Raphael's Captive

Chapter 14

THE FLY home was less tense than Raphael anticipated.

In fact, it wasn’t tense at all. They didn’t speak, but Tami didn’t seem uncomfortable, upset or annoyed like he had formerly suspected she would. Instead, she looked almost...excited?

Could this be it? Was Tami finally ready to open the door to him and his proposal? He sure hoped so.

Still, he didn’t get his hopes up. He knew she was the definition of 'moody'. She would make him believe one thing, then in the split of a second she was a different person. He sometimes wondered if she was the one with a mental health condition rather than him, because she was worse than he ever is.

However, the excitement that radiated from her when they were in the air, was nothing compared to when they finally landed. He could tell that she was trying to hide it, but he could read her well enough to see right through her.

He then recalled a very important and logical explanation to her behaviour. The thought only occurred to him when he was collecting their luggage, that he had promised her three days ago that she could drive his car when they're back.

Was that the reason for her excitement? Could be. It would surely explain it all.

"Do you still want a spin out of my car? I'll give it to you once we are out of the town area," he said as he helped her down the steps.

Her eyebrows shot up and her mouth formed an 'o' at this, and it was obvious to him that she hadn’t even remembered. So, what was she so excited about?

"Out of town is still fine," she mumbled to herself, but he heard clearly. She then lifted her gaze to him with a beam. "I'll love to. So good you remembered."

"Yep." He called for the car in the empty air terminal. Again, he asked for the area to be cleared of all people and lingering eyes.

Unlike Puerto Rico, the news in Nassau about missing people would most likely be broadcasted or at least spread to Grand Bahama where they were. It was a high possibility. Hence, he couldn’t risk Tami being seen by anyone. He was extra careful with her.

Just like the days prior, he sped through the town at high speed, receiving high pitch squeals and excited shrieks from Tami in the process. Ever so often he would glance at her, and her eyes were always wide and bright, with her bottom lip between her teeth and her fingers gripping the chair.

He almost felt disappointed when the road that led to his house two miles away came into view. It was a straight stretch all the way to the mansion, so Tami could speed all she wanted. He pulled over at the lonely junction as he smirked at her. The way how Tami analyzed her surroundings told him that she remembered the area very well.

"Ready?" He handed her the keys, which she gladly received with a  smirk of her own.

"You wouldn’t even know it," she replied smoothly, the double meaning only being evident to her. They swapped places within seconds, and the minute Raphael finished explaining the mechanics of the car, she took off.

The rush she felt almost made her have second thoughts about what she was planning to do. Almost.

She never took her feet from the gas pedal, even when she was going at 100 mph. The dust from the road was almost blinding, making her squint her eyes as she sped through the day. Still, it was a rush she couldn't explain. She loved it, and she would surely do it again.

"Whoa take it easy tiger," Raphael shouted over the roaring engine. She obliged to his request, but only because she was nearing her desired stop.

She let the car decelerate to 40 mph as the landscape came into view. They were only about a mile away from Raphael's house, so he didn’t understand why she was slowing down.

"Something wrong?" He inquired as she pulled over.

She flashed him an innocent smile as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "No. I just want a picture here."

Raphael gazed through his window to pinpoint exactly where they were, and he noticed that they were at a cliff.

On the other side of the road, the open sea was most spectacular in view, so he understood why she would want a 'picture'.

He remembered that on her Instagram, she would always take numerous pictures at different beautiful places. He didn't expect the habit to cease. This was a good sign to him. She was becoming his old self again.

"Sure. Come on." He grabbed his phone as she smiled wider. To him, she wanted a picture at the edge of the road, with the background being the beautiful sea and its incoming waves. To her, it was her new escape route.

It was a crazy idea, that was for sure, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. The cliff wasn’t her ultimate destination, it was the dock on the other side of the cliff that she recognized.

She had admired it from the day they left. It only occurred to her this morning, that if she could swim across  the short distance to the dock where the the boats were at, in the hopes that someone would see her and come to her rescue.

Surely, Raphael wouldn't jump off the edge to chase after her. Right?  She knew that much. So, she decided to give it a shot.

Once they were on the other side of the road, she peaked over to see the distance down, and also to see if the drop was deadly. Luckily, there were no rocks bellow, and the water seemed deep enough to accommodate her dive. It could well be an area for cliff diving, and the distance to the dock wasn’t far either.

It was the time for all those swimming classes she took to finally pay off. 

"Okay so I'll just stand here and you take as many as you can. Is the lighting okay?" She shuffled to the side a bit more as he angled the phone towards her.

"The lighting is perfect." He smiled at how beautiful she looked in the light. Her skin glowed radiantly, and her beaming smile never faltered.

Her hair danced in the cool evening breeze along with the fail of her dress, making it the perfect moment to snap a picture. And so he did.

"Let me see?" She asked, only to make it seem realistic as she peered at the picture on the phone. She acknowledged that it was a beautiful photo. Even Raphael fell in love with it. Too bad she'll never use it.

"Okay this time, step back a little. Your angle is too close up." Raphael couldn’t see the deceit in her request, so he took a few steps farther than away from her.

His lips pulled in a wider smile when he realized just how much better she looked at that angle for real. But soon after, instead of posing, her figure on his phone screen started dashing for the edge.

"Tami!" He shouted as he instinctively moved in her direction.

His feet halted at the edge, as he watched the woman of his dreams-- the woman who was suppose to be his redemption--jump over the edge, before she plummeted into the deep, rough wavy ocean.

"NO!"

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