Leticia

by Lindsay Anne Kendal

  “Amazing?” I smirked, “You creep.”

  “Just being honest.”

  “Hmm, yeah sure, of course you are?”

  “Stay in here tonight... please.”

  “Jackson...”

  “I haven’t seen you for three weeks, I thought you were dead in my arms...” he said looking away from me.

  “OK, OK, you win, move over.”

  I didn’t need to tell him twice. He lay on his side watching me and soon as I climbed in he pulled me against him.

  “I’ve been waiting to be able to spend the night with you,” he smiled, before kissing me for a moment. “I think we should just share a room from now on.”

  “Hmmm, really?”

  “Most definitely, we’re together, adults, so why not?”

  “We’ve not exactly been together long.”

  “Technically we have, we just slept most of it.”

  “Yeah true,” I giggled

  “So what do you say? Are you gonna stay with me from now on?”

  I snuggled in to him more. “Yeah.”

  He leaned forward and kissed me again. I slid my arms around the back of his neck and he crushed me to his chest. The kisses became more and more intense; I could feel his heart beat pounding into my chest. He rolled on top of me, ending the kiss for a moment and looking deep into my eyes.

  “If we carry on like this Leticia, I won’t be able to stop myself,” He breathed.

  “That makes two of us,” I whispered, kissing him again.

  Chapter 44

  We lay in bed most of the morning, neither of us able or willing to budge. The events of last night had exhausted us completely. I lay with my head on Jackson’s chest. The only sound disturbing the otherwise silent room, was our breathing.

  “Leticia, are you awake?” he asked, running his fingers across my arm.

  “Yeah.”

  “Good, because I need to tell you something... You’re amazing.”

  I giggled for a second. “It takes two you know.”

  “Whether that is the case or not you’re still amazing... in fact, amazing doesn’t cover it.”

  “I don’t know how to respond to that.”

  “You’re not very good at receiving compliments are you?”

  “No not really,” I groaned as he moved to face me. “Argh, I was so comfy then.”

  “I’m sorry,” he laughed. “But I wanted to look at you.”

  “I do not look good in the mornings.”

  “Oh yes you do.”

  “Oh flattery will get you everywhere.” I smirked, kissing him.

  A knock on the door interrupted us.

  “Hey, Jackson, are you actually going to make a move sometime today, its 11:30.” Nancy shouted. “Tish isn’t up either, you pair of lazy sods.”

  “I’m awake though,” I replied, knowing she wouldn’t be expecting to hear my voice.

  The door burst open and she barged in.

  “Well it’s a good thing we weren’t in the middle of something isn’t it, little sis.” Jackson smirked.

  “From the looks of this room it seems you were up to something all night.” She said looking around her.

  “Maybe.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, hiding my face under the bed sheets so she couldn’t see how pink I was turning.

  “No, no of course you don’t, that's why you won’t look at me,” she giggled. “Anyway, I’m making lunch, are you hungry or shall I just see to me and Tristan?”

  “We’ll eat, we’ll join you soon.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll believe it when I see it. Have fun!” she grinned, before leaving.

  “Now,” Jackson said, dragging me over to him again. “Where were we? Oh yes, we were here.”

  He started kissing my neck, causing a shiver to run through me and goose bumps to appear on my skin. His now wondering hands only made them worse.

  “Hey, stop it,” I giggled.

  “Nope,” he said, wrapping my legs around him.

  “Seriously, we need to get up, we...” He silenced me with a kiss. I quickly realized it wouldn’t matter what I said, we wouldn’t be getting out of bed yet; and if I’m honest, I really didn’t mind.

  ***

  After taking a nice hot shower together and getting dressed, we joined Nancy in the kitchen.

  “See, I knew you’d take your time,” She smiled. “Your lunches are cold; you’ll have to stick them in the microwave.”

  “Thanks,” I said looking at the clock. I was rather shocked to see it was now 2:15p.m.

  “Tristan and I will be leaving about six, so make sure you have your phones close by and that you answer them when we call.”

  “Yeah we will,” Jackson nodded.

  “Hmm, yeah, if you can actually keep your hands off Tish long enough, you mean.”

  “It’s not my fault she’s irresistible is it?”

  “See, you should have made him wait longer for you,” Nancy said to me. “Now you’ve given him a taste he’ll keep coming back.”

  “I don’t mind,” I laughed.

  “Well if he gets on your nerves there are guns in the back bedroom.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Piss off,” Jackson said, throwing a towel at her.

  “Or you could just throw him in a freezing cold shower Tish, you know how it affects them... physically,” she said with an evil grin, and flexing her little finger.

  “And I’ll say it again, piss off.”

  I stood there giggling to myself.

  “Well I’m going to pack some things.”

  “Where’s Tristan?” I asked her.

  “He’s gone to meet a friend; he gets his blood supplies from him.”

  “Oh OK, fair enough.”

  “Holler if you need me,” she said walking away.

  “Here, get this down you,” he passed me my reheated lunch. We didn’t speak much between eating, but I did catch him staring at me.

