Wish You Were Here (19 page)

“
Okay.” Piper started toward the front door, then stopped and looked at Freya. “Would you come, too?”

“
Oh, honey, I can’t, I have to—” Freya cut herself off before she said “pack.” The kid had enough to think about right now. “I think it’s best if it’s just you and your dad on this one.”

Piper nodded,
then ran into the house. Freya sat outside staring at the horizon, swinging gently on the porch swing. In a few minutes, she was going to have to call on old Freya and shut herself down emotionally long enough to do what had to be done. She could pack while they were gone to see Nikkie, then have a quick goodbye and get on the road before nightfall. She knew it was what she needed to do in order to get her head on straight, and she knew it was probably the best thing for Nate and Piper as well. She was resigned to it; the decision had been made, and now it was just a matter of seeing it through. But for a few more minutes, she could sit and look at the beautiful landscape, and remember what it felt like to wake up in Nate’s arms, to sniff the clean strawberry scent of a little girl’s hair.

And
that’s exactly what she did.

***

“So,” Nate said, glancing at Piper in the passenger seat. “How are you doing?”

He
’d waited for her to start the conversation for almost the entire drive back, but she’d stayed quiet, just staring out the window. She’d spent less than five minutes with Nikkie, and from what Nate could see through the one-way glass, they hadn’t said much at all.

“
Pipes?”

She turned her head and looked at him.
“Sorry. What?”

“
Talk to me,” he said. “Tell me how you’re doing.”

“
I’m fine,” she said simply.

“
You don’t seem fine,” he said. “You’re pretty quiet.”

“
I’m just thinking.”

“
About what?”

“
I wished for my mom to come back,” she said. “On this magic Irish coin that Ruby gave me. And at first I thought it had gone all wrong, that I’d done it wrong, because she didn’t come back the way I wanted her to come back. But now I think it’s good.” She went quiet for a moment, then nodded. “I’m sorry she’s going to jail. She said she’d write me, though.”

“
Yeah?” Nate pulled up to the gate, reached out his window, and punched in his code. “So, you’re doing okay?”

Piper smiled at him.
“Yeah. I’m okay.”

The gate lifted and Nate drove down the dirt path toward their house, enjoying a momentary sense of peace until he saw Freya
’s rental car, the trunk open just enough for him to see the packed bags inside. He pulled up quietly next to the rental in the driveway, and Piper had her seatbelt off before he came to a full stop.

“
I’m gonna go play Playstation, okay?”

“
Yeah,” Nate said, still staring at Freya’s car. After a few minutes, he pulled the keys out and headed up to his room to face reality.

She was going.

He found Freya sitting on the edge of his bed, dressed in jeans and a light sweater, her rental keys in her hands and a flight pass printout sitting next to her on the bed. Nate stepped closer, angled his head to read it. Her flight to Boston left in eight hours.

“
Right,” he said.

“
Nate—”

He looked at her.
“It’s okay. I just thought...”

“
What? That I would change my mind?”

He looked at her and realized yes, that was exactly what he
’d thought. Dejected, he sat down on the bed next to her. “I thought there’d be more time.”

“
Oh,” she said, and he reached for her hand. She didn’t look at him, or even squeeze his fingers back. She just... allowed it.

“
I did want to talk to you,” he said after a moment, “before you went. Figure out what you wanted to do about this whole thing with Malcolm and your dad.”

“
There isn’t anything to talk about.” She pulled her hand from his and stood up, her expression oddly unemotional and businesslike. “Call the police, hand this whole mess over to them.”

“
I can’t,” he said. “Not yet.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because...” He stared at her, not sure how to process the sudden coldness coming off her. “If your father is involved... I mean, it’s your
father.
I can’t just hand everything over to the police, not without talking with you about it first, knowing how it’s going to affect you.”

She shrugged.
“Whatever he did is his responsibility. It’s not my problem. But Malcolm, out there on the loose, that’s a problem. Just call the police, give them the information Jake got for us, and if anyone needs to talk to me —” She grabbed a business card out of her purse, jotted something on the back. “The office number isn’t good anymore, but I put my home number and address on the back for you.”

