by L. B. Carter
“You planning on following your dad’s career as well?” Nor asked when the conversation flowed like they’d dropped anchor.
“No. He’s a lawyer.” Talking to this guy was like trying to get Father to open up. Had Andrew’s father taught him that he had the right to remain silent?
“Oh. What are you planning on doing?”
“Dolphin breach to starboard!” another voice announced. Andrew responded by veering slightly port-ward. Nor twisted around in his seat, trying to see a species that used to live much farther south without falling off the thin rim of the boat. A dorsal fin crested and then sunk below again, the faint curve of a sleek body, too thin to be a shark, visible beneath the foam their boat was generating. This was almost like a cruise. Another in the pod leaped further out, the nose sliding upward smoothly from the water. Its round, sleek blue-grey body smacked the surface before sinking under. Nor had hought dolphins were supposed to be graceful divers. Real life was always slightly less picturesque than the nature shows Mother would play for him when she was too busy with work to plan a lesson for the day. She would’ve loved this sight.
“You don’t want to be a lawyer?”
“No,” Andrew responded tartly. “I find arguing the semantics of legalities tedious. The law isn’t always aligned with morals. Criminals are acquitted because of loopholes my dad finds, while innocents are imprisoned because of some obscure and politically-charged law that in actuality protects no one.” The rant was pretty heated. “He gets paid a lot though, and he has a lot of power.”
“You don’t think the authority and money is worth memorizing esoteric details of the law?” Were these qualities Andrew desired? Those were both very common motivators for criminals. It would be interesting if Andrew was a criminal himself, with those opinions on the law. He might be insinuating that he could get away with it given the vagaries of the penal system.
Andrew shook his head and then called out something to the hands winching up another sail. Was he shaking his head at them or at Nor’s question?
“What are you planning your career in then?”
Andrew spared a flick of his eyes. “Science.”
“My mother was a scientist. What kind?”
“Duck,” Nor’s skipper noted blandly. The bar with the sail swung right at Nor’s eyes. They widened and he tipped backward, arching painfully over the edge and barely saving his nose from a hit that would’ve angered the previous bruise, courtesy of Sirena. His training should include more yoga. Nor sat back up and caught his breath. Asshole. He hoped Andrew was involved with their killer, if not the killer himself, so Nor could hand him over to police.
“You might want to move to the other side. Atmosphere.”
Huh? Oh, he was answering Nor’s question about what specific science he was interested in. Similar to Dr. Katheryn Tate’s specialization. Was it what one of her colleagues did?
“You okay?” Andrew inquired.
Nor was confused by the comment. Did he look weird? He had excelled at keeping his thoughts from showing on his face; that part of the training had been easy what with growing up with Father. Mother hadn’t liked it. “Smile, sunshine,” she’d often say. “It’s okay to show your emotions.” Andrew nodded at the other side of the boat. Oh. Nor stood and wobbled over like a drunk, his sea legs nonexistent, almost toppling off the other edge when the boat dipped as he was trying to sit. He was going to count this as his cardio for the day at the rate his heart was beating.
“Atmosphere. You planning on going to university then?”
He nodded. “BTI.”
“You applied there?”
“Accepted. I have contacts.” A lie? Or did that nix the double-break-up hypothesis? “Buoy sighted,” Andrew called to his crew.
Nor looked out over the bow. Nothing. He needed some of those fancy binoculars Jason had been perfecting. Reed had flaunted his trial pair at Nor before he’d headed out on their last mission, the last successful one. Not the one that—
“What contacts?”
Andrew nodded, his focus on steering them around the buoy.
“Have you been involved in any… discoveries there? In exchange for a position at the University, perhaps,” Nor asked, point-blank.
Andrew’s sharp gaze finally left the horizon, zeroed in on Nor’s. The skies were darker; his glasses were clear, unimpeded by any glare. The shouts from the other two faded into the background. “What?”
“Or are you blackmailing your ex-girlfriend’s mother with something you took from her? Something she was shipping up north, through town?”
