Chapter 58
RENEE AND I pretty much slept walked from the diner to our motel
room and it was only when the next morning came that either of us stirred.
The phone in the room rang somewhere in the distance and Renee
sent it clattering to the floor.
“Hello?” I opened my eyes at her groggy tone and stretched out my
back with a yawn.
“What . . . no . . . we fell asleep. Are you okay?” She turned to
look at me. Her hair jutted out at funny angles and made me chuckle.
“Ursula,” she whispered. “Her head is fine. They are all there
safe.”
I frowned at the clock. “Don’t they keep people under observation
for head injuries for a while?”
Renee rubbed her eyes. “They got back yesterday morning.” She
sighed. “Aeron, we slept for a whole day.”
It went some way to explaining why my back was so cricked. “Are
the kids okay?”
Renee repeated my question as I pulled myself up. I took a shower,
happy to hear Renee’s tones in the background, her accent, the one I loved. She
felt
calmer, more open than she had since back in Oppidum. It felt good.
It felt good to know the students were all okay.
I went searching for towels and found clothes. “She left us
stuff,” I told Renee, peeking out of the bathroom.
New stuff. Cool.
“All the students are fine,” she said, smiling at me. “They are
being given a thorough medical. Doctor Andrews is keeping them all under
observation so you’ll be able to see them before they leave.”
She replaced the handset and rolled out of bed. I still had dirt
in my ear as I cleaned it out with the towel. I peeked at Renee, still covered
in layers of it. She’d be finding it for a while.
“Haven’t slept that well since my birthday,” she mumbled. Then she
met my eyes, cleared her throat, and turned around.
I frowned. “What?”
She motioned to me, not looking.
I looked down at myself and shrugged. “What, it ain’t my fault
they make towels for short people.”
She cleared her throat once more. “Yes . . . well . . .”
I cocked my head and laughed as she headed to the bathroom, her
eyes shut in protest. “An’ there was me thinking you appreciated guns.”
A towel smacked me in the face.
AN HOUR LATER we got fed in the diner by the same waitress. While
we waited for food, I stared at the keys I still had from our first visit.
I had on a leather jacket, jeans, boots, and a t-shirt so it was
more than likely a bike. Renee had on a similar outfit, which made her look so
cool that I couldn’t stop staring at her.
“Quit it, dimwit,” she shot at me with a smile.
“You rock bike clothes,” I mumbled, finishing off my food.
She pushed the crispy bits of bacon onto my plate. “You too but
the purple is staying until it heals itself.”
I sighed. She knew me too well. “You think Kevin will be alright?”
Renee shrugged, leaning her good cheek on her fist. She ran her
fingers over the cup in front of her. “I don’t know. Frei never said much about
her life with Huber.”
“She kicked Jäger’s butt.” I smiled at Renee, the sun warmed her
complexion, her eyes soft in the light. “I hope he’s in custody some place.”
“No trace of him or Harrison but you’ll be glad to know Owens is
in custody.” She smiled at me with a dopey expression on her face.
I scowled. “Told you I didn’t like her.”
She squeezed my hand, her aura fuzzy and calm. “Good thing I
trusted you then.”
I smiled. She had and it meant a lot.
“How come you got Jed involved in spying on her?” I was pleased he
showed promise, albeit in being sneaky.
“I caught him spying on me. I taught him how to do it properly.”
She smiled and I leaned on my fist. I’d seen how faded her aura had been in St.
Jude’s and how much she’d struggled. There was energy in her eyes now,
electricity, life. Her aura looked stronger, happier and I couldn’t help but
enjoy soaking her in.
“Light show?” she asked with a smile that made her energy dance.
“Yeah, I missed seeing it. I kinda missed you.” I cleared my
throat, feeling mushy. I focused on my food, trying not to get all misty eyed.
She squeezed my hand again. I got a flash of her watching me play
on her birthday. “I missed you too.”
When we’d eaten our fill, we headed out to the parking lot. Renee
led me over to a large cruiser. The passenger seat behind was all decked out
like a comfy armchair.
“At least she got something right,” Renee muttered, pulling two
helmets from under the seat. “Guess it’s only fair as I got to fly.”
I checked the levels and ran through all the other checks to
familiarize myself with the controls.
“You realize this is Ursula’s way of saying happy birthday to me,
right?” Renee took a seat and relaxed into it. “Let’s go home. Mrs. Squirrel is
going to love this seat to curl up on.”
I grinned. Explained why she hadn’t said anything to Renee before.
