Instead of the twice-a-day training Dani assumed she’d be getting, Gavin insisted on working with her all day. He began teaching her how to shoot, beyond what Jace had taught her as a teenager, and showing her how to set traps to take down people, not rabbits. She enjoyed the first day. The second day she hated him. He made her run with him to establish the route and pace he wanted her to complete every other day. Following the run, she found a place to sit and rest. He barked at her to get on her feet. When she did, he charged and tackled her. Fighting while standing was a different matter than fighting on the ground, and he pummeled her.
He didn’t coach her as before, by showing her a technique and then letting her try it; instead, he flattened her, told her everything she was doing wrong, made her get up, and then clobbered her again.
Brody wasn’t concerned with the punishment Gavin was giving her—though a couple of times, when she was on her back, out of breath, and in pain, he did come over and lick her face. She appreciated his support but secretly wished he would bite Gavin at least once when he pulled some crazy Judo shit and sent her crashing to the ground.
“You’ll learn to protect your exposed sides, or I’ll break every one of your fucking ribs,” Gavin told her that morning.
She did finally protect her left side, and when she did, he drilled her left thigh with a vicious punch instead. She cursed him while lying crumpled on the ground. She was pretty sure getting kicked by a mule would hurt less than taking his punches.
“There are no rules when you’re fighting for your life, Dani,” he said. “You need to play dirty and expect the same from your opponent.”
She grumbled in response.
“You have four hours to scavenge or lie on the ground,” he said. “Be at Hayford Park by 1300. We’re meeting Javi to start work with Brody.” With that, he walked away.
After two full days of training with Gavin, plus this morning, lying on the ground sounded like a great idea. Dani couldn’t imagine what kind of permanent damage one of his punches to the head could cause. Or what a kick from him would feel like. Thus far he’d only tripped her or swept a leg out from under her. Dani figured a kick to her middle would forever transplant her spleen into her neck. But she’d asked for this torment, and Gavin was just delivering.
She forced herself to her feet and limped to her pack, cursing him with each step. She took a long drink of water and decided to use the next four hours, time she now regarded as a break between beatings, to find food and her brother. Brody had eaten more than she had in the last two days. As for Jace, he was probably in town. She shouldered her pack and started the three-and-a-half-mile walk to Aunt Hattie’s. It was on the way to Hayford Park, so she could take a break and rest before venturing into MP territory.
The knot in her thigh eased the longer she walked; by the time she started up the gentle hill that would take her through the middle of the town, her limp was almost gone.
Brody had quickly learned the way to Aunt Hattie’s, and he raced ahead. By the time Dani arrived, Mary was standing at the back of the brothel. She rushed to meet Dani in the street.
Dani frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Where have you been?” Mary demanded. “Shit hits the fan and you vanish?”
“I didn’t vanish. I’ve been training”—getting tortured—“by, I mean, with Gavin. What happened? Where’s Jace?”
“He’s not here. He said he had business in Waterville and borrowed Aunt Hattie’s car. He left the morning after Miles killed that MP.”
Dani shook her head. “What?”
“God, you’re clueless … as usual.” Mary took Dani by the elbow and ushered her toward the house. Brody bounced around them as they walked, expecting food, but they ignored the dog.
Without a word, Mary led Dani to the same room she had borrowed before. “Sit.”
Dani was alarmed by Mary’s urgency, but she gladly dropped her pack on the floor and put her rump in the offered chair.
Mary closed the door and sat on the other side of the small, round table in the room.
“When did you last see Jace?”
“Uh, what’s today?”
“Tuesday.”
Dani stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking back over the last few days. Today is Tuesday, so Monday was the ass kicking from Gavin. Sunday was weapons training. Saturday, Gavin tried to kiss me. “Saturday morning, or midday, something like that.”
“Saturday night there was a fight in Hell. This MP named Xander murdered Al after Al said something about how he was working for the Wardens.”
Dani blanched. Xan, a murderer?
