Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
CAL HOPED FOR A WEEK, TWO IF HE COULD MANAGE it. And got three days. Nature screwed his plans again, this time shooting temperatures up into the fifties. Mountains of snow melted into hills while the February thaw brought the fun of flash flooding, swollen creeks, and black ice when the thermometer dropped to freezing each night.
But three days after he'd had his lane plowed and the women were back in the house on High Street, the weather stabilized. Creeks ran high, but the ground sucked up most of the runoff. And he was coming up short on excuses to put off the hike to the Pagan Stone.
At his desk, with Lump contentedly sprawled on his back in the doorway, feet in the air, Cal put his mind into work. The winter leagues were winding up, and the spring groups would go into gear shortly. He knew he was on the edge of convincing his father the center would profit from the automatic scoring systems, and wanted to give it one more solid push. If they moved on it soon, they could have the systems up and running for the spring leagues.
They'd want to advertise, run a few specials. They'd have to train the staff, which meant training themselves.
He brought up the spreadsheet for February, noted that the month so far had been solid, even up a bit from last year. He'd use that as more ammunition. Which, of course, his father could and would counter that if they were up the way things were, why change it?
As he was holding the conversation in his head, Cal heard the click that meant a new e-mail had come in. He toggled over, saw Quinn's address.
Hi, Love of My Life,
I didn't want to call in case you were knee-deep in whatever requires you to be knee-deep. Let me know when you're not.
Meanwhile, this is Black's Local Weather Service reporting: Temperatures today should reach a high of forty-eight under partly sunny skies. Lows in the upper thirties. No precipitation is expected. Tomorrow's forecast is for sunny with a high of fifty.
Adding the visual, I can see widening patches of grass in both the front and backyard. Realistically, there's probably more snow, more mud in the woods, but, baby, it's time to saddle up and move out.
My team can be ready bright and early tomorrow and will bring suitable provisions.
Also, Cyb's confirmed the Clark branch connection, and is currently climbing out on some Kinski limbs to verify that. She thinks she may have a line on a couple of possibilities where Ann Hawkins stayed, or at least where she might have gone to give birth. I'll fill you in when I see you.
Let me know, soon as you can, if tomorrow works.
XXOO Quinn.
(I know that whole XXOO thing is dopey, but it seemed more refined than signing off with: I wish you could come over and do me. Even though I do. )
The last part made him smile even though the text of the post had a headache sneaking up the back of his skull.
He could put her off a day or two, and put her off honestly. He couldn't expect Fox to dump his scheduled clients or any court appearances at the snap of a finger, and she'd understand that. But if he were to use that, and his own schedule, he had to do it straight.
With some annoyance, he shot an e-mail to Fox, asking when he could clear time for the trip to the clearing. The annoyance increased when Fox answered back immediately.
Fri's good. Morning's clear, can clear full day if nec.
"Well, fuck. " Cal pushed on the ache at the back of his head. Since e-mail wasn't bringing him any luck, he'd go see Quinn in person when he broke for lunch.
AS CAL PREPARED TO CLOSE OUT FOR THE MORNING, Bill Turner stopped in the office doorway.
"Ah, got that toilet fixed in the ladies' room downstairs, and the leak in the freezer was just a hose needed replacing. "
"Thanks, Bill. " He swung his coat on as he spoke. "I've got a couple of things to do in town. Shouldn't be above an hour. "
"Okay, then. I was wondering if, ah. . . " Bill rubbed a hand over his chin, let it drop. "I was wondering if you think Gage'll be coming in, maybe the next day or two. Or if maybe I could, maybe I could run over to your place to have a word with him. "
Rock and a hard place, Cal thought, and bought himself some time by adjusting his jacket. "I don't know if he's thinking about dropping by, Bill. He hasn't mentioned it. I think. . . Okay, look, I'd give him some time. I'd just give it some time before you made that first move. I know you want-"
"It's okay. That's okay. Appreciate it. "
"Shit," Cal said under his breath as Bill walked away. Then, "Shit, shit, shit," as he headed out himself.
He had to take Gage's side in this, how could he not? He'd seen firsthand what Bill's belt had done to Gage when they'd been kids. And yet, he'd also witnessed, firsthand, the dozens of ways Bill had turned himself around in the last few years.
And, hadn't he just seen the pain, guilt, even the grief on Bill's face just now? So either way he went, Cal knew he was going to feel guilty and annoyed.
