21. Thea
Chapter 21
Thea
E ven with access to a clock, I suck at keeping track of time. My brain fog is likely due to the fact that I’m still not eating. Nurse Snyder comes to check on my recovery and tries to guilt me into it, but nothing she says will convince me to touch the unpackaged food items they keep putting in front of me.
True to Alexzander’s word, they moved me from the hospital wing and put in what amounts to a dorm room. Despite my new sleeping quarters, I don’t believe the shit he said about me being safe. I thought I was safe in my dorm room on campus. I should have been safe just existing in my life, minding my business, but I wasn’t. Not even a little bit. And for these last four months, I’ve been shuttled from one prison to the next. It doesn’t matter that I’m allowed to roam free around here. I have no contact with the outside world, so I’m still a prisoner.
They won’t even let me have a weapon. They confiscate my knives as soon as they notice them missing from the dinner trays. Good thing too. I planned to use it on them during my escape. I’m just about to venture out for my daily walk, to rebuild my strength, when I hear a commotion down the hall.
“LaReaux!”
I tamp down the shudder and bile rushing its way up my throat, and force down the panic bubble that’s pressing against my chest. No. No. No. The shouting gets louder. “Where is she? LaReaux!”
I press my back against the wall and sink to the ground, pulling my knees up to my chest. Not again. Not again . I believed this was real. I hadn’t encountered anyone I knew from that other place, so I thought it was real- but if I’m hearing his voice- that means it’s not. The door to my room flies open. “LaReaux?”
I bite back a broken sob, squeezing my eyes shut. I can’t look at him. I can’t deal with seeing his face as it morphs into that psychopath doctor’s again.
I sense someone moving towards me. “Hey, Sweetness. Look at me.”
“Don’t touch me!” I screech, scrambling away from the touch on my arm.
He drops down onto the floor but makes no moves to touch me again. My hands press against the carpeted floor. The solidness of the wall grounds me. The smells are the same ones I’ve been smelling for weeks, along with a hint of leather. Slowly, I open my eyes, taking in the man in full tactical gear.
“Just breathe, Sweetness. Just breathe.”
I do. Gasping breaths that barely inflate my lungs and then he’s dragging me into his lap. I feel his heart thudding against the palm I’m holding against his chest.
“Wolfe?”
I’m stiff in his arms as he crushes me to him. “Fuck, I’ve been so worried about you.” He whispers, pressing a kiss against my temple. I slowly turn my head and bury my nose against his chest, inhaling his familiar scent. Tentatively, I reach up, rubbing my hands across his body, squeezing wherever I touch, allowing myself to fall into the hallucination. He grunts and I look up to see I’ve scratched his face. It looks and feels so real. I press my fingertips to the scratch. Is this real?
“I know you’re not going to want to talk about it, but answer me one question before you start refusing help. How many people will I be castrating?”
I climb to my feet. Hallucination or not, as much as I love being held by Deacon Wolfe, I’m not this girl. My legs are strong enough to hold me up. Sort of. Wolfe stands too. “Let’s go, Thea, I’m getting you out of here.”
When we exit the room, Alexz is standing halfway down the corridor near the stairs that lead to another floor full of bedrooms. He’s doesn’t approach, but I can tell he wants to talk. I wrap my arms across my chest and say, “I guess I have you to thank for bringing my trainer to me.”
“Trainer?” He gives me an amused smile. To Deacon, he says, “Welcome to the hub, Beowulf.”
I can feel myself do a double take. That safe feeling quickly fading. They know each other. What the fuck? Deacon reaches for my hand, but I step away from him, even as he asks, “Am I supposed to know who the fuck you are?”
Alexz is unfazed by the hostility in his voice. “As a general rule, no . I don’t interact with the assets. But these are extenuating circumstances.”
“Wolfe, what the hell is going on?” I ask, inching closer to the wall. My hallucination is shifting. I’m about to enter the part where I’m fighting to wake up. I brace for the shock. The familiar jolt of pain when from when I fight against the suggestion, but it never comes.
“That’s exactly what I want to know, Thea.” To Alexz, he says, “Who the hell are you?”
