Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) (30 page)

“Wait, what?
When?
”
I
waved my hand. “Don’t feel bad,” I said with a laugh. “I’m sure he didn’t
mind.” I took a breath before babbling on. “But I was only gone for like a
week…when the heck did you guys have time for hanky-panky—I mean,
before
?”

“It
was
a
pretty crazy week.” Zoe shrugged. “It’s not like it was planned, but it
happened the morning we left for the golf course. In fact, Jason had just come
out to tell me—”

“Hold on,” I
said, raising a hand. “Your brother found you when you were
having sex
with Jake…?”

She barked a
laugh. “God no! But I guess it was a little bit of a close call.”

I snorted, then
doubled over in laughter. “Oh my God,” I gasped. “Could you imagine…”

“Ah, no, thank
you.” She shook her head and groaned. “God, that was such a horrible week.
Jason was a mess, Jake and I were barely speaking after Becca showed up…we’d
finally gotten our shit together, and then I had to run into Clara…”

“And your mom,” I
said softly, sneaking a glance at Zoe.

“Yeah, and
there’s that. I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about that yet…I don’t know what
to think.”

I leaned in,
nudging her shoulder with my own. “No prob, Zo. But you know I’ll be here
whenever you’re ready.” I wrapped my arm around her waist and rested my head on
her shoulder. A few wet strands of her dark hair stuck to my face, and I blew
them away. “Your hair is crazy long.”

I could feel the
muscles and bones in her shoulder shift as she strained to look down at me.
“You want to cut it off for me?”

Raising my head
slowly, I pulled away from her, staring at her with eyes widened by shock.
Zoe’d had long hair the entire time I’d known her. “Shut the front door! What
did you just say to me?”

She smiled,
clearly amused. “I could use a change,” she said. “And it’s something I’ve been
thinking about for a while.” She shrugged a single shoulder. “But if you don’t
want to…”

“Oh my God, shut
up. I’m totally doing it. I’m going to
cut off your hair
!” I squealed,
clapping my hands together like a wind-up monkey. Almost
as long as I’d known Zoe, I’d been bugging her to give
shorter hair a chance, knowing she would look
amazing
. Now she would
look amazing
and
it would be so much more practical. “This is going to
be so much fun! Eeek…I’ve got so many ideas. We could do a bob, like this
long”—I held my hand up to my chin—“or maybe—”

“Not a bob,” she
said adamantly. “Not like
hers
.”

I pressed my lips
together and studied her face. “Okay, got it. Not like your mom’s.” I raised my
eyebrows. “Oooh…what if we did, like, an A-line cut, just touching your
shoulders and a little longer in the front? It’d be short enough to not get in
the way so much, but still versatile and—”

“Alright, D,” she
said with a rueful smile. “I trust your judgment.” She unfurled her body and
rose to her feet. “I saw a pair of scissors in the swim shop. I’ll go grab ’em.”

“Okay.” I
narrowed my eyes. “But you better not back out…”

“I won’t,” she
said, shaking her head. “
I
asked
you
,
remember?” And with a smile, Zoe jogged toward the trees
separating the beach from the parking lot behind the lodge. I stared after her
until I could no longer see her.

Exhaling heavily,
I slid down the side of the kayak and settled on the sand, pulling my knees up
against my chest and rewrapping the towel around myself so all but my head and
toes were covered.

Zo’s really
back.
Joy swelled in my
chest until I thought I might burst, spilling down my cheeks in the form of
happy tears.

She’s really
back…my Zo.
Smiling and
crying silently, I stared out at the lake and simply felt happy.

Zoe returned a
few minutes later, placing a pair of scissors and a brush on top of my upraised
knees before sitting on the sand in front of me, her back to me. “Have at it,
D. And for God’s sake stop crying.” But she said it with a smile evident in her
voice.

I freed my arms
from my terrycloth straightjacket and wiped away the wetness coating my cheeks.
“I know, I know…I’m
such
a crybaby.”

