A Beauty Dark & Deadly (A Dark & Deadly Series Book 1) (12 page)

There was the ‘we’ again, and this time, he coupled it with ‘us.’  He also wanted her opinion before he made the ultimate decision.

“Oh, it’s not my dog,” Emmy said, pointedly looking down at her food.  “You should name him whatever you want to.”

He was silent and Emmy had to physically stop herself from looking up at him.  She wouldn’t be able to stand it if there was discernible sorrow in those eyes.  “Rumpel it is, then,” he said.

“Rumpel it is,” she repeated in a soft voice.  A tiny smile touched her lips as she watched Jason rub the dog’s head.

“It’s a good thing we got to him now,” Jason said, picking up his spoon once more.  “Tahoe gets cold, even in the fall.  I expect it’ll snow in November.  If he hadn’t found us, I wouldn’t be surprised if he froze.”  A pause, a held breath, a swipe of hair brushed behind an ear.  “Would you like to take a walk?”

Emmy had just finished breakfast and dropped her spoon in the bowl so it clattered like a broken melody.  She picked her eyes up and dared to look at Jason.  His eyes, still warm, were looking at her in a way she didn’t fully understand.  Studious, but there was something more to it, only emphasized by the soft smile on his face.

“All right,” she agreed, standing up to place both bowls in the sink.

Jason followed suit.  “I’ll get changed,” he said.

The thought of Jason in actual clothes instead of sweats and a bathrobe was hard for Emmy to imagine, but she found herself looking forward to it only because she was curious to see what the end result would be.  She followed him up the stairs, but hung a left and stepped into her room.  She opened her dresser drawers and pulled out a change of clothes, deciding that she would do laundry once the two returned from their walk. 

Emmy slipped out of her pajamas and threw on a pair of skinny jeans and a small, maroon baby tee with a small pocket on her left breast.  After dousing her skin with sunscreen and throwing on a light button-up sweater, she pulled on her trusty converses and braided her hair loosely so it fell over her right shoulder.  Stray strands of hair curved around her face but she didn’t push them away.

When she stepped out of her room, she found Jason leaning against the hallway banister, waiting for her.  She was surprised by how normal he looked in regular clothes.  He decided on a plain grey t-shirt and a worn pair of jeans.  Instead of tennis shoes he had on an old pair of brown loafers.  His hair looked as soft as ever, and fell into his face.  If Emmy was being honest, she might admit that perhaps he looked better than she thought he might.

“That’s a lovely color for you,” he murmured.  For whatever reason, Emmy felt herself blush at the compliment and mumble a half-hearted thanks.  “Are you ready to go?”

She nodded.

The two headed down the stairs and headed out the door.  Jason whistled and Rumpel darted after the pair, walking in between them as they left the house behind.

“The woods can get a bit confusing,” he explained as they headed further into the forest.  “I wanted to show you around so you’d be more familiar with them and, in case you get lost again, you can navigate your way back to the house.” 

Rumpel’s ears were perked up as he sniffed the dirt intently.  Emmy didn’t know what the dog had found, but he seemed happy chasing down the scent, scurrying out in front of her and Jason in order to further his investigation.  From the corner of her eye, she noticed a genuine smile touch his features.  He was content, she realized.  His features weren’t as hard as they had been.  Her eyes found the ground and she decided she’d rather focus on learning about the paths in the woods than the lines on Jason’s face.

“This trail leads directly to the back door,” he said, pointing a long finger at the trail they were currently on.  “It also leads directly into the woods and lasts until it curves west and meets Mrs. Franzsky’s home.  If, for whatever reason, you’re in the woods, try and find this path and, if it doesn’t get you home, it’ll get you to the road.  From there, you can just turn around and follow it back.”

Home.  There was that word again.  Emmy never really felt at home anywhere except with her grandfather.  Jason’s house would never be her home.  Her parents’ home in Fountain Valley never felt like home.  It was always with Papa.  Wherever he was, she was home.

“How long does it last?” she asked, tilting her head up to look at his profile.  She was certain when he was younger, his face was taut, sharp, and somewhere along the road, he had somehow broken his nose once, maybe twice.  Now, his features were softer, but just as prominent.  His cheekbones were high and defined, his jawline firm and masculine.

“The path?”  He looked straight ahead, as though to calculate it in his head.  “Well, as you know, you can get lost out there if you get off the path, and it might take days to find you if the bears don’t get you first.   If you take it to the main road, you’ll be on it for… oh, I’d guess a couple of hours, at least.  But if you have the time, it’s a beautiful walk.  The woods can be beautiful, especially with the sun peeking through the leaves.”

Emmy felt her lips twitch up, her eyes back down on the dirt.  It was starting to make a home on her shoes, just another sign of where she’d been, a promise of where she was going.  “You have a way with words,” she told him.  It wasn’t exactly a compliment, at least not in her mind; it was a fact.  He still seemed pleased, however, as his fingers made a home in the roots of his hair in order to brush the locks out of his face.

“I hope so,” he said.  “I am a writer.”

Rumpel was a few feet away, still chasing after the scent.

“Aren’t you worried he’s going to run away?” Emmy asked.  She knew Bingo didn’t need a leash, but he had been with Papa since he was six weeks old and one of the first things Papa did was put Bingo through an etiquette school.  Rumpel had been with Jason for all of an hour at best and might dash off for greener pastures at any moment.

