by Wyatt, Dani
Outside, she dropped into the driver’s seat with a loud exhale. It was almost midnight and no one was trying to track her down. What freedom.
“You, shut up.” She turned the key as she spoke to the bottle still sitting buckled in the passenger seat next to her.
She took two left turns back toward Lakeshore Drive and the mansion, then as she came to the traffic light where a right turn took her to the Dunleavy estate, she took a left. Heading around the lake to the more cottagey side, her eyes on the three dots of yellow lights where she knew no one would be.
Chapter Twenty-four
The wipers churned at the rain, slapping at high speed and still, Lilly squinted and gripped the steering wheel, trying to follow the yellow line down the center of the street. She pulled over to crawl forward until she saw the street sign, MacGuire Street.
Rain, lightning and thunder clapped and rumbled until she had to slow to a bare creep on the quickly flooding street.
Mac told her he’d purchased these forty acres back when he was in his thirties, and there were only a few old cabins from a former camp on the land then. Over the years, he built the cottage for him and his wife, smallish but nice, and kept two acres of waterfront around it. He’d subdivided the land eventually and made his first million.
In the last decade, the cottage became dwarfed by the beast-sized monstrosities of the new uber-rich that populated that side of the lake.
Lilly let out a yelp as a car-shaking clash of thunder rattled the sky. Two bright stripes of lightning came down and looked like they lit up the entire expanse of the lake before disappearing, leaving her struggling to see in the engulfing darkness that followed.
She gave the accelerator a touch, then felt herself breathe when she saw the three yellow lights Mac described, still lit on the side of the cabin, coming into focus.
“Beautiful night to sit on the deck,” Lilly told her silent passenger as she crept the little car into the dirt driveway and looked to see a carport attached around the side of the cabin. She made her way around and snuggled the Nissan under the roof and out of the torrents of rain.
The wipers were still slapped madly, spraying leftover trails of rain as she turned off the car.
“Well, so? You want a date or what?” She unbuckled the bottle and reached for her messenger bag in the backseat.
Inside the inner pocket, she felt around for the brass key Mac had given her.
Her fingers came up empty.
“Where the hell —”
She stared up at nothing, trying to remember if she’d moved it.
Nope, it’s gotta be in here.
After a hand search, she dumped out the contents of her bag on the seat with the bottle and finally threw the empty canvas satchel onto the floor.
“Really? I didn’t think to check for the key before I drove here? Big brain I have, right?” She looked down at the silent bottle.
“Well, maybe we well just sit in the car tonight. Better than being back at the ol’ homestead.”
When Lilly reached for the bottle, her heart stopped. A bright cut of headlights streamed across the front yard and turned into the drive.
Just be still, no one can see the car in here. It’s a turnaround. No one comes here. Just wait a minute and they’ll pull away.
Her heart was stuck on staccato, and her hand hovered frozen in the air half way between her and the top of the bottle.
Only, the lights headlights didn’t turn and pull right back out. Whoever it was just sat there in the drive.
Fuck, it’s the security brothers following me. Damn it, I knew my freedom was too good to be true.
She had a view through the window in the carport. The rain was still coming down in buckets, so the only way someone would find her is if they walked or drove all the way in around the front circle of the dirt driveway.
It felt like a year as she watched, and under her breath she kept muttering ‘go away, go away.’
Instead, the lights on the other car went dark, and she listened as the single thud of a car door fought its way through the storm.
***
The rain soaked his T-shirt in a matter of seconds, but Flynn didn’t move. He stood under the black sky and let the freezing rain run over his face, dripping from his hair.
He didn’t know what he was here to find. He needed to kill some hours before he went to the airport, and this was where he ended up.
It was right for him to leave, and it was right for her to end it.
Whatever little storm she conjured in him for a blip on his life’s radar would be long forgotten in a year.
She would be fully entrenched in her new life as the bride of Father Frankenstein and probably making little stepbrothers to continue the family dynasty.
Flynn looked straight up, letting the torrent of rain pelt right into his eyes as he opened his mouth only to then shake his head like an angry dog and spit out the drops.
He let himself imagine for an instant, what could have happened here.
In their stupidity, they could have dragged it out longer, pretending to play house and think there was something real about it. Something that could be real. But, that’s not how it worked.
Especially in the Dunleavy tradition.
Get the fuck out of here, man. What the Jesus fuck are you doing? It’s done, over. Welded that door shut, now let’s go.
His feet were smart enough to start him back toward the Bronco. He’d just go on to the airport, maybe hit up a strip club. They were always open.
Back inside the car, rain pooled under his ass in the vinyl seat from his T-shirt and dripping hair.
He peeled off the soaking fabric from his torso, a chill covering his bare skin as he started up the truck and threw it in reverse, the brass key still tucked down low in his jeans pocket.
A shot of thunder shook the ground and resonated through him even within the fiberglass and steel encasing of the truck.
