Serenade

by Heather McKenzie

  I watched the sun come up until I fell asleep at Old Carl’s desk. I woke with a killer headache, so I had the kitchen bring me scotch and a sandwich, then napped again. When I dug into a plate of biscuits and a steaming mug of tea, the old boy finally decided to return to the security room late in the afternoon. He wasn’t happy to see my crusty old cowboy boots on his desk and the gun beside them covered with crumbs. His withered face turned into a scowl. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his grey pants, he eyed me irritably. “What the hell are you doing, Stephan?”

  The computer video feed was off, but I knew he would understand exactly what I was talking about when I got straight to the point and asked, “What’s her name?”

  “Who’s name?”

  “Kaya’s mother.”

  “Uh, excuse me?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Carl. The name of the woman on that security tape you were watching—the resolution is quite good on your computer screen, by the way—you know, the woman you dragged down the hall, bound and gagged. The woman Henry stole a baby from?”

  Carl’s haggard face suddenly seemed older, if that were possible. His eyes narrowed until they almost disappeared beneath the fatty folds around his eyes. “You’ve been waiting at my desk for over twelve hours to ask me that?”

  I nodded.

  With a heavy sigh, he closed the door to the security room and slid the dead bolt into place. “Kaya’s mother is Rayna Claire Gless,” he said clearly.

  The cold metal room suddenly seemed suffocating. “Rayna Claire Gless, eh? Well, let’s chat for a bit about her, shall we?” I said, motioning for him to sit down in an old chair that groaned under his weight. “Enlighten me on a few things. What happened to her—to Rayna? Where did you take her? Is she dead?”

  Carl lit a cigarette with an old lighter that had seen better days. “Dead? Hell no—I took her to stay with an old fishin’ buddy. Henry wanted me to get rid of her, but I couldn’t do it. So, I hid her instead.” He casually blew circles of smoke in the air like everything he said was no big deal.

  I ran my hands absentmindedly through my hair, stomach now not happy with the biscuits. “Why?” I asked, pretending not to be shocked that the jerk was offering up the information so easily.

  “Henry got Rayna knocked up, so she took refuge here in the hotel during her pregnancy. She was married to some nasty politician at the time, and Henry went to incredible lengths to make her disappear…” Carl’s mind wandered off for a moment, and the cigarette ash grew to an alarming length. “Lenore was pregnant, too. She carried the baby to term, but it was stillborn. Henry, always the opportunist, replaced his wife’s dead child with Rayna’s—a two-week-old baby girl she’d named Kaya. Dr. Ennis made everything look legit on paper.”

  Dr. Ennis. The sly prick had just given Kaya a checkup a few weeks ago. I shuddered. “Well, that certainly was convenient, wasn’t it?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “And evidence of all this is right there in your pocket.”

  “Yes.” Old Carl dropped what was left of the cigarette into a coffee cup. “Listen Stephan, I have lived with guilt over this for a long time, patiently waiting for the day to get back at Henry for the horrible things he has done and for the horrible things he has made me do. I hate him, loathe him, and detest him with every fiber of my very being. And now you can see why—he’s a monster.”

  “So let me guess… you assisted the bastards who kidnapped Kaya to get back at him, right?” I asked, becoming increasingly angry at the entire world.

  “Yep. But those Right Choice Group idiots won’t hurt her. You have nothing to worry about, I promise.”

  “Nothing to worry about? Did you know she’s pregnant?”

  Carl’s brow lifted like a missing puzzle piece had fallen into place. “Huh. I guess Henry’s little plan worked.”

  He knew. The growing knot in my stomach tightened, and I wanted nothing more than to rage through the halls, find Henry, and wring his wretched neck. I felt my hands shake, my guts roll, and Carl grinned at me like I’d just joined his ‘I Hate Henry’ club.

  “Listen, Stephan, I promise you Kaya is okay for now. The RCG are a bunch of bleedin’ hearts and not interested in killing her; it ain’t in 'em. I’ve known the guy leading them around by the nose for a very long time.”

