Storm Shades (9 page)

“Just needed to blow off some steam. Some of us have had a confusing few days.” She plays with her glass, watching how the ice slowly dissolves in the clear vodka. “Why are you talking to me? What you said that night, that you would have left me in the woods if you’d known I worked for Shale...” She trails off, taking a deep breath, wondering why she had decided to call him out on it. However, she already knows why—it’s because he hurt her.

Ashton doesn’t hesitate to reply. “I’m sorry about what I said.” His voice is low and soft and, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he lays his big hand over hers on the bar. The warmth from his body radiates through hers, and Sofie feels her entire body humming from the contact. “I have a bit of a temper. Sometimes it gets away from me. I’m usually pretty good at controlling it, but around you that control doesn’t seem to work so well.”

Their heads are close—close enough for Sofie to breathe him in, that scent of fresh grass and something else, something wild. “And why do you think that is?” Sofie looks up at Ashton, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

He reaches down and strokes the pad of his thumb along her lips. His touch is soft, like he’s scared of hurting her. Sofie barely breathes, as she feels her entire body respond to his touch. It’s the most erotic thing that anyone has ever done to her, and she can tell from Ashton’s glazed expression that he’s feeling as buzzed as she is.

“I guess you make it difficult for me to concentrate on anything else.” Ashton tucks his thumb underneath her chin, raising it up so that their eyes meet.

“I know the feeling.” Sofie breathes out, hoping that he never stops touching her. She can feel an ache developing between her thighs, and Ashton smiles sexily, making her wonder if he can read how her body’s responding to him. She feels desperate to kiss him, to feel his lips on hers. As his head leans down, only inches away from hers, she closes her eyes, more than ready.

But the kiss never comes. “Ash.” The voice behind Ashton comes from Gustavo and whatever Ashton sees in his expression makes him stand up straighter and drop the hand that was on Sofie’s cheek. She feels the absence instantly, but the dizzying desire remains.

“We’ll have to continue this another time, running girl.” Without any more of an explanation, Ashton turns around and heads out of the door, with Gus and some other men in tow.

“Is it me or did it just get hot in here?” Finn appears at Sofie’s elbow, fanning himself dramatically.

“It definitely wasn’t you. It was like a heatwave in here.” Lindsey smiles at the two of them.

“So what was all that about?” Finn doesn’t even bother to conceal his interest, as he looks longingly after Ashton.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Sofie manages to keep herself from sighing, hungry for Ashton’s hand on her again.

“Well, Darwin’s bailed—something about a research paper he wanted to review. It’s like the guy is allergic to having fun.” Finn shakes his head in confusion that such a person could exist.

However, Sofie is barely listening as her curiosity muscles are flexing again. Ashton’s sudden departure has sparked her questioning mind. The look of determination on his face as he turned away from her and the grimness of the others as they followed him out has left her with only one option.

“I’ll be right back.” She moves to follow Ashton out of the bar, but her arm is suddenly held in a vice-like grip. She looks at her wrist and finds that it’s Lindsey that’s holding onto her. For a petite woman, she has a hell of a grip.

“It’s better you stay inside, honey. This isn’t something you want to get involved in.” There’s a warning in her voice, but her eyes are kind.

“Like I said, ‘Wicker Man,’” Finn points out, looking like he’s spooked.

Sofie ignores him. “What’s going on? Why does it feel like this town is just one secret after another?” She levels a serious look at Lindsey, who remains silent. “If you don’t plan on giving me any kind of an explanation, then let go of me. Last time I checked, this was a bar, not a holding cell.”

Lindsey’s expression softens in defeat, as she slowly releases Sofie’s wrist. “Be careful.”

“What? Wait! Where are you going?” Finn looks between Sofie and Lindsey, clearly completely confused over what’s playing out in front of him. However, neither woman pays any attention to him.

“I can handle myself.” Sofie shrugs off Lindsey’s advice, setting her sights on the door.

“I didn’t mean that. Be careful that you don’t see something that you wish you hadn’t.” Lindsey looks at her meaningfully and then turns to Finn. “Let me buy you a drink Mumford & Sons.” Sofie feels gratitude flood through her, as Lindsey takes care of the curious Finn.

“Sure thing, Miley Cyrus,” Finn shoots back without a pause. Sofie hears them bantering as she walks out, relieved that Finn seems content to play with someone else and won’t be following her out of the bar.

Outside, the air is cool after the rain, and the sky is clear. Sofie takes a look around, hoping that Ashton and the others aren’t already long gone. She catches sight of one of the guys that she recognizes from the bar, a tall redhead taking a look around him before he walks into the woods. Without wasting a second, Sofie hurries after him, trying to creep as quietly as she can without losing him. She has no idea what it is that she’s expecting to achieve by following them, but it’s obvious to her that something is going on.

