The Darkest of Shadows

by Lisse Smith

  “Lilly?” His voice shook.

  “Lilly isn’t here right now, but I’d like a moment of your time, if you’re not too busy,” a man’s voice said over the phone.

  Lawrence wanted so much to kill him right at that moment. “What the fuck do you want?” A score of CIA agents swarmed around him, trying to listen to the conversation, but he pushed through them to get more room.

  “Lilly is a lovely name for such a beautiful woman,” the voice went on.

  “You touch her, and you die,” Lawrence hissed back.

  “Oh, I’ll do more than touch her. I’ll kill her, and make it long and painful, unless you do exactly as I say.”

  Of course, there was always that. “What?” Lawrence asked quietly.

  “You are going to accept the offer on Lane Cove.”

  “What the hell?” Lawrence exploded. “This is all about a fucking business deal? Jesus Christ, you can have the thing if it’s that fucking important to you.”

  “That’s very generous of you,” the voice said quietly. “But it doesn’t really work that way. And besides, I need you to accept the deal, because the others won’t sell unless you do.”

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  “It’s a shame you weren’t so reasonable when the offer was made the first time. It would have saved us both a great deal of trouble.”

  “Where is Lilly?” Lawrence asked.

  “She will be returned to you when the papers are signed for all four of the offers.”

  “That will take time,” Lawrence protested.

  “Then I suggest you get moving. You wouldn’t want me to get bored and take out my frustrations on your pretty little woman, now would you?” Then the call disconnected.

  “How long?” Lawrence asked one of the men, as he struggled to control his rage. “How close are you to finding her?” How long does she have to be with that man?

  “Ten minutes, sir.”

  Lawrence nodded and sat down beside Henry on the lounge.

  “She’ll be OK,” Henry assured him. “You can’t ask for better people to get her back.”

  Lawrence knew that, but it didn’t make it any easier to sit there and wait. It was the longest, most harrowing ten minutes of his life, and it gave him a startling insight into the life that she lived every day. He only had to get through ten minutes fearing the worst; he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to know your worst nightmares had already happened.

  Phillip Marlow, one of the brightest minds in the CIA, sat down beside Lawrence and spoke very quietly and calmly to him. “They’re at the location.”

  Phillip had an earpiece in that was clearly relaying the operation through to him, because he continued his commentary. “They didn’t take her far. They got her in a car and drove downtown. There are three people in the car—four, including Lilly. She appears calm at the moment, maybe unconscious; they can’t get close enough to determine. There are two men in the front seat and one in the back with her. They aren’t paying her much attention, just waiting in the car.”

  It was easier when he talked, Lawrence thought. Phillip was such a calming strength. There wasn’t anyone else he would trust more to get her back than the men in this room.

  “The snipers are in place.” Phillip rested a hand on Lawrence’s shoulder. “The order has been given to take them out; they’re not going to try a ground assault with Lilly in the car. It will be quick and clean.”

  Lawrence held his breath for a minute, longer, however long it took for those shots to be perfect, for the precise moment when the three men in that car died. He wished he was there to see it.

  “It’s done.” Phillip said quietly.

  Lawrence turned his gaze to meet his friends, the question clearly in his eyes.

  “Lilly is with Charlie,” Phillip said finally. “She’s safe.”

  A knot of hard steel loosened from Lawrence’s chest. “Thank you.”

  Lawrence placed a hand on Phillip’s shoulder. “Anytime.” God, Lawrence hoped not.

  “I have to go.” Lawrence shot up from the lounge and, with a nod of appreciation to Henry and Felix, he and Frost left the room.

  Lawrence called Charlie as soon as they were in the car. “Take her to the apartment,” he ordered. A moment later, he was again on the phone, this time to a friend of his, Craig Evans, who was a surgeon at one of the hospitals in New York.

  “Lawrence,” Craig answered. “Is everything all right?”

  “Can you come to my place?”