  “You put her in the hands of criminals who intend to use her to bargain with Henry for God knows what, and then they’re just going to hand her back?”

  Carl grinned. “Well, not exactly… but hey, for now, she is fine.” He pulled his fishing cap lower over his eyes. I stared at him, speechless and repulsed. “Listen. I need you, Stephan. Things will go a lot smoother with a spy in the house. I have a good, solid plan in place and can get you a fair cut of the deal. When it’s done, you could run away with that boy from the kitchen you’ve been having an affair with all these years—maybe go somewhere warm and tropical. What’s his name? William?”

  If Carl thought his knowing I was gay was bribe-worthy information, he was sadly mistaken. “All I want is for Kaya to be safe,” I said furiously, “and you have proof she isn’t of Marchessa bloodline and Lenore isn’t her mother. That takes the bounty off her head. She could finally have a normal life and get away from Henry and raise her child wherever she wants without living in fear. That tape in your hands is her freedom.”

  Old Carl waved me off. “Ah, shut up, Stephan. Sometimes you are such an idiot! I stand to make a fortune off this! Besides, I’ve got orders to follow. I’m not running the show.”

  “Who is?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  And then, in the din of my horribly sober mind, it all became crystal clear: RCG. Rayna Claire Gless… The Right Choice Group.

  “It’s her—Rayna. She’s got you wrapped around her finger.”

  Carl rose from the desk and furiously swiped away a stack of files, sending them flying in every direction. He was so mad that I half expected him to pull out the gun he had secured to the back of his pants and blast a hole through me. “She loves me! We would’ve had a life together if it hadn’t been for Henry! Rayna wants her daughter back, and damn it she will have her! It’s time to make things right. Now that we have Kaya, we can watch Henry squirm as we use his own kid to bring him to his knees and take everything he cares about. And once we’ve bled him as much as we can, we will sell Kaya to John Marchessa for a butt load. That will be the final blow to crush him.”

  “She will end up dead!”

  Carl’s nostrils flared, and he looked me square in the eye. “Then so be it.”

  We stared each other down until a soft beeping sound broke the silence. Old Carl bolted to his assistant’s computer. “The tracker is working again. Damn it! I’ve spent the last two days misdirecting Henry’s men on the ground and making excuses to not to dispatch the entire army to find her.”

  Neither of us wanted Henry to find Kaya, but our reasons were completely different.

  I picked up my gun, blew off the crumbs, then cocked the trigger and pointed it squarely at Carl’s chest. I had to make a decision: was Kaya better off being found by her insane father? Her revenge-seeking mother? Or… should she stay lost with the kidnappers whom Carl claims would never hurt her?

  I picked lost.

  “Disable the tracker and hand over that tape, Carl.”

  “Ha! Nope. You gotta get in on this, Stephan. How 'bout half a mil as your cut, huh? Take Wee Willy on a cruise; he’d like that. All you gotta do is—”

  I realized I had never felt so calm. “Hand that tape over now, or I’ll shoot you, Carl,” I sighed.

  “I know you. You won’t do it,” he said smugly.

  He was testing me. Not the right choice. I warned him again. I told him if he put the tape on the desk, I’d let him walk away. He laughed. So I shot a bullet into his thigh.

  Carl reeled back in shock, eyes wide as he fell back onto his butt. “Holy shit! You’re an asshole, Stephan! I can’t believe you did that!” he g
asped as crimson red soaked his pants.

  “Why didn’t you just listen to me, you old bastard?” I said, feeling a smidge of remorse as the old boy squirmed in pain. Guards had gathered outside the bulletproof glass. They ordered us to unlock the deadbolt. “All is fine!” I yelled as they shook the door.

  But it wasn’t fine. Carl had tipped his old lighter to the edge of a garbage can, setting fire to the papers inside. “Nobody gets this,” he said, and then he dropped Kaya’s freedom into the flames.

  I dove for the tape, but the old bastard was faster than I anticipated and sent a bullet through my shoulder. It shattered the bone, blinding me with pain. When I refocused, I looked up to see flames leaping out of the metal can and Carl grinning as he fired at me again, this time hitting me just above the knee. Blood poured from my leg like a fountain. Alarms went off. The metal door was shaking. I pointed my gun at the computer to make sure nobody would see Kaya’s location, and sent a few rounds into it before falling to the floor.

