The pregnant lady tilted her head around the joke before reaching across the table for Angeline’s plate. Snatching an untouched fry, Terri brought it to her lips with a laugh.
“Under protest,” Terri said. “You are getting too skinny.”
Angeline smiled even as she knew that she was barely eating. He father had also taken note. She couldn’t tell anyone why she was going without.
“I can fix that,” Angeline said.
She took her sandwich in both hands, chewing and choking down the turkey and gouda doused in lettuce and mayo. It tasted like cardboard, but Angeline swallowed a small bite as she pushed her plate aside.
“Will power!” Terri said. “I envy you, Angeline.”
Terri didn’t know the half of it. Only some. Angeline liked it that way.
“So,” Angeline said. “What’s the name?”
Terri blushed and bit into her burger.
“You know I don’t want to know ahead,” Terri said.
“Of course. It’s more fun that way.”
Terri dabbed her lips with a napkin and smiled.
“So fun,” Terri said. “We’re doing the nursery in yellow. So it’s good either way.”
But Angeline couldn’t help but lean towards layettes in blue.
“So… if…”
Terri starred to protest as Angeline threw her hands into the air.
“Just wondering,” she said. “If it’s a boy, if it’s a girl. Terri…”
Angeline took hold of her hands and smiled.
“You should have a plan either way.”
Terri laughed as she lowered her eyes.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I have ideas.”
Angeline sat back and waited.
“So let me hear it.”
Terri brought another mouthful of fries to her lips before she answered.
“Okay,” Terri said. “A girl? June.”
The month when she had met her husband. It was simple and obvious. But it was sweet. If she had the chance, Angeline might have named her imagined child May. Girl or boy. She found Kane at the start of spring. It would have felt right.
“June,” Angeline echoed. “I like it. A boy?”
Terri blushed.
“Eli Jr.,” she said.
Made sense. If she had brought Kane’s son into the world, she would have wanted that boy to have his name. Now that wasn’t happening.
So…
“Love it,” Angeline said. “The best.”
The waiter returned with an offer of brandy in their coffee.
“Yes please,” Angeline said.
Terri waved him off as she rested her elbow to the table.
“So you never told me,” Terri started. “What happened with his boss or whatever?”
That was how Kane saw him, and Angeline followed suit when he darkened her door. It quite literally turned it black. Noel’s words meant that Kane was gone. And Angeline was numb when he took her. Showering like mad failed to erase his touch. And it didn’t bring Kane back.
“It doesn’t matter,” Angeline said.
Terri laughed.
“Doesn’t matter?” Terri asked. “Okay.”
She twirled her blonde hair around her fingers and smiled.
“Even now that he’s back?” Terri asked.
Back? That didn’t…
Angeline looked at her friend with wide eyes.
“Why would you say that?” she demanded.
“I…. Just…”
“He’s never coming back,” Angeline said. “And screw you for saying anything else.”
The color left Terri’s face. Angeline expected an apology.
But there was something else.
“I mean… I mean you do know. Right?”
She knew that he was gone. That it was her fault. And she’d have to live with that. Whatever Terri thought she knew…
“Terri, what the hell are you talking about?” Angeline asked.
Reaching into her purse, Terri brought up the most recent news feed. Scanning through the fluffy bunny photos and the terror of heads sliced overseas, Angeline settled her gaze on a small item in the corner.
“Let me help,” Terri said.
Bringing the picture into focus, there it was. One Kane Peters was released, and the words below his picture were followed by a litany of how drugs and gangs were so very dangerous. Angeline scanned he words carefully, but her eyes settled on Kane’s image. Mug shot or not, it was still Kane, and she fixed her eyes on the digital print.
How could this be true? Why would Noel… Had he lied? Angeline’s mind raced towards a way to make things right even as the reality sank in.
“Oh my God,” Angeline muttered. “He’s… Kane is…”
Terri ‘s lips turned up, and Angeline went into a rage.
“Why are you smiling?” Angeline demanded. “If it’s true, then…”
Terri caught Angeline’s wrist in her hands. Her hold was strong, and Angeline saw no point in struggling.
“Honey, relax,” Terri said.
Angeline felt Terri’s hands, but her friend’s words made no sense. Kane was not free, could never be free. If he was, if somehow he had transcended near death, he would have wasted no time getting back to her.
“Is this a trick?” Angeline asked. Terri loved to joke. Angeline had even played along when Terri told Eli that triplets were in their future. Eli nearly collapsed, but Angeline held him steady and smiled.
