Amber Eyes (29 page)

Aaron’s cry broke the magic like a hammer smashing a window pane. “How could you?”

He bolted downstairs, waving like crazy. We parted. I stared at Aaron and frowned, not able to understand what was going on with him. Aaron shouted, “In my very house, Laura? How could you? I’ve put up with a lot, but this is the last straw. You’ve gone too far tonight!”

I opened my mouth but couldn’t utter one single word. I frowned. What was he talking about? He placed his hand on my shoulder, tugging at me. I spun and we faced each other. Aaron didn’t look real. His skin shone like he was made out of starlight, so pale I wondered if he was a ghost.

“Talk to me.” Aaron was a drill sergeant giving orders. “You promised you’d never see Torrent again. Why are you doing this to me?”

“I didn’t promise anything,” I protested, shrugging his hand off my shoulder. “What are you talking about, Aaron?” I turned to Edward. “Do you know what’s he talking about?”

Edward started at Aaron and grimaced, which could only mean he was pissed. He stood by my side, protecting me with his powerful figure—a sensation I enjoyed. “What the hell are you talking about, pal?”

Now I understood why Laura wanted to have a man by her side so much. Aaron’s eyes sparkled, his jaw was tight, and his whole body shivered. It seemed as he hadn’t heard Edward, or didn’t want to talk to him.

“I’ve done my part, Laura and what have I gotten in exchange? Nothing.” Aaron threw his hands in the air and stomped his feet. “I’ve got nothing! You keep saying I’m a shame of a father, the worst example a kid may ever have and what about you? It’s not fair. It’s not fair, Laura. You’ve bedded every guy in Abbeville, and I said nothing. Each time I turned a blind eye. When I learned you were pregnant and Edward Torrent was the father, I simply accepted it.”

Aaron took me by the arm and shook me.

“You’re hurting me!” I struggled to get free. “Leave me alone.”

Edward shoved Aaron, placing himself between Aaron and me. “What the hell is wrong with you, fella? Leave her alone. Do you know this guy, Just… Justin?”

“He’s the gatekeeper’s, grand—” No. He was not the gatekeeper’s grandson. He couldn’t possibly be. He was…

“He’s Aaron Zimmerman,” I whispered, almost in awe.

Edward turned back to me. His face was a large question mark. “Who?”

“We had an agreement,” Aaron said. His nostrils flared and he raised his chin. “You just didn’t honor it.” His extended his arm and pointed at the door. “Get out of my parents’ house, Torrent.”

“How do you know me?”

“Leave,” Aaron pointed at the door again. Edward only stared at him so Aaron shrugged and climbed the stairway.

Edward climbed the stairway after him. “What agreement are you talking about? What’s going on with you?”

Aaron stopped, turned, and raised an eyebrow. He pointed at me. “Ask Laura and then leave. Leave for God’s sake!”

Aaron bolted upstairs. I had to hold to the banister. All this was again too much for me. Every time I came inside this house, I learned more and more about my horrible family. I didn’t want to learn anything else. My chest tightened and my stomach felt like I’d just swallowed a rock. According to Aaron, or the ghostly teenage version who was mistaking me for my mother, Sheriff Edward Torrent was my real father and I’d just kissed my brother—I couldn’t believe it.

Yesterday’s conversation between Laura and the cop—Edward’s father before he even was the sheriff—suddenly made sense. The realization felt like a ton of bricks falling on my head. Disgust invaded me and I had to wipe my lips with the back of my hand. Of all the wrong things I’d done this week, this might have been the most wrongest of all. What we’d just done—kissing each other in that way and allowing him to touch me—felt as dirty as when Yago touched my boobs, if not even dirtier. My strength abandoned me. I had to grab to the banister.

Aaron had disappeared in the darkness and Edward was climbing down the stairs toward me. “Is your real name Laura?”

I extended my arm so he wouldn’t get close to me. I didn’t want him to touch me again. I started to breathe hard. “No, it’s not. My name’s Alexandra. Laura’s my mother. Aaron’s mistaking me for my mother. And Jenny is my girlfriend, Edward. I’m gay and I’ve got a girlfriend. We can’t make out again. Get away, please.”

Edward’s jaw dropped. “Gay? Are you guys coming out of the closet tonight? First Daniel and now you?” He passed a hand through his hair. “What’s going on with you people?”

I shivered and pressed my eyes hard with my thumb and middle finger. I whispered, “Leave me alone, Edward. My life’s a mess.”

Edward extended his hand toward me. “Then tell me, I want to understand.”

