by Dale Mayer
“No,” Connor interjected quickly. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Are you satisfied that the star charts are going to be safe here?” Matt asked with a gentle smile.
Safe? She pondered that word then decided honesty was the best option. “I’m satisfied that they’ve been logged in and will be respected here.”
“You can also stay here to keep an eye on things,” Matt said.
He opened his mouth to add something when a man hurriedly approached from the doorway. He reached Matt and bent down to whisper into his ear. Matt’s face shuttered, and he motioned to Connor and said as he stood up, “If you will excuse the two of us for a few moments.”
She nodded, her gaze following the two men.
“The experts are excited to see these artifacts,” the old man said. “They are rare.”
For the first time, one of the younger two men spoke up. “Stargazers have always been of the people, for the people. Your grandmother’s work should be available for everyone.”
His voice instantly set off her nerves. His words immediately set off her inner alarms.
Silence.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said very, very softly. “I presume you are someone who treated my granny as if she was a leper. I suggest you don’t go down that road again.”
He leaned forward, his gaze harder than rock. “And if I do…?”
She leaned forward, her hackles rising. “Then as far as I am concerned, the star charts were better off back in my cottage.”
The smile that stole across his face sent ice through her veins. “Now, isn’t that too bad? Nothing that comes here ever leaves, and now that we know there are more available, you can be sure we’ll be going to the courts to force you to hand them over.”
*
Connor strode quickly behind Matt, trying to keep up with him. What the hell had happened this time? He hated to leave Genesis alone right now. She had no idea who those men were. Not that he knew much, but Matt and those men had been arguing steadily before her arrival.
The Portmans were men of power – and secrecy. They had little give in them. The oldest was just called Portman. His son was Portman Senior and the young upstart of a son was Portman Jr.
But he still didn’t understand their role here.
And Genesis would have no idea of the power plays going on. She wouldn’t like them if she knew. She had no patience for politics. He remembered her granny had been the same. He’d never really known her. Now with Genesis, he wished he’d had the chance and taken the time while she was still alive.
Now, like with so many things in his life – hindsight was wonderful. He forced his thoughts back to the present. He needed some answers.
“Matt, what’s going on?”
“It looks like Grandfather has heard that you are here.”
Connor’s footsteps faltered. Damn. How had that happened so fast? “I’ll need to talk to him privately.”
“This is Grandfather we’re talking about. He doesn’t do anything privately.”
Sure enough, the sound of shouting and raised voices reached them from down at the end of the hallway. Damn it. Why could nothing be easy?
“You ready for this?” Matt asked quietly. “He’s not going to take you quitting – or jumping ship, as he’s going to say – easily.”
“No, he’s not.” And he had good reason. “He brought me out here to do a job.”
“And have you done it?”
Connor gave Matt a hard look. “It’s in progress.”
Matt studied him carefully then nodded. “How long do you need to wrap it up?”
“It’s overlapping yours now, and a personal problem has just stepped up into priority.”
“Genesis?”
“Partially.”
They reached the doorway to the meeting room and stood, waiting for the noise to die down.
Instead, Grandfather caught sight of Matt and started toward them, but then his gaze landed on Connor and he veered slightly off-course to bring him directly in line with his new target. From the raging emotion creasing his features, Connor knew he was about to get blasted.
He braced himself. “Hello, Grandfather, what’s the problem?”
He felt more than heard Matt’s snicker.
Grandfather came to a complete stop. For all his size and lion’s mane of pure white hair, he appeared to be at a loss for words. Connor’s question had taken the stuffing out of him.
“What are you doing here?” Grandfather asked abruptly.
“It’s personal.” Connor said quietly.
“Ha. You’re on my payroll while you’re here. There’s no personal time on my watch.”
“I have a lot of time coming; I took some.”
Grandfather shook his head as if gearing up for a shouting match when Matt intervened.
“He was attacked. He’s been recuperating. You might want to consider you sent your man out on a dangerous mission alone. He had no backup and no way to get help when he ran into trouble.”
“What?” Grandfather roared. “What do you mean you were attacked? By whom? When? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he’s not back to normal yet,” Matt said, his voice full of exasperation. “Now, can we tone down the damn yelling, please?” He strode into the conference-style room, all in dark mahogany and austere trimmings, and pointed to the set of chairs at the table. “And how about sitting down to discuss this like normal people instead?”
Connor immediately pretended to look like he had a roaring headache – which didn’t take much acting, as one had started building the minute he heard Grandfather was here. That man wasn’t given to patience and understanding. He was all about power and taking what he wanted. Life was for the strong, according to him. The weak were the ones who were used – and used up – in the process. That was where they belonged – under his feet. Connor was ashamed to admit that it had been easy to ignore Grandfather’s supposed underhanded practices while he worked out of town and involved in work he loved. Now however…
With the loss of his senses, he’d had a chance to re-evaluate many things in life. If Grandfather had known, Connor would have been assigned a desk job.
