Present
“You gonna fight?” I said to her as David led her off the train.
She smirked, the rope I had around her neck last night tied around her wrists now. “I’ll never stop,” she taunted. “Promise.”
A smile threatened, and I jerked my chin at David to get her out of here before she saw how much power she still had over me.
Last night was insane. What was she doing to me?
She was incredible. To see her like that, alive like she was in the greenhouse, too, and to know that the lies I carried around to make myself feel better about losing her all those years ago were completely untrue.
She fit with us.
She was made for us.
What wouldn’t people do if they felt safe enough to dive in headfirst? She did it. She didn’t have to, but the best part about it was I didn’t think she was thinking about it at all. She just let go.
I wanted to wrap my body around hers so badly I refrained, because I knew that I’d squeeze the life out of her, wanting her so much. My cock was so hard last night, watching them.
And Alex… The way Emmy took control of her was even more of a surprise, because I knew Alex wasn’t used to it. It was beautiful to see her dominated and seduced and taken charge of, so she could just revel instead of feeling the pressure to give others pleasure when it was high time for her turn.
Luckily, Emmy hadn’t seemed to wake up yet, even though nightfall had passed hours ago. The spell hadn’t broken, and she was still…divine.
We arrived in Thunder Bay around eight this morning. Lev and David were instructed to take Emory to St. Killian’s and they walked across the platform, followed by Misha and the girls. The guys stayed behind with me in the emptying car.
I spotted a courier outside and opened my mouth to tell the guys I’d see them in a while, but then, all of a sudden, a punch landed in my gut, and I hunched over, barely registering Damon moving to Kai, and then Michael next. He threw a punch across Kai’s jaw and landed an uppercut right in Michael’s stomach.
“Ugh!” Michael growled as I winced.
“Man, what the fuck?” Kai barked, rubbing his face.
I looked up at Damon, the pain in my abs like a knot tightening over and over again.
He inhaled a deep breath, fixing the lapels of his suit jacket. “I’d rather not walk in on my sisters in some weirdo, bacchanalian sex fest ever again,” he stated. “Understand?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Spinning around with his lips tight, he stalked off the train as the rest of us tried to stand up straight again.
Shit. He saw that last night? Fuck.
“I keep forgetting those are his sisters,” Michael said, rubbing his stomach.
Kai started laughing, shaking his head. “Crap…”
We all started laughing, an image of him walking in and then promptly back out replaying over and over again in my head. How had we not seen him?
Poor D.
I held out my hand to Kai. “Give me your keys,” I told him. “Ride with Michael. I have a few things to do.”
He nodded and dropped his keys into my palm, grabbing the back of my neck and bringing me in. “Welcome home,” he said and then left the train.
It felt good to be home. I think.
“Take Emory with you,” I told Michael. “Lock her up downstairs. I’ll be back in a while.”
“Okay.”
Micah, Rory, and I headed off the train, and I grabbed the envelope from the courier as I passed, not stopping for anything as I ripped open the package and dug out a cell phone. Turning it on, I clicked to my keypad, my thumb hovering over the numbers, but…
I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to face the world yet, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to my parents if I did call them.
Or my grandfather, brothers, or other friends…
Slowly…
Clicking the key fob, I saw the taillights of a black Porsche Panamera light up, and the three of us climbed in, my body tingling at the feel of a car.
God, it had been so long. The leather seats grinded under my weight, and I inhaled the scent of the new vehicle, instant euphoria calming my brain.
Fuck, this felt good.
Starting it up, I hit the clutch, turned up the radio as some new song from Thousand Foot Krutch started playing, and punched the shift into reverse, hitting the gas.
We peeled out of the parking lot, the speed and music taking over as Rory let his head fall back and his eyes close, exhaling for the first time since I’d met him. Micah sat in the passenger seat next to me, his head tipped out the open window, smiling and sighing at the same time as the wind blew over his face.
How we’d missed the simple pleasures of speed and wind and freedom.
I just needed a decent cheeseburger now, and I was home.
We raced into town, past the Cove, past Cold Point, and through the neighborhoods, a For Sale sign sitting on the lawn of Emmy’s old house. The yard looked like shit, and I knew Martin Scott was spending more of his time in Meridian City as he moved up the ranks of public service, but I did a double take, not expecting to see that. Did Emmy know the house was for sale?
How long had it been on the market? It was a great house in a quaint, little neighborhood. There would be interest soon, if not already.
Turning right, we passed the village and the cathedral, turning left up into the hills and past my old high school as we headed up to my parents’ house.
I kind of wished I could put this off a while longer, especially since I wouldn’t get out of there easily with my mom whining about how worried she’d been, and my dad grilling me about every detail until he was good and satisfied. But if they found out I was in town and hadn’t touched base, it would be worse.
