Page 49 of A Shot in the Dark
“I won’t need a driver,” I assure.
He smiles, that sensual twist of his lips back in play. “You never know where life will lead you, princess. I expect you’ll be thinking about me alotagain in about a month,” he says, though his previous smugness has softened. “You’ll be looking for some attention. I can almost guarantee it. Maybe, if I can work myself free, I’ll check up on you.” He rubs the spot on his side where I still feel an ache like a bruise unwilling to heal.
My vision narrows. “What are you talking about…?”
“You still don’t know what’s happening to you? Or why you’ve found yourself back here…” He watches me for a long moment, then shakes his head slowly. “You’ll want my card, princess.”
Its corners bite into my hand, but I take it. Boots evidently knows something I don’t. I reach inside the car for my purse, sensation sparking all along my body as I remember reaching for the belt our first night together. I grab my purse, then glance down at my bruised wrists, giving them a gentle rub before readjusting my chunky bracelets to better hide the most obvious marks Boots left on me.
Mr, Khail crosses the sidewalk to greet me.
In my peripheral vision, Boots steps back.
“Please,” Mr. Khail responds, extending a hand to shake mine. “It’s Sampson.”
I smile. He’s so much older than I remember him being, his tan face is weathered and lined, and the hair I remember being “salt and pepper” is now almost exclusively the color of salt. “You’ll always be Mr. Khail to me.”
“If I hadn’t gotten your message,” he states, “I’m not sure I would’ve recognized you. Long blonde hair and the fancy clothes? Upgrades aplenty! It seems we both changed quite a bit.” He grabs one of the suitcases. “Well.” Mr. Khail gives Boots a sidelong glance, “let me drive you over to the old place and get you settled. You’ll need a rental car. I can help you get that set up tomorrow morning. I take it you don’t want anyone to know that you are actually here?”
“Yes, I think that’s best…” I glance over my shoulder towards where the Town Car was parked a mere moment ago. It’s already gone, carrying Boots away like he was simply some memory drifting quietly out of sight.
We load the luggage into Khail’s car and make the short drive to what used to be my home. “I’d rather no one know that I’m here until I want them to know I’m here.”
“Understandable. Your departure—even those years ago—did come with a bit of drama. Best ease into things now that you’re back.”
Standing in the foyer of my childhood home, I take a quick look around. Not much has changed beyond some minor updates. A new rug. Carpeting on the stairs. A new doorknob and electronic lock system for the door. Otherwise, this is still the house that I grew up in.
“You are back, aren’t you?” he presses.
How do I even answer that? “I still have my condo in the city. I’m here to try and figure out what my next steps are. I mostly need a hard reset.”
He raises one eyebrow.
“Like when a computer’s not working. You turn it off and turn it back on, and sometimes everything’s working the way it should all over again.”
He nods; I’m not sure he gets it. “I stocked the fridge, and left a few menus on the kitchen table along with the Wi-Fi password and the names of the people who are renting the tiny houses for the next two weeks. They’re all good people. Like the staff here. All carefully vetted and absolutely trustworthy. You’ll be safe here. My phone number is on the table, too; the house still has a landline. There’s even a phone book,” he adds with a chuckle, “and most of the phone numbers are still accurate.”
I must look as stunned as I feel. “So things haven’t changed much here at all?”
“They have and they haven’t. Crime’s up, the economy’s down, some unsavory sorts are lingering and starting trouble. It’s kind of the way it always is with small towns. Things go up and down. I’ll come by tomorrow at about nine and take you to a car rental place. Anything else you need, just dial my number, I’m happy to help.” He briefly looks me up and down again and shakes his head. “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown up. It seems like it was only yesterday when I was setting up all the paperwork for this. I’m so glad you’re back, though. I firmly believe this is where you belong.”
“Time will tell.”
“You’ll be safe here.” He says, “Tomorrow,” and then he ducks out the door.
It’s as I ready for bed and stand staring into the bathroom mirror, that I lift my hair to look at the traces of Boots’ mark on my neck. So strange… When all of this started, I only wanted something that, in the end, would mean absolutely nothing—I knew from the start Boots would never be my “one and only.”Now I wonder if the nothing that stubbornly morphed into something might in some way meaneverything…
The thing I thought I’d killed inside me—the strange bond between us—seems to be gone, leaving a hollowness, yet within me something else shimmers, stretching like a web of starlight, holding fast. Something fiercer, more savage, undeniably connecting the wild in me to the unmistakable wild in Boots. I let my hair drop, adjust the neck of my pjs and curl up in bed, pulling the sheet up to my shoulders. My eyes are growing heavy with sleep when I hear it—the long, rich, and wavering call of a mournful lone wolf.
My heart beats fast in response as something wild in me is indeed working itself free, remembering Boots’ hoarse whisper of “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” with an eager whine.
