Authors: Michelle Love
Skandar felt like kissing the Washington ground as he landed back in Seattle. The flight from Italy had been one of dodging the press – which meant change after change in remote parts of the world to get back home. Instead of the usual transatlantic route, he and Joel had taken the longer route – across Europe and Asia and finally down through Anchorage to Seattle. They’d sent Nan back a day before they themselves had left Rome so the press wouldn't get used to her being with them and follow her home. He had to admit; he'd seen parts of the world even he had never visited, but it had taken four days, and he and his dad were exhausted and sick of fast food grabbed at weird times of the night.
His grandfather, Ran, had arranged for a town car to pick them up and they flopped into the air-conditioned car, and both of them fell asleep immediately.
Somehow, they'd gotten back to his grandfather's house because the next reasonable cognitive thought he had was that he was in a soft bed, and it was evening again. He got up and stood under a refreshing shower, sighing with relief at feeling vaguely normal again.
Downstairs he heard voices from the dining room and followed the sound. He found Ran, Joel, Nan and Quilla sitting eating pizza straight from the boxes – he loved that his billionaire family didn’t have graces – and a young girl he didn't know, long straight blonde hair, almond eyes a dark brown, long, long legs. Jakob was on his cell phone on the other side of the room.
Quilla got up to hug Skandar. ‘You okay, bug?’ She wrapped her arms around him – quite a feat when he stood over a foot taller than her. He lifted her off her feet and swung her. She giggled as he set her down.
‘Well, that’s more like it, come sit.’
Nan leaned over to kiss his cheek. ‘Skandar, this is my sister, Hayley – she doesn’t need me to tell her who you are.’
‘Quite, hi Skandar.’
He liked that she didn’t look star struck – the reaction he was used to getting – and it was a relief. If she was nice as Nan then…he sat down next to her.
As if reading his mind, she grinned. ‘If you're wondering if I'll be as sweet and comforting as my sister, you're wrong. I will shamelessly mock you like we’ve known each other forever.’
Skandar burst out laughing. Ran, at the other end of the table, grinned. ‘You tell him, Hayley.
Jakob finished his call and came back to the table. ‘Hey, Skan, happy to see you, buddy.'
‘Hey, Jakob…how’s everything?’
Jakob exchanged a glance with Quilla, who smiled. ‘Actually, we might have some news.’
‘Oh my, you’re…’ Nan started, but Quilla quickly waved her hand.
‘No, God, no, nothing like that. Joel…remember that you talked to Jakob about building sports centers for the communities in Seattle without access? We might have found your first site.’
Jakob smiled at his lover. ‘Quilla’s been scouting for places in her lunch breaks – never let it be said this girl doesn’t commit.’
‘That’s great…wow, I hadn’t even thought past the initial idea but damn, Quilla, Jakob, that’s amazing.’
Skandar looked at his father, bemused. ‘What’s this?’
‘Your dad’s going to build community sports centers,’ Nan said proudly. Skandar smiled.
‘You gonna find the new…um…me?’
Hayley snorted, and Nan scowled at her. Skandar raised an eyebrow and Hayley shrugged.
‘Sorry, just warming up to that mockery I was talking about.’
‘Hayley,' her sister's voice carried a warning, but Skandar grinned.
‘You are one weird girl,' he said to Hayley who smiled with her mouth full of pizza.
Soon they had broken up into groups and Skandar, and Hayley went outside to play with the dogs. He sized her up as they ran around. She was tall, almost six foot, he guessed, slender but not skinny. Her long blonde hair hung in a straight curtain around her topped with a wool hat. Her willowy body was clad in skinny jeans and a loose fitting tee. Skandar realized he was staring – and that she'd noticed. He grinned guiltily as she stuck her hand on her hip and struck a pose.
‘I know, it’s impossible for you not to look, what with all this going on,’ she waved her hand up and down her body then laughed. ‘Dude, we’re practically brother and sister.’
He followed her over to the swing set which had been there since his dad was a toddler. ‘How’d you figure that one?’
‘Well, if my sister and your dad are dating…I'm wrong; I'm your aunt. So behave.’ She pulled a serious face which turned quickly into duck face. Skandar grinned.
‘Dude,' – she looked like she didn't mind being called dude, so he risked it – ‘You are so nutso. So come on, get serious, tell me about you.’
Hayley swung gently back and forth on the swing. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘You work?’
She nodded. ‘Part time at a comic store Downtown. I’m at college most of the time.’
‘Studying.’
‘Sports Psychology.'
‘Seriously?’
‘No.’
‘Jerk. So come on, what?’
‘Architecture.’
‘Jakob’s field, he could help you out.’
‘I intend on picking his brains. His girlfriend is cute.'
‘Quilla’s a peach, yeah. Still, can’t believe what happened to her.’
