POCKET CHANGE 3: HIDE and SEEK
by Sharon R.
Chapter Twenty-One
"No one's at the house," Anna announced with alarm. "They could get in."
"Not to worry Doc," Bob said as he got out his keys and started for his car, "I made certain security precautions to the structure, and besides, Mrs. Bernard has it covered."
"What did he mean by that," Sam asked Luka, "about me taking off with the kids?"
"I'm hungry. Can we go now?" Alex and Amanda were done playing tourist and wandered towards Luka's SUV.
"Are they going to follow us?" Carter wondered out loud. "I'm not sure I could out run a scooter in this car."
The overlapping conversations didn't bode well for Anna who put her hands out. "Hey, someone want to help me out? What does Mrs. Bernard have to do with this?"
Bob stopped half way into his car and turned to face Anna. "Do you have reservations about me and my ability to keep us safe, Dr. DelAmico?" He enjoyed the mind games.
"Well, yeah. I mean no… but Mrs. Bernard? She's a frail old lady."
"Bernard - means 'strong as a bear'. Ever talk to her? Get to know her?" he asked with a sparkle in his eyes.
"No. Not really. Nothing other than a friendly hello."
"Shame on you, naughty neighbor. Mrs. Bernard," he said with an obvious French accent, "has only been a citizen of this country since 1956. Her husband was an operative with the French Resistance during World War Two. He was captured twice by the SS, and escaped twice. Each time she took over for him while he was being held. After the war they came to the states where they both worked in foreign intelligence. She's probably seen more than I have." With a wink, Bob sat in his car and closed the door, his arm resting on the open window. "Don't underestimate the old broad." Bob pointed at the entrance to the parking lot and started the engine. "Come on. We'll drive back together, all three vehicles. Amanda stays with you, Luka. No way is it safe enough for us to travel together until we find out what they want us for. And Sam, sweetheart, this time don't let your pretty behind wander away from the big guy."
"What the hell is with that guy?" Sam asked pointedly.
"He knows what he's doing, Sam."
"Does he know that he's a flaming egomaniacal asshole too?"
"I'm sure he does," Luka said with just a hint of a smile. "Seems to work for him."
"Well it's not working for me." For Sam, having to put up with this man who barged into their lives by proxy with his daughter first, then in the flesh through the window, her life was feeling more and more closed in.
Bob and Mrs. Bernard exchanged winks, smiles and nods when they got out of the cars back at Anna's. Carter was the first up the staircase eager to get back into the air conditioning and away from the drama.
"Let me get the door," Bob said to him climbing the stairs behind the rest of the crew. "Carter…"
"Ow! Jesus Christ!" Carter held his arm out as it temporarily stiffened, then quivered in spasms.
"I did say to let me get the door, didn't I?" Bob was so non-chalant as he took Carter's arm and looked it over. "Give it a few minutes, it'll subside."
"I thought you were just being polite," Carter said, breathing hard as he tried to control his arm.
"Me?" Bob snorted, finally opening the door after taking his hand out of his pocket. "Kind of hard to believe, eh?"
"I'll say," Sam said under her breath.
The kids ran upstairs right to the computer and started downloading the pictures they took, adding them to a photo album they had created. Anna and Sam managed to pull together a hodge podge lunch that everyone gravitated to eventually, eating wherever they found a modicum of peace.
"So who's the guy?" Carter asked Bob between bites.
"Which one?"
"In the picture at the Wright Brothers museum."
"I'm pretty sure it's someone I know from the agency."
"The kids have them all organized," Sam added, eager for information, "let's go back through the pictures."
"Not now." Bob gave her a searing look knowing the kids were too close to get into it.
"Wow," Alex said, elbowing Amanda, "did your dad just gave my mom the stink-eye?"
"Why not now?" Sam asked. "Or do you spies only work in dark, secret caves?"
"I said not now, and I mean it." Bob stood with his empty plate and headed for the kitchen, stopping between Luka and Sam's chairs for one last word. "I'm not gonna argue with you little lady, and I mean it." He was all business with her, but didn't hide his sarcasm as he gave Luka a pat on the back. "Geez, you like obstinate women."
