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Blue TopazPart Nine
His meeting with Sophia De-Vereyard would forever after be branded on his brain. Devin was in love!
Going along to Elliot’s room his mind full of questions, full of things he might say, full of apprehension at meeting her all those things flew from his mind the moment Sophia had answered his knock at her door.
“Hello?” She asked with a smile when he stood staring at her. “Can I help you?”
“I very much hope you can.” Devin drawled aware how he’d implied it, yet surprised by his heart’s interpretation.
“And you are?” Sophia was watching those soft brown eyes with some humour. She wasn’t blind to the knowledge that men fell speechless in her presence. She was quite used to it in fact, yet even so never tired of the effect she had over the male of her species.
“Devin. Devin Wells.” He was on automaton he spoke like a robot. He didn’t care. Sophia held the door open for him, Devin entered neither looking to the left nor the right, knowing only that she left him spellbound. All speech had left him, besides his mouth was suddenly too dry to utter a word.
“Thank you for coming, Mr Wells. Would you like something to drink? Mr Burch has left me this room and there is plenty of food and drink at my disposal. He is a very kind man.”
For the first time Devin spoke, “That’s debatable.” Leaving Sophia a little stunned by his reply.
After the initial shock of finding out who she was and how beautiful she was, Devin was able to listen to her with some merit of focus. It had seemed that after Pepe, Sonia and Vincent had been killed the children had been next in line, but they had scattered and no one had seen them since, not even, it seemed the murderers who had been making enquiries as to their whereabouts. “That’s how I know for a certainty that they live.” Sophia wound up her story “and I must find them, but I know that I am being followed.”
“Were you followed here?” It was the first thing that came into Devin’s mind.
“Yes. But I am sure that they do not suspect I am still in the building, unless they have followed you too.”
“That’s always a possibility. There is a price on my head much the same as the children’s. I saw everything that happened.”
Her mouth dropped open, “You saw everything?” Sophia had not bargained for this even though Elliot had said as much, coming from Devin, the way he said it, the look of sorrow in his eyes, the tears on his lashes as he had remembered convinced her of that truth.
“Was it quick?” The words were out before she could stop them. Sophia didn’t know if she really wanted to hear the answer to her question.
Devin shook his head, still faintly connected in the remembrance of that day. “Maybe for Vincent, but your parents saw him die and your siblings saw all of them die.”
A sob caught in Sophia’s throat, “Those poor little mites.” She paused for a long time, her lips forming and dismissing words before she could speak again, “We have to find them, they will be so frightened.”
“I know a place where they will be safe.” He said it without forethought, just knowing that wherever they were now they were in danger. Even with Pedro and Leo safely behind bars the hearts and minds of the children would still be broken. They needed love and plenty of it and Devin knew just the place. “It’s not here, its in America, although having said that…”
“What, what have you thought of?” Sophia’s heart hammered heavily. To be able to find safety for her brothers and sisters was the only thing on her mind next to finding them at all.
“It wouldn’t have the benefits of America but it could be made so. Sophia, have you any idea how extensive the tunnels are beneath Ouro Preto. Those that have been channelled out from mining?”
“I have no idea, but those tunnels are not safe. No one could hide down there.”
“Oh yes they could, if you had the knowledge to make it so, and you are just so looking at the very guy with that knowledge.” He paused his eyes lighting up as he made his plans, “Sophia if you could trust me I might just know of a way to keep the children safe until Leo and Pedro are brought to trial.”
Sophia nodded enthusiastically. Devin refrained to tell her that there would be no trail. The tunnels would afford him sanctity also until the whole group of them could get away. He still aimed to kill Leo and Pedro knowing that he would never rest until he had.
*** *** ***
From his seat near the aisle Elliot watched Catherine. Amazing that she had not noticed that they had boarded the same plane. In fact he had made sure of that until they were airborne knowing she might probably alter her flight plans had she of known. Watching her from his vantage point Elliot remembered everything in precise detail of their time together, both during their recent imprisonment to the time when they had dated several years before. How happy she had made him then. How distraught he had been when she stopped seeing him. How he had been in love with her ever since their first kiss. Now he couldn’t stop looking at her remembering that last exquisite encounter, his blood singing in his ears as he felt again, over and over again the precise moment when his body had entered hers.
“Oh Catherine.” He breathed unable to stand being so near and yet so far any longer. Unbuckling his seat belt, though the sign to do so had come on long ago, Elliot left his seat heading for where she sat oblivious to his being there.
