Games of Fire (52 page)

Sophie wanted to ask why the other woman hadn’t changed everything after Mark and Jackie divorced. Didn’t most women try to erase all remains of the former wife? But the house hadn’t been touched. Jackie was in every part of it, right down to the children and peach infested room.

“Thank you,” she said instead.

Janice smiled. “I’ll come get you in a little bit for lunch,
all right?”

Sophie nodded, watching the woman hobble out of the room. She paused on the threshold though and glanced back. “Sophie?”

“Yes?”

She seemed to hesitate. “Think of this place as yours, all right? You’re welcome here.”

Touched, Sophie opened her mouth to respond, but Janice was gone.
Strange family,
she thought, turning back to the room. She honestly had no idea what to make of them. There were so many layers, so many unanswered questions and too many toes just waiting to be treaded on. It would probably best to just bide her time, wait for the police to find the assholes doing this and then she can go home. Her home.

“You again.”

Sophie started, not expecting anyone to be darkening her doorway. She turned and stiffened. “Jamie.”

He leaned against the doorframe, hands lost in the pockets of his trousers. His hair was ruffled as if it had seen abuse under anxious hands. He looked rumpled and sleep deprived. There was a healthy beard growing around his jaw and his eyes were bloodshot and weary. He looked so far beyond the clean, handsome man she’d seen only days ago trying to flirt with her on school grounds.

“What do you want?” she demanded, setting her duffle down and folding her arms.

He put his hands up. “Easy, kitten.
Sheath the claws. I’m not here to cause trouble.” He snorted. “But I’m sure that won’t stop you from running off and opening your mouth.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You!” He jabbed a finger at Sophie. “Told Aimee I hit on you. That’s why she left. This is your fault!”

“You
were
hitting on me!” she countered.

“So?” He nearly toppled over when he threw his arms open wide. “Nothing happened! No one got hurt. You didn’t have to tell her!
”

“She attacked me! Your girlfriend is crazy!”

“You should have kept your mouth shut!”

“Get out!”

His eyes flashed. “This is my house!” But he tumbled out of her room. She could hear him muttering all the way down the corridor, hitting walls along the way. A door opened and then slammed shut. It was followed by a thud that nearly made her wince.

She was still standing there, scowling at the empty doorway when Spencer stepped into the room. He raised both eyebrows at her furious expression.

“The peaches aren’t that bad, are they?”

Sophie blinked, mentally shaking herself. “The peaches are fine.”

He walked over to her and lightly caressed her arms. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s just been a very long few weeks.”

He nodded solemnly, but changed the topic. “Have you been given a tour of the place?” At the shake of her head, he took her hand and led her into the hall. He pointed down towards the far end. “Bathroom. Hallway closet. Dad’s bedroom. Jamie’s room. Suzy’s room. My room. Your room and stairs.”

She laughed at his quick upstairs tour. He grinned, leading her downstairs. He showed her the main floor, but she’d
seen most of it already. Along the hallway off the kitchen was the laundry room, a pantry and another guestroom—thankfully void of peaches. There was a stairway into the basement, but Sophie assured him she didn’t need a tour of that place. In the end, they wound up in the sitting room once more.

“And that is it,” he announced at last.

That was it? That was his entire childhood home? Where were the memories? The good times? The place he scraped his knee because he was roller skating in the house, or the little marks along the doorframe where his mother measured his height growing up? Then it hit her. He didn’t want to show her those things. In his mind, this place wasn’t his home anymore. All those memories of joy and happiness had been irrevocably tarnished by Janice’s presence. By his father’s betrayal. By Aimee’s lingering imprint. Her heart hurt for him, but she kept a smile on her face when he turned to her.

“So what’s to do around here?” she asked.

He grinned. “I could teach you how to play a decent video game.”

She tried to be offended, but what was the point? He was right. She sucked at video games. “I could have been practicing since our last battle.”

His eyebrow lifted, oozing with doubt. “Really?”

“Yeah, really!” she answered with more bravado than she felt.

He bowed at the waist, motioning with his arms towards the TV in the sitting room. “After you.”

Not eager to fail miserably so quickly, she glanced around. “Can I call my parents first? I want to—”

“You know they told us not to,” he reminded her and her shoulders sagged.

“Oh right.”

He touched her arm. “Come on. I’ll show you how to kill zombies.”

The game ended before she even had the chance to move her character forward across the vast expensive of concrete. It looked like a school courtyard. There were basketball hoops and a big, red bricked building. But the entire place was crawling with bloodthirsty zombies and it was her job to get inside the building—without getting eaten—and rescue the survivors inside. She died two seconds after the screen flashed
GO!
Spencer laughed, agilely dodging and weaving through the dead figures lurching towards him. Part of her wondered why he’d even asked her to join him when he could do it so well without her.

She watched him play for several minutes before retrieving her book and cuddling on the sofa. She reclined on the sectional with him sitting in front of her on the floor, back pressed into the chesterfield. He didn’t bother asking her to keep playing with him or why she was giving up, to which she was grateful. Getting slaughtered by creatures that slow, two seconds into the game was not good for the ego. But she didn’t miss how he turned the volume down as she settled in to read.

That’s how Janice found them several hours later. She waddled into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator.

“Have you two had lunch?” Janice asked.

Sophie sat up, peering over the back of the sofa. “No. Can I help you?” She set her book down and hurried over.

