by W. J. May
He paused for a second, but seemed okay with it. Beth reached over and squeezed her hand.
All in all, things were good. As good as could be expected. A lot better, even. Every reason she’d wanted to have this meal in the first place still rang true today.
They were alive. They were together. They were moving on.
One way or another, they had made it through.
“Happy Thanksgiving, you guys,” she murmured, smiling at each one. “We’ve earned it.”
That’s when the first rock crashed through the window…
Chapter 4
“Get down!” someone screamed.
Beth, probably. Ever the protective one.
Both Fodder and Luke converged upon Molly at the same time, covering her from opposite sides as they pushed her under the table.
The rest of them weren’t so quick to retreat. ‘Get down’ wasn’t really in their nature.
When the first rock landed on the table, showering the pudding in a sea of glass, they simply stared at it in surprise. As if it had flown in by mistake. Didn’t realize what it was doing. When the next rock crashed through the window…Devon caught it in his fist.
“Well, that didn’t last long.” Gabriel stood and wiped his face with his napkin.
The rest of them pushed slowly to their feet as Molly was rushed from the room. They converged together as they moved towards the window, eyes scanning out the clouded pane into the darkness beyond.
“That pudding took me three hours to make,” Gabriel breathed, a rather savage expression on his face. “Whoever it is, I’m going to kill them.”
“Finally,” Angel muttered by his side, “someone we’re allowed to kill.”
“Not someone,” Julian declared, his eyes darkening back down from their prophetic white, “someones.” He glanced at the rest of them. “There’s an entire mob out there.”
Rae grimly stepped forward and picked up a piece of glass, letting the sharp edge graze her skin before crushing it into a fine powder.
“A mob, huh?” She wiped her hands on her jeans. “Let’s go out and say hi.”
The air was frigid cold the moment they stepped outside the front door, biting into her face and bare arms. It was the kind of cold you felt the day before it snowed. Already there was a thin coating of ice encrusting the sweeping lawn.
Apparently, that hadn’t stopped the fifty or sixty people who had some to see them.
The group stopped on the front steps, staring out over the angry banners and angry faces littering the grass. Just weeks ago, those same faces had cheered adoringly in a crowd. Thanking them for their unthinkable acts of bravery. For their talent, foresight, and service. For the massive, insurmountable sacrifice to society that each of them had made.
Now, those people were throwing rocks in their pudding.
“If you’ve all come for Thanksgiving, I’m afraid you’re a little late,” Rae called out into the darkness, making a discreet tally of numbers as the mob shifted forward. By her side, her friends were doing the same thing. “Anyhow, it’s probably not safe for consumption at this point…” She trailed off as a group of twelve or so people walked forward.
They moved with an unspoken air of authority, and seemed aware that the eyes of the rest of the mob were upon them.
The tallest one didn’t stop until he was standing just a few feet away. “Why’d you do it, Kerrigan?” He glared up to where the rest of them were still standing on the steps. “Or could you simply not help yourself?”
“She is a Kerrigan, after all,” a woman behind him sneered.
A few years ago, that might have been enough to start a brawl right then and there. But the friends were far too practiced by now for that. It would take quite a bit more to bait them than some childish name-calling. The pudding on the other hand…
Rae forced a polite smile. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to be a little more specific. To what exactly are you referring? Pardon me for not knowing.” Her eyes leveled the woman who’d spoken before. “I am a Kerrigan, after all.”
The women paled and shrank back an inch or so, but the man was a rock.
“Your father.” He puffed out his chest with a palpable rage. “How long have you known he was alive? How long did you think you could hide him here in this—”
“I found my father when we were clearing out the cells beneath the factory,” she answered quietly. “You know the one—we fought a little battle there?”
Several people in the crowd dropped their eyes guiltily to the ground.
“I had no idea he was alive. I’ve spent my entire life thinking he died in that fire.” She spoke quickly and calmly, a technique she had learned from Devon. “I took him back here for safekeeping until I could make arrangements for a trial. Things escalated, and he was placed under arrest. As was always my intent.” Her blue eyes flashed around the crowd as she pulled in a steadying breath. “That’s the truth. Every word of it. If you don’t believe me…there’s nothing more to say.”
In a move that was both brave and reckless, she turned her back on the angry mob to head back inside. A heavy hand stopped her before she had gone three steps.
“You think this is over?” the man hissed. “We came here for answers!”
“And I just gave them to you,” Rae replied evenly, wrenching herself free. A look of warning flickered amongst the friends but they held their ground, letting her handle it. “So if there’s—”
“You crazy bitch!” the man shouted. “You really expect us to believe that even though you were caught red-handed harboring your father, you were really going to turn him in?”
“Call her a bitch again.” Gabriel raised his head with a chilling look of anticipation. “Please.”
There weren’t many things that could stop a leader of a mob when he was on a roll. But Gabriel’s reputation preceded him, just as surely as the trail of bodies that followed in his wake.
In an act of caution that probably saved his life, the man stepped back into the crowd.