I wasn’t sure why I’d brought Micah and Rory with me. Maybe I wanted them to see my life here. Or maybe it aggravated me they’d taken her side yesterday, and I wanted some time with them myself. I’d worked too long and too hard on them to lose them to my little usurper.
I did kind of appreciate their loyalty to her, though. That might be useful.
Climbing out of the car, we jogged up the steps of my house. Everything looked exactly the same as when I’d left more than a year ago. I had no idea where my keys or clothes were at this point, but I guessed the crew had kept my apartment at Delcour, so I should have a good supply of things still there.
I squeezed the handle, the door opening immediately, and I smiled smelling the fresh flowers my mom always kept in the house as I stepped inside.
The foyer was grand and white, like Blackchurch, but my mom was a far better decorator. It was light and airy, and I smiled as the guys followed me, looking around themselves.
“Hello?” I heard Meredith’s voice. “Who is that?”
The head housekeeper rounded the corner, drying her hands on a towel with her hair pulled back in a ponytail so tight her eyebrows nearly reached her hairline.
She smiled, seeing me. “Will!”
“Hey.” I leaned in, giving her a peck on the cheek. “Any of my family home?”
I didn’t want to give her a chance to ask questions.
She shook her head. “No. Your parents are in California for the week on business, and there’s no one else here. Should I call Mr. and Mrs. Grayson?”
“No,” I blurted out.
This was actually perfect. I missed them, but I had more pressing matters right now that were better dealt with them out of the way.
“I’ll surprise them,” I told her.
She looked at Micah and Rory, and I could see she wanted to talk more, but knew it wasn’t a good time for a chat. “Well, it’s good to see you.”
“Yeah, you, too.”
“Do you want something to eat?”
“No,” I lied, remembering how I loved her breakfast casseroles. “But I’ll be back in the next few days. Just pass on the message to my parents when they get home that I’m in town, and I’m not going anywhere.”
She grinned. “Good. Your mom needs her spin partner back.”
I groaned inwardly before she winked and walked away.
“Spin partner?” Rory repeated.
“Shut up.”
Micah snorted, and I rolled my eyes.
I looked around, intending to go to my room and pick up some things when I got here, but now I didn’t feel up for it.
“You need clothes or something?” Micah asked.
I didn’t answer. I walked to the small table on the wall, instead, and pulled open the drawer, taking out some car keys.
I tossed them to Micah. “Take the Audi and follow me.”
We left the house, and they hopped in my father’s car as I took Kai’s, all of us jetting into the village and sliding into spots just along the curb in front of the theater. I had something to give them, and more business to take care of, but as soon as I grabbed the envelope and climbed out of the Porsche, I looked up and saw something new in the distance.
What…?
The leaves rustled in the trees, the smell of pizza wafting out of Sticks hitting me, but I didn’t even look when someone noticed me and called out, “Oh, my God. Will! You’re back!”
I kept my eyes on the top of the small hill, in the center of the park, in the middle of the village.
Where the hell did that come from?
We jogged across the street, the guys following me into the park and up the incline, my heart pounding as I took in the massive, beautiful, wrought-iron gazebo standing in the place of the one I’d burned down.
As if it had always been there. And Emmy’s had not.
After the fire, the city had cleared away the debris, and a few years later I was out of jail, constantly avoiding the emptiness that loomed to my left every time I went into Sticks or the theater or the White Crow Tavern…
I’d only been away less than a year and a half this time, and someone had rebuilt a gazebo in the old one’s place?
Someone had taken away my chance to make amends.
Not that I’d been rushing to do it myself, or even sure that I wanted to, still pissed at her constantly as I was, but… I didn’t like the opportunity to decide for myself taken away from me now.
“This was the gazebo?” Micah asked. “I thought she said it was burned down.”
I’d forgotten she’d mentioned it that night at the dinner table. I wasn’t about to explain myself, especially when I had no idea who built this, but why wouldn’t Michael or Kai stop them? They would anticipate I had plans of my own for a replacement someday. Or they’d anticipate that I’d eventually have plans of my own.
I gazed up at the black, circular structure with four sets of stairs, one each on the north, south, east, and west sides leading up to the landing, and the open roof, the beams coming from all sides to join at the top, letting in the falling leaves overhead and the rain during thunderstorms. Ivy wrapped around the railings, almost like the gazebo grew out of the land.
It was quite beautiful, actually. I wouldn’t have done it better, so there was that consolation.
Well, shit…
Exhaling, I shook my head and turned away, facing the guys as I dug in the envelope. “The car is yours for now,” I told them.
My parents wouldn’t balk at me borrowing it for as long as I needed. They just didn’t need to know it wasn’t for me.
