Black Snow

by Lena North

  “Torres,” Dante said.

  “d’Augustine. This is my cousin, d’Izia.”

  “d’Izia.”

  Nick shifted his eyes to Dante and murmured politely, “d’Augustine.”

  Jesus, I thought. Men. What was wrong with a simple, “Hey, how’re you doing?”

  Then Dante introduced Jiminella, and she smiled calmly at Joao, but it was clear that she noticed the way Nick was focusing on her again. She had also been in the research program as a child but had been kept separately from the others so she wouldn’t know who Nick was unless Jamie had told her. I could understand why Nick was curious, though. Jiminella was the one who had escaped, and her parents had raised so much hell about the condition she’d been in that the program was exposed, and promptly shut down.

  “Jinx Sweetwater,” Nick murmured slowly.

  “Excuse me, have we met?”

  Jiminella sounded cool, but her hand slowly took hold of Dante’s. She must have said something in her mind because he straightened a little and shifted forward.

  Then Dante’s and Nick’s gazes locked. Nick’s eyes were still focused, and I was pretty sure Dante was reading his mind or at least trying. They were the same height, and they suddenly postured in a way that would have been funny if I hadn’t been worried. Before I could interrupt their bizarre behavior, Joao snorted out laughter at the same time as Dante’s brows shot up and his eyes widened. He looked at Nick in apparent disbelief.

  “Slick, Nicky,” Joao muttered and was about to say something when a low growly voice cut through the tension.

  “Snow. You’ve been swimming.”

  Hawker Johns took a few steps out of the shadows to the side and put his hands on his hips. He looked relaxed, except for the intensity glowing in his pale, amber-colored eyes.

  “Absolutely.” Then I added belatedly, “Hey, Hawk.”

  His mouth twitched into a small grin, but it disappeared quickly.

  “We have news.”

  I nodded and waited for him to continue.

  “You sent the shit you’ve collected to your professor yesterday?”

  “Water samples. And yeah, I did.”

  “Via regular mail?”

  “I sent it the way I was instructed. Special delivery.”

  I went on to describe the steps involved and mentioned the company I’d shipped the box with, which was the one my professor had told me to use. When I was done, the room was uncomfortably silent.

  “He should have gotten it this morning. Didn’t he?”

  “He did,” Dante said, and I turned.

  His beautiful face softened when our eyes met, and then he sighed.

  “There were papers in the delivery.”

  “I know. I added my notes and test results.”

  “Other papers. Sheets with some kind of code on them.”

  I took a step backward and felt Nick behind me. His warmth calmed me down, but I kept my eyes on Dante. Surely they didn’t think I’d sent encrypted messages? What the heck did they think I had to tell my professor that I couldn’t put in normal text?

  “Yo, everyone,” Jamie said from the door and ambled into the restaurant as if arriving at a cocktail party at the University. “Hey there, snowy Snow,” he murmured when he was in front of me, and gave me a quick hug. Then he nodded at Joao, ignored Nick, Hawker and everyone else. “Sorry I’m late,” he said to Dante. “The motheroo needed a bit more attention than expected.”

  “It’s okay, Jamie,” Jiminella replied with a grin that he returned affectionately.

  “Did you tell Snow about the code-sheets?” Jamie asked.

  “Yeah,” Hawker replied.

  “Not really,” I added.

  “I was there when he got the package. Helped him unwrap it, and noticed the papers. Didn’t think it was something you’d send so I distracted him and managed to snap a partial picture.”

  “Partial?” I asked, dumbfounded.

  “Partial code-sheet, partial finger,” Jamie clarified.

  “It looks very much like papers we found a while back, that Wilder’s grandfather had hidden away,” Hawker said.

  “I didn’t add any code sheets,” I mumbled.

  “Of course not,” Jiminella snorted. “You wouldn’t know how to write that kind of code.”

  Uh, what? I didn’t, actually, but she sounded like she thought I was an idiot.

  “No one thinks it was you, Snow. Why would you? Others had access to your samples, though, and they could have placed the papers in the package,” Dante said soothingly.

  My belly still clenched and, something in his tone made me straighten my back and look around.

  “Plenty of people would have had access,” Joao said. “My men will investigate.”

  “There’s more to this than you know, Torres,” Hawker rumbled. “We think there might be links to the research program which Jinx and a few others were in when they grew up.”

  That feeling of unease in my belly suddenly went into overdrive as I filtered through what they were saying.

  The code sheets in a package coming from the Islands were similar to the ones Wilder had found.

  The code sheets Wilder had found was linked to the man who tricked Hawker’s niece.

  The man who tricked Hawker’s niece was connected to the research program.

  The logical conclusion would be that someone who had been part of the research program was involved with the code sheets coming from the Islands.

  “Jamie…” I whispered.

  He had been in the house and had even helped me pack the vials into the box. I had been there the whole time, but we’d moved around so he could easily have slipped something into the box.

  “You don’t have to worry,” Jiminella said immediately. “As ridiculous as it sounds, yes, Jamie is a suspect, but there were others in the research program, and one of them is from the Islands too.”

