Rich Love

by Zoe Adams

  Fine, thin dust was slowly getting kicked into the air. Susanna turned to Sam. “I really like this part,” she informed him.

  He nodded. “I agree. I don’t think you’ll find anything better. We can mark it off and send some guys down to cut it.”

  Sam and Susanna looked at the other two people in the group. Lawrence and Sarai had their heads bent closely together in conversation, and fidgeted their eyes up to see Sam and Susanna watching them.

  Susanna didn’t have to say anything.

  Sam had their attention quickly. “All right, people. We’re done. Let’s leave before it gets dustier in here.”

  Susanna had been thinking the same thing. It would be even more dangerous if they couldn’t see and started driving into the walls. She thought about her other senses that would struggle as well, and decided she couldn’t go without a single one.

  “Wait,” Lawrence spoke up. “There’s a cave over there. Let’s go look at it.”

  For all of his condescension, Sam was a good tour guide. He knew when to slow down and wait for the group, and when to speak up and capture their attention.

  “That cavern is very dangerous. It’s a natural sort of cave with a steep cliff in it.” Sam looked from face to face for emphasis. “This place is very, very dangerous. You must be reminded not to blindly walk off cliffs, while you’re staring at the beauty of this place.”

  The group agreed with him quickly. They all followed the expert who led them through a tall opening.

  Sam was right. The beauty of the cave left the group speechless. Susanna looked around in awe.

  She was starting to get a bad feeling. The itchiness of her old snake bite started in her right foot and travelled up her nervous system. Susanna felt a dark presence beside her and turned. There was nothing beside or behind her, but she felt a very negative force pulling away from her. She swayed slightly and lifted the back of her hand to her forehead lightly. Her face was hot, but that could be expected after the long walk.

  The snakebite on her foot ached sharply. She had experienced memory pains before, and put all her weight on the other foot, but the itching pain would not go away. She bent over to loosen the strings in her boot. It felt funny to have one boot loose, so she loosened the other one as well.

  Susanna was just ready to stand up when someone cracked the back of her head. The world flashed black as she went face down in the dirt.

  ***

  From the moment Royce stepped from his comfortable home, he had been enveloped into the organized chaos that was the wedding. George successfully diverted Royce’s attention to the tent that looked more like a ballroom. Royce took full command of his legion of assistants who moved, hammered, and prepared the structure for its celebration.

  At the end of the first hour, Royce stood alone under the finely shaped evergreen trellis. The greenery was only awaiting fresh flowers. He considered the woman who would be standing there beside him, and wondered if Susanna would always be in full bloom for him. He considered his vows and silently swore to himself that he would do everything in his power to ensure it.

  The view behind the wedding placement was just the way that they wanted it. There was a special observance to the big sky that transcended the prairie. The unending snow took on different shades of white and blue as it continued obscurely into the smoky grey hills.

  The marquee was dark blue and matched the deep shade of a snowdrift’s shadow. He was almost sad to be done with it. The last day of preparations would be completed by someone else. Royce’s appreciation was evident as he surveyed the awaiting scene of joy. His stomach growled in confirmation, and he set down tools on the table beside him.

  Under the grand entrance of sweeping chiffons and banners, Royce looked out at the loop of driveway and parking. He had done all he could to promote a beautifully smooth wedding sight. He shrugged and left the scene.

  He walked across the yard and entered the house. The house was darkening in the afternoon, and he turned the lights on. He could smell pot roast, and his stomach growled.

  He cracked open the guest room to hear his grandmother’s soft snoring. Carefully closing the door behind him, he walked to the phone. He hadn’t heard from Susanna yet.

  He checked his watch and got that good feeling about Susanna having the other timepiece. It had only been an hour, and he wondered if it was too late to meet her at the mine.

  Susanna had insisted on driving her own car, instead of taking the helicopter. Royce shook his head and smiled to himself. He decided he was just in time to catch the last end of the tour.

  Besides, it wasn’t normal for him to eat alone. His warm wife’s hot dinner was forgotten as he quickly made a phone call.

  “Get the helicopter ready. I want to leave right now.” Royce hung up the phone and stomped out of the cozy house.

  He walked toward the bird that was just starting to rotate its wings. He had a sudden bad feeling inside and his stomach knotted up.

  George and Jennifer were already waiting strapped in their seats. Royce climbed up the step and slammed the door behind him. He tried calling Susanna’s cell phone, and only a replica of her voice picked up, every bit as sexy as her bedroom voice. “Hi, this is Susanna. I’ll call you back if you leave a message, bub-bye.”

  Royce had never heard her voicemail before and thought he might have to call back again, just to listen to her. Then he realized the synthesizer of her voice being recorded was a betrayal of the parts of her he liked the most. He choked on his thoughts and hoped he never had to hear her pre-recorded voice again.

  He tried to call Lawrence, and there was no answer. He tried calling Sarai, and she didn’t answer either.

  He did better than call the goldmine. He called Superintendent Billy Stevens’ cell phone. The phone was answered in three rings.

  “This is Billy,” he answered over the loud sound of machinery.

