Up in a Blaze (6 page)

Walter pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be a well-kept modest home. The flowerbeds in the front yard looked very well tended, and the lawn freshly mowed. Hmm, if the outside looked this good, maybe there was hope for the inside.

Everyone climbed out and made their way to the front door. Donte pulled a set of keys out of his pants pocket and unlocked the door. She watched he and Walter walk in first, taking a quick moment to look around, as if to make sure it was safe.

Betty and Sissy stopped at the threshold. “You probably need to get some rest, so I’m going to let you get settled, and I’ll probably see you tomorrow since both the guys will be at work,” Betty stated as she reached over to give her a hug. Once she had Cassandra within her embrace, she whispered, “Trust me, Donte is a jewel. Just give him a chance. He really is a nice guy.” Then her friend released her, stepping back, getting ready to leave.

“Umm, yeah, I’ll probably see you tomorrow,” Cassandra replied, still trying to figure out how she came into this situation to begin with. And what did Betty mean by “give him a chance”? A chance at what exactly? She was only staying with him because they seemed to think it was the best way to keep Betty safe. Sure, he was a good looking, chivalrous, soft spoken, well-mannered ranger, but she wasn’t stupid. A guy like him wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like her.

She turned to see the two men shake hands. “I’ll see you at the office tomorrow morning. Call me if anything happens,” Walter stated then turned, glanced at her, and bowed his head slightly acknowledging her. “Ma’am, Donte will take good care of you. If I didn’t trust him implicitly, you wouldn’t be staying with him.”

The front door closing had a ring of finality to it, and she rubbed at the goose bumps running up and down her arms. She looked over to her host for some direction.

“Okay, well, are you tired? Do you want to lay down?” he asked in an effort to end the uncomfortable silence between the two of them.

Standing there, watching him, she wasn’t sure what she was. Yes, she was kind of tired, and she definitely hurt. But if she did lay down, would her brain shut off long enough to allow her to rest? “Umm sure, I guess so.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal and then immediately winced.
Damn ribs
.

“Let me show you to your bedroom.” Donte turned and started walking down the hall, leaving her to follow.

He turned into a doorway a quick moment later, and she was pleasantly surprised at what was before her. She had noticed that the parts she had seen of his house looked to be very clean. No old pizza boxes lying around. No soda bottles or beer cans. The coffee table in front of his couch in the living room had been clean of all debris except a couple of magazines and a laptop.

The room he was offering her now was decorated way more than she ever expected a bachelor’s extra bedroom to be.

“I hope this will work for you.” Cassandra was surprised to hear the anxiousness in his voice. Why would he care what she thought of his home?

She turned and gave him a small smile. “It’s great. Thank you for letting me stay here.”

He stared into her eyes for a moment, then slowly raised his hand until he could reach hers. He brought it to his lips, kissing the back of her hand, in an old-fashioned way she found endearing, if not a bit odd. Men just didn’t do things like that anymore.

“No need to thank me. It is my pleasure to have you here,
cariño
.” His Hispanic accent was thick, his voice deep, and she found herself drowning in his dark eyes. They stood facing each other, eyes locked, her body suddenly unable to move, barely able to breathe. He continued to stare into her eyes, his lips barely brushing the back of her hand. Then just as fast as she had fallen into his trap, her nightmare came roaring into her mind, reminding her of why she was there to begin with.

Donte watched her facial expressions carefully. He couldn’t believe how thick his accent was when he opened his mouth. He hadn’t let the accent surface in too many years to count, except for the occasional use of his Hispanic roots for work. Poor Nathaniel knew very little Spanish, and he was forever giving his friend a hard time about it.

But as he watched her emotions skitter across her face, he saw the exact second her nightmare hit. Her breath hitched, her heart started pounding, and she jerked her hand away as if he had burned her. Since he had been watching from the recesses of her mind, he had a bit more understanding as to what was going on.

She stood visibly shaken in the middle of the room, looking like a lost soul, not knowing which way to turn, which way to go. “Did I frighten you, little Cassie?”

She closed her eyes as she desperately tried to dispel the images of the monster haunting her. “No, it wasn’t you. I was just quickly reminded of why I am here, and the danger that’s still lurking.” She turned to glance at the queen size bed. “I think I’ll take that rest now, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,
Querido
, make yourself comfortable. I’ll check on you a bit later.” Not knowing what else to do, and cursing the man who had stolen the moment the two of them were sharing, he turned and walked out the door.

Donte waited a little while, giving her time to fall asleep. He walked into his pristine, but very bare kitchen. “Crap!” he muttered to himself as he grabbed his phone out of his pocket.

“Damn, son, you having problems with your houseguest already? We haven’t even been gone an hour yet.”

“Yeah, real funny, man, real funny. I have a few problems. First of all, she has no clothes, and I have no food in my kitchen,” Donte hissed out, trying to keep his voice down so as to not awaken his houseguest.

“I know. We’re out shopping now and should be back at your house in about another two hours. Anything else?”

“Yeah, it happened again. I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of a spell he has over her. Every time she starts to relax around me and let down her guard, he pops up in her mind, threatening her.”

“I’m going to try to get her to talk about that tomorrow at the staff meeting. I think we are going to need the team’s involvement on this one.”

“Hmm, not sure how that one is going to work out, man. She’s real skittish around people she doesn’t know, especially men. You might get more out of her by getting the ladies involved.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Okay, we’ll see how things go when we get back there tomorrow morning, and wing it from there.” Donte pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, not believing what he just heard.

“Did I just hear you say we’re winging something? The man that always has a plan, a backup plan, and an ‘aw-shit’ plan for everything?” Donte asked in total disbelief.