  “Sure. I’ll be there in ten.”

  Lawrence and Craig had built a strong friendship over many years of hospital fundraising events. Lawrence was a long-term supporter of the hospital, and Craig was the only one he would trust to take care of Lilly.

  Lawrence beat them all back to the apartment. Craig arrived a few minutes after him.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, coming into the room and giving Lawrence a thorough look.

  “It’s not me,” Lawrence responded. “My friend. Lilly.” His voice shook over her name. “It’s a long story. She should be here in a minute. I just need you to make sure that she’s OK.”

  “All right.”

  Charlie came in a moment later, and wrapped tightly in his arms was the still form of Lilly. She was barely visible through the blankets wrapped around her body.

  Lawrence leaped forward and took her out of Charlie’s arms and walked into the bedroom with her, the others following.

  “She hasn’t spoken since I grabbed her out of the car,” Charlie offered. Both he and Frost stayed against the wall, their part in this over.

  Lawrence laid Lilly down on the bed, her body limp, her eyes unfocused and lost. “Lilly?” He smoothed the hair back from her face and kissed her on the forehead. “You’re safe,” he whispered, and sat down beside her on the bed.

  Craig moved over to sit on the other side of the bed. He picked up her wrist and felt for her pulse. “I need to know what happened, Lawrence,” he said quietly.

  Lawrence was silent for a moment as he struggled to get the words around the knot in his chest. “Someone drugged her and then kidnapped her. Held her for ransom.”

  Craig reached out and rested a hand on Lawrence’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I.”

  “Her pulse is strong,” Craig said. After a few more quick tests, he added, “I need you to leave, Lawrence. I need to check her over, to make sure that there are no injuries we can’t see.”

  Lawrence knew what he was saying. He needed to make sure that they hadn’t raped her. Without a word, Lawrence, Frost, and Charlie left the room, but they only went as far as the hall outside her room.

  It felt like a long time, but eventually Craig let them back in the room. Lilly was sleeping on her side, wearing one of Lawrence’s shirts.

  “She’s fine,” Craig told them, and all three of them relaxed some of the strain from their bodies. “She isn’t hurt, just in shock; and with the drug still in her system, she’s a little out of it.”

  “She’ll be OK?” Lawrence asked.

  “She’ll need a while to recover. It was a pretty terrifying thing, and she’s only just coming back to herself.”

  “Did she talk to you?”

  Craig nodded. “I might have lied and told her that I was your friend.” He smiled a little to lighten the mood, “So if she remembers later, you have to back me up on that. I gave her something to knock her out. It should last a good twelve hours so don’t be surprised if she sleeps away most of the day. It will do her good to heal a little before she has to face reality again.”

  “Thank you,” Lawrence said sincerely.

  “It’s what friends are for,” Craig responded. “I’ll be back tonight to check on her. Just give her time, and she’ll be fine, Lawrence.”

  He was familiar with giving Lilly time, so that shouldn’t be too difficult to manage.

  Thirteen

  I had a strange hollowness to my head when I woke, and it took
me a long moment of quiet before the events of the party came back to me in all their shattering clarity.

  I flinched against the images and the fear that rushed through me, and my abrupt movement disturbed Lawrence, who lay beside me—and that startled me even more, because I hadn’t realized he was there.

  “Shhh, Lilly. Baby, I’m here,” he crooned softy, his arms tightening around me. I surged up out of his arms and scuttled across the bed to sit against the headboard, my legs curled up against my chest. I held onto them to stop the shaking that rocked my body.

  “Lilly,” Lawrence said evenly, from where he sat on the other side of the bed, but he didn’t make an attempt to come any closer. “I’m so sorry.”

  Why is he sorry?

  I was confused and disoriented. I remembered bits and pieces of what had happened, some hazy and some horrifying; but in all that, I couldn’t see anything that was his fault. Maybe there were bigger gaps in my memory than I realized.

