Rundown (Curveball Book 2) (35 page)

Closing
my eyes, I shake my head at how ridiculous my behavior was. 
Drew’s my rock…my world.

I
should really go back in there
.

My
eyes flutter open and the bed dips. 
Did I fall asleep?
 
Drew pulls a few damp strands of hair that are stuck to my cheek and
neck to the side and nuzzles into my nape.  He wraps himself
around me, warming me instantly.  I turn into him, bringing our
noses together, and I feel completely content.  I just want to
stay here and snuggle but we seriously need to talk. 

“
I’m
so sorry,” I begin.

“
Me
too,” he sighs.  “I shouldn’t have taken your ring or
jumped to conclusions without talking to you.  It was stupid.”

“
Keeping
you in the dark wasn’t any better.”

“
I
didn’t really give you a chance to explain.  And seeing how
there’s something I’ve kept from you, I had no right to react
like that.”

“
True,
but it didn’t really warrant my crazy outburst.”

Drew
chuckles.  “Your brand of crazy is hot…I like the tattoo.”

I
lean back and glance down at Drew’s chest.  “You should make
it permanent,” I joke.

“
I
was thinking the same thing.”

When
my laughter subsides, I scoot back marginally so I can look Drew in
the eyes.  “Let’s talk.”

“
Can
I go first?” Drew asks.

I
bite my lip and nod, nervous about what he’s been hiding. 
Drew rolls out of bed and picks his wallet up from the dresser. 
He takes out a folded up piece of paper, which I assume is the note
he found in the barn.

“
I’ve
struggled with not showing you this,” he says, making his way back
to the bed.  “When you read the last part you might understand
why I kept it to myself.”

My
forehead scrunches, anxious to see what he’s talking about.  I
take the piece of paper and begin reading.

“
Why’d
she leave a poem?” I ask.

“
That
was her thing.  It’s not so much of a poem as it is a riddle.”

“
What’s
1-4-3?”

“
Her
code for ‘I love you’.”  

Smiling,
I caress his cheek.  I really wish I’d gotten to see Drew and
Alexis’s relationship firsthand.  Knowing how protective and
loving he was of his sister makes it hard to imagine he ever treated
women as playthings.  

I
close my eyes and let the words marinate.  “The line ‘dangling
in front of you’ must be referring to my necklace,” I state and
Drew agrees.  “To keep it out of harms way, you’d store it
in the jewelry box, right?”

“
Maybe.
 It made me think of the safe at her house which was taken.”

My
mouth twists, contemplating.  “What does the rest mean to
you?” I ask.  Clearly there’s negative connotation to him or
he would have shown this to me months ago.

“
Not
much.  That’s part of the problem.  The only clock she’s
given me was the compass watch I used to wear.  I shattered the
glass on it when I was hammered the night I thought I lost you for
good,” Drew recalls.  “The watch was the last Christmas gift
I ever got from Alexis.  I’d never have broken it had I been
sober, and she’d have known that I’d cherish it…the reference
must be about something else.”

“
Unless
she was giving you permission to break it,” I suggest.  

“
Hmm,
I’m not sure.”

“
Or
what if there’s something else at the barn?  Like near a
broken window?”

“
Maybe.
 I guess it could be anything.  I can’t go back to New
York until after spring training, but it’s worth looking into,”
he says.

“
Like
you said, it could be anything…I’m making things up.”

“
Good
strategy,” he muses.

“
What
upset you about the last part?”

“
It
reads like a premonition to me…‘when the tides have changed’.
 Mark showing up certainly would be a good reason for you to say
goodbye.  I didn’t know he was going to return when I found
the letter, but I sensed that something was coming.”

“
And
you thought you’d have to let me go?”  

“
There’s
nothing else I’d care about saying goodbye to.”

Mulling
this over, his behavior makes sense.  Even so, I’m not
convinced of his interpretation.   

“
She
couldn’t have known we’d get together, Drew.  When I spoke
to Cassandra at the gala the other night, she told me Vivian
suggested I take her seat on Innovation Airways.  I’ll tell
you more about that in a minute, but I don’t think me being on the
plane was pre-meditated.  At least not far enough in advance for
your sister to have known.”  

I
look at the letter again.  “I wish there was a date on this,”
I say.  

“
Me
too.  I don’t remember her going home after last Christmas.”

“
Do
you think she knew then?”

“
No.
 We shared everything…besides if she wrote this months before
her death, why would she have kept it to herself?”   

