EDGE (43 page)

Mel woke, gasping and fighting with a tucked in blanket, and found Quentin staring over her. Emily stood to his left.

“See, you went and woke her. Mom’s going to have your ass,” Emily said, her voice conveying she thought the prospect was not an unhappy one.

“Naw, I didn’t wake her. She woke on her own on account of me staring at her. I read all about this thing where when you’re sleeping your subconscious is still aware of your surroundings. That’s how army guys keep watch while catching a few z’s.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“Seriously.”

“Guys, is there something I can do for you?” Mel needed to stop this conversation before it dragged on any further and resorted to name calling.

“Sorry about waking you, Aunt Mel, but now that you’re up, can I see your stitches?” Quentin asked with glee in his voice.

Any minute now, he was going to be rubbing his hands together and tee-heeing.

“Gross, Quentin,” Emily said, curling her upper lip.

“What?” Quentin turned to his sister. “Come on. I know you want to see them too.”

“No, I don’t.” Emily folded her arms across her chest.

“Liar.”

“Sicko.”

There went the name calling. “Enough,” Mel said. Next shoving would ensue. She was beginning to feel grateful about her waning child bearing years. “Why don’t one of you two rug rats be useful and get me a drink of water.” Her mouth felt like something had crawled in it and died.

“I’ll do it,” Emily offered, slanting her eyes at Quentin and scrunching up her face. Quentin followed by sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes.

Lovely children, her niece and nephew.

Quentin sat on the coffee table and leaned forward. “What’d it feel like to be mauled by a bear?”

“Like shit,” Mel said and then realized she probably should watch her language around the kid. Oh, what the hell. The kid probably heard worse at school.

His eyes lit up. “Did the bear growl? Drool? Show its fangs?”

“Yep. I about wet my pants.”

His eyes got as big as silver dollars. “Seriously?

“Seriously.”

“Wicked cool,” he said in a reverent voice.

“Not cool. Bears are nothing to play around with. They’re dangerous,” Mel was quick to caution before the kid got any ideas.

Quentin nodded. “Yeah, yeah, already got that lecture. What I want to know is, how did it feel when its massively sharp claws tore into your skin—”

“Quentin!” Thankfully, a pale but healthier looking Nicole entered the room, carrying a tray of little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and stopped Quentin from repainting the scene Mel had suffered through yesterday.

An angelic face turned toward his mother. “Yes, Mom?”

Emily walked up behind Nicole, carrying a glass of water and wearing a smug now-you’re-going-to-get-it look on her face.

“Don’t you ‘yes Mom’ me. What did I tell you about bothering Aunt Mel?”

“Not to,” Quentin muttered. “I wasn’t really bugging her. Just asking some questions.”

“I think it’s time you attacked that chore list I assigned you.”

“Aw, Mom.”

“Now get. Both of you.” Nicole took the glass of water from Emily and handed it to Mel who greedily gulped it down. “Hungry?” Nicole asked.

“Depends. What’ve you got there?”

“Salmon sandwiches.” Nicole offered the tray to Mel, pointing to the ones on the left side of the tray. “I spread ketchup on those, just for you.” After Mel took a sandwich, Nicole set the tray down on the coffee table and took a seat across from her, helping herself to a sandwich.

Was Nicole joining her for lunch? The last thing she wanted was to have a conversation with her sister. She’d done a fair job of avoiding Nicole’s need to “chat” since she and her kids had arrived on The Edge.

Nicole ate one of the sandwiches and settled more comfortably in the chair. “Try it,” she urged. “They’re pretty good, if I do say so myself.”

Mel took a bite. “Not bad,” she said, surprised that salmon made such a good sandwich filler. She reached for another. Looked like her appetite was returning. Hopefully, that boded well for her mood too.

“We need to talk,” Nicole said.

Ah, hell. There went her appetite. “Listen, Nicole, I’m doing right by you. You and your kids have a place to stay, but that doesn’t mean we have to be chatty.”

“I’m not satisfied with that.”

“Too bad.”

“Yeah, it is. We’re all that’s left of our family, and we
aren’t
family. We need to fix that.”

“Things are fine the way they are.”

“No, they’re not. We’ve never discussed—”

“I don’t want to discuss it now.”

“When then? When will you be willing to talk about it?”

“It’s been twenty years. Let it go.”

“No. Not anymore. It’s past time we hashed it out.” Mel went to interrupt, but Nicole rushed on. “It sits there, like a big fat elephant, between us. I don’t want to ignore it anymore. You shouldn’t either.”

Mel rolled her eyes. “Say what you need to say if it’ll make you feel better.”

Nicole took a moment, and Mel hoped she’d come to her senses and drop the whole thing, but then she began to speak.

“The day you were kidnapped, if I’d met you at school like I was supposed to, you would never have been taken. When you returned, I was so awful to you.” Nicole paused and took a deep breath. “I seriously thought you’d never return. Everyone said you’d been gone so long chances were that you were dead, and I was the one responsible for it all.” She turned her gaze to the window as though looking into the past. “Mom and Dad blamed me, too, though they never said anything, but I knew by the way they looked at me.” She turned back to Mel. “When you did return, it was like I didn’t exist. Nobody cared about me. Everyone wanted to know about you. I’m the first to admit, now, that I was a world class selfish brat.” She gave a sharp laugh. “I could give Emily lessons.”

Nicole looked down at her jeans and picked at a lose thread from a small hole that had worn through at the knee. “I blamed you for Mom and Dad coming down so hard on my freedom. I now understand why they did it. They were scared something else would happen to us.”

“You were pissed because they let me do pretty much what I wanted,” Mel said. If they were going to bring it up, might as well bring it all up.

