by Dara Girard
Rebecca walked along the path between the villas, trying to strategize her next steps. An ink-black night hung overhead while tiki lanterns lit her path. But she barely noticed them. She had to figure out what was happening. She didn’t believe in curses, but someone definitely wanted to ruin her show.
“Is there something you should tell me?” came a dark voice from under the shadow of a palm frond.
Rebecca stopped and swallowed, recognizing the voice. “No.”
Aaron emerged from the shadows, then held up his hands. “Relax, I just want to talk to you.”
Rebecca folded her arms and took a step back. “Okay.”
“Do you have any enemies?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, why?”
“You know why,” he said.
She let her arms fall to her sides. “I don’t know why someone is trying to scare me. Few people know about my fear of snakes. I know it was probably harmless—”
“No, it wasn’t. That’s what bothers me most.”
Rebecca widened her eyes. “You think someone tried to kill me?”
“That’s why I’m going to ask you again, do you have any enemies? You can lie to yourself, but don’t lie to me. This was no accident. Someone doesn’t want this show to happen.”
“I don’t know why.” She touched her forehead, stunned. “Really, I don’t.” She started to walk past him. “But I can’t think about this right now.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have to pretend anymore.”
“What?”
He grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop. “You don’t have to pretend that you’re not frightened. I want you to trust me. You’re safe now.”
You’re safe now. With those words, Rebecca felt the past and present colliding in her mind. He’d said those very same words to her after he’d saved her from drowning. The tears of a remembered pain gathered in her eyes. “Why does it always have to be you?” She wiped away a tear. “Why do you always have to see me at my worst? To see me at my most vulnerable? To see me so weak?”
“I don’t see you as weak.”
She looked down at where he grasped her hand. “You can feel me trembling, can’t you?”
“Yes, that’s why I need you to be honest with me. Have you noticed anything or anyone?”
“No.”
“Is there something that’s made you uneasy?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“You.”
He released her hand, and that same look of pain crossed his face before he masked it behind a neutral expression. “I’m trying to help you.”
“I know. That’s the worst part. I don’t want to need your help. Not again. Not like this. You scare me more than anything. Being with you terrifies me because every time I look at you, I see the disgust on your face when I told you I loved you.”
Aaron glanced up at the dark sky, his shoulders dropping as if a load had been lifted from them. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you meant it.”
“What?”
His gaze fell to her face. “I thought you were laughing at me.”
“Why would I laugh at you?”
“Because everyone was at the time.” He shook his head. “It’s a long story.”
“I’m patient.”
He sighed and hung his head. “I’m embarrassed. Even after all these years, it’s still a soft spot.”
“Tell me anyway.”
He looked at his watch. “I’ll tell you after we’ve moved your things.”
“Moved my things? Why?”
“Because you’re staying at my place. Until you leave this island, I’m going to make sure that you’re safe. You’re never leaving my side.”
Chapter 9
It was strange to be back. Rebecca walked into the mansion with new eyes. It was still grand and exquisite, but unlike in the past, it seemed tinged with a lonely sadness. She walked into the living room with questions swirling in her mind. What did he mean he didn’t know she’d meant it? What was so embarrassing that he couldn’t tell her? And who hated her enough to put a dangerous snake in one of her garment bags? She walked over to the far wall and no longer saw Aaron’s diorama display on a side worktable. Instead, she saw books and statues lining the bookshelves.
“You’ve brought trouble with you.” The words came from a soft voice behind her.
Rebecca spun around, startled by the unexpected voice, and saw an older woman, with a shock of white hair and eyes like clear black glass, sitting in a large chair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you. I’m—”
“I know who you are.” She lifted a long finger. “And you have dark branches surrounding you. You’ve brought trouble with you, and if you’re not careful, someone will get hurt.”
“If you don’t want me to stay, I won’t,” Rebecca said. “I understand you not wanting a stranger in your house.”
The older woman slowly rose to her feet. “You were here before.”
“Yes, but I don’t believe we met. I—”
The woman held up her hand. “No, don’t tell me. I want to figure it out for myself.” She walked around Rebecca, looking her up and down as she did so. “You returned for love, but destruction has followed you.”
“I don’t believe in curses.”
The older woman smiled. “I didn’t say you were cursed. Open your eyes, and you’ll find the answer. It’s closely tied to you.”
The sound of excited footsteps pounding down the hallway stopped her reply.
“Is it true you’re staying here?” Brandon asked, appearing in the entryway.
“Yes, for a few days,” Rebecca said, then turned back to the woman. She was gone. Rebecca spun around in a full circle, amazed. “Where did she go?”
“Who?”
“The woman who was here. I was just talking to her.”
“I didn’t see anyone. Did my dad kill a snake?”
“Yes,” Rebecca said, trying to orient her thoughts. She knew she hadn’t imagined the woman.
