by Siera London
“Gideon?”
“Yeah.”
“I can take care of myself, but do you have any idea how I should proceed?”
“We will figure it out together. I’m not going to leave you, Lina. Sweet dreams.” Sincerity rang out in his voice. There was a time when Jace’s voice was similar, and Troy before him. Words were not to be trusted.
As she drifted off to sleep, visions of candy hearts with Gideon hearts Lina danced around her. Maybe, her blood sugar was too low?
During the night, Lina awoke to a thrashing sound near the floor. Her first instinct was to bolt for the door, but then the scent of mountain air tickled her nose and she remembered Gideon was beside her.
“Stay down Sergeant,” he bellowed and Lina tensed. He was remembering an attack in theater. He quieted, but his lips still moved. It sounded as if he muttered a name. Did he say Torres stay down? His pitch dropped lower before she could decipher all his words. He was having a nightmare.
As a psychiatric nurse she was trained to avoid touching a patient experiencing a traumatic episode. It was paramount to protect yourself and the patient from physical injury. But she disregarded her training to help Gideon. Tentatively, she moved closer to the edge of the bed. Remaining on her stomach, she lowered her left arm toward the floor until she made contact with the fabric covering his chest. Delivering feather light strokes, she rubbed across his chest listening in the dark room for any sounds of increasing distress. Her touch had the opposite effect of what she saw with her patients. He quieted. With her upper body one quarter off the bed, slowly she inched her torso more fully into the bed. The room had fallen quiet once more. She stilled the hand on his chest. Sleep had claimed him. Gently she lifted her hand away, not wanting to disturb his rest. His powerful fingers curled around her hand. Instinctively, she tried to pull her hand free of his unrelenting hold. Though he was not hurting her, she tensed, squeezing her eyes closed. Anticipating the moment when his closed grip around her smaller hand would inflict pain.
The pain never came. She released a sigh of relief, then slowly opened her eyes. Lina found Gideon’s storm gray eyes trained on their joined hands. Knowing better than to look at him, she raised her eyes anyway. Desire smothered in his eyes, then caught fire when he raised her fingers to his mouth and kissed each digit. Another of Bernadean James’ warnings rang out in her head. Keep your hands to yourself.
He watched Lina from his concealed vantage point in the dense forest cover, as she entered the condominium unit and closed the door. It was too dark for him to distinguish the color of her dress, but there had been enough light to showcase her womanly curves. She’d matured into a beautiful woman. His body had pulsed with pent-up need. He took a deep breath reminding himself that she would be his soon. He would punish her for allowing another man to touch her. Anger coursed through his veins when the man, probably a date, dared to touch her skin. She belonged to him. She was a beautiful woman and he loved watching her. But watching her savor that man’s kiss had fueled the barely contained rage coursing through his veins. She shouldn’t let any man touch her. He hated knowing other men had touched her.
He hadn’t seen her with this man before tonight. He could feel the predatory energy surrounding this new man. He’d lingered after Lina entered her house, instead of getting into his car and driving away. Now he was in there with her. This guy would be trouble. Lina sang when she was happy. He’d left his favorite look out point to conceal himself on the balcony because he wanted to see her face when she discovered his gift. Her voice had carried through the kitchen window that she never closed, smooth and soulful like the woman herself. She hadn’t sung in a long time. Balling his fist in anger, knowing that this guy made her sing fueled his rage at not having her. He cracked the knuckles on each hand. He must remain focused.
He’d watched her for months, planning for this night. His plans had been ruined by this man who looked like a businessman, but moved like a trained killer. Only he was supposed to hear her cry out at the message he’d left on her bed. No one else. His chest filled with joy at her screams, that’s how he missed the initial banging on her front door. He had barely gotten back to the parking structure underneath her unit when he heard the larger man’s voice through the kitchen window.