He walked straight out and over to Quinn's.
She pulled open the door, yanked him in. Before he could say a word her arms were locked around his neck and her mouth was very busy on his. "I was hoping that was you. "
"Good thing it was, because Greg, the UPS guy on this route, might get the wrong idea if you greeted him that way. "
"He is kind of cute. Come on back to the kitchen. I'd just come down to do a coffee run. We're all working on various projects upstairs. Did you get my e-mail?"
"Yeah. "
"So, we're all set for tomorrow?" She glanced back as she reached up for the coffee.
"No, tomorrow's no good. Fox can't clear his slate until Friday. "
"Oh. " Her lips moved into a pout, quickly gone. "Okay then, Friday it is. Meanwhile we'll keep reading, researching, working. Cyb thinks she's got a couple of good possibilities on. . . What?" she asked when she got a good look at his face. "What's going on?"
"Okay. " He took a couple paces away, then back. "Okay, I'm just going to say it. I don't want you going back in there. Just be quiet a minute, will you?" he said when he saw the retort forming. "I wish there was a way I could stop you from going, that there was a way I could ignore the fact that we all need to go. I know you're a part of this, and I know you have to go back to the Pagan Stone. I know there's going to be more you have to be a part of than I'd wish otherwise. But I can wish you weren't part of this, Quinn, and that you were somewhere safe until this is over. I can want that, just as I know I can't have what I want.
"If you want to be pissed off about that, you'll have to be pissed off. "
She waited a beat. "Have you had lunch?"
"No. What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm going to make you a sandwich-an offer I never make lightly. "
"Why are you making it now?"
"Because I love you. Take off your coat. I love that you'd say all that to me," she began as she opened the refrigerator for fixings. "That you'd need to let me know how you felt about it. Now if you'd tried ordering me to stay out of it, if you'd lied or tried to do some sort of end-run around me, I'd feel different. I'd still love you, because that sort of thing sticks with me, but I'd be mad, and more, I'd be disappointed in you. As it is, Cal, I'm finding myself pretty damn pleased and a hell of a lot smug that my head and heart worked so well together and picked the perfect guy. The perfect guy for me. "
She cut the sandwich into two tidy triangles, offered it. "Do you want coffee or milk?"
"You don't have milk, you have white water. Coffee'd be fine, thanks. " He took a bite of the turkey and Swiss with alfalfa on whole wheat. "Pretty good sandwich. "
"Don't get used to the service. " She glanced over as she poured out coffee. "We should get an early start on Friday, don't you think? Like dawn?"
"Yeah. " He touched her cheek with his free hand. "We'll head in at first light. "
SINCE HE'D HAD GOOD LUCK WITH QUINN, AND gotten lunch out of it, Cal deci
ded he was going to speak his mind to Gage next. The minute he and Lump stepped into the house, he smelled food. And when they wandered back, Cal found Gage in the kitchen, taking a pull off a beer as he stirred something in a pot.
"You made food. "
"Chili. I was hungry. Fox called. He tells me we're taking the ladies for a hike Friday. "
"Yeah. First light. "
"Should be interesting. "
"Has to be done. " Cal dumped out food for Lump before getting a beer of his own. And so, he thought, did this have to be done. "I need to talk to you about your father. "
Cal saw Gage close off. Like a switch flipped, a finger snapped, his face simply blanked out. "He works for you; that's your business. I've got nothing to say. "
"You've got every right to shut him out. I'm not saying different. I'm letting you know he asks about you. He wants to see you. Look, he's been sober five years now, and if he'd been sober fifty it wouldn't change the way he treated you. But this is a small town, Gage, and you can't dodge him forever. My sense is he's got things to say to you, and you may want to get it done, put it behind you. That's it. "
There was a reason Gage made his living at poker. It showed now in a face, a voice, completely devoid of expression. "My sense is you should take yourself out of the middle. I haven't asked you to stand there. "
Cal held up a hand for peace. "Fine. "
"Sounds like the old man's stuck on Steps Eight and Nine with me. He can't make amends on this, Cal. I don't give a damn about his amends. "
"Okay. I'm not trying to convince you otherwise. Just letting you know. "
"Now I know. "
IT OCCURRED TO CAL WHEN HE STOOD AT THE window on Friday morning, watching the headlights cut through the dim predawn, that it had been almost a month exactly since Quinn had first driven up to his house.
