When Lights Collide Chapter 35

“Cara is on her way, let's go prep that soup.” Estelle stated to Daniel as they sat in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

She rose and walked toward the house.  Daniel tipped his chin and smiled as the sun warmed his face.

“I’ve never felt so calm and happy.” he mused to himself as he sighed and prepared himself to follow Estelle into the house.

He was just about to take the steps up into the house when he felt someone close by and stopped to look around, ducking as he did so.

Spinning around, his hands came up, prepared to strike.

“Well, you’re alive after all.” the words came and at once Daniel knew the gravelly voice that spoke them.

“Brutus!” Daniel, shocked at all the feelings that were running through his body, he’d never noticed himself feeling like this around Prez before.  

It was like all of his insides were nervous, and shaking.

Brutus noticed something different about Daniel, but couldn't put words to it, saw Daniel still had his fists clenched and raised, “So, you gonna hit me or what?” he asked with a chuckle.

Daniel looked surprised, then followed Brutus’ line of sight, “Oh,” he chuckled, “you surprised me.”

“Yea, I can see that.  We just had to come make sure you were good, you’ve been gone a while kid.” and moved to man hug Daniel, but something in the way Brutus spoke had Daniel concerned and alert, then he caught it, 

“You said, ‘we’, who’s rolling?” Daniel asked, hoping against, but already knowing that if Prez was rolling out to look for him, that the whole damned club was rolling too.

“Son, you’ve been gone almost a week, we were starting to worry.” Brutus grunted and Daniel knew that Prez was holding back something.  

“Ok, soup is ready and C–” Estelle was making her way out to the back patio when she noticed that Daniel had company.  

She was scanning the new visitor's energy when suddenly, she could hear Cara in her inner mind, “No good, need help, no good.” She kept repeating the same sentences, over and over.

As Estelle snapped back into the moment, she smiled at Daniel and his friend, “Oh, I didn’t realize you had company, shall I grab more soup for your friend?”  She smiled at Daniel, while trying to convey to him through mind that Cara needed help.

“Daniel, Cara needs us.” She wasn’t certain he was getting the messages she was sending, when the visitor suddenly spoke.

“Well, now kid, I can see why you’ve been gone so long, home cooking and a pretty lady.” The visitor smiled at Estelle, and though she could see him trying to play the facade of being greasy and dangerous, she could see right to the heart of this man and knew instantly that he was of no threat to her or to her friends.

“Quite the opposite, in fact” her Guardians whispered.

Estelle’s Guardians were close and whispered, “all safe, get Cara.”

Estelle smiled warmly at the visitor, “Daniel, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Daniel suddenly snapped back into reality at the mention of his name, “Oh, right, sorry, Estelle, this is Pr, I mean Brutus, Brutus, this is Estelle, she’s -”

“She’s Cara’s friend,” Brutus interrupted Daniel as he extended his hand to Estelle.

“It's nice to meet beautiful women.” Brutus smiled, still trying to look all tough and dangerous, but was failing miserably, which made Estelle giggle.

As their hands met in a welcoming shake, Estelle could feel the warm and loving energy of this man, and knew instantly that he was no threat to any of them.  That he just wanted to know his friend was safe, and something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

She also knew, as clear as day, that the tough guy ploy was just that, a ploy.

As she held fast to his hand, Estelle looked Brutus straight in the eyes, “So, you gonna have your boys release my friend?  She’s about to have an anxiety attack and pass out.” She held his hand and his gaze, waiting for him to respond.

Brutus stood looking at her, and Estelle noted that he did not look surprised at her statement, in fact the smile in his eyes grew stronger, deeper somehow.

Daniel, however, looked like a deer in headlights who just clued into the moment.

“Wait, Cara, she’s - what have you done!” He looked at Brutus with such shock and anger  that both Brutus and Estelle broke out into fits of giggles.

Brutus, taking his hand back from Estelle, raised his hands in surrender and chuckled, “nothing kid, she’s fine, I promise, she’s safe!”

“You might know that honey, but I promise you, she doesn't know that, can you have your boys set her free please?”  Estelle asked with a smile upon her face and a wink of her eye.

Daniel was spinning as he looked from Estelle to Brutus and back to Estelle, and she worried for a second that he might give himself whiplash, when Brutus spoke, “Daniel, slow down kid, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”

Suddenly, the world felt like it was coming to a screeching halt, everything in the moment felt frozen and confusing, “Wha -” Daniel tried to speak, cleared his throat and tried again “What is going on? Where is Cara? What are you doing here?” and suddenly, he couldn't stop asking questions, and couldn't seem to stop himself from talking either as panic was setting in as the thoughts of what was happening with Cara raced through his mind.

Brutus shook his head “Son, breathe, take a deep breath, that's it, she's safe,” He looked to Estelle, “she might be a little freaked out, the boys aren't exactly geniuses when it comes to how to surprise a lady, but she is safe.”

