by Jody Klaire
“Just leave them somewhere safe,” I whispered.
She chuckled. “Sure thing. Buzz if you need me, Blondie.” She winked at us and closed the door.
I watched her head into the café as we pulled off. My dad trusted Grimes. She was safer with him.
“I’ve let your father know. Relax, she knows what she’s doing.” Renee smiled as her flashed thoughts filtered through my mind.
We turned and drove through the gates of a large house. It wasn’t a row home that was for certain. No, this place was a mansion but then why wouldn’t he have one?
“Is he home?” I asked Fahrer, knowing Huber was but somehow wanting to fill the tense silence. My hands were shaking again and I’d eaten so much sugar that my teeth and mouth were coated with it.
“Mr. Huber is in a meeting. When he is finished, he’ll be informed that you are waiting.” His tone was gruff and gravelly but a lot quieter than it had been in Frei’s memories.
“I want him interrupted,” I snapped, wondering what my mouth was doing now. “Tell him Alex Riley wants a word.”
Fahrer glanced at Stosur who nodded. “She demanded I bring her. Locks has her on her trusted list. It’s best you do as told.”
He stopped the car. His eyes flicked over us both as he held open the door then he dropped his gaze once more. He wanted to know how she was. He missed her.
“Megan. Top window. Keep to cover.” Renee took my hand with her thought and I tried not to look where Megan was.
Cover, right. That was Alex Riley. I’d been a skill captain, an escaped convict, and somehow had helped “Locks” to steal a load of kids while wooing Renee. I hoped my cover was still in place but it meant I had to be mean again.
I gave Stosur a curt nod as she led us inside. I really needed Renee to do the talking as I was struggling to move my feet. She couldn’t as Professor Worthington. She was my mistress, like anyone would believe that, but she was looked at the same as Megan: eye candy.
I stumbled and she moved closer, nestling in to keep me standing, her touch easing reassurance into me.
Megan stood at the top of the fancy set of stairs which branched out both sides. I censored my wish to throw pickle juice at her. How could she have lured those kids out of hiding? How could she have stood back and let someone shoot a teenager? What had it accomplished anyway?
“He’s not to be disturbed,” she announced like she had any authority. She motioned to the guards who blocked the corridor.
“I ain’t patient. He can go back to whatever it is later.” I fixed her with my best glare. I could feel Stosur smiling through her aura even with a stoic face. I didn’t know how she was able to stand there and not throttle the woman. “Go fetch.”
Megan looked up at me. Her eyes scoured mine and I set my jaw. If I had to go drag him out, I would. Her lips parted and her eyes filled with a look I didn’t much appreciate. A lot like Jäger had looked at me. It took Renee squeezing my arm not to flinch.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Alex.”
Oh I really didn’t like that tone and neither did Renee by the way she gripped my hand. Her aura shot out like it was trying to slap Megan.
“She’s had a long journey,” Renee purred at her as she ran her hand up and down my biceps. “Best not to stir her temper.” She said it like she knew and my gut twisted.
“Slave,” Megan snapped, clicking her fingers at Fahrer. “Go and rouse Huber from his meeting.” She smiled up at me. I fought the urge not to poke her. “As he’ll be busy, I’ll eat out.”
Fahrer hurried out and Megan trailed a nail up my stomach. I got a flash of Renee snapping it back. “Pleasure to meet you, Alex.”
“Pleasure’s all mine,” I oozed back. My mouth was off again but it had got us this far so I weren’t arguing.
Megan looked mighty pleased at my attention and winked at me before tottering out of the door. I noticed she didn’t so much as glance at Renee or Stosur.
“I’ll take you to his office,” Stosur said, keeping her eyes lowered as the guards and slaves buzzed about.
“Move it.” My tone was cutting like Stosur wasn’t worth talking to but she didn’t flinch. I could feel that she knew I didn’t mean it.
Memories of her and Frei training filled my head as we walked down the hallways I’d seen in some of Frei’s memory but this wasn’t where she’d spent most of her time. I guessed the place in Ocean City was on a grander scale. The memories showed stables in the middle of nowhere. Frei had put every ounce of her energy into it. She’d worked for Huber, made him rich, studied and built a fortress around herself.