“Yeah, I don’t deny it. You got to do whatever, have whatever, and I had to stay home, get good grades, do chores. Be the perfect child. I regret so much and wish I could change everything. All I can do is change the future. If you’ll let me.”

Silence lengthened until the air in the room seemed as cold as an arctic wind. Mel knew Nicole wanted her to forgive and forget. She didn’t know if she ever could.

Nicole stood to leave, and Mel surprised herself by saying, “The kidnapping was planned. I was the chosen. That guy who talked you into hanging out was one of the Ascension members.”

Nicole dropped into the chair like a stone.

“Dawson had planned it from the beginning. You had been set up.” Mel didn’t know why she continued, but now that she’d started she couldn’t seem to stop. “He’d been watching. Knew our schedules. Knew we walked home together. Knew you liked blond-haired, blue-eyed boys.”

“His name was Seth,” Nicole whispered. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“What good would it have done? Dawson was caught and punished.” And then killed. “Plus, Mom and Dad would have freaked even more if they knew. It just didn’t matter.”

“It would have mattered to me.” Nicole’s voice rose to a high pitch. “Seth kept seeing me after you were kidnapped.”

Mel looked away, avoided her eyes, but she still felt the heat of them staring at her.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

Mel shrugged.

“They used that to control you,” Nicole whispered. “What did you have to do, to keep him from coming after me?”

“It doesn’t matter, Nic.”

“Damn it! It does to me.” Her voice had regained its full volume. “If you sacrificed yourself for me—”

“Don’t kid yourself. I did what I had to do in order to survive.”

Nicole shook her head. “All the time I was bitching over how Mom and Dad let you do whatever you wanted.”

“Be grateful they kept a short leash on you. Mine was long enough to hang myself with.” She was through with this. Ordered to stay on the couch or not, if Nicole didn’t shut up and leave her alone, she’d be waltzing out of this room. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s in the past, and I’ve moved on.”

“No, you haven’t.” Nicole gestured to nothing in particular. “Look where you live—”

“There’s nothing wrong with where I live.”

“You’ve done everything in your power to control your environment. Control is an illusion, Mel. The past few days should have proved that to you. You’ve made yourself a prisoner here.”

“I have not.” Her words were too close to truth. Too close to what she’d felt in the last couple of days.

“Yes, you have. How often do you venture off The Edge? Visit the lower forty-eight? You’ve shut yourself off from everyone.”

“Who? The people I love live here with me. They’re the family I call my own and who have accepted me for who I am.”

Nicole leaned back in her chair, her posture stiff. “Is there no room in your ‘new family’ for us?” She gathered another breath as though gathering strength. Mel had to admire her tenacity. The Nicole she’d met at the airport in Anchorage would never have had the gumption to face her this way.

“I’m not the same person I was when we were kids,” Nicole continued. “I used to blame you for so much that was wrong in my life rather than take responsibility for my own actions. I’ve been done with that for a long time. There’s a lot I’d like to make up for, if you’d let me. I need a sister. I believe that somewhere deep inside, there’s a part of you that needs me too.”

Nicole rose on that parting shot and left the room. Mel watched her go, not liking the truth of what she’d said one bit.

From behind her, Cache’s voice cut through the silence. “Will you ever forgive her?”

Mel squeezed her eyes shut. How much had he heard?

“Eavesdropping?” She reopened her eyes and faced the inevitable. The man wasn’t going to give up on his story now. Not with information about her kidnapping that nobody else knew. He was a reporter after all.

Cache walked into her line of vision, his hands in the pocket of his cargo pants. “Accidentally eavesdropping, and I heard a bit.”

“You ‘accidentally’ couldn’t have turned around and walked in the other direction?”

He hiked up the material of his pant legs and took Nicole’s vacated seat. She wished he’d leave. Leave the room, leave The Edge. Leave Alaska.

“How much about your kidnapping do people really know?” he asked.

“Enough that I was labeled a freak most my life.”

“I’m serious, Mel.”

“So am I.”

“You stayed with Dawson to save your sister, didn’t you? Could you have escaped sooner? Before he tried to sacrifice you on that altar?”

“That’s enough.” He was bringing back horrors she was done revisiting. “I never granted you an interview.”

“I’m not asking as a reporter. I’m asking as the man who’s in love with you.”

Sudden tears clogged her throat, and her eyes burned. “Every reporter I’ve had the misfortune to meet would say
anything
to get a scoop.”

“I’m not like that. To be honest, you
should
let me tell your story. You would be an inspiration to many. What you’ve had to overcome in order to achieve the life you have now is admirable, and, I admit, I came here for the chance to do exactly that, but I stayed because I want to become a part of your life.”

“They’re just words. Someone professing to ‘care’ for me in the hopes of selling me out? How many times do you think I’ve heard that? Countless. From the first boy who introduced me to the numbing effects of drugs in the hopes I’d spill—” she gave a sarcastic laugh “—to the many men I’ve slept with. You want a piece of paper, so you can get all this down?”

“Mel—”

“I was only seventeen when I was admitted to rehab the first time, but then you know that. I nailed the cover of
People
with that becoming picture and then in college, the suicide attempt. The press had a heyday reporting on poor Amelia Bennett and how heartbreaking her life had turned out. You know that too. For the last seven years, since coming here, nobody has cared what I did. Who I was. For the first time, I could be myself. You want to expose it all again? If you truly loved me, why would you want to put me through that?” Did love make a difference? Her parents had said they loved her, but when Hollywood had come calling, they’d had no qualms about selling her story to the highest bidder in some lame attempt to secure her future. Instead, it had all but ruined any chance she had of one.

His lips tightened into a thin line. “Where’s my journal?”