Secrets At Crescent Point, page 15
Help me! I don’t know what to do, Lord. What do I do?
23
Antiseptic stung my cheek and I winced, frowning at the nurse. She clucked her tongue and favored me with a motherly expression, but kept on dabbing at my cut. My feet dangled from the exam room bed, hands fisted in my skirt to keep from shaking.
Dawn’s pale, peach light peeked through the shuttered windows.
I’d been here for almost four hours answering questions, getting examined, x-rayed and prodded. At nearly five thirty, fatigue had set in, making my limbs heavy.
“You should have come in for this one on your forehead. And now your beautiful cheekbone.” Wrinkles formed over her warm hazel eyes. She stretched small tapes over my injury before snapping off her latex gloves and pushing graying blonde hair up off of her forehead. She smiled. “How is your side?”
My hand went to the painful bruise from toppling over the table, and I stifled another wince before nodding. “It’s OK.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t crack your ribs.” She handed me a little paper cup with pills inside. “Doctor Schuller wants you to take these.”
“What are they?” I took the cup, wrinkling my nose.
“Pain killers.” She urged me to lift the cup. “They’re mild, honey.”
Outside the door, I saw Siyah’s figure pass, and then again, going the other way. He peered into the room with furrowed brows, hands shoved in his pockets as he paced.
A headache throbbed and a wave of nausea moved through me. “I’ll take them later.” I said and set the cup on the rolling tray.
Her lips pulled down in a frown, but she let it go. A knock made her turn.
Dr. Schuller smiled from the doorway, and then washed his hands at the small sink. Snow white hair in what could only be described as a “presidential cut”, his pale eyes scrutinized the nurse’s work with admiration.
Nodding to him, she left.
“How is my father?” My voice broke, and I took in a steadying breath. “Is he all right?”
“We’re going to keep him for a couple of days,” Schuller said and put up his hand at the look on my face. “It’s his age, mostly. He took a knock to the head and with his elevated blood pressure we want to watch him, that’s all.”
“Can I see him?”
“When he’s out of x-ray.”
“My sister, my mother?” My voice sounded far off, without emotion. “Where are they?”
“With your father.” Schuller took a step back, shone a light in each of my eyes. “Did you take the medication?”
“Not yet.”
“Your head and your side must be painful. Please consider taking them. You need to sleep.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever relax enough to do that,” I said, but tossed the pills back, and took a sip from the plastic cup Schuller offered me.
“The Sheriff wants a word,” Schuller said. “Do you feel up to it?”
Outside the exam room Thompson stood against the opposite wall, thumbs hooked in his gun belt, boots crossed at the ankles. He nodded when I caught his gaze.
“Yes.” I wiped my mouth, the movement sending a shard of pain into my shoulder, bruised from the shotgun recoil. “I’ll speak with him.”
Schuller eyed me for a second, and then nodded, motioning Thompson into the room.
The sheriff waited for Schuller to leave before pulling out his notepad. He shook his head while writing something down.
I wondered how much higher on his list of suspects I was now.
“You want Siyah in here?” he asked, finally.
Confused, I blinked. “What?”
“He’s usually in on family stuff,” Thompson said. “He’s been here since two this morning, pacing the halls. Yes or no…you want me to ask him to come in?”
“I–I’m OK with just you.”
His crisp demeanor made me pause. No longer friendly, he looked at me as if he’d just caught me with a bag of stolen diamonds. Or rubies. How much had Thompson learned about my past since we last spoke?
He tilted his head to the side, his gaze assessing. “What’s going on, Raven?”
“I already—”
“I have the statement you told my deputy. I want to know what is going on. With you, with your sister, with the kids I keep finding washed up on the beach.” The steel in his voice set me on edge.
“I don’t know what is going on,” I said a little too loud. Taking a deep breath, I shook my head, hands out. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
“Your sister was all over yesterday harassing people in the village and hill houses. She accused them of covering up Niklos’s death.”
“What?” My conversation with Sonja from that morning seemed so long ago. “She said she was going to ask around, dig into where Niklos was during the days before he disappeared.”
He leaned a hip against the counter, chewing the inside of his cheek. “Did you know that Niklos had a gambling problem?”
“No, I…no.” Three years younger, I barely remembered him from school. “I only know what Sonja told me.”
“Did she tell you that Siyah found him beaten earlier this year?” Thompson looked out the doorway and leaned in. “People don’t get worked over and left for dead without making some serious enemies.”
My breath caught. Why would Sonja keep that from me? “S–she never said anything to me. Maybe she didn’t know.”
“She picked him up at the hospital. I asked around.” His brows furrowed. “Siyah never said anything?”
“He and I aren’t really speaking.” My voice cracked.
Thompson gave me a doubtful look.
“There are families on Noble with shady pasts, and Sonja went around rattling their cages yesterday. If they did do something to Niklos, then she just threatened to expose them. You don’t think that has something to do with what happened last night?”
“Don’t you blame her for this,” I hissed. “I don’t think that is what is going on here.”
“What, then? You tell me?”
