“Caiphus!”
Luggage forgotten, Caiphus left the bags tumbling from the tailgate and made a dash for the house. He was on the porch before Bill turned. In her hands, she carried a small square package.
“It’s from Lamont,” she
said.
***
Kailua, Hawaii~
Persephone gave what had to have been her first genuine smile in weeks. Credit for the gesture had to go to the fact that she was finally back behind the wheel of her own car. She commended herself for leaving it at the airport when she’d left for California weeks prior. Parking halfway from the security gates of her home, she indulged in a brief moment of snuggling into the plush seating of the Maserati-Levante. She’d missed the decadence of the SUV almost as much as she’d missed home and all that entailed.
Home…
Persephone rested her forehead against the steering wheel and willed her mind to clear. Easier said than done, she knew. No doubt, a measure of clear headedness would return once she was back among her things, her family and the surroundings she’d tailored to suit her own tastes.
Clear headedness however, was not to be confused with forgetting. She doubted anything would wipe her memory free of the events of the last several weeks. Not that she’d want her memory free of all the events from the last several weeks.
Hill...she’d done a fine job of keeping his powerful image in its own quiet part of her mind, taking it out to be savored only when her time was her own. Since seeing him at SyBilla’s and what happened between them the night before he left...keeping his image compartmentalized had been hopeless.
She’d missed him-missed how he’d felt next to her, inside her...She’d wanted him to stay with her that night, but sensed that wouldn’t be best at the time not when there was still so much left unsaid.
And why hadn’t she said it? They’d certainly had time- time she had selfishly wanted to use for her own benefit. She pulled her head from the steering wheel, ordering herself to stop thinking of how very much she’d...benefitted.
That night now seemed like a lifetime ago. Especially after the detour she’d made to a Memphis hotel room to meet with her sister. What Eva had confessed there, was as unexpected as it was horrifying.
Nausea still turned her stomach as the details of the confession crammed into the front of her mind. Oh yes...the claims Eva had spouted...yes that was a memory she would have loved to erase.
The quiet purring of the Levante’s engine pulled her from her haze and she continued its stealthy trek up the road.
The house rested on a sprawling 5 acres of
oceanfront majesty. The scent of the breeze coming in off the
Pacific brought with it the fragrance of palm leaves and other
flora that splashed the environment with multitudes of color. It
was enough to induce a calm that Persephone was all too ready to
enjoy.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Mama?” Persephone set her bag down to the glistening hardwoods of the open foyer. She took a moment to work her fingers along her neck where the muscles had bunched following her flight and the drive home.
“Ma?” She called somewhat absently while rubbing the small of her back and making her way down the long, wide corridor finished in the same flooring as the foyer.
Her sneaker soles sounded soft, monotonous on the floor. Persephone yawned, debating on whether to take the corridor where it forked left and led to the staircase that would take her to her bedroom.
“Mama? Girls?” Curiosity hinted in her silver stare then.
Upon her arrival, she’d chatted at length with the guards, her usual routine whenever she was gone for a while. The men hadn’t mentioned anything about her mother leaving with the girls. So where were they?
“Girls?” Persephone began a slower stroll through the house, her gaze more keenly assessing. She took the corridor where it forked to the right. Thoughts of a hot bath, good meal and a good night’s sleep had suddenly slipped from the top of her to-do list.
A far off scream caught her ear and Persephone immediately reached for her weapon, but resisted the urge to unholster it. She gave into a quick, critical grin over her own jitters. They were outside playing of course. She shook her head for letting that possibility slip by her.
There was a second scream and; while she didn’t reach for her gun, she did make a beeline for the kitchen. The area would lead outdoors where the screams (happy or horrified, she couldn’t tell) were coming from.
She crossed the expansive kitchen and reached for the lever on one of the sliding storm doors. Seconds away from pulling it open, she stilled. Her legs went to water along with the rest of her.
Persephone’s vision blurred and then refocused. “No…” she moaned. “God please, no…” the words scratched her throat which had gone desert-dry.
She fumbled for her gun then. All the while, she prayed for the power to remain lucid as she watched Maeva Leer running at full tilt toward something- someone in the distance.
Somewhere, a little girl screamed.
***
“This is it. It has to be. It has to be what he was talking about. He said he sent it,” Bill chewed her thumbnail while she paced.
“Looks like we’re about to find out...scanners aren’t picking up anything other than the disc.” Still, Caiphus eyed the packaging and the item itself with dark skepticism.
Bill meanwhile, paced behind the desk where Caiphus had gone to run a check on the suspicious delivery from Lamont Pevsner.
“Alright, here we go,” Caiphus slid his chair a ways down the desk to the attached console that held a desktop terminal and other hardware.
SyBilla’s den had been set to rights before Vestige personnel vacated the premises weeks prior. Caiphus had decided to keep a few essential pieces on site to work from should the need arise.
He ejected the drawer for the disc, but hesitated before pushing PLAY. “Sure you don’t want to wait ‘til after the wedding? We could at least be married before we die.”
Smiling, Bill dutifully took her place on Caiphus’ lap when he tugged her from behind the chair. She bumped her forehead to his. “How’d I get lucky enough to find a guy with such a sunny outlook?”
“You’ve just got it like that,” he rubbed her nose with his.
SyBilla eyed the disc. “I don’t want whatever this is, hanging over our heads. I say we find out what’s on it and then put it away until we’re Mr. and Mrs. Caiphus and SyBilla Tesano.”
Caiphus’ vivid eyes narrowed and his sigh was one of immense approval. He positioned Bill so that she straddled his lap. “Can we at least wait until after I take you upstairs for a few hours?”
