Rock Bottom (The Gifted Realm #4)

by Jillian Neal

Rainer tried to conceal his grin as he loaded potatoes into his mouth.

  “You know perfectly well that you need to instate mandatory military service for every young man in this Realm. Go a long way in fixing this ridiculous idea that teenagers need to express themselves.” All of Emily’s brothers’ heads shot up, as did Rainer’s.

  Paps Anderson studied the table and cleared his throat. As he was certainly a man of few words, everyone listened.

  “Now, Bill, I don’t think that’s necessary. It’s a different world than the one we grew up in. Stephen’s seen to that. These boys know what they want to do with their lives, and they’re all giving back to the Realm. Not everyone needs to serve. Everybody has different things they were meant to do.”

  The Governor nodded adamantly.

  “Dad, as I explained to you when I was eighteen years old, I do not believe that every young man in this Realm needs to serve in the Gifted military. I understand that you enjoyed your time in the service, but as I am a parent who has lost a son already, I would never enact a law that would bring about that kind of pain to another family. Serving in the military is a personal choice, not one I will make for anyone else.”

  The sudden pain over Cal’s death gripped the table. Rainer felt the terror and guilt wash through him. He set his fork down with a quiet tink that seemed to roar in the sudden robbery of air from the room.

  Emily grasped his hand as tears threatened her eyes. She drew from him, and he tried desperately to soothe her. It seemed the memories of Cal, so fresh in everyone’s mind, even deflated Grandpa’s incorrigible desire to argue.

  “Uh, Em, tell us about your trip,” Will rescued his entire family, just as he had always done; the eldest, the guiding force, and the one they all looked to for direction came through for them again.

  “Well,” she smiled down at Lily Ana, who gave an audible grunt. “I missed you all. I really missed Mom’s cooking.” Mrs. Haydenshire grinned at her. “I guess I didn’t miss Garrett, because he was there with me, which was really great.”

  It seemed in light of the comparison, all of her disdain over Garrett and Chloe had melted away. Her big brother had been there, looking after her and, in that moment, Emily realized how often she’d taken that for granted.

  Garrett winked at her from across the table, and her entire body relaxed.

  “Em was amazing with the kids. They all loved her.”

  “Oh thanks; I really miss them,” she confessed. “Especially Aida. I never thought I would say this, but I am looking forward to going back sometime. Not for a while, but sometime.”

  “Aida is the little girl you wrote us about?” the Governor quizzed.

  “Yeah, she’s so sweet. Oh, I just wanted to bring her home with me. Garrett is her absolute favorite, well maybe Fionna, but Daddy, she is the sweetest little girl ever.”

  The Governor shared a grin with his wife.

  “Oh, good grief!” Grandpa huffed. “Don’t tell them that! That’s just what they need, to adopt one! Because the current litter isn’t enough! Let’s just plant some more fairies in the clouds.”

  “Dad, watch it,” Governor Haydenshire commanded.

  23

  Give Thanks

  Thanksgiving morning, Rainer blinked hesitantly as he switched off the alarm. He and Emily had become rather accustomed to sleeping in late, enjoying lounging about, drinking coffee, and occasionally returning to bed, which seemed to thoroughly irritate Logan.

  Rainer did feel bad. Logan also had the days off, but Adeline was working. So, he spent his vacation days wandering aimlessly around the house.

  The morning before, Rainer was so intoxicated with the looks Emily was giving him, and the requests she’d whispered in his ear, that he’d thrown Logan the keys to the Porsche and told him to get lost as he’d led Emily back to bed.

  Logan hadn’t seemed to mind that one, as he’d raced out to the new car.

  They’d spent the afternoon before at the farmhouse, helping with the prep work for the Thanksgiving meal and to get Levi and Patrick’s old room ready for Bridgette.

  Rainer had been concerned about Mrs. Haydenshire. Adeline had instructed her to rest more. The baby’s scans weren’t improving, and she looked rather exhausted. He doubted a houseguest was what she needed right now.

  As Logan and Rainer had made up their old beds without any enthusiasm at all, Logan sank down on his mattress dejectedly.

