Still Missing by Chevy Stevens Read Free Book Online Page A

opened a jewelry store. The ring was the only thing he got when they were killed in a fire soon after my parents were married--bank took everything else. I asked Mom for the ring after the accident, she said it was lost.
    I like to think if my dad were alive he'd have tried everything in his power to rescue me, but I don't really know how he'd have handled it. He was a pretty laid-back guy, and in my mind he'll always be forty years old, wearing his nice fuzzy sweaters and khakis. Only times I remember him getting excited were when he told me about a new shipment of books at the library where he worked.
    I thought about him sometimes on the mountain, even wondered if he was watching over me. Then I'd get pissed off. If he was my guardian angel, like I told myself growing up, why the hell didn't he make it stop?

    On my second night, The Freak tenderly washed my back in the bath. "Let me know if you want more hot water." He squeezed the cloth and let the rose-scented water trickle over my shoulders and back.
    "You're quiet tonight." He nuzzled the wet hair at the nape of my neck. Then he took a strand into his mouth and sucked on it. I ached to thrust my shoulder up into his face and break his nose. Instead, I stared at the bathtub wall and counted how many seconds it took for a bead of water to fall. "Did you know every woman has a unique flavor to her hair? Yours tastes like nutmeg and cloves."
    I shuddered.
    "I knew the water wasn't warm enough." He ran the hot water for a minute. "I can tell just by looking at a woman how she'll taste. Some men are fooled by the color. It would be easy to think your mother with her young face and blond hair would taste clean and fresh, but I've learned to look deeper for the truth." He moved in front of me and began to gently wash my leg. I continued to focus on the wall. He was just trying to mess with me--I couldn't let him see it was working.
    "She is a beautiful woman, though. Makes me wonder how many of your boyfriends wanted to have sex with her. If, when they were making love to you, they thought about her."
    My stomach flipped. Over the years I got used to my boyfriends ogling my mom. When they weren't busy shoving in one of her dinners they were staring at her full mouth. One guy actually told me my mom looked like a hotter, grown-up version of Tinker Bell. Even Luke stumbled over his words sometimes when she was around.
    Seventeen seconds, eighteen...that bead was slow.
    "I doubt any of them could see, as I could, that she'd taste like a green apple, the kind you think is ripe until you take a bite. And your friend Christina, with her long blond hair always pinned up, always businesslike. There's more to her than meets the eye." I lost track of the bead of water.
    "Yes, I know about Christina. She's a Realtor too, isn't she? Quite a successful one, I understand. I wonder why you surround yourself with people you envy."
    I wanted to tell him I wasn't jealous, I was proud of Christina--we'd been best friends since high school. She taught me everything I know about real estate. Hell, she taught me everything I know about a lot of things, but I kept my mouth shut. This guy would use anything I said to screw with me.
    "Does she remind you of Daisy? Daisy was cotton candy, but Christina, mmmm...Christina. Bet you she tastes like imported pears." My eyes met his. He began soaping my feet. I was sick of being played with.
    "How did your mother taste?" I said.
    The hand on my foot stilled and tightened. "My mother? Is that what you think this is all about?" He laughed as he plunged my foot underwater, then he got the razor from the cupboard.
    This time when his hand gripped my leg I began to count the lines in the tiled wall. When the cold blade of the razor slid down my calf, I lost count and started again. When he made me stand up, so he could shave everything, I divided the tiles by the number of cracks in the grout. When his hands spread lotion on me, he hummed a song and I counted