by Garren, Jax
“Don’t open the file ’til I get back,” she said as she headed through the stacks toward the exit of the library in the heart of The Underlight.
Travis was right about the walk chilling her out. Breathing in the peaceful air of The Underlight always calmed her. Like much of the underground mini-city, the library was a throwback to a different era, filled with soaring shelves, leather-bound books and artwork at irregular intervals. It had all the richness of the most posh libraries in her father’s circle of friends without any of the coldness. People here shared the space, loved the books, cared for the upkeep with affection instead of paid dedication.
Jolie herself tried to dust shelves or do some other form of custodianship whenever she used the library. It was the least she could do for everyone letting her come down here and invade their space with her computer and its out-of-place technology.
Exiting the library, she turned a corner into the common room and the scene brought a smile to her face. The Underlight’s great room opened up with cathedralesque ceilings and four corner fireplaces crackling with friendly light. Hand-crafted tables and other furniture had been grouped into conversation areas, and like most evenings, many of the seats were taken up with The Underlight’s residents, talking, knitting, playing board games—passing the time with friends instead of television, listening to live music played on guitars instead of through headphones.
She loved it here.
Near one of the fireplaces somebody usually had an enormous pot of coffee brewed up for the room to share, so she headed that way, exchanging pleasantries with everyone she passed. It had taken a while for people to accept her presence down here; in fact, she was still working on public relations. If Hauk hadn’t carried her unconscious body down during one of his crazy blackouts, the citizens of The Underlight never would’ve given the daughter of Reginald Benoit a chance. She was too big a risk. Should members of Ananke ever figure out how to get here, they would bring their magic and their warriors and wipe out The Austin Underlight.
But Hauk and Brayden and Dr. Echelson, one of their elected leaders who was also her history advisor at The University, had stuck by her. She’d tried her best to fit in (well, except for bringing her laptop around—she refused to give that up), and slowly she felt popular opinion was turning in her favor. It had been a strange experience. In the past, her name and her dad’s money had gotten her all the “friends” she wanted, if she could call those people friends. Now those same things were her biggest liability.
Sometimes it was tough, but Jolie respected The Underlight for their hesitance. It was comforting, a relief even, to know without a doubt that for once in her life those who called her a friend did so purely for herself.
By the time she returned to the library with two black coffees, she was feeling substantially more relaxed.
“Jesus, take forever, why don’t you,” Travis said with a grin. “Do you know how many times I almost opened the file?”
“Yeah, well, you don’t have to run a PR campaign every time you go out in public.” She poked him in the chest with his mug. “You want fast coffee, you get it yourself. I have to play nice. Now open the file.”
Travis took the drink as they waited for the flash drive to open on his grindingly slow computer. “So,” he said so casually that Jolie knew his question wasn’t casual. “What’d Hauk do to piss you off? I’ve never seen you mad at him before.”
She waved a hand dismissively. “Aw, nothing. He was being stupid. I was being stupid. There was a whole lot of stupid.”
Stupid, and yet body-tingling awesome. Hauk’s fingers had tightened on her ass, sending anticipation zinging through her, and she’d had to remind herself he wanted Ashley there, not her. The whole kiss was a farce she’d initiated because she was pissed.
Somehow she’d still nearly let him roll her onto the couch and press her into the cushions as he stretched that big, muscled body of his on top of her.
Even now the image heated her skin. She had to quit thinking like that.
“He finally kissed you, huh?”
Jolie’s head snapped around. “What? Where’d you get that idea? Finally? What?” Hundreds of video icons, each named as a date, scrolled across the screen in her peripheral vision. “Videos? Maybe it is porn.”
Travis snorted. “Alrighty then.” He clicked on the newest video. “So you didn’t like that he kissed you or didn’t like what he did afterward?”
She tried to stem the blush creeping up her cheeks, but was afraid she failed. “I didn’t… Uh…”
The corners of his mouth turned up. “Or didn’t like the kiss?”
