Enigma (16 page)

“I think everybody else is hanging out upstairs,” Avan said, nodding toward the staircase.

“Lazy bums!” Declan chimed in.

“So, Mattie, what makes us special enough for a gorgeous girl like yourself to spend time with us on a Sunday morning? Not a churchgoer I take it?” Trev inquired.

“She is here to see me, and her relationship with God is not for anyone to judge,” Avan answered in my defense with a tone in his voice warning Trev he had stepped out of line.

“Take a breath, dude. We are well aware this one is yours. Sorry to put you on edge, Mattie. Trev has a horrible case of verbal diarrhea. We’re looking into treatment options, but there aren’t many promising cures out there,” Dorian retorted, adding enough comic relief to make me laugh along with everyone else as I assured him I took no offense.

I could not believe Avan had actually told the guys I was his. I liked the sound of that. I belonged to someone. I knew I had that cheesy smile on my face again just entertaining the idea. I liked it more than he knew even through feeling I conveyed when we kissed. I was love struck, and there was no way I could possibly hide it. The six guys talked among themselves about who knows what—I had stopped listening, as I was entertained in my own little world of thought until my phone alerted me that I received a text message. It was obvious that all six of the very buff guys surrounding me stopped conversing and tensed up at the sound. I opened it up, expecting to find Lena as the sender wanting me to pick her up from the airport, when I noticed the name: Ian Bentley. My stomach tightened into a knot just at seeing his name on the screen. I clicked the message to open it as four words popped up on the screen in all caps, signifying that either it was urgent or that he was not happy, and due to me avoiding him, I was inclined to go with the latter.

WE NEED TO TALK.

“Let me guess, he’s starting in again?” Avan said, looking over my shoulder from where he sat on the arm of my chair.

“Who is this freak? How did you meet him?” Bradley asked.

“To make a long story short, Lena pressured me into going on a blind date with this guy Ian Bentley. At dinner he talked me into having a drink, which I’d never done before, and I ended up getting drunk. When we got back to my house, he tried to take advantage of me, but I found a way to get out of it, and now he keeps harassing me and Lena keeps telling me I need to give him another chance,” I admitted as I blushed, mortified to be telling this stuff to several guys I hardly knew.

“How do you feel about giving him another chance and doing what Lena suggests?” Declan asked as though he was unsure how I would answer.

“I don’t want to be anywhere within a fifty-foot radius of this guy. He is a serious head case! Not to mention I don’t care what Lena says, Ian Bentley doesn’t have a chance of ever convincing me to go out with him again, regardless of who he uses to try and convince me!” It felt really good to get that out in the open! “Besides that, I have my eye on someone else!” I added with a smile as Avan took my hand, trying to make me feel safe.

“So this moron already knows where you live, and since he’s buddies with the traitor you live with it’s only a matter of time until he starts showing up at places you frequent as well,” Alex commented out loud while looking at a menu.

“That is what I’m afraid of. I don’t know if I’d be strong enough to fight him off if he caught me alone.” Thinking back on the memory of him convincing me to get drunk in an attempt to make it easy to overpower me made me sick.

“Well, the good news is that you’re around Avan and Bradley most of the day, so chances are slim to none that you will be alone long enough for him to try and overpower you while they’re around,” Trev added.

“Not to mention, if you hang around here more often, he really won’t have a chance to get near you!” Dorian stated as he popped his knuckles.

“Mattie, I need you to promise me something. If you ever feel like this guy is around or going to hurt you, I need you to scream my name. But know if you make the promise, you can never break it,” Avan asked looking me straight in the eyes.

“I promise,” I replied without hesitation assuming Avan was hinting that he would not let me be without him very much at all.

“The second we hear about this guy bothering you again, he’s gonna regret it something serious!” warned Bradley.

“I hope he comes in here and tries something stupid! I’d put three hundred dollars on Avan!” Alex boasted.

“You have been down here way too long.” Declan snorted as he rolled his eyes.

“I am moving away from you, dude! When God sends down a lightning bolt, I don’t want to be anywhere near you when you get charbroiled!” Trev laughed as he scooted farther away from Alex.

