Deadly Expectations (78 page)

The noises in the kitchen stopped.

“Denis?”
 

Then the sounds of a full grown bull charging down the hallway to my room.

“Anna?” he froze in the door when he saw me.
 
I was sitting on the bed by then trying to stand but gave up.

“Hi Denis … how’s things?”

“Good,” he answered carefully.
 
“You?”

“I got it back together now.
 
What day is it?”

“February fifteenth.”

“That all?”
I muttered looking down at my swollen feet.
 
The past week on Alina’s expensive mattress had made a huge improvement in my back considering the previous two nights had been in the back of a stolen car.

“How long have you been hiding down here?”

“A few hours … I think I’m here to stay.
 
Is there anything to eat in the kitchen?”

Denis shook his head.
 
I noticed his coat was undone and his right hand was inside it.
 
He’d know what I’d done to Ray and knew I could take his gun in the blink of an eye.

“You know I couldn’t hurt anyone.”

“I’m not so sure,” he replied.
 
“You hurt Paul.”

“Yeah …
”
 
I
couldn’t deny that.

“I need you to tell me what happened.”

I knew he did.
 
He had to be sure I had Andre under control or he would have to do something to make sure I wasn’t going to carry out my threat to kill all the women in the family.

“I … I won’t lose Paul over this.
 
Pilot’s task.
 
We set it up.
 
He had to want to leave me … to stay away.
 
He’s the one who interferes.
 
I don’t know what will go wrong but he’s safe where he is.
 
As long as he thinks I’m after Marie he’ll stay put in
Edmonton
… it’s his duty to take me out and he thinks that’s where I’ll go.”

“
Who’s
we, Anna?”

“Andre, me.
 
He told me what to do to keep Paul away.
 
Paul loves me so much … it has to be like this.
 
I feel my connection to him Denis … all the time.
 
I don’t want to live a minute without it.
 
I’ll do whatever Pilot wants as long as there’s a way to keep Paul alive.
 
Even if I’m on the run from him forever that connection will be enough.
 
I wouldn’t hurt anyone other than Damian and his men.
 
It’s just not in me.”

Denis sighed and thought for a few seconds then he took his hand out of his coat and came in and sat on the bed with me.

“Where is Andre now?”

“He’s under control.
 
I’ll dust him off to help me take care of Damian then he can be at peace.”
 
I put my hand on my huge stomach.
 
“It won’t be long now.”

Then I slowly reached for Denis’ hand and took it.
 
Put it on my stomach.
 
There was a knee or something pressing and rolling.
 
He held his breath while he felt it.
 
His decision about me would be so much easier if I wasn’t all full of Paul’s baby.

“If Paul shows up he’ll die.
 
I’ll die.
 
I’ll get back to Ray and he’ll save her but it’ll be too late for me.
 
I can take him Denis … she deserves both her parents.
 
She didn’t ask for any of this.
 
If I use my energy to jump around now I won’t have it to fight him.
 
Look at me … I’m going to need it.
 
I’m not going anywhere.”

Denis had a small smile on his face as he felt her knee slide by again.
 
Then his hand jumped as she did her best to kick.
 
He laughed.

“I don’t think you’re insane Anna,” he said, “I think you’re just in love.”

“You can’t breathe a word to him.
 
You have to help me protect him.
 
I can only hope that he’ll forgive me when it’s over.”

My necklace was on top of my shirt and he picked Paul’s ring up off my chest and held it for a moment.
 
I still wore my rings and even if I could get them off my swollen finger I would keep them on.

“I suppose there’s still hope,” he said before he let it drop.
 
“Do you want to come up and see Bee?
 
She’s been struggling with her health the past few days.”

Denis waited for me to get dressed.
 
Bee was glad to see me.
 
She was disappointed in both of us for failing at marriage and said so in no uncertain terms.
 
In her day that was shameful and she went at me until I couldn’t be any more ashamed.
 
I took it.
 
I felt I deserved every word.
 
Denis was silent.
 
I didn’t doubt that he agreed with her.
 
She said the smell was gone, the smell that had been following me around.
 
I agreed with that.

When we went back down Denis got me settled and plugged my phone in to charge by the bed.

“I’ll be in and out checking on you so don’t tackle me or anything,” he grinned.

“Okay,” I smiled back.
 
“So is it just you looking after her?”

“Just Ray and me.
 
He left last night after I got in.
 
