Serenade

by Heather McKenzie

  “May I?” he asked, and then, quite boldly and without waiting for a reply, he put his hand under the blanket and found his way to my stomach. I stopped him, trying to decide if I wanted him to feel it or not… and then I pulled his hand upward and slowly guided it down under the waistband of my pants. I gave him the opportunity to feel my bare skin or pull away if he wanted to. I heard him gulp as he moved toward my pelvis where he stretched his fingers out between my hip bones.

  “Fifteen weeks…” he muttered to himself.

  His breath brushed my cheek as he moved his fingers in a gentle circle around the edges of the tiny bump. The pure and genuine affection that emanated from him was something I had never felt so deeply from another human being in my entire life.

  “I think Henry knows,” I said, “I think somehow he was… uh, involved. I mean, I think he somehow planned this. I can just feel it in my bones.”

  “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” Luke said.

  “We?”It was amazing how that one word could be so comforting.

  “Yes, we,” he said earnestly.

  He moved his hand from my belly to behind my neck, lifting my head slightly toward his so I had no choice but to stare directly into his eyes. Even though the only speck of light came from the moon, his striking features caught my breath. Then his lips were on my forehead, lightly brushing my skin and sending sparks from my nose to my toes.

  “I will be here for you… if you want me,” he said.

  Want him? Yes, that’s part of the problem! I yelled in my head.

  “Just say the word, and I will do anything for you,” he added, looking at me as if seeing right into my soul.

  And I for you. Yet another problem!

  I said a very polite and reserved ‘thank you’, and then I forced myself to pull away—which was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done—and curled up on my side. I shivered. Not just because I was cold, but because I had fallen even more hopelessly in love with a man I could never have. And I was pregnant and scared to death.

  I felt the tears come on, now worried that I might actually freeze to death, but his warm arms were suddenly wrapping around me, holding me tight in a way that meant there was no way I was going anywhere, even if I wanted to. And, unfortunately, I was okay with that.

  “Whoa, it’s the remains of a mountain lion that’s been shot in the head.” Davis was kicking at a mound of fur, the stink of death pungent around it.

  “Just keep an eye out for more of their traps,” I reminded him. We’d narrowly escaped the kidnappers’ attempts at throwing us off their trail and I hoped the other group going north was just as alert.

  “There was only one person here, and there’s no sign of Kaya,” Davis said, totally in his element out here in the wild. He had a nose like a bloodhound and an uncanny ability for tracking. His instincts led us to the remains of a campfire amidst a small clearing. It was well trodden with footprints, and Kaya’s were everywhere. I felt my heart speed up, but what caught my breath was a dark-brown substance dried around the base of a tree. I thought of her screaming in that video.

  “What if it’s hers?” I said, pointing toward it with shaking hands.

  “They don’t want to hurt her; I told you that. They didn’t show us what they were doing, and she cut her foot open during the race. I have a feeling they were just patching it up. That bit there is most likely blood from that dead cat.”

  As much as Davis tried, nothing he said eased my mind or alleviated the dread I felt. What if she was dead? What if that cat attacked her? What if…?

  “So, tell me Ollie, what are you going to do when you get her back?” Davis asked.

  Man, he loved to talk—and talk and talk. I wished he would just let me be miserable in peace. His method of diverting my attention in an effort to keep me calm was becoming downright annoying.

  “Really, Oliver, what’s going to happen?” he pressed.

  I hadn’t given that any thought past today. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Henry knows you are engaged, right?”

  “Yeah, and I have no idea how.”

  “Well, I never said a thing, I swear,” he said, slipping as we descended toward the river and grabbing onto a leafy branch to steady himself. “It’s just that… everything is different now, ya know? Is he going to allow you to actually marry her? Will you all live together under his roof? I mean, Henry is—well, um…” He paused, unsure of whether or not to continue.

  “He’s what?” I asked, curious where Davis was going with this.

  “Controlling, conniving, or one could even say manipulative. I don’t know, after seeing his blasé reaction to his own daughter screaming in that video, it brought a few things to light.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, he isn’t trying to get Kaya back because he loves her, that’s for sure.”

