The Paper Swan(29)

My rescue was almost here.

I pushed Damian’s hair away from his forehead. It was caked with blood.

Why, Estebandido?

I wanted to weep because someone I loved had died in that face, and I didn’t know when or how, and I never got to mourn him. And now they were going to take him away, the boy inside the man.

Lightning split the sky and for a second, I saw him. Esteban. His fingers were stained, his smile was wide, and he had just tasted strawberries for the first time.

What happened to you?

What happened?

I cradled his head and rocked back and forth.

And then the other boat was upon us, and a man was climbing aboard.

“It’s okay. Everything is going to be all right,” he said. “You can let go of the gun.”

I didn’t realize I’d been holding it until he pried it away.

He took the towel from my hand and inspected Damian’s wound. It was soaked in bright red.

Damian’s eyes flickered open. “Rafael,” he whispered, when he saw the man.

The blood chilled in my veins. I knew that name. I’d heard Damian talking to him on the phone.

Did you get that? Damian had said to Rafael, the man on the other end, who had been recording my screams.

“I’m here, Damian,” said the man I thought had come to rescue me. “I’m here.”





WE SAILED PAST COVE AFTER cove along the coastline, with Rafael manning Damian’s boat, and his friend, Manuel, following behind on the other one. I sat with Damian’s head on my lap, as he bled out in the night. A couple of times, he opened his eyes, but they were glazed over. Each time, a raw, primitive grief overwhelmed me because there were flashes of Esteban in those eyes. Whatever he was feeling, whatever he was thinking, Damian was lying bare before me now. I could feel his pain. Not the kind that was slowly seeping out of him, but the torment that was bottled up inside. It was rattling up against the iron cage of his heart, with no way out. Damian tossed and turned as I tried to contain him.

“Shhh. Shhh.” I don’t know when I started humming MaMaLu’s lullaby. I don’t know if it was for him or for me, but it seemed to comfort him and he stopped thrashing around.

The water was calm now, but it was cold, and we were both soaking wet. Damian was shaking. I held him closer and he shifted in my lap, burying his face in my stomach.

He thinks he’s a little boy. He thinks I’m MaMaLu.

I wanted to hold him tighter. I wanted to push him away. How could I even think of comforting Damian? How could I not?

I sang to him until the sun began to rise, until we anchored at a small island with forested hills that sloped seaward to meet sandy white beaches. As far as I could make out, there were no buildings on the island, no roads, or cars, or telephone lines.

The men carried Damian from the boat to a small villa hidden among the palm trees. Damian groaned as they lay him on the flamingo colored couch. I was amazed he’d lasted through the night. No one could lose that much blood and survive. Rafael seemed to think otherwise.

“You’re going to pull through, Damian. You hear me?” he said, even though Damian had turned pale and unresponsive. He sent Manuel off on the boat to obtain medical supplies, while he rifled through the first aid kit.

He had the same dark complexion as Damian, but that’s where the similarities ended. Rafael was a few inches taller with light hair and green eyes. He didn’t wear ugly, generic clothes. His t-shirt was made of fine, pure cotton and the seams were zigzagged to lie flat and straight. His watch cost more than Damian’s boat, and his shoes . . . his shoes reminded me of the ones I’d seen on Damian when he’d abducted me. Soft, hand-tooled, Italian leather.

I tried to make sense of what had happened. It occurred to me that Damian had been talking to Rafael when the storm hit. It was possible that the two of them had already planned this meeting point. Rafael had been close enough to intercept us, and this location was too remote to just be chanced upon. When I’d called on the radio, it was set to the channel they’d been using to communicate, but anyone could have tuned in, so Rafael had asked me to switch to the phone.

“He should have finished you off.” Rafael looked at me pointedly as he stitched up the gash on Damian’s head.

“He was taking me to see MaMaLu.” If Damian died, I knew I was in bigger trouble with Rafael. I didn’t know who he was or how they were connected, but I needed to find a way to keep afloat. The one thing I had going for me was the call I’d made to my father. He knew I was alive, and satellite phones use GPS. It wouldn’t take long to trace the number and narrow down the search area.