Or fired.
Instantly.
“Connor, explain why you came here and didn’t report in.”
It didn’t take long. Connor gave him a brief explanation of his attack at the caves, and Genesis finding him and bringing him to safety.
And he could see on the man’s face just how little Grandfather liked that bit of news.
Chapter 26
Genesis sat motionless on the edge of the bed she’d shared last night with Connor. Her mind flitted from option to option to option as she turned to calm the panic firing inside.
She was leaving the Center. Now. The only question was how. Besides the fact that her nerves were shot, her stomach now knotted in fear, and her breathing so agitated it was hard to gulp enough air to function, she knew she wasn’t safe here. What she didn’t know was if the star charts were, either. She wanted them to be. They were a huge burden on her and her sisters, and as they weren’t here, they were a weight she carried alone.
But she didn’t have to. She could take them back home and keep them hidden.
She chewed on her bottom lip. But could she? Would she be allowed to remove them? Or was it a case of they were here now and here they were going to stay, as the youngest Portman had said?
She held out her hand and looked at it, hating the fine tremor that slid through her fingers. There was another solution. Not only did she need to go to her shop tomorrow, having missed two days of being open, but she could pull another trick Granny had taught her. And until she had the assurances she needed, she could make sure the star charts would be safe, too. Maybe. It was the best she could do. The boxes were in a sealed chamber. Everyone would be working from the images now. So if Granny’s trick worked, she might be able to pull this off. At least, long enough to make sure
she’d made the right decision.
The three men downstairs, now they’d been scary. And damn if she wasn’t still afraid of them.
A gentle knock sounded on her door.
She got up and walked over.
A steward stood there. “Connor said to tell you that he was going to be a couple of hours yet, but if you’d care to come down for dinner, he’ll join you as soon as he could.”
She smiled. “Thank you for delivering the message. Is there any way I could get a ride to my store? My vehicle is there,” she said, forcing a sheepish-looking grin, “and I’d like to go there and take care of a few things.”
“I can arrange for a ride. Do you wish to go now or after your dinner?”
She pretended to give it a moment’s thought, but inside her mind was screaming, Go now. Get out while you can.
“Now would be better. Maybe Connor will be done by the time I get back.”
“Good enough. Say five minutes at the front door?”
“Perfect.”
She closed the bedroom door and quickly collected her belongings. With a final glance around the room, she walked down the hall to the elevator. She stopped and considered, then, following her gut, she bolted down the stairs. She couldn’t help feeling that time was running out. She needed to make good on her escape or like her star charts, she might not manage to leave this place – ever.
The car was waiting as promised. She didn’t know the young driver but when she gave him the address of her shop, he nodded as if he knew where it was.
Good thing. Still feeling very panicked, she knew she’d have had a hard time giving directions. She didn’t like the games of men and power.
She was of energy and light…and was so out of her element here. She no longer knew who was good or who was bad. All she knew was she felt threatened at the most basic level. And like any hurt or injured animal, she wanted to hide away in her home.
The drive took forever. She sat in the back seat, her fists clenched, her thoughts in turmoil even as she kept her face schooled with detached interest.
For the millionth time, she wondered if she should try to find her sisters and ask for their help.
Granny would say they all had trials to go though, and they would all be different from each other. The best course of action was to go through them alone and learn from the experience rather than sharing it and not reaping the full benefits. Depending on someone else to help and not learning what was required to get through these times on their own wouldn’t help a person grow.
How she missed that old woman. Her gems of advice had been what had kept Genesis sane this last year. She wished her sisters had the same comfort, but she doubted it. The four women had fiery temperaments, with Genesis being the softest and easiest to get along with.
However, being alone and gentle right now wasn’t a good thing. She’d rather have some of Tori’s backbone or Celeste’s courage.
Genesis felt very small and rather insignificant.
The driver pulled the car to a stop in front of her shop.
She thanked him and hopped out. She quickly unlocked the shop and stepped inside, immediately securing the door behind her. Peering through the window, she watched the Council’s car disappear down the road.
Flicking the lights on, she turned and gave a strangled shriek.
Her shop was in shambles.
Again.
*
Connor crossed the hallway at a fast clip. He should have brought Genesis down to the meeting with Grandfather. Not that Grandfather would have appreciated it. He had never liked Genesis. Connor didn’t know why, but the man was full of disgust and revulsion for her whole family and had been for years. Did he know about the documents Genesis had in her hands? Had he suspected? But if so, why would he have everyone believing he owned the land that was rightfully Granny’s?
Now they were all about to find out that Granny really was a stargazer, not to mention the largest landowner in the entire town – he couldn’t help but wonder how their perception of her would change.
