by Jody Klaire
“Tools?” Frei always talked about tools.
“You have great hearing.” Jäger strode back in, shutting the door, locking it, and heading back to his chair. “One of your group, the boy with balance issues, seems to have put his foot through a glass panel.”
“Ian?” I tensed. He was always falling into things. “Is he alright?”
Jäger raised an eyebrow. “You sound like you care.”
“I do.” I fixed him with a glare. “He is worth money to me.”
His eyes twinkled. “The panel is broken but he’s fine. It’s safety glass. It costs.”
I waved that off, thankful that Ian was okay.
“As I said, impeccable hearing . . . he was in the boys’ dorm.” Jäger was looking to me for an explanation.
“I didn’t hear that.” I hadn’t heard anything, I’d made it up. Only, now I wasn’t sure if I had. “Sure there was nothin’ nearby?”
Jäger shook his head. “Nervous about something?”
I didn’t like that tone. It sent every hair on the back of my neck into a frenzy. Tools. What tools? Did he know I’d planted the device?
“Why would I be?” I smiled. “I was enjoying hearing about the tournament.” I stood up. “I should go check on Ian. Figure out how I can make him worth more than the panel.”
Jäger moved around the desk and blocked my path to the door. “Why waste your time on slaves?”
“They make money.” I went to move around but he blocked me again.
“But you haven’t heard my proposition yet.” Some women would find his charming smile disarming but all it did was remind me of Sam.
“So shoot.” I looked at him like my mind was on Ian. Like money was my focus, like my hands weren’t soaked through with panic.
“A woman like you deserves a lot more than what a slave can buy you.” He took my hand. Instead of feeling comforted, a creeping sense of unease prickled up and down my arms.
Turn the conversation so the one negotiating thinks there is only one option.
“They can buy me plenty.” I squeezed his hand, trying to tug it free. “I just gotta assess the damage.”
“He’s nothing. Forget him.” I got a warning ripple from him so acute I shuddered with it.
“He’s worth something.” I meant that in every sense. “I don’t want to lose none of them.”
“You work too hard. Why not relax, let Harrison deal with it.” His eyes trailed over my face and his smile made me think of sharks once more.
Tools. Think. Only one option. Anything. Speak. “Wires crossed.”
I didn’t know what my mouth was saying again but I was going with it.
Jäger narrowed his eyes. “What?”
Hope ignited. Wires crossed. He said that about Owens. What wires? She was a bit neurotic sure, clingy, in fact she reminded me of a few of the girls in Serenity.
My heart pounded.
That was it.
He thought she was crazy. It had to be.
“I was in a mental institution over a decade. What did you expect?”
“So you had no choice. It’s not the same thing.” He moved toward me. “It happens. They make you think that way.”
He was kinda right there. Even the sanest people lost a few screws in those places. The staff proved that, they’d been crazier than us inmates.
“Professor Worthington confirmed it for me.” Renee had. I was institutionalized.
“Worthington?” He folded his arms. “She’s better than that.”
She said she’d taken classes in college. Renee could pull that cover off.
“You seen her, she finds any excuse to talk to me.” I shrugged. “She can’t help herself. I’m fascinating.”
All psychiatrists were alike in my eyes. I was speaking the truth. They’d stick folks in specimen bottles if they could.
“You keep finding her too.” Jäger studied me.
“I like the attention, what can I say?” She was crazy, I was crazy. I didn’t like to add that I was fast coming to the conclusion that it might be a female thing.
“Explains why you’re so . . . unavailable.” He pulled his hand free.
“That’s what she said.” And it hurt. Did I have it written across my forehead?
He folded his arms. “Will you keep your distance from her?” He fixed me with his searching gaze. “Can you?”
Renee? Not really, not even if I’d wanted to. We had to work together. Why that was a problem, I didn’t understand. Maybe he was mad that I needed help.
“I like her attention. She’s fun to tease.” I let a cocky grin through because there was no way I could avoid Renee.
“I need to think about it.” He motioned to the doorway. “Leave.”
I didn’t need asking twice, I stumbled around him to the doorway and yanked at the handle. He’d locked it. I took a long breath and turned the lock with a trembling hand.
“There’s nothing I enjoy doing more than extracting the truth if I feel there’s a need.” His threat rippled through me and twisted my gut into a knot.
I stumbled out, shut the door behind me, and stared up at the ceiling. My heart clattered in my chest, my knees were wobbling—my whole body was wobbling.
There was something real off about that guy. Real wrong. I did my best to be controlled as I walked past Harrison’s office and out into the increasing wind.
I’d done it.
I’d planted the device and got out.
Task accomplished . . . somehow.
Chapter 39
IT WAS SO quiet in the villa that the ticking clock sounded like a banging drum as Frei sat staring at me.
“Please say something.”
She cleared her throat. “He let you leave . . . just like that?”
“Yeah, I told him that I got my wires twisted or wrong.” I bit my lip. “Renee said I was institutionalized. You know, wired wrong.”
Frei’s blonde brows raised in the middle. She looked at me from under her wrinkled forehead. “And that’s what you said exactly . . . that you were institutionalized?”
