White Diamonds (16 page)

Malika scurred to her bedroom, feeling ashamed and defeated.  Just when I thought he was going to be halfway human, he brings up the past once again.

“Breakfast is waiting for you, my little paleface.”

What did I ever do to him?  She didn’t have time to think of him today.  She pulled on a blouse and a pair of jeans, thankful for the casual dress code at the school, and stepped into a pair of heels, the last designer item she had purchased with the loaned money, and walked slowly to the kitchen.

“I thought it was my turn to cook.”

Kevin leaned down, put his arm around her, rested his hand on her hip, and looked into her bright blue eyes.  “We will try that tonight.  I’m not ready to trust you with my food just yet.”  He was close enough to kiss and also close enough to slap.  Malika wasn’t sure which she wanted to do to him.

“What is it?”

“Porridge.”

Malika swirled her spoon through the hot cereal.  “Really?”

Kevin sat down at the table, poured milk on his cereal and handed the bottle to Malika. “Don’t worry.  It’s oatmeal.”

Thank goodness.  With a couple of cubes of sugar, it was better than Malika had remembered from home.  She would have complimented him on it but she was afraid of being on the receiving end of yet another of his rants.  Kevin watched her as she ate in silence.  She was younger than his thirty-four years.  He guessed her to be twenty-two or twenty-three, given that she had recently graduated from college.  She looked so pure and sweet, untainted by worries, her skin smooth and alabaster, and she was beautiful.  Her chestnut brown hair contrasted sharply with her white skin and set off her blue eyes perfectly.  They danced with wonder and naivete whenever he looked at her, and he couldn’t help but feel protective of her.  She was far from her home and her people, much as he was.  But, nonetheless, she would be leaving in four years and he would be here forever, alone.  When he heard the water running, he looked up to see the young hands washing the dishes.

“Those can wait.”

“No, it’s better to do them right away.”

She left them to dry and got her school stuff together.  With her beautiful hair pulled into a ponytail, she looked at him, hoping that he had not forgotten his offer to take her to school.  He sat in the chair watching her, the grin coming back but just a little.

“Are you going to take me?”

A nervous laughter choked its way nearly to the surface.  He would love to take her.  “Sure.”

It was a long drive compared to yesterday, and Malika was exhausted by the time they arrived.  Yesterday had been a long day.  Things looked different today.  But they were met by armed guards.

Malika was commanded to stay in the jeep while Kevin jumped out and confronted the men.  “What’s going on?”

“A young teacher was found dead in her classroom last night.  It was the fourth grade teacher.  The school will be closed until further notice.”

“Why was she here at night alone?”

“From what we could determine, it appeared that she was preparing a surprise party for one of the children.  The room had been decorated with some of her own supplies.  We certainly don’t have the money for celebrations.  It’s a shame.”

Kevin walked back to the jeep, thinking how easily it could have been Malika who had been murdered.

“What’s wrong?”

“School’s closed for a while.”

“Why?”  She started to get out of the jeep, but Kevin put a tight grip on her arm.

“No.  We must go now.”

His grip on her arm became tighter and tighter as he drove with one hand.  When Malika couldn’t stand it any longer, when tears formed in her eyes, she begged him to let go of her arm.  “It’s hurting really bad.”

Without a glance at her, he let go, having forgotten his hold on her.  When they returned to the house, he opened the door for Malika, which surprised her, and then he locked the door as soon as they were inside.  He rested against the door and closed his eyes.  Thinking that Malika had gone to her bedroom, he wiped a tear from his eyes.

For the first time she had been on the reservation, Malika felt fear.  She wasn’t nearly as afraid last night as she was right now.  She would give anything for one of Kevin’s snide remarks or smirky grins.  She just stood there, a few steps from him, and stared at him.  When he wiped away another tear, Malika felt a knot in her throat.  She felt as if she were choking.  “Kevin?”  She said it so softly she wasn’t sure he had heard her.

He opened his eyes, and seeing her standing there, looked down at the floor.  “What is it, Malika?”

“Why is the school closed?”

He didn’t say a thing.  He left her standing in the living room alone, and she heard the door to his bedroom close.  She sat down in a chair and waited for something, some sign of normalcy.  More than thirty minutes had passed before she heard the door open again.  She tried not to look at him but she couldn’t help it.  He was different now.  His eyes had lost much of their harshness and in its place was sadness or so it seemed.

“What happened?”

He stood beside her chair and leaned against the window.  “A teacher was found last night inside the school building.  She had been murdered.”

“What?!”  Malika was out of the chair and headed for the door, though she had no idea where she planned to go.  Kevin stopped her and forced her to listen.

“Look at me, Malika!”

She slowly lifted her head and her eyes trailed upward meeting the man’s chest, his neck, and finally his eyes.

“It happens, but not often.  It must have happened when we heard the gunfire.”

Although she had known the other teachers for only one day, Malika felt some kind of bond with them already, especially Lauren.  She was full of life with a bit of a devilish streak about her.

“Who was it?”

Kevin took a deep breath, and sighed.  “They said it was the fourth grade teacher…Lauren.”

Malika felt her knees go weak and the blood leave her head.  Kevin caught her on her way to the floor and carried her to her bed.  She was out for only a second, and she broke out in a sweat, though she felt very cold.  He covered her and wrapped the quilt tightly around her.  He sat next to her on the bed and rubbed her back.

“You okay?”

“No.”

“What’s going to happen?”

“After a few days, maybe a week, the school will open again.  Life goes on.  As I said, this kind of thing is rare, but it does happen.  We have to be more careful.”

“You mean it’s her fault she’s dead?”

“No, not at all.  What I mean is we should have helped her… someone.”

