Lost (21 page)

He wanted to reach out to them. The boy
looked… scared. And when she hugged him, he clung to her.

He could feel
the frustration. They needed him. They called to him. Who were they? It was
right there. So close.

It was a good
day. He was starting to feel strong again, powerful. His head hurt less.

But he smelled
The Woman. She was out there. He sensed her.

The desire to
hurt her filled his body. It drove him. It fueled his body.

He sniffed the
air.
There!

The Woman was
near.

“What was that?” Amy asked as a low
rumble filled the night.

“Probably just
a dog,” Bee said standing up. “Why don’t we head inside though? I’m sure the
guys are almost done, or they will be soon.”

I had heard it
too—a deep, low rumble. It wasn’t a dog. I knew that. I could feel it. I looked
at my friend. Rarely does Bee get flustered, but she was standing by the pool
with her arms wrapped around her waist. And though it was warm outside, she was
rubbing her arms as if trying to ward off a chill.

Amy and Bee
headed inside, but I stood outside for a minute longer. For some reason, I
wasn’t afraid. Rather, it comforted me.

I walked over
to the far side of the pool, the part of the lawn closest to the wooded area
behind the fence. It was incredibly dark.

“I can feel
you,” I said to the night.

There was no
answering rumble, no sound at all. In fact, the night was almost deathly quiet.

“I can feel
you,” I repeated. “One day soon, you’ll show yourself. You’ll come to me.”

I didn’t know
who or what I was talking to, but whatever was out there wasn’t going to hurt
me. Whatever was out there watching wasn’t what was coming at us.

She was so close. He held his breath. By
slowing down his heart rate, he stopped the change. He could reach out and
touch her, caress her, kiss her, but something stopped him.

He needed to
finish healing.

So he kept
still. He made no sound, and he watched and listened.

Her face looked
determined. The fear was no longer etched on her beautiful face. There was a
strength there, a determination.

And a new
feeling settled inside him.

Love.

Since it was obvious that the night
wasn’t going to provide any answers, I turned and walked inside. Ben and
Anthony were back, and they were sitting at the kitchen table, along with Bee,
Amy, and Sam. I sat down at the only empty chair, next to my son.

“Did the
plywood work?” I asked them.

“It’ll work for
now. For the night at least. We’ll get someone out there tomorrow,” Anthony
said.

“Can’t I just
run to Lowe’s and get a new door?” I asked.

Anthony shook
his head. “There’s damage to the frame. It’s gonna need to be fixed. We could
probably figure it out, but I think calling someone’s the way to go.”

“I’ll call Joe
tomorrow. I’m sure some of the guys can take care of it.” I made a mental note
to call Joe, Brian’s foreman, in the morning.

Ben nodded.
“Good idea. We can go with you to Lowe’s and help you get the doors tomorrow.”

Sam and Anthony
agreed.

I looked at our
friends, all chipping in to help me. “Can I ask you guys a huge favor?”

Everyone nodded
and murmured their
of course
’s and
yes
’s.

“Do you think
you guys can get the doors and a new toilet? I’m going to get all that glass
up, find whatever pictures are still okay, and see if maybe some of my jewelry
made it too. I just feel like I need to do this. I need to get it done. Maybe
you can price some flooring for me too. I’m worried that the hardwood in my
bedroom is damaged from all that water, and I want to make sure that we get it
all in one shot. I don’t want problems creeping back up later.”

“Yeah. Of
course, of course. Whatever you need,” Ben answered, and Anthony and Sam
agreed.

“We’ll be here
first thing in the morning,” Amy told me. “Bee and I can help you salvage
whatever we can.”

Bee was
nodding.

I wanted to
tell them they didn’t have to do that. I wanted to say that I would be fine.
But I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was sigh in relief and thank them
again.

It was quiet,
until Sam spoke up. “I’m kind of beat. I’m gonna turn in.”

He stood up and
kissed Bee, Amy, and I on the cheek, gave the guys a little wave, and left the
room.

“What the fuck
is going on?” Amy whispered loudly once we heard the door to the den close.

