by Kim Fox
Her mother sighed as she pushed her plate away too. “Your sister is trying to do the right thing. If you think it was hard for us, you should realize that it was even harder for her. I think the General made her do some horrible things. I think she may want to atone for them, and to start she wants to help that kid.”
“Bryce.”
“Yeah, Bryce. They think he might be alive.”
“There’s no way he’s still alive,” Elodie said, shaking her head. “He fell off that high building. There’s nothing that could have survived a fall like that.”
“I don’t know. But I think Amélie has to know for sure.”
“I still wish you would have ordered her to stay.”
Her mother laughed. “Are you kidding me? You know how stubborn Amélie is. I couldn’t get her to do what I asked when she was seven years old. I’d have no hope in hell now.”
“I just feel like the three of us should be together. We should be running.”
“Running where? Home?”
Elodie shook her head as she looked down at her lap. How could she tell her mother that she felt like she didn’t have a home anymore?
Elodie didn’t want to go back to her old life in Quebec. How could she ever fit in that world again? How could she relate to her old friends?
They had spent the last year and a half partying, going to school, worrying about clothes and boys, and her… well, she had more serious concerns than what to wear.
Captivity had changed her. She knew she wasn’t the same girl anymore, and she didn’t want to return home to have that fact thrown in her face.
“I don’t know if going back to Quebec is the answer,” Elodie finally said. “I want a life back, but I don’t know what that looks like. Sometimes I feel like I’ll never fit into the real world again.”
Her mother reached across the table and took her hand. “I know what you mean, but give it some time. We’ll find where we belong. You have to believe that.”
“I do,” Elodie lied. Deep down, she believed that she didn’t belong anywhere anymore.
Elodie took a deep breath, a sip of water, and smiled. “Enough of the pity party. We’re free now. What do you want to do today?”
Her mother smiled and Elodie could feel the air start to get a little lighter.
“You mean besides eating that entire pan of lasagna?”
Elodie grinned as she pulled her plate back in front of her. She grabbed her fork and stabbed the cheese-covered noodles.
Her mother did the same and they clinked their forks together. “Cheers.”
“Here’s to freedom,” her mother said.
“And to lasagna.”
They both laughed as they shoved the delicious pasta into their mouths, sighing contently as they chewed.
“Come on,” Elodie said as she poked the fat orange fur ball in front of her. “Do something.”
Sloth opened one eye and scowled at her as she pointed Grant’s video camera at him. “I’m videotaping you. Do something interesting.”
The orange cat closed his eye and seemed to be sleeping already.
“Are you going to wake up? You’ve been sleeping since I got here. You’re going to sleep your life away.”
She sighed as she turned off the video camera, sat back on the pool chair next to him, and took a sip of her lemonade. “You’re missing out. It’s a gorgeous summer day.”
Elodie smiled as she looked around the ranch. It was truly spectacular, especially after being locked in a small cell for so long. She felt so tiny in the vast ranch with the majestic mountains towering up all around her.
She was lounging by the in-ground pool, working on her tan and just relaxing beside the cat.
“I’m trying to be your friend, Sloth. You want to be my friend, right?”
The fat cat didn’t open his eyes or even move his head. Elodie wondered what was going through his head, but realized that she probably didn’t want to know. She figured that any thoughts that Sloth was having about her right now weren’t pleasant ones.
She smiled and shook her head as she turned back to the pool. “How come no one on this ranch wants to be my friend?”
Her eyes darted up to Logan’s cabin and the smile vanished from her face. She wondered what he was doing right now.
She had tried to talk to him several times, tried to be nice to him, tried to be his friend, but Logan just wasn’t interested.
“He’s just a jerk,” she mumbled to herself. “Just forget about him.”
But the more she tried to put him out of her mind, the more he seemed to sneak back in. There was no doubt that she was attracted to him. He was gorgeous with his medium-length black hair with the matching dark beard. His eyes were piercing with a dark brown color that always got Elodie’s heart beating a little faster.
The missing arm didn’t bother her, it just added to his appeal. He was sexy and after the worst of the nightmares at night subsided, she often found herself thinking about him.
It’s not him. It’s because you’ve barely seen another man in a year and a half. That’s why you’re into him.
Elodie always told herself that, but she wasn’t convinced it was true. There was something about him that she was drawn to. Maybe it was his looks, or the fact that he kept pushing her away no matter how hard she tried, whatever it was, it had a hold on her.
Amélie had told her that he was a lion shifter, they all were on the ranch, and that just made Elodie even more intrigued by him.
What would it be like to be with a lion shifter? Would she and his lion be friends or would his lion be as interested in her as Sloth was? Would the lion protect her or try to eat her? The more she thought about it all, the more questions popped up.
“Hey, Sloth,” she whispered. The cat didn’t move so she poked it in the ribs.
