Tethered Souls

by Beth Flynn

  Christy started to laugh. The previous night they’d been watching a sitcom where the zany wife had unwittingly secured herself to her husband with a pair of old handcuffs. “No, sweetie. I don’t think you can attach hearts with a pair of handcuffs like we saw on television last night.” She brushed a hand through her hair and tried to explain. "Nobody can actually see what you and Mimi feel in your hearts for each other."

  “What about a rope?” he interrupted, wide-eyed. “Maybe even an invisible one since nobody else can see it? That way it can be a secret. Just me and Mimi will know about it. And you too, Mommy.”

  "Yes, an invisible rope." She smiled. "But only you and Mimi can feel it. It's a very special connection."

  "What if it breaks?" His voice sounded worried.

  "It can't break," she replied, trying to soothe his little heart.

  "Why not?"

  "Because like you said, it's invisible, which means it’s special."

  She peeked in the rearview mirror and saw him nodding as if trying to understand.

  "So me and Mimi will always be teh… tethered so…souls?” he stammered.

  "Always, Christian. Always."

  THE END

  Bonus Chapter

  Fort Lauderdale, Florida 2007

  Several Months Earlier

  Bevin Marconi lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling as she contemplated her life. The last several months had brought more heartache than happiness. She ran her hand over the smooth fabric of her duvet and remembered the first time, many months before, when she'd laid eyes on Slade Bear during her temporary stint in the law library at the courthouse. And the hollowness in her chest that memory resurrected was made even bigger with the reminder of another loss. The relationship with her mother.

  As much as she loved her job as a librarian at Citrus Acres Middle School, she'd been happy with the break from the kids as well as the extra money she'd been able to make at the law library during their spring break. She'd stared dreamily at Slade from afar, not daring to even make contact with him. Guys like Slade Bear didn't notice girls like her.

  He was every woman's dream. She'd immediately started digging around for any information she could find. It was easy to locate an address for him. He lived in a condo on Fort Lauderdale beach. She knew he drove a white Porsche because she'd seen him leaving the courthouse in it.

  After probing a little deeper, it was easy to find his brother's mug shot. Slade and Christian Bear looked nothing alike. It was obvious they shared Native American heritage based on Christian’s photo, but the only thing that hinted at Slade's ethnicity was his strong cheekbones. Where Christian had long, straight, black hair, Slade had collar-length, light-brown hair that curled at the ends, and was unruly enough to be fashionable, but didn't look unkempt. Christian's face was clean-shaven, but Slade had looked like a movie star who always needed a shave. Christian's eyes were a piercing blue. Slade's were light brown, with flecks of gold. She hadn't been able to get a real good look until she purposely knocked his folder off the table. And whereas Christian's mug shot showed him to be six foot two inches, Slade stood eye to eye with her at five foot eleven.

  A little more investigating turned up details about his parents, showing that Christian had obviously inherited his father's genes, while Slade had received his mother's. Either way, they were a handsome family. Despite Celeste Marconi's warning to stay away, she'd been intrigued, and jumped at the chance to have an excuse to talk to him.

  It had all started with an anonymous email from a stranger. It occurred just a couple days after she’d started there, and the stranger's offer coincidentally involved Slade Bear. It was a simple exchange of information. She would be told the identity of her biological father, and all she had to do was slip a note to Slade the next time he used the library. She'd been so shocked by the offer she never stopped to wonder how someone would even know that she'd been trying to find her father, with disappointing results. At first she'd haggled back and forth with the unknown person, citing all the reasons why she couldn't interfere. Noting especially how dangerous it would be for Slade's career. But the person had assured her that it would be for a good cause. The defendant in the case Slade was prosecuting was innocent, and was being railroaded by someone on his own defense team. Slade Bear would either prove to be a person of integrity or not.

  Bevin, who'd walked a straight line her entire life, couldn't deny the thrill that came with being part of something so covert. She easily convinced herself that she would be righting a wrong. And besides, slipping the information to Slade would serve another purpose. She would find out whether she was attracted to a person of high moral standing. Or not.

  It turned out that Slade Bear was an upstanding person. He'd done what was right despite the possibility he could've been disbarred or become a pariah in the public defender's office. But neither of those things happened. The defendant had been acquitted, and Slade moved on to his next case. But she hadn't moved on.

  The stranger had done as promised, and almost immediately provided her with irrefutable proof of the man who'd remained nameless and faceless her entire life. Once when she'd tried to drag his identity out of her mother, a melancholy look had appeared in the judge's eyes. Celeste Marconi was a hard woman, who'd never married, and never dated. The rumors about her sexuality had been spinning around the courthouse for years. But Bevin knew differently. She knew that somewhere deep down, her mother had carried a torch for the man Bevin had never known. That had been for over twenty years. She'd always believed that her father must've been married to someone else at the time.

