Undone: The Complete Duology, page 12
Grace straddled on top of me, and she leaned back to pull her wet shirt off and over her head. She dropped it to the floor before fumbling to undo my jeans. I sat up, easing her back, and helped us out of our clothes.
Our skin, clammy from the rain, heated at every point of contact. She groaned under me as I slid into her, and nothing had ever felt more right. I dug my fingers into her hair, gently yanking back her head as I filled her, taking her. She moaned, her palms flat against my back. The sound morphed into a gentle, quiet sob.
I halted. “Gracie?”
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, urgent. “Don’t fuckin’ stop.”
I lifted her thigh and sank deeper into her, her emotions clouding over my mind.
Something had taken Gracie out of this world. I would help her back, step by step. She was fierce, a force to be reckoned with.
Whatever had broken her would be behind us. We just had to make it through the next few days, then we would be out of here.
When she came with soft gasps smothered into my chest, I took her again. If she had any doubt how serious I was, tonight would settle any objections. She would know I had meant every word. I wasn’t stepping down just because things were hard, just because the townspeople wanted me to leave her here alone.
They could go fuck themselves.
By the time we finished, I couldn’t imagine ever wanting anyone by my side as much as I wanted Grace. We buried down in the blankets, wrapped skin to skin around each other, her back to my chest. I kissed her neck, the side of her face as she drifted away.
We spent the night that way, tight together, warm in her bed as the rain danced against the windowpane. I wrapped one arm around her and rested my other hand on the inside of her leg. Her breathing deepened, evened out, as she slipped into sleep.
I wasn’t far behind.
When I woke, the sky outside had lightened, the sun barely on the horizon.
My mood warmed with the sun. Grace and I had crossed into new territory last night. There would be no going back now. Despite the slight hangover in the front of my brain, I was looking forward to today. There was so much to discuss, so much to do.
She squirmed against me.
But first…
I inched away as she rolled over onto her back.
“Why, hello there,” I said in a low voice, tracing my thumb down her side.
She wiggled a little, grinning as I trailed my fingers over her stomach, headed downward.
Something down the hall, in the direction of the kitchen, thudded.
Probably the cat. I hadn’t seen it yet, but she’d mentioned one on our first meeting. That was only a few days ago, but it seemed I had known Gracie forever already.
Some things were just meant to be.
I gently squeezed the outside of her thigh, pulling her closer to me.
The noise came again from the kitchen. There was definitely something out there moving around, and it didn’t sound like a cat.
The third time was unmistakable: we weren’t alone.
15
GRACE
“Hey, Grace? Is someone else here?”
Mac’s question shot straight through the comfortable fog of my brain. It took everything in me not to bolt upright in panic. My heart slammed into my chest, and I struggled to keep my breathing in check.
Stupid. I’d been so damn stupid letting Mac into the house while Bobby was still in the basement.
I scoffed. “What, you think I’m married or something?”
I waited for Mac to laugh, for the tension to dissipate. When neither happened, I peeked at him with one eye.
He had propped his head on his hand, elbow bent, scowl in place as he listened more intently.
That was the last thing I needed.
“It’s just an old house,” I said. “It makes noises.”
I slid my hand up his bare chest and around to the back of his neck, pulling him towards me. He resisted, and I reached down with my other hand under the covers and gripped his cock. A few slow deliberate strokes shifted his attention back towards me.
I lifted my face to him for a kiss, and he lowered to press his lips against mine. Fire flooded through me, and I wrapped myself around him, guiding him into position as he settled over me again. The line of his jaw, the shape of his arms; I couldn’t believe someone so gorgeous was in my bed. That someone like him wanted me.
He wasn’t just nice to look at. I’d admitted to loving him last night, and as much as part of me insisted I should take back those words, shouldn’t start something I couldn’t finish, I’d meant them then, and I still did this morning too.
Everything I’d seen of him, Mac was the person old Gracie would have wanted in her life. He so desperately wanted to do the right thing.
It was unfortunate for him. The right thing had put him on the wrong path.
And old Gracie? She wasn’t allowed to surface for long anyway.
I had shit to do she would never understand.
But first, one more round wouldn’t hurt anyone.
I bucked my hips against his cock, running up and down his shaft as he grew harder, thicker. He deepened our kiss, and I wrapped my legs around his waist.
The thud from the basement came again.
I’m going to kill Bobby.
I mentally snickered. That was the end result anyway.
Mac stilled over me, staring down into my face. I focused on the spot where his shoulder and neck met, refusing to make eye contact.
What if he could pull my secrets from me like a magician with a rabbit from a hat? I wasn’t dumb enough to think I wasn’t emotionally vulnerable under the weight, literal and figurative, of this man. I’d let my guard down around him far too many times, and I still couldn’t pry him out of my grip.
I wanted him.
God damnit.
“Gracie?”
I made a noncommittal noise.
