In Love by Design (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod)

by Ellen, Tracy

  Now the whole audience was laughing, whooping, and clapping wildly. They stood up, as Luke shook Carter’s hand in passing and then climbed onto the podium. Most of these men here tonight are keen outdoorsmen. They know guns, they hunt, and a lot of them have served their country, too. Luke was an easy man for them to regard as a real American hero.

  Giggling, Pam leaned over again. “Good God, I’m coming and I’ve barely met the man! How do you ever leave the bedroom to go to work?”

  I smirked and shook my head, but I didn’t take my eyes off Luke. If he was nervous, nobody would ever be able to tell. Under the spotlight in the dim room, Luke was the epitome of masculinity and attractiveness. He wore the fashionable suit with the insouciance of a male model, but he was no pretty boy. His grace was that of a supreme predator that has hunted all over the world’s rugged terrains and emerged victorious, and not from slouching down a runway. His muscles weren’t the result of a daily workout at a popular gym followed by a stop at a juice bar, but carved to rock hard toughness from years of relentless discipline and training exercises most of us couldn’t even imagine.

  Luke was a noble warrior; the best of the best, the elitist of the elite, but underneath all the hyperbole, he has trained for most of his adulthood to be a killer and he was ruthless.

  ‘And woe to the dumbasses who forget these facts.’ I thought, glancing over at Carter, as he sat back down in his chair and gazed up at Luke with eyes that are disturbingly shiny.

  Pam scooted her chair for a better view of the podium. I saw John over her shoulder, sitting further down the aisle at a table with a group of men. He has an air of aloofness, as his eyes scanned the room. His glance passed over mine, hesitated, but moved on with no change in his serious expression.

  Luke adjusted the microphone down a few inches since Carter was a very big boy. “Christ, how does your average Joe start his speech after an introduction like that, “ he flashed his white grin and the dimple appeared, “much less a badass motherfucker like me?”

  That was all it took for the room to be his and Luke took his time looking around at all the expectant, laughing faces. Even though it was dim, with all his talents, seeing in the dark was probably no problem for Genghis.

  “Carter is right, though. You should all listen very carefully while I tell you the story of my life,” he dimpled again and even Pam sighed unconsciously next to me, “because everything I am today I owe to the tremendous influence Carter has unknowingly had on my life.”

  I glanced at Carter. He smiled, as he dipped his head in regal acknowledgment. The Morons were grinning to have their family so publically praised, as if it was their due. Not that they’ve done one thing to deserve any share in the praise that I can tell.

  Luke held up a hand, like he was taking a vow. “I’m going to ask all of you that are listening,” he smiled at the first table to his left and the men all smiled back while the women squirmed, “to please stay quiet and let me tell my whole story before you ask any questions, okay? Carter is right. Unfortunately, I do have to leave early tonight to attend another engagement. Do I have your word of honor on this, ladies and gentlemen?”

  This engagement of his was news to me, but it was probably another “big game” and I was doubly glad I drove the jeep if Luke was going to pull another disappearing act.

  There were a sea of nodding heads and calls of “Absolutely!” and “You know it, badass!”

  “Good!” Luke replied, very pleased with his audience.

  I tried really hard to refrain from rolling my eyes at seeing the Master Blaster manipulator hard at work. Luke’s eagle-eyed glance swooped in on me at the precise moment when I lost it to the eye roll, and I could swear his lip switched.

  “Okay, here we go. Once upon a time, there was this skinny, dark-haired kid who came to visit Minnesota every summer to stay on his Uncle’s farm. Man, this kid had fun! He didn’t personally meet this older kid named Carter, but he sure saw him swimming and golfing, and he heard a lot about him from his friends. Carter inspired him in so many ways, but like all kids, it was hard for this young boy to truly comprehend the influence Carter was to have on his future life. Carter was big and tough. Carter came from a successful family that had money and influence. Carter paid attention to the guys around him, and from everything this kid saw and heard when he visited; Carter was generally an overall great dude.”

