Neither of them was freaking out or even bothered about this. “Guys, I was shot at yesterday.”
“Yes, but now things have changed.” Kade got out of bed. “You have to have this explained, and I guess talk to Trace? There are things to do about this if you don’t want the baby. We’d need a… what is it called?”
“Morning after pill,” Derrick got out of bed. “Do you want that, Evs? Up to you?”
This was a lot. “I want coffee.”
And, no, I didn’t actually want a morning after pill. But I did want to… discuss this. And probably with Trace, since this wasn’t actually Derrick’s or Kade’s responsibility. Except that we were all doing this together in this still-undefined-in-how-the-fuck-was-it-going-to-work relationship we were in. I might not even be pregnant. This was way ahead of itself.
I got out of bed and managed to pee and brush my teeth before Trace knocked on the door of the bathroom. When I opened the door, he leaned against it. “We forgot.”
“Which one of them ran out to tell you?”
He shrugged. “Derrick. How are you about this?”
“Well, first off, I’ve already dismissed the morning after pill idea. I don’t know why. I just don’t want to.”
Trace nodded. “That’s entirely your choice.”
“Right. And… I might not be pregnant so this is neither here nor there. Truly. But everyone keeps saying we could keep the baby safe. They didn’t even seem disturbed by the idea?”
Trace put out his hand. “Come out and we’ll explain. Have some breakfast. It’s too early to worry, but the thing is, gorgeous, if this happened, if you got pregnant, it will be more than okay. I never thought about kids other than I should have one to continue on my Alliance reign. But other than that? I didn’t care. I would… love this. So if it happens? We call it a surprise not an accident.”
I liked that a lot. I wasn’t a woman who had accidents… but life sure did like to take me by surprise.
* * *
I pulled my knees to my chest and watched the guys doing their best to stay busy while they waited for me to ingest coffee. If I could, I’d have put it in an IV and injected it straight into my veins. I took another long sip of the life affirming liquid and set it down on the coffee table in front of me. I did love the view of the mountains and the lake through the window. It was peaceful here.
Judson strode toward me then settled on the couch. “Hey.”
“Hi.” He was the first person to speak since Trace and I had worked out our pseudo-plan in the bathroom. This was going to turn out to be much ado about nothing. I couldn’t fathom being someone’s mother. I knew next to nothing about babies and the five of them didn’t seem like child people either.
He put his hand on my knee and squeezed. I leaned my head down on his shoulder. “You and I should talk about what happened.”
“We should and will but first we have to make a conference call.”
That seemed rather out of left field. “What kind of conference call?”
Kade strode over and sat on the other side of me. He placed his ever-present laptop down next to my coffee cup. “The kind that will re-establish order in the universe, so to speak, and set us up so that we’re not in constant danger every day.”
“This sounds like the stuff of fairytales, guys.”
Trace nodded. “I could see why you’d think that. But when our grandfathers were in power, no one behaved like they have been. The old Council is gone. Alyssa and her background interference is over thanks to you, and it’s time to return to that.”
I sighed. “If you think you can make that happen, then go for it.”
Warden and Derrick looked at each other. It was my W who spoke. “We’ll announce our intent to take leadership. Everyone wants a return to civility.”
Derrick shook his head. “Everyone wants Warden to make the markets make sense again. They want Kade to secure their identities online. They want Trace to set direction for the agenda, for Judson to be a voice of reason.”
Judson shrugged. “They want Derrick to be in control of the killers. They want us.”
“Then do it.” Sounded great to me. Then I just had to figure out how to make any of this work and what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
Kade nodded. “Connecting the call now. It’s not so much a call as it’s a speech. Judson will talk and then you will, Evy.”
Wait. What? I turned toward him. “Why would I talk?”
“Well, you’re going to lead the Alliance.”
I put my hand on his arm. “Disconnect that now.”
“It’s not connected yet. I thought you might want clarification.” He winked at me. Why did he have to be so adorable when he was being an asshat?
“Everly.” Judson squeezed my knee again. “You are a natural leader. You brought us all together. You can do that for the Alliance. You make good plans, see things through many lenses. You’re not afraid of violence, but it isn’t your go-to solution. You are the one who pointed out to me that day that there were big problems in the world. Homeless who needed help, specifically. You can think about them. And then turn around and execute the fucker who betrays us. Or order it. Trust us, Everly, we didn’t come to this lightly. You’ll be good at this.”
I ran my hand over my face. “They’ll never accept it, and I disagree. I made terrible choices when it came to Alyssa. You guys could have been killed.”
Trace continued. “But we weren’t because Kade is smart. Because we trusted each other. Because he saved all of our lives. We did that because of you, because you told us we had to be loyal to each other, and we are all happy to listen to you.” I didn’t know that story and wanted to hear it sometime. “And we blasted our way out. We’re not asking you to do this alone. There was no good way to handle Alyssa. Period. It was completely out of control. None of us saw that coming.”