“You said you saw something, too,” I tried. “You said you saw a face—”
“If you know something, Raven, you need to tell me. Did Niklos know Elgin?” Thompson cut across me.
“What? I don’t know.” My cheeks flared hot with anger. “I just told you I didn’t know very much about Niklos. Are you really going to deny what you saw, Sheriff?”
“A specter didn’t show up on your family’s boat and throw your father around. What aren’t you telling me?”
“Stop it.” Hands flying to my ears, I didn’t want to hear the one person who believed me call me crazy. “Just stop it.”
“Enough.” Siyah’s voice boomed from the doorway. “She is done talking.”
Thompson looked at him, and then up at the ceiling, sighing. “I’m not done asking questions.”
“You are tonight.”
Thompson stood, facing him, his head shaking. “No.”
Siyah walked over and put himself between me and Thompson. His frame imposing, shoulder angled forward, he looked formidable. “She will speak with you tomorrow.”
“Siyah…” I began, but he silenced with me a glance, and I sealed my lips, watching their standoff.
Thompson glared at him for a second, but put his hands up and took a step back. “Tomorrow. You get her to the station.”
Siyah nodded once, his jaw tight.
Closing his notebook, Thompson left the room.
Turning, Siyah’s gaze went from my forehead to my cheek and back, his lips pressed in a thin line.
I trembled when his gaze found mine, held me in place.
He was still, but I could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves. He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes as if counting, and when he opened them, his expression softened slightly. Holding out his hand, he cleared his throat. “You and Sonja are coming with me.”
“What?” I didn’t move, confused.
“Your hand, Raven.” His look left no room for argument. I placed my hand in his, the warmth and strength of his grasp settling my nerves as he helped me off the table.
“I don’t understand.”
“No, I do not think you do.” He grabbed the blanket and led us out of the room. His voice, a rasp, was barely above a whisper. “I think you have no idea how close you came to dying tonight.”
“My father.” I tried to turn down the hall, but Siyah laced his fingers with mine, holding our hands to his chest as he kept walking.
“I will make sure that you see him soon, but right now he’s asleep and your mother is with him. I have Luka at the door. He’s safe.”
“What about Sonja?” I scanned the crowd in the lobby, searching for her. “You said she was coming.”
“She will when she is done. I’ll have my cousin bring her.”
“Where?” I stopped walking.
Siyah turned to face me in the hall, exasperation on his face. “I will carry you if I must, Raven.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“Someplace safe.”
“Alone?” My voice cracked and the image of him on the cliff flashed in my mind.
“No, Sonja is coming, I said this.” A look of concern crossed his face. “What is wrong?”
“Just…where are we going, Siyah?” I tugged away, my breath coming in hitches.
“To the Black Adder. I have very good security there. Cameras, alarms, you’ll be safe there for the night.”
“What about the inn?”
“The Inn is not safe, you know that. Do you want to return to your family’s place after what happened?” His voice softened and he let my hand go, giving me space. Dawning crossed his features and he put a palm to his forehead. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No…” I looked at the nurse coming down the hall, let her pass before continuing. I didn’t want to tell him that I didn’t trust him right now. That I didn’t trust anyone. “Why can’t I stay here?”
“Raven, come here,” he looked around, pushed through a door, and pulled me in with him. Automatic lights flicked on in the empty room as we entered. No bigger than a supply closet, bins and standing privacy screens crowded the floor. He leaned against the wall, his hands in his pockets. “I would never hurt you.”
Hugging myself, I bit my lip as I faced him. “I know.”
“Do you?” he asked softly. “Because your body says otherwise.”
“I – I saw you on the cliff this morning.” My voice came out in a squeak. “You were covered in blood.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his palms on his face. “You did?”
I nodded, my mouth going dry. “D–Did you have anything to do with Elgin’s death?”
“Who?” He frowned.
“The boy on the beach. You were staring at the crime scene, Siyah. You had your dagger and he was slashed or stabbed.”
He registered shock and pushed a wave of dark hair from his eyes. “Do you think I did that? That I could do that to someone?”
“No,” I said it too quickly and saw the hurt cross his features. “I–I don’t think so, but you looked so angry and Niklos was found at your boardwalk.” I shook my head, tears welling. “I’m so confused and scared, Siyah. I don’t know what to think about anyone, right now.”
He watched me for a long moment, pain etching dark circles under his eyes. “I did not kill that boy,” he said finally. “I was chasing something in the woods and a branch tore my skin.” He lifted the front of his shirt to show a healing scratch traced across the contours of his abdomen. The mark could have been made by a branch, but it also looked like a knife wound.
“What would you chase with a dagger?” I squeaked.
“I thought it was an animal, but it was foggy, and I lost it in the brambles.”
I shook my head, not sure if I believed him. “An animal?”
“Raven,” He reached for me, but I flinched and he stayed his hand. “You believed in me once, try to now.”
“You’re asking so much, Siyah,” I whispered. “You’re asking me to trust you now, after everything? In spite of all that I see?”