Her bed would have been perfect for their first time together. Her sweet scent clung to the sheets. He’d pressed his face into the round purple pillow she held to her chest when she read at night. Careful not to stain her favorite pillow with his gift, he inhaled deep, pulling her essence deep into his lungs. Purple was her favorite color. A strappy, off the shoulder gown with layers of violet lace awaited Lina’s generous curves in his private apartment. Not even the boss knew of its location. He’d been prepared to take her tonight, but it would have to wait. He would make that guy pay for ruining his plans for tonight and for touching Lina.
Abandoning his hiding place, he moved closer to the building. Her place went dark thirty minutes ago and the man hadn’t left. Fury gnawed at his insides that Lina had settled in for the night with that man. This was definitely trouble for him.
It was getting late and he had stayed too long for his comfort level. He was good at what he did because he was always careful. Finding her gone when he arrived at sunset had thrown him off their routine. After an hour Lina hadn’t returned and he had gone in search of her along the beach. She looked at peace when she sat at the shore, digging her toes into the sand. She’d never noticed him watching her, but he was always close. Sometimes, he even understood the words she spoke to the universe. It was time for him to get home to his wife. He didn’t want to worry her by staying out too late. He stalked down the stairs across the parking lot. His car was parked two blocks south. He was careful to park away from her travel routes. He didn’t need her recognizing how often the same black Range Rover was in the neighborhood. Shell Coast was a large waterfront city, but her community was quaint and intimate. It was perfect for what he had in mind when the timing was right.
Chapter 8
Bloody roses and break-ins would not interfere with mother daughter time. For Bernadean James, Tuesday night bingo was a sacred event, along with her Saturday morning wash and set at Sassy Styles Salon and her monthly reading group. It was Lina’s joy to drive her mother to Big Bucks Bingo at the Riverwalk Shriner’s auditorium. Every Tuesday evening Lina found herself in her mother’s quaint living room. The Queen Anne sofa had been the center piece of the room since she could remember.
“Momma, you’re going to lose your table.” Lina collapsed into an oversized leather recliner in front of the television.
“No I won’t. I talked with Willa earlier today, she’s saving me a seat up front.” Willamena Jackson owned Sassy Styles and was her mom’s best friend in the whole world. They had argued over the same boy in junior high school. After both of them had been rejected by said boy, they became fast friends since they obviously had something in common. They liked the same type of men, and they both chose poorly.
“Why are you taking so long to get ready tonight?” Lina gripped and released her nape. The tension from last night had returned. Odd, when she was near Gideon the tightness in her muscles relaxed. One evening with Gideon sealed with a kiss, three kisses to be exact, and she had a song in her heart again. Who would have thought he wielded that kind of restorative power? Even now, she smiled at the computer printout of local home monitoring services handed to her before lunchtime.
“Lina Diane, why are you rushing me off to the wolves den? I hope you didn’t take jumpy Jace back, did you? I swear, that boy leapt out of his skin if anyone other than you approached him.”
Jace was the least of her worries. Thinking about the blood stains on her bed and a stranger in her house sent a shiver down her spine.
“You seem antsy tonight. What’s going on with you?” Her mother had a habit of responding to a question with her own question. Lina should be used to this weekly exchange with her mother, but tonight felt different. She love
d spending Tuesdays with her mother, but she craved the sense of safety Gideon’s presence provided.
“You didn’t answer my question,” her mother called from the other room.
“I would run on a treadmill until the second coming of the Messiah, before I reconciled with Jace. And don’t mention his name, he is a world class butt wipe to me.” Lina hadn’t told her mother that Jace was trying to get her transferred to his clinic.
“Something has changed,” her mother said stepping out of the bedroom. “Tell your momma what’s going on?” Her mother’s voice was coming closer. Lina schooled her face into a blank expression. She didn’t want her mother thinking she had jumped head first and blind folded into another male guided train wreck.