“Yeah, well, we’re talking about the female species here. They always make me nervous, and you know when they are involved, nothing ever goes as planned.” Donte grinned as he heard Walter’s female companions giving him hell over that comment.

He hung up the phone, and for the first time in a long time, was at loose ends with himself. What was there to do while he waited for Cassandra to wake up and Walter, Sissy, and Betty to show back up with supplies? He walked into his living room and fired up his laptop. At least he could do a bit of research while he waited.

*****

Where the hell had the bitch gone? Gregory had watched Betty’s friend, Cassandra, leave the hospital earlier with some really well built guy. A boyfriend maybe? If that was the case, he’d lucked out the guy hadn’t been at her house the day he’d decided to confront her as to where that bitch Betty was.

He’d discreetly followed Cassandra and the mystery man, thinking they were either heading for her house or his, but was surprised when the car took them to a small private airstrip. Damn if security wasn’t tight there! Just what the hell were they hiding anyways?

Had Betty’s friend been involved in a lot more than he knew? Could she be involved with a drug lord or something? Eager to find out where the plane was taking her, he’d hung around the airstrip all day long, trying to figure out a way around security, but so far he hadn’t had any luck. He’d even tried going in on foot. He just needed to get to the little building where there was bound to be logs kept on all the incoming and outgoing flights. Since hers had been the only outgoing all day long, then had arrived back on the airstrip approximately six hours after it left, it shouldn’t be too hard to find the information he wanted.

But by that night he’d given up trying to sneak his way in and had come up with another way to get the information he was seeking. He’d just use the spell he’d placed on her right after he knocked some sense into the bitch. He’d used it earlier this afternoon, and found her asleep and dreaming, which was fast proving to be the easiest way to access her. In her dream, she’d been with the guy she’d left the hospital with, signaling to Gregory that this was either her boyfriend or the woman had an active imagination. When he was able to get through to her using the spell, she had been dreaming of sitting by a creek with the man. He assumed she fell asleep on the plane since it had only taken off an hour prior. Surely it was much too soon for her to be so settled somewhere. He had to admit, he was a little surprised to find the mystery man there. As in there with her, not only in her dream, but he got the feeling his presence was actually there in her head. Weird. What were the chances this guy knew the same magic Gregory now knew? If that son-of-a-bitch inmate had taught him some sort of second hand mumble-jumble magic that only half way worked, he’d go back to prison just to kick his ass. Nobody got away with doing him wrong. Nobody.

Suddenly, Gregory remembered Betty having a sister and brother-in-law down in Texas. And if her father was still alive, he lived in Atlanta. Although he hadn’t allowed Betty any contact with her family in several years now, there was no guarantee the old man was still alive. But if he was, chances were good Cassandra was heading to one of those two places. Hmm, which one to try first?

Gregory decided he’d try Texas first. He remembered her brother-in-law was in some sort of law enforcement. Yeah, he’d lay good money she’d contacted them after he’d attacked her and they’d been hiding her ever since. Would make sense why he hadn’t been able to find her. And now that Cassandra was on the way? Well, he would take out both bitches. He conjured up an image of both women’s faces when he found them. The fear in their eyes. Yeah, he’d make them suffer first before ending them, letting them know nobody got away with crossing him. Nobody.

First, he had a plan to put together. Going up against his brother-in-law, and his whole group of good-doer cronies by himself was suicide. No, he needed some help. Luckily, it was never hard to find a few like-minded men who would join his cause. Yep, he grinned as a plan started to form in his head. Bring in a few and teach them a few of his tricks. Then send them out to do the dirty work. If they got caught, well, that was on them, not him. He would still be free and could always find replacements easy enough. First things first, find a way to Texas.

Cassandra woke hearing voices coming from another part of the house. She slowly stretched, enjoying the luxurious comfort of the soft bed. Recognizing Betty’s voice, she reluctantly crawled out of bed, almost wishing she hadn’t as she went to sit up and her ribs protested the movement.

She breathed through the pain, sitting on the side of the bed, startled when a knock sounded at the door. Betty poked her head in. “Hey, hon, are you okay?” She opened the door and walked on in, being sure to close the door behind her.

Betty walked over to the side of the bed. “Hon, I am so sorry this happened to you. I feel so bad. If I had any idea Gregory would come after you, I would have at least tried to talk you into coming here sooner.”

Cassandra placed her hand on top of Betty’s, noticing it was rather cool. She wondered if she was running a fever herself because of the difference in body temperatures. “This is not your fault, hon. You can’t take responsibility for his actions.” She looked into her friend’s eyes, trying to convey that she didn’t hold her responsible. “Seriously, you can’t control what he does. This is on him, not you.”

Betty gave her a relieved smile and a gentle hug. “Feel like coming out into the living room?”

“Yeah, once I stand up, the pain eases. It’s just getting there that proves difficult,” Cassandra replied to her friend.

Betty held out her arm for support, and soon the two of them were walking into the living room where Walter, Sissy, and Donte all sat around. Donte immediately stood and walked over to her, as if he wanted to do something to help but didn’t know what.

His face looked like he was concentrating on trying to take on her pain, walking alongside of her, well, shuffling actually. She eased down on the first available seat she came to, which happened to be the sofa. “Do you need something for pain?” Donte asked solicitously.

“Not right now. I probably should try to put a bit of food in my system before I take any more of those painkillers.” Her ribs were definitely telling her it was time to take medication, but she wasn’t going to do that on a dead-empty stomach and pass out in front of everyone. She could just deal with the pain for a little while.

Betty reached down on the floor and picked up a couple of bags. “Well, we remembered after we left that you had pretty much shown up here with nothing, and Donte tends not to cook a lot. So we went shopping. I picked you up some toiletry items and a couple of sets of clothes. Then we headed over to the grocery store to pick up some food for you.”