But just as quickly as he had, another man stepped forward. With this one, the gloves were already off. The palms of his hands kept sparking little yellow flames, just itching for a fight. He was soon followed by another. And another after that.
“You’re not going anywhere, Kerrigan,” he threatened, emboldened by the two hulking men standing on either side. “We came here to talk.”
But Devon’s patience had finally worn out.
As he stepped in front of Rae, the men confronting her simultaneously melted back. Almost as if there was a force field projecting out of him, pushing away anything that got too close. They gawked like he was some demi-god, cringing back farther still when he started to speak.
“Really? I’m tired, hungover, and you just threw rocks at my fiancée.” His piercing eyes levelled each one of them in turn. “Are you sure this is the time you want to talk?”
“He always protects her,” the woman muttered, hovering petulantly in the background. “He can’t see past her.”
Angel cocked her head dangerously to the side, and the woman fell silent.
“It’s Simon Kerrigan.” The fire in the man’s palms had dimmed, but there was an almost childlike frustration to his voice. “He was here. In this house. With his daughter.”
“I remember,” Devon said coldly. “I was here.”
The man hesitated at the ice in his voice, but couldn’t contain himself.
“You CAN’T expect us to believe that she had nothing to do with it! Why didn’t she tell anyone she found him?! Why did she bring him here? Why not turn him in to the Council?!” He leaned around Devon to get a better look at Rae. “What the hell were you waiting for, Kerrigan?!”
The next second he was on his back, lying fifty feet away on the ice.
“It’s President Kerrigan.” Devon stared down unfeelingly, watching as the man bled a crimson puddle onto his sidewalk. “And this is private property.” He clearly didn’t feel the need to k
eep the presidency a secret any longer. Just one more thing the younger generation was changing. Rae felt pride swell for her fiancé. She was tempted to shout that out to the mob as well.
Except a guttural cry of rage distracted her. The woman who’d spoken out before looked like she was about to spring towards Devon. Her muscles contracted and what looked like ice-cold jets of water started fissuring from her hands…
Until Julian tapped a finger against his temple and shook his head. “I wouldn’t.”
For a moment, everything was perfectly still. A world poised on the edge of a knife.
The air above them splintered with electric bolts of lightning as Molly—who may have been forcibly relocated—was clearly not resting, but watching from the window. Ready for the fight.
Then Rae stepped out to the center. She raised her voice, speaking not to the instigators but to the crowd, “What did you think was going to happen tonight?” Her voice was calm, but its meaning carried over the lawns. “Did you think you were going to fight us? Is that really what you want?”
The juxtaposition couldn’t have been greater. Ten to one odds. The crowd, bundled up against the November frost. Rae and her friends, shivering in their Sunday best.
“Because that’s not what we want.”
Not that she didn’t like their odds. Truth be told, double the crowd’s numbers and she’d still bet on her people to come out on top. But this was not a fight they should be having.
She looked at as many people as she could, staring deep into their eyes. “There is no quarrel here. We’re all on the same side.”
There was a restless shifting amongst the crowd as people shot nervous glances at one another from the corner of their eyes. It was easy to get swept away in the mob mentality, especially with a catalyst like Simon Kerrigan fanning the flames. But in truth, no one there wanted to see any of the people on the steps get hurt. They were heroes for a reason. They were loved for a reason.
“I know it’s not easy for you,” she continued. As her gaze flickered around she could have sworn she saw Samantha amongst those gathered, watching her closely. “It’s not easy for me either. If you must know, the first thing I almost did when I saw my father was shoot him in the head.”
There was a murmur of assent to this proposition. More than a murmur.
“You should have done it!” someone called from the back.
“Maybe,” Rae answered softly. “But who am I to make that call? I don’t write the law; my job is only to enforce it. No one here has the power to punish based solely on revenge. There are protocols in place for exactly that reason. To make sure that justice is served. Without us having that blood on our hands.”
A curtain pulled back in the living room, and she saw Fodder watching from the window. A hint of that same proud smile lingered around the corners of his lips, paired with a great deal of anxiety as he saw what she was up against. But he didn’t come out to help her. It meant more at this moment for the crowd to see her standing here alone.
“Go home,” she commanded softly. “If there’s anything else you want to hear, I’ll gladly answer. But I think our business here is done. Simon Kerrigan will be tried and punished. You have my word on that.”
For a moment, nothing happened. The two sides faced off against each other exactly as they were. But then, like a ripple effect, people started to leave.
Rae and her friends watched as they slowly dispersed. It had dropped well below freezing, but they didn’t move until the final person had cleared the gate. In an ironic turn of events, the last man out was even gracious enough to shut it behind himself.
It wasn’t until the last of the headlights had vanished over the hill that Rae cupped her shivering fingers over her mouth. “Let’s go back inside. It’s freakin’ freezing.”
The dinner had already been cleaned up. Apparently, the rain of glass had left nothing unscathed and Beth wasn’t taking any chances.
In the end, all that was left was Gabriel’s beloved Thanksgiving cake. They sat on the floor and ate it straight from the platter, silently carving away with eight dented forks.