The wind has started up again, and as Sofie eases her way along the roughly trodden path, she sees the guy’s head go up. It almost looks like he’s sniffing the air. He stops dead in his tracks and does a 360 degree turn. It seems to Sofie that he looks right at her, she’s waiting for him to call her out of her hiding place, but instead he continues heading forward. She breathes out a sigh of relief, not knowing what she had expected him to do if he had realized that she was there.

The guy has started to speed up, and Sofie struggles to catch up with him. She feels a little like she’s wading through mud, and she’s glad she’s wearing the desert boots. They may not be the best fashion statement, but they were worth their weight in gold right now. After a few minutes, Sofie sees a clearing. The guy she has been following walks over to the man she recognizes as Gus. They exchange a few words and Gus nods, dismissing the younger man.

However, Sofie isn’t looking at him anymore. Her eyes are drawn to Ashton, who’s standing in the center of the semi-circle of people. Sofie counts ten, six men and four women. They all have the same look about them of grim intent. Directly in front of Ashton is a man, sitting on the floor. Sofie can’t see his face from where she’s hiding, but she can make out his words.

“Please, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me.” His voice is pitiful, shaking with fear, and the sound makes Sofie’s stomach turn. She wonders if this is some kind of cult ritual, the kind of thing you read about but never actually expect to see in real life.

“You knew what would happen if you came back here. We warned you.” Ashton’s voice is low, but there’s no mistaking the power behind it.

“I know, I know. I made a mistake. I don’t know why I did it.” Even from where Sofie is, she can see how severely the prostrate man is shaking. His words come out garbled, as if his teeth were chattering together.

“A
mistake
.” Ashton says the word as if it were a foreign concept. “Was hanging out by the school another mistake?”

The man raises his head for the first time. “It’s not your goddamn business. You’re not the law here. I have rights.” He spits the words out, but Ashton is clearly unmoved.

“No, you don’t, not anymore. When you hurt that little girl you lost all your rights. You made us a promise. You broke that promise. Now you know what needs to be done.” Ashton and the others take a small step back from the man, never taking their eyes off of him. “Anything you want to say?”

“Yeah. Bite me,” the man sputters.

“Not the best choice of words.” Ashton almost sounds amused.

Then, something happens that makes Sofie question her own sanity. A black shape appears in midst of the clearing. It’s big and seems like some kind of an animal, but bigger than anything she’s ever seen. It’s hard to make out exactly what it is in the dark. The shape makes a noise that sounds like a snarl or some kind of animal growl. Then, in the space of a few seconds, it pounces onto the man on the ground, clawing and ripping him apart. Sofie tries to avert her eyes, but she’s hypnotized by what’s playing out in front of her. There’s so much blood, more blood than she’s ever seen before. Before she can stop herself, she cries out in horror as she comes to grip with the fact that what’s happening in front of her isn’t a dream or something that she’s going to wake up from.

As soon as she’s let out her cry, she knows that her cover is blown. Ashton’s head whips round at speed, facing her. He sniffs the air, as if he can smell her. It makes no sense but it’s exactly what she’d seen the guy that she followed do. She takes a few steps backwards, trying to keep quiet but tripping over a branch in the process. She hears rather than sees people advancing towards her and, without turning around to check, she gets her legs underneath her and runs in the opposite direction.

She runs as fast as she can. Her chest feels like it’s about to explode, and her legs burn as she sprints, moving faster than she ever has before. She can hear something crashing through the woods behind her, the sound is getting louder. Whatever it is, it’s getting closer. She’d thought that she was running in the direction of the bar, the same way she’d entered the woods; but, she should have reached the treeline by now. Instead, she just seems to be going deeper and deeper into the woods.

Her brain is still trying to process what it was that she had seen.
Is it possible that the black shape was an animal?
The sound of a howl makes her whip around, scanning the trees. The noise is one that she’s heard before, but it chills her to the bone—just as it did the first time. She takes a few deep breaths, trying to will her body to move forward again.
Why do I have to be so goddamn stubborn? Any normal person would just have let things lie and waited in the bar rather than following some guy she barely knows out into the woods in the middle of the night.

She’s lost her bearings, but at this point it doesn’t matter. It’s less about finding her way back to the town and more about getting away from whatever it is that’s crashing through the woods behind her. She pushes on, ignoring how her muscles are burning and her lungs feel like they’re on fire. But no matter how fast she is, whatever is behind her is faster. She can feel the breath on the back of her neck, and she lets out a scream as she’s spun around.