I handed Rory another key and pointed to our family’s movie theater behind him. “There’s an apartment at the top. Fully furnished, the fridge is stocked, and it’s all yours.”
My eyes shifted from him to Micah, and I handed them each a phone and a billfold.
Rory’s brow knit in confusion as he opened the wallet and sifted through the license, the credit cards, and the cash, everything rush delivered this morning at the train station.
He looked up, pulling out the Black Card with his name on it. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“I didn’t.”
Micah’s black eyebrow shot up, and he looked at Rory, and then at me. “Our parents?”
I didn’t answer. I’d made lots of calls last night, but it wasn’t as much of a miracle to arrange all of this on short notice as it probably seemed to them. I’d been planning all of this for a long time, and me and my little laptop in my attic room had started these wheels in motion a long time ago.
They had a car, a place to stay, money, and they didn’t have to return to the families that had hidden them away in disgrace. It was the start of a new life, and it was the least they deserved.
“Do what you want,” I told them. “Stay. Go. Flush the money and cards down the toilet.”
I wanted them here, but they had to want it, too.
“Just give me the weekend,” I said. “See if you want to build a life here.”
They glanced at each other, knowing they could go anywhere, for at least a little while.
Their families only agreed to leave them alone, because my friends and I—Graymor Cristane—came with the deal.
But I wasn’t forcing them to do anything they didn’t want to do.
“If you stay,” I pointed out, “if you want to be a part of what we are, your parents will fund your buy-in to our resort. If not, no worries.”
They could run on their own. Or they could run with us.
“Thunder Bay is where you don’t have to hide,” I told them.
We were a family. We’d had the rug pulled out from under us a long time ago, but we weren’t changing. Everyone else would.
I just needed to hear a yes from them.
“I’ll let you think about it. Let’s head to Michael’s house,” I said, leading the way back to the cars. “We need food.”
“I’m not arguing with that,” Micah said. “I’m starving.”
And I smiled to myself.
If they were willing to stay through breakfast, then that wasn’t a no.
• • •
I didn’t stay. I dropped them at St. Killian’s where the cook had breakfast laid out, but then I saw the table bustling with everyone and parents and security and…
My heart plummeted, seeing little black heads of hair scurrying around the table.
Kids.
My chest cracked wide open, and I didn’t know which one was Madden and which one was Ivarsen, but I couldn’t stay.
I just… I couldn’t. I bolted, jumping back into Kai’s car and racing away, leaving my boys and Emmy behind, and spending the rest of the day taking care of the gazillion other things I had to do, so I didn’t think about everything I’d missed while I was away.
I’d known that, though, right? Both Banks and Winter had been pregnant when I went to Blackchurch. I’d known what was happening at home.
It was so hard to see their sons for the first time. I should’ve been there.
I hadn’t been there.
After burning a thousand calories at Hunter-Bailey where my membership was still current—thank you, Michael—I collected some clothes and belongings from Delcour, checked in with my bank and unfroze my accounts, made some more calls, took care of a couple of other minor tasks, and had a quick meeting at the White Crow.
The town was just as beautiful as ever. The Bell Tower still sat in ruins, the Cove still standing quiet from a distance, and Edward McClanahan’s grave was decorated with trinkets from the latest pilgrimage made by the current basketball team of Thunder Bay Prep. I drove around for a long time, past Emmy’s old house repeatedly, our old school a few times, and completely avoided the bridge where I’d almost drowned two years ago.
It wasn’t until my fifth pass through the neighborhoods surrounding the village, the sun setting and dusk rising, that I realized it was EverNight. “Man or a Monster” played on the radio as candles flickered in windows, the upstairs rooms that belonged to teenagers and children glowing bright with their offerings to Reverie Cross.
As night settled, and the chill seeped into my bones, I wanted warmth, and I wanted that scent I had on me last night.
Did her brother know we were in town? It wouldn’t be hard for him to know where to find her.
I veered toward St. Killian’s.
Climbing the cliffs, the sea air breezing through the car, I cruised down the blacktop road, past Damon’s house, Banks’s house, Michael’s parents’ house, and Rika’s mother’s house, speeding through the pillars with their gas lamps, and down the drive to St. Killian’s.
Candles glowed in every window, and I saw movement through the drapes upstairs as a thatch of grass sat in the center of the driveaway with a bowl of fire blazing high. Gravel crackled under the tires, and I pulled to a stop, exiting the car.
The drive in was gorgeous. This place was beautiful. They’d done a good job.
Music and laughter greeted me as soon as I opened the door, and I peered inside the dining room, the open floorplan pretty well preserved, except for the few walls they added here and there to give some rooms their privacy.
Winter sat in Damon’s lap as she and Alex laughed at whatever Rika was saying, the table strewn with notes, magazines, tuxes—for the wedding, I presumed—snacks and flowers. Banks and Kai must’ve gone home, and Micah texted me earlier to let me know they were heading to the apartment for the night.
