by Ami Urban
“I wanted to see how serious you were about finding him and how much you care about Serena. I trust you with this information, Katie. I—”
“How’d your date go?”
Marcus and I turned on the sofa to see Serena trudging down the hallway, her hair a mess.
“Nothing happened,” I answered after a moment. Marcus stood and went back into the kitchen to make breakfast.
“Nothing?” She pouted. “Then why are you comin’ home in the same clothes?”
“Because I didn’t bring a change. That’s why I came back here.”
“What did he say to you?” She went into the kitchen and snagged the cup of coffee Marcus had offered me without so much as a “Good morning.”
“He told me he was proud of me.”
She choked on a sip.
“Proud of you? Proud? What kind of confession of love is that?”
“Who are we talking about here?” Marcus wondered.
“Nobody,” I lied.
“And it wasn’t a confession at all! And he doesn’t love me! He didn’t want to sound condescending, so it was hard for him to say.”
“Condescending? You’ve been complaining about how he’s been acting like Daddy to you this whole time. Why would it be hard for him to say it now?” she wondered aloud.
Damn...she had a point.
“Hey, he was flowerless, remember? No flowers equals no romance.”
“I guess.”
“We have to be out of here in about an hour. You gonna be ready?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bimey, you like to do things early.”
I sighed. “Serena...can you come here?”
She gave me a look. As she stood next to Marcus, I noticed at once how alike they looked. I wondered if anyone else had ever seen the same. He watched me as she rounded the corner.
I slipped the folded piece of paper into her hand. Her eyebrows knitted together.
“What’s this?”
“Just...promise me you’ll look at it sometime today.” I glanced at Marcus again, but he busied himself in the kitchen.
“Katie,” she warned. “What is this?”
I took a deep breath. “It’s information about your father.”
Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Didn’t I tell you not to try and find him?”
“I—”
“Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want to talk to him?” She took a step back, clenching her fists at her sides. “Is this what you were doin’ every time you said you was alone? You went behind my back!”
“Now, wait! I was trying to do what was right! You need to talk to him!”
“No, I don’t! Which is precisely what I told you!” she shouted.
“But you had to meddle, didn’t you? Even after everybody told you to leave it alone. And you even found him, yeah?” She held up the piece of paper.
“You sneaky little thing; you found him. Did you meet with him?”
I nodded, tears threatening to burst from my eyes.
She shook her head. “Yeah? Let me guess what he said when you told him about me.
“As soon as you mentioned my name, he probably told you he had no children, right? He didn’t have a daughter? I bet he even went into the bit about me bein’ a spoilt little brat, right?”
I said nothing. She had to take the first step; she had to see Marcus’s name on her birth certificate.
“Now do you see? Now do you see why I never wanted to speak to him again?”
“I think you should—”
“Don’t tell me what you think I should do! What do you know, anyway? You’re terrible at your job! You failed!” She took the paper between both hands. “And I never want to speak to you again.” The paper ripped straight down the center. Then, she tossed the pieces over her shoulder and stormed into the bedroom, slamming the door.
I screwed up.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You didn’t screw up,” Kevin said as I sat on his couch.
He placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah, I did!” I tried hard to keep the tears at bay. I’d told him everything except the parts about Martin. I knew if I told him that, he’d probably go ballistic. “She hates me.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you. But you should have listened, Katie. This will be a valuable lesson for your next assignment,” he said.
Instead of getting angry at him for talking to me like I was his child again, I opted for the safer route of denying his comfort.
“There won’t be another assignment! They’re never going to give me anything ever again. I screwed this one up and I have to live with it.”
I felt him begin to rub my back. Although the comfort was nice, my nerves were on full alert, and I didn’t feel like having anyone touch me.
“Well, we better get going, anyway,” Kevin said.
Had he read my thoughts?
“I’m not going anywhere...” I shook my head. “She wouldn’t want me around, anyway.”
“Katie, you have to go. This is your assignment whether you like it or not. Serena can’t die by herself. I can guarantee you’d get in trouble if that happens.”
I sighed heavily. “Fine.”
* * *
The hum of plane engines rang in my ears. So much equipment was strapped to my chest and back that the cramped little airplane seemed to not hold enough air.
My stomach kept churning; not because I was nervous, or anything.
No, it was because somehow I knew this was the last thing Serena was ever going to do, and she was going to do it hating me.
I looked over at her.
She seemed the picture of beauty—the wind whipping hard at her long, blond hair. She was smiling like a jester, laughing as the instructor began the countdown to her jump.
“Do a barrel roll!” the guy strapped to me commanded of the pilot.
“Please don’t!” I shouted back over the wind. He laughed.
“What are you so nervous about, Love? People do this all the time!”
“I hate heights!”
“You wouldn’t be the first!”
The two divers with Serena gave some sort of hand signal, and before I even knew what was happening, I was being pushed toward the door.