He cupped my cheek with one hand and gently urged my face up to him. I relented but I stared at his mouth, watching the words form on his lips.
“What’s going on?”
Another thud.
What in the hell was the fucker doing down there in the basement?
Oh, god. Was he trying to escape?
“You need to go.”
Mac hesitated, then rolled off me, icing over. “Just like that?”
“Yep.” I shifted up to sitting, the blankets pulled over my bare breasts. “You got your way, didn’t you?”
Inside, I grimaced. Mac didn’t deserve anything I was doing to him, but what was I supposed to say? It didn’t matter. Even if we somehow made this relationship work, I would forever be forced to lie to him about my involvement with his brother’s disappearance and subsequent death.
He threw the covers off him and stood out of bed, all muscle and heartbreak.
I grit my teeth, loathing this entire situation. Wordlessly, he pulled on his clothes.
I did the same, then halted, fully clothed except for my shirt which I held in hand. He pulled out his phone from his pants pocket and flipped through messages, pointedly ignoring me. The scowl on his face said he was fully aware of my presence.
“Mac.” Before I could stop myself, I rounded the bed and stood before him.
He tossed the phone onto the mattress and placed one hand on my bare shoulder, our chests centimeters apart.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“With what?” I wasn’t playing naïve. He needed to ask direct questions. I couldn’t risk showing my hand.
“With everything. This whole goddamn place.” He gestured vaguely towards the outside. “Thorn Tree. The people. Why do they want me to stay away from you? Is it because you’re a witch? There’s more to it, isn’t there? And the Reverend—my god, what is going on with the Reverend?”
I stared up at him, numb, trying to process everything he’d said. Thorn Tree had warned him about me. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it burned like hot embers in my chest all over again. And how did he know I was a witch? No one would have told him that. They didn’t care. No one had ever cared about that.
It was the least of my sins, in their book.
But the question about the Reverend …
“What do you mean about the Reverend?” I asked softly. Fear rippled down my spine, but I refused to show it; at least, I hoped I did not. That one was outside my control some days.
“I met him,” Mac said, his voice hoarse. “He was waiting for me.”
The world tipped, and the nauseated feeling in my stomach wasn’t from the alcohol last night.
“You need to go, Mac.”
Hurt crossed his face, and at long last, I met his eyes.
“Please.”
His posture softened with his expression. The question didn’t need to be asked. I could read it in every movement.
“I love you, Mac. I meant it, and that’s why I really need you to go.”
The thud came again, louder this time.
Mac went to object but seemed to think better of it. He pocketed his cellphone, pressed a kiss to the top of my head, then grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.
I scampered around him, still shirtless wearing only a bra with my jeans, and guided him away from the kitchen, directly towards the front door. He glanced at the concoction on the counter, but I yanked open the front door, letting in the early morning light filtered through growing cloud cover. The storm would return before long, harder than last night.
“I’ll see you soon.” I sealed the promise with a kiss, on my toes, holding him to me.
When we parted, he crossed towards the road before turning back to where I lingered in the doorway. He waved, and I returned it with a sad smile.
He disappeared down the road. I retreated inside, closing the door behind me, and let out an exasperated sigh. Everything had become far too complicated, and I had no one to blame but myself.
The thud came again.
Well, and that asshole.
I stormed towards the basement and yanked open the door. Muffled noises came from down in the darkness.
The lightbulb had gone out.
“Bobby?” I reached for my phone but realized I didn’t have it on me. I’d left in the bedroom.
Bobby gave a few muted noises. That gag was doing a pretty solid job at keeping him from shouting. Good thing, considering Mac and all.
“Just settle your goddamn horses.”
I retrieved my phone from the bedroom, a lightbulb from the hall closet, and the gun from the dresser in the kitchen, then returned to the dark basement. Using my phone flashlight, I found Bobby still tied to his chair, eyes wild.
“I didn’t turn the light out on purpose, Jesus Christ, Bobby.”
Was Bobby Bruno afraid of the dark? How interesting.
He was the only monster down here.
I placed the phone light up on the workbench, then used a crate from the piles of clutter to reach the single light in the ceiling. When I screwed in the new bulb, light shone down on Bobby again, fading away around the perimeter of the room.
I stepped down then sat on the crate directly in front of him. “You really fucked up, Bobby.”
He met my gaze with a question stifled by the gag.
“Did you know someone was in the house, Bobby?”
He shook his head vigorously, panic flooding his face.
“It was Mac.” I couldn’t stop myself from the delight that trickled through me at breaking the last of Bobby’s spirit. “He came looking for you, but he wound up in my bed. What do you think, Bobby?”
His jaw hardened. He knew me well enough to know I wasn’t making up shit.
That was his specialty, not mine.
I rose to my feet. “In a strange way, you and I are on the same team now, Bobby. You really don’t want him to know you’re down here, do you?”
Bobby gave some noises that must have been an argument, but they stopped mid-thought as his eyes filled with fear.
