9. Visiting Hour—Owen, Part III
Bending over the bed, Darke kissed him gently on the mouth.
Then she eased her lips away and whispered, “See you later, okay?”
“Okay.”
“By the way, I’m Karen.”
“Karen?”
“Karen Marlowe.”
“That’s a nice name,” Owen said.
“I don’t know how nice it is, but it’s mine. Thought you oughta know.”
10. Tuck’s Long Distance Call—Part V
“Hi, Dad. How’s the cruise?...I’m fine...Really Thanks to Dana. She saved my tail when the beast tried to nail me...Yeah, I know...” Tuck nodded as she listened. Though she was smiling, her chin began to tremble and tears filled her eyes. “I love you, too, Dad.” She sniffed. She took a deep breath. Then she said, “So, have you knocked up Janice yet? I’m hoping for a little sister.”
Chapter Sixty-three
SUNDAY NIGHT
Sitting with the gift on his lap, he flinched at the sudden brightness as lights came on behind the house and inside the big and little pools. Soon, three women came outside and walked toward the little pool. It was bubbling and steaming.
Last night, nobody at all had shown up.
He’d thought that maybe they stayed away because the one he liked best hadn’t been pleased by the gift he’d left in her room.
But she was back, tonight. So was her friend, the smaller woman with the very long yellow hair.
With them was a woman he had never seen before. She was small and thin, with very short yellow hair. She had an injured hand that was wrapped in white.
His mother was not with them.
He felt glad about that.
The one he liked best looked a lot like his mother, looked so much like her that he always felt very strange when he saw her. But she wasn’t his mother.
Mother had been here twice. The first time, he’d felt shocked and happy and frightened, all at once. He’d felt an urge to run up to her and hug her, but was afraid to do that because maybe she was still mad at him. She’d been very mad at him the day he hurt her and ran away. Maybe she was still mad, and looking for him because she wanted to hurt him back.
He knew that his mother could be very dangerous when she was mad.
He’d felt the danger of her both times when she was here and came hunting for him. If she’d caught him, she would’ve hurt him. Both times, though, he’d crept away and escaped from her.
Tonight, he wouldn’t need to creep away.
Mother was gone, so there was no one to fear.
At the edge of the hot spa, Dana crouched and set down the bottle of wine. And remained in a crouch, aching too much to move. Earlier in the evening, she’d joined Warren for margaritas, then joined him for barbecued ribs, then joined him in bed. They’d compared wounds. They’d laughed and wept and made love. Because of her injuries, Warren had been very gentle with her. Though she’d wanted to spend the entire night with him, she’d finally asked for a ride home.
There’d been those troubles with the prowler.
Tuck and Darke were likely to use the pool or hot spa, and Eve, laid up in the hospital, wouldn’t be around to protect them.
Still crouching, Dana watched Tuck place a stack of folded towels on the concrete within easy reach of the spa. Then Tuck took off her robe and let it fall. Wearing her doe skin bikini, she stepped down into the bubbly water. “Ahhh,” she said. “Nice and hot.”
Darke stood on the edge. Balancing on her left foot, she lowered her right foot into the water and dipped her toes in.
“It’s clothing optional, you know,” Tuck told her.
Darke nodded. She wore a skintight black tank suit, cut low in front and high at the hips. “I think I’ll keep mine on for now,” she said. She lowered herself into the water, keeping her bandaged hand high.
“You have a question?” Dana asked her.
Darke laughed.
“Are you getting in?” Tuck asked Dana.
Groaning, Dana stood up straight. “I don’t think so. I doubt that hot, dirty water would do my wounds any good.”
“Dirty water?” Tuck protested.
“You’re in it.”
Laughing, Tuck asked, “How bad are you hurt?”
“I’m pretty messed up.”
“We’ll be the judges of that,” Tuck said. “Let’s see.”
Dana looked across the pool.
“Give our Peeping Tom a treat,” Tuck urged her.
“What Peeping Tom?” Darke asked.
“Nothing to worry about,” Tuck said.
Dana reached behind her neck, grabbed the Beast House T-shirt with both hands, and pulled it over her head.
Holding the shirt by her side, she asked, “What do you think?”
Tuck and Darke stared up at her.
She wore nothing.
She knew that she looked as if she’d been been thrown into a pit full of rabid cats. Most of her scratches were shallow. Only a few had been bandaged. In the several places where she’d been bitten, however, she was patched with thick pads of gauze.
“Well,” Tuck said, “I guess you could soak your feet.”
“More than that,” said Darke. “You look perfectly fine, Dana—all the way up to the knees.”
Watching from the bushes, he moaned.
The one he liked best was naked.
And hurt.
Confused for a moment, he wondered if be had done it to her.
The other night when he took the gift to her and...? He had touched her while she slept. He had caressed her. But he hadn’t hurt her.
He hadn’t dug his claws into her skin.
Hadn’t bit her.
But seeing the wounds and bandages on her body, he thought about how it would feel to have her under him, to put his teeth and claws in her, to taste her and bite her with his big mouth and with his little mouth. He wondered what it would be like to shove up into her...
A hulking white shape lurched out of the bushes across the pool, roaring. It carried someone’s severed head.
The head swung by its hair. The face looked beaten and chewed. Much was missing.
“Holy shit!” Tuck yelled.
As the creature bounded around the far end of the pool, Dana dropped her T-shirt, ducked and grabbed the wine bottle by its neck. She raised the bottle like a dub. Wine burbled out, spilling down her arm and splashing the concrete.
Darke sprang out of the spa. Hunched over slightly, she glanced this way and that as if seeking a weapon.
The beast rushed around the pool’s corner and came straight at Dana.
“Get out of the way!” Tuck yelled.
Dana leaped aside.
The beast dodged and rushed in.
She swung the wine bottle. It exploded against the side of the beast’s head.
Growling, the monster swung the severed head at her.
It slammed her in the face.
As she started to fall, she heard the roar of Tuck’s .44 Magnum.
She crashed against the concrete and flung herself over, hoping to roll clear.