He flipped the card over,
then looked up at her. “Okay.”

She shifted her eyes toward the door.
“I also, um, I had some ideas about what you might want to do with the place. You know, to make it profitable. I left a folder for you in your office, on the desk. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me.”

“
Feel free to...?” He stood up and stepped into her line of vision, forcing her to look at him. If she had to leave, fine, but he was damned if he was going to let her leave like this. “Freya, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“
Nothing.” She reached behind him and picked up her boarding pass from the bed. “I have a flight to catch, and it’s two and a half hours to Spokane, so...”

She put her hand on his shoulder, kissed him awkwardly on the cheek, and then started toward the door, but he grabbed her hand and she stopped, her eyes on the floor.

“Nate...” she said, almost in a whisper.

“
I’m not going to stop you,” he said. “I’m a man of my word. But you could at least look at me when you say goodbye.”

He watched her, waiting, and finally she raised her eyes to his. They were tired, cold, and dry. She squeezed his hand and let go.

“Goodbye.”

“
Dad, I think my stupid controller is broken,” Piper said, pushing the door to the room open. Freya turned and looked at Piper, who stared back at her.

“
What’s the matter?” Piper’s eyes went to the boarding pass in Freya’s hand, then back up to Freya. “You’re leaving?”

“
Yes,” Freya said. “I was just coming to get you to say goodbye.”

“
But... I thought you two...” She looked at Nate. “You didn’t tell me she was leaving.”

“
Piper,” he said quietly, “Freya needs to get going, so it’s best to get your goodbye in now.”

Piper
’s eyes went cold and she looked at Freya. “Fine. Bye.”

And she left the room, her feet pounding down the stairs.

Seventeen

Freya stood where she was, between Nate and the open door, feeling sick and weak and almost out of the cold, professional resolve she’d spent most of her morning working up. Across the hall, Ruby’s door opened, and she poked her head into Nate’s room and looked at Freya.

“
You told her?” Ruby asked.

“
Yes, she—” Freya began, but then the front door slammed shut.

“
Piper!” Nate shouted, but Ruby said, “I got it,” and started for the stairs.

“
Ruby,” Freya called, running down the steps after her, finally catching up at the front door. “Let me.”

Ruby took a moment,
then nodded. Freya went out the front door, tossed her purse and boarding pass into the open front window of her car, and watched as Piper grabbed her bike next to the office.

“
Piper!” she called, but Piper either didn’t hear her or ignored her. Freya ran to the office, grabbed the other bike, and made chase through the woods, gaining on Piper until they reached the lake. Piper threw her bike down on the ground and stamped out to the end of the dock. Freya leaned her bike against the shed and followed, settling down on the dock behind her.

“
Piper?” she said. “We need to get you back to the house, babe.”

“
I’m fine out here,” Piper said, her voice biting. “And don’t you have a plane to catch?”

Freya sighed.
“I don’t live here, Piper. I live in Boston.”

“
So?” Piper picked up a pebble on the dock and threw it into the water, where it skipped across the dark gray surface, mirroring the clouding sky. “You could move. People move. We moved.”

“
It’s not that simple,” Freya said.

“
What about Dad?” Piper shifted to look at Freya. “He loves you.”

“
He does not,” Freya said, lowering her eyes. “He just met me.”

“
So?” Piper said again. “I know my dad. He’s never looked at anyone the way he looks at you. He loves you, and you’re just going to leave.”

“
Look, Piper... your dad is amazing. He’s kind and smart and honorable, and he cares so much about you. You’re his world, and you’re lucky to have him. And this is hard to explain but...” She took a deep breath and looked at Piper. “Between the two of us, I don’t want to leave.”

Piper shifted around, hope on her face.
“Then why are you?”

Freya went quiet for a long moment, staring out at the water.
“People... people are made certain ways, okay? Like your mom, you know? Just... people are flawed. And they need to understand their flaws before they can inflict them on other people.” Freya shook her head and let out a heavy breath. “Okay. See, it’s like this—”

“
You don’t even know why you’re leaving,” Piper said.

“
No, I do. I know why. I just... it’s complicated, and hard to explain.”

