Forks, Book Two Page 9

  And while both evoked different emotions from me, I still couldn’t quite decide which I preferred.

  Sighing heavily I picked up ‘E’, the stuffed bear Ken had given me. “What should I do?”

  The tuft of fur on his head wiggled in the breeze as ‘E’ remained stoically silent, just like Vincent had been on the ride back.

  “Well, that helped…not!”

  Irritated, I shoved ‘E’ down under my comforter. Pulling my knees to my chest, I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep.

  Sometime during the night, my mind wandered back into a recurring dream. One where Viktor was with me, telling me about his attack—except we weren’t sitting in his SUV, but instead standing out in the open on a bluff or a cliff. The stars hung so low here I felt like I could reach out and touch them. As I looked over at him, I couldn’t help but notice his beautiful face was paler than usual. My heart, as it always did when he was near me, broke into a gallop. Lifting out my hand, I pressed it against his cool cheek. “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t do this anymore?”

  “What can’t you do, anymore?” I asked, and once again, my voice vibrated strangely in my ears.

  “Me, you, we’re not good for one another.”

  I felt like I had been slapped. It stung like I had been but I knew I hadn’t. It was a dream after all, just not a very good one.

  “I have to disagree,” I bravely said, even though I would never say anything like that if I was awake.

  He cocked his head to the side, his haunted gaze lingering on mine. “You’re disagreeing with me?” He seemed surprised by my candor. Frankly so was I.

  “Yep.”

  “You don’t even know me.”

  “I know enough about you.” I shook my head. “Scratch that.” I took a breath and plodded onward. “I know how you make me feel.”

  “How’s that?”

  “I can’t breathe when I’m with you.”

  “And that’s a good thing?”

  “Yes.”

  “I swear, Amber. You will be the death of me.” He took a deliberate step backward.

  That was so out of left field, even for a dream, I couldn’t process what he said fast enough. I finally got my voice to work. “Wait…where are you going? Don’t leave me…please…”

  He turned. The look he gave me was filled with such pain, I couldn’t move. I felt like I had weights in my legs.

  “Don’t forget about me.” He lifted out his arms and took a step backward. And then he vanished.

  “Nooo!”

  I jolted awake to the sound of someone screaming. I thought it was me but it wasn’t. It was my mom.

  seventeen

  Mom was really screaming.

  I jumped from bed, ran down the stairs at a breakneck speed, and came to a skidding halt at the bottom.

  Ken was down on his knees, holding Mom’s hands. She was hyperventilating.

  “Mom!” I yelled, terrified, my heart pounding from my chest. “Ken what did you do?”

  “Amber,” Ken said in a placating tone. He was using his official police officer voice. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Oh really, then what is it?” I snapped.

  Mom turned tear filled eyes on me and my heart dropped.

  Did she somehow find out? “Mom what’s going on?”

  She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “We’re getting married.”

  “You’re what?” I asked, shocked.

  “Were getting married,” Mom repeated.

  “Ken?” I needed some clarification.

  “It’s true,” he said, smiling broadly. “I’m going to be your new dad.”

  I wasn’t sure what to feel. I felt like I had whiplash or something. Everything was happening so fast.

  “See,” she said and held out her hand. And sure enough, there was a big busting diamond on her third finger.

  “Wow, you outdid yourself Ken,” I said.

  “I know, didn’t he?” Mom could barely stay still she was so excited.

  Ken struggled to stand.

  Mom helped him stand since his leg still wasn’t healed completely from Jason attacking him.

  “Come on,” Ken said, and held out his arm. “Family hug.”

  I walked into his and Mom’s outstretched arms and gave them an obligatory hug.

  Ken leaned back and ruffled my hair. “Can you believe it?” he asked, his exuberance clearly showing on his face.

  “No, I can’t.”

  He frowned.

  “It’s just so sudden,” I tried to explain.

  His brows touched in the middle. I felt like a jerk.

  “And …awesome,” I covered and gave him a winning smile.

  Ken looked relieved and pulled me back in for another hug.

  I washed the last dish from the huge celebratory breakfast Ken made and placed it in on the towel by the sink.

  “So how are you feeling?” Ken picked up the plate, dried it off, and stacked it in the cupboard.

  “Pretty good, considering,” I said and wiped off my hands on a dishtowel. “Did you find out anymore about Sandy?” She was the other girl Jason had mentioned the night at the Timber Museum when he was slipping off the deep end into Whackoville.

  “It doesn’t look good.” He shook his head sadly. “But there’s always hope,” he added. “We still haven’t found a body, so that’s something, I suppose.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. She may not have been my favorite person but I didn’t wish any ill will on her either. “What about the two other girls you found?”

  “We haven’t found a connection yet.” He shook his head. “It’s the damndest thing,” he sighed. “Jason had an alibi and so did Kirk.”

  “Maybe their alibi’s lying,” I said hopefully.

  “I doubt that,” he said. “Both alibis are pretty solid.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know.” He set the dishtowel on the counter.

  “So what does that mean, exactly?”

  “It means we don’t have any answers right now.”

