SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (9 page)

“I can’t believe she kept all this stuff,” Gracie murmured, entering her past with its bittersweet memories.

Analise gave her a troubled look so filled with questions that Gracie couldn’t quite meet it. Before she could voice any of them, Gracie raised her hand and shook her head.

“I’m too tired to talk about any of this tonight, sweetie. Why don’t you get ready bed and try to sleep. If I know Eddie, he’ll be back with more questions tomorrow. We can talk then, too.”

“We can go see Brendan in the morning, right?”

Gracie nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” Analise gave her a good night hug. “I’m sorry I lied.”

“We’ll deal with that when we’re back home.”

“I know.”

Tinkerbelle and Romeo stayed with Analise in the bedroom. Both dogs would take up their usual posts at the end of her bed. Tinkerbelle would wait until Analise went to sleep, though, before she made the jump from the floor to the mattress. She thought she was sneaky.

Ever faithful, Juliet followed Gracie back downstairs where Eddie and Reilly waited. The house still felt unbelievably hot down here—much warmer than upstairs, though it should have been the opposite. Or maybe it was her anxiety that made it feel so warm. Her grandma was dead. She didn’t even know how she’d died yet.

And Reilly Alexander was back in Diablo Springs.

“Can we try to open some windows?” Gracie asked as she entered the front room.

Reilly had moved to the bar. He stood at the end, arms resting on the battered surface, head bent as he contemplated the wood grain. Gracie wished she could hear his thoughts. She wasn’t looking forward to the confrontation that was certain to come.

“Reilly already tried to get them open,” Eddie told her. “They’re either painted or nailed shut.

“I think all the air is going to the rooms upstairs. It’s cooler there.”

A large, aged photograph hanging on the wall above the fireplace caught her attention. In a bright flash of lightning, it seemed that the eyes of the subjects had shifted. Gracie moved closer and stared at the women gathered at a table that looked just like the ones here now. She hadn’t heard him move, but suddenly Reilly was behind her.

“That one looks like you,” he said in her ear.

Startled, she stumbled back and into the solid wall of his chest. His hands came up to steady her, and the feel of him, the scent of him tumbled Gracie down a long tunnel of memory. He’d always felt so solid to her, someone certain and strong in her teenaged world of chaos. Grandma Beck had never seemed mentally sound. Even as a child, Gracie had understood that a few of her hinges had rusted over. By contrast, Reilly had been constant and reliable.

What a farce.

She turned quickly, stepping away when a traitorous part of her wanted to lean. Eddie was flipping through his notes.

“From what I got earlier,” he said, “your daughter and this Brendan kid arrived just after seven. Mac Conner came out when he saw the sirens and told me he’d seen them drive through town.”

Gracie and Reilly looked up in unison, both with the same bemused expression on their faces.

“I’d forgotten what it’s like to live in a town so small a strange vehicle is noticed,” Reilly said.

Eddie frowned. “We know our neighbors here.”

“No offense intended.”

“Mac said they were speeding,” Eddie said. “That’s why he noticed.”

“I’ve talked to Brendan about driving fast,” Gracie said. “He doesn’t listen. He’s eighteen and still missing the connection between his ears and his brain.”

“You sound just like your grandmother,” Reilly said.

Stung, she raised her chin. “I sound just like Analise’s mother. That’s how I’m supposed to sound.”

His jaw hardened and he looked away.

“The sun set about six-thirty, seven,” Eddie continued. “I was at the Buckboard having dinner when my radio went off. Monica over at the municipal office said Carolina Beck had called in, all upset and shouting. Said there was trouble out at the springs. Said to get my ass out there right now.”

“She said that?” Gracie asked. “She said
ass
?”

“According to Monica she did.”

“I never heard her use so much as a
darn
.”

“Maybe Monica threw the
ass
in for effect. However it happened, I jumped in my car and went straight there. That was just about the time the storm blew in. It was lightning like there was a short in the sky. I haven’t seen a storm like this in years. Hell, the rain alone is enough to dance about. We’re going on a ten-year drought.”

