In the Requiem (Metahuman Files Book 5)

by Hailey Turner

  Kyle walked with Jamie down the hallway, still not letting go of his hand. The mansion always struck him as more of a museum than a home, a place for Jamie’s parents to conduct business as much as to live there. He knew Richard and Charlotte had offered up their mansion as a temporary home, but neither he nor Jamie were keen on staying here.

  Kyle heard the chattering of talking heads before they even made it to the parlor. He tuned out their opinions as the three of them entered the room. Charlotte looked away from the television screen and smiled warmly at them.

  “Welcome back,” she said. “Richard, it’s time for dinner.”

  Kyle felt like the odd man out as Charlotte and Richard greeted their children before turning their attention to him. Charlotte was the one who stepped forward first, smile still firmly in place as she pulled Kyle into a hug, surprising him. He knew Jamie’s parents weren’t big on displays of affection, even in the privacy of their own home. So the hug was unexpected, but Kyle returned it, if a little awkwardly.

  “Ma’am,” he said in greeting.

  “Please, call me Charlotte,” she insisted.

  Kyle nodded, her name sounding foreign on his tongue when he repeated it. “Charlotte.”

  She stepped aside and Kyle was left facing Richard for the first time as Jamie’s fiancé and not just his subordinate. His eyes were the same color as Jamie’s, but where Jamie’s gaze had always been warm and inviting, Richard’s was more reserved. He still extended his hand to Kyle, grip firm when Kyle took it.

  “I understand my son is going to marry you,” Richard said.

  “More like I’m going to marry him because someone needs to keep Jamie in line when Katie isn’t around,” Kyle replied evenly. “He should consider himself lucky.”

  Jamie snorted. “I do.”

  Richard raised an eyebrow at their exchange, but didn’t say anything more than, “Welcome to the family, Kyle.”

  Whether or not he meant it, Kyle didn’t know and didn’t care. Richard didn’t impress him. Maybe one day he’d respect the man, but that day would be a long time coming. He’d witnessed firsthand the stress Richard and Charlotte had inflicted on Jamie’s life. Kyle wasn’t willing to forgive them for that so easily.

  But he could play nice.

  “Thank you,” Kyle said politely.

  “Shall we move into the dining room?” Charlotte asked the group.

  Everyone filtered out of the parlor and headed for the dining room. Kyle took one look at the intricately set place settings when they arrived and inwardly sighed. Charlotte’s idea of a family dinner was more like a high-end dining experience.

  Jamie caught Kyle’s eye and quirked an eyebrow at him as they took their seats. Kyle refrained from making a face, but just barely. He much preferred the easy meals with Alexei and Sean they’d been enjoying over the past five days or so to this. But food was food, and Kyle was hungry.

  The four-course meal consisted of soup, salad, the entrée, and dessert. Why they couldn’t serve it all on one plate and at the same time was one of those mystifying things about rich people Kyle assumed he’d have to get used to when visiting. He was just glad Jamie preferred piling his plate high with all the food when they were alone or eating with the team. No one cared much about manners when they were starving.

  At least Charlotte’s chef was aware of how much metahumans could eat. While her plate, along with Richard and Leah’s, held normal portions of food, his and Jamie’s contained double portions. The food was really good, especially the steak. He could have done without the conversation though.

  “I understand you proposed over Thanksgiving, Jamie,” Charlotte said as she daintily cut into her filet mignon. “Have you thought about a wedding date yet?”

  “We’ve been a little busy, Mother,” Jamie said tactfully.

  “I’m well aware of how busy you’ve been, but you have time now. You should really think about planning your wedding. One of the ladies I lunch with, her daughter got married last autumn. The wedding planner did an outstanding job. I can ask for a referral, if you want.”

  “We didn’t anticipate getting married this year due to Father’s campaign.”

  “I assume you didn’t think about getting married at all in the near future due to the secretive nature of your relationship,” Richard added.

  “That, too,” Kyle said before Jamie could open his mouth. “We still planned on serving in the MDF together for as long as we were able. A wedding didn’t seem important.”