She too sat in an aisle seat, so he hadn’t to disturb anyone to touch her arm as he approached her side, “Cathy?”
Her eyes snapped open at the sound of his voice, the touch of his hand on her arm and the wrenching away from her dreams of Vincent broke her heart, and not only for that but because it was Elliot himself that now stood beside her. Why did he keep doing that! Why was it when all she wanted was to think about Vincent and their reunion did he have to keep getting in the way?
“Elliot.” Her tone was blunt and brusque leaving him no room for doubts as to what she thought of him. He decided to ignore it nonetheless.
“Cathy, please, we need to talk.”
“There’s nothing to say Elliot, and if you don’t mind I’d rather you left me alone…forever.”
“You can’t mean that Cathy.” He knelt down now, thus blocking the aisle completely but as that didn’t appear to be a problem to anyone but Catherine he stayed where he was and spoke lowly, words only she was meant to hear. “I love you Cathy, you know that. I will always love you, have always…”
“Stop it!” Catherine seethed through tightly clenched teeth. “You raped me Elliot!”
“No. Cathy no, you welcomed it. I was there and I know that you wanted it every bit as much as I did. You can’t deny that you responded to me, I felt no repulsion from you until Devin so rudely interrupted us.”
“Thank God he did. But you are wrong Elliot. You caught me off guard. I was sleeping, dreaming of Vincent. When you touched me I thought it was Vincent.” Tears caught Catherine’s tone at this and Elliot faltered in what he was about to say. ‘Was that so?’ He hadn’t for the life of him thought about that. He had truly believed that she had wanted to make love with him. Had truly believed that she had known all along that it was he that had touched her so intimately.
Oh God if that were so, then looking at it from her point of view he HAD raped her! The colour drained from Elliot’s face, and he visibly shook, “I’m sorry Cathy, I didn’t know.”
All at once Catherine heard him again from the past, those self same words when his building team had been frightening old people out of their homes in order to demolish the houses and build Elliot’s creation in their place. And Catherine turned to him with the same thoughts as she had had then. “Well you should have made it your business to know. In fact you should have known that there is nothing between us in that way. Hasn’t my marriage to Vincent meant anything to you?”
“Yes. It’s meant everything, and that’s why I couldn’t give up Cathy. I can’t lose you I just can’t. You’re not meant to live your life shrouded by rocks and belonging to a man that is only half a man, you deserve better…”
“Shhh” Catherine glared at him silencing him with the one sound. Already people had begun to take note of their heated conversation.
“And if I don’t?” Perceiving a way to trap her Elliot went on; “Perhaps your friends deserve some publicity. Perhaps its time those that know you were introduced to your husband?” He raised one eyebrow baiting her with his words.
“You wouldn’t dare?” Even as she dismissed the possibility of it, a chill ran through Catherine. The way Elliot looked at her now, she could well imagine that he might stoop to anything to win his objective. Hadn’t Devin warned her that too long in the pit had rendered Elliot a dangerous man? That kind of thing could do something detrimental to the brain. For a certainty Catherine perceived that Elliot had become a Jekyle and Hyde character ever since then.
“Well you could try me.” Elliot told her now his face wreathed in smiles, “It’s really up to you.”
“What are you saying?”
Elliot shrugged, making a point of standing slowly, making her wait for his answer. “You and I have some unfinished business Cathy.” He said no more, he didn’t need to, he just winked at her before returning to his seat. And as it dawned on her what he had been implying the bottom dropped out of Catherine’s world.
*** *** ***
Meditating in his chamber, Vincent had been party to the whole scenario on the aeroplane, even though much of the conversation was lost to him. He was deeply grieved by what he had been able to witness through Catherine’s eyes, and her whole attitude toward Elliot, which had been contradictory. On the one hand, he could ‘see’ Elliot smiling down at Catherine, appearing very much as if Catherine were making him happy, but then on the other hand Catherine’s feelings toward Elliot were anything but social.
In light of what he had just learned, Vincent concluded there just had to be more to it than met the eye. Unless of course Catherine’s advantage, or disadvantage however one looked at it, over the Bond, made her cagey around Elliot for the benefit of their connection. It was all very confusing, and Vincent could not, would not accept that Catherine and Elliot had made love, not only in the location they were in, but also that they just would not do that. They couldn’t at least Catherine couldn’t surely? Not to him. Not to their dream.
