Vengeful Seduction

Kaye

Kaye

After the phone call that went unanswered, it was like Theodore gave up. Like he’d been holding on to try to talk to his grandson, and when that didn’t happen, he just stopped wanting to try to live at all.

He lasted one more night, and one more morning. He’d spent the whole of that morning closeted with his lawyer, which only added to the nagging feeling I had about him not caring anymore.

It had all happened too fast for me to believe it was truly a coincidence. The day Theodore had tried to call his grandson, he’d been an old, sick man. The next day, he’d been dying and putting his affairs in order.

The skies were gray when I went to his home that morning. Not a bird chirped, not a butterfly flew, and it had my mind going in a bad direction.

I’d been through this same thing too many times. As if death lingered in the space, waiting to take the sickly person to the other side.

It was both a happy and sad time. Happy because there would be no more suffering. Theodore would finally be at peace. Sad because he would be missed. I already missed him.

Fighting back the tears, I knew I had to be strong. No nurse would sit by their patient’s bedside, weeping as they left this world. We were there to be supportive, to give them help in letting it all go and allowing death to come and take them out of that body that gave them so much pain and anguish. The suffering would be no more, there would only be peace where they were going.

I believed it too. With all of my heart, I did.

I wasn’t a religious person, but I was spiritual. I was a true believer that we all go on. Death isn’t the end of us, only the end of our Earthly body.

With all that faith, it still took a piece of me when my patients left us all behind. Theodore would take more than a piece of me, he’d take a chunk.

I was all the man had. No family would be there to say their goodbyes to him. Only I would be there. Bittersweet though it was, I didn’t know if I was truly prepared for that day.

The door squeaked as I pulled it open. It had never squeaked once since I’d started working there. The house was aware of what was happening. I’d felt it all too often. How the houses would feel when a person passed within their walls. Like a scar, it would permanently affect the home.

I ran my hand over the wall as I walked inside. “You’ll be okay.”

Some people thought I was nuts with how I thought. I didn’t care. I felt it right down to my core. A person leaves their mark on a place. And Theodore had built that home then lived in it for decades. He was a part of that place, and it knew it.

Peeking in on him, I saw his withered body barely breathing as he lay in the hospital bed. The head of it had been inclined to help him breathe. It wasn’t doing much for him. I went to his side and sat silently in the chair next to the bed. I didn’t want to disturb him at all.

Perhaps he was dreaming of his younger days. I’d hate to interrupt that. For a few hours, I just sat by and listened to his slow breathing and stayed quiet, letting him take all the time he needed in peace.

I was there when it happened. He’d called out to me, his voice barely a rasp, “Kaye?” He seemed to have aged ten years and lost twenty pounds overnight, and his skin was pale and loose, his eyes finally losing their sparkle.

I’d taken his hand. “Theodore, I’m here.”

His eyes barely opened as he looked up at me. “Kaye.” For a long time, we stayed like that, him lying in bed and me sitting beside it and holding his hand like I could somehow keep him with me.

“It’s all going to be okay, Theodore.” The urge to cry was always right there, but I held those tears back. I had to stay strong for the man.

He didn’t ask for anything. He was utterly silent until I felt his fingers gripping mine suddenly, frantically. “Tell him I’m sorry.”

Moments later, before I could so much as frame the question to ask who he wanted me to tell that to, he was gone. I didn’t really need to ask, though. There was really only one ‘him’ it could be.

His grandson.

The man who had, less than a day before, rejected the last attempt of a dying old man to reach him.

The whole situation was so terribly sad, so tragic, and tears leaked down my cheeks as I did what I needed to do.

The funeral was a few days after, and I’d dried my tears before then. I didn’t always go to the funerals’ of my clients. Sometimes, I got the sense from the family they didn’t think that would be entirely appropriate. Of course, I would respect their wishes.

In this case, though, the only family was a man I’d never met. A man I wasn’t sure I liked. David Black was not my most favorite person in the world. Though I tried to keep an open mind about most people, in his case, I was willing to make an exception.

What possible excuse could there be for ignoring a man and letting him die alone?

The sadness had been replaced by a fair bit of anger, and I let that energy carry me through what I knew would be a terrible day.

I wasn’t looking forward to the funeral but it was, at least, a chance to say goodbye to someone I had cared for a great deal. The day was overcast, showers seemed sure to happen. Most had umbrellas at their side to make sure their black funeral clothes wouldn’t be ruined by the drops that would surely come from the sky at any moment.

After parking my car, I went inside. It wasn’t a large crowd—I knew it wouldn’t be. Theodore lay in a casket made out of oak. His body was in the spotlight. The knot in my throat grew and I took a seat, crying openly, knowing it didn’t matter anymore.

The people there were mostly old friends of his who didn’t even know who I was. Besides, they were all wrapped up in their own grief.

In the back of the funeral home, I sat and listened as the sad music played, drawing the pain out in us all. Pictures flashed on a white wall of Theodore in his younger days. He was such a handsome young man.

A man spoke to us about life and death and how we all have to meet our maker some day. Honestly, I tried not to listen to the words he said. They just made it all so much harder to take.

I’d never again get to hear Theodore’s voice. I’d never feel the touch of his paper-thin hand. I’d never get to look into those eyes that held an impish twinkle until his heart had taken all it could take.

Flowers and plants littered the floor around his casket. At least the people of Portland knew the value of the man, even if his only relative did not. My heart clenched at that thought.

Heartless bastard.

After the funeral was over I felt drained, exhausted. Like someone had sucked all the emotion out of me entirely. The last thing I wanted to do was go have food and drinks with all the other funeral guests. But I found myself going with the small crowd over to the reception area, across the hallway.

