Deadly Expectations (35 page)

I nodded, understanding.
 
That meant there were men here who weren’t family.

Like Rice.

“Denis, can you get Ross up here please?
 
Paul needs me to brief you on something.”

“Okay Anna, he’s on watch.
 
I’ll send out a replacement,” he said then he left.

“I didn’t think it would hit him, Ray.
 
He sure went down fast.
 
I usually get an hours warning … he went down in half that time,” I thought about it.
 
“I don’t think it’s going to hit me at all.”

I knelt down and put my hand on Paul’s face.

“The jump was too quick, too strong.
 
I’d already travelled a very long way … twice.
  
I think I used him for the jump home and drained him like a battery to recharge.
 
If there’s anything more I can do to hurt him can you tell me Ray so I can get it all over with?”
 

He put his hand on my shoulder.
 
“He’ll be fine in a day or two, right?
 
He really needs the sleep anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I stood up.

“Ray, has he told you not to talk to me about the family?”

“Not directly,” Ray said.
 
We heard Denis and Ross coming up the hall.

“I don’t think it matters.
 
They’ve seen me do enough weird things and just have to listen.”

I turned my back to the door and stood facing Ray with my arms crossed.
 
There was a knock and they came in.

“Ray,” Ross said.
 
“What’s going on?
 
What happened to Paul?”

I looked up at Ray and nodded.

“He’s out of commission for a while,” Ray said.
 
“Maybe a day or two.
 
Something’s going on he wanted Anna to fill us in on.”

“Is he drunk again?” Ross asked.
 
“Just wake him up.”

“No,” I answered as I turned around.
 
“And you can’t wake him.
 
I don’t know who runs things without Paul or Joshua.
 
I don’t really care, but you don’t even have a drunken Captain for a day or two to prop up in front of the men.

“The Captain believes we have a security problem … he wanted me to try and figure out who the problem is and to tell you if I found out.”

Ross frowned.
 
He appeared to be the one in charge now.
 
“How would you know?”

I looked at Ray.
 
He nodded.

“You’ve seen the things I can do Ross.
 
I don’t know what he’s told you.
 
I could see the first three of Damian’s men coming … because they’re loyal to Damian and they’re like us.
 
We have one who is not loyal to us or to Damian.
 
I don’t know why he’s here yet … maybe leaking information.”

“Who?”

“I’m suspicious of Ross but far from sure,” I told him.
 
“How much do you know about Rice?”

“Rice?”
 
Ross thought.
 
“He’s been with us about a year.
 
Never been a problem.”

“I saw a massive sudden loss of life … violent … quick.
 
And a word.
 
Button.
 
Like on a shirt … no more like on a pair of pants.
 
Maybe just something he’s been through.
 
Like I
said,
a suspicion.
 
I’ll let you know if I see anything else.
 
Whoever it is isn’t going to move on us anytime soon … I’m not even sure if anyone is targeted for harm.”

“It’s not much to go on,” Ross grumbled.

“I know.
 
I don’t like pointing fingers … I’m going to watch over Paul until he wakes up.
 
Maybe someone can spell me for a while tonight when the house is empty so I can get some sleep.”

“Sure Anna,” Denis said.
 
“I’ll stay now.”

I shook my head.
 
“Remember the man on the hill?” I asked.
 
“Do you really think anyone is getting past me?”

Denis looked a little uncomfortable.
 
“No.”

“Can you bring me a two-way radio?
 
Otherwise I’ll be here until dinner.”
 
After they left I moved the big chair to the end of the bed and put Damian’s knife in the dresser.

Ross brought me up a radio.
 
“I have the other one on this channel right now.
 
I’ll tell you if I’m handing it off.
 
Press the call button if you need to speak to me and I’ll come here.
 
Don’t speak over the radio, the channel isn’t secure.
 
Denis will come up after first night watch goes out … we’ll each pull a couple of hours.
 
Ray’s coming up last.”

“Thanks Ross,” I told him.

“We’ve spent a lot of time looking after him over the past two months,” Ross said pointedly.
 
“He’s compromised without you.”

“I know,” I said.
 
I felt my eyebrows press together.

He stared at me for a moment.
 
“Sorry … I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.
 
We’ve looked out for each other for a long time.
 
I know he would have done the same for any of us.”

I nodded and he left.
 
After I cleaned up the bathroom I got all the empties together.
 
Both the bedroom lamps were in the room down the hall that most of the empties had been in.
 
