“You didn’t trust the other Shawn?” he asked moving around the bed to the other side of her.
“No, not completely. He meant well, but his motives were selfish. When my second husband discovered us kissing, it was Shawn who had instigated it. He knew if we were caught, I’d be in danger, yet it didn’t stop him, he only wanted to please himself. You on the other hand… I haven’t met anyone like you, Sean.”
“Oh, I’m not perfect either.” He moistened another towel and placed it on her arm.
“Well, you haven’t ever taken advantage of me, and in my eyes that makes you better than any other man.”
“I am only human you know. You need to remember I’ve only known you’re a girl for a couple of days now. My dark side hasn’t had time to surface.” He joked with her.
“Sean, even on your worst day, you are one-hundred times better than any man I know.” The smile faded off of her face and her voice dropped a bit. “On the other hand, it’s I you shouldn’t be trusting; I’m not a very good person, Sean.”
“How can you say that? You are a good person. If you weren’t I would have seen it by now, don’t you think? What about Chandra? You cared enough about me to point out Chandra’s behavior. A bad person would not have cared about my future and happiness, but you did.”
“But I had selfish motives,” she admitted quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“I wanted you for myself,” she said and closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look at him.
Sean was shocked to hear this. His body had shivers running through it. He looked at her, but her eyes were closed. He gently reached out to her chin and pulled it up toward him. Her skin warmed his fingers. Her gaze rose up to his and they looked at each other for a long time. He didn’t know what to say to her.
She broke the silence, “I’m sorry, Sean. I guess you don’t feel the same way about me.”
But he did feel the same. He leaned forward to her face, his hand on the side of her head. His lips met hers and he kissed her gently. He pulled back a little and looked at her. Her eyes were still closed.
“Sean, would you hold me?”
He lay on the bed next to her. She cuddled up next to him and laid her arm across his chest. He brought his right hand up and grasped her hand. As he lay there next to her, a tiny smile broke out on his face.
Sean got up after a couple of hours of lying beside her; she had been sleeping soundly and her fever held at just under one-hundred and three. He went into the kitchen and got a bite to eat and then retrieved the radio from the front room. He brought the radio back to the bedroom, plugged it in and then turned the volume down low, so it wouldn’t disturb Eliwese.
Seven thirty in the morning had the airwaves filled with news. Most of the news didn’t apply to him and he was about to turn it off when the announcer said:
“On to local news: Two people are dead and two injured when a Slaterville home burned to the ground last night after government officials raided the premises looking for Victor Rawlings’ daughter, Eliwese. An anonymous tip exposed the kidnappers and gunshots followed the attempt to retrieve the girl, according to witnesses. An explosion from within the home started the fire and is suspected of causing the deaths of the unnamed persons. Eliwese Rawlings-Lampros’ condition was listed as stable even though her living conditions were substandard. The two injured suspects were treated at the hospital and turned over to police custody. It’s not known if a ransom had been asked. An investigation is underway. In other news…”
Sean turned off the radio. He sat down in the armchair certain he would pass out if he didn’t. He bent forward and held his head in his hands; the room seemed to be spinning faster and faster.
Two dead? Who? Two injured? His house burned down? How could this happen? Nausea flooded his body and he jumped up and ran to the bathroom. He hunched over the toilet and heaved, but nothing would come out. The sickening sensation saturated his entire being. He sat down on the floor with his back against the cabinet, his knees pulled up and his head in his hands; the lack of sleep, lack of food, and incredible stress all surmounted inside him causing his chest to hurt. His eyes watered and burned and he grasped his legs tightly, pulling them closer to his chest. He laid his forehead down as the tidal wave of emotions engulfed him.
All this time, he had been waiting for word from his family expecting to hear everything was safe and that he could return home. He knew now that would never happen. Two people had died, but whom? Everyone else was in police custody; Sean was truly alone and it overwhelmed him.
