Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two)

by Delka Beazer

  That’s when it hits me. A horrifying thought solidifies inside me, the meaning of the earthquake, the ongoing rumble which is reverberating through the trees, shaking my body to the bone.

  The volcano is blowing its top. And this time ash may be just one of the contents it spews.

  Adrenaline shoots through my body, taking away the tiredness, amplifying my fear to such a degree that I’m breathless with the effort to contain it.

  I race over and haul a still staggering Elaine to her feet. Aubrey takes one look at my face and begins wailing.

  Oh no. This can’t happen. Not now. If the volcano is erupting they will immediately start evacuating this last remaining side of the island which sits closest to the danger. The ferry will be used as the safest route, instead of going over land to get people to the safe zones on the other side of the island.

  My heart is beating wildly. I won’t be able to escape to St. Lucia. I’m trapped.

  I pull Aubrey into a hug and he grasps me with all his strength then pins me with a frightened look. “I want to go back.” He moans and drags his grubby hands across his nose, un-caking the lower half of his ash covered face. “Nate will take care of us like he did last time, won’t he Daphne?” His eyes are wide with fear. My heart clenches. I had promised dad to take care of him. But what should I do now?

  I want to break down and weep with frustration. I can’t go back but if I press on to the ferry and I’m forced to wait as they gather everyone, I will have no choice but to face Nate. How will I ever able to face him again after what I’ve done? The horror of the confrontation makes me almost wish to be extinguished by a lava blast from the volcano.

  The ground rumbles again and I hold onto Aubrey as the earth heaves mightily, sending us back to our knees. We all cry out and there is no other choice for me.

  Being in a house was safer than walking unprotected through what could be greater ash flow and I shudder to think of the far deadlier danger of pyroclastic flows. With their combination of rocks and hot gases which can wipe out all life around them within seconds of leaving the volcano. We won’t stand a chance.

  I won’t think of what Nate will do when we show up. I have to sustain myself on the hope that we will be safer there and we’ll stand a good chance of being rescued if the volcano has truly become a greater danger to all life around it.

  I grasp Aubrey’s hand and ditch my backpack. “Elaine, we’re going back.”

  Grateful sobs begin to escape Elaine’s smudged mouth as I begin to hustle back from where we’d come. I move as fast as I can, pulling and lifting Aubrey along through the thick trees and the falling ash which makes the landscape look like a wasteland. I focus fiercely on this and try very hard not to think of Nate and what will happen when I see him.

  Nate

  Shoving the last paper bag of groceries into the back of the taxi which sits in front of the grocery store, I pause to dust off the ash from the top of the bags. The stuff has started falling so hard that the sky at only two in the afternoon is blocked out and darkness is plunging the outside of the grocery store into swiftly approaching night. It’s a worthy mimic of what hell may look like and if I don’t change I’m heading straight there. I smile at my feeble attempt at humor.

  A tug on my arm gets me to turn around. It’s the taxi man and he’s finally decided to haul his skinny ass from the comfort of the front of the car.

  “Can we go right now?” I ask with an edge to my voice. I hate to think of Daphne waiting through this stuff. She must be afraid. Though she’s not given much of a hint of it, she was muttering in her sleep last night about the ash.

  The taxi man wags his head adamantly, his eyes bright with some threat. “Can’t do that boss.”

  “What?” I bark, allowing some of my irritation caused by the man’s fidgety nature to poke through. I should not have chosen him from among the half a dozen of taxis that had been trolling the hills looking for customers.

  The volcano has destroyed the tourist trade from the hotels and the ferry is the last hope for these workers to scrape together a living.

  He stares at me as if I’m the village idiot. “Da volcano erupting. We got to go to the boat.” He rasps out, fear leaking from his voice.

  I suppress a sharp reply. Of course the volcano is erupting! It’s been shooting ash for two freakin days! I try to rein in my escalating impatience. “Look man, I know that. The ash isn’t that bad,” I cast a swift glance to the sky. Okay, maybe it was worse than when I’d left the house, but it’s still just ash. Perhaps he needed a little more persuasion. “I’ll pay you double what we agreed if you will take me home. Now.”

  He backs away from me and unbelievably begins to unpack the groceries I’d just finished placing in the back of his car.

  I grab his shoulder. He wrenches away, gawks at me, his eyes bulging from his head. “You is a stupid tourist.” He jabs a finger in the direction of the front of the car and I can hear the radio’s muffled whine through the thickened silence. “They say pyro starting to come from the volcano, we got to go straight to the boat,” he reiterates, tossing his head adamantly, “no more ride inland.”

  As if on cue several headlights of cars begin coming in, one right after the other. When they stop, frightened, crying people begin pouring from them, their arms filled with bags and other stuff. Several tourists begin screaming hysterical and dash towards the pier lying just yards away.

  My heart crashes to my feet. I cannot breathe. I turn away to get ahold of myself.

  Daphne. Aubrey. It’s all I can think of. Oh God, no. Please, please, no!

  I shove my hands into the back pocket of my jeans, one of her father’s that she’s given me. I rip the small roll of hundreds from my pocket.