  All muscles in my body suddenly froze, and I held my breath. Was that what they thought? They suspected Nick?

  “Breathe, baby,” Nick murmured behind me, and I felt one of his hands touch my back gently. Then he calmly announced, “Thank you for getting us out of that program the way you did, Jinx. I want you to know that I have as little ambition as Jamie to reward you by causing you any harm.”

  Jiminella’s gaze flew to Nick, flitted over my face, and then back to him.

  “You’re Jamie’s cousin?” she asked, which I thought should have been clear to her by his words.

  “Yes, he is,” Jamie replied. “Snow is renting his house, and has kept all her equipment there.”

  The implication of what he was saying was clear, and the mood in the room turned ugly.

  “James,” Nick said quietly. “No lies.”

  “There has to be another explanation,” Joao stated. “I’d need proof before accusing any cousin of mine of smuggling drugs, so let’s not jump to conclusions. We will investigate, and then we can discuss what to do.”

  Hawker took a step forward and murmured something into Joao’s ear. Joao turned slowly towards his cousins and asked quietly, “Are either of you giving Grandmama money?”

  “Absolutely not,” Jamie said.

  “Sure,” Nick said casually. “She needs it, and I have it, so why not?”

  “It wasn’t the bank who lent her the money for the house?”

  “Nope.”

  “How –”

  “Am I being interrogated, Joao?” Nick interrupted softly.

  “Don’t be an ass, of cour –”

  “He should be,” Jiminella suddenly said. “We don’t know where he gets the kind of money needed to build a house.”

  Joao had accepted being interrupted by his cousin, but he did not take kindly to an outsider telling him how to do his job.

  “I will conduct my own investigation if you don’t mind,” he said condescendingly.

  “Joao,” Jamie snapped. “This is �
�”

  “I know who she is, James. And what she is most of all – is not the fucking chief of police on these Islands.”

  “Torres,” Dante said warningly, but that just made the Croxier PD officers standing at the doors bristle.

  The men from Marshes closed in on Dante and Jiminella, and Hawker straightened.

  “Snow.”

  The calm, deep voice cut through the hurricane of testosterone swirling in the room.

  “Yes?” I replied, but Olly had not addressed me, apparently.

  “Snow knows them both. Not related to either. Ask her.”

  Joao turned toward him, and they surveyed each other calmly.

  “Reaper,” Joao said finally, nodding in a way that either was a greeting or acknowledgment of his statement.

  “Prefer Olly, or Harper if you’re into the macho man, last name posturing thing.”

  Swear to God, they could have threatened me with a pistol, and I still wouldn’t have managed to stop my giggle when he called them out on their ridiculous antics. Olly turned, and the corner of his left eye twitched in a subtle wink.

  “Olly,” Joao said, sounding more relaxed. “You are right.”

  “Of course,” Olly agreed and leaned back on the wall again.

  Everyone was looking at me, and I tried to come up with something intelligent. I wasn’t sure what they expected me to say, though, so I settled for simply stating that, “Joao should investigate. He will find the truth.”

  “Does d’Izia have keys to the house you rent?” Dante asked quietly.

  “Let Joao do his job, Dante.”

  “Simple question. Does he?” Hawker said.

  “Let –”

  “Snow,” Jiminella cut in. “Why won’t –”

  “Yes!” I shouted. “Yes, he has keys, it’s his house for Christ’s sake.”

  “Then he could –”

  “No,” I snapped, glaring at Dante. “He did not put any code sheets in the package.”

  I could have explained to them that he’d not been anywhere near the box from the second Jamie closed the lid and I taped it up to the moment I handed it to the smiling girl at the hotel reception, slash post office. I didn’t do that because I expected them to trust me, without questioning what I said.

  It turned out I was wrong on that. Dante argued and asked questions, both Hawker and Jiminella butted in, and finally, I’d had enough.

  “You need to get a grip, all of you. There’s no way Nicky is involved in drug smuggling or any of the other shit that has been happening,” I glared at Dante and snarled angrily, “You. Are. Wrong.”

  The mood shifted again, and not in a way I liked.

  “Nicky?” Dante murmured, and I felt how he suddenly tried to read my thoughts.

  “Stop it,” I said.

  He didn’t, and I closed down as much as I could of my mind, and repeated, “Stop it, Dante.”

  “What the hell?” Jamie suddenly roared.

  He had finally figured out who Nick was to me, and was clearly unhappy about it.

  “What the hell, Snow? Are you suddenly his girlfriend?” he snarled, spitting out the last word in a voice full of venom.

  “I didn’t make any promises to you, Jamie.”

  “You didn’t say no to anything either, Snow. You were stringing me along, and you know it.”

  I hadn’t meant to, but maybe he was right, I hadn’t told him no very clearly. He was re-writing history a little, though.

  “You were dating others,” I snapped.

  “Would have stopped if you told me to,” he retorted, and I thought my head would explode.

  I’d taken a few steps toward him, and shouted at the top of my lungs, “The fact that I didn’t should have told you something!”

