He looked out the window at the quadrant. Renee was hurrying into
her building to the right of mine.
“Anybody who goes looking can find out about my time inside, the
fact I weren’t happy staying there and pretty much what I ate for lunch.” I
shrugged. Frei had said I’d escaped. She gave me too much credit. Escaping took
sneaking ability. I was no sneak. “She just wants to know what happened to her
sister. With all the stuff said about me, I can’t blame her for trying.”
“You told her you didn’t know?”
I glanced his way. “Now where would the fun be in that?”
He wagged his finger at me. “Tease all you want but if she feels
threatened she could leave. We need her.” He said it in such a way that I
almost saluted.
“Point made, I’ll taunt her
gently
.” I gave him my best
charming smile. “So what do I owe the honor?”
He nodded to the list in my hand.
“You gave me a load of duds.” I handed him the list. “If you want
me to make them worthwhile, I want them treated.”
He smiled, reading down the list. He’d known they had medical
conditions. “It’ll come out of your cut.”
Lovely, I got a cut for selling kids, how heartwarming. “Done. I
can make a load if they are healthy.”
He cocked his head.
“I was a weedy loser like them.” I grinned and flexed my biceps at
him. I was pretty sure that would put him off. Yasmin, from back in Serenity,
had always told me that guys didn’t dig women with muscles. They were into
“busts and butts,” or boots, I was sure there’d been something to do with
boots.
Noticing Jäger watching me, I flexed my muscles again, hoping
Yasmin was right. “Amazing what a little exercise can do.”
He spent a few minutes examining me before smiling. “So I see.”
Yeah, Yasmin, way to go. Jäger seemed pretty into muscles and all
the rest of it. I kept my mouth shut. Taught me right for listening to Yasmin.
Dimwit.
Jäger folded up the list and placed it in his pocket. “Good as
done. For the record,” he nodded to Renee’s building, “taunting women like her
isn’t the greatest idea.”
I raised my eyebrows. “How so?”
His smile grew wider and he rubbed his chin with his large hand.
They were hairy where they met his wrists. That was a lot of fluff on one
person.
“I know women like her.” He laughed as if enjoying a forgotten
memory. “They bite.”
He had Renee nailed with that one. She was feistier than a rattler
with a headache.
“That’s the fun part,” I shot at him, then turned and walked away.
I could sense him gazing after me. “Means it’s only fair that I get to bite
back.”
Chapter 16
THE KID WHO kept passing out, Miroslav, did just that in front of
me as I headed toward the villa Frei and I were sharing. Again, although I
weren’t meant to have my burdens, I could feel him and was there to grab him
before he hit the dirt.
“Thank you,” he mumbled at me in a thick Polish accent. I knew it
was Polish because the word Poland popped before my eyes. I rubbed at them,
wondering why it had happened. Just like my attempt at making up a vision,
which had become eerily like I was describing a vision.
“You always been like this, kid?” I asked. My heart clattered away
in my chest in tandem with his and I remembered Renee’s words.
If she’d told me what helped, that would have been good.
“No, Miss Samson.” He looked up at me. His deep eyes were pale,
real pale skin and a smile that could have been a cosmetics commercial. “I have
not been so well since I lost my parents.”
There went any hope of me being mean. “What happened?” I helped
him over to a bench at the side of the fake grass in the quadrant.
He took a couple of breaths and I felt my heartbeat calm.
“Don’t know,” he whispered. His long slender fingers looked like a
woman’s hands had been sewn onto his skinny arms. “I came home one day and the
police told me that they had died.” He screwed his hands up into fists. “My
uncle sends me here. I dislike him.”
I weren’t fond of him either if he’d sold his nephew. Chump. “You
been here long?”
“Since I was fourteen.” He looked up at me expectantly. “Three
years.”
“I thought you guys went off to other places at sixteen?” I hoped
he
knew that or I was in big trouble.
“I lie about my age.” He shrugged. “Something happens when
students reach sixteen. They leave and no one ever hears from them again.” He
stared at the fountain in front of us. A naked dude with muscles. “My old
school had great students. The school was happy to tell anyone who would listen
of their success.”
“Caprock doesn’t?”
“Nothing.” He flashed a gentle smile at me. I was a sucker for him
already. A total goner. “Especially the clever ones. They get hurt a lot.
Things happen to them.”
“Hurt?” I needed to ask Frei.
He sighed. “I probably do not make much sense to you. I say too
much.”
“Lesson one about me, kid. I ain’t somebody you can guess a lot
about.” I flashed him a charming smile back. Frei would kick my butt for
getting personal with him but I didn’t care. “Why do you think they get hurt?”
