Take Her to HeVan (Nephilim Book 6) (9 page)

He got up from the bed and started getting dressed. He saw the shopping bags and gave only a passing thought as to why Marla hadn’t taken them upstairs to her own room. Mostly, he worried about his proposal. It didn’t matter that Marla wanted to get married on Monday. Jim had said she would be unhappy if he didn’t give her a romantic proposal. He said women liked to have stories to tell their friends and children.

He had betrayed Marla, and she was willing to marry him anyway. She deserved a formal proposal.

Marla came out of the bathroom already dressed. She crossed the room and took the shopping bags with her. She didn’t even look at him before she left the room.

He had intended to make his proposal later during dinner. Jim said candles were important too. He didn’t know if they had candles and the lighting in the kitchen was sufficient to see by, so he dropped that part of the plan. Marla’s sadness convinced him he needed to give her a proposal now.

He noticed his palms were damp. It was a strange sensation that was completely unknown to him. Wiping his palms on his jeans, he decided later he would ask Marla if she recognized the symptom, and what it meant. Leaving the bedroom, he didn’t see Marla in the kitchen.

He heard a sound coming from the door at the side of the kitchen. Marla called it the mudroom, though he had never seen her make mud there. When he stepped up to the doorway, he saw Marla in front of two large white machines standing against the wall.

“What are you doing? Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked her.

“I realized I needed to wash all the new clothes I bought for you before you could wear them,” she said as she took a tag off a pair of jeans before tossing them in the washer.

“You bought clothes for me?” he asked.

“Of course. You only had three changes of clothes. That’s not enough,” she said. She added soap, closed the washer, and started it.

Karlo was once again struck at how thoughtful and wonderful Marla was to him.

“Come with me,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her back to the kitchen. He pulled out one of the chairs and by applying some pressure to her shoulder, got her to sit.

Karlo then got down on one knee in front of Marla the way Jim had told him to do.

“Marla Jones, will you marry me on Monday and be mine?” he asked her.

Marla burst into tears. Not a reaction Jim Tucker had led him to expect. He didn’t know what to do, so he did the only thing he could think of. He picked her up and sat down with her in his lap. He held her while she sobbed into his shirt. He kept running his hand up and down her back. She was trying to talk as she cried, but he couldn’t understand anything she was trying to say, her words were too garbled. He didn’t even try to listen, only concentrating on comforting her.

After a few minutes she stopped crying. She didn’t say anything. She stood and went into the bathroom. He could hear her blowing her nose and then the water running. A few minutes later she came back into the kitchen.

“I’m so sorry. All I did was lie to you over and over again. I played a despicable trick on you. I don’t know why you would ask me to marry you. I’m a horrible person,” she wailed.

She was having a total meltdown. The guilt of all her lies was crushing her.

“I don’t understand. Does this mean you don’t want to marry with me?” he asked.

She just couldn’t live with herself if she actually married him under false pretenses. Especially after having made love with him. She had decided then she needed to tell him the truth. It couldn’t wait until after dinner.

“Come with me,” she said. She pulled on her coat and grabbed the large flashlight.

Karlo had no idea what she was doing. He just followed along, willing to go wherever she wanted to lead him. He was surprised when she led him to the hay barn, and walked around the back. He’d been meaning to ask her how she got that hole in the back wall.

Marla looked over at Karlo, then she bent down and picked up a handful of dirt. Shining her flashlight into the barn, she threw the dirt into the opening. Karlo was shocked when the dirt seemed to hit something in mid-air and then fall to the ground.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“That’s my line. It’s the vehicle you arrived in. You crashed into the barn. When I came out of the house, it was visible. It’s really high-tech, some kind of experimental craft. I’m sure people are looking for it and you. Rusty led me to you. You had tried to leave, and you were lying half in and half out of the doorway. The on-board computer helped me figure out how to help you. It diagnosed your health and sent out a distress signal. People might show up at any time,” she said.

She took him back to the house and went on to explain everything she’s done and exactly how she had lied to him.

“Well, I am glad I didn’t betray you,” he said when she finished talking.

“I tell you how you arrived in an obviously classified craft of some kind. I lied to you and I tricked you; and that’s all you have to say?” She was shocked at his easy acceptance of her awful behavior.

“It was really bothering me. I couldn’t understand how anyone could act so dishonorably, especially to you. I’m happy to find out I didn’t cheat on you. As to the other stuff, you said the computer sent out a distress call. We’ll just have to wait to see who shows up. I have a great excuse for not calling in with my memory gone. I don’t see any reason why we can’t get married on Monday as planned,” he said. As far as he was concerned, it was all settled.

“Does that mean you forgive me for lying to you? I didn’t behave very honorably. I would understand if you wanted to leave,” she said.

“Your grandfather left you in an untenable situation. The betrayal of this man, Jake, damaged your faith. I can understand your attempt to save your ranch. You could have told me the truth after the wedding. You told me today. You are an honorable woman, Marla Jones,” he said.

“I’m sorry for falling apart like that. I guess I’ve been more stressed out than I thought.” She stood in front of him and took a deep breath and then another one. “Yes, I will marry you on Monday. Whew, I can’t believe I’ve been so lucky to have you fall into my life, literally.”

“The luck has been all mine. Now, how about some dinner? I need to build up my strength so I can make love to you all night,” he said, pleased to see her answering smile. “I know I said I’d help you cook dinner. However, I’d like to take Rusty and do a tour around the property. Those two men most likely won’t come back, especially not so soon. Just to be safe, since we’ve been gone for a large chunk of the day and people know we’ve been gone, I want to check everything over. I also want to take another look at the invisible craft in the hay barn. Or at least touch it a little. Maybe it will help me with my memory.”

