Dead in Bed by Bailey Simms, The Complete First Book (10 page)

Like just about every
other farmhouse in Colorado, my parents’ house is on a lot surrounded by pole
barns, grain silos, and farming equipment.

I looked quickly at
these options and settled on the old wooden building my dad just called “the shop.”
It was where he worked on his
swathers
and bailers
whenever they broke down, and it had a lofted storage area whose key he kept
hidden under an old tin drum.

“This way,” I said to
Bryce.

We trotted the fifty
yards or so to the shop. I opened the large double doors, found the key to the
storage area, and opened the lock.

The bottom level had
only a dirt floor. Old engine parts, an abandoned deep freezer, and retired,
dried-out saddles cluttered the space. Everything was covered in dust. Long
shafts of light shone through the cracks between the wallboards. A couple of
pigeons flew out through a hole in the corrugated tin roof. Otherwise,
everything was totally silent except for the sound of Morgan’s quick, labored
breathing.

I grabbed an old
saddle blanket and shook it out.

“This way,” I said.
Bryce followed me.

A very narrow, very
steep, very worn-out wooden stairway led up to the hayloft. As Bryce followed
me carrying Morgan’s weight, the wooden planks creaked. One even cracked a
little, but the stairway held.

The hayloft hadn’t
been used for years, but there was still loose hay scattered all over the
floor. If I had to, I could cover Morgan with hay and hide her that way. It was
the best idea I could think of.

I kicked some of the
loose hay aside and laid out the saddle blanket in the loft’s farthest corner.
Bryce
lay
Morgan on it. He felt her forehead.

“She’s really burning
up.” Bryce gave me an uneasy glance.

She was panting even
faster. And now there was a new rasping sound coming from deep inside her lungs.
It sounded like she was struggling to pull in air. Her hair was so wet with
perspiration that it was slicked against her scalp. It looked she’d just been
doused with water.

Maybe it didn’t even
matter where we hid Morgan. It was hard to imagine that she could stay alive
much longer in this state.

* * *

Bryce
stayed with me by Morgan’s side all morning. He pulled his car behind the barn
where it wasn’t visible from the house or the driveway, and he sat with me in
the loose hay.

I didn’t want him to
leave. I was scared of taking care of Morgan all alone. I was also scared of
being stuck with nothing to do except worry about Ian and Shawn. But I didn’t
want to push my luck and hope for too much from Bryce. He hardly knew me.

“My family’s going to
start worrying about me,” I said. “I’d better go check in with them.”

Bryce nodded. “I’ll
stay here and keep an eye on her while you’re gone. I don’t mind.”

“You sure you don’t
mind? You don’t even know her. You don’t need to stay. Really. I’m sure you
want to get out of here. You’ve done so much already.”

He shrugged and smiled
shyly. “What else am I going to do while I’m stuck in Muldoon?”

I
thanked him again and told him I’d be back in fifteen minutes, but when I got
back to the house, everything had changed.

Fried eggs lay cold and
uneaten on the stove. My Mom sat with Danielle and the kids at the kitchen
table. They’d given up on breakfast. They’d obviously figured out that Ian and
Shawn were missing. Danielle was holding the crayon-scrawled note from Ian. My
dad was on the phone. Ian must have told him the night before that Mr. Hershel
had died, because he was busying himself by planning a funeral.

“Tomorrow morning,” he
was saying somberly into the phone. “Yes.
At their place.
Make it if you can, Connie. We all understand.”

Everyone glared at me
like I was some kind of traitor when I stepped into the kitchen. Once again,
I’d returned from an inexplicable absence.

“Ashley, what is going
on
?” my mom demanded, standing as
soon as she saw me. “Where have you
been
?
Please, please tell me you know where Ian and Shawn are.”

I told them everything
I’d seen and heard that morning. I described the dark SUV and the military
police that took Ian and Shawn away.

My dad put down the
phone. Danielle began crying hysterically. Tyler tried to comfort her, while
Haley just stayed curled up in a little ball on a kitchen chair.

“Where have you
been
?” my mom asked again.