He’d done the math, and realized he was the problem.
I leaned in towards him, face to face. “That’s the last lightbulb I have. You so much as breathe too loudly, and I will smash it. Got it?”
He nodded, neck stiff, and I patted his arm.
“Good boy. I’ll be back.”
With that, I left Bobby with his single lightbulb that could stave off the shadows in the room but not the ones I’d left in his brain.
Just the way it should be.
But I had a real problem now, thanks to his freak out. Mac wasn’t stupid enough to be convinced he’d only heard a mouse in the attic, and not find the rat in the basement instead.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.
16
GRACE
Right before I reached town, I left my jeep parked beside an old barn that had been used to store the town’s limited gasoline supply for at least as long as I’d been alive. I wasn’t sure anyone even knew who the building belonged to, or if it had an owner.
I hiked the rest of the way into town and made my way towards Doctor Francis’ office. God healed the sick, but only through the town doctor. His office was a small building with an even smaller pharmacy in the back. He managed the place himself with Mrs. Stone stopping in three days a week to sort paperwork and other tasks the doctor wasn’t interested in doing himself.
Even though it was late morning, the office was closed up. Doctor Francis often did house calls, and more than once I considered he only had an official location to feel like a real doctor. It wasn’t like any regulatory committees checked in with Thorn Tree.
His prescription pad had cartoon cats on it.
As usual, the office wouldn’t be locked up. Still, I couldn’t risk anyone coming up the sidewalk or in the surrounding buildings to see me let myself in. I had no business being in the doctor’s office when he wasn’t there, and given who I was, it would raise suspicion about what I was doing.
For good reason, this time.
After verifying no one was around, at least that I could see, I slipped around the corner along a short brick wall that separated the side of the office from the street. I hefted myself over the wall, soles crunching in the cold grass, and slunk around to the back door.
I peered inside. The interior was dark, still. Mrs. Stone didn’t work today. Doctor Francis was probably checking in on Miss Gladys. The best he could do was ease her pain, if she allowed it. Her life was on the last trickle of sand from the hourglass.
Pushing away the emotions that came with the thoughts, I walked with careful, silent steps through the darkness of the back office. Shelves filled with folders stood to one side, and a scale to the other. I pushed open the flimsy door, into the lobby, and sidled over to the counter that served as the pharmacy. Anyone who came too close to the front of the doctor's office would be able to see me, so I had to work quickly while the street was empty.
My fingers danced over the bins and packages stuffed in baskets on racks. The organization of the medication wasn’t obvious, and I doubted it met any standards, but it worked for Thorn Tree.
That was all anyone cared about around here. Things that didn’t work for Thorn Tree were rarely tolerated.
What did I need for Bobby? Something that would knock him cold for a few hours, ideally. Benzos, those could work.
I scanned the labels on the bins.
Noises outside caught my attention.
Doctor Francis was coming up the sidewalk, head down as he tapped away on his phone.
I dropped behind the counter, holding my breath. The front door rattled then opened. The overhead light flipped on.
Doctor Francis whistled a little tune as he crossed the lobby towards the pharmacy counter. On my ass, I scooted towards the opposite end of the counter.
His footsteps paused, and I listened closely, trying to discern what he was doing. I didn’t dare to peek.
The bins all blurred together, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of which one I should grab once he passed. Hopefully, he needed to catch up on work in the back office and wasn’t intending to grab medication.
His footsteps came again, heading my way.
Figures.
I shoved my foot against the floor, scrambling back on my palms, around the short end of the counter as he stepped behind it. The back of his head came into view as he bobbed around the racks, checking his stash.
My lungs burned, and I took a slow cautious breath before holding it again.
He continued to whistle as he sorted through bins. I eased around to the opposite side of the counter, facing the front door. Right as he turned around, I dropped to my side, my back tucked against the counter. Only the overhang shielded me, by inches, from his view.
I couldn’t imagine what would happen to me if I were caught, but I’d seen how punishment was doled out in this town—and I was on no one’s mercy list.
Just tell them it’s your fault, Gracie.
Cold anger welled through me at the stupid voice. It belonged to Mrs. Stone.
I’d forgotten that.
I swallowed the memory and willed myself to forget it again.
It was how we could coexist in this stupid town.
With shallow breaths, I waited, unmoving, as Doctor Francis continued his work behind the counter.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered to himself.
He crossed to the back office door, and I peered around the corner of the counter as he disappeared into the back.
I had seconds. No time to grab anything.
Before the doctor returned, I shot from under the counter and raced across the lobby, out the front door, and back onto the street. I didn’t stop running until the doctor's office was out of sight.
My mind whirled with what to do about Bobby. I could go back to the doctor's office later, try again, but I didn’t have time. Mac could return to my house before then, and now I’d set the precedent that he was allowed inside.
I couldn’t have both brothers in my abode, not when I intended to fuck one and kill the other.