He was so engulfed in his own misery he didn’t realize Eliwese had come into the bathroom and was huddled over him, hugging him, and crying too. “It’s my fault, it’s all my fault, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
He realized another harsh reality; Eliwese was his sole responsibility now. Sure, he had taken care of her already, but that was with the assumption help was on the way or that soon he would be given the ‘all clear’ so he could transport her back into town and to a hospital. That wasn’t going to happen now.
She was his crosser and she needed him now. His own emotional meltdown would have to wait. Her IV bag lay on the floor, siphoning blood out of her arm; Sean pulled himself up off the floor, grabbed the IV bag and helped Eliwese up. They walked back into the bedroom and he helped her on the bed. He sat next to her facing away.
“I heard the news report, Sean, I’m so sorry.”
Sean stood up and started walking to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to find out what happened.” The situation was beyond protocol and he figured it would be alright to use the phone.
“No! Don’t you see this is exactly what he wants? By not naming the injured and dead, it will draw us out from hiding. It’s a trap!”
“Are you saying the news report was a lie?” Hope flooded into his heart.
“I wish I could say it’s a lie, but I know my father well enough to know most of what was reported is probably true. But all the same, the wording was mysterious. For one thing, I wasn’t rescued like it said. Another thing, it only accounted for four people when there should have been five.”
Sean walked back over to her and sat on the bed.
“That’s true, if someone was gone from the house, they wouldn’t return. They would have come here, to the cabin. Like us.”
“What if Riley took one as a hostage? That kind of thing has happened before.” Eliwese didn’t want to admit it, but felt it was better to lay it all out.
“What about the deaths? Would that have been a lie?”
“I don’t know. I hope it was.”
Sean said nothing. He sat there and stared at the floor. “So what do we do now?
“We wait.”
“What are we waiting for? Everyone’s in custody, who would be contacting us?”
“I don’t know, but what I do know is my father is not a patient man. He will make a move once he realizes we aren’t taking the bait of the news report.” She reached her hand over and rubbed his back.
He turned to her and asked, “Are you feeling good enough for me to take a shower?”
“Yes.”
The sunlight shone through the window, the new day was extra bright. The first snow had fallen, making the world new. Following his shower, Sean went to the kitchen to see what he could find for Eliwese to eat. He prepared pudding, broth, crackers, baby food bananas and made himself coffee and toast, and took the breakfast tray to her.
He didn’t want to wake her from her peaceful sleep. He set the tray down and sat in the armchair holding his coffee with both hands and watched her breathe. As he gazed at her, she opened her eyes and looked at him.
“Are you hungry?”
“No.” She looked at the tray. “But seeing you’ve gone through so much trouble on my behalf, I’ll eat. But, I need to use the bathroom first.”
Her skin was still hot to the touch with fever, he noted, a
s he helped her walk to the bathroom. He waited outside the door and thought about the possibility the news report was completely false, that the deaths and injuries were lies; he definitely hoped it was a lie. Eliwese finished and he helped her back to bed.
He scanned her forehead with the thermometer; it read one-hundred four. Why wasn’t she getting better? The antibiotics were powerful and should have begun to take effect by now. He checked her IV and found the needle had pulled out of her arm.
“I need to redo your IV, it has pulled out,” he said apologetically.
She made a groaning sound and pushed her head back in the pillow. He gathered the necessary items and prepared her arm. This time would be harder, because she would be awake. Perhaps her veins wouldn’t be so flat this time. He took a deep breath and began.
The first try wasn’t successful and she tried to be brave. He tried again a little higher on her arm. This location proved to be very painful for her and it failed. She’d turned her head away from him with silent tears leaking from her scrunched eyes. Nervous and sweating, he tried again on her hand. He hated having to hurt her in order to help her.
Success, finally!
