by Allen, Dylan
“Do you want to work?” I ask. She smiles blandly and then proceeds to act like she didn’t hear me.
“So, how long are you here?”
I’m very good at staying in my lane, so I let it go.
“I’ll go back when I have the story. I’m thinking no more than a couple of weeks.”
“You must love the freedom of being divorced. If I even mentioned going away indefinitely, my husband and children would band together and hogtie me.” She laughs, but it’s tinny and flat. Her eyes glisten with tears.
“Are you okay, Regan?”
She blinks back her tears and smiles. “I just want my brother home. I need him.”
24
FOUND
KAL
“Miss Rivers. Thank you for speaking with me.” I stand up as Gigi Rivers is wheeled into the sitting room. She looks younger than I imagined and very much like Hayes Rivers.
She lifts an eyebrow at me and doesn’t smile. “Well, you say you’re a friend of Remi’s. And you left your phone with my security guard, so I hope that means I can speak without worrying you’re recording it.”
I can’t imagine living like you think everyone is looking to betray you.
Her nurse helps her out of the chair and settles her on the cushions she’s arranged on the couch.
“Thank you, Enid. You can leave us,” she says with a tired smile to her nurse.
The young woman turns to me and sets her dark green, serious eyes on me with a warning glare. “Please remember that she is recovering. Nothing too difficult and I’ll be back in twenty minutes to check on her.”
What does she think I’m going to do?
“I just want to chat. I’ll make sure to pay attention to signs that she’s getting tired.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m a deaf invalid. Enid, I said you can leave us. And Kalilah, if I’m tired you won’t have to look for signs, I’ll tell you. Now, sit. Let’s get to talking.”
“Of course, Gigi,” Enid says in a cajoling voice. She gives me an almost comical warning frown on her way out.
“I’ve wondered when someone was going to call me. I’ve given up on that woman calling me back, but I’m thrilled someone actually gives a shit enough to come and talk to me.” Her voice drips with disgust.
“I’m confused. I was told that you refused to speak to The Wildes. That Mrs. Wilde had reached out to you and had her efforts rebuffed.”
“That’s a lie. But considering the source, I’m not surprised. I’ve called her every day since I got home.” She pulls her phone out and scrolls through it.
Then, she hands it to me. “Here, look. I’m not tech savvy enough to know how to fake that.” I take the phone from her. Sure enough, her outgoing calls are interspersed with several listed to a T Wilde.
I shake my head, my mind boggled. Why would Tina pretend Gigi had refused to talk to them?
She laughs dryly. I look up and she’s watching me with beautiful hazel eyes that, in contrast to the small smile she’s wearing, are very sad.
“You must not know her.”
“Oh, I know her. But it’s been a long time,” I confess.
“She’s done so much lying over the last few years, she’s forgotten how to tell the truth. Trust me. It takes someone who has done the very same thing to recognize it. She doesn’t know what’s false and what’s true anymore.”
I look at her with a knowing understanding.
“So, Remington’s skipped out on his family, huh? The girl who comes in to do my hair told me she’d heard gossip that he’d gone walkies,” she muses but doesn’t offer anything else. I smile and try to appear patient.
“I understand you’re the last person to see him before he left.”
“Was I? I hadn’t heard that. I have no idea what was going on because no one in that family will talk to me.”
I swallow back a frustrated growl and smile. “Will you tell me what happened with Remington when you saw him?”
“I could. But then, I’d be telling a story that’s not mine to tell. My nephew, Hayes, and Remington—they are the ones who will have to tell you the story.”
My gut twists when I realize that Remi, somehow, is mixed up in whatever is happening with the Rivers family.
“Do you think Hayes will speak with me?” I ask, hopefully.
“Why don’t you just ask Remi?” she asks in a voice now full of skepticism.
“Because no one knows where he is,” I remind her.
She angles away from me, her arms folded tightly across her chest, and narrows her eyes at me. “How did you say you knew him?”
I sit up straighter. Give her what I hope is a convincing smile.
“We were friends when I was in high school. Good friends. We’ve lost touch over the years. But now that I’ve heard that he’s missing, I want to try to find him.”
She gives an assessing glance and then pulls out her phone. “You are a terrible liar.”
“I’m not lying. I am really just trying to find Remi.”
“Enid, I’m ready to go. Please come down.”
“Please.”
“No. Please leave. I don’t know what you really want. But, I can’t help you.”
* * *
“You naughty girl. I can’t believe you have the nerve to show your face in here after the way you disappeared.” Sweet’s loud voice envelops me in an embrace nearly as warm as the one she’s giving me with her arms.
“I’m sorry, Sweet. It wasn’t up to me.”
“That mother of yours,” she says without a hint of acrimony as she lets me go.
We sit down at a corner table and hold hands across it. She scans my face and then sits back.
“You look… different,” she says and even though I know she’s not judging me, I still run a hand over my hair.
“It’s been eight years, Sweet. I’ve had a kid, I was bound to change.”
She frowns, unimpressed.