  When she confronted her mom with the proof of her father's identity, the stoic judge broke down and wept.

  And that was when Bevin learned the horrid truth. She'd been the product of rape. Not just any rape. It had been a gang rape. Celeste Marconi had been a twenty-two-year-old law student when she was coming out of a convenience store, was grabbed from behind and dragged into the shadows.

  "It all happened so fast," she explained to Bevin. "There were three of them, and I knew they belonged to a motorcycle gang based on jackets that two of them wore. It had a scary- looking skull with a naked woman across the top of it. I only caught a glimpse of it when they rode away on their bikes. I couldn't see the name, but they would be in the news a few years later when their leader was arrested for kidnapping a teenage girl."

  Bevin listened, transfixed as her mother described a nightmarish scene. Apparently, the two older gang members were initiating a newer member who hadn't earned his right to wear their patch.

  "It was dark. There were shadows, and I didn't get a good look at any of their faces. I heard one of them call the nastiest one, Monster. Monster was the first one to rape me. He was the worst. The most brutal. The second one had a tattoo of a scorpion on his left forearm, and the third one"—she paused and swallowed—"the third one was obviously the youngest, and didn't want to do it. I remember him telling the other two that he didn't know rape was part of the initiation." She stopped to blow her nose and said, "They told him they would kill us both if he didn't do it."

  Bevin shuddered at the thought of the terror her mother had endured.

  "The last guy, the youngest one"—she had to stop for a moment again—"he got on top of me, and kept whispering in my ear how sorry he was. The other two were laughing so they couldn't hear him. But I heard him. He even told me he was going to pretend to bite me on the neck and that I should cry out to make it believable. I remember him telling me the better show we put on, the quicker it would be over."

  Celeste looked at her daughter and swallowed thickly. "Each time he pushed inside me, he whispered he was sorry. Each time, over and over again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Until he was finished." She swayed back and forth as if in time to his thrusts.

  "Did you go to the police?" Bevin softly asked her mother as she reached for her hand.

  "No." Celeste shook her head. "They took my purse. They knew who I was. When I first f
ound out I was pregnant, I wanted to get an abortion, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. As the years went by, I used my job and the access it provided to my advantage. I was able to identify the men through mug shots. Even though I hadn't seen their faces clearly, the system provides identifying marks, like tattoos and birthmarks, as well as street names. I hadn't seen your father's face, but I'd noticed he had a large birthmark on the side of his neck.

  "Which one is my father, Mom?" Bevin asked.

  "He's serving two consecutive life sentences in prison for murder," she answered.

  "I know that," Bevin snapped. "I know his real name. Was he Monster or scorpion tattoo guy or polite rapist?"

  "The last one," Celeste said, as she averted her eyes.

  Bevin let go of her mother's hand and walked away. Turning around, she crossed her arms and said, "You care for him. Don't you?"

  "Don't be ridiculous!" her mother snapped while jumping up from her seat. Apparently the memory of that horrible night had vanished and she was back in the role of authoritative judge.

  "I'm not being ridiculous. You felt something for him. Even though he was raping you, you somehow romanticized that he didn't want to. You've clung to that for years. What I can't figure out is, why?"

  "Shut up, Bevin!" her mother spat.

  Ignoring her mother's reprimand, Bevin continued, "It makes so much sense now. How you shut yourself away from any potential real relationships. You use him as an excuse to not get involved. Somewhere deep down, you've developed feelings, whether imagined or real, for a rapist." Bevin paused and looked thoughtful. "What is so special about him? How has he kept this hold on you for so many years?"

  Ignoring her daughter's questions, the judge sternly corrected, "He was never a rapist."

  "He's not just a rapist, Mom." A second passed before Bevin added, "He's a murderer and you've been in love with him for almost twenty-five years. What a waste of your life."

  The last comment had earned Bevin a slap across the face, and she hadn't spoken to her mother since.

  It was after that encounter that Bevin decided she might give Slade Bear another chance. After all, she was certain there was disappointment in his expression right before she'd closed the door in his face the night he'd come to her home. But she was also cautious and had asked a friend to do some light, non-invasive surveillance on Slade. The results had been heartbreaking. When Bevin saw a picture of the beautiful woman who'd accompanied Slade to a coffee house, and later back to his condominium, memories of the bullying she'd endured for being the biggest kid in middle school came plummeting down. Her friend had taken only two pictures of Slade and the pocket-sized woman that Bevin was certain smelled of Chanel No. 5. But those two photos had been enough to send her in a downward spiral of depression. She'd declined the offer to spend her summer working in the law library. It was the best and only way she would be able to avoid not just her mother, but Slade Bear.

  Instead, she'd spent the summer volunteering for a public library reading program, taking cooking and stained art classes, and doing some DIY around her bungalow. She'd even joined a gardening club with two teaching friends that also had their summers free.

