“What happened, sweetheart?” Gracie asked, smoothing Analise’s hair back. “Did you have a nightmare?”
Her daughter’s face was deathly pale. “I woke up and there was a man standing over me,” she gasped, tears on her face, eyes wild with fear.
Gracie shot an accusing glance at the men hovering in the door.
“No,” Analise said. “Not one of them. He was big. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me out of bed.”
“He what?”
Analise leaned back showed Gracie her arm. Gracie looked for signs of a handprint or redness, but the skin was cool, smooth, and unmarred in any way.
Reilly crouched down in front of her daughter—their daughter. “Did you see where he went? Can you describe him?”
Analise’s tears came faster. “No. He was just over me when I opened my eyes—this shadow. I couldn’t see his face. He was just leaning over me. He grabbed me and when I screamed, he was gone.”
“Gone where, Analise?” Gracie asked.
“Gone. Just ... gone.”
Gracie met Reilly’s eyes, both of them thinking about their own inexplicable visitors. Gently, Gracie patted Analise’s arm.
“He was here,” Chloe announced, chin up and eyes darting around the room. She heard fear in the old woman’s voice.
“Who was here?” Analise cried.
Before Chloe could answer, Gracie stood and blocked the woman’s view of her daughter. “You saw someone in her room?” Gracie demanded.
Chloe shook her head. “I can feel his spirit. Can’t you?”
“Whose spirit?” Analise whispered.
Fury welled up inside Gracie and she stared down Chloe. “Get out.” Chloe looked startled, but Gracie didn’t care. “I won’t have you scaring my young, impressionable daughter this way.”
“But—”
Gracie held up a hand and Bill reached for Chloe’s arm, pulling her away from the door.
“I’m only trying to help,” Chloe insisted.
“Get. Out.”
Analise’s frightened gaze moved between them. “Does she think there’s a ghost in my room? Is that what she means?”
“Don’t listen to her, Analise,” Gracie said as Chloe retreated.
“You think it was just a bad dream?”
Gracie didn’t know and couldn’t lie, so she asked, “Do you think it was?”
“Maybe. I was sleeping pretty hard and the dogs didn’t bark until I woke up and scared them. They’d have gone nuts if there’d been someone in here.”
All three dogs had their ears pinned as they watched their humans with anxious eyes.
“Chickens,” Gracie said.
Analise smiled.
Forcing a calm she was nowhere close to feeling, Gracie said, “I was just on my way to wake you up, anyway, Analise. I thought we could head over the doctor’s and check on Brendan. Maybe get some coffee on the way. Why don’t you get dressed?”
“You think he’ll be okay now?” she asked and Gracie heard a guarded note in her voice that was out of place.
“Eddie said his injuries weren’t serious. I would think so. We’ll call and make sure before we head over, though.”
Analise nodded, lowering her eyes before Gracie could read what was in them.
“Don’t give what the Chloe woman said another thought. When we get back, I’ll ask the others to leave the Diablo.”
Analise gave Reilly a sideways glance. He had his back to the wall, arms crossed like a badass. He was sexy as hell, damn him. Gracie tensed when her daughter’s contemplative eyes shifted back to her mother and quickly she stood, pressed a kiss to Analise’s forehead and said, “Get dressed.”
She left on shaky legs and returned to Grandma Beck’s room. Uninvited, Reilly followed.
“You’re going to Dr. Graebel’s this morning?” he asked.
“Unless you know another way for me to retrieve Brendan.” The look on his face suggested she leave Brendan there. “Tempting,” she answered, drawing in a deep breath.
“You okay?” he asked. “I thought I heard a bang in here before Analise screamed.”
“I tripped,” she said, flushing. “I guess being here has us all on edge.”
Her arms were crossed beneath her breasts and the frigid temperature after the heat of Analise’s room brought goose bumps to her skin. Reilly stepped closer and curled his big, warm hands around her chilled arms.
