Splintered (Reflections)

by Murray, Dean

  I shook my head emphatically. "Mom, I can promise nothing has happened that you need to worry about. It's true that I'd like for Alec and I to be more than we are. He's really a good guy."

  "Alec…Alec Graves?"

  I hadn't expected Mom to know his last name. That didn't seem to bode well.

  "Yes, he's Rachel's brother."

  "Sweetie, I really liked Rachel, but the Graveses have more money than is healthy for any six families. Everything I told you regarding Brandon goes double for Alec. Boys like that just aren't sincere about things. They grow up learning how to manipulate everyone around them."

  "Mom. You were right about Brandon, okay? Alec is completely different though. That's why he and Brandon never got along. Alec is an incredibly thoughtful, mature guy who always does the right thing."

  Mom shook her head again. "What kind of boy dates a girl without coming in and meeting her parents? I mean, really."

  "First of all, we're not dating. Not really. Second of all, Alec wanted to come meet you just now but I convinced him not to. I wanted to prepare you for the idea first."

  "Adri, you wouldn't have worried about preparing me if there wasn't something to prepare me for. This is more serious than you want to let on. I have half a mind to ground you just to keep the two of you apart."

  I collapsed so fast I didn't even realize I was falling. When I came to again, my mom was pacing back and forth with her phone in her hand. It was such a familiar sight. It'd been so long since I'd really had panic attacks I'd nearly forgotten our highly-practiced responses.

  "Adri…ana. Are you okay? I should have been more careful. I guess I've gotten out of the habit of calling you by your full name. Too much time away at photo shoots."

  I groggily pushed my way back onto my hands and knees. "It's okay, Mom. Please believe me though. There's nothing going on with Alec and me that you need to worry about. He'll come over so you can meet him and you'll see what I mean. Until then, can you please not freak out?"

  I could see the decision making itself in her eyes. She couldn't keep me away from Alec. Not all the way, not as long as we went to the same school. She could forbid it, but unless she was ready to move again there wasn't much she could do to enforce her decree.

  "Okay, sweetie. I'll trust you for now. I just don't like the way that you don't have any other friends. It's not healthy to get too attached to one boy at your age."

  "Oh, that has changed while you were gone. I've got Rachel as a friend and a few other kids. In fact Sam and Alison asked me if we could all go to lunch together on Saturday."

  Mom blinked slightly, almost as if having a hard time believing that I really had other friends. "Oh. Well then, that's good news. I'm glad to hear that you're branching out. What ever happened to Britney?"

  "We don't really talk now. It turns out she was really jealous when we thought Brandon liked me. She said some things, I said some things. I don't think we'll be spending time together anymore."

  Mom nodded, but she'd picked up her camera and started absently fiddling with it. There was no surer sign that Mom had moved on to thinking about another project.

  Chapter 8

  School was every bit as depressing and desolate as I'd expected with Alec gone. I'd been so smug thinking that Mom couldn't keep me away from him, all the while forgetting that he was going to be halfway across the country.

  Jasmin was getting more frustrated by the minute. Apparently her efforts with Ben really weren't going well. That didn't help the ongoing tension at lunch. With Alec gone there was less effort to present a unified front to the rest of the world. We all still sat together, but the conversation was more strained. The old pack sat on one side of the table and new pack sat on the other, with Rachel and me sort of in the middle.

  Rachel spent more time talking to Jasmin and the others from the old pack. I spent more time talking to Alison and Sam.

  I drifted through the last half of the week, coming awake again Friday afternoon in tutoring. Friday was never a big tutoring day. I know--hard to believe kids our age would choose to procrastinate studying a few extra days.

  By the time my shift hit, there were exactly three people in the lab: me, Rachel and a strangely familiar boy. As soon as Albert and Peter left the lab, Rachel casually walked over to my table.

  "That's Ben. It's maybe our only shot. Who knows what Jasmin had to do to get him here."

