by T. K. Leigh
Or maybe he was being set up again?
I had no fucking clue what to think anymore. All I did know was that I needed to get Mackenzie out of town in case it was true.
Turning to Eli, I rubbed my hands over my face. “Go pack. We’re leaving this island. How long do you think it’ll be until the jet can be ready to take off?”
He stood up, heading toward the front door. “I’ll call the pilots and see how quickly they can put a flight plan together.” He pulled out his phone and began flipping through it. “Turn your phone on and I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thanks, Eli.”
“You got it, Ty. We’ll get her out of here and away from Charlie.”
Mackenzie
I HEARD LOW VOICES from down the hall and my eyes fluttered open. I scowled when I saw Tyler’s side of the bed was empty. We had spent the night together a total of four times now and each morning, I woke up to a vacant bed. Just once, I wanted to wake up enveloped in his warm embrace. There was a void surrounding me and I hated it.
Trudging over to my dresser, I pulled on a pair of boy shorts and a tank top, then made my way down the hallway. The voices grew urgent and I hid, eavesdropping on a conversation between Tyler and Eli.
“Go pack,” Tyler said. “We’re leaving this island. How long do you think it’ll be until the jet can be ready to take off?”
Leaving this island? I thought to myself. What was going on?
“I’ll call the pilots and see how quickly they can put a flight plan together,” Eli’s deep voice broke through and I held my breath, still trying to figure out what they were talking about. “Turn your phone on and I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thanks, Eli.”
“You got it, Ty. We’ll get her out of here and away from Charlie.”
My heart squeezed in my chest and Charlie’s warning from the night before replayed in my mind.
“Over the next few days, you may hear and see things that paint me as a monster. Just know I don’t have it in me to harm another human, outside of combat. Promise me you won’t let anything or anyone persuade you otherwise. I am a good person. Don’t forget that.”
My world spun around me and I felt sick to my stomach.
Taking a few slow steps out of the hallway and into the living area, my eyes fell on Tyler’s shrunken shoulders as he was closing the door to my condo.
“Why do you want to get me away from Charlie?”
He whirled around, staring at me. I tilted my head and surveyed the nervous expression on his face, his eyes wide.
“Tyler? What is it?” My voice was soft and full of uncertainty. All I knew was there was something going on and I needed the truth from the man with whom I had begun to share the demons of my past.
Resigned, he grabbed my hand and led me to the couch, pulling my body against his. I couldn’t help but sigh at the contact. I had woken up craving his touch and now that I had it, I didn’t want it to end.
He placed a soft kiss on my head and caressed my hair. I lost myself in his embrace, momentarily forgetting about the conversation I had overheard, until Tyler brought me back to reality.
“We found out Whitman’s connection to you, why you were…” He trailed off, composing his thoughts. “Why he was after you.”
“And that would be?” I pulled out of his embrace, focusing on him with wide eyes, pleading for an answer.
He studied me and pressed his lips together. A heaviness set in my stomach. “Charlie,” he admitted.
“How?” I furrowed my brows. “I don’t understand.”
Not letting go of my hand, he asked, “How much do you know about why your father is in hiding?”
“Not much. Charlie told me he thinks my dad was onto a conspiracy or something. Arms deals. I don’t know the details, but he thinks my dad was about to blow the lid on something big and that’s why he had to disappear.”
He let out a long sigh, his posture visibly sagging. Shaking his head, he raised his eyes to mine. “Mackenzie, there’s more to it than that. They think your father is the one responsible for the arms deals.”
It felt as if all the air had been ripped from my lungs, my tongue like dead weight in my mouth. I couldn’t formulate a response. All I could do was listen to Tyler as he told me the CIA thought my father was the one responsible for the arms deals; that he was alleged to have massacred over sixty people at an embassy in Liberia, three of those people being Charlie’s family; and that, for years, he was presumed to have died during the attack.
I couldn’t listen to it any more.
“No,” I said, vigorously shaking my head. “That is not my father.” I stood up, leaning over him, glaring. “You’re wrong.”
“I hope I am, Mackenzie,” he replied, his voice as soft and pacifying as ever. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back down to the couch. “But the truth remains that Charlie thinks that’s your father.”
He avoided my eyes and I knew he was about to tell me something that was going to tear everything I knew apart. I tried to repeat Charlie’s words in my head, that he was a good person and wouldn’t hurt anyone, but his steady voice was being buried by my own unsettled thoughts.
“When we stumbled on Whitman’s body, we had no idea what the connection to you was. All those photos were confusing. But the police found a journal Whitman and Charlie used to communicate while he was at Walter Reed. It’s all there. He wants revenge. He used his job in Counterintelligence to find out the names of everyone the CIA was suspicious of helping your father in the attack, and he’s destroying their lives, as his was destroyed when he lost his family.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, my hands trembling in my lap.
“It means he hired Whitman to help in his sick, twisted plot of revenge. There’s no pattern, no rhyme or reason to these kills, making anyone associated with this a potential target, including your father…”
I placed my hand over my mouth to hide my quivering chin. “And me?”
