Lean on Me (41 page)

“
Wow,” Raz said.

“
Wow?”

“
There’s a lot of clothes
here,” Raz said.

“
Really?” Alex asked. She
leaned up and gasped with pain. She dropped to the bed.

“
Really,” Raz
said.

“
Did you and Sami get in a
fight?” Alex asked. “You know how she loves to shop on my
tab.”

“
We’re in an off period,”
Raz said.

“
Why?” Alex took a pair of
fleece pants, a pair of jeans, a tank top, a long-sleeved T-shirt
and a sweater from him.

“
Usual,” Raz
said.

He went back to the closet.

“
Oh,” Alex closed her eyes
in anticipation of changing. After almost four years of practice
with this injury, she was well adept at dressing when lying down.
She pulled the fleece over her bandages. “Sorry.”

“
We’ll either get through
it or we won’t,” Raz gave her a pair of faux-fleece-lined boots and
wool socks. “Better to work it out now.”

“
I guess,” Alex
said.

“
Don’t worry.”

“
I’ll talk to her again,”
Alex said.

“
I’d rather you didn’t,”
Raz said. “I’m going to carry you. Normal or over the
shoulder?”

“
Let’s see if I can handle
normal,” Alex said.

He picked her up in his arms.

“
You’ve lost weight,” Raz
said.

“
Prison, I mean hospital,”
Alex laughed.

He smiled and carried her down the narrow
stairwell to the second floor and down the main stairwell. For as
many people as Alex knew were in the house, they saw only their
remnants – the dishwasher churned away, the Crock-Pot bubbled some
yummy dinner, music drifted from the second floor, and the weights
clinked against the racks in the gym downstairs.

Raz managed to negotiate the doors to the
garden. He took a few steps down and followed the red flagstone
path to the patio outside his carriage house. He set her on a
cement bench and lit the gas fire pit. The fire blossomed and
warmed the small patio. He grabbed a heavy wool blanket from the
chest to cover her and sat down. She put her head on his lap.

“
How are you?” he
asked.

“
A little lost,” Alex said.
“It’s weird to me that I was out so many days. I don’t know where
the team is and…”

Alex shrugged.

“
And?”

“
I’m not sure I care,” Alex
said.

“
You must be as sick as
they say you are,” Raz said.

He leaned over her and they laughed.

“
How’s your pain?” Raz
asked.

“
I’m not sure where John
is,” Alex said. He laughed.

“
Hip pain?”

“
I’m in terrible pain. And…
I feel better,” Alex said. “I can’t really describe
but…”

Alex stared off at the sky.

“
But?” his smiling face
appeared above her.

“
It’s like an itch has been
scratched,” Alex said. “That’s the best way I can describe it. I’ll
tell you though; I’m not signing up for another one of those
treatments anytime soon.”

“
I’m not signing you up for
any treatments any time soon,” Raz said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.
Dusty and I tried, but we couldn’t make it happen. I… I should have
been there and… You needed me and I… wasn’t there. I’m
sorry.”

Alex touched his cheek and their eyes held
for a moment. She smiled. He took a breath and looked away.

“
Updates?” he
asked.

“
Yes, let’s get to work,”
Alex laughed. “Work. Work. Work. Work. Oh look, there’s a
squirrel.”

He laughed. His hand stroked her hair.

“
You need a haircut,” Raz
said.

“
Will you schedule one for
us?” Alex said. “You could use a shave.”

Raz smiled at the idea of a hot shave with a
straight razor from their favorite stylist.

“
Work?” Raz
asked.

“
Work,” Alex said. “How did
the ‘work your friend network’ thing go?”

“
Amazingly well,” Raz said.
“In fact, one of the first phone calls we received was from the
Italian team.”

“
One of the lost teams
called in?” Alex laughed. “Really?”

“
Italians,” Raz said.
“Their mission was in the mountains of northern Italy.”

