by Gloria Craw
Theron tapped the steering wheel. “Maybe you won’t lose him. Maybe he’s destined to likeness with you.”
I watched as snowflakes fell from the sky. “Destiny has made it very clear to me that he won’t.”
Chapter Eighteen
I laid out all the things I needed to pack to stay the night at the Ledges and went looking for Theron. I hoped he had something I could use because I wasn’t going to take my mom’s suitcase to a place where millionaires vacationed.
I couldn’t find him in the house, so I pulled my parka off the hook and went outside. He was splitting wood in the back. Leaning my shoulder against the cabin, I watched for a minute. He wasn’t wearing a coat, just his ugly flannel shirt rolled up to the elbows. The muscles in his back flexed and released with each swing he took. I smiled, enjoying the show. It would certainly have been inspiring if a girl were in the mood to appreciate it.
“I knew you moonlighted as a lumberjack,” I said.
He startled and turned to look at me with annoyance. “Are you trying to kill me? You could have given me a freaking heart attack. Stop sneaking up on me like that.”
“Sorry,” I said.
He squinted. “No…you’re not. And just for that, you get to split the next piece.”
I took a step back. “No thanks.”
“Yep,” he said, coming to grab my arm.
“Stop manhandling me,” I complained as he dragged me to the stump where a short log sat on end.
“I’m afraid you’ll run if I don’t.” He put the ax in my hand. “All set. Show me what you’ve got.”
“I don’t want to. I like my kneecaps where they are. I might miss and chop into one of them.”
“Don’t be a baby. Now raise the ax high.”
He pantomimed how I should do it, and I copied him. At least, I thought I did.
“Not that high,” he grumbled. “You aren’t going to throw it at something.”
I lowered the ax a little but apparently not enough, because Theron made an exasperated sound and angled my arms differently. “Okay, just sort of let the weight pull the head of the ax down.”
I wiggled away from him. “I got it. You might want to take a few steps back in case this goes horribly wrong.”
He did, and I chopped the wood right down the middle.
“It’s not that hard, right?” he asked smiling. “You can take over for me now.”
“I’d rather clean the bathroom.”
“How about you just help me carry the wood in. Hold your arms out,” he instructed. I did, and he started loading them with split wood. He kept going until I could barely see over the top.
“That’s enough,” I laughed. “I can’t hold anymore.”
He loaded about twice as much into his own arms and we headed back inside.
“Will you lend me a bag to put some clothes in?” I asked.
“I’ll have to charge you a fee.”
“Can I pay you later? I’m low on cash. Ali McCain can afford lift tickets at the Ledges because the Thanes sponsor her. Alison McKye can barely afford her own car insurance. She’s broke.”
He knelt in front of the fireplace to stack the wood. “Jillian Laurel, however, has a pretty big estate to draw from.”
“Nope. She’s broke, too.”
He stopped stacking to look over at me. “Spencer didn’t tell you about that, either? Everything the Laurels had is yours now. You’re the clan’s sole inheritor.”
I honestly thought I’d heard him wrong. “What?”
“You’re the last member of the Laurel clan. All the assets and investments they left behind go to you. You’re filthy rich.” He read the disbelief in my expression, patted my knee, and continued. “You’re going to be the Laurel clan chief, too. That might take even more time to wrap your mind around.”
I choked out a laugh. “Now I know you’re lying.”
“Nope. Twelve thousand years ago it was decided that each clan would appoint a chief. Regardless of how big the clan was, they had an equal say in decisions the counsel made. It’s worked that way ever since. Tradition is almost sacred to us. Twelve thousand years of clan equality won’t change because the Laurels are down a few members.”
“There aren’t a few of us. There’s only me.”
“The tradition will hold,” he assured me.
The idea was so overwhelming I lost the ability to speak. So I sat there while he went to his room.
If what he told me was true, I couldn’t imagine why no one had told me before. I wasn’t just confused, I was angry confused. The Thanes knew I was stressed about money. I’d been thinking that when I left the McKyes I wouldn’t have much to live on. I’d been saving for a long time, but it hadn’t built up to much. If I’d known I didn’t need to worry about my finances, I would have slept a lot better.
They hadn’t told me about the clan chief thing, either. It wasn’t like that would just slip their mind.
I was still processing when Theron brought me a generic-looking duffel bag. “Will this work?” he asked.
“It’s perfect,” I replied.
I packed my overnight stuff and then got to work on myself. Since giving up my vow of invisibility, I’d become a regular user of mascara and lip gloss. I’d even used a black eye pencil once. A formal dinner event seemed worthy of the pencil, so I sat on my bed with a compact mirror two inches from my eye and did my best to spread an even line across my eyelid.
I focused on my hair next, pulling it into a high twist in the back. I secured it with some bobby pins my mom had thoughtfully stashed in my makeup kit. Then I wrapped the new scarf around my shoulders and checked myself in the mirror above the dresser. I looked nice, but the prettiest thing on me was the sapphire necklace. It sat in the hollow of my throat like a soft kiss. Feeling a little braver with that small part of Ian on my skin. I grabbed the clutch I bought to go with my dress and left the room.
