Playing For Keeps (Alpha World Book 4)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “No,” Julia whispered as she pulled her knees up to her chest. “Am I going to be taken away now?”

  Blinking at the unexpected question, the officer sat back. “Why would I take you away and to where?”

  “Prison. Poppa always said that if I used the phone, then the police would come take me away. Bad girls who disobey their Poppas are taken to prison and beaten.”

  Eyes flashing in affronted anger, the officer sat forward again. “No. No, we won’t be taking you away, Julia. We’re just trying to find out who you are. You wouldn’t talk to any of the other officers last night. You would only talk to the dispatcher. Is it because she was a woman?”

  “Poppa told me that men would hurt me. I can’t be near men. Even strange women are dangerous. When Poppa comes back is he going to be mad at me for using the phone?”

  Officer Ortega felt her hand clench, coming to the realization of what might have been happening with this frightened young woman. “No, Julia, he won’t be mad. What school do you go to?”

  “Poppa taught me. He says that an ugly, stupid girl like me wouldn’t be welcome at any school for normal people.” Julia brushed at her hair, disturbing it enough for her face to be briefly visible. “I’m not pretty like Poppa tells me Momma was.”

  Hand covering her mouth, to hide her expression of sorrow for the abused girl, Ortega tried to help her. “Julia, your ‘Poppa’ isn’t going to be home for a while. Do you need to contact anyone?”

  Shaking her head, her black hair swaying, Julia replied, “There’s only me and Poppa.”

  “Excuse me for a minute, please,” Officer Ortega got up from the chair, leaving the room as she keyed up her radio. “Dispatch, South-24.”

  The scene greyed out as Stacia froze time for them. The ghostly Fluff watching the memory play out was silently crying. “He died the night before and I don’t remember it. He was in my room, on the floor, like he’d been trying to reach me. I barely remember anything about that day, only that I had completed the first art piece that I ended up selling on my own.”

  Karen gently embraced Fluff, “We’re here for you, Fluff. I lost my father as well, I told you about him.”

  “You remember that moment, though,” Fluff sniffled.

  “We can tackle tha’ memory iffin ya wish, Fluff. It be inside ya, but ya do nay wish to recall it. It be one of the worst of ya memories.”

  Eyes widening Fluff looked to Stacia, “Please.”

  “It may tax ya a lot to recall it, but aye, we will get to it,” Stacia told her, reaching out to rub Fluff’s ear gently.

  “What did the cop leave for?” Alburet asked.

  The scene shifted slightly as color returned. Stacia told them, “This be about twenty minutes later.”

  Officer Ortega came back into the room with another woman in a suit. “Julia, this is Mrs. Underbrush. She’ll be helping you get your feet under you.”

  Julia looked up at the plump African-American woman who had a kindly smile. Mrs. Underbrush spoke gently, “You can call me Anita, okay, Julia?”

  Sinking backwards against the wall, Julia barely nodded, “Okay.”

  “Your ‘Poppa’, Paval Petrov, do you know what he did for work?” Anita asked as she sat down in the one chair in the room.

  “He did computer stuff. He also sold my art and the pictures.”

  “Can you tell us about the art and pictures?” Anita asked gently.

  Julia glanced past Anita, towards the computer behind her. “Some of them are on there. The rest he took to sell.”

  “Can I look at them?” Ortega asked.

  Julia nodded once in agreement, “There’s no password. Poppa didn’t want me to have one, he said family has no secrets from each other. The two files on the desktop hold them.”

  “While she does that, Julia, I have some questions. Are you willing to help me?” Anita asked.

  “Okay,” Julia brushed her hair back from her face on one side. She noticed Anita’s eyes widen. Quickly brushing her hair back to cover her face she spoke rapidly. “Sorry. So sorry, Poppa always said I shouldn’t show my ugly face to others.”

  Anita’s lips compressed slightly as she took in what she was hearing from the young lady before her. “You are fine, Julia. You are not ugly at all.”

  “Snow Angel,” Ortega gasped as she looked through one of the files.

  Those words pulled Anita’s head around to look at the screen. A number of pictures featuring Julia in various outfits and stages of undress, none of them showing her face. “Are you certain?” Anita asked Ortega, her focus abruptly on the other woman. Julia, forgotten for the moment, hunkered more tightly into a ball.

  Stacia jumped time forward again, “It took them over twenty minutes before they remembered Julia.”

  Fluff nodded sadly, “They didn’t know how that felt.”

  Anita turned back to Julia on the bed, “How long has Paval been taking pictures of you?”

  “Always.” Julia’s voice was a tense whisper, full of fear. “Are you going to put me in prison now?”

  “No!” Ortega shouted before she could think, causing Julia to flinch back. Realizing what she’d done, Ortega held out a hand in apology. “Julia, I’m sorry for yelling. No, you are not going to jail. You are a victim, and you are going to be given help.”

  “Victim?” Julia’s puzzlement was easy to hear. “But I’m okay, Poppa takes care of me.”

  Anita and Ortega exchanged a long glance before Ortega went back to the computer. “Julia, did Paval ever touch you in any bad way?”

