CHAPTER FORTY #2
Alistair doesn’t return for Jules’ twentieth birthday, nor does he offer to throw some lavish party. It’s probably the best gift the old man could give. It’s no surprise that Alistair isn’t throwing a party as his inner circle has been fairly decimated. Even so, his absence is a relief.
But the day before Jules turns twenty, Priscilla Carrigan sets something in motion that can never be undone.
The morning before, Blaire and Lachlan are deciding what to do in terms of cake and gifts when Zaitsev comes inside their small meeting room.
Lachlan instantly snaps to attention, standing.
‘The kids?’
Zaitsev shakes his head, reaches for his radio and creates the wraparound only briefly. ‘Your middleman knows about the tattoo.’
‘What tattoo?’
‘Ten seconds max, she knows about this too,’ he adds and then releases the button and adjusts his tone. ‘There’s a problem that needs your attention.’
Lachlan and Blaire share a look before they follow Zaitsev, meal forgotten.
‘Why didn’t Danya tell us?’ Lachlan asks as they briskly walk, but the reason becomes clear the moment they enter the East Wing.
Danya is standing in front of Jules, shielding him from Carrigan.
Lachlan has never seen Carrigan so furious. ‘Stay back,’ he tells Blaire, who scoffs and does no such thing. ‘What’s going on?’ he asks loudly, approaching.
Everyone looks at Lachlan, who comes to stand beside Danya.
‘A whole load of bullshit is what,’ the Russian tells him.
Lachlan gives Carrigan a quick once over. She’s red-cheeked, panicked and angry, a little breathless. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Your charge has a tattoo.’
Lachlan doesn’t react.
It’s news to him entirely, but then again, it’s a Sunday and he hasn’t seen Jules since they trained early that morning. Danya makes a big show of rolling his eyes and tutting much like Vasily does sometimes.
‘Is pen,’ Danya drawls insolently. ‘So he drew on his wrist, big deal.’
‘It’s not pen, and I’m not blind!’ Carrigan snaps. ‘Move aside so I can see it.’
‘You are not security,’ Danya informs her. ‘You are ceremony, and ceremony does not touch him while I breathe.’
‘Tanner, get him under control.’
‘Let’s all calm down.’
‘Don’t tell me to calm down!’ she warns, raised finger in his face. ‘Don’t you dare. This is all your fucking fault, and I’m not taking the fall for this. It’s in your contract, but it was in mine too!’
‘Carrigan, let’s go somewhere else and—’
‘Show him!’ she snaps at Jules. Lachlan, previously calm, bristles instantly. ‘Show him your fucking wrist!’
‘Don’t yell at him.’
‘I RANK ABOVE YOU, DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!’
Jules subtly takes hold of Lachlan’s hand, half covered by Danya, and taps once on Lachlan’s knuckle, finger raised.
Help.
Damningly, Carrigan sees it.
‘There, that, see? I’m doing everything I can to keep this place running, and you… all of you,’ she adds, glaring at Blaire, Lachlan and even Zaitsev lurking in the background, ‘are plotting together to be rid of me!’
‘No one’s plotting that. Calm down and stop yelling.’
From behind Zaitsev, Savannah, carrying Mimi on her hip, comes into the hallway beside Vasily. Mimi frowns at Carrigan, mutters something to Savannah, who smiles reassuringly, and says, ‘No, darling, she’s not a bad lady. She’s here to keep you safe.’
Carrigan looks at the kids. ‘You’ve turned them all against me.’
‘Please, stop this.’
‘I wore the backpack. I did everything I could.’
‘And you did fucking great, hence why you got promoted.’
‘He’s planning to fire me. You turned him against me too.’
‘Carrigan—’
‘I knew you when you were just a dead-eyed psychopath who failed the brI, but you’re so much fucking worse than I ever realised. You’re twisting these kids. You’re dangerous.’
Danya gives a small sigh, throws a half look at Lachlan, who knows exactly what it means. If we have to, I have your back.
‘Jules doesn’t have a tattoo—’
‘He does! I’m not blind!’
‘—and even if he did, there’s no reason for this. Let’s go talk, me and you. Danya, take the kids to the Cove.’
But Carrigan moves in between them and their destination. ‘You’re not gonna pull this shit with me, Tanner. I’m not Fenwick!’
‘Then why the fuck are you acting like him?’
‘Because I know exactly who’ll be blamed for this! He likes you too much to ever get rid of you!’
‘Priscilla,’ Lachlan tries, softening his tone because Danya’s stance has shifted and if she takes one step closer to them, something irreversible is going to happen. ‘Please. Just talk to me.’
‘Where? In one of your little blind spots? Your blackout patches?’
‘You sound crazy,’ Danya tells her.
‘Except I’m the only one who’s not. You all seem to forget that this is a job! Those children are his! And that boy,’ she adds, pointing at Jules, ‘is a child.’
‘I’m actually twenty tomorrow,’ Jules pipes up from behind Danya, who fails to bite back a snort.
