IMPOSTER - PART TEN

Part Ten continued:

Tea's legs almost buckled beneath her as she saw the rough swipe of his hand. That was the sign Todd had told her about! This was indeed Pete grinning at her and pretending to be Todd again! She had to think of something and fast to put this faker off or at least to keep him at bay. Okay, Pete. Have it your way! You can be Todd now.
"Todd," Tea swallowed a sip of soda and leaned against the counter. "I was talking to Pete before -- trying to find out more about him. Did you ever know when Pete was about to come out?"
"No," he said warily -- not sure where she was going with her questioning. "Well, I guess he's been a part of me for a long time. I must have kept him well hidden."
"You kept him hidden? I thought Pete was the one in control. Pete seems so...well, confident to me." Tea said this as if she were in awe of Pete's power. She watched Pete warming up to her praise as he cocked his head to one side and eyed her carefully.
"He is...confident. He's always been. If it weren't for Pete, I wouldn't be around, Delgado."
Tea leaned somewhat forward -- closing the distance between them. I've got to do this! As much as I'm shaking in my shoes, I've got to do this! She brushed her hair away from her face with one hand and demurely said, "To tell you the truth, Todd, I think Pete has been very valuable to you. He's very intimidating but so intriguing in some ways."
Pete tapped his fingers on the counter and studied his opponent with a practiced eye. She seemed to be at ease -- as if she was chatting with Todd -- and certainly hadn't made any attempt to escape. He found himself wondering why she was talking about Pete. Wouldn't she want to talk about anything else but him? Okay, Delgado. I'll bite. What do you find intriguing about me?
"Like how?" Pete asked her indifferently.
Tea's eyes swept over the front of the man standing in front of her. He was still wearing the leather outfit and his well-toned chest was brazenly exposed to her. She had often enjoyed looking at men and saw nothing wrong with it, but his masculinity was overpoweringly present and real to her. This side of her husband was one she very rarely got to see and she knew at once what she would say to this alter.
"Well...he's more open...very sure of himself...and more virile," she said in her best husky voice.
Pete straightened up a little as he heard these words. If she really thinks I'm Todd, then she's just insulted him! Pete felt strangely elated by what he was hearing. He had always secretly been jealous of Tea's attentions toward Todd. He couldn't understand how such a beautiful, hot-blooded woman could be attracted to someone who was such a pale replica of him. Todd was full of sexual repressions left over from that day with Peter Manning. He would have been a babbling idiot if he, Pete, hadn't taken control and made him over into a sexual predator. She was not to be trusted, though. That much was certain. Both he and Todd had found out just how far her loyalty went when push came to shove.
Tea moved even closer to him -- willing herself to look deeply into his flickering hazel eyes and into the soul of a man who had the potential to do great harm to her.
"Pete was frightening to me at first, but sometimes I wish..." she left the sentence dangling in the air as she held his eyes with hers.
You wish what? What, Delgado?
"..."that you were more like Pete."
Her words had exactly the effect she had wanted them to. Pete's eyes widened and his nostrils flared with a kind of bemused appreciation of her statement. More like me, huh? Well, Todd boy, I think you've just been given the old heave-ho by your "faithful" little wife. I always knew you weren't man enough to keep her interested. This one talks "fairytale endings" but she's really a seeker of her own self-enjoyment like me! So you want sexy Pete to come out and play? I think that can be arranged, Mrs. Manning!
Pete found himself in an unusual situation at this moment. Every woman that he had had contact with for any length of time had been an unwilling victim. None of them had even been slightly interested in him and had made it quite clear that they regarded him as vile and beneath them. This was quite new -- a woman who seemed to admire him and not Todd. Todd could be charming when he wanted to be, and women fell all over him, but they soon found out that his charm was manipulative and superficial. When it came to issues of love, Todd had his own agenda and a lot depended on whether he could allow himself to trust. Pete knew that he never expected trust, so he wasn't at the mercy of the women who would try to use him. Time to put you to the test, Delgado. Let's see if you really mean these words you're spouting so easily right now.
Having said those words, Tea repressed the sickening feeling which came over her afterwards. I hope to God that you are Pete! If I ever said that to Todd, he would want to walk right out that door! The idea that she could be attracted to this slimy, serial rapist was utterly repugnant to her, but she also could tell that her words may have put her in a different category in Pete's mind than before. I'll have to play along with his warped imagination -- at least until I can figure out what to do. It'll buy me some time.

