Winter's Storm: Retribution (Winter's Saga #2) (9 page)

Just as we were about to bow, indicating to those watching that we were about to begin battling each other, something caught my eye.

There, standing next to a tree in the grassy courtyard, was Creed. He was holding a couple drinks looking bug-eyed surprised. And if I were honest with myself, he also looked embarrassed.
Oh, good grief!
Of all the stupid things my brothers have gotten me into, this was the most humiliating! I glanced away quickly.
C’mon Meg…focus.

By the time I glanced back, Creed was gone. Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe that hadn’t been Creed and my eyes were playing tricks on me. I tried to convince myself that was the case so I could complete the task at hand. Namely kicking my brothers’ butt!

“
I know you two want to jump right into it, but how about we set some rules?” Evan spoke over the crowd that was quickly growing around us.

“
Half?” Alik called to me.

“
Fine.” I smiled watching my brothers carefully. “Half” to us meant we would hit with only half our strength so as not to cause lasting damage.

We moved around watching each other carefully. Throughout the years, we practiced many two-against-one battles. So the fluidity of our movements probably made what we were doing look easy. Alik punched, I dodged and swept his leg. Alik jumped and spun into a kick to my chest and landed gracefully on his feet.

“
Oh, come on! Quit dancing around you two,” Evan chided and made the first move to strike outside the predictable. His strategy was perfect. Alik had expected him to go after me, so the double punch to his side caught him completely off guard. Even as Alik worked to defend himself, my round house kick knocked him on his back.

The crowd cheered, but I was ignoring everyone except my brothers. I jumped toward Alik and whipped my hand right into his chest. Evan came up behind me and grabbed me around the neck. One quick shift of my hips and I flipped him onto his back, but apparently this was the plan, because even as Evan was flying, Alik knocked me down face first into the cold, damp autumn grass and ranked my elbow up and behind me. His knee was digging in my back painfully. The crowd gasped.

“
Spill it,” Alik spoke softly to the back of my head.

“
You’ve gained weight, little brother. Get off me!” I growled, red-faced.

“
Not until you spill it,” Alik cooed.

“
You two ganged up on me! Evan, how could you?” I called to him trying to guilt him into helping me.

Evan shrugged and smiled sweetly. “It’s for your own good.”

The crowd was murmuring—obviously concerned for the poor girl getting her face planted into the ground by the brothers.

“
I could scream. That would make you look like bullies to all these people.” I tried to leverage.

“
You wouldn’t dare because that would make you look like a weak little girl crying for help,” Alik chided using a voice that was supposed to sound like mine.

“
Just spill it, so we can get this over with. Don’t you want to hurry back to mom?” Evan pleaded.

“
Low blow, Ev,” I said seriously. “Fine, I’ll say it...,” and hesitated because I hated to give in to these oafs. They were not going to be okay with Creed.

“
Any day now, Meg.” Alik shifted his weight a little more heavily onto my back.

“
Uuhhggg…okay, okay…I met a guy. Now let me up,” I yelled.

“
You what?” Evan looked completely shocked.

“
We’re not done discussing this, Meg,” Alik growled into my ear. “But stand up and wave to the crowd so they don’t start panicking.”

He moved off my back and let go of my arm. I was glad I couldn’t see the look in Alik’s eyes. It was bad enough I could feel his disapproval.

Both boys added to the act by helping me to my feet. I dusted off the grass and leaves from my clothes and waved to the crowd to let them think I was fine, but I wasn’t fine. I was about to get the third degree from my stupid brothers about the dangers of talking with strangers—what with meta monsters hunting us and all.

12 Moment of Reckoning

He couldn’t believe his luck. This was it. The three metas were away from the target. Margo Winter was alone and unprotected. He scanned the area around the three metas. No coyote. That’s not a problem. He had figured he would have to take the wild dog out anyway and had already made arrangements for just such a job.