He nodded at the block on the west of the quadrant. That was
Sawyer and Jones’s place. “They hurt people sometimes . . . others go missing.”
He looked so miserable, so burdened by it, I wasn’t surprised it
was blubbering out of him. He was lucky it was me listening. “You tell other
kids this?”
He shook his head. “I stay silent. I try not to draw attention.”
He rubbed his hand over his chest. “With my problem . . . no one sees me.”
“I’m gonna help you with that.” I said it like I knew how to fix
him. I did, but there was no way I could stick my hands on his chest. I knew
that
burden had gone. My hands didn’t even heat up like they did before. I wished
I’d still had that burden to help him.
“I don’t want them to notice me.” He was still looking at Sawyer
and Jones’s place.
“I ain’t planning on telling nobody but it’s in your best interest
to look useful.” I could have tried to cover that with threats or promises but
I could feel he was far cleverer than anybody had realized. Renee had, like
always, but nobody else. Besides, he kinda reminded me of myself. “What’s your
name again?”
“Miroslav.”
It suited him.
“Miroslav,” I said, mimicking his pronunciation as best I could.
“I ain’t planning on letting you get hurt but you also got to understand that
to do that, I have to make your talents shine through.”
He frowned at me. “But other—”
“Unless you’re hiding you’re a genius or something, don’t worry
’bout it.”
He blushed. A proper blush that had me wanting to go, “awwww.”
Renee would be a sucker for him too, I knew she would.
“You just need enough that they’ll think you’re good is all.”
Good enough not to sell for parts.
“I can do this.” He was like an older version of Zack, the kid I’d
wanted to adopt back in St. Jude’s. I was a sucker for puppy dog eyes. It was a
pattern that seemed etched out before me. Sam, Jake, Zack, and now Miroslav.
Kinda weird but as I hadn’t ever had a brother, I didn’t get exposed to what
trouble the owners of those eyes could make. Unless you counted Sam and that
was unfair. Not every handsome kid was a serial killer.
“We need to get the whole face plant thing under control too. When
I can figure out what to do, we’re going to stop it happening.” I doubted
anyone would find a thug useful when he passed out on guard duty.
“I would like that.” His slender shoulders relaxed.
“Good, now get gone. I’m meant to be mean and vicious and you’re
ruining my cred.”
Miroslav laughed, despite the fact he was seventeen his voice
hadn’t broken yet. His laughter was sweet and cute. I half-didn’t want that to
change. Most of all, I didn’t want him to forget how to laugh.
“I can’t see how anyone could think you were mean, Miss Samson.”
He zinged another smile my way. Man, I was putty. “You’re too pretty.”
That just made me chuckle and thumb at the wheelchair over by my
door. It was his and he was supposed to use it, but didn’t. “Stop making holes
in the floor and push yourself home.”
He nodded and I brought it over for him. I left him there to wheel
off to his dorm and wandered back toward the villa.
I wondered how Frei had coped when she was his age. I wondered how
it had molded her. Serenity had changed me beyond recognition. For the better,
in some ways.
Frei, having been through all she had, was still cool. How much of
that was for show?
I wanted and needed to know her better. That feeling built as I
walked. When I’d met her, I’d disliked her. She was frosty, arrogant, abrasive,
and gave Renee such a hard time. She was always curt and cutting, sat straight
like she had a pole up her butt. She would dress like she held untold riches,
always looking like she should be in a catalogue or on the red carpet.
She drove like she didn’t care, her eyes masked with those
aviators. When she took them off, there were those icy blues staring straight
back at you. The barrier was impenetrable around her. Spending time in CIG with
her hadn’t helped me see much further beyond what she presented.
So what else did I know about her? I thought it over as I walked.
I knew she liked black coffee that looked like it could strip walls. She drank
stuff that I swore
did
strip walls. She had a strange connection to the
jacket she wore, to the ring on her finger. She kept a broken padlock in her
pocket and she was an ex-slave. She had a sister. She was a leader, a general,
an agent . . . and she had awesome taste in motorcycles.
Was all that truth?
When I met her, I’d grabbed her out of desperation and seen the
fake cover she was going by. She wasn’t from Detroit, I was pretty sure she
wasn’t born in the US either.
Like Renee, she believed her cover to the point it became real.
They had to. That was the way agents like them survived.
Strolling through the mirage around me, I wondered where the real
her began. She knew Renee better than I did and I knew she had me figured out
too.
Somehow, I doubted either Renee or I were that close to the truth
of her.
Like Miroslav, she’d done what she needed to survive. I hoped that
reminding her of that would help her to keep true to whoever she truly was
inside, even if I never got to know her.
