UnLoved Forever Read online

  William led the way, seeming to assume that the young people would follow whether he watched or not. Dani had a momentary fantasy of them bolting back to the garage, or anywhere, really, that had a door that could be locked or disabled. This wasn’t even about sex anymore, though the need clawed at her even as she staggered along in the scion’s wake.

  Thank goodness she hadn’t stayed in the nightie.

  Luke hung back with her, not seeming to care that William had outstripped them completely and was already almost at the corner. Light tinged the eastern sky, brilliant in purples and reds that made her wonder if the old rhyme was true.

  Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.

  Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

  It’s a wonder the whole world hadn’t figured out that a storm was brewing.

  Unless it had.

  Dani stopped cold, wondering suddenly at the traffic on the street. Who was out at this hour? It was barely edging on six. The black car idling at the corner took on a new and sinister meaning. The mini-van backing out of the driveway on the left contained enemy agents.

  She’d been foolish. Letting her guard down because this was Orlando. Nothing sinister lived in Orlando.

  “...apparently, he got the reverend to open early and get things moving at dawn. He called a bunch of people, I don’t know what all else. For all I know, he’s going to declare the entire church a national dependency and order the building be turned into a park.”

  Dani stared at Luke. How long had he been talking? She hadn’t been paying attention to him, either. No wonder he looked so frustrated. She reached a hand for him, and with a glance at how far up the street William was at this point led the way at a trot, wincing with each step. Luke said nothing further. Maybe he had nothing more to say. Maybe, like her, he was frustrated and trying hard to not take it out on her, the way she really was trying to not take it out her frustration on him. She grasped her boots and socks in one hand, his fingers intertwined with those of her free hand.

  It might have been nice, this early morning walk together, had it not been for two things.

  First, Dani had gotten used to being barefoot long ago, but the past couple of years had seen her calluses get thinner and thinner. Some of the places she’d worked weren’t safe for anything less than thick, heavy boots, and so the walk along the street was getting to be a bit uncomfortable.

  She grasped the socks in her hand. Still wet. She sighed and continued. It was the story of the past couple of days, always wet and nothing to do about it.

  But second was William. His presence was enough to put her back up, and this early-morning errand felt deceptive and wrong. She felt a certain disloyalty though, oddly enough, not as much toward her father as to Marcus, who had let her out the door with a certain amount of trust, even though she was right now being betrayed. And for her money, she owed a hell of a lot more loyalty to Marcus than some guy who Luke barely acknowledged as his father.

  “It’s wrong,” she said half under her breath, knowing full well how badly sound carried at night. Or dawn, as the case may be.

  “You’d have felt better his going alone?”

  There was no arguing that. Resigned to the mission she picked up her pace, not wanting to let him out of her sight for a minute. Besides, he was already opposite the church.

  William, surprisingly, walked all the way down to the end of the street. Now that she was paying attention, Dani’s senses were alert for his men, or any men for that matter, but she couldn’t see any signs of not being alone. Just two men and a barefoot woman walking down a sidewalk in the pre-dawn light. What could be suspicious about that?

  The church was in deep shadow, but the rising sun highlighted the vines and the stained glass. As the sun rose higher, the glass seemed to explode in a kaleidoscope of color and light, the forms of long-dead saints and deeds getting lost in the splendor of the individual pieces.

  The warming sun felt good on her back and the socks had dried to a slight dampness, so she sat on the steps leading into the church and pulled them on. The boots tied up tight, leaving her a slightly unpleasant wetness to her feet, but that would dry soon enough.

  If not, she’d just find a new place for her foot. Buried in William’s ass had an appealing sound to it.

  “So, what, are we just supposed to wait here for a magic spell?” she asked, hopping to her feet. She turned, studying the doors. The light of the rising sun reflected off the glass, making it nearly impossible to see inside the building. She had no idea if the lights were on inside, or if that was just a reflection of dawn’s early light. “Abracadabra!”

