Love in the Land of Fire (13 page)

Josiah stretches out on his back and welcomes the weight of Rafe’s body against his own when he moves across the mattress so that he can pillow his head on Josiah’s chest. They drift off to sleep together, blissful and sated, a new level of trust hanging in the air between them.

5
Chapter Fourteen

Josiah’s shower is cut short by the chiming of his
oricula
and the automated notice that Marcel is requesting an open channel echoing in his ear. Cursing softly he cuts the spray with a twist of his wrist and climbs out.

Toweling off violently he stomps out of the bathroom only to be brought up short by the sight of Rafe still sleeping peacefully. The sight of him, arm stretching out across the empty bed like he’s reaching for Josiah, takes the majority of his anger from him in an instance. Marcel’s request pings in his ear again and he rolls his eyes in irritation. With a sigh he pulls his eyes away from Rafe, grabs a change of clothes from the dresser, and slips silently out of the room, careful not to disturb the still sleeping submissive. Rafe’s had a hard few days, preceded by a hard few years, and right now Josiah’s happy to make sure he gets plenty of sleep.

He presses down on the center of the implant and signals his acceptance of Marcel’s ping. He starts pulling his clothes on slowly as her voice, edgy and restless, fills his ears. Josiah instantly knows something is wrong.

“Josie, I’m afraid we’ve got a bit of a problem here.”

Josiah tenses, his muscles clenching tight as he’s put immediately on alert.

“What is it?” He barks the question out.

Marcel doesn’t call him on his tone, doesn’t even seem to notice it, which does nothing to ease the tension that’s running rampant through his body.

“It’s Frisch and Jean Zweil. They’re both saying that we have no right to interfere with what was a legitimate and legal contract and that if Rafe’s not returned to them they’ll file a suit.”

Josiah barks out a laugh, no humor in his tone, just biting disbelief.

“That’s the angle they’re playing? As an institute charged with the protection of the citizens of the country we have full right to separate any submissive and dominant pair if there is ample proof of abuse.”

“And that, my dear, would be the problem. Frisch and the bitch that runs Rafe’s family are saying that the enforcer office doesn’t have ample proof. They’re claiming that Rafe’s injuries were due to a routine punishment and that Rafe is the one in the wrong as he attacked the guards without provocation. They’re willing to take him back of course since all Frisch wants to do is care for his submissive after this misunderstanding.”

Josiah’s hands curl into tight fists and his teeth grind together at Marcel’s words.

“Rafe is
mine
. If Frisch thinks I’ll let him lay a hand on
my
submissive he’s an idiot. I’ll feed him his own heart before I let him get away with that.”

There’s a beat of silence and then Marcel’s voice comes across the channel between them, low and serious.

“You’ve claimed him then? He’s agreed to a contract between the two of you?”

“He offered one to me and I accepted.”

Josiah can hear her indrawn breath as his words sink in and then she’s asking him questions in a tone laced 5with urgency.

“Josiah, you didn’t notify anyone about your intent to form a contract, did you? That would give Frisch grounds to have his case dismissed.”

Josiah closes his eyes and inhales a deep breath, thankful all over again for Gar’s interference and quick thinking. He’d saved Josiah when Josiah had been too distracted to save himself.

“No, no I didn’t. I was about to but Gar stopped me. If it’s evidence you need, Marcel, Gar gave me plenty.

There are things on that chip…well, let’s just say that no tribunal in their right mind would send him back to that. And I’ll kill any who tried.”

Marcel chuckles low and dark, a sort of pleased violence underlining her tone, a true viciousness that’s rare in her.

“I’d do the same to anyone that tried to take Isaac from me. Now there’s a data chip you say?”

“Yes, a gift from Gar. I’m not sure how he got ahold of the information on there, and I probably don’t want to know, but there are things that you need to see. Marcel, this goes way beyond what’s happened to Rafe.

From the way these files tell it we’re looking at two possible murders.”

“Fuck. That changes the game a bit. Gar gave you this chip so we both know it’s secure. I’m going to need that chip, Josiah. You can’t risk forwarding the material to me now in case someone tries to intercept it or the information gets leaked. We need to blindside these fuckers before they get the chance to throw more money at their problems.”

