Chapter 13
Daniel
Daniel stared down at her dry underwear. She was late. She was never late. “Oh fuck me, this is bad.”
She didn’t even feel like she was about to get her period. There was none of the usual twinges or dabs of brown discharge. She scanned her body for signs of abnormality and instantly she felt nauseous, her breasts heavy and sore.
Relax, she told herself. It’s just psychosomatic boob pain, you’re not really…
Daniel couldn’t even think the word. Babies were something that happened to other people. Married people. Adults. The fact that she could get pregnant had never been more than a mildly gross possibility. And yet here she was, late and her copper IUD’s .01 percent fail rate felt like a gaping chasm.
Excitement rippled across her skin, her body’s twisted interpretation of nerves. If she was pregnant…Oh god if she was pregnant…She stood up and flushed the toilet. Blind speculation was not doing her any good. She needed to take a test and for that, she would have to contact one of the men who’d been resolutely ignoring her for days. She’d thought the guys might be slightly empathetic about her not-so-great escape but it turned out they cared a lot more about making a fat paycheck off of violating her human rights. John was also mad at her for kissing him, which was a stupid thing to have done in all fairness and Seb was angry she’d used his lanyard to open the door. He’d quickly pieced together that she’d stolen it from him as he bandaged her self-inflicted wound.
“I’m sorry!” she said as he escorted her to her bedroom. “But every prisoner wants their freedom, Boy Scout, it wasn’t personal.”
He ignored her, locking her in her bedroom where she’d stayed until Middlebend replaced the keypads at the front door with fingerprint scanners. For some bizarre reason her evil overlords left the intercoms intact but none of the boys would talk to her, at least they hadn’t until now.
Daniel marched into the kitchen and pressed the intercom button. “Hello?”
There was no response but she could hear the unmistakable sound of Colt chewing. That was good. Between the kiss and the lanyard, neither John nor Seb would piss on her if she were on fire.
“Hey, Tarzan, can we talk? I need something paramount to my survival.”
More chewing.
“C’mon, man, I can hear you chomping like a fucking stegosaurus up there.”
A growl. She was getting closer. Daniel drew a deep calming breath. “Colt, I’m begging you. Please help me?”
Silence. She was going to have to go negative. “If you don’t talk to me I’m going to stand next to this intercom and sing ‘Catch a Falling Star’ until my throat gives out.”
No response. Daniel cleared her throat. “Just remember you asked for this. Catch a falling star and put it—”
The intercom crackled. “Christ, woman, what do you want?”
“Oh thank God.” Daniel grew almost dizzy with relief. “Dude, I’m late.”
“Late for what?”
“The miracle that is my uterus shedding its walls.”
“Huh?”
“My period. My period’s late.”
There was a rumpling noise, like Colt was balling up an empty chip packet. “So?”
Daniel closed her eyes, resenting how easy men’s lives were. “So, do you know what one of the leading causes of period lateness is, butthole?”
“Fuck.” Colt’s tough guy act melted away at once. “Is that why you were trashing the bathrooms? You were looking for a test?”
“Yeah but there are none, can you please get me one? Or nine? I would feel a lot better if I could pee on nine.”
Colt hesitated. “I would, I swear but I’m the only one here right now.”
“Seriously?” After her near escape, Daniel assumed Middlebend had doubled her security, maybe brought in some new guys.
“Yeah, just me. John’s surfing and Seb’s at the doctors. You’ll have to wait for them to get back.”
The thought of having to wait even a moment longer filled Daniel with fizzing panic. “No! I have to know now.”
A spiral chair rolled across the floor of whatever room Colt was sitting in. “There’s a drug store down the corner…but I shouldn’t, especially after what you pulled on Saturday.”
Daniel ground her teeth together. “I’m sorry I tried to run, as all captives are wont to do but i have an IUD! Do you know when you have an IUD the fetus can latch outside of the uterus and grow there and basically burst through your stomach like Alien?”
Colt made a sound that implied he had just found a short, curly hair in his piece of cheesecake.