They made cold cut sandwiches. Sophie took her plate and Spencer’s into the sitting room. Janice left with hers without a word and Sophie wondered where she was going, but didn’t ask.

“Where is everyone?” she asked Spencer.

“Dad’s
gone to work.” He dodged a zombie, his entire body twitching as if the creature was in the room with them, lunging for his throat. “Suzy’s at school and I don’t know where Jamie is.” Sophie did, but she kept that bit of information to herself, not wanting to go into details about how she knew.

Sophie sat next to him with her plate. “Is it always this quiet?”

Spencer jerked, whether it was because a zombie had just jumped out of the bushes or because he was answering her question with a shrug, it was unclear. “I guess. You won’t really see anyone unless it’s dinner time.”

Sophie learned firsthand what he meant in the days that followed. Although there were six people in the house, she only ever really sa
w anyone when they came to get something from the kitchen or for meals. She didn’t really see Jamie at all and when she did, he was stumbling his way to his room, smelling to high heavens of body odor and whiskey. No one else seemed to notice, which confused her.

“I think something’s wrong with Jamie,” she told Janice a few days later while she helped the older woman make supper.

In the process of dicing carrots, Janice glanced up. “What do you mean?”

Seriously? How did nobody else see it?

“He’s kind of been, I dunno, drunk like every day, during the day and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t showered in like a week.”

A small crease formed between Janice’s neatly plucked brows. “Oh that. It’ll pass. He always gets this way when Aimee pulls one of her disappearing acts.”

It was Sophie’s turn to frown. “That’s another thing, where is she? Why hasn’t she come back by now?”

Janice shrugged, scraping the carrots into a bowl. “She will. You can never tell with Aimee.” She took the bowl to the bubbling pot on the stove. “She was gone for two months the last time. Jamie was a wreck by the time she
returned, but I guess that’s what she wants.”

Sophie was appalled. “She
wants
to hurt him?”

“Yes,” Janice said simply, gingerly pouring the contents of the bowl into the water. “I think it’s a game to her. It makes her feel in control. I think it’s because she’s so young and so desperate to keep Jamie’s attention.”

Because Jamie was so much older, Sophie hadn’t considered just how old Aimee must have been. But now it dawned on her that Aimee was her and Spencer’s age and had been very young when she and Jamie got together.

“What do her parents think of all this?” she wondered out loud.

Janice sighed, setting the empty bowl down and setting her hands onto her lower spine, massaging the knot there. “You can’t tell Aimee what to do. She’ll do what she wants, when she wants. They were furious at first, as they rightly should be. Jamie was already an adult when things progressed between he and Aimee. Her father threatened to phone the police, have him charged.”

“So what happened? Why didn’t he?”

Janice shrugged. “Aimee wouldn’t let him. She threw an absolute fit, made all kinds of threats until she got her way. But that was Aimee. She never took anything calmly or rationally.” Soft brown eyes rose and met hers, twinkling with mirth. “She did not like you.”

Sophie folded her arms. “Well I didn’t like her either.”

Janice chuckled. “She came home after the first time she met you and she was just livid.”

Sophie smothered the tiny spark of smug satisfaction. “Good. She was being horrible to Spencer.”

The smile faded from the other woman’s face. “Yes. Spencer.”

“What?” she pressed when the woman fell quiet.

Janice shook her head. “Nothing. Spencer is special.”

Sophie frowned warily. “There are different levels of special,” she said and Janice laughed.

“Isn’t there?” And that was the end of that conversation.

“Have you heard anything from my parents?” Sophie asked Mark later that evening as she helped wash the supper dishes. “Are they okay?”

Mark passed her a plate. “They are fine. They are staying in a hotel in Langley.”

Sophie looked at him. “How do you know this?”

“Because I still keep in touch with Jackie, not by phone or text,” he said quickly when she opened her mouth. “We met at a diner in West Van yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have gone—”

“Which is exactly why your parents asked me
not
to tell you. You need to stay here. So far nothing has happened and we want to keep it that way.”

Her shoulders sagged. “No news from the police?”

Mark shook his head. “They got the surveillance tapes from the hotel, but the guy was covered from head to toe. Even wore a ski mask. He’s not an idiot. But they will catch him,” he assured her when she didn’t say anything. “He’ll eventually make a mistake.”

She didn’t have
eventually
. The lives of her parents and Spencer and Jackie were in danger
now
!

“What if they don’t? What if he never stops and he’s never caught?
What if they go after my parents or Jackie?”

Mark
placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Sophie, they will catch the guy.”

Despite the confidence in his eyes, Sophie couldn’t help doubt him. If the police hadn’t caught him this far in the game, they never would. The guy was just too clever, always covering his tracks.

“Hey.” Mark gently shook her. “It’s going to be okay. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”

His determination to protect her baffled Sophie. She’d never met anyone who would so willingly risk everything to shelter a complete stranger. It went against everything she’d pictured when she thought of Spencer’s father.

“Thank you,” she said for lack of better words. “I don’t know how to repay—”

“Now none of that!” For the first time since meeting Mark, he actually looked upset. The carefree smile that usual
ly harbored his expression had turned angry like rolling thunderclouds. “Spencer’s crazy about you. I’ve never seen him this gone over a girl before and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“Because Spencer’s crazy about me?”

He shook his head. “Because you’re part of the family, Sophie. We take family very seriously.”

A frown pinched Sophie’s brow as she thought of Jackie and everything she’d learned about the Rowth family.