He turned to stare her full in the face and all she could do was blink at him, mouth opened in a protest that wouldn’t come out.
“Come on,” he said, his voice teasing, “a guy can hope.”
“The video’s playing,” she finally said.
Travis turned back to the computer and his teasing grin dropped. “Speak of the devil…”
It was a black and white clip with no sound, like a security camera feed, showing Hauk at an accounting firm he’d raided last month. Three Hands of Atropos had him surrounded in the courtyard. He stood at the ready for the first attacker to make his move.
Jolie blinked at it. “What the hell? Is this evidence? Are they pressing a lawsuit?”
Travis shrugged, mystified. The video was only about thirty seconds long, just the time it took for Hauk to knock the guys out and move on.
When it ended, Travis clicked on the next icon.
The footage began, and Jolie immediately felt sick. This one had color and audio, with the blurry imprecision of a cell phone video. It showed two men holding a woman prone in the back of a van.
“Is—is that you?” Travis asked in a strained voice.
On screen the men laughed, pawing at the woman as she str Can t yuggled to get up.
“Yeah.” Jolie rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s me.” She pushed away from the table as remnants of that night’s nauseous terror churned inside her.
Travis moused to the stop button. “We don’t need to—” A gut-wrenching bellow stayed his hand.
Despite her remembered horror, Jolie couldn’t take her eyes off the screen. It was the first time Hauk had saved her. The camera swung around to see Hauk in full battle rage, tearing his way through screaming men.
“Oh my God. That’s Hauk? What’s he doing?”
Hauk grabbed the guy on top of Jolie and flung him to the pavement. With a steel-toed motorcycle boot, he delivered a swift kick to the guy’s naked balls. The camera turned away as the filmer cursed in empathized pain.
Good riddance. No guy who would do that deserved balls as far as Jolie was concerned. At the time, she hadn’t realized somebody’d been twisted enough to film the assault. If she’d ever felt a twinge about what happened next, that killed it completely. These assholes deserved their fates.
The shot flipped back to watch Hauk break the guy’s neck then take two bullets, one in the thigh and one in the shoulder, without a flinch. He tossed the body at another Hand of Atropos. Three motorcyclists showed up.
“Oh my God,” Travis said again.
Hauk turned back to the van as if he heard something.
That exact moment, the one where he turned to face Jolie when she called his name, was burned into her memory.
It was the first time she’d seen his face. She’d been terrified, not just of the situation but of him. The next morning, even knowing he was her rescuer, she hadn’t wanted to look at him, hadn’t even wanted to admit he existed. Just as bad, she’d let herself pretend he wasn’t the man behind the curtain who’d wrung that amazing orgasm from her. And Hauk had let her, despite how unfair and cowardly it was of her.
Jolie had started off the most important relationship in her life with denial and fear. Ever since, she’d carried around the shame that she couldn’t handle what he faced daily as reality.
But as the camera zoomed in on his blood
-spattered face, even knowing Hauk as she did now, in that moment he was hellfire-and-nightmare terrifying. And maybe, like he repeatedly assured her, the fact that she’d gotten past it was good enough.
“Good God,” Travis muttered, still shaking his head. “He’s—good God!”
Gunfire. Video-Jolie screamed, video-Hauk took another bullet, this one in his chest, and he threw himself at a motorcyclist. The video ended with Hauk’s ravaged face turned to the camera in rage, filling the screen with its hideous intensity. Jolie exhaled a long breath as an insecurity she’d buried deep uncoiled and released. There had been nothing weak about her fear that night. Just the video of it had Travis clinging to the desk in white-faced terror.
“It’s like watching a demon or something fight,” he whispered, as if afraid the bogeyman in the video would hear and come for them next. “That’s unreal. Like, can’t-happen-in-real-life unreal.”
