Between the Lines: Chapter 4

I clambered up on my feet and slipped into my clothes. It was just before the sunrise and positively frigid, considering I wasn’t wearing anything. His blue jeep and everything else was still there... maybe nature had called him? But the mattress at where he lay was very cold, so he must have been gone for hours, and his clothes were scattered around in the grass.

“Tony!” I screamed into the forest. No answer. I felt fear creep up on me.

After couple of minutes I started freaking out. I left a note on the windshield of his car just in case he came back. I started walking deeper into the forest, screaming out his name. At the time, it didn’t seem stupid and reckless to go deep into a forest after subconsciously choosing a random direction and having no plan of action, without anyone knowing where I was. On my way, I couldn’t help but notice how some tree branches were broken and scattered all around me; a couple of trees even seemed mowed down by a bulldozer. I could have sworn it wasn’t like that last night.

It took me nearly an hour to find him. His body lay on the ground, dirty and bruised, blood dried over the cuts. He looked like he’d had the crap beaten out of him by at least five people, got tied to the back of the van, and dragged around the forest. I quickly suppressed those images while running up to as him as fast as I could.

“Tony? Antonio?” I fell down to my knees beside him. “Please wake up!” I sobbed, cradling his head in my lap.

My tears were washing his face and his lifeless body; he just wouldn’t wake up. Chasing away the hysterics I felt, I checked if he was breathing. Yes! His breathing was really slow and deep, but it was there. His pulse was really slow too, which worried me; usually Antonio’s heart was racing for no reason. The fact that his pulse was so slow meant that it was something more serious than scratches and bruises. As I ran my hands over him, I saw that he had a fever, and not something like 38 degrees... he was BURNING. Literally, even with the morning air so cold, which should have brought his body temperature lower. I didn’t know what to do. My first though was to bring him to the hospital, but some hunch told me I shouldn’t. I was talking to him, hoping he would wake up but my mind was running a riot trying to find a good way out of this. Then, Ben’s words came to mind:

“Adrian Davis is the new head architect for reconstruction. His wife, Penelope seemed a really pleasant woman, she is a surgeon you know, and she graduated from Harvard, Harvard! But the local hospital didn’t take her on. It’s insanity really, such a professional asking for a placement in their hospital, with no requests for a big pay, and they don’t give her a job. If those bureaucratic fools who thought one day to start calling themselves doctors had any brains in them they would grab her at the first chance they get, but no… ” He told me this on Sunday evening, and because I didn’t know Gabriel’s surname yet, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Adrian Davis was the third head architect for the reconstruction in a space of one year. The first two ran away after few months spent here. About two months now the works has been going insanely slow with no head architect working on the project, but then Adrian finished some project in Arizona and took up this one. Now I had a plan.

Gabriel. It had to be Gabriel. After all, he was Tony’s best friend. I twitched at the thought, because it still hurt that Gabriel was his best friend, Gabriel knew so much about him that I didn’t. Gabriel… well, he OWNED Tony’s life in a way. Antonio was in the biggest debt possible. And so was I. And I had no idea why, but I had this really bad feeling about it.

It took me a while to get everything to his jeep, then to drive to the place where Antonio lay unconscious. I dressed him as best as I could, hiding away the bruises and cuts. Then I finally got him into the car, which, taking into account all the muscle that Antonio had developed and the fact that he was really tall, was, a seriously hard task.

I always was a bit of a mad woman on the road, but that time I was going nearly a fifty miles over the speed limit. I felt every second that passed with the very core of my being. I was thanking God, Ben had told me approximate place where the Davis family lived… I glanced at my watch; Gabriel shouldn’t have left for school yet.

I found the house quickly enough. The huge mansion was easy to spot. I drove into the yard, which was decorated with old-fashioned statues; they even had a fountain in their front yard. I paused for a second in surprise of all the luxury around me, before I legged it out of the car and towards the door. It was opened before I reached the porch, and Gabriel, looking glamorous as ever, faced me. He probably saw how I looked, and I couldn’t have looked well.