  At Luke’s slight pause, I quickly looked at Carter to see him smiling still, but his head was tilted a little quizzically. I didn’t blame him. Having just the faintest twinge in my gut where Luke may be going with this, I felt like throwing up my Lemon Drops. I really prayed I was wrong, but the dread was taking me over.

  Luke laughed a little and spread his hands, admitting, “This kid was me, of course. I have to tell you folks here tonight, when I hit about the ninth grade there was nothing more I wanted in life than to grow up to be as big, strong, smart, and as powerful, as the man I held up in my mind to be reason for all these goals.” Luke bowed towards Carter, and there was the slightest mocking edge of malice in his sharp, friendly smile. I think I saw it, but only because I was looking and only because I know my war-god. “This man was Carter Vogelbachen II.”

  “To be smart, I studied hard through high school. To be strong, I started working out every chance I got. The big and the powerful? The big never really did happen,” Luke smiled ruefully and raised a hand to the top of his head, indicating his average height while everyone tittered. “But the powerful I started working on the minute I left home and joined the Army. There wasn’t anything I didn’t sign up to learn, or a training exercise I didn’t volunteer to go on. I joined Ranger school and worked my ass off to succeed, as I thought of how Carter succeeded at whatever he tried to do. I continued on like Carter described and made it all the way to become an operator in a Delta Force unit. The whole time, a day didn’t go by that I didn’t think about how powerful I was becoming, just like Carter was when he’d inspired me all those years ago.”

  Luke paused again, and I was amazed at how a man that really doesn’t talk all that much, except to me, could be such a gifted orator—even if what he was saying was rather creepy. The thought occurred to me that Luke had been planning this speech for a long, long time.

  Pam moved restlessly in her seat, and she was biting her lower lip, but her eyes were glued on Luke. So were everyone’s eyes at my table, and all the tables around me.

  Luke nodded his head, as if he’d been thinking, and continued, “The physical end of becoming powerful was easy for me and I loved every minute of it, just as I imagined Carter loved being physically active, too. Becoming powerful and wealthy like his family was a whole different ball game. I come from a family that’s firmly middle class.” He waved his hand back and forth. “Sometimes a little higher, sometimes a little lower middle class,” again his audience laughed on cue, “but the one thing I’d learned growing up was the meaning of hard work.” There were a few isolated “Hear, hears!”, but when Luke stared in the direction of those people and raised his brows, they died off abruptly. He nodded, pleased again with his audience. “I knew Carter’s family must work awfully hard to be so successful in this community, so I didn’t mind applying all my drive and brains to becoming wealthy and powerful. This was what brings me to the present day in my story, and with Carter’s glowing endorsement, why I’m telling it to you tonight.”

  At this phrase, I was sure others could begin to detect the faint edge of the sarcasm Luke was allowing to bleed through into his speech.

  “Maybe some of you here knew my late Great Uncle Ben Drake? I inherited his farm about eight months ago when he passed. I’d always planned on coming back to this general area to meet Carter personally, as a grown man, and tell him why he was such an inspiration to me. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. By now, I’d become that wealthy, powerful man I strove so hard to be. After a twelve year career, I’d left the Army when I was wounded.” You could hear the feminine murmurs of
sympathy running throughout the crowd. Luke didn’t prevent those, but only smiled sadly before he continued, “I started a security company and it has grown to be successful. I’m also an investor in other companies and in property, specifically farms in Minnesota. Actually, specifically farms in this pretty area that I have such memories of from my childhood.”

  Pam gasped softly beside me, and I have to give her credit, she was sharper than the three men at our table who were still smiling and hanging on every word dropping from Luke’s lips.

  I looked over at John and he met my eyes, but then looked away.

  Luke’s grin was wide and the dimple flashed again. “I have something to confess, but I hope everyone here will bear with me until the end of my story. This goes especially for my girlfriend, Anabel Axelrod. I’m afraid that I have used her most dreadfully.” He nodded to me and taking a page from my own book, he blew me one of the sexiest, most masculine versions of my hand kisses.