  “What are you looking at?” I shot playfully.

  “You know that expression, “undressing someone with your eyes?” well that’s what I’m doing. The great thing is I know what’s underneath those clothes. Mmmm.”

  “You’re so naughty.”

  “Yeah, but only with you.”

  “Oh shut up,” I couldn’t help but smirk. I shook my head and finished my lunch trying my best to avoid eye contact with him, but failed miserably.

  After lunch we helped Nancy load her car with some clothes and weapons. Tristan returned home around five, and they decided to set off early.

  “Now look after yourselves. You know how dangerous these people are, they’re not normal,” I reminded them both.

  “We will, we’ll message you when we arrive and then call if we have any news.” Tristan said, getting in the car.

  “OK, just be careful.”

  “You too, I would say stay close to each other, but I don’t think I need to do I?”

  “We’ll be fine.” Jackson assured them both.

  We stood in the doorway until they had driven out of sight.

  “Hmm, now this is where it gets interesting,” Jackson said, closing the front door.

  “I know, I doubt they’ll find anything though, I mean surely....”

  “That’s not what I meant.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, tight. “I meant, us being alone in the house, all night.”

  “Jackson you are...” he tried to silence me again with a kiss, but I moved out of his way quickly. “You’re rude, very,” I said backing away from him.

  “Leticia, my love, you can back away as much as you like,” he smirked, walking slowly towards me. “You won’t escape me.”

  I screamed as he ran towards me. I ran into the living room and tried to close the door quickly before he could enter, but he pushed it open with ease. I tried to run again, but he jumped over the sofa and grabbed me from behind. I burst out laughing and because of that, I didn’t have the strength to fight h
im off. He picked me up as though he was about to carry me over a threshold, then proceeded to throw me on the sofa.

  “I did tell you, you wouldn’t escape,” He said, climbing on top of me and unbuttoning my shirt.

  “I let you catch me, honestly...”

  “Yeah, yeah, of course you did.”

  Chapter 45

  We were on the sofa with a nice warm blanket over us, watching some cheesy horror flick. We hadn’t bothered to get dressed, it’s not like anyone else was in the house, and the scum that were looking for us still had no idea where we were. We’d received a message from Nancy to let us know they had arrived and checked into a hotel. They would be leaving for the lab soon, so all we could do was wait.

  “I wish we could lay like this every night.” Jackson said, kissing my neck.

  “We can, just not in the living room.”

  “I’m going to remember you said that.”

  “That’s fine by me.”

  “I never thought, not even for a second, we’d end up like this. I knew I’d been horrible with you, and I honestly thought you hated me.”

  “Part of me did,” I said turning to face him. “But like I’ve said before, I knew there was a big heart behind that wall you put up. You risked your life for me. That kinda told me you were something special.”

  “Up until meeting you my heart was like a graveyard. It was dead. But now, Leticia, it feels more alive than it ever has.”

  “That’s a good thing.”

  “Yeah it is.”

  “After Luke...” I paused, suddenly getting a rush of worry run through me, thinking about where he could be.

  “Are you OK?”

  “Yeah, sorry.”

  “Try not to think about it. We will find him.”

  “I hope so.”

  “What were you going to say?”

  “Yeah, erm, after Luke I didn’t think I’d ever trust anyone again. I thought I would be on my own forever. When I met you... I started to hope again. Then of course you were an ass with me, but, once you started to trust me and let your guard down a little the hope I had started to grow. Now you’re mine,” I smiled, kissing him for a moment. “You know, yesterday, when I couldn’t wake you I was frightened to death. I really thought I was gonna lose you. I lay next to you telling you that you weren’t allowed to leave me and that you had to wake up. I realized that I didn’t want to live in a world without you and that although we haven’t known each other all that long, I was fal...”

  “Stop, don’t say it.”

  “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

  “I think I do, and I want to say it first.”

  “Jackson...”

  “You’ve shown me how to feel again, you’ve change my life... I don’t ever want to lose you. I can’t bare the thoughts of being without you. I don’t care how long we’ve known each other... I’m absolutely, deeply, intoxicatingly...”

  He was interrupted by his phone ringing.

  “It’s Nancy,” he said answering it. “Nancy you’re on loud speaker, we can both hear you.”

  “Good, because you’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you,” she began. “They have definitely been back to the lab, well, if you can even call it a lab anymore...”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The place has been well and truly trashed...”

  “Did you both go in? Where is Tristan?” Jackson asked her.

  “If you stay quiet for a minute I will tell you everything.”

  “Sorry, please carry on.”

  “Right, as I was saying... the place has been trashed. In the main lab part there were only two chairs left intact. There was glass everywhere, papers and books torn up, machinery in pieces on the floor. It looked like a small bomb had gone off in there.”

  “It was in pristine condition when we came. The only place that was untidy was one of the offices.” I told her.

  “Every room has been destroyed. Even the windows were smashed. We’ve been looking around for ages for something, anything to give us a clue as to their whereabouts, but there was nothing. There’s a large pile of ash at the side of the building, it seems someone’s had a bonfire. I could see the remains of books, but I couldn’t make anything else out. We went back inside to double check everything, and in the end thought we were just wasting our time... then we did find something. It can’t help us but... we found a body.”