  The world was starting to spin. Carl had fallen unconscious under the window and fire was licking the curtains next to him. I yelled his name, but he didn’t move. I watched in horror as the fabric above his head burst into flames, and then his hair disappeared as his old fishing cap melted. Smoke filled the room and unbearable heat stabbed at my skin as I crawled on my belly toward the exit. The heat intensified when the door came down.

  I was dragged from the inferno. Carl wasn’t so lucky.

  We were gathered on the porch of a ranch house that had been in Seth’s family for generations while a doctor examined Kaya. The sun was about to disappear between the gentle curves of the mountains in the distance, and the green, flat pasture, munching cows, and patches of sunflowers surrounding the old house would soon be lit only by the moon and strings of porch lanterns swaying in the breeze. A few Elm trees rustled, but that was the only sound for miles. It felt like the calm before the storm.

  We all waited.

  Oliver sat at the opposite end of the porch on the whitewashed boards, staring at me with pure hatred in his eyes. He had intended to slit my throat only hours ago, yet I didn’t feel any anger toward him. Jealousy? Yes… When Kaya practically melted into him on the plateau, it was obvious how much he meant to her. But other than that, I felt completely neutral where he was concerned. Maybe it was from the exhaustion I was experiencing on every level, or because the most important real estate in my brain was occupied with worry about Kaya, or, maybe, because in many ways, I could relate to how if felt having her taking up the majority of your thoughts.

  Seth sipped beer and chain smoked, Davis fought sleep on an old swing that threatened to break under his weight, and Regan sat in a recliner with his leg elevated, so heavily medicated he could barely speak. Then there was Lisa, my pretty ex-girlfriend, holding my little sister on her lap and lovingly petting her head while Brutus snored at her feet.

  It was a sight I couldn’t get enough of.

  I asked Louisa if she still liked bunnies, and her blue eyes widened in fear. She was different, wary… untrusting. I wanted to explain to her why I had been gone for so long, but she trembled with fear when any attention was directed at her. When I tried to pick her up, she screamed.

  Another hour passed.

  Regan’s redheaded brother Ellis, the one who had been in charge of giving Kaya the fake map at the race, wandered outside and onto the porch with mugs of coffee and plates of sandwiches. I’d been so filled with worry I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. The food and beverages were instantly depleted by four starved men, and Lisa ordered Ellis back into the kitchen to make more.

  And still we waited.

  The sun disappeared, and the moths came out to dance around the porch lights. The wind died down completely, and the stillness of the night stretched my sanity to the breaking point. I couldn’t take it anymore—I had to see her. I had to know if she was okay.

  I bounced up and out of the plastic lawn chair and moved toward the door.

  “Hey!” yelled Lisa, “the doctor ordered everyone to stay out, and you’ll damn well listen to her!”

  Oliver stood to block me, eager for any reason to start another fight.

  “Whoa!” said Davis, jumping to his feet and putting his hands up between us. “I’m way too tired for any bullshit from you assholes, all right? Besides, there are more sandwiches coming—”

  As if on cue, the porch door opened, but it wasn’t Ellis with food. It was the doctor, and the answer to my immediate question was written all over her face.

  “Sit down, boys,” she said in a tone befitting someone used to giving orders. She brushed nonexistent dirt off an expensive-looking dress and looked down her designer nose at every one of us. “So, who was the father?” she asked.

  The word was, although spoken quickly, was not missed.

  “Me,” said Oliver.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but Kaya has miscarried,” the doctor said matter-of-factly.

  I jumped to my feet as a collective moan of grief escaped from everyone except Oliver… he almost looked relieved. Lisa wagged a finger at me to sit back down.

  “She really should be at a hospital where we can x-ray her arm,” said the doctor.

  Oliver spoke up for us all. “No. It’s not safe for her there. You have to trust us on that,” he said.

