Everything was nearly gone, along with the disobedient wives he no longer bedded but used for profit. There went his income on Friday nights.
“Whoever you are, I will find you. I will find you and kill you,” Proderick promised, watching the movement of trees in the distance. Whoever took his daughters and Willow had broken through the back path and was on the main road. “I shall find you, and I shall kill you.”
Chapter Four – Replication
RAPHAEL HOYT READ AS dangerous. Willow didn’t feel that he was an immediate threat to her or the girls, but the way he moved clearly defined him as an Apex predator. Overall, he wasn’t handsome per se, but he wasn’t unattractive either, in a white businessman middle manager kind of way. A head full of dark hair and an aristocratic A-lined nose over a barely there upper lip which was hidden under a thick mustache added to his smooth, refined appeal. Hair surrounded his mouth and a thin chin strap of a black beard, mottled with wisps of gray hairs flecked in between strands, gave him a distinguished look as a man of means.
The jeans he wore, loose fitted, accentuated the narrow-tapered waist and wide shoulders. Willow didn’t spy any body fat on the six-foot frame. The dark turtleneck shirt fit his body, showing off a flat stomach. She was very tempted to peer over in the seat at the crotch of his pants, just for the record books, to satisfy her curiosity, but for some odd reason, she didn’t feel he deserved that. Being ogled as a piece of man meat after rescuing her and the girls was simply unfair, even for a vegetarian who was starving for a chunk of meat. Her body language had changed since he had disapproved of her comment on Pierce Brosnan running like a girl.
Raphael picked up on the subtle change. “Willow, we are less than an hour out; are there questions or concerns you may have that I can answer? You seem kinda tense,” he said with that deep tell me all about your sorrows voice.
“I don’t know,” she said. “You read different each time I look at you. In your eyes, when you look at the girls, I can see what Karli saw. However, when you look at me, I see nothing in those same eyes. I’m worried because your overall body language screams that you are a dangerous man.”
He interrupted, “Because I am a dangerous man.”
“The funny thing is, I don’t feel any danger towards me or the girls, which is really freaking me out.”
He wanted to appease her fears and console the lady. This was scary not only for him, but for the girls. The idea of sharing a house with three women still made his balls itch and not in a good way. No matter what he felt, they didn’t deserve to be scared anymore.
“I used to be a Navy SEAL,” he said softly. “I did 22 years in the Navy before retiring. Toward the end of my career, things started to change in my world. My Mom had begun to deteriorate, and my sister married a weird dude who mentally abused her.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Willow said, wanting to reach out to console him.
“Her story is very similar to your sister’s, but my sister, by his Grace, was rescued from some cult she hooked up with in Ohio,” Raphael told her.
Willow looked at his hands. The nails were neatly trimmed, but not rounded with a high gloss and evenly trimmed cuticles. She took that as the first sign that he wasn’t gay. He began to tell her about his life in the military, graduating from the Navy’s 24-week "A" school known as Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Training. He also informed her that he had completed the basic parachutist course and then the 26-week SEAL Qualification Training program, and he later became cadre until his retirement. He’d been home for a year when his sister went missing.
“Her marriage to that weird guy aided in our mother’s rapid deterioration, and our mother made me promise to find my sister and bring her home,” he said. “I found her, but she couldn’t come home. She didn’t want to come back to the Island.”
“Do you see your sister often?”
“Very rarely. You see the person who rescued my sister placed her in one of those witness protection kinds of things, and for the safety of Annabelle and my niece Cady, I maintain a healthy distance. I mail goody packages when I’m several states away to keep a clean trail. If I go anywhere near Annabelle, he will know where to find her,” Raphael added.
“And the house that we are going to stay in with you until I guess this friend of your does the same thing for us, can you tell me about it?”
“Not much to tell,” he added, “but it is within walking distance of the beach, which is always cool. There are four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom,” he added taking his eyes off the road for a second. “Anything else you need or want to know?”
“Yes, there are many things I need and want to know, but this moment, in this vehicle, isn’t the time to ask,” she said.
“Listen, I don’t know from day to day how long I will be home. I can get home tonight and have to leave out in the morning, so if there is something you need me to know or want to ask, you’d better ask while you have my undivided attention,” Raphael spoke, again, glancing over at the soft outline of her face.
“I’m scared,” she blurted out in a hushed whisper loud enough for only his ears. The girls were looking out the window fascinated by all the water after being land locked all their lives. The distraction was helpful during the conversation.
“Scared to ask the question, scared of me, scared of the situation? Willow, you must be more specific,” he replied.
“All of that, plus you,” she stated.
“You have no reason to be afraid of me. I will never harm you or the girls,” he said.
“There are more types of harm than the physical. I’m scared that we’re going to get attached to you, become reliant upon you, and then have to leave,” Willow said.
“If I said don’t get too comfortable, you’d think I was being an ass.”
“Yes, I would,” she told him, “and I know you’re not. I...we are grateful. Whether you are doing this to stock up on good karma for the help your sister and niece received, or if you’re doing this out of not realizing how lonely you’ve been, I don’t care. Altruism in the form of pity, if you will, doesn’t faze me much, if I were to be truthful. Just don’t hurt us by throwing us away as if we don’t matter to you.”
“Duly noted, Smarty Pants,” he said, feeling uncomfortable with how well and easily she read him. “The only thing I can promise is that while in my care, I shall do whatever is in my power to help the girls adjust to their new lives.”
“And me, what are you willing to help me do to get back to being in the real world after spending six years basically only talking to those two in the back seat?”
“As long as you don’t try to wipe crumbs off my face with spit on your thumb, we’ll figure it out. Willow, I’m not sure what you need. Hell, I’m not certain what I could provide other than a roof and a safe place to begin your healing,” he said. “I can offer you nothing more than my honesty to do what I can. That’s all I have.”
“Then that is what I shall expect and accept,” she said, looking out the window.
Raphael found himself holding his breath. He didn’t know what she expected him to say and again he felt like he was getting played. For the oddest reason, if Willow Rayne were in fact reeling him in for the rope a dope, he didn’t want to run away. The idea of children again being in the home where he’d grown up made him feel icky on the inside in a good way.