The Divine Whisper (16 page)

“You know how cute you are, when you make that face?”

She ignored the pleasure she got from his comment, and scoffed. “Hardly. Cute is not a word I would use for me. I’ve gotten huge, so huge that light stretch marks are starting to show.”

He shrugged nonchalantly.
“You have to grow. Did you know that the baby is…” Looking around the table, he quickly picked up a fork and held it up. “…the baby is about this long right now?”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve been reading some.” Once again, he shrugged as if it were no big deal. Little did he know exactly how much it meant to her.

“Plus, you’re not
that
big.” His voice was soft, and comfort— “Yet.”

She dropped her jaw and before thinking twice, she kicked out her leg, making contact with his shin under the table.

He chuckled, and without warning, there was a loud bang and the chair next to her toppled backwards.
The action startled her and made her squeak as she quickly scooted back from the table.

“Oops.
I guess I missed.”

Looking from the chair, to the grinning face of the man sitting across from her, she couldn’t help but return his smile.
Pointing a finger in his direction, she said, “I knew you were violent from the moment I saw you.”

She was still grinning as she swiped up chocolate syrup from the plate with her finger, and popped it into her mouth.
When she looked up, Gemariah’s face was hard as stone.

“What?”
The word was distorted from the finger still in her mouth, so she quickly removed it and frowned.

When he didn’t answer, but instead stood up to clear the table, she was even more confused.

“Obviously, I’m not a mind reader, so I can’t know what’s bugg—”

“You’re never going to forgive me for that day, are you?” he abruptly asked.

“What day?”
She thought to what she had said and it brought back memories from the day they met. He had been bullying a teenager, and she had been so mad. How could she have forgotten? It felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her, successfully drowning her good mood.

There was only one question that was on her mind.
“What were you thinking that day, anyway?”

The dishes landed in the sink with a little more force than necessary.

“I was thinking that the boy had it coming.”
There was a growl in his voice, and she was glad he was standing on the other side of the room. On any other day, she would take on a grizzly man with a bad temper, but not when her baby was at risk.

She pointed to her stomach.
“So what are you going to do when this baby talks-back, or acts up? Are you going to hit him, or
shake
her?”

His eyes grew wide, and his shock was evident.
“Of course not, but I’ll be damned if it turns out as disrespectful as that punk was.”

“What will you do to stop that from happening, huh?”
She swallowed down the lump in her throat caused by fear.
He will have to go through me first
, she thought.

“You are trying to make me into someone I’m not!
I’m not anything like the person that hurt
you
.”

“Get out.”
The fact that he could see right through her didn’t sit well.

“Nicole…”

“I said get out!” she yelled.

She remembered another time she had yelled at him to get out of her house.
It was like a mask had been put over her eyes to his true character, and she had forgotten everything from their past.

As if feeling the change in her mood, he started walking towards the door without another word.
Walking behind him, she followed him to the door, but stopped at the threshold. When he was about to get into his truck, she hollered out, “Gemariah.”

Still unsmiling, unlike how he had been only ten minutes earlier, he turned to look at her.

“I think it’s best if you don’t come back.” Before he could answer, she shut the door. As she stood on the other side, she listened to a door slam and an engine roar, and then all was silent. She knew that it was for the best, but she still couldn’t help but feel more alone than ever.

CHAPTER 6

She had told him to stay away, but did he listen?
No, like a stupid idiot, he did not.

During the day, he would follow her from a safe distance, so she didn’t know he was there, but he could still make sure that she was okay.
His was seriously behind on his duties for the team because of it, but everyone had helped pick up the slack. After she made it home from work, that’s when he would make himself known.

The first few evenings had been fun.
He went to the front door, and she would pretend not to be home. Of course he knew she was, he could sense her turbulent emotions.

At first, he felt her anger and frustration, so he sat with his back against the door, and tried to talk about the night before.

“Let’s see, how would I punish our kid if they misbehave?” He could feel the tension rolling off of her in waves when he started. “There’s always time-out or taking things away. I’m not opposed to manual labor, such as helping around the house.” Her emotions shifted to something dark, and he thought to lighten the mood. “I got it! We could always make them eat your turkey meatloaf, because honey, you can cook a lot of things, but that ain’t one of them.”

He could almost feel her smile.
“Let me in, so we can talk, Tinker Bell.”

“You need to go away.”
He should have been disappointed by her first words, but instead he was glad that she finally decided to talk to him.

“Fine.
I’ll leave now, but I’ll be back tomorrow.” He stood up to go.

