Strange and Sinister Path (A Dead Cold Mystery Book 6) by Blake Banner

Author:Blake Banner [Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-13T23:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

For a while, the only sound was the growl of the engine. I kept my eyes on the rearview mirror, waiting for the headlamps to appear, trying to think what I would do if they came after us. But all there was was blackness, and ahead, the hazy funnels of light, casting the blacktop into sharp relief, and making demons out of the tall pines that loomed over the road.

Pretty soon, we came to Lickskillet Road. I slowed, killed the lights, and crawled onto the dirt track, climbing slowly, bumping and grinding, until we came to the crossroads at Gold Hill. There I turned left and headed for Seven Hills at a steady twenty miles per hour. After five minutes, I put my headlamps on again and accelerated.

I glanced at Dehan. She had an idiot smile on her face that made me laugh. She said, “That was so cool.”

“What was?”

“You were like, a hero, defending my honor. Nobody has ever done that for me, Stone.” She giggled. “You are my hero.” She giggled again.

“Glad to hear it, kiddo.”

She turned her dopey smile on me. “Am I your princess?”

“Sure. You know it.”

“Like a fairy tale.”

“Yup.”

She heaved a huge sigh. “All I ever wanted.” I didn’t answer and we drove in silence. “Does that sound weird to you?”

“What?”

“All I ever wanted.” Before I could answer she said it again, exaggerating all the vowel sounds. “Aall Aye Ehvah Oo-On-tEd. Aall Aye Ehvah Oo-On-tEd. It’s so weird.”

She started giggling again. Soon, the giggles became helpless laughter, which eventually subsided into a blissful sigh. “Aall Aye Ehvah Oo-On-tEd… Have I let you down?”

“Not at all.”

“Coz that’s the last thing Aye Ehvah Oo-On-tEd.”

She subsided into helpless laughter again.

Ahead, the soft glow of Seven Hills appeared over the wooded slopes. I said quietly, “We’re almost there.”

She returned to her dopey smile. “Hmmm…that sounds nice. Almost there. There. There is that place where we all want to be. And that is where my hero is taking me. There. Almost there.”

I pulled into the lot and helped her out of the car. She embraced my right arm and rested her head on my shoulder as we climbed the steps to the reception. It dawned on me that Ned had not given us a second room yet. We had been out all day and he had obviously forgotten in the evening. There was no one on reception when we entered and, looking at the state she was in, it struck me it might be wise not to leave her alone.

We got to the room and I sat her on the bed to take her boots off, then helped her to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She was unsteady on her feet.

“How many puffs did you take, Dehan?”

“Three.”

“Is that all? How come you’re so stoned?”

She giggled. “Stoned. That’s your name. Three for every one that everybody else took.”

She made her way unsteadily back to the bed while I brushed my teeth. I could hear her voice through the open door.

“We’re friends, Stone.

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