Love from jealousy – part 14

By Fishiexy

Kyle's thoughts in italics

Tom Foss looked over at Kyle with feelings of both profound admiration and satisfaction: Admiration for the amazing speed at which his young protégée had reacted to the unexpected and dangerous attack he had just sprung on him and satisfaction for the look of disbelief on Kyle's innocent and too trusting face that someone would do such a violent and potentially lethal thing to him. It was time to make him understand that not everyone had his best interests at heart and he was making it easy for them by not taking his training seriously and letting his mind be overrun with the problems of others like that precocious and somewhat promiscuous sister of his and the little blonde girl from next door with whom Kyle seemed so inordinately fond of.

Then of course there was the unhealthily intense, emotionally over-dependent relationship he had with the mother. She was forever talking to him, touching him on the arm, stroking his hair or enveloping him in a hug and Kyle just seemed to lap it up, melting into her embrace, his arms wrapped tightly round her body, his head resting on her shoulder, his face buried in her blonde hair…

'I thought you said unarmed combat.' Kyle exclaimed, shocked at the ferocity of Foss's attack.

'I did, but I meant for you, not me!' Foss sneered. 'Defend yourself!'

Foss lunged again and kicked at the space where Kyle's head should have been. He touched nothing but air. He spun round and punched at his chest. This time he felt the soft cotton of Kyle's sweat-shirt brush his knuckles, but there was no contact with the flesh or bone beneath.

'You're not concentrating!' He shouted, before dropping to the floor and kicking out at the side of Kyle's leg, a blow that had it connected he knew would have ruptured all the ligaments in the kid's knee. But Kyle had jumped up and over him and was now backing off, a look of alarm on his face.

'I shouldn't be able to get near you Kyle. That means your mind is clouded. You gotta concentrate! What's the matter? What are you thinking about?'

Foss rolled backwards and then flipped himself to his feet. Kyle circled him warily.

Foss charged again, punching and kicking, using all his martial arts training and military experience to try and hit Kyle. But Kyle was just too fast. Like he'd predicted at the beginning, he really couldn't get near him. It seemed then that Kyle was concentrating and had been paying attention and taking his training seriously. But Kyle was focused now on his own survival, he had no one else to think about here apart from himself.

The problems started, however, when the lives of other people entered the equation. Kyle's weakness was his capacity for love. It made him emotional and then he became careless. It was time then to change the rules and to use Kyle's weakness against him, time to show him that this family he thought he so desperately needed would ultimately put his life at risk.

'You're not really trying are you Kyle?'

'What do you mean? I've done everything you asked and you haven't been able to touch me!'

'That's true, but you should be touching me! All you've done so far is shown me some fancy footwork, dodged a few blows and jumped over me. This is supposed to be self defence not the fucking ballet!'

'I am defending myself. You threw a knife at me!' Kyle said indignantly.

'And you know as well as I do that you could have caught that and in a heartbeat thrown it back at me. You have to stop me and that means you gotta stand up and fight otherwise I'll just keep coming. I only need one chance to kill you!'

'I'm not going to hurt you Foss.'

'No? Well you should Kyle, 'cos I'm trying my fucking best to hurt you…'

Kyle looked back puzzled.

'Why?'

'Because you need to know that this is serious, that I'm serious and there are people out there who will kill you if they get half the chance and your family makes you vulnerable.'

'My family? What have they got to do with all this?'

'Would you kill me Kyle?' Foss asked changing the subject.

Kyle looked shocked.

'Of course not! How could you even think that? I already told you that I wouldn't hurt you!'

'Let's see then…'

He started circling again, lashing out with his fist, trying to connect with Kyle, but failing repeatedly because he always managed to stay tantalizingly just out of reach.

'I've been reviewing some of the tapes I made of you and your family when I bugged your house last year. Your sister, she's quite attractive isn't she?'

He could see Kyle watching him guardedly, eyes narrowed and knew he was becoming distracted. He was homing in on the meaning of the words which meant he was closing his mind to all the information coming from his other senses. Foss needed to up the ante, make Kyle emotional, distressed, protective, then he could make his move to show this incredible and unique yet naïve and overly trusting young man just how easily he could be hurt.

'There was a camera in her room. I used to look at her get undressed. It was a real turn-on. She's got a good body on her, young and nubile. Have you seen her Kyle? Does she walk around the house like that or does she take her clothes off just for you?'

'Foss, stop it!' Kyle said becoming uncomfortable.

He remembered the time he had seen Lori's body, when she was drunk after the bonfire party. He'd never seen a girl's breasts before, the naked girls in Josh's magazines and on the internet didn't count because they weren't real and standing right in front of him, and he'd tried so hard to avert his eyes, to respect her privacy but he couldn't help it and he'd found himself starting to get aroused especially when he had sat her up to put his shirt on her and she had put her arms around his neck and pressed her bare chest up against his. Of course, Lori didn't remember any of this, but Kyle couldn't forget.

