Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (50 page)

I inhaled slowly. Again and again and again. Sucking down the cold air and trying to shake off the dread that flooded through my body.

I glanced back at the glow of the numbers on the alarm clock.

2:23

It had just been a dream, the nightmare that was haunting me, the one that I brought back from the island where I had been held prisoner. The dreams were all the same. I was in water, swimming hard and fast away from the house and out into the large, black swells of the Pacific. I was tired, my strength leaking away with each stroke. Then I couldn’t go any farther, couldn’t force my arms and legs to move and I started sinking down into the watery darkness, staring up at the bright sunlight above me while I held my breath.

“Take a breath, Abby,” he said, his voice soft and sweet like a daffodil opening in the warm spring sun. “Die, and then I will bring you back.”

He floated above me through the waves of water and light, those intense cat eyes, dancing with excitement.

I shuddered and rubbed my arms as I remembered the dream, so vivid and clear and dark. I pushed my hair back behind my ears as I moved over toward my bed and sat down. I touched the clock on my nightstand. Touched my pillow. My blankets. I looked over at the desk and stared at my computer, a silver necklace wrapped around a picture frame.

These were all my things. I was in my own room.

I was home.

I put on my robe and wandered back over to the window and looked out at the yard lit up under a large, bright moon.

“Just a dream,” I said again. “I’m home.”

2:45

A thin moonbeam stretched across the floor. I sat at my desk looking at the small stuffed panda I won at a fair when I was little, the Messi poster hanging on the wall, the Barcelona soccer scarf wrapped around my bedpost. On my bulletin board was the Kathleen Edwards ticket from the concert I went to a few years ago, pinned up next to my high school diploma.

During the day, I walked by all these things, not noticing them, not even thinking about them. In the daylight, they gathered dust. But now, in the dark hours before dawn, I realized how much they meant.

3:13

The noise startled me.

I went over and closed the window quickly, pushing down the lock. I looked out, searching for some movement as I tried to steady my breathing.

It could have been a lot of things. The deer that sometimes ate from the neighbor’s bird feeder, the cat two houses over that prowled around in the early morning hours, the wind blowing through the chimes. I stayed there, watching the night, until all the silhouettes made sense.

I stayed there at the window for a while. A long while, until I was sure nothing was there.

3:50

I left the light off in the bathroom, splashed cold water on my face and caught my reflection and gasped.

In the faint light, I looked like a ghost.

I stared back at the dead girl in the mirror.

5:44

I pulled the thick, white comforter around me. It made me feel safe as I listened to the groans and creaks of the house against the wind, vigilant for anything that didn’t belong.

But there was nothing. I yawned, resting my head on the pillow, and waited.

The bittersweet light of dawn filtered through the curtains, taking me down through the layers of dreams, finally ushering me back into the illusive world of sleep.

CHAPTER 2

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Subaru pull up into the parking lot and squeeze into the last empty space.

“Abby Craig!” David yelled from behind the espresso machine, startling me. “Yo sista’s in da house.”

Kate had gotten in the habit of stopping in at Back Street Coffee a few times during the week when I was working. I knew she was checking up on me because she liked Thump Coffee better. But I didn’t mind and I usually tried to take my breaks with her.

I finished taking the order from the woman with dark hair and thin lips and handed back her change. The next customer, a regular who always had tired eyes and a loosened tie, wanted a large black coffee so I poured it myself and handed it to him.

“Thanks,” he said, throwing a dollar bill in the tip jar.

A loud eruption of laughter shot through the window. I looked over at the small group huddled together outside, standing in a circle. They were young and looked like they had come back from the mountain, dressed in parkas and beanies pulled tight down around their long hair that stuck out in strands. Even though it was April, it was still pretty cold. Snow was in the forecast for the city. But the sun was strong and people liked being outside around the metal tables and chairs while they soaked in the icy rays.

Kate came through the door and headed straight for the last empty table in the back. Her hair bounced a little as she waved at me. She was wearing her new Frye boots and they pounded on the wood floors as she walked through the crowd. I looked over at David, who had been staring at her feet.

“Cowgirl in the house,” he said as he pulled a shot of espresso.

He walked away from the counter and moved quickly in her direction. Back Street Coffee didn’t have waiters but ever since she had used a few of David’s quotes in a story she had written about the Tower Theatre, Kate was his new best friend.

Mo, short for Maureen, sighed loudly from behind a thick band of steam rising up toward the ceiling and moved over to the machine that David had abandoned. I helped the large guy wearing a Red Sox baseball cap and called out the order. Mo didn’t look up or acknowledge what I had said, like always, but I watched her reach for the nonfat milk and knew that she had heard me.

“It’ll be just a moment,” I told him and he moved down and waited in front of Mo, staring at her tattoos.

Kate set her things down and wandered back up and said hello while David walked over to the bar to start her drink.

“Hey,” I said. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” she said, her eyes scanning the large glass case filled with pastries. “You?”

“Good, too.”

“And I’ll take one of those,” she said, pointing to a blueberry scone. Then she lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “Your friend over there is sure, well, friendly.”

“I think you mean
our
friend,” I said. “So how long do you have today?”

“Not too long,” she said, running her fingers through her hair. “I’ve got to cover a press conference at two. But can you take a break? I need to talk to you.”

“Yeah. I’ll let Mike know.”

David handed Kate her drink in a large, white ceramic mug. She smiled after she looked at it and I knew that he had put a chocolate powder heart on top of the white foam. He did that for his special customers.

“I’ll be over there working,” she said. I handed her the scone and she walked away.

