Renewing Lost Love (2 page)

The pain in Keith’s heart is excruciating but
he drives Leaf home where they tell Jasmine’s grandmother what they
witnessed in the swamp. Jasmine’s grandmother nods sadly with tears
in her eyes then hands Keith a cup of herbal tea she says will ease
his pain. He sinks down on her threadbare sofa and lets the tears
flow praying he too will die. He curls up in a fetal position
rocking back and forth and cries and cries. How is he going to go
on without Jasmine? How can he live another day without her? When
he wakes the next morning, the first thing he remembers is the
curse, the damn family curse.

Keith had never really believed all of the
stories and warnings his father and grandfather had told him about
the curse and how their lives had been ruined by it, but after
this, he has to believe the curse is real. Almost a hundred years
ago, Keith’s grandfather was cursed by an old Creole woman who
believed he cheated her out of her home. The curse says that
Keith’s grandfather and all of his male descendents are destined
for pain and unhappiness. They will never be happy in love and so
far, Keith has to admit, the curse has been very potent. Keith’s
grandmother died three weeks after the curse was issued of a fever
that swept through the bayou. His mother ran off with a
construction worker shortly after his birth and then his stepmother
died in childbirth with his little brother. Now, the curse has
taken Jasmine from him. As realization sinks in and he understands
his destiny, he makes the only decision he feels is reasonable.

He leaves the house with single minded
determination and goes straight to the Marine Corp Recruiting
Office where he signs the papers committing to a four year
enlistment. With the wars going on around the globe he should be
able to manage to get killed one way or another. Death will be a
blessed relief compared to the excruciating pain of losing his
precious Jasmine.

******

While lying in the back of Bixby’s truck,
Jasmine has hours and hours with nothing to do but think. She has
figured out why James Bixby cut off her hair and put it in the
paper bag with the smelly meat and her clothes. He had to have
thrown it all in the swamp to make people think one of the gators
got her. That is the only logical explanation. The fact that they
left Louisiana and are traveling across country makes her think he
has some definite destination in mind she just doesn’t know where.
She also realizes that if Keith and her grandmother think a gator
got her and she’s dead, they won’t look for her. She is alone and
on her own. Survival has to be her number one priority.

******

Keith Williams flourishes in the Marine Corp
boot camp. The punishing physical challenges they face daily help
to ease the pain in his heart and he tackles every new activity
with enthusiasm looking forward to the time he can deliberately
step in front of a bullet.

After his training he is assigned to an elite
team with four other men, Scoot, the team leader, Goose, the medic,
Stump, the muscle, and Farrie, the other sniper. Keith’s code name
is Pinky, not because of his auburn hair, but because of the pretty
shade of pink he always turns in the sun. It doesn’t take long for
the five men to bond and become the best of buddies. It then
becomes more important to Keith to make sure his buddies survive
than to kill himself. They serve together for eight years before
retiring and going their own way. During the eight years in the
Marines, the soul searing pain of Jasmine’s loss has dulled but is
never far from Keith’s mind.

Then one year after the team of brothers
retired from the Marines, Scoot, Dylan Drake, calls them together
and they form Drake Security and once again become an inseparable
team. The only one missing is Farrie, Barry Farrady. On a dare from
Stump, he tried out for a part in a movie they were casting on the
beach in San Diego and got the lead role. Barry soon became a
famous movie star and over the next few years added six blockbuster
movies to his credit.

The four remaining former Marines that make
up Drake Security have taken assignments all over the world doing
special operations for the military and other government entities.
They are well respected with top security clearance and are very
good at what they do. Now that Scoot and Goose have married and
started families, the team primarily does domestic security work
designing and implementing security systems for the government and
major corporations.

Fifteen years after Jasmine
Leblanc disappeared

Eight year old Damian Drake and ten year old
Eric Calloway Farrady are busily looking through all of the photos
on the computer in Drake Security’s office. The office and living
quarters take up the entire second floor of the barn on the Rock
Springs Ranch which is owned by movie star, Barry Farrady. The
ranch is located near Cody Wyoming and all of the former Marines
that make up Drake Security live there with their families.

