Rough and Ready (34 page)

Where could she have gone?

It was silly, he would find her… eventually, somehow… but still this felt, ominously, like an ending. Oh, my God! What if this is the way she's being sent back? No. Hilda is just being Hilda. Stubborn.

"Look, guys, thanks for all your help, but I refuse to chase all over kingdom come to find her. She'll show up when she's ready. In the meantime, I'm going back to Hog Heaven. I think that's where she's gone."

She was in an alien place…

Hilda awakened groggily, not knowing where she was.

As she slowly emerged from her fogginess, she heard male voices in an adjoining room. Glancing down, she saw that she was lying on a bed, naked. What happened to my red gown? And she was tied to the bed… arms, waist, and legs. I am captive. Ooooh, if the lout is trying more of his sex games with me, I will kill him.

Suddenly, she recalled the last time she had seen the lout. The lying, unfaithful son of a troll. She was a strong woman. She had to be to have survived Steinolf. She would be again.

"Help!" she screamed.

Three men came running into the room.

So, it was not the lout.

"Do… you… speak… English?" the one man asked, the one who had accosted her beside Lizzy's car.

What a dolt! "Yes… I… speak… English. Dost… speak… Norse?" she said in the same slow manner he had addressed her. Hilda should be embarrassed by her nudity, but she had more important concerns than her modesty, like where she was and how she was going to get away.

"Mzzz Berdottir. My name is Dick Phillips, and these are my… uh, associates, John Dorney and Greg Olsen. Just relax. Do you want something to drink?"

"Nay, I do not want a drink. I want you to untie me this minute." Dick? That is the name that men here give their manparts. Oh, good gods! The fool has taken the name of his manpart. 'Twould be like calling oneself Cock or Breast. The vanity of some men!

"I can't untie you… not till my boss gets here." He tried to pat her on her shoulder, but she shrugged away as best she could. "Did you say Norse? Do they speak Norse on your planet?"

She rolled her eyes. "So, you are the demented person who has been following me.

You think I come from another planet?"

"Yes." He nodded his head vigorously and smiled as if she had given him a compliment.

"Well, I do not. So, release me."

"I can't."

"You will be sorry if you do not. I have many friends in the military of your country. They will come after me." I hope.

"We know about those SEALs. Well, we'll just stay in hiding here till the boss arrives. Then we'll be off to the lab. They'll never find you once we get there.

I don't even know where it is."

"She has awfully small tits," one of the men remarked to Dick. "Do ya think all the women on her planet have small tits?"

"No, every woman in my land does not have small breasts, but we do have powers…

witchly powers that can shrivel manparts."

The eyes of all three men went wide, and then they glanced down at their private parts.

"Do ya think she's telling the truth?" one of them asked.

"Hell if I know, but I'm not takin' any chances," the other replied.

Both stepped back several paces.

"I also can give you warts all over your bodies, and webs betwixt your fingers and toes, not to mention turning all your teeth to rot." She figured she'd best stop there. She did not want to go too far in pushing the bounds of credulity.

The three men glanced at each other with question and concern. Then one of them said, "I'm outta here."

"Me, too," the other said, leaving only the Dick person.

"Why do you comb your hair that way?" she asked him as he wrung his hands, no doubt wondering if he should stay out of the range of her eyes.

Dick's ruddy face went ruddier. "What way?"

"As if you are trying to hide the bald top. Really, it just calls attention to it."

"Are men bald on your planet? Do they know how to re-grow hair there?"

"Aaarrgh! I am not an ale-yen. By the by, what did you give me to make me fall into such a deep sleep? It better not be anything that would harm my baby."

"Oh, no!" Dick's shoulders drooped, "You're pregnant. Who's the father? Alien or earthling? Oh, this complicates things. We wanted to impregnate you ourselves."

Hilda did not understand what he meant, except something about him wanting to impregnate her. What an odious man! She would die rather than have him enter her body.

Dick's black box rang, and he picked it up. "Yeah, I have her right here.

