Rings of Fire Ch. 01

Brent stepped from the doorway as she approached. "Lauren, you came."

"Did you think I wouldn't, Brent? You took our daughters." She felt the heat rising in her face, certain that her high cheekbones were as red now as the hair that he alluded to in his letter.

"Come on then. Get on broad. The pilot is ready to take off," he explained.

"No, Brent. I am not getting on this plane. I am here to take the girls home. Where they belong. Now." She demanded.

Suddenly two figures appeared beside Brent. Lauren was, of course, expecting the fresh-faced innocence of her older daughter, but the creased face of the white-headed woman on his left took her by utter surprise.

"Grandmam?" she whispered.

The woman that had cared for her after the breakup of her parent's marriage shook her head. "You were always as stubborn as your mother. And look where that got her, child."

Lauren shivered at the verbal reminder of the string of betrayals and broken promises that had driven her from the woman who had given birth to her.

"Grandmam, you don't understand. This is crazy. Running away because Brent believes that a string of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are going to destroy civilization as we know it. That is the stuff of science fiction, not science," she pleaded.

"Perhaps you are right, child. But what exactly do you have to lose? You are so stressed at work that you have a headache almost constantly. Elise has been so troubled lately that it takes you, me, Megan, and two carers to manage."

Turning to Brent, her grandmother placed her arthritic hand on his broad shoulders. "Look at it this way. The boy is offering you a week's holiday. You write an email to your dean explaining that Elise is not well. The man gets some doctoral student to cover your classes. You can even focus on finishing those journal papers if you like, while the boy and I take care of the girls. What do you say, child?"

Lauren shook her head. The way her grandmother explained it made it seem like a Caribbean cruise ship holiday. But the truth was that her crazy ex-husband was kidnapping their daughters...and her.

Any doubt that might have remained was washed away by the pleading look in her eldest child's bright blue eyes. Eyes that were so like her fathers that it took Lauren's breathe away. "Please, Mum."

Lauren shook her head as she began to climb the few steps into the luxurious private jet. She stopped at the top and faced her ex-husband. "One week, Brent. And I expect you to keep your promise. The girls and I come home, and you leave us alone. No more of your crazy theories."

If she did not know better, Lauren would have sworn that for a single moment the obstreperous little boy that she had fallen in love at science camp all those years ago stood before her.

Then he was gone, replaced by the determined and almost demented man who her husband had become after Elise's birth.

"You have my word," was his only response. He placed his large hand at the small of her back and escorted her to the half a dozen or so opulent brown leather seats that filled the small cabin.

Lauren smiled weakly when she noted Elise and her favorite carer buckled into two of them. Megan and her grandmother took two seats facing them. That left the two front seats for her and Brent. She did not relish spending the next few hours of a trans-Atlantic flight with the man that was the cause of all this. But it seemed she had no choice.

As if reading her mind, Brent offered her the window seat, "I have the data I told you about. I'd like to show it to you, but if you aren't interested, I understand."

Lauren sighed as she buckled herself in, "Maybe later, Brent. Like Grandmam said the past month has been a nightmare and right now, I want to rest."

Brent nodded his blond head and turned towards the front of the plane. "Alright, then. I'll just let the pilot know that we are ready to take off."

As Brent disappeared into the cockpit, Lauren questioned her sanity. Since the day she met Brent Jacobs, her logic had rarely won against his smile and the funny tingle in the pit of her stomach when he looked at her.

After that last summer of science camp when she was fifteen, she had resigned herself to nothing more than idol worship. Something inside of her recognized that this man was unlike anyone she had ever met before. Or ever would.

From a scientific perspective, she supposed it was a matter of the female's desire to choose the best possible mate to sire her children. Any eugenicist would recognize that Brent Jacobs had superior DNA. Not only was his IQ over 160, but he had physical prowess not usually coupled with such a great mind. Of course, his blond hair, blue-eyed good looks made him model worthy. 'Admit it, girl,' she chided herself, 'you will never get over that man.'

Lauren shook her head; relaxing into the enveloping seat, she forced her mind from that course of thought. Despite the troubling day, she was asleep even before the plane took off. Then again, as the child of a bitter divorce, who rarely saw her mother and whose father was cold and distant at best, Lauren had never felt safe and secure with anyone other than Brent. She supposed that the fights over Elise's course of treatment, the divorce, and even this could not change some things.