Jessica Buchanan had never seen her mother as distraught as this. Not recently anyway. Sloan's death had been a terrible shock for her, but that had eventually faded with time. She could tell by her mother's agitated, worried face that she was still thinking about her uncle, Todd Manning. She had walked in and out of the kitchen at least ten times -- smiling slightly at Jessica -- who had been dipping ice cream for the both of them for dessert.
"Mother," Jessica admonished her mother, "You're making me crazy. You need to sit down or something!"
Viki didn't even laugh, as she usually would have at her daughter's chiding. She took the bowl offered by Jessica and absently poked a spoon into the swirls of fudge ripple ice cream.
"I'm fine, Jessie. Really!" she said and continued to push at the dessert with the spoon.
Jessie took the bowl from her mother who was still standing -- looking at nothing in particular with a vacant expression. She set the bowl on the kitchen bar counter, shook her head and led her mother over to the barstool.
"Sit!" she ordered her mother as if she were the adult.
Viki's dazed look vanished and she caught her daughter's disapproving expression. She sighed and sat down on the stool as her daughter slid onto the other one next to her.
"Mom," she said forcefully to get her mother's attention. "They'll be alright. Uncle Todd won't let anything happen to Tea. I know that! I've seen the way he looks at her. He loves her!
Viki smiled at her and thought how sweet and sensitive Jessie had been since she had told her about Todd. Jessie knew how much Todd meant to her, and she was trying to be as helpful as she could.
"Thank you, Jessie. You're my rock, aren't you? I depend on you so much, I'm afraid! It's just that it's so hard to sit and wait!" Viki said with exasperation. "I'm not very good at it, as you know!"
"I know, Mom. But hey, there are things you can do while you wait, you know?" Jessie said encouragingly.
Viki's mind suddenly clamped onto an idea. She could do something! The police had already called to question her as to Todd's whereabouts and she had had nothing to say. Her thoughts had been of Pete, and since she had never before met Pete, she didn't think that she would have a clue as to where he had taken Tea. But what about Todd? That was another matter. He was her brother and they had been through quite a bit together since their very first meeting. Where would he go? The alter, Pete, could use Todd's memory if he wanted to. It would have to be a place where he would be secluded and well hidden. There was another time when her brother had needed a place to hide out in. That had been when he had taken Starr to her cabin retreat after he had returned from Ireland. He had kidnapped his own daughter from Blair and taken her there. Would Pete think of this place, too? It was a shot in the dark, but she knew that Todd probably still had a key.
Viki jumped off the stool and went to the kitchen wall phone. She looked at Jessica whose eyes followed her mother.
"I'm calling Sam!" she relayed to Jessie. "I think I know where they are!"

Pete shifted his stance and ambled past her nonchalantly into the living room. Tea studied his movements -- searching for anything else that would give away who he really was. All his mannerisms seemed to imitate Todd's and she was just about to wonder if she had made a grave error in thinking that this was Pete. She couldn't let the seeds of doubt plant themselves in her now because she needed to be mentally prepared for anything this trickster could do.
He plopped himself down on the blue plaid sofa and looked down at his attire with exaggerated disdain.
"And I suppose you like these duds, too!" he retorted sarcastically as his body slumped down into the cushions.
"Well..." Tea moved toward him and stared at him as if hypnotized by his power over her. "You have a nice body, Todd. Why not show it off some?" Am I really saying this? Yes, I have to. I have to stroke his male vanity. Pete would like that.

More and more interesting, sweetheart. What's your little game now? Or is it a game? The way you're looking at me -- It's not like before in the penthouse. Well, let's find out, Delgado, who you really want.
Tea sat down next to him. She lifted her hand to his head and let her slender fingers glide through his long, thick hair and said with a voice edged with pent-up passion, "Pete...if you can hear me...I'd like to get to know you better."
"Would you, Delgado?" The deep, menacing voice that she was becoming familiar with emerged and a chill settled over her. Now was the test. Now she had to prove to him that she wanted him more than Todd. As the shadows of the soft lights in the room played on the walls, Tea immersed herself in a game of masquerade. Her eyes lit up and she breathed a low sigh as her fingers moved down his shoulders and toward his chest. "Yes, Pete. I would."

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~