Deadly Expectations (81 page)

“Yeah … I can tie it back up.
 
It’s not as bad as you think … it doesn’t hurt at all.
 
Have you heard from Paul?
 
You can’t tell him I’m here.”

He hesitated.
 
“Yes … I know he’ll come to you.”

“So then what?”
 
I yelled at him.
 
“Once she’s born am I fair game to have Damian’s child?
 
Another soldier for his army?
 
What’s Paul going to do to stop that?
 
I like it here Ray … neither one of them will have me if that’s how things are going to go.
 
Paul said it … she’s the only thing protecting me right now … one way or another Damian can’t have me.

“The baby will be here soon then there’s nothing protecting me.
 
From Paul or Damian.
 
He won’t listen, I went too far.”

“You know it’s not like that Anna.
 
Please … ask me to call him for you.”

“Don’t tell him … you’ll kill us both!”
 
I flared at him.
 
“I lost Bee and Denis today and I’m going to have to get through the fight of my life by tonight … .you have to be silent.
 
If you tell him anything then tell him I’m on the run.
 
He can’t come to me.”

“I didn’t,” Ray said.
 
“Come home or go to the hospital.”

“Shit,” I managed as my stomach tightened up painfully again.
 
I held the phone away from my mouth so he couldn’t hear the moans that were sneaking out as I tried to breath through it.

“Anna?” he was saying when I put the phone back to my ear.

“I’m here,” I felt just fine when my stomach wasn’t in knots.

“That was just over ten minutes … you need to get to the hospital.”
 
He hesitated then he quickly added.
 
“Our babies can come
quick
.”

He couldn’t see me shaking my head.
 
“Then get ready to catch … I’ll come home when my job is done.
 
If you talk to Paul tell him that.
 
I’ll give him his daughter and take whatever is coming to me.”

“Please … don’t do this.
 
I’m not ready to lose you yet,” his voice broke.

“I love you big brother.
 
Thank you for everything.
 
There’s a letter with my lawyer for you that tells you where she is and what your task is when mine is finished.
 
I left everything to Paul … if he doesn’t make it then in trust to Ron and Camille and Joshua to raise her.
 
I want you to help her grow up properly.”
 
I laughed a bit but I was choking up too.
 
“I seem to have the quick and dirty job but yours won’t matter if I fail.
 
I’ll see you soon Ray.”

I hung up and turned the ringer off.
 
Tears ran down my face for a few minutes then I got up and turned off the bedroom light and opened the door.
 
I carefully checked outside all the windows again but nothing seemed out of place in the street or the yard even though I could still feel eyes on me.
 
On my way to the bathroom my hand ran absently over my stomach.
 
She pushed her foot into my palm … she was so tight for space she couldn’t move without pushing on something.

“Sshhh,” I whispered to her.
 
“We’ll go home soon … no matter what, you won’t be alone.”
 
My hand dropped across my belly button and my fingertips traced over the bump it made in my shirt.
 
My white t-shirt.
 
I stopped, still tracing over and around it.
 
The shirt in my dream.
 
The shirt the woman in the mirror wore when I saw her in the hotel in
Reno
.
 
I turned and started to Bee’s room as another contraction began to take hold.
 
My legs slowed and stopped as the pain grew and I held on to the back of a kitchen chair as I waited for it to pass.

When I got moving again I could see the face of the phone flashing as I walked past it.
 
There was nothing Ray could do for me now other than get ready for my arrival.
 
I could feel my temper focusing on him.
 
Why the hell was he calling and not getting ready?

In Bee’s room I could finally hear the rumble of the plane.
 
At first it just sounded like part of the heavy wind outside but as it drowned the wind out I slammed the door and crouched down in the corner behind it.
 
My bag was there so I grabbed it and held on.
 
The only thing I would really need from it now was the knife.
 
Still bloody from the fight.

The rumbling grew and the house shook.
 
The roar of the screaming engines became deafening as it passed just overhead and the vibrating air in my ears tried to burst them.
 
The only thing that told me I was screaming was the pain in my throat.
 
The engine noise stopped as the house began to shake.
 
Suddenly the bedroom door flew open and smashed into the wall next to me.
 
Compared to the roar of the plane the sound of the explosion was devastating.
 
Orange flames had smashed through the living room window and followed the door in.
 
They spread over the mess I had left Bee’s bed in after I raided it for
bandages,
they curled around the corner after me singeing the hair on my arms and the side of my face.
 
Their heat seared whatever they couldn’t reach.
 
I held my breath until they disappeared and left behind only the quiet soft glow coming in from outside.

I sat for a minute deciding if my hearing was gone or if it was actually quiet.
 
While I thought about it I got my shoes on.
 