Judson rubbed his eyes. “My sister… listen, we can talk about that later. No one blames you and we all got out of there alive. We’re taking that for a win. We need you, Everly. We can’t do this without you, and I don’t want to think of the world without us taking control. Things are rapidly spiraling down into hell. We can fix it.” He squeezed my knee. “I know we can, and I trust you. You can trust you.”
That was exactly what I needed to hear. I could trust me. When had I stopped doing that? Was it before or after Alyssa? Had I ever, really? I’d certainly faked confidence well enough the last years, acting like I was sure of myself. But they’d all seen through that a lot.
“I can’t be allowed to make decisions that could hurt people.”
Warden walked over and kneeled down in front of me. He placed his arms on my lap, which made Jud move his hand off my knee but Judson didn’t indicate that he minded. “There are five people on the council. If it works appropriately, no one makes decisions alone. We’re not mindless drones, we’re not Alyssa and Ben’s fucked up followers. We won’t let you hurt people unless they need to be hurt.”
This was all a moot point. “They’ll never go for it.”
Derrick winked at me. “They will. And it’s time that they did.”
“Wait a minute, you said five. There are six of us.” Basic arithmetic was something I could do even if the rest of my mind had taken a hard left turn to confused-ville.
Derrick nodded. “I don’t want a seat. Consider me the behind the scenes guy who has your back. That is part of what we’ll do to ensure this. No one will fuck with us. Trust us, Everly. I know you can go that far. We trust you.”
That was really what it came down to. Did I trust them to know what they were talking about? I did. This might blow up in our faces, but they’d clearly thought this through while I’d been in custody. That reminded me I needed to ask Kade a question. “The recordings of me shooting Alyssa?”
“Gone.” He waved his hand. “Almost as soon as I got to a computer. Could probably have done that from my phone if I’d had it.”
I tilted my head. “
And Mercer?”
“Made bad choices.” A muscle ticked in his jaw, so I was going to leave that alone, for now. He hit a button on the computer. “Connecting us now.”
“We’re doing this remotely?” I asked the question of anyone who wanted to answer me.
“For now.” Warden kissed me before he spoke. “Going to put on a bit of a show. You’ll know what to do. It’s all audio. For now.”
Kade nodded at Judson who sat forward. “This is Judson Smythe. Coming to you from our home in Montana. We’re here because five of us are taking control of the Alliance unless another five would like to stand up and challenge for the right to do so.”
Why had they bothered with in person meetings if this was possible? I chewed on my lip and answered my own question. The old Council had wanted them. There was no Council and no one else’s rules of protocol to follow.
I stared at the screen. This was broadcasting to a thousand listeners. Was that how people were in the Alliance worldwide? And they wanted me to… lead them?
“Judson,” an accented voice—maybe French?—answered him. “This is Luc Matisse.”
Judson nodded. “Challenging, Luc?”
“Non,” the answer came fast. “I am simply questioning the documents that have come across my desktop. Am I reading this correctly? You propose to have her sit with you on the Council? This is unheard of. We have a policy of no women in the Alliance.”
It was Trace who answered. “Luc, this is Trace Hill. There is nothing in the documents anywhere excluding women. I’ve been through them with a fine tooth comb.” He shook his head. He was lying? He hadn’t done that? Why? Again, the answer dawned on me. We had those documents. These guys had gone into those lockers and taken things. They had been busy—ridiculously so—in the last two days. “Remember what year it is, brother. Time for us to get with the times. The Marrs have been in the family forever. They have deep Alliance roots and Everly has shown herself loyal time and again when there was no need for her to do so, considering we keep trying to kill her.”
“Well, you don’t keep trying to kill her.” A voice I didn’t know but clearly Warden did because he rolled his eyes at it. “My understanding is the five of you are sleeping with her. And where is Derrick Norris on this list? Aren’t you some kind of unit now?”
“I don’t want leadership, Klaus. Never did. But I will fight and kill for this council, including Everly. This is a done deal. It’s not up for discussion. You can attack if you want or we can return to the civility of our grandfathers and get back to building our fortunes. Is anyone else sick of this bullshit? We want to let you live your lives.”
“But a woman…” this Klaus person started until Derrick interrupted him again.
“Hell, man. Is your penis so small you can’t stand the idea that one woman will have a one-fifth vote on the Council? I mean… fuck.”
“Okay,” I interrupted before this continued. “We don’t need this to degrade to that level right now. I am the aforementioned Everly. I think you’ve all heard of me before. Judson mentioned me quite a bit in the last speech he made.” My J winced at that, and I squeezed his hand. “My family traces its Alliance roots back to the beginning. I know because I’ve seen the documents. I did that when I was in the vault earlier this week with Alyssa Smythe Norris. You guys don’t know this, but you have been, for years now, taking your orders from a woman.”
There was dead silence at my announcement. Kade turned to look at me, his brows lifted in question. I’d done this. I had to continue. “It seems ridiculous to me that things have to be done in secret within a secret society. Would you prefer to have me hidden, and your so-called leaders nothing but puppets and conmen or know that the people in charge are upfront with who they are and who they listen to? Yes, I am sleeping with all five of them. Yes, we are a unit. But I can tell you that we agree on very little and all have different agendas when it comes to the world. Your needs will be met. All you have to do is let your ego go and ask yourself if some of you would prefer your family legacy be continued on by your first-born daughter over some of your sons? I’d imagine some of you have very smart women in your family. Kind of annoying that you can’t pass on to her what you built, isn’t it?”
