Dictator s Daughter (14 page)

“I don’t think any less of you. I’m sure it
was innocent enough. Maybe my subconscious knew who I was
kissing.”

He smiled back at her and said, “You need to
rest.” As he walked away, he could sense her eyes upon him.

She watched him leave the room. She had
awakened next to him in bed a little earlier and if it hadn’t been
for the excruciating pain in her side, she would have thought she
was in heaven. Then later, the cold blades of the scissors cutting
off her wrap had awakened her again, but she faked sleep to see if
her assumptions of Sean were right. He was gentle to the bone. No
‘accidentally on purpose’ contact with her bare chest and when
there was contact, it frustrated him so much he abandoned the whole
idea. Eliwese thought that to be so noble.

She thought about some of the other men in
her life. The other not so decent men and what kinds of things
these men had done in her incapacitated states. She had formed an
opinion of men in general and it wasn’t good. Some of the maids and
counsel of hers had told her there were good decent men out there;
they were just hard to find.

Well, she dreamed she would find the
fairytale man and now she had. The only question was would he want
her? She was damaged goods.

Sean went into the kitchen to get something
to drink. The clock showed two-thirty in the morning. He wandered
to the front room and turned on the radio. He scanned for the news
channel but being the middle of the night, most stations were off
the air or had pre-programmed shows.

He turned it off and went back in the bedroom
with fresh bottled water and a straw. Eliwese was asleep, and Sean
sat down in the armchair and laid his head back. He thought about
everything she’d revealed to him. It’s no wonder why she wouldn’t
tell him anything about her life. He glanced over at her and
thought about how strong of a person she was, even after everything
she’d been through. Things made sense now for the first time. He
knew now why she had to be so secretive. There were fiendish men in
her life that would kill her and those around her if they had the
chance.

But not all men were like that. His father,
his uncle, and himself, were all courteous toward women. He hoped
he would never become like the men she had just described.

A few hours went by and her voice awakened
him.

“Sean, are you asleep?”

“No, what do you need?” he sat forward and
grasped her hand. It was warm to the touch.

“I think my fever is coming back and I
hurt.”

He scanned her forehead and it read
one-hundred three point eight.

“Yes, you’re warming up. Let’s uncover you a
bit.” He pulled back the covers exposing her legs. “I need to check
your bandages.”

He gently helped her roll on her side and
pulled up her shirt to expose the tape and gauze. He tugged at the
tape on her stomach and she winced. He apologized and removed the
extra gauze to uncover the wound. It seemed alright to him so he
removed the tape on her back. The skin around the wound was swollen
and red.

“What does it look like?”

“It looks like it hurts. I think the
infection is spreading.”

He grabbed more gauze and tape and recovered
the wound. “Maybe you should lie on your side, instead of your
back, for a while.”

“OK.”

He found her some more pillows to prop
against her back and poured out two more ibuprofen for her and
helped her take them. He grabbed the bowl of water and the towels
to start cooling her off then sat on the bed and moistened the
towels placing them on her legs and forehead. He used the last
washcloth to wipe her body, carefully moistened her cheeks and neck
and pulled her shirt up a little to place the washcloth on her
stomach; her whole body was immediately covered in goose bumps.

He avoided looking at her breasts as he did
not need the distraction. He noticed some scars on her back that he
hadn’t seen before. They had an odd jagged design and he traced
them with his finger.

“Just some reminders of the life I left
behind,” she tried to sound lighthearted.

He quickly took his fingers off of her back.
“I’m sorry, I—”

“I don’t mind you touching me. You’re the
first man who I trust completely.” She truly meant it.

“You didn’t trust the other Shawn?” he asked
moving around the bed to the other side of her.

“No, not completely. He meant well, but his
motives were selfish. When my second husband discovered us kissing,
it was Shawn who had instigated it. He knew if we were caught, I’d
be in danger, yet it didn’t stop him, he only wanted to please
himself. You on the other hand... I haven’t met anyone like you,
Sean.”

“Oh, I’m not perfect either.” He moistened
another towel and placed it on her arm.