“I have many names, but around here, most people just refer to me as Operations.”
Wolfe looks over to where I’m standing, then shifts his feet, settling into his offensive fighting position. “Did you bring her here to recruit her?”
Is this real or not? Do I have another grandfather or is this just a suggestion? Another escape attempt my mind has conjured up? “Recruit me for what, exactly?” My hands itch for a weapon. I flex my fingers, feeling for the chair that I know I’m strapped to.
“Anotèa’s an exceptional fighter.” Alexz’s gaze softens as it lands on me. “Among other things, but no, she’s not here to be recruited.”
The other things being I’m his granddaughter. Right? Fuck, I wish I knew for certain what to believe. I close my eyes, blocking out Wolfe’s voice, trying to use my other senses to tell what’s out of place. If I don’t focus on staying in this dream with him, I’ll find the way out and back to the hellhole of reality I’m really in.
“Don’t you think she’s a little young for you?” He growls. My eyes snap open at his insinuation. Eeew. The vest he’s wearing shifts, revealing an empty gun holster. See. Fake. Wolfe doesn’t own a gun.
“I’m not interested in Anotèa in that way.”
“Thea.” Wolfe growls. “Her name is Thea.”
“ Thea is here recuperating after being rescued from a complicated situation.”
“If you rescued her, then you could have dropped her off anywhere safe. Why bring her here and send me coordinates?”
Alexz says, “Because you were using Phoenix resources to find her. There was no reason to let you waste all those favors on finding someone who isn’t lost.”
Wolfe shakes his head. “So, this is about me? You want me to take another job?”
“We can certainly use your talents on another job, but Thea’s not bait. And you are correct. I could have dropped her off at a safe-house somewhere, but I wanted to get to know her without the pressure of the world hanging over our heads. Besides, something tells me the minute I give her freedom beyond this compound, she’ll be looking for an escape route. I figured she’d be more content with staying put and remaining safe if she had a familiar face around.”
Wolfe scoffs, “Safe from what? If anything, she needs to be safe from whatever the hell is going on here.”
His head shifts left, then right, taking in the guards around us. He’s thinking of attacking Alexz. My money’s on him, reaching Alexz before a guard reacts. He’ll get one, maybe two good hits in first, but these dudes are armed, and he’s not. “Wolfe. Calm down. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not Thea. You don’t know who this man really is or what these people do for a living.”
In a chilling voice, Alexz asks, “Do you know who I really am?” Two guns cock, as we all wait for Wolfe to answer that question. Real or fake? He’s never been in danger in my hallucinations before. I eye the guns warily. Either I’ve really leveled up, or this is real. Alexz turns his back and walks down the hall. “If the two of you will join me in my office, I’ll be able to shed a little more light on the situation.”
Three of the guards close rank behind Alex and two fall in behind Wolfe and me. We travel the hallways and over to an elevator, which we ride up several floors, then take another hallway before stepping into an office. Alexz goes to the little conference room on the right. “Wait outside, gentleman.” He says to the guards.
“You sure you want to do that?” Wolfe asks as soon as the doors close.
“Beowulf, you wouldn’t have made it this far if I really thought you were a threat. Besides, hurting me hurts Thea.”
“She doesn’t give a shit about you.” Wolfe says with conviction.
“Maybe not now, but she might eventually. At any rate, I give a shit about her, and how she’ll feel if I have to kill you.”
Wolfe looks at me like I’m withholding information from him. I don’t know how to explain any of this shit. I’m still forty percent certain all of this is happening in my head, but I make an introduction. “This is Alexzander Cabini Moreau. He’s an old friend of Van’s.”
“Did Van hire him to hide you?”
Alexz answers, “Evangeline would never need to pay me. It is my duty, and my privilege, to protect my granddaughter.”
Wolfe is still staring at me, waiting for me to say something. “He’s Scott’s biological father.”
That’s all I can offer. That’s enough of an answer. He turns his attention back to Alexz. “So you’re a deadbeat dad and trying to use Thea to weasel your way into your son’s life?”
