Kat took a seat on the bench and exhaled slowly. She couldn’t believe that Lauren had been gone for a little over a month now. It still didn’t seem real, and her guilt continued to consume her even though she knew there had been nothing within her power to stop it from happening.
But a part of her always wondered if her life would be different now if she had insisted on going with them that fateful January morning. Then Kat would have never been kidnapped and Lauren would still be alive.
But she hadn’t intervened, so Kat had gotten kidnapped, and the other dealer had ambushed Lauren’s convoy and killed her. Without Kat there to go in and help, Lauren had lost her life, along with their humans. Ariel had barely survived, and Wyatt had done nothing, even when Jason had given him the all clear to assist.
“Hey,” Jason said softly but still startled her.
“Hey, babe,” she wiped her face quickly then turned to study him. “Shouldn’t you be in court?”
“I decided to play hooky,” he helped her up. “I figured if you could skip your astronomy class, than I could skip court. How are you holding up this morning?” There was genuine concern in his eyes as he pulled his handkerchief from his inner coat pocket and handed it to her.
“I’m good. Council seems to like me acting like the broken-hearted best friend.”
“But you are the broken-hearted best friend.” He brushed the hair out of her face, “So maybe you shouldn’t come here as often.”
“I like it here,” she shrugged. “It makes me feel like I’m closer to her.” Kat took in Jason’s loosened tie and disheveled hair. “Are you okay?”
“I’ve had better days.” He slung his arm over her shoulder and guided her to the Town Car. “Would you mind taking your husband out for lunch?”
“I never mind taking you anywhere,” she smiled. “But I did bring my truck.”
“Right,” he looked at her Land Rover, then at their Town Car. Their chauffeur was leaning against the hood. “Okay, I’ll drive us home. Hey, Daniel, we’re going to take my wife’s truck back, thanks for the ride.”
“No problem, Mr. McCarthy, have a good afternoon.”
“Thanks, you too,” Jason took her hand into his as they strolled to the truck. “Are you craving anything in particular?”
“Not really.” She got into the Land Rover, “You?”
“Um…roasted chicken with some salad and wild rice.”
“That’s what I made for dinner last night.”
“Exactly,” he winked at her as he started the engine. “How often do we get to go home in the middle of the day? I’m not turning down a chance to spend the afternoon with you and your delicious home-cooking.” He kissed the back of her hand. “And maybe afterward we can make a trip to deposit some cash into our Swiss bank account. Then we can stop in Tennessee, so I can show you that piece of land I’ve told you about...”
“Where’d you get the money?”
“Did you really want to know?” He drove the car out of the cemetery parking lot and headed toward their house.
“Yeah, you disappeared this morning while I was in the shower.”
“I got back way before you ever got out—”
“You thought I had gotten in the shower, but I really didn’t. I followed you and saw you leave, since I had a feeling you were up to something.”
He matched her stare for a moment then relented. “It’s just a prescription drug thing I’ve got going on between the New York-Canadian borders.”
“So we’re taking advantage of the unsuspecting human elderly?”
“Hey, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and I sell it to them for a hell of a lot cheaper than their insurance companies will, so it’s a winwin situation for everyone involved.”
“We can make a lot more if you let me get in good with that Columbian drug lord that supplies John’s company.”
“Absolutely not, those guys are cutthroat, and wouldn’t hesitate killing you.”
“But you can do it?”
“I don’t deal with those guys. My connection is with the mafia.”
“Ha, and that’s better?”
“We’re doing good, babe. If we’re getting close to the departure date and don’t have at least half a million in savings beforehand, then we can consider a few extras on the side…with some of our more unsavory contacts.”
“Have you thought about when that might be?” She asked after a few moments passed because both of them had gotten lost in their own thoughts.
“Soon, I’m thinking once we hit that figure, and get the house built, we can take off.”
“Have you thought of a solution for the teleporter? I was thinking we can use one of the power plants in Russia since they have them slated—”
“Not just no, Kat, but hell no,” he said. “You aren’t getting mixed up with those guys again—”
“Jason, it’s a viable solution—”
“I said no!” He shouted, and the light they were waiting at exploded.
The casing teetered precariously on its wire for several seconds, then collapsed on to the street just inches away from the car in front of them. The driver and passenger of that vehicle exited and stared at the debris for a long moment. Then the driver, seemingly coming out of his shocked state, walked cautiously to the front of the vehicle, and inspected the smoldering metal case.
He called something out to the woman who had remained standing behind the passenger side door, then hurried back into the vehicle, and maneuvered around the broken casing. They sped off. Then Jason slowly drove around the debris. Kat stared at the still sizzling piece of machinery as they drove past it.
They sat in silence for the remainder of the car ride, and when he pulled into the garage, she went to the kitchen and started reheating the leftovers. She heard him step into the room, and wasn’t surprised when he wrapped his arms around her waist, then kissed the back of her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Jason,” she turned to face him. “You really have to get this under control.”
