“Do we have the bucks for it?”
Gwen knew her brother wouldn’t like charity any better than she did. “He said he’d do it for free, at least until you find out if you like it or not. After that, we’ll work it out somehow.”
“I’ll think on it.”
She dredged up a smile. “Good. I have his cell phone number if you want to talk to him.”
“Word. I’ll let you know what I decide.”
It was time to leave him to his own thoughts. Even though Harvey Fletcher might never be more than a name to her brother, it was more of his father than he’d ever had.
“I’m going to bed.”
“See you in the morning, Sis.”
She paused in the doorway. “And I am sorry I handled this so badly, Chase.”
He ignored the apology. “I may be gone before you’re up in the morning. Mr. James wants to get an early start, before it gets too hot. I should be home in time to help with afternoon chores, but I’ll call if I’m going to be late.”
“Sounds good.” It also sounded like Jarvis’s pointed remark might have done some good. Maybe spending some time with him would be good for her brother.
Honesty made her admit that having Jarvis around would definitely be good for her. Her lips tingled, remembering his kiss. But Jarvis had a life, a job, things to do. If he was willing to spend part of his time with one of the Moselys, it was best spent with her brother.
Feeling more tired than ever, she headed upstairs to her lonely bed.
Jake looked up from his computer when Jarvis walked into the medical lab. “Where have you been all evening?”
Rather than answer, Jarvis studied the screen over his friend’s shoulder. “How has the barrier been tonight?”
“Quiet, but you knew that. If it had gone down, you would have felt it, too. Which reminds me, did you ever find your sword?”
“No, but I haven’t exactly been looking for it.”
“Found something better to do with your time?” Jake turned around to face Jarvis directly. “So how is the delectable Gwen Mosely?”
“What makes you think she’s delectable?” Jarvis pretended an interest in a stack of printouts on the table, though he knew his friend wouldn’t back off. Once Jake decided to pursue something, there was no stopping him.
“I’ve seen her picture.” Jake gave him a snarky smile. “When I was checking into Harvey Fletcher’s past, I decided to look into the Moselys’ background, too. The boy’s aggression is definitely causing him problems at school, but that’s no surprise. And it seems Ms. Gwen Mosely has earned some awards for her knitting and design.” He rooted through a pile of folders, pulled one out, then handed it to Jarvis. “I printed out the newspaper reports, including a couple with her picture. Love the freckles.”
“Go to hell, Jake,” Jarvis muttered with no real heat. As usual, his friend had done a thorough job. “What did you find out about Fletcher? Anything safe to share with the boy?”
“It’s all there, too. I couldn’t find much, even when I hacked into the Regents’ main computer files. You know they keep any records of us to the minimum.”
Yeah, and he knew there were good reasons for the secrecy. But how many countless Paladins had lived and died, passing through this world without even their names being remembered? He tried not to think about it too much, but sometimes the whole damned system pissed him off.
“I owe you for this, Jake.”
“How about that game of chess you promised, and we’ll call it even?”
“Okay, one game. The doc gave me strict orders not to wear you out.”
Jake rolled his eyes as he set up the board on the bedside table. “Yeah, lying here and being waited on hand and foot is just so exhausting.”
“He just wants you out of here as fast as possible.” He moved his pawn. “They always do.”
Anything to get them back out in the caves, where they could die all over again. “Your move.”
Jake countered. “So when are you going to see them again?”
“After I figure out the best way to approach the boy. Gwen was going to let him make the decision about martial arts.” He kept his eyes firmly on the board. “He definitely needs the discipline training will give him.”
“How will the sister react?”
“She’s worried about the cost, but understands the need.”
“So how much are you charging her? Or are you willing to take it out in trade?”
Jarvis’s vision turned red and his hands shot out to squeeze his friend’s neck. “Don’t ever say anything like that again! Understand?”
He loosened his hold long enough for Jake to gasp, “Oh, yeah, I understand.”
Jarvis dropped his hands and slouched back in his chair, pretending he hadn’t just attacked a friend, all over a woman he’d met only twice. And kissed once, which made all the difference.
Instead of being angry, though, Jake grinned at him even as he rubbed the red marks Jarvis had left on his throat.
His temper flashed hot again. “Damn it, you did that deliberately, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but only to make a point.”
“And what’s that?” Although Jarvis already knew.
“I believe that you’re worried about Chase Mosely needing help in becoming a Paladin.” He reached down to capture Jarvis’s knight. “But if you think that he’s the only one you’re interested in, you’re lying to yourself.”
Rather than acknowledge his friend’s direct hit, Jarvis studied the board. He’d better start paying more attention to the game because his queen was in danger. Forcing himself to put Gwen Mosely out of his thoughts, he countered Jake’s move and went on the attack. The sooner they finished this game, the sooner he could escape his friend’s knowing looks.
The chess match had ended in a draw. The two of them were evenly matched, and normally Jarvis enjoyed the challenge of trying to best Jake. But he’d been relieved when Jake had said he was tired and ready to crash for a while.
