by Cat Mann
****
Nick, Rory, Ari, Andy, Thais and Lauren were splashing around out past the breakers and Julia was stretched out on a towel on the sand.
“Hey,” I said, “mind if I join you?”
“Hi, girl, not at all,” Julia said enthusiastically. She must have been really bored to be so happy to see me.
“So…” I racked my brain for a normal conversation to have with her.
“How are things going with Rory?”
“Really good, actually; it’s funny how hung up I was on Ari when we first met. I can’t believe I overlooked Rory for even a second; clearly he’s perfect.”
“Clearly,” only a tiny tad of sarcasm crept into my tone. Julia missed the sarcasm and I was glad.
“Rory is great,” I said, this time in all honestly. “I’m glad things are working out for you.”
“Me too! I really love him. And we are moving up to L.A. in a few days for school. I found a great apartment on campus. I am looking forward to having some alone-time together.” She smiled. “How about you – how is married life?”
“Everything is super,” I replied, hoping she would leave it at that.
Julia rolled over and sat up. She had a crafty look on her face.
“So dish - how was the wedding night?”
I let out a nervous laugh.
“It was good.”
“Oh, come off it, Ava; I know it was more than good, don’t give me that. I heard it was brilliant,” her words rolled off her tongue in her perfect little English accent while pointing nonchalantly to the corner of her bottom lip right where Ari’s scar was.
My jaw slid open. “How would you know that, Julia?”
“Uh, Rory, duh!”
“Rory? How would Rory know anything?”
“Oh, Ava, please. You know Rory and Ari put on this big front that they couldn’t care less about each other, but the truth is they tell each other everything. Just look at them out there carrying on like two eight-year-old boys.”
The two of them were splashing and dunking each other in the waves. I was mad, mad at Ari. I resolved to talk to him about this later. So little in my life was private anymore; the least he could do was to keep our intimacy private and just between the two of us. Julia kept talking and before long my anger receded. I let the warm sun ease some of my tension away.
Ari sauntered up the beach a little while later. He took a seat next to my towel.
“Come swim with me.”
“No thanks. I watched you swimming with Rory; I’ll pass.”
Ari ran his hand through his wet hair.
“I promise I won’t let you go,” he spoke very fast while reaching for me.
“Ari!” I screamed but before I could protest any more than that, he scooped me up cradling me in his arms and took off down the beach in a dead sprint. I hadn’t realized just how fast a runner Ari is. He reached the water in seconds and once his body hit the waves, he wrapped my legs around his waist and held me like a child on his hip. As he waded in deeper and deeper I wrapped myself around him like a constrictor and shoved my face in the crook between his neck and shoulder.
Ari moved his arm up my back and tilted my chin up with his finger to look me in the eye. He smiled a reassuring smile. The water this close to shore was warm and calm. The waves were gentle and had a lazy way about them.
Not able to suppress my grin any longer, I smiled so hard it hurt my cheeks.
“Fun, right?” Ari asked with his boyish charm and I nodded eagerly.
He threw his head back and laughed aloud. “I knew you would like this!”
I’ll admit that I was not scared in Ari’s arms and I laughed with glee as he kissed my neck and tickled me with his lips.
Ari did just as he promised and did not let me go. The salty waves rolled all around us. He had his arms wrapped around me and kissed me as if we had never kissed before. Despite the cool breeze chilling my wet skin, my body begin to heat up and tingle. I closed my eyes and tightened myself even closer around his body.
“Yuck,” Lauren yelled over the crashing waves and cawing birds, “I can tell you aren’t going to be any fun anymore; I’m going in.”
A smile spread across Ari’s face and he loosened his grip for just a second to wave Lauren off, then went right back to kissing me.
The beach cleared out almost as though on cue, and only Ari and I remained. Once he realized we were alone, his grin turned mischievous. I let out a giggle when he pulled the strings on the bottom half of my bikini, letting it come loose.
“Oh, Ava,” he murmured, “music to my ears.” He walked with me through the water back towards the shore and lay me down in the wet sand. Thank God for a private beach! We were just far enough out that the waves would rush up my legs then trickle away only to come right back again. Ari kept pace with the sea and my fear of the water mixed with the pleasure of Ari was unlike anything I had ever felt before. My fingers dug into his hair and his fingers dug into the wet sand. I let out a moan then put my mouth on his strong shoulder again and bit down on him to muffle my screams.
“Damn, Ava, I love it when you bite me, but I want to hear you, too.”
My stomach flipped, tumbled, summersaulted, cartwheeled and round-off -back-hand-springed. Ari can say the sexiest things some times. I was no match for him. I looked away from his face, played with my hair and tucked a strand behind my ear.
“Baby, it’s me. Hearing your moans and your giggles, feeling your nails and your teeth in my skin -- it’s enough to unman me -- I lose control every time. I love watching your little toes curl with pleasure. I want to hear your pleasure, too.”
I blinked at him, unable to respond.
Ari picked me and my discarded swimsuit up in his arms. He headed back to our house so we could clean up before Lauren’s birthday dinner. In the bathroom, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I was healing. My eyes were no longer sunken and shrouded in dark circles. My cheeks were full again and between the sun and the blush Ari had just put on them with his conversation, they had taken on a rosy sheen. I looked forward to the dinner, to spending time with all of the people I love … and to laughing with them once again.