More so, I liked that Renee thought of Nan’s cabin as home too. “Wonder how
she’s getting on.”
I started the bike and drove us, a bit unsteadily at first, out
onto the highway. I relished the simple joy of chauffeuring Renee back to
Oppidum.
The sun was already high in the sky and the ride gave us some much
needed breeze.
“Aeron, how did you know . . . I mean . . . how do you sift
through all the feelings to figure out how to read people?” Her voice was
crackly in the headset but it was her voice, her accent and that felt like
treasure in itself.
“It took time. I still can’t read what’s going on in your head.”
“Trust me, that’s a good thing.” She placed her hand on my
shoulder. “You know I could
feel
Owens wasn’t right just like you said.
Never once did she logically give me cause to doubt her, I just
knew
.”
I smiled. Renee not-so-Black-and-white. It felt good to hear her
counting on the instincts inside.
“Your heart doesn’t need teaching, that’s why,” I said as we hit
the open road. I hoped she could hear me over the crackling. I opened the
throttle and Renee whooped in delight.
“The feelings were . . . are . . . they felt so accurate, so
vivid.”
It felt good to hear her open up. “Your heart is your greatest
ally, that’s what Nan always used to say to me.” Sometimes it weren’t the
taught skills but the natural instinct that guided us to the truth. That was
even more important when dealing with people who had a lot of things going on
in their hearts and heads.
My heart always told me that Renee cared, no matter what, even
when my head was too busy listening to the evidence presented. I needed to
listen to it a lot more. Love never fails, I just needed to remember that.
“Maybe seeing things through your heart helps you see them in
their truth. You can’t teach it, you just see it, you feel it.” I relaxed back.
The bike felt like it had been made for me.
Renee hummed away to herself as we roared along toward home. “You
mean who they are inside?”
I smiled. She was humming
Moonlight Sonata
. “Yeah, maybe
truth is clearer to see with the untrained eye.”
About the Author
Jody
Klaire is an author and a massive tennis fan. At the grand old age of thirty-two,
she has been everything from a serving police officer, to recording
artist/composer and musician until finding her home in writing. She lives in
sunny South Wales in the UK with a lively golden retriever called Fergus and
other furry friends. Oh, and she has a slight affection for cake . . .
Website:
http://jodyklaire.wordpress.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/jodyklaireauthor
Twitter:
@jodyklaire
The
Above & Beyond Series, Book 4
HINDSIGHT
TEASER
“Miss
Locks . . . please.” Jessie shook her. Wild panic in her eyes.
Frei
gasped for air. She gripped hold of her throat. Her heart hammered. “Jessie,
run.”
Jessie
shook her head and glanced at the door. Voices outside. “I can’t leave you.”
“Jessie,
run. You can hide. If you do that, Aeron, Renee, they’ll be able to find you.”
She tried unclasping Jessie’s hands from her arm but was too weak. The room
dimmed around her. “Please . . . if you run, that gives me a chance, right?”
Anything to get her to run. Anything so she didn’t get caught.
The
voices grew louder. She wasn’t sure how many of them there were. To her, it
sounded like they had surrounded the place. She scoured the rickety excuse for
a boathouse, praying there was an escape route. She didn’t want Jessie trying
to swim away, the water was deep, dark, swirling. She’d be easy to hit.
“The
tracker says they’re in here.”
Frei
fought the urge to shudder, fought the panic, the need to cry.
She
knew that voice.
No.
She
gripped hold of Jessie, fought the tears, the terror, the need to curl up.
“Please . . . run . . . you have to tell them. Find Aeron, Renee, tell them.”
Her words slurred, her vision distorted.
The
door groaned as whatever Jessie had piled against it buckled. The owner of the
voice wouldn’t let a little thing like that slow them down. She shook Jessie,
desperation flooding through every pore. “Run.”
Something
flickered across Jessie’s eyes. She looked at the door and back to her then she
set her jaw. “Yes, that way, they won’t find you.”
Frei
shook her head. “No. Jessie . . . No—”
She
tried to grab for Jessie, tried to beg but her throat closed. Jessie ducked
away, ripped open the side door, and slammed it behind her.
Another
familiar voice called out and she blinked back the tears. Jessie had their
attention now and she couldn’t help her.
Frei
slumped onto the dirty wooden planks. She willed her body to move but it only
twitched. Her breathing shallow, sharp, rattling. She could only lie there and
pray Jessie could run faster than her pursuers.