This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

want to marry you for your money,” Selena said with a shrug. “And I tried to leave it behind when I was dating Tom. But family is important, and I really didn’t want to have bad relations with my grandparents.”

Which was why it sucked to be rich, Audry said to herself. She was glad her father had left it all. It probably was the best decision he had ever made in his life, besides marrying her mother.

“You didn’t dump Tom to appease your grandparents, did you?” Audry asked.

Selena smirked at her. “No. Though it may have looked that way. He and I really don’t have that much in common except that both of our fathers were complete and total blackguards.”

Audry stared. She didn’t know that much about Tom Brown. There was a rumor about his mother being in prison, but that was it.

“His dad started to visit him, though, when he was fifteen,” Selena said. “But the guy is a total jerk. He just causes problems for Tom.”

Something occurred to Audry then. She realized that almost all the kids connected to Gulinger Private Academy had something wrong with their families. Matthew’s father had been murdered by the mafia. Randon, whom she had briefly met, had a nasty mother who—like Silvia—was a witch. His friend Troy, whom she had also met, had parents who had tried to kill him. Rick’s situation was the mildest—merely involving a divorce and a rumor that his mother had gone insane. She didn’t seem insane when Audry had met her a couple of years back. What was with Selena’s father?

Selena answered as if reading her thoughts, “My father found my mother when she was on vacation in the Mediterranean. They had a big love affair and she got pregnant. And she never saw him again. I’ve never met him.”

It made Audry immediately think of Hogan. Those poor kids. What were they thinking about their father right then?

“I honestly would hate to think of Rick doing the same to someone,” Selena murmured.

Audry agreed. But then… she knew he had been seduced. She had met the woman.

“Her name was Daisy.” Audry closed her eyes, feeling Selena had the right to know the truth. Living off of rumor was a bad thing. “Daisy MacTire. Rick met her in Alabama. It was a summer affair, and she had seduced him.”

Selena’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“I met her before my Africa trip at a conference,” Audry said. “I had heard the rumors too. And when Daisy showed up at my booth to look for Rick, she told me everything.”

Selena went pale. She looked like she wanted to vomit.

“I was kind of mad at Rick over it, until…” Audry shook her head. “…that Daisy bragged about how she got Rick to have sex with her. And yeah, she got pregnant.”

“What?” Selena could barely get the words out, looking weak.

“But the girl miscarried,” Audry said. “Not that it makes it better.”

“What kind of person was she?” Selena asked, almost with bite.

Shrugging, Audry shook her head. “A pretty blonde, uh, southern chick—who dressed like clothes were an option and underwear was a funny idea.”

Selena paled more.

“She had come to my booth to entice him back—”

“Why would he come to your booth?” Selena asked, confused.

Shrugging, Audry had to think about that. But then she remembered—“Oh. It was because she found out I knew him. That, and we were selling these wolf tee-shirts for fundraising that… well, had, uh, his wolf on it.”

Selena stared “His wolf?”

Audry nodded, sure Selena knew the wolf she was talking about. All Rick’s friends knew that wolf.

“You mean the red wolf?” Selena asked. “The one with the gray eyes?”

Audry nodded again. “Yeah. I took a picture of it the same time I took that bullet out of its leg. It’s one of my favorites. I do wildlife photography as a hobby, you know.”

Selena almost laughed, but she nodded. “I see.”

Drawing a breath, thinking on that, Audry continued with the story. “The thing is, I saw the effect that Daisy had on Rick. He was drawn to my booth because she was there, and he could hardly resist her. And Daisy had bragged to me that she could lure him back in and get laid by the end of the day.”

“Did she?” Selena asked darkly.

Audry shook her head. “No. Tom Brown came around and drove her and her southern posse away from my booth. He did us all a favor. Rick was dragged away from her by his friend Randon. Matthew was there also, as was that guy Troy and another friend—Kurt.”

“I don’t know Kurt,” Selena said. “But I know the others. They all went to Gulinger.”

Audry nodded.

Then a look came into Selena’s eyes. She said, “What do you know about Gulinger High?”

Audry shrugged. “Not much. Matthew says it is a school for… uh… special, gifted kids, and kids hiding from organized crime. He said he was both.”

Selena looked stunned. “Wow. He told you that?”

Audry nodded.

“Did he tell you about his gift?” Selena asked.

Audry nodded again, and blushed. “I… I don’t usually hold with psychic phenomena, but, uh, Matthew was pretty convincing. And I noticed that Tom has a similar gift.”

Selena nodded slowly. “Yeah. Which is why they are best friends.” But then she looked thoughtful and said, “Did he say anything about me?”

Shaking her head, Audry frowned. “No. Though he did say you were also gifted—but he did not elaborate.”

Nodding, Selena sighed sadly. “Yeah. That’s fair.”

Then came silence.

Audry cleared her throat. “Can I ask?”