  “What time is it?” I whispered the words.

  “It’s nine-thirty at night. First of January,” he said.

  “I don’t…” I faltered over the words. “I don’t understand what happened. I don’t remember.”

  “You were kidnapped.” Lawrence explained. “The people who wanted to buy the casino took offense when we rejected their offer and decided to use you as leverage. My friends at the party, they arranged to get you back.”

  “I remember being in a car.” I had disjointed memories, confusing memories.

  “The snipers took out the people in the car with you, and then Charlie grabbed you and bought you back here.”

  “OK.” Those pieces I could place in some sort of order.

  “My friend, Craig, he’s a doctor,” he added. “I asked him to come here this morning and check on you. He gave you a sedative to help you sleep. He’s coming back tonight to make sure you’re all right.”

  He must have been the strangely peaceful man I remembered. That was all I needed to put the whole picture together in my head.

  I remembered too clearly the fear and confusion that I felt when I realized that I was being taken, and I remembered the horrifying vision of blood when the snipers took their shots. I remember the numbing effects of the drug on the cloth that they kept putting up to my mouth and the pain that I felt deep inside me at the thought of not seeing Lawrence again.

  But overshadowing all that was the joy that I felt at the possibility that I might see them again. That this might be the end for me, and that it might be time for the agony to end, my time to join them in eternity. I’m not sure if I was more terrified of the kidnapping, or of the fact that I had so nearly gotten to the place I had been seeking all this time.

  “Lilly?” Lawrence’s hesitant question finally drew my attention. I moved my gaze up to his face and saw him for the first time.

  He looked frightened, and that wasn’t an emotion that I was used to seeing with Lawrence. Nothing affected him, especially not fear. He was scared for me, for what had happened, and I was sure that he blamed himself for all of it.

  That wasn’t right or fair. I was OK, if a little shaken and confused. I wasn’t harmed, and I was sure nothing like that would ever happen again. One thing Lawrence was not, and that was slow to learn. I would never be in danger like that again.

  I pushed everything to the back of my mind, where I had learned to store all the wrong things in my life. I was good at it by now and found that it came easier this time. In reality, what Lawrence didn’t understand was that what had happened, according to my scale of horrible things, didn’t even really rate. It was minor, and definitely more easily forgotten than many other things in my past.

  I scooted across the bed and threw myself into his arms, burying deep within the warmth of him and feeling once again that safeness that only he seemed able to give me.

  “I’m so, so sorry,” he breathed again and again into my hair, his arms like bands of steel around me.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” I told him. “I don’t blame you. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “I’m not going to ever let you out of my sight,” he told me. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I warned him. “You can’t stop the world from hurting me. Even you can’t manage that. Things happen, and as long as you are there to pick me up after, then I think I can live with what life throws at me.”

  “I’ll always be here,” he promised. I realized a little too late that I had come to see Lawrence as a permanent fixture in my life. I should have been terrified by that thought, it should have been beyond my comprehension, but I think what made it alright, was that I knew, deep down, neither of us was really looking for a happily ever after. We were good together; it was as simple as that. I didn’t love him, and I was pretty sure Lawrence was incapable of loving anything except power; and that worked for both of us.

  I was still wrapped in his arms when Craig found us a little while later. Lawrence was sleeping, so I spoke quietly so as not to wake him. “Hello, Craig.” He was wearing faded jeans and a light sweater and carried a small bag. He looked tired.

  He managed a warm smile as he sat down next to me on the bed. “I wasn’t sure if you would remember me.”

  “Only barely, but Lawrence told me about you, too.”

  “You look much better.” He touched his fingers to my wrist to feel my pulse.

  “I am, mostly,” I admitted. “I have lots of blank parts in my memory. Whatever they made me breathe kept knocking me out, and it left me kind of numb the rest of the time. I think Lawrence is more traumatized than I am.”

  “Lawrence cares deeply for you.”