“We’re at my apartment right now. Come and get the data chip if you need it that badly.”

“There’s not enough time for me to make it to your place and then back here. I’ve got less than half an hour before I have to do my best to persuade a tribunal not to turn Rafe over to one of the most influential houses in the area. I need that chip, Josiah, and I need you to bring it to me.”

Josiah’s torn for a moment. He knows that Marcel needs the chip, that him taking it to her is the only way to make this work, but at the same time he can’t take Rafe with him and he doesn’t want to leave him alone. He struggles with the dilemma, weighs his options and then sighs heavily when he realizes that he doesn’t have much of a choice.

“I’ll be there as soon as possible, Marcel, and I’ll contact you when I’m close. Stall if you have to just don’t go into this without this data chip. I’ve got to wake Rafe up and bring him up to speed and then I’m gone.”

“Hurry.” Marcel disconnects then, ending the conversation in her typical style, and Josiah’s up and moving in the next second, striding down the hall and into the room where Rafe’s just now stirring on the bed.

“W-What’s wrong?” His voice is rough with sleep, his eyes heavy and unfocused and his hair a disheveled halo around his head. Josiah’s heart clenches painfully at the sight of him.

“I need you to listen to me, Rafe, and listen well.” His urgency must shine through in his tone because Rafe’s out of the bed and standing in front of him in seconds, eyes alert and body tense.

“What’s happened? It’s N-Frisch, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

6He sees the fear flash across Rafe’s eyes at his easy admittance and he reaches out and pulls Rafe against his chest, tangling a hand in his hair and wrapping an arm around his waist in reassurance.

“I need to take that data chip to Marcel. She can’t come here and we don’t have much time. I want you up, awake, and alert. I’ll be back as soon as possible, but you need to be careful, Rafe. Don’t leave the apartment, and don’t take any unnecessary risks. Keep yourself safe no matter what, do you understand me?”

“Y-Yes.”

Josiah pulls back, uses the hand in Rafe’s hair to tilt his face up and takes his mouth in a hot, devouring kiss, tongue and teeth working to remind the other who he belongs to. It’s also a promise, a promise that he’ll be back and that everything will be alright. They’re both breathless when he lets go and runs the fingers of his free hand tenderly across Rafe’s face.

“Be careful, Josiah.”

Josiah smiles at Rafe gently before pulling away completely so that he can turn on his heel and march out of the room. He doesn’t look back, only stops to gather his weapons and the data chip before he’s out the door, locking it and engaging the security system after he pulls it to.

He won’t let himself look back because if he does, if he has to see Rafe watching him leave he might not be able to go. This is far too important to mess up.

He’s in his transport, firing up the starter sequence almost before he realizes it, peeling out of his space and speeding towards Marcel’s location. When he’s close, about five minutes out, he pings Marcel on a secure channel, his hands tight around the steering wheel while he waits for her to respond.

“Josiah, are you close?” Her voice is sharp and the tension in her tone bleeds over into Josiah, wrenching his nerves even tighter.

“I’m five minutes out, Marcel. You set fire to the fucking building if you have to. Just buy me five minutes.”

“Right. Just hurry, Josiah.”

He ramps up his speed, going entirely too fast, but not able to actually find it in him to care as long as it gets him to the tribunal in time. He skids into a spot outside of the old ornate building with a minute to spare, cutting the power and jumping out of his transport in a single fluid movement. He pushes past the few people who don’t immediately clear out of his way, the urgency he’s feeling clearly being telegraphed in his every move.

He spots Marcel easily, her signature hair swept up into an elaborate design, and he calls her name even as he makes his way towards her at a quick pace. She spins around, face fierce and determined, and starts towards him. When they meet they’re both steely-eyed and blank faced, their eyes transmitting their every thought to each other as he slips the data chip into the palm of her hand.

“Stop this, Marcy. Do whatever you have to do to stop this.”

“Trust me, Josie. I have every intention of doing just that.” She whirls around and takes off, long legs and dangerously spiked heels eating up the ground in front of her at a pace that’s almost unbelievable.

Josiah lets himself relax a bit, lets some of the tension ease from his shoulders as he readjusts his belt and the lay of his rapier and pistol. Marcel has what she needs, has everything to put Frisch away for a very long time 6and to make Jean Zweil pay as well. Rafe will be safe after this, will no longer be tied to a sadistic dominant or a manipulative old woman.