  Of course, the women swooned like sex-starved groupies. I used this phony, romantic gesture as a teachable moment to show Luke what this girlfriend will do when she’s blown an elaborate kiss from her loved one. A kiss that she suspected was a precursor to being publically humiliated somehow in front of room full of over one hundred and fifty people.

  Sparky and I stood up and patiently waited for Luke’s airborne kiss to arrive and then we flicked the kiss away. After this, we flashed Luke a very creditable right middle finger held high while I called out sweetly, “Use this, Boyfriend!”

  Luke asked, “Er…can I wait to the end of my story?”

  The men loved his response and the room roared.

  I sat down and Pam was dying with laughter, although her eyes were large and darting everywhere. Carter was glaring at me, probably for daring to tease his hero and I heard one Moron whisper loudly to the other, “You got that right, she is one bitchy girlfriend!”

  Pam reached over and slapped Moron One a hard one to the cheek and he cried out, “Ow, Pam, why did you hit me? What’s wrong with you?”

  She laughed a little maniacally. “Nothing anymore, you ass, but don’t talk that way about my friend!”

  He rubbed his cheek and defended hotly, “I didn’t say anything,” he pointed an accusing finger, “he did!”

  Pam looked over to where Moron One was pointing at a smirking Moron Two and shrugged blithely. “Aw, shut up! You both deserve to be slapped and I can’t reach him right now!”

  I laughed. “Thanks, Pammie!”

  She winked broadly.

  Luke continued speaking into the microphone, drowning out all other voices until the room hushed. “I still had a few things to accomplish before I’d be ready to meet my man Carter, but I realized it wouldn’t hurt to be introduced through some mutual friends rather than have Carter think I was a stalker.” Carter chortled loudly at this. “I happened to walk into this cool little bookstore in Northfield one day last April. I immediately saw the prettiest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on and she stared right back at me like she’d seen a ghost.” Luke’s voice softened. “I had to leave that day before I met her, but I checked around town. I found out her name and then it felt like fate when I heard she was good friends with Pam Vogelbachen.”

  Pam took a sharp breath, but I stared down at Sparky, biting my cheek and not daring to look up at the podium. I could just imagine what Luke meant by checking around town and could only wish it had been my fake godmother that he’d tried to pump for intel that day. Now that would have made for a whole different story.

  “I was busy for a few months getting settled and working on the new property.” He added dryly, “If it isn’t obvious by now, it was really important that I impress Carter when I met him to tell him why he inspired me.”

  Everyone laughed, but there was a slightly uneasy tone overall to the mirth echoing throughout the room. Everybody knew the Ogelbachen’s were rich and that Carter was the boy wunderkind heir to the throne, but I have a feeling this adulation was going over the top. Carter was liked by his sporting friends, but most would probably describe him as the typical oldest son of a driven, successful, and overbearing father. This crowd would probably be less confused if it was Carter’s father that Luke was inspired by.

  “One day, I met one of my new neighbors, and it was as if karma was at work because this guy was that pretty girl from the bookstore’s brother. He told me that Anabel came over most weekends. I started to drop in on her brother those days, so that I would “accidentally” meet her.”

  The women were rustling in their seats again, melting at Luke’s determined pursuit. Pam’s hand touched on mine in my lap. She, of all women, knew what it was like to hear that you’ve been manipulated from the very beginning by the man you loved and was feeling bad for me.

  “It finally happened on a Saturday this past September. Anabel showed up and we met. I thought I’d date this cute girl a few times; no hardship there, and then I’d meet Pam and Carter. Who knows, maybe we’d go out on a double date. Hell, everything would go swimmingly from there--just like I’d planned. Am I right, ladies and gentleman?”

  “Oh, HELL no!” yelled a male voice from way back.

  “Get that man in the back a beer because he knows women!” Luke threw his head back and laughed, and it was the laugh I loved and could listen to for hours. Apparently, others liked the sound, as well, as the room laughed delightedly along with him.

  Not looking up, I was smirking because this was the cute part, but the story wasn’t over. I still had the ball of dread sitting in my gut like a rock.