Piper shot her a cold look over her shoulder.
“If you had a good reason, it wouldn’t be that hard to explain.”

“
It’s... complicated,” Freya said lamely.

They sat in silence for a while, then Freya caught a shadow moving in the woods and she tensed, her heart pounding as she thought of Malcolm. She was about to grab Piper
’s arm and make a run for it when Ruby emerged from the path, and Freya relaxed.

Piper looked up, following Freya
’s eyeline, then looked at Freya and sighed. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

Freya shook her head.

“No,” she said, “but I think you should go with Ruby.” She scanned the rest of the woods surrounding the lake, and saw nothing, but she still felt on edge. If Malcolm was out there, she wasn’t going to feel comfortable until Piper was safe at the house. “Go on.”

“
What about you?” Piper asked.

Freya stared out at the water.
“I need to think for a minute.”

“
Are you still leaving?”

Freya stayed quiet, not wanting to answer. She just wasn
’t sure anymore, about anything. Which was part of the reason she wanted to go home, but now...

“
Hey.”

Freya looked up to see Piper reaching into her front pocket. She pulled out a small
purple velvet pouch. She held it in her hands for a moment, then opened it and took out a coin, which she handed to Freya.

Freya twirled it in
her hand; it was an Irish half-crown. “Where’d you get this?”

“
It’s a magic wishing coin,” Piper said. “What you do is you face east”—she pointed across the lake—“and you close your eyes and hold it over your heart and you make a wish. But the wish has to be really good, something you want more than anything, not like money or that some stupid team wins the World Series. It has to be important. Then you put it back in the pouch and keep it with you until it comes true.”

“
Wow,” Freya said, handing it back to her. “That’s pretty cool.”

Piper didn
’t take it. “I want you to have it.”

She held the little
pouch out for Freya. Freya took it carefully. “Are you sure? Magic coins don’t come around every day.”

Piper held Freya
’s eye. “Make a wish. See what happens.”

Freya smiled, holding the coin in her hands.
“Thanks.”

At the path from the woods, Ruby stepped out, her arms crossed over her stomach, her stance protective and ready to pounce. Freya patted Piper on the knee.

“Go on with Ruby,” Freya said.

Piper stood up.
“You coming?”

Freya smiled.
“In a minute.”

“
Okay.” Piper got up and started down the dock. Freya watched as she joined Ruby and disappeared into the woods, which were getting darker by the minute as the clouds above darkened, matching her mood. She stared down at the coin in her hand, wondering...

The wish has to be really good,
she heard Piper’s voice saying.
It has to be important.

What do I have to lose?
She closed her eyes, put the coin over her heart, and made her wish.

“
Talk about the luck of the Irish.”

Freya
’s eyes flew open and she scurried to her feet to find a stocky, white-haired man standing behind her in a tweed coat with patches on the elbows, and a shot of fear coursed through her.

“
You’ve got your mother’s eyes,” Malcolm Brody said as he moved closer. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

***

Nate watched from his bedroom window as Ruby walked back up the path with Piper in tow, breathing a sigh of relief as he heard the front door shut behind them downstairs. He kept his eye on the path from the lake; no Freya. He pulled back from the window.

She probably just wanted some time alone, and if that
’s what she needed, he was going to give it to her. Judging by the sky, it was going to rain soon; she’d be back before it did. He’d get a chance to talk to her again.

Just give her some space,
he thought, but doing nothing was making him crazy, so after a few minutes of pacing, he went to Piper’s door and knocked.

“
Come in,” she called.

He poked his head in to see her bent over her desk, head half hanging out the window, the sound of clanging metal suddenly reverberating through the room.

“Piper?”

She pulled back in and looked at him, smiling, as the clanging quieted down.
“Hey, Dad. Check it out.”

He stepped in and looked at the window. Over the sill were the hooks of a metal fire escape ladder. He poked his head out and saw the dangling chains and rods still swinging by the side of the house. He pulled back in and smiled at her.
“Smart kid.”

“
Ruby told me it wasn’t safe for me to sleep with the fire extinguisher, so she found these in the attic.” She motioned to three boxes sitting next to the wall of her room. “There’s another one for your room, and for Ruby’s, and one for the bathroom.”

