by L. B. Carter
Reed wished like hell his Valerie was still alive and this Valerie could take her place.
That wasn't all he'd change. He wished every day that he could take back ever getting involved with his Valerie. Anyone outside the family, outside Green Solutions, were live-wires and his family were water. Reed had to keep Nor safe. Not happy. Happy meant Rena. Safe meant alive. He and Father couldn't lose anyone else.
But the contract also meant Rena needed to be safe. Especially as now he knew Valerie was Valerie and not Jennifer Tate. She couldn't break the contract. She didn't have that power, no matter how much she fought to remain in a position of authority over everyone.
It was going to be a fun tug-of-war when they finally did get to Sirena and try to go their separate ways. Before they did, finding out what Val wanted with Rena was also something luring Reed along for the ride.
Fuck, he was in a conundrum. His head also felt like it was in a toilet, thoughts whirling past, slipping past without traction.
For the first time on this mission that had strung out into an adventure—or nightmare from hell—Reed debated contacting Father for back-up. He was reluctant to admit he needed assistance. He was reluctant to bring Father's debilitating grief back into Nor's life. Reed strove hard to remove that from Nor, that reminder that Mother was gone. He was reticent to see that grief himself. He feared checking in and finding his steadfast, robust, emotionless Father as crumbled as the organization had been when they took off. That had been the hardest for Reed. He could have pushed through the pain with intense training, with distracting work, as Father would normally do when they lost someone. But Mother had been their family's backbone without realizing it. The woman in flowing floral dresses, tresses flouncing free, who went with the flow and smiled and hugged—she had been the stake ensuring their stems grew upright towards the sun without any of them knowing it.
Reed had tried to do it alone, to throw himself into completing the mission that had gone astray while the organization dealt with its own disaster, fixating on the mission: finding the specimen, and pushing Nor as hard as he was pushing himself to keep the negative thoughts at bay, to stay in the present.
He was a coward. He'd been essentially running from the truth, bearing down on his little brother to try to correct his own mistakes.
They couldn't be corrected. His Valerie was gone. And the worst part that was niggling at him like a pebble in his running sneaker, which made him also take out his anger on this Valerie, was that in the end, he didn't even know who his Valerie was.
She'd lied to him, too, the girl he'd let in and broken the rules for. The girl who'd subsequently ruined his life and impacted Nor's.
That wasn't on her either. That was on Reed. It was his job to identify ersatz leads. He should have known better, known to check her background, to get secondary confirmation from sound sources. He'd let his heart take control, and everything had literally exploded in his face.
Fuck that.
He was not doing that again. He would do his fucking job properly: get Rena to base. He would tear Nor away from her and bandage the wound left behind because that heartbreak was better than anything else that might result from them being together. It wouldn't bond the brothers as suitably as he'd hope, but Reed could be a supportive big brother finally. He would get rid of Val. And he would avoid all non-Green Solutions people.
"Reed—"
"What?" So incensed by his malignant maelstrom of thoughts, Reed's voice was harsh in contrast to Nor's. After a deep breath, he repeated himself more softly. "What?"
"You're hurting your baby."
So he was. He relinquished his grip on the steering wheel, which was designed with high sensitivity, requiring a light touch, not his full force. "You should sleep. I'll keep an eye out for Rena and wake you."
Nor shook his head. "I think we should talk."
Reed didn't want to talk about anything circling in his head. He pried open his jaw on the off chance it wasn't the topic he suspected. "About what?"
"About what we're going to do when we get Rena."
Reed's eyes flashed to the rear-view mirror, worried Valerie was listening in, but she seemed to have succumbed to the lull of Reed's baby's smooth ride. Henley was also out for the count, her head resting on Ace's shoulder. Ace was staring out the window, pondering hard. Reed wanted to tell him not to hurt himself. However, Reed spied a timid smile playing on Ace's mouth. Their happiness together tensed Reed's jaw. Whatever. Not Reed's problem if that kid got involved with anyone. "We fulfill the contract."