A dejected look on his face, Tyler nodded. “That’s why Charlie was looking for your dad. It’s not to solve some big conspiracy. He wants revenge.”
I blinked rapidly, trying to wrap my head around what he was telling me. “If he really wanted to make me or my dad pay, he could have easily threatened me and made me take him to see him.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them and I saw the shock on Tyler’s face.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked. “You know where your father is?”
I hesitated, gauging his demeanor. His eyes remained unchanged, his breathing measured. He appeared calm, and I knew his interest held no ulterior motive. “I see him about once a month,” I admitted. Raising myself from the couch, I strode into the kitchen, popping a pod into my one-cup brewer.
“How does that work?” Tyler asked, following me. I poured some milk and a bit of sweetener into the mug, and began preparing one for Tyler, as well.
“In pain, there is healing,” I said, spinning around to face him. “When my mother died, she left a jeweled cross necklace for me.”
He nodded. “I’ve seen you wear it. It’s beautiful.”
My face warmed. “It is. Just like my mother. She got it from one of the sisters at the convent. After fleeing North Carolina, we were forced to live in this small little room in the rectory of the church. The only people we really socialized with for over a year were the nuns who visited the priests.”
“That explains it,” Tyler said.
“Explains what?”
“How you never knew about the attack. It was all over the news for a few months. Yes, you were probably hidden for safety reasons, but also to keep information from you. Granted, your father’s name was never tied to it publicly for some reason. He was simply listed as one of the deceased, but they probably didn’t want to risk it.”
My jaw dropped slightly and I wished I had seen it all sooner. “That explains the homeschooling, too. And I guess Father Slattery thought enough time had passed
when college rolled around that the attack would be just a distant memory.”
Tyler nodded in understanding. “Tell me about the cross,” he said, bringing me back to my original story.
“It was one of the nuns’. My mother always admired it and, when it was decided it was safe for us to leave, she gave it to my mother. Sister Margaret was her name.
“When my father showed up at my mother’s house after her funeral, I was shocked. I thought he was dead, so the image of him standing in front of me was a hard one to grasp, but once I realized it was him, I was overwhelmed with joy. There was so much I wanted to talk to him about, but I couldn’t. He left almost as soon as he had arrived. I asked when I could see him again and he told me he’d always be as close as the cross. Then he said, ‘In pain, there is healing’. I had no idea what he was talking about.”
“How did you figure it out?” he asked me, preparing his coffee the way he took it, then sat next to me at the kitchen island.
“My father always loved to play little scavenger games. I had seen those words somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where. I went back to College Station to finish up my finals and moved into the apartment with Jenna and Brayden. One day, when I was working at the bar, it hit me where I had seen them. Those words were scrawled in small print beneath the crucifix in the chapel at the rectory where we had hid. We didn’t get to leave our small little room all that much, usually only on Sundays to listen to one of the priests deliver mass to the nuns in the chapel of the rectory, but that’s where I saw those words.
“I bolted out of the bar and sped to San Antonio, the beaded cross hanging around my neck. It was probably two in the morning, but I didn’t care. I banged on the door to that rectory, startling one of the nuns. She saw me, then the cross. That’s all it took and she knew exactly who I was. She instructed me to go into the church and sit in one of the pews toward the rear, but not the back row. I did as I was asked and waited. And I waited and waited. The sun began to rise and I was ready to give up, especially once churchgoers began to arrive for Sunday mass. All night, I had been telling myself just five more minutes, so I did again. I’d sit for five more minutes, then I would leave. As the organ began to sound and the choir sang a hymn, a familiar step-thump echoed.”
“Step-thump?” Tyler asked.
I nodded. “Yes. My father walks with a cane now.”
“Do you know why?”
I raised my coffee mug to my lips. “No. I never really asked. I had a million questions for him that day, but he couldn’t answer any of them. He said it wasn’t safe for me to know any of it, not yet. He promised when it was safe, he would tell me everything. And that’s been our relationship ever since. I go to the church once a month at a pre-arranged time.”
“How do you arrange it?”
I shuffled past him and pulled open one of the kitchen drawers. I sifted through the contents and grabbed a piece of paper. “I get mailed the Sunday church bulletin every week, which lists the mass schedule and who each mass is being said in memory of. It’s always for a different person from my family so no one can catch on or see the pattern. This week it was for my mother. Last month, for my aunt.”
An understanding washed over Tyler. “Of course…”
I shut the drawer and sat down once more. “I don’t really know my father that well, Tyler, but these things you say he’s done, I just… That’s not my father. He’s a brilliant man who loves his country. He’s taken bullets for his country. He’s suffered second- and third- degree burns over half his body.”
“Wait. What?” Tyler asked, blinking rapidly. “When?”
“I don’t know. I barely recognized him when he came to see me after my mother’s funeral because of the burns. There was scar tissue on the entire left side of his body. Hand. Arm. Head. Everywhere.”
Tyler stared straight ahead and I could see the wheels spinning in his head.