A loud grumble from the clouds announced the incoming storm.
“Dude, forget the buoy. We need to head back!” Surfer shouted as the wind started picking up. The sails whipped savagely.
Andrew wasn’t paying attention to handling the changing winds. He was focused on Nor. And Nor knew they weren’t going in until they had everything out in the open sea air. This was an interrogation that Andrew had no escape from.
“Of what exactly are you accusing me?”
There was no escape for Nor either.
Chapter Thirteen
Tree bark flew as the top of Rena’s foot slapped into its side with a dull thwack. The coarseness bit through her sock, which simply renewed her vigor. The even surface of a punching bag would have been less painful. Considering the gym was the cause of her built-up aggression, though, flora was her only available—and inhuman—opponent. Even if she did want to give Tilly a fat lip to forestall her interfering in things that didn’t involve her. The small sapling in front of Rena received the punishment as proxy, causing drooping boughs to shake and prematurely brown needles to drop to the forest floor.
Tilly was lucky Stew had brought the shake and fries over the night before. It had been a long day, spent locked in her mind, exacerbated by the visual horrors of a fetal pig’s interior, and inconceivably further worsened by the moment she realized Nor was one of them. Not Them them—that was a separate problem. The SUARS. Or rather, their boy brigade; someone easily swayed by a willing mouth… or more. He’d practically begged Shay for some depraved bathroom activities and undeniably indicated he wanted nothing to do with Rena.
An ugly, pungent corpse flower, he’d likened her to. Was that any better than Spectre? “Rare,” he’d also called the plant and she’d had an instant flash to his blue eyes looking up into hers, hands wrapped around hers as he remarked that she was “unique.” And then to give her an insincere, heartless apology just because Tilly was stubborn and nosy and forced him to? Rena turned and kicked behind her, bending the thin trunk. Well, fuck you too, Norton Stanley. Grandpa would forgive her the swear in this case. It was deserved.
She’d given everyone the silent treatment the following day, and evidently Stew had noticed. It was nice of him to have Tilly pick up her favorites from Barb’s. Yet, when Rena swung the screen open, he’d not only passed over sugary and salty deliciousness. The news that Nor was going to apologize to her had also slipped through the door. She hadn’t wanted visitors, particularly the friend-who-wanted-more, though she welcomed the fuel for some gluttonous food-therapy. And she hadn’t wanted the apology either.
The only benefit of Nor’s display of hatred had been that she wouldn’t have to find creative and physical ways to get him out of her life. Ironically, she’d wanted him gone for his own safety. Well, it was all fine and dandy with her now if he got a big kick to his egotistical head. The tree jerked and rustled when her shoe sole slammed into it, jarring her knee. She stepped back breathing hard.
“I think that tree’s bark is worse than it’s bite.”
Rena whirled, to find Nor’s brother, Reed, leaning against a birch, one ankle crossed.
“Not really a fair fight, is it?” he asked Rena. His face was impassive and she couldn’t tell if he was being serious.
“But I’d guess…” He strode forward a bit, and she took a step back, a little afraid of the jovial joker’s serious tone and u
nexpected appearance. “It probably isn’t the tree you’re mad at. Been there, done that. I’d guess it’s my brother’s face you’re imagining receiving those jabs—which are impressive, by the way. You’ve trained hard. If only Nor would do the same. Although we try not to injure any kind of living being in our family.”
She watched him warily as he took another step closer, leaves crunching underfoot, too uncertain to feel shamed about damaging a baby pine.
“I heard what he did, what happened today. Don’t get me wrong.” He unfolded his arms and held up his palms toward her, still moving slowly closer. “I abhor his actions. I wish I could pummel that kid, too. Often.” He stopped a few feet away and shook his head sadly. “But fighting is not the answer. It never is. Too many innocent people get hurt—bystanders, who never earned that kind of end,” he said despondently and then paused. She waited.
