The Company of Darkness (25 page)

Somehow none of that made him feel any better once the sharp panic receded at the thought of being separated from Cady.  “How long are you planning on keeping her here?  She never signed up for any of this.”

“You should’ve though of that before you drew her into it.”  Her words were soft as a cloud but there was a ring of steel beneath them. 

“She’s not going to go for this.  You don’t understand what he’s done to her.  The last thing she wants to do is try to strengthen the bond between them.”

Alma lost the saccharine smile, her eyes glinting dangerously.  “Fine, you want to make me the bad guy?  I’ll play the bad guy.  I can have her brought in and shot up again, is that what you’d prefer?”

“No, of course not,” he balked.  He’d seen what long term use of that stuff did to the dreamers, the way they disconnected from everything else, living for the next fix. 

“Good, I’m glad we had this little talk.”  The smile was back again.  “You’ll sleep in the main house tonight so we can monitor the situation more easily.  I’ll see about getting you on the schedule to get one or two of the other glyphs removed if you’re still worried about it.”  There was a ring of finality in her voice and Ethan didn’t have to be told he’d been dismissed.     

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said shortly, his thoughts already churning between having to tell Cady what they had planned for that night, and the giddy celebrating going on in his head from Ash at the thought of spending more time with her. 

“You’re still here, eh?” Rikard said, falling into step with him as he left the main building.

Ethan wasn’t sure how to feel about Rikard’s hand in everything.  On the one hand, he was only doing his job, and he was still unclear as to why Rikard hadn’t turned him in from the moment he first found out about Cady.  On the other, he’d practically terrorized Cady from the sound of it, and that, he couldn’t abide.  “As long as the Company wants me to be.”

“And you always do what the Company wants?” Rikard smirked, and Ethan lost his patience, coming to a standstill.

“Do you have something you want to say to me?”  

Rikard jerked his head toward the cabins.  “Walk with me.”  Ethan followed him to cabin five, still trying to figure out if he even cared what the man had to say.  Still, if he ended up slugging him, it was better to do it out of sight of the main house.  Rikard led him to cabin five, leaning against the kitchen counter.  “We’re fine in here, I already neutralized the listening devices.”

“Isn’t that risky?”

“They weren’t active.  I’m not the one she’s interested in listening to at present.” Rikard shook his head.  “I thought you were smarter than this, Ethan.  I taught you better.”

“Smarter than what?”  Ethan wasn’t sure why he felt the need to pressure Rikard into spelling it all out, except that he hated talking in doublespeak.  If Rikard had a beef with him, he wanted to hear about it.   

“You want me to come right out and say it?”

“I do.” 

“You should’ve left her behind and requested a transfer if you’d been compromised.”

“I’m not compromised, my cover is still intact,” Ethan scowled.  “And it’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is.  You leave, she moves on and we go back to the way things were.”

“What if I don’t want to go back to the way things were?”  The moment he said it aloud, Ethan knew it was true.  He didn’t want to toe the Company line, not if it meant he had to live without Cady.  He had to find a way to get her out of there before someone forced him to make a choice.   

“Don’t be an idiot.  End it before she gets you in more trouble than you’re worth.”

“And if I don’t?  Will you fix me too?”

“I’m not your problem.  For the record, I’m not the one who reported your lapse in judgment.  But if you continue to put her needs ahead of the Company’s, it’s only a matter of time before they know something isn’t right with you and you can’t be salvaged.”

“There’s no reason to expect she’ll interfere with my duties once Alma’s done picking around inside Cady’s head.”  As long as they thought he had Ash under control he was safe.

“Except you’re spending all your time thinking with your dick instead of your head.  Was it tactically smart for you to come here?  You knew they already had her in custody.  You could’ve been delivering yourself to your own death sentence.”

Then he’d be screwed no matter what, it would’ve just hastened the end.  “I appreciate you looking out for me, but I can handle this.”

Rikard’s head tilted to one side, studying him like a strange creature he’d squashed with his shoe.  “She’s worth risking everything for then, is she?”

“I love her.”  There wasn’t anything else to say.  If Rikard couldn’t understand that simple fact, he’d never get why Cady was so important to him.

“There is no love, not for us.”

“Why not?  I can do my job and be with her, especially if Alma brings her into the fold.  I know how not to mix business with pleasure.  But you and I both know it’s probably all a moot point if they end up rearranging her memories anyway.”   

“Well then, you have nothing to fear,” Rikard said, going to the tiny fridge under the kitchen counter and pulling out a couple of beers.

Ethan accepted one, but didn’t drink right away.  “You scared her half to death, you know.”

“Did I?”  His brows rose a fraction.  “Tough girl, she never let on.”

Ethan couldn’t help but grin.  “She’s that alright.  What made you dig into her in the first place?”

“Her hair.”

“Come again?”

Rikard took a long pull of his beer.  “I found strands of her hair in the safe house.”

Shit, how had he missed that?  “What were you doing there?”

“I was scrubbing your file with the locals, and they mentioned this Cady Garrett they’d been following to get to you and the neighborhood she was picked up in.  Wasn’t too hard to put that together with your lovely landlord, or should I say, the landlord’s daughter, according to her tale.  That and I saw the necklace you gave her.  I am a trained investigator after all.”

So he’d been onto them for weeks.  “Why didn’t you turn me in?”

Rikard’s brow crumpled and he looked into the bottle of beer, as if it held the answer.  “I’m not sure.  I wanted to see if she turned out to be a liability first and then when it started to look like the girl from the report was the same as the one who’d left your apartment well after you’d bound Subject Q, I wanted to see what manner of girl was special enough to turn your head.   I needed to know if she was from another agency and you were too busy following your dick to see it.”

