Shoulders heaving, she drew in another breath.
I’d never seen her lose her shit like this. I mean, the potential of the storm was always there with Rhona. That’s what put people on edge. But this was a new one for me, and it had to be navigated with care.
“I appreciate what you’re saying,” I told her. “Those are points I considered before making my decision. They were outweighed by the fact that if anything happened to me in pack lands, you’d need to lead the stewards.”
“And what? I’d just get the news that you’d been killed like Dad? You didn’t even tell me you were going.”
Pascal stepped forward. “We received the invitation an hour before leaving. Andie sent me to tell you, but no one knew your whereabouts.”
Rhona closed her mouth.
Bet she was somewhere with Foley.
“Now that you’re here,” I said, feeling the unsettled stirring of the head team around us. This shit did not look good. “The head team will meet the Luthers for the grid announcement each week. You’re welcome to sit in on the meetings that occur at the manor.”
She burst out, “Why are you meeting them at all? How can you bear to look at them after what they did?”
“I can’t lead this tribe by what I can bear, Rhona. I have to do what’s best for them. Visiting pack lands gives us the opportunity to learn about our opposition.”
“And what did you learn this time?” she said sarcastically.
I smiled. “I learned how they’re communicating in Water.”
The head team turned to me as one like we were in some dramatic stage production.
Roderick’s grin was broad. “You did?”
No idea what to do about the information, but that’s what strategy teams were for. “I did. I’d like to discuss the matter immediately. Please gather in the meeting room in twenty minutes.”
The head team dispersed, and my shoulders relaxed. I watched as Valerie clasped Rhona’s shoulder.
“Is there anything else you’d like to say, Rhona?”
She was still angry. We definitely shared our temper—if not the way we managed it.
“I’m serious,” I said. “Get it out now.”
Rhona blew out a breath. “Okay, I lost my shit.”
“I can see why. It does hurt my feelings that you assumed the worst.”
“Bad habit,” she muttered. “Maybe I was afraid of losing you and having no control. Like with Mum and Dad.”
For Rhona, that took a lot to say.
I took her hands. “If bad things ever happen to me—ever—know that none of it was your fault. You can’t take on that burden. Not for anyone. We all have a choice.”
She swallowed. “You’re the only person I have left.”
Tell me about it. I hugged her. “That’s why I left you here.”
“Next time, I want to come to pack lands.”
“I love you.”
Her shoulders shook. “That’s a no.”
“Our people come first. That’s what it means to be us.”
“I don’t always like being a Thana.”
“Does anyone like who they are all the time? I sure don’t. Can you do me a favour though? If you have an issue with me, talk to me in private, and please don’t shout at me. I’ll listen to you at normal volume just the same.”
Her smile was sheepish. “Sorry.”
“So am I. Now, let’s go figure out how to fuck shit up in Water.”
My phone rang. “You go ahead. It’s the realtor.” I answered, heart beating fast, “Roy. Hi. What did they say?”
“Andie, how is it? Sorry about the delay. They were on holiday, but I got hold of them last night.”
Rhona hadn’t budged, and I closed my eyes. “Well?”
“They’ll meet you at $412,000 once they’ve viewed the furnishings. It took some talking, but they’re happy to pay a 20 percent deposit upon signing.”
I considered that. “I can send you the key for the storage shed. It will take a couple of days to get there. Could you visit the shed with them?”
“Happy to. They have finance preapproval already. The wife is a builder and is satisfied with the condition of the house. We’ve given them the council report, so with the condition of finance, this deal is looking cut and dried.”
I was currently over four thousand dollars short of paying everything off, but that was far more doable than ten times that number. “I’ll need the settlement to be as short as possible.”
“They need two weeks for the bank to process finance and lawyers to do their thing.”
Two weeks would bring me up to five thousand dollars. Just under with their deposit in my bank account. This deal was as good as it got. “I can swing that.”