“Kat—”
“No,” she interrupted. “Listen to me. I am not interested in being with anyone else. I love you. And I don’t want to see something happen to you, babe. Seriously, if someone ever witnesses you losing control like that, life would get so…complicated.” She could have worded that differently, but saying it out loud would have broken her heart. The thought of someone being assigned to terminate him was too much for her to bear.
“Kat, I know that going to Russia would be a good way out for us, but I can’t do it, not if it means you having to pimp yourself out to someone.”
“I wouldn’t be pimping myself out,” she snapped. “Jason, I am not going to be with someone for the sake of finding us a way out of this life. That’s exactly why I want out of this life! I hate that they can force me to be with someone I don’t want to be with. And don’t interrupt me.” She held up her finger when he went to interject, “You need to get this under control. You need to stop losing your temper. And you have to trust me.”
“I do trust you—”
“You don’t, not if you think I’m going to go in there and do something that I know would hurt you. I wouldn’t, that’s part of loving someone, Jason.” She ran her fingers through her hair, “Can we try to work on keeping the jealous rants to a minimum?”
“Yeah,” he stared at her for a moment. “Yes, I will keep my jealous rants to a minimum, because I don’t ever want you to think that I don’t trust you, because I do, so accept my apology.”
“Fine,” she sighed. She really was getting tired of the constant power struggles. She understood he was strong, and she got that he wasn’t getting the proper training, but to lose it every time he got jealous was getting annoying despite her sympathy for his plight. “Are you okay?” She pulled his tie free and stared up at him. He had clearly had a bad day, and she was sure their argument hadn’t helped it.
Jason pulled the plate from the microwave and put the second dish in
. He picked up the warmed food, dropped the dish onto the table, then made his way to the refrigerator and served lemonade into both of their glasses. He took a seat and waited until Kat grabbed her plate from the microwave and sat beside him before he took a bite from his plate.
“You wanna talk about it?” Kat asked.
“I’m just fed up.” He pushed his plate away and sat back. “It’s so frustrating pretending to care about something I don’t give a crap about, while I’m pretending to not care about the only thing that I do.”
“Are the other interns still giving you a hard time?”
“I got into a fight.” He sighed as he wrapped his fingers together and placed them on top of his head.
“Seriously?” She studied him for a second, “As in a fist fight?”
“Yeah, as in, I grabbed this pencil-dick’s neck and almost snapped it.” He chuckled as he rubbed his hands over his face, and then took one of her hands into his. “This dude has just been pushing and pushing since I joined the case. He was the first to make the comments about me being a daddy’s boy and how I chose my wife the way a politician chooses his running mate.”
“Is that what prompted the fight?”
“Nah, I just let that stuff roll off of my back. I kinda don’t blame them for being bitter. These guys have all finished their Bachelor degrees, and are in their second year of law school, and they had to fight to get their spots. I guess if the shoe were on the other foot, I’d be pissed too.”
“Hey, this is the way stuff works with humans. What was it that Lauren always said? Wasn’t it something about it’s not what you know…”
“Yeah, it’s who you know...I get it, but it doesn’t make it right.”
“So what happened? I don’t understand how you got into a fight if you’re so sympathetic.”
“That one dude, well he started calling me Pedi the other day. He was like, hey Pedi, can you read up on that one case or, hey Pedi, can you head down to the library and pull that one book? So I tell him this morning that I bite, what’s with the name, and he says its short for pedophile, which is what I should be since I was banging a minor—”
“What?”
“Yeah, that’s what he said, banging a minor,” he sounded disgusted as he stood and walked to the window. “It took everything I had to keep calm, Kat. That douche-bag doesn’t have a right to say that stuff about you. That’s going way beyond some snub comment because he’s bitter—”
“He knew that all that other stuff wasn’t bothering you.” She stood behind him and wrapped her arms around him, “So he latched on to the one thing that he knew would ruffle your feathers.”
“Well, he succeeded, because after we exchanged a few words, and he refused to back off with the name calling and stupid comments, I lost it.”
“Jason, you can’t let people like him get to you—”
“People like him are everywhere! Do you see what they write about us in the tabloids? And I know you’re exhausted from being followed around all the time—”
“It’s not for much longer.”
“I know,” he sighed and leaned against the counter. “Could you imagine living like this forever? Always in the spotlight? Always having to pretend?”
“A year ago, I didn’t think we had a choice, but now there’s hope, we might be able to live normal lives if we just stay focused.”
“So I can’t go in tomorrow and finish killing him?”
“Um, yeah, murder is definitely not something we want to be remembered for.” She kissed him, “So just ignore him.”
“Your dad said he’d be by later, so I’ll find out what happened.”
“Why would dad know?”
“He just so happened to walk in as the guys were prying me off him.”
“And?” She asked when he looked off into the distance.
“So I couldn’t downplay it because he heard enough of the exchange to put together what went down, and he was just as pissed by the time I noticed him.”
“So you just left? You didn’t stick around to find out what the end result was?”
“No,” he pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. “He had come down there to ask me to come and get you.”
