I looked back at Trent, “Something like that.”
“Does Deshavi have anybody else other than you?”
I smiled to myself; he was hooked line and sinker he was.
“She has a mother that’s no good. My son died in battle when she was three. I cared for them both after that. I’m not sure where I went wrong, but Deshavi is very much a rebel child. She’s gotten herself mixed up into some bad habits.”
“Drugs?” He asked, but I shook my head no.
“I don’t think so. She steals stuff and you saw how free she is with herself.”
“And this is the girl you want me to hook up with?” He asked sarcastically.
“Hey!” I said good-naturedly, “You’re the one that seems interested. I’m just giving you some friendly advice.”
I saw Ted, the archaeologist hard at work, fishing up ahead.
Trent called out to his grandfather and Ted dropped his pole into the water, as he turned toward the voice he recognized. I stood on the periphery as the two men greeted each other warmly with a hug. I sensed a story somewhere here. Ted was Trent’s maternal grandfather and yet both men shared the same last name, which meant one of three things. Trent’s mother had him out of wedlock. She was a widow and had changed her name back, but it was rare to change the name of the son, in such a case. Or lastly she was divorced and Trent had decided to keep his mother’s maiden name instead of his father’s.
In any case it couldn’t have been a very secure childhood, but he seemed to have turned out fine despite it. I let myself be drawn into the activity of catching up and the hours went by swiftly.
Trent, lured away by the huge fish jumping in plentiful supply in the stream had moved downriver to fish us dinner, while I and Ted sat and watched. Under pressure by Ted’s relentless pestering I’d divulged what had happened in town.
It was easy to see how a grandparent could be proud of Trent, but I couldn’t say the same of Deshavi. If our two houses were joined by these two, I couldn’t help but think I was supplying the lesser half of the union. I said as much to Ted.
“Oh you’re too hard on the girl Caleb!”
“Am I?” I asked, because I had often wondered if it wasn’t all my fault for the way Deshavi had turned out.
Ted chuckled, “Probably not, but it sounded good. That is until I saw you start blaming yourself. You were as involved in rearing that girl up right, as any parent could ever be Caleb. Kids make their own choices in life. We all do at some point, sometimes they aren’t good ones, but while breadth remains there is hope though. Perhaps this is the chance Deshavi needs in order to see the light and stop hurting herself.”
“Or the chance of seeing another soul corrupted.” I added, darkly beginning to regret my matchmaking efforts.
“I’ll have you know Caleb that we Rogersons are made of sterner stuff than most!”
“I hope so.”
Trent came back with several fish and dinner preparations were underway.
Shadows were beginning to form when I brought a small hand carved whistle out from a pocket and gave a series of calls that were too high pitched in frequency to be audibly heard. Trent watched on curiously as I waited. Several minutes went by and then in the distance I saw Windstalker coming at a full gallop. As he drew near it looked like he wouldn’t stop, but he did at the last moment.
He reared up on his hind legs and pawed at the air, as only a stallion would. He came back down with a crash and then was upon me in search of a sugar cube or carrot. I chuckled and rewarded him with a sugar cube. Windstalker was a full blood Appaloosa stallion. He was a whitish gray with the telltale black spots on the rump. He had the characteristic large size of the breed as well. My father’s before me had created this breed of horse and had handed it down generation after generation and it was with pride that I carried it on.
I turned to Trent, who was leaning on the cabin railing taking in the magnificent stallion. I dug in my pants pocket and brought out the truck keys, which I flipped to him. He caught them, with a question reflected in his eyes.
“In case you want to visit the town or do a little sightseeing.”
I took a firm grasp of Windstalker’s mane and swung upward astride him and took off down the valley as fast as Windstalker could go and for a moment I was free of everything.
It was almost dark when I reached my home nestled in among the craggy rocks and great trees of the private mountain that I called home. I slid off of Windstalker and smacked him on the rump, and he took off for the lower meadow, where his lady friends were. I made my way up the native stone stairs to the porch of my cabin home. I saw Deshavi stand up from a porch swing in the evening gloom. She looked anxious about something and after my initial surprise at seeing her here I guessed at why she had come.
I went over to her and extremely uncharacteristic of her she mumbled out quickly, “Can I stay here?”
“Since when have you ever been unwelcome?”
I moved past her and sat down, while she still stood seeming uncertain of something. I reached out and tugged on her hand and she seemed to crumple down onto the bench swing beside me and I put my arm around her to draw her against me. She came easily, even as her head lay down on my shoulder. I let my cheek rest against the top of her head for a moment. It was so good to be like this again.
“I’m sorry about your mother.” I said softly.
“What are you sorry for? You’ve done nothing but provide for her ever since father died!”
“Still I am sorry that you have someone to call mother, who cares so little for either living herself or anyone else who is living.”
“She looks twenty years older since last I saw her! I think she’s coming unhinged mentally. I think she’s crazy!”
That seemed to match up with what I’d heard.
