There was no way to keep their purchase a complete secret until it could be presented shiny and new. None of them were happy about it. As much as it had cost them, they knew it wasn’t going to look like much to Anna before they’d had time to refurbish it.
Caleb’s inquiries had made them all extremely uneasy, though. His discovery that a local scientist, who might be supposed to have a lot in common with Anna, was interested it reacquainting himself wasn’t the only unpleasant discovery. Everyone, or so it seemed, had at least heard of her and knew pretty much her entire situation. She was a heroine to the men who’d taken part in the raid, because it was her intuition that had saved them from being blown to bits, and they hadn’t stopped at heaping gifts on her.
They’d been singing her praises to anybody that would listen, and there weren’t many that didn’t. She was beautiful. She was brilliant. She was brave and heroic. And above all, she was not taken.
There were a lot of men who saw their purchase as a clear sign that they were taking advantage of the situation to fix Anna’s interest before anybody else had a chance—which they were—and they were pretty pissed off about it—enough that the governor had heard a number of complaints. He’d summoned Simon and raked him over the coals about behaving in a manner unbecoming an officer, unprofessional, and potentially dangerous to their witness. She was
supposed to be in protective custody and, although they hadn’t actually tried to keep it secret and couldn’t have, she still shouldn’t be the target of so much discussion and interest, or, to put it in the governor’s words ‘what the hell did they think they were doing fucking around with their witness?’.
He’d accepted Simon’s boldfaced lie that they’d just decided to renovate their place and it just happened to coincide with Anna’s presence there—but with patent disbelief. The governor had finally dismissed him with a warning—If the case fell through because of their mishandling of the witness, they were all going to be looking for new jobs.
Simon supposed if they hadn’t all had their heads up their asses—or more accurately, up Anna’s—they would’ve noticed before that they weren’t by any means the only Atlanteans that had cast hopeful looks in her direction. As torn as he was between his duty and his desire, though, he was as anxious to try to fix Anna’s interest as everyone else—especially when it was born in upon him that none of them were likely to get a chance after the case was tried. They finally agreed that they really didn’t have a lot of options. The purchase had set them back enough that they couldn’t afford to pay to have it remodeled and refurbished. They were going to have to do it themselves, and a little at the time.
It also didn’t seem like a good idea to bring their nest-building anymore into the public eye than they had already.
They’d all still nursed some hope that they could keep it from Anna until they’d at least cleaned it up a little, but that hope, too, went unfulfilled. Anna went into a panic the moment the new unit was attached to the anchoring column and the workers started winching it up to connect it with the rest of the house.
She grabbed two handfuls of robe—Ian’s and Simon’s since they were sitting on either side of her on the couch at the time. Her eyes widened like saucers and the color completely drained from her face. “Did you feel that? Did you hear that?”
Simon didn’t know about Ian, but all he could feel was Anna’s grip on his balls and all he could hear was the ringing in his ears from the pain. Thankfully, she let go and leapt to her feet before he passed out.
“What was that?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Caleb said soothingly. “I didn’t hear anything. Did you hear anything?”
“No. I didn’t hear anything,” Joshua responded promptly.
“You didn’t
feel
that?” Anna gasped, looking around the house wildly. “It’s an Earthquake!”
“It isn’t an Earthquake!” Simon said testily. “We don’t have a fault line within miles of us.”
He’d barely gotten the words out when they all heard the distinctive scream of grinding metal.
“
Oh my god
! The house is going to fall!”
“It’s alright, Anna,” Ian said soothingly. “Just sit down.”
She stared at him. “I think we need to leave. I really do! I can feel the house shaking! Put your feet on the floor! There’s a strong vibration running through the floor.”
Simon glanced at the others and gave up. “It’s alright, Anna. It really is. The workers are just attaching a new unit to the house.”
Anna blinked at him in complete confusion. “A unit?”
“A modular unit. An addition,” Simon clarified.
Anna looked like she didn’t know whether to believe him or not. “You’re adding on to the house?”
“That’s all it is, baby. Honestly,” Caleb said.
She turned to look at him. “Why didn’t you just tell me that?” she demanded in dawning anger. “It scared the hell out of me!”