“No!”
He turned with a smile on his face, thinking she wanted him to stay, but his hope was quickly dashed with her next words. “Don’t come back tomorrow. I’ll call the cops if you do.”

Focusing on her emotional state, he knew that she was telling the truth.
As he walked away, he thought that the next day would be interesting.

Sure enough, when he came the next evening and started talking to her through the door, it took ten minutes for the patrol car to pull up in front of the house.
He watched as two uniformed cops cautiously made their way up to the house, and stopped a good ten feet from him.

They asked him to leave, and he had explained the situation, that she was pregnant with his child and he had put his foot in his mouth… again.
The two men were sympathetic, but still had to make him leave.

As he walked away, he turned toward the house and yelled, “Same time tomorrow, Tink?”
When there was no answer, his smile grew even bigger. What a stubborn woman.

The next two evenings were about the same.
He would arrive, and ten minutes later, he would be shooed away by the police. He even took it upon himself to bring coffee for the officers.

On the fourth day, no police came.
He guessed that she realized her efforts were for nothing because he would come back the next day regardless. He didn’t get to do much talking though, because he would have had to yell over a vacuum that was running and placed by the door inside the house. He didn’t care. He just sat there, and soaked up her feeling of satisfaction. Her happiness had become intoxicating, even if it
was
caused by his demise.

Yesterday had been a week since she kicked him out of her house, and she still wouldn’t let him in.
That didn’t stop her from coming out though. He had been in the middle of a very lengthy description about weapons and their evolution throughout the ages when she stormed out.

Before he could say anything, or even express his elation that she had finally opened the door, he was dowsed with ice cold water.
He shot up, sputtering, and wiped at his eyes to clear his vision. When he could see clearly enough, he spotted the little pixie, hair flowing free and standing as if she were about launch into an attack. Glancing down, he noticed an empty pitcher clutched in her hand, and he couldn’t suppress his smile.

“Damn, you got spunk.”
And so much more fun than he originally thought.

Obviously, she didn’t like his smile, because she clenched her tiny hands into fists, and groaned at the sky.
He could see the fire in her eyes when she looked back at him. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?” Before letting him answer, she took a step forward and pointed her finger at him. “Don’t think I don’t know about you following me while I’m working either.”

Observant little thing.

“You need to stop!”

Holding up his hands in surrender, he took a step forward and tried not to be discouraged when she took a step back.
“Now, Nicole, you’re pregnant. Think about this. Are you really mad at me, or is this just the hormones talking?”

Thank God for his quick reflexes, or he wouldn’t have been able to dodge the pitcher that was thrown at his head.
Screaming, she turned, and he watched her march back into her house and slam the door shut. The click of the locks, were his signal that he was done for the night.

After the week they had, he decided to try something different.
Since she already knew that he followed her anyway, he didn’t see what was stopping them from riding together. So he sat in his truck, and waited for her to leave the house to go to work.

He heard his phone ring, and looked down to see that Trinity was calling him.
Hitting the Ignore button, he turned up the radio.

Trinity called him at least once a day to tell him to give “Nicci” some space; that she would come around eventually.
No offense to Trinity, he loved her like the sister-in-law she was, but she needed to butt out. It was between Nicole and him… not her. If Nicole wanted him to leave, she needed to get her little butt out here and tell him to his face.

When his phone rang again, he glanced down to hit the Ignore button again, and groaned when he saw it was Gideon.
To say that he didn’t get along with Gideon was putting it lightly.

Picking it up, he hit the button to answer it, and put it to his ear.
“Yo.”

“Fuck your, ‘Yo’.
You need to come handle your shit.”

“Can’t today.”

“Listen, I’ve been covering for your ass too long now. Shit hit the fan and you need to get to your housing district, now!”

Gemariah sat up straighter, and gave Gideon his full attention.
“What happened?”

There was no answer, and when he looked down, he saw that Gideon had hung up.
“Fucker,” he mumbled as he threw his phone into the passenger seat.

With one last look at the house, he sighed and put his truck in reverse.
Another day
, he thought.

******

After getting the text saying he needed to go to the corner of Elm and Peck, Gemariah sped through the city to get there. His mind conjured so many scenarios to what he would find, from man and wife screaming at each other, all the way to helicopters and swat teams surrounding the area.

Finally making it to the subdivision, he turned the corner to find nothing out of the ordinary, nothing except Gideon smoking a cigarette and leaning against the back of his car.

Parking his truck in front of where Gideon was standing, he was a little more than irritated when he turned off the engine and swung himself out.

“Took you long enough.”