  “Adeline despises Bridgette.”

  Rainer threw his old quilt back over his bed. “Yeah, well she’s not Em’s favorite either. Especially when Emily considers her the reason Vindico won’t ask Fionna Styler out.”

  “That’s how girls are, though,” Logan had stated factually. “If you don’t like her friend, who likes you, then you’re evil.”

  Rainer recalled Logan experiencing this on many occasions growing up. Kristen Rycroft nursed a crush on Logan all through ninth and tenth grade, but he had no interest. All of her friends would glare at him hatefully whenever they were in class with him. They’d even started a rumor that he’d slept with Kristen, and then broken her heart when he dumped her immediately following the act. Every girl at Langley high school hated him for several weeks.

  * * *

  As he forced his mind back to the present, Rainer leaned and brushed a sweet kiss across Emily’s cheek. He didn’t want to think about sleeping alone in the room with Logan that night as he took in his baby curled up sweetly on his chest, completely naked.

  She moaned and whimpered then furrowed deeper into the covers and his arms. With an adoring grin, he kissed her again.

  “Hey there, Miss Haydenshire. We have to get going.”

  “But I like it here,” she fussed sweetly.

  Rainer chuckled. “Well, I like you there, too, baby, but we’re supposed to be at the soup kitchen at five.”

  She yawned and willed herself to get up, though it wasn’t yet four in the morning.

  “You know, in just a few months you won’t be able to call me Miss Haydenshire anymore,” she informed him with a broad grin. The thought took Rainer’s breath away as he realized, rather suddenly, that she was right.

  “I can’t wait to call you Mrs. Lawson,” he tried the name out. His heart picked up pace as he said it.

  She shuddered excitedly. “Me either!”

  * * *

  A few hours later, Rainer was positioned between Logan and Chloe Sawyer, serving turkey, dressing, and all of the fixings on tray after tray as they pushed by. They wished everyone a ‘Happy Thanksgiving’, as they passed.

  Adeline had phoned Logan once since her shift began early that morning. She was swamped at the hospital.

  Emily, Fionna, and several of the other Angels were holding babies and toddlers, helping feed and bathe them, and then supplying them with donated clothing, coats, and blankets.

  Governor Haydenshire, Will, and Garrett were working the ovens, along with dozens of other volunteers, to keep the food supplied to the lines.

  Brooke stayed with Lily Ana at the farmhouse, to nurse the baby and help make the meal with Mrs. Haydenshire and Nana.

  The Gifted press showed which seemed to irritate the Governor, who considered serving the homeless on Thanksgiving his duty, not something the Realm should praise him for.

  Just as the lines were winding down, and Rainer had left the serving line to help Patrick, Connor, and Lucy wash dishes, Logan’s cell rang.

  “Hey, baby, we’re just about done here. I’ll be by to pick you up,” Logan explained without even saying hello. After a moment of silence, his eyes goggled.

  “What?!” he demanded. “I’m on my way.”

  “What’s wrong?” Rainer quizzed as all of the Haydenshires stopped what they were doing to study Logan. His expression was furious, and his shield pulsed fiercely.

  “Candy just showed up at Georgetown. She got off, and is demanding to see Adeline. She’s pitching a fit, and Ad’s going to get fired if she continues to make a scene.” He jerked h
is apron over his head and tossed it into the laundry bin.

  “I’m coming with you,” Rainer and Governor Haydenshire offered at the same moment.

  “Fine, we’re going with you,” the Governor corrected. “Garrett, make certain your sister gets to the house,” he commanded.

  “Of course,” Garrett looked extremely concerned.

  * * *

  They raced through the parking lot and, a moment later, Rainer crawled into the back of Logan’s Accord. They flew to Georgetown Hospital.

  There was quite a scene in the emergency room waiting area when they entered.

  Candy Parker was indeed standing at the desk, demanding to see Adeline.

  “Medio Parker is with a patient, ma’am. She can’t talk to you until she goes on break.” The extremely addled woman working the admissions area on Thanksgiving Day informed Candy. She sounded both exhausted and frustrated.

