by Susan Bohnet
Kai actually stopped walking as the thought struck him. They weren’t holding her anywhere. They had given Beth an opportunity she couldn’t refuse, no doubt a little dose of Influence sweetening the thought of joining the geneticist’s team.
Kai was back in motion, heading for the exit. They destroyed her relationship with Kai. They even provided a great opportunity for Beth’s parents so that they were out of the country, as well. She had no reason to stay. She didn’t need any form of coercion. She was here, waiting for her new adventure to begin.
Where could she be living? Either she was with a friend or in a hotel. Kai reached the outside door. He paused. The rebels knew he was there. Were they laying in wait to jump him? Or were they terrified enough that Kai was telling the Master about them that they high tailed it out of there? Kai suspected the latter, but not with enough conviction that he wasn’t unnerved leaving the building.
The sun fell on his face as he stepped out. Kai was alert. He searched the surrounding trees for signs of an impending rebel attack. All seemed quiet. Anthony walked toward him with a brisk step. The last time Kai saw Anthony was at the restaurant with Charles. Surely, he wasn’t a rebel. As he drew close, Kai stepped to the side. “How ya doin’,” said Anthony lightly.
“Fine.”
“Great day. Wish I had a mission outside today.” He tilted his head to the clear sky wistfully and the sun glittered off the gold highlights in his brown hair.
“Yeah,” said Kai.
Anthony had his dress shirt open at the collar, his tie hanging loose. “Later,” he said and moved toward the door.
Kai exhaled. He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath.
The parking lot seemed to be covered in a blanket of stillness. He scanned the vehicles, but didn’t see the black jeep. He stepped on the blacktop and walked toward his vehicle. As he reached for the door handle of his truck, someone smashed into him from behind and he slammed against the metal. A menacing voice behind his ear said, “What did you tell him?”
Kai struggled against his assailant, his face pressed hard against the cold metal of the truck. He managed to loosen the other man’s hold enough to lift his head and look back. It was Lincoln.
Kai was lean, but muscular and strong. His voice was solid when he spoke. “Back off! What are you doing? This isn’t the way to get what you want, Lincoln. Has the whole world gone mad?”
Lincoln didn’t loosen his grip. Instead he held Kai even tighter. “I have to know,” said Lincoln, his voice laced with fear and what Kai could swear was anger. “Have you exposed us? Ours is the way to save the human race. You know it’s the only answer with completely evil people, Kai.”
Kai relaxed his body, letting it slump slightly against the car. Lincoln shifted in response, his body weaving back as he realigned his center of gravity in response to Kai’s lack of pressure. With a quick movement, Kai slipped out of Lincoln’s hold, throwing himself toward, then away from the other man. As Lincoln grasped at him, trying to regain his hold, Kai felt his hair tangle in Lincoln’s hands and a twinge of pain indicated he lost a few hairs before he was free. He stood there, breathing hard, glaring at Lincoln as he stood three feet away from him. “Are you alone?”
“Yes. The other rebels all left the building and are waiting to find out what’s happened. I couldn’t put anyone but myself in danger of being taken in as a traitor.”
Emotions surged to the surface, but Kai reminded himself the rebels weren’t the ones who had taken Beth. “I told Jessip there are rebels, but gave him no names.”
Lincoln nodded, his eyes hard on Kai. “That’s something, at least. Thank you.”
Kai stepped away. He paused and looked back at Lincoln for a moment, his chest feeling the tightness that came with losing a friend. “I don’t agree with your methods. But you’re still a Trebladore and I won’t betray my own kind.” It was true. In that moment he decided he wouldn’t give Jessip a single name. Let them find out for themselves. Lincoln stepped back. Kai got in his truck and pulled out of the parking lot.
He flicked through Beth’s friends in his mind, deciding how close her relationships with them were and if any of them had an apartment large enough for a houseguest. He decided on Leslie, one of Beth’s good friends. He drove to her apartment. There wasn’t any sort of security and Kai was able to walk to her door. He knocked and noted there wasn’t a peephole. A moment of agonizing silence followed until he heard footsteps coming. Leslie opened the door. Her eyes flew wide, and quick as a snake, she slapped him across the face. She started to close the door.
“Leslie, wait. I know you think I deserve that.”
“Uh, yeah. That and worse.” The attitude in her voice spilled over her words like acid. She was normally a kind and outgoing person. She put a hand on her hip and continued, “If Beth had a brother, you’d probably be nothing but a bloody mess right now.”
“Is Beth here?”
“No. Get lost. You’ve hurt her enough.”
“I know she’s leaving soon. I have to talk to her before she goes.”
“Go home to your wife, Kai.” The door rattled in the frame with the force of the slam.
Kai knocked again. When she didn’t answer, he called, “Leslie. Is she at Mica’s place? Where is she? I have to talk to her.” He knocked again, insistent, demanding, pleading. “Please tell me where she is.”
The door opened a crack, then all the way. Beth stood framed in the doorway, like a painting titled ‘Resignation.’ Her dark, wavy hair was in a ponytail and her skin seemed to glow. If only she would smile at him. She set her jaw, instead, and said, “Kai, there’s nothing more to say. You need to go.”
