Adapting Desires (Endangered Heart Series Book 3) (10 page)

“This is not up for discussion! There is a madman on the loose who was once hell bent on not just hurting me, but used you to do it. If there is even the slightest chance it could happen again I will not risk it! You will stay here until he is dead and I see his rotting corpse with my own two eyes!”

Just as resolute, but twice as patient as him, Emilia literally dug her foot into the ground. “No.”

“Why must you be so childish? So foolish, when your own safety is at risk?” Rushed and fretting, his eyes looked desperate as they darted around the room. “If I have to I’ll—I’ll cancel the lease on the apartment!” Kasper’s voice was panicked, pathetic even. If Emilia wasn’t so mad at him she would have easily felt pity for him. “You’ll hardly be able to attend school without a place to live!”

“Fine, I’ll just sleep in
my
car then. I knew I kept it for a reason,” she added with an eye roll. “
My
car, until the term is through. I’ll use my money,
my
money, to pay tuition.”

With a curse, the papers on Kasper’s desk went flying. Half amused, she watched while they floated to the ground and she did her best not to smile. “Why won’t you be reasonable about this?”

“I don’t think I’m being completely unreasonable,” she said, feeling surprisingly confident. “As much as you don’t want to admit it, Cyrus
is
intelligent. I seriously doubt he’s going to come anywhere near either one of us if he values his freedom.”

Her logic was only rewarded with an eye roll and the whitening of Kasper’s knuckles as he gripped a nearby newspaper. “His intelligence is precisely what makes him dangerous. And do they not say addictive behaviors are genetic? I would not be surprised if he was just as obsessed at getting his revenge as he was intelligent!”

“How do I explain this?” Sighing, Emilia clicked her nails together and bent to pick up some of the papers on the floor. “It’s scary, I know. I’m scared too, but I’ve spent so much time being afraid and holding back because of it. The first twenty years of my life…I almost didn’t have you because of it. I’m not going to postpone my education just because the correctional department of New York isn’t up to par. If there—”

“You’re foolish!” he yelled. “I cannot even talk to you when you are like this!”

“Will you let me finish?” Standing back up, Emilia stacked the papers on his desk and rested her hand on his clenched fist. Much to her dismay, he did not relax at all. “If there was a direct threat to either one of us, I’d certainly take a semester off, but since you’re only going to lose money on the apartment if you cancel the lease, I see no reason—”

“We could go away!” he offered, more despondent than she expected. “We could go to Australia, or India! Or one of the French Islands, perhaps?”

Emilia smiled, moving to drape her arms around his neck. And while this movement seemed to relax Kasper somewhat, it still did not have the effect she desired. “I’d love to run away with you every time there’s a problem, Kasper, but that’s not practical.”

“We don’t have to be practical, we’re rich.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not laughing. Why is it that you get to be impractical when it comes to things that are important to you, but I can’t when they’re important to me?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re allowed to take risks with your life with all these surgeries. Get upset and throw fits when they don’t work out the way you want, but I’m not allowed to keep going to school because there may or may not be a threat out there? That’s a stupid double-standard if I ever heard one.”

“It is not a double standard!” he insisted “Your life is more valuable than mine. All the good work you’ve done already, all the good work you intend to do overwhelms all my mediocre attempts.”

“Oh, stop that. I’m so tired of you putting yourself down. I love you, your friends love you, and by putting yourself down you’re putting the rest of us down by association.”

“I’m getting you a personal security guard. I’ll vet him myself if need be.”

What was it about this situation he wasn’t understanding? If they gave in to fears then they would only make themselves miserable, giving Cyrus exactly what he had wanted in the first place. Besides, there was no need for them to be fighting. Even if Cyrus was going to come after them again, they had already proved they were much stronger together rather than apart. “No, I don’t want to do that.”

“I told you it wasn’t up for discussion.”

Feeling angrier than she could say, Emilia untangled her arms from around him and headed for the door. If she didn’t leave now, she was afraid she may say something she would later regret.

“Where are you going?”