Eliwese prided herself on hiding her feelings, especially when someone was hurting her, but this was different. Sean was trying so hard to help her, doing everything in his power to save her even as his own atrocities loomed nearby. She knew her condition was deteriorating; her lungs were congesting, and her hopes dwindling. Without proper medical treatment she would die. The tears escaping her eyes were for her sister and mother. Now, Elaine would be forced to take on the role of heir maker. She’d already been passed off as Eliwese; nothing would stop her father in playing up the lie that Eliwese was safe and back home.
Sean finished up and secured the tubing with extra tape to prevent it from pulling out. He moved next to her and wiped her tears and smoothed down her hair. “Hey,” he said softly, “it’s going to be ok.” He rested his face against her hot cheek.
With his other hand, he pushed the blanket off her legs. He started unbuttoning her shirt from the bottom and worked his way up stopping at the last two buttons. He gently opened up her shirt and pushed it off her belly, maintaining her modesty. The heat radiated off her sunken stomach.
She slowly turned her head toward his face, their lips almost touching. Her breathing was rapid, hot and sweet and was the only sound to be heard. Sean could both feel and hear the air move in and out of her body. He allowed his lips to touch hers. At first there wasn’t any response from her. He opened his eyes and saw her looking at him. Her lips formed into a delicate smile, and then she reached forward with her lips and found his. Like slow motion, he kissed her carefully and slowly; her lips were on fire. He didn’t know how long they continued to explore each other’s mouths because time stood still; the only other body contact was his hand behind her warm head.
The self-condemnation hit him hard. What had come over him? What was he thinking! He pulled away, guilty of taking advantage of her in her vulnerable state, exactly what she had talked about, and what he never wanted to become.
He sat up and turned away putting his feet on the floor. He put his palms on the bed and pushed his shoulders up, letting his head hang down, and taking deep breaths to cool down.
After a few seconds, he turned and looked at her. Her lips still parted, as if she was waiting for him to come back to them.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll get some washcloths and cool water. You’re burning up.”
“Yes, I am,” she said in a whisper. Eliwese closed her eyes as he left the room. In a different life, she and Sean would have been happy together.
He went out into the kitchen and turned on the water; he needed to kill some time while other parts of him cooled off.
What’s the matter with me? He thought, she needs me and I’m not thinking of her, only myself. He filled the bowl and headed back to the bedroom. A strange clicking sound sounded and he froze in place. He looked around cautiously until he realized the sound came from the CB radio on the wall.
He put the bowl down and picked up the handset but resisted the urge to speak into it. He listened intently to more clicks and static then silence. He hung up the handset and picked up the bowl of water and went back into Eliwese’s room. She was lying on her side with her eyes closed.
“I heard clicks and static on the CB. I think someone might be trying to contact us, but they must be out of range.” He set the bowl down and began cooling her off with the water and towels. He continued with the evaporation method for a half hour and then took her temperature; one-hundred five. The tension in the room had lessened considerably with the hopes of help on its way.
Why isn’t she cooling down? He looked at her face and her eyes were closed but he knew she wasn’t sleeping. He continued with concern. With everything he knew about medicine, which wasn’t much, he could tell her condition was worsening.
The CB radio voiced to life. Sean ran into the kitchen.
“Bad Dog calling Mad Dog, over,” the male voice said.
Sean didn’t recognize the voice or the call sign. He didn’t dare answer.
“Bad Dog calling Mad Dog, Sean are you there, over?” Sean recognized the voice now; it was Ryan.
Chapter 8
Ryan had come to the back door and needed Sean to open it for him. As soon as Ryan entered the cabin, he dropped his pack and coat and embraced Sean.
“What happened, Ryan? Where’s everyone else?”
“I need a drink of water.” Ryan pushed himself past his brother. He walked over to the table and plopped himself down on the chair.
Sean brought him bottled water and sat down adjacent to him noting the time, ten o’clock AM. Ryan took a long drink of his water and looked over at Sean. Ryan’s face had several bruises and cuts and Sean noticed his hands were also hurt. What had transpired after Sean fled? Sean waited as patiently as he possibly could while Ryan drained the water bottle.