“Exactly. Now will you please go get a test?”
A loud sigh. “Daniel, I can’t just leave you alone here.”
“Do you want me to promise not to leave? Because I will.” She pressed a hand to her heart, or the boob over her heart. “I, Daniel Esther Schwartz, swear on my parents’ graves that I will not, under pain of death, attempt to escape while you are helping me figure out if I’m carrying a bastard child of some random from continental Europe.”
There was a short pause. “Your parents are dead?”
“Yes they died when I was eleven. Colt, please?”
Daniel heard a rustle of material and the glorious rattle of keys. “I’ll be back in five. Sit tight.”
She punched the air. “Thank you so much.”
“Thank me when I’m back. That way I’ll know you’re still here.”
The next five minutes were the longest of Daniel’s life. She stood in the kitchen chugging tea cooled with cold water to provide adequate liquid with which to take pregnancy tests. When she was waterlogged she paced over to the fridge seized a black marker and began to write on the whiteboard reserved for shopping lists.
Dear (Insert Name),
This is Daniel Schwartz, you may remember me from that time we had sexual intercourse. Despite the best birth control medical science can provide I am pregnant. There is a one in (Insert Estimate) chance you are the father. Congrats, because you obviously have super sperm. I will keep you posted as things progress. Also I’m being held against my will in Santa Monica. Help.
Love,
Whatever name I gave you (Insert Picture).
When the front door banged open she ran to meet Colt. “You’re here!”
“Yup.” He held up a stuffed plastic bag. “I got ‘em!”
Panic-stricken or not Daniel could not help but admire how handsome he was, all heavy muscled and square-jawed, his massive lumberjack chest making the hallway appear almost normal sized. “That was fast.”
“I’m a man of my word.” Colt handed her the bag. His longish hair was tousled and he sounded breathless, as though he’d sprinted all the way to the shops and back. “I couldn’t tell which ones worked the best so I got five different tests. Also apple juice, in case you need to pee more.”
“Handy,” she said, impressed. She reached into a bag and pulled out Toblerone as big as her arm. “What’s this for?”
To her infinite delight, Colt’s cheeks went ruddy beneath his short beard. “I, uh, they were right near the counter and my sisters always…anyway you don’t need to eat it. I’ll take it if you don’t want it.”
Her delight intensified. “You have sisters?”
“Yeah, three. Two older, one younger.”
Daniel tried to picture the big handsome man in front of her growing up in a house full of women. It made a surprising amount of sense. He had the lazy confidence of a man who grew up without brothers to conquer or be conquered by.
“Do you guys get along?” she asked, thinking of her tumultuous relationship with Melody.
“Yeah we’re really close. They taught me everything I know about women.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”
“Well not sex stuff. Obviously.”
She laughed, the warmth in her torso intensifying, spreading to her face and lady zones. Maybe it was her hormones, maybe it was pent-up nerves, but she was so fucking glad he was here, a big old wall of relaxed, physically reassuring human male. “Thanks for helping me.”
“No problem.” Colt took an uneasy step backward. “S’pose I should give you some privacy?”
“No!” Daniel almost shouted. “I mean, can you stay? If they come back positive I’ll probably try and burn the house down in protest.”
“Well we wouldn’t want that.” Colt gestured to the bag. “Want me to grab the…”
“Oh yeah.” She fished out the tests handing over the rest. Truthfully, she wanted to eat the chocolate while she took the tests but she didn’t want to gross Colt out. He might be a cog in the fascist machine keeping her imprisoned but she was still very open to sleeping with him. “Wish me luck Tarzan.”
“Good luck,” he said solemnly.
Daniel sat down on the toilet nearest to the kitchen and tore into the pregnancy tests like a rabid wolf. Her hands shook as she fanned out the sticks and placed them under where she assumed her pee-hole to be. “Fuck me, this is intense.”
Heavy footsteps approached the door. “You okay in there?”
“Sort of.” Her voice was two times higher than usual.
