Chapel bend, p.20
Chapel Bend, page 20
It’s the absolute truth. I’ve never seen so much rage, so much hatred in someone’s face, and when I remember just how much of a disadvantage I’m at down here, I force myself to relax and adopt an unassuming posture.
“I don’t want to sell to you,” I say softly, almost apologetically, but it’s the honest truth.
“Well, then maybe spending some time in here with the…dead will give you some time to think about changing your mind. Otherwise, you’ll end up just like them.”
“Wait!”
Before I can reach him, he closes the door, and I hear him lock it from the outside.
“Open this door!” Banging with the side of my fist, full-on panic starts to settle in. I’m locked inside the body closet by myself.
I don’t even know if air can get in here.
“Please, open this door.” I hear the tears in my voice as I start to plead. “I’m pregnant. I can’t be in here. Please, open the door.”
But the lock doesn’t release, and there is only the echoing cadence of my heartbeat in my ears and hollow silence of the room.
He couldn’t have really left me locked down here.
My hands start to shake, and my breaths turn into gasps of air that aren’t enough to fill my lungs when I start to worry that he’s destroying all the work I’ve put into the living space. I picture him setting my chapel on fire and letting it burn down with me trapped beneath it.
“Oh my god, he’s going to burn me up in here.” Do I smell smoke, or is that my panicked imagination?
I pull my phone out of my pocket, but there’s no service down here. Probably because this room is lined with lead to keep out the moisture.
“Shit.” I lean back against the door and stare straight ahead in horror. Hundreds of names stare back at me. “This is my worst nightmare. This, right here.”
My breathing quickens, tripping from frantic to hyperventilation, and I can’t make it stop. My heart is beating so fast that I’m starting to get light-headed and dizzy, so I slide down the door, pull my legs to my chest, and drop my forehead to my knees.
“Oh, baby,” I whisper as the tears come. There’s a noise in the back corner that has my eyelids squeezing shut and the tears flowing faster. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, little baby.”
I swear that I can hear whispers—actual voices—and it scares me so much, that my body trembles uncontrollably.
If I cry hard enough, maybe it’ll drown out the scary sounds coming from inside this body closet.
Maybe someone will hear me.
“I didn’t even get to tell your daddy about you,” I whisper, regret for not telling Apollo swelling like a wave inside me.
What’s happening upstairs? Are we going to burn down here? I think I do smell smoke.
“No. No, we’re not going to die.”
I stand and start banging on the door again. I know that no one can hear me outside, but if someone comes into the chapel, into the mudroom, they might hear me.
There’s more whispering behind me, so I whirl around and yell, “Shut the fuck up! I’m sick of you scaring me down here. You can’t hurt me. I forbid it. So, just shut up, unless you plan on getting me out of here.”
The room falls silent, and I turn to the door once more, banging and screaming for help.
It doesn’t take long before my hands start to hurt, but I bang on the door for as long as I can stand it, but then I realize I’m just wasting energy. I need a plan, and screaming at a locked door is a terrible one.
“No one’s coming,” I whisper and rest my forehead on the door. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
May 1, 2023
* * *
Dear Diary,
Holy shit, I’m knocked up. Preggers. With child. What in the actual hell am I going to do? I haven’t talked to Apollo about it yet. Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve written in here, and I forgot to tell you that the man that drives me the most crazy in all of the world is the man that I’ve gone and fallen in love with, I can’t stop sleeping with him, and now I’m pregnant with his baby.
I don’t know if he’ll be exactly thrilled about this.
I’m scared that I’ll suck at motherhood, like my mom did. All babies deserve so much better than that. I’m confused, and scared, and probably hormonal. I’ll figure it out, I guess.
And I have to talk to Apollo.
Yikes.
XO,
June
Chapter Eighteen
Apollo
After my chat with my father yesterday, I decided to follow his advice and let June take her time to “work through her mad” and then come have it out with me so we can get on with things.
That lasted a whole fourteen hours before I decided that she’d had long enough. I woke up and decided that I was going to find her so we can talk. Sure, I’m frustrated with her, but even more than that, I fucking miss the hell out of her.
I know she’s been at Luna’s inn quite a lot lately, helping to get the place ready for the wedding next week after Christmas. So, that’s where I head first. When I get there, June’s truck isn’t there, but I cut the engine anyway.
“Damn it all to hell,” I mutter as I get out and head inside to talk to Luna, who I find in the kitchen with Sarah and Mira.
“You have excellent timing,” Mira says, pulling a pan of something that smells delicious and sweet out of the oven. “I have fresh cinnamon rolls.”
“You know I can’t pass that up, but first”—I turn to my sister—“I need to know where June is.”
Luna blinks at me, turns to Sarah, who’s suddenly grinning, and then back to me.
“She left about twenty minutes ago. She’s at the chapel.”
I sigh, nod, and turn back to Mira. “Do you mind boxing two of those up to go?”
“You betcha.” Mira winks and reaches for a box. “Is everything okay with our June?”
“I’m going to figure that out today.” Glancing back at my sister, I take a breath. “I’m in love with her.”