Ben echoed her
sentiment, “This is crazy. What are the police doing? I mean, did we ever hear
back from animal control?”

I shook my
head. “They said they would only call if it was something unusual. When we
didn’t hear from them, I assumed the tracks and the… umm… body was nothing out
of the ordinary.”

“But your van,
honey,” Amy reminded me. “And now this? What’s going on?”

I threw my
hands up. “I don’t know. I wish I did.” And then I thought of something. “Wait,
am I going to even be able to get back in my house tomorrow?”

Anthony looked
at me and shook his head. “Good point. The officers didn’t really say, but I
doubt it. Whoever is doing this caused a lot of damage, and we want the cops to
take their time to get whatever evidence they need. It might be a day or two
before we can even get inside.”

I let out a
huge sigh and put my head on my arms. I shook my head. “I can’t believe this.
I’ve never done anything to anyone! I’m a stay at home mom for fuck’s sake!
Have been for years. Why would anyone want to do this to us? To the kids?”

No one had an
answer.

She laughed and ran away from him. They
were on a beach. A bikini top flew at his face, and he caught it.

“Shh...” He
told her, holding his fingers to his lips. “There are other people here.”

“Oh, come on!
Look at all the houses. They’re dark. People turned in for the night. It’s just
you and me, big boy!” She started to shimmy out of her bikini bottoms.

He watched her.
Lust filled him and made him hard. Suddenly, his shorts were too tight. He dropped
her top and moved his hands to his waistband. She licked her lips and came to
him.

“I got those.”
She curled into him and brought his shorts down past his hips. She let them
fall to the sand. She raised on her toes and kissed him with a passion that ripped
all thought from him.

He slid his
arms around her slim waist and cupped her bottom, crushing her against his
length.

She ground her
hips against him and whispered in his ear, “The towel’s right over there.”

He picked her
up, and she wrapped her long legs around his waist. Never taking his lips from
hers, he walked over to the towel and laid her down gently. He pulled back to
look in her eyes, the moonlight just giving off enough light so he could lose
himself in their smoky heat.

“I love you.”
He smoothed the hair from her brow, which was damp from the heat. “I love you
with all my heart.”

She looked up
at him and gave him a sweet smile. “I know.”

She pulled him
down so that she could kiss away all thought. She moved her hips up, and he
sank into her. She arched her back and a moan escaped her parted lips. As he
moved out of her, she brought her hips up to meet him, and they were in perfect
sync.

“Lay down,” she
told him, and he wordlessly obeyed her.

Once he was on
his back, she climbed on top of him, and he sank into her warmth. She rode him,
and he was lost. He could feel her orgasm building, as she rode him harder. She
rolled her head back and let out a low, almost feral groan.

“God!” She
kissed him. “I love you.”

He flipped her
over and pounded into her, and though she was spent, she kept up and matched
his rhythm.

When he was
done, when neither of them had anything left, he lay next to her and brought
her to his chest.

“I love you,
...”

He woke up
sweating and cursed. It had been right there! Her name, what she was to him. He
felt it. He felt the love, the desire for her coursing through every vein in
his body. And this was new. He had never had a dream like that before. Parts of
it were so vivid—the emotion, the feelings. But her face had been lost in the
shadows. Except for her eyes. Her eyes saw into his soul. She was a part of
him, that much he knew, but for some reason, his mind wasn’t letting him see
everything.

He sat up and
ran his hands through his hair and looked around the abandoned house he had
taken for his den.

I woke up the next morning with a heavy
head. I stared at the ceiling of my friends’ guest room. The girls were still
asleep. They had just taken off their shorts and were asleep in the shirts they
had worn home. I figured I could run down to the house and get our luggage out
of the car. That way at least everyone could change.

Before I went
to sleep, I had called Detective Jeffries. He assured me that once they were
done in the house, we could get back in there. He had even given me the name of
a company that cleans houses after a break in like ours. I was going to give
them a call. The pictures, I could handle. My clothes, sure. But the bathroom
was a war zone, and my mattress was beyond saving.