  “But what about Kirk?” I asked. “Has he turned up?”

  “No, not yet,” he said and rubbed his forehead.

  If Kirk was still out there did that mean he was going to be coming after me?

  Ken seemed to sense my distress. “Don’t worry Amber,” he tried to reassure me. “If he’s out there, we will get him.”

  “Of course you will,” I said. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Ken but I just wished I could be as sure as he was.

  “He’s probably on the other side of the country by now.” He shifted his weight off his bad leg.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Where do these go?” He lifted up the glasses we used for Mimosas.

  “They go in the other room,” I said. “I’ll take them.”

  I grabbed the glasses and left the kitchen to put them in the China Cabinet in the dining room. Maybe Ken was right. Maybe Kirk was across the country by now. I walked back from the living room and passed the kitchen.

  Ken was wiping off the counters, humming a familiar tune. I leaned in the doorway. “What song are you humming, Ken?” I asked.

  He turned and his eyes glittered strangely under the florescent lights. “It’s an old song from my family’s homeland.”

  I couldn’t breathe. “Where’s that?” I somehow managed to ask.

  “Romania,” he said. A weird smile drifted across his face. “Why do you ask?”

  My heart hammered in my chest. “Oh, no reason…just curious.” It was the same song Kirk had been humming the night he pulled me through the woods.

  eighteen

  After hearing Ken humming the same song as Kirk and my horrific dream where Viktor thought jumping into oblivion was preferable to being with me, Mom’s and Ken’s impromptu announcement about their engagement seemed to fall to the wayside.

  Threading my hands through my hair, I held my head and tried to get my rampant emot
ions in check. But I couldn’t make sense of any of it. Feeling freakishly ill at ease, I sat down and turned on my computer.

  Three hours later, up to my eyeballs in research on Romania, I rubbed my aching head. I had listened to about a hundred songs from there and I was no closer to finding a connection than I was before I started. The problem was, I didn’t really know what I was looking for, and even if I did, did it really mean anything. Lots of people liked the same music…right?

  Was it some kind of weird coincidence or did they really have some kind of connection to one another. And if they did, what did that mean? Were Ken and Kirk in a cult or something or were they both batshit crazy? I totally believed that about Kirk, but Ken, he was great. He was like the dad I never really had.

  “What do you mean I have to go back to Sunshine?”

  “Amber we talked about this.” Mom waved her hand and her giant gob-stopping diamond almost took my eye out.

  I moved back a few feet. “No we didn’t.” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the counter. Ken had left a while ago, which was why I was even out of my room.

  “It won’t be so bad,” she said, changing her tune.

  “I don’t even know him.”

  “Listen, I know he hasn’t been the best Dad in the world but he is still your father.”

  “Not for long.”

  Mom smiled at that. “Well, that’s true.” She lifted out her hand and admired her ring. “He really outdid himself, didn’t he?”

  I guessed she was asking me a question this time. “He sure did,” I readily agreed.

  “My hand feels weighted down.”

  “You should get a cart.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “As I was saying, you’ll only be gone for a day, two at the most.”

  “What about school?”

  “You’ll be back in plenty of time.” She waved away my question.

  “That’s it. You’re making me get on a plane for six hours just to spend one day there?”

  “It can’t be helped. It was pretty spur of the moment.”

  “Like your wedding?”

  Her face fell and I felt like a “b.” “Sorry, Mom. I just don’t get why I have to go.”

  “He hasn’t asked for you to come before. Maybe it’s important.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Well, it might be fun.”

  “What are you going to be doing?”

  “Well…” Her face flushed. “Ken really outdid himself and I have some…”

  “Forget I asked.”

  “Well,” she sighed. “You better get packed; the cab will be here soon.”

  “You’re not taking me?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” I know I was acting like a spoiled brat but I didn’t want to go.

  “Amber…” She gave me her staple hairy eyeball.

  “Can I at least see my friends?”

  “I guess they could maybe see you there. But you’d have to ask your father.”

  I exhaled heavily. “Fine.”

  “Amber…”

  “Yes?”

  “Be sure to tell him I’m getting married.”

  “Of course.”

  I texted Glinda on the cab ride to the airport and told her I couldn’t do lunch. She texted me back with a crying emoticon and then another one that was blowing kiss.

  I didn’t bother responding.

  Sunshine, Maryland

  “Sissy!” Little Humphrey squealed, as he wrapped his arms around my waist and squeezed to the point he was crushing my ribs. Little Humphrey was my Dad’s new kid, who was also my half-brother and a bit larger than the last time I had seen him…well, I gathered he was because he looked a lot bigger than he did in the pictures that Dad sent me on occasion with his cast off build-a-bears. I wasn’t sure what the family reunion was for but for some reason unbeknownst to me, Mom, in her stern Mom voice, just said that I had to go back to Sunshine. What she didn’t tell me was why. I didn’t argue, well at least not too much because I didn’t see the point of arguing. I was kind-of glad for the excuse to leave. I was hoping once I was gone from Forks, I would have some clarity. I didn’t get any though because it was impossible with all the noise going on around me. I was in a room full of loud obnoxious boys who were making farting sounds with their armpits and laughing stupidly at the loudest pit-fart. It was ridiculous.

