24. Laszlo
In all my years in Arkham, I’d never been to the farmer’s market. It wasn’t my scene.
That was obvious by looking at me.
I wasn’t some hacker living in my parent’s basement, but I copped some of their aesthetic. Techwear was convenient, adaptable. It served as a good basis for what I wore, but I liked some more refinement.
I made them my own.
Maybe my parents’ aristocratic tastes had rubbed off on me more than I cared to admit.
Moving through the crowds, we were an attraction. I was dressed in a long coat that was too heavy for the sudden summer weather. Lyn’s white peasant top was paired with a long, blue maxi-skirt. Her neck looked naked, and I once more cursed myself for being unable to find her necklace.
Lyn’s knee-length hair was a subject of constant compliments. “Oh my Gosh, you are too kind!” she’d say each time, before following it up with a genuine compliment of her own.
My arm wrapped around her shoulder, and her effervescent smile was contagious.
She squeezed my hand, dragging me from one booth to the next, and as the warm sun cut through the clinging fog, I felt almost normal.
This was how things were supposed to be with a woman like her.
“Oh wow, look at that necklace. I don’t know how they can afford to sell it for that. The materials alone…” The pink and black pendant was definitely a draw, despite the price next to it being in the box-store-plastic range.
“This is Rhodonite, isn’t it?” Lyn was so excited she bounced away from our conversation to draw in the sales person.
“Locally sourced. My grandmother has been making them since the 70s, and all her friends have had to beg her to stop giving them out as gifts.” The two women shared a laugh, and I subtly caught the vendor’s gaze, signalling for her to put it aside for me.
“Have you ever had funnel cake?” Lyn asked. I shook my head, and she grinned.
“Me neither! We should try it together.”
All around us was noise. I tried to let my guard drop, but it was next to impossible. My paranoia was at war with wanting to give her a nice day. The kind of day she deserved.
Buskers played music, juggled, danced.
Everywhere I looked was a potential threat.
I focused my gaze on her.
The rest of the world disappeared as Lyn bought us a funnel cake to share. It was deep fried and heaped with cream and fresh strawberries.
“Okay, why is this street food?” she asked, trying to take a bite without making a mess of herself.
I tore off a piece, bringing it to her lips, and when she took it, it was with a kiss.
She smiled, a dollop of cream clinging to her mouth.
I brought my thumb to it, wiping it away, and her lips wrapped around my thumb.
“You have an oral fixation, don’t you, angel?”
She tilted her head in the most adorable fashion.
“What’s that?”
I grinned broader. “I’ll show you later.”
Her eyes flashed with mischief.
The earth stood still as we were locked in that moment, reclaiming it from the past. Her tongue swept along my thumbprint, and a growl rumbled in my throat.
“Your hair! It’s so long!” a woman next to us said, intruding upon our shared reverie.
Lyn smiled at her, carefree, as she pushed her back into my front. My free arm wrapped around her waist, the other holding the paper plate above her head.
“Oh my Gosh, thank you. I love your dress!”
The rest of the funnel cake was discarded—too sweet, according to her—and we moved on to the next booth. This one was heaped with wicker baskets filled with asparagus, lettuce, and onions.
I always had issues with eating. That was one reason my fridge was barren before her.
The way Lyn talked about the meal she was determined to cook for me was endearing, but the idea of someone watching me eat made me uneasy.
I devoured the pot pie she made me, but that was in private. Thinking of it made my stomach growl. It had been flaky and rich and delicious, comforting in a way I rarely found food to be.
“We should get the farmer’s box, what do you think? I can make tons of stuff with it, and then we’ll have proper meals for a week.” She smiled up at me with such affection that it made my heart ache.
“Of course. You’re the chef.” I grabbed a pinch of bills out of my pocket and handed them to her. “Get whatever you need.”
She laughed, leaning up and giving me an easy kiss.
Her affection was bubbling over, those touches becoming more familiar.
Every time, my heart hammered in my chest. I pulled her into my arms, spinning her around.
Her blonde hair caught the sunlight. It was down to her knees, giving her the appearance of a cartoon princess, and it floated in the surrounding air.
It had been such a miserable spring, and seeing her for the first time in bright, natural light was stunning. She was even more beautiful than I’d first thought, staring up at the angel witnessing my crime.
Her skin was warm and peachy, her blue eyes striking, those freckles absolutely devastating.
I set her down, and she lingered close to me before returning to her shopping.
Watching her flit around the farmer’s market, so joyful and charming, was entrancing, but it stung. I couldn’t give her the life she deserved. Even at the best of times, I was known as brooding.
“There, that should be good for a week,” she said, and I picked up the box of fresh veggies. “Would you bring these to the car while I check out that stand over there?” She pointed to a little tent with some fresh flowers.
It was a farmer’s market. There were hundreds of people out enjoying the first nice day after weeks of drizzle. I tried to reason with my paranoia.
Her new guards were hidden in the crowd. She hadn’t noticed them, but I’d contacted them after the job with Gorky to get them on her detail immediately. If I was to drag her into my world, I wouldn’t let her be unprotected.
It was safe to leave her for a few moments.