“
He sent the Fifth Alpini
Regiment?” Alex laughed. “He is a freakin’ moron!”

Raz laughed.

“
You can guess the rest of
the story,” Raz said. “They went, thought it was a trap, and
settled in to watch.”

“
Freezing temperatures?
Ice? Snow? The Fifth Alpini doesn’t care,” Alex smiled. “SOP for
them.”

“
Right,” Raz chuckled.
“When the new number was available, they called in. Let me tell you
the CO was furious that he couldn’t talk to the Fey. He said they
would stay there until he could speak to you. Do you know
him?”

“
If it’s who I think it is,
his father is part of the General’s ‘went to war with’ buddies,”
Alex said. “Should I call?”

“
Max took care of it,” Raz
said. “You went to camp with the CO?”

Nodding, Alex smiled.

“
Boy’s camp?”

“
It’s a long
story.”

“
I bet,” Raz said. “Anyway,
they’re being debriefed by your Dad’s team. I say debriefed but
when I checked it was more like happy hour than debriefing. The CO
didn’t like Eniac so he printed everything to cover his ass. He
also has a pen drive full of emails and what not. We’ll have all of
that when the debriefers return tomorrow or the next
day.”

“
Great,” Alex said. “It’s
good to have smart friends.”

Raz leaned over to look at her. They smiled
at each other.

“
Turns out the Indian team
didn’t go,” Raz said.

“
That’s good news,” Alex
said.

“
They didn’t realize they
were on anyone’s radar until your Dad’s team started asking
around,” Raz said. “They were supposed to go but got called to
Pakistan. National security. Their command called in the change of
plans, but got the run around. When they learned the intelligence
servers were corrupted, they decided to wait for further
information.”

“
Which never came,” Alex
said.

“
Which never came,” Raz
said.

“
Guess we can cross them
off the list,” Alex said.

“
They want to see you,” Raz
said.

“
Who?”

“
Your father’s team,” Raz
said. “You know that Tom Drayson…”

Alex nodded.

“
John doesn’t,” Raz said.
“He thinks Tom is here for a visit. Are you going to tell
him?”

“
I think it’s up to Tom,”
Alex said.

“
How long have you known?”
Raz asked.

“
Let’s see,” Alex tapped
her chin. “Maybe three, no four, hours after John told me his
story.”

“
Of course,” Raz laughed.
“Well, it was new to me. But damn Alex, he’s good. He’s not just
good, he’s really good.”

“
That he is,” Alex
said.

“
Ben and the Mister
interrogated the pirate Captain,” Raz said. “They didn’t gut him
and feed him to the sharks like you wanted. Ben said to tell you
that he was deeply sorry to disappoint you.”

“
Damn.”

“
I know,” Raz said. “They
didn’t think it was fair to kill him after he told them everything
they wanted to know. And, as you suspected, he knew a lot that…
well…”

Raz shrugged.

“
He didn’t make any sense,”
Alex said.

“
How did you
know?”

“
Pirates,” Alex said. “They
have their own language, their own names for things, their own…
ownness.”

“
Ownness?” Raz
laughed.

Alex laughed. He leaned over to look at her
again and laughed. She laughed at his laugh.

“
There you are.”

Surprised, their heads jerked toward
Samantha’s voice. She stood at the edge of the patio wearing a
sheer brown lace corsage and matching sheer panties. Her light
orange thigh-high stockings were held tight with garter straps. She
wore a matching brown lace robe. Her barefoot walk to their house
had destroyed the feet of her stockings. As if they were too heavy
to keep open, her eyelids sagged. Her pupils pressed the blue
almost completely out of her eyes. Her long auburn hair hung in
limp clumps.

“
Sami?” Alex grunted in
pain when she sat up.

“
Let me talk first. If I
don’t, I might lose my courage,” Samantha said. “I wanted to tell
you that I get it. I was in my condo and I saw you guys out here.
And, yeah, I get it.”

“
Sami?” Raz
stood.