“You don’t think that will happen to me do you?” Deshavi asked.
Now there was a question to answer delicately. The only problem was that there was no way to delicately put the truth other than how I saw it.
“I think your mother’s issues are all self-made and nothing that you need to worry about genetically speaking, but in some ways you follow in her steps to closely.”
“I don’t drink to excess or do drugs!” Deshavi exclaimed.
“No, but you don’t care for yourself in other ways. There are many ways to rot one’s soul. After your father’s death both you and your mother internalized your grief and let bitterness grow. I know this because I did too. I still struggle with it and am often depressed by it and other things. You and your mother didn’t resist the bitterness, but instead you’ve let it shape you into who you are today. I have money Deshavi, enough money to take care of you for the rest of your life and if I thought it would work I’d give it all to you so you would just stop doing whatever it is that you’re doing when you’re not here in the mountains, but I don’t think your there yet.”
There was silence for a moment, while I reflected internally at how surprised I felt inside that she was still sitting here with me.
Her voice was somewhat faltering at first, “There are times….times that I want to stop, but then there’s times when I need the excitement, as bad as I need my next breath of air.”
I nodded, at least she was being honest with me. That was at least something, actually for her that was a lot. Time passed by and I decide to change the topic.
“I surprised you today didn’t I?”
I felt her smile, “Yes, you did! I would never have imagined that strict moral consciousness that you are at heart setting up a lunch date, with a man who just moments before was in open lust over me. What’s gotten into you grandfather?”
I shook my head, “Not sure. It felt right so I went with it.”
“Do you think this man can cure me of my bad taste in men or something?”
“No, only you can make that decision.” I responded soberly.
“Then what do you hope to gain by this?”
“I guess I hope you’ll change, as he’s someone worth changing for.”
“Have a high opinion of him don’t you?” She asked.
“Yes I do.”
There was a pause and then she asked, “What do you think is going to happen?”
I paused myself from answering for a moment and then I let her have it, “I think you’ll break his heart just as you have mine so many times.”
She stood up abruptly throwing my arm to the side and for a moment it looked like she was going to slap me, but she thought better of it and stormed off into the house, slamming the door behind her hard. Alone again, I stared out into the darkness listening to the sounds of the night.
Anger was good. It meant that she still wanted to please me and now I had brought up what I considered to be the failure to which she could earn my displeasure. Competitive soul that she was, she would now avoid Trent like the plague, not wanting to make my words be fulfilled, but lured by her thirst for the forbidden she’d go after him anyway. If something bad happened the guilt would be hers alone and I hoped it would be enough to help drive her to change.
Chapter Three
The Dotted Line
Deshavi was gone, when I arose in the morning, but her stuff was still there so she had only gone outside and not left altogether. She came in as I was making breakfast. She looked decidedly moody and without asking I made enough breakfast for two.
She glared across the table at me, after I sat down, but I paid her no attention.
“What would it take to get all your stash of money?” She asked sullenly.
Now this I hadn’t expected, but I should have. What to do? I decided to play along.
“No more stealing.”
“Agreed.”
“No more whoring.”
“Agreed.”
“A lifelong married commitment to one man, with a baby in your arms no sooner than nine months after your wedding.”
I could hear her teeth grinding, as she nodded and then asked, “Anything else?”
Her tone said that she thought I had already asked for far too much from her.
“The man has to be Trent.”
Her eyes smoldered anger at me, “Why him?”
“Two reasons. For one, because he’s man enough to tame you and not be dominated by you. I like him is the second reason. You two will make beautiful babies together, which I look forward to holding in my arms soon.” I added at the last just to see the flames go higher in her eyes.
“Well what do you say?” I asked.
“Yes!” She gritted out. “But I want it in writing!”
I nodded and got up to fetch some paper and a pen. Sitting back down I wrote it all out and then slid the paper across the table to her with the pen. She glanced down at the sheet of paper as she read it.
Her eyes shot up to mine, “Thirteen and a half million!”
I nodded.
She picked up the pen and signed the paper and then slid it back to me.
I signed the paper and dated it.
Triumphantly she declared, “You’re a fool! I can be married, have a baby and be divorced inside of two years!”
I glanced up and met her eyes. “That very well may be, but to do it you’re going to have to show me first what kind of pathetic excuse of a mother you would be to deprive your newborn child of the love and positive nurturing influence of a father, that even you were ill equipped to do without at the age of three.”
She visibly winced with the impact of my words and the cocky look fell off her face entirely.
She reached for the paper, but I removed it out of her reach.
“Too late, it’s signed. Now I believe you have some work to do to ensure the inheritance of your fortune. Trent is at his grandfather’s place. Good luck with your hunting.”
I stood up and the deeply shaken sight that Deshavi now was, glanced up at me forlornly, “Where are you going?”
I held the paper up, “To hide this where not even you could find it, let alone steal it.”