Stosur led us into an office, a smaller version of the one I’d seen and she motioned to the desk. “He will be along shortly.” I knew she’d leave and remove herself from the situation. She had to but I didn’t know why. We could have used help.
“It’s important that you slaves know your place,” I whispered to her, trying not to glance up at the camera. “Good you have rules to follow.”
She flexed her neck muscles so much they jumped. I had no idea what I was saying. Her aura wriggled then shone so she must have figured out what my mouth was going on about.
She nodded, glanced at Renee’s pocket, and left.
“Charming,” Renee muttered as she eyed a statue of a naked lady. “The key to a good man. My kind of man.”
She didn’t hide her sarcasm but my brain was trying to figure out what she, Stosur, and my mouth knew that I didn’t. I was too exhausted with the effort. I stumbled to a chair and slumped down onto it. I had to fight to keep my eyes open as I sat in front of Huber’s desk. If I touched his letter opener or maybe his pen then I could help.
Renee slid her hands over my shoulders, stopping me moving and a wave of warmth rippled out from her. I felt some semblance of strength return. I took her hands away and lolled my head back to look at her. “One of us needs to be functioning.”
If she kept giving me energy, then she’d have none left and I couldn’t return the favor. I shivered, I couldn’t control my temperature. There were too many memories here. They felt so overwhelming.
She leaned her cheek on the top of my head and cuddled me. The warmth was welcome and I leaned back against her.
“Let’s hope that Aunt Bess can find the right coffee,” Renee whispered.
I hoped that Aunt Bess had met up with Grimes. I hoped he was trustworthy and they could find something to help. At least Stosur knew that Frei was missing. She’d join the search; she wouldn’t stand back again.
I felt myself dozing and relaxed into Renee’s steady strength. Memories floated around me. Frei was beautiful, focused, scarred. She delivered prize after prize to Huber, relentless in her goal. Each one a victory over the prison around her.
That was until she met Renee. Renee had reached her. I was so thankful for that. Another amazing quality to add to the long list.
I blinked back the images of Fahrer. He’d never tried to bridge the divide between him and Frei. When she’d been expelled from Caprock, he’d treated her like he did Huber. She’d addressed him with the same cold curt tone I knew so well. It had cut him. No matter the indifference he showed to it.
Even in the limo, I could still feel his heartache. I could feel it hurting so hard now that it throbbed right through me. He’d accepted where he’d found himself. He’d never challenge the rules. Frei could never give her heart to someone who didn’t fight back.
She’d respected him for the help he’d tried to give Suz and for his part in her sister’s escape but he was weak in her eyes. Her heart wouldn’t accept anything less than equal strength in return.
She’d be a hard woman for anyone to keep up with, that was for certain.
Chapter 64
FREI LOOKED AT the text on her cell phone. Her brow dipped low until it made her head ache. She leaned onto the car for a moment, bracing herself, attempting some kind of calm.
She stayed there, eyes closed, head on the cold metal. Calm. Calm. She focused
on centering herself. Calm.
She pushed up off the metal enough to look back at her screen. Her exasperation pulsed once more. Her hands shook from the need to, to . . . she sucked in the air. Calm.
She pressed call.
“Before you begin, I knew nothing of it until moments ago.”
“Huber, tell me that it isn’t true.” Her voice sounded unmoved. Her hands showed she was ready to erupt.
“That would involve lying. I see no point.”
Frei leaned on the hard metal again. “How did she escape?”
“Urs?” She heard Renee’s voice and tensed.
They needed to get back to work. Renee couldn’t know about Huber.
“Feminine wiles.” Huber sounded unimpressed beneath the bored tone. “Boy is in a cell in Michigan. I believe Jäger has been dispatched.”
Wonderful.
Frei understood why Huber was telling her. “I’ll get him out.”
“Good girl.” Huber cut the line.
Frei steadied herself. Renee wandered over with two coffees. Her gray eyes tracked over her face. She could tell something was different but she couldn’t see beyond the barrier.