“There’s everything to say. We haven’t talked at all. You just disappeared from my life.”
“I have heard…”
“I know, I know.” His voice was soothing. “It’s not like you think.” She looked unbelieving. The door was closing. “For the sake of what we had together, please, talk to me.”
He heard Leslie’s voice but didn’t see her. “Jerk.”
Kai bit the corner of his lip while he waited for Beth to answer.
“I’m going away. Starting over. It’s a great opportunity…” Her lip trembled and she put her hand to her mouth.
“I won’t try to talk you out of anything. Join me for lunch. Please, Beth.”
Beth stared steadily at Kai. She’s not going to do it, he thought. She glanced away and then back quickly. “Okay.”
“No way!” yelled Leslie.
“Okay,” Beth whispered.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Kai held Beth’s chair for her as she sat at the table. It was an outdoor café. The sun was shining warm on the canopy above their heads. Kai chose it because he knew Beth loved to enjoy the fresh air on warm days.
Looking at her as she sat across from him, Kai fought back the rise of tears. This was not the time for that. “I know you must hate me,” he began.
Beth stared at him with hard eyes, her lips pursed. She folded her arms across her chest, as if protecting herself from him. It hurt to see that. Last week she had been so open with him, so trusting. He wondered if he could ever get that back now.
“Beth,” he started again. “I need you to know something.” He hesitated. “I need you to believe me when I tell you that I do not have a wife and children. I don’t have any family at all. I wasn’t lying to you. The men who told you that were lying.”
He waited, watching her reaction. She just sat there, her eyes hard and sad at the same time. He could see that she was trying not to cry. She looked at him in silence for several moments as he waited.
“Part of me wants to hope you can give a logical explanation. It’s so stupid!” Beth brought her hand down on the table hard enough that the silverware jumped. “I want to slap that part of myself. It’s the stupid, optimistic, vulnerable sid
e that always gets me into trouble.” Her voice softened as she said, “Who do I believe? First three men come and tell me you are their cousin and that you have a wife and children. They claim they are trying to protect your family from being hurt. They know all kinds of things about you that I don’t even know.” Her eyes shifted from his face to something behind him and then back. She met his gaze with sharp, glistening eyes. “Tell me the truth. Are you married? Do you have kids?” she said. “Kai … don’t lie to me. I need to know.”
Kai looked deep in her eyes and saw despair and hope. He frowned. He had the fleeting thought that he could Influence her. That would change her feelings and thoughts about him. As soon as he had it, though, he rejected the idea. Taking away her free will was something he would never do.
And just what did he think he was going to accomplish here? She had been offered an incredible opportunity that would help her reach the dream she had fostered from childhood. He was a member of an alien race, which had strict rules against intermarriage with humans. What did he think would be their future?
Kai shifted in his chair, glancing over Beth’s shoulder as he searched for the right words. He blinked. Then suddenly sat up straight. Across the street, he saw the man he met at the camp for underprivileged children, the man who had introduced himself as Ronan. He was standing on the sidewalk, his face contorted in what Kai could only describe as rage.
Kai glanced back at Beth and saw that she was staring at him. “Look,” he said, his eyes returning to Ronan. His face must have had something startling written on it because she turned without hesitation to follow the direction of his eyes.
“What?” she said.
“That man over there.” Kai answered. “I saw him yesterday out at a children’s camp. Something’s wrong.”
They both watched as Ronan turned to another man who was standing behind him and pushed him aside. Two young children about five or six years old were crouched against a wall, previously hidden by the bulk of the second man. Without hesitation, Ronan grabbed the closest child by the hair and yanked him to his feet. He shook the child savagely, snarling something at him that Kai and Beth couldn’t hear. The child was holding onto Ronan’s hands, crying. Ronan promptly hauled the boy away from the wall and over to a vehicle where he tore open the back door and literally threw the child into the car. The other man grabbed the other child, a girl, by the upper arm and marched her to the car, too.
Ronan stepped back and watched as she crawled quickly into the car. Then he slammed the door and spoke to the man beside him. The man walked around and got into the driver’s side of the car. Ronan walked over to the building where the children had been crouched and picked up something from the ground. Then he strode back to the car and got in.
Kai and Beth watched in silence as the car drove away, sliding into the line of traffic and disappearing down the street. Beth turned to Kai. “What was that about? Shouldn’t we report them or something?” she said, her voice high and sharp. “Kai? Kai? Do you hear me?”
Kai’s anger rose through him at what he had just witnessed. He pushed it down. He knew what he could do with his anger and he didn’t want that to happen. Whatever Ronan was up to, he was not going to die because of Kai’s anger.
Kai met Beth’s gaze and shook his head. “I don’t know what that was, but it was definitely not right. Regardless of whose children those were, he shouldn’t treat them that way.”
“We need to phone the police,” Beth said, reaching for her phone.
“No, wait.” Kai reached over and held his hand over her phone.
“Kai! We have to report that. Those poor, poor children! If he would treat them like that in public, what do you think he is doing to them right now? We have to tell the authorities. No one like that should be working with children.”