“I know.” Luna smiles brightly and then hurries over to hug me. “And I’m so happy for you.”
“Don’t be quite yet. She’s not speaking to me.”
“She will,” Sarah says with way more confidence than I feel. “Take her those rolls and have a chat with her. You’ll see.”
I narrow my eyes and look at both women with suspicion. “What do you know that I don’t?”
“Nothing.” Luna blows a raspberry and shakes her head.
“You’re doing that thing you do when you lie.”
“Whatever.” She shrugs, as tight-lipped as she’s always been when it comes to her friend. “Cinnamon rolls are her favorite. Go see her.”
I accept the box from Mira, who tugs on my sleeve, which is her silent demand that I bend down so she can kiss my cheek. She does, and before I can straighten, she whispers, “Don’t leave there until you have your answers.”
Then she pats my shoulder and goes back to work.
“Women are weird,” I mutter as I walk back out to my truck and head toward the chapel.
Sure enough, June’s truck is parked in front.
With the box of warm rolls in my hand, I walk up to the door and, finding it unlocked, let myself in.
“June?”
There’s no response to my call, so I walk farther inside and set the box on a stool by the kitchen island.
It looks great in here. Once the countertops are installed tomorrow and the last of the trim is nailed into place, the cleaning crew can come in and get it ready for June. Come hell or high water, my girl will be moved in before Christmas morning.
First, though, I have to find her and make sure she’s still my girl.
“June?” I call out again and poke my head into both bedrooms, the bathroom, and even the small office that June decided she wanted to add.
She’s not here.
“Where the hell did she go? Mudroom?” I check, but she’s not in there either. “Damn, this is a really nice room.”
Suddenly, I smell…roses.
It’s happened before while I was living at the lighthouse, and even once or twice while I was working at the inn, but I’d never smelled it in the chapel. Rose, the former owner of the lighthouse property, and my I-don’t-know-how many-times-great-grandmother, has always been around, but she’s never left the lighthouse.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I know that this is Rose.
“Okay, what are you telling me? Is something wrong?” The scent lightens, and when I walk back to the entrance to the kitchen, it’s gone altogether. “Okay, this way?”
I walk toward the basement steps, and the scent of roses grows overpowering.
“Shit, is June down there?”
I fling open the door and run down the stairs. The lights are on, and I know that she wouldn’t leave them on if she wasn’t down here.
The door to the mausoleum is closed, and I stand in the middle of the room, trying to calm my breathing so that I can listen. After a second, I hear a thump coming from the other side of the heavy door.
“June?”
“Help!” The cry is soft, barely audible, as I rush over and try to turn the knob, but it’s locked.
“Jesus, she locked herself in there.” I turn the lock, open the door, and a very hysterical June spills out into my arms.
“Oh, god.” She clings to me, sobbing into my chest. “Apollo.”
“Come on.”
“Get me the f-f-fuck out of here.”
“You got it, baby.” I lift her into my arms, cradling her against me as I walk through the empty basement and up the steps. The smell of roses is dissipating as I take her into the main house, but before I can set her down, she shakes her head violently.
“No, not here. I need to be out of here.”
“I’ll take you to my place.”
Her face is buried in my neck as I carry her to my truck. She doesn’t want to let go of me as I settle her in the seat, but I untangle her arms from around my neck.
“You have to let go for just a few minutes while I get us home, okay?”
She doesn’t answer, but she does release me so she can pull her knees up to her chin and hold herself in a small ball.
For fuck’s sake, what happened to her down there? My first instinct is to demand she tell me what happened so I know if I have to kill someone for doing this to her.
I don’t bother to ask her—not yet, anyway—and drive to my place. Once we’re there, I go through the same motions of taking her into my arms and carrying her inside.
After sitting on the couch, still cradling her against me, I wrap her in a blanket because she’s started to shiver as if she’s in shock.
“Baby, you have to breathe.” I drag my hand up and down her back, trying to soothe her. “Long, deep breaths now. Listen to me.”
She turns her face up so she can see me, and I breathe with her, long and slow. She mimics me, and the shivering starts to subside.
“Good girl. You’re safe. Juniper.” My hand traces up and down her spine again. “You’re safe, baby. I won’t let anything hurt you. I’ve got you.”
“H-h-he locked me in.” Her eyes well with fresh tears, and the anger that spears through me is swift and all-encompassing.
“Who did?”
“Eric.” She sniffs and pulls her sleeve over her hand so she can wipe at her nose and the tears on her cheeks. “Jesus, Apollo, he locked me in there with the dead people. They whispered at me, and it was so fucking scary.”
“You’re safe now. I promise.” I take another deep breath, which she mirrors, and then I fish my phone out of my pocket to call Cullen.
“Yo,” he says in my ear.
“I need you at my place, now. June was assaulted and locked into the mausoleum in her basement. I found her and brought her here. She’s pretty upset, and I don’t know the whole story yet.”
“On my way.” He hangs up, and I toss my phone onto the couch next to us. Silent tears are still trailing down her cheeks, so I brush them away and then tuck her hair behind her ears. “Cullen is on his way. We’ll figure this out.”