  The doors opened, and a balding, round-faced man appeared in the doorway.

  She about jumped out of her boots, wet socks and all. “You were just standing there waiting for that, weren’t you?!”

  “Thank you, Reverend,” William said smoothly, stepping forward to shake the man’s hand genially. There may or may not have been a large bill that slid from one palm to the other. “If you don’t mind, we’ll take a look inside and be out of your hair... that is, out of your way as soon as possible.”

  Dani opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. Let the poor man take a donation.

  The pastor propped the door open and led the way to the Fellowship Hall. There they walked into the most eclectic hodge-podge of second-hand items Dani had ever seen. A mixture of expensive crap no one wanted jostled for position on overcrowded tables with cheap crap no one wanted. It was as though a Goodwill truck had exploded in Tiffany’s. The range of materials and items was stunning.

  They walked through rows and rows of appliances still in boxes, real pearls (clearly marked REAL PEARLS in marker pen on the adjacent card) alongside costume jewelry that could have come from a vending machine.

  After an hour they’d found no statues of birds, little or otherwise. There were plenty of angels. A handful of reproductions of famous artworks. Enough big-eyed cherubic children that Dani was fairly convinced she’d be having nightmares about them for years to come. But not a single bird.

  “Are you sure this is everything?” William asked the pastor for the fifth time as Dani picked through clothes dissolutely, having given up on what they’d been searching for, and instead looking for a t-shirt that wasn’t torn. So far she’d come up with nothing in her size, unless you counted the ones that had slogans that made even her blush. And yet they were selling them in a church.

  “There’s nothing in the trash pile? Nothing in the grab one, free pile?”

  He shook his head slowly, for the fifth time. “My boy, I don’t know what to...”

  “You’re here awful early, Pastor!” a woman called from the front, her voice so shrill that Dani dropped the shirt she was holding to dive for cover. She could have sworn she’d heard an air raid siren. “I saw the doors open and had to make sure. I didn’t think we were going to start selling things until nine, or was that eight? Still, it’s not even seven yet, so either way it’s very early to start, don’t you think?”

  “These people are looking for something that was donated to us,” the reverend informed her, pulling himself up with a sort of wounded dignity. The only hair around his head bristled around his ears like a terrier spotting a pigeon. “It was a small—” he glanced over at William for confirmation, who nodded. “...uh, inexpensive bird statue...”

  “Oh, that!” She waved it off, “I’m sorry, but that was sold.”

  “Sold?”

  The woman stood aghast, backing up a step as the word burst from four throats at once.

  “Well, of course it was sold!”

  “Mrs. Pinal, we haven’t even opened yet, not officially, so who could have bought such a thing?”

  “Well, I did!” Mrs. Pinal crossed her thick arms under heavy breasts, and her double chin began to vibrate with outrage. “I have a right, same as anyone else. And my money is good. Same as anyone else! If I buy something I like, I have that right. Same as anyone else! So l
ong as the money goes to the church, what difference does it matter? I paid five dollars for that! More than it was worth, I warrant!”

  Dani and Luke exchanged long glances. Dani shook her head. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to communicate with his eyes, but she was sure it went against some code of ethics or law or something, the way his eyes had narrowed.

  “My dear... Mrs. Pinal, is it?” William smiled, and spread his arms in a half-bow. “I would like to make an offer on that particular piece—I would be willing to raise the purchase price to ten times your cost. Could I offer you $100.00 for the piece?”

  Mrs. Pinal’s eyes bulged behind her glasses, giving them an oddly magnified look that reminded Dani of a bug. “$100.00? For that? You can probably find another for a quarter.”

  “It’s not that cheap!” Luke fumed beside her, throwing up his hands and stomping away to a chair by the door, where he sat down to pout.

  “I only bought it because it matched the other one my daughter had,” Mrs. Pinal said, looking at William as though he were crazed. Dani thought maybe they all were, and only Mrs. Pinal had any sense at all.

