My family is going on vacation this week so the blog post will be a special excerpt from our story. Enjoy!
Alex
The warmth of the afternoon sun
shook the slight chill from Alex’s cheeks, as she opened her still heavy
eyes. Bright beams of winter sun were
fighting to penetrate not only the windows glass but the tight space between
the two brownstone buildings. As a shaft
broke through the pane, into Alex’s eyes, she rolled across the crisp pillow
case away from its intrusion, her gaze falling on the deep scarlet woodwork
surrounding the bed. Her sleep muddled
mind clutching for semblance of her drowsy thoughts.
Where am I?
What happened?
The flood of
memories brought on a headache as she saw the past twenty four hours appear
like a power point in her mind. She
rolled back toward the window, pulling the sheets more tightly around her chin.
The ringing of her cell phone began creeping under the closed door of the
bedroom. With an exasperated shove of the covers, Alex extracted herself from beneath the blanket. A smack to her forehead sent her confusion
with the sound of her phone into realization. She had left her shoulder bag at
the foot of the stairs when abandoning her too large luggage. now she
contemplated whether or not she cared enough about who was calling to drag
herself down the stair case to answer it.
The perky tone
from the first floor ceased and she collapsed back onto the bed with another
reverberating groan. A small black alarm
clock on the window sill blazed crimson numbers into the lightened room. 4:00,
that should mean something to her but the sleepiness of her rude awakening
slowed her efforts to uncover it. She forced her body into a cross legged
position on the mattress once more. It was late
afternoon. The lack of light along with her complaining stomach reminded her
that the last thing she’d done before this nightmare began was an overload of
caffeine. As the details of the night
before regained concreteness, her thoughts flew in a panic to the ignored
phone.
Alex jumped to
her feet turning toward the door only to find herself standing in front of it,
still closed. Charles was probably frantic now, wondering what had happened to
her, where she was, if she had even come. As her own heart pulsed its protest
with adrenaline, she scowled at the doorknob, letting her hand slide from its
glassy surface to fall at her side. Good… She thought, turning her back
to the door and claiming a large terry towel from the pile in the trunk. It was
about time he worried about her. He
deserved to feel a little of that terror that had burst her dam of tears all
over Jay.
“Maybe the call
was Jay,” she whispered.
She shook her head, discarding the
thought. Jay would not be worried about anything except waking her up. He wouldn’t
be calling. He’d gotten her here, safe. His constancy a force looking out for her before she ever got on that plane. Charles hadn’t managed to rouse
himself from his drunken stupor long enough to even send one of the cars from
his father’s fleet to find her.
Draping the towel over her arm, Alex grimaced.
With a defiant lift of her chin, she ignored
the call.
The gathering warmth
of the fireplace and the day’s offering of light met her in a firm embrace as
she emerged into the hallway. Her hesitant steps searched the various doors
along the narrow corridor.
She found a small white bathroom
decorated with red and black soap and candles. Alex entered and hung the Terry
cloth on a wrought iron towel rack. Her toes retracted from the bite of the
cold, checkerboard tile, reminding her of the change of clothes and toiletry
bag she left downstairs. The faint ring of her phone laid her head against the
door. , She leaned her forehead against a silk robe hanging on a hook at the
top of the door,pale cream colored fabric stroking her furrowed brow. The
battle began once again, over whether or
not she could go down for her clothes without finding the phone to check her
missed calls. Her fists balled at her sides as she straightened with a
scowl.
“I’m not going
down there until I’m good and ready.”
The sound of her voice echoed her to a
frazzled start in the porcelain space. After stripping off her
clothes, she turned the hot shower on
full stream. The soothing vapors from its cascade filled the small room with
relaxing steam. Sounds and worry became lost in the vaporous haze of warmth and
release that soon washed tension down the drain.
Jay glanced at the clock on the phone’s
display before answering the falseness in the caller’s question.
“No, Charles.” He said with sweet acid
dripping from his words. “She didn’t tell me what your plans were this
afternoon. The last time I talked to her
she wanted to get some sleep and take a shower.