Lately when Kate said she needed to talk to me, it just meant one thing. The investigation. But I didn’t really want to talk about it, not here at work anyway and not on my break. But she never understood that. Whenever she heard something, she always wanted to tell me immediately. She was thinking I was like her, that I also had that same anger burning deep inside and that I would want to know about any new developments right away. She was on the phone regularly with the special agent in charge of my case, checking for updates even though they said they would call when they had anything new to report.

She thought it would bring me comfort. That the case was moving along. That progress was being made.

But mostly I didn’t care. I mean, sure, I wanted those people to pay for what they did to me. It was wrong. I knew it wasn’t altogether realistic, but I wanted to get on with my life. And as impossible as it was, I wanted to forget about Nathaniel Mortimer and his band of ghouls.

It had been just over five months since I was rescued from a private island in the Puget Sound, since Kate and Dr. Mortimer and a small group of security agents found me locked away in a house.

Charges had been pressed against the four members of Nathaniel’s crew who had been captured, including Simon. The FBI didn’t come out and say as much, but Kate suspected that Simon ended up confessing and cut a deal with the authorities, agreeing to testify against the others. But everything was moving slowly and we were told that the trial was still several months away.

Fortunately, the police and the Bureau had seen fit to keep my name out of their press releases and statements. So when the story hit the newspapers and went viral, no one knew that I was involved. And it was a big story. Pretty much everything except for my identity had come out. It went national, all the major newspapers and news shows talking about how a girl had been kidnapped by a group of crazy doctors who thought they had found an antidote for death.

About how two of the scientists had escaped.

And about how one man had killed his insane brother.

It was a circus and I was lucky not to be a part of it. But once I testified, all that would change. My identity would no longer be protected. My days were numbered. My life as a Frankenstein experiment would soon be exposed. It was coming, possibly as soon as winter.

Kate said she didn’t have any mixed feelings having to sit on such a huge story. But I told her that as long as other people were going to eventually be telling the story and attaching my name to it, she should too.

“We’ll deal with that when it happens,” she said.

“You might want to start writing it now,” I said. “It could be, what do you call that? Oh, yeah, first person. And be a series. I know you’d do a great job. And you’d get all the facts right.”

“Yeah, it’s got Pulitzer written all over it,” she had said sarcastically.

“I’m serious,” I said.

But for now, I took refuge in the anonymity. For now, I had spring and summer. Maybe even fall.

For now, I could slip back into my life. Play soccer, work at the coffee house, hang out with Ty. Be a river guide in the summer. Go to concerts.

A few more people wandered in from outside and I quickly walked over to David.

“I’m going to take a break,” I told him.

“Sure you are,” he said, taking over the register.

“Thanks.”

I liked working with David and was always happy when I saw his name on the schedule next to mine.

I walked toward the back room, meeting Mo’s eyes for a second as she brewed a new pot of the house blend. She didn’t say anything, as usual. It didn’t matter how cold it was, she always wore the same kind of tank top under her apron, which exposed her tattoo-covered arms. And no matter how hard I tried, I always stared at the dark ink that shot up toward her shoulders, stopping myself only after I saw the large cross or the guitar.

I found Mike in the back, behind the shelves.

“I’m gonna take my break now, if that’s okay,” I said.

I tried to talk softly, so I wouldn’t startle him because it was always easy to scare people in the back room. It was dark and the strong aromas and all those beans seemed to muffle the noise so you never knew if somebody was coming.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, jumping awkwardly. “Of course. It must be time. I’ll come up front and help cover the counter.”

Mike was short and thin, with light hair and a small goatee that he often stroked when he seemed to be thinking about something. His energy was calm and he was soft spoken, no matter how loud it got.

“How’s it been out there?” he asked, adjusting his silver-rimmed glasses. I heard Diana Krall playing on the stereo and knew David must have put the music on for Kate.

“Busy,” I said. “As usual.”

“Good,” he said, dropping a dark apron over his head. “That’s how we like it.”

I was glad he wanted me to return to work after I got back to Bend. I never told him the specifics of what had really happened, but when I got home, I emailed him, telling him that a family emergency had forced me to leave town suddenly. I was surprised at his reaction. The next week I was back on the schedule like nothing had ever happened.

When we walked out, a long line stretched all the way to the door. I hesitated.

“We got it,” Mike said. “Enjoy your break, Abby.”

Back Street Coffee had become the new hot spot in Bend. When I had started working, mostly it was full of snowboarders and skiers coming home after their runs. It was the kind of place Jesse and I would have come to after a good morning on the mountain. But in the last few months, word had spread how amazing the coffee was, and now all sorts of people came in. Business people, court people, cyclists, workers from downtown. Business was so good that Mike told us that they were thinking of opening another store. 

I poured a small cup of freshly brewed coffee, adding in lots of cream, and then headed over toward Kate.

CHAPTER 3

“We could go outside if you want,” Kate asked, closing her laptop and pushing it to the far corner of the table.

“This is fine,” I said. “Besides, it’s crowded out there, too. And cold.”

I couldn’t wait until summer, when the sun had warmth to it and I could get back to T-shirts and shorts. Sometimes the cold weather lasted too long. I always felt that way in the spring. It took forever to transition into warm days.

“It’s always so busy in this place,” she said, staring at the group of six women at the table next to us. They worked at the bank. “I feel lucky to be able to just find an empty seat.”

“Oh, you’ll never have a problem with that as long as David is around,” I said. “He’ll kick someone out for you.”

She smiled and pulled up her hair, tying it in a loose knot behind her head.

She drained her cup and squinted at the sun that was now streaming in through the window. I brought down the blinds a little and sat down again, leaning back in the wobbly plastic chair, studying her as she looked around. Her eyes were large and jittery, like she hadn’t been sleeping much either.

“Any plans this weekend?” I asked, stirring my coffee and then taking a sip. It was still too hot to drink.