“Do you think they sell eighteenth century lingerie in the gift shop?”
“What?” Ellie exclaimed laughingly.
Tasha smiled naughtily, “Just for science purposes. You know the evolution of fashion in the bedroom.”
Ellie shook her head, “Is sex all you think about?”
Tasha shrugged as they rounded the corner, “It wasn’t until I met Damien. Now all I want to do is make love to him in every position humanly possible. I wish there was a book somewhere that detailed all sex positions. We could mark off as we go through it.”
“There is. It’s called the Kama Sutra.”
“The kama what?”
Ellie looped her arm through hers and laughed, “I’ll lend you the copy you gave me.”
Tasha stumbled on her feet and if it weren’t for Ellie, she would have kissed the ground, “Excuse me?”
“You got it for me on our eighteenth birthday. Mom and dad were not amused.”
That familiar sadness came over her at the mention of their parents. The only thing Elaine had told her about them was that they were dead. She only found out their dad’s name was James from Damien.
“You said your daughter is named after our mom and Dale’s mom.”
“Uhm,” she responded, concern creased her face. Tasha hadn’t wanted to sound sad and emotional, but it hurt a lot not knowing her parents, worse not remembering them.
“What was mom’s name?”
“Stacey.”
“Stacey,” she echoed with a watery smile, “That’s a beautiful name.”
Ellie hugged her arm, “You could name your daughter Stacey-Alice, I don’t mind sharing.”
“Shh!” Tasha looked around, “Don’t let DJ hear you say that. He’s on a sibling campaign. He wants a sister and a brother.”
Ellie chuckled, “And what’s wrong with that? The kid’s going to be lonely without siblings.”
Yeah, Tasha thought so too but… she still had this feeling of doom hanging around her. She thought the other shoe had dropped when Dale practically attacked her in the cabin and arrested her but… there was something else coming. She could feel it.
“Tasha, what’s wrong?”
She looked behind them to make sure the guys weren’t close then turned back to Ellie, “Promise you won’t say anything to Damien? It might be nothing, but my mind is playing tricks on me…”
“Tasha, what is it?”
She noticed she hadn’t promised but… “I have this feeling that something bad is about to happen. That something is going to destroy our lives… The first time I had it, it was just the three of us—Damien, DJ and me—and I thought Tom my husband would do something to keep us apart again. But now that you and Dale are in my life again, my family, the feeling has grown ten fold. I feel like…” she stopped, the hair at the back of her neck standing up.
Something wasn’t right. The corridor they’d gone down was almost empty with a few bodies moving around, but there was something else, a danger, she could sense it. How, she hadn’t the slightest clue, but she knew it was there.
“Tasha, what is it?”
She drew Ellie closer and slowed their pace and just listened. The corridor echoed with footsteps, but there was a set—no, three that moved different from the others. They’d slowed when she and Ellie had, but now… she tilted her head slightly towards the ground. They were separating, one still followed but two moved outwards. They were going to try to surround them, she could feel it.
“Ellie, slowly pull your phone out of your bag and call Dale,” she whispered, looking around for reflective surfaces. She needed to look behind them without being obvious.
“I would, but won’t that be a little obvious?”
“What?”
“My husband is an FBI Agent. I help him decompress when he comes home from tough cases. You think we are being followed. The best option right now is to pretend we haven’t noticed and join that crowd there.”
She nodded, but felt her body go rigid when the footsteps quickened. “They are coming for us, I want you to run.”
“Hell no!”
“Ellie!”
“What are you going to do? Try to reenact a fight scene from a movie you watched? You might have been on the money about being followed but watching Enter The Dragon doesn’t make you Bruce Lee!”
“What? Who’s Bruce—”
“Tasha, honey.”
Tasha’s feet froze under her and she drew Ellie to a stop. She’d hoped to never see this man in her life ever again, but it looked like she was right and he was the proverbial shoe. She turned around to face him, keeping Ellie close.
“Tom, can’t say I was looking forward to seeing you again. Ever.”
Tom looked from her to Ellie, “I see you’ve met your twin. How did you find out about her?”
Tom knew? Of course he did, the selfish asshole. “What do you want?”
Remorseful he said, “I just want to talk. Apologies for what I did.”
Tasha looked over his shoulder to see whom the two sets of running feet belonged to. Dale and Damien to her relief. “Now isn’t the right time.”
Tom looked behind him and his entire body went rigid. He grabbed for Tasha and when Ellie moved to interfere, a man stepped out of the shadows and held her back. Tasha turned her face away, her body that touched his itched with disgust.
When she felt his breath against her ear she tried to move away but he held her still, his hand slipping into her coat pocket. “Look at this and when you are ready to be with someone who will never betray you and love you despite what you’ve done. You have my number.” And just as fast as he’d grabbed her, he released her. He and his two goons walked away fast.
“Are you okay?” Ellie asked coming to stand beside her and wrapping her arms around Tasha.
“Yeah,” she responded hugging her back.
Dale and Damien slowed down when they got to them, splitting her and Ellie apart and pulling them into their embrace.
“Tell me you are okay?” Damien demanded his chin on the crown of her head.
“I’m okay,” she responded, her voice muffled by his leather jacket.
He drew her away and looked at her, bending to be eye level, “Are you sure?”
She nodded, “It was Tom. He apologized, he wanted me to give him a chance to explain.”
His hands tightened around her arms, “And what did you say?”
“That I’ll meet him at a motel in an hour. Really Damien? Anyway, you guys ran them off before I could say hell no.”
“Nothing else?”
She fingered the flash drive Tom had placed in her pocket and shook her head, “No. Nothing else.”
He drew her into his side, “Come on, let’s go home.”
“Tasha, I called my dad to come get DJ. I thought it would be nice if he joined his cousins at Disneyworld,” Dale spoke and right off the bat she knew he was lying. The tightness around his mouth was a giveaway. But she couldn’t help but feel it was a good idea for DJ to be far away right now.
“Yeah, he’d like that. Thanks.”
****