“I had a girlfriend,” he started his tale heavily and swallowed back the lump deepening his voice, that Rena guessed was a result of the verb tense. “Valerie. She was beautiful and so smart, a scientist and a fighter.” His brown eyes flashed up to hers. “Like yourself. She shouldn’t have gotten wrapped up in that shi— sorry, mess, in my father’s mess, our family’s mess. She was too... innocent. She wanted to help, thought she was helping. I ended up being the last person she ever helped. I regret having that honor.”
Reed looked to the side, where all that was left of a massive tree likely torn down in one of the increasingly frequent and violent storms was a stump, demolished because it was too resolutely rooted, unwilling to sway. He took a moment to compose himself. When he spoke again, his voice was a whisper like the wind rustling the leaves.
“That wasn’t her fault.” He held eye contact again. “It was mine.” His eyes beseeched her for something, deep with sorrow.
What did he want? Why had he sought her out here in the woods to tell her his sad tale? She related, of course, unbeknownst to him.
“I was selfish. I wanted her in my life, her bright smiling face, offering me a hand, like a partner. I wasn’t used to that... that devotion, that attention. I’ve always been,” he searched for the right phrasing, “expected to succeed without aid and time and again failed in the eyes of my... boss. I’d grown so used to being a disappointment, I felt lavished in her interest. Val… ” He took another step closer. “She could’ve been safe if she’d stayed away.” His eyes switched back and forth between hers. A line formed between his brows. “You have no idea why I’m telling you all this do you?”
Her head moved slowly left to right.
Reed sighed and moved to the stump, lowering himself onto it glacially, like Grandpa sinking into his chair after work, like he was far less vital than his form suggested. He picked up a stick near his foot and began to peel flecks of bark off it.
“My point is that you, Sirena, are Nor’s Val.”
What? Was that some kind of threat? Val clearly wasn’t alive anymore and Reed had just admitted her death was his family’s fault. Wait, should she be going to the police with this information? Or maybe his grief hyperbolized their role. He seemed remorseful, though… Maybe it was more of a warning?
“My being here is of course solidifying that fact. Nor started it, though,” he blamed pettishly, “which in reality is also on me, since he’s my responsibility.” Reed ripped a twig off the stick and dropped it between his feet. “Once I heard how he’s been interacting with you, I realized I haven’t been doing my job. I’m going to talk with him.”
He tossed the nearly bare twig aside and pushed to a stand to crunch over to where Rena shifted from foot to foot warily. Reed stopped beside her and she felt suddenly quite short when he leaned his wrists against a branch high above. The shadows were starting to elongate across the forest floor and, with the sunset peering spotted through the trees from behind him, he became just another looming shadow.
“But first, I needed to talk to you. We’re not going to be in town long.” Was Nor graduating early too? “I don’t want to leave anyone behind any worse off than before we arrived. That’s never our intention.”
Never? They moved around before? What was their ‘intention’? Even having an ‘intention’ sounded like some Tilly yoga-speak.
“Unfortunately, it seems we weren’t successful this time. You deserve an apology. I would like to extend that on my brother’s behalf. Honestly, he owes you that himself, face-to-face, not just because he needs to own up to his mistakes so he can learn from them, but also because that would give you the chance to deck him in the face. Again. I assume the last time was you too?” He sounded amused and a little impressed.
Still, she looked away from Reed’s smirk. It was his brother she’d hurt after all, and as virtuous as she’d felt earlier about getting revenge, Reed was right. Violence was never the answer. Coach was careful to ensure his students knew that. Their spars were for conditioning—mental and physical—and for sport, which was why he thought their fight the other night was her second ever with another person after the failed one with Larry. Rena wouldn’t correct Coach that Nor had actually been the first body she’d tried her skills on, though it was somewhat rewarding to get acknowledgment of the great hit from Reed.
“He no doubt did something asshole-y to earn that hit, for which I hope he already apologized.” He waited for confirmation from Rena. Nor sort of had. Then Rena had sort of un-accepted the apology in light of his niceness seeming to be a façade. When she didn’t give any indication that Nor had, Reed dropped his arms and added, “If not, then I double down my current apology.” It was nice of him to offer. Nor had lost Rena’s favor, but perhaps Reed could keep his credit. Reed had always been nice to her. However, he still hadn’t actually said sorry yet, she noted.