Besides, I had been looking for an excuse to buy her that necklace as a surprise. It wouldn’t be a replacement for the one she lost, but maybe it could help.
“I’ll be right back.”
Purchasing the necklace, I tucked it in with the veggies before toting it back to the car.
Was this how normal people lived? Was this what a normal life was like? Enjoying the sunshine after months of dreary fog, buying vegetables and little gifts for the one you cared about?
It was unsettling, like I was wearing someone else’s skin.
No, what unsettled me was how much I longed for it to be mine. I’d been holding onto this hurt, this pain, since I was a child. I didn’t know who I was without it.
The moments I spent teaching Lyn to drive or watching her draw were like looking through a magical portal into what could have been mine if my soul hadn’t shattered.
The chasm between what I wanted and what I could have was wider than I ever imagined, because I couldn’t have imagined her.
“Stop! Don’t touch me!” Lyn’s voice cried out, filled with terror.
My long legs carried me through the crowd, and I scanned over the heads until I found hers. Blonde hair spun in the air, her skin burning red. There was a thud, and my heart jumped into my throat. Aleksei and Ilya stood in front of her, then bent down.
Almost there. I pushed a few people out of the way, a circle growing around her, filled with curious onlookers, phones perched up in the recording position.
“Move,” I said to a man beside me, and he shouldered into me, pushing me off balance.
“Angel!” I cried as I surged forward, only to find her panting over the prone body of the man, her taser in hand, her thumb still sending that jolt of electricity between the prongs. Her bodyguards were hoisting him up, holding the large man between them.
He was around the same age as me, with a farmer’s build and bright blue eyes as wide as saucers. They were just like Lyn’s. His auburn hair must be from his father’s side of the family.
My hand slid against hers, softening her grip until she released the button. Tears ran down her flushed cheeks, and I wiped one away with my thumb. How many times would I see her cry? She stared at the man, who was groaning in pain, but her eyes were unfocussed.
“Follow my breathing,” I said, and I began guiding her in long inhales and slow exhales, until finally her eyes focused and found mine.
“Laszlo…”
I nodded, leaning in and kissing her forehead. “Stay with me. You’re okay now.”
The crowd watched, curious what would happen next. I wasn’t intending on making it memorable. Scrubbing a viral video off the web was a game of wack-a-mole I’d rather not play.
“Come on, let’s go.” I gave the brothers a subtle motion, and they released the man onto his shaky feet. “Take her to the car.”
She was too shocked to resist and walked away with her guards flanking her.
This was a threat I needed to deal with in private. The man was working alone, in front of a booth promising fresh, organic goat milk. Some bottles had been knocked over, as if he jumped the booth carelessly.
The crowd lost interest and though they murmured among themselves, phones were no longer at the ready. I wouldn’t do anything to draw their attention back. Instead, I stared the man down, my words seethed through grit teeth.
“Henry, I presume?” The man who loathed Lyn, who wanted her for nothing more than to be bred like livestock. My rage was barely restrained, despite my decades of practice at shoving all those emotions down.
He narrowed his eyes, his lips tightened as he stared back at me. The jolt had knocked him off kilter, but he was itching for a fight. I wasn’t the type that fought fair, though, and I’d rather not have to shank a man in the belly in broad daylight.
“Well, Henry, you’re too late. Evelyn is mine. She is safe, and cared for.” The words spilled out of me, premature but filled with sincerity.
Anger flashed on his face, but he was still dazed from the electricity.
“Father… Father will hear of this!”
“Oh, I want you to tell your father that his child is married. He’s not getting her back. If I see any of you following my wife again, or trying to contact her, I will pluck out your eyeballs and feast on them.”
It was a lie, but he seemed to believe me. The farmer’s market was too busy for me to do what I wanted to do. The thing that would keep her safe from him forever. But I’d make sure they never bothered her again.
The night Lyn had run from the club, I’d checked the dashcam and seen it was an old truck. I knew it wasn’t Jimmy, but there were no plates, and the database didn’t have anything for the make and model, so it was unregistered.
It didn’t take me long to find it in the parking lot, the truck-bed retrofitted with a refrigeration unit with the same bottles of goat milk. I slapped a tracker on the bottom and set up an alert. If it was ever anywhere near Arkham again, it would be the last time.
I’d convinced myself that I was too much of a threat to be around her, but I was blinded to who she actually was. She was stronger than me. Her childhood had fractured her, but mine had broken me. She still had hope, and all I had was vengeance.
I had to protect her from those that still threatened her.
On my way back to the car, I stalked through the farmer’s market, finding the woman with the jewellery. I bought two plain gold bands, and had her give me a little pink box for one of them, taking it into my clammy hand.
Lyn had been so sheltered, her world made small. I thought of all the things she’d never gotten to experience. Driving, visiting her grandmother’s grave, seeing the ocean, flying in a plane, even something as simple as a funnel cake, all because of the monsters in her past.
Sending her to Idaho wouldn’t be enough to safeguard her against the cult finding her and forcing her into an arranged marriage with a monster.
My world was dangerous, but so was hers.
The only way to protect her was to keep her close to me.
Closer than I ever dreamed I’d let someone become.
She had to become my wife.