How Beauty Met the Beast

by Jax Garren

  “They are all connected.”

  “How?”

  Hauk hesitated again, looking anywhere but directly at her.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Is this some sort of conspiracy theory? Seven men who run the world, that sort of thing?” Of course. The most interesting person she’d met in years, and he’d dragged her to his commune of conspiracy theorist nuts. Well, at least that wasn’t dangerous. Just paranoid.

  Before she could tease C cofonhim, Hauk’s eyes locked back onto hers with a conviction that sent a chill down her spine. “It isn’t seven men.”

  “What?”

  “Who run the world? It isn’t seven men. It’s—”

  A pack of children squealed and clambered into the ballroom, interrupting Hauk and breaking the moment with their jubilant energy.

  “Tell me later?” she mouthed.

  Hauk shut his mouth and looked away, already changing his mind about the confession. She started to argue, but then her faculty advisor from The University of Texas followed the children into the hall.

  Jolie did a double take. “Dr. Echelson?” Catrina joining a cult that believed in weird conspiracies was one thing, but Dr. Echelson was one of the most celebrated historians in the U.S. and as far from flighty or paranoid as a man could be. “What are you doing here, sir?”

  He looked every bit as startled to see her but, after a glance at Hauk, approached. “I teach humanities to the children. I didn’t realize you were a candidate for Recognition by the Underlight.” He frowned his best professor glare at Hauk. “And as a representative of The Thing, one might think I’d be familiar with all the candidates.”

  He taught elementary kids? Her professor? What kind of education were they getting down here? Far from the prep school propriety bunch Jolie had been a part of growing up, they seemed like a normal pack of raucous children, racing around the winter-bedecked hall as they dodged dirigible mistletoes.

  “There were, uh, extenuating circumstances last night,” Hauk said, looking decidedly uncomfortable. Jolie might even say squirming. Good to know Dr. Echelson’s imposing brain didn’t make just her nervous.

  Some of the professor’s thaw melted into amusement, and he turned to Jolie. “I heard you missed your German exam this morning.”

  “That’s my fault,” Hauk said quickly then turned to Jolie. “You’re a student?”

  “I’m a doctoral candidate at the university. Comparative Literature.”

  “Jolie is focusing on the use of pop culture for propaganda in the twentieth century.” Dr. Echelson smiled. “Come to think of it, she’ll fit right in here.”

  “Think you can smooth over the missed exam?” Hauk asked.

  The professor looked between them again, his thoughts about exactly why she’d missed clearly written on his face. Oddly enough, he seemed to find it amusing she’d missed an exam for a tryst.

  No, that wasn’t it. He was pleased to think she’d had a tryst with Hauk. Pleased enough that he might speak with the German department in her defense. Well, if it helped her get a second shot at that exam, he could think whatever he wanted.

  Heck, she wished she was the kind of person who could get over Hauk’s looks and give him a chance at something not-so-platonic. He seemed interested in her, and his body, from a shape perspective, was pretty damn incredible. God, those ab muscles had just about floored her when he’d stepped out of the shower. But any thoughts of kissing him, of getting up close and personal with those burn scars, made her girlishly squeamish.

  Even if his voice did sound a hell of a lot like Wesley’s. And that kiss and those touches had been incredible.

  She bit her lip, push Cher

  Jolie stared at her feet. Nope. She was definitely not the good person Dr. Echelson thought she was. “You can tell him what happened.”

  Dr. Echelson smiled genially and raised a hand. “I don’t need details. Hauk, you think I should talk to my friends in the German department and get her a second chance?”

  Hauk shifted beside her as his jaw formed words that didn’t come out, and it dawned on Jolie that he might really like Dr. Echelson’s misapprehension. He probably didn’t have a lot of women coming down here; maybe having someone think she was here as his lover had blown up a bubble of pride he was loath to burst.

  Well, hell. If Jolie could please Dr. Echelson, bolster Hauk’s pride and get another shot at her German test, that made for a rare win-win-win situation. She curled against Hauk’s side, and his arm slipped around her as automatically as the clockwork ornaments that spun on the tree. “He’d better say yes,” she purred. “Or I might get real offended.”