  “I don’t know if anybody here knows Anabel Axelrod other than Carter, Pam, and me, but if anybody’s stressing from my story that she’s fallen victim to my evil designs, let me tell you nothing ever goes according to my design where she’s concerned.” Amidst the catcalls and laughter, Luke’s voice boomed out, “Not one damn thing!”

  I heard a, “Go, Anabel!” and for once it was not a voice in my head.

  Shaking my head and smiling despite the rock gut, I looked up at the podium when Luke’s tone of voice changed.

  “Anabel.” It was Luke’s low, caressing voice reaching out to envelope me in that silken bond of the inexplicable connection we shared. I hurriedly looked back down at my hands. “I love you with everything in me that is good, bad, and,” his voice dropped lower, “especially ugly. You are the light in my world, my dream of a future, and my only hope at the end. I’m sorry I couldn’t share everything with you before now, but I will never hold back again.”

  As public apologies go, this one takes the cake, but I covered my face in preparation for what was coming next and to hide my laughter. Women were actually sobbing around me at Luke’s romantic words and I even heard a man sniffling loudly into a handkerchief.

  As soft, smooth, and loving as Luke’s words were when talking to me, they were startling harsh and abrasive when he pointed an arm in accusation at our table.

  “Carter Vogelbachen II, this is why you’ve inspired me since I was a boy. Twenty long years ago, I swore a vow of revenge against you and your family over the grave of my dead friend, Thomas Sorensen.” Luke’s voice rose. “Carter Vogelbachen II, you were directly or indirectly responsible for the suicide death of my best friend, Tommy Sorensen!” Luke spit off the side of the podium. “Then you inspired my hatred and my disgust for being the fucking miserable, homosexual coward that you are.”

  Above the gasps and cries of shock erupting everywhere; Luke went on concisely damning Carter and his family with every deliberately foul and crude word spoken. “Does anybody here remember the death of Tommy Sorensen that lived around Faribault back in the summer of 1992? I bet our gay friend Carter here does. He was fucking Tommy up the ass for the six months prior to the poor kid killing himself. I believe Tommy died while performing autoeroticism sex with our buddy Carter.”

  When a few people started rising and protesting, Luke thundered, “You all gave your word. Carter told you to listen to every word I speak as the
guaranteed truth, so sit the fuck down and listen to the truth about this man and his family!”

  I stared up in awe at the man on the podium. I saw the powerful, condemning man Luke was right now, as he was finally executing his vow to revenge the friend who died so young. I could also see flashes of the hurt, raging boy who inconsolably cried while he promised this pay back twenty years ago at his friend’s funeral.

  People were looking at each other in confusion. They were wondering if Luke spoke the truth and if Carter knew Luke would be accusing him of this horrible thing.

  Carter had no clue. He was sitting frozen in flabbergasted denial that his new buddy that he’d so glowingly endorsed five minutes before could turn into this fire-breathing dragon intent on his public annihilation. Luke had played him to perfection.

  In the loud turmoil going on amongst the people at the tables around us, the stunned silence at our table was deafening. I couldn’t believe that nobody had stood up in Carter’s family shouting protests or to escape the room.

  In a ringing voice, Luke scoffed bitterly, “I’ve known about you being gay and too big of a fucking, yellow-bellied worm to come out like a man, Carter, since I was fourteen. I know there are other people around here that know it, or suspect it, as well. I know you married poor Pam because your daddy made you. When he found out about Tommy Sorensen’s death, your daddy sat you down and said no son of his was going to be gay, didn’t he, Carter? It was just a phase you were going through, this desire to fuck other boys and not girls.” Luke stared at Carter and shook his head in contempt. His voice dropped low and was vicious. “So you got yourself a girlfriend, didn’t you, Carter? A little girl young enough that she wouldn’t question why you didn’t want to have sex with her or why you were gone so much with other men. Another family your father could intimidate with his money and his power.” He laughed and it was a cruel sound. “Hell, she was even boyish enough that you could probably close your eyes and force yourself to have sex with her. After all, you had to get her pregnant to keep the old man off your back and to keep him happy. Or so you thought, didn’t you, asshole? But it didn’t work, did it? You couldn’t even get it up, could you?”