Jarvis let himself out of Jake’s room and took the file on the two Moselys and good old Harvey back to his quarters. Once he’d decided how much to tell Chase and how much to hide from Gwen, he’d wrangle another invitation to dinner.
On the way, he’d check out the woods to see if he could recover his sword. Besides it being one of his favorites, he didn’t want to risk having Chase or Gwen stumble across it. So far, neither of them had asked many questions about how he’d come to be cut up in their woods. Chase was probably used to letting his sister do most of the worrying for them both, but Jarvis was surprised that she’d all but ignored the issue of his injuries.
He’d like to think it was because she trusted him, but it probably had more to do with turning a blind eye to the situation because of the possibility of getting some help for her brother. Maybe she’d even managed to convince herself that he’d been the victim of an accident rather than an attack. But if one of the dogs led her to the sword, she’d be in his face about it.
The Regents wouldn’t be at all happy about a civilian getting involved in Paladin business, but that wasn’t Jarvis’s problem. If the bastards staffed the local sector adequately, he wouldn’t have been out in the woods hunting an Other all by himself. Considering the fact that there’d been a pack of those crazed killers running loose, the Regents were lucky not to have lost Jarvis permanently.
When he passed through the cave that revealed the largest stretch of the barrier, he paused to study its condition. For the moment it appeared to be stable, but that could change from one second to the next. He’d defended his world with steel and with blood too many times to count, and he’d continue to do so until he lost the battle to hold on to his humanity.
It wasn’t much of a future to offer Chase Mosely, but facing his choices head-on was a damn sight better than always fighting against his true nature. With help, Chase would learn to manage his temper and strength, funneling all of that aggression against an appropriate target.
>
The barrier shimmered and thinned. Son of a bitch—it was on the verge of going down! Jarvis hit the alarm button on the wall to summon the troops. Running to grab his sword in his room, he tossed the file on his bed, sending the papers flying everywhere. There’d be time to clean the mess up after the battle—if he lived through it.
“Jarvis isn’t answering his cell.” Chase dropped the phone in its cradle with almost enough force to break it. “I’ve been trying for three days already.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Chase. That’s the number he gave me.” Gwen studied the sweater she’d been working on and decided that the new pattern was working out. If it turned out as well as she expected it to, she’d make a tidy profit on marketing the design. “He said he was staying in the area for the summer, but maybe he got called back to St. Louis for some reason.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t explain why he’s not answering his cell phone. That’s the whole reason people carry them, so they can be reached anywhere, anytime.”
Deciding she’d done enough knitting for one evening, she set the project aside, then stretched her arms and flexed her fingers to get the kinks out. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of man who would go back on his word. He promised to teach you, so I have to think he will.”
“Yeah, well, how much do we know really know about him?” Chase paced the floor, his long legs eating up the distance in jerky steps. “We never did find out who cut him up that night.”
“If you’re that worried about it, ask him.”
She was so not in the mood for this, wishing Jarvis were right there in front of her so she could give him a piece of her mind. If he’d changed his mind about helping Chase, all he had to do was call. As disappointed as she and Chase would be, at least they wouldn’t be jumping every time the phone rang, hoping to hear Jarvis’s voice.
“I’m going to bed.”
“Good night.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Chase clicked off the television and stomped out of the room. She didn’t need his attitude, but right now she didn’t have the energy to deal with it. Even if he did have a legitimate gripe with Jarvis, he shouldn’t take it out on her.
She needed to lose herself in some mindless television before facing her bed. Alone. As the opening music for the nightly news came on, she realized that it wasn’t just Jarvis’s broken promise about the martial arts that had her upset. No, it was the promise of that single kiss that hurt the most. As handsome as he was, Jarvis probably had women lined up from here to St. Louis and back, all wanting a piece of his action.
It hurt to think that the kiss that had curled her toes and fried her brain had meant so little to him. Common sense and any handy mirror should have warned her that she was out of his class. A small-town farm girl probably held little appeal for a man like Jarvis.
The worried look on the newscaster’s face caught her attention, breaking up her pity party. She caught the tail end of his spiel, delivered in a suitably somber manner.
“…the shallow earthquakes have been rolling through the boot-heel region of the state and down into northern Arkansas and western Tennessee and Kentucky for the past three days. These cluster quakes finally slowed to a stop earlier this evening and show no immediate sign of resuming. Experts tell us that the quakes are too slight for most humans to notice, although there have been reports of animals exhibiting some skittish behavior in the areas surrounding the epicenter of this seismic activity.”
He paused to take a breath and pasted on a bright smile before continuing. “And how about them Cards today? We’ll be back with all the top sports stories after this commercial.”
No wonder the alpacas had been restless. Normally they were placid creatures, happy to graze and hang out with their herd. But for the past couple of days, they’d spent most of their time clustered together in one corner of the pasture, grazing only intermittently. It was a relief to have a reasonable explanation. If their odd behavior had continued for another day, she would’ve called the vet out, an expense she could ill afford when nothing was obviously wrong.
