by Lauren Wood
I thought about what I had suggested before and the change of look on her face. She’d hadn’t thought about recommitting a crime until I said something, and I hoped that she wouldn’t be stupid enough to go to those lengths to save her friend. It wouldn’t save her, not really. It would just put her in there right along beside her and I don’t know how that was supposed to help anything.
“You’re not going to let her do something stupid, are you Carl?”
“I can’t really stop Eve. She is a very determined person when she wants to be.”
I knew intimately that very thing, but I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to press upon him how much trouble Eve could get into, but I didn’t want to make him aware of how much I cared. It was a tangled web that was weaved, and I was across the world now and really couldn’t help. I had to ask myself why I came home at all when everything was all still up in the air.
About that time, one of the partners was calling me and I knew that was the reason I was home. I had a life to get back to and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.
“Look Carl, I got to go. The partners are on the other line. Keep me up to date on what is going on and keep Eve from getting in trouble. She could get in big trouble and I don’t know if they are going to be as lenient the next time. Keep an eye on her, I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
“I don’t either Stan. She is my sister.”
He said it in a way that reminded me that I wasn’t supposed to care so much. So why did I?
Chapter 14
Eve
“Well Carl, Stan isn’t here anymore, so why are we listening to him anyways?”
“Because I don’t want you to do something stupid.”
He sounded like he was quoting what Stan had said before he left. If he really cared, he wouldn’t have left. But he did and now I was going to have to get Callie out by myself. She was a wreck and I worried about my best friend. I couldn’t just go on with my life until she was back home with me. Leaving her behind was not an option.
“I’m not going to do something stupid.”
“Staying here is stupid Eve and you know it. You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I’ve already applied for an emergency stay so that I can help her get out of jail. I think it will pass and then it will be fine for me to be here.”
Carl shook his head and I could tell that he didn’t agree.
“You don’t have to stick around. I know that Scott probably needs you back at the shop. I’ll be fine here, really.”
“I can’t stay here forever, but I don’t want to leave without you. I was so scared when I heard where you were. I didn’t think I would get you back and I have, so I want to take you home before something bad happens again.”
I waved him off and told him that everything was going to be fine. I was going to take a page from Stan’s book and lie. It would be easier to figure something out without Carl here. He wouldn’t approve of my idea, though to be fair I hadn’t decided on which one yet. None of them were very safe though so I was sure his approval wasn’t going to mean much.
“I know you can’t stay forever. I’m going to miss a lot, but I came here with her Carl and I can’t just leave her behind. I will figure something out and get us back home. You’ve done what you can, and Stan helped a lot. I’m out. I just want to stay until Callie is back home safe.”
“I know sis. I told Stan that there was no way that you were going to leave without her. I knew that much.”
“You told him that?”
“Sure, it’s the truth. You two have been friends too long and I know how you are. You always do the right thing. I also knew that you would have never done this on purpose. If anyone can find a way to help her, I know that you will. You’ve always been really good at that.”
“Then go home Carl. I’m going to take care of this. You know that I can now that I’m out. You’ve helped enough. Get back home to your woman and the shop. I will be back soon.”
He wanted to believe me because in the end, Carl was ready to get home. He never was much for traveling and even though he was here, and Cambodia is beautiful, all he could think about was going home. I knew that much about him. My brother was a creature of habit and he wanted to get back to it.
“I can’t.”
“You can. Now go on and I will call you when I’ve figured something out.”
“I want to help you.”
“Well give me some cash. It’s cheap here, but I might have to bribe a few people.”
He gave me a dirty look and I decided that I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud. But he knew how I was. Carl knew that I would do what it takes because it was Callie. I liked to stay on the right side of the law, but this wasn’t justice and I didn’t feel too bad about trying to skirt around it. Whatever it took to make it all work out. That’s what I was prepared for.
Carl messed around for another hour, but I finally convinced him to take off. I knew that he wanted to, but his sense of duty kept him here now. That was all going to change soon enough. I just had to figure out a way to make it work. It would be easier without my big brother running around trying to watch out for me. He was far too protective as far as I was concerned and all he was going to do was make it more complicated than it already was.
I was relieved when I finally got him to leave. When he got on the plane, I knew I was going to be able to do what was necessary now.
That night I was alone for the first time in a while and I kept staring up at the ceiling. It had been a day full of ups and downs and I wanted to be back home like Carl and Stan were, but I knew that I had to stay here and figure things out.
I got a call a little after midnight and since I figured it was Carl telling me that he was back home, I was surprised when I saw that it was Stan calling me from the number that ran across the screen on my phone. What did he want?
A part of me didn’t want to answer because I knew that he was going to tell me to leave. Maybe it was the smart thing to do if I was following my head, but I wasn’t. I was following my heart this time around. Callie was not going to be here alone. I was fully prepared to stay here until she got out if I had to. I didn’t want there to be anytime that she felt like she was alone.