His
oricula
pings again with an incoming message from a blocked address and curious he reaches up to accept the connection as he makes his way back towards his transport. He blinks in shock when Gar’s smoky voice, all whiskey smooth and ocean deep, floats into his ear.

“Josiah, I’m sorry. I wasn’t fast enough. I didn’t expect them to make a move this quickly and I wasn’t fast enough.”

“Gar, it’s fine, I swear. I got Marcel the chip and she’ll take care of everything. No matter what smooth tricks Frisch tries to pull, Marcel will have all the evidence she needs to counteract his moves.”

There’s a beat of silence, much like the one with Marcel, and when Gar speaks again his voice is tight, the low tone hard and cold with the icy rage that Gar was so well known for.

“I’m not talking about the tribunal meeting, Josiah! I’m talking about Zweil himself.”

Josiah freezes, ignores the crowds of people that move around him on all sides as he focuses on Gar’s voice, ice settling in the pit of his stomach.

“What are you talking about?”

“They got him, Josiah. They set off some kind of pulse that took down anything that runs on electricity in almost a block radius and they broke in. Frisch has Zweil, Josiah. He has him and I was too slow to stop it.”

Josiah doesn’t give himself time to think, time to feel anything. He just breaks into a flat run towards his transport, Gar’s voice ringing in his ears and his mind screaming at him.

Rafe.

Rafe.

Frisch has Rafe and Josiah knows that if they don’t find him quickly Frisch will kill him to keep anyone else from having him.

6
Chapter Fifteen

Josiah doesn’t register the ride back to his apartment; it passes him by in a blur of shapes outside his transport’s windows and a tight knuckled grip on the steering wheel. When he finally pulls into view he’s out of the vehicle as soon as he’s in the parking area, not even bothering to shut it off or lock it down. It’s not important right now. What’s important is finding out whether or not Gar is right, if Rafe really has been taken.

He charges up the stairs, ignoring the slower moving elevator in favor of keeping himself moving, and skids into the hallway. It’s almost like déjà vu, the feeling he gets when he sees his apartment door partially ajar, almost but not quite since even from a distance he can see the way the wood is buckled inwards, obviously smashed open by force. There’s a nearly silent creaking noise inside that captures his attention and quietly, almost dreading what he’ll find inside, Josiah unholsters his pistol and steps through the doorway. He’s face to barrel with a high caliber rifle as soon as he steps across the threshold, and he feels his shoulders relax slightly as he lowers his own weapon.

“Gar.”

“Josiah.”

“You know you can lower Boo now, right?”

“Oh, right, my apologies.”

Their exchange would have been amusing if Josiah wasn’t hanging onto his control by the skin of his teeth.

Still even if it doesn’t exactly lighten the mood it does make Josiah feel as if his feet are planted firmly on the ground now. Gar’s here in the flesh, which means that he has all intentions of backing Josiah up personally.

He would have never shown up otherwise.

Gar lowers his beloved rifle, putting it back into place across his shoulder as carefully as he always does, and Josiah gets his first real look at the man in years.

Gar’s not changed any; he’s the same tall, leanly muscled ghost that he’s always been. His hair is a shaggy mess of black spikes that fall down far enough to cover his
oricula
from sight and still look like they’ve never actually seen a brush before. It’s always been his eyes that truly attract attention however. His right eye is a clear bright blue, while the left is a deep dark brown. The contrast is startling, giving Gar’s stare an almost unsettling depth that takes time to get used to. Even after all the years they’d spent together in the dark, dirty war zones of the world Gar’s eyes can still throw even Josiah for a moment before he shakes it off.

They move forward together as one, hands wrapping around each other’s forearms in a sign of greeting and solidarity. Josiah knows that Gar is more than aware of the fact that the situation is delicate and that time is of the essence and his appreciation for his presence grows tenfold. When he turns an expectant look on the other man he isn’t surprised by how easily they slip back into the roles they’d filled while serving together, and Gar begins to give him a quick rundown of the situation. Josiah forces himself to remain calm, to take deep even breathes and approach this situation like he would have any other operation with the Crimson Elite.