Inamorato

by Keira Michelle Telford

  “Our shift is over.”

  “Already?” Ella looks disappointed.

  “It’s been ten hours. I’m starving.”

  “Wanna by me dinner?”

  “Wanna get me fired?”

  “Pizza?”

  “That’s exactly how you got me into this mess in the first place.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  In a Second

  At the end of a long day, Ella begrudgingly drags her bloodstained self home.

  She kicks off her boots on the doormat outside, so as not to leave a trail of blood and dirt throughout the apartment. Stepping carefully inside, she becomes aware of voices in the kitchen: two males, one of whom she recognizes as Maydevine. The other voice is quieter, and she can’t quite make it out.

  Trying to minimize her contact with any solid surfaces until she’s able to shed her bloody clothes and jump into the shower, she makes her way carefully toward the kitchen and pushes open the door.

  The second voice is Luka.

  He and Maydevine are at the kitchen table, talking and drinking coffee. Though they both appear relaxed, Ella is disconcerted.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Don’t look so worried.” Maydevine beckons her closer. “Not everything is bad news.”

  Luka rises to his feet as Ella steps into the room. “I just came by to see how your first day as an Intern went.”

  “You’ll see me in class tomorrow.”

  “I know.” He approaches her. “But I didn’t want to wait that long. There’s something about the warmth of your smile that makes me impatient.”

  Ella finds both the sentiment and his cheerful grin equally nauseating, and she can’t fight the instinctive tightening of her muscles as he places his hands on her shoulders.

  “I’m sorry, Luka.” She shrugs him off. “I just want to shower and go to bed.”

  “I was hoping to take you out to dinner.”

  She shakes her head. “I grabbed something on the way home.”

  So did Alex.

  The dirt on her face disguises her fiery cheeks as she thinks back to their tender groping in the back seat of his car. She got a grilled cheese sandwich and he got to second base, fondling her breasts beneath her shirt while she sat on his lap, her lips pressed against his.

  She forgets where she is.

  Luka’s attempt to take her hand suddenly jolts her back.

  “Tomorrow, then?” He sounds much too hopeful.

  “Huh?”

  “Dinner?” He squeezes her fingers. “I’ve got some news I’d like to share with you.”

  Oh, fuck. He wouldn’t, would he? Ella’s chest suddenly feels so hollow.

  “Umm … yeah, sure. Dinner sounds good.” She forces a smile.

  “Score.” He leans in for a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight, El.” Before he leaves, he turns to Maydevine. “Thanks for the talk, sir.”

  “Any time, Cadet.”

  Ella’s fake smile drops as soon as Luka is out of the apartment, and she begins to skulk away toward her bedroom. Maydevine has other ideas, though. Sensing her despondency, and knowing what he does about her continued closeness with Alex, he gives her the benefit of some unsolicited advice.

  “I want you to think very carefully before you do this, El Bean. Second chances aren’t easy to come by.”

  Without turning back, she responds to him from the doorway. “Internship or not, I’m still considered a Cadet until my graduation.”

  “So?”

  “I checked Division policy. Unless Alex works for the Academy, there’s nothing wrong in it.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion.”

  “No, it’s a matter of fact.” Abrupt. “I’m an adult, and we’ve done nothing punishable.”

  Maydevine slides his chair back and gets up to face her. “He’s still your superior officer.”

  “So assign me to another unit.”

  Maydevine falls momentarily silent, knowing that she has him cornered. “I wouldn’t trust any other Hunter with the responsibility of your care.”

  “He’s the best there is?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then why not assign him to the first line? Why keep him back?”

  “Because a good soldier can be no good if he’s dead.”

  Ella reads his expression like a book. “So I’m not the only one who cares for Alexander King.” Sensing that she may have found a weakness in Maydevine’s rigid condemnation of her involvement with Alex, she doesn’t stop there. “Plenty of good Hunters die on the first line. It’s their job, and your willing sacrifice. Why are you so invested in him?”

  “His application to the Academy was rejected by the board.” He lights up a cigarette. “Twice.”

  “On what grounds?”

  “His background didn’t suit the Hunter profile.”

  “How the hell does a six-year-old become undesirable?”

  Maydevine retrieves an ashtray from the counter and sits back down at the table. “He grew up in the foster program.”

  Ella frowns. “Where are his parents?”

  “Banished.”

  She comes back into the room and sits across from him, feeling nothing but sadness for her lover’s misfortune. “What did they do?”

  “If Alex wanted you to know, he would’ve told you himself.” Inhale. “What matters is that I forced his third application through.”

  “You vouched for him?”

  Maydevine nods. “Your mother … she was pregnant with you at the time.” Another inhale. “She was friendly with the first foster family who took him in, and she pressed me for a favor.”

  “I’ll bet she didn’t have to press very hard,” Ella mumbles.

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing.” She looks up at him. “So you feel a responsibility toward him because of my mother, is that it?”

  “He deserved a chance, so I gave him one.” Another drag. “You were born the day he got his letter of acceptance.”

  Silence.

  Finally, “How does so much happen in just one day?” Ella looks down at the table and fidgets with her hands. “My life began, my mother’s ended, and Alex got a chance to start his over.”