“Well I’m right here if you need me.”
Daniel choked out a laugh. “That’s super considerate but could you maybe not be right here? I know you watch me do everything else but can we can at least try and keep the toilet mystery alive?”
“Right, yeah, sure.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, now…Cowabunga.”
She peed, somehow avoiding her fingers then set the tests on the floor like dominoes. Within seconds a single pink line appeared, acknowledging that she had in fact soaked them with her urine.
“Stay single,” she whispered. “Please stay single.”
Seconds ticked by, then a minute. At two minutes hope kindled in the pit of her belly. At three her heart began to swell. At four she bit her bottom lip and when the five full minutes were up she gave herself permission to smile. “Colt?”
“Yeah?” he said, sounding as nervous as if he was one of the potential daddy candidates.
“I’m not pregnant!”
He whooped. “Nice work!”
Daniel laughed; incredibly, breathlessly relieves. She deposited the despoiled pregnancy tests in the sanitary bin and emerged from the toilet victorious. “All good,” she told Colt, patting her belly. “Nothin’ but carbs in here.”
Colt pushed off the wall as though he was going to hug her, then he let his body fall back again.
“I should go. We’re supposed to be making you feel bad with silence.”
Daniel smiled. “Oh it’s totally working. But since I’m not pregnant and I have a Toblerone maybe we could take a break from that and have a celebratory coffee instead?”
Colt didn’t even hesitate. “Sure.”
He followed her back to the kitchen where she turned on the espresso machine that was her favorite thing in the entire mansion. Aside from the pulsating showerheads. “Latte okay?”
“Sure, whatever you’re having.” Colt reached for the Toblerone. “Mind if I open this?”
“You’re my savior, open and consume what you will.”
Colt grinned and tore open the chocolate bar with the same urgency she’s used tearing into her pregnancy tests. “I love this shit.”
“I can see that. Can you please grab me the milk?”
“Sure.” He crammed an entire chocolate triangle into his mouth and moved toward the fridge. He collected the milk then paused as the door slammed shut. “Is this a baby daddy template?”
Oof, she had forgotten about that. “Yeah it is.”
Colt chewed slowly, as though digesting the news along with the chocolate. “Been busy, huh?”
“I was in Europe,” she said shooting him a defiant smile. “I’m very popular there.”
Daniel knew most men did not like, or respect girls who slept around, especially good looking Alpha types like Colt. She had no regrets about her past but it sucked this insanely hot guy was probably dismissing her as a skank even as she made him a coffee.
I might as well have eaten that Toblerone on the toilet, she thought, collecting two latte glasses from a black lacquered cupboard and placing them under the coffee machine.
Then miracle of all miracles happened; Colt gave her a slow sticky smile and said “Girl like you? I bet you’re popular everywhere.”
The flesh between Daniel’s legs squeezed tight. His words were lovely but that smile…That smile was an offer to match and exceed any man who had come before him.
“Do you have a partner?” she asked, fanning the flames.
Colt shook his head slowly, still flashing her a lady-killer grin. “What about you? You got a boy waiting for you on one of those Grassroots communes?”
A boy, Daniel thought, scanning Colt’s broad shoulders. As opposed to a man is what he’s saying. “Not as such.”
“That’s a politician’s answer. C’mon, you got a boyfriend or not?”
Daniel turned around and began hunting for clean latte glasses. “I’ve never had a boyfriend.”
Colt’s lips parted slightly. “You, what?”
“I’ve never had a boyfriend,” Daniel repeated, pressing the espresso button.
“Not even in high school?”
“I went to an all-girl Catholic boarding school.”
Colt eyes glazed slightly. “Really?”
Daniel knew his brain was teeming with fantasies of girls in plaid skirts practicing kissing, which wasn’t far from her boarding school experience in fairness, though as she’d told the girl in London, she wasn’t gay enough to have enjoyed it properly. “Really, really. Can I please have the milk?”