“Out,” she said through clenched teeth. “I need to clear my head.”

She left immediately, not bothering to put on boots despite the snowy forecast or straighten her messy appearance. By the time she reached the end of the long driveway, Emilia actually realized how much she needed some time to herself. Perhaps that by itself was the reason she was so upset, so eager for an argument with Kasper. Because while she was aware that he had a point, and his concern for her was not entirely unjustified, she had felt a quick need to defend herself against it. Emilia wanted to live as normal of a life as possible—as normal as normal could be, anyway—and she didn’t want to bog down her last term of vet school with a bodyguard and security cameras. Just the thought of it made Emilia feel nauseous. How terrible would it be to be remembered by her graduating class as the strange woman who had an overprotective husband and a secretive life? Who disappeared that last term before graduating though she was at the top of the class? Emilia had worked hard to earn the friends and acquaintances she had and wanted to spend as much time with them while she still had the opportunity.

Couldn’t Kasper, of all people, understand that?

Chapter 8

Emilia continued to think on this while she drove to the mall, feeling awkward to be there alone with so much time and money, but adjusted to it quickly. For several minutes she wandered aimlessly watching mothers discipline their children while husbands, weighed down by shopping bags, followed their wives around with heavy sighs and complaints. Instantly, the sight inspired her. She had promised Kasper a bright, obnoxious Christmas, hadn’t she? Shortly after their engagement the year before, she had considered doing something similar, but was so busy with school she hadn’t had the time, even during the holiday break. Now it seemed like just the right thing to do. With lots of lights, candles, and decorations, it would be just the thing to take their mind off their troubles.

If nothing else, the look on his face would certainly be worth the effort.

***

“An old military friend of mine just got into the private sector—”

“How old is old?” Kasper snapped.

Frankford considered this before answering. “Early forties.”

“Too old!” Kasper knocked his fingers against the drawling table impatiently. “If something happens, Emilia will need someone there who is agile and experienced, not waiting on social security!”

“I understand there is a reputable security firm based out of Chicago,” Aasif added. “One of my other clients purchases guard dogs from them.”

“You have
other
clients?” Sipping at his cognac, Kasper occasionally checked the door for Emilia and Mrs. Levkin. Drinking was forbidden with his regiment of antibiotics and painkillers, and if either women knew he was indulging in alcohol there would be hell to pay. “Who knew?”

Beneath his hand, Frankford smirked and looked to the side. “Either way,” he continued. “It would be easier for me to track this person down if I had some more information.”

Kasper sighed and gave in to the request. “I haven’t spoken to Cyrus for over ten years, and have been doing my best to forget him. The authorities were only lucky to get to him before I did.”

Aasif covered his ears with both hands and shook his head. “La, la, la, I’m not hearing this!”

“Oh, stop with your prattling, Aasif. You are only liable for laws I
intend
to break, not ones I
wish
I had.”

Frankford interrupted them with a cough. “Ahem.”

“Ah yes, you want information. Isn’t that what I pay you for?”

“Not everything is a matter of public record,” Frankford argued. “Motivation is a very near and dear thing.”

Aasif nodded in agreement.

Kasper sighed, his mind drudging up more than one unwanted memory. “His brother, my other cousin, was a simpleton. He laundered money for the company he worked for. I had been gone for a long time when he was arrested, but I came back just to see him behind bars and suffering. It amused me greatly to tell him that I forgave him for how despicable he was to me during our childhood.” Kasper found himself smirking. Revenge on his cousins had been one of the few bright spots in his life before Emilia.

“Naturally, he cried and sobbed, begged me to help him. From there it was really very easy to convince him to fire his lawyer and let me handle his legal affairs.” In the recesses of his mind, Kasper pictured it again, how much he loved watching the fall of his cousin, the way he blubbered over his tears for forgiveness, for help. At the time, Kasper had struggled to seem sympathetic, but now he laughed freely.

