Betraying Innocence (40 page)

Ana

The night was beautiful, clear and warm with a million stars dancing against a cloudless sky. The moon hung pale and full in the distance, spilling golden light across the pond surface. Flowers swayed in the breeze, filling it with their sweet scent. Ana closed her eyes and breathed it in deep. The cool grass tickled her bare feet as she crossed to stand next to the boy waiting for her.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured when she joined him. “
I never meant for you to get hurt.”

Ana peered into his blue eyes and shook her head. “I’m glad I could help.”

“You did.” He smiled. “I can finally let it go.”

“Let what go?”

He looked at her. “The anger. I’ve lived with it for so long. I didn’t think I would ever be without it.” His eyes shone in the moonlight. “You freed me from myself.”

“I’m just so happy it’s over.”
She hesitated. “It is over, isn’t it?”

Johnny nodded. “Yes, I have
had my revenge. Those responsible are dead.”

Ana shook her head. “Not Randy
Dicen,” she said.

He sighed, turning his head to peer over the pond. “There are many forms of de
ath. I have seen him and he is not living. I watched him die years ago. Sometimes, I wonder if maybe he died with me that night.”

“He asked if you would forgive him,” she said, remembering Randy
Dicen’s final words to her.

Johnny shook his head. “No.”

“But it’s been—”

He
looked at her, the slivers of ice carving into her. “He must never stop suffering for what he did.”

Ana shuddered. “You killed Vinny. Should you suffer—?”

“I have already paid my due!” he barked. “That boy should never have been here. I mistook him for his father. He had the knife.” He paused to look out over the pond. “I regret hurting Kristen, but nothing else.”

Ana frowned. “Why would Vinny come with the knife on him?”

Johnny’s lips curled back over his teeth in a sneer. “Because he is his father’s son and it is in him to flaunt materialistic garbage. I take no blame for what happened to him.”

Ana gasped. “He had done nothing wrong. He was innocent.”

“None of them are innocent, Ana. The entire town is infested with venomous snakes just waiting to strike.”

She stared at him, not believing what she
heard. “You’re from this town.”

“Yes
, and not a single person lifted a finger to search for me. Not one of them questioned why I would leave when my whole life was here. They accepted my disappearance and went on to live their lives.”

“Then why didn’t you kill them sooner?” she demanded. “You can clearly leave the house, why didn’t you just push Andrews down the stairs or something?
Or better yet, why didn’t you come to me like this instead of scaring the shit out of me?”

“
I couldn’t. My powers were limited and I could only use them in short bursts. It took most of my strength to show you my memories. My encounter with the younger Andrews was even worse. I would have been there sooner had my display to your parents not zapped me. And I have no power outside of the house. On the outside, I can show myself only to the people of the house. It’s how no one but you could see me. I am tied here.”

“But you showed yourself to my parents,” she reminded him.

He nodded. “To help you. I couldn’t risk having you leave when you were so close. I hoped that by showing myself to your parents, you could stay and finish. But I wouldn’t have been able to do that outside these walls.”

“But the yard—”

“Is part of the house,” he interrupted.

Ana sighed. “So what happens now?”

Johnny turned his body to fully face her. “Now I leave. This home and this place are no longer mine. I am no longer tethered to it.” He leaned in and lightly brushed his lips to her cheek. “Thank you, Ana French, for believing in me.”

Ana bolted upright, the fading
linger of Johnny’s kiss still tingling on her cheek. Her neck panged in protest as she straightened in her seat, rubbing the spot his cold lips had touched. The weight she’d felt since the move no longer stooped her shoulders and she inhaled deeply for the first time. And grimaced when, instead of freedom and flowers, all she smelled was pine floor cleaner and disinfectant.

“
Ana?” Beside her, Rafe touched her knee, drawing her fully back to the present and the cramped little waiting room at the hospital.

She straightened in her chair,
the icy cold grip of fear reclaiming her. She turned her head towards the opening, hoping someone would be there to tell her how her father was. No one was there. Nurses and doctors rushed by but not one of them knew.

She bit her lip and glanced at Rafe. “Anything?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. They took him to recovery an hour ago. We should be hearing something soon.”

“
How long was I asleep for?”

He shrugged. “Not long. You looked like you needed it.”

She had, but it hadn’t helped anything. It hadn’t made time go by faster. She still had no news if her father would make it or not.

“Hey.” He lightly shook her knee. “It’s going to be okay. The doctors already told us the knife missed all the important stuff.”

Ana shook her head, her eyes filling up all over again. She’d been so certain she had no more tears to cry. “It’s my fault. I didn’t pick him. I could have—”

“We would still be here, or worse.” He took her face into
his hands and forced her to look at him. “You saved your mom’s life.”

“And
I only had to throw my dad under the bus to do it.” Her lower lip trembled and her voice broke. “I’m the worst daughter in the world.”

He pulled her into his arms, letting her sob into his shoulder as he lightly stroked her hair and back. He murmured a series of words in Spanish that
would have been beautiful had her heart not been breaking so loudly.

“Let me take you home,” he said, switching to English.

Ana shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere until I hear that my dad’s going to be okay.”