  “She is his child…”

  “Yeah. But… don’t you find it strange how she has been so closely guarded all her life, yet lately has been allowed to be alone with you? It’s almost as if Henry is encouraging you to… um…”

  “To what?”

  “You know.”

  Obviously, Davis had given this a lot of thought. I had just been so excited to be alone with Kaya that it never even occurred to me how it came to happen. I had bought the ring thinking there would never be a good time to give it to her, yet the very next day we’d had a moment to ourselves—the most blissful moment of my life—even if guns were pointed at me afterward. If I thought about it, yes, it was most certainly odd, but I’d chosen to ignore it.

  “Do you really think Henry is that evil?” I asked.

  Davis quietly considered his answer while concentrating on his footsteps when the trail became steep. “Yeah, I do.”

  “But how would Kaya and I being together benefit Henry in any way?”

  “I have no idea, but I just feel like it does.”

  If what Davis was hinting at was true, I didn’t care. Hell, Kaya was all I ever wanted. Why question it? Henry pulled me off the streets, gave me a home, a job, educated and looked after me, and allowed me to protect his daughter. I had a deep loyalty to Henry, and even though I was starting to see him for what he really was, I couldn’t escape the fact that I owed him my life. Some part of me even wanted to defend his treatment of Kaya, even though I knew it was wrong.

  We paused to re-hydrate and add on some extra layers of clothing as the air cooled off with the waning sun. The tracker still wasn’t working, my ribs were killing me, and I felt as if I’d been moving through quicksand. There would be nothing more satisfying than killing those kidnappers with my bare hands once Kaya was safe and sound.

  “Why do you think Henry chose you?” Davis asked, breaking through my thoughts and not giving up on the subject. “I mean, why, out of so many guards, did he decide to pick the one person who Kaya has openly admitted to hating? Why would he do that?”

  His yapping was relentless, but the answer was easy, so maybe it would shut him up. “Because he saw right from the beginning that I would fiercely protect her.”

  “Yeah,” said Davis, “or… maybe your love for her was just that obvious. Maybe Henry saw that right from the beginning, before you even knew it. If there was some way he could use that to his advantage, he would. Just saying.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Davis—who, what, when, where, or why—I don’t care about any of that in the least. I will do whatever Henry asks of me on this mission because we both want the same thing: to return Kaya home, safe and sound. That’s where she belongs. She’s mine, plain and simple. And I am going to get her back.”

  I had to admit, I liked pretending to be Barbara the nurse during The Death Race. A normal girl, hitting on cute guys, living a nine-to-five life… and I could have that someday, thanks to Luke. I would do anything for him. But what would I say to Louisa when we were finally face to face? ‘Hey baby girl, remember me? I am Lisa, your brother Luke’s friend… or um, ex-girlfriend. You a
nd I went on picnics together and to the zoo once, remember? I know your favorite color is purple, and you like bunnies. By the way, you’re going to come home with me now, okay?’

  Would she recognize me? What if she cried? Or screamed? What if she caused a huge scene and the police were called… I would lose her and let Luke down. And, I could end up in jail—again.

  I made it to the train station a bit early and headed for the bench across from locker number sixteen. If all was right in the world, in that locker would be two identical bags, each containing one million dollars. I just had to wait until the right moment to open it.

  There were two big lugs at the far end of the station standing under the departures sign. I laughed at their flowery shirts, shorts, mirrored sunglasses—and no luggage. Two men taking the holiday train from Banff to Hawaii with no bags or sunscreen? Could they be any more obvious? At the opposite end of the platform, standing by the exit doors, were two rather stocky women wearing too much jewelry, designer dresses, and cheap, flat shoes. Their lack of makeup and really bad hair-dye jobs were also a dead giveaway… wow. Lowen Security sure didn’t have it together in the disguise department.

  The only two patrons I wasn’t sure of were the high-looking teenagers hanging out by the washroom. The one with green hair glanced in my direction often, but maybe she thought I was a cop.