“With a machete?”
“No, with a pair of scissors. He grabbed them like this and then threw them,” she said, imitating the motion.
“Wow...I wish I’d seen that. I’ll have to ask him to show me. The Green Rama snake is one of the deadliest on the island.”
“Yes,” Aaron said, coming into the room. “And it’s best to leave them alone.”
“But you killed one today.”
“How did you hear about that?” He held up his hand. “Never mind. It was foolish of me to think it would be kept a secret.”
“Dad, Ms. Rebecca was telling me how you killed the snake like this,” he said, throwing an imaginary pair of scissors. “Can you show me—”
“Another time. I have to talk to Ms. Rebecca in private.”
“Okay,” Brandon said, then left, pretending he was brandishing a machete and making his way through the jungle.
Aaron sat down and powered up his tablet. “I need to know your schedule for the remainder of your stay here.”
“Does an old woman live with you?”
“What?”
“When I first came in here, I saw a woman sitting in that chair,” she said, pointing to the now empty seat. “Then she stood up and walked around me and started saying strange things.”
“Like what?”
“That I’d brought trouble with me.”
Aaron rubbed his chin. “That’s not much of a stretch, considering all the troubles you’ve had. She’s usually right about things like that.”
“Who is she?”
“You mean, what is she?”
Rebecca’s mouth dropped open. “Is she a gho
st?”
Aaron laughed. “No, she’s a seer. She tends to see things in the fourth realm that we don’t. She’s also my grandmother. After my grandfather died, I had her come stay with me.”
“Oh.”
“Now, let’s look over your schedule,” Aaron said, returning his attention to his tablet.
“I don’t need you as my bodyguard.”
“Yes, you do.” He patted the seat beside him. “Let’s not fight about this. Sit down.”
Rebecca sat across from him so that it would be easier to study him and not be affected by his nearness. “Tomorrow we’ll do a rehearsal.”
He typed the information into his tablet.
“Why shouldn’t I have said I loved you?” she asked.
He froze.
“Did you hear what I said?”
He nodded.
“Tell me why.”
He was quiet for so long that she wasn’t sure he’d answer her. When he finally spoke, he kept his gaze lowered. “A few weeks before we met, I’d made an idiot of myself by announcing my love to a woman I’d hoped to marry, and wondered why she’d never said she loved me.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“When I say ‘announced,’ I mean half the island heard it because we were in the radio studio where she worked, and live on the air.”
“Oh, no.”
“For weeks afterward, people kept shouting ‘I love you’ at me.”
Rebecca covered her face and groaned. “No wonder you were so angry at me.”
“But I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did. I usually just walked away, but that night I lost it.” He lifted his gaze to hers. “You have that effect on me.” He set his tablet aside and walked over to her. He held out his hand. “Did you really mean it?”
Rebecca looked at his outstretched hand, then gave him hers. “Mean what?”
He clasped her hand and lifted her to her feet, drawing her close, his eyes never leaving her face. “What you said on the beach the other evening?”
Her heart jolted at the dark, sensuous tone of his voice. “What did I say?”
“Tell me I don’t scare you.”
“But you do scare me,” she said, then cupped his face in her hands. “In the most wonderful way,” she whispered, then pressed her lips to his. She meant to draw away, but he didn’t give her the chance, covering her mouth in delicious possession, forcing her to succumb. This was what she’d dreamed of all those years ago. She met his passion with ferocity of her own, letting her heart speak without words. She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her body close, delighting in his groan of pleasure.
He abruptly stepped back, and she looked at him in confusion and hurt, wondering if he was toying with her, until she heard footsteps, and Brandon appeared.
“Ms. Rebecca, do you want to see Trident’s house?”
“I’d love to,” Rebecca said, hoping her voice didn’t sound too breathless. “But in a minute.”
He glanced at his watch. “Starting now?”
“No, you can show her later.”
“But—”
“I’ll let you know after dinner. Now, let us get back to work.”
Brandon released a dramatic sigh, then left.
Rebecca fell into her seat. “You have good ears.”
Aaron sat across from her and lifted his tablet. “It comes with practice.”
“Do you think he suspects anything?”
“Don’t worry about him. Why are you sitting all the way over there?” He patted his lap. “Come and sit here.”
“I won’t be able to focus.”
He stood up and walked over to her. “But I need the practice.”
“Practice?”
He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Yes, guarding your body.”
“You don’t need to guard it so close.”
He let his hand slide down her thigh. “Let me be the judge of that.”
“Anyone could walk in on us.”
“Doesn’t that make this more fun?”
“Not if it’s Brandon.”
Aaron paused. “You have a point. We can finish this after dinner.”
“I promised to see Trident’s home after dinner.”
“That’s okay. Brandon has a bedtime.” He winked. “I don’t.”