I’d said the first thing that popped into my head. I was panicking. Undercover was not my thing. “No, I just said I had my wires wrong like Owens.”
She blinked at me.
“I was in Serenity so it made sense.” Dread rolled through my gut. I’d messed up. Frei was going to have to figure out a way to keep me out of trouble. I sucked as an agent. Really sucked.
She didn’t frown, her eyes didn’t narrow. Instead her lips twitched in a smile. Why was she smiling? “Anything else?”
“Yeah, I said that Renee helped me confirm it.” I stared at my fingers now covered in bandages. “She said she’d taken a couple of psychology classes in college. I knew she could pull it off if he asked her.”
Frei stifled a chuckle.
I frowned at her. “What?”
Her face contorted as she stifled more laughter. “What did he say to that?”
“That he’d think about it.” I sighed. “I said I liked the attention and like before, that I enjoyed teasing her.” I stared at the counter. “I knew a couple of women in Serenity who were a lot like that. Owens reminds me of them. I guess . . . I just thought he wouldn’t want that.”
She smiled. “It was quick thinking at least.”
“Jäger said he liked extracting the truth. Good thing it kinda was, huh?” I shook my head, thinking for the first time it was lucky I’d been locked up.
Frei took a deep breath, her brow furrowed again. “I’m not sure if he—”
Someone thumped at the door.
Frei checked her laptop. “Renee.”
She got up and strode to the door. At least I could tell her to her face what I’d said to Jäger. It would save her the walk over to throttle me.
“You were right.” She stood in the doorway with a glint in her eyes.
Frei and I exchanged a glance.
Renee stomped in and narrowed her eyes as she caught sight of
the bandages on my fingers.
“About?” Frei asked, closing the door behind her.
Neither of us was sure who she was talking to. Frei headed to the drinks cabinet and poured two shots of whisky.
She handed Renee a glass who downed it in one.
“Owens.”
“Are you okay? Did she hurt you?” Every bit of anger or hurt I had felt evaporated.
Renee met my eyes. “I’m fine, Aeron.” Her tone was cold. “As for the kids she’s abducted, I’m not so sure.”
The way she said my name made me feel twelve years old. She handed the glass back to Frei as if I wasn’t even in the room. “POIs.”
Frei placed her glass down. “She get the drop on you?”
Renee shook her head. “She left a note. She said she had concerns about the kids. Said she thought they were being trafficked. She wanted to take them before someone else did.”
I folded my arms. “Who’d believe that line?”
Renee glared at me.
“She may be interested in selling them herself,” Frei said with a look in my direction. I got that she wanted me to be calm. I got that I had to switch off my feelings and be an agent now but Renee had started it.
“What is going on?” Renee folded her arms and looked from Frei to me as if she deserved some kind of explanation.
“The vision I had involved things I didn’t understand.” I cleared my throat. I would not feel like a child.
“What did you see.” Her eyes narrowed.
“She’s not at liberty to say,” Frei shot back. “All you need to know is that Owens might be right. This could be a prep school which is a cover for a trafficking operation.”
Renee stared up at the ceiling. “Hence Aeron acting like an idiot.” She sighed. “Why didn’t either of you tell me?”
“Are you kidding me?”
Both of them stared at me.
“You say I’m acting like an idiot?” I threw my hands in the air. “I’m not the one stomping around yelling at everyone.”
“Aeron,” Frei said in a cautious tone.
“No.” I scowled at Renee. “You’re a pain in the ass and if you would have listened, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
My voice rang out and lingered in the room. I was loud when I got worked up.
“You storm into my place and threaten Owens, you storm into class and take over and you think I should listen to you?” Her hands were on her hips.
Frei picked up her whiskey and sat in her chair.
“Yes,” I snapped.
“Why?”
“Because that’s my job. You don’t see nothin’.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Or you forget that I can read you too?”
She glared at me.
I glared right back.
Frei sipped her whiskey and tapped on her laptop.
Renee’s eyes twinkled in challenge. I was not backing down this time. I wasn’t walking away. No, this time I was standing my ground.
“Fine.” She folded her arms. “Why would Owens want them out of the academy?” She was all business now. “What would make her think it was a good idea to fail them?”
I fought the urge to hurl a “duh,” her way. “Failing them means they get sold off cheaper.”
She looked to Frei who nodded.
“This is such a mess.” Renee pinched her nose. I wasn’t sure if she was on about the academy or us. She looked exhausted. She looked overwhelmed.
“Owens isn’t trustworthy.” I didn’t know what was going on with Renee and Owens. All I knew was that Owens felt strange. There was something that didn’t fit.
“She’s ex-FBI. Ex-lead agent. Big case. Powerful parents had their daughter abducted. Owens went in to get her. The kid was gone and the kidnappers had the money and the child. She had a breakdown.” Renee sounded like she was reeling off a list. “She’s been working here for five years. She got a letter from one of the parents, Miranda’s mother. She is trying to get her out.”
“Unless Owens has my kind of communication skills, I doubt that.”
Both of them looked at me.
Renee scowled. I was sick of her scowling. “What are you talking about?”