  The train arrived. People poured into the station in droves, turning the quiet place into a mass of chaos. Under the cover of confusion, I swiftly went to locker sixteen and opened it. There, as promised, were two black, leather bags. I took in a deep breath, grabbed one of the bags, and headed to the handicap stall in the women’s washroom. After locking the door with shaking hands, I hesitantly unzipped the bag; stacks of crisp, one-hundred-dollar bills took my breath away. I had fought for every dollar I ever had my entire life and now, without doing a damn thing, there were a million of them in my hands. I could have cried.

  Now, to use this money to get Louisa.

  I pulled my blonde hair up and stuffed it under a brown, smelly wig I’d bought at a thrift shop, then tied a beige scarf around my neck. The brown windbreaker jacket I’d stuffed in my purse was a crumpled mess and would perfectly complement my disguise. I unfolded the matching tote bag and transferred the money into it, then swung it over my shoulder and stuffed the empty black bag behind the toilet. I swiped on some bronzer, brown lipstick, and thick glasses, and then giggled at my reflection in the mirror. I looked invisible and unmemorable—which was exactly what I wanted.

  The station was thinning out again. I quickly placed the brown tote bag into a bottom locker by the pop machine—I would get this money later, under a different disguise. Now to barter with the bag still in locker sixteen, this was exchange money for Louisa.

  I sat down next to the teenagers, who didn’t even bat an eye at me now. I waited, feigned interest in a brochure, and kept tabs on Henry’s men at the exits. Five minutes passed, and then I saw her—little Louisa, the spitting image of her beautiful big brother. My heart rose into my throat; there were shadows under her eyes, and her skin had that grey pallor that screamed neglect and abuse. I knew because I’d looked like that once. Some vile redhead had Louisa’s tiny hand in a death grip, and that evil bastard Claude was leading them in my direction. The only satisfying thing to come from the scene was spotting his limp from the two broken legs Luke had given him that never healed right, and his blind, sagging eye. Luke should have killed him. I had a gun. Maybe I would…

  I smiled at Louisa when she reached me, and I thought maybe she recognized me by the way her eyes lit up, but the look was fleeting, and she quickly returned to a horrid, vacant stare. I placed a lollipop in her free hand, while the redhead clutched the other, and then passed Claude a note with the combination for locker sixteen—which was still being closely watched by Henry Lowen’s holiday boys.

  What felt like forever passed while Claude retrieved the money and ducked into the washroom to inspect it. Louisa stared at the floor as the redhead snapped her gum and the poorly disguised, stocky women edged closer. Was Henry’s undercover posse interested in me? Or were they concentrating on the man who had taken their money from the locker and waiting for him to come out of the bathroom? My heart pounded so hard it hurt. When Claude returned, he gave the redhead a nod of triumph, and Louisa was shoved in my direction, her tiny hand now blue.

  “Have a good vacation with Aunty Kathy,” the redhead said loudly, and then she spun on her high heels, following Claude and the money out the door. The teenagers, the stocky women, and the holiday boys all followed suit.

  I hoped Henry would be merciless.

  I picked up Louisa and held her tiny body tight against mine. She didn’t fight or make a sound, so I walked as casually as I could across the tiled floor, through the exit, and then out into the sunshine. Once in the parking lot, I ran.

  The sun was relentless as we marched alongside the river. So was Regan’s blabbering. He really, really, liked the sound of his own voice. Good thing at least thirty percent of what he said was interesting. We had all just endured a lecture on how the Rolling Stones were the greatest band in the world. I disagreed—because everyone knows the greatest band in the world is The Beatles—and he hadn’t relented in his retort since.

  “Seriously, ‘I am the Walrus’? I mean come on… lyrics that don’t make sense, on purpose? Elementary penguin? Fly like pigs in the sky? Sitting on a cornflake? Goo goo b’ joob? Utter nonsense.”

  I gave him no response. It was too hot to argue.

