Chapter 82

 

JESSIE, MY MOTHER, Aunt Bess, and the kittens had left before I got downstairs. I’d wanted to see them, all of them and felt an ache in my stomach when I couldn’t sense them. Stosur had taken up the chair where Fleming had sat beside the fire, Frei leaned against the fireplace, and Renee sat with her legs tucked underneath her, nestled into the side of the sofa.

“They went?”

Frei nodded. “Jessie needed to get back to the base. I wanted Dr. Andrews to keep an eye on her.”

It was a half-hearted attempt at making me feel better but it took some of the sting out of it. They had gone because Stosur needed to talk to us before she left.

Renee patted the sofa beside her as she nursed a cup of hot chocolate. I sat down and she handed it to me. “You’re still looking a bit shaky.”

I smiled and sipped at the rich sweet warmth.

“So Jäger knows Jessie is your daughter. Why is that a problem for him again?” Renee cut straight to business but squeezed my knee as I slurped on my chocolate. I was so exhausted I had trouble making much more than shapes out. I didn’t know if I had the energy to be much use.

“Slave owners are all as bad as each other,” Stosur said, eyeing me with curiosity. “But, on the surface at least, there are rules, etiquette.”

“Like back in Caprock, if a slave is harmed, especially by another owner or anyone connected to them, they are liable for the full price of the slave.” Frei sounded so switched off but it was raw, I could feel it and I knew Renee could tell even without any side effects. “Jessie is proof that he owes Huber money.”

Renee ran her hand through her hair. It was silky again now, not the matted dirt-riddled mess it had been earlier. I got a waft of some scented shampoo and I wanted nothing more than to rest my head on her shoulder and sleep. “We can’t risk putting Jessie through that.”

Frei scowled at her. “You think I’d do that?”

Renee shot her a “really?” look. “About as much as I’d let you. So how can we prove it without her?”

“We can’t.” Stosur was still watching me, I could feel her but I was falling asleep in my mug. “Not without Sven discovering her DNA.” She sighed. “He’s on the lookout for it, trust me.”

“Creepy,” I mumbled.

“Family trait,” Frei muttered. “So we have to show him up another way.”

“How?” Renee took the empty mug off me and placed it on the side. She smiled at me, tutting at the chocolate on my nose.

“By getting his partner in crime to confess or slip up in a public way.” Stosur’s gaze felt like it was trying to cook the side of my face.

“But we don’t know who it is.” Renee looked from Stosur to Frei. “Or do we?”

Frei handed over a piece of paper and Renee grunted then showed it to me. It looked kinda fuzzy but it was a sketch of someone. I blinked away the blurring to try and make it out. “Megan?”

“One and the same.” Frei took the paper back off me. “Courtesy of Jessie.”

“Mini-Frankenfrei did good.” I stifled a yawn. Renee shook her head at me. “So how do we get Megan to ’fess up?”

“You know the answer, Lorelei, or have you forgotten training?” Frei’s curt tone jolted me.

“Make her think there’s no option?” I asked, well slurred. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I managed whole words.

“Exactly.” Stosur sounded so wired. I still couldn’t meet her eyes and she was still staring. “Force her to play her hand.”

“And make sure there’s someone there to capture it,” Renee added. “It sounds perfect but what will make her . . . ?” She wagged her finger about. “Oh no, you are not pretending to be his mistress, Urs. That’s way past weird, he’s your father.”

Frei stared at her.

Renee clamped her hands over her mouth.

Stosur let out a groan.

Oops.

“Least it saved me letting it slip,” I said, hoping it would make Renee feel better.

“Huber . . . you . . .” Frei stared at Stosur. “But I remember my father.” She pulled out her cross. “He gave me this. You married him.”

I risked a glance at Stosur as she fixed on Frei. “Those are his, as is that jacket you love so much.” She smiled and I could feel all the love she had for him. “He got me out. Don’t judge him too harshly.”

“Then I go in as his daughter.” Frei’s aura twirled like it was in battle with itself. “That will really throw her.”

“But it won’t threaten her.” Stosur shook her head. “You don’t need to be his mistress. Everyone thinks you stole an academy full of slaves and they’ve been buzzing about it.” She smiled. “The fact you’re back in the picture will be more than enough, especially if you act just as you always did.”

“What about . . . him?” Frei averted her gaze. I smiled at her, hoping I could send her reassurance.

“You’ll have your trusty protection team guarding you,” I managed to get out. “You and Huber.”

I looked at Renee who gave an emphatic nod. “You heard the woman.”

Frei’s eyes misted or at least I thought they did through my bleary vision. “I meant, how will Megan being jittery reveal what he did?”