Detective
Jeffries said to give him a call around noon to follow up. Looking at the
clock, that gave me about three hours to get a game plan going. I already had
the list growing in my head.

1.
                  
Call the cleaning
company.

2.
                  
Give Sam money for
the door.

3.
                  
The toilet and
shower doors can wait until Joe can come take a look and see where we stand.

4.
                  
Speaking of Joe,
call him and ask him to come look, or maybe send one of his guys over to see
what the damage was.

5.
                  
From what I see,
most, if not all, of my clothes were ruined, which means all I had left was
what I had taken on the cruise with me. That would get me by for a couple days,
but at some point I would need to replace what I had lost.

6.
                  
Oh yeah! Call our
insurance company and report this—file a claim.

The list seemed
to just go on and on. I was surprised when the tears stayed away. When Brian
had been there, it had been easy for me to fall apart, even if only for a
moment. He let me get it out, and then we tackled the problem together. But, in
this moment, it was just me.

Of course, Bee,
Anthony, Amy, and Ben were all there, and they were amazing. But in the end, I
had to get up and get going, because if the kids saw me falling apart, they
would follow suit. And that wasn’t going to happen. It was my job to protect
them. I had to keep it together.

“Mommy?” Jessie
stuck her head over the edge of the bed and looked at me.

The girls had
been passed out, and arms and legs were everywhere. I didn’t want to disturb
them, so I just made a pallet on the floor and passed out.

“Hey, baby
girl. What’s up?” I smiled at her.

“Why couldn’t
we sleep at home yesterday?”

Maggie must
have heard us talking because her tousled head soon appeared.

“Did Carey or
Jimmy tell you anything? Or Sam?”

They shook
their heads.

“No. But we
heard stuff,” Maggie said quietly. She had been told more than once that
eavesdropping was not something that she should be doing, but in this case I
let it go.

“What did you
hear?” I asked.

“We heard Sam
tell Carey and Jimmy that someone went into our house,” Jessie said.

“He said they
destroyed all our pictures and messed up your room really badly,” Maggie
continued. “Is that why you had Jimmy and Carey take us to Mrs. B’s house?”

God! What do I
tell them? I don’t want to scare them, but I wasn’t going to lie to them
either. I took a deep breath and dove in.

“Well, someone
did come into our house. They messed up the back door and a lot of our
pictures. And yes, they really messed up my room. So badly, that I am probably
going to have to call Uncle Joey and ask him to come out and look at my
bathroom.”

“Is your
bathroom messed up really bad?” Jessie asked, concern etched on her small face.

I nodded at her
and sat up. “I think it is. At least parts of it are.”

Both the girls
just stared at me, and I offered up a tentative smile. That is where it
started—what I did from there on out was going to be closely watched by the
kids, and my short term goal was to rise to the occasion.

I reached up
and took their hands in mine. I remembered a time when I could hold all four of
their hands in mine. Oh how they’ve grown—our girls.

I squeezed
them, and they placed two of their hands over mine. Brian’s girls, that’s what
he called us.

“We’re still
Daddy’s girls,” I said. “We’re gonna get through this. I promise you. We’re
gonna help the police in any way we can. We’ll answer questions and tell them
if we see anything funky, okay? And then we’re gonna do what we always do.
We’re gonna get ready for school and meet your teachers, buy your supplies, buy
groceries, and do all the stuff we like to do. This isn’t going to interfere
with our lives, okay?”

Secure in my
ability to get things done, both girls gave me a confident nod and scrambled up
to grab their shorts and get some breakfast.

I told them
that I would go down to the car with Sam and get our luggage so that we could
at least change and get cleaned up. One more thing for the list—I would have to
ask Bee if I could do some laundry.

I went into the
guest bathroom and splashed water on my face. My hair was passable if I put it
up. I rinsed out my mouth, which at least got rid of the fuzzy feeling. I
looked at myself in the mirror, surprised to see no dark circles or worry lines
etched in my face. I guess not having many options did that to you.

I squared my
shoulders and went downstairs.