Trouble (10 page)

She was
not sure what to say and swam away to take hold of herself and see
how she should react to him. She was beginning to feel butterflies
in her stomach. She had felt a very warm tingling sensation through
her body when she kissed him.

“
I’m free,” he shouted again.

For the
first time in his life he was overpowered by the feeling of
forgiving his dad, of being loved by his grandparents and of
understanding what it was like to love someone.

His eyes
became moist again when he thought of the awesome turn of events.
It was just a great feeling to be alive.

She swam
closer to him, “You’re in tears again Matt,” he said
gently.

“
I’m so happy. I cried for you.”

“
My crybaby,” she held him again. She couldn’t quite understand
why whenever he cried she felt this strong impulse to be kissed by
him. It sounded odd but she was turned on by this handsome hunk
tearing up. She just hoped it was not a ploy on his part to win her
love. If he was crying on cue she’d definitely punch him in the
mouth.

He seemed
to sense what she was thinking because he said, “I’m not usually
like this; I mean crying in front of a pretty girl. But I guess I
like you so much to be an open book to you. I’m so comfortable in
your presence that I can just be myself. And you started all
this!”

“
What do you mean?”

“
You were crying in the Station and I wanted to reach out to
you. The only way to make you see that I loved you was to show you
I also went through pain and through it I understood what love
meant.”

“
So you’re kind of crying to support me?”

“
It sounds weird, yes that’s kind of right.” They broke into
laughter.

She
thought of taking the initiative to kiss him but worried that he
might think she was coming on to him. Oh these Indiana boys! Why
were they too nice? Couldn’t he take the hint that he should hold
her in those bulging arms and give her a warm passionate kiss? Was
he quite nervous too? This would explain the monologues! Why did he
have to say so much? Can’t his lips do the talking for a change? Oh
the trials of being sophomores!

“
But don’t tell anyone about this. They might not
understand.”

“
I’ll tell everyone that you cried all afternoon and the water
became salty.”

She swam
away and he followed her pulling her legs down. His strong body
pulled him gently to the top. “Nat I just don’t have any words to
explain what I’d been meaning to do ever since I saw you at the
station.” He respected her boundaries and hesitated momentarily to
see if her body language was negative.

“
Please no more talking or I’ll really have to punch your
mouth,” she hinted.

He
understood straightaway what she meant.

She felt
the warmth of his embrace and the gentle kiss, tentative at first,
of someone who cared for her and loved her deeply. When he found
her responding with such enthusiasm, he became confident and kissed
her with gay abandon.

“
You’re the first girl I’ve kissed,” he said smiling. She
seemed to lose all sense of time as he kissed her again, this time
with confidence. “You’re so warm.”

“
My crybaby,” she teased him lovingly.

He held
her tenderly and said softly, “Whenever you feel like crying, you
can do so in my arms.”

She felt
affirmed that in spite of her challenging experiences, love
conquered all and gave her the strength to deal with all the issues
she faced.

Chapter 16: Final confrontation

Natalie
and Matt looked at Byron in mock horror.

“
Let me get this straight,” Matt began, “what you’re saying is
that you’ve never cooked anything in your life. It’s all done by
servants.”

“
Well Juanita and the gang cook the meals. I’ll ask her to
teach me some recipes after this,” Byron said weakly.

“
We have a genuine Prince of Genovia in our presence,” Natalie
laughed.

“
Look I can learn. You guys will admit that this is a good
learning opportunity for me,” he said lamely.

“
Your highness, we’ll teach you to cook pasta now,” Natalie
said.

“
You’ll have to come home for a sleepover so my grand dad and I
can teach you,” Matt said.

“
I was going to invite you but my mum might want to adopt you
seeing as you’re like a brother to me so I’ll pass,” Natalie
laughed.

“
I think I’ll go for the adoption,” Byron tried to be witty.
“You both will have to come to my place too.”

“
I’ll want room service and my own personal butler,” Matt
laughed.

“
An English manor in the US? I’d really love to meet Lord
Carrington and Lady Marchington in the drawing room,” Natalie
said.

“
I can arrange that with the palace secretary,” Byron played
along.

“
We’re not amused,” Matt said trying to sound like Queen
Victoria.

“
It is quite clear (she pronounced it as clair) that Lord Byron
has been gallivanting in Heresford, Hemsford Hemisphere,” Natalie
said as she mimicked what she thought was a British high society
accent.

“
Oh you two will kill me,” Byron said as he doubled over with
laughter.

There was
an innocuous beeping sound from Natalie’s Galaxy.

Byron
became tense.”Let me have a look at it.” He was familiar with
surveillance devices as his home was routinely swept for bugs. It
was due to his dad’s paranoia about snoopy reporters and his
suspicion about rivals trying to undercut him by eavesdropping.
Byron had learnt a few tricks from these experiences. Something did
not seem right from the very subtle beeping in Natalie’s phone. He
had an intuition of trouble and felt he needed to check it. He
opened up the phone and then gasped. “Oh my God!”

“
What’s the matter?”

“
There’s a tracking device here.”

“
You mean Russ knows where we are?”

“
Yes and he’s probably on his way here unless he’s arrived
already and sneaking round now.”

“
Quentin did say he was going to drop by.”

“
He’d be no match for Russ and his goons. His best bet is to
come in without being seen and then call the Police,” Byron
said.

“
That means that Russ is probably not hurt,” Natalie said
sounding disappointed.

“
Your guess is as good as mine,” Matt said.

“
Okay, let’s call the Police.”