I watched in amusement as they all recessed in maturity as they wrestled around, play fighting in an effort to determine who had the most testosterone. The inside joke must have been funny considering the way their laughter and prodding at Alex never seemed to end. After a few minutes, Avan had won the battle with all five of the others, calling a truce, when my phone alerted me of another text, making them surround me once more, as if they already knew who it was from. When I opened it to see the name, they could not have been more correct.

MATTIE, I SAID WE NEED TO TALK. NOW!

Without a word, Avan took the phone from my hand and pressed call then put it on speakerphone as it began to ring. When Ian’s voice picked up, I could tell in an instant he was irate. Even sitting in the midst of six very muscular individuals who seemed as if they were ready to take on anyone at any given time who might pose a threat to someone they did not want bothered, I felt scared just hearing Ian’s voice as Avan let him say everything he wanted to before saying a word.

“Mattie, I don’t know what you think you’re doing pretending you can avoid me like you’ve been doing! You don’t seem to get it, do you? You are going to be mine, Mattie! You will belong to me, and it’s only a matter of time. Don’t go run and tell Lena that I called and yelled at you either you tattling, little, self-centered, pathetic waste of oxygen! That’s right, sit there in silence crying! I will make you regret the day you came into this world if you go run and try to tell anyone about this. Just be a good girl and do what I say! I don’t want to have to hurt you, Mattie. Do not make me do this the hard way. Just do this the easy way and let’s finish what we started a few weeks ago, okay? You don’t even have to do much, you can sleep for all I care, but I will have my way with you so be ready! If you do as I tell you to and at least pretend to like it, I can enjoy it a lot more so try to wear something sexy under your clothes every day, ’cause you never know when it’ll be time! What’s it gonna be, Mattie? My way or the hard way?”

Looking around the circle of my protectors I sat among, every one of their faces was brewing with disgust from what they had just heard. Avan was so furious I feared he might just crush my phone with his hand. I could see the vein sticking out of his arm, his muscles were flexing so hard. Their eyes were all glued to the phone as if they were planning to jump through the speaker and beat Ian Bentley within an inch of his life. I wanted to touch Avan’s arm to calm him down, but I sensed this was not the right moment and that I would have plenty of time to calm him down later once he got done giving Ian his response.

“Ian Bentley?” Avan asked in a very direct tone.

“Who is this and where is Mattie?” Ian demanded.

“Mattie is no longer your concern. My name is Avan Rork.”

“Well, Avan Rork, today is your unlucky day. Mattie’s been a bad girl, so it would be in your best interest to stay away from her so you don’t get hurt being in the wrong place at the wrong time! This is your only warning!” Ian stated in a sadistic tone.

“I’m going to tell you this one time and one time only, Ian Bentley. If you come anywhere near Matalyn Holland, I will personally make you wish that you’d never visited earth for the short time you’ve been here, and I will not hesitate to send you right back to whatever circle of hell you came from is that clear?” Avan shouted into the phone with fury.

“Don’t think for one second the battle is over that fast! Prepare yourself to feel hell’s fury, angel!” Ian said in a voice that sounded inhuman and hung up the phone.

The five friends I had recently been introduced to took over for Avan while he followed me home in his car, staying right behind me the entire way home. I could not get over the sound of Ian’s voice with the last thing he said on the phone. I by no means had everything about myself figured out yet but I was almost positive the notes I had been getting were warning me about Ian. What was scarier was that the notes are written in plural form. To add to the fear and frustration was the fact that he had referred to Avan as “angel.” Avan said my dreams were protected so I should have been the only one to see the wings I had placed on him in my imagination while I slept. What would have made Ian call him an angel? Was he trying to be condescending and insult him in front of me? I was perplexed about so many things that I seemed to only confuse myself further when I tried to make sense of anything at this point.

I had to assume that Ian was not acting alone. The only common acquaintance we had was Lena, but I had known her for four years. No way would she would be in on a plan to hurt me. She might be many things, but vicious and out to have people physically hurt people were not traits I believe she harbored.

