Eternity

by Teresa Federici

  “Anna, I feel that I brought this on you. I shouldn’t be pursuing you as I’ve been, and I think that what happened last week was a direct result of that.” His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, and full of pain. My heart broke at his words and his sadness, but they confused me all the same.

  “Gareth, I think that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard you say since I met you.”

  I spun back around to look at him, catching the look of shock that crossed his features.

  “Nothing that is between us has anything to do with the break-in. That’s just, just illogical!” I walked up to him, and he tried to back away but was brought up short by the tree and its massive pot. I reached out and poked him in the chest, jamming my finger. What the hell did the man bench press, small cows? It was like poking a steel drum.

  “You don’t understand what’s going on Anna, and I would just rather keep it that way.” He recovered from his momentary shock at my words, and pushed my finger away from his chest, bruising my hand slightly with the force of it.

  I rubbed the side of my hand absently, staring at him intently. I still couldn’t see his eyes, due to the sunglasses, but just as I knew he had been shocked a moment ago, I knew now he was chagrined.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “If you won’t tell me what’s going on Gareth, and how you think the break-in is related to us, well, with whatever is going on between us, then I swear to you I will find out on my own.”

  “Could you please just leave it alone? And there is nothing going on with us. Not now, nor will there be again.” His words were harsh, his tone harsher. I flinched at the emotion behind them, but refused to move from where I effectively had him blocked.

  “Just like that, huh? You can toy with me as long as it’s convenient for you, but it’s no longer convenient for you, so you blow me off? Seriously?”

  I could feel my blood boiling, feel the anger replacing the fear, and I wanted him to feel it too.

  “I wasn’t toying with you, and it’s not about convenience. God, you’re so stubborn. Why can’t you just forget it?” he threw up his hands in frustration and I didn’t think, just rushed into him while he wasn’t paying attention.

  I stood on the tips of my toes and it still didn’t make me tall enough to kiss his mouth; I kissed his chin, his neck, wherever I could reach, and he stood motionless, not even attempting to push me away. Only when I tried to put my arms around his neck did he finally move, and it was to grab my arms and hold me away.

  He looked at me, and I could see my face reflected in the lenses of his glasses, my sadness mirrored in the faint outline of his eyes behind their darkness. His mouth twisted as he spat the words out.

  “I can’t do this Anna. I should never have started this. It’s not ethical.”

  He glared down at me as best he could with the sunglasses on and I snorted. Surprise replaced the glare; he was definitely not a man used to having someone argue with him.

  “You’re going to spout ethics at me now? After last week? Please, who’s being stubborn now?” I was in full anger mode. I could feel my face flushing with heated blood, my heart pounding like a jackhammer.

  “Last week was just another in a string of mistakes I’ve been making when it comes to you.” He yanked the shades off his face so that I could feel the full force of his gaze, the anger sparking in them, almost concealing the sadness he was trying so hard to hide.

  I knew he was lying, knew he was trying to convince himself that he didn’t want me, the same way that I had been trying to convince myself that I didn’t want him. I hoped he was losing the battle with himself, as I had.

  “You don’t mean that, you know you don’t. Why can’t you be honest with me?” I was still angry, but I lowered my voice, tried to sound pleading instead of antagonistic.

  He stared down into my eyes, the light glaring off of them giving them a reddish cast.

  “I am trying to be honest with you, but you don’t want to hear me.” He growled, grabbing my arms again and giving me a hard shake. Keeping my composure, I glanced down at his hands on my arms, making a show of it, turning my head slowly from left to right.

  “Don’t touch me in anger.” I said, quite matter-of-factly and he dropped my arms as though scalded.

  “I’m sorry, but you need to understand that this can’t. Go. On.” He spit out the last two words through gritted teeth. “From now on, we have a strictly professional relationship.”

  Without another word of explanation, he pushed passed me, his long legs carrying him away from me. I stood there, not even watching him go, jumping a little when he slammed the door behind him.

  I made it through the rest of the day, but just barely. I couldn’t concentrate, which seemed to be a constant state for me lately, and I barely got any work done. With the horror of remembering the break-in and my attempted murder, and the persistent image of Gareth, my brain refused process anything more strenuous than freshman Biology.

  Making sure that I left with the last person out of the lab at 6:30, I went home, to my empty house, and for once in the two years that I had owned it, I wished for someone to be there when I got home. To my surprise, I wanted that someone to be Gareth.

  I wondered at his capacity to stay away. Something was between us, but I didn’t know what.

  I went back to my office, intending to put my purse down, when I noticed that my computer was on. I had turned it off this morning and shut the lid, I was sure of it. It was something I was religious about.

  Now it was on. My dancing hamster screen-saver was playing, the music sounding harsh through the blood rushing through my ears. My vision wavered for the second time today, and I bit my tongue hard to clear my head; I did not want to pass out.

  Something caught my attention, a white rectangle next to my mouse pad. With a trembling hand, I picked it up and stared at the snarling tiger embossed on the expensive vellum. Whatever it was, it wasn’t mine.