  Maydevine reaches for her hand and covers it. “It only takes a second to change the whole world, Ellie. Never mind the lives of just three people.”

  He can see tears welling in her eyes.

  “The real change happens in here”—Maydevine taps his own chest—“and that takes no time at all.” He fills his lungs with poison. “It only took one second for me to become your papa.”

  Ella shakes her head. “Jonathan Cross died in agony, and those minutes must’ve felt like hours. No matter how many times you tried to tell me that it happened quickly, I never believed you.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” He waits for her to make eye contact with him. “I didn’t become your papa when he died. I didn’t even become your papa when I signed the adoption papers. I became your papa the second I looked into your eyes and knew that I loved you.”

  Ella wrongly assumes he means the day he took her home with him after J.C.’s demise. She has no idea that he’s talking about the day she was born.

  Her tears spill out. She pulls her chair closer to him and buries her face against his chest, smearing blood all over him. “I didn’t mean to disobey you, Papa.”

  “Yes, you did.” He comforts her. “Your world changed the second I sent that boy, King, to extract you from the Belt.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Maydevine shakes his head. “Don’t be. I can’t tell you not to feel what you feel, and if he feels the same … well, first of all, he should have the courage to tell me so. I gave him a chance earlier today and he denied it.”

  “He’s afraid that you’ll fire him for misconduct.”

  “I couldn’t, even if I wanted to—you know that. You’ve apparently familiarized yourself with Division policy, which is a shocker in
and of itself because that means you actually picked up a book.”

  She shoves him gently. “I excel in athletics, not academia,” she reminds him.

  “All the same, my objection to your pursuit of him is not what you think it to be.”

  “You disapprove of him.”

  “Not in the least.”

  “You wish he were Luka.”

  Maydevine half shrugs. “Not really.”

  “What, then?”

  “I’m afraid he’ll fail to do the right thing, and that his actions will leave you both in jeopardy.”

  “How so? He can’t knock me up. I got the Division birth control implant when I got my first period—it’s mandatory.”

  Maydevine crushes the butt of his cigarette in the ashtray and pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, trying to erase the unwelcome mental imagery. “Not that. Geez, don’t ever tell me that stuff.”

  Ella is genuinely confused. “If not that, then I don’t understand you, Papa.”

  “When you graduate, what then? Will he opt for a demotion?”

  Ella doesn’t have an answer for that.

  “And when you become Commander?” he forges on. “Will he resign? Will he transfer into the Police Division?”

  “I—”

  “Look, I know you’re young and this seems like fun. I know you’re not thinking about the future, either of you, but I can think of nothing else.”

  “Give him another chance, please.”

  “If he wants to be with you, I will give him no choice—know that. If it comes right down to it, I will protect your future at the cost of his.”

  Ella nods. “I wouldn’t doubt you.”

  Veering suddenly in a different direction, Maydevine sniffs the air. “Did you track shit in here?”

  Ella winces apologetically. “Maybe.”

  “Entrails?”

  “I think so.”

  “Goddamnit, that’s vile.”

  “I think it’s in my hair.”

  “Wash, for god’s sake. And get an early night.”

  Ella does as she’s told and goes straight to her bedroom. Before she washes and cleans herself, she takes her new hunting knife and runs it under warm water, clearing it of blood and debris. Treating it with the utmost care, she holsters it and tucks it beneath her pillow, hoping for sweet dreams.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Lost & Found

  After a grueling twelve hour shift, Alex returns to the DDH. Covered with blood and grime, his fingernails coated in remnants of the creatures he’s slain, he clocks out and heads for the parking garage. On his way past the entrance to the armory, he spots a familiar face getting lippy with the receptionist.

  Ella.

  In scruffy jeans and a black t-shirt, her hunting knife and HK USP both holstered to her belt, she argues fiercely with the receptionist. As she gesticulates wildly, the dog tags around her wrist and neck clink and jingle like bad percussion instruments, and the pair around her neck eventually slips beneath the low cut of her shirt.

  “I don’t understand what’s so difficult for you to comprehend about the notion of ‘lost’.” She upturns her palms. “It slipped out of my hand, that’s all.”

  The receptionist sighs. “It’s an unusual thing for a person to lose, that’s all we’re saying.”

  Alex can’t help but intervene. “What’s the kerfuffle here?”

  Ella’s whole body heaves with relief when she sees him. “My hero. Please, drill some sense into this mindless bitch.”

  The receptionist looks up at Alex, relieved to see another face, hoping that he’ll be able to settle the dispute.

  “Cadet Cross checked out with nine weapons, but only checked back in with eight.” She passes some papers across the desk to him. “She needs to sign these papers. It’s protocol.”

  “Some kind of anti-theft protocol?”

  The receptionist nods. “It’s a legal statement confirming that the weapon was legitimately lost, so that if it turns up later, or is found to be used in any sort of crime, we can press theft and perjury charges against her.”

  “What if she lost it and someone else finds it, and they sell it to a Fringer for a night with a cheap whore? And then the whore’s handler uses it to blow the face off some pot-peddling crook? Ella gets arrested for conspiracy? Just ‘cause she was the last person who checked the damn thing out?” He tosses the papers back at her. “I wouldn’t sign your shit either.”