“Miles was there and tried to arrest Xander, but everything went wrong. He killed Xander. Jace saw it happen, told the MPs his side of things, and they let him go. Miles is back at the barracks, confined to quarters, until the investigation is complete, but he should get off with acting in self-defense.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Jace came here that night, and I brought him something to drink while he told Aunt Hattie what happened. He said Miles should be cleared of any charges. He was sweaty and pale, Dani. When he thought no one was looking, I saw him put his hand on his chest like this. …” Mary placed the palm of her hand on the center of her chest with her fingers splayed. “He took several deep breaths every time he did it.”
“Heart attack?”
“I don’t know. Aunt Hattie wanted to call the town doc to come see him, but Jace refused. He went to Aunt Hattie’s room for the night and left early the next morning for Waterville.”
“Anyone with him?”
Mary shook her head.
Dani ran her hand through her hair. She and her brother fought often, but she didn’t want him dropping dead from a heart attack. Until he died, there was no way of knowing if he would heal like an Echo. He was having chest pain and leaving town alone. She didn’t have a way to track or catch up to him.
“There’s more,” Mary said. “It didn’t matter to the council that Al was a piece of shit; they were pissed that an MP killed him. Even if you could get the CNA to meet with them, the council would still reject the merger now, based on the Commonwealth’s interference in Brigand matters.”
Dani leaned her elbows on the table and dropped her head in her hands. Everything had unraveled in a matter of hours—and she hadn’t found out until days later.
Mary stood and placed her hand on Dani’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to hit you with all this at once. Can I bring you anything?”
“No, thanks. I need time to think.”
“Stay as long as you like. Aunt Hattie’s blocked this room for non-brothel-related business.”
“Thank you.”
Mary left, and Dani leaned back in the chair. Her mind raced and her thoughts collided with each other, creating a jumbled mess. She reached into her pack and removed an item wrapped in cloth. Dani unwound the fabric, revealing an antique revolver. Despite his prior, repeated refusals to let her carry a weapon other than a knife, after the Standpipe incident, Jace had brought her the weapon and told her to keep it with her.
She didn’t like the weapon: it was old and heavy, and if she needed more than six rounds, she was out of luck. She wanted a plasma pistol, but Jace said he didn’t have one. The weapon now lived in her pack, since she never planned to use it.
She removed another cloth from her pack and began the task of dismantling the weapon. The pistol was clean, but she didn’t care. The tedium of cleaning or tinkering with things engaged a different part of her brain, which helped her think. Her racing mind kept her up many nights, so when she couldn’t sleep, she tinkered.
Brody settled on a rug on the floor and napped while Dani removed the shells from the weapon. She set them aside and turned her attention to the other parts of the gun. As she manipulated the parts, she ran through the list of things Mary had told her, sorting through them one at a time.
Miles killed Xan. Why? Xan was a prick, sure, but killing him seemed extreme, even if he had been working for the Wardens. She’d have to talk to Miles about that, assuming Miles was cleared and released. Shit. What is Oliver doing during all this?
Jace might have heart issues and was too stubborn to see a doctor. Shocker. Brigands lived a hard life, but they could still obtain medical care with the right connections. And no one was better connected than Aunt Hattie. What the hell is in Waterville?
She had no ideas on how to salvage the CNA–Brigand partnership that hadn’t even had a chance to begin.
Dani placed the cleaned gun on the table with the cylinder open. She wiped one of the shells with the cloth and rolled the shiny, brass-covered bullet in her fingers. The ultimate sleeping pill, she thought. For a human, not an Echo.
A soft knock on the door diverted her attention from the shell.
Brody leapt from the rug to the door and yipped.
“Go away, Oliver,” Dani said.
He opened the door and stepped in, welcomed by the dog.
Dani wiped the shell to make sure it was free of any oil from her fingers before inserting it into the pistol’s chamber. She picked up the next bullet and held it between her thumb and fingertip.
“Mary told me you were here,” Oliver said.
He moved to stand next to the table but kept his hands away from the weapon and ammunition. Dani figured the boy had watched his father clean his service weapon many times, and knew better than to touch anything. She shook her head. “I need to talk to Mary about what ‘time to think’ means. Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be at the barracks?”
“Dad’s not arrested, but he can’t leave. I waited every day for you at Union Street, but you never showed.”
“I didn’t know any of that stuff happened until today.”
“I sent you a message.”
Dani inserted the second round into the gun and wiped her hands with the cloth. “What message?”
