by Lena North
“I didn’t… It was Sven, and… I tried to say no,” I mumbled.
She watched me with a look that was both amused and indulgent.
“You are so full of shit, Annie,” she said.
She was right. I was. I could have pushed for staying in the guestroom. The bed was still there, and it wasn't a small room. I'd told myself I hadn't had a choice, but I'd been lying to myself.
“You’re not entirely wrong,” I sighed. “I need coffee,” I added, and walked over to get some.
“Let me put this one upstairs and then you can tell me everything,” she said, wiggled her brows and added, “And I do mean every little thing.”
“Shit,” I muttered as she ran up the stairs, and tried to figure out what to share with her.
“Hey, Annie,” she called out from upstairs. “Your computers are pinging out sounds like a DJ on ecstasy.”
What? They’d only do that if –
“Don’t touch anything!” I shouted as I ran upstairs. “Don’t touch, don’t –”
“What?” she said as I ran past her.
“My program has cracked the code. The code sheets. Get your da,” I panted.
Her eyes widened, but she followed me into the room, threw the window open and yelled to her father to get upstairs, pronto.
“Don’t touch anything,” I muttered as I sat down and let my fingers fly over the keyboard.
“I won’t –”
I shushed her and got an annoyed huff back, which I ignored.
“What?” Hawker grunted from the door.
I shushed him too and got the same huff from him. Then I hit the print button and turned around.
“The code was elegant, I have to give Cam that,” I said, and added with great satisfaction, “He might be a genius, but he can’t beat me. Never could.”
The fact that I had broken the code he’d created was rewarding. It would be good to see what the code sheets said, but even more – if I could crack his code, I could crack him. I would find a way to destroy him, and I didn't know how yet, but now I knew that I could.
The printer spat out a paper, and I swiveled around to grab it.
“It'll look a bit strange because he exchanged some words with letters or numbers, and capitalized a few odd things as well.”
“Give,” Wilder said impatiently.
She read it in silence and handed it to Hawker who read it out loud.
“Return the glory from the kings of the past 4 both of us, as Prophecies predicted. It was meant 2 be. The Swords will clear our path & the world will be righted. 2 assist the cause, deliver the goods & it will Go north. 3 months between and the Swimmers will not see. Funds provided as agreed in2.”
He kept staring at the paper, frowning and studying the text as if he could will it to make sense.
“I don’t get it,” he muttered, finally.
“It’s not the full message,” I said. “You said Wilder’s ma only had a part of the message and it looks like she took the middle part.”
“But what does it mean?” Wilder asked.
“Some of it makes sense, doesn’t it?” I asked back. “The reference to swords is probably about the cups from the swords of the fire dragons. The goods would be drugs, and the swimmers would be the people out on the Islands, they’re located south of the mainland. And we know he paid Paolo Fratinelli for his services so that’d be the funds he mentions.”
“Still doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t add much to what we already knew,” Hawker said.
“It will,” I said with a grin. “I’ll talk to Jinx, see if she can come up here. We’ll put this on the charts we started drawing up at Double H. I’ll find the patterns, and then we know.”
“How can you be so sure?” Wilder asked.
“There are always patterns, Wilder,” I said. “I’m weird, but I’m wicked clever, and I’m really, really good at finding patterns.”
“You’re not weird,” she said, pursed her mouth, and added, “Well, you are, but not weirder than the rest of us.”
In a strange way that was comforting, and I smiled at her.
“I’ll call Jinx,” I said.
“Tell her she’s expected to be at Mary’s place early in the morning the day after tomorrow, and that she should bring a dress.”
“For what?”
“Girls’ night.”
“In the morning.”
“That's what Boz said, so that's what we'll do.”
Okay then. We’d apparently have a girls’ morning instead.
“Right,” I said.
Then I reached for my phone to call Jinx, who tried to convince Dante that she should go to Norton immediately but settled for the compromise to come the day after and stay for the girls’ night. Or possibly girls’ morning.
I put the strange message into my database but decided to take the day off from badass assistance and spent the afternoon creating a small game which Sven could bring to school as a prelude to my visit. I called it, “Beat the teacher,” and it was a simple quiz game, but if the student answered most questions correctly, their avatar would beat a teacher-looking, and also Sven-looking, character in the butt with a stick. If they got everything right, they got to mash a pie in the Sven-looking dude's face.
I thought the older man would never stop laughing and when he did, he kept grinning at me.
“They’ll love this.”
“I just added literature questions in there, because that’s what you teach but I could –”
“Is it easy to do another one? Our math teacher would love it too.”
“Sure, the code’s there so I’d just change the images and questions. Maybe alter the classroom a little,” I said, thought about what to do and added, “I’d put it in the same game though, and add a selection screen where they pick which teacher to beat up.”
“Really?” Sven said.
“It’s not difficult,” I mumbled, already thinking about how to do it.
“Not today, Annie,” Sven said. “Take Toby for a walk, then we’ll go out for dinner. I don’t feel like cooking.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” I protested.
“You can’t stay in the house forever, Annie. Everyone already knows you’re here.”
