Hollow Back Girl Read online

  “What if you’re not good to them?” I asked, though I was pretty sure my head wound was the answer.

  “I was never malicious; I don’t know. That brings us back to the issue at hand: what did you do to piss of a Lofriska?”

  “I wasn’t the one who did anything.” I held up my hands, showed my dad the wounds on my wrists. “I didn’t exactly go there willingly.”

  Suddenly, the fact that Kincade had been the reason behind all of this came back to me. Not only had she left me to die at the rough hands of a forest fae, she’d stolen my phone and my keys.

  “Shit!” I snapped. Dad, having sensed my emotions before my outburst, wasn’t fazed. “Shit! Dammit! God damned asshole!” Pushing to my feet, I did a little turn in the room, flailed my arms. Dad watched me, let me be mad.

  “What is it?” he asked when I’d stopped swearing and hissing out nonsense.

  “The woman who dragged me out there has mom’s keys and my cell phone.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  I turned to him sharply, frustrated. “Oh, you don’t?”

  “Her car’s parked outside. Your phone was in the middle console. It’s how Chloe knew something was wrong, I’m guessing. She found it, gave some half-assed lie—she’s a little too good at that, by the way—about promising to pick you up at a friend’s place and then her and that boyfriend of hers disappeared. They showed up an hour later with you in tow.” Irritation burbled up inside my father and he pointed a finger at me. “You better be sure you trust her enough to justify telling her about Natalie’s power.”

  “Chloe loves me,” I said, shaking my head. “I have literally trusted her with my life. She wouldn’t do anything to hurt Nat.”

  My father let the line about my life being in danger pass but I could tell he wasn’t pleased. After a few silent seconds, dad sighed, got to his feet. “So this person kidnapped you, dragged you to the forest. She tell you why?”

  I swallowed. How many of my big secrets was I going to have to reveal on this trip?

  “Ah. We have sort of a mutual … Um. Friend, that introduced us. She could tell I had some sort of power, apparently figured I’d be of use to her. She deals in the supernatural for a living. Evidently she wanted me as bait, I think for one of these creatures.”

  “You get a description? We can call the police. We can’t exactly explain that you were attacked by sexy trees, but you have the cuff marks to prove she kidnapped you. She may have left fingerprints in the car, on the phone or keys.”

  “Sexy—?” I cut myself off, letting that go before we could dive deep into a pool of information I wanted nothing to do with. “I can’t really do that.” I shook my head. If the cops went tromping around in the woods, they may end up in worse shape than I was. “I know someone who can help, though. I was supposed to see him this evening, actually.”

  I glanced around, my eyes catching on the clock. I let out a slow oath again. Getting knocked unconscious for hours at a time was really starting to become an unpleasant habit for me.

  “Dammit. You have my phone? I should probably call him.”

  “I wouldn’t mention the ‘him’ part to your mother,” dad said with a small smile. I returned his expression with an equally small smile, wary of the pleasantness but liking that, suddenly after thirty years, it was possible at all.

  “Oh?”

  “No. She’s on the verge of setting you up in an arranged marriage; don’t give her any ideas.”

  “Got it,” I said. We stared at each other for a second before I thought about the conversation I’d had with my mother earlier. For the first time since I could remember, I was feeling affection for my father that wasn’t being ruined by irritation or wariness. I thought about how life could have been for me as a teenager and what he’d done to protect me from things I hadn’t even been aware existed.

  I thought about how ungrateful and terrible I’d been and how he’d never once disowned me or strapped me to a rocket and shot me out into space like I probably deserved.

  Letting out hitching breath, I pushed forward, wrapped my arms around his neck, pulled him into a hug. He sighed against my ear and squeezed me. I felt a hesitant sort of relief trying to surface within him. I ducked my head to rest it on his shoulder, doing my best to indicate without awkward words that I wasn’t planning on picking a fight or screaming obscenities at him. His posture relaxed slightly.

