Page 9 of Now You See Him

Chapter

Seven

“ I can’t believe that you somehow got better at trivia the more you drank,” Derrick said from the driver’s seat. His grin was brilliant—a beacon in the dark October night.

“It’s a gift,” Tina replied. Her head was deliciously fuzzy from four beers.

She held her clutch in one hand and a coupon for a free beverage of choice in the other.

Her team won by a landslide. She tried to keep it cool, but her competitive streak came out, and thankfully, Derrick and his friends didn’t mind.

“I’d like to go again, I think. I don’t know how good I’ll be in the Presidents match next week, but it was fun. And I like Penny and Jackson.”

“They like you, too,” Derrick said.

Tina wondered if Derrick was in that they .

She wanted him to be. He was funny, and kind, and charming, and intelligent.

The way those traits manifested was ridiculously attractive to her.

If Tina were being honest with herself, it had been so long since she’d been in the company of a man that she liked.

Talking with him was so easy, so effortless.

Feeling so attracted to him was also a novel experience.

It was that warm, delicious hum along her skin, the fluttering in her belly that she missed.

She didn’t know the last time she’d experienced that kind of fluttering with Logan.

Which, she realized, said a lot about their relationship.

They slipped into silence as Derrick’s truck roared along the narrow, winding back roads in the dark. Fog snaked over the banks along the sides of the road, and tendrils whispered across the asphalt, bright and blinding in front of the headlights.

Tina knew that now that they were alone in the surprisingly clean leather interior of his massive truck, she should ask him her questions. She should grill him on last week, and if he had any dreams, and what really happened to his brother.

“You want to ask me something,” Derrick said.

The sound of his deep timbre startled her. “How did you know?”

He shrugged, and the movement looked restless. “You sounded off on your call? I know we don’t know each other, other than one brief in-person interaction, and tonight’s game of trivia, but I know you don’t have any family in the area, and I’d just like to…”

Tina snorted. She covered her mouth with her hand and tried to contain her laugh as best as she could, but she was all loose, and her verbal filter had eroded by the time she’d drunk the third beer.

He was trying to be so polite, and all she could do was obsess over whether or not she’d imagined the way he’d felt inside her.

That basement scene was…wow. He’d been so deep, and she’d been so full.

She just wanted to know if she was losing her mind or he was lying to her.

“What is it?” Derrick asked as he turned onto her street.

“Derrick, do you believe in ghosts?”

He went rigid. His knuckles were stark white on the steering wheel, visible despite the dim glow of the dash. “Why do you ask?”

“Never mind!” Tina said in a singsong voice.

A heavy weight eased off her shoulders just enough for her to temper her panic.

She wasn’t losing her mind. “I can see by your reaction that you do. And judging by your face and the woman at the deli, there are quite a few people who do. You’re supposed to disclose if a house is haunted, you know that, right?

Not that I would’ve believed you, but some heads up that your brother was there would’ve been nice. ”

“I don’t know what you?—”

“Cut the shit. Please.”

Her voice was way too harsh. Mean, even. Tina was still too buzzed to figure out the most diplomatic way to transition the conversation into territory where she could get the answers she needed instead of just yelling at him for making her think that it was all in her head.

Because it wasn’t. She knew deep in her bones now that it wasn’t. Otherwise he wouldn’t have reacted the way he did with her line of questioning.

The road curved, and her house came into view.

The colonial was flanked by lush trees painted with fall colors.

Pathway lights lined the walkway to the front porch, and the lights in the awning over the garage doors turned on as Derrick’s truck came to a stop in front of the left bay door. It was beautiful at night.

She wondered if she’d get some sleep or if her dreams would continue to haunt her.

Tina gripped the handle, and was about to step outside and share a quick thank-you over her shoulder before walking to the door, but Derrick rested a hand on her bicep.

She felt a current at the touch, as intense as the spark of static cling, despite her coat and layers of fabric underneath.

“Has he…” There was a long pause. “Damn it. Are you okay? I didn’t think you could. I thought…he’s my brother.”

“Your twin, you mean.”

Tina had looked over her shoulder in time to register his shock. The widening of his eyes, his jaw falling open. The pallor she could see in the dark.

