Encala (18 page)

He left her room when Allen woke up in the
morning. He fed the toddler breakfast, and checked on Emily often.
He grabbed her phone quickly when it rang, and looked at the ID. It
was Sam.

“
Sam?” Kyle
asked.

The other end was quiet.

“
She’s ok, I’m here with
her.”

“
Kyle, you better not lay a
finger on her,” Sam said, angrily.

“
I won’t. I’m worried about
her, she’s sleeping a lot.”

Sam sighed, “Define a lot.”

“
Napped twice, but the last
one was all night, so right about 16 hours,” Kyle said,
concerned.

“
Did she sleep a lot when
she was first pregnant with Allen?” Sam asked.

“
No one knows, the Valle
had her,” Kyle said, irritated.

“
This deal fell through.
I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” Sam said, and hung up the
phone.

Kyle decided it was time to wake Emily. He
sat down beside her and touched her arm. She opened her eyes
slightly.

“
What?” she
mumbled.

“
Em, how far along are
you?”

“
I don’t know,” she said,
and fell back to sleep.

“
Great,” Kyle whispered. He
left a note for Emily, dressed Allen in a warm coat, and left the
house, locking the door behind him.

When they got back to the house, Allen was
enjoying an ice cream cone and Kyle carried a bag full of supplies.
They visited the library, and he had a chance to research human
pregnancy. He discovered that Emily was sleeping too much, and all
he could come up with was low blood sugar.

Kyle dumped the groceries out on the counter
and pulled a cookbook from his coat, “Ok Allen, let’s cook.”

Allen stood on a chair beside Kyle and
watched as he began to cut up vegetables.

Emily peeked around the corner, “Are you
cooking?”

“
Yes, we are,” Kyle
replied, stirring something in a skillet.

“
Don’t hurt yourself,” she
said, and refilled her glass of 7up.

Kyle sat a plate down by her, and she
cringed away from it, “I’m not hungry.”

“
You need to eat. I did
some research, and I think your blood sugar is low,” he explained,
sitting down by her.

“
That’s what you think is
it?” she asked, and picked up a fork, stabbing a piece of
chicken.

“
Yes”

“
Hrm, this is good,” she
said, taking another bite.

Kyle smiled and high-fived Allen, “We did
it, Kiddo.”

“
Yeah,” Allen said, and
grinned.

“
Oh, Sam called. He said
he’ll be back in the morning… he said the deal fell
through.”

Emily dropped her fork, “Great.”

“
There will be other deals,
just eat,” he told her, handing her back her fork.

“
I liked that
one.”

“
You can stay here as long
as you like. I could even give the house to you,” he
suggested.

“
I want a ranch, and I’m
not going to take your house.”

“
You just don’t want me
knowing where you are,” he mumbled.

“
You’re right,” she said,
and smiled.

***

“
We’ll be back in an hour
or so,” Emily said, kissing Allen good-bye.

“
We’ll be here,” Sam
said.

Emily stepped out of the house for the first
time in weeks, and hopped into the Humvee. Kyle crawled into the
seat next to her and smiled. She looked out over the snow packed
road and gripped the steering wheel with shaky hands.

“
Do you want me to drive?”
Kyle asked, taking one of her shaking hands in his.

“
It’s not the drive… it’s
not safe out here.” She watched the snow fall.

“
No one but me knows where
you are. You have to get out of that house,” he said, and reached
over to start the engine.

Emily nodded and put the Humvee into drive,
“You sure we shouldn’t take your truck?”

“
The Hummer is better in
this kind of snow, it’s ok,” he said, sitting back in the
seat.

Emily moved slowly through the narrow snowy
road and breathed easier when she saw black top. Her speed picked
up as she hit I-70 for the road trip into Denver.

“
See, this isn’t so bad,”
Kyle said, smiling as her hands quit shaking.

“
Not bad at all.” She
grinned, but then her face fell when she heard the
siren.

Kyle looked behind them, “Are you
speeding?”

“
No,” she said, and pulled
off to the right hand side of the freeway.

“
Just act casual,” he
suggested, leaning back.

Emily rolled her window down and looked at
the police officer. He was standing a ways back from her window
with his hand on his gun.

“
Is there a problem?” she
asked.

“
Step out of the car,
Ma’am,” he said, as two more police cruisers pulled up.

Emily looked at Kyle and then opened the
door and stepped out. She went from looking down on the officer to
him looking down on her when she got out of the jacked up
Humvee.

“
You too, Sir, get out,” an
officer said from Kyle’s side of the car.

Emily heard Kyle’s door open and he walked
around to her side. When he appeared, both were shoved against the
truck.

“
Hey, watch it,” Kyle
growled, as was Emily slammed into the truck.

“
Shut up,” the officer
said, putting handcuffs on Kyle. Emily watched Kyle allow the
handcuffs as she felt hers being tightened.

“
What’s going on?” she
asked, wincing.

“
This vehicle has been
reported stolen,” the officer said, spinning her around to face
him.

“
It’s my husband’s car,”
she said, frowning.

“
Yeah, well, you can tell
that to the judge,” he said, and ushered her into the back of his
car. Kyle was put in a different patrol car and Emily frowned at
him. She wondered why he didn’t break the cuffs and blur
away.

Emily was so mad, she was shaking as they
took her picture and fingerprinted her. She was furious when the
deputy announced to the room, Kyle included, that she was five foot
even. She blushed and saw Kyle turn away from her and laugh.

Emily was separated from Kyle and given an
ugly orange jumpsuit. She put it on and was taken to a cell. The
loud bang of the door slamming made her skin crawl. She looked
around at the empty cells and sat down on the hard bed.

Kyle arrived at the cell next to her almost
an hour later. Once his door was shut and the deputy left, he came
to the bars that separated them.