“I’m fine Momma. You worry too much about me.” Bernadean’s petite frame appeared in front of Lina. Unlike Lina, Bernadean preferred to wear her hair in a sleek, copper-brown full length bob that graced her shoulders. They shared a similar body build, but Bernadean was a “pint sized” version of her daughter, rather than the other way around. Lina always felt like an Amazonian warrior looking down at a little person when she stood next to her mother. She’d told her mother how she felt after graduating from high school. Her mother had looked devastated and Lina wished she could have taken the words back. Bernadean had looked up at Lina with tears in her eyes. In the middle of the Shell Cove Town center, her momma had grabbed her hand placing it over her beating heart. Her mother told her she was perfect. That she should never compare herself to another living soul on the planet. From that moment forward, Lina accepted the body that housed her soul. She was created with her own unique brand of femininity and no woman could rival Lina at being herself.
“Of course, I worry about you, Lina Diane. You are my child. I’ll never stop worrying about you.” Her mother took both of Lina’s hands, pulled her to her feet all the while making a slow appraisal from head to foot. Lina squirmed under her mother’s scrutiny.
“Surely the nights of worrying have decreased since I’m all grown up?” Lina laughed at her own joke to lighten the mood, but Bernadean remained silent in front of her.
“You’ll always be my baby. I love you more than anything in the world, Lina. There is nothing I would not do to protect you.” Her mother’s tone bordered on somber, triggering Lina to look up and over at her mother.
“Momma, why are you getting all serious on me? I’m okay,” she said, lowering her eyes. Lina hoped her mother didn’t notice the telltale gesture.
“You never could lie and maintain eye contact. What’s going on?” Her mother shook her head as her smile fell back into place. “What’s his name?”
“Whose name?”
“The man that has you twisted up in knots.” She was so obvious when it came to male interest. Lina shook her head in mock disgust.
“My pseudo boss helped me out of some trouble. I don’t plan on liking him.” Rolling her eyes heavenward, she sent up a silent prayer for strength to resist Gideon’s pull.
“When it comes to a man, the best laid plans can be met with unforeseen consequences.”
“Momma, no man talks are allowed during my fast.”
“Fine, I believe you but, you let your momma know if anybody is giving you grief.”
“Okay, Original Gangster of bingo. I’ll keep you posted if anyone disrespects your little shorty.” Her mother gently patted her cheek.
“See that you do that, my little Lina Diane.” Her mother turned in a whirl of colorful fabric disappearing back into her bedroom.
Lina followed behind her mother taking a seat in the winged back chair nested in the bay window. Lina breathed in the familiar scent of childhood. Her mother’s house always had a soft floral scent. Her eyes settled on the antique dressing table against the far wall. What she saw there brought a smile to her face. Draped across a jewelry display mannequin was a hot pink plastic necklace with a matching bangle bracelet. Lina had bought it for her mother more than fifteen years ago. Her mother had cried when Lina had presented her with the poorly wrapped box for Mother’s Day.
“Momma, why do you keep that old jewelry set on display? You can’t think to wear those colors again, it would be a traumatic fashion faux pas.” Bernadean glanced at her daughter, then her dresser and smiled.
“That jewelry set was the first gift you, my most precious daughter gave me. You bought it with your own money. I cried so much your father thought I was having a nervous breakdown. Only death could part me from that hot pink jewelry set. Your daddy would shake his head in dismay because I wore that plastic necklace with my Sunday’s finest for six months. He would always joke that everybody was whispering he was a cheapskate.”
Her mother had a pleasant faraway look. Lina never understood why her mother never had any resentment towards her father. How could you have happy thoughts of a man that abandoned you to raise a child alone? Lina could not think of one instant when her mother said a negative word about her father.
“Ready.” Bernadean turned off the lights and stepped out of her walk-in closet and sashayed into her bedroom wearing a cheetah print swing dress with three quarter sleeves.
“Foxy Brown eat your heart out. Is that the latest ensemble for Tuesday night bingo?” Her mother flashed a coquettish smile.
“I have an admirer if you must know. He’s a Deacon at Olive Branch Baptist, that large white brick church near the community college campus.”
Lina’s iPhone dinged an incoming message. She rolled off her hip to pull the phone free of her jeans pocket. The message was from Gideon.
