“Oh, Liora, you’re here! Thank God you’re okay!” I nearly jump out of my skin as Corrine accosts me from behind, wrapping her arms around me.
I turn to her and am startled to see she’s as white as a ghost. “Corrine, what’s happening? Why wouldn’t I be okay? What’s going on?”
Corrine is so freaked out, she’s actually eerily calm. Tiny tears stream down her face. “They…they only know who the boys are…they don’t know who the girl is yet…” she whispers.
“What boys? What girl? You’re not making sense…”
Her voice is so quiet I can barely hear her. “It’s Cade Johnston and Lee Marvis… they… their bodies…” Her voice breaks.
I gasp, bringing my hand to my mouth. Bodies?
“In the gym. Janitor found them this morning. There’s a girl there too…but she’s too messed up, they can’t identify her yet.” Corrine makes a strange hiccup noise and bites her lip.
“Oh, my God.” I grab her hand and stagger over to the curb to sit down. The crowd seems to have doubled in size. Now parents and townspeople are arriving to see what’s going on.
“Liora,” a deep voice comes from behind me.
Relief washes over me, and I jump up to meet Kieron’s troubled gaze. “Kieron. Oh, Kieron, have you heard? I can’t believe it.” I move closer to him, thinking for some reason we should hug. Isn’t that what people do in these sorts of situations? But he stiffens and I hesitate. We look at each other and Kieron nods grimly.
“They’ve cancelled classes today, for obvious reasons. I think it would be a good idea if we get out of here; let the authorities do their business.”
I glance down at Corrine weeping softly into her hands. Throwing Kieron a pained look, I kneel beside her, patting her long hair.
“Sweetie, it’s gonna be okay. Come on, let’s go. Kieron will give you a ride home.” I eye him hopefully and he nods. But Corrine surprises me by shaking her head.
“Thanks, but I’d rather take the bus,” she mutters. When I start to protest she gives me a steely look, and I realize she’s embarrassed about Kieron knowing where she lives. “Go, I’ll be fine. I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.” I help her to her feet. She gives me a quick hug before walking toward the bus stop. Kieron and I watch her in silence as she shuffles away, head held low. Part of me wants to go after her, but I know she wants to be alone. I have to respect that.
When she’s out of sight, Kieron motions for me to follow him. We weave through the crowd of distraught and frantic people until we reach his truck.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“To get some breakfast. I’m starving.”
******
A letter on the roadside cafe is burned out. Instead of reading ‘Dine Here Now’ it’s ‘Di e Here Now’.
Perfect.
Kieron hops from the truck and opens my door. When he holds out his hand to mine, it’s covered in deep scratches. “What happened?” I ask.
He glances down as if he hadn’t noticed the wounds before. “Oh, nothing,” he says and shrugs. “Neighbor has a frisky cat.”
One that’s part lion?
The waitress sits us at a cracked Formica table with sticky seats. I ignore the menu in front of me, but Kieron studies it briefly before ordering a monster pancake platter. How can he possibly be hungry now?
I order tea and sip it slowly, aware that he’s staring at me. I glance at him, trying to read his face. He looks tired. Confused. Stunned.
“I still can’t believe they’re dead,” I murmur. “Who could have done that? Why?”
He shakes his head and fiddles with his silverware. “I dunno. Pretty scary stuff.”
“I wonder who the girl is…Corrine said they didn’t know.”
Kieron nods. “Kind of hard when there’s no head—’’
I gasp and feel sick. “What? She didn’t say anything about that—” Trembling, I put down my mug, splashing tea on the table.
Kieron looks pained. “Sorry…I thought you heard. Everyone was talking about it…I didn’t mean to upset you.”
I shake my head and wipe away the tear streaming down my cheek. Even though I didn’t really talk to anyone at Dove Creek High other than Corrine, Emme, Skye, and now, Kieron, the thought of any of my classmates suffering so horribly—even jerks like Cade Johnston and Lee Marvis—chills me to the bone.
