Page 79 of The House Beyond the Dunes

He takes a long pull on his beer. “Nothing that extreme. No real laws broken like with Jeb if that’s what you mean.”

I’m not so sure of anything anymore. “What happened?”

“We went through the gate in the fence. It’s locked to most, but Kyle got hold of a key to the lock. Don’t ask me how, I have no idea. Anyway, we drove the thirty miles into Virginia Beach. There’s a bar on Chic’s Beach.”

I saw the fence at the Virginia border on the beach. I didn’t realize it extended into the woods or had an access gate, but I know the Chic’s Beach area well. “I waitressed in a few restaurants around there.”

“We got pretty drunk. We needed to sober up before the drive home, so we went to the bay, stripped, and went for a swim.”

“That’s hardly shocking,” I say. “You two wouldn’t be the first.”

“Someone stole our clothes. No shirt, no shoes, no pants, no service. Cut the evening short, and we had to drive back here.”

“Naked?”

“As the day we were born.”

I never saw any hints of this young rule breaker in Kyle. Until those last moments with me in his room, he was slightly rigid, almost prudish. I reach for my beer and gulp down the rest. “The Kyle I knew kept his shirt buttons fastened to the collar.”

But I also would never have pictured Kyle living in the woodland house or having a brother who did jail time for kidnapping.

The inky specks in Reece’s eyes darken. “When he left here for good after his sophomore year, he put it all behind him. He put up some high walls between the man he became and the kid he was. I think Kyle was afraid of turning out like Jeb. Their daddy could get violent when he was drunk. Jeb gave in to his urges. Kyle decided he would always be in control.”

“Was Kyle ever violent?”

He hesitates. “Not that I ever saw.”

“But ...”

“But nothing.” He shakes his head as if he senses this conversation took a wrong turn. “I was trying to be amusing, but it looks like I’ve botched that, too.”

“You opened the door to the past,” I point out. “Based on the work I’ve done with my patients, that always leads to stormy waters.”

His gaze lingers on me as if there is more he wants to say. “And now I’m closing that door.”

“Why tell me anything about Kyle?” I press.

Secrets, if kept hidden long enough, can take on a life of their own. Reece might not want to talk about the past, but that doesn’t matter if the secrets want to be heard.

He grabs his empty plate and mine and walks both to the trash can. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“I liked the story and the kisses.”

He doesn’t respond but pulls two cold beers from the refrigerator. He sets one in front of me.

Was Kyle prone to violence like his brother and father? Even tight lids could boil over occasionally. “Did Kyle ever mention a woman named Nikki Kane?”

The bottle pauses close to his lips before he takes a long swallow. Dark eyes narrow. “No.”

“What about Stevie Palmer?”

“No. Why are you asking?”

I dig my fingernail into the beer bottle label. “Stevie or someone else is sending me her diary entries via mail and a texted PDF file.”

“Why you?”

“I’ve no idea.”

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