At first, I really wasn’t going to answer it, but after the third ring I did because I wanted to hear his voice.
“Hello.”
“I was afraid I wasn’t going to reach you. I still didn’t quite figure out the time difference. What time is it there right now?”
“Midnight.”
“So, you’re really going to stay there?”
It was less of a question and more of a statement.
“Yeah.” I was just reaffirming it. I wasn’t going anywhere until she was out too.
“I will be coming to Chicago for business next week and I was hoping that we could meet up.”
“Well, unless something dramatic changes pretty quickly, I don’t think I will be able to make it.”
He was silent for a few minutes and then Stan brought something up that I wasn’t too keen to hear.
“Your request to stay is not going to be granted. They thought that I was still your lawyer I would assume and sent me the denial letter. I was going to send a pic of it. Hold on.”
The picture came through and I sighed to myself. They didn’t want me nosing around, asking questions about anything. They wanted me to leave silently with my tail between my legs. I couldn’t do that without Callie, so something was going to have to give.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
“You’re supposed to go home and leave it alone baby. That’s what you need to do so you don’t get in anymore trouble. They are watching you and have requested you leave within forty-eight hours.”
“And if I don’t?”
I heard Stan sigh and I could see him shaking his head if he was here in front of me. The man wanted me to go with his plan and it drove him crazy when I didn’t. Would he be as easily wi
lling to leave Carl locked up in a foreign prison?
“They are going to arrest you again Eve. That’s what they are going to do.”
“Oh.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, though that was plan G or something like that. I had seen Callie the day before and she was wilting quickly without me in there. She hadn’t done to well with me by her side either and I didn’t want to see her deteriorates any further. I tried to think of how I would feel if I was told that I was going to have to be there like she was. I don’t know if I would have been well in the head either.
“So, you see that you need to come home Eve. You can do something from here, where you are safe. Then you will be in Chicago and I can come and visit you. We can finish what we started.”
“How can you transition from one subject to the next so quickly?” We’d been talking about serious things and now he was practically like a dog trying to hump my leg. It made no sense from where I was standing.
“When I’m talking to you or around you, its about all I can think about. Even when you were grungy in that jail, you were fine as hell and I would have bent you over that table in that tiny room if I could have.”
A shiver ran through my spine and I cursed his words and his ability to shake me so easily. It wasn’t something that I wanted anyone to have the ability to do.
I tried to laugh it off, but the sound was hollow in my ears and I knew that he had rattled me to my core. It was sad that it had only taken a few words to do it. I would have been lying if I would have said that I wasn’t thinking along those same lines as well.
“When I’m back in the states and close to where you are, maybe we could meet up or something Stan, but it’s going to be a while until I’m back that way.”
“You’re stubborn.”
My laugh was genuine this time around.
“I know. It’s okay though.”
“It’s going to get you into trouble.”
That was an understatement because it had gotten me into a lot of trouble before, many times.
“I know.”
“And you’re not worried about going back to that jail?”
“Of course I am Stan. That place was scary, but at the same time, if I must, I must. There is nothing else that I can do.”
“I know you feel like you have an obligation to her, but you don’t.”
He just didn’t get it and I was thankful that at least Carl did. He knew that it was impossible to just walk away like there was nothing I could do. Stan didn’t know me, and I don’t know why that bothered me so much. We had a fling, one time, nothing else.
“It was good to hear from you Stan. Thanks for following up on me.”
I was ready to get off the phone. I didn’t want to hear anymore about what I was doing was stupid or dangerous or whatever else they thought.
“Eve don’t be like that.”
“I’m just tired. It’s late and I got a lot to do tomorrow.”
“If something happens and you get arrested again…”
I cut him off and finished the sentence for him. “I will be sure not to call you Stan and waste your time.”
“No Eve, you call me, and I will come get you. No matter where you are.”
“Be careful Stan, I might hold you to that.”
Chapter 15
Stan
I got a bad feeling when I got off the phone with Eve. I had hoped that she would be ready to come back. I knew that I shouldn’t worry about it. I had done my part after all, but I wanted to see her again. It was a professional call that I had just made. No, I wasn’t checking on a client. I was checking on her and the difference was not wasted on me.
She was stubborn though, just like Carl said she was. I wanted to call him now, right now and make him go back and get her. She’d told me that he had left that evening, so she was there alone again. I hated how badly that made me feel. Eve shouldn’t be alone there or anywhere. I had a feeling that she could take care of herself, but that wasn’t enough.
Work was going as it always did and the rush of going back there after only a few days off was astounding. I didn’t realize how much I hated my job until now. It was the last thing that I wanted to do and the more I tried to ignore the new dissatisfaction that I was feeling with it, the worse it got.
