One Week of Summer (20 page)

21)

I slipped from the room without looking back, and made my way to the guest house above the garage.  Maybe Donnie wouldn’t be willing to drive me home, but maybe he might call me a cab.

Or maybe he’ll be smug enough about his warning being right that he
will
take me as fast and faraway from Teekay as he could.

I didn’t even get a chance to raise my fist and knock before Donnie answered the door, and I thought he must’ve been watching the house.

Did that mean he’d let Kirby in on purpose? 

After a second of staring at him as I tried to puzzle it out, I realized what Donnie was really doing was packing.  He had a small stack of boxes behind him and a heavy suitcase too. 

I was surprised into asking, “Are you leaving?”

He grabbed one of the boxes and carried it over to his car. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“To quote some other poor asshole…My work here is done.”

“You quit?”

“Not exactly.”

“Did T—” I paused, swallowed against the lump in my throat and tried again. “Did he fire you?”

Donnie paused in his lift of the next box and shot me a startled look. “Teekay?”

I nodded.

The older man sighed. “What did Junior tell you about his family?”

“Not much. Not until today. Just that his parents died.”

“Well, it’s sure as hell not my business. Especially now. Midnight on the day of the kid’s birthday and I wipe my hands of all things related to the Marcus family. The firefighting act was just a bonus. So if you want answers, ask Junior.”

“I can’t,” I admitted.

He narrowed his eyes. “Why? Are
you
leaving?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not any more than it matters why I’m going,” he replied, and picked up another box.  “Took you longer than I thought. Figured maybe you’d decided to stay.”

His words doubled the pain in my chest, and a few unwanted tears dribbled from my eyes. “Can you take me home?”

Donnie didn’t hesitate. “Where’s home?”

“Shackside,” I replied, using the derogatory expression deliberately in an attempt to solidify the wall between my world and Teekay’s.

“Let’s make it quick,” he agreed.

We drove the ten miles between Teekay’s house and the beach in silence, and when we reached the turnoff that led to the row of homes by the ocean, Donnie pulled onto the shoulder.

“Better that I don’t know which place is yours,” he said gruffly. “Don’t want Junior thinking now that I’m no longer an employee, he can beat it out of me.”

My eyes flew to the older man as I realized I’d very likely put him directly in the line of fire.

“I’m sorry,” I said immediately.

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine. My job is – was – to protect him. Primarily from himself. This isn’t any different.”

“What if he doesn’t believe you?”

Donnie offered me a tight-lipped smile. “He knows I’m not a liar.”

“Well. That makes one of us.”

I pushed the passenger side door open, but as I swung a leg out, one of Donnie’s hands closed on my shoulders.

“You’re probably doing the right thing, Maggie.”

I shook him off and nodded, wondering why, if it was the right thing, it felt so wrong. 

Day Six

22)

Teekay didn’t turn up at my door.  I woke up alone.  And I went to bed alone too.

Day Seven

23)

I woke up to the sound of rain beating down on the metal soffits of the beach house, and I rolled over in the bed so I could watch it hitting the window.  The solid sound of the drops pelting from the sky to the glass was a perfect match to the quick, achy beats of my heart.

My broken heart.

I wasn’t sure if I’d really slept at all.  Each time I closed my eyes, I was plagued with visions of amber eyes and Teekay’s muscular frame.

How had he become so ingrained in my life in such a short time? And how had he slipped away so quickly?

I let the pain wash over me.

It was ridiculous to feel this way and I knew it.  I’d been through more, been through worse.

I’d experienced loss.  I didn’t remember my mother’s death, of course, but I’d felt an emptiness in my life sometimes because of her absence.  And my father’s drowning haunted me often.  The recent loss of my grandmother was fresh enough that I was still grieving for her. 

Which is probably the reason I’d let Teekay in so easily,
I realized.

And it wasn’t like I hadn’t been alone before.  I’d been solitary for all of my high school days, in fact.  But I’d been okay with it.  I hadn’t needed to fill the void in my life because there hadn’t
been
a void.  Yes, I’d been alone.  But never really lonely.

Now…

I missed him.

Somehow, Teekay had created a need where there had been none.

I reminded myself harshly that I’d come to my grandmother’s beach house to battle my old demons, not to create new ones.  And Teekay…He might not be a demon himself, but already he’d possessed me far more wholly than I wanted him to.

I knew I had things to do.  The thick dust that covered all of my grandmother’s things needed to be swept away.  The bag of groceries I’d bought days earlier still sat in the front entryway.

But what I wanted to do most –
second most –
was to draw.

Yes.

And thanks to Kirby, I needed supplies.  I doubted that the little store at the end of my street had much more than pens and pencils and lined paper, but I would take what I could get.

I dragged myself from the bed and slipped my hair into a ponytail and pulled a sweater over my head.

I opened the door, then dropped back in shock.

Jimmy.

He smiled.  And he looked genuinely pleased, which made it that much worse.

“It
is
you,” he said, his voice cutting straight into me. “I thought I was fucking seeing things in the club. I even thought that crazy redhead was fucking with me. But…Holy shit.”

“You can’t be here,” I whispered. I pushed the door a little harder.

“Sure I can, Ghost. I’m here already, aren’t I?” he replied.

Fear slowed my brain. 