“No!” I ran up three steps. He was my brother. We couldn’t hug or kiss again, and I bet he wanted to. I whimpered. “Leave me alone.”

Yago’s voice boomed everywhere in the darkness. “Stay where you are, Alexandra.” I turned and saw his shadow striding across the hall. His extended arm pointed at me. “Don’t try to run into your boyfriend’s arms this time.”

Omigod! Where had he come from all of a sudden? Had he been the man I saw on the road? Once again, a crowd had followed me and I didn’t notice it. Could I be more stupid? I had to lean on the banister again. Edward glared at me, beaming countless questions with his eyes.

“He’s Yago, my stepfather… No, he was my mom’s boyfriend, they weren’t even married.” My voice trembled. I started to clench and open my hands, feeling the numbness up to my shoulders. “He’s the guy who kicked me out of his trailer the night we met. Only he didn’t kick me out. I ran away ‘cause he touched me. He touched me! He wanted to have sex with me.” I climbed up five or six more steps, shaking my head. My heart pounded at super speed. My hand flew to my chest—like I could stop it. “He touched me!”

“He what?” Edward barked. His eyes widened. “Are you kiddin’?”

Yago had reached the stairway’s foot.

“He’ll try to do it again, Edward. He’s mean.” Fear paralyzed me. I couldn’t move. I was glued to the steps and my legs were not obeying me. My hands grabbed the marble banister so hard it hurt.

Edward’s jaw hardened and he clenched his hands in fists. His teeth gnashed. “Not on my watch.”

July 4, 11:38 pm

Edward strode downstairs shouting, “Leave this place at once, mister. This is private property.”

I saw it before I heard it. A flash and then
Bam!
A shot. Then a second one. I screamed. In the dark, I couldn’t tell whether Edward had been hit. I bit my fist.

Edward bolted upstairs. He tripped but got to his feet and kept running, waving his hand. “Run, Justin, run. This guy’s crazy!”

The shot had released me from my paralysis. I sprinted upstairs, closely followed by Edward. I didn’t stop until I reached the landing.

“Tell your boyfriend to get lost if he doesn’t want to get hurt. I could have shot him dead.” Yago’s shadow still stood at the foot of the stairway.

“God, that man has gone nuts!” Edward gasped as he joined me. “I ought to call my old man. Follow me.”

He took my hand and pulled me toward the left corridor, dragging me after him. I resisted. “Not that way, Edward. There’s no way out. There’s a room in the right wing with a ladder to the roof.”

Edward stared at me and grimaced. “How do you know that?”

“Told you, I lived here. It’s the other way.” I pulled him, but he hesitated. I shouted, “Come!”

Yago ran upstairs, puffing like crazy. We bolted down a corridor so dark I couldn’t see a foot beyond my nose, but I knew the house. I knew every room and every door because I loved to explore the place restlessly when I was a child. I stopped in my tracks in front of door near the end of the hall. Edward almost crashed into me, but we managed not to fall. I tried the doorknob. Locked.

“Of course,” I whispered. “I once tried to climb the ladder. They always locked it.” Then aloud, “Open it, Edward.”

Edward turned the knob and pushed the door but nothing happened. I cried out, “Can’t you see it’s locked? They always locked it. Knock it down.”

“Where are you, sweetheart?” Yago’s cajoling tone came far from the corridor, gloomy as an underground cave. “Can’t see a thing, but I’ll find you anyway.”

“Knock the damn door down!”

Edward moved back, ran toward the door, and hit it with his shoulder. The hinges broke and the door ended flat on the ragged carpeting. It sounded like a freakin’ nuclear explosion.

“What the hell?” Yago’s voice asked in the darkness.

Edward laid half groggy on the bedroom’s floor. I went inside and looked around. It was difficult to see anything the dark. The furniture was all shadows. There should be a window to the right. Yes, there was one. Moonlight poured in through it.

“There, Edward,” I pointed at the window. “That way.”

I helped him to get back to his feet. He took a hand to his head and then to a shoulder. “Ouch! God, it hurts. Never thought a door could be so heavy.”

“Come on,” I urged him, but when he walked, he limped. “Are you okay?”

“It’s my knee. Never mind. Let’s keep moving.”

He limped behind me until we reached the window. There was no need to open it because it was devoid of glass. Outside, there was a ledge. I got out on the ledge and searched to my left. Iron rungs ran up the wall all the way to the roof. I gulped. Considering the general state of the house, the ledge might give up and both us could fall, killing ourselves.

