3. Jaxson
3
Jaxson
L auressa slips out during the night.
I allow her to think I don’t know, as though I didn’t get an alarm as soon as she tiptoed out of the room. Like I didn’t know as soon as she crossed the threshold of the front door. Like I didn’t watch her get into an Uber headed to the airport. Like I don’t get pinged every time her name or one of her aliases shows up on any rental service, any airline carrier, and any hotel reservations since she pulled that disappearing stunt to Savannah a couple of months ago.
I watch the tracker in her phone travel south, back to Georgia. To Atlanta by way of flight. Then to Macon by way of another Uber. She ends up at her parent’s old house of all places. After watching her tracker stay there for a few hours without being tampered with, I determine she’s not planning on going anywhere else anytime soon and set myself up to be notified if she goes on the move again. Then I send my men a message that she’s back in town and to set up surveillance on her just in case she decides to do anything stupid, as she’s prone to do when she’s upset.
Knowing that Lauressa is secured and I don’t have to worry about her right now, I can focus on figuring out how the hell I’m going to get out of this predicament my father has put us in unscathed, without losing Lauressa, any chance of becoming Oracle, or the Sovereignty in general. Hopefully, by the time I head down for her family’s funeral this weekend, I’ll have come up with something.
But I still can’t focus. Can’t think of anything. I thought sending Lauressa away temporarily would solve that problem. Since I first laid eyes on her, she’s had a way of distracting me. Making me lose focus. Control. Discipline. Lessening my ability to rationalize and make perfectly calculated decisions that always give me the outcome I desire. Yet even eight hundred miles away, she has a way of distracting me.
I need to get back focused. The way I was before she came into my life like a blizzard, clouding my vision.
I get dressed and head to my in-home gym for a workout. Normally, I’d go to the gym owned and operated by the Sovereignty to box with anyone willing to get in the ring with me and release some pent-up aggression and frustration. But I have no desire to run into a bunch of people I know who no doubt now know about what went down last night. Nor am I in the correct frame of mind to patiently put up with their looks and possible questions in a way that won’t have someone running to report something I said to my father. So taking out my aggression on my home gym equipment and a punching bag will have to do.
After two hours of pushups, weightlifting, cardio, and boxing with a punching bag that I wish would hit back, I’m still too high-strung with a bunch of energy and pent-up frustration to think of a way out of this. But I’m too worried about it to forget it and hope that an answer comes later because there’s no time not to think about it. My father has proven he’s unpredictable. He could decide in the next minute that he doesn’t want to wait for the bonding ritual until after Lauressa takes her rites. He could order me to call her back from Georgia right now, and then, unless I do something drastic, she’d be lost to me forever.
I’m catastrophizing. My father can be spontaneous, but not that spontaneous. Of course, I never thought he’d spontaneously decide he wanted to marry a woman after only laying eyes on her. Usually, he’s a bit more deliberate about his conduits. Then again, I decided Lauressa was mine after laying eyes on her once. So either Lauressa just has that effect on people, or I’m—much to my chagrin—much more like my father than I thought.
This time, when I go back at the punching bag, I put all my anger and frustration into it. The bag bursts, and I groan in frustration. I’m nowhere near done, but I’m not sure I have an extra punching bag lying around to replace this one.
“Looks like I’m right on time.”
I hold in a sigh upon recognizing Magdalene’s voice. She is one of the absolute last people I want to see right now—probably just under my father.
“Why are you here?”
She ignores me as she comes into my view sans one of her blonde wigs, bright red hair in a sleek ponytail, and runs a hand over the punching bag.
“Now what did this punching bag ever do to you?” she asks.
“Get out,” I snap .
“Jaxson, you don’t have to be so rude,” Jessie says as she walks into the gym with her four-month-old son in his stroller.
“I absolutely do.”
“I’m not offended, Jessie. He’s just in a bad mood after his father decided to steal his little girlfriend for himself.”
When I told Lauressa that most people wouldn’t dare comment on the status of our relationship and that we were likely closer than we were going to have to pretend to be for a while, Magdalene wasn’t included in that. I expected her to comment. But only because she’s the only one who would ever dare. Still.
“My father didn’t steal anyone. He’s the Oracle. If the Supreme Force has shown him that Lauressa belongs to him, then she was never my anything to begin with,” I say. There’s no use denying anything.
“Bullshit,” Magdalene says, her South Side of Chicago accent slipping out as she does. It almost doesn’t seem to fit her anymore; she’s gotten so good at masking it all these years.
“That language is unbecoming of the High Priestess of the Sovereignty,” I comment.
“Drop the fucking act,” she snaps.
“What act, Magdalene?”
She hesitates, looking around before asking, “This place secure?”
“Why would it need to be? I have nothing to hide,” I reply.
She huffs. “Even the most devout Sovereign has something to hide. In fact, the most devout of us usually have the most to hide.”
I eye her critically at the word choice.
“So you’re including yourself in that? ”
“Is this place secure?”
“If you’re asking if anything said here could get back to the Oracle without my express permission, then yes, it’s secure,” I say.
Magdalene looks at Jessie, and I follow her gaze.
