier said than done. The only other decent restaurant was across town and they’d probably be almost as busy as The Blue Moon.

  “I’m not really hungry.” I stuffed the wolf hat into my pocket, wishing I’d never taken it out in the first place.

  “Maybe I bought that line before,” he said. “But I’m not falling for it again. I know just the place. Very private.”

  I shrugged my arms into my parka and followed him out. The funny thing is I wasn’t lying, not this time. Whatever appetite I’d had was gone. Creating a scene with someone you really care about in a roomful of people has that effect on me.

  The night air struck me like a blow. It was sharp and bitter but I didn’t mind. It felt good—freeing in a way. Hunter turned to say something and I debated how to respond. I didn’t want to hurt him but the absolute last thing I wanted was to spend the next two hours making polite conversation in a restaurant where the food wasn’t all that good.