Nevertheless, little things kept coming back to remind him, though in the main none of it had anything to do with Catherine. All of it was what others had perceived of the situation surrounded their marriage and Elliot’s disappearance.
And then there was the fact that Catherine had returned to him at the last at any rate. But what of Devin? Vincent well knew how Devin loved him, that he would NEVER have said anything that would cause him anguish or sorrow, on just a whim. That Devin had warned his family would mean that Devin was damn sure of his facts. But then why was Catherine so stand offish toward Elliot on the plane? Why if they could publicly make love in front of his brother could they not speak civilly to one another where their only viewer was via a connection that only Catherine could recognise as being available?
Now only that, Catherine could if she chose close off the Bond between them. Had there been anything going on with Elliot, Vincent could not believe that Catherine would blatantly allow him to ‘see’ what was going on. An affair they might be having, but Catherine would NEVER seek to hurt him so callously, this Vincent would stake his life on.
Still Vincent did not believe that they were having an affair. Everyone was mistaken, just as they had been mistaken when Catherine had first raced off to Brazil after they were wed. Even so, the facts heaped so high against her would not be easy to tear down and Vincent’s heart ached for the welcome Catherine would be returning to. Father and Peter, already had her hung and quartered. It would be difficult making them believe anything else.
Thinking of Elliot Burch always made Vincent uneasy. Everything about the man highlighted everything that Vincent was not. Elliot had been the bane of his life where Catherine was concerned. Vincent had believed for too long that Catherine would have been better off with Elliot. He at least could give her everything her heart desired. Everything it seemed but love. For Catherine had told him over and over that she did not love Elliot. That there was only one man in her life, only one man she could ever love, telling him so often that he finally managed to believe it - a belief that had led to his proposing to her.
A gentle tapping caused Vincent to turn his head toward the chamber entrance. “Come in Father.” He told the solitary figure that hesitated there.
“How are you?” Father’s tone grieved Vincent. He hadn’t heard Father speak so anguished in a long, long time.
“I’m not certain.” Vincent replied in truth. He hadn’t as yet drawn any conclusions, that isn't anything concrete that he could stick with. There were so many conflicting facts that drew him from one thing to another in quick succession.
“Peter wondered if you would like him to meet Catherine at the airport and take her to his house, until you have had time to consider your options.”
“And they would be, what exactly?” The sarcasm in Vincent’s tone surprised them both. “I’m sorry, Father.”
“You have nothing with which to feel ashamed. Catherine…”
“Has done nothing…” Jumping up from his seat, Vincent splayed his hands either side of him glaring down at Father who leaned heavily on his cane.
“But Devin said…”
“Devin said a lot of things last time…as did you and Peter, all of which proved false…”
“But Vincent, those things were speculations. What Devin saw…well you can’t surely believe that he imagined that too?”
“Those tunnels were dark. Anything might have been happening. Elliot could have tripped…fallen onto Catherine…Devin might have read more into it than there was…imagine how Catherine must feel if nothing happened…nothing that is, that Devin is surmising.”
Hobbling into the chamber, Father reached one hand to the table, edging his way around it until he could grasp hold of the nearest chair and lower himself down, “There is some things you do not know. It was enough to tell you the bold facts, but Devin also explained to Peter the whole picture, everything that he HAD seen. Vincent, no trip or fall onto another could render both of them naked from the waist down…”
“NO! STOP IT!” Vincent covered his ears, unwilling to hear another word. “STOP IT!” Reaching for his cloak Vincent pulled it from the back of the chair from where it hung, flinging it around his shoulders, before almost running from the chamber.
“Where are you going?” Father cried fumbling for the arms of the chair to rise to his unsteady feet.
“To the airport!” Vincent flung back angrily. “I’m going to meet my wife!”
*** *** ***
Catherine stepped out into the New York City night air, and took the deepest breath she could fill her lungs with. ‘Home. Bliss.’ There was nothing like home. Her eager feet began the walk toward the parking lot, her shoulder bag slung in place, and a small hold all in one hand.
Her thoughts very much on her destination she closed off the Bond a little nervous of her welcome and then she hesitated when she heard a lowly sound that reminded her very much of her husband. Cautiously, her footsteps faltered and she looked around the steady line of traffic making its way in and out of the parking lot.
“Catherine.” There it came again. Was it from within? Was it from the connection that she shared with Vincent?