Now Terri pulled back and swiftly shook her head.
“I’m not, playing,” Terri swore. “But I… I just thought you…”
Again Kerry pressed her phone to Angeline’s face. And there was Kane and the reality of his release. But Noel had painted a very different picture. So…
“No,” Angeline said. “It can’t be true.”
She wanted nothing more than for this strange turn of events to be her new reality, but her heart fell. Taking hold of the phone, Angeline stroked the image of Kane’s face. Even through the screen, her body tingled at just the sight of him, and she nearly gave over to the possibility of getting him back.
But why would Noel lie?
“It’s a hoax or something,” Angeline said as she turned the phone to the table and pushed it back to Terri.
“Angeline—”
“I know what I know,” Angeline said as she started to pick at her food. Terri watched her for a long second before taking her hands.
“His boss,” Terri said. “Or whatever. What really happened with him?”
Just thinking about it made Angeline sick.
***
Noel White laid her out on the bed and straddled her weak, whimpering form. Angeline had been too spent, too sad to even try to fight back. She just took it and tried to pretend that he was Kane, finally returned to her. But Kane never touched her, never would have touched her like this. Angeline could have been anyone as he released inside her.
But then it went beyond the climax.
As soon as he was finished, Noel pulled out and zipped up. Laying a cruel kiss on her brow, running his hands through her curls, he finally patted her cheek as he started for the door.
“Sorry, babe,” Noel said. “Really.”
Straining up on her elbows, Angeline watched his hand coil around the doorknob. She felt filthy, wanted him to just go. But then he glanced over his shoulder and cocked his head to the side.
“If you’re ever lonely again,” Noel said, “You know where to find me.”
He started back into the room, and Angeline hurried towards her pillows, wrapping the quilt around the body he had defiled.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t touch me again.”
Ignoring her, Noel lowered his body to the edge of the bed. He reached for her face, and Angeline sobbed as his finger worked its way around her eyes. Now that it was sinking in, the loss of Kane, the truth of what she had done, what she had let Noel do, Angeline swore to herself that she would fight if he tried it a second t
ime.
“I’ll bite it off and spit in your face if you try to touch me again.”
Wherever Kane was now, he would be proud.
With a grunt, Noel tapped her cheek, and his touch lingered around her hair. He moved closer, inhaled her scent before he backed off and headed towards the door.
“I kind of get what he saw in you,” Noel said as he stood framed by the open doorway. Shaking his head sadly, he peered into her eyes.
“Such a shame,” Noel said. “But life goes on, right?’
Angeline couldn’t breathe until he was gone. Slowly, she moved to the front window and relaxed when she saw his bike gone. But as she brought her hand between her bruised thighs, touched her swollen flesh, Angeline knew that she was ruined in every way. Maybe it was better that Kane couldn’t see her like this.
***
“Holy shit!”
Terri’s voice pierced through Angeline’s waking nightmare, and she stared into her friend’s face.
“What—?”
“Angeline, that tool played you,” Terri continued. “Set you up like a leaf in the wind just hoping that you’d go quietly.”
Considering the words carefully, Angeline realized that she had never even allowed herself to imagine the possibility. Kane had sworn that Noel was his friend. And he had told her that he’d have eyes on the outside looking after her.
Did he mean Noel’s eyes? Did Kane know what he would do with them?
“Check, please.”
Angeline paid the bill and hauled her friend to her feet. As they entered the car, Angeline knew where she was going. And she had to get there fast.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Her memory clicked into gear.
There was the pass beyond the bridge, the factory coming into view, the snake with its bleeding mouth.
Angeline was forced back to the first time that she had seen it.
***
She wore a blue dress, her curls high over her bare neck. Brent was sleeping with a full stomach, and Angeline waited on a lonely porch.
He wasn’t coming. He had lied. She was nobody’s fool, least of all his. Better to get to bed and forget him…
In what felt like a split second, Kane was there. He brought his bike to a stop and hopped off the seat. Lifting his helmet, Kane held out his hand, winking as he smiled.
“So we going for a ride or what?” Kane asked.
Mounting the bike, Angeline forgot any fear as the leather pressed into her thighs. As he revved up the motor, Kane reached behind his back and took her hand in his.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Under her own helmet, Angeline still felt the whip of the wind brushing against her face. Kane weaved through the streets with the force of a hurricane, and as she gripped his waist tighter, she began to understand the appeal. It was as close to flight as anyone could come without boarding a plane, and as she tossed her head back, the brightly lit streets passed before her in flashing, unformed waves. What must it be like for him, to control their journey with the skill of a shooting star that raced through the heavens, knowing just where it was meant to land?