  I had to get out. Whoever had been here could still be here.

  I turned and moved as quickly as I could through the house and back into the garage. I pressed the button to the let the door up and bolted outside as soon as I had clearance. I ran to the street, where I expected to see my new best-friends, but the police car was nowhere to be seen.

  I spun around to look back at my house, now threatening in its darkness. I had left only the living room light on and the garage had an automatic light with the opener, but even as I looked, both lights blinked out.

  The other houses on the block, as well as the streetlights, went dark, which meant that the power had gone down. I could see a faint glow from the street lights in the next block over.

  I hadn’t heard a transformer blow, but something had caused the power on my block to go out.

  I stood indecisively in the middle of the street, debating going back into my dark garage and getting my jeep, or just calling the cops from the middle of the street. I suspected the power outage had something to do with my computer being on. Someone had come into our high-security lab and gotten through my password protected computer and stole research from me; that same person then attempted to kill me while I was running for my life. What would stop him from hacking into my personal computer and shutting down a small block in a small town?

  I dug my cell out with shaking hands and punched in 911. When the operator came on, I calmly explained what had happened, and she reported the power outage and informed me she was sending the cavalry; Dr. Macgregor’s request if I had ever had the occasion the call the police.

  She also reported she couldn’t contact the car that had been outside my house.

  At her words, uncontrollable shivers ran through me, and I sat down in the middle of the street, a quivering bundle of nerves. I had no idea where everyone was, where my neighbors were. It was only a little after seven, and even though it was dark out, someone should have come out to investigate, at least I thought so.

  “Ma’am, please
stay on the phone with me until the police get there.”

  I gave an uneasy laugh, my eyes rolling around in their sockets, searching the shadows for furtive movements, trying to look everywhere at once.

  “I will gladly stay on the phone with you, though if someone comes after me, I don’t know what good it’ll do.”

  I listened to her as she spoke back and forth with the cars that were on their way, until I could hear sirens wailing in the distance.

  “Ma’am, are you in your house?” her voice came through the line again, directed towards me.

  “No, I am sitting in the middle of the street.”

  “You may want to move to a safer place, the police will be there any moment, and you don’t want to get run over.” Her attempt at humor astounded me, but with a slightly hysterical laugh, I managed to get back on my shaky legs and cross to the other side of the street opposite my house and plop back down on the curb.

  Just before the first police car came sliding around the corner, I noticed furtive movement at the back of my garage, and a figure darker than the surrounding shadows emerged from around the side of my Jeep. Like a wraith, it slipped out the garage door and slid silently around the side of my house.

  “Oh my God, he was still in my house.”

  “Ma’am, stay where you are. Don’t move. The first car should be right there.”

  It was, along with a second and a third; the town cavalry. Pulling in behind all three was a black Range Rover.

  Chapter Seven

  The sound of screeching tires and sirens wailing finally brought the neighbors out of their darkened houses, some clutching bathrobes, others putting a restraining hand on excited children.

  I watched through eyes filled with tears as the police dashed out of their cars, guns drawn, and ran toward my house. The operator must have relayed what I had said about someone being inside.

  “Anna!”

  Gareth fell to his knees in front of me, taking the phone gently from my hand.

  “Are you ok?” he asked as he grabbed my cold hands and started chaffing them.

  “Gareth, what is going on?” I wailed as I collapsed into his arms. He had no choice but to catch me, or else I would have ended sprawled on the asphalt of the road.

  After this morning, I expected him to get away from me as soon as possible, but to my surprise, he switched places with me, taking a spot on the curb and pulling me onto his lap. It was exactly where I wanted to be.

  He cradled me in his arms, my head on his shoulder, and I cried. I was becoming unhinged, my nerves and mind pushed to their absolute limits. I was sitting on my boss’s lap, on the curb outside my house, in my darkened neighborhood, while police searched my home for an intruder. I had been shot at and injured, my computer hacked. All this in less than a week.

  “What happened to your police guard? Were they here when you came home?” he asked as he cupped my face with one hand and looked down into my tear-streaked face.

  “I…don’t…know. I’ve,” I swallowed past the tears clogging my throat and tried again, “I’ve gotten used to them so I didn’t pay any attention. My mind was on other things.”

  He used a shaking finger to wipe tears from the left side of my face, the bandage on my cheek having absorbed the tears on the other side.

  “Gareth, what’s happening? Why is this going on? What am I working on that someone wants so badly?” I searched his eyes, looking for an answer in their false brown depths.

  “It’s a competitive industry, Anna. Every other lab wants to know what their competition is doing, and some stoop to very low places to find out.”

  He was watching me for my reaction to his words, and although I knew what he was telling me was the truth, I didn’t think that’s what was going on and I also didn’t think he believed what he was feeding me.

  I looked away from him, across the street to my house where I could hear the officers calling to each other that the house was clear.

  “They’re going to come over here any minute Gareth, and I would appreciate the whole story.”

  In the safety of his arms my shivers had subsided so I crawled out of his lap, his arms falling to his sides as he let me go without a fight. Bringing his knees up, he locked his arms around them and looked away from me.