Sloth didn’t seem to appreciate that given the look on his face as he lifted his head and turned around.
“What can you tell me about your friend, Logan?”
The cat was glaring at her with a look that seemed to say, “Are you kidding me? You woke me up for that?”
“Why won’t he talk to me? Is it because he’s going through a hard time or is he just a jerk?”
Elodie grabbed her lemonade and sat on the edge of the pool, letting her feet sink into the warm water. Sloth continued glaring at her, probably wishing that she’d fall into the deep end and drown.
“Is he ever going to come out of there?” She took a sip of her lemonade and placed the glass beside her. “What do you think, Sloth. Sloth? Hey!”
The cat’s head was back on the chair and his eyes were closed.
“You’re supposed to be helping me!”
She grabbed the chair that he was lying on and began to shake it back and forth. “Wake up! Come on! Yeah, that’s it.”
The cat reluctantly got up and climbed down from the chair, looking as annoyed as a cat could.
“I knew we would be friends,” Elodie said as he walked over with his head hunched down. His whole body waddled from side to side as the rolls of fat shook like waves with every step.
But Sloth wasn’t interested in making friends, he was interested in getting even.
He walked up beside her and swatted her glass of lemonade, sending it flying into the pool.
“Hey!” Elodie said, laughing as the glass sunk to the bottom. “You really are the worst cat in the world.”
Sloth looked back at her, only this time he looked happy, like she had given him a compliment. He probably thought that being the world’s worst cat was a badge of honor.
She laughed as he walked away, probably looking for another place to sleep off the rest of the day.
Once the cat was gone, Elodie’s attention returned to Logan’s cabin in the distance. Surely, he would come out eventually. He had to, didn’t he?
The soft sound of singing came flowing on the warm breeze and it sent warm shivers trickling up Elodie’s spine. She looked around, wondering where it was c
oming from before she realized it was coming from Logan’s cabin. At first, she thought it might be the radio, but then she remembered that Amélie had told her Logan was a musician. He played the bass guitar in a band, at least he did before he lost his arm.
It sounded good, but it was muffled. Elodie leapt to her wet feet, grabbed Grant’s video camera off of the chair, and ran over. She was careful to be quiet, tiptoeing when she got close to the cabin, and held her breath as she peeked into the window.
Logan was sitting on his couch with a broken bass on his lap. Only one string remained attached and he was plucking it as he sang a gorgeous song that seemed to emanate from the depths of his soul.
His eyes were closed and he seemed lost to the world as he sang out his sorrows in a beautiful song that had every hair on Elodie’s arms and neck standing straight up. He had no shirt on and his broken body looked more beautiful than ever. His dark hair was scruffy and hanging over his eyes like he was hiding from the world.
Tears filled Elodie’s eyes as she watched. She had never seen such a beautiful scene before. She had never heard such a heart-breaking song. He was intensely vulnerable in the touching moment and she felt like she was eavesdropping in on someone’s most personal moment. But still, she couldn’t look away.
Her hands seemed to move on their own as they lifted the video camera and started recording.
She could tell that Logan was a very gifted musician. His ability went beyond talent, to the place where only the great masters of the world were able to reach. Here he was one-handed, playing a broken bass with only one string, and he was still able to bring tears to Elodie’s eyes.
When the song was finished, Logan lowered the bass to the ground, laid back on the sofa and closed his eyes.
Elodie was still shaken to the core as she turned off the video camera and backed away. She took a deep breath, composed herself, and tiptoed back to the pool. Once there, she ran back into her cabin and closed the door to her room.
She sat on the bed, plugged the video into Grant’s laptop and watched it over and over again. It was beautiful. Otherworldly.
At first, she felt bad that she had captured such a private moment, but now she felt bad that she was keeping it all to herself.
It had to be out in the world. Like the Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David or Picasso’s Guernica. Occasionally there were pieces of art so perfect that they couldn’t just belong to one person. They belonged to the human species. Elodie was convinced that this heart-stopping performance was one of them.
The world has to see this.
Before she could realize that it was a horrible idea, she was on YouTube and ready to upload it.
She took a deep breath and hit enter.
Chapter Four
Elodie
“Logan!” Elodie shouted as she slammed her fist on the door. “Open up!”
It had been four days since the crew left and he still hadn’t come out of his cabin. It had been four days since she had been moved to tears by the stolen song, but four days was a long time and she was no longer feeling awed by him. She was feeling annoyed.
There was no more food in their fridge and if he wasn’t going to take care of this place, then she was.
“Logan!” she shouted again as she banged on the door.
Elodie’s mother didn’t want her to bother him.
“He’s clearly going through some issues,” she had said. “And you don’t know what this man is capable of.”
Elodie was certain that he was going through some serious issues, but she wasn’t worried that he would hurt her. For some reason, she was sure of that.
“We need food!” Elodie shouted through the door. “We want to go into town.”