“How did you know?”

He’d been the one to tell her, but he didn’t remember their first encounter. Tina looked up at her house, then back at him. “I’m going to invite you inside, but I really hope you won’t forget this time when I do.”

“Forget? Oh, your phone call.”

Tina nodded. “I could use some coffee. I’ll explain as I make us some.” She got out of the car, and then on impulse, unzipped her clutch, removed her phone, and motioned for Derrick to come stand at her side.

He moved cautiously but didn’t argue with her. When he was in position, she took a selfie of the two of them. “There,” she said, and tucked her phone in her clutch again. “Hopefully that won’t magically disappear. Otherwise I’ll really have to believe that you’re a hallucination.”

Derrick followed her up the walkway. “Maybe you should start at the top,” he said.

She let him into the house, kicked off her shoes, and walked down the hallway to the kitchen, assuming that Derrick would follow.

She flipped on the light, and watched it flicker for a second, before she crossed to the machine sitting on the counter.

Her fingers were trembling slightly, maybe from the alcohol, maybe from the memory of Derrick standing in her house again after a week.

“Huh,” Derrick said as he looked up at the flush mount lights. “Has that happened before? The lights flickering.”

“Yes,” Tina said. Her pulse began to race. She took down two mugs from the upper cabinet, set the first one under the spout, and pressed start. “How do you take your coffee?”

“Black,” he said. Derrick pulled out a stool and sat at the counter.

The lights flickered again.

“Do you want me to check that?”

“In a minute,” Tina said. She picked up the cup once the machine finished, and carefully slid it across the island countertop.

After starting the machine again for a second cup, she stood on her side of the island and gripped the lip of the white-and-gray marble slab.

“The basement door started opening on its own first. Then came the dreams.”

The cup was halfway to Derrick’s mouth. He lowered it back to the countertop. “What…what kind of dreams?”

“Sexual.”

Heat flooded his cheeks, and his pupils dilated. “What does that have to do?—”

“They weren’t about my…I just knew they weren’t about my fiancé. I’d wake up and feel sore. Swollen.”

“Tina, maybe?—”

“Logan went on his first business trip a few weeks ago,” she continued.

“The first one since we’ve moved here. I was looking forward to some alone time in my house.

That night, I walked into the kitchen and the basement door creaked open.

Then for the first time ever, the lights turned on. I decided to go down and investigate.”

He was no longer flushed. “Jesus, you went alone?”

“Stupid, I know,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve watched my fair share of horror movies since then to know that wasn’t the smartest move.”

He turned the cup on the counter before looking up at her. “What happened next?”

The overhead lights flickered again, this time more insistent.

Tina glanced up, then shook her head. She hoped Damien would chill until she was done talking to his brother.

“I, I don’t know, Derrick. I blacked out?

Hallucinated? I dreamed that I was in my bed, and something, some faceless someone, shoved my legs apart and fucked me. ”

The memory flooded back and Tina had to cross her ankles.

She was wet now. She felt the slickness in her cunt, the pooling of desire.

Derrick must’ve picked up on her attempt at discretion, because his expression grew intense, the color of his gray eyes became darker.

“Go on,” he said, his voice rougher, deeper than before.

“It was overwhelming. Because when I woke up in my bed, I was sore. I had bruises on my thighs. I couldn’t tell anyone, because then they’d think that I had a breakdown. So I kept it to myself. My fiancé came back, time passed and the dreams still happened.”

Derrick held up a hand to stop her. “Did Logan notice?”

“Notice what?”

“The bruises,” Derrick said. “When he fucked you. When he saw you naked, was he concerned that those bruises looked like another man had his hands on you?”

Tina took a deep, labored breath, but she couldn’t break eye contact. “We haven’t slept together in months.”

“Good.”

Her hands trembled and she tucked them behind her back. “Logan. He mentions that there isn’t any hot water when he showers in the morning. but I’m always able to get hot water.”

A line forms between Derrick’s brows. “That’s when you texted me and asked me to come out. To see the hinges on the door and the hot-water heater.”

“Right. And I got a call back from you saying that you could stop by in an hour.”

“I was at a job site, I couldn’t?—”