“Because it was intended as a surprise,” Ian said dryly.
Anna turned to look at him. “A surprise?”
“For you.”
“For me?” Her face reddened. She still looked more frightened and angry than thrilled, though. “You’re adding on to the house for me?”
Simon studied her speculatively for a long moment. “We leased it. We figured since you were going to be here a while it would be more comfortable.”
“Leased?” she echoed. “Oh … like another bedroom, you mean?” She frowned.
“Wouldn’t it have been cheaper just to lease a bigger place until the trial was over? You said the trial would start week after next.”
Simon shrugged. “The government works in mysterious ways,” he said dryly.
“Why don’t you sit down? It’s perfectly safe or we would’ve moved you to another location during the attachment. When they’re done and it’s been pumped, we’ll take you down to look at it.”
Anna settled on the couch again, but reluctantly. She still jerked every time there was another unfamiliar sound and she inched closer and closer to Ian until he finally pulled her onto his lap and cradled her against him. She looked unsettled by that at first, but she was clearly too unnerved by the noise and the movement to worry about it long.
She burrowed against him and clutched at him as if she expected to be thrown to the floor any minute.
Sighing, Simon finally yielded to the angry gestures Caleb was directing at him and got up to follow Caleb and Joshua into the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” Anna gasped suspiciously as soon as they got up.
“To the kitchen,” Simon said shortly. “Are you hungry?”
She shook her head, but he could see she suspected it was a ruse to abandon her to her fate and bail out the emergency exit just beyond the kitchen.
“That went well,” he growled as soon as he, Caleb, and Joshua had gotten to the kitchen.
“Why the hell did you tell her it was a lease?” Caleb demanded indignantly.
“And then suggest that the government was picking up the damned tab?” Joshua seconded him.
“Because it occurred to me that we might not look like completely besotted simpletons if she didn’t know we’d just about spent our last cent buying it for her! And because we can’t tell her that we bought it because we’re hoping to make this arrangement permanent!” He thought it over. “Well, not this precise arrangement. I’m not too keen on standing around with a hard on while you and Caleb make time with our woman and I don’t think Joshua is either!”
“You got that right!” Joshua agreed, glaring at Caleb. “Although I’m damned if I like the idea of not taking any credit at all for the gift when I just sank ten years savings into it!”
“Well, if you want another ten years to work up another bankroll, you might want to consider it! The governor just chewed me a new asshole two days ago because he’d gotten wind of it and he made it damned clear that all of us were going to be looking for work if we screw up this trial! I told him that we’d been planning it a while, that it was just coincidental that Anna was here.”
“What the fuck did you tell him that for? Why tell him anything at all?”
“Because there have been
complaints from the other colonists, that’s why. They seem to think we’re trying to make points with Anna while we have her in custody. I can’t imagine where they would’ve gotten the idea, can you, Caleb?”
Caleb flushed faintly. “I was discreet, god damn it! More discreet than you were! What if she decides to thank the governor? Did you think about that?”
Simon paled. “No, I didn’t think about that. Unlike some people, lying doesn’t come that god damned easy to me!”
“What the hell do you mean by that wise-crack?” Caleb demanded angrily.
“Take it anyway you like,” Simon snarled.
“Well, you’ll have to take it outside!” Joshua said pointedly. “Anna’s in the other damned room.”
Caleb and Simon glared at each other for several long moments. Finally, Simon forced some of the tension from his shoulders. “I wasn’t suggesting you were a liar,” he said irritably. “Only that I’m not. I suppose I should’ve been prepared for it, but I wasn’t. It was the only thing I could think of to cover our asses.”
Caleb relaxed. “Yeah, well it would’ve worked better if you hadn’t turned around and told Anna that the governor had arranged it.”
“Maybe,” Simon growled, “but we damned well can’t tell her we did it! It would be bad enough looking like god damned fools when she lit out for land again, but if she happened to mention to the governor that we bought it for her, we’d be totally fucked.”
“Alright!” Caleb said. “I get your point.”
“It might still work,” Joshua said. “The idea was to convince her we had plenty to offer and it should still count for something that we at least thought about her not having a lab or garden anymore.”
