by Eboni Snoe
Attorney Willams nodded. “You’re right. Sometimes I just get too caught up in these things.” He adjusted his tie before proceeding. “So the Ellises don’t want you to disturb the land.”
“To be honest with you, I’m not sure. Cay Ellis Junior…no, he must be the third,” Sasha corrected herself. “Cay Ellis the third doesn’t want me to do anything with the springwater. That’s what seemed to get his goat. He acknowledged there was nothing poisonous in the water, but he says it should never be drunk or sold. Sherry Ellis just wanted to do whatever he wanted. It was rather strange. I thought she was his wife, but then he tells me she’s his sister-in-law.”
“Yes. She was married to his half brother, Wally.” Attorney Williams got up and walked over to the window. “It looks like that tropical storm is rolling in.”
Sasha suddenly noticed that the natural light in the office had dimmed. “It sure does,” she agreed, looking at the gray-tinted sky through the glass.
“We always get hit with storms. It’s part of the price you pay for living in paradise. It’s part of the Key’s history, just like the stories. There are all kinds of stories floating around.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “One of the stories claims that water is part of the Fountain of Youth Ponce de León discovered. Another one claims the water flows from an underground system that was used on Atlantis.” He faced Sasha. “You ever heard of the continent of Atlantis?”
“Yes, I’ve heard of it, but isn’t that a myth?”
“As far as a lot of people are concerned, the jury’s still out on that. You’ve got geologists and all kinds of professionals still investigating it. Of course, other folks think they’re wasting their time.”
“You don’t believe those stories, do you?” Sasha sensed she might have picked the wrong attorney. Perhaps she’d acted too quickly.
“I’m a native of these parts. I’ve seen some of everything, so I don’t rule out anything,” he rushed on. “But I think what’s important to you is that I can free you up from this agreement.” He leaned over and studied the papers again. “That is, if the Ellises don’t produce any other legal document proving the land is theirs. It might take a little while, because the Ellises are pretty big stuff around here and they have some influence with the courts.” He turned the agreement over. “But you can get a fair shake at the law in these parts, so I think it can be done.”
Sasha smiled slightly. “Good. I guess that’s all I needed to hear.”
The room fell silent.
“Give me about a week and I’ll have a report for you,” Attorney Williams assured her. “Make sure you leave your phone number with my secretary so I can contact you if I need to.”
“All right.” Sasha stood up. “What will your fee be for this, Attorney Williams?”
“Let me see what all this will entail.” He rubbed his chin. “But it shouldn’t be more than three hundred dollars.” They walked to his office door.
“I’ve got one more question for you,” Sasha told him.
“Yes?” His eyebrows knitted together.
“Can you recommend a good place for me to have lunch?”
“I sure can.” He smiled. “It’s got to be Myers Seafood Café. Once you leave out of here, you go back up to the main intersection and turn right. Keep straight and you’ll see them on the left-hand side.”
“Got it.” Sasha reached out to shake his hand again. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Attorney Williams replied.
She had eaten some of the best seafood chowder she’d ever had, and the sky looked ominous as Sasha climbed into her Mazda. The storm that had been threatening earlier was quickly moving in, but Sasha felt at ease about the business with the Ellises. Attorney Williams was a little offbeat, but Sasha felt he could handle the job. As he said, he was a Conch, this was his territory, and she believed he knew the ins and outs of the system, legally and politically.
Thunder rumbled in the distance as Sasha pulled up in front of her house. She had anticipated working on the spring, but when she looked at the sky she knew rain was imminent. There was plenty for her to do inside and around the house in the meantime. Sasha unlocked the front door.
She had barely stepped inside when a powerful smell surrounded her. Her eyes began to burn and she began to cough. It was the smell of bleach—and an awful lot of it. She couldn’t believe what had happened. Someone had deliberately vandalized her house!