“
Good to know.” Nate sat down on the bed next to his daughter. “So, how are you doing?”

“
Okay. I wish she wasn’t going, though.”

“
Yeah,” Nate said. “Me, too.”

“
Do you think maybe we can go visit Freya in Boston?”

Nate stared down at his feet.
“That’d be up to her.” He looked at Piper and smiled. “But yeah. Sure.”

“
Good.” She smiled back. Nate pushed up from the bed and went to the window.

“
Do you love her?”

He turned around.
“What?”

“
Freya,” Piper said. “I told her you loved her and she said you didn’t and I think I’m right. Am I right?”

Nate took a breath.
“It’s complicated. I like her a lot. I don’t want her to go.”

“
Well, maybe she won’t go,” Piper said. “Or maybe, if she does, she’ll come back.”

Nate stared out the window at the path from the woods, which was still quiet, with no sign of Freya.
“That’s what I’m hoping for, kid.” He turned to face his daughter, and in that moment, she wasn’t a kid anymore. He saw the woman she’d become just for a moment, just for a flash, and his heart clenched.
Not enough time.
He had to look away, and so he shifted his gaze out the window.

“
You think I should go down after her?”

Piper thought for a moment, angling her head to the side, then said,
“Give her a little while. She has to come back for her car. You can talk to her then.”

Nate smiled; he had raised a smart kid. And if Freya needed space, he needed to give it to her. Crowding her would only make her run faster.

“When did you get so smart, anyway?” he asked.

“
I’ve always been smart,” Piper said. “Duh.”

***

“Get a load of this,” Freya said, looking around the dank old RV as she stepped inside. “If it isn’t Hell’s Winnebago.”

Behind her Malcolm pushed the gun into the center of her back and she stumbled inside and turned on him.

“Watch it,” she said.

Malcolm smirked,
checking his cheap digital watch. “I’m an hour early, but I could hardly pass up the opportunity, could I? Richard Daly’s eldest, sitting out at the end of the dock, like ripe fruit just waiting to be plucked.” He smiled at her. “Can I offer you a bit of Irish whiskey?”

Freya stared at him. On the one hand, drinking with the man who had almost killed her, and probably still wanted to,
didn’t seem like a great strategy. On the other hand... keep all negotiations friendly. And hostage situations, like real estate transactions, were just another negotiation.

“
Jameson’s?” she asked.

Malcolm pulled a bottle out from inside the tiny oven and held it out for her.
“Tullamore Dew.”

“
Eh.” She shrugged and sat down at the tiny kitchenette table. “What the hell, right?”

“
That’s what I say,” Malcolm said. He grabbed two short rocks glasses from a cabinet over the sink, set them down on the table, and poured two fingers of whiskey into hers. Then he went into the mini-fridge, pulled out a Coke, and poured that into his.

“
You’re not drinking?” Freya asked.

“
Not yet.” He held up his glass for a toast. “May we get what we want, may we get what we need—”

Freya raised her glass.
“—but may we never get what we deserve.”

They drank and Malcolm eyed her for a moment.
“Your father teach you that one?”

“
My name’s Daly and I grew up in Boston,” she said. “I learned that one doing Yoo Hoo shooters in nursery school.”

Malcolm motioned toward the bottle.
“Would you like another?”

Freya looked at him; maybe he
’d be easier to handle if he had a few. “I would, but I don’t like drinking alone. Are you sure you won’t join me?”

“
Sorry,” he said. “Need to keep my head. But you’re welcome to as much as you want. I have a feeling things are going to get rather unpleasant this afternoon.” He refilled his glass with Coke. “Please, understand it’s nothing personal. Not against you, anyway. You simply had the sad misfortune of being born to a right son of a bitch.”

“
It happens.” Freya sat back. Malcolm was short, with a round face and ruddy, Irish cheeks. He had a bald spot and a bulb nose that had reddened, most likely, from years of drinking. He didn’t look that dangerous, but he’d set her on fire, and as long as he had that gun, she guessed she’d best take him seriously.