79
“Nate? Can you hear me?”
His eyelids fluttered open. His eyes stung and water seeped from the edges.
There was an excited gasp beside him. Suddenly soft hands were cradling his face. At first, he couldn’t see but when he blinked rapidly and the blur cleared he saw Rachel’s tear-streaked face. She was crying and laughing.
“You are alive,” she laughed, kissing his face and hair and his nose and cheeks. He groaned. His skin burned and his chest felt tight. He remembered coughing up smoke and being dragged out of the fire. He remembered Mabel hanging limp in his hands. But what he worried about the most was Rachel’s safety. His hand, though heavy as lead, came up to cradle her face. She kissed his palm and cried.
“Are you okay?” he croaked. “Are you hurt? The baby?"
She shook her head violently. “No I am fine, we are fine. You saved me remember?”
He remembered pushing her outside the burning house. He opened his mouth to speak again but could only cough some more. Rachel left his side to pour some water into a glass which she held to his lips. He rose on his elbows to drink and saw Tshepo standing by the window, a rapturous look on his face.
“I’m guessing every time some time something happens to me you will be there to watch over me?”
“You shouldn’t be talking now,” Tshepo admonished him. “This time was worse, if Rachel hadn’t called the neighbors to get you out of that fire we would be standing over your dead body in a church.”
He tried to laugh but he could only cough some more. Rachel held his face in her hands and helped him drink the water. His throat was so parched that he sucked it hungrily. When he was satisfied he sighed and leaned back breathing heavily. It was then he noticed they were in his home. He frowned.
“Why didn’t you take me to the hospital?”
“Because I cannot risk your life again. Do you know how much worse it was this time?” Tshepo approached the bed and Nate could see his friend’s eye was red with fury. “How do you think he found you this time?”
“You think it’s Jacob?”
“It is Jacob and if you think otherwise you are even more stupid than I thought you were.”
Rachel stared in awe at the man. He was the only one she knew who could talk to Nate the way he did without fear of having his head cut off his neck. He was almost like an overbearing older brother and he reminded her of Mabel.
Nate sighed and say straighter in the bed. “I should have listened to you. If I hadn’t gone there this would not have happened.”
Tshepo released a sigh and his shoulder sagged. “No, I think Jacob would have attacked then either way, it was just a bonus that you were there when he set the house on fire.”
“Or maybe he followed me from Gem Hills?”
“That would have been plausible if I didn’t have my men tailing you. It didn’t look like he was. In any case, Gem Hills is no longer safe for you, you have to leave.”
“I don’t have to do anything, Tshepo,” Nate responded. He was too tired to even speak but he wasn’t about to pack up and run because a man like Jacob was after him. He looked at Rachel. Her eyes were filled with worry. There was no one else in the room. “Where is Mabel?”
“She is stable. Unfortunately, you both inhaled a lot of smoke, it’s a surprise your lungs weren’t fried by the time you were pulled out.”
Nate agreed that he was lucky. He could have easily been trapped inside the house and burned to death. How many more attempts to his life before Jacob walked up to him to shoot him in the face? He had to do something.
“What do you think I should do? Running is out of options and so is staying away from Rachel, I can’t stay away from her especially now that Jacob knows she’s alive.”
“Your only other option is to stay dead and give Jacob access to the inheritance and that is not possible either so we are at crossroads here. And worst of all, my superiors want me to stop chasing this case. I wonder who among Jacob’s friends got to them. It doesn’t matter that you are Nathaniel Madden and that you contributed to the growth of this country, as long as some secrets are threatened they can get rid of you just to keep those so-called secrets.”
Nate felt Rachel’s hand in his and he looked at her. “I am sorry it has been this difficult around me. I wish I wouldn’t put you through this all over again.”
She squeezed tighter. “I don’t care. We can defeat Jacob, I know we can.”
“Mrs. Rivers…”
“Miss Rivers.”
“Miss Rivers,” Tshepo sighed. “Will you be willing to leave Gem Hills for now until all this is over?”
“Where will I go? I can’t go back to Ermernia, Jacob knows I might go back there to hide and I have nowhere else to turn to.”
“Gabore.”
Nate frowned. “We cannot go there…”
“That’s the only place I know Jacob cannot find you. You can lay low there until I put an end to all these.”
“Tshepo I left Gabore for a reason…”
“Now you have another reason to go back. I’ll get the flight ready and secure and as soon as you are well enough again you will leave.” Tshepo stopped talking and came to sit on the bed with Nate and Rachel. “This is not a matter of what you want to do, it is what you have to do. You have to protect yourself to prevent Jacob from killing you and taking what belongs to you. Besides, it’s the perfect hideout from the media.”
“The media?”
“Apparently, the neighbors who saved you recognized you and couldn’t keep to themselves that they saved Nathaniel Madden from a burning fire. So far they have sent your pictures to news houses and there are speculations about the fire and your involvement with Rachel all over again.”
“I can’t seem to escape them can I?” Nate said regretfully.
“Neither can I, it seems,” Rachel concurred, giving him a small smile. “We are two peas in a pod aren’t we?”
He smiled at her. “I am so sorry to put you through this again.”
She shook her head. “Let’s end this game with Jacob first, we can apologize later.” She looked at Tshepo and then back at Nate. “I’ll leave you two now, I need to check on my sister.”
As soon as she went out of the room Nate threw the covers off him and tried to stand up. His body hurt so bad, his skin still stung from the heat of the fire. Tshepo held him still with a warning look. “I know you’re angry but you need to calm down.”
“Can we not pay Jacob off?”
“He doesn’t want to be paid off, he wants to own everything you have. If he could have Rachel too that’s a plus but Rachel doesn’t want him back so he would kill you and her together. I think he is frustrated that his plans to defame you and her support on his side with that botched assassination didn’t work. Maybe that’s why he set the fire.”
“But Gabore…”
“I know that place holds gruesome memories for you but you have to do this for yourself, for Rachel for the baby if you hope to start a family. You can oversee your business from there and you don’t even have to stay in the mansion. You could rent a hotel. It’s just for a short while.”
Nate reluctantly agreed that Tshepo had a point. There was no way around it again. Gabore was the only choice he had, his only plan of escape.