“What is it, Izzy?”

“It’s Antonio, he needs help, fast.” All the speech I thought of giving Gab had vanished when I was actually talking to him. Everything was just so clustered. Him, Antonio and all that happened in the past few days… first time in nearly a year I felt like breaking down.

“What? What happened?” Gab seemed shocked, however, it seemed like he expected something like this, and maybe not now, not today, but sometime, he expected something like this to happen. I just thought how stupid I was being and shooed all those thought away.

“I’m not sure. He is unconscious in the car. Is your mum home?” I heard my voice, high pitched and strange with fear, and shuddered.

“Yes, let’s get him inside, shall we?” Gabriel started walking towards the car, but stopped dead in his tracks only after few steps.

“What’s wrong?” I was walking behind him, but now I managed to catch up. I saw him twitch when I said this.

“Nothing… Let’s get him out of that car and inside, okay?”

Now he was the one who sounded strange. He seemed…afraid. And not as he was afraid for Antonio like I was. His fear was different. It was like he was scared of getting attacked…he was afraid for himself. That thought shocked me so much I might have even stepped back a bit.

Strangely, Gabriel had no trouble of lifting Tony out of the car. He kicked the door ajar as it was nearly closed. I followed him in. I didn’t register all the surroundings then, because I was freaking out too much, but later I remembered the grandeur hall with huge staircase and wide, tall windows. The interior of the house was done in really light colours. There were a lot of paintings on the walls. A few of them were from Venice; I was sure of that, and couple of decorative masks from Italy were there too. All the paintings seemed like really well done reproductions of famous works I saw in the Louvre last year. All of them must have cost them a fortune.

However, at the time I was totally unaware of any of that. My eyes and mind were set on Gab and Tony.

“Penelope! We have a problem!”

Penelope (who by the name of her, had to be Gabriel’s mom) appeared out of nowhere. Or so it seemed... but then, I was in a strange house and so distracted I probably wouldn’t have noticed if an elephant stepped on me.

The moment I saw her I felt a warm emotional radiance flowing from her. She was gorgeous. Long, straight blond hair framed her face beautifully and made her look even more gracious. Her green eyes glistened in morning light; the clear, white skin seemed glowing. She was perfect.

But what struck me the most was how amazingly young she was. She looked about five, maybe ten years older than Gabriel, but she was his mother. She was in her twenties and a surgeon graduate from Harvard. Was she already fifteen when she was born or something? All those thoughts flied through my head in an instant when I saw her, and then I was nearly knocked out by what I saw in her face. Fear, the same fear I saw in Gabriel’s face. And then finally it hit me, something was terribly wrong with Antonio and they both knew this. I felt my knees go weak and I stumbled into Penelope who was behind me.

“Isabel!” I saw more then heard Gabriel scream out my name as I was nearly passing out.

Strong hands caught me in my fall. I don’t know how I kept myself from fading but I slowly composed myself. When the mist in my eyes has cleared I saw Penelope helping me with my balance and Gabriel, wide eyed staring at me like I was a ghost or something. God, this was getting so weird…

“Are you all right?” Penelope and Gabriel asked in unison.

“Yes, probably overwhelmed by everything.” I smiled meekly.

“Bring him to the guest bedroom.” Penelope commanded Gabriel, and he swiftly climbed up the stairs with Antonio still in his arms.

I wanted to follow him, but Penelope stopped me: “Tell me what happened, Isabel.”

“How do you..? Oh, Gabriel told you about Sunday, didn’t he..? Well, don’t worry, me passing out is a usual thing…” I lied.

“Yes, he did, but that’s not exactly relevant now.”  

She saw how Antonio looked but she didn’t seem worried even a tiny bit. On the other hand, she needed to know how did Antonio end up looking like that. I paused for a second to think how to put everything in a story that I could tell her.

“Well, we were out camping on the cliffs yesterday. We slept outside. When I woke up this morning he just wasn’t there. I found him in the woods nearby.”