It’s just like what happened with…
The waitress returns with Kieron’s food, and he hungrily dives in. I shake my head to clear the haunting memories, wondering again how he can possibly eat at a time like this.
He glances up to see me staring. “Sorry,” he says between bites, “I didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast, and I’m famished. Worked up quite an appetite last night—” He suddenly stops and looks at me, almost guiltily…as if he’s said something he shouldn’t have.
My eyes narrow with suspicion. Something isn’t right here. Under the restaurant’s unforgiving fluorescent lights, I see how tired he looks, like he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep last night. Still devastatingly gorgeous, there are dark circles beneath his eyes that weren’t there before. Light stubble on his cheeks suggests he didn’t bother to shave. Deep welts on his hands that definitely did not come from some ornery house-cat. And in the midst of finding out three of our classmates have been brutally murdered on school campus, he decides he needs to devour a hearty breakfast.
And the way he keeps looking at me…almost knowing, yet distrustful. My stomach flutters uncomfortably.
“I—I think I need to go home,” I say. “Tatiana will have heard what happened by now, and I’m sure she’s worried.”
He stares at me for a while, then nods. “Sure, just let me finish up here real quick and I’ll drive you home.”
I shift in my seat, absently fiddling with my napkin while he eats in silence. Something isn’t right with him, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. And until I can, I think it’s best to keep my guard up.
After he pays the waitress, we head back to the truck. I can feel his tension almost as much as my own. He angles out of the parking lot, but instead of taking the road back to school and my cabin, he turns in the opposite direction, heading away.
“What? Where are you going?” I gasp, reflexively reaching for the door handle. My stomach lurches, and I feel my heart racing. But what am I going to do, jump out of a moving truck?
Kieron stares straight ahead, his eyes focused on the road. “Liora, I think you and I both know we need to talk.” His voice is even, firm.
“About what? Kieron, I told you I want to go home…where are you taking me?” No, no. This is impossible. I’m not being kidnapped, am I? Oh, this is too much. I knew he was too good to be true. Lucky, please wake up and kick his ass. You have my blessing.
Kieron glances over at me, lets out a deep sigh, and immediately pulls over to the side of the road. The second the truck stops, I push open the door and make a break for it.
“Liora, wait!”
An eighteen-wheeler flies by and I jump back, right into Kieron’s arms. “Let me go,” I shout, struggling against his firm grip.
“Not until you calm down and listen to me. You trying to get yourself killed?”
“Let me go!” I squirm again, but to no avail. Kieron’s arms are locked around me like a vise. With as much strength as I can muster, I stomp down on one of his feet. He doesn’t budge, and lets out a small chuckle.
“Liora, stop. I’m really sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you. Look, I’ll let you go if you promise not to run out and become road kill.”
“I promise, now let me go,” I say through clenched teeth.
He gradually loosens his grip and I take several steps back, eyeing him warily.
Kieron sighs, his blue eyes sad and frustrated…pleading. “Liora, I’m sorry. Honest. I shouldn’t have done that without asking you first. I...I thought you’d want to talk… about… everything that’s going on. I misread your con
cern…I thought we could go somewhere away from the craziness and just, I dunno, be real with one another for a minute.” He looks down and aimlessly kicks at a pebble on the ground.
And now I feel like a huge idiot. What am I worried about? Do I really think he’s some sort of crazed murderer? Of course not. And so what if he’s hungry? He’s a growing boy. And we’ve all woken up not looking or feeling our best. If it wasn’t for Tatiana’s magical potion this morning, I’d be looking like something someone scraped up off the side of a ditch. Who am I to judge? I lower my eyes, ashamed at my paranoid overreaction.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “I didn’t mean to be a spaz…it’s just with everything that’s happened…I don’t know what to think right now.” I run my hands up the sides of my head and clench some hair.
He takes a step closer to me. “Is it okay if we go somewhere to talk? Or do you really want me to take you home. I’m fine with whatever you want. I’ll even call you a taxi if you don’t want to be around me anymore.”