Flynn hit the brake, the crashing thunder almost deafening and in a split second, a bolt of lightning came like a laser and exploded at the base of a tree just on the other side of the cabin, lighting up the entire space like mid-day in July.
The ground and the car shook again like someone just set off a case of C-4. He threw the Bronco back in park, he needed to see the power of Mother Nature up close.
The rain felt warmer than the air on his skin as he jogged around the front of the small cabin. He could hear the sizzling from the lightning strike and just as he saw the glow of embers, the ancient, rotten oak took its first crunching lurch toward the ground.
Flynn backed away. The tree was coming down, there was no stopping it, but the sight of such a magnificent, enormous object moving toward something else was awe inspiring. He was transfixed, standing like a statue watching what was sure to be a disaster for the poor carport which was directly in the felling trees path.
The oak leaned at an angle, and the wind was tossing the heavy branches on top furiously back and forth, inching it toward the point where gravity would take over, and the rest would be an epic scene of destruction.
There was a flash.
A light.
Flynn’s eyes darted to the little window on the front of the carport. There it was again. What the hell was that? Something inside.
Another loud crunch of wood and bark splintering. Roots tearing from the ground as a gust of wind pushed him off balance.
Whatever was in there was about to get creamed. Probably just a lightbulb flickering. The storm hadn’t knocked out the power, though; the other yellow porch lights were on without a flicker.
Fuck, there it is again.
***
Lilly started to turn the key twice and quickly panicked as the headlights flashed.
That lightning strike was so loud that it had made her jump practically out of her skin, and it was an omen she needed to get out of there.
“Just drive, you can get around whoever it is and just get out. Whoever that is, you don’
t want to meet them. No one should be here. Okay, count to three. Turn the key and floor it, okay?” She glanced down at her silent passenger again.
“You’re no help.”
One, two, three.
She started the engine and threw it into reverse, hitting the gas just as a huge gust of wind came up and a crunching sound came from her right. The last thing she saw was a mass of blowing leaves and a tangle of branches coming down, and she heard herself screaming.
***
Fucking headlights. There’s a fucking car in there, and someone’s in it.
In the instant Flynn put the pieces together, the car’s brake lights shot out of the back of the carport.
Wind whipped small branches and leaves into his face and against the bare skin of his back. The snap, crack and crunch started and the top of the tree shook. It was going fast and whoever was in that car was about to get creamed.
“Hey! Watch out!” Flynn yelled as he took off running toward the felling tree.
The sound and sight of the massive object coming down stopped him. There was no way through.
He shifted to the right, still no way to get to whoever was inside that car. Then, he crouched down, exploded into a run, launching up and over, hitting the pathway that tucked around the garden and toward the back where the car was trying to leave.
It was too late.
The tree came down, crushing the carport like Lincoln Logs and the branches completely engulfed the small car.
Even through the storm and the sound of the tree coming to rest, Flynn could hear screaming. He darted forward as the branches and leaves still shook up and down trying to settle themselves from the fall. The car was half in and half out of the crushed carport, the front end caught under both the branches of the tree and the lumber from the now collapsed opening.
Fortunately, the heaviest part of the tree lay on top the structure, the car taking most of the overlying branches. But still, whoever was inside was surely pissing themselves.
It was a woman screaming.
Who the fuck would be here?
Another flash of lightening lit up the sky as Flynn stepped forward, and he could see the light sea-blue color and suddenly, he couldn’t breathe.
Chapter Twenty-five
No fucking way. No. Fucking. Way.
There were no more clear thoughts after that, just the sound of grunts and branches breaking.
The windshield looked like thousands of crystal puzzle pieces. The pressure from a broken limb pressed into the center of the shattered windshield making a divot that threatened to implode. Lilly shook the driver’s side door violently against the tangle of thick branches that covered the car.
Another ominous crack came from above and the massive tree settled another few inches. The windshield gave in with a loud pop, sending the weakened glass against Lilly in a shower of silver.
Her screams shot arrows into the night.
Flynn watched her arms shoot up to cover her face, and she pressed herself into the driver’s door in a ball.
He was tearing and breaking branches, the weight of the tree still teetering on the corner support of the carport. If it came down, the weight from the top of the massive tree would kill him.
There was no more sounds, no more decisions to be made. Just a goal to be reached.
The snapped limbs dug into his chest, one ripping into the top of his shoulder as he leaned in, finally getting his hand on the door handle.
“Are you okay? Lilly!”
He could see glass in her hair, her hands over her face.
The rain slowed, but his hands were slick, and the tree slipped as he tried in vain to push the heaviest branch out of the way.
He pulled the door handle with a roar, only able to open it a few inches before it hit a branch thicker than his forearm.
Another threatening creak and the supporting beam shifted over the hood of the car.
“Lilly! Crawl in the back! Get in the backseat! Go to the passenger back door.” He screamed and pointed as rain dripped down his arms and off his nose.
Flynn flew up and over the branches of the tree. He had to get to the other side of the car.