“I know, but –”
“You have to stop hiding,” he said and raised a hand when I wanted to protest again. “I know what that professor and his grandson did, so I know why your family tucked you away on Gideon's ranch. And Olly hurt you, so I've given you time, but that time is up. You have to step out of the shadows, Annie, and that means you can't just be alive. You have to live too.”
I’d been moving around in the village and had figured out some of what he told me but hearing the words from him made them seem more real somehow. I turned away from his sharp eyes, not sure I liked how his words made me feel. He put a big hand under my jaw and gently turned my head back until I face him again.
“It means taking risks, and it means getting hurt, but you can’t hide every time things go sour. You took a big risk going to Double H, and you got hurt. I get that. But you can’t run and hide every time life is difficult.”
His face was grave but his eyes were gentle and kind, and I sighed.
“Why do I feel like a silly kid right now?” I asked.
He let go of my jaw with a small stroke over the cheek and turned to walk inside.
“You aren’t a child, Annie, but you are very young,” he said, turned and winked at me. “And a little silly.”
I started laughing and heard him chuckle as he sent Toby outside to me. Then I walked the dog, surrounded by a swarm of dragonflies. High above, a black bird circled and I wondered why it wasn’t with Olly. I didn’t have to wonder for long, and I should have known before I spotted the black cruiser parked in front of the house. I sidestepped into the shadows immediately and circled the barn next to the house, thinking that I could check what was g
oing on from inside the huge building. It was silly of me, and I had to meet Olly eventually. Pushing the confrontation forward wouldn’t make it easier so I should just get it done, I thought, but stopped and stared at the scene in front of me.
Olly was sitting on the steps outside the house and Sven was leaning over him, cleaning dirt and grime and blood off his face.
“Jesus, they don’t mess around, do they?” he said.
To my surprise, he was grinning widely.
“Fuckers,” Olly said sourly.
I hadn’t heard about them going on any kind of mission, and both Hawker and Wilder had been there earlier, so my brows went up in surprise.
“Are these bee stings?” Sven asked and poked his son’s neck.
“Yeah.”
“Huh,” Sven said, and it sounded like he wanted to laugh. “Good thing you're from the mountains.”
A quirk with having our legacy was that bee stings didn’t impact the mountain people. It stung a little, but the venom didn’t have any impact at all on us.
“Still hurts,” Olly muttered. “The old geezer sent a whole damned swarm at me.”
I slapped a hand across my mouth because I’d realized where he’d been, and who was responsible for the state he was in. The geezer in question had to have been my grandfather, which meant Olly had climbed the fence surrounding my home, and by the look of him, he’d made it all the way to the ranch. My brothers had probably been waiting for him. There were three of them but Olly was bigger and a trained warrior so why the hell did he have so many cuts and bruises? One of his eyes was swollen, and when Sven opened his shirt, I could see red marks on his chest too.
“Huh,” he grunted. “They’re still alive?”
“Didn’t touch them,” Olly said before I could whip my phone out to check my siblings’ status. “Starting to regret that decision.”
“Good,” Sven said. “How’d it end?”
“Threw me off their land, slammed the gate shut, told me to not come back.”
Yikes. My family must be furious. Perhaps I should give a few of them a call to see if I could calm them down.
“What are you going to do?”
“Not much to do, is there?”
“You messed up, son.”
“Yeah.”
“Gotta eat some shit.”
“I know.”
“Question is, how much shit are you willing to eat?”
Their gazes held for a few seconds and Olly sighed.
“Right,” he said and got up.
Then his phone rang, and he answered the call with brows high on his forehead.
“Carson? What's –” There was a long pause, and then he muttered, “Right now?” He was quiet again, and his face hardened. “Right now?” he repeated, but added immediately, “Fuck it. Yeah, on my way.”
“What?” Sven asked.
“Some shit that apparently I’m the only idiot in the world who can deal with is going on at Carson’s.”
“Okay,” Sven said. “Carson wouldn’t ask unless he needed help.”
“I know,” Olly sighed. “I'll be back in a day or two, and then I'm turning my goddamned phone off.”
“I’ll kill the fatted calf,” Sven said dryly, and Olly chuckled.
“You do that, Da.”
Then he was gone, and I watched his taillights disappear once again, this time feeling a little more hopeful. I didn’t ask Sven about Olly’s visit. It felt as if I’d been sneaking around and he’d told me I needed to stop hiding, so I also felt stupid.
That night was the first time in weeks I didn’t cry before falling asleep. Instead, I lay in Olly’s bed and thought about what his father had said.
I had made a small attempt at stepping out of the shadows, but I’d run away again as soon as things got dicey. Did I have the guts to try again? To try to be more than just alive? And what did that entail, exactly?
Chapter Thirteen
Chatty Cathy
Jinx stepped out of the car at the same time as Dante closed the door on his side. There was another car behind them, and four huge, blonde men got out immediately and started scanning the area.
She came with four bodyguards? To the home where someone like me lived? Jesus, they had no clue, I thought.
