A Beauty Dark & Deadly (A Dark & Deadly Series Book 1) (8 page)

Jason released the blinds and sat back down.  He brought his chair closer to his desk and began typing.  Characters never came easily for him; it was plot he was good at, but for whatever reason, a description flew through his fingertips, and his typing became almost furious.  It was of a woman he was writing about; she was lost, alone, and very beautiful, but naturally so.  Whatever sparked this burst of inspiration, he did not know, but as soon as it hit him, it spread like wildfire, and soon, he had an idea which was coming alive on his page.  The screen was not blank anymore.

It seemed like hours when he finally finished the first chapter, but he smiled, feeling incredibly accomplished.  He hadn’t even taken a cigarette break.  He sat back, his eyes scanning the screen as though he couldn’t quite believe that he had written anything, let alone a full chapter.  A small smile had touched his lips and his fingers interlocked and rested behind his head.  However, he still wasn’t exactly sure how this story was going to turn out, but that didn’t bother him as of yet.  Briefly, he wondered what time it was.  He really should keep some sort of clock in here, but he didn’t want to get distracted by the ticking of a clock.  It was then he remembered there was one in the very corner of his laptop.  Hmm… one o’clock.  At that moment, his stomach rumbled noisily, reminding him that he needed to eat.  Maybe Emmy had lunch ready and didn’t want to disturb him.

After saving his document at least three times, Jason stood up.  His legs hurt, and he made a note to himself to make sure to get up and walk around a little as he wrote.  However, it was easier said than done, because once he was in the zone, it was hard to remind him of anything else.  He stood for a moment, letting feeling resume in his lower body, and stretched as he felt a yawn coming on.  Then he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and ran his fingers through his hair before heading down the stairs.

When he entered the kitchen, however, Emmy was not inside cooking, as he expected her to be.  He furrowed his brow and then headed into the living room.  She was not there either.  Maybe she was in her room…?  It was then that he noticed how quiet his house really was.  He had always been used to the silence, but now that there was a second person living with him, the silence seemed to get louder.  He headed upstairs, checked every room, but Emmy was not there.

Where, then, could she be?

Maybe she was outside?  He ran his fingers through his hair once again and pushed his door open, stepping outside.  The sun’s rays, though somewhat hidden behind the tall trees that surrounded his quaint home still made his eyes wince.  He scrunched his nose, and raised his arm over his head, hoping to block out the blinding rays as he took a couple of steps, moving his head to the left and the right, but seeing no young woman or any sort of evidence of if she had been here.  Chewing the bottom of his lip, he finally let his arm fall back to his side once he got used to the light and took a couple more paces to the right.  He decided to circle the house, making sure to cover his entire basis, and made a personal decision to not think about what to do if it turned out that she was not there.  Jason took his time as he traced the perimeter of his house.  Instead of keeping his eyes on the ground, as he usually did, his blue eyes scanned whatever was directly in front of him.

When he got to his garden, Jason stopped walking.  No, she was not at his garden but it appeared that she had been.  A bowl of water was sitting there temporarily forgotten with dust particles already gathering on the surface.  He knelt down and pursed his lips.  Underneath the bowl of water was a discarded empty turkey package, as though Emmy had wanted to make sure the package didn’t blow away.  She probably wanted to throw it away instead of littering.  He smiled at the sheer thoughtfulness of the action, but he wasn’t as happy as he could be.  Emmy was still gone, or at least, she wasn’t found yet, and he wanted to know why, where she was, and if she was coming back.

Jason tilted his head so that his focus was on the forest in front of him.  She couldn’t possibly be in the forest, could she?  She was new to his property, new to Tahoe, really.  It would be dangerous for her to go running off into the forest without someone who was familiar with the terrain, without him.  He felt his stress level raising a fraction, and pushed his fingers between the locks of his hair, but instead of running them through, he gripped them albeit somewhat gently.  Should he follow her?  How did he know she really was in the forest?  And if she was, why would she go in there if she knew she could most probably get lost there?  Did she choose to leave?  Was she forced…?  No, she would have screamed, wouldn’t she?  And he didn’t see any signs of a struggle.

Jason chuckled at his law enforcement-like thoughts.  He had written too many thrillers, hadn’t he?  He shook his head and decided to finish his circle of the house.  Maybe she had just wanted to go for a walk, and she hadn’t asked him because she hadn’t wanted to disturb him.  If this was so, the thought made him smile.  Stacey was almost always bothering him, at least twice, when he holed himself up in his office to work.  While some writers might not have been thrown by this, he was.  He needed peace and quiet to fuel his concentration.  She would ask him minuscule things, such as what he wanted for dinner, if he was going to the grocery store, and other questions that could have waited until he was done.  He had told her not to bother him, but maybe that was in her nature, maybe she just really needed loving attention from him.  And maybe if he had given it to her, she wouldn’t have run off with… But he didn’t want to think about that anymore.

As he headed back inside, a sudden thought struck him.  Emmy… hadn’t run away from him, did she?  He headed up the stairs and into her room.  No, all of her stuff was still here.  Jason meant to leave upon realizing this, but instead of taking a step back, he took a step forward.  Her room was very clean, very empty in a way.  A laptop was on a dresser, and a couple of books, a framed photograph and a cell phone were all on the nightstand next to her bed.  He took a seat on the bed, facing the beautiful view out the triangular-shaped window, and was immediately hit with a very subtle scent of vanilla and cinnamon.  This was what she smelled like, he realized.  A soft smile touched his lips.  He rather liked this scent.