This place, so public, held no shadows for Vincent, surely he would not risk coming to her here?
Shrugging, Catherine hurried on, seeking the appropriate line where she knew she had left her car. A shadow moved to one side of her, and she heard her name called again, higher pitched and a little louder this time. She did not recognise it.
“Catherine.”
Turning, Catherine scanned the parking lot, her heart racing. “Vincent?” She whispered incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Over here.” Suddenly Catherine laughed derisively. What was Elliot up to now? Vincent would not risk being seen here, no matter how desperately he wanted to see her. There were too many lights, and he would have to cross too many open spaces to get here.
“Go away!” Catherine snapped, “Leave me alone!”
Stung Vincent’s heart jolted almost through his rib cage. He gasped, unable to believe his own ears!
“CATHY!”
As someone else shouted her name, Catherine spun around, stunned to see Elliot running toward her. Oh No! Frantically she searched the shadows from where the first voice had come, “Vincent? Oh Vincent, it’s really you!”
Tears cascaded from Catherine’s eyes as she realised with horror what she had just done. Believing Elliot had tricked her into believing it were Vincent that waited for her, she had shunned her own husband, only to find that Elliot was now making his way hastily to her from a completely different direction!
A sudden movement drew her attention away from Elliot and back to the place from where Vincent had called to her. “Wait!” she cried, “Vincent wait!” But of course, she knew with a sinking heart that he would not wait. Already he was making his way stealthily between the parked cars putting as much space between Catherine and himself as possible.
As she hesitated, seeking him out, Elliot reached her side breathless at the sudden exertion to reach her before she left in her car. “Cathy, we have to talk.”
Stormy eyes turned to him, flashing thunder, “Talk! Talk! Elliot, when will you ever learn that we have nothing to say to each other!” Tears blinded her eyes, and Elliot misconstrued the situation, believing that he had upset her enough to reduce her to tears.
“Don’t cry, baby please. I can’t bare it when you are upset.” He tried to encircle her in his embrace, but with hands flat against his chest Catherine shoved him away and spitting like a wild cat yelled at him, “Leave me alone, Elliot!”
“Cathy, don’t. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
His apology quietened her for mere seconds, even as she searched frantically around her, seeking out the cloaked figure that she could just see now crouched low between some parked cars thirty or so yards away from where she and Elliot stood. It surprised her that he was still there, but then she concluded that maybe he was waiting until Elliot had gone.
“Go Elliot! Just go.”
“Honey, I can’t. I owe you an apology.”
Again he tried to put his arms around her, but she flung him away and took a few steps back. Her predicament was such that she desperately wanted to get to Vincent. And at the same time in a bid to flee Elliot, wanted to find her parked car, get inside, lock all the doors and wait until Elliot took the very definite hint, that there she would stay until morning if need be, or until he left her alone.
Counting rows, Catherine mentally ‘saw’ where she had left her parked car, and hastened to make her way toward it, even if in so doing, it meant going the opposite way to where Vincent now crouched waiting for her.
“Where are you going?” Elliot called out to her, “Catherine please!”
Catherine stopped, turned and flung at him “Don’t you ever call me Catherine!”
His blue eyes twinkling with laughter Elliot smiled, “But it’s your name.” He couldn’t for the life of him understand why she had suggested that he call her anything else.
Her voice low, Catherine hissed through clenched teeth, “Yes it’s my name. But who gave you the right to use it? Get away from me Elliot I want nothing to do with you ever again.”
“But Cathy…”
“What part of no don’t you understand?” Catherine flung at him spotting her car at last. In the back of her mind she was working out how she might drive it to the location where Vincent was, get him inside and take him out of the area before anyone should see him. His position wasn’t doing anything for his cover. He looked very much like he was up to no good. Someone could so easily believe he was a car thief.
Elliot, however, knew none of this. To him, Catherine was here and he wanted to speak to her. Once she had gone underground in a literal sense, he might not get another chance for too long. It was useless to believe that he would be made welcome in the tunnels, especially when Devin highlighted everyone to the facts. But then again, it was possible that once Devin had done that, Cathy would return above, ousted from her home in disgrace.
“Just let me apologise.” It was imperative he felt that he did at least do that.
“For what? That you raped me!” Catherine snapped wrenching open the vehicle door and flinging her bags onto the back seat.
