Page 17 of Now You See Him
Tina nodded. “I could use some coffee. I’ll explain as I make us some.” She got out of the car, and then on impulse, unzipped her clutch, removed her phone, and motioned for Derrick to come stand at her side.
He moved cautiously but didn’t argue with her. When he was in position, she took a selfie of the two of them. “There,” she said, and tucked her phone in her clutch again. “Hopefully that won’t magically disappear. Otherwise I’ll really have to believe that you’re a hallucination.”
Derrick followed her up the walkway. “Maybe you should start at the top,” he said.
She let him into the house, kicked off her shoes, and walked down the hallway to the kitchen, assuming that Derrick would follow. She flipped on the light, and watched it flicker for a second, before she crossed to the machine sitting on the counter. Her fingers were trembling slightly, maybe from the alcohol, maybe from the memory of Derrick standing in her house again after a week.
“Huh,” Derrick said as he looked up at the flush mount lights. “Has that happened before? The lights flickering.”
“Yes,” Tina said. Her pulse began to race. She took down two mugs from the upper cabinet, set the first one under the spout, and pressed start. “How do you take your coffee?”
“Black,” he said. Derrick pulled out a stool and sat at the counter.
The lights flickered again.
“Do you want me to check that?”
“In a minute,” Tina said. She picked up the cup once the machine finished, and carefully slid it across the island countertop. After starting the machine again for a second cup, she stood on her side of the island and gripped the lip of the white-and-gray marble slab. “The basement door started opening on its own first. Then came the dreams.”
The cup was halfway to Derrick’s mouth. He lowered it back to the countertop. “What…what kind of dreams?”
“Sexual.”
Heat flooded his cheeks, and his pupils dilated. “What does that have to do?—”
“They weren’t about my…I just knew they weren’t about my fiancé. I’d wake up and feel sore. Swollen.”
“Tina, maybe?—”
“Logan went on his first business trip a few weeks ago,” she continued. “The first one since we’ve moved here. I was looking forward to some alone time in my house. That night, I walked into the kitchen and the basement door creaked open. Then for the first time ever, the lights turned on. I decided to go down and investigate.”
He was no longer flushed. “Jesus, you went alone?”
“Stupid, I know,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve watched my fair share of horror movies since then to know that wasn’t the smartest move.”
He turned the cup on the counter before looking up at her. “What happened next?”
The overhead lights flickered again, this time more insistent. Tina glanced up, then shook her head. She hoped Damien would chill until she was done talking to his brother. “I, I don’t know,Derrick. I blacked out? Hallucinated? I dreamed that I was in my bed, and something, some faceless someone, shoved my legs apart and fucked me.”
The memory flooded back and Tina had to cross her ankles. She was wet now. She felt the slickness in her cunt, the pooling of desire. Derrick must’ve picked up on her attempt at discretion, because his expression grew intense, the color of his gray eyes became darker. “Go on,” he said, his voice rougher, deeper than before.
“It was overwhelming. Because when I woke up in my bed, I was sore. I had bruises on my thighs. I couldn’t tell anyone, because then they’d think that I had a breakdown. So I kept it to myself. My fiancé came back, time passed and the dreams still happened.”
Derrick held up a hand to stop her. “Did Logan notice?”
“Notice what?”
“The bruises,” Derrick said. “When he fucked you. When he saw you naked, was he concerned that those bruises looked like another man had his hands on you?”
Tina took a deep, labored breath, but she couldn’t break eye contact. “We haven’t slept together in months.”
“Good.”
Her hands trembled and she tucked them behind her back. “Logan. He mentions that there isn’t any hot water when he showers in the morning. but I’m always able to get hot water.”
A line forms between Derrick’s brows. “That’s when you texted me and asked me to come out. To see the hinges on the door and the hot-water heater.”
“Right. And I got a call back from you saying that you could stop by in an hour.”