  “Here,” I thrust them at him, he begins backing away, shaking his head. “Dammit man, stop this bullshit. I just want to buy your car. That’s all. I need it now.”

  He stares at me as though I’ve started going crazy and will reconsider any moment. Out of patience, I stride to him and grabbing his skinny arm thrust the entire wad of money into his shirt pocket. “Take it for the car,” I say harshly.

  I head towards the car not waiting for his acceptance. Slamming the trunk closed I run around to the side.

  He hustles toward me. “Hey man, you don’t got to go back inland. Da police will take care of them, they can get out.”

  I throw him a look which has him stumbling backward even in the fast diminishing light that remains. “Don’t you dare tell me what I should or should not do.”

  He stops and some of the fear drains from his face, replaced by a compassionate look. “You got some woman waiting there?”

  I spare him a sideways glance. “Not some woman. My wife and her family.”

  I take off and jump into the front of the car. Gripping the key I turn the ignition on and prepare to pull out. He cries out and I stop and look up in time to see another car that is swerving swiftly out of the parking lot. The man is winding up the car window as fast as he can to avoid the ash but he is cautious and he turns and surveys the parking lot through narrowed eyes.

  Emmanuel!

  I shake my head unable to believe it. How, when?

  But he is gone before I can form any coherent reason for how he’s managed to find us amid these islands that are so numerous and was supposed to hide us from him.

  He takes off and I have no doubt where he’s headed. I pull out like a crazy man, and veer right into the path of a swiftly oncoming truck filled with dust coated people.

  Honking the horn like a madman, I yell through my window but the occupants of the truck are terrified and weeping. They stare blankly at me and I sit in misery as they unload their meager possessions from the truck. I watch mesmerized as the truck slowly maneuvers itself out of my way.

  I close my eyes, praying to God, to anyone that will listen to keep Daphne safe. My father’s words tumble over and over again in my mind that one day my stubbornly selfish nature would catch up to me an
d he is right.

  I have not wept since that day at the barn when he’d given me a solid right and told me to get the hell off his property. I had cried like a baby on the way to the motel that night.

  And not even the last moments of Liam’s life as he’d bled out in my arms had come close to hurting this much. I twist in my seat unable to bear the agony that is coursing through me.

  But the thought of Emmanuel putting his hands on Daphne, hurting her is more than I can keep inside.

  A groan of despair wells up inside me and as soon as the truck swerves, giving me just a few inches to work with, I tear out of the grocery store parking lot. The tires slip and slide on the powdery ash as I race towards the hill.

  I stop the car on the side of the road a few feet away from the turn that leads to the house. Getting out I glance around for a weapon. The ground is so inundated with ash everything looks like a grey carpet. I feel around and encounter the outlines of small sticks and stones. Working my way frantically among the rubble my fingers eventually latch onto something substantial. A hefty piece of stick which is thick and heavy.

  For the first time since I’ve arrived in Montserrat I’m grateful for the muffling influence of the ash, as I jog soundlessly towards the house. I stop at the sight of his car. Parked arrogantly in the front, no doubt he’d seen the benefit of the ash in hiding his arrival also.

  He was always a cold blooded bastard, determined to instill the greatest amount of fear into the victims Pablo sent him to kill. I had avoided him during my five year stint as one of Pablo Guarez’s transporters in his worldwide drug empire. Though I have never sold directly to a customer, my expertise was to make sure that the goods arrived safely and undetected to their intended destination. Emmanuel’s job on the other hand was all hands on. It was to kill the greedy underlings who tried to take some off the top or who crossed the boss in some other way. Like me.

  Coldness starts to spread inside me as I truly accept for the first time that Pablo will stop at nothing to see me dead for the murder of his son.

  But Daphne doesn’t deserve to die and I would use the last of my living breath to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

  I glide soundlessly onto the porch and try to peak through the glass. They are coated with ash, masking my presence but also shielding the inside from me. I press my ear to the glass for any sound.

  Someone is talking … chuckling actually, a man. Emmanuel. Another voice joins him, its pleading, whiny. Stacy.

  But what about Daphne, Aubrey, Elaine? Why don’t I hear them? Has Daphne already charged Emmanuel and is lying bleeding to death on the floor while Emmanuel lightly threatens Stacy?

  I can’t bear it and I rush towards the door and burst in.

  Emmanuel turns and points his gun at me. I toss myself to the side as the deadly whistle of the silencer’s bullet speeds past.

  I drop like I was taught to drop and in one fluid motion I propel myself behind a couch.

  Emmanuel laughs, a rough, deeply amused sound. He’s always had the shittiest sense of humor. “Ah … Blackthorne. The man I’ve been longing to see.”

  I clutch my woefully outmatched wood and start searching the floor. I can see Stacy’s legs, hear her crying, but it’s not the hysterical sobbing I would have expected from her. Great time to find some self-control Stacy!

  I dare not peek my head above the couch, not if I don’t want it to resemble the split skin of an overripe watermelon. I suck in a sustaining breath. “Cant’ say the same for you Manny.” I snort as I hear his swift intake of breath. I’m an idiot for trying to taunt him at a time like this.