"You know, that's it." Sam walked over to the sink next to Bob and dropped in her plate wishing the crash had been louder. "I've had it with you. You barge into our lives, risk our lives and now you think it's okay to treat me like a cheap kept woman in front of my son?"
"It's not like you've been leading by example, young lady," Bob spit back calmly.
"Um, come on kids," Anna said as she prodded them out of their seats, "Hot tub needs some company. I'll open it up for you."
"All right!" Alex declared as he and Amanda rushed downstairs to the second floor deck.
Bob and Sam caught on and fought with themselves to keep their mouths shut until the kids were safely out of ear shot.
"How dare you take cheap shots at me in front of Alex," Sam dealt back within spitting range. "You of all people have no right to tell me how to raise my child -"
" -Sam -" Luka tried to bust into the petit war raging in the kitchen but knew he would get no where.
Sam didn't listen and kept on. "You abandoned your child, make her sneak around thugs and war lords to see you a couple times a year and then hold yourself up to be some hero behind a badge and a bunch of half-truth stories told to her with a puffed out chest and scotch tinged breath. It's no wonder Colleen left you."
"You want to play that game Samantha? All right, deal me in. Texas Hold 'em. Here's something for the anty - your fourth grade teacher wanted to hold you back a year because you were stubborn and failed the standardized state tests on purpose for jollies, but your parents fought it." Bob came around in front of Sam and did what he does best: got in her face. "Seventh grade - ran away from home twice. Asking your church minister for Asylum, not the brightest move. Who's winning?"
Again, Luka tried to intervene. "Bob, I don't think -"
"Not now," he said with his arm outstretched in Luka's face but still staring into Sam's eyes, "we're getting to the flop."
Carter stood by uncomfortably. Anna came up the stairs and stood silently in his shadow.
"Your knight in shining armor knocks you up at fifteen, this time your parents don't go after you when you leave home. Stevie breaks your nose at twenty-nine weeks gestation but you tell the doctor that you fell in the shower. You took him back. When you gave birth, he was doing ninety days in county jail for drunken disorderly, possession of a controlled substance and failing to appear in court on a charge of writing bad checks. Surprise, you took him back." The closer he got, the more Sam turned her head away. "The turn card - on the kid's first and second birthdays he was doing two to five for statutory rape of a fifteen year old cheerleader in San Diego. Seems her mummy and daddy cared. And you still took him back. And here's the river card, you finally kicked him out of the apartment after the two of you had an argument about the babysitter he knocked up. Only, there was more to it, wasn't there."
"Just stop," she whispered finally unable to look him in the eye.
"You judged me. I judge you. Time to see what you've been hiding in those pocket cards. See, my people tell me that he did time for burglary shortly after that and bragged to his cell mates that he posted pictures of his naked wife on the internet and made enough money to support his recreational drug use, yet to this day you still invite him into charming little Alex's life. Now, let's talk about who the better parent is."
Sam turned around and leaned on the counter, grateful to at least get a few more inches away from Bob's face. She didn't want to cave at that moment and let him see her vulnerability. "We need to call the police. After all this time, we're stuck here and you don't even know who we're dealing with."
"Obviously neither do you," Bob gave her. "There's a lot to this, and those people out there aren't just the brainless street perps you're used to dealing with."
Sam's voice quivered just slightly as she continued to stair at the window over the sink, pushing Luka away as he tried to put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't you think you might be out of your league here? This isn't some village spat in the middle east or Africa."
"Spat? Well, isn't ignorance bliss?" he asked rhetorically, his neck veins raised. "You have no idea what it's like to live in a civil war where it's more obvious than not that you aren't a local - that you can be bought and sold, used or killed."
"Luka doesn't tell me anything because of a promise he made to you."
"Bob…," this time Luka walked in front of Bob, "… that's enough."
"Come on…" Carter pleaded.