Colt handed her the carton. “So there were no boys around you at all? ’Cause my buddies and me used to go out of our way to hit on the girls from Notre Dame.”
Daniel smiled at the thought of a teenage Colt chatting up schoolgirls. “Not a huge amount and you’re assuming I was the same beautiful flower back then as I am now.”
“You weren’t?” Colt asked, gnawing at another wedge of Toblerone directly from the block.
“I was a big-haired, big-mouthed, pain in the arse, and a nerd of the highest caliber. Guys my age could smell the weird on me from a mile away. Plus, if you think my social skills are lacking now…”
She whistled.
“How bad could it have been?” Colt said, thickly spraying flecks of chocolate across the black marble counter.
“You want examples?” Daniel dredged through her memory for the worst specimens she could present. “So when I was sixteen I had this beautiful English teacher. Just the best-looking guy you’ve ever seen. He shouldn’t have been allowed to work at a girls’ school.”
“Right,” Colt said.
Daniel noted his mouth had thinned and felt an evil little thrill run through her. “I’d just finished reading Jane Eyre and I thought ‘hey wait a sec I’m a teenage orphan; Mr Wells is an attractive older gentleman whose wife is no longer in the picture. What could go wrong?’”
Colt snorted. “Aside from everything?”
“Yeah pretty much. I went up to him after class one day and asked, with an entirely straight face by the way, if he would take my virginity.”
Colt laughed so violently he sprayed chunks of Toblerone across the table. “He didn’t I’m guessing?”
“No one did,” Daniel said, pouring the milk into the silver steaming jug. “I was a virgin until uni. I couldn’t give it away.”
“I would have definitely volunteered.”
“Naww thanks, man.” Daniel flicked on the milk steamer and hot hisses of water began spraying out. “Just out of curiosity, how old were you in 2006, the year in which I was sixteen?”
Colt went pale. “Okay, I never would have come near you.”
Daniel laughed as she placed the milk jug beneath the billows of steam the machine was producing. “You and Mr. Wells both, even though I told him I was over the age of consent.”
Colt looked like he was about to say something then shook his head as though he thought better of it. “So why no boyfriends when you were older?”
“I was always busy traveling for work plus, like I said, I’m kind of weird.”
“No you’re not,” Colt said with the automatic dismissal of a friend.
“I’m flattered Colt but you’ve seen me yeah? I never sleep, I barely eat, I don’t really feel normal emotions and I’m generally just pretty fucking weird.”
Colt frowned. “Why is that? I mean, John said you have a brain thing but that just sounds like you’ve got a tumor.”
The milk in her jug had grown high and fluffy and Daniel turned off the steam, bashing the jug down on the counter to get rid of the microbubbles. “It’s a chemical thing. It’s like…have you ever taken MDMA?”
Colt looked down at his hands.
“That’s a big fucking yes, Mr. The Government Says It’s Illegal.”
He gave her a sly smile. “Keep it under your hat?”
Daniel laughed and gestured around the house. “Who am I gonna tell?”
Colt’s smile faded and she knew he was thinking about their prescribed roles within Castle by the Sea, perhaps wondering if he should even be here at all.
“Anyway,” she said quickly. “You know when you take molly and you suddenly have all this energy? And whenever you try to feel sad or pissed off the thought is just kind of…bounced back?”
Colt nodded.
“That’s how I feel all the time.”
“For free.” Colt looked impressed. “So you’re never sad?”
Daniel paused, memories of Cynthia flooding through her. “I feel things, sometimes…but they’re very far away. It doesn’t really…touch me. If that makes sense.”
Colt’s expression said it didn’t but he smiled at her all the same. “Must come in handy. Still, don’t you ever crash?”
“No, that’s the mystery of it all. My body just keeps creating these insanely high levels of hormones unless…” She sucked her lips into her mouth realizing how stupid it would be to talk about her biological weaknesses in front of about a million fucking cameras. For a moment, she wondered if Colt had come down here on purpose, but the flush on his cheeks and his own nervy look at the camera told her he’d forgotten the status of their situation too. In need of distraction, she began pouring the warm, foamy milk into the latte glasses, making a fern pattern well on top in a silent tribute to her homeland.
