Free Fate Succumbs by Tammy Blackwell Page A

sounds in the whole world. “I’m sure it would. But
she needs to believe me on this one. I know what I’m talking about,
and she should trust him, one hundred percent.”
    I shook my head in denial, but Talley said,
“I’ll tell her.”
    There was some commotion in the background,
an IV pole beeping and a female voice.
    “ I’ve got to go, but
thanks, Tal. Thanks for calling me.”
    “ Get some rest,
Charlie.”
    “ I love you.”
    Her hand reached out and grabbed mine. “Love
you, too.”
    Then the connection was cut, and I burst
into tears.

Chapter 9

     
    “ It’s not that bad,” Talley
said, her fingers trying to fluff out my natural hair in vain.
“It’s pixie-like.”
    “ Remember Thomas Bardwell?
That weird kid who was only around for the third and fourth
grade?”
    “ The guy who told us he had
to move to Timber because a dragon ate his other house?”
    “ Yeah.” He was also the kid
who got a piece of corn stuck up his nose and didn’t tell anyone
for three months. “I have his haircut.”
    Talley chuckled, throwing her arms around me
for the tenth time in thirty minutes. “I’ve missed you so much,”
she said for the twentieth time.
    “ I’ve missed you, too,” I
told the top of her shiny black hair. “It’s been
lonely.”
    We were sitting on the porch swing of an old
clapboard house watching the boys as they did something underneath
the hood of our car. The place belonged to Talley’s Aunt Della, her
mother’s non-Seeing sister, who was at a bluegrass festival in
Virginia. Talley assured us her father’s pack wouldn’t come around
due to some bad blood and hurt feelings, and Liam decided it was
remote enough for us to stay the night. The house was located in a
literal hole in the ground, accessible only by driving to the end
of the world and hanging a right onto a single-lane serpentine road
whose pavement had more cracks and chunks missing than could
possibly be considered safe. The driveway was all but hidden and
cut down at such an angle I may have left fingerprints in the
dashboard of the CRV Talley was driving. The house itself looked
like something out of a Depression era picture on the outside and a
ceramic doll museum on the inside.
    That’s right. Ceramic dolls. Hundreds of
them staring at you from every available surface.
    There was a reason Talley and I chose to sit
on the porch instead of inside on the couch.
    “ I really should do the
selfless thing and leave, but I can’t seem to make myself do it,” I
said. Even though the house was seriously isolated and Talley
assured me no one other than her trusted Aunt Della would ever know
we were there, I kept thinking about what would happen if someone
found Jase and Talley with me. I was a dangerous person to be
around.
    Talley patted my leg. “Stop worrying so
much. Liam wouldn’t have brought you to the meet-up point if he
thought there was any chance of danger. He’s had every contingency
planned out for this meeting since July.”
    My teeth ground together. “Of course he
has.”
    “ How is life with Liam?”
She asked cautiously. She was still cuddled against my chest, so
there is no way she missed my growl.
    “ Stubborn, self-important
ass.” I was taking what Charlie said into consideration, but
trusting Liam didn’t mean I had to like him.
    Talley jerked up, scandalized. “Scout! You
shouldn’t say that.”
    “ I’m just stating facts,
Tal. Honestly, this is the watered down,
if-you-can’t-say-something-nice-don’t-say-anything-at-all version.
Would you like to hear what I really think of him?”
    “ He’s not that
bad.”
    At that moment he was
telling Jase how to hold a wrench, and even more annoying than
that, Jase was letting Liam tell him how to hold a wrench.
    “ Oh, you’re right, Tal.
He’s a peach. Always so happy and warm to be near. And the way he’s
so open and honest, and how he never tries to boss anyone around. A
diamond in the rough, that one.”
    “ Shhh! Library