Black Bear Rising: A BWWM Paranormal Romance (Black Bear Saga Book 1) (28 page)

The sun dipped behind a cloud and Lana felt a sudden chill. Only seconds ago she had been enjoying a beautiful moment with him and now it seemed like he couldn't get away from her quick enough. “Talk to me Einar, what did I say to upset you?” she asked as they entered the hospital.

“Its nothing to do with you Lana,” he said, all warmth gone from his voice. He lead her to her bed and broke his connection with her when she sat down on the edge of it.

“Don’t leave like this. Tell me what’s wrong,” Lana said.

She heard the door of her room close and Einar's footsteps fading down the corridor. Lana kicked off her shoes, swung her legs up and sunk back into the bed wrapping herself in her duvet. What the hell just happened she thought to herself, one minute Einar was warm and open to her and it seemed like the flip of a switch and he shut down and became cold and distant. What did she do wrong she thought to herself, surely she couldn't be the cause she reasoned to herself and only half believed it. Maybe he had somehow seen the real her, the type of woman who sleeps with men for money and lets them do depraved acts on her while she is unconscious. What would a good and wholesome man like Einar do if he found out about her sordid past? I know exactly what he would do, he would have absolutely nothing to do with you she thought.

Someone knocked lightly on her door and opened it. “What’s up with your hunky saviour,” Sara said coming in, “he passed me on the way out and barely looked at me. Can you imagine some country hick not stopping to check out my fine self.”

“I don’t know what got into him. We where having a perfectly fine time and then the walls came up suddenly and he couldn’t get away from me fast enough,” Lana said.

“Who knows with these Icelandic men, they seem to take everything so serious,” Sara said.

“I don’t know. Einar seemed like a good man,” Lana said.

“Forget him Lana, if he's acting weird already I’d say you should pull back from him. You don't have feelings for him already do you?”

“I don’t,” Lana lied, she didn't want Sara to know how he was the best part of every day and the emptiness Lana felt when he left her.

“When are you getting out?” Sara asked.

“The doc says I should be allowed out tomorrow. After another few days I can take the bandages off. Is everything else ok?” Lana said lowering her voice.

“I think we are in the clear. No one is going to come after us. We are nothing but two worthless hookers to those guys. If we keep our heads down for a couple of months we might even be able to return home,” Sara said.

“What about my laptop, if they check it they might know I made a copy of the video file. They could come after us because of that,” Lana said.

“If and this is a big if, they figure out you copied the file Gus will probably get some college aged computer genius to crack it and delete all copies. Thats way more likely then a bunch of hitmen chasing us internationally. Do you really think Gus would go to all that trouble to cover up some business mans kink filled night gone wrong. Knowing Gus he will probably end up blackmailing the man in your video. We will be forgotten about soon enough. Trust me,” Sara said.

Something about how assured she seemed didn’t feel right with Lana, and for the first time she didn't fully believe everything that Sara was telling her. She smiled and said, “Your right. We got clean away, there is no way they could find us. What have you been up to while I”m stuck in here?” Lana asked.

“Nothing much. I’ve walked up and down the length of the town a dozen times. Seen more swarms of tiny black flys than I’m comfortable with. Ate some semi stale sandwiches from a small supermarket. Walked some more and dodged some low flying birds that tried to dive bomb me. Can you tell I’m missing coffee shops, galleries, clothes shopping and everything the great city of New York has to offer? Country life is not for me. There is literally nothing to do in this town. Im going to have to get my hands on one of those tight bodied and ruddy faced farm hands I see toiling on the land outside my window. Anything to alleviate the boredom,” she said sighing dramatically.

“It’s not that bad is it?” Lana asked.

“I actually thinks its worse. The birds don't stop singing at night because of the midnight sun, so I’m waking up in the middle of the night with the noise of bird song invading my ears. There’s nothing to do or see. This place is pure and simply boring. It looks good on a postcard and that’s about it,” Sara said.