Reed joined her, with his back to the small sapling and slid down to a crouch so that she was the taller of the two. He peered up at her from the side. “Sirena, we are very sorry to have caused you any pain and hardship to the peaceful life you had here.”
Rena wasn’t sure it had been all that peaceful before they showed up. His position and the sincerity of the delivery made the conversation feel a lot more dramatic than a little high-school bullying deserved. Then again, Reed seemed to think it was life-threatening.
Rena nodded her forgiveness—at least for Reed. Nor was forever going to be on her Ship List.
“Thank you.” Reed focused on a second tiny pine across the small gap in the trees that was about his height, while he balanced on the balls of his feet, belying his agility. “Now, in the hope of veering your story from ending the way Val’s did…”
Rena’s story in terms of interaction with him and his brother? Or did he mean her life? Presumably both, based on his previous wording. She, too, followed the gentle sway of the tuft of needles topping the little plant, which reminded her of the over-enthusiastic waves Kayna’s brothers gave. She gave it a mental apology for hurting its brother.
“...I am going to instruct Nor to keep his distance from you until we leave,” Reed finished his sentence. Heck yes! She totally agreed with that idea. It was all she’d wanted since she’d left him standing in the woods by the pier. Rena ignored the rebuttal knocking against the lid in her mind. “And I ask in turn that you don’t try to seek him out.” That’s all he wanted from her? No problem, there, buddy. She nodded at him vigorously.
Reed raised a brow, also pushing himself to a stand. “Well. With that kind of eagerness, I guess I don’t have to press you on that. You seem pretty willing to abide by those rules. I know school makes seeing each other inevitable, but I ask you to avoid going out of your way or conversing with him.” It was her turn to raise a brow. He chuckled, easing the coolness of their conversation further. “In your own way; conversation is more than just spoken words. Nor has a job to do that requires his full attention as I’ll be sternly reminding him of that, so he shouldn’t be around much at school, anyway.”
Nor was getting pulled from school …for his uncle’s boat business? The
re had been a lot of storms. Shouldn’t that mean he could afford to hire someone else?
“I know you have your friends looking out for you. I saw their loyalty at the beach and last night bringing you that fry-and-shake pick-me-up after my brother’s disgusting offenses. That said, if Nor tries to interact with you, please let me know. You know where to find me.”
Barb’s. Or she could resort to fists again. Another nod.
Reed let out such a huge breath, sounding much older than he appeared. Rena was surprised he didn’t rustle the leaves. “Good. Thank you for being so understanding and amenable to my rules. I really do hope there hasn’t been irreparable damage.”
Rena shook her head. It wasn’t like anyone in town didn’t already think she was a freak before Nor’s Corpse Flower analogy. And he was right, she still had Kayna and Liam and Tilly and, reluctantly, Stew. She was thrilled to think how much more progress she might make getting as normal as possible without the mosquito-like annoyance of Nor flitting into her life oblivious to her shooing swats. Big Brother Reed was here to be the fly-swatter.
“Let me walk you home. It’s getting dark and I’m sure your Grandpa will be worried. Unless, that is, you needed more alone time with the tree?” She made a face. He grinned.
Reed motioned for her to go first. His footsteps, as they followed hers in the dark while they threaded their way through the forest, no longer inspired fear. Rena felt lighter than when she’d stomped into the woods, and it wasn’t thanks to envisioning members of her Ship List’s enraging faces on the tree bark. Enlightened to the fact that Reed’s tragic story had been exposed in an effort to dissuade her from talking to Nor, Rena wished she’d told him not to bother. The threat, if it was one, was unnecessary. Frankly, it was also a little worrisome. What was it about their family that had gotten a girl killed? Maybe she wasn’t the only murderer around. Rena was more than willing to avoid Nor.