“I wanted to ask you something,” Colt said unexpectedly. “But it’s a little inappropriate.”
“More inappropriate than me sending you out for pregnancy tests?”
“Good point.” He broke off another wedge of Toblerone and held it up like a judge’s gavel. “Why’d you kiss John?”
Daniel felt her stomach bottom out. “He uh, told you about that?”
“He didn’t want to, but he had to write it up in our incident report book.”
“That must have been weird.” Daniel assumed a deep male voice. “‘Captain’s log, stardate 6796.5. Was kissed by captive today. No tongue.’”
Colt rolled his eyes. “Come on, were you just messing with him, or was it something else?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel handed him his coffee, which he took but didn’t drink. “Come on, Schwartz, I risked my job to get you pee sticks.”
“I thought that was a noble gesture.”
“It was. But also I’m curious and…” He glanced up at the cameras. “Slightly worried about John. He’s been sulking around for days. I’m worried you might have traumatized him or something.”
“What!” Daniel exclaimed, almost dropping her coffee. “Haven’t you guys fought in actual wars?”
“Well, yeah, but John’s strange about people touching him and if you kissed him as a joke or without him wanting it…”
“Hey!” she said indignantly. “I’m not some kind of kiss rapist.”
“Then why’d you do it?” Colt shot back.
Daniel sighed knowing it would be easier just to tell the truth. “He had a boner.”
“He what?”
“He had a boner, while he was carrying me. I felt it against my leg.”
Colt’s mouth fell open. “He had a hard on? Like an erection?”
“Does boner mean something different in America?”
“And you’re sure?”
Daniel groaned. “I’m not a nerd virgin anymore, Stone, I know what erections feel like.”
“Right. Okay, so John had a hard on while carrying you, so you just…made a move?”
“Yeah, I thought he’d be into it.” Turned out he was remarkably not into it. He had spat on the sand and snarled ‘keep your filthy mouth away from me.’ Rejection didn’t come any more neatly packaged than that.
Colt gaped at her. “I don’t know if you’re the ballsiest woman on earth or just plain crazy.”
“Dead Eyes isn’t that scary.”
Colt pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m scared of that motherfucker when he’s angry and he just caught you escaping. He must have been fucking fuming.”
Daniel recalled the feral look on John’s face as he sprinted, leopard-like toward her. “He was.”
“So why’d you make a move?”
Because he’s got cult-leader eyes so beautiful they could drive a spinster to spontaneous orgasm? Because he smells like sweat and soap and fresh tobacco? Because I like the way he calls me ‘Schwartz’ and his lip curls when he’s trying not to laugh at my jokes? Because when we met I felt something I’ve never felt before and I was willing to write it off as a one-sided attraction but then I touched his hard cock and I, like the nong I am, thought it meant he wanted me back.
“It was a dumb impulsive thing,” she said flatly. “I shouldn’t have done it. I know the guy hates me.”
Colt picked up his coffee, making the glass look tiny by comparison. “He doesn’t. He’s just never been good around girls like you.”
“Weird ones?”
“Smart, intimidating, beautiful girls.”
Daniel looked down at her cup, her insides humming. “You’re quite the charmer Tarzan.”
“Nope,” Colt said easily. “Just telling the truth.”
“Colt, get back up here.” John’s voice, cold as an icy fist to the tits suddenly filled the room causing Colt and Daniel to slop their coffee onto the counter.
“Shit.” Colt glanced wildly at the cameras. “I’ve gotta…I’d better…”
“Yeah go,” Daniel agreed. “Thanks for everything.”
He flashed her a quick smile, already on his feet and moving towards the door. “Anytime. Congrats on not being pregnant.”
Daniel watched as her brief companion legged it out of the room as fast as he could. It was hard to believe ten minutes ago she had been blissfully happy about not being knocked up. Now she just felt kind of empty.