Climbing and falling and reaching.
His feet found slick steps on the bark, and as he got to the other side, he slipped and grabbed himself, but a broken limb reached up and stabbed him in the ribs, opening a wide gash that gushed crimson.
“Fuck!”
He ignored the pain, taking the ten-foot leap onto the mud below. Lilly still sat in the front seat as an eerie slow squeak enveloped him.
“Get in the back! Damn it, Lilly. Listen! Crawl in back!” Flynn pounded his fist on the back window.
His hands were already breaking the few smaller branches away that pressed into the back door. In seconds, he tugged it open eighteen inches — more than enough for her to crawl out.
Inside he could see her move, but it wasn’t going to be fast enough.
The low squeak turned to an ear-splitting CRACK as the last beam gave way, and the full weight of the tree came down.
His hand shot inside the opening, barely catching her wrist, which fluttered between the front seats. Flynn pulled with every ounce of his strength. With a grimace and a battle cry, he pulled as the tree came down around them.
***
Flynn went completely deaf as he spun her around and around, tracing his hands up and down. He could feel her body quivering, her hands shaking and eyes wide.
He needed more than the rain needed the clouds to know she was safe. An enormous branch still scraping up and down from the inertia of the fall just behind her head.
“I’m okay.” She finally whispered toward the ground as Flynn kept inspecting her, his desperation to be sure she was unharmed like captive’s thirst for freedom.
A clap of thunder and a flash of lightening broke the trance, and without asking he lead Lilly at a full run onto the shelter of the covered porch, dragging her by the hand up the steps. His head pounded and he breathed like a beast.
He stared down at her with his brow a deep ‘V’ as he tried to figure out what the fuck just happened.
“Jesus Christ. Why are you here?” Flynn’s voice was angrier than he intended, but the adrenaline was rushing, and the veins in his neck felt ready to burst.
Lilly’s hair looked like melting copper around her face and shoulders as they stood on the porch. Flynn couldn’t stop inspecting her with his eyes to be sure she wasn’t injured. His body screamed and pounded in fury at the multiple reddening scratches and gashes.
“Why are you here? Mac gave me the key to his place.” Lilly finally spoke and her voice did not hide her own confusion.
“And, why the fuck are you out so late? How are you here? Are you okay, what the fuck is going on?” Flynn fought the urge to move the long, wet tendrils of hair from her freckled cheeks.
This is some bull shit. Why did I fucking ever leave?? She’s got a hold on me still, gotta keep it real. Looking at her is like coming fucking home.
“You’re bleeding.” Lilly pointed, and he noticed her hand was still trembling.
He watched as her eyes traced up from the slow flow of red down his side, then up to the other battle scars from earlier that night.
“I don’t give a shit.” He reached into his pocket, spun and flipped the brass key in the air before catching it and shifting it in the deadbolt on the front door until she heard the ‘thunk’ of the lock.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Get your ass inside.” He was done playing his mood shifted and there was work to be done.
Whatever this was.
Divine intervention.
Cosmic justice.
He wasn't going to fuck it up.
Opportunity was fucking knocking and he wasn’t going to just open the door he was going to kick it down.
They were here, and everything else disappeared except the thoughts and images of when he’d laid claim to her only a week ago. Her bloo
d streaked on his cock, and he’d felt her world rest on his shoulders.
It was the feeling of finding your place, knowing why you were fucking born, and it was back with a vengeance.
Inside the cabin, the air was stale, closed up for too long. It wasn’t necessarily unpleasant, just sad. Like a child’s abandoned toy.
But, after a moment, Flynn took a deep breath and he caught a soft scent from the cedar walls. The unused furniture looked like ghostly apparitions, all covered with white sheets and tarps.
He could see Lilly soaking wet and shivering, glints of glass still tucked into her wet hair. A few pieces rested on her shoulder like diamonds, and he couldn’t help but reach over to brush them away.
Flynn walked to the biggest of the covered pieces of furniture and flipped the covering off onto the pine floor to reveal a well-worn leather sofa underneath, complete with a few throw pillows still in place and a perfectly folded red, yellow and blue striped wool throw right out of the Land’s End catalog.
He snapped the blanket up and opened it like a wool parachute and settled it around her shoulders.
“Stand still.”
He started to pinch and flick the remaining glass out of her hair.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Lilly fluttered her hand around his as he worked.
“Stand still.” He clamped his hand down on her upper arm, hard enough that he heard the little wince.
“Now, while you are standing still, get to telling me about why the fuck you are out in the middle of the damn night? Does Colin know where you are?”
“He’s gone, somewhere. He said he was giving me more freedom, so I took it. I just needed to be somewhere else, and I thought I had the key. How do you have it?”
“I took it when you — when I left. It was on the sink, and I grabbed it before I smashed your glass in the tub.”
“Why?”
Flynn didn’t bother answering. He didn’t know why at the time he stuffed the key in his pocket, he just knew he was not leaving that key there with her.