Damian and Eric love looking through all of
the pictures of their heroes, the former Marines that make up Drake
Security, Dylan Drake, Damian’s father otherwise known as Scoot,
Barry Farrady, Eric’s stepfather otherwise known as Farrie,
Reginald Willingham also known as Goose, Clarence Kincaid Jr. also
known as Stump, Clarence Kincaid Sr. also known as Bear, and Keith
Williams, also known as Pinky.

Slowly paging through file after file of the
photos, they are laughing and joking about each one. So Damian is
very surprised when Eric screams, “Oh no!” and jumps up out of his
chair and bolts down the stairs without a word of explanation.

Stump, Clarence Kincaid Jr., is just coming
out of his bedroom after a shower and is drying his hair with a
towel. He asks Damian,

“What’s up with Eric? He looked like he saw a
ghost.”

Damian replies, “I don’t know Stump, we were
just looking at these pictures and when he saw this one he jumped
up and ran off.”

Stump steps over to the computer and peers
over Damian’s shoulder at the picture in question. He sees a
picture of his buddy, Pinky, when he was a lot younger and a
beautiful girl with shoulder length auburn hair and green eyes
dressed in a pretty dark green party dress. Shrugging his shoulders
he says,

“It beats me Damian. I don’t know what could
have upset him about that picture.”

******

Eric runs as fast as he can across the ranch
yard and back to the main ranch house where he lives with his
mother and Barry Farrady, his step-father. He bolts through the
door yelling at the top of his lungs, “Mom, Barry! Where are
you?”

Barry sticks his head out of the study and
says, “In here Eric, what’s going on? Why are you yelling?”

Eric runs to the study, breathing heavily
from his sprint across the yard and breathlessly says, “Barry, Mom,
I saw a picture on the computer in the office of Pinky and
Jasmine!”

Eric’s Mom, Melanie Brentwood Farrady was
kidnapped as a fifteen year old runaway and imprisoned in a militia
compound in Idaho for ten years. Eric’s biological father, Darren
Calloway, was the head of the group and was killed in a
confrontation with the Drake Security team shortly after Melanie
and Eric escaped from the compound. Barry rescued Melanie and Eric
from a blizzard during their initial escape and he and the other
former Marines saved them from Darren Calloway. Soon afterwards
Barry and Melanie had married.

Surprised by her son’s words, Melanie asks,
“Jasmine? The same Jasmine we knew at the compound in Idaho? Eric,
are you saying you saw a picture on the computer of Pinky and that
Jasmine?”

“Yes Mom! I saw it. She looked a lot younger
and didn’t have the ugly scar but I know it was Jasmine,” answers
Eric.

Confused Barry asks, “Who is Jasmine?”

Melanie answers, “Jasmine was one of the
women at the compound in Idaho and my best friend. She is a couple
of years older than I am and had already been at the compound for a
year or two when Darren first carried me there. She helped me
adjust to life in captivity. She convinced me I needed to stop
fighting and accept my situation before I died from the abuse. She
was a good friend to me and I will always be grateful to her. The
man she lived with, James Bixby, had a major disagreement with
Darren and they left to move to a different compound a year or so
before Eric and I escaped.”

Barry looks at his stepson and asks, “Eric,
are you absolutely certain you saw a picture of that Jasmine with
our Pinky?”

Eric emphatically nods his head and says,
“I’m positive!”

Barry continues, “Can you show me?” Barry is
very curious because as long as he has known Pinky he has never
been involved with a woman, any woman. In fact, Pinky is one of the
most unemotional men Barry has ever met, always cool and calm,
unflappable in the heat of battle. It is one of the traits that
made him an excellent sniper in the Marine Corp.

As he is following Eric across the ranch yard
to the Drake Security office above the barn an almost forgotten
memory flashes across his mind. Pinky had shared a heart breaking
story with him during a time when Barry was very depressed because
Melanie wouldn’t accept his love. It was about a girl Pinky loved
that had been eaten by an alligator in the swamps of Louisiana. He
wonders if it is possible this might be the same girl.

