Chapter 18: A Light in the Darkness
Crossing the finished line, Jebb glanced around noting that once more, Kira Kyle was nowhere to be seen on the racetrack. He had grown to enjoy the competition that he found with the woman who wasn't exactly the easiest person to talk to. Other than Matt, Kira was really the only one who could give him a good run for his money. In fact, she'd beaten him in the last race that she'd competed in. Few in the circuit had either her skill on the track or ability to keep him distracted just by walking into the room despite the fact that no one would call her a real beauty. Not to mention, he enjoyed seeing her fiery temper when she lost.
Jebb also liked to think that she enjoyed racing against him as well. Still, he wondered why she had not shown for the last months' worth of races. Kira had climbed to the top of the leader board, but now others whose skills were nowhere near hers were topping her.
A bit worried, Jebb began to ask around to the other racers if they had seen Kira. Unfortunately, try as he may, no other racer knew how to contact her. Despite being a part of the group that he raced with for the last couple of years, Kira mainly stayed off to herself. She would join in on the races and even some of the after race parties, but where she went off to afterwards no one knew. Undeterred, Jebb was determined to find out exactly where Kira had been and why she had not been coming to the races.
Over the next several weeks, Jebb had made it his mission to find out exactly where Kira was at. He knew she lived in Atlanta so one thing he did was scour the phone book. He found no Kira Kyle, but he had heard her mention a man named Ben a time or two. Figuring that Ben would know where Kira was at, he wrote down Ben Kyle's address with the intention of going there.
As soon as a free weekend came, Jebb hopped on his bike and headed to Atlanta and rode the streets looking for the address he'd taken from the phone book. What surprised him was that the area that the address was in was a more of an upscale area than he had anticipated. Not a neighborhood that he'd expected to find the woman who frequently wore torn jeans and long-sleeved blouses and haunted his thoughts. Kira never seemed to care about dressing to impress anyone else. Instead she dressed for her own comfort, though Jebb wouldn't exactly say that she ever really appeared all that comfortable. She constantly looked to be on alert as if just waiting for the sky to fall in on her. Still, Kira could always be seen with a tough exterior that clearly told all men to back off. All men but him at least.
To Jebb, that just screamed that there was something more going on with her than met the eye. She was a mystery in a way that no other girl had ever been. It hadn't taken long after meeting the abrasive redhead before he had begun to measure any other girl that he dated against her. At the races he was always quick to convince her to join the rest of them after the races just so that he could spend a bit more time with her. Jebb learned that he preferred the idea of a woman who would make him work for her attention over the girls who just threw themselves at him. All of the other girls that he had dated had all begun to bore him. None of them really challenged both his mind and his racing ability. Kira was different; Kira was an equal.
Glancing around, Jebb noted that the houses that he drove past probably cost more than the entire town of Tranquil put together. The longer he rode, the more he doubted that he'd actually be able to find anyone who knew Kira in this area. Still he was determined to at least try. When Jebb finally found the address that he was looking for, he looked up at the imposing house nervously. It was huge with a gate surrounding it; no doubt to keep people like him out. Hopping off of his motorcycle, Jebb removed his helmet before he made his way up the long walkway.
Nervously, he tugged at his collar wondering if he really should ring the bell. Casting caution to the wind, Jebb pushed the button and then fidgeted as he waited for someone to answer the door. It felt as if it took forever before the door finally opened to reveal a stately looking man who peered at him questionably.
"May I help you?"
"I… uh… I probably have the wrong house," Jebb said nervously. "I was hoping to be able to find someone… Kira Kyle."
The man eyed Jebb suspiciously. In all the time that Miss Kyle had lived in the home, no one had ever come looking for her. "And you are?"
"The name's Duke. Jebb Duke. I race with Kira," Jebb rushed to tell the man. "Could you tell me, is she here, sir?"
The man began to look Jebb up and down from head to toe before stepping aside and indicated that he should enter the foyer. "Wait here."
With that the man left Jebb alone as he wondered just how he had ended up in such an immaculate house. His mother's family had more money than most in Placid County yet he'd never seen anything like this house. Just the chandelier in the front hallway alone had to have cost a small fortune. Jebb glanced around looking at the various pieces of artwork and such without trying to make it look like he was gawking as he waited for someone to return to the foyer. He didn't know just how long he'd been waiting before a man who was roughly about sixty-five to seventy years old joined him in the hall.
"I apologize for making you wait," the man with gray hair said as he came up to Jebb and shook his hand. "I'm afraid that James isn't used to having anyone ask for Kira. I must say, I was surprised to hear that someone was here myself. I'm Benjamin Kyle, and you are?"
Jebb accepted Ben's hand nervously as he temporarily forgot his own name. What was he doing here in this man's house? How did Kira even know the man?
