Unforgiven (Wanderers #3) (9 page)

“No Bobby. These are my friends and this is Ella, my
sister.”

His eyes widened in surprise and he took a step back.
“Ella,” he smiled, exposing his yellowing teeth. “You look just
like your mother.”

“Thank you,” I said, trying to remain polite which
was hard with the way he was staring at me. He started to creep me
out and when I met his eyes again they were different. They looked
almost purple. I blinked and they were back to gold.

“Come inside,” he said, quickly averting his eyes.
Something told me to be very leery of him. I waited for Dean to go
first.

The inside of his house was just as bad as the
outside. There were beer bottles and whiskey bottles all over the
floor and tables. The little furniture he had was either held
together by duct tape or covered in stains. The couch slash bed
looked like it might fall apart any minute. I was afraid to sit
down anywhere.

Bobby took a seat on the couch and picked up a pack
of cigarettes offering me one. I politely declined and carefully
took a seat on the duct tape covered chair. We all sat there
silently for a moment. Uncle Bobby’s eyes wandered around the room
at all my friends. He stopped at Josie and sniffed the air.
Although I didn’t know how he could smell anything over the stench
in this place. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of Josie. I
could tell he knew something was off about her. Josie shifted
uncomfortably in her seat and grabbed Billy’s hand. I kept my eyes
on him and I could swear I saw them change from gold to green,
blue, and then back to gold again. I sat back in my seat. I knew
those eyes. I had seen them before.

Noticing a slight tension in the air Dean spoke up.
“So Uncle Bobby, we need your help.”

“All business with this one. Relax, have a drink,” he
offered.

“We’re kinda in a rush,” I said, cringing as a
cockroach scurried across the floor. “We’re looking for someone.
Dean suggested we contact you since you’re a local and all.” I
couldn’t shake this feeling that I’ve seen him before. “When’s the
last time you’ve been to the states?” I asked, needing to know
where I knew him.

“Haven’t been outside of Ireland for years now,” he
said a little guarded. “Who is it you seek?” he asked quickly,
trying to divert me from my last question.

I had a feeling he was hiding something, but I
couldn’t get in his head. I didn’t want to waste too much time and
energy on him though. The longer I stayed the more creeped out I
got. I was hoping to get this over with as soon as possible. I took
Tristan’s picture from my back pocket and handed it to him. He
looked it over for a bit then handed it back. “Sorry, don’t
know’em.” I put the picture back in my pocket. “Sorry I couldn’t
help you out.”

“We were hoping you could also help us get in with
the locals. Most of them won’t talk to us because we’re not from
here. So we were thinking…” I trailed off looking at Dean.

“I can tell you now it’s the way you’re dressed. It
screams outsider,” Bobby said, getting up and walking into the
small kitchenette to grab another beer. I gave Josie a quick look
to check Bobby out. She looked at me confused and I just rolled my
eyes. I tried again, but he was already on his way back out. He
popped off the cap and took a seat. “I’ll help you. When do you
want to start?”

“Tonight,” I said, hoping to get this over with.
Despite him being a so called friend of the family I didn’t trust
him. Plus I thought better to get him while he was somewhat
sober.

“I got an idea of where we can start, but you ladies
are going to have to change. I think I may have something you girls
can wear,” he said, elbowing Dean and laughing before he got up
again. He came back out with a pile of clothes. “Here, my lady
friends left these behind. I don’t think they’ll need them
anymore.”

I saw a glint of malice in his eyes and I shivered.
“I don’t think that is necessary. I’m sure we can find something on
our own.”

“Trust me darling, you wanna take these. It’s the
best way you’ll fit in.”

I took the clothes hoping I’d have time to wash them
first.

We left shortly after that. I was starting to have a
weird feeling and no longer felt comfortable there. The several
times I tried to invade his mind he was blocking me. I didn’t know
if it was an automatic reaction that he was blocking his mind, but
it made me think he was hiding something and I got the feeling it
wasn’t something good.

“Hey Ella, you ever think maybe Tristan’s not here
anymore?” Josie asked, plopping down on the bed.