“Great. I’ll leave you to get in touch with your lawyer then,” Roy said. “Congratulations on selling your house, Andie!”
“Thanks for your help,” I said softly. “I realise you’ve gone above and beyond with this sale.” If I could have afforded to give him more, I would. Maybe I’d send him a thank-you card with the key.
“You’re welcome. I’ll be in touch.”
I hung up, unwilling to trust in the excited bubbling in my gut. Until the house went unconditional, I couldn’t give hope a voice. Better to believe that everything could fall through tomorrow.
Anything more was an unexpected bonus.
“Someone made an offer?” Rhona asked.
I nodded. “It will nearly cover Mum’s gambling debt.”
“I thought the sale was meant to cover the whole thing?”
“Yeah, well, interest has accrued in that time. Once Roy’s commission is taken out and lawyers are paid, I should only have five thousand left to pay off. I can manage that.”
Her expression turned downright murderous.
“It’s fine. Really. If this all goes through, I’ll have one less problem to worry about.”
“You have so much on your plate already,” Rhona murmured.
She was angry on my behalf, and that meant the world. I lifted a shoulder. “I’m unsure if I’ve ever not had anything on my plate. Maybe one day. Think of the two of us suntanning on some island after winning Grids.”
“We’re redheads. We’d burn and peel. But Andie, you know the tribe is here to help you, right? Not just for you to help us. You’ll need a lawyer for the deal. We’ve got at least seven stewards who are lawyers. And why pay interest on the outstanding amount when you could borrow from the tribe and pay back what’s owed?”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t do that.”
“Because you like to do everything alone?”
My lips twitched. “Ouch.”
“It’s true.”
Wade excluded… yeah, okay. Herc pointed that quality out as my weakness almost immediately. “Point taken. Wouldn’t that be kind of unethical though?”
“You can’t fight a battle on two fronts.”
Three fronts, at least. “I’d pay it off as soon as possible. We could have a steward lawyer draw up a contract, so everything is legally binding.”
This would save me so much money. I could be free of Mum’s debt in a matter of months.
Rhona looped an arm around my neck. “Whatever. Do what you gotta do. But we’re here for you too.”
I kissed her cheek. “Love you, sister-cousin.”
She laughed. “Dad-uncles. Aunty-mums. How the fuck did we end up in this shit pile?”
Good question.
We walked up the manor stairs.
“I talked to Pascal before leaving for pack lands,” I said low. “She said Herc intended to tell us the truth before his will ever went into effect.”
Rhona missed a step, but quickly recovered. “I knew it.”
“He didn’t mean for you, either of us, to find out that way.”
“But he still chose you.” She frowned.
I shoved down the memory of Pascal’s other words. “Maybe he just couldn’t stand concealing the truth anymore. Oh, and Pascal
wondered if our grandparents’ deaths convinced Herc and Savannah to hide the pregnancy. No one saw her for three months and assumed it was to do with her MS diagnosis.”
“That’s… I mean, I can almost understand that mentality. I want to hide you. I don’t want you in the spotlight or for you to be under so much stress. But why not come out with the truth when you were stolen? Or even years later.”
I understood the pressure of maintaining image better now. “Because they’d already hidden it for so long. Secrets get like that. You become more scared of the time that’s gone by than the secret itself.”
“Sometimes you say stuff and I imagine you with a beard and a staff.”
“Like Gandalf?”
“Who’s Gandalf?”
“That’s disgusting. Educate yourself.” I paused outside the office. “Hold on, I need to grab my jacket. The meeting room gets cold.”
I strode into the office, rounding the desk. I paused at the sight of partly open drawers. “Someone has been in here.”
Rhona pushed off the doorframe. “You left them closed?”
“I didn’t have a lot of space in my bedroom back in Queen’s Way. Unless I closed the drawers all the way, I’d always bang my hip. It’s just a habit now, but I’m certain everything was closed. I mean, not that anything in here is secret.”
My mouth dried, thinking of the journals. I extracted the key from my pocket and crouched to unlock the locked drawer. I exhaled loudly.
