20. Hail #2
“First, I want you to provide cover for Tark,” Dungar said. “When you reach my home with Allie and Hail, you can help me set up more surveillance equipment. If they figure out where Allie really is, we need to be ready for them.”
Becken looked my way. “You can rely on me.”
My brothers scattered to their tasks, leaving me alone with Allie among the ruins of my pottery barn, though two of my brothers remained outside, watching.
Allie stared at a broken bowl, the first piece she’d successfully thrown on the wheel, with the slightly lopsided rim that marked it as beginner’s work.
“So sad,” she said, picking up a shard with the familiar glaze. “You were proud when I got the walls even.”
“I still am.” I knelt beside her among the wreckage. “It’s not about the pottery, Allie. It’s about what you achieved, the confidence you found in creation. They can’t destroy that.”
She looked up at me with such love and pain in her eyes that it took my breath away. “How aren’t furious with me?”
“Because I love you more than pottery. Because you’re alive and safe and in my arms. Because we’re going to get through this.”
“What if the detective’s trap doesn’t work? What if Will is smarter than we think?”
I stroked her cheek, feeling the dampness of her tears. The trust in her expression, even while fear clouded her eyes, humbled me completely.
“We’re never giving up.”
“You really mean that.”
“I do.” I kissed her, tasting salt and sorrow and determination on her mouth. “We’re mates now, remember? That means for-for-forever, no matter what comes.”
“Mates,” she whispered against my lips.
“You’re not facing this alone anymore. You’ve got a whole family of orcs ready to fight for you.”
She nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Okay. Let’s end this once and for all.”
“That’s my brave mate.” I stood, helping her to her feet. “Ready to show Will Carmichael what hap-happens when he messes with our family?”
“More than ready.” There was steel in her voice now, the backbone that had kept her alive through months of running. “I’m tired of being hunted. It’s time to turn the tables.”
Tark arrived at the back of the building, and with my brothers providing cover and ensuring the location was secure, we scooted out and climbed into the false bottom of the wagon, Tressa scrunching in with us.
Becken soon secured the top and Tark took us to my home, where Tark drove into the barn and closed the doors. We got out.
Allie glanced around. “Will your brothers be packing for us?”
I grinned and nudged hay across the wooden plank floor with my boot, exposing a hatch I lifted. “Let me go down first and you can follow.”
She came over to peer into the dark hole. “There’s a ladder there.”
“And a tunnel into my-my basement.” I was quite proud of it, actually.
I’d thought of this myself. Orcs sometimes had to evade predators, so we always scoped out our location and mentally noted the perfect spots to hide.
I’d brought that idea with me to the surface.
Now my brothers were considering doing something similar themselves.
Tressa leaped down into the hole, and I followed, guiding Allie down to join me on the dirt floor.
She looked around while I grabbed the light off a hook on the side of the wooden ladder and turned it on.
“This way.” I led her through the tunnel to another hatch on the end of the long, reinforced dirt tunnel. “We’re home.”
She huffed out a nervous laugh.
I opened the hatch, and we emerged into my basement and took the stairs to the upper floor, striding to our bedroom to gather our things. Tressa flopped on her bed in the corner we’d take with us.
“This feels sad, like we’re erasing us.” Allie said as she stuffed the last of her clothing into her case.
“We’re not erasing anything. We’re taking control. There’s a difference.” I still hadn’t made time to replace her suitcase with something better, plus buy her new clothing.
“I hope you’re right. What if they follow?”
“My brothers have secured the area. They even shot down two drones.”
Her eyes widened. “Drones?”
“And tracked them back to the person operating them.” My sharp smile grew. “There are no more watchers.”
“They could have long-range devices.”
“Took care of those too.”
“You and your brothers are amazing.” Her voice choked off.
I drew her into my arms. “We’re safe.” For now. Will would send in a new team; there was no doubt about that. But we’d be ready. “This is what fam-families do. My brothers and I have-have been through worse odds and come out vic-victorious.”
“What worse odds?”
“Greel once faced down a cave trolleer with nothing but a r-r-rock.”
She gasped.
“Ostor arm-wrestled a mountain brundelier for its next meal.”
“You’re making that up,” she said, but her shoulders relaxed.
“Maybe a little. But the point st-stands. We don’t give up when things get difficult. We get creative.”
“I feel like we’re abandoning the pottery barn,” Allie said as I hefted our bags and followed her back to the basement and out to the barn. “It was destroyed, and we’re hiding.”
“We’re positioning ourselves strategically. There’s a difference.”
“Is there?”
I secured the basement hatch behind me and with her holding our light and Tressa padding ahead, I followed her. “Hiding means giving up hope. What we’re doing means taking control of the battlefield. We’re not fleeing. We’ll soon be laying a trap.”
“When you put it like that, it sounds almost heroic.”
“It is.” I stroked a finger down her spine. “You’re not running. You’re staying. Fighting. You’re choosing to face your fears instead of letting them control you. That’s the definition of courage.”
After I gave Tressa a boost up, we climbed the ladder and got back into the wagon.
They took us to Dungar’s home. There, we waited for dark before leaving the wagon parked inside his barn and going inside.
The one thing Dungar had done differently at his house was attach his barn to the back of his home with what humans called a breezy-way.
Though it was mostly all glass, hence us waiting for dark, it worked almost as well as my tunnel.
Inside, we sat in the living room, curled up together on Dungar’s sofa.
We talked and shared more of our lives, then cooked dinner together, eating at Dungar’s kitchen table.
Back in the living room after, we talked some more.
Then we went to bed in Dungar’s only room, his own.
He was providing security outside while I was Allie’s protection inside, and when he was relieved by one of my brothers, he’d sleep at my place, daring Will to try to break inside.
“It feels strange,” Allie said, curled against my side in the unfamiliar bed. She made patterns on my chest with her fingertip. “What will you do about the pottery barn?”
“Rebuild. With Dungar’s help, I’ll put in better security. I might-might even expand into teaching classes full-time.”
“Really?” She looked up at me with interest.
“With-with your help. You’re a natural teacher, love. And people need…need to create. Need to make beautiful things with their ha-ha-hands.” I caught her wandering finger and tugged it to my lips. “We c-c-could do it together.”
“Do you think so?”
“Why not? You’ve got good instincts. I’ve got the knowledge. We c-c-could be partners in everything.”
The smile that spread across her face was the first genuine one I’d seen since we’d discovered the destruction. “I’d like that very much.”
“Then it’s settled. After we deal with Will Carmichael, we re-rebuild. Better than before.”
“Yes, better.”
Tressa settled herself in front of the door with a contented sigh, taking up her guard position. Even she seemed to understand that we were safe here, protected by family and walls and the kind of love that made everything else seem possible.
I was determined that Allie and I would get our happily ever after.
But first, we had to set up the trap.