‘Not to mention a Paranatural,’ she adds hotly under her breath and Lachlan’s whole system jolts. Mimi wriggles free of Savannah’s hold and tries to come forward but Savannah and Vasily take a hand each, gently holding her back. Mimi looks mad.
‘I’m in this because of you,’ Carrigan tells Lachlan, ‘and you’re so much worse than Fenwick in every way. What you’re doing to these kids—’
‘Daddy bang bang!’ Mimi orders, fully serious.
Danya gives a light chuckle, undercut by the dangerous look in his eyes, currently fixed on Carrigan. ‘She’s so cute.’
Carrigan isn’t laughing, though.
Not at all.
‘Daddy bang bang,’ she echoes and for the first time in years, Lachlan sees it from the outside, how any normal person would see it.
He sees things the way Carrigan must, now pushed to the outer rings of the structure she herself once crafted.
‘You’ve done so much damage, Tanner. You have no idea.
Now you’ve broken your contract, and I know how things work in this place.
I’m not dying because you can’t control him like you’re supposed to! ’
‘Nobody’s dying. Danny, take the kids into the Cove.’
‘No, Julian stays here!’ Carrigan steps forward, too close.
Lachlan catches Danya’s reaction even before his own, knows it’s about to get ugly so he puts himself more solidly between the two.
Carrigan tries to push past him, reaching for Jules, but Lachlan shoves her lightly back and knocks her arm away.
‘Don’t fucking touch me!’
‘Then back all the way off,’ he warns her, deadly quiet.
‘I run this place!’
‘No,’ he says, tone pitched only for the two of them, ‘you don’t.’
‘Priscilla,’ Blaire says after several seconds of highly tense stand-off. ‘Take a breath. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it.’
Carrigan falters when she seems to realise how outnumbered she is.
‘Fine.’ She tries to hide her swallow. ‘Fine.’
Lachlan moves away, expecting that she’ll follow him to talk but she doubles back and ducks around Danya to grab Jules’ wrist and expose it.
True enough, beneath the long sleeve there’s a very fresh tattoo inked into the skin of his inner wrist; a small crescent moon.
Something in Lachlan warms despite himself, followed immediately by a wave of silent exasperation.
He shoots Jules a deadpan look and finds the boy wholly unrepentant.
Danya doesn’t like being subverted, so he frees Jules of her grip by shoving Carrigan away at full strength.
She stumbles so hard she almost falls, but balance training never goes away and Carrigan is a professional too, so she catches herself and swings around to punch Danya in the face.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Lachlan complains, swiftly returning to get in the middle of them both, especially because he needs to cover Danya, who has a manic little gleam in his eye and is smiling brightly, which isn’t a good sign.
They’ve never liked each other, these two.
‘Enough!’ Lachlan barks. ‘Danny, take the kids into the Cove, please. How many fucking times?’
Danya sniffs indignantly. ‘I just got punched. Could be fatal, who knows?’
Lachlan does everything he can not to smile, knows he can’t undercut the seriousness of Carrigan’s complaint.
Despite Danya’s sarcasm, he finally does gather the kids, two of whom are not technically kids at all, and escorts them into the Cove.
Along the way he calls over his shoulder.
‘Pen washes off, Carrigan. No big deal.’
‘That’s a fucking wrist tattoo and someone is gonna burn for it.’ Carrigan turns and walks away. ‘It’s not going to be me.’
?
Blaire convinces Lachlan to let Carrigan cool off while they regroup in the Cove. Mimi seems very interested in Danya’s blood and fetches a hand towel from the bathroom to help fix him. He’s patient and indulgent around her, sits cross-legged while she investigates his injury and they chat.
With no one else around, Lachlan finally gets a proper look at Jules’ tattoo. He already interrogated him about sterile needles and aftercare. None of Jules’ answers stopped him from uncapping the antiseptic anyway.
‘I cleaned it,’ Jules says again as Lachlan spreads ointment carefully over the darkened skin. ‘Multiple times.’
‘Did it have to be on your wrist, darling?’ Blaire sighs. ‘That is hard to hide.’
‘He can wear bracelets,’ Mimi suggests brightly. ‘There’s lots of nice ones in the Mimi Store, and Mari will change it soon anyway.’
Jules smiles at her. ‘Thanks, Mimikins.’
‘It is beautiful,’ Lachlan admits, wrapping it in cellophane once he’s certain it’s clean. ‘You did a great job.’
‘Thanks, Bodyguard.’
‘Daddy,’ Mimi says in a tone that begs a question.
‘Yeah, baby?’
‘What’s a Paranutshell?’
Everyone falls quiet, glancing at one another until Blaire takes over seamlessly. ‘Paranatural, sweetheart. Remember we talked about the name bad people give to Brightlings?’
Lachlan frowns, unsettled. ‘You told her?’
‘Of course I did,’ Blaire intones softly as if he’s missing something.
Mimi’s holding the handcloth with Danya’s blood on it when she boldly asks, ‘Is Jewel a Brightl—?’
Fuck, what happened next?