Between Here and the Horizon(71)

“I think you might be confusing it with a few other movies.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, nodding. “There’s a very strong possibility that you’re right there.”

I slapped my hand over my heart, feigning shock. “My god. Did Sully Fletcher just admit I might be right about something?”

He laughed, scathing and amused all at once. “Don’t push your luck, Lang. Drive me somewhere, will you? I’m so f*cking sick of looking at this lighthouse.”

“It’s dark.”

“I know. That’s the best part.”

He was a strange, strange man. I drove with the headlights turned off, winding my way down narrow single track roads, curving along the coastline until I reached a wide turnout point at the edge of a cliff face, overlooking the ocean.

“Get out and sit with me,” Sully commanded. He reached through to the back seat, pulling a face—his ribs were obviously still a little twingy, despite the four-week period he’d had to recover—and picked up the bag with the food and mulled wine in it. He got out of the car without saying another word and walked off into the dark.

I waited a second. It was freezing cold out there, and he’d only just recovered from a severe bout of hypothermia. The man really was crazy. Certifiable. Still, no point sitting in the car. He seemed pretty determined when he got out and walked off. I had very little choice but to get out and follow after him.

The ocean was roaring, crashing into the cliff face, spitting icy flecks of salt water up at the land. I found Sully leaning against a flat ledge of rock, brushing snow off it with his bare hands.

“Sit down.” He pointed at the bare rock, eyes set, firm, daring me to deny him.

I sat. He joined me, leg pressed up against mine, and started handing me things out of the bag I’d packed at home: turkey; potatoes in tin foil; yams; a small container of gravy, lid screwed on tight.

“I didn’t bring any paper plates or forks. I assumed we’d be eating at your place. We can’t eat out of the tinfoil, Sully.”

“Why the hell not?” He picked up a piece of candied yam and dipped it into the tub of gravy, then popped it into his mouth, flashing me a grin.

I rolled my eyes. “You know they’re probably gonna find our bodies here in four days’ time, frozen to this rock, right?” My ass was already numb.

“Don’t be such a baby.” He shifted closer to me, though, putting an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him.

We both ate one-handed, in silence, listening to the ocean beat against the foundations of the island. Out to sea, in the very far distance, the lights of freight ships and tankers winked and flashed red and green, as if marking the holiday.

Once we were finished, Sully cleared away the mess left over from our meal and got out the mulled wine, pouring out a healthy measure into the top of the flask. “We’ll share,” he said, handing it to me. I held the lid containing the piping hot liquid in my hands until I could feel my fingers again, and then I drank and passed it to him.

“This month has been shit,” he said quietly under his breath. “I didn’t realize how shit it was going to be. And don’t you tell me you’ve been having a great time, because I know you haven’t.”

“I have.”

“I went to Connor’s play,” he blurted. “I sat at the back. I made sure he didn’t see me.”

“You did?” I couldn’t believe it. The presents this morning had thrown me, but this was something else altogether.

Sully nodded, and then drank some of the wine. He seemed lost in thought, eyes shining dimly even though the night was pitch black around us. “I just wanted to see him. See both of them. Everyone on the island is always arguing about who they look like—Ronan or Magda. I guess I wanted to make up my mind for myself.”

“Oh.” I took the wine from him. “What did you decide?”

“They look like Ronan the most. Which means they also look like me.” This thought didn’t seem to make him happy. His left hand tightened into a fist in his lap. “I wasn’t expecting that. I should have been expecting it, but I wasn’t. Goddamnit, Lang, will you open your damn present already? It’s making me flip out knowing that we’re sitting here with it in your pocket.”

I wanted to know more about what he’d seen the night of Connor’s play, what he’d been thinking as he watched his brother’s son recite his lines, perhaps catching glimpses of Amie and me in the shadowy crowd, but his confession had obviously made him uncomfortable, and he clearly didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I took the gift out of my pocket and held it up, studying it with one eye closed.

“Can I shake it?” I asked.

“Sure.”

Nothing breakable inside, then. I shook it, and the slender package rattled, many small pieces bouncing around inside. “Hmm.” I unwrapped it carefully, and then lifted the lid of the plain blue box underneath, to reveal USB drives. Six, seven, eight of them, each one the same slim, silver design with a small lanyard attached.

“What the hell are these?” I asked, laughing.

Sully picked one up out of the box and held it up, grinning wickedly. “These are the downloaded files from my unit’s shared drive when I was deployed, Miss Ophelia Lang from California. Each one is twenty gigs of uncensored hardcore porn, courtesy of Specialist Crowe. Seriously, I hope you understand how honored you should be. These USB sticks are my most prized possessions.”