Instinctively, she covered her nose with the sleeve of her blouse as she looked around the room. Bleached-out white trails crisscrossed the old couch and the overstuffed chair. The clothes that were stacked on the couch were ruined as well.
Each breath was difficult as she entered her bedroom. There was more evidence of the destructive bleach on her bed and inside her closet. Finally, the fumes became too much. Sasha hurried to the front of the house, threw open the door, and stepped into the fresh air. Her hands covered her eyes as she gagged and coughed. The rain that began to fall was a welcome relief.
Sasha’s eyes continued to burn even after the coughing stopped. Gratefully, she gulped the clean air. She gazed off into the distance as she thought about who might be responsible. Sasha didn’t have to think long. No one but Cay Ellis could be behind it. It made no sense that a man of his status would get involved in this kind of prank, but there were no other suspects.
The rain began to fall faster. By the time Sasha reached her car the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was gaining strength. She was wet and furious when she jumped inside the car and closed the door behind her.
“So the Ellises think they can do whatever they want because they are big stuff in the Big Pine Key area,” Sasha fumed. “They obviously felt powerful enough to wreak havoc with my life, and they didn’t feel there would be any ramifications, either.”
Sasha had experience with the heavy hand of people in power who didn’t care how their decisions affected those beneath them. Her mother could have benefited greatly from specialized medical assistance, but the people at the HMO office said they could not bend the rules. They knew her mother would suffer, but they didn’t care. It didn’t matter that it was a life-or-death situation. To them she wasn’t a human being, she was a financial liability. Sasha recalled how she surrendered all her pride in seeking help for her mother. She had left no stone unturned, but in the end there was no help to be found.
Sasha had felt broken, defeated. Yet it was her mother, knowing any day could be her last, who reminded her, “Your intention and your effort were the most important things. They are the seeds for the rest of your life. You may not see the results when you think you should, but they will come, and you will have grown because of them.” Sasha never forgot the strength and wisdom her mother possessed in the dusk of her life.
She gripped the steering wheel as she visualized her mother’s face. “Cay Ellis is not going to get away with this,” she declared. “I won’t be able to get the law to do anything because I can’t prove he was behind it. But I can give him a piece of my mind, and I’m going to do it right now.”
Chapter 3
The rain was relentless and driving was difficult. By the time Sasha pulled up in front of Guana Manor the wind sounded like a pack of wolves on the prowl. Her white clothes stuck to her body as Sasha rang the doorbell again and again.
A heavyset woman answered the melodious chimes. She inspected the doorbell button as if Sasha might have damaged it before she addressed her. “May I help you?”
“I don’t think you can, but speaking to Cay Ellis might do me some good,” Sasha replied.
The woman was surprised by her frankness. “Oh…do you mean Cay Ellis Junior or Cay Ellis the third?” She lifted her chin as she made the differentiation. At that moment a heavy spray of rain caught Sasha from behind and splattered the woman’s face.
“It’s Cay Ellis the third,” Sasha told her, cringing from the onslaught of water. “May I come in? If you haven’t noticed, I’m getting soaked standing here.�
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The woman hesitated, wiping her eyes. “I-I guess so,” she stammered before she stepped aside.
Sasha felt the woman might not have given in so easily if her own face had not been drenched. She watched as more rain blew inside before the woman muscled the door closed with her shoulder and her weight. “I’ll go get Mr. Ellis.” She dabbed her face with her apron as she walked away.
Rivulets of water poured onto the rug where Sasha stood. She removed the Scrunchy that was at the end of her ponytail puff and attempted to smooth and tighten the style. She could hear voices approaching. The woman’s words were barely audible, but Cay Ellis’s rich tone was clear.
“Well, who is it?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Cay. She was ringing the doorbell as if Satan himself had a hold of her hand. I was afraid she would break it.”
“You didn’t ask her name?” Cay Ellis persisted.
“I didn’t have a chance. There she was, standing there like a wet chicken demanding to come in.”