“I’ve been out looking
for Shawn,” I lied. “With a friend of his,” I added, remembering that my dad
had seen Bryce that morning. I decided that the best way to keep my family from
telling anyone about Morgan was not to tell them that she was even still here
on the property. “I’m going back to the house to lock up. I just need something
to eat first.”

“Are you sure about
that, Ashley?” My dad was concerned. “You’d better be damn careful.”

I nodded. “I will.”

“There’s a service for
Mr. Hershel tomorrow morning. I’d like you to be there.”

“Sure.” I nodded
again. “Okay, I will.”

I hadn’t eaten anything
for a day and a half. I was starving. Despite Morgan’s condition and Ian and
Shawn’s disappearance, I had a strange, intense craving for a hamburger and a
milkshake. I couldn’t get them off my mind, and yet it was hard to imagine ever
having the chance to eat a hamburger again. It already seemed like some exotic,
foreign meal. I had to make do with a roast-beef sandwich and a glass of milk.
I piled the meat high and skipped the mustard. I made a second sandwich and
packed it into a plastic bag for Bryce.

On my way out I parked
my car next to Bryce’s behind the barn, where it was hidden from view. I made
sure no one was watching when I opened the shop doors. I closed them behind me
and climbed back up into the hayloft.

“How is she?” I asked
Bryce.

“Maybe a little
better,” he said. “I think. Just a little.”

Morgan’s breathing was
still coming in quick rasps, and she was still running an extremely high fever.
But it did seem like maybe her breathing had regulated a little. It was hard to
tell in the dim light, but maybe some of her color had even come back.

I don’t have words for
how happy this made me.

“Brought you a
sandwich.” I handed the plastic bag to Bryce.

He was sitting
cross-legged, keeping a close eye on Morgan even while he began to eat.

I said, “So, I have to
confess something.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t remember
anything about what happened Friday night. Nothing. I drank way too much.
Everything after the bar is totally blacked out.”

Bryce smiled
sheepishly. “
I
remember. You really
don’t remember any of it?”

I shook my head.

“That’s a shame.” He
smiled again, but more wryly this time. “Are you asking me to tell you?”

I felt myself blush a
little and turned away. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“Well, I guess I could
give you a recap.”

“I was with you?” I
asked lamely.

He laughed. “Yeah. You
were with me. You really don’t remember?”

I shook my head. “I
was with you the whole night?”

“Most of it.” Bryce
shrugged and smiled once again. He really was incredibly attractive, especially
when he smiled.

I glanced at Morgan. I
couldn’t believe I was having this conversation right now, but I had to know
what happened.

“Okay, so tell me,” I
said. “After the bar, what happened?”

Bryce cleared his
throat. “Well. After the bar… Let’s see. You and I went out for a smoke. And we
kinda
decided not to go back
in. We thought maybe the motel would be a better idea.”

“I know this is a
stupid question,” I said. “But we—well… We...slept together?”

Before he answered,
Bryce gave me a long, cute shrug.

“Well. All I can say
is that it’s a shame you don’t remember.” He nodded, obviously thinking back to
the night I couldn’t recall. Despite the depth of guilt I felt for cheating on
Shawn, I was actually envious that Bryce could remember our night together and
I couldn’t. “It wasn’t bad,” he said. I felt the warmth of his breath on my ear
when he leaned over and whispered, “Honestly, you were kind of amazing.”

I felt dizzy, and kind
of like I’d turned into butter. It was all I could do not to throw myself at
him right there on the loft even while Morgan struggled to breathe. I fought to
suppress this new surge of attraction. I couldn’t believe how strong it was.
What was wrong with me?

I turned away and
forced myself to focus solely on Morgan, checking her pulse. I was starting to
worry that her breathing hadn’t actually slowed.

“And then what?” I
asked Bryce pragmatically. “I woke up alone. And without my cellphone!” I
slapped his arm. “Where’d you go?”

“Yeah, sorry about the
phone,” he said. “I got out of there when your husband showed up.”

“My husband?” What was
he talking about?

“I’ve learned the hard
way that if a guy from the military shows up when you’re in bed with his wife,
it’s better not to stick around.”

