by Tracey Ward
He went back to Japan to turn himself in. Liam Slipped him there and that’s exactly what he told his superiors happened. In fact, he told them everything. Every last detail of the entire implausible truth and it did exactly what he wanted it to do – it got him discharged. He’s had a few psych evaluations and every one of them has come back unanimously saying Campbell has gone crazy. It’s only been a week, he’s early in the process, but Campbell will be out free and clear within two months.
I wish I could go that route. I wish I could keep my name, get a work visa, and live here with Alex for the rest of my life. But I can’t. There are too many questions I can’t answer and my name will set off too many red flags, so Campbell is taking care of it. He told Alex just yesterday that he managed to steal an identity and he was working on photo IDs. He was insanely proud of himself.
The name of the poor idiot he hijacked a life from?
David Walters.
Yeah. That Walters.
Both Campbell and Alex think it’s hilarious. Personally, I’m not laughing.
However, here in this dream – away from Campbell – Alex and I are happy and healthy without a care in the world beyond rolling down this river together, enjoying the sunrise on a perfect day in the forest. Birds are chirping. A blue butterfly has landed on Alex’s knee. A squirrel waved at me a minute ago. It’s perfect. But on the outside in the waking world it’s a different story. It’s all recovery rooms, bandages, catheters, and Jell-O.
We need this break.
“I miss my bone ship,” I complain, dragging the oars through the water.
“Pft,” Alex scoffs. “That thing was a lemon.”
“It was magnificent.”
“It nearly got us killed.”
“What did you expect? It was a bone ship, not a Disney cruise.”
“You don’t even have to row this boat. We both know it. Why are you complaining?”
“Because I like complaining.”
“More than you dislike rowing?”
She’s right. I stop rowing.
The small boat continues to drift lazily down the river, even without my help.
“Any word from Brody?” I ask, settling in comfortably on my side of the boat. It’s not easy. I make a pillow from nothing and slide it behind my back.
“Yeah, he called me this morning. He and the boys have a house all set up. I’ll Slip us there when you’re ready to leave the hospital.”
“Our room is nowhere near Campbell’s, right?”
She chuckles. “He’s called dibs on the basement. Says it’ll be his Batcave or Fortress of Solitude.”
“We’re never going down there.”
“Hell no, we’re not. I’ve seen Silence of the Lambs. I know how this story ends.”
I pull a leaf from a low-hanging branch as we pass. I spin it absently between my fingertips. “How long do you want to live with all of them?”
“I don’t know,” she answers quietly. “I feel like we should stick together for a while. Don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
I do because Alex needs family. I think she needs that feeling of being surrounded by people she trusts, and who care about her, because for so many years she was denied that. It was just her and her sister, and even though if we left she’d still be with me, I know she needs more. She wants those friendships she’s built. Someday we’ll leave the house and live on our own, but we’ll never go far.
Besides, it doesn’t hurt to have backup, and Campbell, Brody, and Beck make a pretty impressive team—one I’ll be glad to have handy. Just in case.
“They heard anything from Liam or Naomi?” I ask.
“Not since they disappeared after the evac.”
I smile at her use of PJ term. “So Liam dumped everybody at a hotel and vanished? He didn’t say anything?”
“Nope. The boys all say the same thing: he got them to safety near the hospital, took his sister’s hand, and hit the road. Not a word.”
“Hmm.”
“What’s the ‘hmmm’ about?”
“It seems odd, doesn’t it?”
Alex sits up to face me. “What seems odd to me is that he didn’t leave us all to die.”
“You’re pretty tough on him. He’s not a bad guy. He could have left the ship when it was sinking, but he stayed with me. He kept his promise to keep me alive, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” she admits grudgingly.
“Maybe we’ll hear from them eventually.”
“Why would you want to?”
To keep tabs on them, I think.
I don’t say it because she’s so suspicious of him already, but Liam worries me. Not nearly as much as Naomi does, but he’s still a potential problem. He’s his father’s son, brilliant and capable of all the things Dr. Evans was doing. The promise of money and the validation of success drove him beyond his limits. It pushed him to do the horrible things that he did, but was he always that way? Did he start out so morally ambiguous, or did it happen gradually? I wonder if there was ever a time when he was more like Liam and less like Dr. Evil—meaning there could come a tipping point for Liam as well, a day when he has to choose which way he’ll go. And he’s in such a gray area right now that I really worry which path he’d choose. When that moment came for me it was Alex that lit the way, that pulled me back from the brink. For Liam I believe his compass will be his sister and she is all kinds of skewed.
“He knows a lot about our abilities,” I answer Alex. “He wouldn’t be a bad guy to know.”
“How would they even contact us?”
I raise a skeptical eyebrow at her. “I’m sure he could find a way. Never stopped him before.”
“I guess. And we’re not exactly hiding now.”
“Who is there to hide from?”
“Andre. Gustav. Whoever else Sandrine was selling supers to.”
She has a point. The names that Sandrine threw out bother me. She was a supplier, but there are still the buyers. There are still people out there looking for supers like us. Like Brody and Beck. Like Liam.
“You think someone else will hire Liam to finish his dad’s work?”
“Yes,” I say, figuring what’s the point in lying. “I don’t know if he’ll play ball with them, though. He was pretty dead set on having his own life and taking care of his sister. He didn’t want to end up a slave like his dad.”
“But if they take his sister…” she says suggestively.
I nod. “Whole other story, yeah. I know.”
“We’ll probably never be able to stop looking over our shoulders.”
“No, but we won’t hide. We won’t run. We’re stronger now than we ever were before, and if anyone wants to come at us…” I hold out my palm, filling it with stones—white, gray, black. Red. “We’ll be ready.”
I pour them into Alex’s waiting hand. All of them are perfectly formed. All of them full of everything. Full of air, fire, water, earth, love, hate, ether. Even fear. All the things I’ve ever felt, ever known. They click melodiously against one another as they tumble from my hand to hers, and when I look into her eyes, fixed so steadily on mine, I see the promise they possess, the promise that exists between us—the power vibrating from both sides of the small boat as it rolls endlessly down the river.
Alex closes her hand around the stones, smiling wickedly.
“Let them come.”
Thank you for reading Fearless!
I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider leaving a review for this or the first book in the series on Amazon.
Watch out for the currently untitled 3rd book in the series
coming in 2015.
About the Author
I was born in Eugene, Oregon and studied English Literature at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!) I’m married to my best friend and an Airman in the United States Air Force, I’m the mother of the greatest little boy on the planet and a rescue dog with more soul than most humans, and I’ll read books in just about any genre as long
as the story is good. I started writing when I was a kid and finally decided to self-publish when I read one too many books centered around disturbingly Alpha males and the sniveling women who inexplicably love them. There are strong women and gentle men out there, and a beautiful love story can be woven between them. I want to tell those stories.
Visit my website for more information on upcoming releases, Tracey Ward