Of course, David had known the money was going to be different, but there were other surprises. He hadn’t realized how he was used to seeing shingled roofs all the time until he was surrounded by metal ones. He’d thought Canada was basically like the United States, but colder and more French. Turns out, that was wrong all around. Mati explained about the snow and why some people liked metal roofs better, but it was still startling to see the bright silver, green, and red, shining in the sun. Reese explained about Francophones and Anglos, and David wondered how he could have lived a couple hundred miles away from all this and not known any of it.
When Reese showed him pictures of Quebec City, David took the phone right out of his hand and flipped through image after image of the castle on the hill and the high walls. He wanted to see that.
“We’ll take you there. As soon as we figure out what’s going on at home,” Reese said, making it sound so easy. David wanted to make him promise.
Reese smiled, and he couldn’t help but smile back. Mostly because Reese was beautiful, but also because he looked like he was suffering from some kind of pox. His neck was covered in love bites. And what wasn’t freshly bitten was pink with beard burn.
David might have gotten a little too enthusiastic last night in his bid to show how pleased he was to be invited along on this adventure. Sure, it was going to fuck him up something fierce in the long run, but he wouldn’t have slept a wink for weeks if he hadn’t come. Not because of his nightmares, but because he would have been worrying if they were safe, if Chaz or Frankie or god only knew who had somehow gotten to them.
Yes, he would eventually go home with a broken heart and a burning desire to travel to Quebec City, but he’d know they were safe, and that he’d loved them as thoroughly as he could, while he could.
That would have to be enough.
He slid his hand onto Mati’s thigh and she laced her fingers with his. She’d been driving since the “fucking north woods of Maine” and he couldn’t imagine how she’d managed to make the drive all the way to Boston.
Then again, she had to have some serious grit to survive her family and come out the other side as independent, resilient, and resourceful as she was. He’d caught her in his bathroom this morning, poking at the string of bruises down her thighs, each one carefully laid down and darkened by David and Reese over the course of the night. She didn’t like being marked up as much as Reese did, but she’d begged for more.
David, for his part, only had one bruise, right on the butt cheek, where Mati had bitten him as she’d come. He wondered if she’d done it on purpose, so he couldn’t shift in his seat or pass over a pothole without thinking about it. About them.
Sweet torture.
Reese’s phone rang, interrupting his suggestion that if they all liked Quebec City, they’d love some city in France David couldn’t begin to pronounce, let alone imagine visiting—though he wished he could.
“It’s Hodges. Finally,” Reese said, exasperated.
Reese had been trying to reach him all day. They weren’t particularly worried, because Hodges had told them that morning that he was going out with one of the investigators and that he’d call when he was back at the house. They just hadn’t expected it to be this late.
Reese answered the phone on speaker. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Nice to hear from you, too, Reese,” Hodges said mildly. “And I was out walking the property.”
“Is that safe?” Mati asked, her eyes fixed on the road.
“Well, that’s the question. I hate to say it, but someone was wandering around here last night. There are fresh footprints all through the snow around the house and in the woods, and a fairly clear path to a spot in the wall where a fallen tree made it relatively easy to get over.”
“Along the road?” Mati asked.
“Yes. About a quarter-mile from the gate, so not on any cameras.”
David frowned, trying to picture it. “There’s a wall all the way around the property?”
“There is,” Reese said. “Except along the shoreline.”
“How big a piece of land is it?”
“About one hundred and fifty acres.”
David’s mind boggled. “You have a wall around a hundred and fiftyacres? Howlongis it?”
Mati snorted. “Endless.”
“It’s about a mile and a half in total,” Reese said with a quelling look toward Mati. “Eight feet high, about a foot thick, mostly mason work.”
“Holy shit,” David muttered.
“Yes,” Reese agreed. “It took five years to complete, and I haven’t bothered to try to figure out how much my father spent on it because I’m sure I’d have a heart attack.” Reese cupped his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “Let’s not dwell on it with Hodges. He had to supervise the work. All five years of it. I think it’s the closest he’s ever come to quitting.”
“I can’t imagine. Especially since that wall is pointless unless you have barbed wire or it’s electrified.”