The second it was gone, Angel got to her feet. “Do you want to set up a lookout?”
Rae looked up in surprise, to see that the question had been directed at her. “Do I want to… you mean a lookout right here?”
Have things really spiraled that far out of control?
She glanced at Devon, who considered it for a moment before shaking his head.
“No,” Rae echoed quickly. “But thanks, Angel.”
Angel nodded curtly, then glanced with uncharacteristic uncertainty at Julian. “Alright, then I’m off to bed. Jules… you coming?”
He hesitated a moment before nodding once. “Yeah. I’ll be up in a minute.”
A silent compromise, but he didn’t meet her eyes. She turned around with the softest sigh and headed up the stairs alone. Kraigan was soon to follow. As was Beth. Fodder left to set up his things in one of the guest rooms.
Leaving just Gabriel, Devon, Julian, and Rae sitting in a lopsided circle on the floor.
No one wanted to leave, but no one could find the words to speak. They just sat there, each one quietly mulling over the tragic turn their Thanksgiving Day had decided to take.
After a few minutes, Gabriel cleared his throat softly to speak. “She was just protecting you.” He glanced at Julian. “The only way she knows how.”
Julian’s eyes were hard. “Don’t talk to me about your sister.”
It was clearly meant to put the subject to bed, but Gabriel wouldn’t let it rest. “I’m just saying—”
“Then you think too little of her,” Julian interrupted fiercely. “I don’t need her to murder someone for me. That’s not the only way. It’s not the only thing she’s capable of.” He pushed to his feet, looking as dark as his friends had ever seen him. “The two of us already have enough blood on our hands.”
As he disappeared not up the stairs after Angel but down the hall to the basement, Devon shot Rae the same apologetic look as the night before.
She rolled her eyes and waved him off. “Go. He needs you. I’m used to it.”
He kissed her on the cheek with a parting smile. “You know you’re perfect, right?’
“That’s what the angry mobs tell me.”
As he headed off after Julian, both Rae and Gabriel pushed to their feet as well.
“Another night left alone?” he quipped. “I’m sure I could come up with something clever to say about that, if you just give me a second…”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around him with a tight hug. “Thanks for everything today.”
He grinned, resting his cheek against the top of her head. “Which part? The cake, the house, or combatting the angry horde?”
She smiled again. It felt good to smile. No matter the circumstances. “All of the above.” She pulled back and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Seriously, Gabriel. Thank you.”
He nodded casually, but looked her carefully up and down. “You did really well today, you know that? Talking to the people—you said everything you were supposed to say. Like it or not, you have a knack for this sort of thing.”
A wave of dread crashed over her, and she shook her head. “I’m not sure about that.”
“What?” He cocked his head towards the door. “They left, didn’t they?”
“For now.” She gazed out the window into the darkness beyond. “But they’ll be back. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But they’ll be back.”
Chapter 5
For the second time in a row, Rae went to sleep by herself and woke up alone. This time she had no expectation of Devon being there, but not because of Julian. Because she’d seen both men from her window in the middle of the night, arms folded across their chests as they stood at the gate.
Watching. Watching for their own people. Their own people, coming for blood.
Rae didn’t know which was more discouraging. That fact that her
fiancé had set up a silent lookout in the dead of night, or the fact that she’d discovered him there because she’d gotten up to stand watch at the window herself.
Either way, it was with a heavy heart that she got dressed and headed down the stairs to see what fresh disaster the day had in store. Black training clothes. The kind she wore on missions back when she was still an agent. She hadn’t realized she’d put them on.
“Oh—hey!” She bumped into Molly on the stairs. As the door swung shut behind her, Rae glanced inside to see a neatly made bed. “Luke didn’t come up last night?”
It seemed odd. These days, he rarely let Molly out of his sight.
For whatever reason, the question triggered a guilty flush in Molly’s pale cheeks. She cast a nervous glance back at the door before shaking her head, looking abruptly tired. “He talked with his dad for a long time, then he and I… we didn’t get much sleep.”
Rae looked her up and down in concern. “Was it the baby? If you’re feeling sick again, I can brew you up some—”
“It wasn’t the baby,” Molly interrupted shortly. And that was all.
For a moment, neither one of them spoke.
An unnatural silence fell over the two friends, and the longer it went on the harder it was to break. After just a few seconds Rae was waiting on pins and needles, and Molly was chewing her lower lip, staring holes into the floor.
Then, in one of those kinds of snap decisions that had come to define her, the tiny redhead grabbed Rae’s hand and pulled her down the hall. “Come on,” she murmured as they headed downstairs for a little privacy, “your mom and Luke’s dad are still sleeping up here.”
The two of them ghosted down to the living room, only to discover the same problem. Both Devon and Julian were passed out on opposite couches, completely dead to the world. Instead of heading straight back out, the girls stared at them for a moment with affectionate smiles.
They might have met when they were just sixteen years old, but over the years both guys had turned into such men. Tall. Capable. Handsome. Strong. And yet, when they slept, they somehow reverted back to those teenage boys they’d traipsed around with at Guilder.