“Nobody worth mentioning,” Finn grumbled.
I ignored him. “It’s almost pretty in a really messed up way. Almost like she doesn’t know how beautiful she is,” I lamented, looking around in wonderment at my surroundings before turning back to Finn. The heat of his gaze firmly fixed on mine. I bit my lip and my heart began to race as his eyes trailed from my eyes to my neck down to my t-shirt and my nipples tingled when they raked over the front of my t-shirt.
“No, I don’t think she does,” Finn said. His lips turned upward into a smile that made my pelvis clench and my skin heat.
A shadow crossed over the boat and Finn’s half smile fell. His gaze shifted over my head. Finn slowed the boat to a crawl as we approached the abandoned water park.
“Wow,” I mouthed as we passed under three huge intertwining slides. “You really can get everywhere by water.”
Back on the land there were tall palm trees artfully arranged around empty pools. Crumbled landscape curbing surrounded downed palm fronds and weeds covered the ground beneath them covering at least a few feet of the trunks themselves. A few small pavilions and some downed lockers came into view. The sign was missing letters but I’m pretty sure S K SH C once read SNACK SHACK.
The place was the water park equivalent of a ghost town. Like when the wind whistled through the tunnel of the slide it was like I could almost hear the echoes of laughter from kids who never got the chance to slip down the twisting slides and the cries of the toddler who dropped their ice cream cone the second his mom handed it to him at the Snack Shack.
“It looks sad. Like it was meant to bring happiness and now it’s just a reminder of what it’s never going to be,” I thought out loud.
Finn remained quiet.
“So, I take it you don’t like Sterling?” I asked in an attempt to get him to use words again.
Finn’s expression remained unreadable. His lips in a straight line. His shoulders squared.
“I mean, was he a friend of yours? Like Miller and Josh were?”
“Fuck no,” he snapped.
My frustration was growing. I’d just shared so much with him and in the course of a few seconds he’d completely shut down on me. Which was why I asked a question I knew I shouldn’t have, and pushed a button I knew I shouldn’t have pushed. “Finn, why aren’t you friends with Josh and Miller anymore?”
“Drop it,” Finn grated through his teeth, speeding up the boat. The motor buzzed loudly, effectively ending any further conversation. When we got to Critter’s, Finn didn’t bother tying off the boat. He hoisted me up onto the shore.
“You told me to trust you, but I can’t trust you if you don’t tell me anything,” I said, trying one last time to get him to open up.
“So then don’t,” he growled; before he pushed off the dock, he added “I’ll leave the door unlocked.” He zipped back under a curtain of moss. The high-pitched zinging of the small engine was all that remained of Finn’s presence.
“Don’t,” I whispered, rubbing the skin on my arms up and down as if a sudden chill had blown through the thick humid air.
When my dad wasn’t drunk, he still wasn’t the happiest person in the world. Liquor for him was that added fuel to an already burning fire. It helped turn his irritation into full blown anger which then caused him to lash out. It was the reason why I’d come to see him as a monster instead of a father.
But with my father, it was like a predictable kind of insanity.
Finn’s anger, on the other hand, didn’t come with the courtesy of a warning in the form of a bottle. He didn’t need alcohol to help flip the switch on his demons. Even though I had a feeling it was Finn’s demons that were somehow flipping the switch on him.
Whatever he had gone through, he was STILL going through it and it was worse than I’d imagined.
I needed to keep my distance. To not allow myself to be fooled by his kiss or convinced that he was a good person to have in my life because I liked how it felt in his arms.
I knew better.
The only thing more dangerous than a predictable monster…
Was an unpredictable one.
Chapter 27
Sawyer
“Where exactly are we going?” I asked Sterling who was leading me in the opposite direction of Josh’s apartment building. He grabbed something from a big black newer looking shiny truck parked on the side of the road and clicked the alarm button, making the headlights flash as the chirp indicated it was all locked up. “And if you have a truck then why are we walking?”
“I told you. I have a surprise for you,” Sterling said mysteriously.
“What is it?”
“You do know how surprises work don’t you?” he teased. “Hasn’t anyone surprised you before?”
“No,” I admitted. “Not very often.”
And not in any sort of good way.
“Well, I’m your first then. Just how I like it,” Sterling said suggestively, wagging his eyebrows at me. “Sorry. I was just teasing,” he reassured me when he noticed how uncomfortable his comment had made me.
I shifted my book from one arm to the other. Sterling quickly changed the subject and plucked the book from my hand. “What are you reading?” he asked, holding the book up so he could read the title in the moonlight. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn? It’s not my favorite, but back in school, we had to read it almost every year for different lit classes. I must have read it a thousand times.” he handed it back to me. “You?”
“This will be my first.”
“So, what’s going on with you and Finn?” Sterling asked. “He seemed a little…protective of you at the junk yard.”
“He was my neighbor before the storm wrecked my camper. He’s the one who pulled me from it,” I explained.
He’s also had his tongue in my mouth and we’ve seen each other naked.