Uh-huh. John and Greg left, but it's okay. The target is restrained. And talking. Isn't this exciting? She can talk. I wonder what other things she can do. No, no, I won't do any testing on her till you get here tomorrow." After Dick completed his conversation, he looked at her and said, "Mr. Atkins has been delayed."

"How long?"

"Twenty-four hours. Don't worry, I'm going to give you a little more of this chloroform to settle you down."

"Noooooooo," she screeched, her voice becoming increasingly fainter as the deep sleep overcame her again.

Torolf, where are you? Come for me.

Give me a clue…

Torolf was so blistering, hair-pulling angry, he could barely speak.

Cage tried to talk to him. "Settle down. We'll find her. It's only been eight hours."

"Eight hours! She could be dead in eight hours."

"Be negative, why don't you?"

"Stop trying to be a freakin' Norman Vincent Peale."

"Stop being an asshole."

He stopped his pacing in the narrow confines of the trailer and looked at his good friend. There were probably tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. You owe Ralph and Pete apologies, too."

He nodded. He'd fired the two bodyguards the minute he'd gotten back for letting Hilda escape.

"Hilda is going to peel your skin off for blaming them."

Please, God, let her come back and peel my skin off.

The rest of the guys were back in Coronado searching for any traces of Hilda.

The police and FBI had been called in, and due to some SEAL connection, they'd been willing to forgo the usual waiting time before calling it a kidnapping.

Authorities were already over at the National Center for Alien Research, trying to confiscate files that might give them leads. The chairman was missing.

Torolf

didn't want to think about what his absence meant. Hilda's face was plastered on California TV stations, although it was the middle of the night, and who the hell was seeing it? Nobody, that's who.

Serenity came stomping into the trailer then, without knocking. She had a bathrobe on and fuzzy slippers. Her hair looked like it had been combed with a mixer.

"For land's sake, what're you doin', boy? Go find her."

"I'm trying."

"Doesn't look to me like you're tryin'. There's no need for you to sit here twiddlin' your thumbs. Go back to where she was taken. I'll keep a watch here in case she shows up."

"Thanks." He and Cage looked at each other and nodded. They both still wore their dress whites, now filthy whites. He checked his cell phone for the millionth time. Nothing. "Why do you think she was taken… that she didn't just take off?"

" 'Cause the girl loves you, that's why. Even if you are a dumb schmuck. She wouldn't go away like this, not in her condition. She woulda made plans, careful plans, and she woulda told you first."

Torolf was only half listening as he gathered some gear together, but one word struck him. "What condition?"

Serenity gazed at him critically, as if unsure about answering him. Then, she revealed, "Hilda is pregnant."

Torolf's stomach dropped down to his feet, and the blood drained from his head.

He felt faint. "Pregnant? That's impossible. I used protection."

"That's what she said. And I'll tell you the same thing I tol' her. No, I didn't say that accidents happen, if that's what you think. I told her miracles happen."

Torolf put a hand over his mouth to stifle a moan.

This FUBAR just got worse and worse.

They were halfway back to Coronado, with the sun just coming up, when Serenity called him.

"Is she there?" he asked quickly.

"No."

Bile rose in his throat.

"Lizzy called me and said something that might be helpful. She said that they got a room at the Days Inn last night, about an hour away from Coronado. And, if this screwball has been following Hilda, maybe he got a room there, too."

"It would be stupid of him if he did. To take her to the same hotel where Hilda and her friends registered?"

"How smart could anyone be that believes in aliens?" Cage interjected.

"You've got a point there."

For the first time in the last eleven hours, Torolf was hopeful. He called Slick and the other guys. They were all equidistant from the hotel and should get there in an hour. "Drive faster," he told Cage.

"I'm already going eighty."

"Go ninety."

Please, God, let her be there. Let her be safe. Let her be willing to listen to me. Let her forgive me. And let her still love me.

He could swear he heard a voice in his head say, Not asking for much, are you, buddy? Probably his conscience.