“
What do you get, Sami?”
Alex asked.

Raz jerked to look at her. Alex mouthed
“drugged.” Raz walked toward Samantha.

“
I get that Art loves you,
Alex,” Samantha said. “And I get that it doesn’t have anything to
do with me. It’s not even something that threatens me or my
relationship with him. It’s just something that is, like the sky or
the moon or the sun or the…”

“
I’m so glad,” Raz hugged
Samantha to give Alex time to page Colin. When he let go, he
glanced at Alex and she nodded.

“
Why did you come?” Raz’s
voice was gentle and kind. As if she was a small child, he led her
to the fire pit.

“
I saw you from the window
of my condo,” Samantha said. “I was talking to Jesse about you. I
mean, I’ve been really, really mad. And…”

“
Jesse?” Alex
asked.

“
Yeah, I know,” Samantha
said. “I thought he was dead too. But there he was, standing in my
bedroom, sure as day.”

Alex glanced to Jesse.

“
She can’t hear me now,”
Jesse said to Alex. “That Senator drugged her.”

“
We had a good
conversation. He’s the first person who really understood how I
feel,” Samantha sighed. “Jesse said I should come and tell you how
I feel right now because otherwise I might chicken out. I’m so glad
you made me put in that second entrance to the condo. Jesse and I
walked over here and…”

“
Was someone in your house,
Sami?” Alex asked.

“
The Senator, or I should
say ex-Senator,” Samantha giggled an eerie laugh. “He thinks he’s
going to get in my bed. But I’m not going to let him. I’m going to
be strong this time. He just told me to get ready for him. Can you
imagine? Like I’m going to get ready for that jerk.”

Horrified, Alex looked away to keep Samantha
from seeing her expression.

“
Ask her about the Fey
Special Forces Team vault,” Jesse said.

“
Sami, I have to ask you,”
Alex smiled. “Where is the Fey Special Forces Team
vault?”

“
You know,” Samantha
laughed.

“
I’ve forgotten,” Alex
said. “You know my memory is crazy.”

“
It’s under Le Fey Verte,”
Samantha said. “Max is building condos on top of the building. But
the vault is underneath. Level Five, I think.”

Alex swallowed hard. They’d never known how
the murderers discovered the location of the Fey Special Forces
Team vault; the vault everyone had died in; the vault where Alex
had almost died.

“
That’s right,” Alex smiled
at her elder sister. “Thanks so much. What a relief that you know!
How did you find out?”

“
You met me there for
drinks at Le Fey Verte a couple times. You know, before we went
shopping? You probably don’t remember,” Samantha said. “I saw your
CO go some place in the back. I figured it was to see a hooker or
something. I asked you and you got really offended. I came back
later and asked the owner. She wouldn’t have told me, but she
remembered that I was your sister. I don’t know how to get in
though. So don’t ask.”

“
Do people usually ask you
how to get in to the vault?” Raz asked.

“
The ex-Senator. He
asks
every time
I
see him. He did tonight.” Samantha’s voice shifted to an imitation
of his voice. “Did you find out how to get in this time?’ But I
didn’t. He gets mad but...”

Samantha shrugged.

“
Oh well, I should get
back. Mom would kill me if she thought I wasn’t polite to a
guest.”

“
Why don’t you let Alex go,
Sami?” Jesse materialized in front of her. “She has a
key.”

“
See there’s Jesse,”
Samantha smiled at him.

“
Good idea. I’ll tell him
something came up. I’m sure he’ll understand.” Alex
said.

“
You’d rather stay here
with Art,” Jesse said.

“
I would rather stay here
with Art.” Samantha’s face shifted to the most beautiful smile.
“You won’t tell Mom?”

“
Cross my heart,” Alex
said.

“
I won’t tell,” Jesse
said.

“
Come on, Sami,” Raz took
her hands into his.

“
Okay,” Samantha said.
“I’ll just stay here.”