‘That’s the night my sister met your dad. At the hospital.’
Skandar raised his eyebrows at her. ‘Really? Smooth moves, Pa, macking on the patients while your brother’s girl is bleeding to death.’
Hayley winced then rolled her eyes. ‘Nan wasn’t the patient, I was, and he wasn’t macking on anybody.’
‘Chill, I was kidding. Why were you there?’
Hayley didn't answer for a second, and a myriad of crazy reasons ran through his mind. Then she shrugged. ‘Potted version, got drunk, got in the car with drunk, drunk rolled car. Got lucky, minor cuts and bruises and no charges.’ She looked at him and for the first time, she saw a vulnerable side to her.
‘Hey,’ he said gently, ‘no judgment here. We’ve all done dumb stuff…’
They were quiet for a moment. The evening was mild, and a fresh breeze blew in from the lake on the property.
‘So,’ Hayley’s voice was hesitant, ‘do you want to talk about it? I just thought someone around your age, not family, maybe…’
Skandar grinned sideways at her. ‘Didn’t you just tell me you’re my Aunt?’
She didn’t smile. ‘Skandar.’
He looked away. ‘I…jeez, I don’t even know what to tell you. Annika and I had been flirting a while, you know. She never knew this, but I had the biggest crush on her for years. Of course, being a douchebag, I never let her know, played the field, tried to make her jealous. It worked. Now…’ He shook his head. ‘Wish I hadn’t waited. I thought we had forever.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Skandar squinted across to where the dogs were busy digging up his grandfather’s prized rose bed.
‘She was a sweet kid, you know? Why anyone would want to do that to her…’ He trailed off, looking inside at his family, talking and laughing. ‘They think it’s all going to be okay, I can tell.’
‘That should give you some comfort.’
‘I honestly don’t know. A part of me feels I should be punished for not protecting her.’
Hayley was silent. ‘Were you together long?’
Skandar shook his head. ‘Just that night. We'd been flirting and building up to it through the whole meet, then that evening, she came to my room. Said she was tired of waiting.’
‘Why’d she leave then?’
Skandar looked desolate. ‘Carlos Sosa.
He has me on a strict no carbs, no sex, no fun regime. He called me that night, said he was coming up to see me, so I had to send her away. If I hadn't, she'd be alive now. God.’
He put his face in his hands, trying not to scream. Hayley was quiet, leaving him to get hold of himself. He looked up eventually with red eyes.
‘Thanks for listening. We don't even know each other, but it's been good.'
Hayley, never shy, grabbed his phone from his back pocket and programmed her number into it. ‘Call whenever. If you just need to shout and curse, call me, we’ll drive up into the mountains and find a quiet spot and howl and curse to our hearts’ content.’
She held her hand up for a high-five which he returned and handed his phone back. ‘I'm getting cold, so I'm going to head in. Coming?’
‘In a sec.’ He watched her lope back to the house. Good kid, he thought. Real good kid.
He looked forward to having her as a friend.
Quilla Chen rested her hand on Jakob’s thigh as he drove them back to their apartment, gazing out at the lights of the city. She heard him sigh and turned to him. His brow was furrowed, his eyes uneasy.
‘What are you thinking about?' She stroked his hair back over his ear. Jakob flashed a smile at her but it faded, and he shook his head. ‘Skandar. Damn kid would get himself into trouble.’
‘To be fair,' Quilla said gently, ‘he didn't do anything wrong. In fact listening to Joel and Nan tell it, it just seems weird all around. Have you considered that someone might be out to frame him? A rival?’
He gave her a sharp look then, and she realized he hadn’t considered it. ‘I'm just giving you a for instance,' she tried to get him to smile, but his eyes were hard. ‘What? I didn’t mean to upset you.’
His face softened. ‘You could never upset me, beautiful. I just had never thought…we’ll talk about this at home, just give me five minutes, I don’t want to be driving when we talk about it.’
Confused, Quilla nodded, but twenty minutes later she understood. They were sitting in their living room, lights dimmed, and as Quilla kicked off her shoes and curled her legs underneath her, Jakob said the one word that made her skin crawl, her stomach drop. ‘Gregor.’
Quilla felt the blood drain out of her face. ‘What?’
Jakob, seeing her distress, sat down next to her and pulled her into the crook of his arm. ‘It's just a theory,' he said, kissing her temple. ‘But we can't find him; the police can't find him. If he thinks – and God, I hate even saying this out loud – if he thinks he hasn't got ‘enough' revenge on me, he could be going after the rest of the family. He knows he won’t get near you again.’
Quilla didn't say anything, and he tightened his arm around her. ‘Sorry, baby. I might be totally paranoid, but it's worth looking into, right?'