Gemariah bit the side of his tongue to prevent him from snapping back at his teammate, but couldn’t keep the bite and exasperation out of his voice when he spoke. “What the fuck is going on?”

“There’s been some odd complaints about 4218.”
Gideon jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to indicate a house that was up a ways from them.

Trying to prevent himself from lunging after the man in front of him, Gemariah crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Beyond irritated that his day had been ruined, he snarled, “So what, there’s been complaints all over this neighborhood.”

Keeping up with his bored persona, Gideon flicked his cigarette into the street, and straightened to his full height.
“Yeah, but none of them get tips that involve distributing drugs nationwide to kill off as many people as possible.”

That got his attention.
“How come it’s us handling it, and not the police?”

“Is this, or is this not the area you were assigned to investigate?”
At his curt nod, Gideon continued. “Then you need to get off your ass and fucking do some investigating. The tip came directly to us, and not through the police.”

Now, Gemariah was more confused than ever.
“What? How would anyone know to come to us?”

“Because after I was put to oversee things here, while you played house, I put in a plant.”
When Gemariah opened his mouth to argue, Gideon held up a hand to silence him. “No need to thank me. It’s just a lower level demon that wants more time here before being banished.”

There were so many things wrong with what was just said, that Gemariah was shocked momentarily into silence.
It didn’t last long, before he exploded. “What the fuck? You put a demon into
my
mission? That was not your call to make!”

Unfazed by the outburst, Gideon spoke calmly when he said, “You haven’t been around, and I thought it would be beneficial.”
He sneered in Gemariah’s direction, obviously liking the anger surrounding them. “Your buddy, our fearless leader, approved it. Take it up with him, if you have a problem.”

“Damn straight, I will.”
Taking a deep breath, he turned around to get a hold of his emotions. The last thing he needed was to get worked up before a mission. After a few moments, he felt more in control, and turned back around. He still couldn’t keep the sneer from his face when he looked back at Gideon. “How’d you even find a demon willing to help?”

Gideon shrugged his shoulders.
“You just have to know where to look. I got connections.”

“Oh yeah?
Family friend of yours? Maybe a long distance relative?”

The fire that flared in Gideon’s eyes was unmistakable as he straightened and walked around to the side door of his car.
“Listen, I’m not even going to pretend to like you. I think you’re a slacker that doesn’t take anything seriously, and this is the last place I needed to be today. Unfortunately, it’s not up to me. Malachi ordered me to help, so we’re stuck together.”

He watched as Gideon removed his mambele, a nasty looking hooked blade, from its case, and placed it in his holder underneath his jacket.
“Let’s just get this over with.”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.”

When they both just stood there in silence, Gemariah snapped, “Well, aren’t you going to inform me on the specifics?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that you don’t know shit, because you’ve been too busy watching over another screw up of yours.”

Gemariah could feel the anger rising inside him, almost to an unbearable level. Inwardly seething, he stared back at Gideon, but kept quiet. The quicker they got things done, the quicker he could leave his present company.

Obviously taking the hint, Gideon started to explain.
“My source heard rumors about a drug operation going down at the house. Everyone supposedly involved has been extremely tight lipped, but apparently it’s not your run of the mill type of drug. It’s something bigger, something lethal.”

Nodding in acknowledgment, Gemariah walked around to the side of his truck and opened the back door.
After strapping a couple smaller knives to his belt, and putting a few throwing stars in the inside pocket of his jacket, he turned to ask Gideon, “And your guy thinks this would be in our area of expertise?”

“Apparently… but who can trust a demon, right?”

Without taking the bait, Gemariah reached in his truck, and grabbed his battleax. Not caring to hide it, he slipped the shaft through the holder at his hip, and let it hang there. The ax looked old and anyone could see that it had been through its fair share of battles. The wood handle was dirty, chipped, and carved in a few places from when he was bored in his youth. To the naked eye, it looked as if it were about ready to fall apart with one swing. What most didn’t know was that it was indestructible.

The only thing that could be done to the ax, had to be by his own hand.
It was made to last forever, and blessed by the almighty himself to eradicate as many demons as possible by sending them back to their hell. A gift given to him as a young boy, it was the best thing a young Norsemen warrior could have ever received.

His life had been complicated before the Godsend Warriors had found him.
From what he could remember, it had been so full of hate and animosity, but at times he vaguely remembered the warmth he felt around his mother. He couldn’t remember exact details, but he could remember that she had cared for him.

Giving one last caress to the top of his ax, he directed his mind away from the memories, and stared at the house they were about to investigate.
Nothing made it stand out amongst the others, but he guessed the idea was for a drug house not to not stand out.