  The grin that lit up Hauk’s face was worth it, even if that was her only reward. But he said, “Second chance. Please,” and Dr. Echelson laughed.

  “I’ll see what I can do.” He left them, shaking his head and still chuckling.

  Jolie snorted a laugh. “What a hippie! I have a new respect for Dr. E. Is everyone down here that cool?”

  Hauk dropped his arm. “Thanks,” he said gruffly.

  “Thank you. You’re potentially saving me from two years of German.”

  “He would do the same thing if I’d told the truth, and nobody would think you and I—”

  She punched him playfully on the arm. “Slept together? We did. Maybe more literally than my adviser assumed, but come on. I’m a burlesque dancer. A scandalous reputation increases the mystique.”

  His eyes locked back on hers. She hadn’t lied when she’d told him they were beautiful. A bright, startling blue, oddly vulnerable in the bad-ass exterior. She was learning to read the way they spoke his emotions louder than words, and the gratitude there was almost uncomfortable.

  Hauk may not mind the way the scars made him look, but he did mind what they’d done to his life.

  Ugh, too much emotion. She had to change the subject. “So, how do I become a candidate for Recognition? What is Recognition, anyway? I’m pretty sure I’d like that.” The words were out of her mouth before she’d thought them through, but the truth was, with Dr. Echelson on board, she was suddenly very interested...and not just because of how he could help her future career in academia. He was the best teacher she’d ever had, and his knowledge and understanding of Western history was unparalleled. If he took this conspiracy theory seriously, there was something to take serious.

  Plus, it would give her a reason to keep seeing Hauk, and she found she liked that idea very much.

  Hauk smiled and ruefully rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah...about that. I’m going to be in a bit of trouble over bringing you down here. If we could get you Recognized ASAP, that would be nice.”

  “So, let’s get started. What do I do C Whuld get, apply to The Thing? Is that the governing body of the Underlight? Isn’t that was they call the parliament in Iceland? The All-Thing?”

  Hauk’s metal eyebrows rose as if he was impressed.

  She grinned. Her dad’s career in news media had stuffed her brain with more random facts than anyone should know. “Yeah, I’ll school your ass at Trivial Pursuit. Bring it.”

  He nodded slowly. “You can school my ass however you want.”

  Jolie nearly choked on a surprised laugh. She needed to quit being shocked every time Hauk acted like a normal male.

  Because he was a normal male.

  She wagged a finger playfully. “Keep dreamin’, soldier-boy. Now, you going to explain your Thing?” His eyes sparkled roguishly. “The Underlight’s Thing? Geez, get your head out of the gutter.”

  He forced back a laugh and became serious again, though the lightness in his eyes and the quirk of a grin didn’t leave. “It’s more of an organizing committee than governing body. And anyone with enough votes can get on it, and I mean anyone. In addition to Echelson, the nine members currently include a thirteen-year-old and a robot dog.”

  “How do they maintain order?”

  Hauk shrugged. “They don’t really. I mean, we only have one hard and fast rule: Don’t tell the o
utside world. Unless it makes better sense to tell, at which point, do what you have to.”

  Jolie shook her head. “So you live in a slightly organized anarchy.”

  “That’s about right.”

  “And fight the Enrons of the world through dubiously legal means.”

  “I didn’t say that.” But he grinned. Apparently that was exactly what he did.

  “And there are underground communities honeycombing the world.”

  “Most of the cells don’t live together like Austin. Being a...a commune, as you put it, isn’t the goal, it’s the—” he hesitated, “—the fight. We’ve got an especially nice setup here, where we can truly live by the principles of the Underlight. But it’s also the most precarious way of organizing. A lot of the other cells think we’re crazy.” He gave her a guarded look. “If someone were to expose us, we would be raided, wiped out in one attack. Lives would upended in a government quest to force everyone into the system. Or worse. As there is no record of us, there would be no one to look into it if we simply disappeared.”

