Marked (16 page)

"If
that doesn't cut it for you then know this. It's the Graves money
that has been putting food on your table since you were injured. Alec
may feel some kind of vicarious guilt over what happened when Agony
came through here and killed his father, but I don't share that
feeling. If you have constructive ideas or legitimate concerns then
I'm all ears, but if you keep digging at me or Alec, either one, I
will see you thrown out on your ear so fast you won't even know what
hit you. Maybe then you'll realize that you've had a target on your
back since before Kaleb died."

"You
wouldn't dare. I'm the one who takes care of Samantha. Alec would be
furious."

"Maybe,
maybe not. I can hire any nurse off the street to take care of
someone in a coma, it's not like Samantha would notice a difference.
Actually, come to think of it that would probably be the case even if
she was conscious."

That
last bit hadn't been something I'd been planning on saying, it had
just kind of happened, but it obviously struck home in a major way.
Addison's eyes narrowed and she went bright red.

"If
you send me away then James will come with me."

"Don't
you ever get tired of using your own son as a bargaining chip? I'm
not so sure that James would follow you off into an exile that you
earned for yourself, but if he did then that would be fine by me. I
need James, but I need a James I can count on. If his loyalties are
that divided then I'm better off without him. For however long Alec
is out of commission I'm going to need people I can trust."

She
shook her head at me as she turned the van on and put it into gear.
"My, my. Somebody put on her big-girl pants today."

I
reached over and turned the key in the ignition, killing the motor as
I grabbed the burner phone I'd brought with me out of my pocket.

"Take
the phone and get out. I'll give James your number when I see him at
the rendezvous. He can call and let you know whether or not he's
going to accompany you into exile."

Her
knuckles went white on the steering wheel, and in that moment I was
very aware of the fact that despite her no longer being able to
participate in combat operations she was still a shape shifter and I
was very much within arm's reach of her.

I
could almost see her juggling through responses, picking between
options that would either escalate or defuse the situation.

"I'm
sorry, no disrespect was intended."

"That's
a lie, Addison. I don't have to be a shape shifter to know that. You
absolutely meant disrespect; you just didn't think that I would back
up my earlier threat. You were testing me. The only question now is
whether you've learned your lesson. Next time I won't be so generous
as to offer you a phone when I kick you to the curb."

"I'm
sorry, it won't happen again."

"It
better not. I don't make idle threats and you just used up your one
get-out-of-jail-free card."

The
rest of the drive went about like would be expected after that heated
confrontation. Dom made a couple of half-hearted attempts at breaking
the strained silence and then just gave up. Addison and I exchanged
the least number of words possible given that I was navigating and
she didn't know where we were headed. The twenty-minute drive felt
like it took an hour and a half before we finally arrived.

In
all fairness, part of that was all of the precautions we were taking
to avoid being followed and to hopefully make anyone trying to watch
us using satellites lose track of us. I was glad we had Dom with us.
I never would have spotted most of the opportunities she so
effortlessly found.

After
what felt like forever we finally pulled into the massive underground
parking garage that Donovan and I had picked out before arriving in
town. It was actually one of three separate locations where we were
assembling before leaving town again.

Like
everything else about the plan today, our decision to go with three
different locations was the result of a long series of tradeoffs. It
should mean that the Coun'hij would have a harder time finding us.
The tradeoff in this instance was that if they did find one or more
of the assembly points then we were going to be too spread out to
offer any kind of effective resistance. Then again, with Alec still
unconscious, we weren't in much of a position to fight off anything
much tougher than a troop of Boy Scouts.

The
biggest remaining concern that I'd had was whether or not the parking
garage was going to have enough clearance for the RV's Donovan was
supposed to have purchased. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw
the pair of long RV's idling in an empty corner of the lowest level
of the structure.

Donovan
met us within seconds of Addison pulling up next to the outside
motorhome.

"I'm
so glad you're all okay. You didn't run into any problems?"

"No,
let's get Alec into whichever RV you've picked out for him. I want
him out of sight before everyone else shows up."

"Very
good, Mistress Paige." Donovan helped Dom open up the back of
the van and then paused for a moment. "I didn't anticipate how
hard it would be to see them all there unconscious like that. They
are three of the people who've contributed these last twenty years to
making the estate feel like home. So much changed the night that
Master Kaleb died and yet not these three, not Rachel. I will truly
miss the time that Andrew and I spent tending the grounds at the
estate."

I
put a hand on Donovan's shoulder. "We'll go back and rebuild
when this is all over."

"Yes,
Mistress Paige, I expect that we will go back and I expect that we
will rebuild, but it won't be the same. The old house is gone and the
grounds were devastated by the fire and the emergency crews."

"You're
right, Donovan, it won't be the same. It's going to be better. Andrew
is going to be able to walk around the grounds with you rather than
being confined to a wheelchair, and you won't spend every minute of
every day wondering if Brandon or the Coun'hij are only hours away
from destroying everything you've worked towards."

Donovan
squared his shoulders and nodded. "Indeed you are right. I'm
sorry to wax sentimental. Let's put Master Alec in the outside
vehicle. They are identical from the outside, but the interior
of that one is several steps better than the other one. It
will make for a much better mobile command center."

Donovan
and Dominic picked up the sheet and carefully carried him towards the
designated RV. I hurried on ahead of them to make sure that the doors
were all open, and then once I was satisfied that they were, I went
back out to the van.

Addison
was still standing at the back of the van as though not sure what to
do. I stopped next to her and then pointed at Mrs. Graves. "I
don't think I can manage Jess' dad, but I'm game to help carry in
Alec's mom if you are."