“Hey,” I called out from the porch, and Jinx and Dante turned toward me, but the big guys kept their eyes on the surroundings as if it would divulge where the fountain of youth was located. “Brace yourself,” I murmured to Sven as I reached out to my own protection and moved my left hand in a wide arc, although that was mostly for dramatic effect.
They came from everywhere. Dragonflies swirled in the air, and a swarm of bees buzzed past Dante and Jinx to get in the face of the burly squad.
“Welcome,” I said.
“Neat,” Jinx grinned.
“That won’t keep anyone out,” Dante said.
The tone of his voice was a little too haughty for my taste, so I laughed out loud and made another sweep with my hand, pointing toward the trees and up the gravel road they'd just been on. Dante turned, and I didn't see his face, but I was pretty sure I heard his jaw fall.
“Huh,” Sven grunted next to me, and I felt him move a little.
There was a pack of wolves spread out all around the house, and in the middle of the road stood two huge mountain lions, hissing and poised to strike if I asked them to. In the shadows behind the barn a huge shadow moved, and it gave up a low, huffing sound which didn’t sound too friendly.
Jinx started laughing and patted Dante on the shoulder.
“Sweetie, I believe you’ve just been bitch-slapped, Annie-style.”
“Heather?”
The quiet voice startled me, but the reaction from Sven was even more surprising. He was down the steps and marching toward Jamie so fast it seemed like a blur of movement. Then he raised a fist and punched the younger man straight in the face. Dante and Jinx moved, the four big men moved, and the wolves started growling.
“You are not welcome here,” Sven said loudly.
“Sven,” Jamie said and tried to get up.
“It is Mr. Harper to you, boy, and you heard me,” Sven barked, using a foot to indicate that Jamie was to stay down, which he wisely did. “Didn't like you before and I sure as hell don't like you now.” Dante came up behind Sven, who promptly cocked his arm, slammed the elbow straight into Dante's face, and kept roaring, “I heard what they did to Annie in that place, and I heard what you didn't do. She needed someone to help her, and you didn't, so you are nothing but a tiny piece of shit to me, and you are not welcome here.” He ended his rant almost growling, kicked Jamie in the ribs and stalked back to me. “Get the hell off my land,” he grunted without looking back.
His eyes were on me, and the anger disappeared when he saw the look on my face. Jamie couldn't have helped me, and I didn't blame him for what had happened in the messed-up place we'd been in, but Sven didn't know that. To see the calm, quiet and sensible schoolteacher explode in a rage because of what I’d been through made me feel more protected than the pack of wolves and the other animals had ever done. When a lonely tear ran down my cheek, Sven took the last steps quickly and put an arm around my shoulders.
“Don't cry,” he muttered and pulled out a handkerchief. “You know I don't know what to do when you cry.”
I swallowed my tears and smiled up at him as he dried my cheek awkwardly.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“You’re welcome,” he said calmly.
“If I’d been young thirty years ago, I would have fought Bee for you,” I told him.
His brows went up, and a smile spread across his face.
“You’d have lost that fight,” he said calmly.
“Probably,” I agreed, and added, “I need to talk to James.”
“I know,” he said with a sigh. “I've made my point, and he's not getting inside the house, but you can sit on the back porch for a wh
ile.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“I’ll make coffee,” Sven muttered. “Won’t give him any cookies.”
Then he promptly walked inside without even a glance at the gathering in front of us.
Jamie was sitting up, prodding his cheekbone. Jinx was surveying Dante’s face, although her mouth quivered as if she was pressing back laughter. The four men watched us, the animals and the whole scene around them as if they didn’t know what to do, or whom to protect.
“Um, welcome?” I said.
It came out mostly as a question, and Jinx started laughing. Jamie got to his feet and took a step toward us, but stopped when the big dog next to me began to growl.
“It's okay, Toby,” I said and let my hand slide gently over his head. Suddenly the image of a work boot slamming into the side of a dog flashed in my mind, and I crouched down. “I know,” I murmured. “The man was angry, and he kicked Jamie. It's okay now.”
Jamie took another step but the dog raised his upper lip, and the growl deepened.
“Sven,” I called out. “Toby is unhappy.”
The door opened, and there was a low whistle. Toby got up and walked backward until he was inside.
“I’ll keep him inside. You keep the fuckwad outside, Annie,” Sven rumbled.
“Okay,” I said as I got up, but the door was shut with considerable force, so I doubted he'd heard it. “Right,” I sighed. “Back porch it is.”
“I’m sorry, Heather,” Jamie said.
“It’s Annie, and it’s okay,” I replied. “We both know what it was like in there, and I know you couldn’t have done much.”
“I should have tried,” he said. “Nicky has ripped me a new one about it, and he’s right. I should have told someone.”
“Okay,” I murmured because it was in the past and he was sorry, so there wasn't much else to say.
Dante walked off with Jamie while Jinx and I stayed on the back porch, going through what we knew, and what else to look into. We’d both ended up in dead ends and discussed swapping tasks to see if that would provide new input but neither of us really wanted to. I wasn’t into science so I wouldn’t do much good on her experiments, and Jinx knew programming, but she wasn't on my level and didn't want to be.