I think it over for a few moments. “How’s your foot?”
He grins. “I have another one.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” I mumble, and give him a tentative smile. “I guess it’s cool if we go somewhere for a while.”
Without saying a word he heads to the side of the truck and opens the door for me to climb in. As he starts up the engine again, I look out the window and pray I’m not making a huge mistake.
******
Once again, Kieron takes me on an unfamiliar road. Instead of to the cemetery—we both agreed we didn’t want to be there now—he’s driving us up a mountain, a winding back-county road flanked by patches of trees and wide open fields.
“Where are we going?” I ask, feeling a sense of déjà vu. He just moved here; how is it he knows about all these places I don’t?
“Just somewhere I think you’ll like,” he says. His profile looks hard and tired at the same time.
“Yeah, well you said that yesterday, and you took me to an abandoned cemetery.”
“But you liked it, right?” He looks at me from the corner of his eye.
“Yeah,” I admit with a sigh, and look out the window. Our conversation has been stilted and awkward ever since I tried to run away. But I can’t bring myself to relax; there are just too many things bothering me…not the least of which is the fact that here I am driving off into the middle of nowhere with a guy I hardly know, and who is making my Spidey-Sense tingle warnings under my skin.
From out of nowhere, a large black crow flies up alongside my window. Great. Of course Tatiana’s checking up on me. For someone who is blind, she sees way too much sometimes. I casually glance over at Kieron, hoping he doesn’t notice our new companion. Thankfully, his attention is focused on the curvy road. The bird keeps pace with us for a few more miles, then abruptly flies off in the opposite direction. No doubt heading back to tell Tatiana what it saw.
“You doing okay?” Kieron looks over at me and smiles for the first time all morning. We’re near the top of the mountain now, and the town seems far away.
I nod. “It’s so pretty here…I’ve never been out this way before.”
“Really?” He raises his eyebrows. “That’s weird. I just assumed…”
“What?”
He pauses. “Nothing…”
The higher up the mountain we climb, the more colorful the scenery becomes. Autumn has transformed ordinary trees into a magical array of reds, golds, and greens. The sun, peeking through some ominous clouds, dances on the valley floor below us. It looks like a picture on a postcard.
“How do you even know about this place, wherever it is we’re going? Haven’t you only been here for a few weeks?” I ask.
“Give or take a few days…” he murmurs. “My uncle brought me here soon after I arrived.”
“Tell me about him,” I say, eager to break the uncomfortable silence. I want to go back to how we were yesterday when it was so easy to talk to him, before all the weirdness got in our way.
“His name is Troy. He was my mother’s brother.”
“Was?”
“She passed away when I was six.”
“Oh…I’m sorry. My mother’s gone, too. She died when I was born,” I blurt out, much to my surprise. I’ve never told anyone the truth about my mother before. Usually I just say that my parents died together in a car crash when I was two.
“I’m very sorry.” His gaze briefly leaves the road to meet mine.
“It’s okay,” I say, shrugging. “I never knew her. It must have been much harder for you, losing your mom at such a young age.”
He doesn’t answer, and I want to kick myself. Good going, Liora. Morbid conversation, much?
“It was…very painful,” he finally says, his mouth pressed in a straight line, his eyes like steely ice.
“So is it just you and your uncle?”
He slowly nods. “Troy’s lived out here for several years.”
“What about your father?” I ask.
He gives me a funny look, and again doesn’t answer right away.
“Um…I don’t really know him. He took off shortly after I was born,” he says after a long pause.
Great.
“Any brothers or sisters?” I ask. Please don’t tell me they’re dead, too.
He shakes his head. “Nope, only me…that I know of. But I suppose anything’s possible.”
His strange answer makes me think of my own father, or more accurately, my Creator. For all I know I have dozens, maybe hundreds, of half-siblings running around that I don’t even know about.
“Yeah, I’m an only child, too,” I say.