“Yes, little bird,” he said quietly. He reached up slowly, his gaze watching mine, and ran the pad of his thumb across my tears. “I know I don’t deserve it. I know I have lost that. But please believe me when I say that I only want to keep you safe.” Dark as thunder clouds, Siyah’s gaze held mine, and I remembered that same look from years ago. When he held me on the shore as I gasped for breath stolen by the sea. He’d risked death to save me, then.
“I want to believe you…”
“That is all I ask,” he whispered. “That you try.”
He blew out a breath, his mouth pulling up slightly as relief crossed his features. It was the first time I’d seen him even come close to the Siyah I knew before. He held his hand out.
I took it, my throat aching. I had no idea if following him was right. I only knew that it felt right tonight.
24
Siyah’s club, the Black Adder, looked very different than what I remembered from my first night back on Noble. The artificial smoke and lights were gone, but carved wood and velvet couches still gave an old world opulence to it. Small marbled tables dotted the perimeter of the room. But it was the large stained-glass windows that dominated the space. Three panels high above the dance floor depicted an obsidian serpent as it rose above a sea of intricate blooms, done in shades of crimson and scarlet. Morning sun rays shone through the colored images lighting up the room with a kaleidoscope of dancing shapes.
I did a double take. It was my design. I turned to look at him as he strode across the polished wood floor with my blanket still in his grasp.
“You bought this?” I was shocked. “I sold it at a school show years ago, to an art dealer.”
“He was working for me,” Siyah said. Slipping behind the bar, he rummaged underneath the counter, placed a glass on the surface and filled it with orange juice from the hose dispenser. He pushed the glass towards me.
“That was the seed money for my jewelry line. I made it at a community college studio, a communal one.” I stared at the windows, now sure of how my sister found me, first wrote to me. It was Siyah who left that business card for my father. All this time and he had been quietly working to get my family back together. “It’s not…it was such a big project. I’m still not happy with how it turned out.”
“No one can see it at night when the club is open and all the lights are turned down.” Tilting his face up, the slivers of tinted sun caressed his skin, made his cobalt eyes glimmer. “I keep it to myself.”
I couldn’t tear my gaze from his beautiful features. Every time I convinced myself that he’d moved on, pieces of me showed up in his life long after I’d left him. How could I separate the man who stood on that cliff with a bloody dagger from the man who took my breath away now? So entangled, my heart raced with worry over what Siyah might have done, and with a longing to be in his arms no matter what the cost. I felt hopelessly lost.
“You know about my jewelry?”
“I do, yes.” His brows furrowed. “I always said you were a true artist.”
“And what else did you know all this time, Siyah?” I thought of the lonely nights. The days spent working so intensely because anything less would let my mind wander to him and my family and Noble. Everything I’d loved and left. “Five years and you never…” I took in a shuddering breath and closed my eyes, willing the anger and hurt to quell. Tired and confused, I just wanted to sleep.
“Raven, please have something. You have not eaten.” He nodded to the orange juice, his face impassive.
“I should go back to the hospital. My father might wake up soon.” I walked over to the leather stool and sat down. Taking a drink, I slid the glass back and forth between my hands across the black marble.
Siyah moved behind the counter, gathering fruit and cutting it. I watched as he arranged it on a small plate, the sedative blunting the edges of my anxiety. He set the plate in front of me and placed a napkin next to it.
“Eat first.” He half sat against the back of the bar, arms crossed.
“I’m not really hungry.” I poked at the fruit, nerves still frazzled from all that had happened. I pushed my long sleeve up to my elbow and Siyah took in a sharp breath.
“What happened to your arms?”
“Nothing.”
I tried to yank the material back down, but he stopped me, gingerly pulling it up further. He winced as he ran the pads of his fingers over the healing scrapes.
“They’re just scratches.”
“You said you saw me yesterday morning…” His eyes met mine, concern darkening them. “Why were you out on the beach that early?”
“Just walking.” I wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“In a field of thorns?” Siyah let my arm go and smoothed a lock of hair from my forehead as he glanced at the bandages on my face. “What were you really doing?”
“I was trying to help Sonja.”
“Did one of the families she questioned do this to you?” There was steel in his voice and I shook my head vehemently.
“No. I didn’t go with her.” I bit my lip, debating whether to reveal what I’d been doing. I meant to tell the sheriff, but now I wasn’t sure if telling him would put me under more suspicion. I’d come here with Siyah, I told myself. I made a choice to try to trust him. “I got the scrapes from a tunnel under your funhouse.”
He looked at me, startled, but recovered. “They were sealed.”
“This entrance was not in the original assessor’s report. Someone took a jack-hammer to the floor of one of the maintenance rooms.”
“Assessor’s report?” He shook his head, leaning back. “How do you know what is in that report?”
“I–I ordered a copy on the Internet.” His raised brow made me nervous so I kept talking. “I was just looking up articles about strange happenings on Noble, for Sonja, and came across it.”
“You can just order one?” He shoved his hands in his pockets, a preoccupied look on his face. “Can I see it?”
Nodding, I rose, grabbed my bag and rifled through it. A twinge of worry snapped in my gut. “It’s not here.”