“I assured him that I would hire the best lawyer money could buy. Of course I didn’t, and once I paid the judge off they threw the book at him. He died in prison a year or so later. The news brought on a massive stroke to his mother, my aunt, leaving her in a vegetative state.” Kasper smiled absent-mindedly to himself. “If Cyrus had gone out with them, I suppose I would have taken out three birds with a single stone.”

“Well.” Frankford stretched as he sat up. Though clearly disturbed by Kasper’s story, he did not express it outright. “I’ll get in touch with my contact at INS and do everything I can―”

“You’ll do a hell of a lot more than that.” Taking the final swig, Kasper sat up and violently slammed his glass on the table. “Get more people on it if you have to!”

Frankford looked cautiously at Aasif before continuing. “Sort of hard to do that if you keep rejecting my suggestions.”

“Then bring back better ones.”

Aasif and Frankford shook hands and exchanged silent looks before the private detective excused himself, leaving a stifling quiet that lingered between the lawyer and his client. Aasif sat up and worked to open the window. Sure enough, the predicted snow was beginning to fall, and the cloudy gray of the sky promised more to come in the future.

“Perhaps she is right,” Aasif offered. “You do not necessarily need to worry at maximum capacity. Considering the weather and the condition of the roads, he might have been caught already.”

“I highly doubt that,” Kasper scoffed and sat back down. “Everyone and everything slows down around this damned holiday, the police department most of all.”

Aasif nodded. “You know,” he said guardedly. “I noticed that you keep mentioning Emilia’s safety but not your own.”

Kasper sighed with annoyance and looked away. “And?”

Aasif braced himself as if he were about to be hit. “I would think you’d be more concerned with yourself if you were going to bring a child into this house.”

Leaning further back in the chair, Kasper was nearly tempted to laugh. Had the circumstances been less dire he was certain he would have. “Not you too.”

“I heard Emilia ask Mrs. Levkin if she knew anything about the overseas adoption laws in Croatia. It wasn’t exactly difficult to put two and two together.”

Kasper shook his head and looked back to the liquor cart. “I married a mad woman.”

“Yes.” Aasif sighed. “But I don’t think we would agree on the reasons why.”

Shocked and slightly appalled, Kasper stared at his attorney. Was it possible that madness was contagious? That it had spread to every room of his house? “You can’t possibly agree with her?”

Aasif replied with a shrug. “I have not yet decided.”

Kasper closed his eyes and sat down. Where had Emilia put those prescription pain killers of his? “How am I so outnumbered?”

“Look at it from the perspective of the rest of us,” Aasif said with a laugh. “Since you’ve met Emilia, your disposition has improved significantly. Surprisingly, even more so in the last year, and while kindness by itself does not meet parenting qualifications—”

Pausing to rub his temples, Kasper held out his hand, cutting Aasif off mid-sentence. “Why do you insist on dragging on the way you do?”

“My point is that Emilia Ward would make an excellent mother.”

“I know that!” Kasper snapped.

Aasif laughed, clearly pleased with making Kasper so upset. “
You
certainly wouldn’t make matters easier, yet I think you’d rather enjoy having a child in your life. If you wanted to, you could raise it to be just as rash and willful as you, just as hateful and impatient…”

Kasper sighed. “You’re all conspiring against me.”

“Just as ill-tempered, spiteful, narcissistic—”

“That is quite enough,” Kasper said through gritted teeth. “All you are doing is proving my point. The world does not need another version of me.”

“Agreed.” Aasif nodded. “But what of Emilia? Could the world not need another of her?”

Kasper only answered by returning to rubbing his temples. Did the world need more of Emilia Ward? Of course it did. If Aasif had any talents, it was the ability to ask the most ridiculous questions imaginable. Eventually, after a minute of silence, Aasif continued the conversation without him.

“Fine,” Aasif said. “How are you feeling otherwise?”

“Tired, sore, bruised, unbearably anxious. Did my wife happen to mention where she was going when she stormed out of here like the foolish girl she is?”

Standing up, Kasper saw the attorney smile. “I don’t believe so. Though I understand she did call you a few choice names on her way out the door. You really should watch your language around her.”