“If he’s using his brother’s warehouses to sell off slaves with Megan, his brother doesn’t know.” Stosur’s voice was confident. “So where are the profits going? Because Sven isn’t boasting about it.”

“I don’t get it.” Whether it was exhaustion or not, I didn’t. I was gonna curl up on Renee’s lap and sleep.

“If his brother is selling off slaves without his knowledge and making money for himself, not the family, it’s an insult.” Stosur’s tone said she was being patient even with my inability to compute it all. “Not only an insult but he’ll see it as a challenge and Jäger will either be forced to take him on, which he can’t, or he’ll have to weather his brother’s temper.”

Frei sucked in her breath. Guess he had a short fuse.

“And how does that stop him hurting other folks?” I looked to Renee, hoping she’d give me an idea.

She smiled and tucked my hair behind my ear. “My guess would be that his brother will disown him and hand him over to the authorities who are trying to bring him to justice or . . .” She sighed. “Some other barbaric method.”

“He’ll become a slave,” Frei whispered. “To the person who he owes money to.”

 

RENEE FOLDED HER arms as Stosur left and Frei closed the door, locked it, and fiddled with the keypad beside it. I braced myself for her questions, knowing she’d either yell or knock me on my butt.

“Jessie,” Renee said as Frei wandered back to them. “Her asthma is terrible.”

Frei nodded. “Good thing she had her inhaler.”

Renee kept her gaze locked on me. “Asthmatics often have trouble with fur and dust.”

Frei raised an eyebrow at her. “And?”

“Even I sneezed.” Renee folded her arms. “Yet she was just fine and your mother stared at Aeron the entire time.”

Frei cocked her head. “It’s strange to hear her called that.” She smiled. “Really strange.”

“When did you figure it out?” I asked her, hoping it would throw Renee off.

“She wanted to tell me before Jessie left so that I would make sure she was kept out of the way.” Frei rubbed her hand over her face. “I had no parents earlier on, now I have two.”

“Yeah, I feel you there.” I smiled at her. “Yours ain’t the only family closet with more mothballs than sense.” I cleared my throat. “Best head off to bed—”

“Lorelei.”

I sighed. Renee had her hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised.

I looked at Frei who frowned. “Renee, spit it out.”

“Jessie,” she said again. “Was an asthmatic.”

I held up my hands. “She asked.”

Renee kept her eyebrows raised and now Frei was staring at me too.

“She did. Scout’s honor.” I saluted.

“I’ve told you before,” Renee muttered. “You were never a scout.”

I sighed. “Fine. I went up to take a shower and Stosur was trying to help Jessie to breathe. She reacted to the flowery shampoo or something.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “She was wheezing so bad an’ I headed in, just to see if she was okay.”

“And?” Frei looked like she wanted to throttle me.

“And she wasn’t. She got upset, she’d been through a lot and I told her that I could help.” I smiled. “So I got her to ask and I got Nan to check and then I did what I’d been itchin’ to do since I met the kid.”

Frei hugged me.

She knocked me two steps backward with the force of it but Renee was still scowling. “And why are you exhausted?”

“Long shift?”

Frei let go and Renee stuck her hands on her hips.

I didn’t know why I was bothering, I could feel that she already knew. “I started wheezing, an’ I didn’t want Jessie seeing so I went looking for you.” I nodded, hoping it would stop Renee socking me one. “I did but I kinda collapsed.”

Frei and Renee scowled at me.

“Collapsed?” Renee put her hands on her hips.

“Yeah, so Stosur helped me into the bathroom . . . so I had a spotter and she is kinda freaked.” I held up my hands. “An’ I was gonna tell you . . . sometime.”

Frei smiled at me, kissed me on the cheek, and sauntered off toward the bedrooms. I grinned after her, relieved that she wasn’t mad.

“Sometime?” Renee shook her head at me as I looked back at her.

“Yeah . . . when you were in a really good mood and maybe drunk.” She raised her eyebrows and I shrugged. “You like me better when you’re drinking.”

She moved and I slammed my eyes shut, tensing for it. Only no fist made contact with my chin. I peeked open an eye as she slid her hands around my waist. “I like you all the time.”

I breathed out my relief but it turned into a yawn.

“Come on, Lorelei,” she whispered up at me and took my hand. “I don’t know about you but a nice soft, warm bed sounds perfect.”

“You knew anyhow, didn’t you?” I asked as she led me to the bedroom and pulled back the covers. “The chocolate?”

She nodded.

“How?”

She smiled. “Because you’re you.” She helped me into bed and laughed as I flopped back into the pillows. “And I wouldn’t want you to change, ever.”