She started flipping channels, looking for something to hold her interest. She finally picked a repeat of an old detective show, figuring since she knew how it turned out, she wouldn’t have to concentrate much. The minutes slipped by as she watched the star of the show pull together the right answer to the mystery again, the way he did every week.
Wouldn’t life be simpler if she could wrap up every problem that she’d ever faced in sixty minutes, with time out for commercials? Of course, if she was going to live out her life in a television series, she didn’t want to do it in a rumpled suit, looking at crime scenes.
But as far as she knew, they’d never made a show about a woman who raised alpacas, spent her evening hours knitting, and had no social life at all. Who’d want to watch it? It was boring enough to live it.
Obviously her pity party was back in full swing. She’d be better off going to bed and reading herself to sleep. After turning off the television, she checked the doors. When she looked out on the porch, both dogs were asleep. Dozer lifted his head briefly, thumping his tail before going back to sleep.
She turned out the lights and trudged upstairs, wishing she had something more exciting waiting for her than a stack of unread books.
Jarvis stumbled out of bed, feeling more hungover than rested. Before he’d taken his second step, something sharp jabbed into his big toe.
“Damn it, what idiot left all this crap all over the floor?”
Stupid question. This was his room, therefore it was his mess, making him the idiot. As brain dead as he was feeling, it was a pretty accurate assessment of his mental capacity. He blinked his bleary eyes, trying to make sense of the papers scattered on the carpet. When he spotted the black-and-white picture of Gwen Mosely, it all came rushing back. He’d tossed the folder of information from Jake on the bed six days ago. Six long days ago.
God, he hurt all over. Too much to bend over to pick it all up. Maybe after a shower his brain and body would function well enough to do that without keeling over. Twelve hours of sleep hadn’t come close to making up for day upon day of nonstop fighting.
At least nobody from his side of the barrier had died this time. Toward the end, even Jake had been well enough to join the party. It had felt damn good to have his friend back. They were used to fighting together, instinctively knowing what the other would do in any situation.
The Regents had finally brought in some replacements just as the earthquakes had come to an abrupt stop as inexplicably as they’d started. The new guys hadn’t gotten into the fight, but at least they could stand guard, allowing the locals time to mend and catch up on their sleep.
He’d have still been in bed if his body hadn’t woken him up screaming for a bathroom and food, in that order. Which reminded him, his toe was still hurting. He looked at it and spotted a staple sticking into it. After plucking it out, he headed to the bathroom, knowing the small wound would heal by the time he got out of the shower.
Twenty minutes later, he was dressed and feeling better for the shower and shave. It was early yet, with an entire day stretched out before him with nothing to do that involved picking up a sword. Sweet!
Back in his bedroom, he gathered up all the papers and shoved them back into their folder. Once he had breakfast in front of him, he could take his time sorting through the papers. He couldn’t wait to see what Jake had managed to dig out.
When he picked up his cell phone, he noticed it was dead. He dug out the charger and plugged it in. The screen lit up, showing a bunch of missed calls. He scanned the list and one number immediately caught his eye. Son of a bitch, Chase Mosely had been trying to call him for days. Or maybe it had been Gwen, but that didn’t feel right.
He suspected she was old-fashioned enough to want the guy to do the calling, at least at the beginning of a relationship—not that they had one. He checked the voice messages. Just as he’d suspected, the boy had
called. He’d left a couple of messages, his voice sounding more uncertain on the third one; by the fourth his temper was showing. The last one consisted of a couple of words that Gwen probably wouldn’t have appreciated her brother using, but Jarvis didn’t take it personally. He’d ended the call with a pissed-off “Oh, just forget it.”
Shit! Jarvis tossed the phone down on the dresser, resisting the urge to take his foul mood out on an innocent piece of electronics. No wonder Chase was angry. Jarvis had told Gwen his cell number was good day or night. He’d forgotten to mention that he might be too busy killing to answer right away.
He slammed out of the room with the folder, wondering what lie would convince the Moselys he hadn’t ignored their calls. Where could he have been for six days where he didn’t get cell phone service? “In hell” was hardly an answer that either of them would believe, much less understand.
He was known as a problem solver, but the lack of caffeine and food was definitely affecting his ability to think rationally. Maybe after he got a meal and about a gallon of coffee under his belt he could figure out what to do next.
The cafeteria was mostly empty, but he was glad to spot Jake sitting by himself in the far corner. After piling a tray high with eggs, bacon, and hash browns, he snagged a full pot of coffee and carried it all to the table.
Jake acknowledged him with a weary nod, but didn’t speak. For the next fifteen minutes the two of them quietly shoveled in their breakfast, punctuating every few bites with a swig of coffee. Jarvis gradually started to feel better, although he still didn’t have more than the minimal energy it took to lift a fork.
Jake held out his cup for a refill. “You’re looking a little gray around the edges there, boss.”
“I feel like a truck ran over me and then backed up for a second run. If the barrier doesn’t stay up for at least a week, I may impale myself on my own sword just to get some rest.”
His friend snickered. “Doc Crosby said if he saw me around the lab again anytime soon, he was going to quit. I guess I wasn’t the best of company.”
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