They were still here.
“I don’t like that someone was digging around,” Rhona said, eyes narrowing. “It’s not that they would have found anything. It’s that they did it at all. Does someone think you’re hiding something?”
If they were smart. “Maybe they knew more of Herc’s secrets.”
“You think Dad had other secrets?”
No matter what Pascal recollected from the rock-climbing incident, the words Herc exchanged with Murphy were still a mystery. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“I’m an open book.”
I pulled the journals free. “You’re anything but an open book. No one would ever know you have a gooey interior.”
“I’m not sure about that.”
“I am.” I locked the drawer again. Checking the contents of the top drawers, I clutched the journals tight to my chest.
Rhona followed me to the door. “You gonna lock the office door?”
“As long as nothing goes missing, I hope the person finds whatever they’re looking for.”
I’d check the hall cameras to see who came in. If someone was suspicious of me, I had to know who. “Look. Could you go on ahead to the meeting? I just remembered something.”
“Only because I yelled at you and feel remorse.”
Watching her leave, I asked for directions to the security office, and let myself in. A woman sat in there who defied the IT stereotype almost entirely. She turned and I caught sight of her Star Trek slogan tee. Well, nearly.
“Hi, I’m Andie.”
“I know. Nice to meet you. I’m Heather. Heather Sullivan.”
“Lovely to meet you.”
“Ha!”
I jolted, peering behind me. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing. Nervous thing. How can I help you?”
Maybe my initial judgement was way off base. “No problem. I’d like to look at the footage outside my office in the last three hours, please.”
“You got it, dude.” Typing rapidly, she cast me a look. “Remember Full House?”
“Uh, no. TV show?”
“Ha!” she barked. “Yep. More of a Truth Ranges fan myself.”
Hated that show. “Oh, cool. I’m not a big TV person.”
“Well, someone’s frozen eggs just got stolen. Like, egg eggs. Only the town serial killer can find them. I really hope he decides to help despite the murder addiction. I want her to have kids, and it’s nice to see a bit of redemption now and then, you know?”
She twiddled some intense-looking gear and pointed to a screen in the middle. I could see the entire hall. Herc’s office was halfway down.
“I’ll set it to triple speed. Let me know if you want me to stop,” she said.
“What are the security measures on the manor?” I watched the screen.
“Frequency generators, obvs. Heat detectors. They span the entire north side of the valley, covering all steward homes. There are cameras throughout the manor, and around. Everywhere but the bedrooms and bathrooms—because sex and nakedness. Ha!”
I blinked several times. “Of course. The grounds themselves?”
“Just the perimeter. Same with steward homes. Too expensive to have cameras everywhere. We just enclose our territory. Personally, I think it’d be nice to have audio capabilities on our security, too, but that’s another expense. Guess people deserve their privacy, but it would make my job a whole lot more interesting.”
Props to Sascha. He got through all that stuff undetected. “It’d be like real-life Truth Ranges.”
“Ha!” She covered her mouth. “Sorry. Not sure why that happens. People, I think.”
I struggled to keep a smile at bay. She had a disarming manner.
On the screen, someone entered Herc’s office. “Stop there.”
She paused the footage, rewinding a way.
I leaned forward and identified the person. “Oh, that’s no problem,” I lied. “Keep going.”
The footage kept rolling to the end, and I faked interest.
“Sorry you didn’t find whatever you were looking for,” Heather said.
But I did. “That’s okay. I really just wanted to pick your brains on security anyway. If you have any ideas on how to tighten the manor against werewolves, I’d be happy to hear them. We can’t have Luthers sneaking in.”
“It’d be pretty impossible for them to penetrate our defences, but I do have some ideas.”
Mmm-hmm. Impossible.
“Could you speak with Eleanor to arrange a time?”
“Ha!”
I’d take that as a yes. Leaving the security office, I strode away, clutching Ragna’s journals tightly.