“
I’m
not sure.” I read the last few lines again.  “For what it’s
worth, I think her reference to saying goodbye could just as easily
apply to a possession…like the watch, or her house.  If she
had a safe, there could have been something important in there.”

“
You’re
right.”  He cups my chin with his hand and strokes my lower
lip with his thumb thoughtfully.  “No more secrets.”

“
No
more secrets,” I agree.

I
hand the letter back to Drew and watch him fold it and put it back in
his wallet.

“
I
don’t want to disappoint her.  She wanted me to find this
letter and get to the bottom of this for a reason.  It’s
frustrating.”

“
Hey,”
I say, offering him my hand.   “We’ll figure it out.”

“
That’s
the goal,” he half-heartedly agrees.  “Look, I want to keep
this between us until we figure it out, ok?”

“
You
got it,” I reply, knowing how important this is to him.

He
inhales and puffs out his cheeks as he slowly exhales.  “You
know…being forced to leave you alone with Mark…I felt helpless.
 It brought me back to the basement of the safe house.  You
could have been in danger and there wasn’t a damn thing I could
have done about it.”

“
He
wouldn’t hurt me, Drew.”

“
Hasn’t
he already?” he challenges, and I know he’s referring to the
emotional toll Mark’s supposed death had taken on me.

“
I’m
sorry you felt that way.  It was overwhelming.  I didn’t
think about how it must have felt for you.  I’m sorry.”

Taking
a deep breath, I pull Drew all the way back into bed and begin
telling him about everything that happened after he was taken from
the kitchen last night.  From Mark being in the CIA and faking
his own death because of the group responsible for the plane going
down, to the house being bugged, and Vivian being a threat. 
He’s not surprised about the link between Mark and Innovation
Airways, though we can’t figure out how Alexis is linked to all of
this.  We agree that Vivian is probably what Alexis was trying
to warn me about with the necklace. The woman I once considered a
close friend wants something I have according to Mark and I have no
idea what
it
is.

Silence
stretches long after I’m finished.  He’s processing…I
think. 

“
You’re
awfully quiet,” I say.  Lying on my side, I prop my head up on
my hand. “What are you thinking about?”

“
At
the event I kept trying to figure out how I knew Vivian and why I
felt off about it; it wasn’t just that I’d met her before, it was
something about her necklace.”

“
The
one that said ‘VIV’?”

Drew
nods.  “I’ve seen that exact design before, but at the time
I thought they were Roman numerals.”

“
515,”
I whisper, recalling the numbers Drew’s been chanting in his
sleep. 

“
Yeah,
515.”  

“
Most
of her jewelry bares her nickname, though now that I think of it, no
one really calls her Viv.  At least not that I’ve ever heard.”

“
What
if it’s not a nickname?  Maybe it’s code for something.”

“
Like
what?”

“
I’m
not sure exactly, but I’m positive it has to do with what happened
at Alexis’s house.”

Our
conversation is interrupted by the ringing of my phone.  I check
the number and quickly send the call to voicemail, despite having no
room left for new messages. 

“
Who
was that?” Drew asks.

“
Reporters
I think.  Ever since your trip to California, I’ve been
getting calls from random people.”

“
I’ll
talk to Brett about it tonight,” he reassures me.  “Speaking
of tonight, we’re supposed to talk with Mark later.  I thought
I had the rest of the day to lounge with you but Brett called and the
Sox management is pulling the team together.  With spring
training coming up my schedule’s going to get more hectic.  I
can’t get out of this.”

“
I’m
not going anywhere without you.  Will you ask Everett to let
them know it’s not happening today.”

“
Yes,”
he smiles.  “Right after our nap.  I need to hold you.”

“
Sounds
perfect,” I reply, resting my head on his chest.  “But only
if I get my ring back.”

I
expect him to get out of bed and retrieve it.  Instead, he picks
up my hand and slides it back into place. 

After
gushing to my family about Drew’s proposal and showing off my ring,
I’m surprisingly in a much better place.  Everyone was
ecstatic about the news, Colin in particular who apparently went with
Drew after the charity event a few weeks back to pick up my ring. 
Between that and getting my father’s blessing ahead of time, I’m
not sure Drew could have done anything better.  

Hours
later, Drew’s at his team meeting, the kids are asleep and Sarah’s
gone for a few days seeing her youngest son.  Besides Corinne
who’s in the other room, I’m basically alone.  Wandering to
what used to be Mark’s office, I stand in the doorway and reflect
on how Mark’s obsession with American history and our country in
general now makes sense.  It always seemed over the top, but
then again you’d only literally give up your life for something you
truly believed in, which is more than I can say for how he felt about
our family.