Bodhi got alarmed when the doctor who was treating Sailor came to see him. “Has Miss King come by here? I can’t find her.”
Bodhi’s heart began thumping. “No…she was in the treatment room…did you leave her alone?”
“Yes, to get some pain medication…where is she?”
Bodhi felt the panic rise up inside of him, but the next moment, he heard the scream of a child, a child screaming for his daddy, and saw Tim rushing towards him. Bodhi ran to sweep Tim up in his arms and hug him tightly. “Oh god, Timbo, Timbo…I love you, I love you.”
“Daddy, my Daddy.” Tim held onto Bodhi’s neck so tightly he was almost strangling him, but Bodhi didn’t care. There was chaos all around him.
“Daddy,” Tim was sobbing, tears and snot dripping down his face, “Sailor. Sailor came and she said to find you and the bad man had a gun and he took her…Daddy…Daddy.”
Bodhi’s blood ran cold, and he closed his eyes. Of course. Of course. Sailor had sacrificed herself for Tim. Why hadn’t he realized? She’d broken her own arm to get here.
Oh, god…
The doctor ushered them into a private room and began to examine Tim. The child wriggled, never taking his eyes off his father. “Daddy, they put a blindfold on me to come here, but it came loose, and I could see, Daddy. I could see the way to where they took me.”
Bodhi gaped at his son as the boy recited the journey back to where Bodhi hoped against hope, they would be able to find Sailor before Bart Foy carried out his promise to end her life.
They hadn’t gone far, Sailor realized, as they drove out of the city. They hadn’t blindfolded her, why would they need to blindfold a dead woman? They arrived at a disused airplane hangar just outside the city.
She was alone with Bart now. He pulled up a chair and sat in front of her. Gently he undid the buttons on the front of her dress and pulled the fabric apart, exposing her belly. Sailor felt strangely disconnected. She was about to be murdered, horrifically, painfully, and yet…
She could only feel relieved that Tim was safe. Maybe those few deliriously happy months she had spent with Bodhi and Tim were her reward for going to her death so easily.
Bart smiled at her. “So, we’re here at last, and now I will begin the process of ending your life, Sailor. As I can hear the sirens, I won’t make a long speech.” He had a switchblade knife.
“Udo used this to kill your beautiful friend…seeing as how you fucked her like the little whore you are, it seems fitting you should suffer the same fate.”
Sailor drew in a sharp intake of breath as Bart placed the tip of the knife in the hollow of her navel. “Sailor…I’m not going to lie and tell you your death will be quick and painless. Quite the opposite. I’m going to gut you, darling, slowly.” And he pushed the blade deep into her belly.
Sailor couldn’t believe the pain; it was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Every severed nerve ending screamed with agony, and as Bart yanked the knife out, blood began to pump from the wound, soaking her skin, her underwear.
Sailor felt her head whirl, her body react to the assault. Bart watched her with obvious enjoyment. “See, my lovely Sailor? I remember doing this to your mother. She was almost as beautiful as you.”
He stabbed her again, and Sailor cried out as the knife sunk into her stomach. “Your mother begged me for her life. But I told her…she betrayed me. She betrayed you, Sailor…she was going to take you away from your rightful place…”
He sunk the knife into her belly again and Sailor began to feel lightheaded, her chest constricting as she began to lose consciousness. She could smell her blood as it pumped from her wounds. Bart leaned in and kissed her mouth. “She was going to take you away from me, your future husband, Sailor…” He smiled as he stabbed her one last time, an inch above her navel. “She was going to take you away from me…your father, Sailor…”
Sailor’s eyes opened in horror and suddenly, being butchered by this man’s knife wasn’t the most horrific thing in her life.
“You’re lying,” she gasped, and Bart laughed.
“You know I’m not, lovely one. My Sailor, my daughter.” He cut the ropes binding her and laid her on the floor. Sailor, struggling to breathe now, tried to press her hand against the wounds, tried to stem the blood, but she knew it was useless now.