I unhooked a plaid coat from off the door hook and shrugged into it. Folding the paper neatly I stated with emphasis. “Remember Deshavi, no babies until well after the wedding night.”
She truly looked pathetic now, as she sat there trapped by the very document she had just signed. It always paid to consider all the angles thoroughly before one signed something important. She had been too focused on the money to consider all the angles that could make the agreement binding.
I read the emotions of alarm that suddenly coursed across her face, as the meaning of my words became real to her. In order to snare Trent she’d have to do it without her feminine bedroom wiles and she had a limited window of opportunity in which to work in.
“Daylight is wasting, and Deshavi I think you know that birth control is not an option on the table with which to work around this obstacle you’re faced with in order to gain the prize.”
She nodded knowing exactly what I had meant by the statement of no babies or she forfeited everything.
I closed the door behind me triumphantly. She still had a few things to learn before she outfoxed me. This deal might cost me my fortune, but it was a small price to pay for a settled and well trapped granddaughter.
Deshavi sat there at the table staring at the closed door. What had she done?
She’d made a mistake, that’s what! She’d been suckered by a one and a three and a bunch of zeros. To complete it all she was locked into a commitment that she wanted no part of, but that she had to participate in, if she wanted the money. Sure, Trent was a hunk in every imaginable way, but he was dangerous to!
He made her nervous and she’d seen enough to know that he wasn’t going to be as easy to manipulate as others had been. Her grandfather truly had gotten the best of her this time. Thirteen and a half million!
She’d never thought it was that much. Was it worth being Trent’s woman and bearing his children though? He’d have a say over the money to, no doubt, unless she could get grandfather to give it to her under the table. He’d probably have to do that anyway, because if Trent found out what she was up to he wouldn’t be happy. He might even get mad enough to walk away!
In some ways she couldn’t believe she was even entertaining the bonds of this agreement, but she knew something had to change. That last time had been much too close! She’d had all her bases covered and yet that Russian thug had almost had her. It was time to get out and this was looking to be the best option financially speaking.
It was a good option in one other respect as well. It offered her a chance despite everything that had happened in the past to do and be something that she knew would please her grandfather. That was still important to her.
Now what sort of strategy would work best in toppling Mister Trent into the bonds of matrimony? A direct upfront approach was best, as she doubted that he would respect anything else. Before she had employed raw animal appeal, when she had been taunting him, but that wasn’t the kind of behavior that put a ring on your finger, it was only good for getting oneself laid. She had to avoid that at all costs, because as good as birth control may be, it wasn’t perfect.
She could count on her grandfather to hold her to every stipulation of their contract to the letter of the law, so she would have to win the ex-seal through charm and be honest with him. That is as honest, as she could afford to be of course, which wasn’t very honest at all. In fact what she had to do was lie very convincingly, with only enough truth added in to make it seem believable.
Chapter Four
Seduction Begun
Deshavi slid off her mare to the ground and looked around Ted Rogerson’s homestead site. She didn’t see anyone moving around the cabin. She tied her mare off and did a little scouting. She found Ted dozing peacefully in the sun, a bottle of whiskey beside him. She backed away quietly, careful not to disturb her grandfather’s friend. She heard a chink of stone against metal and located th
e direction it had come from quickly, as it sounded out again.
It would seem that Trent was doing the role of an archaeologist today. She made her way towards Ted’s perpetual dig site. She saw Trent down in a narrow trench swinging away with mattock. Admiringly she watched as his muscles rippled across the wide plain of his back and shoulders with the swing of each stroke of the mattock.
He was already aware of her, that she knew. Being the top predator that he was he’d probably smelled her on the breeze. His strong masculinity was one of the things that bothered her the most about him. Usually she picked weaker prey, but this time she felt like the prey.
His eyes flickered up to her, as she sat down on the edge of the ditch he was in the process of digging out. It wasn’t much past nine a.m. in the morning, but he was already drenched with sweat and filthy. She’d never been attracted to him before more so than she was right now strangely enough. That was another thing she feared about him. He seemed to have the ability to overwhelm her, when it was she that should be doing the overwhelming part.
“Having fun?” She asked, as she gazed skeptically upon his task at hand.
He leaned back against the dirt wall behind him; his hands supported on his mattock handle and admitted, “Yes, actually I am.”
She nodded and gave a shrug as if to say, ‘Whatever floats your boat.’
He stood there quietly and watched her and it began to grow awkward.
“I suppose you’re wondering why I’m here?”
He didn’t say anything, but his gaze said he was interested in her answer. She didn’t know what to say, nothing sounded right.
“Did your grandfather put you up to this?” He asked.
She nodded, “You could say that I suppose.”
He shook his head disgustedly. “I suppose you do everything he asks you to?”
Deshavi shook her head no, “Very little actually.”
“Then why are you here?” Trent asked.
“Perhaps, because I want to be with you.” Deshavi responded in an intimate fashion.
Agent out of Time (The Agents for Good) Page 3
