Everybody chuckled.
Kylie gasped. "Oh my!" Kylie put her face in her hands. "Don't do this Gareth; I am shy remember?"
"Kylie is shy," Gareth said and turned to her, "but she loves her family and it will save her tons of phone calls to tell you guys."
"Kylie, will you marry me?"
"For real," Jessica squealed.
"Shut up, let her speak," somebody said down the table. Everybody looked in anticipation in Kylie's direction.
Kylie peeped through two fingers and looked at Gareth. "I would love to."
She hugged him and kissed him all over his face. The family chuckled.
"She was not going to say no," Adrian said, chuckling. "This girl has been smitten for a long, long time."
"This calls for champagne," Ryan Bancroft said. "After I gave Gareth a hard time today, he still wants to join the family. This definitely calls for a celebration."
"Non-alcoholic, I hope," Cathy piped up. "I don't want to upstage the big proposal, but there is going to be another little Bancroft in six months."
"You guys move quickly," Micah grinned.
"I am aiming for five, like my mother-in-law," Cathy said primly.
"Then this table won't be able to hold y'all." Deidra laughed and then glanced at Marcus who had been staring at her fixatedly even while he was talking to Charlene who was sitting to his right.
He was transfixed by her laughter. When Deidra was happy, it made him happy… gave him a tingling sensation in his heart. Added to that, he was struggling in his mind to remember why he had held himself back from his family for so long. His Dad was gruff and tended to lecture him and wanted him to live by rules. Had that really been such a bad thing?
He looked over at Micah, his big brother, and chief rebel. He was looking at Deidra too, as if he was seeing her for the first time. Marcus' heart skipped a beat. Oh no, Micah, don't even think it. She's mine. You had your chance and blew it. Marcus thought.
"Micah is the oldest; he should have been the first to tie the knot," Marcus said out loud. "Isn't that how they did it in Bible times. Oldest ones get married first."
Micah shifted his eyes from Deidra and looked at his brother, understanding that Marcus had caught him looking at her. He had no idea why, but for the first time he realized that Deidra had matured.
She was different, better than she had been in the past year and a half, and she no longer liked him. He could see that she only had eyes for Marcus now, and a piece of him, maybe his ego, felt bruised.
"I am not the oldest Bancroft." He pointed to Taj. "He is."
Everybody looked on Taj.
"Yes, Taj, how is it that you are not married yet?" Jessica piped up.
Taj sighed, "I see what you did there, Micah. I am going to get you back."
Micah laughed and his eyes went back to Deidra who was looking at Marcus with a helpless limpid look in her eyes.
Charlene poked him in his side and he jerked out of his rumination, coming to his senses.
"We need to talk," Charlene gritted out.
Micah nodded and started eating his food slowly.
*****
"What a day!" Charlene said, heading out to Micah's car. "Your family is quite interesting."
"Yes, they are." Micah laughed, heading around to the driver’s side of the car.
"Do you have a thing for Deidra?" Charlene asked before he could enter the car.
Micah straightened up. "What?"
"You heard me," Charlene said stiffly. "You were looking at her this evening as if you were in a desert and she was the last jug of water"
"I wasn't," Micah hissed. "Can we have this conversation somewhere else?"
"I don't particularly want to," Charlene said. "I want an answer."
"Char," Micah injected, a pacifying tone in his voice, "this is ridiculous. Deidra is Deidra. She is quirky and pushy and had a thing for me. Why accuse me of…what exactly are you accusing me of?"
"You like my sister," Charlene said. "All this time you liked her. You were sitting around waiting for her to, I don't know, to mature. Now she is. And you want her. While I, the girl you have breakfast with every morning and hang out with and chat about farming with, am about to be placed by the wayside. Listen to me," Charlene said vehemently, "I'm not having it! You either do some sort of commitment to me now, Micah, or… I am not going to be hanging around for you to suddenly drop me and choose Deidra. I will not have you spouting some line about me being just a friend, you got that?"