  “Thank you and I’m sorry,” I said. He kissed my cheek and I felt the nostalgic sadness in me leak away, too rapidly to be my doing. I pulled back, lifted a brow at him. He gave me a small smile, eyes glittering, jaw tight.

  “Get out before you see me cry,” he grumbled, turning away slightly.

  I laughed, gave a small nod. He turned around, lifting his hand to his eyes as I reached for my bag. I’d left it open on the chair by the bedroom door and my sore hips and ribs were pretty happy I didn’t have to bend over to get it. Pretending I hadn’t seen anything, I made my way to the bathroom.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I eased out of the shower realizing I’d missed lunch and possibly dinner. My stomach, having finally come out of the injury-induced hole in which it had been hiding, was crying out for satiation, growling like J.J. pretending to be a zombie dinosaur. Ignoring it, I swiped a towel over the mirror, took a look at my naked body.

  It was a pretty miserable sight.

  The bruises on my ribs and left breast were still present, having been joined by the scrapes along my wrists, a small lump under my right eyebrow where I’d been hit. The back of my neck felt raw, but I didn’t have a second mirror to see what had happened there, so I could only guess it was similar to the scrapes along my cheek. As I swiped lotion over my legs, I found more bruises along my ankle and calf where the Lofriska had gripped me. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but her bark had managed to scrape the back of my ankle raw. I was not looking forward to trying to find shoes that wouldn’t irritate that happy little wound. I took one last glance at myself in the mirror before pulling on my softest, no-underwire bra. I was purple and raw and pretty sure there were scabs on top of scabs.

  Overall, I kind of looked like a piñata full of beet soup. I had to just hope nothing else tried to crack me open.

  I dug through the pockets of my clothes before balling them up. I would have to wash them—or, more likely, my mother would—before I could wear them again and I didn’t want anything going through the wash that shouldn’t be wet. When I found the coin that Chloe had stolen from Samuel, I tucked it into my pocket absently, not thinking anything of it.

  Chloe met me in Thomas’ room, handed me my phone. As she frowned at my face, I felt pity roll out of her. I noted that Izzy and his holiday candies were nowhere to be found. Shutting the door, I moved to set my bag back on the chair by the door, dug around in it until I found some fat, fuzzy socks.

  “So, what really happened?”

  “This woman—did I tell you about Owen’s … friend?”

  Chloe lifted a brow, shook her head. “Not entirely. The ex?”

  “Yeah. Apparently she knows—she does what he does, so they’ve crossed paths. Anyway.” I dropped onto the bed next to her, winced a bit when my body reminded me not to treat it quite so roughly. “When he and I ran into her she must’ve caught some sort of scent off me. Figuratively: she's human. She showed up after I went to see Thomas, pulled a tiny knife on me, and dragged me out to the forest. She cuffed me, asked me what it was I did for Owen.”

  “And you told her what?” Chloe asked. There was a simmering anger inside her that seemed much too intense for stemming simply from worry over me.

  “Initially I just told her we were fuck buddies and that was it. She said she knew better and threatened to shoot me in the kneecap if I didn’t spill the beans. I wanted to point out that she sounded like a bad movie villain.”

  “Cheesy or not, it worked, didn’t it? You told her?”

  “Sort of. I told her part of what I could do, but I was too scar
ed to tell her everything. I claimed I could sense supernatural creatures.”

  “Ah,” Chloe said with a nod. The anger in her shifted slightly toward smugness, but she didn’t elaborate. “Let me guess, she wanted you to point out some creature to her.”

  “I guess. She didn’t tell me what she wanted, but I’m thinking it was what attacked us. I felt nothing for awhile, but then bam!” I smacked my knuckles against the palm of my other hand. “Tree lady.”

  “Tree lady?” Chloe asked. I was glad to feel a tinge of amusement seep in. “Are you sure you hadn’t already been hit in the head?”

  “I’m sure. This tree just … I—it separated from, you know, itself. It wasn’t just a tree, anymore, it was a bare trunk that stayed put and a lady … thing. She was beautiful, I mean, for a piece of wood with moss and mushrooms all over it. One minute, there was a Douglas fir there and the next some pissed off—Lofriska, dad called it. Kincade threw something at me.” I gestured to my lumpy eyebrow. “Probably as a distraction.”