“Were his clothes shredded?” Penelope looked dead serious, but I found the question funny. I didn’t know how to answer it but my short silence was like an answer to itself for her.

“You made love.” It wasn’t a question. “Was he any different then usual that night? Was he…violent?”

I was shocked, what the hell did she suspect? Did she think Tony raped me and I kicked the hell out of him before dragging him here?

“He didn’t force me into anything!” I was disgusted by what she thought had happened.

“No, I didn’t mean anything like that.”

“You didn’t?” Bewilderment clouded over everything now. Why were they being so secretive and confusing?

“No, I meant was he rougher, was he acting differently than usual?”

“He was a bit less gentle at one point, but he usually treats me like a porcelain doll, so that counts as a normal behaviour to the rest of the world.”

“But it was different for him, right?” I just couldn’t get why she was so persistent. Was she some sort of sick-minded nympho or something? You don’t get a right to ask people questions like this because you are a doctor.

“Yes, but why is this so relevant? Antonio is unconscious upstairs, he needs help, all this talk won’t do any good to Tony!” I sprung to my feet and started walking towards the stairs.

“It is very important, but it will be Antonio’s choice whether to tell you or not why it is so crucial.” She got up and began walking right beside me.

“What do you mean?” Penelope had puzzled me once again.

“You will see later.” Penelope led me into one of the rooms with heavy oak door.

Antonio was lying there, still unconscious. Penelope breathed out, finally showing that she was nervous after all, and walked up to him. She checked his pulse and breathing. With her fingers running over his body, she checked all the joints and made sure nothing is broken or sprained.

“Well, he seems fine... except all those bruises and the fact that he is still unconscious. His temperature is a little high too, but I think I have an idea how we can wake him up.” She smiled in a really weird way, like she was scamming something. She was so beautiful that I felt intimidated with my messy hair and dirty fingernails. “Gabriel, bring a bucket of cold water for me, will you?” Only now I noticed her English accent. Penelope seemed really mysterious to me.

With a name that could have belonged to the Spanish or the Italian, an English accent, however she graduated in Harvard and now ended up unemployed in a middle-sized town in Arizona, the ends just didn’t connect. This family had too many secrets. And at that moment kneeling beside Antonio, lying unconscious on a big, oak-made bed, I swore I would find out what are they hiding.

Gabriel came back with a cup and a bucket of water in about a minute or so.

“You are fast.” Penelope eyed him disapprovingly.

“I went to the bathroom next door.” He explained himself while putting the big bucket down, even though its weight didn’t seem to bother him at all.

“Oh, well, that makes sense” She smiled warmly, but something was seriously strange about this scene.

As it was about the whole family.

Penelope walked up to the bucket and filled the cup. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, maybe her producing a complicated medical device only used by military from her pocket or something but I definitely wasn’t expecting what was next to come. She handed me that cup, still smiling, maybe even bemused.

“Want to do the honours?” I knew my face went blank as she started explaining what the honour was in this case.

“He is most likely still in shock by whatever happened to him and really exhausted too. It seems he is only asleep, not mo-”

“WHAT?!” I interrupted her. My eyes were nearly popping out of my head. “Asleep?” I took a cup from her with my stiff hands, still unable to believe my ears and the fact that I was just told that by a Harvard graduate. I spilled water over Antonio’s face without thinking about soaking all the expensive bedding.

I waited few seconds. Nothing happened. I remember starting to think that they don’t do anything but smoke hash and have sex on football pitches in Harvard med-school when Tony started to stir. I didn’t even notice when Gabriel handed me another cup of water with a warm smile on his face, one full of compassion.

I poured water over his face, this time I went about it slowly, afraid not to mess up everything as I usually do. I didn’t know what got into me but after the water was gone I planted a quick kiss on his lips. Maybe this helped to step back into reality, or maybe not, but he was awake in about a minute or two. However even being awake, he was extremely confused.

“Izzy…” he moaned.

Those cuts had to hurt like hell.

“I’m here, Tony. Can you move?” I understood how stupid I probably sounded only after I said it. “What happened?”

