Dark Waters (2013) Read Free Page A

forced him back. “I made a mistake, Anna. You have to give me the chance to make it up to you.”
    She turned her face away. “I want you to leave.”
    He frowned and she thought she saw anger in his eyes. She braced herself for violence, but all she got was mild censure. “I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll talk about it, when you’ve had a chance to calm down.”
    Because she was unreasonable…
    Rage shot through her, so intense she started to vibrate, but she held the fury inside. She didn’t want to antagonize or fight,she wanted him gone. He hopped down the two steps and walked backward, almost tripping over the brickwork. “Just sleep on it.”
    Sleep on it?
    He went through the arched gateway and closed it gently behind him. The arch was covered by a pink climbing rose that flowered all summer long and brought a beauty to her life—a beauty she’d always craved. That rosebush and the white picket fence had made her fall hard for this little house, and she’d bought it on the spot. It was amazing how easily the darkness could force its way back to destroy the peaceful illusion she’d worked so hard to create.
    “Good night, Anna. See you tomorrow,” he called.
    As if she didn’t know her own mind.
    “
No one will believe you. They hate you so much they’ll just laugh. You weren’t even any good.
” Memories echoed inside her head.
    Peter climbed into his silver Volvo and drove slowly away.
    Was she being too harsh? Cruel?
    Probably
. But she’d rather have a reputation for being a coldhearted bitch than be with a guy who stuffed his tongue down her throat because he thought she needed him to
take charge
.
    With shaking hands, she unlocked her door and stepped inside, then slid the deadbolt home. She slipped out of her pink high-heeled sandals and dropped her keys on the side table. The house was empty. Frigid. Or maybe that was just her.
    Unable to settle, she picked up her cell, which she’d left charging, and saw that her father had called. She didn’t want to talk to him.
    Leftover emotions mixed with scrambled memories from a time in her life she worked hard to forget. Peter had brought it all crashing back like a bucket of water to the face. It wasn’t like she’d never had sex. She’d
had
sex. It was just a long, long time ago.
    Damn
.
    She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a large glass of white wine and took a big gulp. Gazing out the window, shewatched the shadows of her secluded back garden. Shadows didn’t scare her.
    She spent a lot of time pretending to be normal. It was how she coped. But that didn’t stop memories of a night that should have been one of her happiest of her adolescent life, turning into an awful twisted nightmare. It had been bad enough with her father getting arrested for stealing a million bucks and causing a scandal that had put their family in the news for months. But one night of violence had ripped away her defenses and left her raw and bleeding. A few days later, she’d tried to end all the pain and anguish by going for a midnight swim in a storm-tossed ocean. Luckily, she’d been rescued by a fishing boat. Unluckily, she’d been locked up in a psych ward for a week.
    But she hadn’t needed a psychological evaluation to cure any suicidal tendencies. That startling revelation had crashed over her head along with the first wave. She’d been in pain but she hadn’t wanted to die. There were other ways of running away and, over the years, Anna had perfected them all.
    The doorbell rang and she jolted away from her memories. Putting the wine on the counter, she grabbed her phone so she could dial 911 if Peter had come back to claim something he thought he was entitled to. The sight of two uniformed cops on her doorstep made her stop short. In an instant she was catapulted back to that awful day when she’d been seventeen and the police had arrived to arrest her father.
    They’d ripped her life apart and she was still trying to put the pieces