The tiny muscle twitched in the side of his face.
“What the hell does it matter now? You’ve got one foot in the grave, old man.” My stomach clenched tightly, and it was a question I dreaded almost as much as the answer. “Dad, did you have something to do with the missing girls?”
He looked at me and was far more alert than he’d been five seconds earlier. “Hell no, Jem. Why the fuck would you ask that? This crappy end, I deserve it one hundred percent, but I had nothing to do with the missing girls.”
“Because a lot of dirty shit happens here, and it always seems to be linked to Alcott Wolfe.”
He covered his eyes with his forearm. “Too fucking bright in here. Get out, Jem. My head’s killing me.”
I stayed. “The accidents on Phantom Curve—are you the phantom, Dad? Did you cause those trucks to veer off the road?”
He didn’t lift his arm from his face, but I could see his throat move as he swallowed. I wondered if he was swallowing back all the ugly, bitterness of what he’d done.
It seemed he wasn’t going to talk. “So, you’re going to take everything to the grave, and people in this town will be justified for labeling you as a fucking monster. Guess that answers my question.” I got up.
“Had nothing to do with the missing girls. Don’t you go thinking that, Jem. Don’t even get a grain of that in your mind. Your opinion of me is already low enough. I don’t need you thinking I was some kind of freak. I did shit to keep you boys fed and clothed. But I wasn’t in charge of anything. I’ve been a fucking pawn in all this.”
“Then who’s the king?”
He laughed weakly. “I’m already dead so it doesn’t matter. If I tell you, he’ll kill you. Just leave it alone, Jem.”
“Can’t do that, Dad. There’s someone else in danger now, and I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”
With a grunt of pain he turned on his side and away from me. “Get out and let me wait for the Grim Reaper in peace.” He was done talking, and I was on my own to find out who’d had my dad by the balls all these years.
Chapter 23
Tashlyn
The incident in the bathroom had left me shaken. I realized that I’d been trying hard to ignore the giant, dangerous pink elephant in town. Someone wanted me gone, whether alive and walking out on my own two feet or the alternative. My presence was a threat to someone. I just had no idea who.
Everly had suggested that since there was no food in the house, we should go to the diner for breakfast. I didn’t have a big appetite, but I didn’t want to say no. She seemed disappointed about how her evening had gone with Finn. I hadn’t asked details and decided to wait for her to tell me. I’d also decided I needed to fill Everly in on what had been happening. I was living in her house, and she might just be in danger too. I wouldn’t blame her at all if she asked me to move out once I confessed everything.
We drove past Jem’s house, but his bike was gone. He was out and about already. Everly turned into the diner parking lot. “Oh good, most of the Sunday breakfast crowd has already come and gone. Be prepared, they usually run out of bacon by ten.”
“I’ll prepare myself for disappointment then. I thought you said this was a truck stop too. I don’t see any trucks.”
“They don’t generally come this way unless there’s a lot of traffic on the main freeway. Plus it’s Sunday.” Milly’s Diner had the usual nostalgic look, only it seemed the decor truly was vintage, as if it had remained the same since the fifties. There were even two coin operated carousel horse rides out front. One man was waiting while his little girl rocked back and forth on a blue horse.
I stopped and watched her. The hair on my neck stood up and an unexplained shiver went through me.
Everly noticed my reaction. “Tash, you all right?”
I shook myself out of it. “Yeah, I just had a major case of déjà vu. Like I’d been here before, riding that horse, just like that little girl.”
She took my hand. “Oh boy, you are hungry. What you need is some pancakes.”
I looked back once more at the little girl as Everly dragged me inside the diner. A woman with silvery hair and a warm pink complexion was filling salt shakers. “Hey, Ever, grab a table anywhere. And we’re out of bacon.”
Everly shot me a ‘told you so’ look. We sat in a booth near the back of the restaurant. I sat facing the front, and immediately, the green, round clock hanging over the door caught my eye. Its hands were covered in rhinestones and the words Milly’s Diner were painted across the face. I’d seen it before. It was possible I’d been in another Milly’s Diner at some point in my early life. It definitely wasn’t the kind of place Aunt Carly would have taken me, but I’d done some long trucking trips with my dad. I stared at the clock for a second.
“Hey, Earth to Tash, what do you think about me ordering French toast and you get the strawberry pancakes and we’ll share?”
“Yep, that sounds great.” The server filled our coffee cups and took our order.
Everly leaned back against the blue vinyl seat and looked at me. “Your lips aren’t as swollen today.”
I took a sip of coffee. “Man, that tastes good.”
“Yeah, yeah, now details.”
“No, you first.”
She sighed dejectedly. “Not much to tell. We sat and talked and laughed. I cooked him some scrambled eggs, which he devoured as if he hadn’t eaten in days. Then he gave me a peck on the cheek and left.” She tossed two packets of sugar into her coffee. “A peck on the cheek, can you imagine? Shit.” Her disappointment was palpable. There was a little heartbreak mixed in too. “What about you? You went straight to bed after Jem dropped you off.”
“I’d had a few sips of some highly potent whiskey. It had been a crazy night, and I wasn’t myself. Jem suggested it would relax me.” I thought about our few hours together naked in his bed, and my usual warm cheeks followed. “It definitely worked.”
She stared expectantly at me over the rim of her cup. “And are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“The incident in the bathroom. You came out of there looking as if you’d seen that face in the mirror, what’s the name of that lady everyone tries to conjure up at sleepovers?”
“Bloody Mary?”
“Yep. That’s how you looked. What happened?”
I glanced around at the counter and the stools. I’d been here before. It was no longer just an inkling or déjà vu. I’d sat in this diner before. I looked at Everly. “Some stuff has happened, Ever. Stuff I didn’t want to bother you with.”
“Like what? I mean aside from the obvious that you’re dating the town bad boy.”
I took another sip of coffee. It helped clear the slight hangover I was feeling from the whiskey. “I was working late at the mill last week, and I thought I heard a dog in the carriage shed where they make the first cuts. I walked inside to look for the dog, and someone knocked me out. I was lying about losing the sweatshirt. The person ripped the sleeve and tied me to the cradle arm.”
Everly’s face smoothed to white marble as she listened.
“I was just inches from being killed by the saw when Jem saved me.”
“Holy shit, Tash.”
“That’s not all. That letter my aunt sent me had been opened. Her letter had been shredded. There was a note inside telling me to leave town or die.”
She blinked at me as if she was struggling to absorb what I was telling her. “Tashlyn, I don’t even know what to say.”
“Last night, I was in the bar bathroom. Someone was smoking in the stall. Then a man’s voice, the same voice I’d heard in the mill, called me pussycat, just like he had before he knocked me out and tied me to the saw.”