  Richard held his gaze, but Kyle refused to back down. “My understanding is that Alpha Team has been benched for the foreseeable future.”

  “The internal investigation into my actions is wrapping up,” Jamie said coolly. “I’ve made my case to the director regarding my team.”

  “And that would be?”

  “Not your business at the moment, Father.”

  Richard didn’t push, probably because of the warning look Charlotte shot him across the table. Kyle dragged a piece of steak through the garlic mashed potatoes and popped it in his mouth.

  It really was good steak.

  Conversation steered away from the wedding that Kyle and Jamie hadn’t given much thought to since getting engaged to more innocuous subjects. Charlotte was adept at reading a room and tailoring talking points accordingly, even with her family. Kyle couldn’t help but compare Jamie’s family to his own, noting the care, but lack of warmth, the Callahans expressed. But they were going to be his in-laws, so Kyle made an effort to join in.

  Still, when dinner was over and they’d said their goodbyes, Kyle was glad to leave. He wasn’t comfortable around Jamie’s parents yet, and wouldn’t be for a good long while.

  “They’re a lot to take in,” Jamie said apologetically once they were back on the road.

  “I have met them before,” Kyle drawled.

  “Not as my fiancé.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s a first for me no matter what. Meeting the parents of the man I’m going to marry.”

  Jamie smiled, shoulders loosening, looking more relaxed by the second. “My mother did have a point about the wedding. We’ve never really talked about it other than to put it off.”

  “It wasn’t an option,” Kyle reminded him as he reached over and settled his hand on Jamie’s thigh.

  “It is now.”

  Kyle turned his head to look at him. “Whatever you want is what I want.”

  It was a truth that had only grown stronger in the nearly two years they’d been together, whether in the field or in bed. Kyle knew Jamie would never steer him wrong, and never had. That trust they had in each other could never be broken, not even by a bullet.

  Jamie took his hand off the gear shift and squeezed Kyle’s gently. “If that’s the case, let me show you something.”

  “Oh? What is it?”

  “Just wait and see.”

  Kyle settled back in his seat and enjoyed the drive to wherever it was Jamie was taking them. They headed in the opposite direction of Alexei’s apartment, driving along the elevated highway near the seawall extension that lined the Potomac River.

  Kyle recognized the Palisades as one of the more expensive neighborhoods in D.C., farther northwest from the West End. The luxury residential towers here reminded him of the home they couldn’t go back to, so he was curious when Jamie pulled up in front of a discreetly guarded entrance to a sleek lobby.

  “What is this place?” Kyle asked.

  “Patience,” Jamie said as he got out of the car.

  Kyle had half an idea already, but he let Jamie keep the surprise. They’d parked in a passenger-loading-only area, but the doorman on duty didn’t tell them to move the car. He did look at them with wide eyes as they entered the building, mustering up a, “Good evening, sirs,” at the last minute.

  Jamie nodded absently in reply, more interested in getting inside. Kyle followed him through the grand lobby, bypassing the concierge and security desk in favor of a private elevator at the end of the e
levator bank. He watched as Jamie pressed his hand to the control panel and the sensor pad there. When the elevator opened, Kyle followed him inside.

  Sixty floors later and they stepped out into the vast, empty penthouse apartment that slowly revealed itself as the attending computer gradually turned on the lights.

  Plas-glass window-walls wrapped around the entirety of the space, shaded dark for privacy at this late hour. No furnishings meant he could see all the way down the central hallway as well as the living spaces on this floor, which included a huge professional kitchen. A staircase that led from the main living area up to a second floor told Kyle there was more space to explore.

  “Come on,” Jamie said, grabbing him by the hand. “Let me show you around.”

  Kyle followed after him, as he always would.

  “Downstairs has plenty of place for entertainment,” Jamie said as they took the stairs up to the second floor. “Up here are a couple of guest bedrooms and space for an office and a gym. But I want to show you the third floor.”

