A Warrior's Return (3 page)

I ripped open the little drawer next to the
refrigerator and reached for the old pistol hidden under some hand
towels. My fingers found it and I yanked it free, as with my other
hand I flipped the light switch on.

The weak light bulb located over the table
flickered to life and cast its weak glow into the dark room. I held
the big pistol up with both hands wishing I could see out of both
eyes.

I had three bullets and I hoped they would
be enough to take the big man down, who was sitting in the chair
across the table from me. I wasn’t sure if three bullets would be
enough. He scared me and put me off balance more than any man ever
had and I didn’t even know why!

“Put the gun down.” He said firmly, his
voice deep and full of authority.

Before I realized it the gun in my hands had
lowered halfway in obedience to the man’s voiced command. I jerked
the gun back up breathing hard.

What was he doing here?

How did he know where I lived?

They didn’t even know where I lived at work!
He had to have followed me home in the past!

Was he here to kill me?

With the last thought fresh in my mind I
pulled the trigger involuntarily and a flat hollow click sounded
loud in the room. I panicked and pulled the trigger again and
again.

Click!

Click!

What was wrong with it? Maybe I had the
cylinder in the wrong place. I yanked on the trigger three more
times.

Click!

Click!

Click!

I gazed at him in terror out of my one good
eye. He hadn’t moved the whole time. His hand reached out toward
the table and slowly, as if pausing for effect, he set my three
pistol shells in a row on their bottom ends along the table’s edge
in front of him.

His blue eyes blazed brightly in the
semidarkness of the room, “Put the gun down.”

I sensed the threat in his voice and I
slammed the pistol down to the counter and peeled my fingers away
from the false hope that it had offered me. From underneath my
small table, he shoved the chair nearest to me, at me. I jumped
back against the counter at the unexpected movement of the
chair.

“Sit down.”

There was no denying the command of his
voice. Every part of me was quivering, as I half stumbled forward
and sat down.

He played with one of my bullets on the
table in front of him as he began, “I have a proposition for you
and you’re going to agree to it.”

He looked up pointedly from playing with my
bullets to make direct eye contact with me. The sudden irrational
thought given the situation that occurred to me was that he was the
most handsome man I’d ever seen. The most deadly man as well.

“I need a place to stay for a while and you
are going to provide it for me. Lodging is all you are going to
provide me with. Do I make myself clear?”

I nodded yes, even as I was consumed by
shock at his words. Did I look that bad?

He had me at his complete mercy and all he
was insisting that I provide him with was my small home?

“There’s one more thing you’re going to
provide me with. You’re going to tell me everything you know about
Victor Uchenko. Him, his houses, his possessions, his guards, his
likes and dislikes, in short everything you know about him.”

A cold dread filled me with the sounding out
of his words and I started to shake my head no, “He’ll kill me!” I
whispered out past my swollen lips.

He looked at me across the table his face
unreadable as he said, “I’ll kill you if you don’t.”

A single tear leaked out of my eye and down
my cheek, but I continued to shake my head no. He got out of his
chair and walked toward me and I gripped the side arms of my chair
tightly.

It did no good to run. I had nowhere to go.
I was going to die. He stepped behind me and I couldn’t help but
begin to shake.

I jumped when his strong forearm slid across
my throat, as his hand gripped the side of my face. I couldn’t help
the whimper of fear that escaped my mouth, as I felt his other hand
close over my head. He was going to snap my neck!

Hurriedly I choked out, “Please don’t hurt
the boy!”

A moment passed that nothing happened and
then I jumped when his words were said directly against my ear,
“You would make a far better warrior than you do a whore.”

He withdrew his arm and hands and I sucked
in a big gulp of air not realizing I had been holding my
breath.

I watched, as he went back to his side of
the table and picked up his hat. He came back to stand beside me
and stopped. I had to look up because he was so tall.

“I’ll be back in the morning. In the
meantime you should get some rest. You’ll tell me what you know
about Victor tomorrow.”

I made to speak, but his callused finger
touched my lips gently and I stopped.

He repeated, “You’ll tell me what you know
in the morning.”

There was no question in his words and I
don’t know why, but I nodded yes.

He nodded his head in acceptance of my
submission. He set my three pistol shells on the table in front of
me and I looked at them and then back up to him in shock. The look
in his eyes was different somehow.

“Don’t forget to lock your door
Evangelina.”

He turned to go and I don’t know what
possessed me to ask, but I did.

“What will you do, if I don’t open the door
in the morning?”

He turned back and nonchalantly said, “Bust
it off its hinges. Good night Evangelina. Get some rest. I’ll bring
something for that eye in the morning.”

He closed the door and I just sat there in
shock over my encounter with the stranger. There was a slight
per-functionary knock and I jumped up and locked the door. I heard
him walk away down the hall then. I stared at the door and reached
a hand up to my swollen eye.

What had just happened?

I didn’t know, but he would be back in the
morning that I didn’t doubt.

I sat nervously staring at the door in front
of me, waiting. I hadn’t been able to get much sleep. My thoughts
had been too focused in stressful anticipation of this moment to
rest. Rafael would be waking up soon and I wondered what his
opinion of the strange man, who would be staying with us for a
while, would be.

Probably not good. I wasn’t comfortable with
the big white man staying with us either, but what choice did I
have? I hadn’t really been given one.

I almost fell off the chair when an abrupt
knock sounded on the door that rattled it on its hinges.

Nervously I approached the door and asked,
“Who is it?”

My voice came out as a squeak. I cleared my
throat and asked again.

“Guess.” Came the deep voiced reply from the
other side of the door.

I reached out and slipped the deadbolts
free. I quickly backed away from the door towards the counter. I
had laid the big pistol on the counter earlier and now I stood
beside it, but I didn’t pick it up. It wouldn’t do to provoke him
in any way.