Would it darken? After all, they were guilty of some harsh judgments, and no one liked to have their behavior turned on themselves.
Connor’s mind continued to whirl with all these thoughts when he walked into the dining room, looking for Genesis.
The room was empty.
What?
He spun, searching the small, casual conversation corners around the massive room, hoping Genesis was tucked away in one of them, having coffee and waiting for him. He’d sent a message to her earlier, not having expected that he’d be so long. But Grandfather hadn’t wanted to be appeased.
He also wanted Connor back on the job. Now.
Connor winced at the memory. He’d managed to push Grandfather back for a few hours, gotten him to agree to a meeting later tonight.
He hadn’t liked that, either. Grandfather had already been gone for ten minutes, but it would take ten hours for the impact of his presence to diminish. It was one of the reasons why he’d been happy with his job. He was frequently out of town and didn’t have to work closely with Grandfather or the family. He was related, but it was distant.
And how did he reconcile that with what he was learning about Genesis’s heritage?
But first, he had to find her.
Damn, that woman could disappear in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 27
Genesis stared at the wreckage of her shop. The last break-in had the look of some punk kids looking to show how tough they were in front of their friends. Things had been broken, but not many, and there was no serious damage.
This was different.
That mess had been disturbing and the invasion more so; this, however, was much uglier than that. There wasn’t a shelf still standing on the wall. A bowl of herbs lay shattered on the ground. The small packets she’d been busily creating before lay on the floor, crushed under heavy boot treads through the small space.
The overwhelming scent of all the different crushed herbs assaulted her nostrils.
This was an act filled with anger. Violence. Hatred.
She shook her head, her fist pressed against her mouth as she tried to hold back the sobs. Who could have done this?
What had she ever done to deserve such treatment?
From where she sat, she could see that the cash register was still closed. Had the intruder even opened it? She didn’t keep much in the way of money here.
There was such an ugliness to this atmosphere. As if someone had been looking for something, and they hadn’t found it. And as a result, they’d taken their rage out on her shop.
The thought terrified her. To what lengths would these people go to in their search? Genesis decided that it was too late in the day to start clean-up, and, frankly, she felt too violated right now to even consider it. She would just lock up and go to her apartment for the night and face the chaos in the morning.
And then the thought struck her – what if her apartment had been searched, too? She kept the place for the days when she was in town, as it was convenient for work. If she’d been targeted, her shop singled out, then she had to assume the vandals knew about her home a block away, too.
She picked her way through the shop to the back door, noting that the dried herbs hanging from the ceiling in the back were undisturbed. She should be grateful for that much. She could repackage herbs without too much effort, but finding them, picking them, and drying them took time. And it wasn’t always possible to find the supplies she needed. After trying to lock the back door and realizing it was broken, she made her way to her apartment. She stood hesitantly outside, looking up at the staircase and the entry door to her top floor apartment, until she felt a warm hand slide into hers.
“Remi, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.”
He chattered at her side. She picked him up and hugged him tight. He protested immediately and she released him with a laugh.
“Sorry, I was worried about you.”
She put one foot on the step leading to her apartment when Remi grabbed her hand and pulled it back. “Remi,” she whispered, “What’s the matter?”
He chattered at her angrily, tugging her farther back. She stared at her darkened home and wondered. Was there something in there?’
Or someone?
Remi chattered loudly again. She sighed. “And what do you want me do then? I’m tired. I’d like to go home.”
More insistent vocalizing.
“Okay,” she said, turning away. “You win.”
There was still a little daylight left, but not enough to make the street feel bright and normal. With the clouds moving in and the sun setting, there was a chill in the air, even though the day had been hot and summery.
Remi’s grip on her hand tightened and he tried to push her backwards with an urgency that unnerved her. She moved from the open to the shadows beside a big truck and watched him.
That wasn’t quite good enough for Remi. He chattered at her side and urged her to go around the side of the truck.
Hearing the panic in his voice, she slipped willingly around the vehicle. Now she couldn’t be seen from her apartment or the rest of the homes in the building. She peered through the driver’s window to see if there was anything going on.
The door to her apartment opened.
And damn if that young Portman from Matt’s Council hall didn’t walk out. She had no way to record his stealthy movements. Some people had imagers that they carried in a pocket, but she’d never had the money for such a thing.
What was he up to?
*
Connor stared at the steward. “She asked for a car?”
The steward nodded. “And our driver delivered her to her shop.”
“But that’s on the other side of town.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “And you haven’t heard from her since?”
The steward shook his head. “No. She said she hoped you’d be done by the time she got back.”
Connor thanked him and turned to find Matt striding toward him. “We’ve got a problem.”
“No,” Connor snapped. “We have two problems.”