"Take her back to the compound? What if it's not secure yet?"
Reed shrugged. "Look around you. Nowhere's safe."
Nor sighed. "I just think..." He trailed off and threaded his hand through his too-long hair, a nervous habit.
"Think what?"
Their mother's eyes caught Reed's in a face that looked suddenly so much older after the stress and duration of this mission. It had added a five-o-clock shadow to Nor's jaw and tiredness to the corners of his eyes and unhappiness to the set of his mouth. "Should we call Father?"
Reed's eyes returned to the road, and air hissed between his teeth. He didn't want to reveal that he'd had the same thought. His head shook. "He has enough to worry about."
"But maybe he's tracking us anyway. Maybe he already has everything sorted out up there, and he can spare sending someone to help. What if..." He cleared his throat, staring forward. "What if we don't make it out of the seiche zone in time. He needs to know to send someone else to find Rena."
Nor had already fallen. Reed couldn't prevent him from repeating his greatest mistake. Rena was his brother's Valerie. "Shit."
"And someone needs to tell him and Tom about... about Barb," Nor continued.
It wasn't the dryness of the air or their limited water that made it hard for Reed to swallow. Maybe he didn't need a bridge. If they filled the chasm between the brothers with enough bodies, Nor could simply step right over to meet Reed.
"Father might be waiting for a report from Barb. She had to get the chopper from him. Maybe she looped him in on what was going on instead of just signing it out for use without telling him. Maybe he's the one who asked her to go after us. If he didn't have hands to spare, he'd use the network of retirees." Reed suspected Nor was thinking aloud more than really conversing with him anymore.
He replied anyway before Nor ended up in a matching toilet swirl. "If he did, then he has nothing else to offer. He has enough to sort out renovating the compound and resurrecting the company. Do you want him to resort to sending Tom, who I needn't remind you retired for a reason, into a wildfire and seiche under BSTU's radar? He wouldn't be able to manage. And having just lost his wife?" Reed's rationalizing was weighing the corners of Nor's mouth down, and Reed stifled another sigh. His brothering abilities blew. He needed more practice.
"But he always likes to be apprised of the mission status."
The nod Reed gave was more of an uncertain wobble. "Yes ...with a but."
"But what? You were the one who told me that." Nor turned to accost his brother with furrowed eyebrows.
"But this time, we're on our own."
Nor slumped in his seat, tossing up his arms. "Why?"
Reed opened his mouth to remind his brother everything on Father's to-do list as a team of one heading the operations now.
That wasn't what Nor was getting at. "Why are you such a pain in the ass?"
Reed jerked back, the Jeep's sensitive steering swerving them across to the other lane, which was empty. Who would be stupid enough to head into the Midwest, especially during a double mandatory evacuation . "What?"
Nor rested his forearms on his armrest so he could face Reed. "You won't talk to me; you won't talk to Father. We're all going through the same shit here. I know your pain is greater; I know you lost more, but even if I can't relate, I can support you. I can try."
His mouth opened and shut. Reed had nothing to say since the sentiment mirrored what had been
cycling in his mind. "You can't."
"I can try," Nor repeated, exasperated.
"No. I mean you shouldn't. I can't... I can't do that to you, put that on you." Reed swallowed. "Fuck." His swear was soft, and he adjusted in his seat, taking a breath, knowing he'd stunned Nor into silence. "That's not fair to put on you. I'm trying—have been trying—to prevent you from making the same mistakes I have because no one should have to go through this." The sludge clamped down on his chest, swelling into the back of his throat. "I'm your big brother. It's my duty to protect you from everything."
"Including you?"
"Hell, yes. Especially me."
Nor's head started shaking slowly then got more and more aggressive, his hair flailing every which way. "I don't believe that. Family. The Green Team. Mother wouldn't want us to fall apart without her."
Reed looked away. "You're right next to me. We're not apart."
He could almost feel Nor's eye-roll. "What Rena has taught me is that you have to appreciate what you have while you have it. You don't know when it'll be gone. Even memories. Even the Earth. Too little appreciation, too late."