“You okay there?” They’d been working together years. Frei had managed to cover up how she still worked for Huber too. Renee wouldn’t understand why. She saw black and white.
“Fine. Headache.”
Renee nodded. “You drink too much.”
Frei laughed at the accusation. She drank when she felt like it. Straddling two roles was stressful. Drinking herself stupid helped her sleep. It wasn’t a problem. “Good thing I have a spotter.”
Renee sighed. “I mean it, Urs, it’s not like it’s weak stuff either.”
No, it was what Huber drank. It was what Suz had drunk. It was the stuff the people who held her respect drank. It was a statement. It was a victory. She’d drink the same crap they did because she could, because they couldn’t stop her. “I have to visit a friend later.”
Renee took stock of the blunt switch. She was used to it. It didn’t mean she liked it. Her gray eyes glinted at the shut out. “Didn’t think you socialized.”
“Nice, Renee.” She yanked open the door. Renee hadn’t meant it as an insult, she was asking, she was showing she cared.
“I meant you don’t talk to anyone on the team, you barely talk to me.” Renee touched her hand. Frei recoiled. She knew Renee was kind, was caring, but she hated being touched. Why couldn’t people get that?
“I’m doing my job.”
Renee sighed. “Yeah, and you don’t give a crap about me.”
Frei started the engine and roared the car to life. It wasn’t one of her cars. It didn’t rumble through her; it didn’t move her like her own cars. “I told you I did.”
“Try showing it then.” Renee sounded confused, hurt, pleading.
“I rescued you. I work with you. Don’t expect flowers.” She cared more than flowers could ever show anyway. What was the big deal? Why did people outside of . . . just outside . . . want to know every single thing about a person?
“Right, so when will you be back? We have to leave for the base in a few days.” Renee sipped at her coffee. She’d placed Frei’s in the holder.
“It won’t take long. I’m not planning on staying there.” The boy, whoever he was, would need to disappear before Jäger got his hands on him. It didn’t matter that he’d been fooled by her sister. That she’d somehow turned into a woman since Frei had seen her last and used her “wiles” as Huber called them.
She tried not to think too much about that. She tried not to think how much she’d missed.
“Sounds like a close friend.” Renee was snappy now. Her hurt moved into anger. There was a surprise.
“You’re the only person I class as that.”
Renee snapped her head to stare at her. “Really?”
Frei kept her eyes on the road. “Don’t expect flowers.”
Renee nodded but the smile filled her eyes. Frei didn’t get it. Why was that so important? So she cared. Big deal.
The door appeared again. Renee beside it. She reached for the handle . . . Got it.
JESSIE PULLED MORE hay, or whatever the itchy stuff was, on top of the car and took another dose of her asthma inhaler. The night air was cooler but too cool and damp. She held her breath, tears stinging her eyes. The tickle, the prickly ache subsided and she let out a long, slow breath.
“Running out?” Miss Locks had woken, barely, her face pale and clammy. She smiled up from her slumped position on the ground.
“I have a few more doses, I’ll be okay,” she lied. She didn’t want Miss Locks to try to do anything physical.
She noticed something on the ground as she picked up another bale of hay and felt a trickle of dread seep through her stomach: A tracker?
“You know, when I was your age, I lost someone I cared about . . . a lot.” Her voice held a strong German lilt, Jessie knew a bit about Germany but her first language was English. The people who held her papers had been Dutch, her “adopted parents” or so she’d thought. They’d been kinder than they should have been for owners. Had been. She’d been in Caprock since they’d been shot.
“Because of school?” She helped Miss Locks to her feet and did her best to lend her support but it wasn’t easy. She was smaller in frame and a lot shorter in height. Aeron had made her a lot fitter but she still struggled sometimes.
“Jäger.” Miss Locks grunted, gripping her side. “She tried to help me get my sister out . . . I lost them both.”
Jessie heard the hurt. It made her scowl. “He’s . . .” She let out a frustrated growl.