However, it’s not an animal that faces her. It’s Ashton. He’s breathing hard like he’s been chasing her, and his eyes look almost like they’re glowing. They’re not just blue, they’re luminous. It takes her a moment to realize that he’s shirtless too, but she’s too shocked to be distracted by that now.

“What are you doing here?” Ashton is breathing heavily and looking angry, like he’s not able to get that temper he’d told her about under control.

Sofie’s mouth opens and closes without making a sound. She doesn’t feel like she could reply even if she had wanted to. All she can do is take one step away from Ashton and then another and then another. When there’s some distance between them, she looks at him again.

“You’re hurt.” It’s a statement of fact; there’s no emotion behind it.

Sofie looks down at her knees, seeing they’re grazed and bloody from where she fell. However, she doesn’t feel any pain; all she feels is fear and confusion.

“What are you going to do to me?” It takes a huge amount of effort to force the words out of her mouth. Her teeth are chattering, and she feels like she’s frozen to her core. The scientific, rational side of her brain knows that she’s exhibiting standard symptoms of shock. However, the side of her brain that seems to be in control of her right now is panicking.

“What did you see?” Ashton’s eyes seem like they’re burning through her, like he can see exactly what she’s thinking, like he can see right through to her very soul. She can’t reconcile the man in front of her with the man that she was flirting with at the bar earlier that night. The person in front of her has been involved in a slaughter. A man had been killed like an animal.

The memory of what she’d seen floods through her mind, and it’s like she’s watching it happen all over again. She backs away from Ashton. She has to get away, whatever it was that she saw, something is very wrong. Before her fear can take over, she gets her legs working again, turning and running away. But the ground is muddy from the torrential rain that fell that day. It only takes one false step and she finds herself falling again. As her head hits the hard ground, everything goes dark.

Through the blackness, Sofie is vaguely aware of movement, like she’s being carried but on something like a blanket. Her arms and bare legs register softness beneath her, like the smoothest fur you could imagine. She feels the wind in her face, but when she tries to open her eyes she can’t quite manage it. The dull ache in the back of her head makes her suddenly nauseous, and she drifts back into oblivion.

Sofie opens her eyes slowly and then she remembers why she’d been keeping them shut. The light hurts her eyes, and she feels the sudden, urgent desire to be sick. She rolls onto her side and takes a look at the room around her. She doesn’t recognize it at all, not even a little bit. Nothing seems familiar.

She’s lying on a chocolate-colored couch, and her hand dangles over the side, touching a soft, white rug. The feel of it brings back the sensation she had while she was asleep—of being on top of something silky as fur. The rug must be what she was remembering. She tries to think back to how she ended up here in this unknown place, but her head hurts too much to concentrate on anything. She gets flashes of images but nothing clear. She remembers being in the bar, the fight that broke out, and then going into the woods, but it’s like there’s something just beyond her reach, something she can’t quite grasp hold of.

“How’s the head?” The voice comes from behind her, and she turns around gingerly, her head aching in protest. When she sees Ashton’s face, that’s when the events of the night come rushing back to her. She pushes herself up from the sofa and backs up, getting as much distance between them as she can before she hits the wall.

“I made you some tea; it should help with the headache.” Ashton acts as if he hasn’t seen her reaction, setting the steaming mug down on the wooden coffee table and taking a few steps towards her.

“Where have you brought me?” Sofie tries to keep the tremor out of her voice but fails. When she looks down, she sees that her hands are shaking.

“My house. You’re safe here.” Ashton looks at her kindly, and there’s no trace of the man that she’d seen in the wood with the anger in his eyes.

“Safe. Right. Thanks, but I think I’d rather head back to the motel if it’s all the same to you.” Sofie digs her hand in her pocket expecting to find her cell but instead she comes up empty. “What have you done with my cell?”

“It’s late and you’ve had a knock on the head. I’ll take you back to the motel in the morning—once you’ve had some sleep.” Ashton’s voice is gentle, but it doesn’t brook any argument.

But Sofie has never been one for being pushed into a corner. She tended to push back. “And what if I say that I won’t stay here? What are you going to do? Tie me to the couch?”

Ashton’s expression changes, and the way that he looks at her makes her insides do somersaults. She curses herself for letting her body respond to him, especially after what she’s seen. “I was hoping that wouldn’t be necessary.” He sounds amused, almost like he’s enjoying this a little.

“Where is my cell?” Sofie repeats the question, using the wall to support her as she feels her legs start to tremble. This is like every bad horror movie she’s ever seen, and in the back of her mind, she wonders if she’s going to die here. The rational part of her brain tells her that if he wanted her dead, then he wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble. He would have just left her in the woods where he’d found her.