Bart stroked her face tenderly and picked up a camera. “Just some photographs to send to your beloved Bodhi Creed.”
Sailor closed her eyes. It was over. All over. She would die here and…
She was hovering at the very edge of life when from what seemed far away, there were voices, shouting, angry, desperate. She could barely open her eyes, but when she did, it was in short blinks.
One. Bodhi’s beautiful face, tears streaming down his face, begging her to live. I have brought you so much pain, my love.
Two. Bart Foy’s face – her father’s face raging.
Three. Bodhi’s face, roaring with anger, with a vengeance as he pumped bullets into Bart’s head, and her father’s smile being blown off his face.
Four. Bodhi…oh god, Bodhi, my love, my life…goodbye…
Then all was darkness, all was nothing.
Three months later…
Bodhi held the letter that he had read over and over since that terrible day. The letter his guard had found in the kitchen drawer in the guesthouse as he swept for bugs.
My darling, darling Bodhi,
By now, you will know what I have done, and I ask for your forgiveness. There was never any other option if we were to get Tim back safely, and I want you to know, that if I’m dead, it was all worth it if Tim is back in your arms.
I love you. You have given me everything, and I am so sorry that my presence has been so destructive. I’m sorry for Soleil’s death, I loved her so much, as we all did, and I hate that she died because of me. She didn’t deserve to die like that.
Bodhi, all I ask is that you remember how much I loved you, with my whole heart, and I also ask that you go on and love like that again. Don’t grieve too long. Remember, but don’t grieve. If Tim is safe, then I died for a good reason, the best reason.
I can’t think of anything else to say but thank you, and I love you so, so much, my precious, darling Bodhi.
Always, your Sailor
Bodhi squeezed his eyes shut. She’s gone. She’s gone. He had to keep saying that to himself to believe it. He put the letter down and took up the other one.
The one she had written in the hospital. The hospital where they had fought to save her life, to repair her body, to heal the horrific injuries Bart Foy, her biological father, had inflicted on her. She was in a coma for a week, then as she began to emerge from it, the doctor had come to him, hope in his eyes.
“She’s turned a corner.” And Bodhi had only known relief like that once before when his son had come back to him.
But then, a week later, after some very groggy conversations, and a feeling she was holding back from him, Sailor had disappeared from the hospital, whisked away in the middle of the night by a mysterious benefactor.
The hospital had apologized to Bodhi, but as Sailor had no official next of kin, they had been bound from telling him. Her surgeon handed him the second letter she had written him.
My love, my Bodhi,
Forgive me. After everything we have been through, I feel this is the only way for me. I bring you bad luck, my love, and now, knowing Bart Foy was my father, I can’t face the future knowing I might have some of his traits. I’m so confused, my love.
I have to go away, and I have asked a friend to help me in this. Please, please don’t try and find me. Your life and Tim’s life will be better without me.
Sailor
It was rambling, the handwriting shaky, and Bodhi knew she hadn’t been thinking straight, but it still hurt. And now, after three months, Sailor had managed to keep herself hidden away, away from all of the detectives he’d paid hundreds of thousands to find her. Hidden, alone. He had no idea where she
was.
Until now. This morning, Grady Mallory had come to him and revealed himself as Sailor’s mysterious benefactor. Bodhi had been angry, but Grady had calmly explained that he only did what Sailor asked him.
Bodhi stared at the man. “So, why are you telling me now?”
“Because I’m making a choice, a choice to do what I think is right. What I think Sailor actually wants now that she can think straight. She’s been in counseling, we arranged it for her. Also, Flori found out, and she’s been kicking my ass about it.”
Bodhi’s mouth hitched up in a half-smile at that. “Where is Sailor?”
Grady hesitated then nodded. “I’ll take you to her.”
Bodhi’s head had whirled, joy, anger, nervousness. He shook Tim awake and insisted the boy join them. “Sailor can’t get too mad if Tim’s there as well.” He told Grady in a low voice, and Grady chuckled.
