Page 26 of Summer Shivers
I can’t wrap my head around what I’m looking at. How Harrison was able to get it, and why I didn’t know about it.
Then I see the printouts of the news articles from when Ty’s brother died.
Shit!
The anniversary of Ty’s brother’s death is today.
The impact of realizing knocks the wind from me. How could I have forgotten it was today? Something so integral to Ty’s life. I’m leaning on him, asking him to help me, all the while he’s going through trauma of his own.
The tears start and it’s impossible to stop them. Quickly growing from silent to uncontrollable sobs. The outpour of anguish filling the silence of the room, depleting my soul, and exhausting my heart.
I cry for myself, for Ty and his brother, for Harrison and his insecurity driven betrayal, and for the baby that never was. For the life I could have led given the chance.
I cry until I have nothing at all left to give.
And then I let the darkness envelope me.
thirteen
TYLER
I grab takeout on my way back to the beach house. I’ve been running off a fast-food breakfast sandwich I had earlier, and all I want is a shower, a beer, and food.
Walking into the house, I look around to see where Genie is and find her on the patio, curled up on a bench with a blanket wrapped around her, looking out at the beach.
“I picked up some dinner,” I say, as I walk over to her. Genie looks over her shoulder at me, I can’t read her expression in the dark. “Mind if I grab a shower?” She returns a small nod, then looks back over at the beach without saying another word to me.
I never unpacked at the motel, so I still have the scant things I brought with me in the saddle bag on my bike. I grab my toothbrush, fresh boxers, and a clean tee before retreating into the bathroom just off the living room. The hot water on my back feels amazing after everything today. Martin and I went over the police report as well as what I found at the death house. The only thing Genie’s got going for her is the lack of a murder weapon. Harrison’s head had been bludgeoned, forcing him unconscious, then he drowned in the pool. Not that the official cause of death has been released, but it’s obvious based on the pictures and descriptions. The question now is who had access to him late at night along with the opportunity to give him a solid knock on the head.
Genevieve.
Just can’t prove or disprove it yet.
* * *
I'm not surprised when I see Genevieve still sitting outside on the bench when I come out of the shower. She hasn’t even been for a walk on the beach, which I might get her to have one tonight.
“Do you want food?” I shout from the kitchen as I start warming up the food. She gets up and walks into the house.
“I went through all the paperwork today,” she tells me, while standing on the other side of the counter.
“Yeah,” I reply, putting the food on the plates.
“Found the file on you.” You can hear how tired she is, she can’t even get her words out, the fear she has of going to sleep is crazy. I understand the power of nightmares. How they wreck havoc on your life until you’re able to get them under control.
Taking the food out to the outside table, I go back to grab a beer for me and wine for her, handing her a glass before sitting back down.
I open my beer and look out to the ocean. “You didn’t know about it before?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“I find that hard to believe, Genevieve.”
“Why? Apparently, Harrison kept all kinds of things from me,” she says sourly. “Surveillance cameras, a safe room, an entire dossier on your life.”
I nod—“Looks that way,”—and drain half my beer.
“There were so many reasons for him to tell me about that, tell me he knew where you were and what was going on.”