  “How many levels?” Kyle asked.

  “Just three.”

  He laughed, thinking about the tiny apartment he’d grown up in as a child before his biological family was killed and he’d moved in with the Dvorkins in their tiny apartment. Space was a luxury that was hard to come by for those without much means. The difference between his life back then and his life now was staggering.

  “What would we do with all this space?”

  Jamie looked over his shoulder at Kyle, blue eyes soft as they climbed the stairs. “Live here.”

  Kyle had to tug him to a halt three steps down from the top and shove Jamie against the wall for a long, slow kiss that had them grinding against each other.

  “Did you buy us a home?” Kyle asked in a low voice when he broke the kiss.

  Jamie kissed the corner of his mouth. “Closed on it yesterday. All the real estate agent needs is your electronic signature. She has mine on file. Figured you wouldn’t want to live with your brother forever.”

  Kyle threw back his head and laughed before stepping backward. “Fuck no. Show me the rest of it.”

  Jamie led him to the third level of the penthouse that was practically like a second apartment within the space. A smaller kitchen than the one on the first level was tucked away on the north side, with an attached dining nook. While Kyle noted one or two smaller rooms that could be used as anything from an office to a home entertainment room, it was the master suite that captivated him when Jamie opened the door.

  The bedroom itself was easily bigger than the one in their old condo, the southeastern corner space bound on three sides by plas-glass window walls. The en suite bathroom contained a separate shower and bathtub, one that looked more than big enough to fit them both comfortably. The walk-in closet could have doubled as a guest room, but it was the balcony with its infinity pool and garden patio facing east with an expansive view of the Washington, D.C. megacity that held Kyle’s attention.

  He could see them here, in this place, waking up to dawn’s early light spilling into the room. Hosting get-togethers downstairs with the people they considered family. Filling this place with the blend of their lives.

  Making a home together.

  Kyle turned around, seeing that Jamie wasn’t focused on the room, but on him. Kyle walked right up to Jamie, feeling those strong arms wrap around him, providing a sense of security and comfort he never wanted to lose.

  “You’re the best damn thing to ever happen to me,” Kyle said in a low voice. “And I’d follow you through hell and back to be with you.”

  Jamie touched his face, tipping Kyle’s head back. “You already did.”

  Kyle met him halfway for a kiss that left him breathless in the best way possible.

  23

  New Horizons

  Early May in Washington, D.C., was more like summer than spring. The oppressive heat weighed on everyone, especially the construction workers overseeing the rebuilding sites from the attack in April. Even with robots to help speed the process along, the construction still needed a human hand for guidance. Some of the destroyed buildings had been historical monuments, and there were no easy replacements for those.

  The scars on the megacity and the nation’s psyche would be a long time healing. The attack by the Sons of Adam, commanded by one of the military’s own and kept hidden with the help of a high-ranking rogue CIA officer—his strings being pulled by a foreign metahuman—had cut deep. No one liked to believe their neighbor could do such a thing, but the truth rang hollow in the aftermath. Here were fellow citizens attacking their own nation, and for many people, the betrayal was difficult to reconcile.

  The media had latched onto Stanislav Pavluhkin’s role in the attack as proof of Russian interference in the United States’ sovereign affairs. While that made a great headline, it wasn’t the whole story.

  Russia was, of course, denying they had anything to do with the attack. Whether or not that was true, Jamie couldn’t say. He knew the Pavluhkins had fallen out of favor with the Kremlin; that Stanislav was dead and his father, Yakov, had been taken into custody by the GRU. Intelligence reports indicated the Presnenskaya Bratva was fracturing amidst internal fighting for new leadership, but he doubted they’d be as effective without the Pavluhkins’ money and status to shore them up.

  All of that meant little to the rest of the world watching the fallout. What little good had come from the attack could be found in the reports of other countries taking the warning of illegal Splice labs to heart and doing their own digging within their borders. Jamie doubted renewed vigil would eradicate the terrible experiments on innocent people completely, but it was a start. Metahumans were a commodity most governments owned and others coveted. The supply and demand would always be unequal, and there would always be people trying to even it out, no matter the cost.