“Josie, I know you don’t want to believe he is alive
but I believe he is,” I said frustrated.

“That’s not what I mean. I mean maybe he’s not here
in Ireland. Everyone we’ve talked to says they’ve seen him, but not
lately. Maybe he left and went somewhere else.”

“That’s a possibility, but I’m not ready to give up
yet. I don’t know what it is, but something is telling me he’s
still here. I don’t know how I know, but I just do.”

She sat up and looked at me sincerely. “I believe you
Ella and I’ll be here with you until we find him.”

“Thanks Josie. I don’t know what I’d do without
you.”

“Well, you might have to learn soon. I have a feeling
they are going to be calling me back any time now to dull out my
punishment.”

“Then I guess I’m going to have to spend every minute
I can with you.” I smiled, hugging her tight.

Cameron came back into the room, phone in hand, and
laughing. Something I haven’t seen her do in a while. When she hung
up the phone I asked, “Any luck?” We had taken the clothes Bobby
had given us to the laundry service and asked if they could wash
them for us. I had no idea where they came from and I wasn’t going
to take any chances.

She placed the nicely folded pile of clothes on the
bed. “Well they were able to wash them, but I’m not going to tell
you how many dirty looks I got when they gave back the
clothes.”

“Was that Austin on the phone?” I asked.

“No. Dean,” she said guiltily. “I haven’t had the
courage to call him yet.”

I wanted to call her a hypocrite. She lectured me on
the plane up and down about calling Roman and telling him the
truth, but she has yet to call Austin and she wasn’t on a mission
to find a dead ex-lover. I found it very aggravating, but I
swallowed my pride and let it go. I knew it was easier to give
advice then take it, especially when it was your own advice you
should be taking. “You’ll think he’ll be mad?”

“At first, but I’m sure he’ll get over it,” she said,
forcing a smile, and trying to convince herself she was right.

“I think once he realizes you did it to help a friend
he’ll understand,” Josie said, digging through the pile of
clothes.

“Yeah,” she said warily.

“So what did Dean want?”

“Oh, he said he’d meet us here at eleven and take us
over.” Dean had decided to stay behind with Uncle Bobby. I didn’t
exactly think that was the wisest idea, but then there would be
less of his complaining I had to deal with so I didn’t argue.

“I guess we should get ready then.”

She knew Ella was secretly seething. She had lectured
her up and down about being honest with Roman and here she couldn’t
even be honest with herself. There was a reason she hadn’t called
and talked to Austin, but she couldn’t tell them that. Not now at
least. Ella had too many issues of her own to deal with. Her
problem with Austin was something she could handle on her own.
Nobody knew why she really decided to come along with them. Cameron
secretly needed to get away. On the outside she pretended
everything was okay, but on the inside she was having a hard time
keeping it together.

“Hey Cameron?” she looked back at Ella in the mirror
while she continued to brush her hair. “I just wanted to thank you
for all you’ve done. And thank you for staying even after my dad
busted us. You didn’t have to and I just wanted to let you know how
much I appreciate it. I can’t imagine it’s easy spending all that
time with Dean.”

“Eh, he’s not that bad,” she said.

“This is Dean McCallister we are talking about. The
same Dean who hit on my mom and tore the head off of my Baby
hug-a-lot,” Josie said, as she dug through her makeup case.

“Once you get to know him, he grows on you.” Ella
looked at her suspiciously. Cameron felt a slight dizzy wave and
knew Ella was trying to get into her head. She quickly blocked her.
She was about to narrow her eyes at Ella for her invasion of
privacy, but then she would have given her what she wanted. Ella
would know she was hiding something and would probably push her to
give it up. Instead, Cameron continued to brush her hair.

“Please, I know Dean and the only thing that grows on
you is his fungus.” Ella laughed at Josie’s comment and then hopped
in the shower, steaming up the mirror so badly she forced them to
finish getting ready outside of the bathroom.

Cameron reached in her bag to grab her deodorant when
her phone beeped. She walked over to the bed and opened up the text
message.

Leather is your color

She smiled and texted back.

