Page 46 of Last Call at the Doghouse

Mary dropped to the bed and sobbed. Almost instantly she felt a crying headache coming on. Some nights that headache was debilitating. Sonny was gone. She didn’t know when or if he’d be back. Was he done with her? Refusing to accept this lonely fate she jumped up, stepped into her shoes, and ran out the door.

Sonny always parked in the empty lot next door. His car was hidden there, thanks to a strip of trees that hadn’t yet started to shed their leaves. Their love was a beautiful secret, he said. She understood that he didn’t want anyone to know they were together, but the secrecy wouldn’t last, he said. Soon everyone would know, but not yet.

So why was she so afraid he wouldn’t come back?

Mary held her breath as she ran, hoping she had time to catch him, worried that she would not. He was opening the driver’s side door as she emerged from the line of scraggly trees that separated one parking lot from the other.

Sonny lifted his head. He looked genuinely surprised. And why not? She’d been obedient until now.

“Take me with you,” she insisted.

“I told you…”

“Take me with you now, or I’ll scream. I have a good scream, love. I can bring everyone from The Doghouse running.”

A bird above her head squawked loudly, the sound discordant in the night. Another flew from inside the burned-out building and perched on the hood of Sonny’s car. Her lover was angry; she saw that clearly. He wasn’t accustomed to her disobedience.

He could do to her what he’d done—what his birds had done—to Carlton, but she didn’t believe he’d go that far. Sometimes when she thought of what had happened to the poor man she wondered how she could love the one responsible. That thought never lasted long. Sonny had his reasons. She’d learned not to question them.

His anger faded quickly. The birds in the tree behind her and the one that had perched on the hood of his car all took flight as he smiled. “Maybe it’s time.”

“It is. I can’t go back. When Armi finds out the book is missing, she’ll know I took it. No one else has the combination to the safe.”

“Fine. Pack a bag…”

“No.” If she went back into her room for her phone, her purse, or to throw clothes into her suitcase, he’d leave. She knew it. “I’ll ask Stella to send all my things to wherever we’re staying in Mystic Springs.”

“Get in,” Sonny said sharply.

Mary made her way to the passenger side door. Sonny didn’t open that door for her, or smile in a way that would tell her he was glad they were going to be together. As he drove out of the gravel lot and turned onto the road, she looked at his profile and smiled.

God, she loved him. She’d do anything for him.

She already had.

* * *

“I’m an idiot,” Armi said as she ran through the motel parking lot.

“You couldn’t have known,” Mitch argued.

But she should have. Mary had been different since coming here, in subtle ways. It had been easy to write those changes off to adjusting to widowhood, living in a new place, or going way out of her comfort zone to work in a bar.

“Her car’s still here,” Armi said. She stopped when she was close enough to see that the door to Mary’s room stood open. Soft light spilled onto the walkway. Her heart skipped a beat. This could not be good. “We should’ve come here first instead of searching the bar,” she said. They’d wasted precious minutes checking out the storeroom and the restrooms, even running back upstairs to make sure Mary wasn’t hiding there, book in hand.

Mitch moved around her, holding up a hand to instruct her to stay back. He was probably just as worried as she was about what they might find. It looked as if Sonny wanted the book and he’d seduced Mary in order to get it. Now that he had what he wanted…

Armi was tempted to rush into the room, but like a coward she waited in the parking lot. If Mary was dead, she didn’t want to see.

Mitch wasn’t in the room long. He exited with an immediate, “No one’s home.”

“The book?”

He shook his head.

Armi reached into her pocket for her cell and went to her most recent numbers. She tapped the face of the phone and it started to ring.

She could hear Mary’s distant, cheerful ring tone from here. Mary wasn’t in her room, but the phone was.