Selena looked to her. Her eyes questioned whether it was wise to talk about it. Yet she said, “I… I can influence people with my voice.”

And the truth of those words struck Audry hard. She had already seen it. Selena could command her mother to stop doing whatever annoyed her, and make the room calm down with just a few words. Audry had felt the effect on herself.

“It is a dangerous gift,” Selena said, now staring at the floor.

“Why?” Audry asked.

Lifting her eyes to her, Selena explained, “Because if I hated somebody, I could convince them to jump off a building and kill themselves. Especially men.”

That stunned Audry. Was she really able to do that?

“Rick hates my voice. He can hear it. The hypnotic tone in it. He is one of the few who is not influenced by me,” Selena said darkly. “Which is why I liked him. I could have an equal relationship with him… as I really could not bully him with my voice. We could have…” she stared at the ground sighing, “honest conversations. And I’d know if he liked me for me. But Rick can’t stand the sound of my voice.”

Audry hadn’t known that. She felt sorry for Selena.

Shaking her head Selena sighed. “It’s so stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Audry said, putting her hand on Selena’s. “You just have to find the right guy.”

Nodding, Selena sighed more. But then she stiffened a little and said, “But I would like to know how that woman seduced Rick. I had tried.”

Audry stared. It was a little too blatant.

But then Selena laughed at her expression. “Not so extreme, of course. I wasn’t trying to get laid. Just, I tried to charm him. Can you tell me how she did it? Or how she had claimed to have done it?”

Audry thought about it, then said, “Well… she said the funniest—and not ha-ha funny, but weird—thing. That Rick was attracted to her scent. That she had a pheromone enhancer that drove him wild. She said he was highly affected by scent.”

Selena pulled back. She looked thoughtful, nodding to herself. “Yeah… He is highly affected by smells, come to think of it. He totally reacts to garlic—” but then Selena stiffened, looked to Audry with a cringe and asked, “You know about his allergies, right?”

Audry nodded, chuckling. “Yeah. He’s got lots of them. Hogan was kind of joking about them. He couldn’t believe a guy like Rick could have so many allergies.”

With another snicker, Selena nodded again. “Yep. It is shocking how deathly allergic he is to stuff. He starts sneezing like crazy on Italian food day. The poor guy can’t have pizza.”

Smirking, as pizza contained cheese, Audry decided not to retort about the non-vegan situation with pizza. Tofu just didn’t cut it no matter how much she’d like to pretend it did.

Audry slept soundly that night, uncommonly so. She wondered if it had to do with what Selena had said to her when she went to bed. Which was: “Sleep well and have good dreams.” Could Selena even command a person to dream well?

The funny thing was, Audry always had strange dreams. It was just how her mind worked. But that night her dreams took a peacefully bizarre turn. She was walking on the beach with Hogan, holding his hand. They were happily smiling and occasionally kissing. But then her wolf came up from over the sand dune and shoved himself between her and Hogan, snarling at Hogan. Hogan tried to be nice to the wolf, but the wolf would only pull back until Audry grabbed him by his fur and held him. Yet in that moment, Audry saw that they were all surrounded by witches in black hats—except one who wore her pointed hat in Barbie pink and had on go-go boots. She also saw eight individuals standing around herself, Hogan and the wolf in a rainbow ring, each one a different color, each facing outward, and each one holding a flaming sword. All of them were men except one—who turned out to be Jessica. Audry recognized Daniel and Andrew among them also. And the wolf said to her in Rick’s voice, “We are not going to let a soul hurt you.” And when she woke from this dream, Audry felt surprisingly reassured.

 

Moves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Ten

 

 

Selena drove Audry to her apartment where there was already a small moving truck standing in the parking lot.

“They move fast,” Audry murmured, staring at the workers outside who were loading in recognizable beds.

“When they want to, yes,” Selena said. She parked in the space normally set for Audry’s car, which was still at the police station. They both got out. Audry led her up to her apartment where Daniel and Tom were boxing up the dishes.

“You need newspaper between them,” Daniel said to Tom.

“Bah,” Tom retorted, stacking clinking glass plate on top of glass plate. “If one breaks they can always buy a new one.”

Daniel set his hands on his hips, glaring at him. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe some people like the dishes they buy and want to preserve them? Besides, I don’t think Audry has that kind of budget. Her money is going to her research.”

Audry smiled, stepping into the room. She knew there had to be a reason she liked Daniel. It was nice to get the reminder.

Selena huffed, watching the pair pack. Both men looked up at the sound of her voice. It was just a breath, but Selena had that effect.

Tom stiffened, going formal. Daniel grinned, his eyes trailing from Selena to Audry. “Great! You’re here! You can tell us how you want things.”

Nodding, Audry walked up to the box Tom was packing. She took out the plates. Looking Tom straight into his orange eyes, she said, “Crumpled newspaper wrapped around the plates,