Deadly Expectations (64 page)

“Sorry I swiped your knife Keith,” I said.
 
Paul just sighed.

Then I took off my shoes and socks as my foot started to throb.

“I didn’t think that would bruise.”
 
The top of my foot was darkening around a big lump.
 
I must have hit it just right.
 
“Hurts more than my back.”

“How did you do that?”

“I kicked him in the junk after he pulled my hair.
 
If he was going to fight like a girl so was I.”

“Was,” Paul said.
 
He wasn’t asking.

“He won’t bother us again,” I said quietly.

Paul sat on the tub behind me and started cleaning the cut.

“She killed him?”
 
Keith blanched.

“Yes,” I answered.
 
“I want to get the blood off and change then I’ll answer what you want.
 
It’s over now.
 
You’re safe here Keith.”

“I’m freezing you,” Paul said.
 
His voice tighter but with what I couldn’t tell.
 
Disappointment maybe.
 
Resignation.
 
“It’s going to sting.”

“I know Paul,” I said.
 
It stung.

While he was sewing me up Keith’s phone rang.
 
Patrick and Warren had taken Marie home.
 
Patrick said the place was safe so
Warren
stayed to watch from the street and Patrick was almost back.
 
Keith told him where we were and he was coming.

“He said he watched what happened … he’s upset,” he explained.

I was out of the shower and dressed by the time Patrick got there.
 
Paul had cleaned my cut a second time after I was dry and put a bandage on it.
 
Patrick brought a bucket of ice and a
mickey
of whiskey.
 
They were on their seconds drinking from the hotel plastic cups before any of them spoke to me.

“What the hell happened, Anna?” It was Paul.

I got up and turned off the hall light, then the lamp.
 
The blue glow in my hand was obvious in the dark.
 
What was left of the energy I had taken from the
man.
 

“I drained him on the trip out … this is all that’s left of it.
 
I’m not wasting a day sleeping because of him.
 
It was so bright in the forest.
 
It was the blue glow we saw Patrick.”

I turned the lamp back on.
 
I would tell Paul.
 
He would understand what I was talking about and could tell Keith and Patrick whatever he wanted.

“He was supposed to be in
Calgary
… didn’t tell anyone he was coming up here.
 
Just wound up downstairs.
 
I followed him into the mall.
 
When he saw me he took me into a hallway, where the back doors are to the shops.
 
I was ready to get him out.
 
The pressure was so painful.
 
He pinned me to the wall and started kissing me so I relaxed and let him.
 
I would have hurt myself struggling.
 
He used one hand to pull out his knife.
 
When he made his move I reacted and took him away.
 
If we killed him here they would be down on us in no time.
 
Keith’s done nothing to deserve the attention I’m getting.

“They won’t find him here and Damian will think he disappeared in
Calgary
.
 
They have no reason to think anyone is here.
 
It had to be tidy.”

“Where did you take him?”
 
He sounded less mad.
 
Hopefully he understood my reasoning but he wouldn’t be any happier about it.
 
I looked at Keith and Patrick.

“Tell me,” Paul said.

“He’s in the forest up the hill from my house.
 
Miles into the bush.
 
I don’t think anyone will ever find him.”
 
I rubbed the side of my stomach.
 
The pulled muscle was painful.
 
I got off the couch and went to lie down.
 
That felt better.

“How can she be so indifferent?”
 
Keith asked.

Maybe it was so many years of the old boy’s club that kept him from accepting me.
 
I could only guess.
 
But then most of the men at Paul’s were like that too.
 
Ray and Denis liked me, Ross put up with me.
 
The others just kept their distance.
 
I hadn’t realized how far I was from what I should be.
 
Paul came over and sat by me on the bed.
 
He gently pushed the hair from my face.

“She isn’t,” he said.
 
He knew everything I’d been through and what I’d struggled with.
 
“Anything else hurt?”

 
“My arms … where he grabbed me and threw me in the wall and I pulled a muscle in my stomach.
 
But the back is the worst.
 
Is there something for pain in the bag?
 
I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.”

“Yeah, but I’ll have to ask Ray what I can give you.”
 
He pulled out his phone and dialled.

“Hey Mark.”
 
He listened for a minute and frowned.
 
“Fill me in later … Rachel’s had a misadventure … what’s in the bag that I can give her?”

