Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Sloane
Iwake up and find Jonus face-down, dead asleep, breathing heavy and slow.
The horns barely scrape the headboard and his tusks have retreated in sleep.
He looks more exhausted than I’ve ever seen him.
Dark circles under his eyes. His jaw slack in a way it never is when he’s awake.
This orc is always alert, always watching, always the first one up.
And yet now he looks vulnerable, almost angelic in that pose. And certainly sexy as hell.
Something kept him awake last night and I don’t know what.
But he needs rest, so I let him have it.
I quietly swing my legs over the side of the bed and test out my feet. My soles feel okay on the cool hardwood floor, so I stand. My heels ache but it’s manageable. The stitched wound is tight, not sharp and the smaller cuts barely register.
I walk to the bathroom.
It’s a slow walk, careful, but it’s a walk. No strong green arms scooping me up, just my own two feet, one in front of the other, on the hardwood floor of the house that has somehow become my home.
In the bathroom, I softly close the door behind me, then I brush my teeth and spend time on my hair, which is finally starting to look reasonable again.
It’s not the matted, filthy mess from the pit, or the limp, air-dried hospital version.
I now have a few hair tools and my hair oils and leave in conditioners again.
This morning my hair has actual auburn waves with body and shine.
I took a shower yesterday and my day two hair still looks good, so I simply clip back the front pieces and apply a tiny bit of makeup.
Then I change into fresh underwear and put on one of my new loungewear sets, a matching short sleeve top and crop pants set in a Kelly-green color I love.
A thin, grey cardigan works perfect to keep me warm in the chilly morning.
Then I look at myself in the mirror. Really look.
My bruises are almost gone. Just faint yellow shadows on my arms that you’d only notice if you knew to look.
My face has filled out from eating three solid meals a day for the last ten days.
The gaunt, hollow look from the pit is gone.
I look healthy. Strong, even. I can hardly wait to start going for walks again.
I bet walking in this neighborhood would be lovely.
I’m still overweight but that’s fine. My thighs press together and my stomach has that familiar softness. There’s the roll in my back I’ve had since college. My hips are wide and my arms are thick and I’m never going to be the kind of woman who gets asked to go on camera.
But the man sleeping in the next room thinks I’m the most beautiful female he’s ever seen. I suspect he’ll never try and demand I join a gym. He thinks I’m sexy just as I am. And right now, looking at myself this morning, I like what I see too.
Not bad, Adams.
I find Jonus still asleep and snoring loudly. Therefore, I grab my laptop and silently head for the kitchen.
Each step down the hallway is a small victory. I pass Aldar’s closed door and hear nothing. I exit the back hallway and walk through the comfortable living room into the open kitchen. The house is quiet and still and mine for the moment.
The coffee maker is already on. This surprises me until I check the pot and find just enough for one cup left.
Someone was up before me and made coffee.
Garlen, probably, before going back upstairs.
I pour the last cup for myself, add my usual embarrassing amount of cream and sugar, and start a fresh pot for everyone else.
I hear a noise and look up to see Loki bouncing down the stairs.
“Hey sweetie, I whisper. What are you doing up so early?”
I greet and pet the dog. Then I take my coffee and my laptop to my favorite couch. Loki jumps up and presses his ridiculous fluffy body against my thigh. This dog is so cute, I can’t handle the cute. I scratch behind his ears with one hand and open my laptop with the other.
I look around and smile. I did all of this by myself.
No one carried me to the bathroom or made my coffee.
No one settled me on the couch and arranged my pillows.
I walked here, on my own healing feet, and made my own damn coffee.
I’m sitting in this beautiful house watching the early morning light come through the mountains and it hits me so hard my eyes sting.
I like this life in Truckee, California and I have no desire to return to my tiny apartment, living alone in Georgetown.
Of course I love the buzz of working in the Washington Bureau and talking shop with my coworkers.
But, is there a way for me to have my career and yet live out here, in this small town across the country, with Jonus and his family?
Can I have my cake and eat it too?
Okay, first things first. This article isn’t going to finish itself.
The Aldridge exposé. Months of investigation, twelve days in a cartel pit, a barefoot jungle escape, two weeks of recovery, and roughly nine thousand cups of coffee. All of it poured into one piece of journalism that is going to put a billionaire behind bars.
I do a full reread from the top. Slowly, going through every paragraph and sentence, every sourced claim.
I check the shell company documentation one more time.
The wire transfer records. The Cayman banking confirmations that came through two days ago.
The timeline connecting Aldridge to the Reyes cartel, the domestic fraud, the money laundering.
It’s airtight. There’s nothing left to fix.
My finger hovers over send. This is the moment. The story that almost killed me, brought Jonus into my life and the story that’s going to take down the man who put me in that pit.
I hit send.
A long exhale leaves my body. Done. It’s in Melissa Duncan’s hands now. My editor will give it a read too, then handle legal’s final sign-off and coordinate the release timing with the other outlets. But my work — the investigation, the writing, the risking of my actual life — is finished.
“Well,” I whisper to Loki, “the risking of my actual life part isn’t perfectly over yet, is it?”
I sit back against the couch, sip my coffee and let myself feel pride for a job well done. A project off my plate. Aldridge doesn’t know it yet, but he’s already lost.
I pick up my phone and text the group chat. “Article sent to my editor, it’s DONE. Also, guess who walked to the kitchen and made her own coffee this morning?”
Anna responds first, QUEEN. I’m so proud of you.