“I haven’t let many people in, kid.” Miss Locks staggered as Jessie led her up a dirt track. There was some kind of boathouse next to the river. “Didn’t stop it hurting.”
Miss Locks dropped to her knees. Jessie glanced behind her. The area, the road had been quiet but she could hear a rumble of an engine or engines.
“We have to move,” she whispered, trying to pull Miss Lock’s to her feet.
“Not sure if I can.”
Jessie shook her head. “No, you have to move. Please . . . I can’t do this without you.”
Miss Locks smiled up at her. “I haven’t done a lot. You got us out. I’m proud of you.”
Jessie felt tears brimming. “Stop it.”
Miss Locks raised her eyebrows, her eyes glazed.
“Move it.” Jessie poked her in the shoulder. “I can’t carry you. If you don’t move and that isn’t Aeron, you put me in danger too.”
Miss Locks laughed, then coughed. “You’re kind of bossy when you get going.”
“Good.” Jessie helped her and they staggered up the dirt track. The rumbling sounded like more than one vehicle. Fear prickled at her. “That means I take after you.”
“Should have known you read my file while you were there.” Miss Locks stumbled and Jessie had to use all her strength to right her. “There was me thinking you couldn’t speak German.”
“I can’t but I can read it.” Jessie met her eyes for a moment. “And he’s a bad man.” She felt so strange, such a twisting of guilt that she was a reminder. She wondered what Miss Locks thought of her, really, when she looked at her. It showed her heart that she had been so warm and kind.
Miss Locks held onto the wall of the boathouse as Jessie picked the lock and pocketed it.
“You don’t have to be like him,” Miss Locks whispered.
Jessie glared at her. She didn’t mean to but it hurt to think it could even be a possibility. She hoped she would never be like him. Ever.
She opened the door and helped Miss Locks into a corner of the boathouse. The only boat in there was half filled with water but there was a cooler. She hurried to it, broke the lock, and lifted the lid.
“Beer?” She sighed, scrabbling through for water. Miss Locks needed hydration not more poison.
“Sounds perfect but I’m on duty.” Miss Locks called her over and Jessie sat beside h
er, tucking herself in. It felt right to do it. She wished she’d been able to do it growing up. “I didn’t know about you . . . I’d have never have left you there if I’d known.”
Jessie snuggled in. “I know. You’re a hero. You would have come and rescued me if you had.”
“In a heartbeat.” Miss Locks shivered and Jessie held her close. “You need to follow what Aeron told you.”
She nodded.
“You need to keep yourself out of sight.” Miss Locks pulled the gun out and checked it over.
“I’m not leaving you.” Jessie poked her again. “Aeron and Renee will be here.”
Miss Locks chuckled between shuddering breaths. “Stubborn and bossy.”
Jessie smiled. “Like you.”
Miss Locks shook her head with a wry smile. “You say that like it’s a good thing.”
Chapter 65
RENEE FELT AERON slump to the side and managed to stop her before she clattered from the chair to the floor. Oh no, this was all they needed. She hurried around to the front, checking Aeron’s pulse.
It was getting weaker.
She pulled a few sachets from her pocket and squeezed them into Aeron’s mouth. Athletes used the same kind of concoctions to boost their energy mid-match. It wasn’t enough. Nothing physical was enough. She tilted Aeron’s head back and massaged the points on her neck to make her body swallow.
“Good evening, Ladies.”
Renee tensed at Huber’s voice. He sounded irritated. He felt wary. She tried to discount the odd gut feeling. How could she know that, side effects or not, she wasn’t Aeron.
She turned and put on her cover. “Huber, there’s a complication.”
He stood at the top of steel circular stairs. His tall thin frame cut in fine tailoring. His gray hair respectable and styled but his face was gray with worry. “Unless Miss Riley wishes to speak to me, I have nothing to say.” His glare sent a wave of warning through her. He’d never forgiven her for luring Frei away from his sordid lifestyle. The disgust was mutual.
“Alex is resting.” She felt Aeron’s heart beat stronger and her own heart stopped ramming itself against her rib cage in panic. Out cold but the kick had helped.