Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (53 page)

“I have extra water if you need it,” he said, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. I grabbed my pack from the backseat and locked the door.

“Ready?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Been looking forward to it all morning.”

He was wearing cargo shorts and a dark T-shirt and a fleece jacket tied around his waist. He was letting his hair grow out and it was becoming shaggy and long, touching the tips of his shoulders. He had a surfer thing going.

We started walking on the trail which led to a sign and a board with a map. After studying it for a minute, we started walking down the dusty path that snaked through the brush.

“So are we running or walking the five miles?” he asked. Ty was all about trail running lately.

“How about we walk fast?” I said.

“Perfect,” he said, taking my hand. “I still can’t believe nobody’s out here. It’s kind of nice, really.”

I looked around.

“It’s always like this,” I said. “Kate and I used to come out here to bike sometimes, years ago.”

“How is Kate by the way? It feels like I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“She seems okay. Painting.”

“Which room now?” he asked.

“Bathroom. She’s running out of walls though, so she might be heading to your house soon,” I said.

I laughed nervously and hoped I hadn’t insulted him because the house he was renting was, actually, in dire need of a good paint job. Ty was living in one of those inexpensive, tiny places, back behind the Old Mill and not far from the river. He lived there with Brad, a childhood friend from Montana who had recently moved to Bend and was hoping to land a job as a river guide this summer.

“Whatever Kate needs,” Ty said as we walked. “My walls are her walls.”

“Only say it if you mean it,” I said.

“I mean it.”

A warm breeze hit us as we picked up the pace, walking up a small hill and then back down the other side.

“Maybe we can talk her into coming out for a beer or dinner this weekend,” he said, after a few minutes. “She works too hard.”

It struck me as odd that he said that, but then I remembered that Ty really hadn’t known Kate that long at all, even if they had become fast, good friends. He had picked us up from the airport on that cold winter afternoon following the kidnapping. He stayed every night for a week, bringing us dinner, going to the store, picking up work for Kate at the newspaper so she didn’t have to leave me. He had been incredible and helped us get through those first few tough weeks.

“Well, Kate’s not really working like she used to,” I finally said.

It seemed important to me, for some reason, for him to know her better.

“You should have seen her before, before all that happened. She hardly ever came home, worked all weekend. She was an insane workaholic, filing twice as many stories as the other reporters. The kidnapping changed her. Sometimes I think it changed her more than it did me. She only goes in for the basic 40 hours a week now and spends the rest of her time fixing up the house. It’s kind of weird.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“She’s just trying to cope with everything,” he said. “That was a terrible thing you went through. And even though it happened to you, worrying is a bitch. It really takes it out of you.”

A wave of guilt washed over me as I thought about how I hadn’t told Ty everything. He knew the basic story, about how Nathaniel Mortimer wanted to continue his research on me and about how his brother had accidently shot him. And about Jack Martin, of course. But there was still so much Ty didn’t know about me and maybe that was why I wasn’t really sure where we stood in terms of a relationship.

He didn’t know about the ghosts I sometimes saw walking around town, or about seeing Jesse, Emma, or Annabelle. He didn’t know anything about those visions I once had of Nathaniel killing people. Or about the energy I saw swirling around people that gave me an insight into their moods. I wanted to tell him, some of the time, but other times it felt like he knew enough about the crazy side of my life. I didn’t want to scare him away, I guess. But now I was wondering. I was wondering if there was any chance for a relationship that had such secrets.

Ty checked his odometer that he wore on his wrist and then grabbed my hand again as we walked on the trail, the warm sun strong in our faces. It felt great to be out here, on the edge of summer, on the edge of other good things.

“I’m going this weekend to get my board,” he said.

“Cool.”

Ty had been saving up to buy a paddleboard to take out in the mornings on the Deschutes.

We walked a little farther.