  “Candy, what the hell are you doing here?” Logan spat furiously. Ms. Parker spun. She looked highly insulted as she took in Logan’s fury.

  “Why are you here?” she sneered. “Trying to convince Adeline that I’m the bad guy again? Well, why don’t you just go ahead and leave. She’ll never be good enough for you or that Pollyanna family of yours anyway. Some idiot here called her your fiancée,” she huffed indignantly. “You can’t save her from who she is. I don’t give a damn who your daddy is, Logan. She’ll never be anything more than a gutter trash mistake.”

  In that horrifying moment, Adeline had appeared behind her mother’s back and had heard her hate-fueled proclamations. She dropped every patient file she’d been carrying, and ran back into the ward she’d emerged from.

  “Dammit!” Logan raced after her.

  Rainer had never seen fury pulse from Governor Haydenshire with such acridity. He stalked quickly to Adeline’s mother and narrowed his eyes. He kept his tone even, but his words were laced with menace.

  “You may not be aware of exactly who I am, Ms. Parker, so listen up while I explain it to you. I am the Crown Governor of the American Gifted Realm, and I and others like me fought long and hard to make certain that the Gifted people don’t use their powers to negatively impact the rest of the world.”

  “But let me assure you, Ms. Parker, that if I ever find out that you’ve had any further contact with Adeline, or Logan, or that you’ve ever shown your face in this hospital again, I will use every ounce of power I wield to make absolutely certain that you spend the rest of your sad, pathetic life behind bars.”

  “You’ve always either been too wasted, or just too stupid, to see what a fantastic daughter you gave birth to, but let me assure you she’s not a product of the pitiful environment you chose to allow her to live in. She rose so far out of your league you don’t even deserve to be called her mother,” the Governor snarled vengefully.

  With a huff of challenging defiance, Candy’s eyes narrowed haughtily at the Governor.

  “Well, Mr. Crown Governor, you can just tell Logan’s ‘fiancée’,” she spat the word hatefully, “that my trial was yesterday. I got off, pending her trial. The jury just ate up the fact that I only used to be closer to my daughter and that using eased the pain of her father abandoning us after she was born,” she mocked sorrow and then laughed hatefully.

  “So, I don’t think I’ll be the one behind bars. But when they put Adeline in the orange jumpsuit, you just make sure I get that ring that Logan will want back as soon as they cart her off.” She spun and slithered out of the sliding doors of Georgetown hospital.

  Rainer and Governor Haydenshire stared at one another for the length of several heartbeats, neither of them able to believe what they’d just heard.

  “I tried to tell her, Crown Governor Haydenshire,” the receptionist at the admissions desk pled. “I tried to tell her that Medio Parker is engaged to Logan Haydenshire. I told her that she didn’t want to mess with you or Logan. I kept saying that he was Elite Iodex, but she wouldn’t listen. She didn’t seem to care or even understand who you are.”

  Governor Haydenshire drew a steadying breath.

  “Thank you. We’ll take care of everything. Is Chief of Staff Sawyer here?” Governor Haydenshire sighed his dejected question.

  “Yes, sir. Did you want to see him?”

  “Yes, please. I believe we’d better talk.”

  24

  Emerge and Bloom

  ~Logan Haydenshire~

  Too furious to think rationally, Logan raced through the heavy swinging steel doors that declared the area to be for ‘hospital employees only’.

  “Adeline!” he yelled, but there was no answer. Candy Parker’s hate-filled threats reverberated in his soul. They made him sick. After frantically running from closed door to closed door, in a moment of desperation he flung one open to find a man in a white coat leaning back against an opulent, cherry-wood desk with his hands up a woman’s short black skirt.

  “Excuse me?” the doctor spat.

  “Sorry,” Logan flinched and pulled the door shut quickly. He continued his sprint, while calling her name repeatedly. Where could she have gone? His heart thundered as the terror over the pain her mother’s words had certainly caused her fissured his soul.

  He continued his sprint through another set of doors and came to a corridor of patients’ rooms.