"Wow," Micah looked at a fierce Charlene in the late evening light. Her eyes looked fiery and determined.
One by one his family members were trickling out the front door.
Taj was the first to come down the steps. His car was parked beside Micah's. He looked at Micah's stiffened posture and Charlene's bristling one and just waved as he got in his car.
"Can we talk about this without shouting and giving ultimatums?" Micah asked Charlene.
"No," Charlene said getting in the car.
Micah got in beside her. "I like Deidra," he said out loud.
Charlene clenched her teeth.
"She really has grown and changed these past couple of months. I barely recognize her anymore. She is not the girl that sent me to jail; that's for sure."
Charlene stared straight ahead flinching with every word he spoke.
"I also like..." Micah paused, feeling around for the words in his head, "more than like... you."
Charlene's eyes widened and she turned around and looked at him; tears were in her eyes. "You do?"
Micah nodded. "I do. I have been fighting it. I don't want to be tied down, but every time I do something on my house, my first thought is, I wonder if Charlene will like this. Every time I think of doing anything with my greenhouse I consult you first. I am twenty-seven. This has me running scared. I always thought I'd grow old alone crusty and rebellious to the end. I guess my way of trying to escape tonight was to look on Deidra and wonder."
"Oh, Micah," Charlene reached across and kissed him. "I love you. I really do."
"Don't expect me to make any grand declarations in front of my family though," Micah warned her, "I am a quiet sort of man."
Charlene kissed him again, laughing with relief as he drove away from Mount Faith and to her home.
Micah drove past a dark gray car parked at the curb. The driver was hunched over the steering wheel as if he didn't want to be seen. He quickly dismissed it from his mind. After all, he was happy. He had finally committed himself to Charlene.
Chapter Eight
"Run that by me again." Deidra and Marcus were slowly jogging on Mount Faith Drive.
It was ten after six. Deidra knew the exact time because she had been looking at her watch every five minutes since she woke up at five-thirty to jog with Marcus, who was not even panting as he glided along the pavement. He had knocked on her door at dawn to take her jogging and he had been talking non-stop ever since. She could barely breathe, and she was seeing stars behind her eyes. The morning was bitterly chilly and foggy. It was going to be another one of those cold Decembers in the hills. Marcus had slowed down considerably for her, jogging on spot while she struggled to catch up with him.
Now he was saying something, and the whoosh of air that was in her ears had her asking him twice. She had been glancing over at him periodically and was completely bowled over by his athletic physique.
"I said," Marcus was grinning and running backward, "that I love you madly."
Deidra stopped. "You can't just..."
"I can say it." Marcus stopped and faced her. "I do love you. The real kind of love, the one where I can see myself growing old with you and having children with you."
He walked up to Deidra who was standing shell-shocked. "The truth is I am here because of you. Tiffany had..." He didn't get to finish his sentence. A dark gray motorcar drove up out of nowhere in the thick fog and drove into the two of them.
Deidra was knocked out of the way and rolled in
the grass on the side of the road. She ended up on somebody's roadside lawn.
Marcus was hit on the right leg and flung into the road, his head hitting the pavement with a sickening loud thwack sound.
"Oh, my God!" Deidra screamed. She watched as the car rolled away and was swallowed up by the fog. She recognized it as the one that had been following her around for weeks. She got up gingerly and started looking around for Marcus.
"Marcus!" she screamed. She got to her feet, limping a little because it felt as if her ankle was twisted. She didn't even feel the pain. She walked to where she heard him fall. Deep sobs were tearing through her throat and she didn't even realize that the sobs were from her. "Marcus!"
No answer.
"Somebody help me!" she screamed. She could hear doors opening and noises coming toward her in the fog. Finally, she saw Marcus and the pool of blood under his head.
A sickening feeling of fear enveloped her, and she started to tremble uncontrollably. Her screams could be heard to the top of Mount Faith Drive near Taj's house.
