Deadly Expectations (53 page)

“The shape symbolizes our lines … and when it’s closed in a circle it’s our promise to be there again for you.
 
Not too long … it should reach to where your line is … that’s perfect.”
 
He reached around to feel it on my chest.
 

“Is there something I should give you in return?”

“No … it must be beautiful,” he added in my ear, “but never more beautiful than the woman receiving it.”

“I like that tradition,” I giggled as his hand started to drop lower.
 
“Did you just make that last part up?”

“New tradition,” he whispered, pulling me over.

“I like new tradition too.”

Our days since leaving my house had been quiet like our nights together when we first met.
 
Food, sex, sleep
.
 
Paul looked more like his normal self.
 
He’d gained back much of the weight he lost while I was away and seemed to forgive
himself
for whatever he’d tried to do to my line.
 
We ordered in room service and pulled the table up to the window to eat looking out over the city.

 
“Can I ask you something without coming off as insecure or paranoid?”

He laughed.
 
“I can’t picture you as either … sure.”

“Do some of you have more than one woman like me?”
 
I couldn’t stomach sharing him with someone else even in the interests of the family.

“By some of us do you mean me?”

“I told you it would sound paranoid and insecure,” I frowned at the table.

“You really worry about it?
 
I guess we’ve never talked about how that works,” he paused.
 
“Come on let’s get your feet up.
 
You did a lot of walking today.”

We brought our unfinished drinks to the bed.
 
I thought he was trying to change the subject and hoped he knew better.

“Do you remember when you told me what you felt about Damian?
 
It was like what you feel for me but weak.”
 
He could see I didn’t want to talk about that.
 
“I’m sorry … I need to relate it to something you understand.
 
If I wasn’t in your life you would have been as attracted to him as you were to me.
 
Alina felt it strongly … we can have that effect on women who aren’t like you.
 
With you my attraction to another mate would be as weak as yours was to him.
 
No comparison.”

That I understood.

“Why didn’t Catherine want him any more … she felt that way at first.”

“He …” then Paul hesitated.
 
“He took what she was willingly offering.
 
He beat her and he took it.”

“Why didn’t what you tried to do to my line cause the same thing?”
 
I didn’t like saying it out loud but he didn’t seem too bothered by it.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you … I didn’t force you to give me something you could give me.
 
Like I said, it’s complicated … and to answer your question I don’t have another.”

“Do all the women have two?”

“Again, usually,” he said.

He said he wouldn’t be attracted to another mate but other women could be strongly attracted to him.
 
My mood soured as I realized what I might have to do to drive him away for a while.
 
Mistrust him.
 
It was simple.

“I get it,” I sighed.
 
“I’m sorry for asking … sometimes I feel like I’m not giving much back.”

He put his hand on my stomach.
 
“You are giving me more than you can imagine every day.
 
Keep doing what you’re doing, okay?”

“Okay Paul,” I said.
 
“I felt pretty shallow asking that.”

“Don’t worry about it.
 
Keep asking questions like that when you have them, please?
 
I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings.
 
What made you want to ask?”

I struggled inside for a minute and decided that now was a good a time as any to start to really sound paranoid and insecure.

“When we were out today … I noticed how some of the women looked at you.
 
Their interest bothered me after a while.”

“Awe, you have nothing to worry about Sugar.
 
You know that don’t you?”

“Yes,” I told him, “after I lost my mother I ruined my ties to everyone in my life and never let myself get close to anyone until I met you.
 
Today I kept picturing myself alone again … it wasn’t the peace I pretended it to be.”

That part was true.
 
I liked that I wasn’t alone any more.
 
I took a deep breath and wiped my eyes surprised with how I felt.

Paul didn’t say anything right away.
 
He put his hand on the side of my face and kissed my forehead.

“Are you jealous?” he whispered.

“Yes,” I said but I shrugged.
 
“No.
 
Selfish.
 
Territorial.
 
I’ve found a reasonable excuse to be back on the road running and I’ve dragged you along with me.”

“We can go back to your place first thing tomorrow,” Paul offered.

“Not there … I’m homesick for your place.
 
It’s the first place I’ve felt settled since I was a kid,” I sighed.
 
“I want off the roller coaster … my mood is all up and down today.
 
I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to forgive.
 