"No," Bob countered, "she wants to know. Carter, tell her about how you were tied up by your wrists until your arms popped out of their sockets and then whipped over and over in the blazing sun with your back split open. Tell her about how they beat the shit out of you and laughed in your face at the same time. They did, didn't they?" he asked a speechless Carter who managed to turn away from the oral debacle and stare at his feet. "To the point that you had seizures. Right? And Luka, you've told her about Jules. About how he managed to mentally torture you, the first time face to face, the second time through my ex-wife as she prostituted herself to you, and you to her. How she stole the drugs, tried to frame Carter based on his history of addiction, and how she managed to drill herself so far into your head, Luka, that you turned on your best friend and believed her, not him. Then there's how the two of you ended up with guns…"
"Stop," Luka yelled, shoving Bob away - hard. "It's not your place. Just leave it."
"Did you know, Luka, that Jules paid for the clinic in Ikela fronted by a phony corporation? It was about to shut down when suddenly," Bob said with his arms raised in dramatic flair, "a donation was given to the Alliance. Our buddy Sean was too eager and green to check it out. So in essence, you were working for Jules and treating his rebels' families, for the most part. Your carelessness that last day there cost the lives of the two women who stayed behind to treat a kid of a rival war lord. Jules took offense."
"Chibon and Agunda," Carter mumbled, his hand wiping the exasperation from his face.
"And I don't know how," Bob continued, "but he knew who you were, Carter, long before you met Jules. He knew your net worth, and intended all along to capitalize on it. Getting Luka in the process was pure entertainment."
In that moment, Sam took advantage of the quell and slipped away into her room. When Carter turned around to watch her go down the stairs, he saw Anna in back of him obviously shaken by what she had heard. She, too, found something to do leaving the three men alone in the living room.
"Great. Thanks," Luka spit out as he sat himself down hard in a chair.
Carter let himself drop onto the sofa and leaned forward on his elbows. "Not exactly how I wanted Anna to find out about the drug thing."
"Hey, come on guys," Bob said, opening the screen door and standing in the thresh hold smoking a cigarette, "it's all peripheral information. So they didn't like my delivery. Doesn't change the facts. They were bound to find out."
"Bob," Carter said while putting his feet up on the coffee table, leaning back and closing his eyes, "there's a reason you're divorced and destined to be single, and somehow I think it suits you. But the girls aren't the enemy here."
Bob shrugged his shoulders and went onto the deck, closing the door behind him.
"Should have warned Sam not to piss Bob off," Carter said aloud to the ceiling he was staring at.
"Yep." Luka remained in the chair staring at his own piece of air.
"Luka? Don't you think -"
"Yep." Luka didn't need to hear the rest of Carter's advice and went downstairs to Sam's room.
Carter picked his head up let his voice trail off after Luka. "I'll keep the kids company for as long as you need."
She was in the oversized bathtub, the radio playing quietly by the bed. Her legs were drawn up and restrained by her arms, her head down resting on her knees. Luka stood in the doorway and watched as she simply sat in the water, the skylight allowing dappled sunshine peeking from around the clouds to playfully caress the soft silky skin of her back, and reflect off the pristine water. Picking her shirt up off the floor, Luka held it to his face and inhaled her smell, longing for the days when his disturbing past was nothing but an innocent secret and their time together in bed was sensual and erotic, gentle and loving, timeless - carefree.
Luka made sure the bedroom door was closed and locked. He needed to talk to Sam without interruption - Alex, Bob or otherwise. He started to go into the bathroom but stopped one more time to watch her from behind. She looked so beautiful, yet solitary, all balled up into a bundle of hurt. Quietly, he sat down on the tiled ledge next to her and picked up a washcloth, drawing the warm water up over her back.
"Sam… I'm sorry…"
"You didn't do anything."
"That's just it. I didn't."
They remained there, she staring blankly ahead of her, he gently washing her shoulders and back.
"Bob is… it's just what he does, but I didn't think he'd go so far," Luka tried to explain. "I tried… but when he bought up Jules I froze."
"Is everything he said true?" she finally asked.
"I've never known him to lie. It's not in his nature. He's brutal, but honest. I guess it's the way people like him survive." Luka had a knot in his stomach that needed untying for once. "I have… I have had the hardest time living with myself knowing that I let Colleen convince me that Carter was stealing drugs from the camp. It was bad enough that I'm responsible for Joseph's death, but I should have known. I should have believed Carter over her."