“He’s crazy,” she whispers and leans in to bury her face in my neck. “And I’m so sorry that I’m a bitch and I haven’t talked to you.”
“Enough of that.” I hug her close and kiss her head. “We’ll talk about that later. Let’s handle one thing at a time, okay?”
It breaks my heart to see her so…broken. June is one of the strongest people I know. She doesn’t fall apart. She doesn’t have panic attacks.
She’s as sturdy as they come.
She nods, and just a few minutes later, I hear a vehicle pull up outside, a car door slam, and then Cullen is storming through my front door.
“Hey,” I say as he kneels next to June and brushes his hand over her hair.
“June?”
“Cullen.” She lets go of me as fresh tears spill down her cheeks, leaning into her brother and hugging him. “Jesus Christ, I’m still so scared.”
“Okay, it’s okay. Honey, you’re fine now.” He pats her back and then leans away to look at her face. “Fucking hell, you’re white as a ghost.”
“Don’t say ghost,” she says, closing her eyes. He and I share a look of concern, but then she firms her chin, takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. “Okay, I’m getting it together. I’m going to be fine.”
“Who do I have to find?” Cullen asks and then shakes his head. “I’m jumping the gun. Tell us what happened.”
“I went down in the basement because Grandma wanted me to look for a person in the body closet.”
I raise an eyebrow, having no idea what a body closet is, but I don’t interrupt her.
“I was in there, and suddenly, Eric—the asshole from New York—was in there with me. He was pissed, talking about how if I didn’t sell him the property I just bought, he’d burn down my chapel, the inn, and Grandma’s house.”
More tears fall, and she impatiently brushes them away.
“He said that if he locked me in there, maybe I’d have time to think about it, and he did. He locked me in there, and I knew that no one would be able to hear me scream. I could hear whispers and noises, and it was so fucking scary. I’m never going back down there. The city is moving the remains tomorrow, but they don’t need me down there.”
“No,” Cullen says, patting her back. “They don’t, and no one is going to make you go back down there. Do you have cameras set up around the chapel?”
June’s eyes light up. “Yes! Yes, after what happened with the spray paint, I had cameras installed at all of my sites, including the chapel.”
She pulls out her phone, pulls up the footage, and offers the device to her brother. “Take it. There will be footage of him coming in and out of the chapel. Fucking hell, I was so scared. I thought he was going to go upstairs and set the place on fire.”
“He was long gone by the time I arrived,” I add, speaking for the first time. “I’d stopped by the inn, and Luna told me you’d left about twenty minutes prior. When I got to the chapel, I didn’t see you anywhere, but then I smelled roses.”
June’s eyes fly over to mine, wide in surprise. “Rose led you to me?”
“She did, and I’m so fucking glad.”
“Me, too.” Fresh tears want to fall, but June squares her shoulders and turns to her brother. “Can Eric get into trouble for what he did?”
“He’ll be charged with a whole host of things, including kidnapping, trespassing, criminal mischief, breaking and entering, and everything else that I can find. He will absolutely have to pay for this.”
“I just wanted him to leave. I think he has some pretty severe mental health issues.”
“That’s for the court to decide,” Cullen says simply. “I’m going to go over to the chapel and see if anything else was disturbed. We’ll pull some fingerprints, because there should be some on the doorknobs, and I’ll put out an APB for his arrest. When you’re up to it, you’ll have to come down and make a formal statement, too. Do you know his last name?”
June nods and gives him the information that she has, including the asshole’s phone number, and then Cullen is gone.
“I don’t think that I’ve ever had a panic attack like that,” June says, looking over at me. “When you opened that door, it was the biggest relief of my life.”
“You scared the hell out of me,” I admit and let out a long, shaky breath. “Jesus, Juniper, I love you so much, and I hate that you were so terrified and alone down there.”
Her eyes fill with tears again.
“What now? Please don’t cry, baby. You’re safe.”
“You love me?”
“That’s why you’re crying?”
She brushes impatiently at the tears. “Do you mean that you love me, or are you just saying that because I’m a sobbing mess?”
“I’ve told you I love you before.”
“No.” She shakes her head and stands to pace the room. “You’ve said that you love everything about the sex, but that’s different.”
“I—” I frown, thinking back. “Okay, it was during sex that I said that, yes. But I didn’t mean that I love only the sex. Fuck me, June, is that what you thought?”
“I don’t know!” She throws up her hands, still pacing. “I can’t read minds!”
“No, but you’re really good at drawing conclusions. So, let me spell it out for you, in plain language, when we’re not naked and trembling, okay? I love you.”
I smile as she stops stomping around and stares at me.
“You make me crazy in the best ways. You challenge me, and you make me laugh. You’re so fucking smart that it’s a little intimidating.”
She snorts, but I keep going.
“Yeah, I love everything about you, inside and out. You’re sexy as hell, and I feel like I’m alive when I’m with you. Does that explain it clearly enough?”
“I think so.” She drops into the chair across from me and clasps her hands together before biting her lip. “I think I’ve been in love with you since I was a kid. Even then, you irritated the hell out of me, which I’m sure you’ll do forever a little, but then I fell in love with you again.”