"I…uh…" Jebb coughed before finally spitting out, "I'm Jebb Duke, sir. I race with Kira on the circuit and noticed that she dropped out shortly after the season had just started and… Well… I just wanted to see if she was alright."
"I see," Ben smiled as he suddenly remembered the first time that he took Kira to a Motocross race. There had been a young man whom he had suspected had caught her attention, even if she had denied it at the time. He wondered if this happened to be that same young man who had sparked the young woman's interest in racing. He had caught Kira a few times mentioning one name more often than other racers' when she spoke of the Motocross though Ben was always careful not to let on that he noticed. "Please, come on in. I'm afraid that Kira isn't up right now. After a treatment she usually is out of it for most of the day."
"Treatment?" Jebb followed Ben into a sitting room that was tastefully decorated in understated colors that had obviously been selected to try to make guests feel comfortable. "What kind of treatments?"
Ben motioned for Jebb to take a seat as he did the same in a wingback chair that faced the couch. "I had assumed that you knew her condition when you said that you came to check on her. Let me back up. For the last couple of years Kira has been in remission from cancer. Earlier this year it returned. She raced for as long as she could before she learned of its return but both the disease and the treatments for it are-" Ben paused before continuing, "You said that you race with Kira. You didn't say that you are a friend though."
"Um…yes that's right. Not that I haven't tried to be friends. It's just that your daughter isn't the easiest person to get to know. In fact, I couldn't find anyone that does consider her a friend while I was trying to see if anyone knew if anything had happened to her."
Ben nodded while holding back a chuckle at the young man's presumption. He knew very well that his charge was not someone who allowed others to get close to her easily. But then, given her history, it wasn't too hard to understand the reasons behind it.
"Kira has always been one who never saw the need to complicate her life with a lot of other people," Ben said truthfully. "Now, why don't you tell me just what sparked your wanting to come and check on Kira since, as you said, you aren't friends."
"Why? Well, like I said, she just hadn't been to any of the races lately and well…" Jebb squirmed in his seat as he suddenly felt as if he was meeting a date's father for the first time. Of course, he sort of was; even if he had never dated Kira he would certainly have liked to. Though looking around the house he supposed that she was out of his league now. "I was just worried about her is all."
Ben had to admit that he liked the fact that the young man sitting in front of him appeared to be nervous while speaking to him. It showed a level of respect that none of his daughter, Elizabeth's, dates had ever shown. Even Elizabeth's current husband seemed to regard Ben as a necessary evil; someone whom he had to be nice to since he hoped to remain in his good graces solely for the benefit of the inheritance that he wished to gain after Ben's death. Though his own son, Shawn, was not really any better in that regard.
"I'm glad to hear that. I'm sorry to say that you are the first person who has ever come here to speak with her since she first came to live with me a few years ago."
Jebb cocked his head at the statement, "Only a few years? I thought that she was your daughter."
"She is my daughter; in every way that matters," Ben insisted. "But she has not always been. Before I met her, Kira had a hard life. If you plan to be a part of her life you'll need to understand that. There is a lot about it that she'll have to be the one to tell you about but I will say that she has not always lived in the same manner she does now."
"Oh," Jebb looked down unsure if he should ask for the man to explain more of what he meant but decided against it. "I see."
Ben leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers as he watched what he'd just told the young man sink in. "Why don't you stay for dinner and we can talk more while you wait for Kira to wake up from her nap. I'd hate for you to come here without being able to see her."
"That's alright. I mean, she wasn't exactly expecting me and I'm sure that-"
"I insist," Ben interrupted. "Even if she wouldn't agree, she could use the company."
"Al-Alright. In that case, I'd like that." Jebb wondered just how Kira was going to react to finding him in her home when she finally did wake up.
Jebb made his way to the room where he was told that Kira would be waiting for him. She had woken up while he and Ben were eating but she had not been up to joining them. Instead, she had gone to sit in a room that Ben had referred to as the Solarium.
Jebb reached the room and wondered if he should knock or just walk in. After a moment of inner deliberation he went ahead and opened the door and walked in. He planned to knock as he did so but stopped short when he saw Kira staring out of the window toward a flower garden as the sun began to set. She looked so different from the last time that he'd seen her on the track. She had lost quite a bit of weight but that hadn't been the only thing that she'd lost. On the top of her head a scarf was tied about it to hide the fact that her long, red hair that usually fell about her shoulders was now missing.
Without even turning to face Jebb, Kira asked, "What are you doing here?"
Swallowing before answering, "I was starting to get worried about you. No one had heard from you in a while so I figured that I'd come to see if you were alright… You know, you're not the easiest person to track down."
