Of Eternal Life (19 page)

“No, no, no!”

She crashed into the kitchen, bumping into the doorframe on her way. It was dark. She couldn’t see the patterned wallpaper or any of the furniture. She was alone, and therefore, able to take a deep breath.

She filled her lungs to capacity, then blew the air out through parted lips. It calmed her and allowed her to begin breathing again. With the increased oxygen came a certain degree of clarity.

Yikes
. She may have bungled that.

Like, really hard.

She remembered how badly she’d reacted to Eli’s first awkward confession of love and winced. She owed him an apology.

And maybe an explanation, psycho?
the Voice piped in.

Abilene rolled her eyes. Yeah, she owed him that, too.

Hope flared. If she explained the perfect-thing to Eli, maybe he would understand. Maybe he could love her for her … .

She grabbed the Oreos from the table and spun around to jog back up to the bedroom.

But a silhouette stood in the doorway.

“Eli?” Abilene asked.

She knew it wasn’t Eli. The silhouette was curvy. Voluptuous.

Female.

The silhouette moved forward until she was standing in a beam of moonlight. The silver light reflected off of her dark brown hair and mocha skin.

“Dahlia?” Abilene almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Dahlia’s presence in Sergeant Collin’s kitchen didn’t compute. “What are you doing here?”

Dahlia looked different. It took Abilene a moment to discover it was Dahlia’s eyes; they were cold. Flat.

Dangerous.

And suddenly, Abilene knew her earlier gut feeling was right. She was never going to see her friend again.

Because this woman in front of her was anything but her friend.

“You did always like the Oreos,” Dahlia said. She took measured steps toward Abilene.

Abilene dropped the Oreos onto the counter. For every step Dahlia took toward her, she took one back.

“Dahlia, w-what’s going on?” Abilene asked.

Dahlia’s perfect teeth flashed in the moonlight, but the effect wasn’t friendly. The woman’s smile was all menace. “It’s nice to see you up and about. We half expected you to be in your death-throes.”

Abilene shook her head at words she didn’t understand.

“I’m going to need you to come with me,” Dahlia said, stalking ever closer.

The simple statement caused some of Abilene’s fear to disappear. Anger replaced it. Abilene snorted. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. You want to tell me how long you’ve been working for the other side? How long you’ve been pretending to be my friend?” Abilene was damn pissed. She’d
liked
Dahlia. Had looked up to her.

Abilene felt the countertop at her back. As Dahlia kept advancing, the fear returned a thousand-fold. Abilene had no place to go. She was trapped.

Dahlia stopped in front of Abilene. “You
will
be coming with me,” she said. “It’ll be easiest if you comply.”

Like hell
. Abilene’s fingers curled into a fist, and before she lost her courage, she struck out at Dahlia, aiming for the woman’s face.

Her fist glanced off of Dahlia’s cheek. Her head didn’t even move. Abilene’s heart sank.

Dahlia laughed softly. “He didn’t teach you how to fight? Talk about negligence.” She heard Dahlia crack her knuckles. “It’s like this, little girl.”

Dahlia’s fist whipped toward Abilene’s face.

Pain exploded like shrapnel in her left eye. Her head snapped back. Before Abilene could cry out, Dahlia’s hand was crushing her mouth.

“You make one noise,” the scent of cinnamon wafted over Abilene as the woman breathed her threat into Abilene’s face, “and I’ll kill the old man.”

Holy God, who
was
this woman? Abilene nodded, and gasped in air as Dahlia released her.

“Why are you doing this?” Abilene couldn’t prevent herself from asking as she felt around her eye. Nothing broken. Jeez, who knew a hit to the eye could hurt so much?

“That’s a little clichéd, don’t you think?” Dahlia tapped her bottom lip with one finger as she pondered Abilene. “I guess ‘For reasons you wouldn’t understand’ is my line. If only I had a mustache to twirl. Now, if you don’t mind. I’m in a hurry, and I don’t trust you to keep your mouth shut.” Before the words had even penetrated Abilene’s brain, Dahlia was reaching toward Abilene’s neck.

She felt a slight pinch, and then her world faded to black.

