WATCH OVER ME (Part One): By Lori Titus
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010“William.”
Fiona said his name softly. He waited a beat before he looked up from his desk. It had taken her until evening to show up at his office.
“I see you’re home,” he said.
“I wish I was going to be home longer. I have to leave.”
“Marradith mentioned it to me,” Will replied. “You’re going to New York with her and Daria. To look for Rafael.”
“I wish I could stay with you,” Fiona said.
“I knew you’d have to go.”
“I’m sorry about what happened with Syd.”
“You mean about him turning me Wolf? Maybe that was just going to happen anyway. Fi. I went after Syd. My choice.”
He stood, holding his arms out to her. “Come here.”
They embraced. With his face pressed against her cheek, he whispered in her ear. “You do whatever you have to right now. Things will work themselves out. Just get back safe.”
“I hope to,” she said. A tear fell down her cheek.
“Ah, come on, none of that.” He cupped her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Cause you know I’m a sucker for it and you have a plane to catch.”
She laughed. “I don’t like being….”
“Emotional? Yeah, I noticed,” he said. “Not like I’m going to tell anybody .”
He kissed her, and she stood for a moment, with her hand against his chest. “I know there’s no promises but… you will at least be here when I get back? Or let me know where you’re going to be?”
“Today, I’m not going anywhere. Tommorrow could be different.”
She turned to leave, glancing at him over her shoulder as she walked out the door.
********
“I’m leaving town for the weekend,” Shannon said.
Ryan looked up at her in disbelief. He got up from the couch and followed her into the kitchen.
“Again? Where are you going?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, turning her back on him.
“It does. Shannon. Look at me. What’s going on with you?”
“Why do you keep pushing me on this? I told you it’s work. Why isn’t that enough ?”
“I talked to your boss. He said you put in for a leave of absence weeks ago. You told me you have been off the air on special assignment for the last three weeks, and I find out that’s bullshit. What do you expect me to think?”
Standing with her back against the sink, she threw her hands up. “You went behind my back! You have no right to go snooping into my personal business.”
“Personal? Since when don’t I have the right to be personal with you?”
“What’s next? You’re going to accuse me of fucking somebody else?”
His eyes narrowed. “You wish I would, don’t you? It would make it easy for you then, to get me to go away. I know you. If you had somebody else, you’d tell me to get out of your house. It’s not that.” He moved closer. “Tell me the truth.”
She pushed him away and went to sit down on the couch. Ryan followed her. He could sense that she was very near the breaking point. If he couldn’t get her to tell him the truth tonight, it was going to be over.
“I’ve been trying to keep you out of this,” Shannon said. “I don’t even know if you’ll believe half of it. I’m warning you. It’s nothing that you want to be involved in.”
“If you’re in it, I’m already involved,” he replied.
Shannon took in a deep breath.
“Listen, it does have to do with Marradith Ryder and her family. Or some of it. It has more to do with the man she married. Justin Granthem.”
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©2010 Lori Titus
Lori Titus is the author of Green Water Lullaby, a collection of horror fiction available through Sonar 4 Publications. Her novella, Lazarus, will be released this Fall through The Library of the Living Dead. For more information about the author and her love of all things scary, read her blog: http://loribeth215.wordpress.com/