We all crowded around.
Lucky for me, I couldn’t see past all the bodies.
The tiny plane was equipped with a bar connecting the wing with one side. Serena was instructed to step onto the wing and just “let go.”
She tiptoed out, one instructor on each arm—right at home for her, I might add—and looked down. I watched her grin wide.
She was getting a huge kick out of it. Then, she turned back to me one last time.
At first, I thought she was going wave at me. But when she flipped me the bird with a smile on her face, I wasn’t sure to take the gesture as one in jest or anger.
Then just like that, she stepped out of the plane.
She was gone. Just gone from my sight. It wasn’t like any other time I’d left her or she’d left me, either. That time, it felt like she’d gone for good.
My instructor pushed me to the door. When I got there, I held the sides, not allowing him to push me further. And why, you may ask? Because I looked down!
Fluffy white clouds whipped past below us. It didn’t seem natural that the world was twenty-thousand feet away and I would just be allowing gravity to work its magic on me.
I swallowed hard as my instructor pushed me out the door.
Before I even had a chance to count to three, we were falling.
The wind stung my cheeks as we punched holes through the clouds. My instructor kept checking the watch attached to his wrist and giving me two thumbs up. I had no idea what that meant, and I didn’t even care.
All I cared about was the ground coming up way too fast.
About thirty never-ending seconds later, the instructor pulled the cord for our chute, and we halted to a back-breaking stop.
The force o
f the deployment shot us upward a good hundred feet and knocked the wind out of me—although I was surprised there was wind left to knock out.
“You okay?!”
“Yah!” I think so. “Where’s my friend?”
I’d been looking around as soon as I let my fear of the height dissipate, but I hadn’t caught a glimpse of the three divers that had gone before us.
“I’ll check!” my instructor shouted.
I heard him scream something into the walkie-talkie strapped to his head.
It surprised me that the wind was still loud. We weren’t going nearly as fast as we had been—even though the ground was still coming up.
Minutes went by.
The instructor kept shouting into his headset. He was saying things I couldn’t understand. They sounded like coordinates.
Finally, he shouted, “Okay!”
“What’s going on?!” I called.
“Your friend’s chute got tangled in a tree. They’re trying to get to her! I’m going to try and get us to her location!”
All at once, my heartbeat quickened. It had died down a bit after the parachute deployed, but the full force of my anxiety hit me once again. What if Serena was in trouble? What if we didn’t get to her in time?
“Don’t worry!” he called. “She’ll be fine!”
Earth was coming up fast, and before I knew it, my feet hit solid ground. My knees buckled, crumpling beneath me. My instructor unclasped my harness and stood up.
“You all right?”
I gave a weak nod.
“Try not to stand for a minute. Your friend’s in that tree. See the chute?”
He pointed to the left where a field of wheat rocked in the breeze. A forest of trees stood beyond it, and one corner of a rainbow parachute fluttered without direction.
And just like that, my gut twisted into a knot.
Without heeding the instructor’s words, I stood on wobbly legs and took off in the direction of Serena’s chute.
I could hear him following at my heels, telling me to slow down and take it easy. But I ignored him.
“Serena!” I choked out. My throat was thick and numb, my entire body aching from tense muscles.
I pushed through the thick underbrush at the tree-line, nearly tripping on the parachute cords. I spotted Serena lying on her back on a bed of pine needles.
“Serena!” I knelt down beside her.
Her eyes swiveled my direction. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
The instructor pushed me out of the way and patted her down, checking for broken bones. When he got to her neck, he stopped and cursed.
“What? What’s wrong?!” I asked.
“I think her back is broken.” He brushed the undergrowth away. He found a cord from the chute and followed it to where it connected with the pack. “One of her risers was loose.”
“Is she gonna be okay?”
He leaned over her once again. “Serena, I need you lie still for me, okay? I’m going to have Kathleen stay with you while I go call for help, okay?” He stood up. “I’m going to go send out a flare and call for help.” He took off running to the field.
“Kay...Katie...”
I knelt down next to Serena, taking her hand in mine.
“Shh...it’ll be okay,” I whispered to her, smoothing the hair away from her head. She tilted her face to look at me.
“No...something...something hurts inside... I...I’m not going to...”
“Don’t say that! He’s going to get help!” I felt tears leak from my eyes.
“I talked to him...”
“What?”
“I talked to...my father today...” Her eyes were starting to glaze over. I held her hand between both of mine, willing the instructor to come back with help.
“But…how?”
She attempted what must have been a smile. “I’ve always known Marcus was me Dad. Something about…the way he…” The sentence trailed off. Then, “Katie...”
“What?” I sniffed, wiping tears from my cheeks.
“You...you’re a cool girl. I’m...gonna miss you. I wanted you to know that...you showed me what a true friend is like. Thank...thank you...”