Jason’s eyes caught sight of the photo and decided to have a look at it.  He rationalized that she had pretty much done the same to him, and it was only fair that he check her out as well.  Jason shook his head; he did not usually do things like this.  In fact, he was a very private person himself, but his desire seemed to outweigh propriety at the moment, and he took the frame in his hand so he could look upon it more thoroughly.  It was of her and her grandfather, and judging from the deep, royal blue robe and a matching, square cap with a tassel hanging from the center of it, it was her high school graduation photograph.  Her colorful eyes were heightened due to the black eyeliner, and her lips were pulled into the most genuine smile he had ever seen.  She looked so incredibly happy, and he wanted to see such a smile in real life.  Better than that, he realized he wanted to be the cause of such happiness.  The two seemed to be on a field, probably a football field, and the picture was probably taken after the ceremony due to the similar situations concerning her colleagues seen in the background and posing for similar pictures.

He let out a sigh and placed the photo back down on the nightstand.  Jason had never really thought about love, or even attraction since Stacey had left him.  He had isolated himself from society, couldn’t stand the questioning and the judgmental looks anymore.  If people didn’t want him around, if people didn’t want him shopping, or getting gas, or anything like that, then he was happy to withdraw in seclusion.  He wanted to write in private anyways, and it was nice not to have the phone constantly ringing or people continuously knocking on his front door.  How long had it been since Stacey’s… disappearance?  Two years ago?
How different he had been then.  In all honesty, he never thought he would meet somebody.  He thought love would elude him, and was quite content with the thought.  How could anyone love him given the general perception people had of him?

And then she walked through his door.  Emmy was unlike anyone he had ever met.  It was true, however, that it did not exactly appear that she was falling head over heels for him, but the fact that she took his job, the fact that she had stood up for him at the supermarket, that all meant that she wasn’t going to hold society’s perceptions of him against him per se.  Maybe if he showed her who he really was, she might actually like him, they might actually be friends, maybe even more…  He chuckled at this thought.  Yeah, as though somebody like her could actually be interested in someone like him.  Someone who went on trial for killing his estranged wife and her lover.  The thought was actually a joke.  Shaking his head, he took a seat slowly at his kitchen table.  He had walked to the kitchen after exploring her room.  A part of him hoped she hadn’t run away.  She was his key to society, and now that she had entered his life, he hoped she wouldn’t quickly depart it.

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Currently, Emmy Atler was somewhere where she was not expected to be; she was in a tree, her eyes scanning the surrounding forest.  She had sticky turkey in her hand that she had actually put in her mouth so she was even capable of climbing the tree, and still it was there because both of her arms were securely wrapped around the trunk of the tree.  When she was younger, she had been an expert at such at such physical activities, and whenever her grandfather had visited, he always took her to the local park (Mariner’s Park in Newport Beach) where he made sure she did a round on the monkey bars and a climb in the trees.  Her parents were worried at such daring behavior for a girl of seven, but her grandfather had always assured them that she would always be safe with him, no matter what.  And to this day, it had remained so.

The stray dog that had run from her had yet to return, and she had been searching for a good half an hour.  The turkey was starting to stain her tongue with its taste, and in all honesty, Emmy had never really favored turkey, especially not old turkey that had been soaking in the sun for a good portion of time.  Quickly and carefully, Emmy whipped the turkey from her lips and dropped it on the ground.  She made a face as she tried to rid her mouth of the residue the meat had left and then began to cautiously make her way down.  It would seem the dog had disappeared, had left her to fend for herself.  All she had wanted to do was feed the stray some food.  Now, as she looked around, she realized she should have thought a bit before heading off into the forest.

Emmy glanced around, hoping for some sort of helpful hint that might lead her back to Jason Belmont’s house, but all she could see were trees.  And though she should know better, it appeared that all the trees looked remarkably similar.  She nibbled on her bottom lip as her eyes scanned her surroundings once again.  There was no doubt about it; she was screwed.  She took a step forward, and then another, but stopped and shook her head, second-guessing her initial choice of direction.  Emmy ran her fingers through her hair and knelt down, feeling a sense of hopelessness surround her.  What was she going to do?  Tears began to blur her vision, but for some reason, they would not fall.

“Hello!”

The young woman froze.  Was that a voice she just heard?  It had sounded clear, distinct, with sophistication added to her tone.  She wasn’t hearing things now, was she?  She wasn’t hallucinating, was she?  She turned slowly, wishing she didn’t have to humor the voice, still unsure of its origins, but she froze when she saw it was not in vain.

There was a woman, probably in her late fifties or early sixties.  She was dressed as though she had been raised in Tahoe, with durable clothes rather than fashionable.  Her long, grey hair was swept up into a high ponytail and there was basic makeup on her face.  While her demeanor might come off as somewhat astute, her honey-colored-eyes were filled with warmth as she gazed upon Emmy with a sense of sympathy.

“Hi,” Emmy said, letting out a breath.  She silently prayed that this was not some sort of hallucination and that an older woman really was in the middle of the forest with her.

“Are you the woman who took the job for Jason Belmont?” the older woman inquired.  Emmy raised a brow, unsure of where this conversation was leading, slowly, she answered with a nod.  Her body was tense, not certain if she should stay where she was, or make a break for it and take her chances deeper into the forest.  However, the older woman smiled at Emmy’s answer, accumulating even more warmth to her face.  “I am glad to hear that.  I was wondering if you might like to join me for a cup of tea?  Afterwards, I would be happy to escort you back to his residence.”

“I really should go…” Emmy said, not quite meeting her eyes, but the woman interrupted her.

“I insist,” she said, her face still friendly.  “I know Belmont just as I’m sure as you do.  He’s probably sitting up in that office of his, smoking a cigarette, and staring at a blank page.  He probably won’t even know you’re gone.”  She paused, and perked her brow as she said, “Please?”