“My father’s a good man,” I said softly. “I may sound naïve at times, but I am certain that he didn’t do anything, that he’s simply a victim in all of this.”
Shaking his head dejectedly, he turned to me and grabbed my hands in his. “That could be true, but Charlie doesn’t believe that and he wants your father to pay.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m just… I’m having trouble reconciling all of this in my head. He was here last night, and he−”
Tyler’s eyes widened, fire in his gaze. “He was?!” he roared, leaping out of his chair.
I cowered.
“What did he say? What happened?” His face flamed with what was a mix of anger and concern, his chest heaving.
“He gave me a cell phone,” I said somewhat dismissively. “He said he was going away for a while, but wanted to be able to get in touch with me.” I felt like I was betraying Charlie by telling Tyler about the phone, but a small part of me thought I was deceiving Tyler if I didn’t tell him.
“Where is it?”
Sighing, I walked down the hallway to my bedroom, opening up the chest that contained my father’s Victoria Cross. Finding the phone, I handed it to Tyler. He kept his eyes glued to mine and I could sense his frustration with my lack of candor about Charlie’s visit.
Turning it over, he pried the battery off it, taking a dejected breath.
“What is it?”
“Exactly as I suspected.” He held the phone out to me and gestured to a small chip embedded in the battery. “That’s a GPS tracker. What did he say when he gave this to you?”
“That he had to disappear for a bit, but wanted to be able to reach me in case of an emergency. And to keep this phone on me at all times.”
“More than likely, Charlie knew about the investigation and wanted to try to speed things up. He may be planning to use this to try to follow you to your father, Mackenzie.”
I rubbed my arms, a sudden chill washing over me. I had always been raised to think the best of people and I’ve blindly trusted…until I met Charlie. After my freshman year, I built walls around my heart and became a shell of the person I once was, hating myself for falling into his trap. And I did it again. I let my guard down and trusted him. He knew exactly what to say to get me to believe him. He manipulated me, all the while knowing this was all part of his twisted plot to seek revenge for the death of his family.
My stomach churned and the reality of everything swept through me. I dashed into the bathroom, throwing myself onto the floor and heaving into the toilet, my body convulsing. As I purged my stomach of everything it had, I felt a warmth behind me, a soothing hand tracing a familiar pattern on my back, pulling my hair out of the line of fire.
I tried to calm my breathing, hating that I had exposed my vulnerable side to Tyler. I pressed the lever, flushing the toilet, and lay my cheek on the cool porcelain, not ready to face him just yet.
A low hum filled the sterile bathroom, Tyler’s sensual voice crooning the words to Every Time We Say Goodbye.
“What are you doing?” I asked, remaining where I was as he continued singing and running his fingers across my back.
“Chasing the demons away.”
I tilted my head, looking at him, prodding him for further explanation.
“When I was a little boy, I used to have nightmares a lot.”
“What kind of nightmares?”
“It was always the same. I had fallen into a well and couldn’t get out. I had to tread water for hours as I screamed for help, but help never came. Whenever I woke up crying from yet another nightmare, my mother always came into my bedroom and sang to me. She said music can chase your demons away.”
“Did it work?” I asked.
“It did. I remember falling asleep listening to her voice and I knew nothing bad would happen when she was nearby. And I want you to feel the same way around me. I want to be the one to chase your demons away, Serafina.”
My eyes widened in response to him calling me by my given name…my real name.
I bolted up, rushed to the sink, and furiously brushed my teeth.
He had never called me that before and the way it rolled off his tongue… I wanted to hear it more.
“I’m sorry,” he said, running his fingers up and down my arms, watching me in the mirror with a confused look. “I didn’t mean to−”
“No,” I interrupted, spitting out the toothpaste. I rinsed my mouth and spun around to face him. “Don’t you see? Don’t you get it?” I ran my hand through my hair, pacing back and forth in front of him.
He simply stared at me, remaining mute and waiting for me to continue.
“I don’t want to be Mackenzie anymore, Tyler. I am so tired of having to be someone I’m not. I haven’t been Serafina for years. Years!” I exclaimed, still pacing back and forth. “And I miss that girl. I was locked away, hidden, confused, bitter, and so fucking alone. Even when we got to leave the church and moved into the house I spent my teenage years in, it never got any better. My prison just got a little bigger. Then my first year of college, I felt a twinge of hope. I had a friend! My first friend since leaving North Carolina. And a boy liked me! A handsome, mature boy! And then…”
I halted and looked at the phone clutched in Tyler’s hand, angry at myself for trusting Charlie again even after what had happened between us.
“And then he took it all!” I cried out, a lone tear falling down my cheek. “He reminded me why life was better if I remained guarded so I constructed walls around me again. But then I met you.”
I rushed to him, grabbing his strong hands in mine as he stared at me, dumbfounded. “And you blasted those walls down, Tyler. You freed Serafina from the cage Mackenzie had her trapped in. And I don’t want to be that girl anymore. I want to be the person that laughed. That lived. That loved. You say you want to chase away my demons?”