Brutus moved toward the corner of the house, looked down the driveway and whistled.

The van door flew open instantly and the boys jumped out bringing Cara with them.  

Brutus instantly saw why Cara had been freaking out, “Are you arseholes kidding me right now?!  Get that damned thing off her head! What were you thinking!” Brutus snapped and hollered so angrily that even Estelle flinched.

She knew he was powerful, but wow, this was unexpected, Estelle mused to herself.

Brutus, hearing Estelle’s mind speak, looked her in the eye, and winked as he stepped around the corner of the house to collect Cara from the band of roving idiots that he affectionately called his boys.

When they finally pulled the hood from her head and he noticed the tape over her mouth, he lost it.

Every inch of his muscle bound body tensed with anger and the urge to beat these boys to within an inch of their lives had never been so strong as he strode over to gently remove Cara from their hands and remove the tape from her mouth.

“We, umm, we thought that we were keeping her til we found Dan-” boy wonder stopped talking when he saw the look in Brutus’s eyes, and then let go of Cara and started walking backward when Daniel rounded the corner and saw Cara, tape over her mouth, eyes wide with sheer terror, and tears running down her cheeks.

He was somewhere between thinking murderous thoughts toward the boys and heartbreak that Cara was experiencing this moment because of him.  He vowed to himself to never leave her side again and that he would protect her forever.

Hearing his own words race through his head, Daniel stopped walking and stood frozen in the driveway, “where the hell did that come from?” he asked himself, then shook his head, trying to clear out such thoughts as he continued toward Cara.

Daniel was opening his arms to hold her when Brutus grabbed his arm, “I’m sorry kid, that wasn't supposed to happen like this.”

Daniel stiffly nodded as he continued toward Cara, wrapping his arms around her and apologizing.

Exiting the van and having the hood removed from her head, Cara could barely breathe, her Guardians were near, she could feel them, but her fear had been too strong for her to hear them.  

Now, as the tape was ripped from her mouth, she was finally able to breath and inhaled deeply.  Cara looked up toward Daniel and saw the look on his face and she knew that something huge was happening, the way he looked at her, she knew that something had changed, she could see it in his eyes and it touched her heart.

She whispered to her Guardians “what is going on?” she asked, while trying to calm herself with each step Daniel took toward her, she knew that whatever happened from this moment forward, she had seen all that she would ever need to know, right there in his eyes.

She could also feel it in her heart, and when he wrapped his arms around her and apologized profusely, she understood.  

As Cara melted into Daniel, relieved to feel safe and grateful to know that she wasn't being kidnapped, she flinched as she wondered if he knew all that she did.

“One step at a time kid.” came an answer, but Cara knew that the voice she had heard was not that of her Guardians, but of someone new.

She looked up at Daniel, wondering if it had been him, but the way he looked back at her, Cara knew that it hadn't been Daniel that mind spoke to her.

She tried to pull back a little to look around for who spoke, but Daniel was not about to let her go, not that easily at least and his arms tightened around her.

So, Cara let him have the moment, she knew he had no clue yet what was going on, and in truth, neither did she really.  

So, she mind spoke in reply “so, who am I talking to and where is Estelle?”

Estelle’s voice flowed to her mind “I am here, and safe, these are Daniel’s friends,”

“Pfft!  Some friends!” Cara spoke aloud, causing Daniel to flinch and apologize,

“Cara, I am so, so sorry, I didn’t know that they would come for you like this….”

Cara lifted her hand and placed her fingers over Daniel’s lips, bringing his words to a stop, “Ssshh, listen.” she whispered to him.

His eyes crunched together as he was trying to understand how she was so calm and smiling. “I thought she’d be ready to kill me” Daniel thought to himself, or so he thought to himself, until Cara started giggling and he could hear other voices as well, but not hear them in his ears, he could hear them in his mind.

Suddenly his eyes wiedened as the voices that were mind-speaking to him became louder and more clear.

Cara, still with her fingers over Daniel’s lips, could hear them in her mind as well, and her giggles soon gave over to a huge smile filled with so much love and happiness, that Daniel thought maybe the events of the day had finally broken her.

“No son, we didn’t break her, we woke you up!” Brutus spoke to Daniel using mind-speak.

Daniel realized that if he was hearing Brutus' mind speak, then Brutus was also able to hear mind speak.

Slack jawed and in shock, Daniel slowly looked over to Brutus and just stared at him as the million questions began to unwind in his mind.

Speaking aloud now, Brutus laughed as he said, “you better slow down kid, you're gonna hurt yourself!” and shook his head as he turned to walk alongside the house to the back yard, leaving Daniel and Cara where they had met in an embrace only moments before.

CLICK HERE for the final chapter and conclusion of When Lights Collide.