As Luka stopped to reach down and get fresh water, Sam rested her face sideways on her knees so she could see Luka, but let him take his time.
"Something about her sucked me in. She was such a free spirit. Strong and determined, smart, not afraid of anything," he chuckled inside.
She's like the swallow that flies on high
She's like the river that never runs dry
She's like the sun beaming on the lee shore
"I believed her right up to the end when I saw her with Jules at this… this celebration deep in the jungle with all kinds of dignitaries," he said, his face drawn down. "She was the only media. With what Carter had been trying to tell me it made sense, it just clicked. And she knew at that point that I knew."
I love my love, but love is no more
"Later, I walked into a clearing where Jules had found Carter and was taunting him. I was right behind Jules, but he didn't know it. And across from me, Colleen walked up behind Carter and put a gun to his head. Carter didn't see her, but he did see me and my gun pointed towards him." Luka stopped and let the washcloth drop into the water. "The look on his face…that he thought I had committed the ultimate act of deception and was about to kill him sliced right through me, but I had to stay focused. You know," he said with a definite breathless pause as though he were making a sudden discovery, "I could have shot her anywhere on her body, even just nicked her hand, but when I put that bullet through her heart I did it with purpose." Luka leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, head in hands. "There are these little red flowers that grow on the jungle floor - only in clearings and only very sparsely. I forgot the name of them, but they are so rare that the people there almost revere them as magical. But at that one spot they were all over."
Then out of these roses she made a bed
A scarlet pillow for her head
"I remember when I kneeled down next to her and looked in her eyes - wide open in death - the blood bubbled out of her mouth and ran down her cheeks onto this carpet of flowers connecting them and making one large red bed. I see that when I close my eyes, when I see a woman with red hair, when I see Amanda…"
She lay her down, no word did she speak
And then this maiden's heart it did break.
Turning sideways in the tub, Sam uncurled herself and wrapped her arms around Luka's hips caressing his back gently, her chin resting on his thigh. "It's okay that you loved her," Sam finally said. "It's sad that she couldn't see you for who you are. But I do, and I love you." She waited but his head just wasn't there at the moment. "He doesn't blame you… I don't think he does," she tried to console him. "He knows now you weren't pointing the gun at him."
"I know."
"You've talked about this, right?"
Luka remained silent in thought and in voice.
"You've talked to no one about this?" she asked astounded with the deeply painful secret he had been holding onto all this time. He only shook his head confirming her assumption.
"What about you?" he asked. "Are you okay with the shit Bob spewed all over up there?"
"He knows his stuff." Sam got out of the tub and, dripping wet, pulled Luka to his feet. "Steve wasn't at Alex's birthday parties because he was working on a cargo ship out of San Diego. At least that's what he told me, and I believed it."
"And the pictures…?
"I knew he took them. Said they were for when he got lonely out at sea," Sam snorted, rolling her eyes back. "I was young and stupid… should have known he'd sell them. Just one more thing to explain to Alex eventually. Yay, Google," she unenthusiastically cheered.
Luka pulled her into his warm, clothed body and held her tight. "It happened, it can't be fixed. We can only move on with what we have. And I think that's pretty great." He smiled as he smoothed Sam's hair back away from her face and leaned down to plant his warm lips on hers.
"My funny valentine," she whispered between kisses.
"What?"
"My Funny Valentine. It's playing on the radio. You said I was your funny valentine in February and I got mad at you. Remember?"
Luka giggled, his eyes shining for the first time in days. "Oh, yeah. Except I got the song wrong and called you my silly valentine."
"What can I say? PMS." As Luka gently dragged his fingers up and down her back, Sam found herself needing him in a way that they hadn't shared since Chicago. "I'm wet," she tried in vain to protest. "Your shirt's getting wet."