“Wait,” I said. “What
do you mean, ‘the military’?”

“Well, his sweatshirt said
‘army’ and he had a big fucking gun. I kind of put two and two together and
crawled out the back window.” He added sheepishly, “I’m glad you don’t remember
that part.”

“Shit!” I whispered.
“Ian was there?”

I
knew
he’d mentioned the hotel.
So all this time,
Ian must’ve known I cheated on Shawn.
He’d just been too gracious to say
anything. I couldn’t believe it.

“That wasn’t my
husband,” I explained. “He’s my brother-in-law. Didn’t I say so when I
introduced him at the bar?”

“Nope.” Bryce shook
his head. “All you said was that your husband was in the bar somewhere. I just
assumed it was
him
. That guy really wasn’t your
husband? He sure was looking at you like he was.” Bryce laughed, amused. “And
he sure did come after you like he was, too. But I admit I didn’t exactly stick
around long enough to confirm one way or the other.”

* * *

It had
been a mistake to hope that Morgan was improving. By noon she was breathing
much harder than ever before. Her whole body was starting to convulse.

As if that wasn’t bad
enough, now we couldn’t keep her hand from making its way down into her
sweatpants. Bryce tried to hold both of her arms to her sides, but as soon as
he let up a little, she would just pull away and start…
touching
herself, doing something that would have looked a lot like
masturbation if she weren’t unconscious. It was bizarre and terrifying.
And horrible.
I didn’t know how to react to seeing my best
friend this way. It was like
Morgan had been replaced by
somebody else
.

I’d gotten so used to
the sound of her quick, raspy breathing that when it stopped, it was like the
whole world died with her.

Everything was
suddenly silent and still. There wasn’t even the sound of pigeons tiptoeing on
the tin roof. Bryce just sat there, staring at Morgan’s motionless body.

I remembered playing
with Morgan on this very hayloft when we were kids. We used to hollow out nests
in the loose hay and call them our “houses” and pretend we were visiting each
other and that we were grown up. We used to plan out
who
we’d marry.

Now, just like that,
she was dead.

Without my best
friend, I felt numb. Not just numb to Morgan lying dead in the hay at my feet,
but numb to everything. Numb to my family, numb to Bryce. Numb to myself. At
the moment, I didn’t care if anyone lived or died.

Then something
happened that I had no explanation for.

Morgan’s body was on
its back, her head thrown back at an awkward angle. When she’d died, she’d
frozen in that stiff position, her slender white neck exposed and her mouth
tipped open. She’d been lying like that for ten or fifteen minutes while I’d
just been sitting there, shocked, trying to comprehend what had happened.

But then—very,
very slowly—she moved.

As if she’d been
simply sleeping peacefully, she stretched her shoulders. Then she slowly turned
onto her side and rested her head on her hands.

“What the—”
Bryce turned to me, stunned,
then
he stared back at
Morgan.

I placed a finger on
her neck and took her pulse.

Her pulse was strong
and fluttering away normally. Her awful panting was gone. She took slow, even
breaths and released them without any rasping sound at all. Even some of her
color had come back.

“She’s
alive
.”

I collapsed on top of
her and sobbed.

“Morgan,” I whispered.
“I thought you left me. Don’t you ever fucking leave me again!
”

I still couldn’t rouse
Morgan to consciousness, but I was almost positive now that she was going to be
okay. She suddenly looked extraordinarily healthy, almost angelic.

“Jesus Christ,” Bryce
whispered. “I’ve never, ever seen anything like that.” He shook his head in
disbelief. “I’m no doctor, but maybe the fever just had to break? I thought she
was gone.”

“So did I,” I
whispered, holding Morgan’s hand.

“I guess you just
never know about things like this.” Bryce laughed softly, still amazed at what
we’d witnessed. “A little while ago I was held up in the hospital overnight.
They thought it was dysentery or something. I guess I had a bad chicken taco in
El Paso. I was in bad shape, but I woke up feeling totally fine. They wanted to
keep me there at the hospital, but I didn’t want to cancel my concert here in
Muldoon. So I just walked out and left.”