She relaxed back into her chair and motioned at the face frozen on the screen. “How do you fight him? If he can do impossible things, how do you know what he’s capable of?” She dropped her forehead into her palm. “D’oh! The guy said they were s Cd tmpossibtudying him. Check another video. See if it’s of Hauk fighting.”
Travis opened one from earlier in the set. Then another, and a fifth. All of them were of Hauk fighting.
“It’s a training series,” Travis said, regaining his equilibrium. “They’re studying Hauk to see if they can find any weaknesses.”
“And maybe to see what triggers his blackouts. They’ve devised this thing, this wand that stops them.” Jolie rubbed her forehead. “They keep targeting him. They want him.”
Back while Hauk was half-conscious in the burn unit at BAMC, Ananke had given him one of those cursed tattoos that should’ve turned him into a Hand of Atropos. Then, after his sentencing, they’d helped him escape the law. They’d even helped him heal further and faster than regular medical science deemed possible with their own team of scientists and doctors. Their intervention likely accounted for his impressive physical capabilities, despite the scarring. But when Hauk figured out what Ananke was really about, he’d bolted.
He was the only person The Underlight knew of who had escaped the mind-bending effects of that tattoo. The Order of Ananke wanted him back. Badly.
Travis frowned. “But why would they need training videos back? Surely they’ve got other copies somewhere. And it’s not like we can’t watch Hauk fight all we want to.”
Dozens of videos were lined up on the screen. “Maybe there’s something else on one of them they don’t want us to see.”
Travis’s lips quirked up. “Something we wouldn’t have bothered to look for if they hadn’t tried to get it back? That actually sounds likely.” He scrolled up through the numerous videos. There was easily hours of footage. “I know you need to get back to the rally. Why don’t you go? Warn Hauk what this is. I’ll keep watching.”
“Are you sure?” Watching Hauk fight was cool and all, but that was a lot of watching.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Reporter, remember? This is right up my alley.”
Jolie nodded. “Thanks. If you set up a cloud drive for us, you can shove anything over you think I should see. Email me access and I’ll take a look later. But gimme a call if you find anything important.”
“Will do.”
Jolie turned to go, but Travis’s voice stopped her before she got past the first stacks.
“Hey, Red Hots.”
She turned back to find a serious expression on his face. “What?”
“I know there’re a lot of people rooting for you two. Nobody would blame you, though, if you didn’t want to date Hauk. It may not be his fault the whole situation is crazy, but the whole situation is crazy. It’s not just his scars. The fugitive thing, the blackouts, Ananke…it’s a lot. Way more than anyone expects you to take on.” A smile poked through the serious. “I swear I’m not just saying that for my own benefit.”
She popped a hip and put her fist on it. “I know there’s a contingent that thinks Hauk and I are the cutest thing. The knitting crew has taken to calling us ‘la belle et la bête’. But everyone’s going to be disappointed one of these days. Hauk and I haven’t even vaguely discussed a relationship, mostly because neither of us wants one.” She waved a finger at Travis and smiled to CandI h soften her next words. “And you, Mr. Randy-boy, I know what part of your anatomy is interested in dating me, and as scruffily handsome as you are, that’s not going to happen. So get it out of your head, all right? We’re good as friends. Hauk and I are good as friends. We’re all just friends.” And she was never having sex again because she spent all her time surrounded by men who were just friends.
Despite the fact that she’d had a hard time keeping her lips off one of them today.
Travis propped a knee up and relaxed into the chair, his surfer-boy calm back in full force. “You’re really jaded sometimes, you know? You realize that I do like you as a person, right? I may tease you sometimes, call you Penthouse Princess when you say something about money, because you have no concept of money.” He leaned forward. “You also know that, right?”
She cocked her head. “Your point?”
He took his time settling back into the overstuffed seat. “My point is, you’re gorgeous. Quite possibly the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met.”
She rolled her eyes, but he kept talking.
“You’re also stupid-rich and well-connected. I’d wager you’ve spent your life fending off men who want you for all the wrong reasons.”