Taj was at his gate stretching and waiting for his father to have their regular squash session at the gym. When he heard the screams, he ran toward the noise. With no self-preservation concerns, he was one of the first ones on the scene.
He saw Deidra holding Marcus' head in her lap; her lap and hands were pooling with blood. She was screaming and crying.
"Marcus, don't die. Please don't die. God please don't let him die."
*****
"That's how I found her." Taj was talking to Natasha, who had just rolled out of her bed and driven like a bat out of hell to get to the hospital. Her boss, Assistant Superintendent Cloey had called, asking her to get on the case of the hit and run driver who mowed down Marcus Bancroft. Details were sketchy and the family was frantic. The world was frantic.
His urgent tone, and the fact that it was Marcus Bancroft, an up and coming national treasure, had her jumping out of bed, and frantically pulling on her clothes, she had even put on her sweatshirt backwards—her heart beating rapidly.
She had heard that he was being taken to the University Medical Center, and she had arrived their rumpled and bleary-eyed to find Taj and Ryan Bancroft at the front desk. Both men were now pacing in the waiting room. Taj had just given her a briefing on what he saw, and Ryan Bancroft had just stared at her blankly as if he did not know himself or where he was.
Natasha called the station to ask Supe Coley if her old partner, Tony, could be sent to work with her on the case.
"He's already on his way," The Supe said gruffly. "Have you heard anything yet?"
"No," Natasha glanced in a mirror beside the nurse's station and gasped. Her hair was a mess, sticking up all over her head. She ran her fingers through it quickly.
"I am going to talk to Deidra shortly. Apparently, she had to be sedated because she was hysterical."
"Is he... um... dead?" asked the Supe cautiously, as if bracing himself for bad news.
"I don't know." Natasha sighed. "There are no doctors out here yet."
"Call me as soon as you hear anything," the Supe said anxiously.
"I will." Natasha hung up the phone and felt around for her badge. It was time to flex some muscle.
The nurse at the front desk stared at her wearily. "I am just coming on my shift," she said before Natasha could ask her anything. "I just heard. Let me find out what's going on for you."
Natasha nodded.
Taj was sitting down. He folded his arms and was staring at the wall.
Ryan Bancroft was standing still and was also staring at the wall, his jaw clenched. They were both in their tracksuits. Natasha went over to Taj and put her hand on his back. "We'll soon hear something."
Taj nodded.
"What happened, Ryan?" Celeste barged into the waiting room frantically. She still had curlers in her hair, covered in a fishnet hair wrap. "What do you mean, Marcus and Deidra were in an accident?"
Before Ryan could answer, Jessica came after her asking the same question.
Soon the waiting room was crowded with Bancrofts and Charlene, who was anxious to hear about Deidra.
It was the dinner guests together all over again, except this time everyone had a look of petrified fear on their faces.
Fifteen-minutes after the mass gathering everybody jumped to alertness when the doctor stepped into the waiting room. He was a young doctor, a trainee from the looks of things. He was wringing his hands nervously.
"Er...Dr. Bancroft..." he blanched when he saw the president of the university and all of the family. "I... er... Deidra Durkheim is sedated with a mild sedative. She was... er ... hysterical. There are no injuries except for a bruise to her hips and cut on her hand. Also her ankle was sprained."
Everybody nodded.
"And Marcus?" Ryan asked the question that was on the tip of everybody's tongue.
"Well, he's ah..." the doctor stuttered.
"He's in a coma." Dr. Phillips, the attendee and senior doctor came out into the waiting room to help his nervous colleague. "He seems to have suffered a head injury. How bad it is we are not sure at this moment, and his right leg is broken. A clean break, which should not take too long to heal."
"So he's alive?" Celeste asked the doctor earnestly.
"Yes, he is," the doctor concluded. "We are not yet sure about the extent of his injuries though."
"When can I see Deidra?" Natasha piped up. "My colleague and I need to get a statement before the trail gets cold."