Ethan couldn’t help but laugh at that one.  “Cady from another agency?  She’s barely nineteen years old!”

“And how old were you when you were recruited?” Rikard pointed out.  “It didn’t help that she kept meeting with the police, you know.” 

“Detective Lucas,” Ethan nodded.  “That guy’s been shadowing her tighter than you have.”

“Why haven’t you taken any steps?”

“Because he’s harmless.  A crusader with nothing but scraps and no one’s ear.  He’ll move on to something else as soon as he figures out he’s on the road to nowhere.”  Ethan tried his best to downplay the danger the detective presented, mostly because he didn’t want to see him end up dead.  But curiosity killed the cat, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t protect him for too much longer if the guy kept poking his nose where it didn’t belong.  “What do you think of Cady, really?”  He didn’t have anyone else to talk about with stuff like this.

“If I was younger and more foolish, I’d steal her away from you myself,” Rikard winked.

Ethan laughed, raising his beer to him before he took a deep drink.  “I’d have to kill you, of course.”

“Might be worth it.”  Rikard let out a long breath, and Ethan wasn’t sure what to make of it.  A moment ago he’d been telling him to dump her before it was too late, now here he was sighing over her like a boy with a crush.  Did he have a thing for Cady?

“She is.”

“Just be careful, brother.  A girl like that, she’ll shave a few years off your life.”

“Speaking of which, I’d better go find her to talk about Alma’s new project before she finds out about it from someone else.  Thanks for the beer, man.”

“No worries and tell her…” He seemed to think better of it and Ethan prompted him out of curiosity.

“Tell her what?”

“Tell her she doesn’t have to be afraid of me.  I’m not the enemy.”

Ethan paused by the doorway, wondering if the message was supposed to be for Cady or for him.  “Actions speak louder than words, tell her yourself.”

* * *

Not quite sure what mood he’d find her in, Ethan approached the cabin stealthily, prepared to retreat if she showed any signs of temper.  Instead, he found her standing in front of the fridge, chewing on her bottom lip as she surveyed the contents with interest. 

“Hey, you’re back,” she said with a glorious smile as soon as she noticed him in the doorway. 

God, she was beautiful.
  Ethan stood there, whatever he’d been about to say lost to the power of that smile.  

“Perfection,”
Ash agreed.  Of course he was up front and center when she was in the room.  Ethan had almost forgotten he was around, he’d been so quiet for his conversation with Rikard. 

“Hey, no more sessions this afternoon?” he asked.

“Nope, they said I could relax for the rest of the afternoon.  Hey, I was thinking maybe we could have dinner in here instead of in the big house tonight.  What do you think?”

“I think that sounds nice.”  Ethan swallowed, more afraid of broaching the topic than facing down an alley full of serpent demons. 

“You might not think so when you see what I have to offer, but I think I can make it work,” she smiled, turning back to the refrigerator. 

Ethan bit the bullet and pulled out a chair at the small kitchen table.  “Actually, why don’t you come and sit for a minute.  We should probably talk.”

“Uh oh… this isn’t one of those times where you start saying a bunch of stupid stuff about me being safe and you being elsewhere, is it?  Oh God, that’s it.  They’ve ordered you to leave, haven’t they?”

“No, nothing like that.  The opposite, actually.”

“Oh good,” she breathed easier, taking the offered seat.  “Then why do you look like someone ran over your dog?”

“Because there’s something behind their motives for keeping me here with you, there always is.”  Ethan sat opposite her, looking down at the tattoo on the back of his hand, following the pattern until it disappeared beneath his sleeve.

“Who cares as long as we’re together?” Cady smiled, taking hold of his hand. 

“You might care about this.”  He took a deep breath, forging on.  “Alma wants us to sleep at the main house tonight.  They want us in bed together, to put a dreamer in there to observe and record what happens when you spend more time with Ash.”

Her eyes widened, lips parting in shocked surprise.  “Do you mean sleep together while they watch?”

“Well, yes.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“We don’t have a whole hell of a lot of choice.  If you don’t go along with it they’ll drug you.”  There wasn’t a gentle way to say it, but maybe now she’d understand his objections to her staying around these people. 

“So what, you’ll just do me while I’m passed out while they watch?”  She backed out of the chair, knocking it over in her haste to pull away from him.  “That’s how much control Ash has over you now that it doesn’t bother you at all?”

“What?” he blinked, not expecting the direction her tirade veered off into.  “No… wait… I think we’re talking about two very different things here.  Nobody’s talking about watching while we have sex.”

“Then why…?”  Cady rubbed at her forehead.  “Please explain in a way that doesn’t make me want to take your head off.”

His hands came up in supplication, speaking much more precisely this time.  “When I said sleep together, I meant sleep – as in dream, that’s all.” 

“Oh.”  Understanding dawned and she let go of her temples.  “It’s just that you said before that Ash is a lot stronger after we have sex, and they want to observe me with Ash…”

Ethan rose, approaching her warily, he caught hold of her shoulders and rubbed gently.  “I’d never force you to do something like that.  I don’t think I could do it either.”

“
I could.”

“Shut up,” Ethan said on the inside.  “So, what do you think?  Do you feel up to visiting Ash in dreamland tonight?  Remember, he can’t force you to do anything you don’t want him to.  You have all the power there and as much as I hate to say it, we’re pretty much stuck going along with what they want while we’re here.”

“I guess so,” she agreed with a sigh.  “As long as he promises to keep his distance.”

“Only until she begs to be in my arms again.”
  Ash’s voice echoed in his mind.

“He promises to be good.”

Cady let out a long breath.  “Alright then, but you’re going to have to do something for me.”

“Name it.”  He would’ve moved the moon and stars if she asked him to.