  “Now, ‘Gimme Shelter’ or ‘Paint it Black’? That’s good stuff!” he said, and then he sang to himself for a minute. “Man, the weather out here sure changes in a blink of an eye, doesn’t it?” he asked, drastically changing the subject. “One minute, you’re freezing, and the next minute, you’re frying like an egg on the hood of my old Chevy.”

  “You put eggs on your car?” I asked, and then I wished I hadn’t.

  “Well, yeah. High school stuff. You know how it is.”

  “Uh no, actually. I don’t.”

  “Bloody hell! Sorry. You never experienced school, or any public institutions of the sort, right? How sad. No drunken party games for you. Do you even have friends? Go shopping? Does your fiancé ever let you out of the cage, or… house?”

  I dropped my backpack on the ground, tired of Regan’s yapping, tired of walking, and just plain tired.

  “C’mon, girlie, we gotta keep moving. We’re a day behind schedule right now,” Seth grumbled politely. He was hot as well, but gone was that gruff, tough persona. He talked differently to me now—without any hatred in his voice.

  “I’m sweating from places I didn’t even know I had. Can’t we just stop for a sec? Please?” I begged all three of them.

  Luke happily dropped his pack, Seth threw his hands up in defeat, and Regan started babbling about something I had no interest in. The river was moving slowly, sparkling in the afternoon sun and a family of deer had gathered on the other side. A small fawn tentatively approached the water under the nervous gaze of its mother, and then more of the graceful creatures cautiously came out of the dense bush. The momma deer nudged her baby forward, and I absentmindedly put my hand on my stomach as I watched. The sudden urge to get in the water was suddenly so overpowering I was pulling off my shoes without a second thought.

  “Whoa, what’s going on, girlie? We don’t have time for that,” said Seth.

  “Please, let’s rest and cool off. We all could use it.”

  As I rolled up my pant legs, Luke sat down on the rocky riverbed, looking amused. His cheeks were red and forehead dripping with sweat. Seth and Regan looked overheated, too.

  “You guys should go in as well. You could really use a little freshening up,” I said to their pink faces.

  Seth sniffed his underarm and recoiled. There was no denying that the stink of him was horrendous.

  I waded in and wished I was alone so I could take off my clothes and dive under the cool water
. Minnows swarmed around my feet, and my stomach growled as I wondered how they might taste cooked over the fire with rice like Regan had prepared the meal we had with rabbit.

  “How’s the water?” asked Luke.

  He looked too good to be true leaning back on his elbows with that relaxed expression on his god-like face, the sun highlighting the gold in his hair and making his blue eyes sparkle.

  “Amazing,” I replied, wading out a bit deeper and soaking the edges of my pant legs, I was blissfully starting to shiver.

  “I’m cold just watching you. How can you stand it?” he asked.

  “Easy. I’m Canadian,” I yelled proudly.

  He laughed. My shivers multiplied.

  I pulled off my tank top, grateful for the generous coverage provided by my sports bra, and dipped it into the river to use as a washcloth. Luke watched closely with the same look he had last night when he handed me the blanket. I went to him with the dripping shirt in hand and directed him to put his head back. I wrung water out over his hair and face, pouring it over his skin while being careful not to get the bandages on his chest wet. He reveled in the attention, and I was more than happy to give it. I went back in the water and wet the shirt again, then gently rubbed the back of his neck and squeezed the cloth so little rivers poured down the back of his shirt. The coolness of the water brought down the redness in his cheeks, but the sight of him damp and dewy brought out the scarlet in mine.

  The sound of loud shrieks reminded me that we weren’t alone. Regan and Seth had made their way into the river, and there they were, butt naked, scrubbing their skin as if their lives depended on it.Seth’s body glowed in the sun, his skin paper white with the exception of his arms and head, and Regan was quite impossibly, well… fit. Even Brutus was cooling off. Water turned to diamond droplets when he shook his mass of wet fur. I found myself giggling at the whole scene. Their yelps of laughter were so unexpected and so oddly comfortable they made Luke smile too, the most perfect lines around his eyes appearing as he squinted against the sunlight.