  The doctor rubbed her forehead in dismay and quickly gave up on the subject—she had been paid very well to overlook a few things. “Kaya has sustained many injuries, and I’ve tried to treat them all. She needs to heal physically and mentally from whatever it was she went through.”

  I tried to distract myself by counting the geese roaming the yard because I felt my eyes tearing up.

  “She has asked to be left alone for a while,” the doctor said, addressing Lisa, “and you seem to be the only level-headed one of this bunch—no offense to the rest of you. So, no one but you is allowed to see her for a day or so… okay? Oh, except someone named Davis. She has requested to see him right away.”

  Davis burst from the swing before anyone could protest and disappeared into the house. The screen door squeaked and bounced off the wood frame behind him.

  The doctor turned to me. “Are you the one who pulled her from the river?” she asked.

  Oliver’s eyes bore into me from across the porch. “Yes,” I answered with a gulp.

  “That was insane what you did to her arm, but good call. She would have bled to death if you hadn’t cauterized the wound. Anyway, I’ve been told that you have some injuries as well that need to be tended. Apparently an animal attacked you?”

  My God. That seemed like a lifetime ago. “Uh yeah. But really, I’m fine Doc, thanks. Just a few scratches.”

  “I need to assess you, and it’s not optional,” she said. “Besides, I have some questions. Kaya’s wounds have healed remarkably fast, and I need to know what you did to her out there… exactly.”

  Oliver’s glare became so intense I half expected to burst into flames—maybe getting away from him for a minute would be a good thing. I stood and the doctor eyed my bloody clothes and black eye.

  “Camping trip, my ass,” she said perceptively.

  We all looked at our feet.

  Soon, Davis came flying out the door and back onto the porch, his cheeks red, his eyes glassy. He was vibrating with the energy of a man on a mission. “Hey there, ferry boy,” he said pointing at Seth in a rather comedic gesture.

  “Uh, excuse me…?” Seth said, clearly offended.

  “That’s was you, right? You’re the ferry dude from the race?”

  “Oh, uh yeah,” Seth admitted with a smile, “but maybe you could just call me Seth.”

  Davis cleared his throat, “Well, Seth, I need metal cutters, vice grips, pliers, a hacksaw… and maybe some protective eyewear if you’ve got it.”

  Seth looked at him vacantly, and then he laughed, stomping his cigarette out and leaving a long, black smudge next to many others. “Hell, I got that and more. It’s about t
ime we got that damn thing off her leg now, isn’t it?”

  I slept like I was dead. At least, it’s what I’d imagined it would be like—empty, blank, and without dreams—like how I figured life would be without Kaya.

  I woke up on a couch in the massive, dusty living room with the curtains drawn and the afternoon sun trying to squeeze through and illuminate the macabre deer and elk heads hanging next to the fireplace. In front were two plaid chairs that looked like they had seen many restless nights. Last I remembered, the doctor was sitting in one, hovering over me and asking a thousand questions. She wanted to know about how I got each wound, the hot spring, and the medicine I had on hand… but all I could think about was Kaya. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. I had tried to be a good patient, but I was losing my mind with worry and unable to lie still. At the end of her exam, she put something under my tongue that knocked me out. That was fifteen hours ago.

  Standing up was agony. Every muscle in my body ached and downright throbbed; even my hair hurt. I leaned against the back of the couch for a minute, and then I followed a large hallway toward the sound of muffled voices. I stopped at a slightly ajar door when I heard Kaya and Louisa laughing, the sound making all my achy parts tingle. I held my breath and peeked into the room to see Kaya propped up in bed surrounded by a zillion pillows and Louisa May nestled in beside her. Both of them looked clean and shiny with color in their cheeks. Louisa was grinning madly as Kaya read to her, and both of them giggled. The two people I loved most in the world were together, safe and happy in each other’s company—just the thought made my knees so weak I had to steady myself against the wall.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” whispered Lisa from behind me. She was holding a plate of cookies and her hair was pulled into her ‘I’m in charge’ ponytail. “Hey, they are okay, Luke,” she added when she saw the look on my face.