We got back to Aggie and Andy’s in time to join everyone at the dinner table. The table was filled with family, fun, and lighthearted conversation, just as I had hoped. The day had made me feel like me again; it helped me forget about my troubles for a while. The only thing that was missing was August.
I had talked with him earlier in the week. He was doing well. He insisted that we speak in French and the effort made my head hurt, so I didn’t stay on the phone for long.
After dinner, Ari and I helped Aggie clean up the kitchen and then we all gathered around the big kitchen island to sing happy birthday to Lauren. The cake was two layers and covered in purple icing. It was decked out with sixteen glittery, pink candles. Andy pulled out a silver zippo lighter to light them. At the sight of the lighter, I instantly froze. Fear and pain lodged in the pit of my stomach. My head pounded, my heart raced and my hands trembled. My knees were weak and bile rose in my throat. Images of my fingertips blistering and melting away flashed before my eyes. I saw No. 6’s sadistic smile and heard his evil laugh. My own screams echoed in my ears as my anxiety level mounted. I looked at my hand, then back at the lighter.
“Dad,” Ari shouted, “Dad, stop. Dad, for Christ’s sake, put the damn lighter away now!”
The entire party turned to look at us and finally Andy dropped the lighter to the counter top. It came down with a clatter against the hard marble.
“Oh, my God,” was once again the only thing that would come out of my mouth. Ari grabbed me by my arm and pulled me through the kitchen and out the back door. He sat me on a deck chair and went to his knees, in-between my legs. Putting my face in his hands, he looked up at me in the eyes.
“Ava, breathe, it’s ok. It will never happen to you again, I promise. Ava, I love you so much; just please breathe. Everything will be okay
.”
It took me much longer to get over this flashback than the first one. Horrorstruck, I kept looking down at my hand to make sure the flesh wasn’t melting from my bones.
Once I began to calm down, I put my hand on Ari’s face. He held my fingers to his lips and kissed each fingertip over and over again.
“Do you want to go home?” he asked softly.
“Kind of, but I don’t want to hurt Lauren’s feelings.”
“I’m sure she’ll get over it once she sees what’s waiting for her in the garage.”
We walked home slowly, hand in hand. I couldn’t face going to bed for fear of my taunting nightmares, so Ari and I snuggled up on the couch for a while without saying much of anything.
“Ava,” he whispered after a long while. “You know you can tell me anything. Maybe you’ll feel better if you talk about the things you went through.”
Closing my eyes, I let out a breath, briefly considering giving him every single gory detail.
“No,” I shook my head, “it’s bad enough that I have these images in my head and in my dreams; I don’t want them in yours, too.”
“Please, I would do anything for you. I wish I could trade places with you. I wish it had been me he had taken.”
I closed my eyes as Ari’s words brought back even more images … Ari on the TV begging to let us trade places, my captor giving me that option time and time again and the memory of how each time I said no, to keep him from hurting the person I love more than I love my own life.
I remembered how I faced torture and death by letting the thought of Ari take up all of the space in my head.
I laid my head on his chest and breathed him in.
“You were with me the whole time. No. 6 kept turning the TV on, playing images of you over and over and over again. Each time I felt scared or was in pain or was sad, I closed my eyes and thought of you. You saved me a thousand different ways, a thousand different times.”
He kissed my head, “I’ll always save you, Ava.”
“How did you find me?” I asked.
He cocked his head to one side. “You texted me, remember? I don’t know how you got hold of a phone, but you sent me an ‘x’ and I knew right away it was you. I was,” he paused, “Ava, I was a complete wreck. Getting that text was the closest I have come to believing in miracles ever in my life. The police traced the number and they were able to locate you within a matter of a few hours.”
I shook my head. Fuzzy memories began to come back to me. I remembered the sounds of the helicopters and then fighting with No. 6 at the top of the stairs. I remembered running through the house and finally finding my door to freedom. I remembered seeing Ari’s face in a sea of lights and faces.
I rubbed the back of my head, “What happened?”
“He came after you with a…” Ari swallowed hard, “with a bat and he hit you.”
I lay silent for a while.
“Ari?”
“Mmm?” he ran his fingers through my hair.
“Is he dead?”
It was his turn to stay silent.
“No, Ava, he’s not dead.”
He rubbed his scruffy cheek as he usually does when he’s thinking about something or when he is nervous or uncomfortable.
“He’s in the hospital in critical condition. He was shot five times. They took him to the hospital per protocol. None of paramedics thought he would last the first five minutes in the ambulance…but … ”
“But … I have to do it, don’t I?” I cut his sentence off. “I am the only person who can really end his life on earth?”
“Ava, don’t worry about that right now. He isn’t going anywhere. If he ever recovers, the authorities will take him straight to prison. He will never get to you again.”
I nodded my head and then snuggled deeper into Ari’s chest. I willed myself to sleep and filled my thoughts of No. 6. There was no way that bastard was going to live another day; conscious or not, he would die by my will before daybreak.