  “Hi, Billy, this is Royce Blackwater.” He reluctantly waited for recognition.

  “Mr. Blackwater, what can I do for you?” Billy knew which side his bread was buttered, and the sound of machinery was fading out.

  “Is my wife still there?” Royce realized he had slipped on his preemptive name calling, but there was nothing he could do about it but smile.

  “Yes. She’s still in Shaft A,” Billy confirmed.

  “When did she go down?”

  There was a pause. “She just went down five minutes ago.”

  Royce smiled to himself and decided he would surprise her. “Don’t tell anyone I’m on my way.”

  “All right, I’ll wait for you,” Billy answered patiently.

  “I will be landing my helicopter in twenty minutes. I’m bringing three other people with me as well.” Royce didn’t wait for an answer and hung up his phone.

  “Get this bird going, max speed,” Royce said to the front of the cabin.

  They arrived at the mine quickly, and he jumped out, followed by George and Vinny.

  Jennifer would do what she always did when left alone with the helicopter. She would circle the vicinity until they were ready to leave. This way she wouldn’t need a bodyguard, and the helicopter would be safe.

  All the stress from the last few months had fallen on him heavily. He should have known better. Here he was trying to figure out if someone was against him, and he had left Susanna almost alone as an easy target. At least Royce knew where she was, but there was no comfort to be found in the news.

  The helicopter lifted into the sky, but did nothing to lift his spirits. There was a chance that Susanna was just fine, but he wouldn’t be able to put his uneasy feeling to rest until he was sure.

  Susanna’s Range Rover sat frostily in front of the main building. Royce had only been to the mine a few times, and grimaced at its old façade.

  He quickly walked under the eaves of the old building’s protection. It looked just as dreary as his first time there, when it had been closed for a few years. The overhead lights dimly bestowed a setting of sec
urity guards and various workers. Royce walked up to the superintendent.

  “Anything new?” Royce asked nonchalantly.

  “No one in or out since you called,” Billy replied.

  “Good,” Royce answered. “You will escort us down into the shaft.”

  He didn’t wait for approval. He cut past the security team and stepped into the side office and quickly donned the safety gear and hard hat.

  Royce, Vinny, and George stepped onto the elevator together. The superintendent backed an electric truck onto the lift and remained seated in the cab and called someone on his walkie-talkie. Someone somewhere pushed a few buttons and the elevator began its descent. It was too slow for Royce’s comfort, and he forced himself to pace his breathing.

  He had numerous plans for the goldmine and chastised himself silently for not having achieved one of them yet. This being in love business had certainly dimmed his business sense.

  The elevator came to its determined stop, and the chain-link barrier opened. The men stepped onto the hard floor and looked around. A few lights lit up the area and showed sputtering generators and fans. There was no one on this level of mine, and Royce didn’t know if he should be relieved or not.

  Billy drove off the elevator and waited for the other men to climb aboard the truck, then they began driving down the tunnel. It didn’t take long to come across the other parked trucks from the earlier expedition.

  Royce looked into the trucks and couldn’t find one trace of Susanna or her comrades. He hoped the uneasiness in his stomach was owed all to his imagination, but just in case, he thought it better to keep the element of surprise.

  He looked at his companions heavily. “From here on we will keep silent.”

  The men nodded in agreement, before walking around the parked vehicles and heading down the tunnel. They walked in pairs, and it didn’t take long to hear voices. Royce immediately recognized the two arguing voices, and his heart dropped.

  “We should just dump her off the cliff.” It was the voice of Sarai.

  “No, that wouldn’t work. Then Royce would want to see the body, and who knows how much longer we would be in this stink-hole city.” Lawrence paused, then offered his own solution. “I say we arrange a rock slide that produces a limited amount of survivors. You, me, and maybe Sam. Yeah we will have to keep Sam alive so that arrogant prick can corroborate our story. I am so tired of pretending to be a complacent city boy.”

  Royce could not believe what he was hearing. But the only way he could believe it was through hearing, and it settled on him like a flood. A jumble of emotions came upon him in unequal portions of rage, disbelief, and good memories turned bad.

  He knew he should be relieved at knowing who his traitors were, however painful it was to have his two closest assistants conspiring against him. These two had seen his bachelor life and could easily compare it to his newfound happiness. And they were against him?

  Then another thought stuck in his throat. How many times had they plotted against, or done away with someone close to him?

  All these feelings turned into one motivation as a new clarity dawned. He would do away with these two, and then he would be able to breathe again.

  Royce walked bravely into the cave. He didn’t bother surprising them or being quiet. As soon as he entered, he started talking. “I’m so glad I found you guys,” he said truthfully, but with daggers in his eyes.

  He didn’t stop moving as his eyes picked up details of the room. Susanna and Sam sat back to back with a large rope around them. Both of their heads were drooped forward in a helpless state.

  The amount of venom coming from Royce could have curled any human into a ball. Lawrence tried to look unconcerned but failed miserably.

  “How could you do it?” Royce’s darkness fell over his eyes like the iron curtain. “How could you betray me?”

