Dark (Dangerous Web #2) - Aleatha Romig Page 0,1
back as he held me safe in his embrace. “You’re here and safe.”
“It’s so weird. It’s like I have dreams or memories and I don’t know which.”
“Tell me.”
“It’ll sound crazy,” I admitted.
“Your crazy hasn’t scared me away yet. I don’t think it will now”
“It’s probably nothing. I was talking with Araneae today, and for some reason the subject of my mother came up.”
Reid sat up, turning me back toward him. “Your mother?”
“Yeah, I know it’s stupid. I mean, I haven’t seen or heard from her—”
“What about your mother?”
“I was just telling Araneae why I’m hesitant to take pain pills.”
“In your dream?”
“No. In the dream, my mom is...well, she was with me.” My nose scrunched. “She’s old, older than her years. Very thin. I guess sex and drugs weren’t the best plan for a healthy life.”
Reid was staring at me. “Tell me more. Did she talk to you?”
“Reid, it wasn’t real. It’s all the drugs they gave me, playing tricks on me. Laurel said it could happen. I’ll talk more to her about it tomorrow.” I scoffed. “You know, I never realized how convenient it was to have a live-in shrink.”
“She’s not exactly...” He kissed my forehead. “Okay, but if something comes to you.”
I stared up at our ceiling, wondering how totally crazy it would sound to say the words aloud. I rolled toward my husband. “Do you promise not to laugh?”
“Laugh, no. Smile, maybe.”
“Don’t tell Mason. He’ll think I’m certifiable. And besides, the subject always upsets him.”
“Of your mother?” Reid asked.
“Well, yes, but mostly of Missy.”
“Your sister? What about Missy?”
“In my dream, my mother was talking, barely. Her voice was odd, like an old woman who had smoked too many cigarettes, and her laugh sounded closer to that of a witch. She was...I think she was dying.” I took a deep breath and tried to push the dream’s images away, those of the nearly skeletal woman with faded red hair that could be mine in time. “Anyway, in my dream, she spoke and said it was important for me to know that they forced her to tell.”
“Who forced her? To tell what?” Reid asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She said they know so I needed to know.”
Reid reached for my hand. “You’re shaking.”
“I-I...” I squeezed his hand and cuddled toward his warmth. “It’s so strange. The whole thing felt real, but I know it wasn’t.”
“What did she want you to know?”
“First, she apologized for all the mistakes she’d made.” I leaned away, still holding his hand and caught Reid’s gaze. “See, like Laurel said, my mind is on some crazy-ass drugs. The only thing Nancy Pierce was ever sorry about was having three kids to take care of.”
“Is that what she wanted you to know?”
“Not really.” I lay back, pulling our linked hands over me. “Here’s the really crazy part: she said she’d lied.”
“About?”
“If it were real, the list would be long. In my dream, she said Missy was never kidnapped.”
My husband’s body tensed beside me. “What?”
I nodded. “Yes, I told you...crazy.”
“What happened to your sister if she wasn’t kidnapped?” His voice deepened as he lifted his head to see me better. “Oh God, she didn’t...your mother didn’t...hurt her, did she?”
“No. She said he offered her money so she agreed to sell her.”
“What the fuck? Your mother sold your sister?”
“In my dream,” I reminded him. “And here’s the kicker. It wasn’t, like, to a sicko as we’d feared. My mom said she sold Missy to her biological father.”
Reid’s eyes opened wide.
I laid my head back on the pillow. “I told you, it’s nuts. Even Nancy wasn’t that big of a bitch to sell her own daughter.” I let out a long sigh and rolled toward my husband. “Thank you for listening. I feel better just saying it. Now, I hear how absurd it is. I mean, if that were true, that would mean that Mace’s and my sister wasn’t taken into the Sparrow or McFadden sex rings. She grew up with her biological father.” I shrugged. “Hell, Mace and I don’t know the identity of the men who donated sperm to make us much less the one who contributed to her DNA.” After a yawn, I scoffed and kissed Reid’s cheek. “Good night. I’m going to try to sleep.”
As slumber began to overtake me, I heard Reid mutter, “Well, fuck.”
Reid
Three days before the end of Dusk
My surroundings disappeared.
The remote landscape, drenching rain, or lightning and thunder no longer registered as I stared at the inconceivable sight of my unconscious wife