Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,63
minute here.”
The moment was a blur for her. When she looked up at him, his eyes were aglow. He looked beautiful in the dark. She pulled his strong arm back around her and snuggled into him, envisioning walking down the aisle with him in her dream dress . . . only to realize that her dream wedding wouldn’t be a dream wedding without her father’s acceptance. She sat up again to face him.
“What? You’re fidgeting,” he said.
“Nothing.” She glanced away and knelt up a bit to take another look over the bushes at the men on the porch, then glanced back at Ahanu.
“Relax please,” he said, knowing her curiosity often got the best of her. But he never expected what happened next as he watched his fiancée make a dash for his mother’s house.
Just missing the hem of her black tunic, he instinctively chased after her. If she was going down, he was going down too.
“Dad . . . Dad . . .” Coreen called out to her father, who turned in shock at the sight of his daughter tumbling toward him, wearing a black sack. “Coreen? Is that you? Is that really you?” Patty opened up his arms.
Father and daughter embraced in full force, joined soon by Hank. The three of them cried tears of joy and happiness under the glow of the moon.
“I’m so sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do.”
Ahanu snuck up behind them all and stood at the foot of the porch.
Doby lifted his shotgun up. “Back up now. Back up.”
Ahanu stayed put.
Upon seeing the Ahanu, Hank took a run straight for him and hit him dead center in the gut with his head and arms. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. What did you do to her?” He punched like a madman, and Ahanu took the beatings without resistance.
“Get off him, Hank. Get off him.” Coreen ran to Ahanu’s aid and tried to haul her old boyfriend off of her fiancé.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, break it up, guys. Break it up,” ordered the sheriff. “No . . . no . . .” said Patty. “I want to see this. Let them at it. I’d join in myself, but—”
“Dad! Don’t let him do this. That’s my fiancé.”
The beating stopped as Hank looked up at Coreen. She stood over him pleading with her eyes.
“What do you mean?” Hank said, bewildered. “Oh, Hank . . . I . . .” Coreen put her arms out to him. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“You’ve been cheating on me?” Hank looked back at Ahanu. “With him—this guy—right here?”
Coreen covered her face with her little hands and began to sob. Patty took her in his arms, helpless to do little else. The news had bottomed them all out.
“I’m going to kill you,” Hank yelled even louder, even angrier. He began to strangle the life from Ahanu. Pointing the shotgun right at his face, Doby ordered Hank to back off. But Hank stayed focused, withdrawing from his belt the knife Ed had given him earlier.
“Back off, Hank. Back off,” Doby warned. “I don’t want to shoot you, but I can’t watch you kill him in plain sight. Back off.”
“Listen to him, Hank. Please don’t do this. Don’t kill him. I love him,” Coreen cried.
“You can’t marry this Indian. What are you thinking?” Patty said to her, but no one seemed to be listening.
“I was going to marry you.” Hank cried. “I love you. I bought the ring. I was going to propose the night of the fair, but you ran off, Coreen. You ran off and you left me. I thought you were dead. We found your bloodied dress on the bank, and we searched for you there.” Hank tightened his grip on Ahanu’s neck with one hand, holding the knife steady with the other. . The tears ran hot across his face. “I love you, Coreen. I want to marry you. I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead, and here you are just like that, and I’m just a fool.”
“Let me go,” Coreen screamed at her father, squirming free. She fell before Hank, begging. “Let go of him, Hank . . . please . . . if you truly do love me, then let go of him.”
“I can’t,” said Hank, consumed with rage. “You’ll have to kill me.”
***
“Did you see that?” asked Raska—her Russian accent thickening the more uneasy she became. “I keep seeing something moving amongst the trees ahead.” She bopped her body back