“
You ok?” he
asked.

“
No, I’m not ok. My husband
just put me in jail,” she said, angrily.

“
I called Sam. He wasn’t
there, but I left a message for him to come and bail us out,” he
said, amused.

“
This is not funny.” She
glared at him.

“
Oh come on, it is a
little.”

“
Why are you even here? Why
didn’t you break the handcuffs and blur away?”

“
Because then, you would
have to explain what happened, don’t you think?”

“
Yeah I guess.”

Kyle smiled, “That was pretty smart of
him.”

She looked at him shocked, “Are you kidding
me?”

“
Come on, it worked, he
found you,” Kyle said, still laughing.

“
Yeah well he found you
too… how well do you think that’s going to go over?”

“
Oh, hadn’t thought of
that,” Kyle said, sitting down on the bed in his cell.

Emily curled up on the hard bed and stared
at the wall. She became more and more angry, both at Chevalier and
at Sam as the night came and they were still in jail. It wasn’t
until 3am when a deputy appeared and opened their cells.

“
You’ve been bailed out,”
he said, tossing their clothes at them.

Emily stormed out of the cell and changed
quickly in the bathroom. Kyle was waiting for her in the lobby when
she got out.

“
They said he’s waiting for
us outside,” Kyle said, obviously having fun. He opened the door
for her and she stepped out into the cold air. When they left the
house it was still warm enough she hadn’t needed a
jacket.

“
I’m so glad you find this
funny,” she said, walking down the ice covered sidewalk.

Kyle laughed and then stopped and put an arm
out to stop Emily. She looked up and glared.

“
I was surprised when I
found that I needed to bail out two of you,” Chevalier said, and
leaned up against the Humvee.

“
You put me in jail,” she
snapped at him.

“
Yes, I did. Now get in the
Humvee where it’s warmer,” he said, opening the door.

“
That’s alright,” she said,
and made sure to give him a wide berth as she walked out into the
street and hailed a cab.

“
Emily, get in the Humvee,”
Kyle said, frustrated.

Emily got into the cab and shut the
door.

“
Where to,
Ma’am?”

Emily gave him Kyle’s address, and then
said, “Tell you what. There’s an extra $200 cash if you can lose
the Humvee.”

The cab driver grinned and gunned it,
spinning out and taking off into the empty streets.

Chevalier growled and jumped into the
Humvee, followed by Kyle. He put it in gear and followed the
cab.

“
I can explain,” Kyle said,
holding on as Chevalier fought to keep up with the cab.

“
I hope so,” he said,
seething.

Kyle inconspicuously smelled around the
Humvee, and picked up no trace of Emily’s scent. He remembered that
they left the doors open when they were arrested. The officers must
have left it open for a while.

“
Damnit,” Chevalier hissed,
and hit the steering wheel. The cab pulled around a railroad bar
and had gotten across just as the train passed.

“
Thank you,” Emily said,
looking behind at the train. The train was too short though, and
she could still see clearly when the Humvee took off
again.

“
He’s back... hurry,” she
said, watching behind her.

Emily gripped the front seat as the cab
began to lose traction and spin. The driver overcorrected and
flipped the yellow car. Emily braced herself when she felt the car
rolling over and over as it went down a small embankment. It
finally came to rest on its top. The windows were smashed in, and
the driver wasn’t moving.

“
Trust me, stay here,” Kyle
said, jumping out of the Humvee, but he turned when he heard
Chevalier behind him.

“
No kidding… trust me on
this. You don’t need to smell her blood right now,” he said
sternly. Chevalier froze, and then nodded.

Kyle ran down the embankment and knelt by
the car, “Emily?”

“
Get me out of here,” she
said, reaching a bloody hand toward him.

He tried to open the door, but it was
jammed. He braced his feet against the snowy hillside and pulled
hard, easily breaking the door free. Kyle got back to his knees and
crawled into the car, “Where are you hurt?”

“
Get the driver,” she said,
pointing to him. He still wasn’t moving.

Kyle reached up and felt the driver’s neck,
“He’s gone.”

“
He’s not dead!” she yelled
at him.

Kyle reached over and yanked her seatbelt
off of her, and she fell to the glass covered hood. He took her
under her arms and pulled her out of the car.

Chevalier watched anxiously as Kyle pulled
Emily out of the taxi. He saw Emily stumble to her feet, and then
collapse in Kyle’s arms. Kyle picked her up and cradled her in his
arms. He looked from Chevalier to his house, which was less than a
quarter of a mile away.

“
Meet us at the house,” he
said.

“
Get her in here,”
Chevalier said, angrily.

Kyle blurred toward the house and heard the
Humvee pull back out onto the road. Kyle was just laying Emily on
the couch when he heard the door slam to the Humvee. He blurred
outside.

“
She doesn’t want you in
here,” he said, closing the door to the house.

“
I don’t really care what
she wants,” Chevalier said, approaching the steps.

“
Breaking her wishes isn’t
going to help her trust you,” Kyle said. He was afraid that one
smell of Emily, and the Elder would lose control. He knew the Elder
hadn’t fed since she left. He spent all of his time searching for
her.

“
Why are you even here?”
Chevalier asked Kyle.

“
I’ll explain that later…
just wait in the Humvee for me, ok?” he asked, and disappeared back
into the house. Chevalier growled and went back to the
car.

Kyle returned to Emily, “Where do you
hurt?”

“
Is he coming in?” she
asked, trying to sit up.

“
Not right now,” he said,
pulling her hair back off of her forehead, “You hit your head,
anything else?”

“
No. He can’t come in here,
he’ll know,” she said, watching Kyle closely.

“
I’m not sure I can stop
him.”

“
It’s your
house.”