• • •

Eli gazed at the alarm clock as he paced around the bedroom.

Ten minutes
. Abilene had been “getting a snack” for ten minutes.

God in heaven, what had ever possessed him to blurt out the marriage-thing like
that
? Was he
ever
going to be smooth around Abilene, or was he destined to be a bumbling cave man for the rest of their lives together?

Five more minutes. He would give her five more minutes, and then he would crawl down to the kitchen on his knees and beg her forgiveness.

And then he would do the marriage-thing right. Hell, maybe he’d even
ask
her this time instead of telling her.

Unease roiled through his stomach, but it had been doing so for the last five minutes. Eli tried his best to ignore it.

When three more minutes passed he thought,
Close ’nough
. The Voice piped in its agreement, and Eli was out the door moving as close to normal as he could manage in his urgency to reach Abilene.

He was surprised to find the kitchen light off, but it didn’t slow him down. He felt the wall for the switch as he said, “Abilene, baby, I — ”

The light clicked on. The kitchen was empty.

“Abilene?” he called softly, not yet willing to rouse the Sergeant if this proved to be nothing.

No answer.

Eli’s pulse kicked into action. He made his way through the other rooms of the house, calling her name as he went. His voice was getting louder, but he didn’t care.

He threw open the front door of the house and checked outside. The truck was still there. Abilene was nowhere in sight.

He rushed back into the house, ready to pound down Sergeant Collins’s bedroom door, when he spotted the telephone in the hall.

The thing practically had a bull’s eye painted on it. Eli walked toward it. He pressed the arrow on the caller id screen to see the last number dialed was a 760 area code. The tiny, pixilated screen read
Needles, CA
.

With an arm of lead, Eli picked up the receiver and hit redial. He pressed the phone to his ear and listened like a condemned man as an electronic voice announced, “Thank you for calling Needles Military Hospital. If this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911 — ”

Eli slammed the phone down.

His mouth went dry.

She’d done it.

Just as he’d always feared she would.

Abilene had betrayed him.

And his mom had been right; it fucking hurt.

“Son?” Sergeant Collins’s voice came from behind Eli. Eli straightened and beat back the anguish he knew was painting his features before turning around to face Collins.

“Abilene called Major Taylor,” Eli said in a dead voice. “And now she’s gone. We have to move. It’s not safe here anymore.”

“You damn Johnsons,” Sergeant Collins growled.

Eli snapped to attention in surprise.
Not
the reaction he was expecting.

“You and your mama — you’re both the same. Always so ready to believe the worst about the people who love you.” He walked forward and poked Eli in the shoulder. “How do you know Abilene called Major Taylor?”

Ow, damn
. He rubbed his shoulder. “She made a call to the hospital in Needles, California?” Great. He’d said it like a question.

“Oh, well. That proves it. Let’s just string the poor girl up right now,” Collins groused as he pushed Eli back and grabbed the phone. The older man continued to grumble incoherent things as he jabbed in a phone number.

“Sergeant Collins here,” he barked into the phone a second later. “A phone call was made from here about a half hour ago. I need to you trace it.” There was a pause on Collins’s side as the person on the phone said something. Something the Sergeant didn’t like. “Don’t make me repeat myself boy. Tell your superior officer this is Sergeant Collins calling.”

Eli watched in wonder as the look on Collins’s face revealed he was getting his way. Just who had this man become that his name got that sort of a reaction?

“Right,” he pinned Eli with a glare, and Eli stepped back a pace. He couldn’t help feeling like a kid in the principal’s office. “And what towers did it ping off of?” Collins listened. “Any hotels, warehouses, or the like in that area where a hostage could be kept?”

Eli’s mouth dropped.
What the hell?
Abilene a hostage?

He felt like a horrible man, but he wished with all of his might that it were true.

“Thanks. I’ll put in a good word for you tomorrow, kid.” And then Collins returned the phone to its cradle.

He crossed his arms over his barrel of a chest and tossed Eli a superior look. “That call your lady made was forwarded to a cell phone that pinged off of a tower here in Atlanta. There’s a Hampton Inn by the tower that has outdoor room access.” Collins shook his head. “She didn’t betray you, son. She needs rescuing.”

