“Huh,” he says, running a hand over his beard. Joey can hear the rough bristles scratch his fingers. “I haven’t been in there since the renovation.”
“Why is my name on this?”
“I honestly have no idea. What did it say again? Ask you about what?”
Joey hesitates, then pulls the pink sticky note out of her pocket again. The wrinkles run like forked lightning through the words, giving them even more power than before.
He looks at it and then at her. His eyelashes are long, which has always given her the impression that kindness has been baked into him, genetically speaking. But she doesn’t see that kindness now. A darkness moves across his face, subtly, but enough to set her on edge. “You found this in the crawl space?” he asks.
“What is bloodspell?”
“It says to ask you.”
“Did you hunt this deer?” She points to the dried bloodstain smeared over half of it.
He laughs, then stares as it seems to dawn on him that it wasn’t a joke. “No. You know I don’t hunt.”
“Why is there blood on it?”
Walter prances in with a stuffed duck between his teeth, thrashing it around and pushing it against River’s thigh. Distracted, River runs a hand over the dog’s head. “Joey, I have no idea. I’ve never seen this before in my life.”
Walter spots the antler and drops the duck. He sniffs it and sits at Joey’s feet. She can’t tell if he thinks it’s a treat for him or if he recognizes the smell.
“What are you doing home?” she asks. “Shouldn’t you be working?”
“Early start today, so I finished at three.” He rests one hand on the desk and rubs at his eyes with the other hand. “Why are you here if you thought I would still be working?”
She only pauses for a second before reaching for the lie. “I thought I left my bra here. The red one with the…” She points to the middle of her chest where a tiny bow would be.
“Okay, and did you find it?”
“No.” She eyes the door behind him.
“Maybe it’s my dad’s from the last time he was here?” he says, gesturing to the antler. “He doesn’t hunt either, but I don’t know, maybe he’s storing it for someone. I have no clue.” He holds her gaze now.
Joey takes a step to the other side of the desk. He reaches out a hand to stop her. Slowly, he wraps the other around a point of the antler. She holds her breath for a few seconds, aware that he’s standing between her and the door. He seems taller than normal somehow, and there’s something in his eyes that she’s never seen before.
“I have to go,” she says.
There’s a beat of silence, and his eyes flick down to the antler, then back up again. He’s still blocking her path to the door. “Don’t,” he says.
Joey quickly calculates how she can sidestep him and get to the door as quickly as possible. “I’m meeting Elena and Sophie.”
River’s eyes seem to darken, and his expression suddenly pulses with something strange, an emotion Joey can’t read.
He leans in slowly then, so close to her ear that she can feel his breath. “Stay,” he says, with a voice that’s low and hard and floods Joey’s insides with frigid water.
She closes her eyes, fear unexpectedly moving through her. Everything has slowed around her now, everything except her heartbeat. “River,” she manages, and it comes out as a whisper.
There’s a pause, a moment that she thinks he’s not going to let her pass.
But then he stands up straight and nods. Joey releases her grip on the antler. Wordlessly, he slides it away from her and steps to the side.
She feels his eyes on her as she hurries down the stairs and fumbles with her shoes. Then, to Walter’s obvious disappointment, she backs out of the front door, slamming it a little too hard.
29Elena
Elena opens the email from the casting agency as she walks back to Barbara’s. Her call time is tomorrow at seven. A small leap of excitement breaks through her grim thoughts about Quinn. This is it. She may be just background, but she intends to speak to Phillip Granger, or track down a casting director, and send along her demo reel. She’ll do what it takes to make sure she’s onsomeone’sradar for future projects.