Cay Ellis III and the housekeeper emerged from the hall. The woman hushed accordingly.
“So it’s you.” He stopped a few feet away from Sasha, one hand in his pocket, the other arm hanging casually at his side.
“You didn’t expect to see me again so soon, or did you?”
“No.” He paused, pointedly studying her drenched appearance. “I can’t say I did.”
“Well, you should have. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t do anything?” Sasha tried to keep the water running down from her hair out of her face. “Obviously, you didn’t think anybody else would do anything, either.”
“Olive” —Cay Ellis motioned with his head— “go get Ms. Townsend a towel, please, and bring the bathrobe from the second guest bedroom as well,” he called as the housekeeper went to do his bidding.
“I don’t want it. I’ve already seen a display of your kind of hospitality,” Sasha defied him. “You’re insincere and a hypocrite, and I don’t want your handouts.”
One of his eyebrows went up. “Ms. Townsend, you’re soaked to the skin,” he said huskily. “And I am sincere.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That’s your choice.”
They looked into each other’s eyes. His were dark enough to disappear in, and there was no way to ignore the spark of something between them that had nothing to do with anger. It perturbed yet excited Sasha.
Sasha tore away from his gaze and surveyed the opulence of Guana Manor. She shook her head. “I don’t understand. You have everything you could possibly need and more here. Why did you—”
“Yes, Guana Manor is beautiful,” Cay interrupted her, “but sometimes things aren’t as simple as they seem.”
“I see this as a simple matter, Mr. Ellis.” Sasha knew they both could feel the pulsing energy passing between them. “And I don’t want to go off on any tangents. As rude as this sounds I don’t know your history, and I don’t want to know it. I want us to focus on the subject at hand.”
“That’s going to be rather difficult to do,” he said, his eyes hooded.
“And why is that?”
“It’s rather hard to concentrate seeing you as I see you now.”
“What?” Sasha said, confused.
Once again his eyes perused her body, but this time when they reached her face there was a definite fire beneath their depths. “I am human, Ms. Townsend, no matter how you may paint me.”
Sasha looked down. The rain had made her white poet’s shirt and stretch pants transparent. This time her habit of not wearing a bra was of major consequence. Still, Sasha’s gaze didn’t waver when she looked back at him, covering herself with her arms.
“So are you still not taking handouts?” His eyes were impenetrable, but one side of his mouth tilted upward.
“No, I’m not.” She swallowed, and held her position.
“So you’ve solved my dilemma,” he replied. “Part of me wanted to offer the bathrobe to you because I thought it would be the proper, neighborly thing to do. But the other part of me…”
The clicking of Olive’s heels stopped Cay Ellis from going any further. With a look of disdain, the housekeeper handed the robe and the towel to Sasha. She continued to stand there, obviously curious about what was transpiring.
“I believe Baltron needs you in the kitchen, Olive,” Cay informed her.
“Baltron isn’t—” She stopped and pursed her lips. “All right. Excuse me, please.” Olive turned away, unhappy with her dismissal.
Sasha felt ashamed, but she couldn’t let Cay Ellis know it. “Why did you have someone pour bleach inside my house? On my clothes? Everything is ruined,” she accused. “Then I come over here and you act like the concerned neighbor.”
“Bleach?” His features were a mirror of confusion.
“Yes, bleach. Perhaps you don’t know what bleach is, since you obviously never have to use it. You just get others to do your dirty work,” Sasha added sarcastically as the wind rattled the windows and the foyer darkened by degrees.
“I didn’t send anyone to the Bethel House,” Cay Ellis replied.
“How did I know you were going to say that?” Sasha slapped the towel against her leg.
“Maybe because it’s true.”