He turns to stare at me, one hand on the wheel. The intensity of his gaze takes my breath away.
My eyes widen. “What?” What?!
An easy smile replaces his serious look. “Nothing…so it’s just you and your… grandmother?”
I swallow hard. I’m marching on some dangerous territory, and it’s all my own doing. If I hadn’t started asking him all those questions about his family…
“Well, yeah, Tatiana isn’t my biological grandmother…she just took me in after my mother died. It’s just been the two of us ever since.” Make that the three of us.
“Hmm.”
“You’ve always lived here?” he asks a few moments later.
“Yup.”
“And you’ve never been up this way before?” His eyes are sparkling again, and the tension eases from his brow.
“Nope. I’ve been to some places outside of town, but I usually stick close to the woods around my cabin. My Mustang isn’t exactly built for off-roading.”
He flashes me a delicious smile that reaches his eyes, sending the butterflies fluttering in my stomach again. “Well, then, you are in for a real treat.”
The twisty road narrows even tighter, and Kieron turns onto a smaller, unmarked path… one more suited for hiking than driving. The trail is so closely lined by trees and bushes on either side that if someone were to come at us there wouldn’t be enough room for both cars to pass.
But this doesn’t bother me. I’m too enraptured by the gorgeous scenery. Trees arching over us create a lush canopy of sage-colored silk, and bushes ripe with brightly colored flowers grow everywhere. It’s as if we’ve pulled into the entrance to an enchanted kingdom, unspoiled by human hands.
He drives slower now; the truck bounces over bumps and holes in the uneven dirt road. The sunlight peeks shyly through the overhanging trees, casting a muted glow.
When we finally reach the top of the mountain, the road flattens out. We seem to be truly in the middle of nowhere, worlds away from where we started.
“We’re here,” Kieron says. “We have to go the rest of the way on foot. The truck won’t make it.”
We get out. Kieron moves to the back of the pickup and pulls back the protective tarp. Grabbing a large bag in one hand and a cooler in the other, he nods toward the truck’s bed. “Wanna grab those?”
I wander
back to see what he’s talking about. Peering in, I see two fishing poles, a net, and a small tackle box.
“What…this?” I ask, incredulous. Are we seriously going fishing?
“Yes, please. All of it.” His smile is so charming he probably could’ve asked me to skydive naked over the Grand Canyon and it would’ve sounded like the best idea ever. I’ve never gone fishing a day in my life, nor has it ever remotely crossed my mind to want to.
Now it seems like the most perfect way to spend the day.
Chapter 9. Liora
“Ready?” Kieron asks. I nod, following him toward an opening in the trees. Taking full advantage of my position behind him, I can’t help but secretly admire his strong frame and steady gait. And how nicely his jeans accentuate his backside.
He cocks his head to the side and smiles. “How’s it going back there? You doing okay?”
I quickly avert my eyes and feel the heat rush to my cheeks.
“Everything’s great. Perfect.” I steal one more quick glance. Yep. Absolutely perfect.
“It’s just a few minutes’ walk from here,” he says.
We weave through the trees and cut through low lying bushes and shrubs. When we finally reach the clearing, I gasp in awe.
Kieron stands beside me. “Not bad, eh?”
I have to re-grip the tackle box so as not to drop it. “Wow…just…wow. This place is… incredible.” I’m beyond stunned at the sheer beauty of this private sanctuary, one truly blessed with Mother Nature’s best.
It’s not just the abundance of brightly-colored wildflowers—unusual enough for this time of year—that makes this place feel so fresh and alive. Large rocks—some jagged and high, some low and flat—reflect the sun’s rays as if they were shiny diamonds tinged with flashes of silver and gold. A narrow river carves its way along the embankment, finally careening off the mountainside to the lake below. Even from up here I can see fish leaping out of the water.
“Come on, let’s go over there,” Kieron says.
We head to the river’s edge, near the cliffs where the view is nothing short of spectacular. We can see for what seems to be hundreds of miles.