Chapter 17
WHEN I GOT back to the villa, Frei was on her cell phone to
someone that was getting right under her skin. I say guessed because she was
speaking fast in what I assumed was German.
I leaned against the kitchen counter, watching as she talked, her
hands flicked through the air as if oblivious to my presence. I’d never seen
her so animated before. It was fascinating.
She shot some words into the mouthpiece, hung up, and muttered
something that sounded like a very rude cuss word up at the ceiling.
She raised her hand like she was about to hurl the phone at the
wall so I covered my head and cleared my throat.
“Problem?”
She spun on her heel, fixed me with a look of pure rage, then
slammed shut her eyes.
She took long deep breaths but then so did I to try and calm the
panic pounding through me. Man, she was scary. Note to self, never rile up
Frankenfrei.
“How did it go?” she asked, opening her eyes, all trace of emotion
gone from her face and voice.
“I guess a lot better than your conversation with . . . er . . .
Huber? Or at least somebody to do with him.”
She glared at me but I shrugged. I had no idea how I knew but I
did.
She sighed. “Your talents are meant to be offline.”
Now I was being referred to like a computer, nice. “Hey, you fire
off that amount of emotion and I don’t need to be
online
to pick it up.”
I waved my hands about like she had. “Something up?”
“It’s Huber’s mistress.” Frei slid her phone in her pocket. “She
doesn’t like me and she hates Renee. She’s livid we’re involved.”
“Why?”
“Quick version, she is jealous because Huber loves me.” She
shrugged. “Huber hasn’t made as much money since I left.”
“Ah, so she’s mad Renee stole you?”
Frei raised her blonde eyebrows. “Yes.”
Women were way too complicated for me. “So why is she a problem if
she’s just a mistress?”
Frei shoved her hands on her belt like she was about to duel at
high noon. “The deal was that Huber would cover us. Megan is powerful in her
own right. She knows people.” She sighed. “Jäger has Huber’s word that you and
Renee are trustworthy.”
“And?” I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Megan is threatening to let Jäger know Renee isn’t.”
Now I was panicking. “But Huber promised.”
“He did and his word is worth a lot more to Jäger than hers.” She
met my eyes. “Megan likes to push my buttons.”
“Sounds like my mother.”
Frei laughed, a burst of shocked laughter that made me jump. “You
might be right.”
“She called just to threaten you?” I headed to the fridge and
pulled out a bottle of water. It was so dusty here.
“Smyth got the letter threatening the kids.” She tapped a piece of
paper on the breakfast counter. “So naturally, Jäger has issued a warning.”
That didn’t sound pleasant. He’d said nothing to me. “So you were
trying to get hold of Huber?”
Frei sighed. “And reacquainted myself with Megan, yes.”
“Is she going to be a problem?”
Frei slumped onto the stool at the breakfast bar as I offered her
a bottle. “Yes.”
I cracked open mine and downed it, thankful for the cool liquid.
How were we going to get out safe?
“As long as Renee doesn’t start digging, we’ll be fine.” Frei put
her hands on the countertop and I noticed she had a lot of nick marks. Faint
scars that seemed to cover her arms.
“
Why
would she?” Yes, I knew these guys were slave traders
but Renee didn’t. Frei wasn’t telling me something.
“I walked away and Renee got hurt.” Frei sighed. “I stuck up for
someone who she didn’t understand. I got them to safety, which she threatened
to arrest me for.”
Loyalty. I could hear it in her voice. I took a seat next to her
and we both stared at the fridge.
“In Serenity, I knew this girl called Lynne. She’d done things
that made Sam look like a gentleman.” I shook my head. “She was the most
volatile, nasty piece of work you’d ever wish to meet. Everybody was terrified
of her.”
It felt like such a long time ago now that even talking about it
made it feel so far away.
“This skinny, scared little runt got locked up in a cell with her.
Nobody expected me to last the night.”
Frei looked at me. Her eyes tracked over my cheek but I focused on
the fridge.
“I liked her. She liked me. She was so nice and funny. She taught
me to look after myself, to lift weights. She protected me and even took care
of me when I was sick.” I smiled at Frei. “A vicious lunatic she was, that was
something neither of us could change, but there was enough good in her to help
out a lost and lonely kid.”
“What happened?” Frei leaned on her fist. Gone was the bored
nonchalance.
“She decided that she didn’t like the color of a guard’s hair one
day. She’d get in them moods sometimes.” I sighed. “She took out eight of them
before they sedated her.” I shook my head. “Never did know where they moved
her.”
“She was never bad to you?” Frei studied me like she needed to
know something.