Ellie answers from upstairs in this very house at 7:15 AM, Wait you’re up before Jonus?? Is he okay??
I type back, He’s sleeping hard. I don’t know why he’s so tired but I’m letting him rest.
Anna adds another excited comment, You finished the article!! This is HUGE. Aldridge is going DOWN.
I smile at my phone, warmth spreading through my chest. A year ago I didn’t know either of them. Now I can’t imagine my life without this group chat.
I have about thirty glorious minutes of quiet before the house wakes up. Just me, Loki, my coffee, and the knowledge that the biggest story of my career is officially out of my hands and into the world.
I text Lucy letting her know the good news too. She’s thrilled for me as well. Stay safe. Remain alert, she says.
I know she’s right. The article is being vetted right now, which means it’s not out for reals. And law enforcement isn’t ready to pounce just yet. This is still a risky time and I need to remain vigilant.
The first sounds of Saturday morning filter in. A door opens upstairs. Small feet pad on the hardwood, then Zoe appears at the bottom of the stairs in her pajamas, dragging a stuffed elephant, her hair a wild mess.
She sees me on the couch and her whole face lights up. “Sloane! You’re already here!”
“I am.” I pat the cushion beside me. “Come sit with me.”
She climbs up, tucking herself against my other side, so I’ve got a corgi on one thigh and a six-year-old on the other. Zoe reaches for Loki, who licks her fingers enthusiastically.
Ellie comes down next, still in her robe, and stops dead when she sees me. Her eyes go to my feet on the floor. To the coffee in my hand. To the distance between the bedroom and the couch.
“Did you walk here alone?”
“All by myself. Like a real grown-up.”
She crosses the room and hugs me, careful of the coffee. “I’m so proud of you.”
Garlen appears with a greeting and takes command of the stove.
Saturday morning means epic breakfast and this is apparently a sacred tradition in the Irontree household.
Pancakes are non-negotiable. Zoe insists on chocolate chips.
Garlen pretends to consider this request seriously, as if there’s any universe where he says no to his daughter.
I watch all of it from the couch and something warm expands in my chest. I’m living in someone else’s house, sleeping in someone else’s bed. And yet I’ve never felt more at home anywhere in my life.
I never thought I’d be comfortable living with a family of orcs.
A year ago I was writing about orc integration from a professional distance, interviewing Jonus Irontree for a fifteen-minute quote that turned into an hour-long conversation.
Now I’m watching a seven-foot-tall green professor flip pancakes while his pregnant human wife packs their daughter’s craft bag and a corgi begs shamelessly for scraps at everyone’s feet.
These people — orcs and humans alike — have welcomed me as if I’ve always been here. As if there was always a Sloane-shaped space at this kitchen table, just waiting for me to fill it.
If only Larry Aldridge was already behind bars, I’d feel truly settled. That’s the last piece of the puzzle for both me and Anna. Once he’s arrested, the threat ends and I can start building something real here. Something permanent.
Truckee versus Georgetown.
I turn it over in my mind again as I watch Ellie laugh at something Garlen says. Georgetown has my apartment and my routines. Lucy, my best friend, is a metro ride away. There’s the constant buzz of DC politics and breaking news.
Truckee has mountains, clean air and Saturday pancake breakfasts and an orc who loves me.
The knock at the front door comes right on schedule. Dane and Laurie arrive for the Saturday ritual. Laurie sweeps in carrying a bag of pastries from the bakery in town and immediately spots me on the couch.
“Well, look at you!” She beams. “Up and walking and everything. You look wonderful, Sloane.”
This woman is so kind. One of the best people I’ve ever met. “Thank you, Laurie. I feel wonderful.”
Dane nods his quiet approval, then moves to pour himself a cup from the fresh pot I made. My pot. A tiny thing that makes me irrationally happy.
Aldar appears last, tablet in hand, because of course. He settles into the armchair and I watch his eyes drop to his screen.
“Lucy says congratulations on walking,” he reports without looking up.
I laugh. “I suspect you talk to my best friend more than I do and she’s my best friend.”
“She texted me first.”
“At what, seven o’clock in the morning on a Saturday?”
“She’s east coast time,” he reminds me again.
I catch Ellie’s eye across the kitchen. She mouths “Oh my god” and we both have to look away to keep from laughing.
Whatever is happening between Aldar and Lucy is accelerating by the day and neither of them will admit it.
I’m certain that he talks to her more than I do.
He knows her schedule and he gets that expression on his face when her name pops up on his tablet.
It’s nice, though. Lucy is wonderful and she deserves someone who pays this much attention to her, even if Aldar doesn’t realize that’s what he’s doing yet.
The kitchen fills up. Everyone finds their spot around the big table.
Garlen serves pancakes in towering stacks.
Ellie puts out eggs, bacon and fruit. Laurie arranges the pastries on a platter.
Dane supervises his coffee. Zoe feeds Loki pancake scraps under the table when she thinks no one is watching.
Aldar scrolls his tablet and occasionally contributes a dry observation that makes Laurie laugh.
It’s loud and chaotic and perfect.
But where’s Jonus? It’s pushing nine o’clock now and he still hasn’t appeared.
Heavy footsteps sound in the hallway.
And then Jonus is standing in the doorway.
He looks rumpled and sleep-deprived, like he showered in about thirty seconds, but the expression on his face stops me cold. It’s not the easy smile he usually wears for the family. It’s not his charming-media-handler mask either.
His dark eyes find mine immediately across the crowded kitchen.