'I know where Nicole keeps her spare key. I could quite easily get into your house without even breaking in. What would happen if you came home one day and found me in Lori's room, on top of her, touching her…'

'Why would you do that? Why would you want to hurt Lori?' He cried incomprehension in his eyes.

Foss noticed Kyle was frowning and his movements had slowed, becoming jerky and uncoordinated.

'She's naked beneath me and I've got a knife to her throat. She's crying, she's scared shitless. She sees you coming into her room and she pleads with her eyes for you to help her. It's me or her, Kyle. You know you're going to have to hurt one of us, but you also know that it's Lori that poses the threat to you.'

'Lori's not a threat. She can't hurt me!' Kyle said urgently as if this was a real scenario, as if Foss had Lori down on the floor right now.

'Yes she can and I'll show you how.' Foss said and resumed his story…

'I'm unzipping my pants. It's been a long time for me Kyle, a very long time and she's so pretty, her lips are just begging to be kissed. You can stand there and watch or you can try and stop me but you'd better hurry 'cos right now I'm going to fuck her…'

'No!' Kyle shouted horrified.

Foss saw his chance. He pivoted on the spot then lashed out with his foot aiming a kick at Kyle's shoulder and Kyle, distracted by the disturbing images planted in his brain, was just a split second too slow to avoid the contact altogether. It caught him on the angle of his jaw as he was turning away causing his head to snap sideways before he fell limply backwards landing heavily on the concrete floor, his skull hitting the ground with a sickening, dull clunk.

Lori had looked for Kyle immediately she had got home from school but she couldn't find him anywhere. Nicole hadn't seen him either which meant he hadn't got back yet. She had gone upstairs and made a start on her homework expecting to see him at dinner but he was a no show there too. It was Josh who had finally asked what she desperately wanted to know and Nicole had told them all that Kyle had already phoned to let her know that he wouldn't be able to make it for dinner: Something about an assignment at the library? Apparently he was going to be back around nine.

So here she was, lurking in his room at exactly five minutes past nine and he still wasn't home. Exactly what assignment needed more than five hours to complete especially when you were a person who could read a whole set of encyclopaedias in less time than that? Something didn't smell right but then again since when had she ever understood anything Kyle did?

I watched the monotonous to and fro of the windscreen wipers in silence as Foss drove me home. Normally, a pattern so regular would be calming to me and the sound of rain on the roof, soothing, but not tonight. My jaw throbbed from where I had been kicked, my head ached from where it had hit the floor and I could still taste the blood in my mouth from where my teeth had sliced through the inside of my cheek. Foss had the fan on trying to get rid of the condensation on the windows and the heat and humidity inside the cramped confines of the truck was starting to make me feel sick.

I heard Foss change down through the gears and eventually pull to a stop at the side of the road. I could just make out the lights in the Tragers' house through the rain. Foss would never park directly outside in case someone saw him or saw him and me together. He switched off the engine. I heard him shift in his seat and knew that he had turned to look at me.

'Are you ok?' He asked.

I had awoken to find myself lying on Foss's bed. I couldn't remember how I got there. I tried to sit up, but gasped in pain as my head felt like it was going to explode. I squeezed my eyes shut and collapsed back on the bed, curling up into a ball. My cry must have alerted Foss as the next time I opened my eyes he was sitting staring at me.

'How are you feeling?' He asked, softly, concern in his face.'

'Dizzy and sore. My head feels like it's going to fall off.'

'Here, take some of these, they'll help with the pain.'

He took two pills from a small brown bottle and held them out to me.

'What are they?' I asked, hoarsely.

'Painkillers!' Foss said sarcastically.

I frowned. Why did Foss always have to treat me like a child? Why couldn't he answer my questions about even the simplest of things without shouting at me or ridiculing me?

'Foss…'

'They're a synthetic opiod, similar in structure and potency to morphine. I've used them before. They're very effective in relieving pain.'

He held out the pills in his hand plus a plastic bottle of water.

'Don't be stubborn Kyle, take them! You'll feel better!'

I hesitated then took the tablets and washed them down with the water provided. I looked up at Foss.

'How did I get here?' I asked.

He looked faintly embarrassed.

'I carried you.'

'What happened?'

'We were training. You didn't listen to me. You got hit. You collapsed.'

And then it all came back to me; how angry Foss had been, how he'd gone out of his way to provoke me, the awful things he said he'd do to Lori and how he'd asked me if I would kill him. And for a split second, when he had said that he was going to…to rape Lori, I had wanted to kill him and I had been so upset and distracted that I had not seen his attack coming. I put my hand up to feel my jaw. It was all puffy and swollen and very sore.