Maybe I can talk him out of…whatever he’s planning on doing.

“What can I do for you, Jimmy?” I asked in a strained but polite voice.

“For starters, you can invite me in so we can have a little talk about how this is going to go.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, but did you say no? Hard to hear you above all this spooky thunder and lightning. Ghost.”

I ignored the jibe because my mind had finally caught up to the situation.

I moved to slam the door, but I wasn’t anywhere near quick enough.  His foot put a wedge in the frame while his hand slammed into the wood.  I pushed harder, but he was too strong.

He gave the door a solid hip check and I flew backwards and landed on my rear end.  Which Jimmy thought was very funny.  He stood over me with a wide, wide grin.  And that’s when I realized his eyes were bloodshot and his gait was unsteady.

He was drunk.

Oh no. Not good.

I scrambled across the floor as far as I could go, but my back hit the couch and I was trapped.

I wracked my brain for an escape plan.  Or for a way to get help.

Teekay.

I shoved down the automatic wish for his protective presence and moved on to something more accessible.  More real.

Did my grandmother’s beach house have a back door?  I couldn’t recall.  But the master bedroom did have a big, low window that would lead right to gravel road behind the row houses.  Which
could
mean help. 

Of course, it also meant I’d have to lead Jimmy straight through a bedroom.  And that made my throat constrict. 

But he didn’t seem to notice the wheels turning in my head.

“Are you and Teekay in this together?”

I crept sideways along the sofa and tried not to eye the bedroom as I moved. “In what?”

He put a foot up, blocking my path, and exhaled an angry, boozy breath in my direction. “You expect me to believe you don’t know?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about! If you don’t believe me, ask
him
.”

“I did,” Jimmy replied. “Or I tried to. But he’s gone.”

In spite of my eagerness to get away, I paused. “Gone?”

“Let me guess. You didn’t know that either?”

“How would I? I’ve been
here
for two days.”

I drew my arm back and drove it straight into Jimmy’s knee.  He hollered and stumbled, and I used the distraction to jump to my feet and race across the room.  I got one triumphant step away from the master bedroom before Jimmy’s hand closed on my ankle.  I fell straight forward, and my face collided with the floor.  Pain shot through my lips and nose while stars floated across my vision.

And Jimmy wasn’t letting go.

I thrashed out wildly to no avail.

Jimmy’s other hand came up to grip the back of my knee.  He dragged himself up, using my body to do it.  When he got to my shoulders, he grabbed them and flipped me over, then held me down, one knee in my chest.

“Your boyfriend’s family is a piece of work, you know that?” he snarled. “Did he even tell you the truth about what they did? Or did he just lead you around by his dick and you took his word as law?”

I tried to answer, but the pressure on my chest just made me wheeze out a noncommittal sound.  Jimmy was too involved in his own story to care anyway.

“Big Ted destroyed my dad’s reputation and swindled him out of his life’s savings. Then finally – after years of negotiation, the bastard was finally going to sign a deal that’s going to set things right, and what does he do? He dies. Him and his wife. And what happens next? Junior inherits, and do you think he’s going to honor the fucking deal? Hell, no. So I try to help my dad out. I try to get to Jolene to get to him and that backfires right the fuck up in my face and suddenly I’m the bad guy too. Thank God she didn’t last long, Ghost. Because my family couldn’t handle another scandal. Which brings us right back here to you and to Teekay.”

At the end of his speech, he eased up off me just enough that I could gasp out, “I still don’t know what you mean. I don’t know who Jolene is or—”

His knee came down again, twice as hard as before.

“Where’s my fucking phone, Maggie? Where are my fucking pictures? I know the redhead gave them to you guys after she stole them! I’m not going to let the two of you destroy my reputation the way Junior’s dad did to my father!”

“I don’t know! ”

He cuffed me with the back of his hand.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know! Where?!”

I shook my head and closed my eyes and braced myself for a second blow.  Instead, I heard a click.

And an authoritative voice called out, “Stand up, Mr. Monroe, and put your hands on your head.”

My eyes flew open.

Booted feet and blue-clad legs swam in the corner of my vision.  And before Jimmy could make another move, handcuffs slapped onto his wrists, and he was being dragged away.

The police.

Relief overwhelmed me, and I closed my eyes once more.

“Miss Mooreland?” This time, the voice was feminine and gentle. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” I rasped.

“That’s good. Can you open your eyes again?”

I did, and a penlight flashed.  A police woman with a kind face examined my reaction to the light.

“Can you tell me your full name and what today’s date is?” she asked.

“Margaret Elizabeth Mooreland,” I said. “And it’s—”

“Is she in there?” The question, spoken in a familiar, heart-wrenching voice, carried across the room, cutting me off.

“She’s here, Mr. Marcus,” came the reply. “But you need to wait until we’ve cleared the room.”

“Fuck that!”

If I hadn’t been so surprised, I might’ve laughed.  But I just sat there, speechless as two strong hands lifted the cop up and moved her aside before he knelt beside me.

“Mr. Marcus!” the police woman chastised.

If she said anything else, I missed it.  Because there he was.

Theodore Kimball Marcus Junior.  Teekay.  Ripped clothes.  Blackened eye.  Soaking wet and one hand a bloody mess.  And looking at me like I was the last glass of water on a deserted island.