“You’re shaking.”
Gracie nodded, trying to look anywhere but at his bare chest and the light scattering of hair across it. His skin was the color of honey and the heat from his body tempted her to move closer, to let him fold her against all that strength.
She cleared her throat and looked down, but her gaze caught on the glimpse of white boxers with a pattern of tiny penguins peeping out at the waist of his unbuttoned jeans. Who’d have pictured such boxers on a man like Reilly Alexander? She nearly smiled at the sight and finally, finally, her heart began to slow.
“I’m fine,” she forced herself to say. “You don’t need to stay.”
The corners of his mouth tightened and he dropped his hands to his sides. Without a word, he walked away.
Just as she’d asked.
Yet after he closed the door behind him, Gracie had the irrational urge to call him back. The Diablo didn’t just have her on edge ... it had her on the very edge.
CHAPTER 10
With no small amount of relief, Gracie loaded the dogs and Analise into her car a half hour later and left for Dr. Graebel’s. The doctor’s house doubled as Diablo Springs’ only medical facility. It wasn’t that far from the Diablo—nothing in the tiny town was that far—but with the rain coming down in sheets and the wind buffeting her car, it took forever to navigate the few miles they had to go. The three wet dogs in the back and her daughter’s tension didn’t help, either. With each mile, Analise withdrew a little bit more, and Gracie didn’t know why.
“Hey,” she said. “You want to talk?”
Analise shrugged.
“Did you and Brendan have a fight?”
Gracie pulled her gaze from the wet road long enough to look at her daughter. Analise opened her mouth but shut it again and shook her head.
“You can talk to me, Ana.”
She shook her head again. “Not about this.”
“I don’t know what this is, but yes—”
“You don’t like Brendan.”
Gracie didn’t dispute it, but she did try to qualify it. “It’s not that I don’t like him. He’s just older—”
“Two years. That’s it. And don’t say anything about dog years, either.”
“You’re both too young to be so serious.”
Analise shot her a resentful look. “Who’s the guy at Grandma’s?”
The question came from nowhere, though Gracie should have been preparing for it since she saw Reilly standing in the Diablo. Analise was too smart not to notice the sparks flying between her mother and Reilly.
“Someone I used to know,” she hedged.
“He’s my dad, isn’t he?”
She swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“You said you didn’t who he was. You lied.”
“Yes again.” Gracie let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I had my reasons and I thought they were good ones.”
“I deserved to know.”
Shame stained Gracie’s cheeks. She’d never been reprimanded by her daughter before, especially not justifiably.
“Teenage pregnancy is messy business, kiddo. I love you more than any words can say and if I had the chance to do it over, I would always pick having you. Do you hear me?”
Her voice had thickened and dipped low with the urgency of her feelings. It filled the space between them.
Analise stared at her folded hands, but she nodded.
“Reilly left me when I thought he was going to be there forever. Be there for me.”
“He left you when you told him you were pregnant?”
She
shook her head quickly. “He didn’t know about you until last night.”
“Mom,” Analise said, shocked.
“I never had the chance to tell him, Analise. He disappeared, and I had no idea where he’d gone or how to find him. By the time he surfaced again, you were five and I was just starting to get on my feet. I hated him, and I didn’t think you had the right to know you.”
“You didn’t act like you hated him last night.”
Gracie could feel her face flaming. “He’s a little hard to ignore.”
“You think?”
They shared a quick smile. Even her daughter recognized what a devastating force Reilly Alexander was.
“Did he recognize me?” she asked softly.
Gracie nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He’s not happy that I didn’t tell him.”
“What did he say about me?”
Gracie smiled. “He said you’re beautiful.”
“Do you think he wants to get to know me?”
“I think he’d be stupid not to.”
“But?”
“Reilly’s not the kind of man who sticks around, sweetheart. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
She shrugged. “I’m already hurt.”
