Free Dark Waters (2013) by Toni Anderson Page A

tongue without conscious thought. She struggled to form the words to tell Ed about Davis’s death, but they dissolved, unspoken. A cold wave of something that felt a lot like grief washed over her and pinned her in place with the weight of iron. Her lips refused to move.
    She just needed time to process the information,
then
she’d tell Ed. First, she needed to call Anna back, to see if she was OK.
    His lips firmed.
    “Fine.” With shaking hands, Katherine deleted the message and turned off the phone. “I won’t call him. See?” She went to stow the cell in the side of her suitcase, but Ed shook his head and held out his hand.
    “Hand it over. We’re on a technology-free vacation.”
    She wanted to roll her eyes, but felt a familiar sense of numbness closing in around her. There were pay phones on the ship, she’d call Anna later. “Fine. But if that grass is d-dead”—she tripped over the word—“I’m ordering new turf when we get back.”
    Ed tucked the phone into his satchel and shook his head. “Who would have thought when I married you that you’d turn into a gardening fiend?” He slipped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her brow.
    She leaned against him and waited for his presence to calm her. But it didn’t. Instead there was an unexpected pain that she could never reveal to the man who’d saved her when the man she’d lovedhad ripped her existence to shreds. Being dead didn’t change the betrayal or the grief, but it sank the knife that little bit deeper.

    Tired of her confinement, Anna broke out some cash and decided to hit the convenience store. Chocolate might not cure all that ailed her, but at least it would give her a temporary high that wasn’t dangerous or illegal.
    The reality that her father was dead was beginning to sink in. She would never get the chance to repair their relationship. Never get the chance to kiss him good-bye and tell him she loved him—that she’d always loved him.
    There was a pain in her chest, just under her heart. It ached.
    The sky was clear blue and the trees a dense impenetrable green as she followed the gravel road back the way she’d come last night. The air was sweet with grass pollen, bushes dripping with ripening huckleberries and thimbleberries.
    Could she really be in danger in a place like this?
    The idea seemed surreal. Staying with an ex-con was surreal. She tried not to think about the fact she was being forced to rely on a man about as trustworthy as her father.
    Brent was not the man she’d expected to find, and yet he was exactly the kind of person she needed to help her through this mess. And her father had trusted him. That bond had gone deep.
    She walked past the Coast Guard station and turned right along the boardwalk to the store to buy a cold drink. Two men sat on a bench outside the store, watching her curiously. Another guy in crisp black pants and a pale blue uniform shirt stared at her with eyes the color of coal. His face was handsome but harsh. She avoided his gaze and picked up a basket from near the door. The men’s interest unnerved her and she felt the back of her neck itch as if they were talking about her.
    She loaded up with chips, chocolate, and cookies. Decided she needed to at least pretend to be an adult and grabbed bread,cheese, and tea bags. Then she pulled a couple of steaks out of the freezer, picked out two large potatoes, and a bunch of sad-looking broccoli. The idea of preparing a meal appealed to her innate need for control. Brent didn’t want her here and she didn’t want to be here, but at least she could show some basic appreciation for him not throwing her out on her ear. And not raping and murdering her in her bed last night.
    She gritted her teeth.
    She was sick of being wary of men, of living with the weight of the past strapped around her neck like a giant anvil. All these years later and she was still trying to shake it loose. What would it take to finally move on? To be free of the