Prince Not-So-Charming, better known as Prince Lout, to the rescue…

Hilda was kicking and biting and digging in her heels the best she could to prevent these two demented men, Dick and his boss, a Mr. Atkins, from taking her to some lab. She was not such a lackwit that she did not now understand what dissection meant, even if they did couch it in terms like "research."

She would have been screaming, too, but they had stuffed a cloth in her mouth before releasing her restraints. Although her hands were free, the gag was tied so tightly in back, she was unable to remove it… yet. They had thought that, between the two of them, they could get her dress back on and escort her to their vehicle without drawing too much attention.

"Maybe you should chloroform her again," Mr. Atkins said.

"Why me? She bit me last time I tried." The heel of his right hand was indeed bleeding.

"She kicked me in the nuts."

"How about we both jump her at once."

"Maybe. I could shoot you, Ms. Berdottir," Mr. Atkins warned, raising a piss-toll.

While the two of them were arguing, Hilda eyed the bathing chamber door. If she could run in there, perhaps she would be able to lock herself in.

"Don't even think it," Mr. Atkins said, clearly becoming angry. "I'll shoot you in the damn leg, if I have to."

"Okay, on the count of three," Dick declared. "One, two—"

Just then, there was a loud banging against the door, followed by some curses.

Mr. Atkins, recognizing potential danger, ran across the room and pressed the piss-toll to her head. She'd been too surprised by the noise to defend herself, but she was able to yank off her gag. This time when the loud banging came, the door fell in, followed by Torolf and a dozen other people, some of whom she had never seen before. All of them had weapons raised, pointing at Dick and Mr.

Atkins.

"Let her go, you sonofabitch." It was Torolf, in a crouch, with both hands on a pistol aimed at Mr. Atkins's heart. At the same time, he looked at her, noting her nude body, and asked in a choked voice, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Mother of Thor! Where have you been? What took you so long? Didst stop to have cunning-tingles with your female friend afore coming to get me?"

Torolf grinned. So did some of the men behind him, despite the dangerous situation.

She turned her head slightly to address Mr. Atkins. "If you kill the lout, I will have to kill you with my bare hands."

Mr. Atkins was disconcerted for just that one second, which gave Torolf and the others the opportunity to shoot the weapons out of his and Dick's hands. Both of the miscreants fell to the floor, severely injured but not dead. At first, there was just chaos. Screaming, yelling, police sirens, and blood seeping from both bodies onto the light carpet.

Torolf wrapped a linen sheet over her shoulders and led her into the bathroom.

"Stay here for a sec till we wrap this up."

"Orders again?" she complained, sitting down on the closed privy seat.

He turned and came back to her, lifting her up to stand on her tiptoes. Then nose to nose, he said in a raw voice, "Don't ever scare me like that again."

And

he kissed her long and hard, then shoved her back down to a sitting position.

"Do not move."

She stuck her tongue out at the closed bathing chamber door. The lout! He still had not learned that he was in no position to give her orders.

There were noises and voices for a very long time, so Hilda decided to take a shower. The scurvy feel of Dick and Mr. Atkins's hands on her body lingered.

She

was still angry with Torolf, and she had good cause. It was his fault she had time-traveled. Then, he had nigh locked her in a metal prison. And the final indignity, finding him holding another woman.

But in the midst of the anger, she tried to be fair. He had rid the Norselands of Steinolf. He had taught her about love, the body kind and the heart kind.

And

he had given her a babe, although he did not know that yet.

She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, drying herself.

Staring

in the mirror, she finger-combed her hair, then wrapped one of the big towels around herself.

Who was this person she saw in the mirror? Brunhilda Berdottir, eleventh-century Viking woman? Or Hilda Berdottir, twenty-first-century Viking woman? She did not know, but there were some things she did know. She would not screech and rail at the lout. Nor would she jump right back into his bed and his life again.

Leastways, not yet. In many ways, she had been forced on him with the time travel, just as he had been forced on her. Mayhap, he would prefer freedom.

Mayhap, she would prefer freedom. They both needed time alone to think, and in her case, to plan.

When Torolf opened the door, she said, "Take me home."