Stripper: The Fringe, Book 4

by Anitra Lynn McLeod

  “You people make a game of trying to escape?” Diane asked.

  “Mary’s the best. She’s the only one who always can. It sounds twisted, but it’s one of the ways we find and fix holes in security. Give that woman an inch, and she’ll—”

  “You’re just jealous, Duster.” Mary stepped from Michael’s embrace and cast her attention to his hand. “What’s this?”

  “Long story,” Michael said.

  “Good. Tell me while we eat, because I’m starving.”

  “That’s what I like, a woman with her priorities on straight.” Michael scooped her up over his shoulder. “I expect to see you back here bright and early, Duster, for the grilling of my lovely, sneaky bandit.” Michael cast a speculative gaze filled with loathing at Diane. “For tonight, you can deal with your wife.” He left the room with Mary playfully slapping his ass.

  “What’s going on?” Diane asked, her confusion and frustration evident. “I feel like I’ve been let loose in a loony bin! You’re all laughing and buddy-buddy, and what—”

  “Trial by fire.” Pressing a finger to her lips, Duster silenced her, then pulled her into his arms. “I’ll explain on the way home.” He slipped the plastimetal bracelet Michael had given him to her wrist. “It’s a tracking device. Everyone on-planet has to wear them for security. I’ve got one for Scott, and before you even ask, we’re going to go get him right now.”

  Daniels had been entertaining Scott in the massive dining room off the main part of Michael’s house. Expecting the boy to launch himself into his mother’s arms, Duster stood quietly surprised when Scott only said hello and continued to play cards.

  “I’m winning,” Scott said. “Go fish.”

  Daniels plucked up a card from the pond on the table. “Aw, man, this is—” Without one shred of a poker face, Daniels winced, rolled his eyes and said, “Winning? Decimating is more like it.” Grunting, Daniels looked to Duster and whispered, “Game’s over. He won. I know it, so does he, but he just wants to finish it.”

  Duster noticed that Daniels had only three sets of four to the hefty pile Scott had. Scott fished enough to squirrel away three-fourths the deck of cards, yet he wanted to play the game out to the end.

  Diane tried to hug Scott, who squirmed away with a three syllable groan of, “Mom!”

  She let him go, then stage whispered to Duster, “Here I was, terrified, and he’s utterly oblivious. Apparently, he didn’t miss me at all.”

  “Nothing scares that kid,” Duster said. “Call me crazy, but that’s a good thing.”

  Duster let them finish up the game.

  Soundly besting him, Scott counted his sets of four. “Ten.”

  “I have three.” Daniels nodded. “You win.”

  “Mom, I won!” Scott thrust out his hand to Daniels. “I hope we can play again.”

  “Me too.” Daniels shook his hand, then said to Duster, “Definitely your kid.”

  Duster put the plastimetal bracelet on Scott’s wrist. A slew of questions erupted. Patiently, Duster answered them, then asked, “Want to go for a ride in a shuttle? See my house?”

  “Yeah! Can I sit on your lap again?”

  “Of course. You want to learn how to fly, right?”

  “Yeah!”

  “You pay attention, you could grow up to be a pilot.”

  “Yeah. Or a fighter. I’m hungry too. We had popcorn, Mom. I wanted cookies, but they said no because I didn’t eat dinner, so—” Scott chattered happily away as they exited base command for the tarmac. They entered and strapped themselves into Duster’s favorite shuttle, Scuttlebutt. Scott made much of the fuzzy green dice that hung over the dash.

  Diane tried to keep up and answer Scott’s questions, but Duster saw dark circles under her eyes. She looked wrung out. The setting sun glaring into her eyes obviously didn’t help, and she wearily put her hand up to shield her eyes. His shuttle didn’t have polarizing smart glass, so they had to make do. Luckily, it didn’t take long to get from base to his house. Proudly, he ushered them inside.

  “Wow!” Scott tore off, running from place to place and hardly pausing to hear the answers to his questions before he asked the next one.