How could so much have happened? How could so much have changed in such a short time?
It had been slightly less than that month since he'd led her into the woods the first time. When he'd led her to the Pagan Stone.
In those short weeks of the shortest month he'd learned it wasn't only himself and his two blood brothers who were destined to face this threat. There were three women now, equally involved.
And he was completely in love with one of them.
He stood just as he was to watch her climb out of Fox's truck. Her bright hair spilled out from under the dark watch cap. She wore a bold red jacket and scarred hiking boots. He could see the laugh on her face as she said something to Cybil, and her breath whisked out in clouds in the early morning chill.
She knew enough to be afraid, he understood that. But she refused to allow fear to dictate her moves. He hoped he could say the same as he had more to risk now. He had her.
He stood watch until he heard Fox use his key to unlock the front door, then Cal went down to join them, and to gather his things for the day.
Fog smoked the ground that the cold had hardened like stone overnight. By midday, Cal knew the path would be sloppy again, but for now it was quick and easy going.
There were still pockets and lumpy hills of snow, and he identified the hoofprints of the deer that roamed the woods, to Layla's delight. If any of them were nervous, they hid it well, at least on this first leg of the hike.
It was so different from that long-ago day in July when he and Fox and Gage had made this trip. No boom box pumping out rap or heavy metal, no snacks of Little Debbies, no innocent, youthful excitement of a stolen day, and the night to come.
None of them had ever been so innocent again.
He caught himself lifting a hand to his face, where his glasses used to slide down the bridge of his nose.
"How you doing, Captain?" Quinn stepped up to match her pace to his, gave him a light arm bump.
"Okay. I was just thinking about that day. Everything hot and green, Fox hauling that stupid boom box. My mother's lemonade, snack cakes. "
"Sweat rolling," Fox continued from just behind him.
"We're coming up on Hester's Pool," Gage said, breaking the memory.
The water made Cal think of quicksand rather than the cool and forbidden pool he and his friends had leaped into so long ago. He could imagine going in now, being sucked in, deeper and deeper until he never saw light again.
They stopped as they had before, but now it was coffee instead of lemonade.
"There's been deer here, too. " Layla pointed at the ground. "Those are deer prints, right?"
"Some deer," Fox confirmed. "Raccoon. " He took her arm to turn her, pointed to the prints on the ground.
"Raccoons?" Grinning, she bent to take a closer look. "What else might be in here?"
"Some of my namesakes, wild turkey, now and then-though mostly north of here-you might see bear. "
She straightened quickly. "Bear. "
"Mostly north," he repeated, but found it as good an excuse as any to take her hand.
Cybil crouched by the edge of the pool, stared at the water.
"A little cold to think about taking a dip," Gage told her.
"Hester drowned herself here. " She glanced up, then looked over at Cal. "And when you went in that day, you saw her. "
"Yeah. Yeah, I saw her. "
"And you and Quinn have both seen her in your heads. Layla's dreamed of her, vividly. So. . . maybe I can get something. "
"I thought yours was precog, not the past," Cal began.
"It is, but I still get vibes from people, from places that are strong enough to send them out. How about you?" She looked back at Gage. "We might stir up more in tandem. Are you up for that?"
Saying nothing, he held out a hand. She took it, rose to her feet. Together, they stared at that still, brown surface.
The water began to beat and froth. It began to spin, to spew up white-tipped waves. It roared like a sea mating with a wild and vicious storm.
And a hand shot out to claw at the ground.
Hester pulled herself out of that churning water-bone white skin, a mass of wet, tangled hair, dark, glassy eyes. The effort, or her madness, peeled her lips back from her teeth.
Cybil heard herself scream as Hester Deale's arms opened, as they locked around her and dragged her toward that swirling brown pool.
"Cyb! Cyb! Cybil!"
She came back struggling, and found herself locked not in Hester's arms, but Gage's. "What the hell was that?"
"You were going in. "
She stayed where she was, feeling her heart hammer against his as Quinn gripped her shoulder. Cybil took another look at the still surface of the pool. "That would've been really unpleasant. "
She was trembling, one hard jolt after the next, but Gage had to give her points for keeping her voice even.
"Did you get anything?" she asked him.
"Water kicked up; she came up. You started to tip. "
"She grabbed me. She. . . embraced me. That's what I think, but I wasn't focused enough to feel or sense what she felt. Maybe if we tried it again-"
"We've got to get moving now," Cal interrupted.