“Come on, Blair,” Jessie says. “It’s Jaxson. He’s practically our brother. We can trust him.”
I raise an eyebrow. That’s a name I haven’t heard Magdalene called almost since I walked downstairs at eleven years old and saw a dirty, redheaded little girl sitting at the family dining table glaring at me while eating leftover lasagna.
“Ask Jesus how he felt about Judas,” Magdalene mutters.
Jessie gives Magdalene an exasperated look.
Magdalene sighs.
“You’ve got ten seconds to get to the point of why you’re here before I throw you both out,” I declare.
“What are you planning to do about Lauressa and the Oracle?” Jessie blurts out. She gives me an apologetic look. “Magdalene told me. I’m sorry.”
I don’t acknowledge the apology. It doesn’t matter. Half the Sovereignty probably knows what happened last night by now.
“He’s the Oracle. There’s nothing to do,” I reply.
“Cut the shit,” Magdalene says. “I know damn well you don’t respect your father as much as everyone thinks you do and as much as you pretend to. You don’t even believe in anything that comes out of that man’s mouth. You don’t believe in anything that’s ever come out of any Oracle’s mouth. You’re just good at playing the game like I am. ”
“Like you are?” I ask.
She rolls her eyes. “You really bought that whole devoted High Priestess act? You think you’re the only one who ass kissed, faked it, and played the game to get where they are in the Sovereignty? You think you’re the only one in the inner circle who doesn’t buy this shit? I knew you were an arrogant asshole, but not that much of one.”
I furrow my eyebrows at her and then look at Jessie, who shrugs. I look back at Magdalene.
“What are you saying?” I ask because I’ve only ever gotten as far as I have by trusting no one and keeping my cards close to my chest.
“I’m saying I want to know what your plan is, and whatever it is, I want in because I don’t trust you not to do something that will destroy the entire Sovereignty.”
I look at Jessie because if I’m going to trust anyone in this room, it’s going to be her. She nods, but I can’t even trust that. Not when this is a complete about-face from the Magdalene I know. The Magdalene completely enamored with and devoted to the Sovereignty.
“Not yet,” I finally say.
“Yet?” Magdalene asks.
“You think I’m going to take either of you on your word right now?”
Jessie and Magdalene exchange a look.
“We…” Jessie trails off.
“I check you first,” I say, heading out of my gym. “Then we talk. ”
I run Jessie and Magdalene through a rigorous security check. I have the women on my staff do a strip search of them to make sure there are no wires on their bodies. I scan them with detecting technology that not even the US military thinks is worth investing in for national security to ensure there are no devices in any hidden cavities, crevice, tooth, bone, wrinkle, or hair. I have their phones checked, scanned, taken apart, and put back together. Clothes, shoes, jewelry—anything that can hide a recording or spying device. Not even my nephew is exempt from the scans and checks.
When I’m satisfied, it’s almost dinner time.
“Good thing I cleared my schedule for the day,” Magdalene grumbles.
Jessie sighs. “You knew he was going to be distrusting.”
“Yeah, but not this much. This is unreasonable.”
“If you’re here to discuss what’s tantamount to treason in the Sovereignty, I’d think you’d be glad I’m taking such unreasonable precautions. Better than taking an unreasonable risk,” I point out.
“But that was paranoia. Beyond. Scanning our hair and scalp? Really?” Magdalene asks.
“A person like me doesn’t survive this long in the Sovereignty and get this far in the hierarchy without a fair bit of paranoia, as you say, which it’s not. I have people toying with technology like that,” I add. “I won’t put it past anyone.”
“So we shouldn’t put it past you either. Should we be subjecting you to the same checks?” Magdalene asks .
“You all are the ones who came into my home accusing me of being disloyal to my father. You all think I have some kind of plan to dispose of him. I’m not the one who has the burden of proof here.”
Magdalene and Jessie exchange a look, and Jessie nods her head to me.
“You’re right,” Magdalene finally admits. “Besides, if I didn’t already know where your loyalties lie, I wouldn’t be here.”
“And where are those loyalties?”
“With yourself,” Magdalene says.
I laugh. “Everyone’s loyalties are to themselves.”
“True, but your loyalty is only to yourself, and anyone and anything else you’re loyal to is just an extension of that until they get between you, yourself, and what you want. And now, the Oracle and the Sovereignty are in your way.”
“Not the Sovereignty. Just my father,” I admit.
“Your father is the Sovereignty. He’s the Oracle.”
“And the Oracle is just a man at the end of the day,” I say, repeating Lauressa’s words because she was right about that. “But let’s get back to that. I want to know what made you believe that I don’t buy the Sovereignty doctrine.”
Magdalene rolls her eyes and says, “Sometimes I think you forget we lived in the same house together. You weren’t all loyal and ass-kissing to your dad until after Candance died.”
“I don’t ass-kiss my father.”
“Nothing to be ashamed of. We all do it. Especially the ones of us who don’t believe a word he says. ”
“For someone who doesn’t believe a word he says, you sure were excited to get into bed with him and become his next conduit since you couldn’t be Oracle,” I point out.
Magdalene doesn’t even deny it. “I wasn’t jockeying to be his next conduit just for shits and giggles. I was doing it so he’d get me pregnant.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you wanted a baby.”