Marla felt another wave of guilt. “I’m so sorry. I keep saying that, but I really am sorry. I haven’t done anything to help you get your memory back, and you’ve done so much for me. I’m too short and too fat. You really could have any woman you wanted. You even signed the pre-nup. I am an awful, horrible person.”

Karlo had walked toward the door. Now he turned back to her. She had taken a seat at the table in the kitchen. She looked so dejected, slumped over in the chair.

“Marla, I don’t like to speak badly of your grandfather. He and your grandmother raised a wonderful and beautiful woman of ability and strength. You must have been so scared about losing the ranch. You’ve worked so hard, doing all the work alone for so long. Even after a betrayal by one who should have been your greatest comfort, you didn’t let it crush you. Then when a stranger dropped into your life, asking for sanctuary, instead of calling the police you took me in. How can you not understand how special you are?” he asked as he knelt in front of her.

He picked up her hand with one of his own and turned her face to his own with the other. “Lastly, you are the perfect size and the perfect shape for me. Didn’t I show you only a short time ago? Do you need me to give you another example of my lust for you? My plan to make love to you all night wasn’t a joke. I really do plan to keep my promise,” he told her with a wide grin and a wink, raising and lowering his eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion. They had watched a movie, and the actor had done that and she had laughed. He wanted her to laugh now.

Leaning forward, he began kissing her, overpowering her. He had something to prove. She needed to believe and trust in the passion he had for her. When he felt her response, he pulled back a little. He took her hand and placed it between his legs.

“Feel what you do to me? All I need is to be near you and this happens. I adore all of your soft curves, so womanly, so sexy. Earlier, I only was able to explore you a little. Very soon now, I’ll be able to explore them all. I plan to memorize each and every part of you. I want to be able to notice every small change your body makes when it swells with my child.”

Marla’s eyes went round and she gasped. He wanted to have children with her?

“You don’t believe me. You wouldn’t look so surprised if you trusted what I was saying. I guess I’ll have to prove it to you. It’s a good thing we’re getting married on Monday. As your husband, I’ll have plenty of opportunities.”

He leaned forward and gave her another soul deep kiss.

Marla was reaching for his pants when her stomach growled. Then Karlo’s stomach made an answering noise and she giggled.

“I guess I should make dinner,” she said with a small smile pulling her hand away from his crotch.

“I’ll go out and walk my rounds. We’ll finish this later. Don’t plan on getting much sleep tonight,” he said, getting up.

Marla waited until he left. Then she counted to ten. She stood, whooped, and did a little happy dance around the room.

Karlo whistled for Rusty and the two of them left the house. The evening was breezy and he hoped it would help cool his blood. As he walked away from the house, he thought he heard a sound but when it didn’t repeat he kept walking.

He wanted to head straight to the hay barn. He made himself head to the machine shed. Along with her tractor, she kept an ATV. Using it, he could tour the entire ranch in less than an hour. He would swing by the hay barn after his sweep.

Forty-five minutes later, he’d done a circuit of the perimeter fence. He made note of one area where the fence had been damaged on the far side of the pasture. It’s possible they had damaged it during the fight with the fire. He made a mental note to take a closer look in the morning. In the meantime, he would double check on the animals and then head to the hay barn.

After putting the ATV in the machine shed, he and Rusty walked over to the corral. The alpacas had been bedded down when they had come home several hours ago. Now, though, they had left the shed and he couldn’t see them. Going through the gate, he approached the shed. There was something on the ground in the shed. Stepping closer, he saw it was a dead alpaca. The brown of the wool was mottled with the dark stain of spilled blood.

He heard rustling behind the shed. His head snapped up and all of his senses went on alert. Moving slowly, he crept around the side of the three-sided shed. Carefully looking around the back edge, he found the remaining alpacas. They had formed a tight formation using the fence and the shed as protection. He could see the baby alpaca or cria in the middle with the adult alpacas facing outward ready to defend.

Obviously, the presence of the dead alpaca was keeping the others tense and alert. Remaining in this state for extended periods would create unhealthy stress levels. He needed to move the body and get Marla to help calm the animals.

First, he closed the gates to the pasture. Neither was damaged, it was proof of more sabotage. He needed to open the gate to the ranch. He had to be careful removing the body. He didn’t want to deal with the other animals getting loose, and he could tell they weren’t happy staying in the corral right now. He wondered why they hadn’t run into the pasture. He answered his own question when he thought of the tight formation he saw. They wouldn’t be able to defend themselves so well in the large pasture. He was no longer concerned with the alpacas getting loose.

Running to the tool shed, he got a wheelbarrow, a rake, and a shovel, along with a sack of sawdust. After lifting the body into the wheelbarrow, he used the rake and shovel to remove any blood soaked straw and dirt. Last, he put down a layer of sawdust over the area. Finally, he left the corral with the body moving it downwind, so hopefully the animals would start to relax.

He briefly considered burying the body, then changed his mind. Jim Tucker might need to take a look at it.

By this time he’d been gone for more than an hour. Marla would be wondering where he was. He had never gotten a chance to look in the hay barn. It no longer seemed important. Catching whoever was trying to hurt Marla had to have all of his focus. He’d been doing fine without his memory for days. A distress signal had been sent. He decided not to split his focus. Marla was more important.

As he headed across the yard to the house, he thought about how to tell her she’d lost one of her precious alpacas. He knew they meant more to her than a way to make money. Karlo entered through the mudroom and was instantly alert. The lights in the house were off and he could only see flickers of light coming from the kitchen. Fire!