A patio off the reception room had been set up with the buffet. The sky had cleared, amazingly. The sun was out, and fluffy white clouds moved through the sky. It was warm but not too warm. It felt very nice for an early autumn day.

Maybe I would just leave, I thought, as I stood by the buffet table of the catered gathering after the service. I could just leave, and no one would be the wiser.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out,” a voice commented. A voice that gave me the shivers for just a second. It was so familiar I thought it must be Theodore. But of course, I knew it wasn’t. Very slowly, I turned around, fighting off the gooseflesh on my arms.

Low, deep, dominant, very masculine. Theodore’s voice had gotten weaker and quieter as he’d declined, but he’d never lost those qualities. This man had the same ones, only he had energy and strength and youth behind his words, too.

“David.” There wasn’t a trace of doubt in my voice because I felt none. David Black. It had to be. I could tell it by the shape of his eyes, by the slightly sardonic tilt to his full lips.

I could tell that my recognition took him aback. He withdrew a little bit from me, and at that moment, I saw some things I hadn’t expected to see.

First off, the man was handsome. I’d only known Theodore when he was old. But the pictures I’d seen of him proved he’d been a handsome man. David had those same glistening dark blue eyes, with the same subtle sense of humor in them and in his whole expression. He was tall, at least a good half a foot taller than my 5’7”, and his shoulders were broad and strong. His hair was dark and careless, though he was otherwise perfectly put together.

“Excuse me, I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.” He gave me a tight smile, and I felt the urge to take a step or two back. There was something almost feral about the man at that moment, despite how sharply he was dressed.

Without words he asked who I was and what I was doing at his grandfather’s funeral. He must’ve known pretty much everyone else there, since these were friends of Theodore’s who he’d had for years and years, from what I’d picked up from the service.

I crossed my arms over my chest, trying not to get defensive. After all, I had nothing to be ashamed of. Of the two of us, he was the one who should feel defensive.

“Kaye James.” I kept my tone cool, a little bit stern. My ‘nurse voice’ as I liked to call it, the one that every good nurse I’d ever met deliberately cultivated. The one that was meant to let patients know, yes, we were there to help, and it would be best if they went along with what we said.

If he was impressed, he didn’t show it. He just arched one of those dark, winged eyebrows of his, a slight smile tugging up the corners of his lips.

“Kaye James,” he repeated my name and for some reason, that sent the strangest little shivers down my spine. “And how did you know my grandfather?”

Ah! I knew it.

“I was his nurse,” I refused to be charmed by the way he held his hand out to me, offering it in a handshake.

“Well, then. Thank you.” He took my hand in his, and my fingers were dwarfed. He had enormous hands. It was a little intimidating, being around him. He took up a lot of room, and not only physically, either.

It was impossible to be around him and not have my attention focused on him. When he walked into a room, I would bet that all eyes would be on him. Not only that, but I’d bet he’d expect that attention, too.

“David Black,” he finally confirmed what I had already known to be true. Our hands were still linked, and I couldn’t help but feel the handshake had gone on a little bit too long.

“Hello, David.” I looked into those dark eyes and once more I could swear I saw a hint of pain in them. “Theodore spoke of you.”

He wasn’t expecting that, and his gaze sharpened. He looked at me with much more interest, which confused me. The picture I’d built up of this man was that he was utterly uncaring, but I could already tell that wasn’t the case.

How strange. Why had David ignored that phone call? Or all of the ones before, the ones I knew Theodore had made himself before becoming too weak? I could swear he was deeply grieved, and I shook my head slightly.

None of this made any sense.

“Why did you thank me?” I finally broke the silence. It seemed he wasn’t going to be the one to do it. In fact, it seemed he had slipped into a world of his own, barely acknowledging my presence at all.

“For taking care of him.” There was a long silence before he spoke, and for a moment I actually thought he wouldn’t say anything at all. “Excuse me. I see that people are leaving, and I should say goodbye.”

Before I could say anything, he was gone. What was there to say, anyway? My thoughts were far too confused to come up with anything coherent. It was better to just let him go.

I had walked into this room not liking David Black much at all. In less than five minutes, the man blew that out of the water. Though not enough for me to forget entirely how he had treated his own grandfather, but enough to confuse me a little.

He was charming, no doubt about it.

Oh well. I didn’t have such an inflated sense of my own importance that I thought it would matter much to David what I thought of him. Why should it? I would probably never see the guy again.

Remembering his dark, penetrating eyes, his strong body, and his slightly rough, deep voice, I had to think it was probably a good thing, me not ever seeing him again.

He put my thoughts into disarray, and that was after only knowing about his existence for a few days. It was sort of ridiculous, and not particularly like me at all to get this worked up over someone.

It was just his charisma. But with that being said, I decided to execute the better part of valor and take off, still figuring no one would notice if I left.

I was almost right. One person did notice. As I pushed open the door to the funeral home, where the funeral itself and the reception had been held, I looked back just once and noticed a particular pair of dark, thoughtful eyes following me out.

David was frowning as he looked at me, and I told myself quite firmly it was none of my business—none at all—what the man’s deal was. My involvement with the Black family had ended with Theodore’s death.

As the door shut behind me, I really did have the notion I would never see David again. I even thought I might never hear his name again. Why would I? I was hardly involved in the Portland business scene.

There was something unresolved between us that day, but I didn’t acknowledge it to myself. Maybe it was because I was too busy grieving for the patient who had become my friend, but as I walked away I was sure I had closed that particular chapter in my life.

Even so, David Black and his piercing eyes, high cheekbones, and slightly mocking smirk haunted me. I tried not to acknowledge it even to myself, but they did.