He was coming around quickly now and his speech was clearer and easier to understand.“Can I talk to Gabriel?”

“Sure, I’m right here mate.” Gab stepped forward, towering over me.

“Alone.”

This hit me and hit me hard. After last night I couldn’t believe it, he didn’t trust me to hear whatever happened to him? What was it that Antonio wanted to talk about with Gab and I wasn’t allowed to hear? Before I could protest about this, Penelope guided me out of the room and down the stairs. I just couldn’t oppose her, and I didn’t know why because usually I have no problem with arguing with people.

“Would you like some tea?” This was just too much for me; the whole morning was ridiculous. I burst out into laughter before I could do anything to suppress it. “Does the tea sound so hilarious to you?” Penelope was still being incredulous. She was so serious about what she was saying I couldn’t help but laugh harder. She just sat down, rested her hands in her lap, and waited for me to stop.

“It’s insane, what is this whole thing about? I mean all this show? What are you pretending to be? Adams family gone normal or something? You are acting seriously weird the whole morning and now, what is it that Antonio wanted to talk about to Gabriel? You know what it is, so just spill the beans.” I didn’t have a clue where all this exploded from. I usually was tactic with people older than me, especially parents of my friends.

“Have you heard of stress, Isabel? Well, we have plenty of that in our house even without a beaten up guy in the early morning, so you might excuse us being a little neurotic and over clouding your self importance and the sense of stability.” She didn’t raise her voice, but the words cut through me. When she swiftly tuned around, I didn’t have an idea of arguing it any further. She was right; I was being a selfish bitch again.

About ten minutes, later Antonio walked down the stairs by himself, not even flinching from the pain he must have been in.

“Penelope, could I use your shower?” He was smiling at me, and I couldn’t see him lying in that bed so helpless fifteen minutes ago, except when reminded of this by the dirt and dried out blood on his face.  

“Sure, help yourself.” She was nearly done with the tea and getting some milk from the fridge.

At the corner of my eye, I saw her filling two cups with boiling water over the tealeaves when Antonio engulfed me in a huge hug, giving me a kiss I thought would give me an orgasm.

“Good morning honey. Gabriel told me what you did for me, I can’t thank you enough.” He had his arms around me in a way that he didn’t seem to be letting go soon. All this behaviour almost wiped away my anger.

Almost.

“What was that ‘I want to talk to Gabriel alone’ nonsense?” I did a mock imitation of his voice I knew so well from back in the days when we spent our time slaging each other off. “And you should thank Penelope, not me.”

“Aw… what is the hard shoulder all about?” he seemed so energetic, and so…mocking, he always liked to get a good laugh but he wasn’t like that with me for nearly a year. And why did it start when he should be in agonising pain?

“Hmm... Let’s see, most likely because all the secrets you have been keeping from me?” I shrugged him away. “Go and get a shower.”

“The tea will be waiting.” Penelope smiled.

Antonio looked stumped, but it would take about another ten minutes for my conscience to kick in, so I wasn’t backing out yet. “Just go.”

I turned my back to him and walked over to the marble toped counter to get the cup of tea Penelope just made me. To anyone who knew me, it meant that the conversation was over unless you wanted a good kick in your teeth, and he did know me well enough to walk away.

“You were too hard on him.” Penelope accused me, when we were definitely out of Antonio’s earshot.

“And he is being harsh leading a double life, the next thing I’ll hear will be that he has two kids with some striper from Vegas.” I looked down at my tea, so smug I could barely remember yesterday.

With the nice hot liquid in me I started feeling really warm, especially with that morning sun blazing into my eyes from the windows around us. I took off my jumper and was left with only one sleeveless top on me, when I saw Penelope staring at me like I had acquired a second head in the last two minutes.

“What is it? Are you all right?”

“Izzy, what happened to your shoulder?” Her voice was trembling slightly her eyes open so wide they looked twice the normal size.

I looked to both of my shoulders. One of them had teeth marks on it.