“She died. Miranda has been at this school since she was small. She was one of five children. I don’t know what happened to the others but she was the youngest.” I stared down at my hands. “The violin is the only thing she has.”
There were so many stories locked in my hands. I missed the connection. I missed Nan, I missed being and feeling like me.
“Owens is being played?” Renee asked.
“Or is playing you,” Frei said. How many times had she said that before I wondered?
“Why would she leave me a note? Why would she bother?” She fiddled with her nails.
“Sam acted like he cared about me too,” I said as softly as I could. She trusted folks, it wasn’t a bad trait. Like me, she kept trusting the wrong ones.
Renee’s eyes turned icy. “Do not put Owens in the same sentence as that man.”
“Why are you being so difficult?” I ran my hand through my hair. I turned away from her, sure I was gonna haul something at her if I didn’t. “You’re impossible to work with.”
“Me?” She stomped around until we stood face to face and glared up at me. “I’m not the one threatening people.”
“I’m supposed to be a criminal. That’s my cover.” I felt sweaty and flustered.
“Then it’s a stupid cover.”
I stepped toward her. We were almost nose to nose. “Not half as stupid as messing around with folks you don’t know.”
“Says you.” Her eyes glinted. “I’m not the one visiting Jäger’s office after curfew.”
“Says me.” I puffed out my chest. “Only thing I’m stupid for is believing you cared.”
My hands shook. I spun on my heels and stormed up the stairs. I threw my clothes into a pile and scrubbed my face before I stepped into the shower.
The water poured over me, warm and soothing. It washed away the frustrated tears but it didn’t wash away the hollowness that had caused them.
URSULA STARED AT the empty whiskey glass in her hand. Renee was glowering away on the sofa.
She was not the Renee Black she knew at all. Fiery, yes, crazy when in love, yes, but not this unhinged.
Had she lost it completely?
Lilia had said it would happen. She said they’d fall apart. The more Aeron and Renee were near each other it would appear that the vision was right.
Only the vision was wrong. She was certain of it. Now that it had come to a head, she could do something about it.
Renee wanted an explanation. Ursula wasn’t going to give it to her. “She tell you where she was taking them?”
“No.” Curt, cold, and pushing it. Like she was unable to control herself.
“Any ideas?”
“No.”
Ursula refilled the glasses at the cabinet and placed one on the coffee table on her way back to her chair. “Hit me with it, Renee. We have POIs to find.”
“You two looked friendly.” Her anger bubbled in her gray eyes. “Wasn’t she meant to be with Jäger?”
Not real jealousy. Not real anger. Renee was all over the place emotionally.
“She was.”
Renee downed her shot. “Well, I don’t see him.”
“Because Aeron told him that something was going on . . . between you.” Ursula sipped at her glass, the ice chinking.
Renee stared at her. Her hands fell into her lap as her mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Jäger made a move.” Best that she left out the rest. “Aeron told him that she was, in his words, wired wrong.”
Renee flinched.
“Aeron thought he meant mental illness.” She kept her voice level and sipped her drink. She needed to be calm. “She told him you confirmed she was wired wrong.”
It would have been funny if Aeron wasn’t so naïve.
Renee’s face drained of c
olor. “I did enough digging to know he’s not someone to lie to.”
Ursula knew full well what Renee had been doing. She’d been the one censoring her online. The less she knew about him, the better. “She needs your help. You’re hurting her.”
She nodded. “I am. I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
She put her head in her hands. “I don’t know, Urs. I can’t explain it. I can hear things, like they are there. I keep thinking I can see Nan.” She gripped her hair. “Every time everyone comes near me, I just feel so strung out. Overloaded.” She shook her head. “Maybe I’ve lost it.”
Ursula glanced in the direction of the stairs and back to Renee. “Maybe you’re just feeling what she does.”
“Excuse me?”
“Side effects.” She sipped her drink. “Aeron and Lilia in one place means . . . ?”
Renee’s eyes lit up. “Fireworks. That’s why she stays away.” She bit her lip. “You know?”
“Think with your heart, not your head.” She smiled. “The more you hide and expend energy doing it, the more you’ll be angry with her for it.”
Renee stared at the floor. Ursula knew her words had helped. She could see Renee’s shoulders relax.
“I had no right to talk to you like that,” Renee whispered.
“I had no right to lose my temper, forget it.” She stared at her laptop. “So far, she has been an asset to you. She’s handled everything thrown at her with ingenuity, grace. Even the girl in my class who was hurt . . . she’s been incredible.”
She met Renee’s stormy eyes.
“You’d be proud of her.” She smiled. “She’s one fine agent.”
Renee smiled, the swirling mix of emotions flickered across her face. “That’s high praise indeed.”
Ursula nodded. “She reminded me of you up on that roof.”
Renee gripped her empty glass. “I was two seconds away from going to get her. That kid has a screw loose.”
“Agreed.”
“Is . . . is . . . she doing okay?” Renee stared at the stairs.
“No. Far from it. She thinks you were faking it. She thinks that she’s just another POI to you.”
“I told her in St. Jude’s that wasn’t the case.” Renee sighed and thumbed over the glass. “Surely she sees that I care. I can’t hide that I love her that well.”