Red Light: A Dark Stalker Romance (Book One) (Dangerous Games Series)

Chapter Nineteen - Flick

As soon as Alanna drifted off to sleep, I creep downstairs and grab up the number Patty wrote down for her. I needed to get ahead of this. I dial the number and hit the call button. My hand actually shakes on the way to my ear. It rings once, twice, three times before the call connects and a sleepy voice answers the phone. "Hello? Who is this?" Betty Winters says on the other end of the line. I find I have to force my voice out. I'd spent so long avoiding her, that talking to her directly was difficult.

"Betty...it's Flick." I say and listen to the silence on the other end of the line. Betty sighs, "You haven't told her, have you?" She whispers and my chin drops to my chest. "No." I say in response and I hear Betty move through her house for a minute before she speaks a little louder. "Flick, someone is going to tell her." She says sternly. "I know. But I'm hoping that by then..." I trail off, not wanting to show how desperate I was for her.

"You're hoping she'll already love you." She fills in the rest, knowing me so well after all these years. "Yeah." I confirm. "Oh Flick." She says, pity thick in her voice. "I know you've been alone for a while, but she deserves to know. The rest of the town isn't going to let her get away with being with you without shoving her firmly in the outcast label." She says. "She doesn't care about that Betty. She hates how they treat me. She kissed me in front of everyone! I've never felt anything like this before. She's it for me. Please don't tell her." I plead and Betty sighs over the phone.

"You know if Doc catches wind she doesn't know, he'll tell her. And he'll try to find a way to legally hold you responsible for keeping it a secret." She says. "I know Betty. I'm gonna tell her. Just not right now. I need more time." I wait as Betty sits silently on the phone. "How have you kept Patty from saying anything?" She asks and I groan. "That's been hard as all get out. I told Alanna I broke in somewhere when I was ten. That's all she knows. But it's enough for her to have shut Patty down the few times she tried to outright tell on me." I say, feeling like a kid again.

"Well then she knows enough to be running around making a fool of herself. That's not very kind Flick." She admonishes me and I collapse into the kitchen chair and lean my elbows on my knees, then rubbing the back of my neck. "I know. I know." I agree with her. "If you promise to tell her soon, I'll keep what I know to myself. But Flick, when you do tell her, tell her to call me. I'd like to give my side of the story. I don't think I've ever had the chance before now." I nod, realize she can't see me, and voice my acceptance of her terms.

We chat for a minute longer about our theory, and Betty tells me that we're closer than we think to answers before we hang up and I trudge back up the stairs. I stare at Alanna's perfect sleeping face and think of how she'll react. I'll wait until Wolfe is gone. Then I'll tell her. I crawl into bed and pull her close to me. I bury my face in her hair and breathe her scent in deep. She'll understand, she has to.

*****

Alanna

I eat breakfast as fast as I can and dump my dishes in the sink before I snatch up the number on the counter and pull out my phone. "Just because you inhaled your breakfast doesn't mean everyone has. She might not answer." Flick says and I wave him off as I punch the phone number into my phone and hit send. I'm so eager I'm basically bouncing as I wait for the call to connect. After five rings, it finally does.

"Hello?" A pretty voice comes through the phone. "Hi, I'm looking for Betty Winters." I say and wait for a response. "I'm assuming you're Alanna?" She asks and I almost yell in assent. "Yes! Sorry, I'm just kind of excited. I've been unraveling this mystery for about a month and I feel like you're my last stop to answers." I say quickly in explanation. A light laugh comes through the speaker.

"That's alright Alanna. I understand. So you're calling about Olivia's journal then," She says and my eyes go wide.

"She had a journal?!" I exclaim.