Paul won’t call but he stays up to date.
 
He knows he’ll get the same speech from Bee that you just got.
 
She doesn’t know what happened between you and Paul, just that you split.
 
Don’t worry.
 
I won’t say a word,” he said.
 
“I don’t like leaving you to finish Damian alone.
 
But there has been so much I don’t understand about you that I can’t question it.
 
There are bigger things at work here.”

Then he laughed.
 
“Like your stomach.”

I let him put his hand on her for a while.
 
His little sister.

“Denis … in my bag there’s some codeine Alina prescribed me.
 
Can you get me a couple and some water?
 
Back is bad today.”

He brought back a handful of bottles.

“These are all for the same date,” he said.

“Every time I took her home from the hospital she phoned the prescription in for me.
 
I couldn’t tell her she’d done it the last time I was there.
 
To her it was always the first time.”

“I don’t get it,” Denis said.
 
“You spent the last few weeks with your sister?”

“I …” I didn’t really want to explain.
 
“I kept finding myself there in the hallway outside her apartment the night Damian beat her and left.
 
Over and over.
 
I would be stuck there for days; this last time was a week.
 
Every time I had to convince her to get in the ambulance again … then the black sleep in the hospital.
 
She would have all the specialists trying to figure it out.
 
I would throw out all his things … deal with the blood covered couch.
 
Try and put her back together as much as I could before I left.”

“I guess that explains all the pills.”
 
He got a glass of water from the kitchen for me and helped me sit up to take a couple.

“Ray took Paul to the airport,” Denis said.
 
“Keith had Patrick and a couple of his boys on his way to guard Marie before they even left.
 
I waited in the alley for you, didn’t think you’d gone far but after a while I had to get in to check on Bee.
 
I saw you run out the front.”

I felt my lower lip tremble so I steadied it.
 
I’d spent the last two months of mine either focusing on Alina, sleeping off my return trips, or looking for somewhere safe to hide out.
 
When I didn’t have those distractions I cried.

“I was hiding behind the garage, listening.
  
I could sense you in the alley so I had to stay put until you were inside.
 
I stole a car and jumped to
Redding
.
 
I found an RV so I dumped the car a dozen blocks away and walked back to it and broke in.
 
There were blankets, food.
 
I stayed there a few days then I stole another car and moved on.
 
When I wasn’t with Alina I was either recovering from the return trip in the back of a stolen car or another RV or looking for another place to hide.
 

“When I left Alina last night I thought I’d just wake up in the car, but I found myself here.”

“Didn’t you take cash for a hotel?” Denis asked.
 
He sounded disappointed with my living arrangements.

“I wasn’t staying anywhere Paul could find me.
 
I don’t think I’ll disappear again but if Paul comes I’ll have to run.”

“He won’t know Anna, I promised,” Denis said.

Chapter 57

Denis found me in my spare room.
 
It had been two days and no Paul so I trusted that he kept quiet and understood why I’d asked him to lie for me.
 
I was on the phone getting balances on my accounts not in my name and writing cheques to Anna to clean them out.
 
I’d also made a list of all Anna’s accounts for the lawyer.
 
“I have to get to the bank today then to the lawyer,” I told him.

“No,” Denis stood in the door and crossed his arms.

“What?”
 
I asked him.

“You’re not filing for divorce,” he insisted.

I stared back at him in disbelief.

“Jeez no Denis … I need a will.
 
I want to make sure Paul and his family have no trouble getting my money if I … don’t make it.”

Denis looked at me suspiciously.

“I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me just how badly I screwed things with him.”

“Anna, I know someone,” Denis sighed.
 
“He’s stubborn, selfish and sometimes too self-centered and arrogant.
 
I’ve seen him be cold and ruthless.
 
Brutal and hard.
 
He’s not afraid to be compassionate and loyal.
 
Kind and devoted.
 
He loves his wife without condition.
 
He would walk to the end of the earth for her if someone even hinted that she would need it.
 
But he expects loyalty and trust without question, most of all from her.
 
He believes that his word is as good as gold and that he is always, always right.
 
He doesn’t take it well at all when he thinks someone believes otherwise.

“I know his wife too.
 
She’s cut out of the same cloth.
 
They’ve met their match in each other.
 
I’ve seen the conflict that’s caused them.
 
The passion.”

I dropped my eyes as I tried to keep myself together.
 
Denis came in and pulled the other chair up next to me and sat in it.