Kasper grinned to himself. “She enjoys being able to curse in Farsi. She can call people who annoy her names while they remain unaware of it.”

“Peas in a pod you two are.” Aasif rolled his eyes and sat to pour himself a drink. “Perhaps you’ll be able to get a two for one deal at the asylum.”

Amazingly, Kasper dozed off—no doubt a result of the painkillers with the solitary drink he enjoyed. At least he had the good mind to yell at Mrs. Levkin one last time about getting Emilia on the phone. While it was doubtful the older woman listened to him, Kasper sent Emilia a text message on his own, grateful beyond words when she told him she was fine and to leave her alone.

Unfortunately, his sleep was restless, filled with dreams where he felt his teeth falling out one by one until his gums were nothing but gaping holes.

Kasper reached for his mouth before he was awake, not completely unaware of the smell of lavender and vanilla, but his mind not willing to take it all in right away. Still, as the fuzz of sleep cleared, he heard the sound of running water and felt something else that vaguely reminded him of home.

Feeling ambitious enough to sit up, his eardrums popped as he yawned, the remainder of sleep leaving him completely as his feet touched the cold hardwood floor. The sound of running water stopped then, the feel of the pipes beneath his floor coming to a standstill.

“Emilia?”

Though there was no immediate response, the sight of her phone on the nightstand limited his panic considerably. Kasper reached for his pocket watch—the only steady and sure piece of technology he relied on. When he could not find it, he rubbed his eyes and gave in, looking at the time on his own phone. How in the world had he been asleep for two hours? How could he possibly sleep when there were such dire circumstances unfolding?

Maybe, he thought, he
was
being overprotective. And his body had allowed him to sleep because there was nothing to get worked up over—his subconscious mind telling him to relax. Regardless of this brief revelation notwithstanding, Kasper knew he would not admit it out loud. The odds of Cyrus coming after either of them now, especially with Kasper’s resources, including the additional strength of Emilia at his side, were unlikely. With the police and private investigators working around the clock to find him, Cyrus would probably lay low for several months, years possibly, biding his time before making a proverbial move. If nothing else, Emilia’s education would be complete then, perhaps her career well on its way, and they could disappear and begin again.

Yes, he reasoned, if Cyrus was still out there then Kasper doubted he would attempt to hurt either one of them…for now at least.

While he had little in common with his remaining family member, Kasper could not deny the fact that Cyrus had been nearly as clever as himself and just as cruel. In fact, Kasper had difficultly removing the memory of just how malicious Cyrus could be. More than once, the young boy had invited the cold and hungry Kasper into the main house only to laugh with glee while his mother beat Kasper senselessly for coming inside without permission. At the time, Kasper had scolded himself for being gullible enough to think he wouldn’t have to spend another night in the barn and swore to never be deceived again.

Still, though it pained him to no end, Kasper attempted to put himself in his cousin’s shoes. Easily he could imagine wanting to hurt someone like himself, but trying to understand the motivation behind hurting Emilia confused him considerably. Yes, she was important to Kasper and his happiness, but hurting Emilia just to spite him? Even wishing her ill will seemed insane, satirical in nature. Then again, a sociopath hardly had any sense of right and wrong…what truly frustrated him was the fact that Emilia didn’t seem to understand that a mixture of luck and timing was what kept them alive the first time Cyrus came after them. That her dog had been poisoned, and her silly friend had been injured because of her attachment to him disturbed him every day. Regardless, Kasper found comfort in the fact that if he perished, Emilia would be taken care of and could easily begin her life anew.

But what was he supposed to do if he lost her again?

***

He found her in the bathroom, or in the bathtub, to be more specific. Therefore, even if he had a lecture prepared, his reaction would have given away how weak she made him. Bubbles in large, soapy mounds threatened to overflow from the tub—leaving just enough of her exposed flesh to transfix his imagination. The tub itself, a once lucrative element of the bathroom that Kasper now appreciated immensely, steamed just slightly from the hot water inside. Though her arms delicately lay on the porcelain sides, Kasper ventured to guess that the slightest shift in her position would unveil herself to him completely.