Deadly Obsession (A Brown and de Luca Novel Book 4) (13 page)

He turned the Beast around and started for home.

* * *

Jeremy had been second-guessing himself ever since his mom had shown up at the farmhouse shortly after Mason and Rachel had left on their date. He was sure he’d made a huge mistake coming with her, but she hadn’t given him a choice. Even in hindsight, he couldn’t come up with a way to get out of it.

She’d knocked on the front door barely a half hour after Mason and Rachel had left, and when he went and opened it, he had so many reactions all at once that he still hadn’t sorted them out. But despite everything, she was his mother. And his first reaction had been a surge of gladness to see her that had brought tears springing to his eyes.

He hugged her, and she melted against him, laying her head on his chest and whispering, “Oh, Jeremy, Jeremy, my Jeremy, I’ve missed you so much.” She was shaking all over, as if she was very cold, and she was bone thin. He could feel her shoulder blades and her ribs.

He heard a soft gasp and knew that Josh had come into the kitchen behind him. His mom heard it, too, and she lifted her head and looked around Jeremy, then stepped out of his embrace and opened her arms.

Josh ran right into them, shouting “Mom!”

Jeremy looked down at her as she hugged his brother. She wore scrubs, like a nurse would wear, and as he glanced past her to see if she was alone he saw a blue compact car in the driveway, a Focus, he thought.

She was sniffling, wiping away tears as she straightened up. “I need you guys to come with me. I need to talk to you.” She took Joshua’s hand and started out the front door, and Josh went right with her.

Jeremy grabbed his brother by the arm and stopped him. “We can’t leave, Mom. Uncle Mason will be right back.”

“Don’t lie to your mother, Jeremy. He’s out for the evening. And you’re not safe here alone.”

“Yes, we are. We’re fine, Mom, it’s—”

“No. No you’re not. There’s something you don’t know. She’s after you. She’s going to hurt you. And it’s going to be now. Tonight.”

“Who?”

She muttered something that sounded like “the demon” but then bit her lip and averted her eyes. “Your uncle is in danger, too. We have to help him, don’t you understand? But first we have to make sure you’re safe.”

In the distance, headlights approached.

“Oh, God, she’s coming! Hurry! Hurry!” She gripped Josh again and ran for the car. Josh looked back helplessly, with a “What do I do?” expression on his face.

Jeremy ran after them, leaving the front door open behind him, but he kept one eye on the oncoming car as it passed. It didn’t seem like anything other than an ordinary driver just passing by. His mother shoved Josh into the backseat and slammed the door closed.

“Mom, wait!”

“There’s no time to wait. Jeremy, come with me.
Please
, come with me now. I promise I’m telling you the truth.” She raced around the car while she was talking and dove behind the wheel. The engine was still running. She’d never shut it off.

She put the little car into gear, and it began to move.

Jeremy ran as hard as he could, got hold of the door handle and yanked it open. His mother braked to a stop, and he got in. He didn’t see that he had a choice.

As his mother sped away, he looked back and saw Myrtle standing inside, her paws on one of the windowsills, staring toward them even though she couldn’t see, as if she sensed that something was terribly wrong.

He realized he didn’t have his cell phone. Dammit, he should at least have grabbed his phone.

His mother drove onto the highway. He noticed that the built-in GPS was smashed. He kept asking questions, begging her to take them back home or to the police station,
anywhere
, but she had tunnel vision. There was no getting through to her.

He was scared to death, and kept flashing back to Christmas and the people she had killed. He didn’t think she would ever hurt him and Josh, but how could he be sure? She’d almost killed Rachel. So he kept grasping at straws, coming up with any excuse he could think of to get her to stop somewhere. Anywhere. I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I need to use the bathroom. None of those worked, but when he noticed the needle pointing to E on the gas gauge it seemed like a miracle to him. And when he pointed it out to his mom, it worked. She pulled off the highway in Cortland to gas up, warning them not to get out of the car for any reason.

Jeremy didn’t want to antagonize her, but he was itching to grab his brother and make a run for it. Then he noticed a woman who was gassing up a minivan at the next pump over. She was visibly pregnant, and there were little kids in the van. He could see them bouncing and wiggling through the tinted windows. His mother’s back was to him, so he waved at the pregnant lady until he caught her attention. Then he cupped his hands, breathed on the window and quickly wrote H E L P backward in the fogged glass.