The truth of that cut Gracie to the quick. “I’m sorry. I should have made better choices about you and him.”
Analise seemed to consider that in silence. Gracie tried to find a way to soften what she had to say next, but finally, she just came out with it.
“Don’t expect too much from him, okay?”
They exchanged another quick glance, and Gracie saw a glimmer of the woman Analise would become in her daughter’s hazel eyes.
“You be careful, too, Mom.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m on to him.”
Analise snorted. “Maybe you better stay off him.”
Gracie tried for outrage, but in the end she could only grin. “He does have a way about him.”
“Yah. Good genes.”
And the two of them laughed for the first time in weeks. For a few moments at least, Gracie thought things might work out okay after all.
***
The roads grew more treacherous by the second. They risked their lives for coffee and took the small detour to the run-down Circle K, only to find it closed. Frustrated, Gracie dashed empty-handed back to the car. It smelled like wet dogs inside, but she hadn’t even considered leaving them behind with the circus that had taken up residence in the Diablo.
By the time they pulled up to the clinic, Gracie was white-knuckled and stiff from head to toe. Beside her, Analise had grown quiet again.
“I don’t think this storm is ever going to stop,” Analise muttered, staring out at the churning sky and falling rain.
“It doesn’t look like it, does it? I can’t remember it ever raining for so long here. I hope it lets up long enough for us to bury Grandma Beck.”
Saying the words brought a wash of uncomfortable and unresolved emotions. As if the death of her grandmother wasn’t as important as getting her into the ground. But that’s how she felt. Now that she had Analise safely with her, she just wanted to collect Brendan, put her grandmother to rest, and get the hell away from Diablo Springs.
And everyone in it, she added silently. Especially Reilly Alexander.
She pushed the button to crack the back windows before getting out of the car, knowing the seats would be wet and the dogs even smellier when they got back. The entire trip could be summed up in the same way: one unpleasant thing to counteract a dozen worse.
Dr. Graebel opened his door immediately, looking tired and old. Gracie stared at his familiar face, swamped with an unexpected wave of nostalgia. Dr. Graebel had treated her childhood ailments until she’d left town, and she had the ridiculous urge to throw her arms around him and cry. He gave her a kind smile, a bear hug, and told her how sorry he was to hear about her grandmother. Gracie deserved an award for holding back her tears.
After he released her, he fawned over Analise for a while, embarrassing a smile out of her. Finally, he got down to business.
“Brendan is much better today,” he said as he led the way back to the patient room. “You can take him home with you now.”
Analise said nothing, surprising Gracie again. She’d said they hadn’t fought, but something was definitely amiss here. When she got her daughter alone again, she would work harder at getting it out of her.
Brendan was a gangly young man, tall and rangy with corded muscles and sunbaked skin. He had blond hair and ice-blue eyes. He was a product of harsh raising and hard outdoor work. Not the kind of boy Gracie had ever wanted for her overachiever daughter. She’d tried to keep thoughts about him to herself as much as she could. Obviously, she hadn’t done such a great job at it. She remembered how it had felt when Grandma Beck looked down her nose at Reilly, called him white trash ...forbade Gracie to see him.
She’d driven Gracie and Reilly to plan their escape together. Even though they’d never actually carried it through, they’d come close. She didn’t want to push Analise into the same desperate situation.
When they entered the room, Brendan was dressed and sitting in the stiff plastic chair next to the bed, deep in concentration. A white bandage circled the top of his head, and it looked very bright against his deep tan. Bruising seeped out from beneath it, discoloring the skin around his temple and right eye. One arm was in a sling but without a cast.
He looked up, frowning when he saw Gracie, but his expression brightened when Analise stepped in behind her.
“I’ve been so worried about you,” he said, reaching out for Analise’s hand.