"I wish I could get rid of my memories," Reed mumbled.
"I don't believe you mean that," Nor stated. "Or else you wouldn't be so goddamn grumpy and just move on easily."
Reed pursed his lips.
"He's right."
Reed's eyes skipped to the mirror to impale Ace. This wasn't his business. His eyes looked black in the car interior. As always, he didn't catch the stay-out-of-it hint. "Family is important. You can sacrifice anything for that. And past mistakes make us who we are now, they kindle the fire that burns within to persevere, to make a difference."
Nor nodded before Reed could tell Ace to keep his overly large nose out and in his own family's fucked up mess. The Actons were no shining beacon of family values and togetherness. "That's why you are working so hard to protect me. What you went through makes you stronger, a better fighter."
"The fuck is this? Therapy hour?"
Nor settled back into his seat. "Fine. Don't talk to me now, but know that I'm here when you want to. And know that just because things didn't work out perfectly once doesn't mean it can't again. I'm not giving up on Rena. You can learn from your mistakes too, not just me, and you can find happiness again. No matter what you think. It wasn't Valerie that caused things to go wrong."
Reed's fists slid together to meet at the top of the steering wheel as he pressed his back into his seat, his fingers squeezing the leather. "You don't know that."
"And you don't know it wasn't. Only one person knows."
"And she's too much of a bitch to tell us."
"Actually, Val doesn't know what went wrong either," Ace interjected.
Reed snorted. "And you believe her? She lied to you, too, unless you're that great of an actor that you were able to pretend she was Jen all along?" One brow went up indicating how little confidence Reed had in Ace's acting abilities.
"No."
A hand lifted from the wheel to gesture in a well then motion.
"But I trust her on this. She's hard-headed and ambitious, but she'd never send anyone on a suicide mission."
Reed chortled. "You didn't watch her stab a dagger—my dagger—into a man's dick." Truthfully, he hadn't either; he'd been out. Thankfully. He suppressed an empathetic shudder.
"To protect you, right?"
Reed didn't reply to Nor's remark. He was mildly hurt Nor was taking Ace's side on this. What had he just been spouting about sticking together as a family?
"You two are similar. That's why you conflict so frequently," Ace diagnosed.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's because she's a bitch."
"Or because you are a dick." Val's voice was groggy with sleep, but it didn't fail to have the slender edge of a sword. "If only I had a dagger to stick in you."
Reed's fury ignited, and his gaze stabbed her via the mirror. He was pleased to see her platinum curls were in disarray and sticking up on one side of her head. Then his gaze slipped behind her out the back window, and his mouth dropped, his foot instinctively slamming his baby's gas pedal as far down as it would go.
There was commotion in the Jeep, Henley waking up in the excitement. Everyone concurrently and independently assessed the vision behind them, expressed their horror with various cuss words of choice, and alerted Reed as to their expert opinion of what he should do about the massive wall of seawater looming behind them.
It was a menacing dark navy and teal color—no bright tropical clear blues—and filled the backdrop completely from north to south as far as their field of vision reached. Occasional bursts of white froth dotted the wall, but it hadn't yet crested. It was growing into a monster of a wave. And it was siphoning up all the remains from the tornado. Dark objects floated within the curtain. If the weight of the water didn't crush them, or they didn't drown, they'd be pummeled by the flotsam. If they could get on top of it... His baby's next upgrade would include a flotation device or submarine capabilities.
"Anyone know how to surf?"
A tenor, bass and soprano cacophony of outraged retaliation countered his witticism.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" he shouted, checking all the dials, watching the engine's temperature creep up toward the danger zone. They were between a wave and a hot place.
"Faster!" was Nor's helpful advice.
"So much for your amazing baby," Val condescended with scorn, anger being her response to an issue outside her control.
"Is it coming at an angle?" Henley asked. "We could try angling away where the wave would arrive last to give us more time to escape."
"I can't tell," Ace replied. "We're too low to the ground. I need a higher vantage point."