She put her ear to the door and waited. No sound.
“Ah! De la merde,” she whispered before grabbing the door handle and slowly turning it.
She stepped inside the dark cabin and was immediately hit with a rank stench. “Oomph,” she said, wincing as she turned away. Dirty pots and pans littered the kitchen and the smell was dreadful.
He wasn’t on the couch so she slowly walked to the bedroom. He was in his underwear, passed out on the bare mattress. The sheets were stripped and dumped in a pile beside the wall.
She held her breath and knocked her knuckles against the doorframe three times.
Logan grunted as he raised his head and looked at her with half-closed eyes.
“It’s one o’clock in the afternoon,” she said, staring at him. “You’re worse than Sloth. At least he comes out for air.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “What are you doing in here?”
Elodie crossed her arms, glaring back at him. This guy was all muscles and had a vicious lion hiding inside of him, but she wasn’t intimidated in the least. “We’re going into town.”
“Like hell you are.”
Elodie’s body tensed as she clenched her jaw. “I didn’t come here to ask for permission. I came to tell you as a courtesy.”
He let out a groan as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. “I’m in charge here, and I say you’re not going anywhere.”
“Listen to me,” Elodie said, taking a step forward. “I was held captive for one and a half years. That part of my life is done. No person is ever going to tell me where I can and cannot go, understand?”
Her hands were stinging until she realized she was squeezing her hands into fists so hard that her nails were digging into her palm.
“We’re taking a car,” she said in a firm voice, “and we’re going into town. Are you coming or are you going to continue rotting away in this disgusting cabin?”
They stared each other down until the hardness seemed to melt from Logan’s face. He probably realized that he wasn’t going to win with her when she was like this.
“Fine,” he muttered as he ran his hand through his messy hair. “I’ll drive.”
“Good,” Elodie said as she spun around to leave. “And take a shower first.”
“Wow,” Elodie’s mother said as they waited by the cars. “He cleans up nice.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Elodie whispered under her breath. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Logan as he walked out of his cabin. A hot shower and a clean set of clothes seemed to do him good.
His dark hair was the perfect length, just long enough to be sexy without passing into the threshold of being too much. It was combed back out of his eyes and he even trimmed his beard.
She swallowed hard and straightened her back as he approached wearing some slip-on shoes, a pair of matching grey shorts, and a black Polo shirt. The sleeve hugged his large bicep on his right arm as the left sleeve hung free.
Elodie’s nerve endings seemed to be tingling as he arrived. He gave a quick smile to her mother and then to her.
“Ready to go?” he asked, looking a little awkward.
Elodie gave him a wide smile, hoping to put him at ease. “Which car are we taking?”
He bit his bottom lip as he looked over the fleet of old antique cars. “You pick.” He pointed to an ugly lime green one that must have been the length of two modern day cars. “That one has a hole in the floor, or we can take that one, but there’s a raccoon living inside it.”
“What about the van?” Elodie asked as she turned back to the van that looked brand new. “Are there any animals living in that one?”
“Not that I know of. It’s my friend Jordy’s. He lent it to me. Although, he might not be my friend after he sees the knick in the door.”
Elodie remembered the van from when they rescued her from the military facility. Jordy was lucky that the van only suffered a knick after everything they went through.
“He’ll be pissed if he sees me still driving it, but he’ll already be pissed so we might as well ride in comfort.”
Elodie climbed into the passenger’s seat and her mother sat in the back. It was the first time she had been off the ranch in about a week, and she was excited for the trip.
Logan barely said a word the entire time but she saw his finger tapping on the steering wheel to the beat. She imagined that it was the first time he had driven since the accident, but he was doing great with only one arm.
“This town is amazing,” she said with a gasp when they pulled onto the main road. Couples and families were walking along the cobblestone streets, enjoying the nice weather and the small Mom and Pop shops that decorated the adorable town. Elodie waved at a little girl who was massacring a dripping ice cream cone, or you could say that the ice cream was massacring her. Her arms and shirt were covered in it. She waved back as she buried her face into the melting ice cream.
Elodie couldn’t help but envy her sister a little. Amélie had found herself a new home in this town with a new family and a new man. It was the perfect place to settle down and raise some ice cream covered children. Elodie hoped that she could be half as lucky as her sister one day.
“Is that where your band plays?” Elodie asked as they passed a fun-looking pub called The Slurry Rabbit. There were couples and groups of friends drinking different color beers on the patio.
“Used to play,” he answered, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Have you lived here long?” Elodie wanted to know everything about him, but more than anything, she just wanted to get him talking.
“About four years.”
“How come you moved here?”
Elodie pointed out a bakery to her Mom as they drove along the road. The smell was incredible.
“We’re going back there after,” her mother said as she turned around to stare at it through the back window as they drove past.
“What was it about this town that drew you here?” Elodie asked again.