Both
Byron and Matt’s phones registered busy dial tones.

“
I hate to say this guys but I think Russ has put up a jamming
device so we can’t send or receive calls.”

“
Trust a devious mind to think up everything,” Natalie
said.

“
Oh the lengths that people will go for the love of a beautiful
maiden,” Byron said with his tongue in his cheek. He was trying to
lighten up the tense atmosphere.

The first
shot shattered the window in the kitchen. They dived for cover and
then crawled out to one of the bedroom upstairs.

From this
vantage point Byron saw Bugsy leaning against the car. He had on a
snapback that was barely sitting on top of his head. Byron took
carefully aim. The snapback flew out of his head and Bugsy squealed
in fear. He also took aim at the front car lights.

Russ’s
team shouted as they moved out of his vision.

More
shots were fired at them and they could hear feet running. The
front door was smashed open.

In the
background they could hear the police siren sounding furiously.
There was the faint sound of a helicopter in the
distance.

Byron
realized his mistake too late.

They
should have dispersed in different directions. At least that way
one of them could have escaped to bring help.

They were
together and worse still, he had revealed their position by firing
when he should have drawn them away before firing from a different
area and then doubling back.

He now
realized that they had come in earlier and had he not had his sense
of intuition they would have all been taken by surprise in the
kitchen.

The
police siren was sounding closer.

“
You can come out now,” Russ ordered. “We know you’re all
inside.”

“
I think its best that we go out and try to reason with him,”
Matt said.

“
Good idea. I only have two bullets and come to think of it,
the sound of hurting fellow students doesn’t appeal to
me.”

“
We’re coming out,” Natalie shouted.

“
You thought you could run away from me,” he
gloated.

“
Don’t do anything unreasonable,” Natalie pleaded. “Let them
go. You have me now.”

“
Not so fast Nat. These two humiliated me,” he paused for
effect. “Tarzan here became famous and popular at my expense. I
gather he’s got a fan club now ready to roll on kickstarter. And
Romeo here was obsessed with getting his tadpoles in the
tank.”

“
He’s not like that. He respects me. He has a name.”

“
And I don’t respect you? You implied that, didn’t
you?”

“
Let them go Russ. You have me here with you.”

“
Now that I think about it, I’ll have my little fun with you
first,” Russ said. “Then I’ll start shooting and my problems will
be solved.”

“
Don’t you dare touch her,” Byron shouted.

“
Oh so you do have a voice. You couldn’t wait could you? I saw
your clammy snake like lips on her.”

“
I’m not clammy and I’m not a snake. Speak for
yourself.”

“
You’ll have to shoot me first before you get your hands on
her,” Matt said coldly.

Russ’s
hand shook visibly as his death like stare penetrated Matt. It
suddenly occurred to them that Russ was not acting normally. He
seemed to be high on some drugs and was acting rather
strangely.

The
Police siren came much close now. A helicopter hovered above the
mansion.

It
happened all of a sudden. Russ and his three goons had not seen
Quentin come in quietly from a side door positioned behind
Russ.

“
Drop it Russ,” he said in a determined voice. “Don’t you dare
touch Nat.” He gave a fierce look to Russ and his gang and a tender
loving look to Natalie. Byron noticed this look of longing and
affection. Was there something he was missing? Was there another
reason why Russ had attacked Quentin in the wooded jogging area? He
was aware that Natalie socialized also with him but thought this
friendship was platonic. It seemed there was a romantic interest
between them otherwise he would not have risked his life to barge
in to try and save her. Byron was not sure if she had reciprocated
his romantic interest. It looked like the four of them loved
Natalie with the same level of intensity and only one had emerged
victorious from the race. Natalie was a special kind of girl;
intelligent, affirming, attractive, resilient and it didn’t
surprise him that they all wanted to win her love. Small world, he
shrugged and tried to suppress a smile in this tense
situation.

Russ’s
jaw dropped.

“
If you don’t drop it I swear to God I’ll shoot. I don’t care
if your gang takes me down. At least I would have gotten rid of a
scum like you.”

Russ
hesitated.

“
I’m going to count to 5 and shoot you if you don’t put down
your guns.”

Russ put
down his gun and signaled to the rest to do likewise.

They
could hear the sound of footsteps coming much closer. Armed police
officers burst in.

Quentin’s
hand was shaking with all the pent up frustration and anger
building up inside him.

“
It’s okay Quentin. Everything should be okay now,” Byron said
gently.

Quentin
looked at Natalie who smiled gratefully for his timely
help.

“
Put down the gun, son,” one of the officers commanded
Quentin.

He put
down his gun slowly. There was a look of relief on his
face.

Chapter 17: Finale

Their
statements were taken at the Police Station. Quentin and Natalie
filed additional reports of the incident where they were terrorized
and attacked in the wooded area.

Byron’s
dad sounded very concerned on the phone. He was in New York and he
was flying over. He was sending Warren, the family
lawyer.

“
It’s okay dad. I can manage until you come back,” Byron said
pleasantly.

His dad
was intrigued at his enlightened attitude. Something positive must
have happened although he couldn’t figure it out at that time. He
said he had some good news. He was flying out in the weekend to
Texas to meet his mum. They were making another attempt at
reconciliation. Byron was very happy to hear this.

Quentin’s
parents were the first to come in. They were in their mid forties
and appeared well adjusted. They acted like any other normal
parents and seemed genuinely concerned not only for Quentin but for
everyone involved in the conflict. They had a discussion with the
Officer in Charge.