I had no idea where Misha and Ryen were, but they’d probably gone to his house or hers in Falcon’s Well, not far from here. Michael walked in from the kitchen with a platter of sandwiches, devouring one as he walked.
But I slipped back and away before anyone saw me.
A coo drifted off behind me, a flutter hitting my stomach as I turned and crossed the foyer, into the ballroom.
The chandeliers dimmed and the chairs and sofas spread out around the room, and I looked over and saw a playpen with a spiky black head of hair sticking out the top.
Walking over, I looked down at the blue-eyed boy with his father’s eyebrows and his mother’s long lashes, my chin fucking quivering because he was so damn cute.
Reaching down, I picked him up and held him in my arms, his little body feeling lighter than air.
Laughter went off in the dining room. His awesome baby smell made me dizzy, and needles pricked my throat as tears welled in my eyes.
I shook with silent sobs, looking at his beautiful face as tears streamed down my own. Damon had done all this without me. He was doing so well—without me.
I should’ve been here when the kid was born. I should know Madden.
“I’m taking you trick or treating next year, okay?” I whispered down at him. “I’m taking you every year. I’m getting my own house, and I’m going to be at every one of Michael’s games and every one of your mom’s performances and I’ll be giving you the biggest presents for every birthday.” I leaned my cheek into his forehead, just sitting there. “I’ll even blow off your bedtime when they leave you with me for date night.”
Ivar, Mads, and the baby Winter was carrying now would never know that I was absent.
Setting him back in his bed, I pressed my lips to his head and handed him his stuffed snake, smiling to myself as I remembered the Godzilla that I got Em. I wondered if she still had it.
Heading to the back of the house, I descended the stairs into the catacombs, seeing Rika had talked Michael out of covering the uneven stone stairs with wooden ones.
How long had it been since I’d been here? The night Damon, Winter, and I went off the bridge?
I walked along the hardwood floors, fake flames flickering on the walls inside their sconces and knowing there were a dozen or so rooms down here. I wasn’t exactly sure where they put her, but I tried the first room I came to and twisted the handle.
The door gave way, opening wide, and I stepped inside the dark room, light from the corridor spilling in and revealing the body on the bed, under the sheet.
“Will?” she said, turning over.
I looked down as she rubbed her eyes, seeing the lacy black bra under the jean overalls she wore, my pulse instantly pumping in my neck and my dick twitching with life.
Fuck. I loved her in overalls.
I gazed at her olive skin, and the brown hair on her head hanging down her arms. The plump chest and the pink lips.
And the rope that was around her wrists this morning back around her neck, the slack hanging between her breasts and inside her overalls.
I smiled.
Sitting up, she scooted over to me, and I stood in front of her, looking down at my Little Trouble who hadn’t changed a bit from how badly she pissed me off and got me hard in high school.
“Micah and Rory are staying at an apartment in town.” I reached over, caressing her cheek with the backs of my fingers. “You want to join them?”
She shook her head.
I moved to the other cheek, caressing what was mine and then taking her jaw, gently holding it.
“They’ve got food upstairs,” I murmured. “You want food?”
Again, she shook her head.
I tipped her chin up, loving how she played. It pleased me.
“You want to stay with me?” I taunted.
Slowly, she nodded.
Reaching into my jacket, I took out a case and set it on the bedside table.
“I refilled your prescription for your glasses.”
I was able to talk Dr. Lawrence here into contacting her doctor in California and getting her most recent prescription filled.
“Where’d you get the overalls?” I asked.
“Found them in Rika’s closet.”
“And you’re down here alone, despite the door not being locked?”
She didn’t move.
The outfit, the rope, the willing and waiting in bed… I wondered when the fight would come, because it would, but God, I loved that she wasn’t rushing back to being my enemy. Fucking her in this bed tonight might be nice.
Pulling her up, I sat myself down in her place and pulled her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her.
Sweat cooled my pores, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath, the last year or so and everything in the last twenty-four hours making my head spin.
For five minutes, I needed something to hold on to.
I tightened my hold, smelling her hair and damn near tasting her. If she hadn’t shown up at Blackchurch, would I really have sought my revenge? Would I have chased her down in California and made her pay?
And how would I have done it?
I’d learned about the pictures and the lies almost two years ago, after Damon’s father was killed. Then it was six months of trying to chase away the rage with globetrotting, running, and drinking before I knew what I had to do. That was when I went to Blackchurch.
I dreaded dealing with her, because even still—after the betrayal—I hadn’t wanted to lose her.
“I should’ve come to you,” she finally said. “I wish I had come to you and explained and faced you then.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, knowing it wasn’t all her fault. I wasn’t a passenger in all of this.