  “Adeline!” he shouted again.

  “Sir, please, the patients need to rest,” came a scolding befitting his mother. Logan huffed. Faces entered and exited his consciousness as he ran. None of them was the one he wanted to see.

  “Logan,” he heard his name, and spun. He nearly fell as he halted abruptly.

  “I saw her run in there. I didn’t know you were already here. I was going to call you.” Brad Metzger, Adeline’s training Medio, pointed to a closet marked Obstetric Supplies. “She’s got it locked. Here,” Brad motioned for Logan to follow him.

  Brad summoned a hefty dose of magnetizing energy from the air around him, and he waved his hand over a screened magnetic lock on the door. Logan heard the tumblers fall.

  “Thank you!” Logan allowed himself to breathe now that he’d located her, but in that same moment he realized he had to think of what to say. How was anyone supposed to take away pain like that? How could he make up for her mother’s hate and cruelty?

  “No problem. Good luck, man. She looked pretty upset,” Brad informed him.

  “Yeah, well, she should be. Her mother just got out of prison.”

  Brad grimaced as he nodded his understanding. He slapped Logan on the back. “Like I said, good luck.” With that, he turned and stalked to another patient’s room.

  Quickly deciding that he’d just wing it, Logan eased the door open.

  “Baby,” he soothed as he closed the door behind him and she fell into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Logan cradled her to his chest. His desperate drive to protect her was all consuming as he gazed at her, small and frail, in his tall frame and muscled arms.

  “I’m so sorry, baby.” His shield orbed around her. It moved of its own accord. Protecting her was the only thing he’d been put here to do. Logan rubbed her back and swayed her soothingly.

  “I’m… not… that,” Adeline convulsed. She shook her head combatively and knotted his shirt in her fists. “I’m not what she said.” Her quaking sobs hissed violently from her mouth. The words begged for confirmation as they fell.

  “No, you’re not, and it’s high time you realized that.” He suddenly felt hope begin to vanquish the terror in his heart.

  Adeline had never disagreed with anything her mother said or did, at least not verbally. She would let her mother yell and scream. Candy would tell her that she had ruined her life, and that she was nothing but a stupid mistake. Adeline had never argued. She’d never stuck up for herself. She’d believed her mother’s malignant words.

  Her entire body shook in her fear and sadness. Logan held her tightly and refused to let her go.

  “I’m, I’m…” she stuttered, and Logan continued to c
radle her in the safety of his embrace. “I’m a good person,” she finally managed to choke between her convulsive sobs.

  Logan leaned down, held her face in his hands, and wiped away her tears. “Yes, baby.” He felt his own tears prick and sting his eyes. “You are a wonderful person, Adeline. I wish every single day that I could somehow figure out how to explain to you what you mean to me, what you mean to my family, and to the people you help here. You are an amazing person, Adeline. You’re the most amazing human being on this whole stupid planet, and if your mother refuses to see that, baby, then that’s a tremendous loss on her part.”

  He was unable to believe what he was finally hearing, what she’d finally realized.

  From the moment he’d finally worked up enough courage to ask her to sit with him at lunch, Logan had vowed to himself to do anything in his power to, one day, make her see what a phenomenal person she really was. She’d always been meek and timid. She’d never thought anything of her abilities and never felt she deserved any accolades or recognition.

  He could hardly believe, after almost four years of being together, that she’d finally chosen to listen to him and not to the woman who’d given birth to her.

  Finally the realization of the things she’d done, the things she’d learned and accomplished began to set in. He watched determination swirl in her tear filled eyes.

  “I don’t want her,” she shivered violently in his arms. Her tone rose in accordance to her fervor. “I don’t want to be any part of her anymore. How could she do this to me? I always tried to take care of her, to try to prove that I wasn’t a mistake, but I never was a mistake! Nothing I ever did was going to make her like me or want me,” she exclaimed as the revelations continued to soak deeply through all of the hurt and the torment of her mother’s battering abuse. It was all washing away before Logan’s very eyes. He had to wipe away his own tears as he nodded fervently.