  “Yeah, Jackson and I did, it was in the storage room at the back of the lab. Remember I told you; it was Charles.”

  “No, we saw that one, or should I say what was left of it. It was disgusting; all his flesh had come off his bones and...!

  “Hey, hey, less of the details please,” I interrupted. “It was bad enough seeing it in the state it was when I was there. I don’t need to know about how it’s changed and...”

  “OK, OK, sorry, I’ll shut up.” She went quiet for a moment and I heard Tristan talking in the background. “OK you’re on loud speaker here too.”

  “Hey guys,” Tristan began. “Has Nancy told you everything?”

  “Not everything no,” she told him “I was up to the part where we saw Charles’s body...”

  “Yes but they already knew that was there. Jackson, Tish, we found another one.”

  “Where?” Jackson asked him.

  He was strapped to a bed, by the looks of him he’s been tortured and burned... he looked like he’d been there a couple of weeks at least.”

  “Who is it? Is there any way of knowing?”

  “Yes...” Nancy took over. “Now Tish you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.” she paused. “He had... Luke’s boots on.”

  I tried to speak, but no sound came out. My eyes filled with tears.

  “People can have the same boots as him, it could be someone else,” Jackson told her.

  “Luke had light denim jeans on and a blue shirt the day he was taken. By the looks of what was left of the fabric on the body, they’re his clothes too.”

  “Oh my god,” I choked, sitting up and putting my hand to my mouth. Jackson put his arm around me to try and comfort me.

  “Tish are you OK? I’m so sorry,” Nancy was saying.

  “She can’t talk at the moment,” Jackson informed her. “Can you carry on telling me?”

  “OK. After finding... Luke, we carried on searching. Still, we found nothing. We were about to leave when Tristan found a room we hadn’t explored. There were five other bodies in there. All of them looked similar to the guys who have been attacking us. They had all been shot in their temples. They wouldn’t have suffered, not like...”

  “Where are you now?”

  “In one of the offices, Tristan is going to look at Luke’s body to see if he can find anything to prove it isn’t him... up to now, he hasn’t been able to find anything. I’ll call you back soon.”

  She hung up.

  I was still silent; I didn’t know what to say. Jackson held me against him, and tried to assure me that there could have been a mistake. But I knew in my heart that when Nancy called back, it would be to confirm it definitely was him.

  “He must have been so scared,” I finally spoke.

  “I know baby, I know, I’m sorry.”

  “All the respect I had for human life has just left me. I mean, humans don’t even respect human life, so why the hell should I? I don’t care how old these men are, where they are from, what they have or haven’t got... I want every single one of them dead. I don’t want them to be shown any sort of mercy. The more pain they’re in when they die... the happier I’ll be.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “And when we find this Roger, nobody is to touch him, do you hear me?”

  “Why?”

  “Because that bastard is mine!”

  I pulled my clothes on and walked outside. It was a cloudy night and we were so high up that we were right in the middle of it. The clouds rushed past me, carried by the wind. It was
spooky, but I didn’t care. I was kinda hoping someone would jump out at me just so I could take my anger and upset out on someone. Jackson shouted for me to come back inside, but I didn’t want to, I wanted to be alone and I needed air. I was so upset; all those years I’d spent hating Luke, when all the time he was in trouble. Why hadn’t I persisted in looking for him before I fled? Why did I believe the scientists when they said he didn’t want to know me anymore? If I’d have stuck around longer, I could have found him, none of this would have happened and he would still be alive. The guilt I felt was almost unbearable. I blamed myself for everything, if only I’d kept my mouth shut and not told him what I was.

  Tears rolled down my cheeks, I couldn’t stop them anymore. I closed my eyes and whispered. “Luke, if you can hear me, where ever you are... I swear I will find them, I will get revenge if it’s the last thing I do.”

  If these creeps wanted to drive me into despair, they had pretty much succeeded. But oh god, they would pay for it.

  Chapter 46

  Jackson had now managed to drag me back inside, but only because Nancy was on the phone again.

  “Tish, can you hear me?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry, but it seems it is definitely Luke in there. Tristan cannot find anything at all to prove otherwise.

  “OK.”

  “Listen, we’re not staying over, neither of us think it’s safe. It seems to us that nobody has been to the lab for weeks and if they’re not here then they must still be close to our house. We’re setting off now and should be home in a few hours. The roads will be quiet, so it should be a straight forward journey. Stay alert; we will call you when we’re a few minutes away.”

  “No problem,” Jackson told her. “Take care.”

  “We will.”

  He hung up and then went in the kitchen to make us both a hot drink. I was sat on the sofa staring into space when he went to hand me the mug.

  “I’m sorry about Luke, I didn’t particularly like the guy but I didn’t want anything to happen to him,” he said sitting beside me.

  “I know, I just wish... well, I wish for a lot of things...”

  “You’ll get your revenge Leticia, I promise you.”