  “She ran away?”

  “Eventually, but not at first. She pulled a chain out of her pocket and it looked like she was going to throw it at—or around?—the lady tree, but another one showed up and attacked her with bugs.”

  “Another …” Chloe trailed off, squinting. It wasn’t confusion I felt from her, but she was choosing her words carefully. “Another creature?”

  “Yeah, Lofriska. Please don’t ask how dad knows that.”

  “I know what those are,” Chloe said with a nod. “I’ve heard—ah—interesting stories about them. I think I can guess how your father knew about them.”

  “Let us never speak of it again. It’s bad enough knowing where babies come from and knowing that I was once a baby.”

  Chloe chuckled, shifted on the bed. Frowning at me as more pity rolled out, she reached over, pushed my hair away from my raw face. “That looks bad.”

  “It stings a little, but that’s it. The bruises are worse.” I jerked a chin at her. “How’d you know about Natalie?”

  “Izzy told me. He bumped his head when they were playing and she offered to help.”

  “He couldn’t take care of that himself?”

  “He probably could, but he let her. It was his idea to bring you back here and not to a hospital.”

  “I’m better off here, anyway.”

  “Did you catch what Kincade threw at you?”

  “No, I was kind of tied up.”

  “No—sorry. I meant, did you see what it was? Could you tell?”

  “I have no idea. It hit me and then the tree got mad and here we are.”

  Chloe hummed thoughtfully and turned to look forward.

  “So, we know that Kincade wanted you there to sense the Lofriska, possibly as bait. Whatever she threw at you was probably important. We should go find it.”

  “I’m not going back in those woods,” I said, holding up my hands. “No way, no how. I’ve been beaten up enough for one day, thank you very much. I’m just lucky Natalie misunderstood what she was seeing and that no one took my shirt off. I can’t explain away all my injuries—and I still haven’t told my mother about my Mel scars.”

  I lowered my head into my hands, rested my elbows on my knees. I groaned a little bit. Chloe patted my back.

  “Izzy and I will go check out the forest, see what we come up with. I think I can find the place where you were again.” I sat up, turned to her.

  “How did you find me? How did you know where to look?” Chloe bit her lip and I felt a nervous discomfort shimmer inside her. I pointed a finger at her face. “Don’t clam up on me. Don’t lie to me again and tell me it was Merrin.”

  Shock and embarrassment propelled out of her and I winced like I’d been shoved. Chloe sighed, pushed to her feet. She rubbed her hands over her eyes, paused facing away from me, and then turned to me.

  “I used to have a job that required me to …” She swallowed, blinked rapidly. “Augment my natural abilities with tricks and gadgets. One of those gadgets allowed me to find you.”

  “And?” I asked. Chloe lifted her hands, palms toward the ceiling.

  “And now you’re safe.”

  I stared up at her, frowning. She dropped her hands to her side, stayed silent as we kept uncomfortable eye contact. Finally, I sighed, shook my head.

  “Okay.” I love Chloe and I trust her to know what’s good for me better than I know for myself. I wasn’t going to press the issue if it wasn’t something she was comfortable discussing. I felt relief seep out of her and she stepped forward, bent to pull me into a hug. My stomach rumbled, reminding us both of my body’s priorities.

  “Your mother made you a plate, said you should come down when you’re feeling up to it.” She pulled away, smiled down at me. “Call Owen, if you’re feeling up to that.”

  “I don’t think I can have sex in my condition.”

  “Probably true.” Chloe reached down to grab my hand, pull me to my feet. “But I meant, you know, for talking and stuff. Bet he’d wanna know what happened today, don’t you think?”

  “True,” I agreed, though I wondered honestly what he might do to Kincade upon hearing what she’d done to me.

  “Did you ever find your brother, talk to him about Owen?”

