Chapter Three: Wants and Needs
Almost everyone in the understated dining room flinched as Talia gave a long, harsh cackle.
"It's not as simple as writing a fucking check," she spit and refilled her cut-crystal glass, splashing the full-bodied red wine onto the tablecloth. The beige fibers sucked up the alcoholic red drops and the stain spread into the size of a misshapen half-dollar.
Helena remained rooted in place, light-headed from the violent vomiting episode and good old- fashioned fear. She could feel the unmasked man behind her, his broad shoulders and frame nearly cast a shadow indoors.
Talia slurped from the glass and licked her full lips before she turned her attention to Chris and Ryan.
"Get Professor Lang out of here, I want to talk to my sister alone."
Helena snapped out of her standing comatose state as Ryan closed his hand around Howard's upper arm.
"Don't you hurt him," Helena screeched and got no more than one step from where she was standing when Bane's hand closed around her wrist and kept her from doing anything foolish.
Talia smiled smugly when she heard Helena's startled cry of fear.
"Calm down, try and preserve some self-respect, you two are still needed, you'll know exactly when you become expendable," Talia hissed and made an impatient dismissive gesture towards Ryan and Chris from where they flanked Howard.
Helena watched helplessly, Bane's hold unbreakable around her wrist as she watched Chris and Ryan led Howard from the room.
Talia watched Helena try and keep her composure. "Sit down," she finally said before settling in the empty chair at the head of the table.
Bane had to practically lift Helena off her feet to get her to move and into the chair at the opposite end of the table. He moved back to stand in the doorway, his eyes never left Helena.
Talia shifted uncomfortably in the high-backed rigid chair before leaning forward on her elbows, tracing the tip of her index finger around the rim of her etched crystal glass.
Talia made the glass hum as percussionists for her as she spoke. "I'm going to require more than money if you wish for you and your father to remain living."
Helena felt her chest tighten, "what else do you want?"
"Your life," Talia said easily and drained her glass.
In the space before Helena spoke, Bane watched Talia dribble red wine on her blouse and felt a wave of repugnance towards her and how far from honor she had fallen. He felt a near-paralyzing gut-punch of revulsion at how her austere image had toppled into the ocean and had settled into the very depths of the Mariana Trench.
"My life?" Helena parroted.
Talia nodded, "I don't have a lot of places left that I can hide anymore. You're going to leave and I'm going to slide into your life and disappear in plain sight."
Helena shook her head and couldn't help but scoff.
"You can't just pretend to be me, what about the faculty, my friends?"
"You're going to move away and leave your name, social security number and identity behind."
"You can't be serious," Helena said and blinked rapidly as she tried to comprehend the entirety of the events since Talia had knocked on the door.
Talia smiled, "it'd be more convenient, not to mention, just, for me to simply kill you. I'm being benevolent and I strongly advise you begin showing gratitude."
"Gratitude?" Helena said and leapt to her feet. "I'm not going to give you anything, not a single cent or bit of shelter."
"You're going to beg for your pitiful existence whore," Talia shouted shrilly and threw her nearly empty wine glass at Helena.
Bane watched in slow-motion, unable to stop the glass as it cartwheeled and shattered on the table.
Helena put her hands up as the sharp shards rained over her, minute slices appearing in her palms and droplets of the red wine splashed onto the fabric of her dress.
Talia watched as tears began to roll down Helena's cheeks. "Oh, what's the matter princess?" she mocked and fetched another empty glass from the table.
Talia cackled in between long swallows of a now room-temperature white wine, beads of condensation stuck to the outside of the green bottle as she directed her words at Bane from where he remained standing rigidly still in the doorway.
"Stay with my darling sister and see that she only cleans up this mess and then goes upstairs. Don't let her near a computer or phone" she ordered as she rose unsteadily to her feet. "I'm going to go have a long chat with the professor before turning in. We have a lot to discuss in the morning."
Helena slumped into the chair with defeat as Talia left the room, walking sideways as she headed towards the rear of the house.
Helena didn't look up when Bane moved from the doorway and closer to the table.
He wasn't sure how to address her and first looked down the hall to make sure Talia was out of earshot before he spoke.
"Are you injured?"
Helena looked down at the smattering of tiny cuts on her palms and shook her head, not trusting her voice to speak.
A full eight minutes passed with both of them remaining in complete silence.
While Bane walked around the room and lingered in front of the fireplace and its altar of family photos, he memorized the pictures of Helena that spanned the last few decades. There was of course a variety of baby and elementary school photos.
The picture that caught his eye as the most intriguing was a photo of her holding up a paper at some sort of party. He squinted at the photo and saw that the paper she held was for a degree, he couldn't see what she had majored in.
He kept his eyes on the photograph of her captured in a glossy eternity and glanced over to where she was sitting now, the photo didn't look like it had been taken that long ago. In the photo on the mantle she was half-smiling at the camera and her eyes sparkled with an intriguing mixture of mayhem and innocence.
Helena looked up suddenly and caught his eyes on her.
She quickly looked away and rose to her feet and began to fumble the plates into a messy stack.
"You don't have to do that right now."
"No, I'd like to," she mumbled and gathered up the utensils. "I'd like to clean this up now and then change, if that's allowed," she added.
Bane remained silent while she continued to clean up. As she rinsed the plates and filled the dishwasher, down the hall, Talia leaned closer to Howard, her red wine breath a wave of sweet rot with her every spoken word.
"I know you made some sizable investments in pharmaceuticals after your time in the Navy and I know that you also made substantial profits from those investments. I know that you have a safety deposit box with a lot of your dead wife's jewelry in it too," she hissed.