Her eyes fluttered closed. I screamed at her to stay with me, but her grip loosened and fell slack against mine. With my last ounce of strength, I buried my head against her shoulder and cried for her.
“Katherine...”
I looked up through the haze of tears to find Julian kneeling before me. He was emotionless, his face like that of a peaceful angel.
I sniffed back more tears. “Julian? Are you...here to take her soul?”
He nodded. Then, he smiled at me. “You did well.”
He looked up over my shoulder. I thought the instructor was coming back when he frowned, but I was wrong. He stood.
“Oh, dear. She’s very lost, indeed.” He stepped over Serena’s body and past me. I didn’t watch him go. “This shouldn’t take long.”
* * *
The long hallway was devoid of life. I hugged my knees, resting my chin on them as I sat by Kevin’s door. I didn’t know where else to go once the police had taken my statement.
His was the first name that popped into my head.
A shadow fell over me. I looked up into his pale blue eyes. He smiled.
“You okay?”
“Yeah...” I sighed.
“Come on.” He offered his hands. I placed mine in them, and allowed him to hoist me out of my depression. We poured inside. He went straight to his room beyond the French doors, saying something about me forgetting something the night before. I followed him.
When he turned to face me, he held a pair of socks in his hands. My face went slightly flush.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“Been a tough day.” He placed a hand on the top of my head like he always did. It was a sign of affection.
“You could say that again. I just...”
“What?”
“I could have done something. I could’ve helped her,” I said.
“No, you couldn’t have. She was supposed to die today, Katie. No one could have helped her. You did the right thing.” His hand slipped down, tangling in my hair.
“She thanked me.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded.
“She said I taught her what it was like to have a friend.”
“Well, that should make you feel better.”
“It would if Marcus hadn’t accused me of sabotaging her parachute,” I replied.
“He did?”
“Yeah. Of course the police said that wasn’t possible seeing as how I knew nothing about skydiving and had no access to the equipment before the jump. He just...seemed so upset. I wish...I wish I could have done something for him...”
Kevin smiled, watching me with something that looked like admiration. “Katie Bunny—always looking out for everyone but herself.”
“Yeehh...”
“Hungry?”
“I guess.”
Neither of us made a move to leave. He reached up, brushing away the hair that had fallen in my face. The pad of his thumb caught my cheek.
“I mean it...you did well.”
“Thanks.” I swallowed hard when he began to caress my skin.
“You’re a special person, Katie.”
“I...I am?”
“Yeah, and we need to talk...” He trailed off.
“About...what?”
He sighed, obviously struggling. “I didn’t want to say anything, because... Well, I didn’t think...”
I looked on, urging him to speak, but afraid of what he’d tell me.
“Katie...you’ve grown into an independent, capable young woman. I don’t want to...”
He pushed a hand through his hair as he let me go. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable...”
I could see where this was going. But I asked myself, what do I want?
He looked at me straight in the eyes. He was close, his f
ingertips tracing the line of my jaw in gentle strokes.
My heart beat a mile a minute, every nerve-ending tingled. I could feel his breath—so close. I could smell his scent—so fresh and soothing.
But I didn’t want it.
“I’ve been having feelings about Martin,” I blurted. He exhaled and nodded, allowing his hand to fall to my shoulder.
I seated myself on the bed. His frustration was obvious.
I didn’t want to upset him, but I had to be true to myself, and I didn’t think it was fair for him to have feelings while I didn’t. “They seemed so familiar...”
“Katie, of course they do. There are still things you need to figure out. And this is exactly why I told him to stay away from you in the first place.”
I was on my feet in an instant.
I’d had just about enough of his treating me like I was three years old.
“You told him what?”
“Katie…”
“You told him to stay away from me? Why?”
“Now, Katie, I didn’t say—”
“I can’t believe you!” I threw up my hands and began to pace.
“No, Katie, just listen. I told him to stay away from you because he’s no good for you. Martin’s nothing but trouble. Trust me!” he begged.
I could see the plea in his eyes, but anger was clouding my judgment.
“Why don’t you let me figure that out? For that matter, why don’t you let me do anything on my own? You’re so damn focused on playing mighty protector that you won’t even let me be my own person!” My tirade was only half finished.
I ignored the look of hurt on his face, needing to let all the anger out.
“Under all that human emotion and desire, you’re still a wraith!” That one must have hurt, because he deflated in a second.
“All you know how to do is lie! You wanted to keep Martin away because you wanted me to yourself! You just wanted someone to protect! Well, let me tell you something: I don’t need protection! You and Julian just think I’m incapable of anything. Well, I’ll show you! I’ll call Irish Moses and banish him right here!”
Kevin’s eyes grew wide.
“Katie, think about what you’re saying.” He reached out, but I shrugged him off.
I stalked toward the door.
“I won’t let you do that!”
“Oh, yeah?” I challenged, standing at the doors. “Watch me.”