Ryan looked past Sean and stood quickly, walking into the bedroom. Sean followed.
“What happened here?”
“Someone shot at the car and hit her,” Sean stated.
“What? When did that happen?”
“Same time as the house being raided is my guess.”
“Is she going to live?”
“Yes, I believe so. Tell me what happened.”
Ryan just stood there staring at Eliwese and her at him. For a long moment, Ryan and Eliwese looked at each other and Sean kept looking back and forth between the two like watching a tennis match. Sean stepped in front of Ryan to break his view and pull him back to reality.
“Ryan - what - happened?”
“Eli is Eliwese! He wanted Eliwese… He knew she was there… He came for her… Eli.” Ryan’s disconnected thought process didn’t make any sense.
“Ryan! What happened to everyone else?” Sean yelled to get his attention.
Ryan looked at Sean and said with numbness in his voice, “Dad’s dead.” He walked away from Sean and sat down in the armchair. Sean froze in his spot.
“In the fire?” Sean asked without turning around.
“What? No! He was executed at point blank! Some son of a bitch looking for her,” he motioned to Eliwese, “shot him in the head when he wouldn’t tell where you guys were. He had already shot Beth. She’s dead too.”
“No, it can’t be.” Sean turned around and looked at the floor.
“Oh, it can, and there’s more, they took Mom and Lyndee.”
“They what?”
“They’re being used as collateral for Eli, or should I say, Eliwese,” Ryan emphasized her name.
“But…we can’t… I don’t understand,”
“If we don’t turn her in, we’ll lose Mom and Lyndee too.”
Sean ran his fingers through his hair as if his head hurt from all of the confusion. He tried to piece together what he had heard on the radio and what his brother had said, but there were
holes in the stories.
“The news report said two were injured and were being held in custody.”
“The Tronts from next door tried to enter the house to help and they were burned a little, but they weren’t put in custody; no one was. Oh, but there was a girl with the man. She looked just like her, except with long hair.” He pointed to Eliwese.
“My sister, Elaine.” Eliwese spoke up for the first time, her voice faint and weak.
Ryan looked at Sean with ache etched on his face. “You knew… You knew and you let me look like a fool thinking Beth was Eliwese.”
“You looked like a fool all on your own, buddy.”
“We could have gotten rid of her and Dad would still be alive!” Ryan’s voice cracked.
“You were so transfixed on the reward money, Ryan! You didn’t have anyone’s interest at heart except your own.”
“Oh, and you do! Look at this situation. If you had others’ interests at heart, you’d have turned Eliwese in and saved your own father’s neck; instead, you ran. You should have revealed Eliwese’s identity when you first discovered it so we could get her out of the house. Mom, Dad and Lyndee would still be around.”
“Don’t you blame me for this turning sour! Of everyone in our home, you were the only one who didn’t know Eli was Eliwese. So don’t go thinking I knew this grand secret and by keeping it caused Dad’s death.”
“Should I blame Dad for getting himself killed protecting your sorry ass? Because that’s what happened! How about we blame you for ticking off Chandra, because she’s the one who turned us in! No, let’s put the blame where it really needs to be,” Ryan pointed at Eliwese, “there. If she’d never crossed, we’d still have a father!”
Sean walked straight over to Ryan and punched him square in the stomach. He knocked the wind right out of Ryan making him fall back into the chair. Ryan doubled over for a few seconds and then he bolted out of the chair and tackled Sean to the ground. The force of their bodies hitting the floor made the walls shake. Ryan was on Sean, then Sean on Ryan rolling all over the floor. Fists were flying, punches landing, and then Ryan threw Sean off of him and Sean crashed into Eliwese, who had gotten out of bed to try to break them apart. Eliwese was knocked backwards and hit the back of her head on the corner of the dresser before falling to the ground.
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