“It’s in a safe place. I’ll make you a deal. We talk, and then you get your cell back If you still want to go back to the motel once we’ve finished, then I’ll take you there myself.” Ashton holds up his hand in an imitation of the scout’s honor.

“I somehow doubt that you were a scout. Besides, after what I saw, I want to be as far away from you and all your creepy friends as possible.” The fear that she had felt in the woods has changed to something else, something more like anger.

“I’m glad you brought that up.” Ashton is calm and collected, looking like nothing could faze him. “What is it that you think you saw in the woods?” He crosses his arms and looks down at her curiously.

“What do I
think
I saw? I don’t
think
I saw anything, I
know
what I saw.” She sweeps the hair that has fallen into her eyes away from her face, and she gets another wave of pain.

“Sofie, you look like you’re going to fall down if you don’t sit down. Take a seat, drink the damn tea and just talk to me.” Ashton’s eyes are full of concern, his face is open and still as unbelievably gorgeous as ever. He indicates the couch and takes a seat on one end.

She knows that he’s right. She’s about as stable on her feet as a spinning top. She edges her way around the coffee table and sits at the opposite end of the couch, putting as much space between them as she can. She draws her knees up and hugs them to her chest. She notices that the grazes on her knees have been cleaned and bandaged up. They don’t even hurt anymore; it’s like they weren’t even there. She wonders how long she has been asleep for.

Ashton looks towards the tea he’s set down. “Drink it. It’ll make you feel better. I promise.” There’s so much sincerity in his voice and in his face, like there’s nothing more important to him that her well-being.

Sofie is suddenly doubtful of her own memories. If what she had seen was real, then why would he be sitting here with her like nothing happened. She forces her mind to go back to what she had seen, the black shape that had wreaked such devastation on the prone man lying on the ground.

She can feel her heart beating out of her chest again and to calm herself down she takes a sip of the hot tea. It’s good, sweet and full of spice. Almost instantly, the pain in her head changes from a pounding to just a dull ache. It’s a welcome relief.

“My friends will be worried about me. They’ll think that something has happened to me.” She doesn’t add that they wouldn’t be wrong—she’s trapped in a stranger’s house, without any idea of how to get back to the motel.

“They know you’re safe.” Ashton doesn’t offer any more information, but he doesn’t need to, Sofie’s brain is already whirring with possibilities. Ashton clearly sees what it is that she’s concerned about. “They think you’re carrying on the party with me.”

“Finn wouldn’t believe that I would just stay out all night with a man I barely know when we have more tests to run tomorrow.” Sofie wonders how long it’s going to be before they get in touch with the local police again. That would have to be some kind of a record for a Shale employee, declared missing two days in a row.

“Finn’s had a lot to drink. He’s not going to be worrying too much about what you’re doing.” Ashton’s voice is flat, and the ease with which he seems to be able to manipulate this situation to his advantage sets off alarm bells inside of Sofie’s head.

“Manipulation, another string to your bow, Ashton.” Sofie doesn’t even bother to try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

The flash of anger that passes over his eyes is so quick that Sofie wonders if she has imagined it, much like everything else that’s happened tonight.

“This isn’t how I wanted to get a moment alone with you.” Ashton sighs heavily, raking his fingers through his blonde hair and looking for all the world as lost as Sofie is feeling.

“Getting knocked unconscious isn’t exactly my idea of a good time either.” Sofie rubs her temples absently.

“I’m sorry that you got hurt. That’s the last thing that I would have wanted.” Ashton steeples his fingers together, and Sofie sees how white the knuckles are, like he’s trying to hold something in. “I shouldn’t have let it happen to you.”

Sofie is about to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, but she’s still not so sure that’s the case. She has to physically stop herself from reaching out and taking hold of his hand. Whatever the mojo is that surrounds Ashton, it’s seriously hard to resist, even after what she’s seen.

“So are you going to tell me what you were doing in those woods?” Sofie throws the question out, expecting a reaction. But Ashton looks over at her, his expression blank again.

“You first.” The determination in his voice is palpable.

“I was following you.” Sofie tries not to focus on how creepy that sounds. “You seemed to leave the bar in kind of a hurry.” She shrugs, as if to signal that was reason enough.

“You make a habit of following all the guys that buy you drinks? You must spend a long time on the road.” Ashton shakes his head in disbelief.

“I’m a scientist. I’m allowed to be curious,” Sofie smirks, asking herself how they’ve lapsed into the back and forth banter so easily. “So anyway, I followed one of the members of whatever weird cult you’ve got going on here—”

“Sorry, what? Weird cult? What are you talking about?” Ashton looks at her in complete confusion, far too genuine to be faked. “Maybe that bang on the head was harder than I thought.”

