Essence Extracted

Chapter 31

     “Not really.”  I blushed.

     “So you assume I’m going to propose, you behave troubled, and you’re not going to tell me why?”  He teased me with his cocky tone, tilting his head to the side as he tried to read my face.

     “I didn’t assume…  Well…”  I stumbled with my wording.  “I-just-didn’t-want-you-to-know-that-I-knew-so-that-it-wouldn’t-ruin-anything.”  I blurted as one giant word, finishing with a deep breath and a slight wincing look displayed on my face.  “But you kept pushing, insisting that something was wrong.”  Cane laughed.

     “Come on.”  He pulled on the hand he was still holding as he stood up.  “Let’s go to bed.”

     I found myself cuddled into Cane’s bare chest with his arms wrapped around me, listening to his breathing; the rhythm slow and soothing, lulling me to the edge of slumber.

     “For what it’s worth, I would have said yes.”  I mumbled as I felt the darkness finally embracing me; I could have sworn I heard a discernible Hmm sound coming from Cane but I was too far on the way out to say or do anything about it.  Smiling, I let sleep take me.

                                                                                                                        

     A week had passed and we still hadn’t managed to get any closer to Gage other than confirming that my preliminary hunches had been right; he had been spotted locally but remained elusive to our attempts at capturing him.  After a bit of looking into things, it happens that some of Angus’ guests had noticed Elizabeth heading to the basement shortly after the ceremony.  Needless to say, Angus felt betrayed and was hell bent on finding out what she was up to but no matter what he did, shy of torture, Elizabeth simply wasn’t talking.  Lana, Gage’s mother had been captured and was currently being brought to the Nottingham residence for questioning.  I hoped that she wasn’t as tough of a nut to crack but I wasn’t holding my breath on that one – in fact, I knew she’d be the opposite.

     Pacing the living room, waiting for Patrick and some of William’s goons to show, my cell rang making me jump with a start.  I looked at the caller ID and it didn’t look familiar other than the fact I knew it was a local number.

     “Hello?”  I said into the phone.

     "Payton?”  I heard the familiar voice of my dearest best friend.

     “Sahara?”  My voice cracked.  I could tell she was confused and if I could be entirely honest with myself, she sounded distressed even with the simple utterance of my name.  “Sahara, are you-” my voice trailed momentarily with a gulp of the lump that formed in my throat; “okay?”

     No answer. 

     “Sahara?”  I asked again.

     “Payton?”  She said again.  “Gage is…”  And that’s all she was able to say as I heard what I could only discern as a skin-to-skin hit. 

     He hit her!

     “Sahara!”  I cried out into the phone.

     “Hello darling.”  Gage drawled out into the receiver.  My heart sank into the lowest depth of my stomach, bottoming out completely, leaving me lightheaded.  If he had Sahara, he could very well have the remnants of my friends – the remnants of my family really, because they were all I had left.  Beyond terrified for my friend’s life, a sudden pang of anger was rearing itself as I began to see red.