“Well, you haven’t ever taken advantage of
me, and in my eyes that makes you better than any other man.”

“I am only human you know. You need to
remember I’ve only known you’re a girl for a couple of days now. My
dark side hasn’t had time to surface.” He joked with her.

“Sean, even on your worst day, you are
one-hundred times better than any man I know.” The smile faded off
of her face and her voice dropped a bit. “On the other hand, it’s I
you shouldn’t be trusting; I’m not a very good person, Sean.”

“How can you say that? You
are
a good
person. If you weren’t I would have seen it by now, don’t you
think? What about Chandra? You cared enough about me to point out
Chandra’s behavior. A bad person would not have cared about my
future and happiness, but you did.”

“But
I
had selfish motives,” she
admitted quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“I wanted you for myself,” she said and
closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look at him.

Sean was shocked to hear this. His body had
shivers running through it. He looked at her, but her eyes were
closed. He gently reached out to her chin and pulled it up toward
him. Her skin warmed his fingers. Her gaze rose up to his and they
looked at each other for a long time. He didn’t know what to say to
her.

She broke the silence, “I’m sorry, Sean. I
guess you don’t feel the same way about me.”

But he did feel the same. He leaned forward
to her face, his hand on the side of her head. His lips met hers
and he kissed her gently. He pulled back a little and looked at
her. Her eyes were still closed.

“Sean, would you hold me?”

He lay on the bed next to her. She cuddled up
next to him and laid her arm across his chest. He brought his right
hand up and grasped her hand. As he lay there next to her, a tiny
smile broke out on his face.

Sean got up after a couple of hours of lying
beside her; she had been sleeping soundly and her fever held at
just under one-hundred and three. He went into the kitchen and got
a bite to eat and then retrieved the radio from the front room. He
brought the radio back to the bedroom, plugged it in and then
turned the volume down low, so it wouldn’t disturb Eliwese.

Seven thirty in the morning had the airwaves
filled with news. Most of the news didn’t apply to him and he was
about to turn it off when the announcer said:

“On to local news: Two people are dead and
two injured when a Slaterville home burned to the ground last night
after government officials raided the premises looking for Victor
Rawlings’ daughter, Eliwese. An anonymous tip exposed the
kidnappers and gunshots followed the attempt to retrieve the girl,
according to witnesses. An explosion from within the home started
the fire and is suspected of causing the deaths of the unnamed
persons. Eliwese Rawlings-Lampros’ condition was listed as stable
even though her living conditions were substandard. The two injured
suspects were treated at the hospital and turned over to police
custody. It’s not known if a ransom had been asked. An
investigation is underway. In other news…”

Sean turned off the radio. He sat down in the
armchair certain he would pass out if he didn’t. He bent forward
and held his head in his hands; the room seemed to be spinning
faster and faster.

Two dead? Who? Two injured? His house burned
down? How could this happen? Nausea flooded his body and he jumped
up and ran to the bathroom. He hunched over the toilet and heaved,
but nothing would come out. The sickening sensation saturated his
entire being. He sat down on the floor with his back against the
cabinet, his knees pulled up and his head in his hands; the lack of
sleep, lack of food, and incredible stress all surmounted inside
him causing his chest to hurt. His eyes watered and burned and he
grasped his legs tightly, pulling them closer to his chest. He laid
his forehead down as the tidal wave of emotions engulfed him.

All this time, he had been waiting for word
from his family expecting to hear everything was safe and that he
could return home. He knew now that would never happen. Two people
had died, but whom? Everyone else was in police custody; Sean was
truly alone and it overwhelmed him.

He was so engulfed in his own misery he
didn’t realize Eliwese had come into the bathroom and was huddled
over him, hugging him, and crying too. “It’s my fault, it’s all my
fault, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

He realized another harsh reality; Eliwese
was his sole responsibility now. Sure, he had taken care of her
already, but that was with the assumption help was on the way or
that soon he would be given the ‘all clear’ so he could transport
her back into town and to a hospital. That wasn’t going to happen
now.