  I consciously forced myself not to look at him. "Okay, so we need to convince him that Jasmin likes him, that she's for real?"

  "Yep. Only by we, we mean you. I've had a go at Ben. A few months ago, it didn't go well."

  "Gee, thanks. That's not a lot of pressure or anything."

  Rachel turned to leave and then paused, a faraway look on her face. "He really is a good guy, Adri. One who takes secrets very seriously. I think you could tell him pretty much anything and not worry about it getting out."

  I let Rachel go back to her table, waited a couple of minutes and then stood up. I felt like a deer on the interstate. I wasn't any good at talking to boys. Heck, I still couldn't really talk to Alec sometimes and we are about as in love as two people could get.

  "Hi. Ben, is it?"

  He looked up for a second, met my eyes and shrugged. "It's not exactly a secret."

  Feeling incredibly forward, I sat down in the chair next to him. "Since it's down to just you and Rachel, I thought I'd come by and see if you had any questions."

  "Right. You just happened over. Come on. You rich chicks are all in this together, and Rachel is the queen rich chick."

  "It sounds to me like you don't know Rachel very well. You definitely don't know me. I'm about as poor as they come."

  "Except now you're rolling with Rachel and Alec so you're getting plenty of perks."

  My resolve to help Jasmin was wavering. Not that I didn't want to help, but I was starting to think maybe he didn't deserve her.

  "Look, I don't know what got you so bent out of shape, but Rachel's one of the best people I know. Sure, she buys people stuff, but she's not trying to buy friends or anything, she just likes people to be happy. And Jasmin, Jasmin's stood by me when nobody else would. She's risked losing stuff, big stuff to do the right thing. How many people do you know who really care about right and wrong?"

  He was ignoring me again, working on some kind of portable video game player. He already had it disassembled into smaller pieces than I knew was possible. He shrugged as he pulled apart two circuit boards.

  "Okay, let's say I believe you really mean what you said. Even so, it still doesn't matter if we're from such different frames of reference that the words mean different things to us."

  "What, like good doesn't mean good somehow?"

  "More like loss doesn't mean loss. For you or me losing a couple hundred bucks would be the end of the world. For someone like Alec he'd misplace ten times that amount and never even blink."

  He'd said it all still without looking up. It should have made his statement the kind of casual thing people blow off without even thinking about it. Instead it sent me reeling. His words seemed to mix with Rachel's advice from earlier and I found myself settling back down into my seat.

  "Okay. I'll tell you about loss. Last year my dad and sister left home to come pick me up from school. I waited for like an hour and a half, getting more and more pissed by the minute when they didn't show up on time. I remember borrowing a friend's cell phone so I could call home and leave a nasty message on the machine. Turns out they were broadsided by one of those monster SUVs yuppies buy just because they can."

  I hadn't examined my memories of that day in a very long time. They hadn't become any weaker. Tears still gathered at the corner of my eyes, and my breathing sped up, but over the last few weeks I'd somehow gained the ability to go through it all without collapsing. Sometimes.

  "I was the last one to find out. Mom got the call, tried the school office once, and then went to the hospital. She finally got a hold of one of the neighbors who
offered to pick me up and bring me to the hospital. They…well, they were both dead pretty much on impact. It just took the doctors a couple of hours to get around to agreeing with what the universe had already decreed."

  Ben had stopped fiddling with the Gameboy. He opened his mouth but I cut him off.

  "So now you know the truth. Adriana Paige's attacks aren't some romantic tale about a semi-pro soccer player. Half my family was wiped out between one heartbeat and the next, and I've been pretty much a wreck ever since."

  "I--I didn't know. I mean I figured the rumor was pure crap but I never would have guessed the truth."

  "It's okay. It's not like I expect strangers to treat me differently or anything. Just remember that it's Rachel, Jasmin and the others who've put me more or less back together. There was nothing in it for them, but they did it anyways. That's not the kind of thing shallow jerks do. I don't know when or how you decided they were pond scum, but you're wrong."