“No…I didn’t…Catherine, you must believe me…I didn’t rape you…you were willing to let me make love to you….”
“I wasn’t!” Forgetting everything, her dignity, her reputation, even the fact that Vincent could see, Catherine lunged at Elliot, kicking and slapping him at the same time, reminiscent of the way Isaac had taught her to tackle a further attack on her life.
“Whoa, whoa Cathy.” With humour Elliot’s eyes crinkled at the corners, while he braced himself and warded off her blows with a briefcase held very predominantly placed wherever she tried to strike him next. “Think of your reputation.” He laughed softly, thinking that should do the trick.
It didn’t, the assault continued and Elliot was left in no doubt that now wasn’t the ideal time to tell her that he would never hold her to blackmail with her friends below and her friends above, as he had suggested on the journey home. That was awful of him to even have made her believe that he might, however, he still hoped to find a way to have her for himself.
“I see you’re husband has taught you some very bad manners.” He laughed once more, “If ever you come back to yourself Cathy, remember I live in the real world and will gladly take you in with no questions asked. Remember that, and remember that I love you. I will always love you.”
All this was said, while Catherine continued to beat hell out of him, even as he used his briefcase to ward off the blows. And suddenly she stopped. All fight drained out of her, as wave after wave of sorrow seemingly dragged her down.
She stumbled, falling toward Elliot who took advantage of the situation to capture her in his arms, pulling her toward him, and hugging her tight. He was not to know that her sudden surrender was not due to his confession of everlasting love. He was not to know that Catherine had suddenly felt Vincent’s sorrow so deep that it had swamped her with its intensity or that Vincent was now steadily moving away. He only knew that Catherine was in his arms at last, and taking advantage of her limp body pressed so close to him his arms came around her and his lips sought hers while he had the chance.
And the last thing Vincent saw as he turned for a final disbelieving look, at the show that Catherine and Elliot were so obviously putting on for his benefit was his Catherine in the arms of Elliot Burch with their lips pressed tightly together!
*** *** ***
Back in Brazil Devin and Sophia were making plans to hide the children, when they had found them inside the very tunnels that Devin and his party had recently vacated. Taking supplies down to the area under the cover of night fall, the two of them hoped that they had foiled their followers into believing that they were dating and just walking out arm in arm as lovers do.
“This is nice actually,” Devin admitted on their third trip to the tunnels. They had been walking beneath a moon lit star-studded sky and it felt very romantic having on his arm a very beautiful woman.
Sophia smiled a secret smile. She thought so too. Devin was a very good-looking man. Nevertheless before romantic notions could come into her mind she exhaled a heavy sigh causing him to stop walking and turn to look at her.
“What is it? Don’t you like being with me?” He asked concerned.
“No…that is yes…no it isn’t that…” Sophia hastened to reassure him.
“Then what is it? Something I can help with?” He turned to face her, slipping his arm from hers, to place both upon either side of her waist. From this angle Devin thought it would be oh so easy to kiss her. He shivered at the thought.
“Are you cold?” Sophia noticed, and trying to divert his questioning hoped to change the subject.
“No. Now tell me?”
For long moments Sophia fought the words to tell him, not knowing whether she ought or she could. They hadn’t known one another long, but already Sophia had become quite attached to Devin. Sometimes after they had separated for the night with promises of the morrow Sophia had gone to bed hugging her pillow, with wild fantasies about the two of them sharing her bed together. As she thought of those things now, it was her turn to shiver.
“Now you are cold?” Devin teased, running his hands affectionately up and down her bare arms, “Perhaps I could warm you. Maybe we could even warm each other?” His eyes lit up, and beneath the bright moonlit sky Sophia could clearly see he was serious.
Maybe it would be all right to take advantage…she thought, maybe I could step into his embrace just for a little while… just so I have something to remember when he has gone…
Devin in turn was thinking along similar lines. If only I could hold her, just this once…she is so beautiful…I think I am falling in love…
“Yes.” Sophia heard herself say in reply to his suggestion of taking warmth from one another. For suddenly the chance was more than she could bare to lose. “Please.”
Slowly Devin’s arms went around her, only pulling her in more tightly as he felt her step toward him, the contact of their bodies pressed tight soon making him a lot warmer than he had supposed.
There they remained for a good long time, each to their own thoughts, each wishing there could be more in the embrace than what there was.
“Is that better?” Devin asked at length, after he had managed to still his racing heart.