  Julia’s head was down with her hair covering her face, so her expression was hidden. “No…” the voice was soft but filled with grief. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

  Sucking in a breath, Anita winced, “Yes. He was dead on arrival at the hospital. The… items… he had on him brought us back here to talk to you.”

  The sound of soft crying came from behind the curtain of hair. “Poppa…”

  The scene greyed out again, but the crying continued. Karen and Stacia were comforting Fluff as the scene stopped. “You know now what he did, don’t you, Julia?” Karen asked Fluff.

  Fluff nodded her head slightly, “Yes. He used me for money, from my art and the pictures. I still don’t know how he died, or anything about Momma.”

  “We be touchin’ on them in the future,” Stacia comforted her. “Later though, this be enough for tonight. Ya friends now know the truth.”

  “I—” Fluff began but was silenced by Karen placing a single finger over her lips.

  “Shh. You are still our friend, Julia. We still care for you as much as we did before tonight. We still love you and cherish you,” Karen reassured her.

  “Aye, Karen speaks for all of us,” Stacia agreed.

  Alburet felt the rage inside of him as he thought of what his friend had gone through. He barely managed to keep it contained as he moved to embrace Fluff. He met her eyes, letting her see his emotional turmoil before he gently reached out and embraced her along with the other two. His voice was hoarse with anger, but also softened by the love he felt for Fluff. “We still care for you, Fluff. If he wasn’t dead already I would have…” He trailed off as his mind flashed back to the court hallway where he’d killed a man. He let her go, knowing that he would have found some way to kill Paval, if the man had still been alive. “You are precious to all of us.”

  Fluff sobbed, the trickle of tears replaced by a flood. Her hands came out hesitantly as she embraced Alburet. “I was so afraid.” She reached out to include Karen and Stacia as well after a moment. Her hands shook as she clutched at them, her head resting against Alburet’s chest. “I have feared people knowing my past for so long. Once I understood what had happened to me, I thought...”

  “We understand, Julia Petrov, our wonderful friend Fluffball, but no matter what happened before, we love you and that is all that matters,” Karen’s words were a gentle whisper in Fluff’s ear.

  A moment later Karen and Alburet found them
selves back in the tent looking down at Fluff. Tears trickled from the sleeping Lunari’s eyes as she clutched a pillow. Stacia let out a deep breath, “Tha’ took more out of me then I thought it would.”

  “I had thought that something like that had happened to her after the other memories, but…” Karen stopped herself, instead laying down next to Fluff and cuddling her. “My poor friend.”

  Alburet felt the love and affection for his friends washing through the anger that still bubbled just under the surface. “He is dead, right?”

  “Aye, master, he be dead. Another of her memories deals with his death. We will get to tha’ in time. She needs to know the truth of his death and her Ma’s.”

  “We’ll be here for her,” Karen murmured as she gently stroked Fluff’s ears.

  “Aye, iffin ya wish and she agrees,” Stacia agreed as she gently pulled Alburet down to the bedding. “We be needin’ sleep now, master. Let me help ya calm, so sleep can come to ya.”

  Alburet let her coax him to the bedding and tuck him in. A deep shuddering breath left him as Stacia hummed softly, her song calming him. “As you wish,” he whispered as he held his wife to him and let darkness wash over him.

  Chapter Nine

  The first thing Alburet saw on waking was the top of Fluff’s head, and her arms around his waist. Stacia was on the other side of Fluff, snuggled close to the Lunari. Karen was snuggled in close behind him, one arm draped around his waist along with Fluff’s. Blinking as he tried to figure out how the rearrangement happened during the night, Alburet started to disengage himself from Fluffball. Fluff gripped his wrist, pulling his arm firmly against her chest as she purred happily in her sleep. With a soft sigh, Alburet stopped trying to extricate himself. Instead, he just listened to her purr.

  “Mornin’, master,” Stacia whispered. She sat up, looking down at him with an amused smile. “I will get breakfast for us, ya just stay here.”

  “Good, I don’t want my pillow leaving yet,” Karen muttered from behind him as her leg hitched over Alburet’s thigh.

  “Mynx, get that leg off me,” Alburet growled softly, trying not to wake Fluff, knowing she’d had a trying night reliving the memory they’d seen.

  “No,” Karen told him firmly as she wrapped her arm more firmly around his chest. “Have to make sure you don’t leave Fluff alone.”

  “Karen, now is not the time. Please, stop playing right now,” Alburet asked her as politely as he could.

  Her arm loosened on his chest and her leg slipped off of him, “For now.”

  “Thank you. I won’t run away, she needs our care and I won’t abandon a friend in need.”

  Stacia had gotten dressed during the byplay, and was at the tent flap. “Be back shortly.”

  “Karen,” Alburet said a moment after Stacia left. “You still want a relationship with Fluff, right?”

  “Yes,” Karen replied as she tightened her arm on him slightly. “Poor thing has been brutalized most of her life. I just want to cuddle her close and take care of her. I know nothing will happen for quite a while, but it is what I want.”

  “I hope it works out for you two. She needs someone to protect her. I know you can do that.”

  Karen’s leg hitched over his again, “I want more. I know you’re dealing with your own things, but I want you to know I’m still interested.”