  “Amber, here’s the list of our contacts and emergency numbers.” Jessica Rabbit’s look-alike said—who was Dad’s new squeeze, i.e. his young big-busted redheaded wife, Jessica.

  “Oh—kay.” I took the list, not sure why she was giving it to me.

  “Well,” she exhaled and pushed a stray piece of hair back from her face. “We’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “What?” I couldn’t mask my shock.

  “Oh, honey,” she sighed and gave me a sympathetic look. “Didn’t your Mom tell you?”

  “No.” A cold sweat broke out on my skin. What was happening?

  “You poor dear,” she cooed and clucked her tongue as she tossed a ton of makeup in the bag she had laid out on the table.

  “Thanks a lot, Amber,” Dad was saying. His voice sounded miles away. I felt like I had tunnel vision—everything was turning black. He lifted two suitcases, explained the workings of his smart house on a huge tablet, and proceeded to walk right out the door without a backward glance. Jessica’s stacked heels clacked loudly on the marble tiles as she trailed behind in a dark blue spandex wrap dress with her luggage sized designer purse hooked over her bent arm.

  The door slammed shut and my nightmare began.

  nineteen

  Turns out my visit to Sunshine wasn’t a family reunion after all, at least not the kind I thought. Little Humphrey had his friends over and wanted me to stay with him so he didn’t have to cancel his party. I was nothing more than a glorified babysitter because Humphrey could care less if I was here, just that someone was, and his fun wasn’t ruined with an impromptu trip to who knew where. Apparently my dad was more worried about what Humphrey wanted than what I did which wasn’t that big of a shocker, really.

  For most of the night, I locked myself in the bathroom. It was my “safe haven” from the squad of prepubescent boys I was forced to watch. Luckily, my dad was big on the latest and greatest gadgets so at least I got to watch television in the mirror while I soaked in the huge Jacuzzi tub in a bathroom that was larger than my bedroom. It even had lights that flickered different colors. I felt like I was bathing in a spaceship.

  With all the time I was locked away in the bathroom one would think I would have had an “Ah-HA” moment about Vincent, Viktor, or even all the strange happenings in Forks, or with Ken and Kirk’s coincidental humming, Jason and the so-called incidents, but I didn’t. The list just kept getting bigger and bigger.

  The only thing I managed to do was gain three pounds, get pruned skin, and watch Twilight. I even liked it and that was saying something since I was now living in the place the movie was centered around.

  None of it helped though. I was still as much in the dark as I was when I moved to Forks, except now I noticed more things that didn’t seem quite right.

  When I walked in my house Monday, I was a hundred dollars richer and had another build-a-bear to shove under my bed from Humphrey. Turns out, he wasn’t as bad as I thought. He even had a sense of humor that he used on me quite often to amuse his little buddies. Tanner was the quiet one out of the group and for some reason he reminded me a lot of Viktor. I wasn’t sure why but guessed it was maybe because I missed Viktor most of all. It seemed like I had been gone a lot longer than just two days.

  “Amber is that you?” Mom yelled down the stairs as I shut the door.

  “Yep. It’s me,” I called up to her as I kicked off my shoes and wheeled my bag to the stairs.

  “Oh, good.”

  Clomping footsteps followed and before I knew it, Mom was in front of me pulling me into a hu
ge motherly hug to the point I was suffocating. “Can’t breathe, Mom.”

  “Oh.” She laughed and released me. “So how was it?”

  “It was okay.”

  “Well…” She tapped her Eskimo slipper against the wood floor. “What did she look like? Was she fat?”

  “She wasn’t fat but…”

  Mom’s brow creased.

  “But she wasn’t nearly as pretty as you.” This seemed to please Mom because she grinned like the creepy Cheshire cat in the remake of Alice in Wonderland.

  “I knew it.” She did a little shimmy butt shake, which I assumed was her version of a happy dance.

  “Did you have a good weekend?”

  “Well,” she sighed. “Ken brought over some toys for us to…..”

  “Oh. My. God! T.M.I….T.M.I!” I plugged my ears. “La, la, la, la…” But that didn’t help to get the visual out of my mind.

  “Amber, you’re not a child.” She shook her head disparagingly.

  Once I was sure she wasn’t going to douse my brain with more gross stuff about her and Ken’s intimate nightly escapades, I unplugged my ears and walked into the kitchen to get a bottle of water from the fridge.

  Mom was hot on my heels the entire way. “So…” She leaned in the doorway with her arms crossed.

  I twisted the lid off the bottle of water I pulled from the fridge and pushed the door shut with my foot. “What?” I took a sip.

  “Did he ask about me?”

  Crap. “Um, not really.” It suddenly dawned on me why I was elected to go to Sunshine. She wanted to make sure Dad knew she was getting married.

  “Oh.” Her bottom lip jutted out.

  “He did ask me if you were seeing someone.” It was a lie, okay. But it was just a little white one.

  This seemed to cheer her up. “What did you tell him?” She lifted her hand and gazed at her ring.