  Ben cocked his head slightly to the side. "Okay, you've convinced me. At least partly. So assuming that Jasmin isn't a blood-sucking uber-biotch, what next?"

  "Are you asking me for advice?"

  "Sure. Jasmin says she likes me, and to be honest I like her too, what I know of her that is. Still, you don't just tell a super-hot girl something like that. I figure another hot girl would be the way to go. Birds of a feather and all that."

  I rolled my eyes at his implication that I was anywhere even close to as attractive as Jasmin. "Well, I think the best place to start would be for the two of you to actually spend some time together."

  "Please. Can you see Jasmin and me sitting together over dinner on a normal date?"

  "Sure, why not?"

  "Neither of us is exactly overly talkative. We'd just end up sitting in silence. Besides, I think you learn more about people from how they treat others, not just how they treat you."

  "Actually I agree. So what are you proposing, some kind of group date?"

  "No, just a bunch of…potential friends hanging out. You and Rachel seem particularly invested in seeing Jasmin and me together. I think the four of us should do just fine."

  Chapter 9

  Alec - Charleston

  By the time I called Donovan, I was well and truly pissed. I had to make a conscious effort not to take it out on him.

  "The name Sam gave me was a mule, Donovan. I had to spend like Rachel in Vegas to get it, but I've got the name of the guy behind the operation. Fredric Sergen."

  "I'll run the name past our contacts in the southeast, sir. We're particularly thin east of the Mississippi obviously, but I should be able to get something back for you in the next half day or so."

  "Don't bother. It's as bad as we expected. Sergen runs every type of drug known to man and my bet is he's responsible for the sharp rise in overall crime in the last three years."

  Donovan was silent for several seconds as he ran through the logic trees I'd already spent the last few hours considering.

  "Sam was pressing very strongly for money. If we cut Sergen off from the capital flow he's used to and put the word out he's experiencing difficulties, it may bring about the kinds of reverses required to bring him down."

  "This isn't the kind of thing I'm willing to leave to chance. Brandon funded this guy because we weren't strong enough to keep him from breaking off in the first place. This is our mess and it has to be cleaned up."

  Donovan took a deep breath, more in resignation than acceptance. The problem with raising the kind of child that could one day lead a shape shifter pack is that at some point they are the ones deciding what kind of risks they ran.

  "I'll contact Alexi. He can have a couple of men there inside of twenty-four hours. It's not a pack matter so there's no reason not to bring in professionals as backup."

  "No, Sergen will never let me in sight of him with the kind of backup Alexi will send. I'll have to go in alone. I need you to arrange a withdrawal with a bank down here. A million dollars is about the most that can be carried easily. Do we have that much in liquid funds still available after sweeping up the rest of Brandon's old holdings?"

  "Yes. Just barely, but we do have it."

  "All right, tell Rachel no crazy shopping trips until I'm back."

  "Of course, Master Alec. Please do be careful."

  **

  Sixteen hours later I had the rented car drop me off in front of a nondescript building down in the harbor area. The driver hadn't even batted an eye when I'd given him the address. I tried not to think too hard about what kind of business Sergen was running at the location; something that was drawing the kind of moneyed clientele in the habit of renting limos, obviously.

  Rather than the tattooed thug I was expecting, an attractive thirty-something woman answered the door. I jiggled the titanium briefcase holding the money and she nodded and led me up a series of stairs to a comfortable room which overlooked the inside of the building. The elegant furnishings inside the room were a stark contrast to the gritty industrial building interior visible through the windows.

  The hostess waited for me to survey the room and then cleared her throat. "My name is Jenny. While you're here please don't hesitate to let me know of any need you might have. I'll just go check now to see where Mr. Sergen is."

  I'd only been sitting for a minute before Jenny returned. "I beg your pardon, Mr…?"

  "Worthingfield."

  "Ah yes, Mr. Worthingfield. I must apologize, Mr. Sergen has run into some unexpected delays and will be unavailable for the next two hours."