“I wanted an heir to contend for the position of Oracle because if you become Oracle, you’d destroy the Sovereignty in a decade,” she snaps.
“Destroying the Sovereignty is counterproductive to my goals. Surely, you’ve figured that out.”
“You wouldn’t do it on purpose. You’d do it because you’re a control freak with a thirst for power. You’re good at pretending for a moment, but not enough to be Oracle. Not enough to be patient and not execute anyone who pisses you off or force them to atone. Your father has a lot of faults, and the Sovereignty has only stagnated under his rule the last thirty-five years, but at least it’s still here. And he’s the only one keeping you in control right now. But with unchecked power? I wasn’t stupid enough to let you get anywhere near the seat without a fight,” Magdalene snaps.
“And you’re stupid enough now?” I ask.
“I don’t have a choice. Because your dad has decided he wants your stupid little—”
“Think very carefully about how you refer to Lauressa,” I say, cutting Magdalene off .
“Regardless,” Magdalene continues, “this changes things, and seeing as how you’re undoubtedly going to do something about it, I figured I’d come to you first and find out before we get in each other’s way.”
I tilt my head at her. “In your way of doing what?”
Jessie finally speaks, squirming in her chair. “We’ve been… planning how to get your dad out of the way for a while.”
“You’re in on this?” I ask, surprised.
“Sort of…” Jessie says. “I mean… I’m not like you and Magdalene. I don’t… I don’t think it’s all bullshit. But some of the things the Oracle orders and says… it’s wrong,” she whispers.
“If I haven’t been killed yet for my blasphemy, Jessie, you’re fine. You don’t have to whisper,” Magdalene assures her and then turns to me.
“Before I let you in on anything,” I begin, “you’re going to tell me exactly what you get out of all this. Since you think I’m a controlling asshole who only wants power, I’m assuming power isn’t what you want. So why do you even care? Hell, why are you even here? What’s got you so invested?”
“Because unlike you, I actually care about the Sovereignty. Not as an institution of power, but for the people in it. The women I lead. The doctrine is bullshit and makes a lot of our lives harder than it needs to be, but a lot of the women in the Sovereignty don’t have anywhere to go. The only friends, the only family, the only support system they have is this. The foundation of what the Sovereignty was built on is rotten as fuck, but I’m not leaving these women behind. Even if I have to put up with the rot until I can carve it out myself,” Magdalene explains angrily.
She’s a bleeding heart. Much like Snow White but without the cruel, angry edge. Something tells me that she and Magdalene are unfortunately going to end up best friends.
“And now that giving me a brand new baby brother is off the table, a plan that was dubious enough in the first place,” I point out, “you’ve decided to cast your lot with me.”
“If only to make sure you don’t destroy the Sovereignty trying to keep that woman for yourself.”
“I’m more at risk of destroying myself than the Sovereignty making a move against my father,” I remind.
“But you won’t. You’re too much of a narcissist for that,” Magdalene says.
“And where do you fall into this, Jessie?” I ask, because except for her declaration earlier, she’s been relatively quiet.
“I can get information,” she says brightly. “Things people won’t tell anyone else. Either they forget I’m part of the Oracle’s family, or they think I’m too dimwitted to understand.”
“So you’re an informant for Magdalene,” I say.
“And for you,” she adds dryly. “Don’t act like you don’t come to me when you need gossip. You even get gossip about her from me. The only one who doesn’t trust me enough to let their guard down is you. But that’s because you don’t trust anyone after Candance.”
She’s right. Abner is good at gathering a paper trail for me, but if I ever needed to know what the talk was going through the Sovereignty grapevine, Jessie was always the one I had a conversation with .
“So. Now that you believe our goals are aligned, what’s your plan?” Magdalene demands.
I don’t trust them enough to tell them that I don’t have a plan yet. My only leverage in all this is that they don’t know I don’t have a plan. That all my plans imploded last night just like theirs did. Still, I might be able to salvage one if Magdalene gives me all the information she has. Likely information I don’t have access to, since her job is to deal with the day-to-day affairs of the women of the Sovereignty, which means coordinating with the other high priests and priestesses who are so far up my father’s ass there’s no way we can depend on them.
“Give me all the information you’ve collected over the years, and if it’s useful, then I’ll talk,” I say.
“Are you serious?” Magdalene asks. “What are you planning? I swear if you—”
“Give me what you have by tonight,” I interrupt. “Whatever my plan is, trust that I can’t execute it overnight. At the very least, trust that I won’t do anything drastic. It’s like you said. My loyalty is to me. I’m not going to risk my own destruction on something foolhardy.”
Magdalene doesn’t look pleased and exchanges a glance with Jessie. I don’t know what passes between them, but whatever it is makes Magdalene sigh and say, “Fine. I’ll get it to you by tonight. But I want to know what you’re planning by the end of the week.”
“That’s assuming I have time to look over all your intel by then, which I won’t,” I state .
I will. This whole thing with my father has become my top priority. But I’m stalling until I come up with something I can take to Magdalene.
“And why’s that?”
“I have a funeral to attend.”