“Almost.” Her reply surprised him, and looking down into her eyes, he detected some humour there, as well as something he hadn’t expected…could that be desire? Looking away, Devin shook that thought from his head. No, it wouldn’t be desire, he was reading too much into the situation. Sophia needed his help, not his body. Hadn’t she just lost her parents and brother? Weren’t the rest of her family missing? Hadn’t she enough on her mind, without expecting that he might fill some of it? Even so, why had she just snuggled tighter against him after she had replied?
Taking a deep breath Devin stole a look back down at her, to find that all that time she had remained just so, looking up at him watching his every movement almost with quiet expectation. He stared at her, first her eyes, then her cheeks then her lips, which parted as his gaze rested there. The invitation was too much to resist, bowing his head Devin touched his lips to hers, feeling the lush pressure beneath give and open like a flower to his questing mouth. Now his arms enfolded her further, bringing her up against the lean hardness of his body, delighting in the sound of the whimper that escaped her as she felt his arousal grow. “Arh Sophia…you set my blood on fire…” Devin panted against her mouth.
“I know, I know…” Breathlessly she whispered against his lips, flicking her tongue over the lower lip, tracing the firm line there tasting him.
“We have to stop Sophia…” He tried to stop, but even as he said it, he knew it would be impossible.
“Why?” she murmured between nibbles.
“Because this is going to get very definitely out of hand if we don’t.” Devin reminded her forcibly by pressing his groin hard against hers.
“And what would be so wrong with that, my love?” Devin couldn’t believe his ears! Stunned he pulled away to search her eyes, unable to voice any of the words that at that moment galloped through his brain. Finally he decided upon, “well if for no other reason I didn’t exactly come prepared…” He laughed a little at that.
“I did.” Freeing one hand from around his neck, Sophia reached into the pocket of her jacket and extracted a small packet before handing it to him. “Here. This should fit.”
Devin laughed. More for the outrageous way she had presented the gift as for the situation itself.
“You always carry one of those with you do you?”
Despite his gentle teasing Sophia looked shamefully away, and he barely heard her whispered reply, “Yes.”
At the back of his mind something rankled… Devin let her be for a moment, undecided as to what to do or say next. Finally as the silence between them lengthened, Sophia took up his hand, and begged, “Come sit with me Devin. I have something I have to tell you.”
“What?” He didn’t think he wanted to know and he began to wish they hadn’t started this. It was obvious that she was already attached, maybe she had a husband or a partner back in Para.
Sophia let out another heavy sigh reminding Devin that the first one had been the lead up to them sitting holding hands and talking now. Well she was talking. He was sitting upon the damp springy grass listening.
“Earlier you asked if anything was wrong?”
Devin nodded. His eyes wide, encouraging her to continue though he remained silent.
“Well yes, there is something. Devin, I have something to say to you and it’s not easy.” Her voice caught and she suddenly burrowed her head into her hands, unable to continue. It was here that Devin offered comfort.
“Please…whatever it is…you can tell me. I promise not to judge. We’ve all done things we are not proud of…for whatever reason forced us to do it…Is that what troubles you? Is it something that you have done?” Oh please, thought Devin, let it be that, and not that she belonged to someone else. Anything was preferable to that.
Greatly comforted by his words, Sophia took courage and looked back at him again. There were so many nice ways of telling him, so many words that would have primed him for what was to come, but Sophia found herself blurting the truth shocked that she had. “I’m a… a prostitute.”
Silence fell between them.
For Sophia deep shame, though the life that she had led had forced her into prostitution, and she would dearly have been anything but…and Devin stunned with relief that she hadn’t told him she was married or engaged…or attached. That he couldn’t have coped with…prostitution he could!
He hugged her, drawing her toward him, almost into his lap to hug her hard, feeling her tears of gratitude fall even as he murmured tender words in her ear, “Is that all? Sophia, is that all?”
Her eyes were incredulous as she looked into his, “Is that all?” She cried stunned to the core. “Devin didn’t you hear me…I said I’m a prostitute. I sleep with men for money…maybe it is called something else in America?”
She waited, hoping that he would now understand, while hoping that it still wouldn’t matter when he did.
“Sophia, let me tell you something now.” She waited her eyes wide, nodding once only. “Where I come from, everyone has been something. Either thieves, vagrants, orphans, homeless or prostitutes. I have grown up accepting that people have to be what they have to be, in order to survive, or to feed a family. Its what they do when things improve for them that is the deciding factor. Would you continue to sell sex if you didn’t have to?”
