17 – Father Issues

Reed drove around in circles, mad as hell, trying to cool herself off just a little before she went home, plus a paranoia had struck her when she’d left the hotel. The guy was a cop right? If he wanted to find her, she’d be found easily, and that, right there, was reason enough for rule number 24. Never date anyone who is trained to track people down for a living. It had to mess with their heads. It was messing with hers, as she kept looking behind her for him. He’d already found her once. The worst part was he still seemed to want to find her.

Reed turned on the radio while she drove nowhere, and then the air conditioner, as the late summer day began to heat up. Physically, she felt good. She’d slept long and deeply for the first time in ages, and she’d even gotten her first detailed look at her recurring nightmare, the one she’d had since she was a little girl. If only she wasn’t so mad.

Reed pulled into a Starbucks and bought herself an iced latte with the quarters from last night’s tips, knowing she couldn’t spare them, but needing the sugar. She backed into a parking stall in a far corner of the lot where she could observe all the cars driving in and out. The branches of a tree shaded her enough that she could roll down the windows and turn the car off and just… think.

Reed plucked at the shirt she was wearing, eyeing the canoes. She grabbed the shirt with one hand and brought the fabric up to her nose, sniffing lightly. Yummmm. Not able to help herself, Reed took a really big breath in her nose. Clean man scent, mixed with fresh, warm outdoors, like grass heating in the sun, accentuated by a hint of spicy cologne. How could anyone smell so good?

His smell filled her mind with delicious images of remembered pleasures. All the best parts of the night before replayed in front of her, the things he had done to her that had made her moan… wantonly was the only word to describe it. With want. Full of want for that man, and she still wanted him, even after he’d proved himself… inconsiderate, thoughtless, and impulsive at best. She pulled her seat lever and lowered the seat back, closing her eyes, and thinking about everything he’d done to her, reliving the roughness of it, how sure he’d been that he could please her, how insistent he’d been on pleasing her, how pleased he’d been every time he had.

Reed’s body responded, going soft and flushing with heat. Shit!

Reed sat straight up and returned her seat to upright. No thinking about him. Got it. It was too tempting to drive straight back to that hotel, hoping he was still there, which would totally ruin her never-see-him-again plan.

Her shoulder! She pushed the shirt back so she could see where he had bitten her in the rear-view mirror, unable to believe that it was healed, already. She cranked her own neck to see the spot, trying to figure out what it looked like. Nothing really. Maybe a mushroom. It didn’t look like teeth marks. The thought of the bite made her angry and horny all at the same time. She had liked it, there was no doubt about it, but she wouldn’t be agonizing over it right now if she’d known it was coming! But then it wouldn’t have happened if she’d known it was coming because she never would have let a man bite her.

But oh, it had felt good. She slumped in her seat, remembering it, how she’d felt like she was flying, how he’d pawed at her back and bitten her on the neck and the whole thing had been the most erotic act she’d ever been a part of.

She wrestled with the mirror again, trying to see the mark on her shoulder. It almost looked like a birthmark, like what Troy had had on his shoulder in the same spot, instead of the scab it should be. Ok, that was freaky.

The mark made her think of wolves, which made her think of her dream.

Reed gave up trying to see her shoulder. She slumped again and tried to remember every detail of the dream.

The necklace with the wolf on one side and the angel on the other. What did it mean? And why did she hold it up? And why did the cop change to a wolf? She’d been scared to go in a forest since she was young, and this dream had to hold the secret as to why. Reed traced the angel on the center console with her finger while she tried to puzzle it out.

The confusing part was that the incident the dream portrayed had actually happened. She’d been four, and her father, who was a useless waste of space, according to her mother, a one-night-stand-gone-wrong, had chased her into the forest. Reed winced thinking about what she had just done the night before. If she got pregnant she would be reliving her mother’s life exactly.

Wait. Reed thought hard about the man she’d seen in her dream, the one who had turned into a wolf. He’d said, “You look just like your father.”

Her phone buzzed in her purse. It was a worried text from Sage.

OMG! What happened last night? If you don’t answer me in ten minutes, I’m calling the cops, and you know I know a lot of them!

