Unraveling Mordecai, Marisa Maichel [ebook reader .TXT] 📗

from Father.
“I had another vision,” he said. “But not of the present; this one was of an alternate future, or so I think. I spoke with Krauvas, and he consulted his tarot deck. He spoke with Hecate, or so he thinks, and he agrees with me. In this alternate future, Sarah is accused by you of having sex with Jamie, but it isn’t true-she was raped again, this time by him. He used magic to put the seeds of doubt in everyone’s minds, and everyone turns against Sarah eventually, and she commits suicide. It’s happening now in an alternate universe. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
“Well, of course,” Beckett said. “What is Jamie doing now? Can you get a reading on him?”
“He’s acting like a perfect gentleman in our universe. He’s at the restaurant now, eating crab legs with Sarah.”

I made it to the restaurant in record time, but Sarah and Jamie were getting ready to leave. Sarah grabbed her purse, and Jamie put her jacket around her shoulders.
“Care to join me for a stroll along the beach?” he asked.
“I’d love to,” she replied breathlessly. That was me who should have asked her to take a walk with me. And anyway, she was wearing high heels, not walking shoes. I growled a little when she produced a pair of pink Converse sneakers and socks and put the heels in her other hand.
I thought about the other universe, the separate universe where I would lose Sarah. It would destroy me; did my other self not realize that? I carefully watched from a distance as he offered her his arm and they started walking. I followed behind, my steps as silent as a cat’s.
My heavy boots weren’t made for such light sand. I nearly fell in the ocean a few times. They walked a mile and a half, and Jamie stopped at a secluded spot on the beach. My nightmares about the ocean began to hit me. This wasn’t safe. Not at all. I sent Father a text.

Reese: How does Sarah in the other universe die?
Mordecai: She drowns herself in the ocean.
I nearly ran forward and snatched her up right then and there. But I controlled my instincts and stayed where I was. I found a bridge nearby and hid under it.
Sarah sighed daintily and stared out at the ocean.
“I’ve always loved the sea,” she said. “I used to live nearby. Daddy would always bring me out here and I would dip my toes in. Then I would chase the waves. Run back and forth. It made my dad laugh.”
“Did you live near here?” Jamie asked.
She hesitated. “Closer to Atlantic City. I used to play on the beach all the time with my friends. My best friend at the time was a girl named Kirsten. I think she’s married now.”
“Do you wish you had a different life?” he asked.
“Sometimes. Not different friends or family or a different boyfriend, but different experiences.”
“You’ve been with Reese a long time, haven’t you?”
“About two years, almost three.”
“What is it about him that you like?”
“Hmm. I think I like his kindness most of all. Like, he’ll be in the street, and he’ll see someone who needs food or shelter, and he’ll give them a hundred bucks straight out of his wallet. Without even a hesitation. Or he’ll see an animal in distress, and he’ll stop to help it. He loves his cats, particularly, especially Shadowfang.”
“Shadowfang? Where did that name come from?”
“The first time Reese watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, he thought that Gandalf called the Horse Lord Shadowfang instead of Shadowfax. It’s one of his favorite book and movie series.”
“What else do you like about him?”
“I really like his intelligence. Like, he’ll go off on a rant about how the U.S. government should spend money this way instead of that, or he’ll start talking about a specific animal and its characteristics. He also knows a lot of words, some of which I’ve never heard of or read. Sometimes my adopted mother says I sound like him when I talk.”
She giggled.
“Do you think I am like him?”
“I don’t know you well enough to really compare you two. I will say that you’re more old-fashioned than he is. Which is romantic, but I prefer a modern thinker when I date.”
She thought I was modern, kind, and intelligent? And I had begun doubting our relationship and her seriousness about it. I was an idiot. A pathetic, jealous, insecure, self-centered moron. I hit my head against the wood of the bridge, causing several spiders to fall. I tried not to scream as one landed on my head and I flicked it off.
I needed therapy. That’s what I needed.
I watched as they became silent again and gazed out to the dark blue water.
“Oh look, there’s some crabs,” Sarah suddenly said. I looked over at her. She was on her hands and knees, watching the little creatures as they grabbed plankton and minnows.
I might not have noticed it, if I hadn’t turned my eyes toward Jamie just then. He moved his foot at the exact same time Sarah started to stand up, and she fell facedown in the water.
I panicked then.
“Sarah!” I shouted.
“Oh dear, are you all right?” Jamie asked, his voice full of sugar.
“I’m fine,” Sarah said. “I must’ve tripped.” He helped her up, and she brushed off her dress. “I think one of the crabs pinched my finger, though.”
“The little cretins,” Jamie said. “I hope you’re not hurt. But look, now your pretty dress is wet.”
“It’s just a dress,” Sarah said.
“I insist on buying you another.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“No, no, it was my fault. If I hadn’t brought you out here, it might not have happened.”
It was his fault, but not for the reason he stated. He had purposely knocked her down.
Control your instincts. Control your instincts. Remember, Sarah doesn’t like jealousy.
I took a deep, unnecessary breath, and continued to watch and listen as Jamie asked Sarah if she’d like to look at the shops. She agreed, of course. The girl’s favorite thing to do is go shopping.