Eric leads Barry and his Mom up the stairs to
the Drake Security office where Damian is still looking through the
files of pictures. When Eric walks back in the office he says,
“Damian, can you bring back up that picture of Pinky and the pretty
red headed girl in the long green dress?”

Damian asks, “Sure, Eric, but what is so
important about that picture? Why did you run out of here
earlier?”

As the picture appears back up on the screen
Eric says, “See Mom, It is Jasmine!”

Melanie looks at the picture of the beautiful
young girl with shoulder length auburn hair and green eyes and
gasps, “Yes, that’s definitely Jasmine! I wonder where and when
that picture was taken. She doesn’t look more than fifteen or
sixteen years old.”

By this time Stump, Scoot, Goose, and Bear
have all gravitated to the office and are staring at the picture of
Pinky and the beautiful young girl. None of them have ever seen
Pinky look at a woman in that loving way either and they are all
fascinated by the picture. It is obvious to the group that the girl
meant more to Pinky than just the average prom date.

Pinky, who has just returned from an
assignment in Washington DC with Goose has been refueling the
helicopter and strides into the office while everyone is still
looking at the picture. “Hey, guys, what’s going on? What has all
of you so fascinated?”

Barry looks up at Pinky questioningly and
asks, “Pinky, is this your Senior Prom picture?”

Pinky walks over to the computer and glances
briefly at the picture, “Yeah, it was a long time ago. I don’t know
why I even still have it.”

Barry questions curiously, “Is the girl’s
name Jasmine?”

Surprised, Pinky looks at Barry and asks,
“Yeah, but how did you know?”

Barry states as a matter of fact, “Melanie
and Eric knew her at the compound in Idaho.”

Stunned, Pinky sinks down on the sofa shaking
his head in disbelief and says, “No man, that’s impossible. Jasmine
died in the swamp nearly fifteen years ago, a gator got her.”

Eric excitedly says, “No Pinky, I’m positive.
She was at the compound with us in Idaho.”

He looks at Eric, his eyes full of sadness,
“I don’t think so Eric. I personally killed the gator. He still had
her hair wrapped around his snout.” A tear slides down his cheek
and he angrily brushes it away with his hand. Why can’t he get over
Jasmine? She’s gone damn it! It must be that damn curse!

All of the guys are staring at Pinky in
stunned silence. He is showing more emotion over that picture than
they have ever seen in him.

Melanie sits down beside him on the sofa and
gently lays her hand on his arm and pleads, “Pinky, please, you
have to listen to me. Eric’s right. Jasmine, the girl in that
picture, was my best friend at the compound in Idaho. She was alive
and well as recently as two years ago. That’s when she and James
Bixby left to move to a different compound.”

At the sound of an almost forgotten name,
Pinky snaps back from the deep sadness that had overtaken him. He
looks at Melanie and says, “Bixby? She is with James Bixby?”
Pinky’s heart is pounding in his chest and his breathing is
shallow. Jasmine is alive? Can it possibly be true? He feels a
little light headed and he takes a deep breath to clear his
head.

Melanie answers, “Yes, do you know him
too?”

A dark rage flows through Pinky’s veins and
he feels the flush of anger spreading across his face. He takes a
few deep calming breaths and answers through gritted teeth. “I knew
him. He was a weird guy that lived in the same area as Jasmine and
me in Louisiana. He was several years older than me and a lot of
years older than Jasmine, at least ten. He always kept to himself
and never bothered anybody that I knew of anyway. I know Jasmine
wouldn’t have given him the time of day. She was scared to death of
him.” He pauses then continues, “Now that I think about it, he
disappeared about the same time she did. We just never put it
together because we always believed she died in the swamp.”

Melanie says, “Pinky, she told me that he
kidnapped her. He knocked her unconscious and dragged her away. I’m
sorry but I don’t know all of the details. Jasmine helped me to
adjust to life at the compound when Darren first carried me there.
I would have died without her help. She also showed me which plants
to pick in the forest to boil to make her special tea to keep me
from getting pregnant again.”