I wondered if I was falling in love with him. I could feel it in my stomach and in my knees, always wobbly whenever I saw him. But I told myself I wasn’t ready to get serious yet, and I told him too, regularly. He always said it was okay, that he was happy with how things were and that he could wait. But I knew things would have to move forward at some point, and probably pretty soon. And the truth was that sometimes I wanted them to as well.

I knew my hesitation with Ty had to do with Jesse. I was better about it than before, much better, and had been really trying to let Jesse go. But it was nowhere near easy. I still loved him and I wondered if that feeling had to die before I could move ahead with Ty.

But other times it felt like it was really possible to love two people at the same time, which was surprising. I thought that if you really loved someone with your whole heart, there wasn’t any room to love someone else. But lately I wasn’t so sure.

After a couple of miles, we climbed up a small ridge and stopped, looking out across the quiet desert.

“Amazing,” Ty said.

It felt like we were the only ones around, although just as I thought that, we saw a couple of bikes coming toward us, down the trail. They must have been heading back to the parking lot and I was guessing that the 4 Runner belonged to them.

Ty put his arm around me.

“I love being with you, Abby,” he said, his eyes hidden behind his shades.

“Me, too,” I said, knowing that it didn’t make too much sense. I hoped he knew what I meant.

We walked back on the trail and I thought about David. He must be right. Ty was my beautiful boyfriend.

In another minute the bikes were right on top of us. We stepped aside and let them pass.

I saw something else moving behind us in the distance down the trail. At first I thought it might have been wildlife, maybe a mule deer or coyote, but after a few seconds it became clear that it was a person, another hiker.

We reached a large fire pit that I hadn’t noticed when we were coming in. It was filled with old burned-out coffee and bean cans.

“Strange,” I said. “Who would sit around and burn up hundreds of old cans?”

Ty picked up one of the larger ones. It looked like a relic from an ancient civilization, although I did notice that it had the letters Y-U-B-A-N bubbling over the charred metal.

“Hey, don’t you think this would be very cool as a vase? You could put flowers in them.”

“Really?” I asked. I couldn’t see it, they looked kind of
junkyardy
to me. 

“Yeah. It’ll look cool,” he said, kicking a few around with his foot. “Artsy. You’ll see. Do you think Kate would like one?”

I thought of the new leather furniture and lamps.

“Well, I don’t think it’s exactly her style,” I said.

“I’m bringing back a few. If she doesn’t want one, I’ll use them all. We need to do a little decorating. This will be perfect.”

I made sure not to laugh as Ty picked up a few cans and I helped, careful not to cut myself and end up with a severed finger or lockjaw. Maybe he was right. Maybe with some flowers in them, they would look good. Maybe.

We walked back down the trail with our cans, stopping for water once. Again, I saw movement behind us and this time it caused my heart to race. I was always so jittery lately, even with Ty by my side.

But I settled down when I saw that the stranger behind us was just a kid. He was still kind of far, but I could make out his Guns N’ Roses T-shirt. It didn’t make any sense for him to be out here all alone. I supposed he could have lived in one of the ranches I saw when I drove in or maybe he belonged to a band of can-burning nomads.

He hung back, and never caught up or passed us. In a little while, I saw the roof of Ty’s truck up ahead.

“Bummer I have to work tonight,” Ty said, grabbing my hand again.

“Yeah,” I said. “So how is your schedule going to be when we start back on the river?”

He shrugged.

“I’ve told them I have to start back at the end of May and I’ll have to cut down on my hours, but they still want to give me 30. It might be too many, especially when we’re in high season. What about you? Have you told Mike yet?”

I shook my head.

“No,” I said. “Not yet.”

I had planned to tell him, but somehow the time never quite seemed right. I was glad that I was asked to come back and didn’t want to say, oh, and by the way, I can’t work too much in the summer. Summer was a busy time for all the businesses downtown and I was worried he would let me go and hire someone else.

“I better do that soon,” I said. “But I don’t start guiding for a few months still. Rebecca said she won’t need me until the middle of June so I have some time.”

Since I was the last hire, I was scheduled to start late, when the season was in full gear and the kids were out of school.