“Oh.” Dani dug through her pack. She removed the unit and a light on it blinked. “Sorry. I haven’t been in my bag at all the last couple of days.”
She tossed the comm on the table and set to work cleaning the remaining four shells. Once they were loaded back into the gun, she snapped the chamber closed. “What does your mother think of you bailing on school so often? Neither you nor Miles ever mention her.”
“Her name is … was … Emily. She died three years ago trying to save Brigands from Warden capture.”
Dani softened. “That must have been difficult.”
“She always told me it was her job as an MP to help the Brigands, because one saved her life a long time ago.”
“Hmm, MPs and Brigands helping each other. Too bad that idea has been shot to hell.”
“I wish she was here to help you, Dani,” Oliver said quietly. “You would’ve liked her.”
Dani winced. “Shit. I’m sorry, Oliver. I’m sure she was a great person. I didn’t mean to make a bad day worse by dragging your mom into it.”
“It’s okay to have bad days, but I don’t think you should be messing with a gun when you’re neck deep in a pity party.”
Her temper flared at this remark, but Oliver didn’t say anything else to her. He had turned his attention to Brody. He rubbed his head, and the dog’s tail wagged in a blur.
Dani wrapped the weapon back in its cloth and slipped it into her pack. “Ready?” she asked.
“For what?”
“I’m taking you home.” She stood. “Shit!” She leaned against the table for a moment, crippled by a thigh cramp.
“What’s wrong?” Oliver asked.
“My leg is sore. It’s fine.” She straightened.
When Oliver scooped up her pack, she didn’t argue. Her limp had returned, and she hobbled her way out of the room. Brody trotted ahead, followed by Oliver.
They passed through the back of the building, and Mary met them before they left. She tossed a palm-sized piece of bread to Brody, and he snatched it from the air. He trotted outside to lie in the grass and chew on his treat.
Mary handed a sack to Oliver. “There is another piece in there for him so the two of you can eat without him drooling at you.”
“Mary, you shouldn’t—”
“Don’t bother, Dani. I like fixing a little extra food for you, Oliver, and even Brody.”
“You don’t need to spend your money on us,” Dani said.
“I’ll spend it where I like, thank you.”
“Thanks, Mary.” Oliver hugged her and left to join Brody.
“I put an extra flask of water in the sack for you,” Mary told Dani. “I’ll need it and the sack back.”
“I’ll come by after I’m done returning the street urchin and meeting Gavin. Thank you for the food.” Dani stepped forward and hugged Mary for a moment before releasing her.
Mary smiled. “Better. Still some work to do, but you’ve been practicing.”
Dani’s face flushed.
“Gavin? You spend a lot of time with him.”
“Brody.”
“You’re a piece of work,” Mary said with a laugh. “I’ll get you moved up to practicing on people. I’ll see you later and let you know if I hear any word on Jace.”
“Thanks. I’m worried about him.”
“Me too.”
Dani’s pace remained slow until the knot in her leg relaxed. Mary had given them a pair of baseball-sized tomatoes that Dani and Oliver ate like apples. Dani couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten a tomato. Oliver dug in the bottom of the sack and passed her a piece of bread and a cucumber, keeping one of each for himself. He bit into his cucumber, chewed a few times to force the lump in his mouth into smaller pieces, then spoke. “This is great!”
Dani nodded as she chewed on her own cucumber.
“Most of our food is freeze-dried or dehydrated. It all tastes like plastic.” Oliver took another bite and shoved the rest of the cucumber into his pocket. “Dad might not kill me if I bring him the rest. Will you thank Mary again for me when you go back?”
Dani finished her cucumber. “Yeah, will—”
“Dani!” a woman’s voice shouted.
Oliver turned. “Who’s that?”
Brody wagged his tail at the approaching stranger.
Dani shrugged. The woman’s face wasn’t familiar.
The woman arrived mildly out of breath and managed to both smile and shake her head with disbelief at the same time. “I can’t believe it’s you. I never thought I’d see you again after you helped us. I knew you were lying that day when you tried to make us think you were human. You must have died since then, because you haven’t aged a bit.”
