Downfall by S.D. Wasley

  ****

  “Okay. Are you going to tell me where you’re going every night? Or will I have to tickle it out of you?” Albion held up his hands in a tickle-assault pose.

  “Practicing my―”

  “Your night driving? Uh-huh. I stopped believing that after the fourth time, Frankie.” He eyed me. “You’re seeing someone.”

  My cheeks heated up. “I’m not.”

  “You are. It’s Jude McBride, isn’t it?”

  My first instinct was to deny ... but maybe it would be easier to let Albion think that. I hesitated.

  “I see the guilt,” he informed me. “News is already around town, you know.”

  My mouth fell open. “What?”

  “It’s gone viral. Which, in Augur’s Well, means that she told him and he told her and now a bunch of, say, twenty people consider you guys an item.” Albion peered at me. “But no one quite understands the secrecy.”

  “Does Jude know about these rumors?” He shrugged and I narrowed my eyes. “Albion. Did you spread the rumors?”

  He looked amused. “I didn’t need to. And Olivia Ranford hates your guts for it, by the way.”

  “Jeez. I’m not dating Jude!”

  If Albion knew how much I was thinking about someone completely not Jude he wouldn’t give the rumor another thought. My thoughts drifted to Cain ... to the night after his disappearing act. When I got there they were all sitting around, apparently deep in conversation. Liz had a notebook open in her lap. But they greeted me with smiles, Liz packing her book away as though I were more important than her studies. I waited to see if Cain would go out again, but he stayed. There was beer and storytelling and a few rounds of cards. It was all so normal I started to wonder why I’d got so worked up the night before. I rebuked myself. Wasn’t Cain allowed to go out and meet a friend? It was nosy and controlling of me to need to know where he went and who he was seeing.

  He sure wasn’t as interested in me as I was in him. He only spoke to me on rare occasions. The first time I met him still held the record for our most in-depth conversation. Cain wasn’t the chatty type and I became tongue-tied around him. Instead of trying to talk to him I sat and played games with the other three. But he was the reason I kept going back. I lived each day in anticipation, counting down the hours until I could see his frighteningly beautiful face again.

  “You’re staying home tonight, yeah?” Albion asked. I snapped back to the present. “It’s Uncle Max’s family pasta night.” He put on a sing-song Italian accent.

  “Uh ...”

  “Frankie!” He was scandalized. “Seriously. Dad will have a big fat Italian heart attack if you don’t come.” I sat in silence. Could I make an appearance at the family thing and then somehow slip away unnoticed? “Nessa’s coming,” Albion added.

  I went to Uncle Max’s dinner of course. Vanessa talked to me a few times but I couldn’t chat normally. Every time I heard her voice I remembered how I should be exploring a new city and arranging our next hotel. I forced down some linguine and smiled vaguely when Vanessa suggested we join the local gym together. By eight o’clock I could finally say I’d done enough family time. The red wine had flowed so liberally, I was pretty sure I’d be able to sneak away without being missed. I messaged Albion to say I’d be back later and he replied with, Say hi to Jude for me! My lack of response wasn’t quite a lie.

  At Gaunt House, the night started much the same as usual: some quiet chit-chat; a game of Monopoly; beer and snacks. But then it happened again. Not long after I arrived, Cain disappeared into the cooler room with Liz as I moved my little dog around the game board. When they reappeared, Cain said he was going out for pizza and drinks. I mustered my courage and asked to tag along. To my mortification, Cain declined, saying he’d be quick and I should stay in the game. He was gone for forty minutes ... an hour ... an hour and twenty ... an hour and forty ... Over and over I asked where he could be but the other three just shrugged, elaborately nonchalant.

  “Could he have got in an accident?”

  “He’s fine, Frankie,” Jude assured me.

  “It doesn’t take two hours to get pizza!”

  “He’ll be back,” Owen said. “I’ll have Trafalgar Square, Liz.”

  I doubted myself. They were all so casual. Maybe there really was no secret. The Monopoly game was long finished when Cain finally returned around eleven―without pizza or drinks. He fobbed me off when I demanded to know where he’d been, and the others hid their smiles. What the heck? Was this some kind of initiation? Cain headed for the cooler room so I pursued him. I found him cracking open a sugary drink. He slammed it down in what must have been record time.

  “Where did you go?” I asked.

  He reached for a second soda. “Nowhere.”

  “Tell me.”

  He took a big gulp from the new can and went for the plastic crate where spare packets of chips and snacks were kept. There was just one small bag of nuts left. He tore into it and finished it in one go. I stared. He made as if to head back to the main chamber.

  “Hey,” I snapped.

  Cain stopped and looked at me, a strange darkness coming into his eyes.

  “Where ...?” I started

  He stepped in close to me, just inches away, looking intently down into my face. My first instinct was to back away but I held my ground, knees shaking.

  “Francesca,” he said in a voice so soft I didn’t know whether it was tender or menacing. “Stop asking questions.”

  Then he was gone. I let out a breath and was obliged to spend a couple of minutes regaining my presence of mind before I went back out to join the group.