  The CIA had come under fire by Congress for failing to uncover Carter Bennett’s treachery. CIA Director Ryan Sutton had resigned, along with half a dozen other officers, and the remaining top people in the agency had undergone thorough telepathic scans by order of the president. Some interesting information had been uncovered amongst those loyal to Bennett, but most had been in the clear regarding their loyalty.

  With the top position vacant, President Rodriguez had wanted to appoint MDF Deputy Director Ranisha Stirling to the CIA Director position. She’d declined, on the grounds that the MDF needed her more at the moment with all the personnel shuffling and reorganization going on to fill vacancies. Someone else had eventually been appointed and confirmed by Congress, a flag-ranked officer formally working out of SOCOM who Jamie hoped could clean up the mess and morale in Langley. The woman was a Marine, so he knew in time it would happen.

  Bennett was still on the run. With his wealth of experience in espionage and multiple off-shore accounts the government was still unearthing, Jamie didn’t see him being apprehended anytime soon. Jamie doubted the government would beat Bennett to all his money. They’d done their best to take away some of the safe harbors he could have had—the Presnenskaya Bratva and the Reborn IRA being two of them—but that wasn’t to say he didn’t have other contacts out there in the world waiting to take him in.

  But Bennett wasn’t Jamie’s problem. Not anymore.

  A lot of things weren’t.

  “I’ve been instructed by the president to ask you to reconsider,” Nazari said from the seat beside him in the SUV they were both riding in.

  Jamie looked away from the window and the streets they passed by to meet the director’s gaze. “I’ve made my decision, sir.”

  “Which is what I told him. He still requested I ask.”

  Jamie nodded slowly, settling his hands on his knees. “It’s only temporary.”

  “So you say,” Nazari said with a wry smile. “I know how these things go, Callahan.”

  Jamie didn’t. Not anymore.

  His entire adult life had been lived within the structure of the military in one way or
another. Leaving it, even temporarily, left Jamie feeling nervous in a way he hadn’t in years. No longer would he be bound by duty to the MDF, sent on missions to protect his nation and others, leading a team of the best people he had ever had the privilege to work with. The absence of that life wasn’t something he wanted to experience alone.

  Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to.

  The members of Alpha Team as a whole were transitioning into the MDF Reserves, with the implicit agreement that unless the emergency was absolutely dire, the MDF wouldn’t call them into the field for at least a year. They’d given years of their lives serving their country. It was time they lived for themselves.

  That meant hanging up their uniforms at least for a little while. It meant stepping away from active duty, though Jamie doubted they’d be able to keep away from the MDF for very long.

  Katie was going to spend time with Matthew when the other man was available. When he wasn’t, she would be training those MDF metahumans with psionic powers on how to merge their power. She’d done it under duress with Mercedes during the attack, using their combined power to break through the enemy telepath’s defenses. Without her efforts, Jamie knew Kyle might not have survived. It was something the MDF wanted to replicate, and Katie made a good instructor.

  Alexei and Sean were talking about spending time with their families and figuring out a wedding date, wanting to plan theirs out sooner rather than later. While Jamie and Kyle had agreed to wait until after the presidential election to get married, he was looking forward to Alexei and Sean tying the knot. He’d already picked out their wedding present, which consisted of him paying for their honeymoon to the resort island of their choice in the Mediterranean. The manmade floating islands off the coasts of Spain, France, and Italy were exclusive playgrounds for the rich and always ranked high on lists for romantic getaways. Jamie thought they’d like it.

  The Night Stalkers had put in a request for Annabelle to teach a session or two for new recruits and she was seriously thinking of accepting. It meant a stint at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, away from the rest of the team, but she’d promised Jamie it would be like going home for her. Annabelle had good memories of her time spent there, and was getting back in touch with old friends. Plus, she loved flying, on her own or by flight craft, and Jamie wasn’t one to deny her that.