Reaching the meeting room, I entered without preamble and sat, setting the leather-bound books on the desk.
She took the bait. Pascal’s eyes went straight to them.
And no wonder.
I’d mentioned Ragna’s journals to her in passing just before the head team left for pack lands. She’d either rushed straight to the office—forgoing the search for Rhona—or raced to search prior to this meeting while I was outside.
She was desperate enough to take the risk of entering despite the cameras in the hall.
I glanced at her, and she met my gaze with the same mild expression the woman always wore.
I smiled before shifting my focus.
Pascal wanted the journals.
Which meant there had to be something in them she didn’t want me to know.
8
I rubbed my eyes again.
“It’s easier than usual to find you unattractive,” Wade said.
“Thanks.” I sent him a withering glare. “I was up late. Not feeling so great.”
I’d finished the I’m 18 journal and learned not a single thing. The start of I’m 19 had so far proven to be mostly grief from the loss of Mum’s father. I must have fallen asleep in the early morning.
“You need more sleep,” Cameron said from his other side. “I can bring you some camomile tea, if you like?”
If I chewed on an entire packet, would it solve my problems? “That’d be great.”
Wade nudged Cameron. “Where’ve you been lately, anyway?” He gasped. “You have a lover.”
Snatching her hands, he stared into her eyes. “Forbidden. More real than anything you’ve ever felt.”
Cameron wrenched her hands free. “No lover.”
“Whatever. My power is foolproof.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets, watching stewards assemble for the Tuesday night rundown. “Go
tta say, he was bang on about Logan.”
“He’s wrong this time,” Cameron muttered, walking away.
“It isn’t easy to carry so much power,” Wade said. “I better go schmooze. She’s a grudge holder.”
I watched him leave, waving at the Freys. There was a never-ending list of stewards to know—Geralds, Ryans, Trenthams, Lees. I had no idea how I’d remember them all. Pretty sure I’d offend several people tonight by not recalling their names.
“You good to go?” Rhona said, joining me.
I’d rather not.
Turned out, while I had no problem playing my saxophone for crowds, talking wasn’t the same. I forced my thoughts away from the stupid instrument. “Yeah.”
I startled at the harshness of my voice.
“Whoa.” She grinned. “Intense. You sick or something?”
I forced a laugh. “Something caught in my throat.”
“Just saying though, the name Andie works no matter your gender.”
Shoving her, I climbed the stairs.
Channelling Rhona from last week, I tapped the microphone. Things like this were so much easier if I pretended to be her. She didn’t take shit from anyone. Squaring my shoulders, I waited for the tribe to quieten.
Last week, Rhona commanded them, pretending to be me.
I could do this.
“Stewards, welcome to our tribal lands. Welcome.” Totally borrowed that line. “Thank you for your effort in Water last week. It’s never easy to face failure, but I can assure you the next meeting in Water won’t end the same. Next week’s battle is in Iron, and I’ve heard this is a particular strength of ours.”
The crowd exchanged smiles.
“I look forward to seeing the Luthers retreat, tails between their legs.” The harsh darkness returned to my voice. Jesus, maybe I’d come down with something. I cleared my throat. “We’ve always dominated Iron, but the real danger to us in this grid is complacency. Face this grid as you’d face Water. The worst thing we can do is assume a win. I wager that the leader of the Luthers is taking the opportunity with Iron that I took with Water. He wants to seek out our weaknesses. Don’t let him find any.”
I let the seriousness of my words sink in. Their smug smiles were gone. Good. “The strategy teams have outdone themselves in readiness. Soon, Valerie and Nathan will take you through final strategies, and I hope our plan excites you as much as it excites me. Before they do that, I want to take the chance to thank each and every steward for their ongoing effort. Your job, whether in our various businesses, in deliveries or security, or in strategy, is crucial. I will never be unaware of that—and I will never be complacent—even if I don’t know all your names yet.” I slanted them a grin as chuckles arose.
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