  “Well, then, I will be happy to buy them both....”

  “She needed them, you see?”

  “Can I ask her if she would be interested in...”

  “Go ahead.” Mrs. Pinal began laughing. With the size of the woman, her laughter was impressive. “But she’s in Houston. I overnighted the thing to her yesterday.”

  Dani by now had gotten as far the door. Luke snagged her waist and tugged her into his lap, which was a good thing. At this outburst, it was all she could do to not explode in laughter. She buried her face against his neck, telling herself to let it go. It wasn’t all that funny. Except it was, and every once in a while a hiccup-y giggle burst loose. If she kept this up, she’d implode.

  Luke was no better. She could feel it in his chest, the same battle with hilarity.

  We need sleep. We’re both loopy.

  “Can you tell me where in Houston she lives? It’s really very important.”

  “This is Elaina’s son,” the pastor said, indicating Luke, “and his fiancée.”

  Dani, of course, had to look up right at that moment. Several pairs of eyes skewered her to the wall. It would have been better not to look.

  No, it would have been better to not be curled up on the lap of her fiancé, looking for all the world like she was making out with him in a church.

  Kill me now. Just let me die. She gave a half-hearted wave, wiggling her fingers merrily.

  “Fiancée?” Mrs. Pinal said, eyeing Luke skeptically “I guess your mother was wrong about you, then.”

  Luke made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. Dani took the opportunity of being in a church to pray that they got out of there quickly, before lightning struck. Or, worse, she started laughing again.

  “Well, I suppose...” The woman opened her purse, a tiny thing that was near lost in her bulk. After a long moment of moving things around in it, she pulled out a receipt and pen.

  The receipt was for a local coffee shop. She wrote her daughter’s phone number on the back. “You can call her if you...”

  “Thank you, madam!” William cried, and snatched the paper from her hand, practically running down the aisle of misfit toys, and upsetting a stack of tablecloths that flew in all directions, a cascade of linen that covered the floor like snow.

  Dani and Luke fled, barely clearing the doors before bursting into laughter. Behind them were shouts of outrage, and words that favored the phrase ‘scandalous behavior’ and ‘wait until I tell...’ Luke’s mother was going to have some explaining to do.

  William, on the other hand, stopped on the sidewalk and turned to them, cool as you please, as his limo rolled up behind him.

  “It’s like the fucking Batmobile,” Dani breathed, wondering where in the world he’d had it parked.

  “Only, more comfortable,” William agreed. He opened the door himself and called to the driver a single word. “Airport!”

  Dani clutched Luke’s hand in her own, watching out the back window as the church dwindled away behind them as they slipped into morning traffic. She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she didn’t know why.

  “NO,” LUKE SAID. HE stood unmoving on the tarmac, arms crossed, mostly because if he didn’t hold onto something right now he was going to hit someone. His father. Hard. There was no argument, no shock value, he simply refused to believe what his eyes told him. And if he did? You certainly didn’t do what his father was proposing. It had to be treason at the least.

  “Yes,” his father said, equally immovable. “I don’t think you understand the importance of this. This was lent to me for my use until this issue is resolved.”

  Dani stood open-mouthed; she appeared to be frozen, rooted to the ground. Above her rose the most colossal and impressive thing William McConnel ever did in a long lifetime of over-the-top insanity. She pointed, rather weakly. No sound came from her mouth. It was alike she’d been shut off at the source.

  If Luke hadn’t had a lifetime of shock from his father’s actions he would have probably wet himself, too. However, this is where the limo had already left them, and the people on the plane were calling his father “sir” and jumping around like so many grasshoppers, ready to assist him in boarding.

  “Air Force One?”

  “No!” His father shook his head emphatically. “It’s only Air Force One when the president is on board. It’s Air Force Two when it’s the vice president. When neither of them are on board, it’s just a plane. Ordinary. Average.”