“Yes,” Kai agreed. “But we don’t have a license plate number and there must be thousands of vehicles that look like theirs. We don’t know what they’re doing.” Kai hesitated, “And I think there’s much more going on than what we saw. That man was in charge of a whole camp full of children when I talked to him. Something doesn’t feel right about any of it.”
“Well,” said Beth, “I think we need to find out what’s going on and tell the police so they can save those kids.”
“I know where the car is heading,” Kai said, his eyes meeting hers. “To the camp.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Beth hesitated, her eyes riveted on Kai’s. Then she nodded and stood. “Hurry, Kai. We need to get there and find out what is going on as quickly as we can.” Her voice shook.
He put a few dollars on the table even though they hadn’t ordered yet, and silently took her hand, entwining his fingers with hers, and led her from the café. She let him. Her hand was warm and smooth. The moment was magical, but Beth withdrew her hand as she climbed in the truck. Kai jumped in the driver’s side and turned the ignition.
He followed the same road he had travelled so many times in the last few days while the image of Ronan throwing that child into the car replayed in his head. He felt the anger rise within him repeatedly, and struggled to tamp it down. He had to remain in control. He had to make sure that he didn’t kill because he was angry. That was the rebels’ way and Kai didn’t want any part of that.
Kai glanced over at Beth. She sat with her back straight and her eyes on the road ahead, as if she thought they might suddenly come upon the car that carried the children. He could see the concentration creasing her brow and the worry that sat heavily on her shoulders. He found himself smiling despite the situation. “Beth,” he said, “I want to talk to you about the lies you were told.”
Beth turned to him, her eyes sharp. “They were lies? How can I believe anything you say? If you did have a wife and children you could still be lying to me now and I wouldn’t know.”
“Beth, I know it is confusing, but you have to believe me. I don’t have anyone else in my life. I … I love you. I need you to believe me.”
Beth turned back to stare out the window, and Kai followed her line of vision. The road was rutted and rough, trees lining each side. They were truly in the forest now, and Kai could tell that Beth was both nervous and anxious.
“Okay, Kai,” she said. “Tell me first who those men were, the ones who came to the apartment and told me all about your hidden family. How did they know so much about you and what you did? They even knew about me!”
Kai took a deep breath. “They were men I work for and who knew my parents. They aren’t actually my cousins, but for all intents and purposes you could call them that.”
“Why would someone as close as family make those things up?” When he didn’t answer right away she continued, her voice quivering, “Kai, you need to tell me more if you want me to believe you.”
“I wouldn’t do those things, Beth.”
“You always behaved so strangely when we went out in public, and that time we saw those men in the restaurant you were positively weird! When they came along and told me you had a wife and children, it all made sense. Your nervousness when you saw them, the way you withdrew from me until we left the restaurant. It just fit.”
“I know, Beth. I know how it must look to you, but you know me well enough to know that I could never do something like that to you or to a wife, if I had one. That kind of duplicity is just not who I am.” Kai thought ruefully that he was declaring he was not hiding a wife and children while knowing he was hiding something much more. He was hiding the truth about what he was, about his very core. He couldn’t tell her about that … for her own safety as much as for the safety of every other Trebladore out there. He had to convince her to trust him with everything else in their relationship.
Her eyes felt heavy on him now. They were boring into his soul, he was sure. He returned her look. Her eyes shone with an intensity he had seldom seen and he quickly turned his gaze to the road.
“Kai,” she whispered. “I thought I knew you. I thought I had you all figured out. I knew there were things you weren’t telling me, but I also believe that each of us deserves to have our tiny little secrets. We don’t have to spill everything to everybody in our lives. However … a wife and children! You can’t hide something that big. You know me well enough to know I could never be a home wrecker.”
“But I don’t…”
“Kai, tell me the truth!”
Kai ran his hands along the steering wheel, feeling the bumps on its surface. His hands felt stiff and awkward as he thought of what he could and could not tell Beth. There was so much he still had to hide. And if he had to hide it from her, then perhaps Jessip was right and he should just end it now and let her go join this scientist who was about to give her the best professional opportunity she could imagine. How was he going to explain Anthony’s behavior? How could she accept that perfect strangers would go out of their way to tell her lies about him without telling her the truth about who and what he was? Normal friends don’t go to drastic measures to break up two perfectly happy people.
“I’m telling the truth.” It sounded weak, even to his ears. “Will you do this much for right now?” Kai asked. “Will you hold off making any kind of decision about us while we investigate what that man is doing to those children? Can you trust me enough to put aside your questions until we finish with this?” Kai looked at Beth again, his eyes holding hers for several seconds.
“All right,” she said. “I will suspend all judgments until we have found out what we need to know about those poor kids.” She looked at him again, brows drawn together. “Just where are we going anyway? And why do you know where he’s taking them?”
Kai thought again of all that he wanted to tell Beth and all that he couldn’t. His abduction by the rebels was another thing he had to hide from Beth and it saddened him to realize it was one of many. Could she trust him and not ask questions? Could he ask that of anyone? How could they have a relationship when he couldn’t tell her anything about himself or his family?