Analise hesitated before she let him pull her forward. It didn’t make sense. Yesterday, Analise had been giddy as she left the house for her clandestine getaway with Brendan. Gracie had noted it but hadn’t thought much of it. Her daughter was sixteen, and a lot of things made her giddy, like sleepovers with her bestie. She’d never even considered that Analise might be lying about where she was going.
Brendan tugged Analise’s fingers until she stood close and then kissed her on the back of the hand. The gesture seemed old-fashioned, out of character for the boy. The bruises and bandages gave his face an unfamiliar contour. He almost looked like a different kid—man. He was at that age the bordered that both, and it was hard for Gracie to tell.
“Why did you leave me here last night, babe?” he asked.
“They wouldn’t let me stay,” Analise murmured. “My mom was waiting at my grandma’s. She died last night, Brendan. Did you see her out at the ... that horrible place?”
Brendan looked stunned. “She died?”
“She was out there, and she fell in that pit.”
“They should have filled the springs a long time ago,” Dr. Graebel said, signing something on the clipboard he held. “Should’ve brought in workers from Phoenix if our own boys were too scared of a damned hole in the ground.”
Gracie remembered hearing that once they had actually imported workers from another town to do the job suspicious Diablo Springs men wouldn’t do. Things had gone wrong on the site, though, confirming the rumors that the place was haunted and cursed. Accidents. Faulty equipment. Two men had been killed and others wounded on the first day. After that, they’d all packed up and gone home. The town had erected a fence around the springs, posted warning signs, and called it good enough. Time had worn the fence down, though. She’d seen from the windows of the Diablo how it sagged all around and lay flat in some places. It certainly hadn’t kept the kids out.
“I don’t even know what happened to us,” Analise went on. “We almost crashed right into that hole, too. We got turned around, and we drove right over the edge, Brendan.”
Brendan shot Gracie an accusing glance, as if somehow she was to blame for it all. Gracie met it with an irritated, incredulous look of her own. Brendan had brought her daughter here, knowing she’d lied to Gracie about her whereabouts. Injured or not, he w
as on Gracie’s shit list.
His lips curled at the corners. A grin? A sneer? A wince of pain? Gracie couldn’t tell, but it bothered her, Made her tense each time he pulled Analise closer. Was she projecting, or did it seem like Analise didn’t want to be that close?
Too many things didn’t make sense. For the most part, Brendan went out of his way to be polite to Gracie. His behavior now ... It wasn’t normal.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, turning back to Analise. He stared deeply into her eyes with touching concern. Even that bothered Gracie.
“I’m fine, I guess. It was scary.”
“It was exciting,” he teased. “Got our blood pumping.”
“It did more than that. I thought we were going to die, Brendan. That hole ... It’s not right. It felt like something was in it.”
“You’re just freaked out, babe. It’s pretty out there. Wait until you see it in the daytime.”
“I don’t ever want to see it again.”
Brendan made a hushing sound. “I’d say you need to. You don’t want to be afraid of something like that, do you? Trust me, babe. We’ll go see it when the sun’s out.”
“I don’t think so,” Gracie said, putting a stop to it right there. “By the time the sun comes out, we’ll be gone.”
Analise shot her a grateful glance, but Brendan seemed distressed. “I made a mess of things, didn’t I?” he said, looking at Analise. “I wanted to surprise you for your birthday, and instead, I just fu— screwed everything up.”
“It’s not your fault,” Analise said grudgingly. “It was a cool idea.”
“You think so?”
Analise lifted one shoulder and Brendan stared at her with pleading eyes, and for a moment, Gracie was almost moved. They were young, but maybe he really did love her daughter. Maybe Gracie had let her own past influence her opinion of this kid. Yes, he was too old, already out of school, not smart enough for Ana by far. Not worthy of Gracie’s amazing daughter. She’d resented him, wished that Analise would kick him out of her life.
Brendan knew all that without Gracie ever having to say it, but he’d treated her daughter with respect, brought her home by curfew, and never gave Gracie an excuse to forbid Analise from seeing him.
Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 174