“There is that,” Caleb said meditatively. “And, as bad as I hate it, Simon has a point, too. I don’t like the idea of looking like an idiot if it doesn’t work either. At least this way, nobody knows but us. They might suspect, but they won’t know for sure.”
“I don’t know. I think I might be too sick to care,” Joshua muttered.
“You only say that because you haven’t had a woman make a fool out of you yet.
The only thing worse than being heartbroken and flat broke is feeling like a fool on top of it,” Simon said tightly. “There aren’t many things worse than being more miserable than you’ve ever been in your life and knowing it’s a source of amusement to everybody that knows you.”
Caleb studied him for a long moment. “Believe it or not, nobody thought it was funny, Simon. I sure as hell didn’t. Any of us could’ve been in your shoes, and we all knew it. I wanted to wring that bitch’s neck. Beyond that … well, I guess you haven’t noticed there’ve been a lot of guys damned wary about the marriage market since.
Nobody pays without taking delivery first, and that means the woman accepts the change and has it
performed
.”
Simon studied him. “And Anna hasn’t.”
“She isn’t Roxanne, Simon. She isn’t here for money.”
“She isn’t here because she wants to be either.”
* * * *
The addition was dark as pitch and still ringing with the sound of dripping water when they descended to look it over. Anna struggled to look and sound appreciative purely out of politeness, but the fact was the place gave her the creeps. She felt like she was in some old, underground tomb. Every sound echoed eerily and sent another shiver skating down her back.
She was actually glad there wasn’t any light beyond the handheld torches the men carried. At least they couldn’t see how dismayed she was.
“It needs work, but once it’s dried out we can get it cleaned up fairly quickly.”
Caleb’s voice, which she supposed was intended to sound cheerful, sounded oddly hollow. She pasted a smile on her face when he glanced at her.
They picked their way from one room to the next, looking each over briefly before they moved on. It wasn’t until they’d made the circuit that Joshua made a comment that pierced her dismay.
“I think this would make a good room for a garden. It isn’t very large and it’ll need grow lights to grow anything down here, but there’s plenty of room to build tables to hold the plants.”
“Garden?”
“Yes,” Caleb said with a touch of surprise. “That’s the main reason we … uh …requisitioned it.”
“So I could have a garden?”
“So you wouldn’t go stir crazy before the trial was over,” Ian said, keeping his voice carefully neutral. “It might be starting up in a couple of weeks, but there’s no telling how many weeks it could drag on.”
Anna felt a thrill go through her. She looked around with a lot more enthusiasm.
“Oh, this would be plenty big enough! It’s almost as big as the greenhouse I had. And I think I saw a couple of tables in one of the other rooms that could be moved in here. All I’d really need are the lights and some trays—a little soil and seeds.”
She looked at Simon. “Are we still on water rationing?”
Something flickered in his eyes. “They aren’t up to peak, yet, but they’ve increased the rations. We shouldn’t have any trouble getting what you need.”
She beamed at him in pleasure. “This is so thoughtful! I didn’t want to complain, but I’ve missed my garden terribly! I guess you’re anxious to get your room back,” she added ruefully.
He swallowed audibly. “I don’t mind the couch.”
She chuckled. “You’re just saying that because you’re so sweet! I know it has to be miserable.”
“We’d thought you might be able to set up a little lab in the room beside it,”
Caleb interrupted, “but so far we haven’t been able to get our hands on any sort of equipment.”
Disappointment flickered through her briefly, but she dismissed it. “That’s ok. I can’t really do any research anyway.”
She glanced at Joshua a little hopefully.
He grimaced. “I haven’t forgotten. I’m still working on it.”
She sighed. “It probably didn’t make it through the explosion anyway. I’ll have to start over.”
It was daunting, but she realized there wasn’t any point in moping over it. In fact, there wasn’t time to spare to feel sorry for herself. The sooner she got started, the better.
At least, it was something she’d already figured out once. She was bound to remember a lot if not everything. It shouldn’t take nearly as long as it had the first time. “I don’t suppose there’s a lab in New Atlanta that I could use?” she asked a little hopefully when they’d returned to the main house.