I should’ve stayed. When she walked off on me after the meeting in the dean’s office, and I threatened her that I could get anyone—I should’ve stayed.
She hadn’t needed a boyfriend. She’d needed a friend, and I’d been selfish and arrogant and spoiled. I should’ve been whatever she needed, whenever she needed me. She didn’t owe me her heart just because I wanted it.
If I’d cared, I would’ve been more patient.
Throwing her to my side, I let her land on the bed and I shot off the mattress, walking out of the room.
“Will…?”
I can’t. I can’t right now. I closed the door, grabbed the key off the wall, and locked it, keeping her safely inside.
“Will, no,” she cried, banging on the other side of the door. “Don’t go, please.”
I tipped my forehead into the wood, desperate to have heard those words from her a million times in the past.
“Will,” she called again. “Stay with me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the urge to rip the door open and climb into that bed with her.
“Stay with me,” she said again.
I shook my head, trying to clear it.
“What will he do if he knows you’re in town?” she asked.
I turned away and walked toward the stairs. “He already knows.”
I was sick of this same story.
Sick of not having her. Sick of Martin Scott. Sick of not seizing the life I was meant for.
It was time to end this.
I was ready for new adventures.
I climbed the stairs and stepped back into the house, closing the door behind me as I headed for the dining room.
Rounding the corner, I looked at them all seated at the table, Damon stopping mid-sentence as everyone turned to me.
“You got a nanny here?” I asked Winter.
But Rika answered instead. “My mom is.”
Good enough. “Put on something black,” I told them, heading back out of the room. “Let’s go.”
“Why?” Alex called out. “What’s going on?”
But I was already gone.
Heading out to Kai’s car, I pulled a duffle out of the trunk and dug out a black sweater, pulling off my suit jacket and unbuttoning my shirt right there in the driveway. I pulled on the black top, stuffed my jacket and shirt into the trunk with the bag, and pulled on the black ski cap as I ran back into the house.
In minutes, I’d pulled Michael’s old Mercedes G-Class out of the garage, loaded in the supplies I needed, called Kai and Banks and Micah and Rory, and stuffed a couple of sandwiches into my mouth as the rest of us made our way out to the cars.
“Winter not coming?” I asked Damon as he climbed into the passenger side seat.
“Not pregnant, she’s not,” he said. “She’s staying with…” And he waved his hand like he couldn’t remember the name. “Christiane.”
His mom. His birth mother, that was.
And Rika’s.
It seemed he now tolerated her presence for the sake of the children, and for Rika, but there was still a grudge there that hadn’t disappeared since I was last in town, apparently.
I sat down as Alex climbed into the back, and I fastened my seatbelt, spotting Michael trying to get my attention from the window of his Jag.
I cut him off. “Just follow me!” I told him.
Not giving him a chance to argue, I sped off in his G-Class with the supplies, and with Alex and Damon, while Michael and Rika followed in his other car.
It didn’t take us long to reach the warehouse, which was usually dormant the rest of the year, but now alive with activity as the famed Coldfield.
As it was otherwise known in October when it was transformed into a haunted theme park.
This was where we partied in high school, the abandoned factory a playground for kids who wanted some shelter from the weather for them and three hundred of their closest friends and a few kegs of beer.
This was where Misha came to write his songs and lose himself when the pain of Annie’s death was too much to bear.
This was where Damon, Kai, and I beat up Emmy’s brother, getting drunk and making my knuckles bleed until I couldn’t feel anything else that night.
This was where I found out I had something to bring to the table. Something worth a damn to our future.
“What are we doing here?” Michael asked as we walked past the lines of patrons waiting to get inside.
Howls and creaky sound effects filled the air as fog hovered above the ground and “Pumped Up Kicks” by 3TEETH blasted over the speakers. The smell of hot dogs and popcorn drifted up my nostrils, and squeals went off behind me as the actors jumped up on a group of girls. Men and women in masks stood around, all creepy and frozen and shit, staring at people in the distance and trying to scare the crap out of them.
Kai and Banks jogged to catch up to us, and I looked past the gate, seeing Rory and Micah standing near the beverage cart.
I didn’t stop. Heading into the warehouse, tarp and walls constructed to create various chambers hung around, creating a tunnel, and Micah and Rory fell in line, following.
The cold, wet dark hung everywhere, and we jetted past patrons laughing and screaming at the actors hanging in the rafters above and trying to grab for them.
I stepped into a room and dug a ring of fifteen-thousand keys out of my bag, finding the one that accessed the doors in the Mad Scientist section of the park. Passing the boiling vats of body parts and lava lamps of eyeballs, I fit the key into the door, opened it, and ushered everyone inside.