  She made herself accept invitations to go on a few dates. They were nice guys, but they didn't have light-brown eyes with gold flecks or a cavernous dimple in their left cheek. In spite of her date fails, she'd found her spirits had lifted and she was starting to feel her confidence returning. Until one of her new garden club friends invited her to have lunch at a cafe near the courthouse. School had been back in session for over a month, and it was an optional teachers workday. The students would have the day off, and the teachers were given the choice as to whether or not to work or take off a day as well. In retrospect, she should've used the day to organize her library shelves. And more importantly, she should've known better than to agree to meet so close to where both her mother and Slade worked. She'd convinced herself that a whole summer had passed and she was starting to feel like herself again. Besides, what were the chances she'd run into them—her mother always ate in her chambers and Slade spent most of his lunch hours in the library.

  She thought she'd dodged a bullet until her friend said, "Whatever you do, don't look. One of the hottest guys I've ever laid eyes on is staring at you."

  That was the first time anyone had said those words to Bevin, and she knew without asking that Slade Bear must've been in the restaurant. She was struggling with whether or not to turn around when her friend's next words decided for her. "Oh, wait. He's with a woman."

  "Is she small enough to fit in my pocket, and has short highlighted hair?" Bevin whispered.

  "Yeah, " her friend replied. "How did you know?"

  The same way I know she smells like Chanel No. 5, Bevin thought.

  The waitress had returned with their change, affording Bevin the perfect opportunity to flee. She didn't look over her shoulder as she made a beeline for the exit, her friend awkwardly trying to keep up. Once in the parking lot, she spotted the white Porsche. She got into her car and drove away from Slade. Apparently, a whole summer hadn't been enough to heal her obviously still-bruised ego.

  Tethered Souls Playlist

  “Roll Me Away”

  Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

  “I Disappear”

  Metallica

  “Sweet Life”

  Paul Davis

  “I Saw the Light”

  Todd Rundgren

  “Linus and Lucy”

  Vince Guaraldi Trio

  “Count On Me”

  Jefferson Starship

  “Something in the Air”

  Thunderclap Newman

  “I Want You to Want Me”

  Cheap Trick

  “Back Where You Belong”

  .38 Special

  “Time Has Come Today”

  The Chamber Brothers

  “Seminole Wind”

  John Anderson

  “Bad Time”

  Grand Funk Railroad

  “Feelin' Alright”

  Joe Cocker

  “Street of Dreams”

  Rainbow

  “Run Through the Jungle”

  Creedence Clearwater Revival

  “The Weight”

  The Band

  “The Spirit of Radio”

  Rush

  “Tightrope”

  Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

  “Layla”

  Derek & the Dominos

  "Piece of My Heart"

  Janis Joplin

  Note From Beth Flynn

  Eating disorders, such as bulimia, binge eating disorder, and anorexia, are serious illnesses that involve extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding food, exercise, and body image. Eating disorders often hide in plain sight, so whether you have serious concerns or just an inkling about yourself or a loved one, please seek help. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder but recovery is absolutely possible and early intervention greatly improves the chances of success. Seeking help takes strength and courage, and there are many compassionate people and organizations devoted to helping those who struggle.

  If you, or anyone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, help is available. Please know you are not alone and seeking professional help is important for recovery. To learn more about eating disorders please visit:

  https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

  or call 1-800-931-2237

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Acknowledgments are always the most difficult part of finishing a novel because I can never seem to find the words that adequately describe the level of appreciation I feel for the dear family and friends who contributed to bringing this story to life.

  I always like to thank my heavenly Father, first and foremost. Thank You for the imagination You so lovingly bestowed on me. And for giving me the opportunity to spill my daydreams onto these pages that found readers because You brought people into my life
who've helped me navigate publishing and social media.

  Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an army to get a book published. I have so many people to thank. Each person contributed in a special way. Whether it was legal or medical advice, beta reading, editing, proofreading, cover design, map design, photography, keeping my social media wheels turning, being a muse for my MILF or just holding my hand in friendship and love, you each played an important role in bringing Tethered Souls to fruition. My thanks go out to:

  Adriana Leiker, Alyson Santos, Amy Donnelly, Beth's Niners, Cheryl Desmidt, Darlene Avery, Dr. Stacy Waltsak Lexow, Eli Peters, Elle Christensen, Erin Noelle, Jay Aheer, Jim Flynn, Judy Zweifel, Kate Sterritt, Kathleen McGillick, Katie Flynn, KC Lynn, Kell Donaldson, Kelli Flynn, Kim Holden, Leylah Attar, Nicole Sands, Nisha E. George, Scott Dry, Jr., and Tracy Justice.

  If there are any discrepancies or errors in the medical or legal aspects of the story, they are a result of my creative license and do not reflect on the professionals who so patiently provided their knowledge.

  Any deviation from Native American culture or values was spun strictly from my imagination, and no disrespect is intended.

  About Beth Flynn