“No, it’s not that. Like… maybe you wouldn’t call Joni West a cunt if she tried to push you around today.”
Sweet had laughed so hard when I told her that story.
“Back for less than a day and her name crops up. Should I be worried that she’s going to stroll in any minute?”
“Thank goodness, no. She’s that lout of a husband’s problem now.”
“She got married?” I can’t disguise my surprise and she laughs.
“Oh, yeah, except I doubt Remi even noticed. Now, she’s making everyone in Greatwood miserable.”
“Greatwood?”
“Her husband bought the golf course and they live there now. She used to come by whenever she had a new car to show off. But she stopped doing that when she realized no one cared.”
I know she and Remi broke up, I saw it all over the news, but after carrying a torch for him for most of her life, I imagined that she’d never move on. But I guess that was silly considering that even though I loved him, I married someone else, too.
“Now, tell me why you’re in town.” She smiles sweetly.
“I’m working on a story. Can’t really talk about it, but my lead is here in Houston. So I’m chasing it.”
I don’t add that I’m failing so far and the only lead I’m chasing is Remi. After being very unceremoniously asked to leave Gigi’s house, my stomach is in knots. Something is weird is going on. I need to find him.
“So, you know Remi’s not around. I mean, no one’s saying anything, but he’s been gone for months,” she informs me with a conspiratorial glance around the restaurant. It’s like she read my thoughts.
“So people are talking?” I ask.
“Not yet. His people have covered for him good, but I’ve noticed. And you’ve been in town for less than a day and you have, too. It’s only a matter of time before everyone does.”
“Regan told me. I promised her I’d try to find him, but the only person who knows anything just threw me out of her house.”
“I don’t even want to know. Yo
u know how I hate gossip.” And she does. Her husband, Lo lives for it, though.
“But, she might know something.” She nods at a dark-haired woman, holding a steaming mug of coffee and staring blankly out of a window.
I look back at Sweet in surprise.
“Who in the world is that?”
“She was Remi’s personal assistant for years.”
Ah, the one who quit. I eye her. She looks more like a low-maintenance yoga enthusiast than she does the former personal assistant to one of the wealthiest men in the state.
“Are you sure that’s her?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s been spending a lot of time in here. Doing nothing. But she worked for him a long time. She might talk to you.”
* * *
Armed with an address and Rachel’s command that I bring Remi home, I pull just out onto Wildeway Parkway and start making my way north. I’m fiddling with my GPS when my phone rings. My daughter’s face lights up my screen and I press the green circle to accept it.
“My sweets. Hi, baby,” I sing at her.
“Hi, Mom. Where are you?” she asks; my heart flutters as her sweet voice fills my car.
“I’m in Texas. For work. Like I was yesterday,” I remind her.
“Still?”
“Yes, honey. Still. And don’t whine.”
“But, I miss you.” She moans and ugh… it feels so damn good to know someone does.
“You just miss my mac and cheese,” I tease her.
My heart aches, though. I wish I could be with her. She’s young, but she’s great company and in some ways, I’m getting to live my childhood through her. She makes all the shit I’ve had to wade through worth it.
Making sure she gets everything I missed out on is what gets me out of bed every morning. I would suffer everything all over again if it meant I could have her.
“I miss you more. But guess what? I’m buying you a ticket to come and see me in two weeks. You and I are going to spend a whole weekend just hanging out.”
“Really?” she squeals and I’m glad she’s still so easy to please.
“Yes. I promise.”
“I can’t—” Her voice muffles and I hear her speaking to someone.
“Bianca?” I shout, I didn’t even ask where she was when she called. She’s almost eight, and she has playdates now. Paul lets her walk to her friend’s house by herself. I know it’s fine, and I did it at her age. But my neighborhood in Houston wasn’t anything like the huge city blocks of Manhattan where my child is growing up.
“Kalilah.” Paul’s voice comes through clear, full of reproach and loud.
“Hello, Paul.”
“It’s not an authorized phone call day for you. Please stick to the schedule.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not going to decline a call from my daughter because it goes against your ridiculous rules.”
“Those rules are in the best interest of my new family dynamic. On the days she speaks with you, Donna is upset. It causes a heightened level of tension in our home that I would like to minimize. It would be best, actually, if these protracted visits could be kept to a minimum in general.”
My anger surges. At his parent’s urging, he fought me for full custody. I went broke to make sure that my daughter stayed with me. Now, Paul treats being a parent like it’s an inconvenience.
“She’s going to grow up one day, Paul, and she’ll wonder why you didn’t spend more time with her. She’ll be leaving in a week, please do your best to make her feel at home until then.” It’s a warning and not a request.
“Maybe you should be here instead of gallivanting all over the country in the name of a career. You made your choices, now we all have to live with them.” And then he hangs up.
He has never laid a hand on me, but I used to flinch every time he started to talk. Because his words were his weapon. He berated me constantly. Ruined my career and then the minute I rebelled, he divorced me and took up with his secretary. He’s the one who had an affair, but somehow, the breakdown of our marriage was my fault.