  “Lawrence is an extraordinary man. He’s also extremely patient and very persistent.” I smiled in amusement.

  “He is that.”

  “He is also trying to sleep.” Lawrence’s rumbling voice interrupted. “Must you be here now, Craig?”

  “Just checking up on my patient.”

  Lawrence was quiet while Craig finished my exam, taking the time to explain to me the effects of the drugs that they’d given me and the one that he’d used to help me sleep earlier. He finished off by giving me a small bottle of sleeping tablets, with instructions to only take them if it was absolutely necessary.

  “OK.” Craig stood up from the bed, offering a hand to Lawrence. “I expect you to bring her to meet me in better circumstances than this, Lawrence.”

  “Sure,” Lawrence agreed, returning the handshake. “I promise to bring her to every hospital function, so that you can have loads of time to get to know her.”

  “I look forward to it.” He grinned. “See you, Lilly.”

  “Bye, Craig.” I had difficulty getting the words out because Lawrence got busy trying to distract me in the most pleasant of ways.

  TEXT: Got into some trouble. All OK now. Will ring and explain later.

  REED: Should I be worried.

  TEXT: No.

  It took me a good hour to get Charlie to calm down and stop apologizing when I finally emerged from the bedroom the next day. Apparently he took it as a personal insult that I had been taken and he promised, so many times I lost count, that he would never allow anyone to come within ten feet of me again. In the end I had to threaten him with physical harm if he didn’t shut up.

  “It wasn’t your fault, Charlie, and it wasn’t Lawrence’s fault, either,” I told them both. “So please, just stop blaming yourselves, and let’s move on, shall we?”

  I’m not sure if they actually stopped with the self-recriminations, but they did at least stop talking about it.

  Lawrence called Walter while I was showering and ordered him to sell his stake in the Lane Cove Casino. When I told him he was stupid, he just shook his head and said that regardless of its value, he wanted nothing more to do with that project.

  He also needed space from New York. For the moment, he wanted to be anywhere but there, with the memories it held, so later t
hat day we flew back to London. There, more than anywhere, felt like home for me, and Lawrence wanted to lay low for a while.

  We didn’t go out for the first few days when we were back. Lawrence seemed reluctant to expose me to anything beyond the four protected walls of the apartment, and I wasn’t sure I really cared enough to complain.

  “Do you think your friends will ever invite us back for another party?” I asked one evening, as we sat watching TV.

  The question was so off topic that it took Lawrence a moment to answer. “There were some seriously offended people there that night, Lilly. And none of that anger was directed at you. For anyone to think that they could invade that party, of all places, to attempt something, that was probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.” He sighed. “I’m not sure that I will ever be able to repay them for what they pulled off that night.”

  “They’re your friends, Lawrence,” I reminded him. “I don’t believe they are asking for recompense.”

  “I’m thankful, in a way, that they were ignorant enough to attempt the kidnapping when they did. If we weren’t surrounded by such a high level of security and able to call on such vast resources to find you so quickly, it scares me to think what might have happened.”

  “I don’t honesty think that they would have hurt me,” I told him. “All that you accomplished was to hurry the rescue along. You would have called your friends in due course, and they would have done the same thing, just a little later.”

  Walter had eventually unraveled the workings of the company that had put in the bid for the Lane Cove Casino; however, I’m not sure he would have been successful had not the FBI, called in as a favor to the CIA, intervened and uncovered what Walter couldn’t.

  Harrison Hartigan, a Harvard-educated businessman with a stellar reputation, had been the one behind the proposal. Apparently, unbeknown to everyone, he was in dire financial straits. He had some insider knowledge about the viability of a competitor’s casino that was in the planning stages of being built in direct competition to the Lane Cove development. Apparently the funding for the other project wasn’t adding up, and there was a good chance of the investors pulling out, which would leave the Lane Cove Casino a very large slice of the market. Its value would triple as a result.