“Chicken.”
“You know it.”
Grady drove them into the middle of Oregon’s Mount Hood National Forest, to Lost Lake. Bodhi glanced over at Grady when he saw the sign. “Really?”
“Just coincidence, I promise. My family has a cabin here.” Grady chuckled as Bodhi rolled his eyes.
He drove up to a cabin situated on the lake, and they got out. Grady knocked at the cabin, but then nodded. “I thought so. She likes to walk to the pier on the lake and sit with her feet in the water.” He showed Bodhi the way, but then held back. “You need some privacy.”
Holding Tim’s hand, Bodhi walked around the front of the cabin and toward the lake. In the distance, along a wooden pier, he saw a figure standing at the end, her long dark hair blowing in the breeze. His heart filled with love as he saw her.
Tim shook his hand free and began to run, and Bodhi let him.
“Sailor! Sailor!”
She turned, and Bodhi stopped, the shock so big he couldn’t breathe for a second. Sailor put a hand over the small bump on her belly, but bent down to hug Tim tightly as he reached her. Bodhi put one foot in front of the other, but didn’t know how he would be able to reach them.
Pregnant. How was this possible? She had been stabbed, for crissakes…the surgeon hadn’t mentioned a pregnancy. There was only one answer.
It wasn’t his.
Bodhi stopped walking, his heart breaking all over again. Tim was leading Sailor by the hand down the pier towards him, and for Bodhi, it was a moment of panic. What do I do? What do I say?
Sailor had never looked more beautiful, her caramel skin glowing, her eyes haunted, but soft with love. “Hello, Bodhi.”
He stared back at her a million questions going through his mind. She smiled gently and nodded, reading his mind. “It’s yours, Bodhi. Your child. I don’t know how everybody missed it, but I was pregnant when they took me to the hospital. Less than a month, which is why the embryo survived the stabbing. I’m four months now.”
Bodhi couldn’t speak, and it took a single, simple sentence from his son to make him come to his senses. Tim looked up at Sailor, his eyes shining with excitement. “So, I’m going to be a big brother?”
Sailor laughed, tears flowing down her face. “Yes, sweetie, the best big brother ever.”
Finally, Bodhi was able to move, and he took her in his arms. “Why did you run away?”
“I didn’t think I was good enough for you,” Sailor said, her voice breaking. “Bodhi, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’ve been living out here regretting running away ever since, but I didn’t know how to make it right. I’m so glad you’re here, so, so happy.”
And Bodhi kissed her passionately, not caring that Tim was watching. “I love you, Sailor King, and our baby. We are a family and don’t you ever forget it. We face things together, good or bad.”
She nodded, and Bodhi kissed her again, his heart swelling with relief and love and joy. He put his hand on her belly. “After all you went through, is this safe?”
She nodded. “I have a good doctor in Portland.” She looked down at Tim. “Look, shall we go inside? I can make us some cocoa. That breeze is a bit cool.”
Tim nodded eagerly, and she took his hand, and Bodhi’s and they walked back to her cabin, collecting a grinning, not-at-all-sorry Grady on the way.
One year later…
Sailor grappled with her very wriggly daughter as she tried to change her diaper. “Solly Creed, if you don’t start behaving, I swear to God…”
“Swear to God what?” Bodhi was laughing as she struggled with her daughter. Sailor glared at him.
“Could you put the Go-Pro down, rockstar, and help me? This photo op was your idea.”
They were in San Francisco for the launch of Bodhi’s first album in a few years and, as they got ready at their hotel, they could already hear the crowd of fans chanting his name.
Bodhi took his daughter from Sailor’s arms, and immediately the girl calmed down, babbling with pleasure, grinning at her father.
“Daddy’s girl,” Sailor grumbled, but laughed as Bodhi grimaced at the dirty diaper he was being allowed to change. “Hey, I had to carry that little monster for nine months. You can change a diaper.”