You disappeared on me. Where the heck are you? He was so country cute with his southern dialogue.
It brought a smile to her face that he wanted to know where she was. Maybe it was the way men treated women in his neck of the woods, as he put it, but his words made her feel special. Like she mattered to him. About to get cozy with a tanned hunk, she texted.
He texted back, He’d better be on the television. Get dressed. I’m coming to get you.
How presumptuous of him to assume she wasn’t dressed and didn’t already have plans. She looked down at her oversized tee with a scoop neck and rounded tail, faded jeans, and sandals. Okay, technically she wasn’t dressed for a night out on the town, but it would do in a pinch.
What makes you think I’m not dressed? She typed as fast as her thumbs could move.
His response-I was just hoping.
Lina couldn’t help but smile as she mentally assembled her outfit for her second date with Gideon.
Lina responded that he could come over at seven thirty.
“A name, Lina Diane?” Bernadean’s face held a knowing expression.
Lina released a slow groan. “Momma, it’s nothing. He’s just a friend from work.”
“Is that right?” Bernadean stepped back and settled a stern look on Lina. “You come in here jumping like you just got tasered. You’re impatient to get me off to bingo and don’t think I didn’t hear you singing when you stepped out of the car in the driveway. Now, you’re smiling like Alex Trebek wrote you one of those Jeopardy checks.”
“What’s this friend’s name and don’t try to stall me because Deacon Wilson is waiting on me.” Lina’s shoulders slumped.
“His name is Gideon Rice.” Bernadean cradled Lina’s face in her palms.
“And the trouble Gideon helped you resolve?” She hoped her mother had forgotten the mention of trouble.
“Someone broke into my place last night.” Her mother went still. Abject fear covered her mother’s features.
“And you didn’t call me?” The hurt underpinning her mother’s words pierced her heart. Rising to her feet, Lina pulled her mother into an embrace.
“Momma, I wasn’t there. They didn’t take anything.”
“The fact that he didn’t take anything is irrelevant. Why didn’t you come over here?”
“I took care of it. I notified the police, they checked everything but my blood pressure. I had BETAS with me, too.” She
rubbed her mother’s arm in comfort.
“If nothing was taken, how do you know someone was in your house?”
“Because someone left blood stained, white roses on my bed.” She felt her mother stiffen in her arms, but her heart was beating at a frantic pace. Having never seen her mother in this state Lina was unsure of what action to take.
“It’s okay, Momma,” Lina said, in a reassuring tone.
“No, nothing is okay,” came her mother’s whisper. Lina felt her mother squeeze her tighter, then she let go. “Never keep anything from me, Lina.”
“I didn’t want to worry you, and Gideon stayed the night with me.” Her mother regarded her with tears in her eyes, the fear from earlier replaced with an emotion Lina didn’t recognize.
“I’ll meet you at the car,” her mother said, dabbing at the corner of her eye. “I need to pretty myself up, again.” Her smile resembled glass in the middle of an open flame, on the verge of melting away. “You tell me all about your Gideon Rice on the ride to bingo.” The sudden change in her mother’s mood was unnerving.
“Are you disappointed in me for not calling you last night? I didn’t want to bring trouble over to your door and…”
“Those were Gideon’s words. I raised you to be independent in the world, not from me. Gideon sounds like a man used to bringing the fight to his opponent.” Her mother gave her a pointed look, “We depend on one another, Lina Diane. You’ve always told me everything. Don’t let that change because of a man.”
“Momma, Gideon is a nice guy. Don’t think ill of him.”
“Maybe, he’s not as nice as you think if he doesn’t appreciate the relationship between a mother and her child.” Her mother’s voice held a hint of concern and fear. Her mother had gotten to the root of the issue in one conversation. Lina gave her trust to men, too easily.
“I’m so proud of you, baby. Go on to the car. I’ll be there in a minute.” Her mother said all the right words, but she had the look of a woman who was handed a life sentence. Lina couldn’t shake the feeling that an irrevocable change had taken place.