"It only took a minute. "
"Try nearly fifteen," Fox corrected.
"But. . . " Cybil eased back from Gage when she realized she was still in his arms. "Did it seem that long to you?"
"No. It was immediate. "
"It wasn't. " Layla held out another thermos lid of coffee. "We were arguing about whether we should pull you back, and how we should if we did. Quinn said to leave you be for another few minutes, that sometimes it took you a while to warm up. "
"Well, it felt like a minute, no more than, for the whole deal. And it didn't feel like something from before. " Again, Cybil looked at Gage.
"No, it didn't. So if I were you, I wouldn't think about taking a dip anytime soon. "
"I prefer a nice blue pool, with a swim-up bar. "
"Bikini margaritas. " Quinn rubbed her hand up and down Cybi
l's arm.
"Spring break, two thousand. " Cybil caught Quinn's hand, squeezed. "I'm fine, Q. "
"I'll buy the first round of those margaritas when this is done. Ready to move on?" Cal asked.
He hitched up his pack, turned. Then shook his head. "This isn't right. "
"We're leaving the haunted pool to walk through the demonic woods. " Quinn worked up a smile. "What could be wrong?"
"That's not the path. " He gestured toward the thawing track. "That's not the direction. " He squinted up at the sun as he pulled his old Boy Scout compass out of his pocket.
"Ever thought about upgrading to a GPS?" Gage asked him.
"This does the job. See, we need to head west from here. That trail's leading north. That trail shouldn't even be there. "
"It's not there. " Fox's eyes narrowed, darkened. "There's no trail, just underbrush, a thicket of wild blackberries. It's not real. " He shifted, angled himself. "It's that way. " He gestured west. "It's hard to see, it's like looking through mud, but. . . "
Layla stepped forward, took his hand.
"Okay, yeah. That's better. "
"You're pointing at a really big-ass tree," Cybil told him.
"That isn't there. " Still holding Layla's hand, Fox walked forward. The image of the large oak broke apart as he walked through it.
"Nice trick. " Quinn let out a breath. "So, Twisse doesn't want us to go to the clearing. I'll take point. "
"I'll take point. " Cal took her arm to tug her behind him. "I've got the compass. " He had only to glance back at his friends to have them falling in line. Fox taking center, Gage the rear with the women between.
As soon as the track widened enough to allow it, Quinn moved up beside Cal. "This is the way it has to work. " She glanced back to see the other women had followed her lead, and now walked abreast with their partners. "We're linked up this way, Cal. Two-by-two, trios, the group of six. Whatever the reasons are, that's the way it is. "
"We're walking into something. I can't see what it is, but I'm walking you and the others right into it. "
"We're all on our own two feet, Cal. " She passed him the bottle of water she carried in her coat pocket. "I don't know if I love you because you're Mr. Responsibility or in spite of it. "
"As long as you do. And since you do, maybe we should think about the idea of getting married. "
"I like the idea," she said after a moment. "If you want my thoughts on it. "
"I do. " Stupid, he thought, stupid way to propose, and a ridiculous place for it, too. Then again, when they couldn't be sure what was around the bend, it made sense to grab what you did now, tight and quick. "As it happens, I agree with you. More thoughts on the idea would be that my mother, especially, will want the splash-big deal, big party, bells and whistles. "
"I happen to agree with that, too. How is she with communication by phone and/or e-mail?"
"She's all about that. "
"Great. I'll hook her up with my mother and they can go for it. How's your September schedule?"
"September?"
She studied the winter woods, watched a squirrel scamper up a tree and across a thick branch. "I bet the Hollow's beautiful in September. Still green, but with just a hint of the color to come. "
"I was thinking sooner. Like April, or May. " Before, Cal thought. Before July, and what might be the end of everything he knew and loved.
"It takes a while to organize those bells and whistles. " When she looked at him he understood she read him clearly. "After, Cal, after we've won. One more thing to celebrate. When we're-"
She broke off when he touched a finger to her lips.
The sound came clearly now as all movement and conversation stopped. The wet and throaty snarl rolled across the air, and shot cold down the spine. Lump curled down on his haunches and whined.
"He hears it, too, this time. " Cal shifted, and though the movement was slight, it put Quinn between him and Fox.
"I don't guess we could be lucky, and that's just a bear. " Layla cleared her throat. "Either way, I think we should keep moving. Whatever it is doesn't want us to, so. . . "