Howard's shoulders slumped and he flinched when Ryan sat down in a plush leather swivel chair across from him.
"Necessity drove me here professor," she slurred and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his arthritic neck before she continued in a sing-song tone.
"I didn't come here to argue professor. The bottom line is I want the cash, jewelry, and house before you and your whore daughter leave the state, preferably the country."
"Your father and I were good friends, why are you so filled with hate?" Howard asked and felt an ache in his chest as his heart valves started to strongly dislike the additional stress to his body.
"My father acted like every other animal and fucked that rich bitch," she shouted as she stood up too fast for the amount of alcohol she had consumed and struggled to keep her balance.
"Your father was a human like everyone else, he acted out of passion, there's no fault on anyone's part," Howard started before Talia slapped him across the face. Her palm stung with the force of hitting the side of his unshaven face.
"My father was a god," she screamed. "He didn't roll around with the animals," she shouted as her breath came harder. "And you raised the progeny of his dishonorable rutting."
"Get him out of my face until the morning," Talia screeched at Ryan and Chris. "There has to be at least a dozen bedrooms here, find out where he squirrels away at night and keep him there until dawn."
Talia stomped back to the dining room as Helena was wiping down the counters and starting the dishwasher to the extra hot and rinse cycle.
She paused in the entryway as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Talia's eyes first found Bane as he leaned against the kitchen counter and watched Helena flit about the kitchen.
Talia's drunk mind kept her from sensing the intensity in Bane's gaze he directed at Helena. Talia's inebriated brain kept her from smelling and seeing the beginning of lust that had took hold and sprouted within him the very moment he'd laid eyes on Helena.
As Bane watched Helena, he wasn't even aware of how delicate tendrils of brash desire, desperate want and need began to spread throughout his system and spread like metastasizing cancer.
Bane stood up straight as Talia appeared in the kitchen, Helena dropped the dishcloth she had been using and froze. Both of them waited in different ways for the words that would come tumbling from Talia's drunken lips.
Talia was practically seeing two of Helena and had a sinking feeling she was going to vomit just like her sister did earlier and wanted to make it to one of the toilets in the Ivory Tower before she puked up a belly full of parsley swimming in acidic red wine.
"Tomorrow morning we're going to talk more specifics and then we'll head down to the bank. I need you to be out of my face until the morning."
Helena settled a hand on the counter and tried to steady her breathing as Talia looked past her and directed her words toward Bane and gave similar marching orders to the ones she gave Chris and Ryan.
"Take her to her room and make sure she stays put until the morning."
Talia dragged her gaze back to Helena and studied her for a long time, so long that Helena finally steeled her nerves before she spoke. "What?!"
Talia smiled lazily. "I was just thinking I knew what to expect when I finally met you in person. I read all about you, your published papers, your social media posts, the bullshit you like, but nothing prepared me for this," she admitted as she chuckled and flicked her drunken gaze back to Bane.
"Bring her downstairs before dawn."
Bane nodded as Talia directed her attention back to Helena.
"My father didn't pass on any culinary skills; you must've gotten that from your whore mother. You can have breakfast ready and demonstrate something of your worth."
Helena opened her mouth to offer a rebuttal when Bane was suddenly next to her, his strong hand closing around her upper arm, squeezing the supple flesh with just enough pressure to gain her full attention and ensure her silence.
"I will have her right here before dawn," Bane murmured to Talia and was relieved to see her accept his words and practically pirouette away as her alcohol intoxication only continued to climb.
Bane and Helena stayed still until they heard Talia's footsteps retreat and a door slam in the distance before either of them dared to breathe.
"Where's your bedroom?" he asked as he kept his grasp firm on her upper arm.
Helena cleared her throat, "upstairs," she managed.
"Lead the way," he murmured when she remained still.
She let out her breath when he released her arm. She struggled to not rub her fingers over the skin he had been squeezing.
Helena flicked off the various lights and checked the door and window locks as she made her way to the spiral staircase.
She couldn't help but shout when the front door opened as she checked the lock.
Barsad made a surprised sound when he opened the door to Helena and Bane close behind her.
"Pardon me ma'am, miss, excuse me," he stammered and gained a genuine smile from Helena and a flash of genuine hatred from Bane.
"Please call me Helena, you must be with the rest of the band," she smirked.
Barsad smoothed down his shirt. "I did not sign on for all of this," he said softly.
"But you're doing her bidding nonetheless," Helena said gently and turned away from both men and began to ascend the wood stairs with carpet running down the center.
Barsad and Bane regarded each other wordlessly before Bane continued to follow Helena.
Helena felt the weight of his gaze as he wordlessly followed her down a long hallway and past several rooms before pausing at a closed door.
"This is my room," she finally said and half-turned towards him, avoiding his eyes.
"Is there a room nearby with a sofa or bed?"
She nodded and pointed at an ajar door a few rooms back, "there's a futon in there, it's kind of the office."
Bane glanced over his shoulder at the room and then back at her. She dared to meet his eyes as he rose to his full height and stared down at her.
She fought a flinch as he reached past her and pushed open her bedroom door.
Helena kept her hands outstretched in front of her, the façade of space between them let her be able to breathe. She barely suppressed a shudder as she felt like she was cowering at the base of Vesuvius and he took a small step away from her.
"Sleep well Helena Elizabeth, tomorrow brings a busy day and much to talk about."
She let out the breath she didn't know she was holding as he cast her one last glance and closed her bedroom door after she stepped inside.