“Eddie . . . my daughter?” Gracie prompted before he could go on too long about the drought. She’d heard it enough times to know the subject of drought in a conversation could last almost as long as the drought itself.

He nodded. “When I got there I didn’t see anything. Not a damn thing. Then as I was turning, I saw a pickup truck perched at the edge of the springs. Lights were out, and it was so dark, I almost missed it. So I backed up and aimed my headlights and that’s when I saw your grandma.”

Stomach churning over the thought of the balanced truck, her daughter possibly still inside, Gracie braced herself.

“Before I could get out of the car, I saw the truck start to rock. Still couldn’t see anyone in it, but it looked like it was shaking.” He lifted a hand and made a back-and-forth motion. “Then, Carolina, she shouts at it. I couldn’t hear her over the wind and the thunder, but she was screaming like a banshee. She started running toward the truck. So did I, but she got there first. She was still screaming, though I couldn’t make heads or tails out of what she said. Next thing I knew, she was falling and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.”

“She slipped?” Reilly asked the question Gracie was afraid to.

Eddie released a deep breath through his nose and shook his head. “I guess. No one pushed her and I hope to God she didn’t jump. I’ve told the city council a hundred times we need to fill those springs in. Never enough money. No one will work out there.” He shook head some more. “By the time I reached the edge, I couldn’t see her anymore, but I saw the kids in the front seat of the truck. They were scared shitless, practically catatonic. I tried to get to them, but it was like the wind was against me and lightning was striking all around. I thought I was going to be laid out next to your grandma in a minute. And then the truck went over.” He whistled and made another gesture. “It all happened so fast.”

“Oh my God,” Gracie breathed. It was almost too horrible to believe. Her grandmother wasn’t the first Beck woman to lose her life at the old springs. Gracie’s mother had died there when Gracie was just an infant. And now it had nearly taken Analise.

“I jumped on the horn and called for help,” Eddie was saying, “and then I got my winch and fed it out into the hole.”

“You went down?” Reilly asked.

Gracie understood his shock. They’d all grown up with stories about what lurked in Diablo Springs. Demons, ghosts, three-headed monsters. Fear of the springs was part of the fabric of their childhood. Call it superstition, call it wise—even adults stayed away from the treacherous springs. The thought of going down inside it in the dark, during a storm, made Gracie’s blood run cold. The idea of her daughter being trapped down there made her sway.

Reilly reached out to steady her again, his hand warm against her arm.

“What did you see down there?” Gracie asked, when she didn’t really want to know.

“Not a lot. It was damn quiet, like being inside a vacuum. I couldn’t hear the storm. Couldn’t hear the kids. Couldn’t hear nothing. Not ashamed to tell you I was spooked, because I sure as shit was.”

“How did you get them out?” Reilly asked.

“The truck caught not far from the edge. Don’t know how or on what yet, but it was just dangling. I was scared to death I was going to tap it and it would just go. I got to your daughter’s side first, Gracie. The boy was unconscious, but Analise had enough wits left to help me get her out. About that time, backup came and we pulled Brendan up, too. After we got them off to Doc Graebel’s, we found your grandma.”

“Did the fall kill her?” Reilly asked in a strained voice.

“Won’t know until Digger files his report.”

The name startled Gracie out of the dread that had overcome her. Digger Young, the town’s coroner and undertaker. His family had been handling the dead of Diablo Springs for over a hundred years. She didn’t know if it made her feel better or worse to know her grandma was in his hands now.

“It was a crazy night,” he said, “with your grandma out there struck dead and the kids screaming . . . I guess it kicked my imagination into overdrive. Because it didn’t feel like any other accident I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a lot, small town or no.”

The seriousness of his last words left both Gracie and Reilly silent. Eddie Rodriguez was not the kind of man who was easily shaken, yet even now they could see that he still wasn’t completely recovered.