Jason shrugged, scrunching his nose and shaking his head.  “Nah,” he said.  “He found us.  If he wants to leave, I don’t want to force him to stay.”  He paused as his words settled into the pores of her skin.  “I’d love to keep him, I’d love for him to stay.  If not, all we can do is hope he comes back.”

Emmy glanced at him, using her hair as a shield so he wouldn’t see her looking at him.  There it was again.  That thing he did with his words where she was certain he meant something more than what he said.

“You must have a lot of faith in him.”

“No, it’s not that.”  He stopped and so she did too.  They faced each other.  Jason had to raise his arm at a diagonal in order to block out the rising sun.  “I can’t stop someone from leaving, whether it’s the dog or my wife.  All I can do is wait for him to come back, and if he doesn’t, I move on.”

She pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side.  She felt the sun’s rays caress the top of her head and she found it nice that she was warm.

“It’s scary,” she said in a low voice, her eyes on the tips of her shoes.  The white color was rubbed down, like craters pocketing the moon.  “Not knowing.”

“Yeah,” he said with a curt nod.  “The waiting’s dreadful.  But the moment he comes back, it makes everything worth it.”

She looked back up again, only to find him still looking at her, and the two shared a smile.

Emmy let him lead her down the path until they reached the entrance to the woods.  She zipped up her sweater a bit more as the tops of the trees began to blot out the sun.  Her eyes took in the grass, the darker soil, the sounds of buzzing and flapping wings and bird calls, though, for the life of her, she couldn’t distinguish one bird call from another, except seagulls.  And crows.

“Sometimes, when I’m stuck with my writing,” he said, “I come out here.  It helps me think.  Walking helps my brain come up with ideas.”

“The woods inspire you?”

He nodded.  “Being alone in the woods, I can think,” he said.  “I can walk for hours and hours and come up with the plot to a novel.”  He turned back to her, his left eyebrow cocked.  Emmy couldn’t move one brow in favor of the other but she wished she could.  Jason made it look so easy.  “Would you like to continue?”

The wolf was offering to lead her to his cave.  Jason had been in Tahoe for a while now.  The murders were two years ago, and he summered here with his wife beforehand.  He knew the woods like the back of his hand.  It was probably how he was able to find her so quickly after she had left Mrs. Franzsky’s home.  As such, he could lead her anywhere he wanted, and she’d be dependent on him, to lead her back to his cabin, to not try and kill her.

Bu
t
, a voice reasoned
,
there’s really no reason to think he wants to kill you.  If he had, you’d probably already be dead by now.

Her guts churned like they were going through a meat grinder. 

Plus, what’s the difference between killing you in the woods and killing you in his home?

The woods didn’t require an excessive amount of clean-up.  He wouldn’t have to carry her body anywhere; he could bury her in the soil.  No one would ever know.  No one would ever find her.

“You can say no,” he teased, but she could detect disappointment in his brown eyes.  They weren’t warm anymore.  Just sad.  “I just wanted you to know about the path, in case you ever got lost again.  Perhaps next time we can take a walk through the woods?”

The fact that Jason was actually out and walking, dressed in actual clothes, must mean a lot.  It had to.  The first couple of days here, she had barely seen him, and it was the first day he wasn’t shrouded in that awful bathrobe.  She hadn’t heard him talk this much, either, not even when he was telling her about his vegetables.  He was reaching out to her in his own way.  Was she really going to shut him down?

“That would be nice,” she answered, and was surprised at how sincere she sounded.

Rumpel made his appearance.  He hadn’t found whatever it was he was looking for, but he was back beside Jason, licking Jason’s hand.  Emmy rubbed her lips together as she took the sight in.  If the dog could come back even with the option of freedom, Jason couldn’t be so bad.  He was found not guilty, after all.  Maybe he really didn’t do it.

“I should probably go to the store when we get back,” she said as they turned back around.  The cabin was about five hundred yards away.  She slid her hands into her back pockets.  “Is there anything else you’d like me to pick up?”

“You should probably get some laundry detergent,” he said, “in case you wanted to do laundry.”

Emmy found herself chuckling at his joke.  It wasn’t that good, but something about the way he said it, how self-deprecating it was, made her laugh.

“Ah, I knew I could make you laugh eventually,” he said.  His eyes were bright with triumph and his dimples were on full display. 

Emmy blushed and looked away.  The next couple of steps were dragged feet and kicked-up dust.

“Don’t forget dog food,” he continued.

Rumpel’s tongue was sagging out of his mouth, his eyebrows going up and down and up and down, almost as though he knew the couple was talking about him and the prospect of food.

“And anything you might prefer,” he finished.  He reached out and grabbed her bare wrist, coiling his fingers around her skin and pulling to a stop.  She had to stop herself from yanking back her hand as though she had been burned.  “Listen Emmy” – her name sounded different when he said it and she didn’t know why – “I know it’s difficult and perhaps too much to ask for, but during your stay, I would like you to feel at home.  Feel free to get whatever food or drinks you want.  Take as many showers and baths as you need to.  Call your friends or your family, even if they’re on the other side of the country.  Go into town and see a movie, if you’d like.”

He still hadn’t let go of her wrist.  His fingers were sure to leave prints behind.  She might not be able to see them, but she would feel them, long after he had released her.

“I just” – he looked away from her and to the left, where the field that served as a buffer between his home and the woods extended to the horizon.  Emmy wondered just how much of it he owned – “I know that you’re probably not here because you want to be.  And I understand that.  But I want you to feel comfortable here.  I want you to be happy.”