A Deep and Dark December (34 page)

“Oohhh, dirty,” Jessica cooed. “I like it.” She widened her legs, wiggling her ass. “Frisk me, sheriff.
All
over. Go deep.”

“Goddammit, Jessica. Knock it off!”

“Watch your language,” Ham scolded, vibrating so hard he wobbled. “It’s bad enough I have to witness your depravity, but I will not have you use the Lord’s name in vain.” Ham caught himself on the edge of a desk. “Do you hear me?” Graham made a move to go to his father, but Ham put a hand up. “Just take care of your problem.”

Graham eyed his father, trying to gauge how much discomfort his old man was in. He knew Ham tried to hide the effects of his illness. For any of it to show, as it did now, meant that his dad was using every available scrap of energy just to stay upright.

“Sorry, Pop.” Graham hauled Jessica up to stand. “I’ll be right back.” He propelled her forward toward the cells at the back of the station.

Jessica tried to break free when she caught on to where they were headed. “Come on, Graham, honey. I was just joking. You know me. I’m always kidding around.” She went lax in his grip and would’ve fallen if he hadn’t had such a firm hold on her. “Please, Graham. Don’t do this,” she whined, fighting harder against him. “I love you. Please.”

“You’re only going to hurt yourself if you keep struggling.”

He managed to get her into the only available cage, uncuffed her, and escaped before she could scramble out after him.

She grabbed the bars and shook them. “Graham. Come on, baby. Let me out. Fun’s over. I promise to be good.” Her expression changed from pleading to seductive. “I’ll be real good. I’ll be so good you’ll scream when you come. Promise.”

He turned his back on her, curling his lip in disgust. She was young, too young, to be talking like that. What in the hell had come over her? She’d always had a schoolgirl crush on him, he knew, and he made sure he did nothing to encourage her. But something, no, someone had turned the heat up to boiling.

“Graham! Graham!”

He closed the door on Jessica and took a slow, deep breath that brought with it thoughts of Erin. The look of horror on Erin’s face as Jessica had lunged for her… She’d come in so pale and fragile-looking and then Jessica had lost her shit and gone after her. If Jessica had been a man, he’d have punched her in the face. He needed to see Erin to make sure she was okay. But first he had to deal with his dad.

He found Ham slumped in one of the lobby chairs, his face pasty and damp.

“Pop!” He rushed to his father’s side. “Are you all right?” He felt his father’s pulse, weak and thready. “I’m calling an ambulance.”

Ham gripped Graham’s wrist harder than he thought was possible in the condition his father was in. “No,” Ham rasped. “Just a moment…to rest.”

“Not this time.” He started to rise, but Ham held fast.

“No.”

“Pop, you’ve got to stop stressing yourself like this. It’s not good for you.”

“You shaved.” Ham reached up with his other hand and gave Graham’s face a weak pat. “’Bout time.”

Damn, but his pop was a stubborn old man. Graham couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t do it for you.”

“Don’t care.”

“No more talking.” Graham took the chair next to Ham. “Can I get you some water?”

Ham rolled his head back and forth against the wall. Color was starting to creep into his cheeks and he wasn’t struggling for every breath as he had been. Still, Graham worried. Seeing his father weak shook something low inside him. His parents had always been his rock and now his mother’s sifting memory and his father’s frailness had cracked the foundation of his life.

“Let me take you home,” Graham said.

“In a minute.” Ham took a handkerchief out and dabbed his forehead. His gaze roamed the station. “Wasn’t much older than you…when I took over for my father. This place…this town…it’s who we are.”

“Don’t talk. Catch your breath.”

“No.” Ham turned his sharp stare on his son. “I’m going to say this…and hope you hear me this time. You have a legacy…not many people can say that. Six generations of Dorans have protected this town. Do you understand what that means?” Ham didn’t wait for a response. “This town is our blood, sweat, and tears. It’s our children…and our children’s children. It’s more than a century of shielding San Rey…from the evil that lurks inside and out.

“We’re guardians of this town…and everything it stands for. Without us…well, you’ve seen what happens. Lawlessness, immorality, greed…they grow and fester, rotting away our very souls. We’re the soldiers who stand guard. We’re the shield between good and evil. Do you understand?”

Did he understand? Graham had only heard this speech a thousand times growing up. It had been drilled into him from the cradle. He could recite it by heart the way school kids could recite the Pledge of Allegiance. But until today, when he’d stood on the porch of the station and looked out on the town he’d been born to protect, the words had rung hollow. Today, suddenly, they filled up, and he felt each one of them as though they’d been carved into his DNA. He was the guardian of this town. He was the one chosen to protect it. And he’d do everything in his power to fulfill his duty.

“Yes, Pop,” he answered quietly. “I understand.”

Ham studied him. Looked right into his eyes, right into the center of his chest. And tears welled in Ham’s eyes. “Yes. You do. You finally do.”

He’d never seen his father cry, had hardly ever seen him touched by softer emotions. Graham held his father’s gaze, ignoring the lump that had formed in his throat and the burning at the backs of his own eyes.

“I’m proud of you, son,” Ham said and that lump turned into a boulder. “You’ll do fine. You’ll do us proud.”

“Thank you.”

Ham gave a firm nod and cleared his throat. “There’s just one thing left.”

“What’s that?”

“You have to get rid of that December girl.”