“It’s alright, D.
That’s why I love ya.”

I cleared my
throat and moved the scissors and brush to the sand beside me before shifting
my legs so I was sitting cross-legged. I straightened my back and started
brushing the tangles out of Zoe’s ridiculously long hair.

“Ow,” she said
when I tugged on a particularly stubborn snarl.

Breathing out
forcefully, I said in a sing-song voice, “Which is precisely why we’re cutting
it…”

We fell into
companionable silence while I continued to brush. Minutes passed with only the
sound of dogs barking in the distance and seagulls cawing overhead.

“So,” Zoe said,
drawing out the word. “How have you been sleeping?”

I paused
mid-stroke. “Why are you asking me when you already know?” I said softly.

“Because I’d like
you to tell me.” She paused. “I don’t want to snoop…unless I have to.”

I finished the
stroke, then started to part her hair down the middle. “I thought you couldn’t
help it…”

Zoe started
drawing shapes in the sand to the right of her. “I guess it’s different now. I
can shut it off a lot easier,
thank God
.”

I sighed in
agreement. “Seriously.” I quickly added, “No offense.”

“You should’ve
told someone about drifting, Dani.” Zoe’s voice was harsher than I’d expected,
but not harsher than I deserved. “If I hadn’t known…”

Setting the brush
down on my knee, I smoothed Zoe’s hair down her back and picked up the
scissors. “I know.” I closed my eyes and shook my head, wishing I could make
the weeks of drifting disappear so I no longer had to remember how
good
it
felt. “Believe me, I know. I’m just lucky that you were still looking out for
me, even if you weren’t really
you
while you were doing it.”

I put the
scissors down on my other knee and wrapped my arms around Zoe’s shoulders,
pressing my cheek against her wet hair. “Thank you for saving me.”

Zoe cleared her
throat. “Please just promise me you’ll tell me if you need me…if you can’t do
it on your own, or if Jason nulling you doesn’t help…” She swallowed loudly. “I
can’t lose you, D.”

I nodded, messing
up the smooth, damp curtain of hair I’d so carefully arranged down her back. “I
promise,” I told her before pulling away and picking up the brush again to
straighten out her hair.

Minutes later,
I’d snipped off over a foot of hair and was setting in to evening out what
would eventually be a decently fashionable, yet practical, shoulder-length
haircut. I paused and peeked over her shoulder so I could see the side of her
face. “Do you want to see how much I cut off?”

“I don’t know, do
I?” she asked rhetorically.

I picked up a
chunk and tossed it over her shoulder so it landed on the sand in front of her.

“Holy. Crap.
That’s like a foot and a half…”

I laughed. “I
know, right?” Under my breath, I grumbled, “Now, if I could only get Vanessa to
let me chop off that rat’s nest she calls hair…”

Zoe snorted and
started to turn her head to look over her shoulder at me.

“Hold still,
Zo…unless you want a funky asymmetrical hairstyle.”

“Oh, sorry.” She
faced forward again. After a long pause, she asked, “So, has Carlos told you
anything about them?”

I frowned. “Such
as…?”

“I was just
curious if he shared his story with you, is all…what happened to his sister and
Annie…and his brother.”

My frown
deepened, verging on scowl territory. “Jesse? No, not really. Before yesterday,
I knew he had a sister…but that’s about all I knew about his family.” I shook
my head slowly.

“Maybe you should
ask him about it. I’m sure he could use someone to talk to.”

“
You
won’t
tell me?”

Zoe shook her
head, and I had to retrieve the brush to straighten her hair out…again.

“Please,
Zo…pretty please,” I said, my voice purposely whiny.

“If you really
want me to, I will, but I think you should talk to him about it first. It’s not
really my place, ya know?”

I nodded and,
realizing she couldn’t see me, said, “Yeah, okay.”