  “I’ve gotten that idea,” Alburet shook his head in resignation.

  Fluff muttered and rolled over, still clutching Alburet’s arm to her chest. “Is it morning?” Fluff asked sleepily as she snuggled back against Alburet with a happy purr.

  “Aye, tha’ it is, Fluff,” Stacia answered for them as she came into the tent with a tray loaded with four bowls of food.

  “Hmm,” Fluff murmured as she started to really wake. After a moment, she realized that she had an arm clutched to her chest. “Karen?”

  “Not Karen,” Alburet told her softly, making sure his hands weren’t touching her inappropriately.

  They couldn’t see her eyes go wide with sudden alarm. Pushing his arm away, she rolled away and spun to face them, her face bright red. “I-I’m so s-sorry…” her words were stammered as she met his gaze.

  He projected only acceptance to her, smiling gently and holding one hand out, “Fluff, it’s fine. Neither of us did anything wrong.”

  “Aye, ya was just being held by a loved one,” Stacia added as she came over to sit next to Fluff. “Did ya mind him holdin’ ya?”

  Quickly looking away from Alburet, Fluff turned her gaze to Stacia, absently taking the bowl Stacia held out to her. “No… it’s just, he is your…”

  “Then it be fine,” Stacia cut her off as she handed bowls to Alburet and Karen. “Would ya have acted differently iffin it had been Karen, or me?”

  “But he…”

  “Fluff,” Karen jumped in, cutting her off again. “Stacia is fine with it. Look at her, she is quite happy that you were safe in his arms.”

  Alburet shifted slightly, a little uncomfortable with the conversation. He kept quiet though as he knew that the ladies were trying to calm Fluff down in their own way. He started eating as he kept an eye on the situation.

  “Aye, he loves ya as much as he does Karen,” Stacia reassured Fluffball. “Did he hurt ya? Did he make ya feel uncomfortable?”

  “No,” Fluff mumbled, staring down at her bowl without really seeing it. “He felt safe. I’m just not good—”

  “Fluff,” Alburet finally spoke up, interrupting Fluff again. “I think you are a wonderful person, both in mind and body. You are more than good enough, maybe even too good for me. Truly, as afraid of rejection as you are, I’m just as worried that I’ll hurt you or make you uncomfortable. All I ask is that you embrace any joy that you find.”

  Tears started to trickle from her eyes at his words, “Really?”

  Stacia wrapped an arm around her, “Aye. Iffin he does anythin’ ya do nay like, just tell us. Iffin ya want him to rub ya ears more, or even a hug, just ask him.”

  Sniffling Fluff gave a small nod as she set her bowl aside, then scooted towards Alburet. “Will you hug me?”

  Handing his mostly empty bowl off to Karen, he opened his arms to her, letting her come close at her own pace. Once she was close enough he gently enfolded her. “Any of us will be glad to hold you, Fluff. You are a dear friend that we care for.”

  After a moment she pulled back, shifting to Karen who pulled her into a hug without being asked. “I care for you, Fluff, really care. You’ve made me want to protect you, which is a little amusing when you go all rawr, turn red, and leap at monsters in a bloodlust.”

  A small giggle escaped Fluff, “It feels good to do that. I wore a mask when I first met Al, acting stronger than I am. He made me feel safe enough to show how afraid I was. When I met Stacia and you, I was worried, but both of you were so welcoming. Same with Gerald and Marysue. The game I played before this was full of people who seemed nice for a day or two, but that never lasted. All of you were more than happy to play with me, to welcome me and want me around.”

  “What about the stalker?” Alburet asked.

  Fluff went rigid, bowing her head to Karen’s chest. “I lied. I’m sorry, it seemed like the easiest way to make you back away. You had just quoted Romeo at me and I was scared, but also intrigued.”

  A small chuckle escaped Alburet as he rubbed at the back of his neck, “Yeah, sorry about that. I really shouldn’t have done that, but you just seemed so approachable.”

  “Hmm, maybe we can do a little bit of Shakespeare tonight,” Karen suggested. “You and Al know some of the lines, as long as he stays away from Romeo.”

  Fluff buried her face in Karen’s petite chest, “A little bit of it would be okay.”

  “Oh, I be thinkin’ me be wantin’ to see tha’,” Stacia agreed as she slid over to rub Fluff’s ears gently. “Well done, Fluff.”

  A purr could be heard from Fluff as her ears were rubbed. “I feel happy, thank you.”

  Alburet go
t up, stripping off his pajamas so he could get dressed. He looked around after noticing that his bag and gear were not where he’d left them. “Where is my stuff?”

  Stacia grinned at him smugly, “Over by the flap.”

  Alburet crossed the tent to where his gear was piled up. He was in the far corner where he had stripped the night before. “Why is my stuff across the tent again?”

  “For the show,” Karen laughed as she eyed his naked form.

  Rolling his eyes, Alburet crossed the floor to the pile of his gear. He noticed Fluff eyeing him, her head shifted just enough to be able to watch him covertly. His cheeks pinked slightly as he noticed her gaze. “I feel like a piece of meat on display at a butchery.”