  “It’s protocol. I don’t know what you expect me to do.”

  “Look”—Alex leans over the desk toward her—“I’ve lost plenty of weapons in the field: pistols, grenades, flares, and even the odd sub-machine gun. It’s hard to keep track of everything when you’ve got a pack of Chimera crawling up your ass, and I’ve never had to sign any papers for it.”

  “It depends on the size of the missing item, Mr.”—she looks down at his vest—“King. We expect that a number of items will fail to make it back safely into the armory, and that’s taken into consideration. We couldn’t possibly ask that you keep track of how many grenades were used in combat versus how many of them were lost—that would be ludicrous. It’s war, Commander, and Omega is not that petty.”

  “What the hell did she lose that could possibly be so important? Her mind? Another Cadet? Her virginity? I don’t get it.”

  “An RPG-7 launcher.”

  That trumps anything Alex would ever have thought of, and he turns to Ella with wide eyes. “How, in the name of all that’s good and proper, do you lose a rocket propelled grenade launcher?”

  Ella rolls her eyes. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Do you think this is funny?”

  “No. Quite frankly, it’s irritating.”

  Hands on hips, Alex turns back to the receptionist. “What if she doesn’t sign it?”

  “I’ll have no choice but to notify the Hunter General and have her suspended immediately.”

  He almost laughs. “That’s it?”

  “Suspension, Commander. It’s not a picnic, and it’ll stay on her permanent record. Not to mention, if the proper paperwork isn’t submitted, this case will remain open and unresolved in her personnel file. This could come back to haunt her decades later if it’s not taken care of now.”

  Alex ignores her and takes Ella by the arm. “Come on, we’re done here.”

  The receptionist gets up from her desk, raising her voice and losing her cool. “Mr. King! I can’t believe that a Hunter of your standing is actually encouraging a Cadet to subvert due process.”

  “You call the Hunter General,” he dares her, his expression smug. “Tell him that his daughter lost a weapon in combat, and now you want to suspend her for it. Then call me and let me know how well that little conversation worked out for you.”

  He places his arm around Ella’s shoulders and escorts her away, much to the distress of the receptionist, who is quick to pick up the phone, but hesitates to dial.

  As soon as they’re around the corner and out of ear shot, Ella shoulder bumps him.

  “When she calls Maydevine, she’ll tell him you were here with me.”

  Alex doesn’t care. “There’s nothing to infer from it. I do work here.”

  “I wasn’t even thinking of that. I just meant that, if I’m going down, then you’re going down with me.”

  “That’s just the way I like it.”

  That takes a minute to register in Ella’s brain, and when it does, she blushes.

  Alex smiles at her, enjoying how easily he can entice color into her cheeks. “Can I give you a ride home?”

  Seeing a gleam in his eye and the hint of a cheeky grin appearing on his lips, Ella’s entire body tingles: he’s hoping for a replay of last night. Perhaps the extended play version, with a few bonus features.

  She checks her invisible watch, wishing that she had some time to spare, but knowing that she doesn’t. “I can’t. Not tonight. I have somewhere else to be.”

  Reaching a row
of elevators, Alex hits the button for the parking garage and tries to conceal his disappointment from her. “Social plans?”

  Unsure how to break it to him, at the same time knowing she has nothing to hide, she just comes right out and says it. “I’m having dinner with Luka.”

  Alex tenses noticeably.

  “It’s not like that,” she assures him. “I’m going to get utterly shitfaced and break up with him.”

  “Just as long as you don’t get utterly shitfaced and end up in his bed.”

  “Wow.” Ella stares at him. “Did that really just come out of your mouth?”

  Alex, his fists clenched in his pockets, won’t look at her. He regrets the words, but not the sentiment. Fortunately, though, Ella isn’t the type to be offended by it.

  “You’re lucky I find that envious streak a bit of a turn on, you jealous bastard.”

  *************************

  Alex kicks the door shut behind them, the echo of it reverberating up and down the empty stone shell of the emergency exit stairwell. Pushing Ella up against the wall, he locks his lips with hers and she reciprocates with pleasure.

  “I thought this place was full of cameras?” she gets out between kisses.

  “I exaggerated.” He pulls back from another kiss. “I’ve wanted to do this all day.”

  Another kiss, and this time, he reaches for her belt.

  She gasps, freezing just for a split second.

  “What’s wrong?” He stops advancing on her immediately.

  “Nothing, I—”

  He retracts his hands. “Did I go too far?”

  “No, this is what I want. I just …”

  “Just what?”

  “Not here is all.” She pulls him into another kiss, but senses that he’s become reticent. “Alex, please. You must know how much I want this.”

  She holds her palm against his cheek, hoping to draw him back in, but he resists. He pulls back from her, taking her still-healing hand in his and kissing her palm.

  Shaking his head, “It’s not that.”

  “Then what? How did you just drop from third gear into neutral so damn fast?”

  “I wish it didn’t have to be like this.” He keeps her hand wrapped up in his. “You deserve better than a frantic groping in a cold stairwell that smells like piss.”