I have no idea what part of that plan she is currently engaged in.”
Jay kept his voice low and hard but his face was broken
into an unrestrained smile. He could
almost hear the flames of Charles’
frustration crackling over the office’ connection.
“I thought she
was staying at your house, have you checked the rooms in the west wing?”
The curse from
Charles’ side of the phone made Jay’s grin spread over his face. “I would think
her disappearance from the largest international airport in the United States,
would send you hurling over land and sea to find her.” Charles’ shouts were
edged with hatred even as Jay held the receiver away from him. “She’s been out
of reach all day long and you’re making jokes about your own sorry lack of
amenities.”
Jay’s jaw
flinched as he clamped his teeth, the smile remaining on his lips. “I don’t
know what to tell you Chuckie, old boy. If she won’t answer your calls and I
lack anything helpful in this situation, why did you call me?”
The battle
raging between Charles’ clenched teeth ground audibly through the phone. Jay
grinned again. Charles’ voice momentarily sounded as if one of his gritted
teeth had shattered with the force of not chewing through the line. Before Jay
could irritate Charles anymore, he heard the anger in the other man’s voice become
sweet and sticky with pleading. ”I’m trusting
that your lack of concern means that she is alright?” If she’s punishing me for
losing my phone last night, by refusing to answer my calls, you could call and
explain to her why I couldn’t get to her this morning. She will answer your
call, she always does. You could convince her that it was just a
misunderstanding and give her this number so she can call me." Jay heard him take a breath,
frosting his tone. “I can go pick her
up, take proper care of her, and bring her home …with me.”
Jay choked on the
sinister murmur in Charles’ voice. He
swallowed back the bile rising in his throat as he could not ignore the
dark subtle threat. “She shouldn’t Have been left alone in New York."
"As much as you believe I deserve what I am getting, I
know you don’t believe she deserves to be frightened in a strange city”.
Jay twisted his
mouth into a sneer. “Alex is being taken care of by people she can trust. If she calls me, I will give her your number
and it is her decision to call or not from there. You can tell your own twisted lies about how
you left her, alone and terrified in the largest international airport in the
United States.”
Jay slammed the
receiver of the phone down so hard, the plastic mechanism scuttled across the
desk and bounced off the wall. Its retreat
dislodged the receiver from it’s
cradle. He burned holes through the pile of complaining plasticwith the fury in
his glare. picking up the handset, he
replaced it with a slam. His other fist crushed the New York number. He ached to just throw it onto the dirty floor
and pretend Charles never called. With a frustrated sigh, Jay pounded a
thumbtack into the wrinkled, yellow note, hanging it over his desk. “That manipulative, son of a…”
Jay pressed his greasy fingers against the
thrum of fury pounding in his head. He hated that guy, every time he smiled at
Alex Jay felt as if he was watching the dripping teeth of a poisonous snake. When Charles moved last fall Jay breathed an unburdened
breath, hoping he would not have to argue with Alex about her boy frend
anymore.
He scowled now
and picked up a brown cloth from the desk, wiping the greasy smear from his
face. She hadn’t let the long distance release her from those fangs though. Even
when he hpleaded with her to let him go. He saw in his mind’s eye now the flash
of pain in her eyes as she shook her head
at him, crossing her arms in defiance.
“He loves
me, Jay.” she insisted.
Jay felt the
selfishness of guilt burn in his chest again. Just the way it did when he
looked into her hard expression.
“Of course he
does,” he’d spit back at her. “You’re smart, fun, beautiful, good. He’d be a
moron not too, but Alex… What about all
the crap you put up with because of the selfish way he loves you?
He stopped then as her eyes filled with tears
and she seemed to crumple like wet tissue beneath his bitter words.
Jay shook the memory from his thoughts as he rose from the
chair and glared at the phone again. Turning back toward the garage, he focused
on the half finished Corvair. It was too late to say anything now, she’d have to
find out for herself. As much as he’d longed for her to feel the difference that day as he held her and she cried
over this creep. she hadn’t, and now with her so far away, he could only pray
the snake would not charm her into blindness.
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