Theron was busy setting up his new and improved computer system. When I stood in front of him and did a circle to show my dress, his eyes widened a little. “How do I look?” I asked. “No snarky comments.”
“Not too bad,” he replied.
“Don’t go overboard on the compliments.”
“You look great,” he amended. “Do you have your phone?”
I held up the clutch. “Yes, right in here. I may need some help with the duffel bag. These shoes weren’t made for walking in the snow, and I’ll need both hands for balance.”
He slung the bag over his shoulder and followed me out the door. I managed the steps fine, but looking at the slick packed snow between me and my car was scary. I could almost see myself face-planting in my new dress.
I took two steps and felt myself going down. Theron steadied me and helped me cross the snow.
“Times have changed,” I commented. “The first time I slipped in this driveway you almost laughed.”
“You’ve grown on me since then,” he replied. “Kind of like a fungus.”
I giggled. “You are the opposite of charming.”
He gave me an evil smile and opened the door of my car. “Last chance to change your mind about staying the night up there like a person who should be medicated,” he said.
I opened my door and got into the car. I’m going.”
“Text me if even the slightest thing seems off,” he said before I started the engine.
Chapter Nineteen
Phoebe was already waiting in the lobby. Like me, she’d lined her eyes and used mascara, but her fuzzy brown hair was coming out of the bun she’d forced it into, and her dress hung off her like a sack. Still, it was her unfortunate nose that stole the show.
“Hey,” she said, turning a wave into a bigger gesture than it needed to be.
I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Phoebe was Phoebe. If she was going to wave, she was going to make it count.
I went to her side. “Is this okay?” I asked, looking at down at my dress. “It isn’t formal, but it was the best I c
ould manage on short notice.”
She tipped her head to the side and looked up at me. “Yep. Simple suits you best, I think. That’s quite a rock you’re wearing.”
“It’s a birthday gift.”
“Really. When is your birthday?”
“Tomorrow.”
She bounced up and down a little and looped her arm through mine. “We’ll order cake for breakfast.”
“Um, cake for breakfast on Thanksgiving day. I don’t think it could get better.”
“Agreed,” she said. “Are you ready to meet my family?”
I hoped I was. There were going to be a whole lot of Truss around, but I’d come up with some additional strategies I thought might help with the anger. My backup plan was to run.
“Don’t worry,” she said, giving my arm a squeeze. “They’re all old and boring. I wish you could be here for the dinner we’re having Saturday night. That one is going to go on forever. Without someone to talk to, I might slip into a coma. It’s for family only, though, so I have to tough it out.”
She’d given me more information to pass along.
“Why so many get-togethers?” I asked.
“Financial stuff, mostly. The last CEO was…I’m trying to think how to put it…a mental case. I’m curious how he blew through so much of our money in so short a time. The family is trying to decide what to do about it. We could merge with…some other companies and maybe get a loan that would tide us over for a bit, but that would mean giving up some freedoms.”
The mental case had been Sebastian, and that she had seen him for what he was made me like her even more. I was willing to bet an important organ that the merger she mentioned was a reference to coming back to the clans.
“If was up to me, I’d take the merger,” she said. “It would be better for everyone that way.”
Phoebe got her key card out and swiped it. The elevator door opened and we stepped inside.
“Hold the door, please,” a female voice said.
I stopped it from closing, and a woman whose face I’d seen on dozens of magazines and in several movies bustled in.
“Thanks,” she said, a little breathless.
Starstruck, all I could manage was a nod. Phoebe wasn’t fazed at all. “I saw your last movie,” she said.
The woman smiled graciously and said, “Thank you for saying so.”
“I didn’t say I liked it,” Phoebe replied. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking your acting. You made the most you could out of that awful script.”
The movie star couldn’t decide what to react to, Phoebe’s poor opinion of the film or the praise of her work.
Fortunately, the ride to the second floor was quick. “You should do a film with Allen Purdy,” Phoebe said, stepping out of the elevator. “It might save your career.”
The door closed on the woman’s shocked face. It looked like Phoebe wasn’t going to hold back her opinions that night. Which meant, things might turn out good…or very, very bad, depending on the topic of conversation.
“Time to face the music,” she said unfazed. “The room is this way.”
As I expected, my anger started building the closer we got to the Truss. I initiated plan A and visualized myself walking into the room and smiling calmly at the faces of my family’s murderers.
That didn’t work very well, so I moved on to plan B. Pulling up mental images of all the famous paintings I wanted to see at the Louvre, I ran through a slow slideshow of them in my mind.
That did the trick, and my anger subsided until my body temperature regulated to the level of a high fever.
Phoebe was right about her family being old. I did a quick calculation and figured the average age was probably around two hundred seventy or seventy, whichever species definition you chose to go with. There was an eerie feel to the place. There was no laughter and no loud conversations like you’d expect at a family reunion. Only old people involved with their own thoughts.
“See what I mean?” Phoebe whispered to me. “It’s like they’re all taking Valium.”
I choked down a laugh as we made our way to the hors d’oeuvres table.
There was a lot to choose from. I busied myself putting things on my plate while Phoebe hemmed and hawed over the stuffed mushrooms and mini quiches. Finally, she picked something and pointed to one of the tables. “We’re there,” she said.
