They had been at the cabin for a week. Work seemed to be pouring in for both of them and although they weren’t grabbing at the opportunities they accepted all the well wishes accorded to them. In those days they had managed to formulate a system and a strong sleeping pattern. They would sleep and return phone calls when the babies slept, but when they were awake they would focus all their attention on them.
Tobias and Marietta sat in front of the warm fire, finally getting a second to themselves.
“I never thought babies could be so much work.” Tobias sighed.
“You are the one who refused to get a nurse.”
“I want to take of them myself.”
“What happens when we get back to work?”
Tobias mused over a thought, “Chris is moving to Los Angeles to be with Jessie, maybe his mother would like to be closer to her son.”
“Are you suggesting we ask Mrs. Bennett to come with us?” Marietta liked the idea but she would have to run it past both mother and son.
“I accept,” Mrs. Bennet called out from the stairs. “Let’s give it a trial run. I’ll watch out for the kids while you two get reacquainted.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Bennett.” They both called out.
“She wants us to get reacquainted,” Marietta said with a smile on her face as she straddled Tobias.
“I don’t know if it slipped your mind but our lack of sleep was brought on by having sex,” he moaned as he planted kisses along her cleavage. He rose to his knees with her and placed her on the floor while he hovered over her, “The doctor said no sex for six weeks.”
“Five more to go, but he didn’t say we couldn’t do other stuff.” Marietta teased as she pulled at his jeans buttons.
Tobias growled at her as he pushed her t-shirt under her arms, exposing her belly and her breasts. He leaned towards her then pulled back, “You are leaking.”
“I forgot to pump,” Marietta swore under her breath.
“I’ll go get the babies,” Tobias volunteered.
Marietta cleaned her nipples with a warm wet towel and got comfortable on the sofa. At the rate at which she was leaking she would have to feed both of them at the same time. She stood up with a start when she heard a loud thud coming from the babies’ room.
“Toby?” there was no response.“Babe!” Something was wrong and she knew it. She went straight for the window seat. She dumped the cushions aside, as she clawed her way to the ply wood that separated her from her defense.
Her head snapped back when she heard Ted let out a scream. She couldn’t hear Tamey and it terrified her. Marietta fisted her fingers around the hilt of the revolver. It felt heavy so she assumed that there were bullets in it. But soon there wouldn’t be. There was a knowing ache in her gut that made her shiver. Marietta ran up the stairs determined to find her family’s attacker. She saw Tobias’ feet half way out of the door as she climbed the last few steps. She wondered where Mrs. Bennet was.
Marietta wanted to reach out for Tobias once she was standing over him but her attention was focused on the six foot man with the long trench coat and the baseball cap. She could see Mrs. Bennett across the room,her body slumped against the wall. Was she alive?
“What do you want, Robert?” Marietta barked out her hand trembling.
When he turned around to face her, Marietta felt her heart stop. His cold eyes stared back at her, mocking her and yet she could see a hint of lust in them. She took a step forward but didn’t move any closer. Tamey was in his arms, she was asleep and unaware. This was how he liked to attack their prey when they were defenseless, innocent and oblivious to what was about to happen to them.
Marietta forced herself not to turn around when she heard Tobias grunt in pain, and when Ted cried out in fear. She wanted to soothe them, comfort them both but she needed to focus her attention on her little girl in that monster’s arms.
“Put her down. Take me. You’ve always wanted me, right?” Marietta made herself sound like a little girl. The flash back of when she was eight years old came back to her. That was when she was old enough to know what he was doing was wrong, when she didn’t want to hurt anymore.
He didn’t respond he just watched her. His eyes shifting from her face to the gun in her hand.
“Put the baby down and I’ll put the gun down. You can take me.” She smiled wearily.
Marietta tried to hide her surprise when she felt Tobias squeeze her ankle. She lowered the gun to the ground, close enough so that Tobias could reach it just in case. “It’s your turn put the baby down.”
“She’s so perfect. Just like you.” His voice filled her ears and immediately the terror settled within her. He had haunted her in her dreams and now he was here, trying to destroy what was left of her. “You were so perfect, so small so beautiful. I knew you were mine when you were born. I felt proud, lucky even.”
Marietta restrained the cry that was bubbling up inside her. She blinked her tears away knowing how violent he became when she cried, when she showed that she didn’t like what he was doing. She felt Tobias tremble and heard how his breath became labored.
“I’m here—take me,” she pleaded, “Just put her down.” Marietta looked over into Ted’s crib, he was still whimpering but the screams had died down.