“Well, Mr. Ellis, if you didn’t send anyone, who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Sasha’s frustration level reached its maximum. “And I don’t know why I’m here. No, now, that’s not true. I do know why.” She locked into his gaze. “I didn’t think the law would do anything about the vandalism, but I had to speak up for myself and let you know you had no right to do it,” she proclaimed. “Yes, I’m new here. I’ve only been here a week. I don’t know anybody, and this stuff between the Bethels and the Ellises…I never heard of it until yesterday. But I do know you had no right to send somebody into my house to do what they did.”
“As I told you before” —his tone remained steady— “I had nothing to do with that.”
“This is ridiculous.” Sasha headed for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going home.” Sasha placed her hand on the knob and pulled.
Immediately, Cay Ellis prevented Sasha from opening the door. “Didn’t you hear the weather report? A hurricane will be making landfall within the next twenty-four hours,” he announced. “We have massive flooding in this area. By now it will be impossible for you to drive back to the main road. The land slopes near the entrance of Guana Estate. Water fills up very fast there. I’m surprised you didn’t encounter any flooding on your way over.”
“Well, I didn’t. And I’ll be the judge of when and where I can drive,” Sasha replied. She could not imagine staying at Guana Manor for another moment. Cay Ellis’s ability to lie to her face made Sasha uncertain about even more drastic methods he might use to keep her from commercializing the spring. But if she didn’t open the business, how would she take care of herself? It would be very difficult to find work in such a small community, and it wouldn’t be long before she’d run out of money and have to leave Magic Key. Sasha took off the bathrobe and held it out between them. “Now let me out of here.”
Cay Ellis looked at Sasha’s determined expression, took the robe, and stepped away from the door.
Sasha bolted into the rain.
From the window, Cay watched Sasha struggle to get into her car. It took both hands to open the front door, but moments later her red Mazda was swallowed up by the torrential rain.
Cay had never seen so much determination in a woman’s eyes before. Not even in Precious’s eyes while she was alive; she had possessed an independent spirit, too. It was one of the reasons he’d married her. But as her obsession took her further and further away, Cay knew that same independent spirit had contributed to her death.
Still, while she lived, Precious had been a light in his life. During their brief years of marriage she had been happy, and for the first time in years Cay had been content. T
heirs was an unorthodox union for sure. They had never shared the physical union that most couples shared, and Cay had never expected it. It was his way of trying to make amends for his family’s extraordinary appetite for things of the flesh and other worldly desires. But in the end it hadn’t mattered. His life remained an outgrowth of what he had tried to deny, the Bethel Curse: an unfulfilled life where death loomed if that unfulfillment was threatened. No one could ever be close to him without being enveloped by its darkness…not even a soul as bright as his wife, Precious.
His mouth set into a grim line as he wondered if the day would come when he was no longer a prisoner of the past. He thought of Sasha Townsend’s determined face. She was very much planted in the present and looking forward to her future. Maybe that accounted for the magnetism between them. She was a free spirit who refused to be chained by anything. He was a man chained from birth. Opposites attract, and he could not deny the attraction he had for her.
Cay recalled how Sasha’s dark eyes flashed when she realized he could see her breasts through the rain-soaked shirt. She did not cower or appear to be shamed. For Cay, her attitude only heightened his awareness of her physical beauty. If he touched her, would he be able to feel her love for life? he wondered.
But touching Sasha in the way he wanted to was out of the question. She wholeheartedly believed he was responsible for the Bethel House’s being vandalized. He stared at the blanketing rain. He had told her the truth. Something like that simply wasn’t his style. He didn’t fight his fights in such a manner. He didn’t have to. He, like the rest of the Ellises, allowed the Ellis fortune to do all his fighting for him. If he really set his mind to it, he could influence the right people and tie the Bethel property up in court for maybe a year. Eventually, he might not win, but by then Sasha Townsend would probably be broke or so discouraged that her bottled water idea would have passed.
Cay watched the pine trees yield to the wind like weeping willow branches. The walkway in front of the house had become a shallow stream, and the rain was so dense he could not see the tiles beyond it.