Her eyes widened, and she looked at him and then at his mother, then back at him again. He nodded hard and wiped the glass clean before his mom could see it. The lady nodded, he thought. It was very slight, but he saw her tip her head a little, and he was pretty sure she was looking at their license plate. Then she got back into her car and pulled away.

He hoped she’d understood. He hoped she was even now calling for help.

And then they were back on the road again, still heading north through the night. He had no idea how far his mom planned to take them, or where the hell she was going. He knew she was completely insane. But she was still his mother, and he knew in his heart that she loved him. And she loved Josh. He didn’t think she would hurt them.

God, he hoped not.

* * *

Never had my place seemed quite so much a haven as it did when we pulled through the gate that night. All the downstairs lights were on, and the house glowed like a beacon, guiding us in from a storm. There was a part of me that wished we could stay. Curl up on my overstuffed sofa, wrap ourselves tightly in the brown fake-fur throw I kept there, Mason on one side of me and Myrtle on the other, and just sleep the horror of this night away.

There had been a while there when we’d thought the boys were in that house, and when it collapsed...

That had been terrible. It had damaged us. Both of us. Because we’d felt the same trauma we would have felt if it had been true, and that kind of thing leaves a wound on your soul. Thank goodness the anguish hadn’t lasted very long. It could’ve been worse. But the damage was probably irreversible.

I’d have to explore that in a book sometime. The actual physical damage done to a person by emotional trauma. And how or whether it could be healed. My inner bitch filed it away for future consideration.

Misty ran ahead of us to the front door. My sister, Sandra, opened it before she got there and folded her daughter into her arms. Christy was right beside her mom, and they group-hugged their way into the living room, making room for Mason and me to walk in behind them.

Jim, Sandra’s husband, was right there, too, extending a hand and shaking Mason’s, then pulling him closer and clapping him on the back with the other. “Thank God the boys are all right,” he said. “How are you holding up? What can I do?”

Sandra released Misty to her twin and wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her back. “I’m okay, I’m okay. How’s Myrt?”

“Fine. She hasn’t let that puppy out of her sight since we got her home, though. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She pointed, and I saw Myrtle, curled up in her dog bed with the pup nestled in front of her sleeping. Myrtle was awake, looking my way, but not getting up to greet me. I went to her, got down on her level and hugged her. “She smells like smoke.” I sat up a little, and stared at her white fur in dawning horror. “Mason, she’s got soot on her face. She must’ve been inside when—”

“But she got out. And she’s okay,” he said softly.

Jim said, “We checked her thoroughly. The puppy, too. They don’t have any burns, no singed fur. We’d have woken up the vet if they had.”

“I’ve been listening to them breathing, too,” Christy put in. She was planning to enter nursing school after graduation. “I don’t think they inhaled any smoke.”

I leaned close to Myrt’s face, scratching her ears just the way she loved. “You’re okay, girl. And your boys are okay, too. I wish I could stay here and hug that great big scare away, but I have to go get ’em. Okay?”

She closed her eyes and pressed one ear against my scratching fingers. Then she changed her mind and offered the other ear. Hugo whimpered, and she pulled away from me and pushed her nose into him, nuzzling, checking.

“I thought you hated this little guy?” I asked her.

She lifted her sightless eyes toward me, and then she smiled. She smiled as if to say, “I’ve got my pup safe and sound. We’re good. Now go get yours.”

I kissed her face. “Thanks, Myrt.”

Then I left her, much as I hated to, and headed upstairs, Mason on my heels. We changed clothes at a speed that had to be some kind of a record, hurrying through my bedroom with our clothes flying off in all directions, like we hadn’t done in a while. And for all the wrong reasons this time.

“Thank God I’ve been leaving some things here.”

“Thank God the boys have, too. I think most of their stuff is probably still here.”

“It could’ve been worse.”