Leather is not a color

She left it at that knowing they needed no further
exchange and continued to get ready. Ella had told her after her
father showed up and busted them, Cameron was free to go back to
school if she wanted to, but she didn’t want to return, not yet.
She didn’t care about getting in trouble for leaving in the middle
of the semester. There was no point in going back so soon. Cameron
wanted to enjoy her freedom while she could and she would deal with
the consequences when she got back. Despite the rough start they
had when they got there, she was beginning to actually enjoy
herself. For the first time in a while she felt free, unbound from
the chains that kept pulling her under.

“Hey, you okay?” Josie asked, coming into the
bathroom to share the now fog free mirror.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. You just seemed kind of off when we
were at your Uncle Bobby’s place.”

“Okay, he’s not really my Uncle and I did feel…weird
when we were there. I don’t know what it is but I have a strange
feeling about him and it’s not a good one.”

She pressed her palms on the counter and lifted
herself up to sit. “I know what you mean. I was totally getting a
creepy vibe.”

“It’s not just that. Something about him seems so
familiar. His eyes, I swear I have seen him before. Do you remember
the clerk from the costume shop back in Vermont?” She shook her
head no. “There was something about his eyes. I never said anything
at the time because I thought it was too weird. His eyes changed
color.”

“Huh?”

“They went from gold, to green, to blue and so on. At
the time I just chalked it up to a trick of the lights but after
meeting Bobby tonight…I swear his eyes did the same thing. They
were a kaleidoscope of colors.”

She looked at me wearily. “You sure maybe it’s not
just the stress of everything getting to you? You did ask him if
he’s been to the states lately and he said he hasn’t been in
years.”

“I know, but Josie, I just can’t get it out of my
head.”

“Why would he be there anyway?”

“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about him.
You need to keep your eyes open around this one. My gut tells me we
can’t trust him.”

“Hey, I believe you. If you say watch your back I’ll
watch my back. Don’t stress it, okay?”

“Yeah,” I said sighing.

“Well hurry up, cause you’re hogging up all the
mirror time,” she teased, jumping off the counter. “By the way, you
were taking too long, so Cameron and I already picked out our
outfits without you.” She walked out of the bathroom and came back
with what looked like a handkerchief. “This is what was left
over.”

I took the outfit from Josie. “We’ll be in the lobby
when you’re done,” she said, leaving me alone in the room to finish
getting ready. I looked down at the outfit in my hand. It was a
small, black leather, halter dress. I sighed and put it on. Then I
meet everyone else down in the lobby.

“Why do I always get stuck with the stuff that makes
it hard to breathe? There wasn’t anything less binding?” I whined.
Dean gawked at me. “Stop looking at me like that. This wasn’t my
choice.”

“Look, I am not happy about having my sister dressed
like a skank, but Bobby said you would stick out like a sore thumb
if you didn’t dress the part.”

“
I was hoping Cameron would have
picked the
black leather,”
Dean thought. I smacked him. “What was that
for?” he scowled.

“I heard what you were thinking,” I glared at him. He
just shrugged, but I could see a slight pink in his cheeks from
being caught. I walked away. I felt better when I saw the other
girl’s outfits. Theirs weren’t any less skanky. Josie was wearing a
red lace, strapless dress and Cameron had on a white midriff with a
suede brown skirt. Ready to move along I said, “Let’s just get this
over with.”

Dean told us that Bobby had warned him a head of time
this was a rough place. He said it would be best if we went in
separately acting like we didn’t know each other. He said he could
get more info that way without drawing suspicion. That was fine by
me. I needed to gather some information of my own and with Bobby
being distracted I would have a better chance to hopefully find out
what I need.

I started to get a nervous feeling on the way to the
pub. I couldn’t tell if it was just my nerves from wearing this
ridiculous outfit – that kept giving me a wedgie – or something
else entirely. I ignored it the best I could and put on a brave
face. Billy dropped Cameron and Dean off a block away from the bar
and then Josie and I a half a block so it seemed like we didn’t
come together. When I got out of the car, I pulled down my dress,
and the massive wedgie it gave me. “That’s attractive,” Josie
laughed.