  Lawrence held his head spitefully and showed no remorse when he uttered, “We don’t want things to change. We want our good-timing friend back.”

  Royce was quiet for a time as he considered every angle of the situation. “You are jealous of me.” The stark realization took some of the weight out of the situation, and he looked at the soft pair in a whole new light. “It is too bad, and it is embarrassing that this is what I have to show for my side. My side of the wedding full of my side of family and just as importantly, my friends.”

  Royce looked at Lawrence disbelievingly, “I mean, come on, after all this time together as friends, you would do this to me, just to keep things from changing? You’re a groomsman in my wedding.”

  Lawrence’s teeth shimmered in the miners’ light as he spat out his excuse. “Precisely. You are choosing to marry her and live here in the middle of nowhere. You’re not meant for this life, and neither are we. Just be glad I decided to stand up against it before the wedding rather than in front of a church, or I mean before you marry her in a field of cow pies.”

  Lawrence and Sarai laughed.

  Royce clenched his jaw, and his fists balled up. He punched Lawrence hard on the left cheek. “I guess I won’t have to keep you pretty for the wedding now.”

  He laid a few more well placed punches. “Maybe I can find a way to keep you ugly and beat up permanently. Hey, I just got a good idea. You can get a new tattoo. It will be the word traitor, and it will be tattooed to your forehead. That way everyone will know not to trust you.” Royce looked up from his jabbing. “Hey, Susanna, should we press charges against him for trying to kill you?”

  His voice had gone from light and airy to heavy with the question. He didn’t wait for a response from her. “It just makes me furious to think of. How can I think of it?”

  Royce jumped on Lawrence’s chest and punched some more. With his newfound rage, his men decided to intercept the beating, and Vinny and George each grabbed one of his arms.

  “That’s enough,” Vinny said.

  George’s approach was better when he said, “Susanna is still unconscious.”

  Nothing else could have diverted Royce’s attention half as well. The traitors would be dealt with, but first priority would always be Susanna.

  Chapter 20

  Infinite Progression

  Susanna sat alone at a bistro table that was usually shared. One solitary thought kept forcing itself through her head, and that was Royce. She wasn’t worried about the wedding march or what followed. She was only preparing for another long day with him. She took a sweet sip of coffee, but the serious look on her face remained.

  Everything with Royce carried a high level of commitment. He had won her over to his sort of things by his excitement and acceptance of life. The wedding was no exception. He had done all of the planning, and the only thing he had not put his hands or eyes on yet was Susanna’s dress. He had laid ears on it and asked what shape and color it was, so the room matched, but that was all he had supposedly learned of her dress.

  Susanna had only planned for her own attire to be comfortable enough to keep up with Royce, but all of his questions had gotten her more excited about it. The dress was a symbol. He may have seen all of her, but he hadn’t seen all she could do yet. The dress was a token that she would be perfect for any assuredly overdone event he could bring her way. His excitement that morning had been an unexpected nugget she stored away for some day’s bright memories.

  Lingering in her little house, Susanna prepared for the wedding. The special day was turning into a myriad of emotions. She looked at the wall clock and found reassurance in time’s resolute march. She painted one tapered fingernail at a time, and the red tips highlighted a very excited hand.

  Her first wedding had been nothing like this. Nerves needed to be cooled, and she eyed the neatly lined bottles of liquor. Ice cubes clanked into a tumbler, and amber liquid tucked in the drink. Susanna took down the double, and the glass jangled in its emptiness.

  Her solitude was gone when her friends arrived with flutters of hugs and gifts. They crowded into her closet and clamored over the dress. Detai
led lace showed acres of flesh along her back and chest. Underneath the sheath of lace, taupe and white silk were sewn together in all the right places. The women squealed over the dressmaker in Paris who had yet to meet his match.

  The front door opened. Susanna stopped mid-sentence when she recognized Royce’s familiar gait. There was a mad rush to hide the dress from his curious eyes, and her friends helped keep the surprise.

  “Good afternoon, ladies.” He crossed the room in a powerful stride.

  Royce expressed his eagerness to marry Susanna by searching her mouth with his tongue. The other women scolded him for his lack of custom by seeing the bride before the ceremony.

  He would not be deterred and whispered into Susanna’s ear, “Again and over and over, I would marry you.” He released his bride. “I brought you a wedding gift. Something I hope you’ll wear later, because it is supposed to snow.”

  Royce valiantly bent her over and stole another kiss from her shocked lips. He walked proudly out the door without a backward glance, and the door swung shut resolutely behind him.

  The women giggled and sighed as Susanna walked to the box he had left on the table. A large red bow was removed and the lid was lifted.

  Something made of beautiful white fur was nestled inside, and she lifted it out slowly. It was shaped like a fur shawl and draped succulently to her elbows and waist. She put it on, and the room gasped. Turning in front of the mirror, and side-to-side, she realized it would be the perfect accompaniment to her dress. Pinned to the front was a note. She read it quietly to herself before reading it aloud to her friends.

  “Susanna, of all the things to give you on our wedding day, I know you would not want something big, shiny, or new, so instead, something old, brought from home just for you. With Love Forever. Royce.”