Michael stood back, his eyes narrowed on me. “You own Coldfield? You?”
I gave him a tight smile.
I paid for it. I helped design it. But I hired managers to handle everything else. I took part in it when I wanted to, but I knew I wasn’t fit to deal with the business side there for a while, so I installed a seasonal team that would.
And good thing too, since I was gone for a long time.
We entered the hallway, and I locked the door behind us, opening up another one and turning on the light inside.
Rock walls and steps, like the catacombs, burrowed into the ground, darkness consuming what lay beneath.
“What is this?” Rika asked me.
I half-smiled. “This is Coldfield.”
The real one.
Leading the way, I momentarily regretted not calling Misha for this, as I knew he’d love it, but I didn’t want him involved. Not for this.
I descended the stairs, winding through the tunnels as electric-powered lanterns lit our way, and the rush of the river and the sea hit the walls all around us.
A track laid ahead, and I threw my bag into one of the cars with the containers of gasoline I’d had put here yesterday in one of the many calls I’d made.
Kai looked around at the rooms and tunnels forking off in different directions. “I can’t believe we didn’t know this was real.”
“You knew about this?” Banks asked him.
But it was Damon who replied as he looked around, “A few whispers from the old timers here and there, but I didn’t know anyone who’d actually been here.”
“What is this place?” Rika asked me.
I checked the supplies on the rail riders, making sure we had everything I’d instructed. “Remember how we learned the town was settled in the thirties?”
“Not true?” Rika teased.
I shook my head. “No.”
That was either a lie or misinformation.
“Two-hundred years ago, the river forked off into three streams instead of just one, and the settlers built bridges to cross them.” I gestured to them to take their seats. “The arches of the bridges were rooted deep in the land, creating twenty-one chambers—or vaults—between the arches, underneath the ground.”
Alex and Damon took a seat in the first car, while Kai and Banks took the second, Rika and Michael took the third, and Micah and Rory took the fourth.
“Merchants stored their goods down there, and there were even taverns and stores,” I continued, checking their seatbelts. “Over the years, it changed hands, popular among the smugglers, criminals, and pirates. They hid and lived down here, connecting all of the vaults under the three bridges with these tunnels, so they could get anywhere in town undetected.”
“Shit,” Damon murmured. “That’s awesome.”
“How did you find it?” Michael pressed.
“I looked for it.”
Rory snorted as Micah smiled, looking excited about all of this.
“This is why you bought the warehouse,” Alex guessed.
“One of the reasons.” I took my seat in the first car with them and buckled in. “I also just like haunted houses.”
“Are there other entrances, other than the one at the warehouse?” Damon called up from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder, grinning. “All over town. And there are even more underground vaults in Meridian City between Delcour and Whitehall.”
“What the fuck?” Kai blurted out, but it sounded more like he was turned on than angry. His city house, the Pope, and Sensou were all in the Whitehall district and he’d have plenty of reason to use the underground transit system if he wanted. Especially if we, and the people who worked for us, were the only ones who knew about it.
“Shift the lever to three and press the green button,” I yelled back. “After that, just enjoy the ride until you see my arm in the air. Then, start to bring the lever back down and engage the brakes.”
A giggle escaped Alex as she shifted excitedly in the seat next to me. Emmy back in the catacombs drifted through my mind, but she didn’t need to be here for this.
“Let’s go,” I called out.
Pushing the lever up to notch three, I pressed the button, the hydraulics hissing, and we shot off, cruising through the tunnels at about thirty miles an hour.
Normally, I’d go a little faster—kick it up to notch five—but this was their first time, and I didn’t want anyone to lose me. Coasting left and then right, I felt the wind blew through our hair, and Alex laughed next to me as the tunnel ahead loomed black and haunting. The grips on the wheels hugged the track, no steering necessary, since I hadn’t built track leading off anywhere else in town yet.
That was on my agenda, though.
“We should have helmets!” Damon called up.
Helmets? Pussy.
“For the kids, I mean!” he clarified. “You know they’re going to use this a lot.”
I nodded. Okay, that made sense. This was going to be a blast for the boys, and when they were teenagers, there was no way we were keeping them from it.
We cruised under the riverbed, past more dark vaults, under the village, across Old Pointe Road, and I spotted the fourth red light ahead, each one signaling a stop, and that one was ours.
I held up my arm, giving them a heads up, and I grabbed the lever, slowing us down little by little, so Kai and Banks didn’t rear end me and cause a pile up.
Pulling to a stop, the brakes screeching under us, I yelled, “Hit the button again!” The railcars came to rest, and we all climbed out, everyone following my lead as we grabbed the red, plastic gasoline containers.
“Are we doing what I think we’re doing?” Kai asked.
But I didn’t answer. They wanted the Cove gone, and they wouldn’t leave me to this on my own. Everyone won. They’d help.