From the looks of the growing crowd, these three would be busy entertaining for a while. Creed’s mind was racing with possibilities, tactics and scenarios.

He was a soldier trained to use his brain as much as he was trained to use his body. He knew this chance probably would not come again. He knew what he had to do, but just as he was about to turn away, he unintentionally caught the girl’s eye. For a split second, he hesitated. He remembered her gentle touch and the scent of her hair. He remembered watching her smile up at him trusting him when she should have been running from him. How could a girl who has lived through all she has still have a naivety about her? How could she still walk around with hope and trust when her life was built on deception?

She looked surprised and embarrassed just before she looked away
. Damn, I wish she hadn’t seen me.
Creed thought to himself. If he were honest with himself, Creed would have wished he hadn’t seen her. He tried to push her from his mind and focus on his target objective. He bolted to the hospital, barely pausing to chunk the drinks into the first trash can he passed.

Just take things one step at a time, Creed. You know what you have to do. Play this by the book, and Williams will give you your freedom and possibly your family. You’ve wanted this forever, man. It’s right at the tip of your fingers. Just forget the girl. The ends justify the means. Move!

He kept this internal dialog going the entire run up the stairwell to the seventh floor and continued his silent pep talk even as he walked into the men’s restroom. He walked directly into the farther of the only two stalls and quickly pulled the tile away from the wall just behind the commode. He kept his vigil as he removed the plastic bag stuffed into the small hole he dug there days ago. Even as he removed the gun from the bag and slipped it up the sleeve of his right arm, he continued to chant,
move, move, move
, to himself.

Creed walked out the bathroom door, down the hallway, toward hospital room number 720. The nurses’ station was almost directly across from it, but the only two people there were deep in conversation. It was a nurse and a doctor flirting on the job. How cliché.

“
Excuse me, nurse?” Creed flashed his two-hundred watt smile at her, and she immediately blushed.

“
Hey Susan, I’ll catch up with you later,” the doctor said gruffly. He obviously didn’t like how his girl reacted to this guy.

“
Okay, Jimmy…er, I mean, Dr. Reese,” the nurse stammered. She returned her full attention to the handsome stranger standing in front of her. His eyes were captivating; she couldn’t stop staring.

“
Susan, was it?” Creed asked smoothly.

“
Yes, that’s right,” she said coyly.

“
Hey, listen, I was wondering if you could help me out? I’m a friend of the Winter family,” Creed said, casually pointing toward Margo’s room, “Alik, Evan and Meg are downstairs putting on a show for a pretty big crowd of people, and they asked me to come up here and check on their mom and Maze, their coyote, just until they get back,” Creed smiled widely and shrugged as though saying,
Ah, shucks, ma’am. I’m a harmless guy with a bunch of paranoid friends and just trying to keep the peace
.

“
Oh, okay,” the nurse’s brow furrowed slightly as she tried to remember if she’d ever heard of a “friend of the family” that may come to visit. She couldn’t think of anyone, but then, she hadn’t been on duty for the last two days, so maybe there was a change in the orders.

“
Listen, I can tell that guy, Jimmy, really has a thing for you, but between you and me…you can do a lot better. Maybe we could grab something to eat later? When do you get off?” Creed leaned over the counter and let his eyes smolder at the impressionable young nurse. He may have only been eighteen, but he had an aura about him that was edgy, rough and experienced. He easily could pass for twenty-five. He didn’t have much more time to waste with the girl, so he was laying it on thick.

Her hesitation was gone as she rounded the desk with a flirtatious sway to her hips and made her way Margo’s room. Creed ran his fingers through his hair, flashing a crooked grin at the nurse. Her fingers quivered as she typed in the code that unlocked the door. After peaking in at the patient herself, she stepped back out to the hallway and whispered, “My shift is over at seven-thirty.”

Creed smiled widely at the girl and said, “I’ll see you then, Susan.”

He turned and closed the door softly behind him. That’s when he heard the growling start.