“No, but then when she got in a mood like that, I stayed out of
her way.” I turned to Frei. “What I’m saying is, I weren’t Lynne, I hadn’t
lived her life. I couldn’t say I’d be any different if I’d been dealt her
cards.” I tapped the counter. “Think she found it refreshing that I just took
her as I saw her.”
Frei shook her head, a gentle smile on her face. “No wonder it’s
hard for her to get over you.”
“Who?” Had I missed a page? “Lynne?”
“No,” Frei said with a chuckle. “I just meant . . . You . . .” She
sighed. “It’s easy to like you.” She looked down at her hands. “It takes a lot
to see a person’s faults and love them anyway.”
I smiled. “Actually, in my book, that
is
love.” A light
dinged in my head as I said it. That had been the theme of my meditations. I’d
been working on them every day. It was illuminating. “Love is unconditional.”
“Amen to that.” She got up and wandered to the study where there
was a liquor cabinet.
“Are you teasing me?” I knew Renee was supportive of my
meditations but I weren’t sure how other people would react.
“No. One Corinthians chapter thirteen verse five: it does not
dishonor others, it’s not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no
record of wrongs.” She smiled with warmth as she poured a glass.
“So I can get you to recite scripture to me?” I was teasing now
but I was impressed. It felt nice to know something about her. It was nice to
know that she had layers.
“Sure, just don’t expect it to be accurate. It’s been a while
since I memorized passages.” She sipped her drink. “Funny that they pop up in
your memory when you need them.” She wandered to the ice bucket and dropped a
couple of cubes in.
“They do?”
She sipped her drink again and let out a satisfied sigh. I didn’t
get how she could sip the stuff like it was pop. “They do. What’s with the new
kid you adopted?”
I frowned, confused by the switch in conversation. I was enjoying
getting to know her but it sounded like she was done sharing. “Huh?”
“The fainter. You were on the bench having a heart-to-heart.”
I turned to look at the closed door. We couldn’t see the quadrant
from the villa.
Frei wandered to our living room and tapped a laptop that sat open
on the coffee table. “I’m the boss.” She perched on the edge of her chair. “And
someone needs to keep an eye on you.” She narrowed her eyes at the screen. “And
scramble the bugs.”
“Right.” I had no idea CIG had that kind of technology. “Guess I
need to censor, huh?”
“That was my next point. Back to the kid.” She raised her
eyebrows, expectant.
“He’s cleverer than he lets on. He’s . . . he needs my help. I
can’t explain it. I
have
to help him.”
Frei sipped away, watching me. “You don’t have to explain it. If
you think he’s special, he is.” The ice chinked in her glass as she rested it
on the edge of the armrest. “Build up his calves.”
“Huh?”
Her blue eyes softened as she smiled. “It helps the flow of blood
returning to his heart. Kid has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” She
tapped her legs. “The stronger they are, the more it will help him. It won’t
cure it, but it’ll go a long way to helping.”
“How did you know . . . ?” I glanced at the door and back to her.
How?
“Andrews sends his reports to me.” She sipped again, never taking
her eyes off me. Amusement filled them as I stared at her. “You want to take a
picture for your wall, Lorelei?”
I opened and closed my mouth, trying to think of something to say.
“Give him salt. Make sure he has plenty of water.” Frei cocked her
head. She sat in silence, watching me stare at her like a dimwit. “Quit
drooling. Jäger is on his way. He’s got his eye on you. Don’t stare at him too
much.”
“I don’t stare . . . do I?”
She took her glass, her laptop, and wandered down the hall toward
the stairs. “Quit wooing the locals or I’m going to need a ticketing system for
the admirers.”
I tensed, turning to the door.
Jäger. I didn
’t want to face him.
Then I heard her laugh. A laugh that sounded like she was up to
something. I peeked through the window. Jäger was nowhere to be seen.
“Why do I get the feeling that you were just done sharing?” I
called up the stairs.
The ice chinked again. “We’ll make an investigator out of you
yet.”
I doubted it.
I went back to the door and checked outside, just to be sure. Why
I was attractive to him at all, I didn’t know. Frei, I got why he’d like her. I
could understand if he liked Renee or Owens even but me?
What was it with me and psychopathic lunatics anyway? Did I wear
some kind of scent? Eau de maniac.
It would take somebody unhinged to be interested in me, in a
romantic sense anyhow.
Maybe I did need to work on not staring. I was sure that I was
getting worse. Not having my burdens meant I was playing catch-up. Frei had me
trying to figure her out.
How normal folks had time for slushy stuff, I didn’t know.
Nope, I had a weed to help grow into a big strong tree. A healthy,
fit and . . . well . . . valuable tree.
I sighed and shut the door behind me. I wondered if CIG had room
for a weed with a fainting problem.