Rafe nodded. “Fair enough.” He
drew back to wipe her cheeks. “So do you want to tell me what were you dreaming about?”

She sniffled, eyebrows furrowing
. “How did you know I was dreaming?”

He grinned. “Because you were mumbling in your sleep.”

Ana flushed, dropping her gaze. “It was Johnny. He was saying goodbye.”

“About time,” he muttered,
as he folded his arms behind his head and leaned back in the chair. “I was beginning to really hate sharing you with the guy, even if he was dead.”

Despite everything, she
laughed. “He was never competition against you.”

He turned his head and searched her eyes. “Wasn’t he?”

She shook her head. “Not even for a second. I wanted you from the moment I first met you.”

He smirked. “I know. Ow!” He rubbed the spot beneath his arm where she’d jabbed him with her finger.
“God you’re violent. What did I tell you? I bruise easily!”

She rolled her eyes, chuckling. “And you’re such a dork.”

“Possibly, but you love me.” He said it lightly, but there was an intense questioning in his eyes that compelled her to respond.

Her heart slammed in her chest
. She felt blood pool in her cheeks. “Not nearly as much as you love me,” she replied, her voice wavering.

His arms slid down and dropped into his lap. He rested his elbow on the armrest separating them and leaned towards her. “
I won’t argue that.”

He kissed her. He was still slowly stealing every drop of sense from her brain when they were interrupted by a discreet cough.

Ana shot straight out of her chair, expecting it to be a doctor or her mother bearing news. Instead, it was Sheriff Drewer with his cowboy hat in hand and a very remorseful look on his haggard face. He glanced from one to the other, his expression void of its usual arrogance. Ana’s heart sunk so far down her chest, she half expected it to be at her feet.

“My dad … is he…
?”

Drewer put one hand up, shaking his head. “I don’t have any news. I’m not here about that.
”

Behind her, Rafe rose to his feet. His hand slipped into Ana’s. “Has something else happened?”

Drewer cleared his throat. “We’ve taken Mayor Andrews into custody. He’s not saying a whole lot, except for the same two words over and over again.”

“What two words?” Ana asked.

He cleared his throat again. “He’s alive.” He glanced from one to the other. “You kids wouldn’t happen to know what he’s talking about, would you?”

Ana exchanged a quick glance with Rafe before facing the sheriff once more. “I … we think he believed he was see
ing the spirit of Johnny Baits.”

Drewer frowned. “Johnny Baits? The runaway boy? Why would he be seeing him?”

Ana had already thought of what she would tell the police. It was a concoction of the truth mixed with a pinch of lie. She just hoped her face didn’t give her away.

“Johnny Bait never ran away,” she told him. “He was murdered on October thirty
-first, nineteen eighty-three by Philip Andrews, Nathan Finnegan, Randy Dicen and Peter Carrick in the basement of Johnny’s … my house. They then buried him in the pond out back.”

Sheriff Drewer shook his head. “No, that can’t be right. My pa closed that case. There was evidence—”

Ana shook her head. “They planted it. They took a suitcase of his clothes and buried it with him to make it look like he took off. Then the four of them found out I was digging up the truth, they started terrorizing me and my family, and Rafe and his family. They’re the ones who have been vandalizing our houses. They paid a bunch of kids to distract us while they broke into the house and held us hostage. Andrews stabbed my father!”

Rafe squeezed her fingers when she started shouting, but she couldn’t stop.

“All that time we were under attack but you did nothing. You were too busy blaming us for something we didn’t do. My father could die because you didn’t want to do your job!”

“Ana.” Rafe pressed his lips to her temple. “Easy, baby.”

Breathing hard and on the verge of tears, Ana ignored him. “Why are you here, Sheriff? Are you going to tell us you think we’re the prime suspects? Maybe Rafe killed Finnegan in a fit of jealousy, too.”

Drewer
had the decency to bow his head and look down at the hat in his hands. “No ma’am, I was actually here to ask you what happened.”

Ana snorted. “What do you care? You’re just going to fabric
ate it to suit your theory anyway.”

He looked at her. “
Because I have a beloved principle in the morgue, a trusted and respected mayor in the nuthouse and a murder spanning three decades, and in the center of all that is you. I want the truth.”

She wanted to tell him he wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him on the nose, but she was done. She wanted it to be done. She wanted t
o forget the last three months and the faster she told him the story, the faster that could happen.

“Andrews killed Finnegan,” she mumbled, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. “He
kept saying he saw Johnny and that he was back from the grave. Finnegan tried to tell him there was no one there, but Andrews just kept screaming. Then he stabbed Finnegan in the chest and ran into the basement, calling Johnny’s name. That’s when we called you.”

Drewer nodded.
“That’s where we found him. He was huddled in the corner, completely unharmed except for a broken nose. The knife we took out of Nathan Finnegan’s chest has been identified as the weapon used to kill Vincent Andrews. Do you know anything about that?”

“It was a family heirloom,” Ana said, sinking into her chair. “
Andrews had given it to Vinny on his seventeenth birthday as his father had done before him. I’d never seen it before last night when Andrews used it to stab my father and nearly kill my mother. But he told us it was the knife he’d used to kill Johnny.”