“Okay … no … later.”

“Bye Mark.”

“Denis isn’t entertaining women in my bed is he?”
 
I asked.

He shook his head.
 
“Ray took Bee in to the hospital with trouble breathing.
 
He says it’s under control now.
 
Don’t worry he’s taking good care of her.”

Paul went in to the bathroom where he had left the first aid bag.
 
I did worry but I was very grateful that she wasn’t alone.

“Patrick,” I asked, “how far away were you when you saw what happened?”

“Still at the table,” he said.

Paul was pushing up my sleeve and rubbing it with something cold then there were two pricks in my arm.

“Sorry … he said something to help you rest too,” Paul said.

“
‘kay
Paul.
 
I guess my secret’s out.”

“Yeah.
 
Close your eyes.”

I wasn’t sure how long it was until I heard them pour another round and I started to feel heavier.
 
I was sleepy but I didn’t sleep.
 
Just floated.

“Is she insane?”
 
Keith asked after what felt like a very long time.

“No,” Paul’s voice said.
 
He sighed getting ready to explain.
 
“You and her brother have the same father.
 
One of the first three.
 
She’s met them all.
 
One, her other mate tried to kill her.
 
She found my father a few weeks ago.
 
And your father shortly before that.
 
He’s hiding now.
 
I think he made her like this but she won’t talk much about it.
 
She tries to accept what she is; the gifts he burdened her with.
 
But she’s not insane.”

“If she does prove to be insane you have to put her down Paul … even with your son if she’s a risk to other children,” Keith said.

Paul sighed.
 
I could picture the expression on his face; his mind looking inward, knowing Keith was right and hating himself for having to agree with him.

“I don’t believe at this point that she is,” Keith continued.
 
“She’s reckless but she made Patrick swear on my son that he’d keep quiet until she got that man away from here.
 
She seems to be more focused than we are on protecting ourselves.
 
That line has made us all suffer for too long.”

“How did she get him out of the mall?”
 
It was Patrick.
 
“I thought he killed her … she just disappeared.”

“She did disappear,” Paul said.
 
“My father says she can move her line.
 
Or her place on her line.
 
Can take others with her too.
 
It’s how she found my father.
 
She wished for him and took us there.
 
Me, her, and two others.
 
I don’t know how she does it.
 
She doesn’t either but she’s getting better at it.
 
She disappeared with him and they reappeared with him some miles …"

I couldn’t make out the rest of it.
 
I had floated a long way into a dark echoing tunnel and couldn’t piece their words together any longer.

I slept.

Chapter 47

I dreamed.
 
Alina was begging, crying, Damian was laughing.
 
My ear was pressed against door 1502 and the sounds were faint.
 
Her building was so soundproof there was no way her neighbours would ever hear what he was doing to her inside.
 
I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it as slowly as I could.
 
When it was turned all the way I pushed it open and stepped inside closing it behind me.

Alina was curled in a ball on her sofa.
 
There were bruises on her arms and what I glimpsed of her face.

“You make me sick Alina,” he laughed at her.
 
“You’re disgusting.
 
Nothing but a warm place to stick it until you got down to doing your job … now I’ve rented your womb out cheap.
 
If I could have loaded it up without having to listen to your mouth run all the time I’d be the happiest man alive.”

He took two hard steps toward her and raised his fist.
 
She cried out and put her bruised arms over her head again, pulling her knees in tighter.
 
He spat at her.

“Damn you Damian …” I whispered.

He paused and turned to me.

“This is grand,” his angry face lit up.
 
“Two for one.”

Then I noticed the gun shoved in the front of his pants.
 
There was blood on his shirt where the handle pressed into his stomach.
 
The bastard must have hit her with it.
 
He took the handle and pulled it out … it was too long, there was a silencer screwed into the end.
 
When he had it almost pointed to me I would jump to Alina and get her away.

I watched the gun come up, ready to go.
 
But nothing happened.

There were two quick puffs of smoke from the barrel I felt in my chest.
 

“Anna!” she screamed.

I tried to get to Alina but things stopped working.
 
The pain brought me to my knees, then to the floor.
 
More pain as my body started demanding oxygen and the room started to lose its colour.

“If you hurt my son or try and run away I’ll do to you what I did to her.
 
I guarantee it.”