Within a few minutes, Sarah and Jamie were at a small gift shop run by the local Native American tribe. Sarah picked out a mythology book and Jamie bought a shark’s tooth necklace and a shell pendant that had been carved in the shape of a heart and painted pale pink.
Sarah smiled shyly at the clerk, who gave her a flirtatious grin in return.
“Five dollars,” he said.
“The book was ten dollars,” she corrected.
“For you, it’s five dollars.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” She looked uncomfortable, much to my delight. “I have a fiancé, though.”
“Too bad,” the clerk said, shaking his long hair. “I’d love to take you out to dinner.”
She paid him and Jamie bought the jewelry with cash. He gave her the shell pendant and the shark tooth necklace.
“Oh, thank you,” she chirped, looking much happier now that the cashier wasn’t flirting with her. Jamie gave the clerk a death glare, and then led Sarah to the next shop, which was an ice cream parlor. She chose chocolate and he chose cookie dough.
She chattered to him about her dogs, her sister, and her father. She didn’t tell him the scary stuff, though, only that her parents were divorced and she didn’t see her mother anymore for personal reasons. She said that she adored my family, especially my mother and sister, both of whom had treated her like a mother should treat her daughter.
He talked about his homes in London, Surrey, Edinburgh, York, and Berlin. Hah. I could top that. I had a home in every country in the world, and several U.S. states. He talked about his massive library and his stock shares and his bookstore where he sold copies of every one of his books, plus several other authors who had a contract with him. I’d have to look into that.
I saw his shoe touching hers several times. If she felt it, she would move her foot. If she didn’t…it took all my strength not to snap his neck.
They visited a clothing store next, where Jamie found a similar dress to the one Sarah was wearing, but in hot pink, not green. I would have gotten her another green one. She tried in on and modeled it for him. The girl with the camera was there, and snapped a couple pictures. She looked miserable.
I tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around, and saw me. Then she narrowed her eyes.
“Aren’t you Sarah’s boyfriend?” she asked in an American accent.
“Yes, I’m Reese,” I said. “What can you tell me about Jamie?”
She shrugged. “What do you want to know? I know everything about him.”
“Are you friends? I asked.
“Oh, hardly. He’s my ex-boyfriend. I only took this job because the pay will be incredible. I’m Hannah March.”
“Reese Emerson,” I introduced myself. “What’s he really like? I saw him trip her at the beach.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always doing weird shit like that so he can be “the perfect gentleman” or whatever. He only does it so he can help a damsel in distress and look like a hero.”
“How did you meet him?”
“Through my parents. They’re his publishers. They thought that if he and I dated…”
“I get it. Why did you break up, if I may ask?”
She shrugged. “He cheated on me with some curvy redheaded chick with blue eyes. I dumped him that night.”
“Why don’t your parents dump him?”
“Because he rakes in the dough. He makes a huge amount with everything he does. His writing, the ghostwriting he does, his bookstores, and so on.”
“Ghostwriting?”
“That’s when somebody writes under a real author’s name.”
“I know what ghostwriting is. But who has he ghostwritten for?”
“I don’t know. A lot of popular authors. People who aren’t as well-known as him. My sister, for one thing, and my brother. They’re both authors, but their books didn’t sell well, so they wrote down their ideas for him and he turned them into books. Moonlight Kiss is actually my sister’s idea. It’s about a girl who thinks that her soulmate will meet her at the edge of the lake and kiss her there on the Winter Solstice, and she’s confused when he doesn’t show up.”
“Sounds romantic,” I said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes.
“I know, right? Mushy stuff. But my parents always did like my sister more. They practically crushed my dreams and said I was too dumb to go to college, so I dropped out of high school, and now I work as a photographer. They threatened, to…well, cut me off if I didn’t take these pictures. But whatever.”
“Hannah! Sarah and I are ready to go!”
Hannah turned and frowned. “I have to go. Maybe we’ll see each other again, Reese?” She fluttered her blond eyelashes.
“I’ll message you,” I promised. This girl was chock-full of information. I hid in a rack as Sarah came into view and Hannah turned to greet her and Jamie.
“Let’s go,” Jamie said curtly. “Lazy bitch,” he mumbled under his breath. Whoa. Hannah was right. Jamie Williams was not a nice boy.

After some more shopping, smoothies, and a light dinner, the day was over, and it was time to take Sarah home. She exchanged phone numbers with him and smiled at Hannah, who just scowled.
Jamie passed the bags over to Hannah, who struggled with her camera and put them in the trunk of the limo.

When we got home, Jamie forced Hannah to help Sarah carry her bags upstairs, take a few final pictures, and he kissed her cheek and left. Hannah spotted me and waved, and then