She was his crosser and she needed him now.
His own emotional meltdown would have to wait. Her IV bag lay on
the floor, siphoning blood out of her arm; Sean pulled himself up
off the floor, grabbed the IV bag and helped Eliwese up. They
walked back into the bedroom and he helped her on the bed. He sat
next to her facing away.

“I heard the news report, Sean, I’m so
sorry.”

Sean stood up and started walking to the
door.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to find out what happened.” The
situation was beyond protocol and he figured it would be alright to
use the phone.

“No! Don’t you see this is exactly what he
wants? By not naming the injured and dead, it will draw us out from
hiding. It’s a trap!”

“Are you saying the news report was a lie?”
Hope flooded into his heart.

“I wish I could say it’s a lie, but I know my
father well enough to know most of what was reported is probably
true. But all the same, the wording was mysterious. For one thing,
I wasn’t rescued like it said. Another thing, it only accounted for
four people when there should have been five.”

Sean walked back over to her and sat on the
bed.

“That’s true, if someone was gone from the
house, they wouldn’t return. They would have come here, to the
cabin. Like us.”

“What if Riley took one as a hostage? That
kind of thing has happened before.” Eliwese didn’t want to admit
it, but felt it was better to lay it all out.

“What about the deaths? Would that have been
a lie?”

“I don’t know. I hope it was.”

Sean said nothing. He sat there and stared at
the floor. “So what do we do now?

“We wait.”

“What are we waiting for? Everyone’s in
custody, who would be contacting us?”

“I don’t know, but what I do know is my
father is not a patient man. He will make a move once he realizes
we aren’t taking the bait of the news report.” She reached her hand
over and rubbed his back.

He turned to her and asked, “Are you feeling
good enough for me to take a shower?”

“Yes.”

The sunlight shone through the window, the
new day was extra bright. The first snow had fallen, making the
world new. Following his shower, Sean went to the kitchen to see
what he could find for Eliwese to eat. He prepared pudding, broth,
crackers, baby food bananas and made himself coffee and toast, and
took the breakfast tray to her.

He didn’t want to wake her from her peaceful
sleep. He set the tray down and sat in the armchair holding his
coffee with both hands and watched her breathe. As he gazed at her,
she opened her eyes and looked at him.

“Are you hungry?”

“No.” She looked at the tray. “But seeing
you’ve gone through so much trouble on my behalf, I’ll eat. But, I
need to use the bathroom first.”

Her skin was still hot to the touch with
fever, he noted, as he helped her walk to the bathroom. He waited
outside the door and thought about the possibility the news report
was completely false, that the deaths and injuries were lies; he
definitely hoped it was a lie. Eliwese finished and he helped her
back to bed.

He scanned her forehead with the thermometer;
it read one-hundred four. Why wasn’t she getting better? The
antibiotics were powerful and should have begun to take effect by
now. He checked her IV and found the needle had pulled out of her
arm.

“I need to redo your IV, it has pulled out,”
he said apologetically.

She made a groaning sound and pushed her head
back in the pillow. He gathered the necessary items and prepared
her arm. This time would be harder, because she would be awake.
Perhaps her veins wouldn’t be so flat this time. He took a deep
breath and began.

The first try wasn’t successful and she tried
to be brave. He tried again a little higher on her arm. This
location proved to be very painful for her and it failed. She’d
turned her head away from him with silent tears leaking from her
scrunched eyes. Nervous and sweating, he tried again on her hand.
He hated having to hurt her in order to help her.

Success, finally!

Eliwese prided herself on hiding her
feelings, especially when someone was hurting her, but this was
different. Sean was trying so hard to help her, doing everything in
his power to save her even as his own atrocities loomed nearby. She
knew her condition was deteriorating; her lungs were congesting,
and her hopes dwindling. Without proper medical treatment she would
die. The tears escaping her eyes were for her sister and mother.
Now, Elaine would be forced to take on the role of heir maker.
She’d already been passed off as Eliwese; nothing would stop her
father in playing up the lie that Eliwese was safe and back
home.