  “Ah, yeah. I’d just seen him when Kincade showed up,” I said, wondering briefly if I’d thought to tell Chloe Kincade’s name the first time we’d talked. I couldn’t recall, but she’d known about it, so I must’ve.

  “Did he have any idea what Izzy was talking about?”

  “Does Izzy even have any idea what he’s talking about?” Chloe just shrugged, but I could tell she secretly found my dig funny. “Thom doesn’t even know my Owen. He knows another one, though. He’s the brother of the sick—of the hiker? The one Owen’s here dealing with. Ah, shit, I was gonna call him and talk to him about all this.”

  “I’m sure you still can.”

  “Has he called me at all? Where’s my phone?”

  “I’ve been keeping it safe and no, he hasn’t called. I’m sure he won’t mind if you call him.”

  “Okay. If he’s not calling, he’s probably busy, though, and I’m starving, so I’m gonna hold off, at least until after I eat.”

  “Forgoing saving the town to stuff your gullet: that’s the Gwen I know.”

  I rolled my eyes but didn’t fight her when she led me downstairs to do just that.

  Mom probably made my bruises worse with the hugging and kissing and general displays of showing how glad she was that I hadn’t died. Dad and I went with the story that I had no memory of what happened and Chloe claimed Izzy had found me. This, of course, got Izzy extra servings of dessert, which he declined to share with me.

  After my mother had doled out everyone’s dishes of ice cream and cookies, and Chloe and Izzy excused themselves to secretly check out the forest, I'd moved to the living room, parking myself in front of the fireplace. I tried Owen’s phone twice, but got no answer either time.

  “You okay?” I heard. I looked over, found Jake standing next to the couch, frowning down at me. I lifted my brows, felt the regret in him. “I would have been there when you woke up, but I wanted to keep the little ones out of it.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, turning to face him.

  He took a few steps, considered the couch that was still bare of cushions and settled down on the carpet, crossing his long legs at the ankles. I smiled, spoke before he could.

  “I should probably apologize to you. It’s one thing to marry into a family of super humans. It’s another entirely to be forced to share a meal with a magical creature who eats all your waffles and a sister-in-law who makes your daughter cry.” I shook my head. “I really thought I was just coming home to eat cake and have a big Thanksgiving dinner and eventually go into a tryptophan coma. I didn’t know any of this weird, wacky stuff would happen.”

  “Is it rude if I ask what Izzy is, exactly?”

  “It might be; that’s why I’ve never asked.”


  “So you just hang out with this guy without knowing anything about him?”

  “I know enough about him to know he won’t hurt anyone. He’ll steal your candy and show no respect for your personal space, but he’s … harmless.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’ve never felt any malice in him and he’s helped me out with strange problems a time or two. Plus, Chloe trusts him and I trust her.”

  “Hmm,” Jake grunted, turning to look down at his feet for a moment. I felt the discomfort in him ease away and he lifted a brow. A smile formed and I met his pretty eyes when he looked back at me. “You look like shit.”

  “I feel like shit.”

  “You really can’t remember what happened to you?”

  “I remember leaving the tea shop after seeing Thomas and now I’m here.” I shrugged; strictly, I had not just lied to my brother-in-law. “I wish someone had gotten the plate number of the whatever hit me though.”

  “Well, Natalie’s devastated that she can’t do more to help you.”

  “No,” I said, waving a hand. “Please tell her she’s done enough. It’s not her fault. She—shit.” I sighed, feeling my heart try to crawl up into my throat.

  “I told her,” Jake said. He scooted forward enough to pat my knee.

  “I can’t stand that I made her feel bad. I can’t even imagine—no, I can exactly imagine what it’s like for her having to feel me in pain and not be able to do anything about it. I’ve been there and it’s miserable. Can I buy her something?” I offered desperately in an attempt to stave off crying. “What will make it better? Candy? Ice cream? A pony.”

  “I don’t think we have room for a pony, but she’s managed to get herself an Amazon wishlist full of dolls and robotics that I’m sure would ease her pain.”