“Why?”
“Because our wedding album was delivered this morning, and he didn’t want you coming home and finding it by yourself. I guess he asked that it be sent to his house, but someone dropped the ball, and its here.”
“Oh,” was all she could think to say.
“Did you want to look through it?” He asked after a moment.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I do.”
She took a seat at the table and pushed their untouched plates aside so he could lay the album before them. They laughed a lot, and she cried at some, while they flipped through the pages. The photographer had done an amazing job of capturing every moment beautifully. And her beautiful Lauren was in almost every picture, so it warmed her heart, and saddened her all at once.
Just as they turned the last few pages, their watches chimed indicating that, not one, but two teleportations had been made into their home. Jason hid the photo album in the pantry, while Kat wiped her face clean and forced herself to eat her cold meal.
“Knock, knock,” Ariel stepped into the room with Wyatt and two other people.
“Hey,” Kat feigned surprise.
“No work today?” Wyatt asked Jason as he took the seat beside him.
“I went in this morning, but we have a photo shoot with one of those magazines this afternoon. Which one was it this time, Katarina?”
“Um, I’m not sure, maybe Redbook?” She eyed their company. The female was very tall and slender. She, of course, had red hair and green eyes. But her hair was a deep red, almost bordering on purple. And she wore Goth-styled clothing, which was a first for Kat to behold. “Have a seat. Can I offer you guys anything?” The guy wasn’t as tall as Jason or Wyatt, and his hair was long. The brown tendrils fell in layers and ended at his shoulders. She couldn’t tell if he was wearing contacts, but if he wasn’t, then he was the first brown-eyed Hybrid she had ever encountered.
“No, thank you.” Ariel answered. “We’re not staying long. We just wanted to swing by and introduce you to the newest members of our team. This is Sasha and Brody.”
“Blessed be,” Kat and Jason said in unison.
“Blessed be,” they replied as they took seats.
“I guess they scheduled a formal introduction for us, but someone realized that you two have some dinner planned for the same time, so we just wanted to swing by since we probably won’t be seeing much of each other beyond this.”
“Oh,” Kat said wishing she could reach for Jason’s hand so she could provide some comfort. “Are one of you comm?”
“I am,” Sasha said. “And Brody will be replacing Lauren on foot patrol.”
“That’s great news, Ariel,” Jason said. “You got a whole team again.”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “We wanted to say thanks for the triple duty, we realize it’s been hectic with all of your responsibilities.”
“It’s no problem.” He pushed the food around his plate.
“I’ll see you tomorrow in class?” Wyatt said as he stood and walked toward the door.
“Yeah,” Jason assured him. “It was nice meeting you, Sasha and Brady—”
“Brody,” he corrected.
“Right, sorry about that.” Jason stood and walked with them, his fake smile and enthusiasm in place. “Tell me a little bit about yourself,” she heard him ask just before they stepped from the room.
Kat took the back staircase to their bedroom then walked into their spacious closet and stood before Jason’s dresser. She pulled the second drawer open and shifted the socks over, then pulled the small piece of false wood from the panel. She had found it quite by accident one day when she was putting laundry away.
She hadn’t wanted to say that she found it, especially because it was a just an old postcard, but several weeks ago, she
had been putting away laundry, and saw the false bottom slightly off, so she peeled it back and found a picture of the six of them. It was the picture David’s camera had captured just moments before his death. She lifted it now and studied each of their faces. She focused on David, then Lauren, which made the hollowness in her chest feeling like dead weight.
“We were a good team,” Jason said making her jump.
“Jason,” she said. “I’m sorry. I found it a few weeks back…I didn’t mean to invade your privacy, I just—”
“It’s not hidden there to keep it from you,” he pulled her against him and looked down at the picture. “It’s there to hide it from everyone else.”
“Are you okay?” She asked.
“Yeah, at least I knew it was coming. I mean, Elder Jay made it pretty clear that my days of being on missions were numbered. I guess they were just in a pinch with so many people…”
The words hung in the air and saddened her further. “What’s this one?” She pulled the postcard out of its spot. She knew that he wanted to back pedal to alleviate any pain the sentence had caused, so she figured changing the subject was a good idea.
“That was from my best friend.” He chuckled as he flipped it over and read the juvenile handwriting, “Brandon Stapler. We went to kindergarten and first grade together. He was hilarious…he did the best impressions.”
“Do you still talk to him?” She read the back of the card and smiled; it was sweet. She flipped it over and studied the picture of Graceland.
“He died,” Jason whispered. “That was the day that I finally admitted to myself that I was different. That I was nothing like my parents or Wyatt,” he shook his head.
“You knew Wyatt then?”
“Yeah, I’ve known him my entire life; it’s always been the two of us. I guess they set it up that way so that there’d be a history there for when I became president and appointed him secretary of defense.”
Kat didn’t think Wyatt was the best person for that particular job—or any job that involved him having to interact with Hybrids or humans. “What happened to Brandon?”
Sleeper Cells Page 23