“Kill you for what?”
“I might have left him a little busy.”
Vera still didn’t understand. “Are you messing with me?”
An entirely plausible scenario.
Vaslav flicked a switch on the dash and then turned the key to spark the engine to life. He had to yell over the roar of the ROV coming to life for her to hear. “Do you want to walk?”
That did the job.
Vera soon found a comfortable spot in the side-by-side’s passenger seat, but she barely had time to buckle up before Vaslav yanked the shifting lever into drive and hit the gas. Her immediate reaction was to reach for the cooler to keep it steady, but she soon figured out that the way he wedged it between the seats kept it firmly in place.
Vaslav didn’t speak as the ROV took the almost six acres of grass leading down to the far tree line in a mere minute at a speed that kept both passengers glued to their seats. She had noticed the dirt road that lined the trees and rounded the far edge, they even walked it together during her first visit, but they hadn’t gone far enough where the metal gate closed the road from going any further beyond the bend in the tree line.
Except today.
The gate was wide open.
“Do you keep the side-by-side in the big shed with the Rolls?” Vera asked.
Vaslav didn’t hear her.
Or maybe he couldn’t.
Despite the windshield of clear, spotless plexiglass in the front, the wind still whipped in through the open doors, carrying her words away with the rushing wooshes. The ROV eventually came off the grassland and hit the road, but the suspension kept the vehicle from behaving as if the sudden change in terrain affected it more than a gentle rock from grass to rocky gravel.
His focus stayed on the path ahead, and the way it curved beyond the gate, rounding the bend in the tree line. The backdrop of tall trees whizzed by in a green and brown blur with specks of reds, yellows and burnt oranges from the fall. Overhead, the fluffy clouds of white painted a blue backdrop, but she couldn’t find any promise of rain in the sky.
Although she struggled to manage it, Vera was able to turn in enough time to see the very top of the Federal Colonial disappear beyond the rolling hill as they entered the midpoint of the turn in the road.
“Look.”
The only reason why she heard Vaslav’s shout was because he let off the gas for the side-by-side. Vera swung back around in her seat as the view ahead of them began to form.
Or rather, a lake awaited to greet them.
A good three football fields in length, and at least one across, the still, dark water was framed by a mountain of climbing trees just starting to change color for the autumn season. It was a shame that a person couldn’t see the sprawling, quiet lake from the main house, but as their off-road vehicle crept along the dirt road, she couldn’t look away.
Like the road curving along the bend of the tree line, so did the edge of the water. It continued beyond even where she could see that the turn started to end and where a fence line of natural post stakes made of logs began. The fence, clearly a work in progress as there were no connecting lines between each log post sticking out of the ground, wasn’t even stained or painted.
“Hell of a spot down here,” she heard Vaslav say beside her.
Vera couldn’t disagree. “The guesthouse is down here?”
“Da. Gets power by generator. I almost let Mira have the keys last year.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Vaslav tossed a grin her way. “She didn’t like the walk.”
Ah.
Vera didn’t get the chance to respond before Vaslav pushed hard on the gas again, sending her back flat into the seat and leaving a cloud of dust from the dry road in the wake. She wasn’t really paying attention to the arch of branches from trees where the road led through to a clearing because something out in the water caught her eye instead.
A black mass bobbing along the lake’s surface. It took her more than a couple of blinks to discern the figure swimming slowly from one side of the lake to the other.
Marrow.
The black retriever didn’t seem to be having any trouble doggy paddling his way across the lake. If anything, the dog was determined and focused.
Beyond the break in the trees where the branches swept high across the road like arches, a line of stake posts began every six feet. The unfinished fence also lined a small portion of the lake. Vera finally caught a glimpse of the front of the home Vaslav called a guesthouse where the break in the trees opened to a clearing surrounded in the colors of fall. Designed similarly on the outside to the main house, it featured gray bricks and crawling green vines that lined every long, rectangular window. Except it was like a mini version of the house on the hill. Instead of three levels, there were two, and it was barely half the size in length. She doubted it had more than two bedrooms. No towering birch trees welcomed them, and there weren’t any stone steps leading to the front door, but the likeness to the main house was unmistakable all the same.
And so was the man standing by tall posts where a dirt path led from the driveway to the docks for the lake.
Her father.
Vera hadn’t thought Vaslav lied to her about where Demyan was, but she didn’t exactly expect to see him holding a ten-foot post at the mouth of the dock, shirtless and sweating, and glowering their way.
“See,” Vaslav said over the rumble of the engine as their ROV slowed to a crawl again, “I told you he was probably getting impatient.”
At the sight of the all-terrain vehicle, Demyan let go of the tall log post with one hand, and gestured wildly in their direction. For whatever reason, he glanced back at the unmoved post stuck deep in the ground, and his brow furrowed with surprise and anger.
“You prick!” she swore Demyan shouted.
Vaslav heard it, too.
Because he laughed.
Cackled, really. Like he enjoyed whatever trick he’d successfully played on Demyan.
“All right, off you go,” Vaslav told Vera then.
Her head snapped his way, and she hadn’t realized until that moment how long she’d been holding her breath because it came out in a heavy woosh. “What?”
The side-by-side rolled to a stop in the middle of the driveway, halfway between where the road ended at the mouth and where the guesthouse waited on the other side of the drive. Vaslav yanked the shifting lever into park, and pointed at the man now coming their way. Whatever task her father had been left with by the fence was forgotten, it seemed.
“I’ll take the food in and get it ready to eat on the back deck. The lake wraps around to the back of the house, too. Come in when you’re ready, yeah?”
Vera blinked. “You’re not leaving me alone—”
“With your father?”
He even cocked a brow at the question. She knew how silly it sounded, but his expression only drove the point home.
Her chest tightened. “I ... well,” she tried lamely, still stumbling over her thoughts.
Vaslav’s thin patience only extended so far with her, apparently. “Trust me, he’s not even the slightest bit annoyed with you. I made sure of it. Now go.”
Ten years.
Did he know that?
Understand it?
Vera didn’t think so, but she also didn't believe that those few seconds were enough for her to explain to Vaslav that it had been a good decade since she spent more than a passing handful of minutes in her father’s presence. Not by choice. Mostly.