“Did you sign your contract yet?” he asked.

“Yeah, I went in last week.”

I hadn’t told Kate yet. No point in starting with all that again so soon.

“You?”

“No, not yet. I want to bring Brad along when I sign so he can meet everybody. See if I can talk him up a little before the try out. He was a great river guide back home. I’m hoping they’ll just hire him on the spot.”

We put the old cans in the back of the truck.

“I guess I’ll just pick up my can when I see you,” I said, smiling.

“Uh-huh, I see how it is,” Ty said and then leaned down to kiss me again. His lips were tangy, like he had been walking next to the sea. I was hoping the lurking kid wasn’t around watching.

“That was nice,” I whispered.

“Right back at you. Okay, I’ll follow you out. Drive safe. Hey, we’re still on for a movie tomorrow night, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You pick it. It’s the least I can do after that elephant fiasco.”

“I’ll try not to make it a revenge thing,” he said. “But I can’t make any promises.”

We pulled out of the parking lot and out onto the highway, my heart thumping fast and wild.

But in a good way.

CHAPTER 7

I struggled in the black water. I held my breath, fighting to reach the surface. But I couldn’t hold on. Desperate for air, I opened my mouth, the water stinging as it washed through my lungs.

I woke up gasping.

“I’m home,” I said to myself.

I forced myself out of bed, woozy and half asleep, and went to check on the backyard.

No water.

No waves or swells or docks.

I wasn’t on an island, in a strange house. I was home, in my room.

The moon was large, not quite full but luminous, lighting up the cloudless dark sky and everything else. I could see the new bird fountain over by the pine trees and the rake and hoe that Kate had left outside, leaning against the side of the house.

I glanced back at the clock, angry that it was only a little past two. I had just fallen asleep half an hour ago. Soft music that I had programmed to play for an hour was still coming from my iPod.

I stared into the night. I was groggy and my stomach felt like I was standing on a lake in the middle of a storm.

I couldn’t get those images out of my mind. That large mansion surrounded by water, the secluded island, the motor boat coming after me. The drowning pool he had tried to kill me in. The moments when he strapped me onto the stretcher and lowered it down into the water. The handful of scientists standing around in white lab coats taking notes on the experiment, which was supposed to involve killing me and then bringing me back to life. The glint of the sharp needle he held out as he waited for me to die.

I felt the horror pulsate through me body just like I was there again, and I suddenly jerked away from the window and ran over to the bathroom, the vomit, warm and bitter, barely making it into the toilet bowl.

Everything had come up. The pizza I had with Ty earlier, the soda and popcorn I ate during the movie. The ice cream. Everything.

I wasn’t going to cry though. There had been enough tears. Too many and I wasn’t going to do that anymore. I was a survivor and it was time to move on. I sat shaking on the bathroom floor for a moment before pulling myself up and soaking my face in the sink. I toweled off and flushed the remains of my fear away, catching my reflection in the mirror.

Kate was right. I wasn’t looking so good. Too pale, my face thin, too thin even with all those pastries, with those dark circles under swollen eyes.

I looked like an experiment. I looked like something Nathaniel Mortimer had created in his lab. Not fully alive, and not fully dead.

Maybe Messi didn’t need to rest, pouting whenever his coach even thought about giving him a game off, but I did. I wasn’t going to make it if I didn’t start sleeping soon.

I shuffled back to bed and put on my robe tightly, scanning the backyard one more time before heading out to the living room to make the rounds. I walked softly, creeping past Kate’s door. It was dark in her room and I was glad she wasn’t up.

First I checked the security system. It was on, the bright light glowing out into the black living room. I sat on the cold leather sofa and listened to the sounds that are amplified by darkness. It was windy out, and I watched the moving shadows of the pine trees in front of the house through the curtains, heard their long branches brushing up against the windows. The house creaked in the gusts.

After a few minutes, I got up and checked the front door. It was locked, like we had left it before we went to bed. The sliding glass door in the kitchen was still locked, too. So were all the windows.