Chapter 10
“So you’re still here,” Aaron’s grandmother said, taking a seat.
“Yes,” Aaron said. “You weren’t able to scare her off.”
“I wasn’t trying to scare her. I was just telling her the facts.”
Brandon widened his eyes. “Did Nan tell you your future?”
“How many times must I tell you that I can’t see the future? I just see the present in a different realm.”
Brandon covered the side of his mouth with his hand and whispered, “She does. I heard her one time tell—”
“Eat your dinner,” Aaron said. “It’s bad manners to spill other people’s business at the dinner table.”
“How come you ran away when I waved at you?” Brandon asked, looking at Rebecca.
“I’m sorry?” she said, surprised by his question.
“The other day you were in town and I was on my school bus and waved at you and you ran.”
“I wasn’t in town.”
“Yes, you were. I saw you.”
“If she said she wasn’t there, then she wasn’t,” Aaron said.
“But—”
“Probably a tourist who looked like her.”
“But I know it was you. You looked a little scared.”
Rebecca shook her head. “I’m afraid it wasn’t me. I rarely have time to go into town. And if it had been me, I wouldn’t have run away from you. I’d never do that.”
“It’s okay to make a mistake,” Aaron said. “They say everyone has a twin somewhere.”
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” came a new female voice.
“Aunty Candace!” Brandon said.
“When did you get in?” Aaron asked. “Have you eaten?”
“Of course not, why do you think I’m here?” Candace said, taking a seat. “Hi, Aaron, Rebecca. I hope the show is ready to go.”
Aaron motioned to the maid, who immediately went into the kitchen to get another plate and utensils. “Almost.”
“Dad killed a snake,” Brandon said.
“Why did you have to kill a snake?”
“It was in one of the garment bags.”
“You mean I left you in charge and things have gotten worse?”
“I’m looking into it. That’s why Rebecca is here.”
“Just like old times,” Candace said with a significant look.
But it wasn’t like that, Rebecca thought. So much had changed. Aaron had gotten married and divorced and had a son.
After dinner, Rebecca enjoyed listening to Brandon telling her about his school as he showed her where Trident lived. He took her to the back of the mansion and walked over to an area where a large cage jutted out of a wooden shed. It was enormous.
“They have to have a big cage so they can climb up high,” he said eagerly, opening the door to the cage and inviting her inside. “See that large branch over there? He loves to go to the top and jump off.” Rebecca was impressed with all that she saw, but kept frozen in place. She didn’t want Brandon to know that she was just a little, tiny bit afraid of being in a cage with a wild reptile.
“I didn’t know taking care of an iguana took so much work,” she said.
Next, Brandon showed her the large heater under the cage, where Trident could go for basking if he needed to. “I have to make sure I check the temperature so that inside the cage doesn’t
get too hot or too cold. That’s why he can go inside the wooden shed, if the cage gets too hot for him. And over here—this is where he has the most fun.” Rebecca followed Brandon and saw a large, hand-painted plastic swimming pool. “This is Trident’s own personal bathtub. At least once a week I fill it up and make sure he gets a nice soaking. I have to empty the water after his bath so that he doesn’t drink it. I have to make sure he gets a fresh, large bowl of drinking water every day.” Brandon spent the next forty-five minutes telling Rebecca all about what he fed Trident and how he liked to talk to him about what was going on at school. Trident was tame enough to come and sit on Brandon’s shoulder and let him pet him while she was there. When Trident slithered off Brandon’s leg and went to hide under a rock nearby, Rebecca suggested they go back to the house.
“You should come back in the fall,” he said. “You’ll really like it then. We have our festival, and it’s so much fun. It’s called the Feast of the Saints, and that’s when we have a big parade and people dress up in colorful costumes. All over the island there are lots of fun things to do, but the biggest parade is in the main city, Maureux. It’s named after one of the founding fathers of the island. He was the great-grandson of the famous pirate and helped the ingigi—”
“Indigenous,” Rebecca supplied.
“Yes, indigenous people, get their rights and develop the island to what it is today. My dad says we’re dependents.”
“You mean descendants.”
He nodded.
Later, as she opened the door to her room, she was still smiling, remembering—but the moment she walked in, she knew she wasn’t alone. The moon seeped through the blinds and reflected on a pair of ink-black shoes in the corner. Rebecca turned on the lights and saw Aaron sitting in the plush chair—still and waiting. For a moment she didn’t know whether to stay or run. Fear gripped her, but she wasn’t sure why so she kept herself rooted in place. She felt his elemental power and strength from across the room. His unbuttoned shirt showed his muscled chest, but it wasn’t a vain display. The room was warm. Looking at him again reminded her of how much things had changed, and of how little she knew him. Not the man of her dreams, but the flesh and blood man whose golden-brown gaze could be as hard as steel or hot as fire.
“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to project a calm she didn’t feel.