Reed scrolled up and saw Sage had texted her a dozen times, and she’d even gone to Reed’s house to check on her, but Reed had been too busy being bent over a cheap motel bed to remember her friend might worry about her.

She read each message, starting just after she’d run out the night before, some only a few minutes apart, some hours apart.

Did you just quit??!?!? Linda said quit, then she said fired.

What the hell is going on? Are you ok? Where are you?

I’m worried about you???

I get off in an hour, I’m coming to your house.

I’m here, you’re not.

Checking in

Checking in

Then the last one she’d just received.

Reed typed back to her.

I’m good. Sorry.

She hovered her finger over the send button, knowing that didn’t answer any of Sage’s questions, but it was all she could say. She pressed send and got an immediate reply.

Holy shit! You scared me so bad! Please tell me you fucked Tom Selleck. That’s the only thing that will make me forgive you.

Reed stared at the message for a long time, snickering a little, not sure how to answer.

She thought about it for a long time, then replied.

I did.

100% forgiven. I take back every bad thing I ever said about you. You’re not uptight at all.

Reed shook her head. When did you ever call me uptight?

Back when I didn’t know you. Not the day before yesterday. Forget that. How was it? Tell me everything. What size peen is he working with? Did you go to his place?

Reed had to laugh, but she didn’t answer one question. Instead, she typed back three words: He bit me.

The 3 little dots appeared then disappeared so many times Reed thought maybe Sage was broken, but then the message came through.

Bit you? Like for real bit you? Kinky. On the shoulder?

Her phone rang. Her mother.

Gotta go, Sage. Later.

She put Sage on mute until she could get back to her and answered the phone. “Hi, Mom.”

“Reed Ann, it’s been nine days since we last spoke.”

“I know, Mom, sorry. Hey, I’m glad you called me. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What dear?”

“Remember when I was four, and uh, I got… lost in the forest?

Her mom’s voice went careful. “Yes.”

“You told me it was my father who chased me in there.”

Her mom’s tone was icy. “I did.”

“Mom, did you tell me the truth?”

Her mother stammered, then sighed, then did something she’d never done to Reed before. The line went dead. Her mom had hung up on her.

Reed continued to hold the phone up to her ear, her stomach in knots, trying to figure out what that meant. She’d never seen a picture of her father, never met him except for that one time he chased her in the forest. She’d been missing until after dark, half the day, before her mother had called the police. She didn’t know any of the rest of the details, her mother had never been willing to talk about them, and she’d never remembered them. But she couldn’t trust the dream, it could not be what actually happened. Men did not turn into wolves. Trees did not move.

Reed left the coffee shop and headed home, her thoughts on overdrive, to the point that they blinded her to her turn and she missed it. She cursed lightly, deciding to turn around at the next chance and double back. The road took her past the piece of the forest that separated her subdivision with the next subdivision, the forest that would catch her eye if she made the mistake of looking at it too long. She turned left at the next street, marking the mix of businesses and residences on the street, pulling into a driveway to turn around. She did a K turn, then stopped and stared at the white-paneled, two-story house for a long time. There were cats everywhere, lounging on the porch steps, under the porch, in the bushes, even looking out the upstairs windows.

It made her think of Wiz, and wonder for a moment if he wasn’t a stray at all. Her house was only a mile that way, through the forest, which was nothing for a cat. Thinking of him put a smile on her face, and muted the craziness of her life a little. Sometimes she thought that cat was the only thing keeping her sane.

She searched the faces of the cats for that one male calico that had singled her out, but didn’t see him. She ignored the ache in her gut and put the car in gear to head for home, her mind still trying to puzzle over everything that had happened to her.

Reed pulled into her own parking stall, glad to be home, planning to go lick her wounds until her new job started the next day. On her way to the private entrance to her apartment, the male calico cat she’d been searching for came around the back of the house, meowing pathetically.

“Shh,” she shushed the cat, so glad to see him, but eyeing the curtains of her landlord’s apartment. “Go around the back,” she whispered, pushing it away from the door with her foot.

When she got inside, the note waiting for her from her landlord made her regret ever feeding the cat.

It said, One more blatant violation of the rental contract and you’re out! This is your last warning.

Was she still going to feed the cat?

Maybe.