I hadn’t even been back a day and I was already wanting an excuse to leave again. Was it that I hated my job suddenly after all this time or was it that I just wanted to see Eve, whatever the reason was?
Since I had never felt this way about a woman before, it was hard to imagine that it was the cause. I knew that I was going to have to get it together though. She was Carl’s sister and it appeared that she had no intention on making it easy for us to see each other. Eve wasn’t worried about me as much as I was worried about her it appeared.
I pushed the damn woman out of my mind and tried to get back to work. It was all cases that bored me to tears and I took an early lunch. I wasn’t going anywhere in particular, but I somehow found myself at an old haunt that I used to go to. I wasn’t there for the beer or the burgers though. They were good, but not what I was craving. I was craving a way to forget about Eve and I thought I would find that in the arms of an old lover.
Debbie had always been generous and open to doing what I wanted mostly any time. She was just the girl that I was looking for because she was a little aggressive about it like Eve was. I wanted to forget about her, but it didn’t seem possible. Now I just wanted a substitute so that I could get this raging need out of me that never seemed to lessen.
***
Carl was on the phone and the assistant was telling me what line, so I could pick it up.
It had been a week since I’d been back, and things were about as close to normal as they were going to get. I was still thinking about Eve too much, but Tasha had taken care of the immediate needs that I had. It was impossible for me to get the full satisfaction that I had before, but it was enough for now, until Eve was back in the same country as me.
“What’s up Carl?”
“Hey man, what’s going on?”
Like before I knew that he was calling for a reason and I asked him again what it was that was going on. I hoped that it wasn’t about Eve, but it was. How could it not be? She was most likely still there, and she had most likely been arrested again.
“It’s Eve. I was wondering if you have heard from her at all. She’s been calling me everyday and now I haven’t heard from her in almost three. She said that she had talked to you a couple of times and that you were giving her advice.”
“No, I talked to her once a week ago and I tried to tell her to come back. They refused to lengthen her stay and give her a short-term Visa. They wanted her out.”
“She told me otherwise when I asked about it. Eve said that she had everything taken control of.”
“Yeah, I bet. She’s most likely trying to get you to leave her alone and stop asking her to come home. I’ve never met such a stubborn woman in all of my life.”
He chuckled even though he was worried about her. “Eve is one of a kind. So, you haven’t heard anything from her in a week?”
I told him that I hadn’t. I was busy, but this was someone that I wanted to talk to. I wanted to know what was going on with her. I didn’t tell Carl that I’d tried to call her a couple of times and she hadn’t answered. I’d figured that she didn’t want to hear my comments of her staying around against the government’s wishes. I didn’t think it was a good idea and I was very vocal about that.
“I’ll check into it and get back to you, okay?”
He agreed, but I could tell that he wasn’t very happy about it. He’d hoped that I knew what was going on. Eve was becoming a thorn in my side and now I knew that I should have pushed more for the other one. I could have possibly gotten them both out of it, but when they offered for Eve to leave, I jumped on it. I was trying to get it done. I didn’t want to chance them changing their mind and suddenly they would both get locked up aga
in.
When I got off the phone with Carl, I felt bad that it had worked out this way. I knew who I had to call and hoped while I was wrong, even when I knew that I wasn’t.
The Cambodian lawyer Sal that I’d used before picked up after the first ring. I wished I had the translator because though he spoke English, it was still hard to understand him. Gestures and facial expressions helped in the past.
“Are you calling about the Americans?”
He said it plurally and I hoped that it meant from before, not that Eve was back in jail.
“I’m looking for Eve, the little brunette. Her brother called worried because no one has been able to get ahold of her. Have you heard anything about her leaving or getting arrested?”
I knew the answer, so I tried to brace myself for the inevitable, but it didn’t help the feeling when he told me that he hadn’t heard a thing. I asked him to check on it or me and Sal said that he would get back to me. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew that I was going to have to find myself back down there soon. I told her that I would help her, so I had to wonder why Eve didn’t call me.
I waited for Sal and he told me that he checked with the local jail where Callie was and that there was no new Americans there. He didn’t hear of anything else and when I tried to get more information, I was hitting a road block. It was almost impossible to get anything done here. I know that I was supposed to be working, but my mind was back on Eve.
I called Carl back and told him that I hadn’t heard much, just that she wasn’t in jail.
“Well that’s a good thing, right?”
It was a good thing in one way, but bad in another. If she wasn’t locked back up, I had to wonder where she was then. A million bad things could have happened to her and no one would really know about it because of how far away she was. I was kicking myself again for not staying a little longer and seeing it all through. I’d wanted to, but my duty here had pulled me back too soon.