'What am I going to tell Nicole?'

'You'll lie to her like you always do Kyle.' He said sighing as though it was obvious and I was stupid.

'What?'

'You'll tell her you walked into a door, or fell over in gym class or got into a fight over a girl. Well, the last one's more or less true isn't it?' He sneered at me.

And suddenly I just wanted to go home. I didn't care that Foss was right and I was going to have to lie to everyone, I just wanted the warmth and security and love of my family, I just wanted someone to put their arms around me, to hold me close and tell me everything was going to be ok.

I stood up and took a step towards the exit but the floor seemed tip sideways and the room started to spin. I heard Foss shouting to me in the distance and then his arm was around my waist and I felt myself being lowered gently back down onto the bed.

'I think you'd better stay here for a little while longer.'

'But Nicole…'

'You can phone her to tell her you're ok, but that you're going to be late for dinner.' Foss said handing me my mobile. 'I'll drive you home when you can stand up. Now be quiet and get some rest.'

'Are you ok?' He asked.

And I wasn't, not really. Because now I understood just how dangerous my family could be to me and in turn, just how I could hurt them. All it would take was someone to see me and Lori together, to figure out how important she was to me and then they could hurt her to get to me. Maybe Foss was right, maybe I needed to back off, not get involved, try and distance myself both physically and emotionally as I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if Lori or any of them were hurt because of me. But I didn't know how I could just walk away from the people I loved most in this world especially as I had risked so much in coming back to them after Adam had been shot and that I had promised them that this time, I was here to stay.

'My jaw aches.' I told him.

'Are you ok?' He asked.

Kyle was silent for a few moments. He seemed pensive and forlorn. Foss knew he was thinking over what had happened to him tonight and what that would mean for him and his relationship with the Tragers.

'My jaw aches.' He replied finally.

'Yeah well, that's what happens when you get kicked in the face. My advice is to make sure that it doesn't happen again.' Foss told him gruffly.

Kyle nodded absent-mindedly then leant his forehead against the window while looking longingly at his house down the street. Foss could see the ugly dark bruises on Kyle's jaw even in the eerie glow of the neon street lights and the possible consequences to that remarkable brain caused by a head injury severe enough to make him lose consciousness niggled at the back of his mind. He would never forgive himself if he let anything happen to that extraordinary young man that Adam had entrusted him to look after.

'Kyle…' Foss paused as if unsure about what to say or whether even to continue at all.

Kyle turned to look at him.

'Those things I said to you, about Lori… You understand that I was just making a point, don't you? I would never hurt anyone in your family. Besides, teenage girls aren't really my thing…'

He paused for a moment as if thinking how best to continue.

'But I wanted you to understand how caring for someone can make you vulnerable. I know how you think and what your weaknesses are and I knew that planting a horrific image in your brain especially a violent and sexual one against a member of your family would make you distraught and distract you just long enough for me to make my move. And if I can reach you Kyle, you can bet that other people can do it too and they won't stop at kicking you in the head.'

'Yes, about that! Next time maybe you can take off your shoes as well!'

Foss smiled, looking faintly embarrassed.

'I didn't plan of hitting you, but I'm not sorry that you got hit. You needed to understand just what we're up against and how the simplest thing can cause you to lose focus.'

Kyle nodded solemnly.

'I do understand, but my face…'

And suddenly he was angry and worried and scared because Kyle had just made him realize that he was still only a child; a remarkable and amazing child, but a child nevertheless, with all the insecurities, innocence and lack of experience that went with being a teenager. But this job, this mission that he had been given, no inherited, needed more than that, more than just a boy with extraordinary abilities that he couldn't always control or even comprehend, it needed a man. It needed the man that Kyle would become.

But Foss didn't have the luxury of time. He was here now with the teenage version of Adam's dream trying to make him understand things that he simply had no concept of, absolutely no frame of reference for and that were completely and utterly alien to every atom in his body. How could he make him see that he was possibly the single most important person in the world, to be protected at all costs when the only thing Kyle could see was what he could do to help other people? How could he explain such destructive notions such as hatred, revenge and murder when Kyle only understood self-sacrifice, honor and love? Foss suddenly felt overwhelmed. How was he ever going to keep this special young man alive and protect Adam Baylin's dream at the same time?

And why couldn't the kid just grow up and worry about more important things than his bloody looks, he thought unreasonably.

'It won't leave a scar and the bruises will be gone in a few days. Don't worry, Kyle, you'll still be a pretty boy!' He sneered. 'Now I suggest you go home as quickly and quietly as possible, lie down in your tub and get some sleep!'