Page 36 of Stone Deep
“That’s because you couldn’t hear anything over the despair in your sister’s final words.”
“What the hell are you two talking about?”
“Drumsticks. You were playing those fucking drumsticks in the background when she called me.”
The same gray pallor that had washed over Damon’s face when he first thought he was staring at a ghost on his front stoop returned. “You’re fucking crazy,” he said.
“You were home,” I said, coldly. “You fucking liar. You were home.” The rage in my tone had been replaced by utter disbelief.
He stood there for a second, obviously trying to find his way out of this. But the evidence was there in my hand.
“So fucking what? I didn’t know she was in there taking a bottle of pills. I didn’t know she was dead until I went in and found her.” He laughed harshly. “I might have put the idea in her crazy, stoned mind by telling her to just make it easy on both of us and take the pills. Didn’t realize just how fucking nuts she was.”
I was frozen in hatred. Tears streamed down my face. My sister had been in complete torment her last days, and it had all been Damon’s fault.
Again Damon reached for the door. He looked at Slade. “Get this crazy bitch out of here.”
Slade’s movement had been so fast, he was just a blur. Drumsticks flew across the room and pinged off the adjacent wall before rolling across the tile floor. In that same space of time that it took the drumsticks to fly across the room, Slade had spun Damon around and had him pinnedagainst the wall. Slade had Damon’s arm wrenched painfully behind him and his face was smashed sideways against the plaster. Damon’s angry and equally scared eyes darted to the side to get a look at the man who now had him completely immobile.
Slade spoke calmly, coolly as he leaned his mouth closer to Damon’s ear. “Let’s get this straight. You had a lot to do with Perris’s death. You fucking taunted a woman who was heartbroken about you walking out on her. You lied to the police, so I think we can safely assume you did that because you supplied her with the drugs. Even if you didn’t open her mouth and pop those pills in, you were responsible for her dying. And you’re going to have to take that to your fucking grave.”
Damon struggled in his grasp, but Slade held him like a steel trap.
“Now, I’m going to let you go, and Britton and I are going to walk out of here. But if you say one word to either of us, if you so much as fucking breathe in our direction, Iwillhurt you.”
Slade released him. Damon turned slowly around and rubbed his shoulder. I was sure he’d take a swing at Slade. Instead, he stood pressed with his back against the wall staring at Slade as if he was the devil himself.
“Let’s go,” Slade said still keeping an eye on Damon.
I walked over to the lamp and unplugged it. I picked it up. Slade opened the door. I stopped in front of Damon. “By the way, Perris and I talked about everything, as you know. She told me she had to fake it with you all the time because you were a lousy lover. So, if your new girlfriend is panting and crying out your name, it’s an act.”
We stepped out under a layer of storm clouds. Bolts of lightning were lighting up the sky. All of it felt surreal. I held my lamp in one arm and I wrapped my free hand around Slade’s arm. Everything Damon had said was like a stab in my heart. Perris had died steeped in heartbreak, and it seemed Damon’s cruel words and the easy access to drugs had pushed her over the edge. It didn’t take away the ache I felt thinking I might very well have saved her if I’d heard the message. It was a sting of regret I’d never outlive, but now, I knew more of what had happened on that awful day.
We reached the car just as the first heavy drops fell. I stopped and placed the lamp on the hood of the car and threw my arms around Slade’s neck. Water drops plunked on our heads as we kissed. I pulled my mouth from his and smiled up at him. “I started this journey with a major crush, but I can tell you, Slade Stone, that, even though it’s not worth a whole lot, as of two minutes ago, you own my heart.”
“That’s good to hear, Tink, cuz I think you’ve owned mine since the start.” He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me.
NINETEEN
SLADE
We were running on adrenaline. Facing off with Damon, one of the worst assholes I’d ever met and I’d met plenty, seemed to have given Britton some sense of closure. I was sure she’d still have a tough time dealing with her sister’s missed message, but I hoped that it had put an end to her marching into restaurants with fake guns. One thing was for damn sure, this trip had brought us closer together.
The windshield wipers squeaked as they cleared a semi-circle of glass, only to have it covered with rain again seconds later. Just as we’d been warned by the store clerk, the rain came down in sheets, nearly opaque layers of water covered the windshield. In minutes, the shallow gutters running along the street were flowing like rivers.
Britton curled her arms around herself. Raindrops glistened on her creamy skin and her dark brown hair. She leaned forward and smeared away some of the condensation on the front windshield. “Oh my gosh, we really are a couple of tourists. We’re the only people still driving.” She looked out the side window. “In a few seconds, you’ll need to lower the propeller and rudder because this car is goingto be floating.”
“Then it’s a good thing that I happen to know how to captain a boat. In fact, I’m pretty damn good at it. Although this car boat might be a challenge.”
She leaned back. “Is there anything you can’t do well?”
“Plenty. I was a shitty student. I can’t cook, unless you count pouring cereal into a bowl as cooking, then I’m a damn chef. I’m an embarrassingly bad dancer and I can’t fucking whistle. Don’t ask me why, some kind of tongue defect.”
She laughed. “The shitty student, bad cook and embarrassingly bad dancer, I can see. But, I’ve got news for you, there’s not a damn thing defective about your tongue.”
The water was rising fast. We could see an abandoned gas station on the next block. It was on the north side of the street and a good five feet above street level.
“Not sure how high this water will get, but I’m going to park up there in that empty service station. Something tells me, the water drains away as fast as it floods. We’ll wait it out there.” I turned up the driveway, and as we crossed the raging flow of water running alongside the curb, it felt as if we were momentarily adrift. But as the tires reached higher ground, the traction returned. I pulled up under the shelter of the pumps. I turned off the car and we watched as the landscape that had been dry as bone just minutes before became a shallow, churning lake.