  Jolie lifted her brow. “Do you often carry strangers down in a fit of crazy? That seems detrimental to the whole ‘guarding a big, important secret’ thing.”

  The areas of Hauk’s skin that weren’t scarred pink colored to match the burns in the strangest blush Jolie had ever seen. “I’ve never done that before. No.”

  She nodded. “So I’m special? I like that. Your secret’s safe with me.”

  He smiled and there was something strangely beautiful about it.

  “Hauk! We’ve got a decision to make.” Brayden headed for them as quickly as a mug full of coffee would let him, Catrina trailing behind.

  Hauk snapped to attention. “What?”

  “We got confirmation. The group that tried to nab Jolie yesterday? Order of Ananke.”

  Cnt 1">“WeHauk’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

  “Who are they?” Jolie asked.

  Hauk started, “Ananke is the Greek—”

  “Goddess of destiny and bondage, of choosing between necessary evils. I know. Are you referring to a modern revival cult or something? Why would they try to kidnap me?”

  Brayden cut in. “Hauk, are you sure it’s wise to tell her this?”

  “They tried to kidnap her. She has a right to know.” But still, he hesitated.

  So Jolie filled in for him. “Those seven men formed a club?”

  Hauk nodded. “The Order of Ananke. Last night, Brayden and I ended up at Catrina’s because we were being chased by their hit squad, The Hand of Atropos.”

  “The Fate that cuts the thread of life.” She scrunched her face in thought. In addition to being a baron of news media, her father was fascinated with Greek philosophy and myth. Mathematics, order, purity of form, imperialist tendencies—it was all right up his alley. Her first fairy tales had been G-rated versions of the legends of Heracles and Jason and the Argonauts. And then her father had been shocked and horrified when in high school she’d decided she was Wiccan. Apparently, bromancing Zeus was okay but Celtic gods were horrifying.

  Disregarding her family’s constant dysfunctionality, she thought about what Hauk and Brayden were saying. Order of Ananke? Hand of Atropos? It sounded farfetched, and yet...she’d been nearly kidnapped last night. And Dr. Echelson was here.

  Brayden narrowed his eyes at her. “Do you have any idea why they would pick you?”

  Hauk waved a hand dismissively at him. “Why would she?”

  Brayden shrugged in a poor imitation of nonchalance. “Just asking. Because they successfully kidnapped somebody else.”

  “I didn’t take the agents out?” Hauk asked, as if that was unheard of. “What the fuck did I do last night?”

  Hauk didn’t know what he’d done? Did he not remember saving her? Slaughtering those men? “He definitely ‘took them out.’ I saw enough before I passed out to be sure of that. And there was nobody else in the van when they put me there.”

  “There was a second team,” Brayden said.

  Alpha party hasn’t checked in yet. They got five minutes before we do their job for them. The kidnapper’s words from last night flashed through her memory. “Shit. I was the beta target. There was somebody else.” A cold fear for who that other target might’ve been clenched her gut.

  Brayden blew on his coffee and glanced furtively about. “Let’s get somewhere out of hearing. Jolie, as you’re astoundingly up to date for somebody who just got here. Will you help?”

  She nodded and followed the group to a library. If she were less worried, she would’ve loved to take her time wandering the wood-carved stacks of leather-bound tomes that stretched to the three-story ceiling, or to stop and appreciate the unique sculptures that decorated the space in unexpected corners. But she quietly trailed behind Brayden into a conference room and listened to the door click shut.

  Hauk sat on top of the table and patted the area next to him. With a weak smile, she hopped beside him.

  He clapped his hands together. “Who’s getting rescued?”

  “We don’t even know if this is our fight. It could be internal politics, which we don’t typically get involved in.” Brayden took a tentative sip of coffee and his eyes shifted to Jolie. “But we got ourselves involved last night.”

  “And I’m quite thankful you did,” Jolie added.

  “Their other target,” Brayden continued, “was a twelve-year-old girl extracted from Winter Cheer, a cheerleading camp for private school kids.”

  The fear bit deeper and spread until Jolie could barely keep it at bay.