"We need to get to a higher vantage point just so we don't get swept away," Nor amended.
"Oh, you see any mountains in this part of the country?" Reed spoke through clenched teeth, willing his baby to hurry her ass along. In his head, he promised her tune-ups and flushing and the whole-nine-yards of pampering if she could just get them out of there.
"On the positive side, I do believe this will be effective at quenching the fire," Ace said drolly. Reed suspected it was supposed to be comfort to Henley who'd been battling guilt since the forest fire started. This kid needed lessons on how to make the ladies swoon. Reed could give him a few pointers... if they survived.
"This is terrible. I'm going to die a virgin." Then again, Henley wasn't most women.
"Yeah, well, I'm going to die with the last man I've ever slept with being freaking Reed," Val lashed out.
"Too much information." Nor scrunched up his face.
"And you sleeping with Sirena in the Juarez's house while we were all there wasn't? Besides, I meant literally sleep, dingbat. I wouldn't sleep with that guy even if it was my last chance before dying."
"No one is going to die," Reed growled, tired of all the sex talk since he hadn't gotten any in years and blue balls made him cranky. Val had made that pent-up frustration worse when she had slept-but-not-slept with him. Tease. He wasn't too thrilled to die with the wrong Val having been the last woman he'd fantasized about. That damn blue bra.
He'd anticipated being more accepting of his impending death to put him out of his misery and join his Val, but staring at that blue sheet, Reed found a microscopic spark beneath the sludge. He urged his baby onward while his vision flipped forward to scan for any kind of high ground. It would have to be unnatural. The topography was flat in the Midwest. That's why there was a goddamn seaway.
"If only we had Sirena with us," Nor lamented.
"I doubt her underwater capabilities could save all of us. Her energy depleted rapidly when she rescued me from the seaway. That's why we had to detour to the bridge."
Reed grinned with malice at Ace. "Don't need all of us to survive."
"Can we focus on a solution, please?" Henley begged.
"You're the brainiac. What you got?" Val reciprocated.
"You
're the disaster management director. What have you got?"
"Wow, Henley becomes as bitchy as Val when in life-or-death situations," Reed observed with amusement.
"Language," Ace said in his deep voice, menacingly.
"What you want to fight the driver of your getaway car?"
"Wait. What about the water tower?" Henley cut in.
Reed watched her implore him then Val in his mirror.
"It's an idea," Ace acknowledged.
"How far is it?" Henley zeroed in on Reed.
"How the fuck should I know? I'm no geographer."
Val snorted.
Henley stretched her seatbelt, clutching the back of his seat. "How tall is it?"
Reed eyed the wave. Foam was appearing on the top. It was gearing up to crash down on them. He shook his head. "Not tall enough."
Henley sat back, palms up. "You know of something taller?"
"Val likes to stand on my Jeep," Reed suggested, half joking, half out of other suggestions.
"The silo?" Val volunteered.
"Not stable," Reed said. "You drove a truck into it, remember?"
Val scoffed. "As much as I'm flattered that you think I'm a force of nature, most of the damage was courtesy of the devil."
"If that's still out there, it'll be a water spout soon," Nor said.
"Lovely. Hey, here's a totally crazy thought. Do you think the Earth is trying to tell us something? And we're too fucking dense to stop denying it? Maybe humans are done here," Reed said with a shrug.
"Wow, doomsayer much? No." Val was vehement. "My plan will work. Humans aren't done yet. We just need to freaking adapt."
A rushing noise was escalating behind them. The Jeep interior was thick with tension, everyone's emotions running hot and heavy. Much like Reed's baby; the needle was toying with the line that crossed into the red part of the temperature gage.
"Oookay, well I'm all ears on how you want to adapt to a massive wave and flood within the next few minutes, Ms. I-am-still-not-a-scientist." Reed’s grudge held strong, but secretly, he was hoping she actually did have an answer for him. Whatever her plan was, however many people in his life it had killed, he hoped to hell it had a purpose—preferably one that did save their hides.