Broken glass from the living room had blown in all over everything.
 
At least my back wasn’t burnt like in my dream.
 
If I’d been standing in the door when the flames flooded in I would have been washed in them like everything else.

When I stood up I tried to close the bedroom door to keep the heat out.
 
It swung away from the wall a bit but its bottom corner hit the floor before it was a third of the way around.
 
I shoved on it but it was stuck.
 
The wall leaned into the room … the door wasn’t going anywhere so I put the pack on my back and stepped into the living room.
 
My arm stung from the flames that had found me but not as bad as the burns would have.

The front door wouldn’t open either; cock eyed as it was, orange light coming in around the edges.
 
I gave up on it and went back into Bee’s room to try my only other way out of the burning house.
 
It was the only window low enough since it opened out onto her porch.
 
Most of the glass was broken so I took one of the drawers from her night table and knocked as much glass as I could out then I stuffed her singed bed spread over the window frame to try and protect myself from the shards that I couldn’t knock loose.
 
It worked.
 
Mostly.

My bike was still in Paul’s garage, not where I dreamed it the last time and the huge old
Lincoln
stretched out covering nearly all the asphalt.
 
I put my fingers on the trunk and ran them up over the roof and down along the hood.
 
I looked back and forth up the street.
 
Still nothing was out of place so I walked out to the road.
 
Then I stopped, closed my eyes, and turned left to face Armageddon.

I was on the street in front of my house looking north, facing the flames.
 
Another contraction came so I stood holding my stomach and breathing until it passed.
 
The low clouds caught and shone the orange light from the fire.
 
It covered everything I could see almost as I remembered it.
 
The apple tree was truly beautiful, as was everything else the fire touched.

I laughed out loud in spite of the burning in my mouth and throat as I pulled the hot air in.
 
It wasn’t as bad as I remembered since I hadn’t been gasping in flames this time as they filled Bee’s room.
 
Then I raised my arms and shouted at the sky.

“This is the last time!” I laughed hard.
“The last time!”

I giggled, hoping Damian would find me here.
 
It was perfect.

Just perfect.

The entire north sky was bright and hot as the sun.
 
I closed my eyes and the light shone through my lids.
 
It filled me.
 
Recharged me.
 
I was excited to be reaching the end of my work.
 
Andre was ready for his minute alone with his Lieutenant.
 
Then he would be gone.
 
One way or another it would be all over.
 
I would circle that sun; slowly making my way to its center.

I sighed, waiting for my queue to start; the crack of the starter’s pistol as half the flaming apple tree crashed to the ground next to me.
 
The baby squirmed and kicked hard and her movements made me sway.

“Yes,” I told her.
 
“Soon baby.
 
We’ll see him soon.”
 
I could feel her need for her father.
 
Her connection to him.
 
Just as I had during my dream so long ago that sent me away for a week.
 
I sighed and rubbed her through the skin of my stomach as I waited.

Ray asked me once if what I found with Pilot was worth the cost we paid to look for it.
 
Up until now I’d been uncertain.
 
Now I was sure.
 
Peace was well worth the price I had to pay in this short lifetime of mine.
 
Spending her long life mated to the son of the man who had spread so much pain would be terrible for her as long as a connection existed between him and Damian.
 
With Damian gone from him there would be no father for him to be loyal to.

I breathed through another contraction, concentrating on the familiar pops and crackles of the fire around me.
 
The tree would come down in moments so I held up my left hand like a gun pointed at it, two fingers extended and counted down through the last few seconds until it fell.
 
I pulled my hand up a bit as the branch snapped imagining my pretend gun going off.
 
Sparks
flew up as the branch broke up when it landed so I laughed and walked down the alley to start my work.

Chapter 59

There was nobody.
 
Nobody living that is.
 
I thought because I’d only seen this place in a dream that it was only me and the dead.
 
No injured, no firemen.
 
Nobody but me.
 
Maybe it was like the corn farm where I found Pilot.
 
Private he called it.

As I circled the perimeter of the fire I found all the dead I’d seen for years; people killed in the explosion when the plane came down.
 
A man in one home, a child in another.
 
The child never would have been home alone but his surviving parents wouldn’t be here.
 
I looked after him now.
 
Nothing was consumed by the fire; even though it moved and its heat could burn it too wasn’t alive.

I was near my house completing my first circle; a half block closer to ground zero than I had been.
 
Flames were getting smaller, not so hot.
 
The dead were more damaged than they had been.
 
Contractions still interrupted my progress but didn’t seem to be any more frequent.
 
Actually, I was too absorbed in my job to pay attention.
 
They could very well be.
 
I was moving quickly, enjoying myself.
 
Taking satisfaction in doing this right … making sure they were all here.