Later, as they made their way to the launch in the cab, Tim perched on Bodhi’s knee, Solly asleep in her mother’s arms, Bodhi looked over at Sailor.
“Hey, beautiful? You know that question I was going to ask you a while back?”
Sailor grinned, knowing exactly what he was going to ask her, put her finger to her lips. “Later,” she said, “When the kids are asleep.”
“Why?”
Sailor leaned in to whisper in Bodhi’s ear. “Because I have a very, very special way of saying yes, Bodhi Creed, and believe me, you’re not going to want to miss that…”
The End.
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Sneak Peeks
Dirty Little Virgin: A Submissives’ Secrets
Pierce
Her footsteps in the hallway had my ears pricking. Jade would soon enter the room I was imprisoned in. Her gorgeous face would soon be in front of me, and I’d have to look upon it and try my best not to let anger overtake me.
“Pierce, how are you doing today, sweetie?” Her long legs came into view as I’d been positioned face down for a while to allow my blood to flow to different areas of my broken body.
“Still here. So not well at all,” I answered as she used the controller to turn me right side up.
“But you are alive, and that’s much better than the alternative.” Her face came into view, and my heart pounded.
She came to me every day and stayed nearly the entire day with me before going back to our estate to be with our children. I hadn’t allowed Sarah, Johnathon, and Sandy to come to the hospital. The horrified expressions I’d have to endure from them would be too hard to take.
Her idea of being alive being better than dead wasn’t exactly the same as mine. In fact, I would’ve welcomed death with open arms had I been given the choice myself. Since I came into the hospital unconscious, that had been left up to Jade, my wife of ten years. And she wanted me kept alive, no matter what they had to do to keep my soul within my broken body. It was becoming increasingly hard not to hate her for what she’d ordered.
My silence let her know how I felt. Her eyes ran over my body. A body that was held in chains as I had to be kept in traction until my broken bones healed.
The car accident was nothing but a blur to me. Oncoming headlights, the windshield wipers moving back and forth as fast as they could over the windshield of my Mercedes. Steely Dan, playing on the satellite radio, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number would be forever etched into my brain. Then there was nothing. Not a damn thing.
When my eyes opened again, a nurse was standing over me, looking at me as she called out my name over and over. All I could do was blink to let her know I had heard her.
“Mr. Pierce Langford, you’re in London Brid
ge Hospital,” came the first words I’d heard in what seemed like a very long time. “You’ve been in an automobile accident,” she had an English accent, much like my wife’s. It was then that it hit me and I wondered where Jade was.
But I couldn’t talk. Something was in my mouth, and my eyes grew big as I wanted desperately to ask for my wife. The beeping that was constant became erratic, and the nurse put her hand on my cheek. “Calm down. We’ll remove the breathing tube in just a moment. And then we’ll let your wife come in to see you. She’s been here the entire time. You can thank her for your life. She made sure the surgeons did everything they could to keep you alive. It wasn’t an easy task; your heart stopped six times.”
Six times I’d been dead, and each time they resuscitated me thanks to my wife’s demands. Six times I had the chance to leave my broken body and six times Jade refused to let that happen.
“The doctor told me they’d be bringing in an x-ray machine today to see how the breaks are healing.” Jade picked up a potted plant someone had sent to me and took it to the sink to water it.
“Even if they are healing that doesn’t mean I’ll ever walk again.” I closed my eyes as no sadness filled my voice, but anger certainly did.
“Walking isn’t everything, sweetheart.” Jade took the plant back to the window sill and placed it in the sun’s light. She glanced around the room. “I wonder if they’d let me add a few touches to this room to make it more like home for you.”
“What, paint the walls that shade of brown that’s in our bedroom?” I rolled my eyes. “There’s no reason to try to spruce this room up. It won’t help a damn thing, Jade. Listen to yourself!” I closed my mouth, my lips forming a thin line. I had to control the anger inside. I had to do it for her.
Her Dark Melody Page 83