I sat by my place card and looked around.
The conference room was an interesting space. Animal heads hung high on each of the walls. Buffalo, elk, and deer looked down on us with glass eyes. Stuffed ducks in various poses had been arranged on the mantel over a fireplace at one end of the room. There were glass cases on each side of it with animal skins in them.
It definitely was not a PETA-approved room.
As I opened my napkin and laid it on my lap, I checked around to see if anyone was particularly interested in me. The makeover Katherine had provided seemed to have worked. No one gave me a second glance, so I relaxed a little. That’s exactly how I wanted it.
“Wow, that’s a lot of hors d’oeuvres,” Phoebe whispered.
“When faced with difficult food choices, my policy is to take one of each,” I explained. “It’s more a matter of curiosity than anything else. I want to know what tastes the best.”
She giggled. “I like that idea. I think I’ll adopt your philosophy.”
We ate and talked quietly about snowboarding and our classes at school. We made pretty much the only noise in the room, until a familiar dewing approached. “How are my girls?” Uncle Thomas asked with sparkling eyes.
Calling me one of his girls should have felt strange, but it didn’t. I’d been thinking of him as Uncle Thomas since we were introduced.
“Phoebe, you look beautiful,” he said, sliding into his chair.
“Thank you,” she replied. “You’re a great liar.”
Uncle Thomas kissed her cheek and shifted position.
“Where’s Aunt Shannon?” she asked.
“Making arrangements to fly home,” he said with a worried frown. “Lisa has gone into labor. Shannon wants to be there to help with the baby.”
Phoebe patted his hand. “I’m sure everything will work out fine.”
He returned to his cheery self pretty quickly. “What’s to eat?” he asked.
“Try the crab cakes,” I suggested. “They’re the best of everything.”
He bobbed his head up and down, in agreement. “Be right back,” he said.
I bit into a mini Parmesan roll and happened to glance at the doorway. A woman in a long black gown with jewels on her fingers and diamonds sparkling at her ears stood there. Her nose was just like Phoebe’s.
“That’s my mom,” Phoebe said, nodding toward her. “She likes to make an entrance.”
Yvonne paused long enough to draw as much attention to herself as she could, then she promenaded into the room. In spite of her large nose, or perhaps because of it, she looked formidable. I kept at the Parmesan roll and watched as she stopped at each of the tables and greeted people. She smiled with just the right amount of warmth, leaned in as she spoke, and laughed quietly.
Her social grace reminded me of Brandy. Which made me think she was probably a drawer like Brady had been.
Drawers joined humans’ minds and made themselves seem irresistible. The human developed a type of obsession with them and would do just about anything to please them.
When Yvonne came to our table, I felt a tightening in my head as she joined my mind. I could have stopped her, but that would have ruined my cover, so I let her poke her way between my thoughts until she mesmerized me. My instinct had been right. She was definitely a drawer. Up close, Yvonne’s earrings were a bit too showy. I doubted they were real.
“Ali, right?” she asked. I could tell she was unimpressed with my dress, but her eyes lingered on the gem in the hollow of my neck.
She was eying my necklace like a snake about ready to swallow a mouse. I knew then that she liked to stea
l things. Under the influence of her joining, a human would give her anything she asked for. I wondered how many of the rings on her fingers were stolen.
Fortunately for me, she wasn’t brazen enough to take my necklace in front of so many people.
“How are you enjoying the evening?” she asked, releasing my mind.
“The food’s good,” Phoebe chimed in. “The rest is so-so.”
Yvonne gave her daughter a scathing look. “I expect you to be on your best behavior tonight. Keep your voice down.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Phoebe replied with an exaggerated smile. “What’s on the schedule tonight?”
“Some friendly small talk,” Yvonne replied. “Then some introductions.” She surveyed the room like a predator. “Oh look,” she cooed. “Thaddeus and Jasmine have arrived. I should go say hello. I hope you have a lovely evening with us, Ali.”
“And she’s off to kiss more butt,” Phoebe muttered as her mother walked away. “I know that’s rude, but I don’t have a lot of patience for this kind of stuff. I get that from my dad.”
I wanted to ask where her father was, but Uncle Thomas came back to our table and had a lot to say.
“Tell me about the colleges you have applied to,” he prompted Phoebe.
That started a long conversation about the pros and cons of West Coast schools versus East Coast schools. It only stopped when Yvonne stood at the front of the room and called for everyone’s attention.
“Welcome to our first gathering in this important week,” she said. “It’s so nice to be with all of you again. Since this evening is a chance for us to catch up and share news about our families, I thought I’d start off with a happy announcement. My son, Jacob, has recently been married. I’d like to introduce you to his bride.”
The fox-man from the bistro came walking in. He was holding the hand of a petite girl. Her shoulders were bent and she walked with jerky steps. Her vibration was so weak I didn’t recognize it at first. When I did, I almost choked on a stuffed mushroom.
I’d known her when her reddish blond hair was lush and beautiful. Now it hung lifeless and dull around her shoulders. When she lifted her eyes to look around, they were hazy and roamed the room without focus.