Karen Rose - Silent Scream

She jabbed her fists to her hips. “You used me. You jerk.”

“How did I use you?”

“Olivia came into the gym this morning. Really early, so she could avoid me.”

David winced. “It’s been a while since she’s been to the gym.”

“Which you know because you’ve been reading the sign-in sheets. Rudy told me. He also told me you’d asked about Olivia and that he told you we were old friends.”

“Rudy’s a weasel,” David muttered and her ruby lips twitched, but just once.

“That’s what Olivia said this morning because Rudy told me she’d come in.” Her expression darkened. “Goddammit, you know her. And I mean that in the biblical sense. You knew I knew her and you never said a word. Did you join my dojo just to use me to get to her?”

In the biblical sense. Based on his vague recollections, that was quite possibly the truth. “It’s not what you think.” He sighed. “I met Olivia at a wedding.”

“I know. Her sister Mia’s wedding two and a half years ago. After which the biblical knowing ensued.” Her voice rose. “After which you never called her.”

“Quiet,” he hissed. “My mother has ears like a damn bat. I met Olivia at the rehearsal dinner. I was sitting on the steps of the church, putting off going inside.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why?”

“Because it was one more wedding I’d leave alone.”

Paige’s look turned skeptical. “Now you want me to believe you have trouble getting a woman. You? Mr. Perfect, who’s too nice to possibly be true? Please.”

His laugh was mirthless. “Look at you. You’re gorgeous. You’re nice. Usually. Do you have a good man?”

Her shoulders sagged. “Point taken, thank you very much. But I’m fucked up.”

“Well, honey, you’re not the only one,” he said bitterly. “We all have our issues.”

She considered this. “Fair enough. So why did you glom onto me? Why me?”

“Evie took your self-defense class and she said you were good, so I came to the dojo to meet you. I liked it there, so I joined. I didn’t know you knew Olivia, not at first.”

“Olivia recommended my class to Eve,” Paige said and he could see she believed him. “So we’re caught up in a circle of friends. But then you went all spy-guy. Why?”

“I saw Olivia’s name on the sign-in sheet at the gym and was surprised, so I asked Rudy. He said she came in regularly, that the two of you are friends. So I let things go where they would. I kept an eye on the sign-in sheet and Rudy kept me filled in.”

Her brows lifted. “He really is a weasel.”

“I prefer ‘confidential informant,’” he said and her lips twitched. “What?”

“That’s what I said to Liv. So you met her at a wedding, were obviously taken with her, you two did the horizontal shuffle, and then you don’t call? That’s not nice, David.”

“She left me,” David protested. “I woke up and she was gone. No note, no nothing. And I did call, but the number I found in the online phone book had been changed.”

“She moved right about that time. You could have asked her sister for her number.”

David thought about Olivia’s sister, Mia, who was one of the few who’d known how hopelessly he’d fallen for someone else. “That was… complicated.”

“You slept with Mia, too?” she asked, her voice rising to a shriek.

“Goddammit,” he hissed. “Be quiet. I did not sleep with Mia, too. I may not even have slept with Olivia. Whatever happened between Olivia and me is our business. I hoped she’d call and figured when she didn’t that she regretted what happened.”

“Which she says she does.”

David lifted his brows. “And does she?”

“You’ll have to ask her. Why did you come to Minneapolis? I want the truth.”

He sighed. “Evie needed help fixing her roof. I’d been looking for some kind of… I don’t know, a sign or something. I get here and Evie gets attacked, then I get run off the road by that psycho and Olivia’s the cop on the case.”

“Hell of a sign,” Paige said.

“Yeah. I should have left Chicago a long time ago. There was a woman named Dana…”

Her mouth drooped sadly. “She died?”

“No. She met someone else.” And he’d thought he’d never live through it.

She sighed. “Been there, done that. And?”

“And nothing. Dana was happy with this other guy. She never knew how I felt, and she never felt the same. I walked away. Just not far enough. Our families are all… connected. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. I had to see her all the time.”

“I know that name,” Paige said. “Dana was in the wedding, too. I saw her picture.”

“She was Mia’s matron of honor. I was glad I didn’t know Mia’s fiancé well enough to be asked to be the best man.”

“That would have sucked.”

Paige had a way with understatement. “True,” he said. “I’d been looking for a way out of Chicago for a while, but my job was there. My family. Evie gave me the shove I needed to make the move.” She’d dared him to stop hiding from the world, to stop watching other people be happy. And she’d been right.

“So after two years, you moved here. Why didn’t you call Liv for seven months?”

“Because Olivia was digging bodies out of that psycho’s lime pit, informing all those families. Evie would tell me how withdrawn Olivia was becoming, so I watched her for a few weeks. I wanted to see if she looked better, less stressed. I wanted to walk up to her front door and”-he drew a breath-“take up where we left off. But she looked worse as the weeks passed, and there was never a good time. Look, Evie told her I’d bought this place. I figured if she didn’t call, she didn’t want to take up where we’d left off. So I waited. I could be patient.”

“Seven months?” Paige shook her head. “Not even you’re that patient. I want the truth.”

He closed his eyes. He wasn’t certain he could handle the truth. “The truth is, I don’t remember much of that night.”

“Yeah, right. You remember everything you’ve ever seen or read. You have a photographic memory. How could you possibly not remember that night?”

“I had too much to drink at the reception. I never get drunk. Never.” A memory jabbed at him. He hadn’t gotten drunk since that night nearly twenty years ago. A night that ruined so many lives. A night for which he’d done penance ever since, but all the good deeds in the world would never bring the dead back to life. “I don’t know why Olivia ran. I don’t know what I did.”

“Can I give you some advice?” she said softly.

He opened his eyes, found hers warm again. “Why not?”

“Olivia can take whatever demons you’ve got burning you from the inside out. Tell her the truth. Let her decide if you can take up where you left off. David, you can’t take care of everyone. By trying to protect her, you did the exact opposite. You hurt her.”

“I never meant to. She said she’d talk to me.”

“Good. Don’t fuck it up again.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Good luck, David. Trust yourself.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. It’s too important.”

“You have to. I’ll see you tomorrow at the dojo. And don’t worry.” She made a locking motion across her lips. “I won’t tell. Gotta get back. My lunch break is over.”

Monday, September 20, 12:15 p.m.

You are batshit crazy,” Albert said, backing away, palms out. “No fucking way.”

Mary sat on the grass in front of the library, her eyes red-rimmed. “Eric, Joel’s dead. How can you even suggest such a thing, now of all times?”

Joel’s death had actually given him the argument he needed to convince the others to help him torch the texter’s target. Just this one, he thought. Tomorrow, we run.