She
hesitated for just a second and then nodded. "I could probably
carry her in by myself, but it would be very undignified. If you'll
get her legs then I'll get her shoulders."

Once
we were inside, Donovan motioned us into a tiny bunk room that butted
up against the master bedroom. It was a shrewd choice for him to have
picked this RV given that Andrew and Samantha weren't going to be
complaining about cramped sleeping arrangements anytime soon. I was
however surprised to find that they had put Alec in the bottom bunk.

"That's
not going to work, Donovan. Alec needs to sleep in the master
bedroom."

"I
understand your hesitancy to usurp the master bedroom, Mistress
Paige, but Alec won't know the difference. Not only that it will go a
long ways towards cementing you as the leader of the core leadership
group."

"I
understand, Donovan. It also means that you've got everyone who needs
constant care all in one place, but I'm not going to kick Alec out of
his bedroom. Please move him in there so that we can go get Andrew."

For
the briefest of moments it almost seemed like Donovan was going to
argue with me, but in the end he nodded and Dom stepped forward to
help him lift Alec. A couple of seconds later Alec was in the bed and
Donovan headed back out to help Addison with Andrew.

Dominic
slowed down as she walked past the sniper rifle that Donovan had
carried away from the failed ambush in Idaho. I didn't even begin to
have an idea what kind of expression Donovan had received when he had
carried that into the RV dealership on foot.

"Where
did that come from? I don't remember that being standard issue for
Alec's bug-out vehicles."

"It's
not, but after the last little while I think it probably will be.
That's the rifle that the Coun'hij operator used to shoot Alec.
Donovan circled around behind the sniper, killed him, and then put
down most of the next batch of arrivals without even blinking. I
never would have guessed that Donovan was such a crack shot."

Dominic
smiled. "I learned long ago never to underestimate Donovan, but
even so he still manages to surprise me on a fairly regular basis.
I'm starting to wonder if there's anything that he
doesn't
know how to do."

Donovan
and Addison were back with Andrew and Donovan shook his head as
though embarrassed. "There are an infinite number of things that
I'm unable to do at all and even more things that I'm unable to do
well, Mistress Sanchez, as you well know. Mistress Paige, it appears
that the first of our people have just arrived."

I
nodded and headed back outside, passing another set of three wooden
bunks on my way out and a small area that contained a kitchenette, a
table and a small desk that was done in the same dark knotty alder as
the rest of the trim.

The
next half hour went better than I'd worried it might. Mallory had
split everyone into groups of two or three and assigned them to meet
up with one of the teams responsible for procuring new vehicles so
that gear could be transferred at suitably low-key locations similar
to the overpass where Ruby and I had met up with Dominic and the
others.

Nobody
had been given the option of picking their own groups, which we hoped
would reduce the likelihood of a Coun'hij spy taking the opportunity
to pick up another phone. All that was left was to see whether our
plan had worked.

I'd
half expected our people to come back tired and cranky from their
various assignments, but they were almost uniformly in good spirits
and it only took me a couple of minutes to realize why. It was the
new vehicles. Mallory had sent people to three different lots and
each team had negotiated a discount for purchasing several brand-new
vehicles at the same time. I'd made it clear to everyone before we
split up that the new vehicles were going to be theirs to keep, since
I was making them abandon their original cars.

If
I'd stopped to think about what that meant I might have anticipated
that the announcement might have a positive effect on the guys, but
even then I would have been surprised by how much of an impact it
ended up having on the females. Maybe it was just because I'd never
owned a vehicle of my own. I'd barely been able to drive before Dad
and Cindi had been killed in the car accident and after that I hadn't
had much of an inclination.

Apparently
the new vehicles were all upgrades over what everyone had owned
before and that had bought me an incredible amount of goodwill. It
was a good lesson for me to have driven home.

The
Graves fortune was the next best thing to limitless, which meant that
I could fund nearly any conceivable spend for as long as I cared to,
but I was under no illusions as to how long the goodwill would last.
You couldn't keep throwing money at people and expect it to keep them
happy forever. At some point they would have everything they wanted
and the money would stop motivating them.

Alec
had said at one point that Ulrich Bishop used his fortune to keep an
equilibrium inside of his pack, but he obviously knew something that
I didn't. For now I just circulated among the returning shape
shifters and checked up on them. I didn't say anything to remind them
that I was the source of their good fortune, but I figured it
couldn't hurt for them to associate my presence with the near
euphoria they were feeling at that moment.

Fifteen
minutes after the first car rolled in we were all ready to get back
on the road. James and Ruby were the last two to arrive and I saw
James give the black van he'd come to town in a sad look just before
he boarded the command RV.

"Don't
worry, James. Your Accord will be waiting for you when you go back to
wherever you left her."

"Maybe,
but I'm not going to count on it. I put a ton of time into that
machine and I'm really going to miss it."

"When
this all blows over, if your car really is gone, I'll buy you
something with even more potential to modify. If it's still there
then I'll buy you a new turbo or something else that's nice and
shiny."

That
earned me a smile. "If we make it through this I'm going to hold
you to that promise and it's going to be something very shiny."

"Don't
think he's joking about that, Adri. Some of the parts that James has
been talking about putting on his car are ridiculously expensive."

I
turned back to Dom and smiled. "I'll actually be kind of
disappointed if he doesn't come up with a part that is roughly as
expensive as most new cars."

James
rolled his eyes at Dom and me, but the gentle chiding seemed to have
cemented his good humor. Donovan came out of the bedroom with his
burner phone in his hand.

"I'm
sorry to intrude, but I've now heard back from the other assembly
points. They are both ready to go and it's past time for us to be on
the road. If I can slide past you all, I'll go start up the engine to
our vehicle and we can be on our way."