Dani glanced at Oliver before returning her gaze to the stranger, who only paused to take a breath when she dug through her bag.
“Your son?” the woman asked.
“Friend,” Dani said.
“I’ve been carrying this for years just in case I ran into you again.” The woman pulled an old, rumpled, black jacket from the bottom of her bag and thrust it at Dani.
“Do I know you?”
“I’m Rebecca.” The woman shook the jacket in front of Dani. “This is yours. You gave it to us after you clocked a Warden in the head with a stick the size of a bat. Hit him twice in the head and once in the wrist.” She directed this last statement at Oliver.
“When did this happen?” Dani asked.
“You don’t remember? God, I remember everything that happened that day. You were out roaming in Portland, lost as a goose and walking in the sunlight. You had a bandage on your hand. The MPs were raiding C Block, and then the Wardens showed up. One of the Wardens shot my brother. He was about to shoot me when you attacked him. You gave your jacket to my brother after he regenned. I’ve kept your jacket so I could give it back to you if I ever saw you again. You really don’t remember any of that?”
Dani took the jacket with her free hand and stared at it. “Where’s your brother?”
“He died a few years ago cutting lumber in the north. He was hit by a falling limb and went into the river. He drowned during regen, before his friends could pull him out.”
“I’m sorry.”
Rebecca smiled. “He didn’t die a captive of the Wardens or MPs, and that’s all we wanted. What happened to you that day after you left us?”
Dani shrugged. “I died.”
“How?” Rebecca asked.
“Uh, freak accident.”
“Sorry to hear that. Still saving lives?”
“She saved me!” Oliver said.
“Wonderful!” Rebecca clapped her hands. “Some things never change.”
“Yeah,” Dani said, “and I need to take his butt home before his father finds out and ends him this time. Thanks for the jacket.”
They parted ways, and Dani wanted the remaining walk to the park to be in silence. Oliver had other plans.
“You may still be having a crappy day, but you made that lady’s decade,” he said.
“Apparently.” Dani only heard a snippet of what had happened to the woman and her brother, and it sounded terrible—yet the woman had to be the happiest person Dani had ever seen. Oliver was another person that didn’t seem to have too many bad days. “Hmm.”
“What?” Oliver asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
When Dani and Oliver arrived at the park, Gavin was already there, talking to another man she assumed was Javi. Brody trotted up to the pair of men, tail wagging.
“Hi Javi,” Oliver said. “Hi, Gavin.”
“Ah, skipping school again,” Gavin said.
Oliver smiled. “Just for a little while.” He pulled Dani’s pack off and placed it by her feet. “Ask Dani about the jacket,” he said, then skipped away toward the barracks.
Gavin glanced at the jacket in her hand. When his eyes met hers, she avoided his gaze by leaning down to drape the garment over her pack. She looked at the other man. “You’re Javi?”
He wore seventy years better than Jace. His face was wrinkled, but his body wasn’t damaged by arthritis.
“Yep.” His hand engulfed hers in a solid grip. “That’s an old, MP-issue jacket. From before we got upgraded gear.”
“Yeah. You’ll have to ask Miles how I got it, because I don’t know.”
Javi grinned. “I will. Gavin has told me a lot about you, Dani. Pleasure to meet you, and I see you found our runaway, Acer.”
Dani’s heart sank. “His name is Acer?”
Javi grinned. “Not anymore, I guess. Brody is a good name for him. He bolted from his trainer months ago, so he’s not MP material. Congratulations, Dani. You have yourself a military K-9 dropout, and you can keep him.”
“Of course I’m keeping him.” She scowled. “You didn’t think I’d actually let you take him from me, did you?”
Javi laughed. “Not at all. Sometimes the dog and handler aren’t a good match. You and Brody seem happy to be stuck with each other, so I’m sure he’ll make progress in training now. Ready to go to work?”
“One sec,” Dani said. “Gavin, can we talk for a minute?”
“About Miles and Jace and the scuffle by the river? Javi told me.”
Dani threw up her hands. “Okay, so I’m the last to know everything. Fine.”
“Javi will help us with insider intel, since Miles is unavailable now. Miles’s former commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Houston, is coming. The CNA visit just got moved up, so she’ll be here in a week.”