“Really? That’s…interesting,” Sterling said; he began to whistle when we approached the clearing where just beyond the trees my camper laid in a mangled mess and Finn’s house loomed at the edge of the swamp.
I stopped in my tracks. “Why are we here?”
Sterling winked. “You’ll see, come on. It’s part of the surprise.”
I didn’t move.
“Come on, I promise you’ll like it,” Sterling exclaimed, grabbing me by the hand and dragging me through the clearing. I stopped again but this time only because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
My camper was upright. Still twisted, but upright, but it was what was next to the camper that left me speechless.
It was the house from the junkyard, only it wasn’t split down the middle anymore. It was in one piece. Not only that but it was surrounded by a light yellow wooden deck that had been built around it.
“You’ve got a well now too,” Sterling said proudly, pointing to some white piping sticking out from the yard beside the house. “So, you have running water now. A drain-field too so you don’t have to worry about flushing the toilets. It’s all got somewhere to go now.”
“It’s mine?” I asked in a whisper slowly making my way to the steps leading up to the beautiful new deck. It smelled like fresh cut wood and stain.
“It’s all yours,” Sterling verified. “Here, catch,” he tossed me something from his pocket, I assume it was whatever he’d retrieved from his truck on the way here. I caught it. It was a single brass key and on the keychain, was my name.
“Who? How?” I asked, turning back to Sterling who I hadn’t realized had been standing right behind me. I crashed into his chest and he reached out, grabbing my shoulders to steady me.
“Easy there, killer,” he said with a smirk. “I could tell you who did this for you but that would be breaking the very exclusive secrecy agreement with a very private entrepreneur who has a tendency to do these kinds of things for the citizens of this town.”
“Is this the same person who helped out Josh’s parents?” I asked curiously, still not believing that I was holding keys to
my very own house on my very own land.
“The very same one.”
“Do you know who it is?” I asked. “I need to know who to thank.”
Sterling put his hands in his pocket and rocked back on his heels. He made a ‘zipping up his lip and throwing away the key’ motion.
It hit me then. There were only two people who knew how much I loved that house. Sterling and Finn and since Sterling was the one who gave me the keys… “It was you.”
Sterling chuckled and placed his finger over his lips in a sssshhh motion. “I can’t say.” He winked again. “Now go take a look!” I turned and raced up the steps, the sound of Sterling’s footsteps close behind.
“How much is rent?” I asked, remembering that Josh said her family was able to rent it back from the investor who’d bought their home for a low cost.
“This isn’t a loaner. It’s not owned by someone else. It was purchased in your name. You own it. Free and clear.”
“I have a house,” I screeched. “I have a house!”
Sterling was suddenly right next to me lifting me in the air and twirling me around. “Now open the door,” he said in my ear. I shook myself from his grip and put my key in the lock.
“How was all of this done in just a few days?” I wondered.
“You’d be surprised how many underworked skilled construction workers are still living in Outskirts.”
When I turned the key and pushed opened the door, Sterling reached around me and switched on the light. The cabinets had been fixed and were now straight and not peeling. The bare wooden board floors were now a grey colored weathered hardwood. Everything had been cleaned and new looking white appliances had been installed including a washer and dryer in the laundry room.
A small yellow couch, a four-person round dinette set and a mattress and box spring were all in the house as well.
I was home.
“Do you like it?” Sterling asked from the kitchen where he was leaning against the counter with his legs crossed at the ankles.
“I love it. Tell whoever did this thank you. Thank you so, so much.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him,” Sterling said, “but trust me, he’ll just be happy knowing that you’re happy. And grateful.”
“Thanks,” I said, excited about my house but my throat started to run dry at Sterling’s sudden innuendo.
“I’ll leave you to enjoy your new place,” Sterling said, giving my shoulders a squeeze. “Enjoy, Sawyer. See you soon.”
“Sterling?” I asked.
He turned back around.
“Thank you,” I said again.
He smiled and took a deep bow before walking back out the door with a smile on his face.
When Sterling left, my shoulders fell. I’d been so stupid thinking that he was there for any other reason than to make sure I liked my gift. I instantly felt guilty for thinking anything bad about him or his intentions.
I brushed all that away and ran to my new room and leapt onto the mattress. I screamed into it to muffle the sound and pounded it with my excited fists. I sat up and gasped. “I have a house.”
I stood up and skipped around the kitchen. I looked out the kitchen window across the way to the shack. The curtains shifted, but I didn’t want to think about Finn and the confused way he made me feel. I wanted to enjoy the moment so I pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on the excitement bubbling up inside of me and enjoyed the moment.
I ran back to the bed and plopped down onto my back. Giggling to myself and feeling a kind of joy I’d never felt before. A kind of joy I never knew existed.
I was home.
Chapter 28
Sawyer
I was in a dead sleep when a knock came at the door. I hadn’t seen my brooding neighbor since he’d dropped me off after our swamp trip over a week ago, yet for some reason, I expected to find him on the other side of the door.
Only it wasn’t him.
It was Sterling.
He was standing on the deck, chugging a bottle of water.