Eli frowned. So the call had gone to a cell phone here in Atlanta? “I’m sorry, Sarge. That sounds
worse
.”

Sergeant Collins got into his face. “You stop this right now, boy. I met Abilene for a
second
, and it was enough for me to know she’s head-over-heels for you. You keep this line of thinking up, and you
will
lose her. And you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”

The Sergeant walked away from Eli to open a closet at the end of the hall. An entire arsenal of everything black and shiny was revealed to Eli, and he couldn’t prevent a low whistle of appreciation.

“Now, are you going to help me go get her?” Collins asked. “or are you going to sit here mooning over something that didn’t happen like some kind of soft-bellied Yankee?”

Eli snarled. Sergeant Collins was poking at something that he didn’t understand. Eli was right about Abilene, damn it. He just knew it!

But what if
he’s
right?
the Voice asked.

“Fine,” Eli snapped, striding up to the closet and pulling several weapons from the racks. “But when we get there and find out she’s with
them
, you’re going to help me make her sorry.”

Collins shook his head. “Just like your mama,” he murmured as he filled his pockets with ammo.

Someone was prying Abilene’s lips apart.

It was the first thing she’d known with absolute certainty since Sergeant Collin’s kitchen.

She didn’t know who that someone was, or why they were trying to pry her lips apart, but she knew two things: they were the enemy, and it couldn’t be for her own good.

She tried her best to struggle, but she found that she was bound to whatever she was lying on.

Her eyes popped open in panic.

Looming over her were Major Taylor and Dahlia.

Dahlia was the one trying to open her mouth, and Major Taylor held something in one hand. The other arm was strapped to his chest.

Abilene’s eyes flew to what was held in Taylor’s hand.

Her gaze was riveted to what she saw.

He held a piece of fruit that resembled a slice of a peach. But only loosely.

The fruit looked like liquid gold. The part of the slice that would have held the pit was a deep bronze, and the skin of the fruit looked like glittering diamonds.

It was the most beautiful thing Abilene had ever seen.

Instinctively, she knew what it was.

This was
the
fruit.

Though her mouth watered for a taste —
demanded
a taste — she knew it would change her life forever.

It took all of her willpower, but Abilene continued to fight Dahlia to keep her mouth closed.

After several moments of struggle, Dahlia rolled her eyes and punched Abilene in the stomach.

Abilene would have cried out from the pain, but her diaphragm was paralyzed. And as soon as she opened her lips to attempt to gulp air, Major Taylor deposited the fruit into her mouth.

Juice from the fruit flowed over her tongue and down the back of her throat.
Sweet Jesus.
It tasted even better than it looked. It held the sharp tang of tropical fruit, but the smooth sweetness of melon.

It was heaven on earth.

She didn’t have to be coerced into swallowing it. She gulped it down, and then looked for more as her mind screamed at her.

What have you done
?

“Oh, God,” she whimpered.

What now?

Major Taylor sighed and sank down on the bed next to her bound ankles. Relief colored his face. His cheeks flushed with color; his eyes brightened.

“It’s done then,” he said on another sigh. “She’ll live. The Operation can continue.”

Abilene’s unease multiplied at the satisfaction on Taylor’s face. If her eating the fruit had pleased him, she was in trouble.

She’ll live?
she repeated in her mind.
Half expected you to be in your death-throes
… . She looked back and forth between Dahlia and Major Taylor.

Major Taylor noticed her confusion, and his eyes softened. “I did always like you, Abilene. I’m sorry it had to be you.” Abilene frowned.

“That he saw you first,” Major Taylor clarified. “It could have been any of the girls, really, but it was you who stumbled upon him during the escape. An unfortunate turn of events.”

Abilene was shaking her head. He’d only raised more questions with his cryptic explanation.

Taylor’s shoulders slumped. “I suppose full disclosure is in order, hmm?” He turned to Dahlia. “Keep watch will you, my dear? Sergeant Collins is a man of many talents. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were on his way here now.”

Abilene held her breath.
Eli could be on his way?
God, she could only hope.