  “Mary said your house was a kid’s paradise,” Diane said. “She wasn’t kidding.”

  “Nice of her to keep an eye on it for me. She told me she prayed every night that I’d come back.” Duster slipped his hand to hers. “Let me give you the grand tour.”

  He’d built his home with an eye to having lots of kids running around in it some day. Right now, only two of the six bedrooms were furnished and that was only for when he watched the MacKays’ boys, but now that he had Diane, he could fill all of them with children. However, when he proudly told her all he’d done, she didn’t seem excited. He chalked it up to exhaustion and took her to the living room.

  “Lots of puffy couches and chairs, all washable,” Duster informed her. He took her into the kitchen, which was a gourmet cook’s wet dream.

  “Hate to break your heart, but I don’t know how to cook. Sheldon always did that.” Diane looked at the array of gear with more fear than curiosity.

  “That’s okay. I know how to cook. I’ll teach you if you want. If you don’t, that’s okay too, as I love to cook.”

  “Apparently, you must love to clean as well—everything’s spotless.”

  “I’ve got a maid who comes once a week. Shadra, MacKay’s eldest daughter.”

  “Does she have a crush on you?”

  “Yeah.” Duster’s eyebrows rose, impressed she picked up on that. “Well, she did before she met the man of her dreams and got married.”

  “And what did you do to compel this crush?”

  “Are you jealous?”

  “No.” But her voice said differently.

  “She was involved in an accident and lost her leg. I visited her in the hospital and helped her with her bimech limb therapy.”

  “Oh.”

  “She’s okay now. Really. Says she can run faster.” Duster cocked his head to the side. “How did you know she had a crush on me?”

  “It’s probably why she does such a good job.” Diane trailed her finger over spotless cabinets. “She’s going to be a little upset to find me here.”

  “Don’t worry. She’s married now, so I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem.” Duster remembered waking up in Diane’s medical room and thinking he was trapped in a closet with Shadra’s bridesmaid dresses.

  There was an awkward moment of silence broken by Scott’s voice as he rapidly made his way through the rooms, squealing about what he discovered.

  Duster took Diane down the hall. “Our bedroom.” Done in aqua blues and greens, it had a skylight in the center of the vaulted ceiling with plants that covered around the walls, giving it a jungle feel. “You like?”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  On each side of the room stood two closets. “Yours, mine, that door goes to your bathroom, this one to mine.”

  “It’s like you always knew we were coming.”

  “I hoped.” Duster had kept the dream in the back of his mind that someday he might find her again and fill his house with their children. That it came true filled him with a joy he could barely contain. Every time he looked at her, he wanted to sweep her into his arms and kiss her for hours on end and get started on their next child. Going farther down the hall, he pointed into a room. “I think this one should be Scott’s.” When they entered, the lights came on automatically. “Think he’ll like the spaceship bed?”

  “He’ll love it.” Diane frowned.

  “What?”

  “It’s just—why do you have a spaceship bed in a house without any kids?”

  “Because I have neighbors who do have kids. Twin boys. I’ve babysat for them, and when I’m on longer jaunts out in the Void, people have stayed here, watching the house, and they have kids.”

  “Oh.”

  “We’ll have to get him a bike and some rollers so he can join MacKay’s kids.�
�

  “You’re going to spoil him rotten!”

  “Him and every other one that comes.”

  Diane turned away and pointed down the hall. “And the rest of those doors?”

  “More bedrooms. Let me show you—”

  “Mom! Mom! There’s a pool and a big tree.” Scott grabbed her hand and dragged her to the backyard. Having grown up in beehive apartments, Scott seemed amazed at how much land surrounded their new living space.

