Page 90 of Possess Me

“Go on. Tell me your story.”

“You say that as if everything I’m saying is a lie.”

“You haven’t been truthful with me.”

“Because you’re a stranger.”

There was something powerful about seeing the pain in her eyes yet hearing the determination in her voice. If what Mikhail had told me was really true, her father would be proud. “Not as much as when we first met. Let me make myself clear, Fallon. You are going to tell me the truth about your sister. As you might imagine, I find it incredibly coincidental that you took the place of a man who ended up dead.”

She gasped, another round of both hatred and disbelief torching her lovely eyes. “You’re lying to me.”

“No, I am not. Your friend was correct. He was in a club last night.”

“Why? How?”

“Either the friend you mentioned coerced him into asking you to do him a favor, or Jeffrey was paid. Now, we won’t know the truth.”

I noticed she was shaking but doing her best to keep herself together. “Oh, God. Oh… God. How did he die?”

“He was gunned down leaving the club. At this point, no one saw anything. Make no mistake, it was a hit. When I said you were in danger, I wasn’t lying to you. The best thing that can happen is for you to tell me everything you know about Megan and why you ran away from Chicago.”

“You’re a bastard.”

“I’m not trying to be, Fallon, but I also don’t like being used. I’m certain you can understand that.”

She briefly closed her eyes, the slight wrinkle in her brow a dead giveaway as to her frustration. When she began to talk, her voice was full of clipped anger, but it softened as the memories hit her as brutally as they’d done in my mind.

“Megan was several years older than me. She was the adventurous type. She was beautiful and as you said, perfect with anything she set her mind to. For a shy little girl like me, Megan was something special. Always laughing. Always happy. She was a free spirit, just like my mom was. I remember hearing Dad tease her that he’d need to fight the boys off with a stick. He was right. She was special and everyone around her knew it.”

Her faraway eyes were a dead giveaway she was remembering, not creating.

“Where were you living at the time?”

“Colorado. A little town that I loved so much. Both Megan and I were born there. She hated it except for the animals. Talk about being a horse whisperer. Megan had a way with animals that was unbelievable. I think that’s why I fell in love with them, but living on a ranch wasn’t good enough for her. She always had big dreams. Some nights when I couldn’t sleep, I’d crawl into herbed and she’d tell me about all the glorious places she wanted to go visit. One of her favorite cities was Las Vegas.”

Fuck. I needed a goddamn drink. I yanked the glass from where I’d placed it on the table, tossing back the entire contents.

She barely lifted her gaze, lost in the memory as I’d been so many damn times.

“We were so happy, at least it seemed like we were. Megan lived at home, but was going to community college there. We lived simply and didn’t have very much, but I certainly didn’t know. I was five, almost ready to turn six and I loved the outdoors. But everything changed.”

“What changed, Fallon?”

“My father had always warned us that there were bad people in the world. One day, I came home from kindergarten and my dad was in his study. I heard voices. Mom quickly whisked me away, grabbing Megan and we took a drive. We went to go get ice cream. I asked her what was wrong and she said just something Daddy was going through. Business. Megan and I knew whatever was going on had upset both our parents. Later that night, Megan told me that there’d been strange phone calls. She told me Dad was upset and whoever visited had made him very angry.”

“Any idea who the calls were from and who visited?’

“Not as a child. I asked my mom and of course she told me not to worry about it. Still, Daddy started talking about moving. That much I remember clearly because they argued, which they almost never did. Mom didn’t want to leave her home. Neither did I for that matter. Then out of the blue Megan wasn’t happy any longer. I asked her why and she refused to tell me. I remember seeing fear in her eyes.”

Fallon looked away, struggling with the memory. We both were. “Go on.”

She threw me a rebellious look before continuing. “She’d applied for and had been accepted to another college. Somewhere in California. I was surprised when Dad encouraged her to go. After that, we were going to move. It had all been decided. I think somewhere close to where Megan was going to attend college. But we never got a chance.”

“Why?”

She hung her head into her hands briefly. Tears had stained her face when she lifted her head once again. “Dad was in a horrible car accident. A drunk driver broadsided him. I was told he died instantly. I was so young I think I believed he would come back. After that, nothing was the same. I thought we’d stay since Daddy was buried in Colorado, but Mama insisted we leave and go home. I thought Colorado was our home. A couple weeks later we moved to Chicago.”

A car accident.