I have to go make sure the truck is still there … did you want to come along or stay here?”

“I think I’ll wait here for you.”

Chapter 42

I’d fallen asleep in our bed when I heard his apology in my ear.

“Sorry I was gone so long … everything’s okay.”

“I tried to wait up,” I told him.

“I went to call Ray but my phone is low on minutes.
 
I needed to find a place to buy more.”

“
‘kay
,” I said.
 
My eyes were closing again.

I heard a beer can open then he called Ray.
 
They talked for a bit.
 
It was like the briefing after I got back from seeing Pilot only I could hear just half of it and it was just as boring.
 
But I paid attention for the next part.

“Something happened in the
parkade
when I was checking on the truck Mark,” Paul said.
 
We used other names on the phone.
 
“I caught a man watching me.
 
I had to go past him to leave and he took off.”

“No, I don’t think so … he seemed curious, cautious.”

“Maybe … but she wasn’t with me.”

“I guess … if he wants to speak with me he might hang around.
 
Truck’s in the hotel parking.
 
He’d know we’re here for a bit.”

“Yeah, we’re on schedule … talk to you again.”

“Bye.”

I opened my eyes and watched Paul.
 
He sat without moving like he was deep in thought; not really watching what was on the TV.

“Family?”
I asked.
 
He jumped.
 
“Sorry.”

“Could be … I thought you were asleep.”

“I tried … no luck yet.”

Paul didn’t say any more.
 
I watched him brooding there on the couch for a long time before I finally nodded off.

Suddenly the door burst open.
 
I opened my eyes to see what it was but fear from the noise left me paralyzed.
 
Paul jumped for the dresser where we’d hidden our weapons but he didn’t make it.
 
Two of them had him, arms behind his back.
 
He struggled and got an arm free as a third stepped into my field of vision and hit him hard in the jaw.
 
I heard his teeth snap together as one of the men behind him got control of his arm again.
 
They were all as big as he was.
 
The third hit him hard in the stomach so the air shot out of him and again in the side of the face.
 
Paul was dazed, his head sagging.
 
The two men behind him threw his arms over their shoulders and followed the third man to the door.
 
I heard it open then click shut behind them.

I was breathing hard frozen in place.
 
As my pounding heart slowed I started to be able to move again.
 
Which was the one he had seen in the parking lot?
 
Why didn’t they want me … maybe they were just getting rid of
Paul.
 
Someone else would be coming.

As soon as I could get myself up out of bed I got my gun from the drawer and grabbed my phone.
 
Then I turned off the lamp and squeezed myself into the corner behind the couch.
 
I dialled Ray.
 
Woke him up.

“Mark … it’s me …
”
 
My
God, did I really sound that hysterical?

“
Rach
?
 
What’s going on?”

“The man from the parking lot … two more … beat up … took him.”
 
I was thinking so clearly but my words were so confused.
 
Why was I shaking so hard inside?
 
I had the presence of mind to get the names straight at least.

“Danny!
 
Try phoning John!”
 
Ray sounded like I thought I felt, which was a lot more collected than I sounded.

“I have to go.
 
I don’t want them to hear me in here.”
 
I disconnected the call and turned the phone off.
 
I didn’t want the ringer to give me away when Ray called back.
 
I put the phone on the floor and slid as far behind the couch as I could without moving it.

I didn’t have to wait long.
 
The door opened slowly.
 
The shadow of a man stuck into the room, lit from behind by the light from the hotel hallway.
 
I forced myself to settle my breathing and shoved my head down as low as I could.
 
My thumb turned off the safety.
 
The soft click seemed deafening to me but I’d never noticed it before.
 
Hopefully he didn’t.
 
The light just inside the door came on so I silently made sure I was as small as possible in my corner.
 
Then I heard a couple of quiet footsteps as the door pulled itself shut.
 
He would be far enough into the room to see that the bed was empty.

Another light came on, the bathroom one this time.
 
I wondered which one of the three it was.
 
Looking for me.
 
Maybe it was someone else.
 
I wished I had my knife.
 
It was so much quieter than the gun but I had left it behind.
 
It was in my dresser back in my basement suite.
 
Some of the metal rings holding the shower curtain to its pole moved quietly.
 
Then he stepped into the main room.