Despite her desire to stay strong, Jolie’s pose deflated. He had no idea how right he was. It sucked to be wanted not for herself, but for access to her father. Men could spin so many enticing lies about love when they wanted something entirely more worldly.
“But Jolie, that doesn’t mean all of us want you for the wrong reasons.” He shrugged. “Some of us? We just think you’re really cool.”
She ducked her head, embarrassed. Was her insecurity that transparent? Travis was right. She was being unfair. He and Hauk were a different breed than the men she was used to. They both had a straightforward honesty she liked but hadn’t yet figured out how to deal with.
“Aw, look. She’s blushing. If it helps, I’ll admit we also think your tight ass is really hot and would like to date that, too.”
Jolie didn’t try to hide her blush or laughter. “Shut the fuck up.” In two strides she was back to him. She squeezed her fingers into his dishwater-blond curls and kissed the top of his head. “Thanks. You’re pretty cool yourself.” She released him and tapped a purple-painted fingernail on his nose. “But you and I? We’re still just friends.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get going. I’ve got hours of lover-boy here to watch.”
Jolie called back a “Whatever!” as she headed around the stacks
* * *
“Where have you been? You have to change!” Catrina threw a new costume at Jolie as soon as she stepped into the dressing room.
Jolie caught it, confused. But she unzipped the jogging suit that covered the ridiculous skin-tight sparkles she hadn’t had a chance to peel off yet. “Why? Spork’s going to win the closer.” The audience was just now voting on an act to come back out and finish the night, and Spork’s popularity made them a shoo-in. She hadn’t worried too much about getting back because nobody expected Pussy Will-Oh! to perform a second time.
Catrina snorted. “Of course they are. Audience votes aren’t about talent. But that singer, Paul What’s-his-cheeks, asked for you to dance. And dance you shall. The audience lo Ce ait, cved that little move of yours where you took out the loudmouth. Spork plus you ending the rally will send everyone out in a mood to donate more money. God knows marriage equality needs all the funds it can raise in Texas.”
Jolie pushed down the jogging pants with a laugh. “Okay.” The other costume was more comfortable anyway—daisy dukes and a lipstick-red bra top. She was tired of wearing fake crystals. “Have you seen Hauk? I
need to talk to him really fast.” And tell him about the videos. He had a right to know.
He was probably with Ashley, though. The thought made her wrinkle her nose.
She shucked the old outfit and slid on the new. Maybe seeing Hauk and Ashley together would be a good thing. She hadn’t been able to observe the way they interacted since the first introduction, and that was obviously an emotional moment. Maybe with some time to analyze, she could form a better opinion of what was going on between them. If any of her old high-school boyfriends had shown up out of the blue, it wasn’t like she’d start dating them again. Those had all ended in the typical histrionics of a teenage relationship, and she’d changed a lot since eighteen.
Hauk had probably changed a lot, too. Though she got the impression Hauk and Saint Ashley had had more than a typical high-school affair.
Not that it should matter to Jolie what was going on between Hauk and any other woman, but clearly it did. It surprised her how much so. Her earlier exit with the kiss and the one-liner? She was so rarely motivated by jealousy, she hadn’t recognized that ugly emotion when it had her in its teeth.
Now that she’d had some time to think about it, she’d realized the problem. Hauk had wanted Ashley to take care of him and not her. He hadn’t seen Ashley in years, and Jolie had just had his back in a fight. But Ashley was the one he wanted around. Ergo, jealousy.
Sure, he’d responded to their kisses. Even this morning before backing out, he’d seemed really into it. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, though. It was possible Hauk’s control had just slipped. As Catrina pointed out, the poor man hadn’t gotten any for nearly five years. His body would be happy with any decent-looking girl willing to curl up next to him. But his brain, and more importantly his heart, would want more than a pretty face.
New costume on, Jolie checked herself out in the mirror and ran fingers through her hair to smooth it back into place.