Dani frowned. “That’s not much time.”
“The CNA is tense over an MP killing another MP. We’ll never get invited to speak to the brass when they’re here. I’m sorry.”
“I told you we don’t need an invitation, Gavin.”
“You’re not serious.”
Dani nodded.
“Crash the meeting because the CNA brass won’t mind that little invasion and will never arrest us? No, Dani.”
“Yes, Gavin. We can easily do this.”
“Easily? On what planet will this be easy? You won’t be able to get that close to the brass, even if you’re wearing a skin.”
“No tech. We go in as we are. Brigands. Breaching the barracks and getting into the meeting without any tech will show them we know what we’re doing.”
“And we just hope they don’t arrest us?”
“Yeah, that’s a potential complication.” Dani shrugged.
“We’ll need Jace. Butterflies make more noise than him. No one can penetrate an MP base like he can.”
“You think he’ll agree to this?”
“We’ll know when we ask him. Minor problem there, though.”
“What?”
“He’s in Waterville.”
Gavin groaned. “Perfect.”
“We can talk about this later. Javi has already ditched us to work with Brody.”
“Fine. You’re limping.”
“Got punched in the thigh by an asshole,” Dani said, already moving to join Javi and Brody.
Javi worked with Dani and Brody for hours that day, giving Dani time to practice the lessons under his instruction. Before leaving, he told her to practice with Brody until they met with him again in two days.
She and Gavin walked back to Aunt Hattie’s after the session, with Brody leading the way. She shared her leftover bread and water with Gavin, but they didn’t talk much.
As they neared the brothel, Dani felt a surge of relief to see Hattie’s car tucked behind the building. She passed her pack, Mary’s bag, and her jacket to Gavin and strode into the building. She found her brother in the back, having dinner with Aunt Hattie.
“Though this is my house and my dining area, I guess I’ll give you two a minute,” Hattie said with a frown.
Once she was gone, Dani dragged a chair to sit closer to Jace. He continued to eat as though she weren’t there.
“Jace, stop being a dick and look at me. Were you having chest pain the other night?”
He didn’t look up. “No.”
Dani slid his plate out of his reach before he could continue eating. They glared at each other for a moment.
She tried a softer tone. “Jace, please, don’t lie to me.”
“My heart is fine.”
“Why were you in Waterville?”
“Business.”
“Bullshit.”
“Hattie’s birthday is coming up. I went there to buy her something.”
“Stop lying!” she shouted, then forced her voice down again. “We’re Brigands, Jace. We’ll never be robbed because we never have money. You go to Waterville the day after you’re a witness to Miles killing Xan to go shopping? You’re hiding something from me again.”
“Because you never hide anything from me, do you? Care to explain why you called that MP Xan instead of by his full first name?”
Dani hesitated and fidgeted for a moment. He had a point. If she didn’t want him hiding things from her, she couldn’t do the same to him. “I met up with Xan a few times. Semi-dating, if it can be called that, before we stopped seeing each other.”
“God you’re a pain in my ass, Dani. You always have this thing for MPs, though I’ll never understand why.” Jace shifted in his seat and pulled a small box from his pocket. He placed the box on the table. “I’m giving that to Hattie tonight. You moved out to live your own life, and I am moving on with mine. You killed the mood when you barged in, though. Thanks for that, by the way.”
Dani stared at the box for a full minute before opening it. The small, silver ring rested on a piece of red silk. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“I am so sorry.”
Jace grunted in response.
“Congratulations, brother.”
“She hasn’t seen the ring or said ‘yes’ yet, so hold on the celebrations.”
“Okay.”
“So what do you want?”
“Huh?” Dani asked.
“Miles is stuck at the barracks, the council killed the concept of meeting the CNA, and you’re up to something.”
“Oh. Yeah. Gavin and I need your help to interrupt the CNA meeting. The brass are visiting early due to the crap with Miles.”
Jace took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “How early?”
“Next week.”
Jace nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem; their security is full of holes. What do you need from me?”
Dani’s mouth dropped open. She hadn’t expected Jace to agree; she certainly hadn’t expected him to agree and freely offer his services. She recovered before he could change his mind. “Here’s what I’m thinking. …”