I kept going over the things Ian had said to Avan unable to delete from my ears his voice when he had called him angel. Then I thought about the details of my dream. Did Ian know something about Avan that I didn’t? Surely I was just dreaming when I’d envisioned Avan with those extravagant wings, looking as if he’d just stepped out of heaven. Of course I’d imagined it. I was dreaming. The only real part of it was everything else. I must have been thinking about the angel Natasha gave me at the store, and while I was talking to Avan the two just meshed in my mind.

The comment Ian had made was simply a coincidence. It was as simple as that. Nothing superhuman or divine was going on, just simply a meshing of dreams and short term memories trying to make their way across to the hypothalamus to convert into long term memories and they got jumbled up in the process coming out in my dream.

We pulled into the driveway, and Avan got out of his car to walk me to the door. He was hesitant about coming into the house, but I told him Lena was still gone since her flight was delayed and that I really wanted him to meet the chef, Lorenzo. After a small amount of begging on my part, he agreed to come in for just a moment. Walking into the kitchen, Lorenzo looked up and smiled bigger than I think I had ever seen, embracing Avan in a hug.

“You two know each other?” I asked, looking confused.

“Yes, we’re old friends,” Lorenzo replied.

“This guy makes a mean chicken cacciatore!” Avan said, smiling.

“Okay, well that’s good to know,” I said, still trying to catch up.

“You never told me your chef’s last name! If I had known you were in such good hands, I wouldn’t worry so much all the time,” Avan said, looking at me with relief in his eyes.

After the short but friendly reunion and a couple of cups of hot tea, Avan was on his way out and all I could think was that Lorenzo had known exactly who I was talking about every time I told him about Avan.

Nothing made sense with this situation. I needed to find some answers quickly before my world made no sense at all. Avan said he would help me, but I was confused as to how we would go about finding everything out. All I knew was that I needed some answers now.

Everything was intertwining, and it was hard to tell where it all left me. How did I fit in to this twisted equation? I needed somebody to tell me. However, everyone I talked to was making it quite clear that they had some kind of a gag order and were not at liberty to tell me anything. I was now bound and determined to get the answers I needed, even if I had to go to all ends of the earth to get them!

I took the pieces of paper from my pocket and laid them on my bed as I analyzed them, wondering how each one pertained to the next. Just by reading them, I could obviously conclude that someone thought I was in danger, knowing that I was being watched by someone else who knew what I was. If I could find out what someone might think I was, I could probably narrow it down as to who was watching me. Thinking about it from this angle, I figured I should start from square one—my birth.

CHAPTER 8

Lena had gotten home sometime during the night, but never came to my room and announced her presence, which gave me the notion that Ian had more than likely called her in a fury, making her aware of his conversation with Avan yesterday. Not that I was worried about Lena’s opinion of the new company I was keeping, but it also added another element of difficulty to the situation, seeing as how she was a bit hostile when it came to Avan and his friends from Spirits anyway. Honestly, I had better things to worry about than stupid high school crap that all centered around stroking people’s egos, which required my attention. Lena, Ian, and their wounded egos were going to have to wait in line.

I decided while getting ready for school that as soon as the bell rang ending the school day, I was going to take a road trip. Bridgepoint, the town we moved to Oceanview from, was two hours north. If I left right after school, I could make it there and back before it got too late. Avan worked after school, so I would just tell him I had something to do today that would prevent me from hanging around Spirits this afternoon.

Surely I could find information that would help me start filling in the blanks about what the notes meant. While I was there, I also planned on doing a little of my own investigation work on Sharon Mumford. I knew if she really had lived there, someone would have to remember her or there would be some kind of record of her being there.

When I was walking down stairs, I noticed something odd. There were no smells coming from the kitchen that there normally were at this time of morning when Lorenzo was usually making breakfast. I walked into the kitchen, finding no sign of Lorenzo at all. I moved from the kitchen to the dining room finding nothing even hinting to his presence this morning at all. In the three years I had lived here, I had never known Lorenzo to be sick, so to think he had requested a day off seemed unrealistic. I had no idea what to think, but I had a feeling deep inside that there was more to it than a long-overdue day off. I would definitely be asking Avan what he thought about it when he got here to pick me up.