The men exchanged looks she had trouble deciphering until it occurred to her that she was in protective custody. They probably didn’t want her to leave the house and that was why they’d made arrangements for a place for her to work. It might not be safe for her or them. “Never mind. I wasn’t thinking. I forgot I was in protective custody. I guess I can’t wander around.”
“Actually,” Caleb said slowly. “I did talk to a guy that has a lab here. He said he went to school with you.”
“Really?”
“Dr. Sikes? Raymond Sikes?”
Anna blinked at him. “And he remembered me?”
Simon glanced from Anna to Caleb, feeling a different sort of uneasiness flicker through him. “You don’t remember him?” he asked grimly.
Anna frowned, thinking it over. “Actually,” she said wryly. “I didn’t really socialize a lot in college and I’m not very good with names.”
Caleb shared a look with Simon. “I don’t think you would’ve overlooked him. He’s about my height, hair about the color of Ian’s—maybe a little lighter shade of brown. Green eyes. He looked like the kind of man a woman would notice. Not that I’m much of a judge, but I would’ve said he was handsome.”
“Oh, well maybe that would explain it,” Anna said. “I’ve always been more attracted to ….” She stopped abruptly, feeling her face heat at what she’d almost said.
“Uh … jocks, you know?”
She could see that they knew that wasn’t what she’d intended to say, but she wasn’t about to tell them that she’d always been more inclined to notice blonds—not with Ian and Simon standing there and
both of them dark!
“To be perfectly honest, I was pretty wrapped up in this guy I met—Chance Linden—a football player. And after he dumped me, I focused on getting my degree. Handsome or not, he could easily have been in my classes without me noticing. I wasn’t really very keen on the idea of giving anyone else a chance after I got burned, and besides, it took all Mom could do to pay my way. I didn’t want to let her down,” she added hurriedly to cover her goof.
“Do you think I might be able to convince him to let me use his lab occasionally?”
“We’ll see,” Simon said grimly. “We need to check him out first.”
Five minutes in to their interrogation, Raymond Sikes admitted he didn’t know Anna and hadn’t gone to school with her. He’d just figured it was a good way to meet her.
They ran a very thorough background check on him anyway and finally cut him loose. They decided it would be better all the way around, though, to ‘borrow’ a few pieces of equipment here and there. Most of what they managed to round up was outdated and no longer in use, though still useable, but it took a concerted effort, a lot of searching, and a good bit of bullying.
They decided it was worth it when Anna danced up and down and flew from one to another to give them kisses of appreciation as if they’d brought her diamonds instead of clunky, antiques.
“This is wonderful! It’s great! All of it works?”
“So we were told,” Caleb hedged. “I don’t guess we’ll know for sure until we get it hooked up and you test it.”
Anna was so excited she was determined to help them clean up and remodel. She was more of a distraction and a hindrance than help, but they gritted their teeth and bore with it. Simon finally bought tool bags to hide their tools in since Anna had a bad habit of moving things and forgetting where she’d put them—cleaning up behind them. If anybody set a hammer, a wrench, a measuring tape, or a screw driver down, he had to look for it the next time he needed it.
“It’s like living with a ferret,” Simon muttered with a mixture of amusement and exasperation as he watched Anna taking her turn in the kitchen.
“Or a magpie,” Caleb countered. “She’s pretty territorial.”
“Ferret,” Joshua said succinctly. “Magpies are mean little bastards.”
Ian’s lips curled, his eyes gleaming as he, too, studied her. “But she sings.”
Joshua chuckled. “As if any of you have ever actually seen either one! Magpie
s
are melodious.”
Ian’s smile broadened. “I didn’t say she sang well,” he murmured. “I still like hearing our little magpie chirp.”
“She still doesn’t have anything to look at in her garden but benches and lights,”
Caleb reminded them. “Somebody is going to have to make a trip to Water City to buy supplies. There isn’t a lot available in New Atlanta and what there is, is damned expensive.”
“It’ll be expensive in Water City, too,” Simon said dryly. “They may only be a mile from the mainland, but they still have to haul everything like that out to the city. Ian and I will go tomorrow. You and Joshua have watch. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stop by her place just to see if anything’s left. I’d like to get a closer look at it anyway.”
“I imagine the platform sank—either that or the PD had a tug move it.”
Simon shrugged. “We can still look.”