She made a quiet wish that, some day, he would teach her how.
“Come on,” Kane whispered on arrival. “Just want to show you off.”
He lifted her off the bike, she smiled as she nodded.
“How do I know you won’t sell me out for a pack of smokes or something?” she teased.
Her sweet, bad boy.
Kane’s hands surrounded her arms.
“No gonna happen,” he said. “’Cause once you’re inside, you’re mine.”
While she didn’t relish the notion of being property, it felt right if he held the deed.
Still…
“And if anyone looks at you the wrong way…” Kane started.
Angeline felt sure and brought her hand to his face.
“Don’t you think that I can take care of myself?” she asked.
He kissed her neck and whispered.
“Isn’t it better when I do it?” he answered.
He had to be in charge. Here, on his turf, she would let him. But later, when they were alone, she would show him all the ways in which she belonged on top.
And that was the best place to be.
***
“This,” Terri asked. Demanded. “Are we here?”
Angeline recognized the spot on sight and nodded.
“And you still want to see if he’s here, right?” she asked.
If he was free, alive, there was nowhere else that he would go. Noel had to be here, too, and Angeline knew that she’d have to deal with her transgression.
But to just see him again…
“Absolutely,” Angeline said.
The door opened on the stench of smoke. Just at it been when she first passed through. But then she had Kane’s firm around her waist, and with his touch. Steeling herself for battle, Angeline looked for him now. She saw Waldo, Ben, a bunch of other men who had slapped Kane’s back and congratulated him on his new old lady. Angeline remembered how she had blushed at the term, but then Kane pulled her closer with a whisper.
***
“What’d I tell you?” he said. “All mine.”
“Yes, sir,” she teased as they stepped deeper into the breach.
Someone offered Kane a beer; Angeline was quick to ask for one of her own, and the boys cheered when she chugged with the rest of them. In many ways, this was the most refreshing date she had ever found herself on. No laborious small talk, no one asking her what she did or what she might do. And Kane had been right; these guys weren’t all bad, and when she bested Ben at a game of pool, her conquest seemed complete.
“Nice,” Ben said to Kane. “Girl is alright.”
And she felt that, all the way. Sure there was the man with a scar, the man she would learn was Noel, lurking in a corner until she was on her third bottle, but when Kane ushered her to his side, she smiled widely and took his hand like a man.
“So I hear you’ve looked after Kane for a long time,” Angeline said, wrapped in Kane’s arms and cuddling close to his chest.
“That’s right,” Noel said, his voice think, his eyes wary.
“Well,” Angeline started, the buzz enveloping her brain, “Thanks for keeping him intact for me.”
The boys whooped and whistled, and Noel stepped forward. Avoiding Angeline’s eyes, he stared hard at Kane.
“You gonna let her talk about you like that, kid?” Noel asked with a trace of menace in his voice. The room fell silent, everyone waiting for what Kane would stay. Angeline started to speak when Kane pulled her closer.
“She was talking to you, man,” Kane said.
On cue, Angeline pressed closer to him. Taking him in her arms, she kissed him deeply in the presence of his friends, and the silence was broken by cheering hollers. As their lips parted, she narrowed her eyes at Noel and winked.
“And that was for him,” Angeline said.
Noel was slow to smile, but he finally slapped Kane’s back, as his eyes lingered on Angeline’s face.
“Best keep an eye on this one, boy,” Noel said.
“No doubt,” Kane answered.
Noel lit a cigarette and walked way without another word. Something about him brought a slight turn to her stomach, but like Kane said. She had him here, and that was everything.
***
Now she only had Terri. Looking at her wide belly, Angeline wondered if bringing a pregnant woman to this place was the best of ideas. She could go into labor at any moment, and they were miles from a hospital. Add to that, she couldn’t really be sure if the boys wanted her back. After all, she was why Kane was taken away from the fold. But it had been his choice; he must have told them that. Growing bold, she moved to Ben and smiled.
“Long time no see,” Angeline said.
Ben seemed uneasy, like he didn’t know what to make of her presence. But if Kane was alive, he would tell her, and she would find him.
“He
y, Angeline,” Ben said. “What brings you to these parts?”
He sounded strange, like her being there was right and wrong in the space of the same second. If Kane was dead, what real reason had she come to back? If he was alive, what had taken her so long?
SECRET BABY AT THE ALTAR Page 5