"Oh well." The doctor scratched his chin. "She should be awake and calm in an hour."
"So are you equipped to deal with this head injury, or do we need to get a consultant up here?" Dr. Bancroft asked impatiently.
"Dr. Vonner is here as a guest lecturer for a month," Dr. Phillips replied. "He is one of the best neurologists this side of the Caribbean. He will do some consults."
Bancroft grunted. "Okay fine."
"You might not want to wait for him to wake up," the doctor said to the family. "He might not wake up today."
Everybody nodded, but nobody moved. They watched his retreating back and stayed their ground.
"I am going to call Mrs. Pink to get Avia ready for school," Cathy said in the silence after twenty-minutes. She got up and the silence reigned again.
"I am going to pray." Celeste got up after another ten-minutes passed. "Waiting is going to make me go crazy and I need the strength of the Lord right now. I am going by the chapel. Anybody wants to join me?"
Jessica, Kylie, and Adrian got up and followed her outside.
"I have to see Deidra," Charlene said, "when she wakes up."
Micah inclined his head. "I am going to work shortly, but I think I will wait a little while more."
Ryan finally sat down beside Taj and leaned his head on the wall. "I can't work today."
"Huh?" Micah looked over at his father. "You, skip work?"
Bancroft chuckled dryly. "When you children were growing up, I skipped work quite often. Sometimes, even when I went, my mind was in the hospital waiting room. I can recall this happening especially for you, Micah. I have been in too many hospital waiting rooms not to know that even if I try to push through the day, I can't do so successfully if one of you is unwell."
Micah clamped his mouth shut. This was a caring side of his father that he wasn't used to seeing. Suddenly, Ryan Bancroft looked like a new man to him.
*****
“Miss Durkheim is awake,” the young doctor announced fifteen minutes later. “I am going to have to insist that you visit two by two.”
Natasha and her Tony stood up quickly. “That means we should be the first ones in there. Sorry guys you are going to have to wait a bit longer.”
Charlene murmured. "Tell her we are out here, please."
When Natasha entered the room, Deidra was propped up on the bed; she was still in her blood stained tracksuit.
"The doctors say that Marcus isn't dead."
"Yes." Natasha answered her, a
pproaching the bed softly. "Deidra remember when you told me a few weeks ago about a car that was following you?"
"Yes." Deidra nodded and then held her head. "It was the same dark gray car that drove after me this morning, only Marcus was right there." Tears seeped down her eyes. "He could have died."
"Describe it for me again," Natasha said, taking out her notepad.
"It was gray like slate gray, and heavily tinted. It looked like a Toyota Corolla, one of the older models. I couldn't see who the driver was, because of the tint." She sniffed. "It came out of nowhere."
Detective Tony spoke up. "Deidra, is there anybody that has a grudge against you, anything that you can remember?"
Deidra shook her head. "No. I already told this to Natasha when I called her a couple weeks ago. Two weeks after I came back to school, I felt this feeling that I was being stalked. I even went to Taj about it. He thought I should contact the police, so I did."
"I asked Victor Humphrey at the station to check it out," Natasha said to Tony. "He said he did not see any dark gray cars around here."
Tony grunted. "This person must have felt some sort of animosity toward you. Think Deidra, is there anybody at all who would want to hurt you."
Deidra closed her eyes. "I can't think of anybody. I went away for the summer and when I came back I had this sensation of being watched."
Natasha sighed and patted her hand. "We'll get to the bottom of this; try not to worry. I wish that I had done some investigating from the beginning myself. Maybe this wouldn't have happened."
"I need to know more about Marcus," Deidra said anxiously. "The doctors said that he was not awake and that they had no idea when he'd wake up."
"That's all we know too. We have to go now," Natasha said soothingly, "Your sister and Micah are waiting to see you."
Deidra nodded and inhaled shakily.
Practice Run (Mount Faith Series: Book 5) Page 7