The ceiling light wouldn’t turn on with the switch so Paul must have taken them in to see what he was doing.
 
I took them back to our bedroom and set them back up.

All the bending over had my back sore and there was still no sign that I was going to have the black sleep too so I went and sat in the chair.
 
I closed my eyes and tried to think about Rice; to try and learn a little more but it was too easy to nap so I stood up and crossed my arms to try again.
 
Without knowing where he was I had no hope of picking up anything new so I expanded my focus searching for smudges or anything else that shouldn’t be there but still nothing.
 

I had no idea how they did it, watching over me, I would be silly with boredom in no time.
 
Maybe we could move Paul to the shop and I could keep busy fixing things in the cold.
 
I giggled at that.
 
Tuck him in on the workbench.

“Anna?”
 
It was Ray.

I left my eyes closed.
 
“As usual I didn’t hear you come in.
 
I guess I make a pretty poor watch dog.”

“I’ll say.
 
I wanted to check you both.
 
I don’t know what he was living on this past week but it probably wasn’t good.”

I opened my eyes and sat down.
 
“The truck was full of garbage when he picked me up.
 
Drive through wrappers and liquor bottles.”

Ray nodded.
 
He went over to Paul and pinched under his eyes and the backs of his hands.

“He’s dehydrated.
 
I’m going to give him some fluids.”

“Ray,” I laughed.
 
“Sometimes I think you’re not happy unless you get to give someone a balloon.”

“Do want one too?” he offered.

“No, not really,” I tried to be serious.

“Paul said you didn’t look any bigger but if you don’t mind I want to measure you and see for myself.”

“I found him a couple of hours after I left you in the shop Ray … like I told you on the phone.”

“Nevertheless,” he said.
 
“I’ll be right back.”

He set Paul up and I got up stiffly for him to measure me.

“Right where you were two months ago Kiddo,” he said.
 
“Are you sure you’re not needing a big sleep?”

“Yes.
 
You know, I made him hold on to me for the jump … I was worried I would leave him at the side of the road.
 
But everything in the truck made it so that wasn’t necessary.
 
Maybe it’s because I was in contact with him that it happened.
 
The jump was so strong … could be his energy is more powerful than mine.
 
Hopefully he won’t have to sleep as long to recharge.”

“We’ll find out,” Ray said.

“Ray, is Rice going to be at dinner?”

“I can check, why?”

“What I picked up was so sickening and violent.
 
If Paul hadn’t started to go down taking my attention I would have thrown up on him.”

Ray was thoughtful.
 
Then he tilted his head at Paul.
 
“He would want you to find out as much as you can.
  
I’ll have Denis stay with him while you come down.
 
Stick with me, okay?
 
I know what’s going on with you and can help if you need it.”

“How do you and Paul do it?” I asked.
 
“I’m so bored I could tie my own shoes together just to amuse myself trying to walk.
 
Maybe I’ll entertain myself with knife tricks for a while.”

Ray shook his head.
 
“Just radio when you need me to sew something back on.
 
I’ll send Denis up when dinner is ready.”

I’d only wasted half the time from lunch to dinner.
 
I thought about taking a pry bar to the walls but my back was sore enough and if the men thought Paul was drunk at the table I didn’t need to reinforce that by making a bunch more noise up here. The second half of the afternoon passed incredibly slowly.

Ray was right; Paul would want me to keep working to find out what was going on with Rice or whoever it was.
 
I didn’t have to like it.
 
I’d had my fill of what was going on in Rice’s head.
 
At lunch I’d probed deeply.
 
Rice was like turning on the TV when the sound was cranked.
 
The message was lost in the volume.

Paul’s family had three lines.
 
I had met the heads of two of them and since Paul was the first son in his line he was as close to the head as I was going to get until I found his father. Whether it was memory, our history or something else I was loyal to Paul.
 
I understood from Pilot there were times I had been loyal to Damian instead.
 
I wondered if Ray ever knew about Alina.
 
Damian found her this time.
 
And did he ever have a sister?
 
There were so many questions I wanted to ask Pilot.
 
He said we weren’t all related so there could be other women like Alina and me.

I realized I’d been able to pick out Damian’s men from their smell and Damian had smelled Paul in Catherine and me … maybe because we were both pregnant with Paul’s child.
 
At dinner I would distract myself from Rice for a while by seeing if I could find anything similar between Ray and Pilot.
 
Then if Rice didn’t overwhelm me again I could look at him further.

Denis and Ray finally came upstairs.

“Still have all your fingers?”