  “I have a special project at the lab, top-secret, and whoever was behind the break-in probably thought that you were working on it.”

  I could hear in his voice that he was really trying to convince me and himself of his words. Something was telling me he wasn’t giving me the full story. I could sense that in his tone, almost like I had a sixth sense that detected bullshit.

  “Gareth, my life is apparently in danger. Don’t you think that I should know the whole story?” He swung his gaze back to me, and I fought the urge to stumble back as my hand fell lifeless to my side.

  He had looked at me many times since I had met him; sometimes he looked at me with regret, sometimes with sadness, almost always with hunger, but never like this. His eyes were tortured, haunted, and they stole my breath away with the depth of pain radiating from them.

  “Anna I- I can’t! I will protect you with my life, but I can’t tell you what is going on!” His voice was a harsh whisper, his eyes darting to where the police were standing. I followed his gaze and saw they were turning in our direction, preparing to come over and question me, I presumed.

  I turned back to look at him, his eyes still tortured, pleading with me silently to let it go. I shook my head, knowing he would understand that I wouldn’t let it go. This involved me, damn it, my life was in danger!

  “Dr. Greer, Dr. Macgregor.” One of the officers spoke, but Gareth and I were like two statues, frozen in place, our gazes locked in silent battle. I heard someone clear their throat.

  “Dr. Greer? We need to know what happened.”

  Gareth looked away first, turning his head to the side again and I was disappointed in him that he had given up that quickly.

  With a sigh I stood, turning to face the officer that was speaking. He was short, shorter than me, and had a kind face.

  “I’m Officer Stevens. Can you tell me what happened when you came home?” His brown eyes were sympathetic as he asked his questions. I gave a complete history of what had happened when I came home.

  “Is this what was left next to your computer?” he asked, holding out the white vellum card.

  “Yes, that’s it. He must have left it behind…” I trailed off as Gareth stood abruptly from the curb, his eyes locked on the card.

  “This was left in your house?” he asked, his voice strained.

  “Yeah, do you know what it is?” His reaction puzzled me, but considering that Gareth was one big walking enigma to me, I was not surprised that he seemed to recognize the card.

  “I know that it’s a calling card, but not from whom.”

  He gave his answer too quickly, too smoothly; I don’t think Officer Stevens picked up on it, because he seemed to take Gareth’s words at face value. I caught it though. It seemed my bullshit meter was working full strength tonight when it came to Gareth.

  “Well, we’ll take it and see if we can get any prints off of it.” He broke off as his radio crackled out a stream of codes. Gareth’s eyes tightened, as if he recognized what the codes were, his whole body tense.

  “We have officers down.” Officer Stevens ground out, his voice urgent. He pointed at two other officers. “You two stay here. Dr. Greer, I’ll be back in touch tomorrow.” With a nod, he hurried back to his cruiser, the other officers following suit, leaving me, Gareth, and two extremely young-looking cops standing there stunned.

  “Is it the other two cops? The ones that were watching my house?” I asked Gareth, knowing he knew the answer. He nodded tersely, his eyes darting quickly up and down my block. The two younger officers shifted nervously, mimicking Gareth, their eyes wild.

  These poor kids, I thought to myself. Cops in a small New Hampshire town didn’t run into this sort of thing
.

  “Are they ok?”

  Gareth looked to the officers left with us, the crackle of their radios a harsh static in the cold night air, and shook his head slightly.

  I brought my hand to my mouth to smother a gasp, but I wasn’t giving anything away. I could tell from their faces as they listened to their radios that they were getting the full story, although I couldn’t make out but one word in three.

  “…down…throats…cut…blood…ambulance…”

  Gareth reached out and steadied me as I swayed on my feet. Who wanted me so badly that they would kill cops?

  “Why didn’t he kill me when he had the chance?” My voice matched the tremors that were running through me again, and he pulled me into his embrace.

  “I’m staying here with you tonight. You can’t be alone.” He whispered fiercely, his breath harsh in my ear, and I could just nod. The tears came hot and fast, bathing my face and drenching his coat, sobs wracking my body.

  “You’ll be okay. I promise you that.”

  I wanted to believe him, wanted to put my faith in his words, but he wouldn’t tell me what I was facing, and that made even the iron safety of his arms feel as insubstantial as the cold wind blowing down the street.

  I sat curled on the couch, my knees drawn up to my chest. I stared vacantly into the fire that Gareth had stoked, events of the past couple of days whirling through my mind.

  Gareth was in my kitchen, brewing tea, and I took the time to think. If I dwelled only on the threat to me, focused only on what was happening to me, then I would never get any answers. He knew what was going on, he knew who left the calling card, and I would bet my salary that he knew who broke into the lab.

  This was something bigger than my research on a mutated gene. I hadn’t even told anyone besides Gareth what I was looking for, and I never even got the chance to tell him the whole theory.

  I glanced up as he came in the room, a cup of tea on a tray along with milk and sugar in his hand.