Lana did not want to point out that she had a near death experience only days ago and her sight was messed up until she healed. Sara would have these rants back home, constantly going on how things weren’t good enough or why had such a night not worked out how she wanted it. I used to find her put upon I’m so unlucky schtick amusing Lana thought to herself, now it was starting to grate on her. The oblivious way she complained about the lack of things to do in the town and all the walks she had taken, while Lana sat in the bed blinded and wishing she could be out walking in the sun by herself. When they were sharing the dorm room, things had bugged her about Sara, her seeming lack of empathy to people she deemed below her, the cutting sarcasm she sometimes employed when in a group of friends, and her well earned reputation for swiping men away from other women. Lana had put up with these traits and they never seemed too big a deal until now. Somehow being alone with her in a foreign country seemed to magnify and distort her personality and the longer she was in her presence the more Lana was starting to feel annoyed with her. We have to stick together if we want to get through this she thought, would Sara betray her if given a chance she wondered and Lana did not like the dark avenues that line of reasoning ventured down.

“I’m starting to get really tired. Do you mind if I take a nap?” Lana said.

“No, that’s fine with me,” Sara said and Lana could hear the relief in her voice that she wouldn't have to hang out with her too long.

“What’s your plans for the rest of the day?” Lana asked making herself comfortable in bed.

“I might go and practise my most winning smile on some of the country boys I saw working in the fields earlier. They probably wouldn't know what to do with a city girl like me,” she said laughing a slightly cruel laugh. “So will I see you back at the guesthouse tomorrow?” she asked.

“I think so. The Doctor said I should be let out early in the morning. I’ll still have my eyes bandaged. Can you come and get me around ten?” Lana asked.

“I’ll see you then,” Sara said. Lana was amazed she hadn't picked it up before, the cutting tone in Sara's voice that made it clear she was annoyed that she had to do anything to help Lana.

Once Sara was gone and Lana was in her room alone she felt a wave of relief wash over her. Would Sara ever betray her she thought to herself, could she be trusted to not give Lana up to save herself. Her conclusions made her feel uneasy and she began to doubt how true her friendship was with Sara. What if Gus cut her a deal in return for giving up Lana’s location so she would be free to go back home, after all Sara hadn’t done anything wrong. She had seen the video of the murder and fled. Was that enough to feel the sting of Gus’s retribution. I’m over thinking this whole thing Lana tried to convince herself. She had witnessed a sick and twisted business man committing murder, Gus would try to squash any copies of the tape in existence and he would then wash his hands of the whole operation. If Lana went public with the tape the grey haired business man would go to jail, she would be arrested and her family shamed and dragged through a tabloid cycle were her fathers own indiscretions would also be aired for all to see. I can’t do that to my family she thought, it would destroy them knowing what I had done for money. What about the young guy the business man killed she thought as a chill ran down her spine. What about his family, they probably don’t know what happened to him and might never find out. The video file was the only thing that could end the nightmare for his poor family.

Lana curled into a ball and pulled the blankets over her and began to sob. Every decision she made that got her to this place stuck in her like white hot needles. She wanted to erase her past, instead of entering the art gallery and meeting Gus for the first time, she wished she had of walked past and let her life unfold in a completely different way. She buried her head in the pillow and roared in anguish and pain, a deep throaty bellow from the bottom of her soul. She cursed the evil twisted men who used women as nothing more than playthings and shiny baubles to be acquired and then disposed of as the shine begun to tarnish. An alien sound half roar and half sob escaped her and was muffled by the pillow as images of the creepy men who paid to sleep with unconscious women danced behind her closed eyelids. She screamed and sobbed into her pillow until she could do it no more and she lay spent and exhausted on the bed. Lana felt no sense of release from her outburst, the breaking of the dam did not bring clarity to her and offer her a way out. She felt more alone and isolated then she ever thought possible. I have no other option but to run scared for my whole life, waiting for the knock on the door or the tap on my shoulder as my past life comes crashing back in ready to destroy me. She lay there feeling small and alone, curled up into a tight ball on the bed cradling herself, and yet whenever her mind returned to Einar and the kiss she somehow saw a tiny sliver of light illuminating the spreading dark of her existence.
 