"Mmm, I know. I'll hang it up to dry," he said taking it off and letting it fall to the floor. Her skin felt exquisite against his, the moisture making it easier to move against her. His lips falling lower to her neck just under her ear, Luka let his pants fall into a pile next to the shirt and stepped out of them. Her trademark gasp let him know that he'd found the sweet spot on her jugular that nearly made her leap out of her skin.
"Luka, do you think that we should -"
"Shhh." Putting his finger over her lips, Luka pushed her out of the bathroom and gently laid her down on the bed. His long arms fit nicely on each side of her head as he sat astride and leaned in for another deep, sensual kiss. He savored her taste from her warm, moist lips to her supple breasts, the silky valley of her naval and then the pink folds of desire.
As they made love, he thought of Sam and only Sam for the first time - of how she made him feel, how she knew just what to do to make him crazy for her. They didn't rush or follow a plan, rather they lived in the moment as though it were their last, only it was really the beginning.
----------
The sun finally escaped the clouds long enough for dinner to be enjoyed out on the deck. Even Bob volunteered to cook.
"That's a real pretty necklace," Anna said to Amanda as they sat at the picnic table. "It's Irish, isn't it?"
"Yep. My friend Sean gave it to me. It symbolizes love, friendship and loyalty."
"Is that how it goes?" Anna asked, enjoying their girl time.
"A man in Ireland was taken away for many years and when he got back his true love had waited for him. So he made her this necklace."
"That's very sweet."
Amanda played with the pendant with her fingers, then reached behind her and undid the clasp taking it off. "I want you to have it."
"Oh, no, Amanda. I can't take that."
"Well, my dad loves me, Alex is my friend, and I guess that means we'll be loyal. I think you need love and a friend," she said standing up and walking around in back of Anna, not giving her a chance to protest as her small hands draped the necklace around Anna's neck and closed the clasp. "And you need a hug."
Anna soaked up the hug the little girl threw around her. "How about I just borrow it for a few days. Would that be okay?" The two came to an agreement and tapped their foreheads together.
"Where's my mom?" Alex asked, taking another bite of the hamburger Bob had managed to overcook on the grill.
"Um," Carter shifted in his deck chair uncomfortably, "she and Luka are talking."
"Still?"
"Yeah. Sure. Grown ups… talk."
"They used to have private talks a lot, but not so much lately."
"Well, then," Carter said with his back turned, smiling, "it's good that they're… they're, ah, talking again," he stammered. Anna sat next to Amanda and enjoyed the maze Carter was getting himself lost in.
"Sure have been talking for a long time," Amanda remarked innocently.
Anna gave Carter a smile and a wink. "Mm hmm. Sure have."
"Hey dad?" Amanda said, trying to get Bob's attention away from the newspaper he was reading through his half-moon glasses pushed to the end of his nose.
"Yes, Princess?"
"You know that guy in the picture of the museum you and Sam were talking about?"
"Not for you to worry about, Princess," he answered, barely shifting his attention away from the front page. "That was for grown-ups."
"I've seen him before."
That got Bob's attention as he pulled the newspaper into his chest and quickly took off the glasses. "Where?"
"In Mommy's pictures."
"That's not possible Amanda. I went through them all back in Africa."
"No. The ones in her digital camera."
"She didn't have a digital camera."
"Uh-huh. It was our secret. She had a little one in her vest. See?" Amanda took off the vest and reached into an inside pocket pulling out a small silver camera.
Carter stood and went to where Bob had scooted in next to his daughter at the picnic table.
"Which picture?" Bob asked as he scrolled through the memory and peered at the little screen.
"I don't know. Some campfire."
As Bob got to those pictures, he leaned in to Carter and shared the view. "Look, there he is with Jules and…"
"Hey," Alex spoke up reaching for the vest, "what else have you got in there?"
Amanda bolted up from the table but wasn't quick enough in her protectiveness of her mother's vest to escape Alex's grasp as he took hold of a corner and pulled hard spilling out a surprising cache onto the floor of the deck.
"My, my, my," Bob exclaimed, squatting down to get a better look. "This gets more and more interesting, doesn't it?"
"She's Like a Swallow"
Traditional Canadian/Irish Folk Song
Can be heard on Lucia Micarelli's Album:
Music from a Farther Room