"Maybe I didn't want to be tracked down." Kira felt the couch shift as Jebb sat on the other end but she kept her back to him as she remained seated sideways while looking out of the window. "You didn't have to come here."
"Maybe I wanted to." Jebb shrugged. He wasn't sure just what he should say to someone with cancer. Knowing Kira as he thought he did, though, he suspected that she wouldn't want him to treat her any different than he normally did. "After all, I had to see just why the only other rider that is half as good as I am suddenly just stopped showing up. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't because you knew that you didn't have a chance at beating me in the rally next month."
Kira turned to face Jebb with a bit of fire in her eyes as she narrowed them at him. "I believe that the last time we raced I won by more than five whole seconds, Duke."
"I think you're exaggerating that just a bit," Jebb smirked. "You might have crossed the finished line a second or two before me but not five."
"You really think so, huh? I just happen to have that race on tape and-" Kira stopped when she heard Jebb openly begin to laugh at her. That only caused her to get angry. "What is so funny?"
"I was just teasing. I'm willing to admit that I was having an off day that day." Jebb grinned since he saw that made Kira's eyes flash even more brightly.
"Why you pompous, arrogant, egotistical, jackass!" Kira shouted as went to stand up. "I won that race fair and square and you know it!"
"Well, if you won it all that fair then we can plan for a rematch just as soon as you're better." Jebb leaned back against the couch and stretched his long legs out in front of him. Over dinner, Ben had told him how Kira hadn't been the same since she'd started her cancer treatments. He'd said that Kira had been listless since she'd started the chemotherapy along with the rest of the treatments. Jebb figured that if anything was going to get a reaction out of her then it would be talking about her racing. Which it did. "Of course if you don't think that you could handle losing to me like you usually do-"
Kira saw the smug grin on Jebb's face and wanted to slap it right off. "You aren't that good, Duke."
"I reckon you'll have to prove that, Kyle. So, when do the doctors think that you'll be back out eating my dust on the racetrack again?"
Kira eyed Jebb almost suspiciously. She realized that he was trying to get her mad. Maybe not at him, exactly, but he did seem to enjoy the fact that she was ready to fight him with words just like he always did. She had dreaded seeing him after James told her that she had a guest since she had been sure that he would have acted awkward around her knowing that she was sick. Of course he likely had no clue just how bad things were for her. She had been lucky to have beaten the cancer the first time. Her chances this time were no better than they had been before. Kira seriously doubted that she'd be lucky enough to win against it a second time. Still...
"If I were you I wouldn't be hoping for it to be too soon. Not if you want to keep that place on the top of the leaderboard this season. Because like it or not, the moment that I get back out there, I won't be the one eating dust."
"Is that so?" Jebb watched as Kira flopped back on the couch and noticed just how much energy that small show of defiance had taken as she seemed to wither right in front of him. "If that's the case, why don't we put a friendly wager on that, then? Once you get back on the track and get your wheels back under ya, we'll have to see just who is better than the other."
"A wager? Just what did you have in mind?"
"If I win, you'll have to finally agree to go out with me."
"And when I win?"
"You name it," Jebb said confidently.
"I get to name it, huh? That's a dangerous little wager you've made there. I could think of a lot of things to make you do when I win."
"Not going to happen." Jebb smiled as he stood up since he knew that Kira was tired. "I'll tell you what, I'll come back tomorrow and keep you company and we'll discuss all the things that you think that you'll be able to get me to do. I think I'd better let you get something to eat so you can go back to sleep. You're tired."
"You don't have to come back, Duke. Besides, isn't there a rally tomorrow? If you come here you'll miss the race."
"I can afford to miss a couple of races," Jebb responded with a smug look on his face. "I'll see ya tomorrow."
With that, Jebb left Kira behind in the Solarium and made his way toward the front door where James miraculously appeared with his helmet and jacket. He told the man that he'd be back the next day before walking out the front door and hopping on his bike and took off.
Inside, Kira pulled her knees up and hugged them to her as she watched Jebb leave. She knew that he must be right. She was tired. Otherwise she couldn't understand why he could confuse her just by being in the room with her. One minute he had her ready to fight him and the next she was touched by how much he seemed to care. He'd come here to talk with her and now after seeing just how tired she was he had decided to leave with the promise to return.
A couple of years ago another man had gone out of his way to speak with her and had promised to return as well. She hadn't believed that the man would return but he had. Now, Kira suspected that Jebb would keep his promise, too. She'd be seeing him again real soon, though she still seriously doubted that she'd have to hold up to her end of that friendly wager. Life itself was likely to get in the way of it. Even if she did plan to lose the race on purpose if they ever got around to it. Perhaps that plan alone would be enough to give her the will to fight against the disease that coursed through her veins once more.