Sophia shook her head furiously, “No, of course not.” Then as an after thought added, “Even though I do carry one of those things around with me.”
“But then that’s probably because you are still forced into that way of life. Do you always insist that your clients use one?”
“Oh yes! I have seen too many of my friends die from taking just one risk. Aids is a terrible disease.”
“Yes it is, and so then, you are clean?”
“In body maybe, but my mind…my heart…” Sophia sobbed openly.
“…can be healed.” Devin told her tenderly, bending to kiss the top of her head. “Sophia, would it help if I told you that you will never have to turn to that way of life ever again?”
She looked up at him hope filling her heart, “Of course, but how… When I find the little ones, it will need a great deal of money to clothe and feed them…” her voice trailed away, only to whisper further, “I will be forced to sell myself.” And Devin’s heart almost broke by the shame he detected filling those last few words.
“I love you, Sophia.” The words came out suddenly, spontaneously. Even Devin was surprised, but when Sophia looked up sharply with disbelief, the hope that flared for a split second was all she needed to know that he could never have spoken better words.
“You love me…” Sophia’s voice was filled with disbelief, “But you don’t even know me…”
“Then all the more reason to know that in time I will love you more than life itself. Sophia, I can help you…”
The hope died in her eyes, “I don’t want your pity!” And the tears fell fast hot and scalding as the disappointment filled her heart.
“It’s not pity! Sophia I don’t know how or why, but I do know when! From the moment I laid eyes on you I fell hopelessly in love with you. No one has ever affected me that way before. I love you Sophia, I love you!”
For mere seconds they gazed at one another, hearts racing, until Sophia finally snuggled closer leaning in for a kiss that met her half way, “Oh Devin, I think I love you too.”
“We’re gonna have to work on that ‘think’.” Devin chuckled as he deepened the kiss, “By the time this night is out I hope you will be more definite about your feelings toward me.”
Sophia giggled, her arms hugging him close, and for the first time in her entire life, Sophia felt like she actually belonged somewhere special.
*** *** ***
They weren’t in their usual bar or in their office, nor it seemed had their families seen them for several days. Gary Stuart could only think of one other place where they might be and strangely enough that’s where he found them.
“Pedro! Leo! This was literally the last place I looked for you. What are you doing here?” Stuart looked around the room, now empty of furniture, of anything that showed signs of habitation, of anything that showed signs of the three cold bloodied murders he had witnessed there some weeks before.
“We come to Pepe’s home once or twice a week to see if the children have returned.” Leo told him with a heavy sigh, “But there is always nothing. It appears they have gone ‘poof’ into thin air.” He gestured with his hands as a magician might do.
“I’ve been following the big sister as you suggested. Seems she’s shacked up with that American guy, Wells. Last night I watched him fucking her on the mountainside, great entertainment, ring side seats.” He laughed happily and even more so when the other two joined in.
“Which mountainside?” Leo stopped laughing, only now realising what had been said.
Stuart shrugged, “All one and the same to me, especially in the dark.”
“If you could see them at it, you should know where it took place. The moon is very bright right now.”
“Well okay, yes I do know, but what does it matter? They were on the one where the old shaft is. The one where you said tat ta to Burch and Wells that time.”
“And that doesn’t strike you as funny that he should be wanting to go back there sightseeing like?”
“Nope. Maybe he’s showing her where he was held all that time. Maybe he likes going back up there I don’t know.”
“How many times you seen him go up that way?” Pedro was extremely interested it seemed. Stuart shrugged not understanding what they were driving at, but assuming that their interest was not just mild.
“Three, four times. Last night was a first for the shagging though. Might take my flask tonight, gets pretty cold up there for one."
“No, that won’t be necessary. Tonight we will accompany you.” Pedro looked across to Leo who nodded his acquiescence. “What time do they usually set off?”
“’Bout ten, anywhere between ten and midnight.”
Curious glances fell between Leo and Pedro at Stuart’s answer. Whatever Wells was up to, they felt pretty sure that it wasn’t of a romantic nature. Maybe that had come along in the meantime, but few people walked that mountainside at that time of night. The terrain was dangerous for one thing and the other thing was that all kinds of unscrupulous things happened up there after dark. And they would know.
*** *** ***
To be continued in part ten.
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