  But Daphne? Where is Daphne? I cannot let myself believe that she’s already … I can’t let the thought form. “What can I do for you Emmanuel, since you’ve been trying to wreck my much needed vacation for a year now?”

  “I think you know the answer to that Blackthorne. Come out from behind the couch and we can talk about this.”

  I chuckle. The ash must be having a damaging effect on Emmanuel’s reasoning. If I come out I’ll be dead before I can draw breath to speak.

  There is a shift in the room as if he’s turned. “Stacy, get lost before I do you in for making me wait so long,” he barks at her.

  I close my eyes at the bite of rage that nails me to the spot. Stacy? The stupid bitch! She’d been sent to look for me? How long has she been working for Pablo and Emmanuel? From the start?

  Stacy whimpers in the background but I see her start making for the door. “But … but the ash is falling and the radio says the lava stuff is gonna come out.” She finishes feebly.

  Emmanuel shrugs carelessly. “Would you rather take your chances with lava or me?”

  Stacy shrieks and there is a pounding of feet as she makes her exit.

  I cannot hold back my need to know any longer. “Where’s my wife and her family, Emmanuel?”

  His loud laughter fills the room, hideous and more corrosive than anything the volcano can put out.

  I tense painfully, the wood bites into my palm and my breath hitches painfully in my throat.

  Emmanuel’s laughter recedes slowly. “Why Blackthorne, what do you think? They’re dead of course.”

  A hoarse cry of pain splits the air around me and I move without thinking towards Emmanuel.

  Chapter Eight

  Daphne

  An interminable while later I stagger into the familiar yard with the black board house. Aubrey clings to my arm like a limp doll. His face is ghastly, covered by a thick coating of ash which sits on the skin no matter how much you try and dust it off.

  Aubrey’s breath echoes loudly from his wide open mouth as he tries to suck in enough air. His eyes are halfway close, the lashes outlined by the ash weighing them down.

  I want to cry at the sight. This is my fault.

  I turn and Elaine is hauling her body forward painfully, the effort has cost her much. She’s never been enthusiastic about exercise. I’ve had to wait dozens of time as she valiantly struggled behind me. But one of those times she’d called out a warning and had raced forward to grasp my shoulders, yanking me back from pitching headlong into a ditch she’d seen earlier.

  The bitterness that I’ve nursed over the years towards her started to fall away at that moment.

  And she’d understood because all she’d said was. “I’m sorry for everything.”

  I nodded too choked up and weary to speak.

  But as I put one foot in front of the other heading for the house I wonder how forgiving Nate will be when I return. In front of the house I spot the filmy outline of a small car and my heart leaps.

  But why on earth would the authorities send a small car to pick up several people? Perhaps they thought there was only a couple here. In times of panic, information often gets misrepresented. The car is still on and I open the door and place Aubrey gently inside. Elaine enters from the other side.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  She nods.

  I make my way slowly to the house which looks like a ghost floating atop a hill.

  A crash sounds from inside, causing my heart to race. Nate! I’m running without a sense of movement. I shove open the door and scream at the sight before me.

  Nate is on his knees … Emmanuel is standing over him and their hands are locked around a gun.

  A cry rips itself from my throat as I race forward, both men turn to stare wildly at me.

  “Noooooooo!” Nate’s cry shatters the night but I don’t think. I launch myself at Emmanuel, who turns like a snake to face me. His mouth contorts in unadulterated rage and he points the gun at me and seconds later a fierce pain erupts in my shoulder.

  I slump to the ground, landing on the injured shoulder. Fierce agony tears through my shoulder, stealing the breath from my lungs. It’s so great I can’t summon the strength to cry out.

  My vision immediately starts to falter but then there is another series of thuds, followed by a popping sound. Through a supreme effort I turn my head to follo
w the sound.

  I blink as two bodies come into light. Nate is slumped over Emmanuel who is staring right at me, his eyes still holding traces of rage but they’re fading.

  Nate hauls himself off of Emmanuel’s body and I see that his shirt is covered with a big red blotch.

  I cry out and reach weakly towards him. Our eyes connect and he scrambles towards me, pulls me into his arms. A wrenching groan comes from my mouth at the fresh agony which flares in my shoulder, my eyes close of their own accord.

  “Oh God, no …. Please no… Daphne? Daphne look at me.” Nate cries out hoarsely above me.

  I try to, every fiber of my being struggles to reach up, past the pain to look at him but I can’t seem to find the strength. The pain is unlike anything I’ve ever imagined possible. I can’t fight my way out from under its crushing burden.

  As I sink below the darkness pressing me down, I hear the far off cries of Aubrey, Elaine, and then there are more voices, authoritative, harsh voices. But I cling to the one which means the most to me. Nate is sobbing my name, his hands gentle on my face as if we’re making love, I hold onto the sound until I have to let it go and everything goes black.

  Coming Soon

  The conclusion of Nate and Daphne’s journey to finding love and escaping the danger.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Coming Soon