Climbing up onto the platform, we headed through a door and into the tunnels underneath the theme park. When the place was in business, the workers used these tunnels to avoid the crowds if they needed to get across the park, and as ways to operate the animatronics, but everything had been abandoned for years.
I looked left and right, searching for any eyes to be sure. I didn’t want any fatalities or witnesses. The place was empty, though.
“Hey, it’s Rika,” I heard Erika say behind me. “I need you to get to the fire station and borrow an engine. Bring it to the Cove and hook up the hoses. We’ll need it. And hurry.”
There was a pause as whoever on the other end answered her.
“Thank you,” she said and hung up.
I shot a look back to our mayor.
“I can’t commit arson and purposely put civil servants at risk, Will,” she explained. “Lev and David will contain the fire.”
I nodded once. Good thinking. Those two earned enough to do anything we asked them to.
Swinging myself around the railing, I jogged up the stairs and walked through the shop, papers and dust coating the floor as I exited into the park.
The stars dotted the night sky, the sea air tickling my nostrils as we strolled through the park and took in rotting paint and wood and the quiet bumper boats and Ferris wheel.
A lump filled my throat, and my heart pounded like it did when I had her in my truck that night after the game, and like that Devil’s Night I torched all of her hard work and the only presence she had left to torture me with in this town.
I wasn’t sure if she was going to forgive me for this, but I had to do it. I had to know if there was anything beyond this for us.
“Why are we doing this, Will?” Banks asked.
But I was done explaining myself. “Because I said so.”
I was done living in the past. I had an ocean of tomorrows to get busy building, and I was ready to live.
I looked to Michael and Rika. “Take the west side.” Then to Kai and Banks. “Past the swings.”
The four of them ran off to douse as much as they could with the fuel they had, and I walked toward the coast, the pirate ship, and Cold Hill with Alex and Damon.
“Are you sure this isn’t an impulse thing?” Alex asked.
“Are you sure he’s sober?” Damon asked her instead.
“Shut up,” I griped.
I realized that my life decisions could be characterized as questionable, but not every crazy thing I did was because I was drunk.
Just some things.
We all got busy emptying the containers on rides, game booths, and old food stands, keeping our eyes peeled for anyone who wasn’t us, but I just wanted everyone to hurry. I wasn’t going to stop myself. I wanted the challenge of never being able to look back. I wanted the Cove gone.
But that didn’t mean this wasn’t painful.
I clenched my jaw, walking around Cold Hill and the cars, one of them that carried us one night where she let me touch and kiss her.
The pirate ship where she pealed with laughter, and I knew I was head over heels watching the light in her eyes.
Misha loved it here, too. Which was probably why I hadn’t invited him tonight. He would try to stop this.
And I needed to do it.
“The last time we set a fire, we got arrested,” Damon said.
The gazebo wasn’t the last fire we or he set, but I supposed he chose to block out Rika’s house and Sensou.
“I’m not going back to jail,” I assured him.
I tossed him a couple of flares and one to Alex, tossing my gas can into the fray.
“Spread out and give one to Michael and Kai,” I told him, raising my voice and shouting into the night. “We’re going to light up the fucking sky, because Michael Crist is marrying Erika Fane in two days!”
I smiled, holding my hands to my mouth and howling into the night. Laughter and more howls went off around the park, and I heard Rika yelping with excitement.
I lit my flare and looked to Alex.
“Are you sure?” she asked, lighting hers. “I know what this place means to you.”
“It was one night.” I looked up at the Ferris wheel. “I need my life to be more than one night.”
I launched the flare, watching it land on the platform, and all it took was a moment before a flame spouted and quickly spread.
The fire coursed up to the Ferris wheel, lighting the bottom car and its old leather seat on fire, the flames rising and rising, traveling from car to car as the whole park lit up in a glow so tremendous that I needed sunglasses.
The wind blew and the heat of the fire covered my face, and I closed my eyes, not sure if I wanted to cry or smile.
Michael Crist, Kai Mori, Damon Torrance, and Will Grayson were going to have their secluded, seaside resort, because we lasted, and we were going to build something that would, as well.
Heat rushed under my skin, and I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I was home.
Tipping my head back, I belted out the loudest howl I could manage from deep in my stomach hearing the rest of them—the girls, too—join me as our fires spat and hissed around us, the whole fucking place going up in flames.
I looked over at Alex, seeing her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth in an O as she belted into the night air, and I laughed, hooking her neck and planting a slobbery kiss on her cheek.
She giggled, all of us looking up at the flames rising and spreading, and after a few more minutes, I looked right, seeing Lev and David arrive in the parking lot with the fire engine.
We’d let the fire do its job—just long enough for the place to be beyond repair—and then start putting it out.