Malika was too upset to make sense of anything right now.

“I’ll leave you alone, Malika.”

She wanted to beg him to stay.  She wanted him to love her, to make love to her, but she also wanted to leave the reservation and go back home.  It was mid afternoon before she awoke again.  The sun was high in the sky and she looked around the bedroom.  She pulled out the book from underneath the bed where she had hidden it and opened it to the photograph of Crazy Horse.  It was said that there were no photographs taken of him, but these drawings were a very close likeness.  Were they drawings or photographs?  They looked like old photographs to Malika.  Not only that, but the likeness to Kevin grew stronger the more she looked at them.

“Just can’t put it down, can you?”

Malika looked up at the tall dark Sioux man standing in her doorway.  “Did someone call Lauren’s parents?”

Kevin folded his arms and nodded.  “She was from Washington, D.C.  Her parents asked that she be flown home.”  That was all he said and then he looked down at the floor.

Malika turned onto her side.  “Why does it bother you so much, Kevin?  I know that it does.  You didn’t know her, did you?”

“I have seen too many deaths, Malika.”

“But you didn’t know her and she was one of my people, not yours.”

“Any senseless death is one too many.”

Malika sat up quickly and then quickly steadied herself.

“You okay?  You seem a bit wobbly.”

“I’m fine.”  She stood up and Kevin was at her side as she stumbled, walking with her to the living room.  “Do they know when the school will open?”

“Not yet.  The council meets tonight.”

“Council?”

“For the school.  I am on the council.  When I go, you must promise me you will keep the doors locked and stay away from the windows.”

Malika nodded.  She could do that.  But she knew she would be bored here with nothing to do.  Her cell phone had died long ago and she wished she could call someone from the outside world.  She wrote some in her journal in the afternoon while Kevin was outside chopping wood.  She watched as his muscles flexed with every hit on the wood.  The man was strong as well as sexy.  She wrote about him in her journal, how he looked, how much she wanted him, how mysterious he seemed.  When he was away that night, she kept the doors locked, took a long hot bath, and went to bed.

She heard the door open at around midnight, and she called his name.  She heard footsteps but no answer.  Frightened, she shouted his name.  “Kevin?”

“It’s me, Malika.”

With her heart in her throat, she lay back down.  The footsteps were coming her way, though she didn’t know why.  He stood in the doorway, looking at her, the moon’s rays shining on her beauty.  His shirt was unbuttoned, his dark chest making the young woman’s mouth water.

“You awake?”

“Yes.”

He sat down on the bed, pulled the blanket back and held her hand.  His eyes fixed upon the dark nipples that pressed against the whiteness of her camisole top that fell low between her breasts.  His mouth filled with saliva as he thought of taking them, pulling the large dark nipples into his mouth, and then making slow love to this woman.

“Is something wrong?”

He forced his eyes upward to the sparkling blue of her own, the blue eyes that were a constant reminder that she was not of the Sioux.  Her family was the enemy, the Europeans that had claimed the land as their own.  Her alabaster skin and sky blue eyes suggested a Scandinavian heritage, or perhaps a Germanic descent, maybe English, and more than likely a combination of the three.  It didn’t matter, anyway.  They had all claimed a part of this native land as their own at one time or another.

“Malika, they may not open the school for another year.  There has been more trouble than you know and the council has requested time to take care of things.”

“But what about the kids?  For some of them, school is the only place they eat.”  Then she thought about something more important or at least as important.  “What about me?”

“Since you signed the contract, the government will send you to another reservation.”

“No, I can’t.  I don’t want to start over.  I swear I’ll run away to Canada.  I swear it.”

Hmm, the girl’s got some spirit.  “I should have added that you can stay if you want to teach in the individual homes of the students, or what your people call tutoring.”

Was his smug attitude resurfacing?  “I can do that.”

“You sound eager.  I guess you have me to thank.  I suggested the program, for the children, that is.”

Malika could play his game.  He was toying with her.  That’s what he was doing.  “Are you sure you did it for the children?”

He leaned down, his chest grazing her breasts, smoothed his hand along her cheek, and whispered, “I’m sure.”

Malika’s mouth had been all set to accept his luscious lips, certain that he was leaning in to kiss her, but he sat up, leaving her wanting him even more.

He grinned and even in the darkness she could see the slight smirk.  What is he doing to me?  “Have a nice night,” he said as he walked away, and Malika wished she had something to throw at him.

Malika went back to sleep and dreamed of her Sioux man.  She dreamed that he was kissing her, and just as she had imagined, he was the best kisser she had ever known.  His tan colored skin against her smooth flesh of alabaster was beautiful in the moonlight.  He kissed all of her, arousing the woman inside of her that had not yet known a man.  He was her first and he was a gentle lover, taking his time, and when he knew she was ready he brought her to the most amazing climax.  It was like a romance novel.  He held her afterward and long into the next day, and every night after that they made love.  He promised to love her forever, and he promised never to take a lover as some husbands did.

She moaned in her sleep and woke herself.  She looked around embarrassed, but no one was there.  It was early and still dark outside.  The house was quiet, almost too quiet, and she tiptoed into the hallway.  Kevin was sleeping when she walked by the door to his room.  He wore absolutely nothing, with no blanket covering any part of him.  She knew she shouldn’t look, but she couldn’t stop herself.  He was perfect, all of him.  His chest was broad and the perfect shade of brown, his stomach was like a washboard, his legs were as thick as tree trunks, and what lay between them was meant to be hers and no one else’s.  She tiptoed on by, wishing she were not a virgin.  She wanted to be an experienced lover so that she could satisfy his manly needs.  She wanted to know how to satisfy him with her body.