13 The Third Degree

I was hopping mad. By the time the crowd dispersed and we were out of ear-shot from passersby, I was ready to scream, but, so were the boys.

“
What do you mean you met someone?” Alik dove right in.

“
What part of that sentence are you too dumb to understand?” I growled back.

“
Who is he, Meg?” Evan asked simply. His face was tight with worry.

“
He’s just a guy I met here at the hospital. He was visiting a sick friend. We started talking. It’s not big a deal!” I shot back.

“
Not a big deal?” Alik’s sky-blue eyes flashed with fury. “What if this guy is a spy sent by Williams?”

“
Listen, you two. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong. He’s just a nice guy. They do exist, you know.”

“
How do you
know
he’s a nice guy?” Evan asked.

“
How do you
know
he’s not?” I yelled a bit too loudly. Lowering my voice I added, “Isn’t it possible a nice, normal guy would think I’m cute and want to get to know me better?” I felt angry tears welling up in my eyes.

“
Well, of course. Cole’s crazy about you,” Alik said softly.

I felt the bitter sting of guilt in the pit of my stomach at the mention of Cole. Then a flash of resentment welled up. “I will not be made to feel guilty for allowing myself to experience some modicum of normalcy.”

“
Let me put it to you this way, Meg,” Evan said calmly. “How would you feel if you found out Alik was keeping secret a relationship with a girl he just met here?”

My mouth opened, but no sound came out. How would I feel? I would feel furious at him for not staying focused on our life-and-death situation. I’d feel scared for him that he was going to get hurt when he has already been so hurt by life. And I guess I’d be wary of any girl who put a wedge between me and my brother when I needed to be able to lean on him the most.

I looked over at Alik, understanding more clearly why he reacted this way. “Oh, I hadn’t thought of it that way,” I said softly, trying to figure out a way to make things right. “Would it help if you met him?” I asked my brothers. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. Did I just invite my brothers to come chaperone my twelve o’clock meeting with my dream guy?

“
Yeah, actually. It would help,” Alik said smoothly.

Rolling my eyes in unrestrained frustration, I began walking and my brothers followed right behind me.

“
Look, he’s just a regular guy; completely harmless. He’s been at the hospital visiting a friend who was in an accident,” I explained as we walked around the hospital to the front lawn where I was to meet Creed.

“
Let us decide how harmless he is,” Evan muttered while chewing thoughtfully at the inside of his cheek.

14 The Scent of Death

The dim light from the window’s curtain only partially drawn was enough for him to see the coyote’s eyes and teeth. Maze was standing protectively at the foot of the woman’s bed, crouched and ready to attack. No amount of charm would affect this creature—Creed knew that. Animals were smarter than people in so many ways. He let the gun slip down to his hand and in the same fluid motion pulled the trigger. Maze yelped, jumped back and fell to the floor in a furry heap.

Excellent,
he thought to himself.

He looked over at the bed and for the first time looked into the face of his target. Dr. Margo Winter lay motionless, save the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She was completely asleep.
This couldn’t be any easier,
he thought to himself as he grabbed a pillow that had been lying on a neatly folded blanket in the chair beside the woman.

He lifted the pillow and caught a familiar scent. Pulling the pillow toward his face, he inhaled deeply. It smelled exactly like Meg. The scent of her shampoo was on this pillow. She laid on this—slept her peaceful, naïve sleep. Pressed her cheek into this pillow and closed her eyes. His imagination was crisp.

Creed shook his head, trying to snap himself out of it.
Quit thinking of the girl, and finish the job. When you’re done with this target, you can think about her. Just finish what you started before you run out of time!
He scolded himself back into reality. The idea of running out of time and being in this room when Meg came back was enough to make him feel a wave of panic. He took a step toward the woman, leaned over her, and slipped the pillow up to her face. It was then that she opened her eyes and looked with terror into the face of her executioner.