  The man who smelled like shaving cream whispered something to William and nodded. “Good, patch that into my phone and have a car ready for us, will you?”

  The man nodded and ran up the steps into... Luke couldn’t say it, couldn’t think it. Into the president’s plane.

  “Look,” William said, grabbing Dani’s hand and then Luke’s, “it’s just a plane. You’ve flown before, just on another aircraft.” He dragged them forward. They didn’t protest so much as move like zombies in a late- night movie. Getting them on the staircase seemed to be a bit too challenging for William, so he poked his son under the ribcage.

  “Hey!”

  “Help me get your betrothed on the plane, boy, before the FBI catches up with us.”

  “You...” Luke pointed to the plane and then to his father. “If you can arrange this, then why do you care—”

  “...about the FBI? Because you’re officially renegade.”

  Luke felt his blood chill. His father couldn’t be serious, could he? He looked at his father quizzically, knowing this was nothing more than bait and falling for it anyway. “Explain.”

  “Your little friend Ray? He put out an armed and dangerous on you. Apparently, you’re insane, heavily armed, and in dire need of a shower. Now, let’s go!”

  “OW!” Luke jumped and rubbed his ribcage. So maybe he hadn’t showered last night. By the time everyone else got their turn there was no hot water left. He’d intended to this morning. “Okay, okay!” He turned to Dani and tried to pull her up the steps. She just kept staring at the seal on the side of the craft. Luke looked at his father, who shrugged, and finally Luke just picked her up and carried her up the steps, slung over his shoulder like so much baggage.

  Something she’d probably kill him for later when she finally realized what he’d done.

  “Ah, the days of youth,” William sighed behind him as he followed his son. The engines were already beginning to warm up; a staff member waited to close the door as they entered.

  “Please follow me,” another staff member greeted, then smiled, and led them to the rear of the plane. “This is where the press sits when they accompany the president on his travels.” She indicated a row of seats along the wall like a supermodel showing off the newest car. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. As soon as we take off, someone will be around to bring you drinks.”

  William seated hims
elf without looking at either of them, and had his seatbelt secure around his waist before the hostess had even finished speaking. He sat checking his phone, not looking at either of them as Luke deposited Dani in a seat and paused, looking down at her with some concern. She seemed... vague. Moving like she was in a dream.

  Don’t wake sleepwalkers.

  Even though the advice spinning through his head didn’t truly apply he went with it anyway, buckling her in gently and pausing to brush his fingers across her cheek, looking with concern into the liquid depths of her eyes. “It’ll be all right,” he murmured before sitting heavily in his own seat. She shifted almost immediately, coming to rest her head on his shoulder. It was nice. He rather liked it there.

  Reaching up to stroke her hair almost absently, Luke turned to William as he buckled his own seatbelt. “We need to talk.”

  “What?”

  “What?” Luke just barely resisted the urge to slap the phone out of his father’s hands just to make him look up at him. “We are in Air Force One! What the hell do you mean sitting there and saying ‘what’?”

  William raised his head, a look of impatience crossing his face. “I told you, it’s not Air Force...”

  “Yeah, yeah, I heard that. You know that’s a crock. This is the plane that the president of the United States flies in! This is most recognizable plane in the world!” There was a pause as William and Luke stared at each other. “WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE IT?”

  “I told her father,” William said, pointing to Dani who seemed to be coming out of her stupor. She had sat up and was peering out the window with an alertness that meant no more romantic cuddling for a while.

  Mores the pity.

  “I told him that this goes way beyond senators and ministers and the like. This goes beyond one country. This stick has the collected works of her parents, and they brought a lot to light. It isn’t just me who wants the stick, my boy.” William’s jovial mood was gone. His stare was intense, his voice almost emotionless. “There are lives that depend on this, countries could collapse from the evidence on there. The president is concerned. The prime ministers of England and Japan have expressed concern.”