She nodded. ‘God, yes, anything to help Skandar. I'm a year younger than him, but I feel like a momma bear when he's around.'
‘You’re an old soul, Quilla Chen. Something else made me think tonight.’
‘What’s that?’
‘When Nan thought you were pregnant.’
Quilla laughed. ‘Why is it that whenever a woman says she has news it's always presumed, she's either pregnant or engaged? I might be climbing Everest or…' she cast around, ‘giving an enema to a Blue Whale.'
Jakob shook his head, still chuckling. ‘Only you could think up something like that. No, what I mean is…for just the briefest second when Nan thought you were pregnant, a part of me wanted you to say ‘Actually yes.’ Then, of course, I got it together and told myself…we haven’t even had that conversation.’
Quilla chewed her lip. ‘We’ve been together for what now? Six months? Do you think it’s too soon? I mean to discuss in the abstract, yes, but I’m not ready to have kids yet.’
Jakob nodded. ‘Which was my first thought and there’s something else we’ve ignored up until now. There're twenty-three years between us, Quilla. We've glossed over that fact so far, but it is a consideration we have to deal with.'
Quilla suddenly felt tears threatening. ‘I love you; I don’t want to be with anyone else.’
He kissed her. ‘Me neither. This is it for me. But…I have, to be honest. Children have never been high on my list. So if we reach a point where it becomes an issue, we need to face it. Although for a second I was swayed by the idea of you being pregnant, in all honesty, I can’t see it happening.’
Quilla nodded, her throat thick. She snuggled into his chest so he couldn’t see the sadness in her eyes.
Because she had thought about children – way off in the future, yes, but his children, green-eyed and beautiful. His revelation struck deep inside her. No kids? She heard him sigh, felt his chest rise and fall against her cheek.
‘Anyway, my beauty, I’ve got an early meeting so…’
In bed, they made love slowly and later, when Quilla had fallen asleep, Jakob slid out from the covers and went into the living room. Sleep had been avoiding him lately, and he felt the build-up of those sleepless nights now. The reason was simple – and one he kept to himself – he was pretty sure Gregor was waging a campaign against his family. After Quilla had been stabilized, her surgeon had spoken to Jakob privately.
‘The stab wound isn’t deep, nor violent enough to cause extensive bleeding. From the circumstances you’ve described…it sounds like the attacker meant to wound and not kill. If he was standing next to her, he could have easily stabbed her multiple times in a few seconds and deeply too. He could have easily murdered her, but he didn't. I don’t get what his motive was.’
For a time, neither did Jakob. It wasn’t until he got the first email – sent through an anonymous IP address – that he knew.
Next time, she dies.
It has been a warning, the stabbing. A vicious, nasty, painful warning but just that. Gregor would never stop until he brought Jakob and his family low. Which is why, tonight, when Quilla theorized that someone was framing Skandar, the pieces had fallen into place.
Jakob looked at the clock. A little after midnight. He knew his dad would still be up reading. He grabbed his cell – then hesitating crossed the room and looked in to see if Quilla was still asleep. Her face rested on the pillow, her eyes closed, her hair tangled around her. So beautiful. Jakob leaned against the doorframe and watched her breathing for a few moments. I love you, Quilla Chen, so, so much.
Next time, she dies.
Jakob swallowed the knot of fear in his throat and went to call his dad.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Hey Boo.
Samadamadingdong: ‘Sup? You’re online late tonight.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Had a strange day. Met someone.
Samadamadingdong: Woah! Do tell!
SkunkMaladyBibble: Not like that. She’s just the coolest person – apart from you, of course
Samadamadingdong: I’m only your imaginary friend, though. What's she like?
SkunkMaladyBibble: Funny, smart, gorgeous. And someone I think could be a true friend one day. I wish I were able to say more.
Samadamadingdong: You know the rules. But I’m glad you have someone like that, dude. I think I may have met that person as well.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Spill it.
Samadamadingdong: Nah, too early to say for sure. When and if things progress etc. He's kinda messed up at the moment.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Bad news. But I know how he feels so don’t be too judgey.
Samadamadingdong: Judgey’s my middle name.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Some days I wish you were here so we could really talk.
Samadamadingdong: I know me too, but then we wouldn't have the luxury of spilling our darkest moments to each other without fear of recrimination or exposure. God, that’s deep for this time of night. Willies bum pee pee.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Lunatic.
Samadamadingdong: Ya, bruh.
SkunkMaladyBibble: The fuck? Is that some young person’s talk I don’t know?
Samadamadingdong: Ya, bruh.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Anyway, should probably get some sleep. Just wanted to check in.
Samadamadingdong: Ya, bruh.
SkunkMaladyBibble: Stop that. Sweet dreams.
Samadamadingdong: Right back at cha. Night, dude.