  While Scott showed her the fenced and fully covered pool, Duster checked his garden. Mary had taken good care of it. He pulled some veggies for supper and took them inside. As he made a quick meal, he couldn’t stop from tapping his toes to the crisp tones of background music wafting through the house. Everything he ever wanted. Every dream he’d had since he was a boy was coming true. Not an IWOG world or WAG or Fringe but an independent world. The only one so far. On it, Duster had his big house, a job he loved and now he had his wife and his child. Somehow, he’d never really believed he’d have this moment. Just hearing Scott’s piping voice from the backyard filled him with such sharp joy, his eyes watered. Cutting onions could have been to blame, but he knew they weren’t. Elated, he smiled and shuffle-danced about the kitchen as his wife and son discovered the backyard. Nothing would ever hurt him or his family again. He’d see to it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I feel disjointed, dislocated. Duster, it’s like everything turned out okay, and I’m going to wake up from this to find it’s only a dream, and Michael’s going to be leaning over and torturing me.” Diane curled up on one of the couches in the main room. Duster sat beside her, twisting a ribbon of her hair around and around his finger. Low lights gave the room intimacy, and the huge open windows let in the sound of crickets. They were sitting together and talking after putting Scott to bed.

  “Feels rather anticlimactic?”

  “I thought Michael would kill me, you and Scott. Pretty much in that order. That I’m suddenly free, on his planet, with you and Scott after a spectacular dinner you made—thank you very much, by the way—Scott tucked safely to a spaceship bed, just like one he’s always wanted—my head is spinning so fast I think I’m going to throw up.”

  Gently, Duster pinched her arm, and she looked at him curiously.

  “I’m pinching you to show you you’re not dreaming.” He smiled and shifted closer. “Michael never ceases to amaze me.”

  “How did you ever get back on his good side?” Diane rested her hand on his thigh. Casually touching him as they spoke caused her nerves to zing. After dinner, they’d done the dishes together, then played cards—Go Fish, the game Daniels taught Scott—until the time came to tuck Scott into bed. Everything had felt so normal, like the past seven years were the dream and this was the reality.

  Wanting it to stay this way, safe and comfortable, Diane knew it could all be wrenched away. Michael’s quiet threat, that he would give her what she wanted and watch as her lies destroyed it, drifted in the back of her mind.

  “That is a tale for another day.” Duster sighed and moved another tiny bit closer. “We need to talk about Scott.”

  “What about him?” Diane tensed.

  “Rules. Chores. Things like that. You’ve been doing everything alone—well, Sheldon too, but mostly you. We need to make sure we have a meeting of the minds as far as caring for him goes.”

  “Things like bedtime and schoolwork.” She relaxed into the puffy couch, impressed by Duster’s forethought. Everything he had done with his life, even his house, spoke of a man who wanted nothing more than hearth and home.

  “Yes, those things too.” Duster lowered his voice. “I noticed tonight you were none too happy when he showed such an interest in my knives and the throwing range out back.”

  Diane stiffened.

  “I can feel you tensing up right now.”

  “I’m sorry.” Diane tried to relax. “He’s just so little. To think of him killing people makes my skin crawl.”

  “Good God, Diane!” Duster chuckled. “I am not going to teach a six-year-old to kill people. I want to teach him not only how to use knives but to understand the responsibility that comes with them.”

  “I don’t want him playing with something so dangerous.”

  “I don’t want him playing with them either.” Duster twined his fingers with hers. “Knives are not toys. Just as I’ll show him how to use knives safely in the kitchen, I’ll show him that knives are also an effective tool for self-defense. He needs to understand weapons, Diane. Even if Scott were a girl, I’d want to teach this. That’s what we need to talk about, if your mind is set somewhere else.”

  “Guns.” Diane felt sick, and her fingers automatically tightened against Duster’s.

  “Don’t even go there. Guns are a long way down the road.”

  “But they’re everywhere on Windmere. You have several in the house. Scott’s fascinated by them more than he is with your knives.”

  “He couldn’t do a damn thing with them even if he got his hands on them, which he couldn’t. You saw me put them away. I keep mine locked up. Always. That’s just my way. Thing you need to understand is that all the guns on Windmere are smart. What that means is when you pick one up, it scans your security bracelet and your prints. If you’re not authorized, it won’t operate.”