As I finished
Zoe’s haircut, my mind whirled with possible scenarios for how Vanessa and
Annie had ended up living with a pack of wolves and wild dogs in the
mountainous woods to the east of Lake Tahoe. Whatever the actual story ended up
being, I was certain it wouldn’t be good.

~~~~~

“Hey,” I said as
I approached Carlos. He, Vanessa, and Annie were sitting at a picnic table just
outside the stable, snacking on beef jerky and packaged cheese and crackers.
The trio had been easy enough to find, what with Annie’s mind being one of the
few human minds I could actually sense.

“Thanks for
taking care of everything,” I told him.

Looking up,
Carlos nodded. He finished chewing before asking, “How’s Zoe? Is she really
back to normal?”

I laughed softly
and swung my leg over one side of the picnic table to straddle the same bench
Annie was sitting on. “She’s good. Really good.”

Carlos was
sitting directly across from me, keeping a close eye on his sister, whose hands
were still bound, but not so restrictively that she couldn’t feed herself. His
features were drawn, making him look older and wearier than I’d ever seen him.
He’d been keeping his distance since we first arrived in Tahoe; I’d assumed it
was because of the unexpected appearance of his sister, but now I suspected it
was more than that. Though we were a few miles from the place that had hosted
what was undeniably the most traumatic month of his life, we were pretty damn
close. It would’ve been stupid to think his proximity to
that place
wouldn’t
dredge up painful memories…wouldn’t haunt him.

“So, how are
you
doing?” I asked tentatively. “Being back here and all…?”

Carlos lowered
his eyes, looking at the ground beside the table. “I don’t want to talk about
it.”

The wind shifted,
and I caught a whiff of the delightful odor that was so distinctly Vanessa’s. I
wrinkled my nose.

“You don’t have
to stay with us,” Carlos said, meeting my eyes then glancing at his sister. “I
know it’s not the, uh, nicest place to be right now…and you should be with Zoe.”

I raised one
shoulder and half smiled. “It’s cool. I got her all to myself for the first few
hours. It’s time to share.” I shifted my attention to Annie, who had processed
cheese product smeared all over the lower half of her right cheek.

She grinned at
me, still gnawing on a piece of dried and salted meat.

Pressing my lips
together in a disapproving line, I said, “You’re a mess, you know that?”

Annie nodded
enthusiastically.

I snorted and
rolled my eyes. “What am I going to do with you?”

Setting the
remainder of her half-eaten jerky on the table, Annie declared, “Full!” She squirmed
off the bench and ran toward the three canines—two wolves and one dog—who were
lounging in the woods nearby. They were precisely the reason I’d left Jack back
at the lodge with Jason, who was, once again, meeting with Holly and Hunter.

“Don’t go
far,”
I told Annie, then
repeated the same command to the canines, adding a request that they keep her
safe and bring her back before dark. All the members of Snowflake’s pack were
protective enough of Annie—
young two-legs
, as they called her—that I
knew she would be safe with them, and more comfortable than if I forced her to
be around the other
human
members of my group.

When I turned
back to Carlos, I found him watching me. “You’re not gonna go after her?”

I shook my head,
frowning the tiniest bit. “They’ll keep her safe, and she’ll come back…even if
she doesn’t want to.”

“Listen, Dani…”
Carlos hesitated briefly. He stared down at the uneven wooden surface of the
table. “Annie’s not your responsibility. You don’t have to take her in and, you
know, be her mom or whatever…not if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t mind,” I said, pretty sure I meant it. “It’s not
like there’s anyone else really cut out to take care of a kid like her. Except
for Ralph, I suppose…” I shrugged.

Carlos’s brow
furrowed. “Well, you don’t
have
to, so if you change your mind, I’ll—”
He took a deep breath, then sat up straighter as if the breath had given him
strength, helped him decide. “I’ll take care of her.”

Now, why the
hell would he say that?
I
studied the handsome young man with world-weary features sitting across from
me, feeling nothing but compassion and sympathy and the kind of love I felt for
Zoe…and one hell of a dose of curiosity. “Who
is
she, Carlos?” She had
to be
someone
to him, based on what Zoe had implied.