Danville Horror: A Pat Wyatt Novel (The Pat Wyatt Series Book 3) by Laura Del Read Free Book Online Page B

and then suggested that I go home to get some rest. And since my duties as a matron of honor were done for the day, I decided to take her advice. Once I was back at the house and parked on the street, I zipped my coat up to my neck because it was bitter out. However, before I even got out of the car to rush inside so I could call Mike, I noticed that he was sitting on the front step.
    There sat Mr. James Collins with a Scottie dog saddled up next to him. I had composed myself before I got out of the car, and once I shut the car door, he stood up and had the nerve to smile at me. “Patty,” he said, and I glared at him.
    “It’s Ms. Wyatt to you, jackass,” I hissed, ready to hit him if necessary.
    “Pat, listen to me,” he begged as I walked up the path, “I need to talk to you.”
    “Go away,” I yelled, trying to get around him, but he blocked my way.
    “Why won’t you ever let me explain?”
    I scowled at him. “Explain what, James? You made it perfectly clear that you didn’t want me when you fucked my sister the day before our wedding. So excuse me if I don’t give a shit about your pathetic explanations. And who the hell told you I was here, anyway?”
    “Alexandria,” he explained. He still had that boyish handsomeness, and it made me sick to look at him. “We’re,” he cleared his throat, “together.”
    Feeling my fists clench at my sides, I finally managed to push him out of the way. Then he grabbed my elbow, and I guessed the look in my eyes made him let me go as soon as he touched me. “Please,” he breathed, his eyes pleading with mine, “just let me talk to you.”
    “You know what? There was a time when I would have fallen for your bullshit, but you don’t know what I’ve been through these past couple of months. I have dealt with things that you would never have dreamed of in your puny little existence. So leave me alone, James. I mean it. Because you do not want to fuck with me. Got it, Jimmy Wimmy?” I bellowed in his face.
    He swallowed, hard. “Sorry to bother you, Ms. Wyatt. I’ll leave.”
    “Good,” I hissed.
    “But I want you to know,” he said as I put the key in the lock, “that I still have feelings for you, and I always will.”
    “Whoop dee frigging doo.” And with that, I walked in the house.
    It wasn’t even noon yet, and I had to deal with my ex-fiancé telling me that he still had feelings for me. “Anything else?” I asked the Universe, but there was no answer. I needed to think before I spoke to anyone about anything, and there was only one thing I could do.
    I made my way down the hall and turned left finding the garage door. As soon as I walked inside, I flipped the switch, letting the light flood my senses. There she was, the old pickup my father had been working on since I was a kid. She was covered with dust and looked like she hadn’t been worked on since I left. The truck was a little rusty around the edges, but she was what I needed at that very moment. A distraction.
    Throwing my jacket on the workbench, I rolled up the sleeves of my sweatshirt and decided to dig right in. Pops had left the tool belt on the front seat, so I opened the door, placed it on the ground, and then popped the hood. When I opened her up, she whined at me, and I smiled. Putting the tool belt on, I kicked the stool Pops had bought me years ago over to the side of the truck, and I moved in. She was a mess. Everything was out of place, and it took me three tries to get the oil filler cap off the damn thing, but not before I cut my finger on it.
    “Shit,” I said quietly and with feeling. But after that little hiccup, everything started to go smoothly, and my mind began to wander. I thought about the vision, Mike, and finally James. And my mind went back to a time before all the monster and the cheaters. Back to when I was just a kid having some summer fun.
     
     
    “Crud,” I remembered screaming, sucking on my right index finger. I had scratched it on a piece of