  “I couldn’t fire one of the guns on-planet?”

  “With Michael’s distrust of you?” Duster chuckled as he shook his head, all the while twirling a ribbon of her copper hair with his other hand. “With Michael’s distrust of you, if he had a way to make all knives planetside dissolve at your touch, he would.”

  “Can you?”

  “Dissolve knives with my touch? Not yet, but I’m working on it.”

  “Will you please be serious? Can you fire the guns? Are you authorized?”

  Duster hesitated. “Why does it matter?”

  “Because I want to feel safe here.”

  “I can fire weapons on Windmere. But even with that, I want to teach Scott to be respectful of that power. He should know not to ever point a gun or a knife at someone unless he has to. Weapons are only to protect himself or someone he loves.”

  Diane thought of how quickly and thoroughly Duster had dispatched the four men who boarded the Den of Iniquity with just the four blades in his boots and his bare hands. Intellectually, she understood that in the Void it was very often a situation of kill or be killed, but applying that notion to her child took intellect right out and made her emotions go haywire.

  “He’s only six.” Diane didn’t ever want Scott to have to face something like that.

  “Closer to seven.”

  “As if that makes much difference.”

  “Scott’s inquisitive. And he’s smart. He remembers what you tell him.” A look of deep pride crossed Duster’s face. “Scott is bright in a way few people are. He grasps things quickly. Scary in a way. Kinda reminds me of Mary. Thing is, he’s intelligent enough to learn responsibility and respect. For weapons as well as people.”

  Diane considered. She’d taught Scott the social side of honor, and now Duster wanted to teach him the other side of honor. The side you had to sometimes fight for and sometimes kill for. Scott would not forever be a little boy of six. Years would pass, and he’d become a man, whether Diane wanted him to or not. She couldn’t help Scott there, but Duster could. Moreover, he wanted to. Duster accepted and even enjoyed his role in doing so.

  “You’re right.” Diane gave a squeeze to Duster’s hand and his thigh. “You need to teach him honor with weapons.”

  “Honor with power.” Duster stroked his fingers around the twine of her hair. “Weapons are power, and power is nothing but savage unless tempered with honor. That’s really what I want to teach him, but the thing is, he pretty much already knows.”

  Accepting the compliment, Diane said, “I did my best.” Turning the conversation, she said, “We need to teach him to swim too.”

  “Thought I saw you warily eye t
he pool.”

  “I signed him up for lessons on Dahank for when school let out, but, well…” She shrugged.

  “I’ll teach him. Or you can.”

  Catching his dazed and dreamy, mossy-green gaze, Diane tried desperately not to blush as she admitted, “I don’t know how. It was something we were going to do together. Swimming lessons were my big gift to him for the holidays.”

  “Really?”

  “A month together on Dahank learning to swim while we stayed at a fancy hotel. Winter vacation for him from school and a long break for me from Network Thirteen.” Finally, she had the money for such indulgences, and that cover story would have given her a month leeway to get away from them, but now everything had changed.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do tomorrow. We’ll learn to swim and practice water safety. A perfect family project. And don’t worry about the pool. I keep it covered, and if anything touches that cover, it goes rigid and an alarm goes off. You can’t drown in that pool.” Chuckling softly, Duster added, “Actually, I should ask Mary about security around here. Mary could drown herself in my pool, despite all I’ve done to make it safe.”

  Remembering how easily Mary took them from lockdown to Michael’s office, Diane said, “Lucky for you, she doesn’t want to drown herself.”

  Duster pulled away a bit. “Still, she might have some insight.” After making a note to himself by speaking into one of his electronic gizmos, Duster turned his attention back to wrapping a strand of her copper hair around his finger. His sleep-dreamy eyes watched his work. He seemed to be taking enormous pleasure in just sitting on the couch next to her, fondling a ribbon of her hair. Duster seemed content to spend the rest of his life right here.

  Almost afraid of the intensity of the moment, Diane said, “Child safety seems designed right into everything in your house. But Mary would be the person to ask. About security.”