“Wait,” I heard someone call. “Hey, wait!”
I released Alex and looked around, seeing Rika staring off toward the back of the park.
“What is it?” I jogged over, stopping next to her.
She stared, bending to see around rides and into the distance. “I thought I saw something?” Then she looked at me. “Are you sure the place is empty?”
I thought it was. Just then, I saw the door to the shop we’d come through flapping in the wind, and if anyone were here, they’d be hiding there.
“The tunnels!” I told everyone. “Go!”
Everyone ran, heading back to the shop and toward the underground. We didn’t have homeless in Thunder Bay, but there were no cars in the lot and there was nothing else within a couple miles from here. If someone were here, they were living here.
“We should’ve checked the place,” Michael gritted out. “Dammit.”
Scurrying down into the tunnels, we ran back toward the entrance to the track, and I opened the door, sending Alex, Damon, Kai, Banks, Micah, and Rory on their way.
“The seats swivel,” I told them, out of breath. “Just turn around and go back the way we came like I taught you. It’s the fourth red light down.”
Kai nodded, everyone descending into Coldfield.
Damon looked back at me, but I shook my head, knowing what he was thinking. “Just go,” I said. “I’ll catch up.”
I got ready to shove Rika and Michael in after them, but I looked back and they both were hanging by a room.
Closing the door, I approached. “What is it?”
I looked inside, seeing a bed, posters and graffiti on the walls, and a lamp turned on.
“Didn’t Misha say he stayed down here for a while? After Annie?” Rika asked.
“Yeah.”
She walked in, picking up a sandwich or something, half-eaten and laying on a wrapper. “Someone’s here,” she said, squeezing the fresh bread.
Either the light was off when we arrived, or the door was closed, because we passed this room on the way in and noticed nothing.
Shit.
“Dammit!” Michael growled.
We ran back up the stairs, the flames orange and bright outside the shop windows as we raced into the park, searching for who was here.
We couldn’t let anyone be hurt.
And it would be fantastic if there were no witnesses.
“I know I saw someone,” Rika said. “Maybe a girl.”
“Like a little girl?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Shit! There!” Michael yelled, pointing.
We halted, sucking in air and looking through the swings and toward the fun house, seeing a small form standing way on top.
Jesus. She had to be thirty feet in the air.
Dressed in black, she had a long, blonde braid draped over her shoulder and a beanie on her head, but I couldn’t see well enough to know if I recognized her.
“You!” Michael yelled to her. “Come here!”
We ran and saw her spin around, disappearing off the roof.
She jumped down, the shoelaces of her ratty sneakers dragging across the ground.
“Get her!” Rika yelled.
Michael dug in his heels, shot toward the girl, and caught her arm just as she was rounding the corner.
“I got her!” he bellowed, sweeping her into his arms.
But then she bit his hand, and he dropped her, hissing.
“What the hell?” he barked.
She ran, slipping around the booths, past the roller coaster, and disappearing into the pitch-black forest.
“Shit!” Michael gritted out.
We stopped, breathing hard and knowing she was gone.
“Was she living down there?” Rika asked us. “She can’t be more than eight.”
I shot her a look. “Do you recognize her?”
“No.” She shook her head. “She’s not from around here.”
I stared into the trees for another moment, hearing Lev and David start with the hoses and putting our shit out.
“Some mayor you are.” I chuckled. “Little Newt from Aliens is squatting in your abandoned theme park, and you’re trying on wedding dresses.”
Rika slapped me in the stomach and then took Michael’s hand, inspecting the bite.
“She’s a fighter, huh?” she joked, grinning up at him.
He snarled. “She’ll be back. Can’t get far on foot.”
And it almost sounded like he wasn’t so worried about the little shit’s safety and well-being, just itching for some payback.
Sirens pierced the air behind us, and I looked over my shoulder, seeing the oh-so-familiar lights of a police car racing into the lot.
That was fast.
I looked to Michael. “Go. Hurry.”
He scowled at me.
“Go!” I whisper-yelled.
Don’t worry about me. Not anymore.
He held my eyes, but before he could argue, I started walking toward the ticket booths and the parking lot.
A single police officer, dressed in black in a thick jacket for the chilly October evening, talked on his radio as he looked around the park and the flames.
He noticed me, stopped talking to whoever he was talking to, and I could almost see the sigh.
“Will Grayson,” he said. “My favorite pyro.”
I pulled off my hat and gave him a smile. “Baker. How’s the family?”
“Growing.” He nodded, stepping toward me as I stepped toward him. “The wife is on baby number three.”
“Yours?”
He cocked an eyebrow, looking unamused.
I smiled wider.
“Are you going to make me handcuff you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “There are some people I wanted to say hi to anyway. Let’s go.”