~*~

Erin sat at her aunt’s bedside, the steady blips on the monitor the only movement in the room. She’d come here seeking solace, but holding her aunt’s hand, she felt everything but relief. Even if her plan eventually worked and she managed to draw out the killer, her life in San Rey was over. She’d only been kidding herself thinking she could belong. She was the square peg that would never fit. None of them had, not her aunt nor her father. She saw that now. They’d only pretended, all the while she’d been looking in from the outside.

Where would she go? What would she do? She supposed she could get a job somewhere else, sell her house and move. She’d never considered living anywhere else but San Rey and now that the world was opened to her, it was all so overwhelming, the vastness of it a black yawning gap laid out before her.

Maybe she could move to Los Angeles with Graham. They’d get an apartment together, build a life. He could get his job back with the LAPD. She could get a job at another property management company. Maybe they’d get married, have kids. The world outside didn’t seem so scary, imagining Graham at her side.

But that would mean leaving her aunt and dad. Although after everything they’ve been through, they might not want to stay in San Rey either.

She searched her aunt’s face for some kind of change. Nothing. The doctors were still stumped about what to do for her, other than keep her sedated. She’d lost weight. Her skin hung a little looser and she was so pale. Fine lines that hadn’t been there a few weeks ago added years Cerie didn’t get to live. Erin ran her thumb across the back of her aunt’s hand. The veins stood proud, like the blue roots of a water-starved tree.

“Please come back to me,” she begged, holding Cerie’s hand to her face. “I need you. You always know what to say, what I need to hear. I feel so lost without you.”

Her plea met a silence that roared in her ears. Seeing her aunt this way was like losing her mother all over again. What would she do if Cerie never recovered? The vibrant woman who’d taught Erin how to use and control her ability was now imprisoned within her own. She reached out to Cerie with her mind, searching for that metaphysical link they’d always shared. But it was like reaching out blindly in a dark room, swiping at air over and over again. The link was gone. Cut by unseen hands.

She pushed to her feet. That was it. She wasn’t going to let some chickenshit invisible asshole do this to her family. She was going to fight back and fight back hard.

“I’ll find out who he is. I’ll find him and stop him.” She gave her aunt’s papery cheek a quick kiss. “Hang in there for me.”

She left without looking back. There was only one direction to move in now.

Graham had been called away to handle three more incidents since his father left. He was neck deep in paperwork that would take weeks to dig through, but at least Jessica had finally cooled off enough in her cell that he felt confident enough to let her loose and send her home. She’d seemed genuinely embarrassed and bewildered at her own behavior. He’d accepted every single one of her twenty red-faced apologies before he finally shoved her out the door and told her he’d see her tomorrow.

This was after going thirty rounds with his father over Erin. No matter how many times his father had come at him, threatened him, cajoled him, he’d held firm. The only way he’d give Erin up was if
she
called things off. And Graham hoped to God that would never happen.

His old man had finally given up the fight and left, refusing a ride home from him out of spite. He wasn’t sure if Ham would ever speak to him again. Well, he just wouldn’t give him a choice. Whether his father liked it or not, he and his mother needed him. Ham could be as angry as he wanted. Graham wasn’t going to budge on this. He hated to think it, but Ham was too sick to do much about it anyway. And with his brother Adam away, Graham was all they had.

Ham would get used to him being with Erin. Eventually. Maybe. Hopefully.

Sitting at his desk in his finally quiet office, Graham realized it was already full dark outside and he hadn’t heard back from Erin. He pulled out his phone. No new messages. His first attempt to reach her got her voice mail so he’d texted her. No response.

Was she pissed off at him about Jessica? He thought back to earlier in the afternoon when he’d told her to leave after Jessica had attacked her. He went through everything he’d said and done. He’d been abrupt, maybe a little rude. He’d only been trying to get Jessica to settle the hell down. Erin wasn’t so sensitive that she’d stop taking his calls.

He tried calling again and left a message this time. Maybe he’d just go over to her house with a pizza and a bottle of wine. She couldn’t stay annoyed at him forever. He’d find a way to talk her out of it if she tried. As he shut down his computer, another thought struck him. What if she couldn’t answer her phone? What if her plan had worked and the killer had gone after her?

He didn’t wait to make sure the program he was working in closed before he bolted out the door.

~*~

Erin wasn’t sure what had drawn her to the bluffs above San Rey where she and Graham had first kissed. The night air bit through her lightweight coat and she shivered. Seeing her aunt had steadied her in a way she hadn’t felt in days. Weeks. If only she’d open her eyes. If only her father could speak again. If only things could go back to normal.

Normal.

What was normal anymore?

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked out at the sea, stretching before her. The moon hung low in the sky, laying out a path of light across the water that nearly led all the way to the rocks below her. Standing at the edge, she had the feeling she could fly, soar over the dark ocean, dipping down and up again. She closed her eyes and imagined it. The wind lifted the ends of her hair, bringing with it a fine salty mist that dampened her cheeks.

Her feet crept closer to the edge. The sensation of flying was so real to her now that her stomach lifted and sank as she imagined rising swiftly then dropping down to skim the waves. Her problems melted away, trailing out behind her in a long tail. Freedom. The ocean called to her. Called her by name in a low, sweet, seductive voice. She inched a little closer and tried to answer.

Suddenly she popped her eyes open. Her toes met the edge of the cliff and the sea no longer called. The voice was not some ethereal being, but a real life, flesh and blood human. And he was right behind her.