Alexz sighs, “It was a complicated situation and for reasons outside of my control, I couldn’t be a part of his life.”
Wolfe snorts in disgust, “Thea and I have heard this story before. It’s the same bullshit her parents gave for why they weren’t a part of hers.” Twisting his lips in a wry smile, he says, “Well, shit LaReaux, I guess I can see the resemblance now.”
Alexz ignores the jab and explains. “I went by another name a long time ago, back before Scott was born. Nikolaos Constantin.”
All emotion drains from Wolfe’s face when he says, “You look pretty good for a dead guy.”
Deacon
Alexzander Cabini Moreau formerly known as Nikolaos Constantin. Thea’s grandfather, and the dead man who’s the reason my family are no longer active guardians in The League. I don’t know whether to thank him or deck him for the circumstances that altered the trajectory of my life. I guess for Thea’s sake, I won’t do either.
Just as she was getting used to being a legacy through Moira’s side of the family, now she’s gotta deal with this shit.
I’ve done quite a lot of jobs for this organization, so as grandfathers go, I prefer this one over the one who let The League get their hands on her. I give her another once over. She seems to be handling the existence of another grandparent pretty well.
Moreau sits in a chair at the head of the conference table. Thea’s standing next to me, a wary look on her face as she glances behind us. I don’t blame her. I hate that the door is closed too.
I take in the fading bruise on her cheek where somebody hit her. Holding out my arm to her, I say, “Come here, Sweetness.”
She shakes her head, looking at the man at the table. I don’t give a shit about the audience, or what he might have to say, but I respect her decision not to fall into my arms. Moreau, because he hasn’t earned the right to be called her grandfather in my eyes, watches the interaction but remains silent.
Thea lowers into the chair next to me, sitting stiffly in her seat, with enough space between us to roll a truck through it. I grab a pen off the table and hand it to her. “Ram it into an eye if you need to.”
She grips it in her palm. “Thank you.”
“No, thanks needed. You holding dangerous weapons in your hand is part of your charm.”
She leans her head in and whispers, “Were you really using Alex’s resources to find me?”
“His and someone else’s.” I pull her chair closer to mine, pressing my arm against hers, just to reassure myself that she’s really sitting next to me. Thirty-six hours ago, that damned phone started blinking and after entering the code, I was prepared to tell them to fuck off. The agreement was I do one job, and I had thirty days to use their network. It hadn’t even been a full two weeks.
But this time, I didn’t get offered a job. As soon as I finished reading off the code, the guy on the line put me on hold. He came back a few minutes later, and his voice sounded strained, when he said, “I’m sending you coordinates. When you get them, destroy the phone.”
There have always been pre-arranged drop locations. A series of protocols I had to follow to get to Phoenix’s pop up field offices to receive my assignments. None of the jobs ever required me to smash the phone.
Planes, trains and automobiles later- I couldn’t even say for certain where the hell I am- since the helicopter touched down on a ship out to sea, but I’m here. With her.
They call this place The Hub. I always assumed it was a military fortress in some obscure location in the subarctic. This vessel is more than a cargo ship. It’s a floating city. I guess if I were a dead man, I’d be living at sea where it’s harder to get to me, too. Moreau was probably right about Thea, looking for a way to escape. She’d never make it back to land in a lifeboat, but I know she’d try.
Thea’s hand squeezes mine, bringing my thoughts back to her. “Thanks for coming for me. Again.”
“LaReaux, there’s no place you can go in this world where I won’t come for you.”
“You might not feel that way after.”
“After, what?”
She shakes her head, biting back whatever confession she was about to make. I know talking isn’t easy for her. Especially when it’s trauma related. She’s been missing for four months, and just from the bruises I can see, I know she’s been through hell.
I tamp down the homicidal voice ringing in my head. “Whatever they did. Whatever you had to do to survive, I can handle it. I promised you nobody’s taking you away from me.” I tip her head up, forcing her to look me in the eye. “That includes you. You’re not taking yourself away from me, either.” I lean in closer and whisper against her ear, “You and me, Sweetness. We’ll get through this together.”