  I felt my face tighten up. I could recognize a power play as well as the next person. Sergen was trying to establish who was calling the shots.

  "Our appointment was for now. If he's uninterested in honoring our arrangement I can always take my money elsewhere."

  The fear that flashed across Jenny's face was immediate and genuine. She was terrified of what would happen to her if I walked out the door without Sergen getting his money.

  "Please, sir. I'm sure Mr. Sergen will be along just as soon as he's able. In the meantime I'd like to offer you some entertainment. If you'd like to describe your preferences I'll make sure you have your pick of the girls."

  My knuckles tightened on the titanium case. There'd been rumors of underage girls being imported into the area, but I'd hoped even Brandon wouldn't stoop so low.

  Jenny cleared her throat, clearly worried at my lack of response, but her pulse and scent told a different story than the disinterested madam worried only about the displeasure of her boss. There was something almost maternal about what I was getting from Jenny, which made what she was doing worse in some ways.

  It was all too much. The briefcase handle bent with a groan. I stood and walked over to Jenny, pinning her against the wall by her throat. "I think you actually care for these girls a little, so I don't want to hurt you, but if you scream out or lie to me things will go badly. Where's Sergen?"

  Jenny started talking very quickly. Funny how people being kept in line only through fear tend to turn on you the first chance they get. I left her tied up so she couldn't call for help and exited the room.

  The cozy suite of rooms I'd been in led directly back into the unfinished interior of the building. Apparently there was another set of rooms on the far side; I just needed to cross the wasteland of post-industrial refuse to get there.

  I found the two huge bruisers I'd been expecting earlier outside the room just where Jenny had promised. Sergen apparently had decided to amuse himself while he waited. The closer guy, a huge islander wearing a shoulder holster over his white tank top, stepped forward to block my way.

  "No tourists allowed. Turn around and go back the way you came."

  "Can't. I have an appointment with Sergen."

  "He's busy."

  I casually slammed the palm of my hand into his sternum. For all the ease of the motion, it carried enough force to knock him back into the wall in a rain of sheet rock.

  I'd already turned towards the second bodyg
uard, a skinny white guy, but he moved faster than any human I'd ever seen before. I flipped my briefcase into his arm. It hit with a sickening crunch as his gun discharged into the ground at my feet.

  I expected the second guard to fold up around his shattered appendage, but he went for his backup gun as he was still falling toward the ground. I could hear footsteps as Sergen's other men on site were alerted by the gunfire.

  The guard got a shot off as I kicked him. An awl of fire burned through my side as the guard hit against a concrete pylon.

  I gathered up the fallen gun and hit the door to Sergen's room with my shoulder, splintering it as I went through. The room's three occupants were in various states of undress. I ignored the first girl, focusing instead on Sergen and the gun he had pressed up against the second girl's head.

  "Who the hell are you?"

  The hostage was a slender redhead whose eyes had all but rolled back up inside her head in fear. She was at least a couple of years younger than me and my jaw clenched as I took in the numerous bruises dotting her arms and face.

  He was getting jumpy. Only seconds until his men would come flooding into the room, and he was losing his nerve. I only had a heartbeat to decide on a course of action. I let the handgun drop.

  Chapter 10

  Despite having told Mom that I had more friends than just Alec and Rachel, I was pretty stunned by how fast my calendar had filled up. Aspen with Alec, lunch with Sam and Alison, dinner, sort of, with Ben and the crew.

  Being busy with friends was pretty much foreign to my existence. It had seemed to reassure Mom though. Obviously if I had that many friends and she hadn't seen Alec since, I must not be in some kind of nightmare co-dependent relationship.

  Not only had Mom not freaked out about my Saturday lunch appointment, she'd actually been excited to hear that I was going to the Funcade with Rachel, Jasmin and Ben. I hadn't talked to her about Aspen yet. I was pretty sure the parental leniency was only going to go so far.