The door opened and he came in and kicked it
shut with one foot. His arms were full of bags!

He studied me for a moment and then my
proximity to the pistol on the counter and seemed to nod his head
in approval before continuing on to the table where he dumped all
the bags. What were in the bags?

It looked like food! He had brought
food?

He picked up one bag and motioned for me to
sit in the chair at the table. A moment of panic overwhelmed me,
because that meant I had to leave the pistol behind!

He must’ve read my mind, because he scooted
the chair towards me and I for lack of anything better to do sat
down on it next to the counter. He got the other chair and placed
it directly in front of me and before I knew what he was doing he
raised a leg over and sat down blocking my knees inside of his
wider spread ones.

He was way too close! He didn’t seem to mind
a bit that he was completely invading my space. He was lining stuff
up on the counter beside us. Medicine!

He had bought medicine for me?

My one eye must have conveyed some sense of
the shock I felt at the knowledge that he’d spent money on medicine
for me.

“What?” He asked studying me curiously.

I shook my head and looked down at my lap
where my hands were nervously clutched together. I heard movement
and glanced up to see Rafael standing there in his bed clothes
right beside us. His little face was one of shock and utter
consternation, as he looked from one to the other of us.

Finally he looked at the stranger and spoke
with a gusto only matched by a five-year-old, “You did this?”

The big stranger shook his head no watching
the little boy, “No I did not.”

Rafael looked uncertain then as to what to
say.

“Rafael this man will be staying with us for
a few days.” I said softly.

The little boy quickly came to the most
likely conclusion and turned back to me and spit out the word,
“Whore!”

He then turned and started to storm back
toward the bedroom, but he stranger caught a hold of him with one
hand and halted his progress, “That’s no way to speak to your
mother!”

Rafael struggled within the stranger’s grasp
and screamed out, “She’s not my mother! My mother’s dead!”

The stranger let go of Rafael, who ran into
the bedroom and slammed the door. The stranger’s frankly curious
gaze came back to mine asking a question.

Quickly I mumbled out, “I don’t want to talk
about it.”

I looked down hoping that he wouldn’t make
me tell him. He was quiet for a moment and then he started to clean
my face better than I had done last night. His big fingers were
surprisingly deft in their task, even gentle.

“This might burn some.” He said softly.

It did, but I remained still. He finished
with my face and got up, but was back again within moments. He held
out several pills and a bottle of water. I took them from him and
swallowed them with a few sips of water.

I handed the bottle back to him and he took
it and set it on the counter. His fingers started unbuttoning my
shirt and I looked up quickly to meet his eyes. His eyes never left
mine, until the shirt was undone. He looked down, but his face was
devoid of any emotion.

He pulled my shirt to the sides, but didn’t
take it off or make any move to remove my bra. His fingers reached
out and gently touched the dark bruise to the side of my stomach
and I shifted a little from the pain.

He continued pressing with his fingers and I
knew he was checking to see if I was swollen inside. I tried to be
still, but it hurt.

“Sorry.” He said softly.

His eyes glanced up to mine, “Just
bruises.”

I nodded, my lips feeling dry and then he
re-buttoned my shirt all the way to the top. He picked up my one
hand and started cleaning the dried blood crusted to the knuckles.
I hadn’t even bothered to try to clean my hand last night or this
morning.

I studied him, as he was focused in on my
hand. What was it that he wanted from me?

He had to want something. He wanted
information on Victor, but that was no reason for doing all this.
He didn’t even demand I service him. Why?

My study of him was interrupted when he
asked, with a curious tone to his voice, “You hit Victor?”

“No, I hit a mirror.”

He looked up and I glanced away swallowing
hard with emotion. His finger brought my face back around and he
shook his head softly and then went back to the job of wrapping my
hand. I stared at him in sudden frustration.

It was so easy to hate all men, why did he
have to make me feel that he was different somehow? Surely he would
do something soon to make me hate him. Yes that was it. It had to
be!

He finished with my hand and for the first
time I caught a hint of awkwardness as he lightly tapped the top of
my thigh,

“Anything….?” He briefly glanced up and then
back down and then away.

Repeating himself he asked, “Any
problems?”

His somewhat shy awkwardness was a mystery
and yet it was refreshing in some way.

“No, they make pencils that are bigger than
Victor.”

He looked up at me sharply and I could tell
that I had shocked him. He looked away, but not before I caught the
glimpse of a smile.

“Let’s get some food ready.” He said
standing quickly and walking towards the table. Unbelievably he
began to cook!

The smell of food and better than that, good
food, soon brought Rafael out of the bedroom.

I was stuffed! I shouldn’t have eaten so
much. It probably looked bad. The full stomach was making me sleepy
to. The stranger got up and headed for the sink and I had mutely
started to get up, when a big palm on my shoulder pushed me back
down into my seat.

I stayed there listening to him clean the
dishes in a sleepy sense of shock at the strange change of events.
He pulled up on my elbow and I stood up. He started leading me
toward the bedroom. I was suddenly wide awake.

When he reached the room he said, “Lie
down.”

I did as he said and he rolled me onto my
stomach and I knew that he was going to make me hate him now. He
started rubbing my back and I waited for the massage to end, but he
just kept rubbing and kneading with his big hands.

I’d never had a client do this to me before.
It felt good, but it filled me with questions and I asked, “You’re
not going to….?”

My voice trailed off, but my meaning was
clear enough.

“I told you I wouldn’t, didn’t I?” He
said.

His big hands never stopped moving and I
relaxed under the deep pressure of them. Surprisingly I trusted the
stranger to keep his word, as unbelievable a thing as that was.

I was getting very sleepy and I just
couldn’t help myself. Somewhat slurred sounding even to my own ears
I asked, “What’s your name?”