Something was off.
His eyes weren’t focused. His usually neatly combed hair was mussed, and his shirt was untucked.
“Sterling, are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m great,” he slurred, pushing past me. Some of his water splashed on me in the process and I quickly realized it wasn’t water at all.
It was vodka.
And he wasn’t okay.
He was drunk.
Alarm bells started going off in my head. I glanced across the field to Finn’s house. I stayed by the door, leaving it open.
“You should go,” I said, feeling uncomfortable. My throat tightened. “You’re drunk. I was sleeping.”
“But I haven’t gotten the full tour,” Sterling slurred, leaning toward me. “Aren’t you going to thank me for the house?”
“Thank you for the house,” I said. “Now please go.”
“That’s not quite the thanks I’m looking for,” Sterling said with no emotion in his voice.
He crossed the room and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me from the door and slamming it shut.
My head spun. My heart raced. Memories of my father looking at me the way Sterling was invaded my mind.
He cornered me and I pushed against him, turning my head to the side when he leaned in toward me. He smelled like body odor masked with cheap cologne.
“Leave,” I said, again. “Leave now!”
Sterling only laughed. He pressed his thin cold lips against my cheek.
Bile rose in my throat.
His hand roamed over my t-shirt and he squeezed my breast painfully hard as I struggled to free myself from the prison of his body.
I screamed as loud as I could and kicked my leg upward with all the force I could muster. I connected with his groin and he groaned, the full force of his weight landing on top of my chest. He fell to the floor, dragging me along with him and landing directly on top of me. I was sure I was going to pass out from not being able to take anything more than a shallow breath.
“You’re going to pay for that,” Sterling groaned, covering my mouth with one hand and cocking back his fist. Sterling’s face morphed into something else.
Someone else.
Someone I couldn’t escape from no matter how hard I tried. Not in my dreams and not in my nightmares.
Only this wasn’t either.
This was real.
“What did I tell you, Father?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
“What? What are you talking about you stupid girl?”
“I told you never again. You’ll be sorry,” I said. And then I began laughing. High and loud.
“Why the hell are you laughing. I’ll give you something to laugh about!”
The door crashed open, slamming against the wall.
His eyes widened as he turned to see Finn’s massive body standing in the doorway.
“That’s why,” I whispered as Finn launched himself at my father who’d morphed back into Sterling the second Finn laid hands on him.
“Get your hands off of me,” Sterling growled as Finn tossed him out the door and off the deck, landing on his side. He rolled over, grabbing his arm. “You’re fucking her aren’t you?” Sterling asked with a manic laugh. “It fucking figures.”
Finn’s eyes were as dark as I’d ever seen them. His fingers flexed and his chest heaved as he glared hatred down at Sterling who was on the ground, wiping blood from the corner of his lip.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding,” Sterling said with laughter that had an edge to it.
“Is HE why you won’t fuck me?” Sterling asked me. Finn’s eyes followed to where I was standing in the doorway then back to Sterling who was attempting to stand.
“Glad I found out now before things went too far,” he snarled, stepping up to Finn. “The last thing I want is the famed Finn Hollis’s sloppy seconds…again.”
Finn’s fists clenched together. I stepped up to Finn, placing my hand on hi
s. He turned to me and looked down to where my hand was on his arm. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.”
Finn gave me a sharp nod, hopped down from the deck and grabbed Sterling by the shirt with one hand and began to pummel him with his closed fist. He roared like an animal, a sound I could feel deep within my gut. Blood sprayed from Sterling’s nose.
Bone cracked.
Finn lifted him up by his shirt into the air then shoved him back into the ground.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Finn seethed.
“She’s all yours,” Sterling said, stumbling and coughing, blood gushing from his nose and lip. “Little slut has too many of those goddamned ugly freckles anyway.”
Finn took a single step to Sterling and punched him across the jaw. Sterling fell onto his back on the ground with a groan and a gurgle.
“If you ever try and lay a hand on her again… If you ever talk to her again… You won’t come out breathing next time. I’ll tether you to a tree in the swamp where no one will be able to hear you scream.”
“You going to kill me the same way you killed Jackie?” Sterling rasped. “Did he tell you about her Sawyer? Did he tell you how he killed his fiancée?” Sterling snarled as he taunted Finn who looked like his eyes were bulging out of his head. His neck was corded. Sterling chuckled “At least I got a taste first.”
Finn sent one last punch to Sterling’s face and his entire body stilled. No more gurgling. No more groaning.
Finn stood, grabbed his phone from his back pocket and held it to his ear. I didn’t understand the words he was saying to the person on the other end. I only heard something that sounded like waves in the ocean loud in my ears. A wet kind of static.
I didn’t realize I’d been crouching down behind the side of the house until Finn approached, putting his phone away.
“Did…did you kill him?” I asked, my voice shaking. I stood and took a few steps back from Finn whose expression switched from murderous to confused.
Finn reached out his hand to me and I zoned in on the blood across his knuckles. When he realized what I was looking at he pulled it back but it was too late.
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