I’ve never wanted her to feel like a piece of rope in a tug-of-war. She hated that we split. She loves us both.
“Choose better next time, Kal.” I hear Fallon’s voice in my ear.
Armed with that and an address that Rachel, Remi’s assistant very willingly provided, I enter the onramp and make my way toward College Station to find Remi.
25
BURNING
REMI
The crunch of gravel under tires doesn’t surprise me. Nancy started barking three minutes ago. She always does when someone comes up this way. She spots them a few miles away, and she comes running, barking her head off. She’s calmed down a lot since I found her, but she’s still wary of everyone who comes here.
Mrs. Jameson comes up every Tuesday from the small restaurant that’s attached to the convenience store she and her husband own in town. Nancy barks at her so hard, she refuses to get out of her car.
But today’s not Tuesday. And I haven’t invited anyone to visit.
For a split second, I wonder if Regan finally pulled her head out of her ass and came to find me. Or if my mother has sent some sort of special forces team to make sure I don’t talk. As if I ever would. I wish I didn’t know what I knew. Why in the world would I want to broadcast it?
When the squeak of brakes tells me the car’s in front of my house, I stand up. I head toward the front of the house and pick up my shotgun, it’s resting in a corner nook built into the wall. I pick up my pace when I hear the car door close, and I put the butt on my shoulder and open the door slowly.
I drop the gun, and it lands with a thud at my feet. I stand there with my heart racing like it hasn’t in years. Kal is standing at the end of my walkway and it’s like someone put an electric paddle on my chest and hit the power button.
“Oh my God in Heaven,” Kal screams and throws her hands up in front of her and crouches behind the open door of her car.
I shut the door behind me when I hear the scramble of Nancy’s claws across the floor as the strange voice brings her running to investigate.
Kal’s lips are moving but I can’t hear what she’s saying over the roar of blood in my ears.
Is it possible I’m dreaming, hallucinating? Kal, can’t possibly be here.
I stand, barefoot on the front porch of the house and stare down the long stone gravel path at the very last person I expected to see. And perhaps the only person in the world, who right now, I’m happy to see.
Her skin is still that smooth, creamy caramel that I swear I can taste in the back of my throat just looking at her.
It’s like she’s stopped aging since the last time I saw her, almost eight years ago. Or maybe, I’ve died and I’m in heaven. This is exactly what my heaven would be – somewhere quiet with Kal.
But in my dreams, she looks… different. I cock my head and take her in.
Her hair is very straight, streaked with golden highlights and scraped back off her face. Her face is made up. She’s wearing lipstick. It’s a neutral color, but still not close to the peachy perfection of her own lips. I sweep her from head to toe. She’s dressed like she lives in a J. Crew catalog. I go from being shocked to see her to being worried.
“Will?” I say her name and she peeks out from behind her hands.
Her large, brown eyes land on me and the twin beauties stir a place deep inside of me that has been asleep for a long time.
“Remi… hi.” Her smooth, deep voice is the most soothing thing I’ve heard in in a long time. It makes me think about things I miss—home, most of all. Because, every time I’ve been with Kal, no matter where we’ve been, I’ve always felt at home.
I walk toward her, barely noticing the bite of the gravel under my bare feet and completely ignore Mrs. Jameson’s repeated warnings about snakes.
But, her being here makes no sense. Something must be wrong. “Why are you here?” It sounds harsh and unwelcoming even to my own ears, and she flinches.
“Um. I came for you… to see you. To check on you. I—” She blows out a nervous breath and looks around the property.
“The house is so beautiful. I don’t know why I imagined I’d find you living in some burned-out, abandoned house.”
I sway and take a step closer to her. Her eyes widen a fraction, but then she takes a step toward me, too
“How’d you find me?” We’re only ten feet apart now and my arms are starting to ache.
For her.
She swallows and the flash of her soft pink tongue as it darts over her tender, plump bottom lip draws my eyes back to her lips. I want to wipe that fucking lipstick off with my tongue.
“Uh, I met Rachel. She told me you might be here.”
My eyes follow the bob of her throat, visible even trapped behind the neck of her wool, navy blue turtleneck.
I peruse the rest of her and miss the pop of color that has always been her trademark.
My eyes snap back to hers. “Are you okay?”
She laughs. Fuck, I’ve missed her laugh so much. “You’ve been gone without a word to anyone for months. Are you okay?”
No one’s asked me that question in a while. And it loosens something in me. And I tell her what I haven’t even admitted to myself. “No, I’m not okay.”
Her smiles vanishes, and I’m caught in this weird limbo of wanting to put it back and being glad that someone is looking at me like they give a shit.
At the same time, it’s torture that she’s not mine. That I can’t just walk up to her, kiss her and fuck her until I feel better.
“Why are you here?” I ask again. Because, I don’t understand at all. “Don’t you live in New York City? With your husband and your daughter? Why are you in Texas? At this house, you shouldn’t have been able to find?”
Her smile is a weird, glitchy, indecisive thing.
I don’t smile back.
