Read Online Ashes to Ashes (Experiment in Terror #8) by Karina Halle - Free Book Online Page A

hurt,” I said
snidely, crossing my arms.
    “ Maybe we’re
worried because you are always getting hurt,” he said, “and a
person can only get hurt so many times before it really starts to
ruin them.”
    “ Alberto, are
you coming to bed?” Marda asked, appearing at the doorway in a silk
night robe, a sleep mask smeared on her face.
    “ Just a
minute, darling,” he said, flashing her his smile.
    “ No more
cookies,” she said, wagging her finger at him. “You have to watch
your heart.”
    When she left, he looked at me
and sighed. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just looking out for
you as I always do. Wasn’t I right about Seattle? About you going
to stay with him and his girlfriend?”
    I mumbled that he was. “But it
doesn’t mean you’re right about this. I love Dex. I know him inside
and out.”
    “ You
know him as much as you can know someone for eight months,” he
said. “Just don’t forget that. And don’t forget that most of that
time, he was with someone else .” He eased himself out of
the chair, leaving me with that extremely sobering
thought.
    He kissed me on the head
goodnight and then shuffled off toward his room. I sat there at the
table, drinking my hot tea until it was gone, apprehensive now
about going to see Dex. I hated that my uncle—and by extension, my
parents—were able to instill this doubt in me.
    Had I really only known Dex, my
Dex, my Declan Foray, for less than a year? The last two months of
us living together, that was the only time we were actually
together as a couple. Plus we started up hot on the heels of his
last relationship, one that lasted three fucking years. No wonder
my parents were so against the whole thing. No wonder my uncle was.
Aside from the people who knew us best like Rebecca, Dean, and Ada,
our relationship must look batshit crazy to the rest of the
world.
    Then again, what else was
new?
    I took in a deep breath, trying
to calm my nerves, then placed the cup of tea in the sink. I
wondered if Rebecca was up and ready for a chat, but the lights in
the living room were out. I reluctantly made my way to the bathroom
and then finally the guest bedroom.
    I carefully slipped into bed,
not knowing if Dex was asleep. I wanted to talk to him—I wanted to
know what he talked to Uncle Al about and if it was anywhere near
as brutal as it was for me. But I heard him snoring lightly,
brought on by all the beers, and decided to leave it for another
day. I turned my back to him, our asses touching each other but our
upper bodies far apart.

     
     

CHAPTER FIVE

     
     
    I was on a bluff, overlooking
the sea. I didn’t know how I was there, but I was. The grass was
cool beneath my feet, the wind sweeping off the blackened ocean was
rich with salt and chilled.
    I’d been here before. Was I
dreaming?
    I looked down at my body and
saw I was barefoot and in a simple, plain nightgown. The déjà vu
was back in full force all over again, transporting me back to
September. But instead of being beside a lighthouse, there was
nothing there except the burnt remains and a few pieces of
foundation.
    I had to be dreaming. I never
owned a nightgown like that, and the only time I ever did was when
I was caught in a nightmare. I half expected the shriveled face of
Old Roddy to appear, to remind me that what happened here, what
started it all, was only eight months ago.
    But he never came. He never
popped up. As far as I could tell, I was alone. It was just me and
that dark, wide expanse of the Pacific, beckoning me like a gaping
mouth.
    I stared at the ocean, those
obsidian waves that crashed at the shore below, wondering if this
was all there was to it. Then, after some time, I knew it was all
beginning.
    A child’s giggle came from
behind me and the punchy sound of a rubber ball being kicked. I
turned around to see nothing but the lighthouse remains and the
dewy grass that stretched back into the forest of thick trees.
There was no child, there was no ball. But that