Silence met my query, which meant I was either reaching them or they’d all given up on listening to me because I was a woman.
“This isn’t negotiable. I’m doing this. Derrick is not pursuing a spot on the Council, but make no mistake, he’s here. And so are his assassins.”
Judson spoke again. “Our goal is to return things to the way they were and move us forward. With a yes vote today, Warden will stabilize the financial markets, and I will make sure our secrets go back to where they belong, underground. You have an hour to decide.”
Kade turned off the connection.
All right… so that happened.
22
The votes came back eighty percent in favor of us. I ate the chocolate I’d decided was my new best friend in this era of one crazy thing after another and stared at the screen. “Is that a good number?”
“We needed more than fifty percent so, yes, a good one.” Trace walked over to the computer and stared at the readout again. “The twenty percent that voted no will be watched, but they don’t have even close to majority and I think they will back off as soon as the markets regulate. Warden?”
My W nodded and sat down at his own monitor. I’d seen Warden in concentration mode enough to know I wouldn’t be hearing from him for hours until he came up for food or alcohol. I loved that I knew these sorts of things about him.
“I’m going to sit down and start going over the agenda people want for themselves. They’re already coming in.” Trace looked up at me. “You should get on this later. Take a breath and look later.”
That was a good idea. I’d gone along with this, and now I had to figure out how to wade into these waters without drowning. Only time would tell how I did.
Judson rose. “Come with me for a second?”
I got off the couch and followed him from the room. Where were we going? We’d no sooner left the living room than he pressed me against the wall of the hallway.
He breathed hard, his intakes and exhales coming fast. I stayed still, loving the feel of his body against mine, the wall behind me, his gaze making me feel naked, exposed. “You okay?”
Judson shook his head. “Not even close to okay.”
“I don’t see how you could be.” I ran my hands over his arms, feeling his muscles beneath my fingers. “Judson, I…”
He shook his head. “I can’t fathom what happened, I can’t begin to tell you how I…”
“Stop.” He kissed my cheek, leaving his forehead pressed to mine. “I don’t blame you.”
“Judson, some day you will. There will come a time where you will suddenly feel that I’m just the woman who killed your sister.”
He kissed me again. “Never.”
* * *
Judson
I had to concentrate on breathing. Being pushed up against Everly helped. Any time I was near Everly she quieted my discomfort. That was a lot of pressure to put on another person so I wasn’t going to tell her, but how I loved her went beyond reason for me. I needed her, I needed to make sure she was okay, that she had what she needed. And her presence quieted my demons, of which there was a much larger one present these days.
She thought there would come a time when I blamed her? No. I should have been down on my knees begging her forgiveness for what my family had put her through.
I had to say something. She was waiting for me to tell her something, to explain any of my thoughts. “I think I’m going to pretend she stayed dead. Denial and delusions are okay when one is playing the it-didn’t-happen game, right?”
Everly leaned her head to the side in the way that she sometimes did that showed off her long neck. I ran my finger down it, and she shuddered. “Jud, you can’t do that. You know that.”
“Honestly, it feels like l
osing her again. But worse in some ways because this tarnished all of my memories of her at the same time. Did I ever know her? Not since we were young. If even then. We were twins. Now, I have to lose her again but I hate her so it’s… complicated.”
She twisted her lips, pain evident in her gaze as she stared at me. “I love you, Judson. I’d not hurt you for anything in the universe.”
I let out a breath I’d been holding. “You’ll never know how much that helps. I love you, too. You… helped me be the person I always wanted to be. We’ll remember that people need help, we’ll remember that together.”
She wrapped her arms around me and she held on. My Everly. She was home. We were all going to make it.
* * *
Everly
Weeks had passed since I’d slid into an Alliance role I’d never thought to have. My period was late, but I could hardly concentrate on it other than to ask Derrick to get me a pregnancy test from the store when he’d gone out. He had returned with one and it waited for me to go look at the results. It had been more than the few minutes I was supposed to wait to check.
My attention was actually on the scene in front of me. We were all on separate laptops. Kade was doing this from the back of the house where he’d set up his office and the rest of us were strewn around the living room.
A man I’d never met before spoke into his own monitor. The Alliance had modernized and not just because they had one woman out of a thousand now, but because the constant need for meetings was over. We could just take the call over the computer and we didn’t have to get near them at all. If there was dirty work to be done, and so far there hadn’t been, Derrick could either go handle it or send someone to do so.
I listened intently, although this was really more of Warden’s purview. “So what you’re saying is that you want Alliance help in acquiring the land?”
“I want them,” the man from Texas on the video call said, “to eliminate our competition. I’ll repay by putting a portion of the proceeds from the development, back into Alliance pockets. Maybe for Trace’s next Mars project.”
Deadly Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #3 Page 25