  Hauk frowned. “What do a twelve-year-old rich girl and a twenty—”

  “Four.”

  “Twenty-four year-old burlesque dancer have in common?”

  Brayden motioned his head at her. “Our guest looks like she has something to add.”

  Jolie licked her lips. “Tell me the girl’s name is not Whitney Malcolm.”

  Brayden frowned. “It is. How did you know that?”

  Jolie’s hands shook. “She’s the granddaughter of Reginald Benoit, the media guy.”

  The whole room turned to her as one. “And how would you know that?” Brayden asked in an ominous voice as he set down his coffee cup with too much care.

  Hauk’s hand tentatively touched Jolie’s back, and she leaned into it. “Whitney’s my niece. I’m Jolie Benoit. They were trying to get Reginald Benoit’s only granddaughter and his youngest daughter.” Brayden paled in incomprehensible anger as she turned to Hauk. “Please, please, help me get my niece back.”

  * * *

  Oh, hell, he was so in for it. But even he was surprised when Brayden threw a punch at him. Without thinking, he caught his friend’s fist and spun the smaller man around. “Are you kidding? You want to fight me?”

  “What are you doing? What’s wrong with him?” Jolie sputtered, flipping her startled gaze between Brayden and Hauk.

  Brayden’s face was white with anger. “You brought Reginald Benoit’s daughter to the Underlight? What’s wrong with you!”

  “Hey! I didn’t know. So calm the fuck down.” He shoved Brayden away and turned to Catrina. “Did you know that?”

  She lifted her hands apologetically. “She’s said her name before in passing. I didn’t make the connection. I didn’t think...”

  “You didn’t think?” Brayden nearly yelled. “You didn’t think that bringing the daughter of a man who wants to stamp us out of existence might be a terrible idea?”

  Jolie launched off the table at Brayden. “Excuse me?”

  Hauk inserted himself between them. “Take a breath, Brayden. Catrina didn’t bring her here, I did. And it’s not like I was thinking about it. Blackouts, remember?”

  Behind him, Jolie’s voice was livid. “My father doesn’t know anything about this place. I agree he’s not a paragon of virtue, but if he knew about you, don’t think you’d have, oh, I dunno, been on the news? Seeing as he owns half the newspapers, umpteen radio stations and personally runs
the biggest television news network in America?”

  “But the Order of Ananke doesn’t want the public to know about us or give our cause any pre Ccauca?ss,” Brayden countered.

  “And that would matter to my father because...”

  “Because he’s on their fucking board of directors!”

  Jolie flinched like she’d been hit. “What are you talking about?”

  Hauk stalked forward, pushing Brayden back with his presence. “She didn’t know.”

  Brayden snorted. “What, you learned her tell by osmosis last night? She’s a performer, Hauk, who wormed her way into the company of one of our Associates. She’s working for her father, probably earning her membership. Damn it, I thought she looked familiar, but like a moron I was so happy for you I ignored it.”

  Happy for him because he’d finally gotten a girl into bed by carrying her unconscious body there? That was a new level of pathetic. He slammed two fingers into Brayden’s sternum. “Don’t pity me. Don’t you ever fucking pity me again.”

  Brayden’s eyes widened as he took in Hauk’s fingers. He blushed. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  But that was a lie. Hauk glanced back at Jolie, suddenly unsure. If she were a plant, it would explain why she hadn’t run screaming from the room when she woke up next to him this morning. He certainly wouldn’t put it past Ananke to use a beautiful girl to sneak into the Underlight, and it didn’t take a genius to realize his pathetic ass would be primed to fall for that kind of bait.

  Jolie stepped beside him, finger-wagging at Brayden in a way that wouldn’t calm the situation down. “You’ve lost your mind. You think I planned my own kidnapping on the odd hope I would get dragged to a mythical underground world by PTSD-boy here?”

  He whipped his head around. “I don’t have PTSD.”

  “Whatever! You don’t remember that you killed a bunch of people and then dragged me into bed with you while I was passed out. What mental problem is that, then?”