CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lachlan absolutely devours his food.
It’s a very late lunch, but they eat all hours here.
‘So what was it like? Being their bodyguard?’
‘It was…’ Lachlan shakes his head, has four plates of food around him on the table, two are already empty. ‘I don’t even know how to describe it. Surreal, maybe? So much happened. So much changed.’
‘How old was Mimi when you met her?’
‘Three.’
‘Had you ever been around kids before?’
‘Not really. My cousin, Margot, has kids, but I was overseas when they were born. I only met them before I took residence and signed the contract. I’d never really…’ Lachlan frowns slightly. ‘Kids weren’t exactly my speciality.’
‘But the fox tattoo helped?’
‘Yeah, it did.’
‘So you were close with them?’
Lachlan grows a little more guarded. ‘You could say that.’ He clears his throat, digs deeper. ‘She felt like my daughter.’
‘Their real father couldn’t have been happy about that.’
‘You’d be surprised.’
‘What about the boy? Did Jules feel like your son?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘She needed a parent. You didn’t.’
‘What did I need, Bodyguard?’
‘Drop it.’
‘Why?’
‘I know what you’re doing. Why is this your focus?’
‘Because it’s what you don’t want to tell me and I can feel it.’
‘Of all the things I could tell you, that is the least relevant part of this current scenario. Everything that happened; Fenwick, the blackout party, fucking Sable Key. Roman.’ Lachlan’s throat bobs.
‘Danya. The people who died. The things I had to do. You and Mimi… you were my world, and then that world ended. Whether or not you and I—’
‘Did we fuck or not?’ Kade cuts across, rudely impatient. ‘Yes or no.’
Lachlan looks over Kade’s shoulder. ‘Your boss is back.’
Riley comes into the mess hall, flanked by two others who he took out with him. People who aren’t Kade. It’s an insult. It’s unfair.
It’s what he deserves for breaking protocol
But still.
Riley scans the room until he spots Kade and signals him over with his usual two-finger gesture. Lachlan follows immediately behind, swiping the last piece of steak from his plate and cramming it into his mouth on the way.
Kade makes a face. ‘You’re fucking gross.’
‘I’m hungry.’
Everyone in the hall is staring.
Riley gives Lachlan a cold look. ‘Enjoying our food?’
Lachlan wipes his mouth. ‘Thsgoothsteak.’
‘How did it go?’ Kade asks, whatever “it” was. ‘All OK?’
‘Let’s go upstairs.’
They head for the top floor.
‘Uh, boss? Maybe we shouldn’t…’ Kade says, instinctively knows to keep Lachlan out of the Watch, but Riley diverts into Kade’s room instead, dismisses the other two who were with him.
‘This is your room?’ Lachlan asks, looking around. ‘No blue, thank God.’
‘What’s wrong with blue?’ Riley perches on the large, spacious windowsill.
‘He hated it,’ Lachlan answers, touching the quilt, the walls.
Kade closes the door. ‘I got him to take the tests.’
‘Yeah, the boys are working on analysis.’ Riley looks at Lachlan. ‘I know who your friend is.’
Lachlan doesn’t react. He’s still politely exploring Kade’s room.
‘I don’t have any friends.’
Riley cocks his head. ‘That’s not what I heard.’
‘I don’t care what you heard, Little Harker.’
‘Tell me about the ritual you performed.’
‘Why don’t we trade? One for one.’
‘No.’
‘Then go fuck yourself.’
Riley looks faintly put out, though on him it manifests as little more than a minor inconvenience.
Then he calmly pulls a gun and aims it at Kade, which is an escalation, sure, but not an unexpected one.
Nobody in the Tower is better at finding pressure points than Riley Harker and Lachlan has telegraphed his loud and clear.
‘I’m going to ask you some questions, Tanner. ’
‘You won’t shoot him.’
‘I will shoot him,’ Riley corrects, ‘and he’ll let me, too.’
‘You wouldn’t dare—’
Riley fires the gun.
Vicious pain shatters like volcanic glass in Kade’s shoulder. He’s knocked back by the force of the bullet which is… rubber but still.
‘You fucking prick, Riley,’ Kade groans. Lachlan moves quickly to Kade’s side, assessing the damage. ‘Rubber bullet,’ he tells him through gritted teeth.
‘Kade is my best.’ Riley rolls his shoulders.
‘He’ll let me hurt him because it’ll get me what I need from you.
I run Iron Star, Tanner. I’m the only reason Varrow City isn’t drowning in blood.
Kade understands that. He’ll allow this because we’re family.
Fucked up, sure,’ he says evenly, ‘but family.’
‘Are you OK?’ Lachlan asks Kade, lightly touching the impact spot.
‘No, that hurt,’ Kade snarls irritably. ‘Answer his questions!’
‘I already said I would if—’
Another crack.
This time the rubber bullet hits Kade in his soft, unprotected middle.
He groans around a cry, clutching his stomach.
Lachlan moves suddenly towards Riley. ‘You fucking—!’