Brad didn’t like his contact as soon as he saw him crossing the car park. He had a couple of strands of greasy hair flicked over a bulbous dome of a skull. When he opened his mouth and smiled in Brads direction it was with a mouthful of teeth that hadn't been near a dentist in an age. He wore a cheap looking suit that was too baggy for his spindly frame and when Brad opened the door of his rental car he wasn't completely sure if the smell of onions and grease was coming from the man or the two hot dogs he was holding.

“Welcome to Iceland my friend,” he said as he got into the car. “A little taste of our fine cuisine,” he said passing Brad a hotdog in a cardboard sleeve. Brad nodded and took the dog which was slathered in an unappealing thick brown sauce. “Best in the world my friend. Clinton had one when he was here. That fat fucker gobbled it down. No disrespect meant of course,” he said winking at Brad.

“None taken. What do I call you?” Brad asked.

“My friends call me Jonsi. We are friends now,” he said raising his hot dog in a toast, “What do I call you my American friend?”

“Brad,” he said taking a bite out of the hotdog. Not bad he thought to himself as he chewed, whatever the mystery brown sauce was it worked well with the raw onions,hotdog and bun.

Jonsi took a massive bite from his and started to talk with his mouth full, “What do you think? Better then the cows anuses they feed you in America? The hotdogs here have lamb in them, nothing but the best for us vikings.”

He looks the furthest thing from a viking Brad thought to himself, he looked more like the kind of guy who would try to hustle you out of twenty bucks over a pool game. Jonsi was to be his main contact in Iceland, Gus had given him his number as someone who would be able to get him weapons if needed and to grease the palms of the local police if things went sideways. Gus had done some minor business with Jonsi nearly a decade ago when a shipment containing some stolen machine guns got held up in Iceland on the way from Europe to America. He was the king of that frozen ice cube of a country the last time my associates had to deal with those backwards people Gus had told him on a call when Brad first arrived in Reykjavik. He looked nothing like someone who had control over anything Brad thought, he wouldn't look out of place standing around a bus station begging for loose change.

“I didn’t know I was in a country known for its culinary excellence,” Brad said finishing off the completely average hot dog.

Jonsi stopped mid bite and looked at him with his red ringed and watery eyes that gave him a stunned fish like appearance. He burst out laughing and slapped his leg, “I can see we are going to get along my friend,” he said finishing up his hotdog with wet lip smacking bites.

Brad passed him an envelope with pictures of Lana and Sara. “I need to know where these girls are. They touched down a couple of days ago,” he said staring out at the building across from the car park. The structure was covered in glass hexagons and the sun reflected off them in dazzling pattens, it looks like a huge geometric beehive Brad thought as he stared across at it. He had a bad feeling about this whole job the moment he touched down in Keflavik airport. As he drove through the endless lava fields towards Reykjavik City the desolation of the landscape made him feel twitchy, as if someone was standing behind him and every time he turned they moved until they were just about out of his field of view. Stow that shit he told himself as he drove past the jagged volcanic rocks, you've been here before. He’d taken similar trips to clean up messes for his employers, he’d travel alone and return alone, such was the nature of his business. He’d once been in and out of Canada in less then ten hours to tie up some loose ends in the most final way possible. Something about crossing the border into another country creeped him out as he was faced with how far the tendrils of the black empire reached. It was an invasive species like the poisonous hogweed, once it took hold no amount of weeding or burning of the earth would stop its spread. The cops, the feds all of them where helpless in its path. Sometimes they managed to carve out green zones where the weeds had been hacked back to a safe distance. These areas of calm where nothing more than an unnatural man made structure giving you the illusion of safety. The weeds never stopped growing and if you turned your back for an instant they would sprout up in your perfectly manicured lawn.

“I can find them no problem. Iceland is a small place, everyone knows everyone. Give me a day or two and I should know where these pretty girls have got to. Do you need some artillery, I can hook you up for a reasonable price,” Jonsi said tracing his finger along the outline of the girls faces.