There was no room for hesitation though. I extended a hand and a foot and started to climb the ladder. The rungs were rusty and felt flimsy. A fine layer of rust stuck to my hands every time I held another rung. They also felt cold under my bare feet. I looked down. Edward was following me.

“What will we do once we reach the roof?” he asked, raising his head. “The guy’s gonna follow us up there.”

“There’s a circular staircase that runs down to the kitchen,” I explained as I kept climbing. The circular stair had been another place I loved to explore as a child. Another forbidden place. “We can leave the house through the kitchen. Once in the woods, it’ll be impossible for him to find us.”

“How can you be so sure, Just—? Okay, you lived here.”

I looked up. I’d almost reached the roof. Then I looked down. Edward was climbing after me with his head raised. All of a sudden, my face blushed.

“Stop checking out my underwear, Edward!”

“I’m not!”

He was, it was obvious. The panties were too small and God only knew how much they disclosed. I felt flattered and sexy, glad he was finding me attractive enough to risk a peek under my skirt. Prob was it also felt like we were a pair of pervs, because brothers don’t peek under their sister’s skirts.

Once on the roof, I looked everywhere. I remembered a flat, empty roof circled by a railing, but the roof was anything but empty. The place was a mess, littered with everything and anything: a large pile of old tires, old broken furniture, bricks, bags of cement, wood, what remained of a wrecked horse carriage—without the horses, of course—a pile of chairs, over a dozen gigantic pots holding dry, dead palm trees, and anything else you could think of. I even saw the carcasses of two dead dogs.

“What on Earth?” Edward exclaimed after he got on the roof. He opened his arms wide. “This is somebody’s junkyard!”

It was, or at least looked like one.

“Are you guys up there, honey and lover boy?” Yago used his cajoling tone. He stood on the ledge with one hand already on the ladder rungs. “You’re trapped, don’t you know? It’s easier if I get what I want. Just one hour with the girl. She’ll love it, I promise. She owes it to me for screwing up my face. I’ll give you $1,000 bucks if you leave the girl alone with me, lover boy.”

Edward closed his fists again and gnashed his teeth. “The bastard! I’m a Boy Scout, how dare he?”

“Let’s move on,” I begged, trying to drag Edward by an arm. “It’s this way.”

Edward glared at the ladder. His nostrils flared and he closed his fists ready to fight. I pulled his arm as hard as I could. “He’s got a gun. It’s stupid to face him. Come this way.”

Edward snorted but finally followed me. Prob was I was totally disoriented with so many piles of trash and random objects on the roof. “It’s a trap door. It opens to a circular staircase.”

The moonlight was handy for our search. If the trapdoor was under one of those piles of things—furniture or wood—or under one of those enormous pots with a dead palm tree, it would be impossible to open it before Yago reached the roof. Even to open it at all.

“Is it that one?” Edward pointed at a metallic, red square on the floor.

We approached it and Edward tried to open the trapdoor by pulling its handles, but he couldn’t. He tried once, twice, and then he tugged the handles like crazy again and again, like he wanted to pluck them out. He yanked as hard as he could. The door clattered and rattled like a dozen of pots and pans, but it didn’t yield. Edward kicked the trap door. “Stupid door!”

It had to be locked from inside. I bit my lip.

“Sweetheart, where are youuuu?”

Omigod! Yago had reached the roof. I yelped. Edward put a hand on my lips and, taking a finger to his own lips, indicated for me to hush. I nodded. We ducked. Once again, I wanted badly to pee.

Edward signaled for me to follow him, crawling, hidden by the piles of trash and stuff on the roof. Here and there, pyramidal skylights raised over some of the bedrooms and rooms one story below, giving us extra hiding places. My own bedroom had a large skylight. At nights, I loved to watch the stars from my bed before falling asleep. We ended up sitting with our backs against the pyramidal glass of one of those skylights. To our right, two old desks were piled one on top of the other beside a capsized file cabinet, which documents and content were strewn about. God only know how many years of exposure to the rain and the sun had turned all those documents and files into a soft dough resembling toothpaste.

Edward produced his cell phone. “I’ll call my old man.” He dialed and waited. Then he hung up. “Crap! I’m getting his voice mail.” He dialed again and waited.

Our lives depended on that phone call. I passed the tip of my tongue over my lips. Edward dialed for the third time. “Sir, it’s me, Edward. I’m in Magnolia Hall with Justin, the new guy I told you about. There’s this maniac following us with a gun. We need your help.”