“You’ll come with me?” She saw the excited look on his face and her gut wrenched. Marietta nodded forcing a smile on her face, “I have always loved you. You know that right?” He looked down on the baby and gave her a kiss that made Marietta gasp out in pain, “Can she come?”
“I thought you wanted me?” She steadied her voice.
“She’s still pretty small, isn’t she? Maybe we’ll come back for her later. When she’s six years old?” He smiled. “Her lashes are just as long as yours. So beautiful.”
Tobias gave her foot another squeeze and she knew that the second he put the baby down, he would take action. But she wanted the violence out of the babies’ room. Whatever Tobias had planned would have to wait.
When he put the baby down in her crib, Marietta sighed with relief. Now she had to get him out of there. She had one more card she had to play. “Daddy, let’s go.” She stretched out her hand toward him and smiled.
“Daddy, let’s go,” she said again. She almost pulled her hand away when his fingers curled around hers.
Marietta followed behind just like she was taught to. But when they reached the stair case, Marietta lifted her leg and pushed on his back as hard as he could. “I hate you Robert!”
She watched as he tumbled down the stairs, what she didn’t expect was for him to jump back on his feet and charge for her. Marietta didn’t move, she just watched as the enraged monster came to attack her. But just as he reached her, Marietta heard four shots and then the piercing cry of her children. She didn’t move as she watched the stunned man fall back down the stairs, this time he didn’t get back up.
Marietta came back to life when she felt Tobias’ arms wrap around her. In that same second the house filled with the men who were supposedly there for their protection and a press crew. Tobias and Marietta didn’t pay attention to the people flooding the cabin. They went back into the cabin. Marietta checked on Mrs. Bennett and sighed in relief when she realized she was still alive. She didn’t touch her just in case she was seriously injured.
She watched as Tobias lifted Ted in his arms and called the police. She leaned over Tamey’s crib. She was awake,her big brown eyes stared back at Marietta. She lifted the little girl in her arms and rocked her. “You are always going to be safe,” she whispered to her.
“They both are.” Tobias kissed Tamey a hint of the panicked emotion still in his eyes. “I was so scared. If anything had happened I would have died.”
“I’m just glad you know how to use a gun,” she said trying to lighten the mood.
“Agent Grayson at your service.” That was the first character that she had created for him.
“Three in the heart, one in the head.Execution style. You are going to n
eed some therapy after this,” she said in concern.
“As long as you come with me,” he repeated.
They both needed some professional help at this stage. There was no way they could just deal with this on their own. “I would follow you to the end of the world.”
Epilogue
“I can’t believe you won an Oscar.” Marietta beamed as she played with the two babies on the floor.
“I think they gave it to me for my real life role more than the movie I did.” Tobias chuckled as he tried to untangle Ted’s fingers from his hair.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you.” In the past she had David to rely on, then Chris, but now and for eternity she knew her man was Tobias. She hoped her two children would find that same kind of interdependence she and David still had.
“I think that’s my line,” Tobias said as he leaned in for a kiss.
They put the babies in their cribs for a nap. But before they left the room they checked the window locks and all the other exits in the room. They opened an adjacent door, the only door that led both out and in of the babies’ room. It could only be accessed through the master bedroom. They made sure the cameras were on and the monitors were working in their room.
“We’re not overreacting, are we?” Marietta asked. There was a point where she thought that she and Tobias had finally gone crazy. But he always reminded her of the night when they almost lost their daughter to a monster.
“This is just cautious parenting. The therapist said it was normal.” He shrugged.
“But we never told her that we have dead bolts on the windows or the motion sensors.”
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. What matters is that our family is safe.” Toby pulled her into his arms and rocked her side to side.
“I love you,” Marietta mumbled into his chest.
“I love you more.”
Marietta lifted her eyes and met those of the man she loved. No matter how well she could have written it, no script or story could have an ending as happy as the one she had now.
*THE END*
About the Author
I was born in Nairobi Kenya on the second of February. I was raised by a single mother who would do anything and everything for us. I use the name Ondego in the M.O in honor of her, Kenyan in honor of my origin and M is just my name Marita. There is usually this question when you do a blog tour do you put some of yourself in your books, I put everything of me in my books. The lead character, be it female or male is going through something I went through in my short twenty three years on this earth. The strong willed women, the nurturing ones who never gives up is usually a representative of my mother.
I am a romance author of both fantasy and contemporary.
Listening to the voices in my head. Putting them down on paper and giving you a piece of my mind. Writing is an escape. There is a little piece of me in every character I create and in every moment.
Secret Cravings Publishing
www.secretcravingspublishing.com
Denouement Page 16