Diablo Springs: Chapter Eight

After Eddie left, Reilly stood beside Gracie in the entryway, listening to the storm outside, feeling a different kind of storm rage at the heart of him. The kid was his—no doubt about it. He could see his family’s traits in the shape of her eyes, the line of her chin, the slant of her cheekbones. Straight on, she looked like Gracie. Beautiful, ethereal in some ways. But there was no escaping the Alexander blood that ran in her veins. Even her eyes were the same hazel, flecked with blue and green. They were his father’s eyes, his brother’s eyes and his eyes. Now, they were his daughter’s.

Holy fuck.

Gracie had given birth to his child and he’d never even known. He shoved his hands in his pockets, trying to decide if he was more pissed off at her or himself. Gracie’s horse-dog pricked its ears, watching him with a predatory look.

The animal stared at him with a look that teetered between expectation and dismissal. Evidently, he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t figure out what to feel.

“I’m too tired to think,” Gracie said at last. “This has been the longest day in history.”

He nodded. “You look tired. I mean, you look good. But tired.”

“You had it right the first time.”

“No, really. You look good.”

Tired, stressed out, and road worn, she looked better than most women did fresh and ready to paint the town. Her eyes darkened, as if she’d read his mind, and something flashed in them that hit him down low and hard. But before he could put a name to what he’d seen, it vanished and in its place he saw cold anger. And just like that, his indecisive pissed-off made up its mind.

“That’s what you want to say to me?” she said. “You just met your daughter for the first time, and
that’s
the conversation you’re going to strike?”

Okay, they could play it her way. “You look good. Why the fuck didn’t you tell me I had a daughter?”

Her eyes widened and she actually sputtered for a moment. “How was I going to do that, Reilly? You left. Without a
word.
No forwarding address, no phone call. No
see ya later, Gracie. Changed my mind.
”

It was his turn to be speechless. That’s how she remembered it?

“You’re a little confused.”

“I’m a lot confused. But for the record, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know until after you’d left.”

“You could have found me.”

“I could have. But by then I realized you weren’t worth the effort.”

“So you told our kid she didn’t have a father?”

Her cold laugh pricked at him, and for the first time in a long time, he began to wonder if he had his facts right. She was indignant, so certain that she’d played no role in what had happened between them.

“I told
Analise
that I didn’t know who her father was. I told her the truth.”

That cut through his sheltering anger and struck blood. Gracie had been the only person in his entire life who’d ever
really
known him. She wouldn’t believe that, though, and he certainly didn’t want to share the knowledge.

“She looks like you,” he said softly.

Gracie said nothing.

“She’s beautiful. Is she a good kid?”

Grudgingly, Gracie nodded. “When she’s not running off with her no-good boyfriend.” She shrugged. “She’s smart. She likes music.”

Her voice hitched over the last words and Reilly felt something pull tight inside him. He wanted to howl at the unfairness of this situation. He wanted someone to give him the playbook on how to fix it.

He needed to extricate himself from the conversation and fast.

Instead, he asked, “Why aren’t you married?” Like the answer didn’t matter to him.

“That’s none of your business.”

“You couldn’t find a replacement?”

“I’m going to bed.”

She turned away and began switching off lights. The heat downstairs made the air feel thick, heavy from the storm. The rain had eased up, but distant thunder still rumbled and the clouds created a lid over the basin. Her shirt clung to her shoulder blades. The fine hairs at her nape curled from the humidity. A million years ago, he used to love to kiss that vulnerable place on her body. It would make her go boneless and lean back against his chest like he was Hercules, holding up the world.

The guard dog trailed close behind as she moved around the room. Every so often it would curl its lip at him, just in case he had any ideas of getting close to her. After checking the door, Gracie started up the stairs.

“I’m sorry about your grandmother. She was a tough old bird, but she had her moments.”

She shot him a dirty look over her shoulder. “I haven’t seen her or heard from her since she sent me away. I hardly know what to feel now.” She looked down at the staged saloon below. “Pity. I guess that’s what it is.”

Reilly heard how she ended the sentiment, but his thoughts had stuttered over the words that began it.
Carolina had sent Gracie away?
“I heard you left but I didn’t—”

“You heard?” she said, her voice sharp and disillusioned. “You heard I
left
and that never struck you as odd? My leaving home at sixteen? You never looked back, never wondered what happened to me?”