‘Kill me and he’ll never know the truth,’ Riley warns, slightly breathless.
Kade looks up through watery eyes. ‘What?’
Lachlan is frozen. ‘Don’t hurt him again.’
‘Then answer my questions about the ritual.’
‘Shallow breaths, you’re OK.’ Lachlan helps Kade sit on the bed, rubbing his back like it’s second nature. He doesn’t look at Riley when he says, ‘Fine.’
‘Thank you,’ Riley says, exhaling softly. ‘Sorry, Kade.’
‘Fuck yourself sideways, boss,’ Kade spits, trying to breathe as the muscle spasms lock tight, nothing to do but wait it out and stay calm.
Riley asks Lachlan, ‘Did you get your ritual from a book?’
‘Yes.’
‘And was it pre-written like a contract?’
‘Some parts. Most of it rhymed. There were instructions.’
‘Tell me explicitly what these instructions said.’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Bullshit. You have a photographic memory.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘It’s in your file.’
‘Like RB, huh?’
‘Tell me what you remember.’
‘There was a gold kestrel on the page. I remember the instructions were like, make a circle on the ground with your own blood and sit in it, then sign your name on this page and await a guide.’
‘Did a guide come?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who was it?’
‘A demony version of myself.’
‘Demony?’
‘Look, if you want to replicate it, you—’
‘I don’t want to replicate your ritual. I want to end one.’
‘What are you…?’ Kade gasps, unable to pull enough air into his lungs for a full sentence. Every breath hurts. Dizziness crashes through him in waves.
‘It’s just your body making sure you’re not really shot. Doing the rounds. Breathe,’ Lachlan tells him, stroking his hair very gently. ‘It’ll pass.’
It’ll pass if you let it.
But he doesn’t want it to pass, not really, can’t understand why.
Kade slips into a dreamy, bright headspace where light dances on water and the stars are all singing a different note and there’s someone waiting for him in the shadows cast by trees.
?
When he wakes, Riley is gone, but Lachlan is still there.
Coming around slowly, Kade blinks the blurred shape of his bedroom back into focus.
Lachlan is sitting nearby holding a single framed photograph.
Kade stiffens and pushes himself upright.
His muscles protest immediately, deep aches pulling through his body, but even now the pain is already easing. He really does heal fast.
Lachlan glances up at the movement, unsurprised to find him awake. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asks gently.
‘Fine. Put that down.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you killed some of the people in it.’ Sitting up is painful enough to make Kade’s mouth flood with saliva, cold sweat breaking instantly across his skin, but he forces himself to breathe through it until his body starts adjusting. ‘Where’s Riley?’
‘Said he’d find you later.’
‘He just left you here, did he?’
‘We talked,’ Lachlan says shortly, returning the photograph to its home on Kade’s dresser. ‘He told me a little about his… issue.’
‘What issue?’
‘There’s a lot you don’t know.’
‘Maybe you could actually tell me some of it.’ Kade stands, wincing at how tender his middle is. ‘What fucking issue?’
‘Do you need help?’
‘Go fuck yourself, Bodyguard,’ he sneers. ‘I’ve survived worse.’
‘I know,’ Lachlan utters quietly. ‘Look, I’ll tell you whatever. I just don’t know what you want to know.’
‘Tell me the thing Riley was asking about. The ritual. His “issue”.’
‘He wanted to know about the book.’
‘And?’
Lachlan smiles. ‘We should go out.’
‘Bodyguard, I swear to God—’
‘C’mon, you’re all cooped up. Let’s go dancing.’
Kade feels like he’s slipped into an alternate dimension.
‘Are you for real?’
‘You always loved to dance,’ he says, deceptively casual, but there’s never anything casual about the way he looks at Kade. ‘I’m sure you can—’
‘I don’t leave,’ Kade cuts across bluntly. ‘I can’t.’ To explain it he has to simplify it and simplifying it leaves a bad taste in his mouth, but it’s better than the truth which he has no intention of giving. ‘I don’t like to leave.’
‘Why?’
‘None of your business.’
It has the opposite effect, of course. Lachlan, like a shark with blood, has sensed something off limits. Head cocked, he studies Kade openly. ‘Does he not let you out at all? Kade, if he—’
‘I’m his bodyguard.’
‘You didn’t go with him when he left,’ Lachlan points out, reading Kade from head to toe like he’ll get the answers from his body if his mouth won’t give them up. ‘Bodyguards go everywhere with the Primary. Does he—?’
‘I can’t leave,’ Kade says, hurts to admit. ‘OK, you happy? I can’t leave. I get.’ He slams his eyes shut, mouth in a thin line. ‘I have this specific kind of… agoraphobia. PTTCD.’
‘What the fuck is that?’
‘Post Traumatic Territorial Control Disorder.’
‘OK, which means what?’
‘I can’t leave. I can go to a certain point in the grounds, but then…’ Kade exhales roughly, hates talking about this. ‘You know what agoraphobia is, right?’
‘Yes,’ Lachlan says, confidently critical. ‘But I’ve never heard of—’