“Well, if you’re not a cult, then what the hell do you want to call it? You all stood around in a circle and then sacrificed some guy to...to...” Sofie can’t bring herself to say the rest, it sounds too much like she’s made it all up.

“Sacrificed some guy to what?” Ashton’s voice is tight, like he’s trying to hold onto something.

“I don’t know it was dark.” Sofie squirms in her seat wishing that what she saw didn’t sound crazier every time she thought about it. “It looked like a big black animal...like a wolf. But a big one, a really big one.” Her voice peters out, as she registers the expression of shock on Ashton’s face. “I know what you’re going to say, that I’m crazy.”

“No, I didn’t say crazy. I may have thought crazy, but I definitely didn’t say it. But let me just check we’re on the same page. You saw me and the rest of my ‘cult’ sacrificing some guy to a giant black wolf. Does that about sum it up?” Ashton’s expression tells Sofie that what she’d said really does sound as ridiculous out loud as it did in her head.

Sofie nods wordlessly, as she starts to question her own sanity, but she knows that something happened out there tonight. “Don’t treat me like I’m an idiot. I saw you threatening that guy, and then there was a lot of blood. I think it’s your turn now to tell me exactly what you were doing in the woods.” Sofie takes another sip of her tea. The ache in her head has disappeared, like magic, if she believed in that sort of thing.

“You wanna know who that guy was that you saw me talking to in the woods? Do you want to know why he ended up there?” Ashton leans back on the couch, eyes turned up to the ceiling. He looks about as exhausted as Sofie feels.

Sofie nods slowly, before she has time to ask herself if she really wants to know the answer to the questions spinning around her mind. She watches Ashton’s shoulders sag a little in defeat, and she hopes that he’s not about to tell her what it is that she’s most afraid of. She waits, in silence, giving him time to come up with the words that he needs to tell the story.

“That guy’s name is Bobby. Bobby used to live in Beaumont, seemed like a pretty upstanding citizen, liked to keep himself to himself. Some people thought that he was a little odd, but that’s what happens in a small town; it’s easy to get a reputation.” Ashton takes a deep breath, preparing himself for what he’s about to say. “Bobby used to work over at the school. He was a handy-man, so he’d do all kinds of odd jobs, whatever needed fixing. But it turns out that wasn’t the only reason that Bobby liked to hang around the school.”

Sofie fills in the gaps, and she covers her mouth with her hands. “Oh no,” she says, fear filling her voice. Ashton looks at her, his eyes soft. He reaches his hand out, and, automatically, she responds, letting him hold her small hand in his large one, letting herself be comforted by him. She takes a deep breath and nods for him to continue.

“He liked kids, especially little girls.” Ashton shakes his head in disgust, and Sofie squeezes his hand, like she’s giving him the strength he needs to tell the rest of it. “No one knew anything about it. He was sneaky. He knew exactly how to hide what he was doing, and he would threaten the girls, telling them that if they said anything then he would find them. They were all too terrified to go to their parents or the cops.” Ashton falls silent again.

“But then something happened,” Sofie prompts, pushing him on.

Ashton nods, his mouth set in a grim line, reminding her of the expression that came over his face in the woods. “One night, one of the girls—Daphne—didn’t make it home. This is a small town, not a lot happens except for the occasional bar fight. No one thought the worst; our brains weren’t programmed to go down that road. That was until they found her body.” His voice cracks with emotion over the story he’s telling. His eyes are glazed over, and it’s like he is seeing it all play out in front of him.

“He killed her.” Sofie says the words so that Ashton doesn’t have to.

“The cops couldn’t prove it. There wasn’t enough evidence that pointed towards him. So he walked. He was back at the school, working there as if nothing had happened. Can you imagine being that little girl’s parents and knowing that her killer was just out there? Free to do it again? To destroy some other family?” Ashton shakes his head like it’s too much to think about.

“No, I can’t imagine that,” says Sofie in a quiet voice, but the thoughts raging through her mind are loud. Ashton’s story has put a different spin on the events that she witnessed. Now, she doesn’t know how to feel about what she saw.

“The cops couldn’t get involved so me and some friends took Bobby to one side and told him that if he wanted to keep all of his limbs in one place that he should get out of Beaumont and never come back. We warned him, told him that if he set foot in this town again that he wouldn’t be walking out again. He stayed away for a couple of years, but I guess it was just too tempting to come back here.” Ashton levels a look at Sofie that is both vulnerable and strong, like he’s asking for her understanding but also telling her he can live without it.