© ItalRT4u, 2012
Sitting on the edge of the couch, one fist clenched resting on his forehead; the other wrapped around a glass with a deep amber colored liquid, Cane seemed to be battling with his own thoughts. The frustration and sadness that surrounded him was thick at best. I walked up to the broken man, grabbed his glass and moved it to the coffee table that was across from him, setting it next to the crystal decanter that held the same colored liquor as he jumped at the feel of my touch.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” He asked with a yawn, his gaze refusing to meet mine still.
“I should be asking you the same question.” I watched him as he gave me a sarcastic snort as a rebuttal, in place of bringing forth a few words.
“What do you want, Payton?” He said after a lengthy moment of silence.
“I want you to come to bed.” I said softly.
“And I want you to tell me everything that’s on your mind.” He looked at me pointedly. “But we can’t have everything we want now can we?” He finished harshly. Anger was slowly building within me and I felt my temper snap moments later.
“You want to know what’s wrong?” I blew up. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong!” And I marched to his suitcase that still sat at the bottom of the staircase and removed my findings from the suit jacket pocket which hid inside its garment bag. When I turned, I noticed his shocked gaze. “This is what’s wrong!” I yelled as I whipped the black velvet box at him. He caught it before it hit him square on the nose.
“B-but…” his voice trailed off.
“Never mind. Cane, I love you, but…” It was his turn to stop me.
“Now wait a minute!” He said loudly as he got up to his feet. “This is what’s got you in this state?” I nodded. He began to laugh as he walked toward me; my feet took me away from him almost instantaneously as I dodged him and took his previous seat and proceeded to take the glass he drank from earlier and downing the rest of its potent contents which made me scrunch up my face at its strong taste.
“Oh you think it’s funny, do you?” I eyed him, the whiskey burning down my core, fueling my infuriation as Cane kept on laughing; and I mean, one of those belly busting laughs.
“It is.” He said in between fits. “Here.” He tossed me the box and I held it in my fingers, looking at it like it was about to sprout eyes or something. “You never opened it, did you?” I shook my head. “Go ahead.” He motioned for me to open it and my fingers slowly went to lift the top of the box. I hadn’t noticed his laughter had stilled.
Humiliation filled me to the brim as I stared down at the contents of the velvet box. There, twinkling back at me were a pair of diamond pendant earrings.
“I knew I should have had Elizabeth take them up to you before we met up but I wanted to do it personally.” He explained softly as he came to sit beside me. I let my head fall into my hands as I shook my head.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered feeling foolish for assuming it was anything more to begin with.
“Me too.” He said softly, taking the box from me, snapping its lid shut, dropping it to the table in front of us, and taking my hands in his. “I think we’ve made asses of ourselves enough for one day.” He smirked once I finally had brought my gaze to him. “Now,” he paused; “you mind telling me why you seemed troubled about that?” He nodded his head toward the small troublesome package that lay on the coffee table.
“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.
“Gage.” I managed; my mouth, dry as the desert. “What have you done?” I demanded.
“You might want to ask yourself what I am capable of doing.” He cooed at me in a revolting way. Goosebumps crawled over my skin as pictures formed in my head of what possibilities Sahara could face at his mercy.
“You touch one hair… Harm her in any way and I won’t hesitate to wring the life out of you with my bare hands. Do you understand me?” I yelled enraged into the phone. Cane stood before me, lending me strength through the grip he had on my elbow which undoubtedly prevented me from collapsing to the floor with worry and panic.
“If you find me that is, which you won’t.” He chimed in; his tone cocky. After a few seconds of silence on both ends, he spoke again. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“I don’t make deals with the devil.” I snapped.
“Release my match and my mother and I’ll leave it all be.” He stated in a simplistic manner.
You’re kidding me, right? I thought to myself. There’s no way he’d let everything be. That would be too good to be true and anyone knew that it was a bull-faced lie.
“You and I know that, that can’t happen.” I answered. “I don’t trust you past the smell.” I snarled.
“D’you hear that Sahara?” He uttered distantly; my guess he had turned his head away from the phone to face Sahara who was stuck in God knows what position. Boy did I wish I was a fly on the wall in that room right now so I could see what in fact he had done to her; how he had her bound and restrained. I desperately wanted to know what kind of an advantage he thought he had over us. We had all but practically decimated his faction of savages that had been led by Matt; the rest that remained had swiftly switched sides and joined us simply because the threat to them and their families no longer existed.
What if Matt wasn’t the true mastermind?
The thought crept up independently. What if it wasn’t as we had initially perceived? What if Matt had been a diversion? A means to a higher power, a coup; nonetheless something meant to bring down the hierarchy.
“Did you hear me?” I heard Gage in the phone, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“You were never able to keep my attention, Gage.” I smirked as I said this.
“So what will it be?” He asked again, this time my attention fully on his words.
“Meet me where everything unfolded weeks ago.” I told him. “It’s time you basked in the grimness of your defeat as Matt and so many others have met their fates since you were too much of a coward to be there the first time around.”
“Done.”
“And Gage?” I paused for dramatic effect, my courage found, and confidence filling me completely. “Don’t forget to bring what is mine.”
“Likewise.”
After a few hours of deliberation; more like a think-tank of sorts, Cane, William and I had come to a conclusion – question Lara, meet with Gage, liberate Sahara, and capture and exact Gage’s fateful ending. We had merely stepped foot out of Will’s den when the front door to the house was opened with Patrick leading the way. Sandra, the rest of the girls and Andy came out from the kitchen to meet us; curious of the commotion. There, in one of William’s guys’ arms lay Lana, knocked out cold with a thick streak of blood running down the side of her face.
“What happened?” William demanded.
“She simply didn’t want to cooperate and refused to shut up so they,” Patrick explained, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at the two men standing there; “knocked her out.”
“Take her to the basement.” Will ordered. The two men nodded their heads and proceeded.
“Lana.” I cooed with a sweet voice mimicking that of a mother raising her child from slumber. “Lana. Time to wake up, Sweetie.” I said again but patting far from lightly on her cheek to bring her back. Trust me, there was nothing more that I wanted to do than to beat this good-for-nothing woman to a pulp right now if it gave me all the answers I needed. Such was not the case. The woman finally stirred; a look of fury engrained deep in her eyes as her sights locked on me; Cane and William flanking my sides.
“Wakie, wakie Sleeping Beauty.” I said in a singsong manner; that only made her flush crimson with what I detected as fury. I sensed her rage reaching a boiling point with those four words of mine and that ladies and gentlemen made me smile.
I had resolved myself to do most of the talking. After all, my abilities allowed me to be able to sense and feel feelings. Along with my keen sense of character judgement, hell, I was a damn lie detector with all these abilities of mine! Taking a few steps back, I faced Cane who took the remaining steps so we stood toe-to-toe.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked as he cupped my cheek in his hand, studying my face for any hidden hesitations. I nodded slightly. “Okay.” He whispered and kissed my forehead before stepping back. I turned back toward Lana.
Let the party begin!
This could be fun.
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