Deadly Obsession (A Brown and de Luca Novel Book 4) by MAGGIE SHAYNE Page B

The same sickness I’ve seen before. But she hides it. And no one else can see. There’s a demon inside her. A dragon. She’s hungry. She feeds on misery. I know, I know, I know. Your father had a dragon inside him, too. I saw it there, I knew. Oh, I knew, I knew—’”
    Mason stopped reading, lifting his eyes to mine. “It’s still hard for me to believe she really knew what Eric was.”
    “She couldn’t have known for very long. I mean, if she did and she didn’t say anything...”
    “Then she’s as guilty as he was.”
    “Maybe not
as
guilty.” I lowered my head, continued wrapping. “Maybe she only just found out toward the end. Maybe she was still wrestling with what to do about it when he took his own life, then decided, like you did, that it wouldn’t help anyone to make it public knowledge.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Finish the letter, Mason. What else does it say? God forbid she told Jeremy about his father.”
    He looked down, shook his head, kept reading “‘I won’t let the demons get you, baby. I promise. They got me. It’s too late for me. I’ve gone to hell for my sins and I’m not even dead yet. That’s how it works sometimes, the death angel just puts the guilty into hell right on earth, to show us what it will be like after. There are slavering dogs that roam the halls at night. You can’t see them. But you can hear their panting and feel their cold breath on your face. They poison the food here, too. To keep you crazy. They don’t want any of us ever to leave, ever. Because we might tell, if we get out. We might tell that they’re as crazy as we are. But I won’t let them get to you, Jeremy. I promise, I won’t.’”
    I sighed, finishing off the gauze with a healthy portion of tape. “She’s still completely insane, isn’t she?”
    “Yeah.”
    “There’s no way anyone would even consider letting her come to Jeremy’s graduation, is there?”
    He shook his head firmly. “No. No way. And if I get any inkling that anyone
is
considering it, all I have to do is show them these letters. It’s clear she’s still a mess.”
    “If she’s still this bad, even on meds, think how bad she’d be without them.”
    “Yeah.” He sighed and looked over his new dressing. “Nice job.”
    “No it’s not. It’s probably going to fall off before morning, but thanks for lying. And I wouldn’t know the early warning signs of an infection any more than you would. You need to get that nurse in here. In fact, that was one of the doc’s conditions for letting you come home, remember?”
    “Yeah. I know.” He moved the arm up and down a little, like he was testing it. The gauze hung a little too loosely here and there. “I guess I’d better call her in the morning. Tell her she can start.”
    “Good.” I don’t think it sounded very sincere, since it was my ineptitude at first aid that seemed to have convinced him to take the step. He was folding the letters and putting them back into their envelopes, stacking them on the coffee table.
    “Has Jeremy seemed okay to you these past two weeks?” he asked.
    “He really has. No moodiness. No more than typical teenage stuff, at least.”
    “I wonder what he made of that bit about Eric?”
    “The same thing he made of the demons and dragons and the invisible dogs, I imagine,” I said. “Don’t borrow trouble, Mason. The boys don’t know what their father was. They’ll never know.”
    “Not if I can help it,” he said. He sighed. “You’re good for them, you know that? You really came through for them while I was laid up. I hope you know how grateful I am.”
    I nodded, lowered my head.
    “And you’ve got the graduation party all planned, according to Jeremy. You just jumped in and took care of everything.”
    “Not everything,” I said, blushing a little. “There’s still his present.”
    Mason smiled slowly. “I’ve got that covered.” He leaned forward, tugging the laptop closer to him, hitting a few keys and glancing