“Could’ve been
way
worse, Mason. We were freaking enchanted tonight. It’s like there’s some kind of protective bubble around us that lets shit get bad, but not
too
bad.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“It is,” I told him. “I don’t know why, but we always come out okay. The boys are safe. We’ll get ’em back.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close, him in fresh jeans but shirtless. Me in the same, plus a bra. “I couldn’t even begin to get through this without you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah. Same here. Fucking disgusting, isn’t it?”

“Beyond disgusting, yeah.” He kissed me hard, but way too briefly, and then we were pulling on our shirts. Mason donned his shoulder holster, and we started back down the stairs.

“Rachel?” Sandra sounded on edge.

I looked at her standing there at the bottom, waiting for us and scared to death. “We only came back to change clothes, Sandra. We have to go after the boys.”

“Rachel, you
can’t.
”

Jim put a hand on my sister’s shoulder. “We know you have to. I’ll go with you—”

“No,” Mason said. “I don’t know how bad Marie is, and—” He glanced quickly toward the twins. “I don’t want to see any more kids orphaned.” Mason looked at me. “And that means you should stay, too.”

“You couldn’t make me stay if you drugged me, tied me up and locked me in a room full of cheesecake, Mason. So let’s not waste time. You know me.”

He opened his mouth, but I locked on to his eyes. “You
know
me, Mason.”

Sighing, he nodded.

My sister moved aside to let us off the staircase, then got up close and put her hands on my face. “Do you
have
to go, Rache? After what she tried to do to you...”

“She’s medicated. She’s been getting treatment for six months.”

“She’s not medicated
now
, because she’s not in the hospital. Rachel, not six months ago she tried to
kill
you.”

“But she
didn’t
kill me. And she’s not going to. I can help him find the boys, sis. I have to go. If it were your kids and I could help, you’d want me to go, wouldn’t you? Well? Wouldn’t you?”

She nodded shakily and, head down, took two steps back, hands rag-dolling to her sides. She drew a shaky breath, then said, “Be careful, Rachel. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” But I didn’t hug her, because I was afraid she might not let go. She’d become half big sister, half mom when our parents had died on a second honeymoon so many years ago. She was still trying to protect me, and I was driving her nuts, what with my serial killers and psychopaths and sex slave traders. What with my partner, the homicide detective. What with my penchant for falling into one case after another like I was being pushed there. Like I was being led there. Like I was being
used
, somehow. God knew it wasn’t because I was a nice person. I didn’t aspire to become a crime fighter. I just wanted to stay the fuck home and write my bullshit-that-wasn’t-such-bullshit-after-all books. And love my man and his boys and my dog. Our dog. Dogs.

Damn, things had changed.

“I’ve gotta go, Sandy.” I hadn’t called her Sandy since we were kids.

It got to her. She wiped her nose and nodded. “I know.”

I hadn’t realized that Misty had left the room until she returned, my beer cooler in her hand. Don’t judge me. I got the damn thing free in a grocery store promotion and have used it twice in two years. Okay, maybe three times. Or four.

She handed it to me. “Some food for the road,” she said.

She’d been paying attention to our conversation on the way over after all.

I took it. Its weight made my stomach growl. “Thanks, honey. Don’t worry. We’ll bring them back. Both of them.”

“I know you will.”

Mason touched my arm. It was time. So we headed for the door with everyone telling us to be careful and be safe all at once. And then we were in the car, in the dark, heading for the highway, facing I didn’t know what.

It was, I thought, the perfect time for junk food, and I prayed my niece hadn’t given in to her health-nut tendencies and had been kind instead.

Oh, yeah. She had a heart of gold, my niece did. There were Doritos, ice-cold bottles of Coke and a stack of leftover pizza. Mmm, sausage and mushroom. This was gonna give me the strength to tackle whatever we were driving into tonight. So I dug in.

Until Mason elbowed me. “You gonna share or what?”

Smiling, probably with pizza sauce on my face, I handed him a slice.

Yes, I was smiling. I was forcing myself to believe the boys were still all right and not in imminent danger from their dangerously insane mother. But deep down, I knew they were. Every tick of the clock was another chance for something horrible to happen. Something tragic. Every second that passed, the nightmare images and fears were bubbling up from a deep, hellish pit inside me. And it had to be just as bad for Mason. Worse.