  “Snow, calm down,” Nick murmured behind me.

  “Stay out of this,” Dante barked immediately, and I turned toward him.

  Was he really that stupid?

  “Did you just ask Nick to stay out of this?” I asked, needing the confirmation even though I was quite sure he’d done just that.

  “You can’t be serious,” Jiminella pleaded. “You’ve just met him, he’s hot, you’re on vacation…”

  She trailed off, and I stared at her, open-mouthed.

  “I’m on a vacation?” I asked.

  She looked uncomfortable, and Dante stepped in immediately.

  “You were not happy about University, and we thought –”

  I raised a hand, palm facing him, and made a sound that stopped him. I’d assumed that they needed my help, that they’d sent me to investigate. The samples I collected could have been done by anyone, and the analysis was pretty irrelevant, but I’d assumed they invented it because they needed my help.

  “Jesus,” Hawker muttered, and I turned to him.

  “Did you know?”

  “Guessed,” he admitted immediately. “Snow, you were stuck in limbo and needed to get away for a while. We needed to shake you up a little, so we agreed –”

  “We?”

  “Miller and I. Amazing that you thought we’d send a rookie straight into something like this.”

  I had believed they would, actually.

  “Did Wilder know?” I asked.

  The fact that Hawker and Miller had played me hurt, but the fact that Wilder might have known made me even sadder. I liked her and had thought she was honest with me.

  “It was just Mill and me,” Hawker muttered.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m leaving,” I added and moved to do just that.

  “You’re not going to his house,” Jamie growled.

  “What?”

  “She won’t,” Dante said calmly. “Snow, you’re coming with us.”

  I was what?

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, waiting for his beautiful face to soften and a smile to show in his eyes.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” he said instead. “You don’t know him.”

  “But –”

  “You’ll come home to Norton.”

  I turned to Hawker and glared at him.

  “No,” I stated, thinking that this would be simple and impossible to misunderstand.

  “Snow will come with us to Marshes,” Jiminella said.

  What in the hell was going on? I’d remained reasonably calm, but this was the last in a long string of incredibly insulting comments, and my temper flared again.

  “You are not my guardian, Jinx!”

  She paled when I suddenly used her nickname, something I hadn’t done since she’d asked me to use her full name, as a token of our friendship.

  “Snow,” Dante barked angrily.

  “And neither are you, Dante!”

  “Snow,” Hawker said warningly. “You need to calm down. We’ll go to Nor –”

  “You are not my guardian either” I shouted.

  “She’s right.” Olly’s rumble was quiet but everyone, including me, calmed down and turned toward the huge man still leaning casually against the wall. “I can have him on the phone in less than ten seconds, and you know that he won’t agree with either of you.”

  Both Dante and Hawker moved toward Olly, but Nick had also had enough, apparently.

  “You all have to stop,” he said, calmly but loudly. “You have insulted us both, and we’ve taken it, but it stops right now. We will leave, and when everyone has calmed down, we can meet again.”

  “Bastard,” Jamie snarled, but Nick kept his eyes firmly on Dante.

  He’d heard me talk about my cousin often enough so he’d probably figured out that fighting with the others didn’t bother me. Not even with Jiminella. Fighting with Dante was awful, and I just wanted it to go away.

  “You have to let go of her eventually,” Nick murmured.

  His voice was gentle, but the words made Dante explode.

  “You will stay away from her, or you won’t like the consequences!”

&nbs
p; I gasped, and when I turned to Nick, I saw a small muscle moving in his jaw.

  “I’m trying my hardest to stay calm here, and you’re not making it easy for me. I advise you to not go down the path you’re on, or you’ll lose her.”

  “You don’t know her,” Dante scowled.

  “He does. And I know him. I get to choose my own life, Dante.”

  “I held you up when you needed it, and that gives me the right to take care of you.”

  My eyes burned suddenly, and everything inside me hurt when he reminded me of how I’d fallen apart.

  “It does in no way give you that right, and you can’t use what happened to her like that,” Nick suddenly growled. “Not cool, man.”

  “Please, Snow,” Jiminella whispered. She sounded close to tears and held on to Dante’s hand so hard her knuckles were white. “I’m sorry. Please come with us to Marshes, take some time and think this through.”

  “Can Nicky come?” I asked quietly.

  She opened her mouth, but her arm jerked a little as if Dante had moved his hand abruptly.

  “If you bring that asshole to Marshes then I won’t come there again,” Jamie said, and when Jiminella turned to him, he added quietly, “Ever.”

  “Jamie, don’t,” Nick said. “I get that you’re hurting, but –”

  “I mean it,” Jamie said, louder but less angry. “You smuggled papers in Snow’s package, and you’re dealing drugs. You have to stay away from her, or you’ll kill her just as surely as you killed my brother.”

  “Jamie,” Jiminella murmured and stepped in to put her arm around his waist.

  Then she turned to Dante, and pain shot through me already before he spoke because I knew what he would say.

  “Marshes is your home, and you’re always welcome, Snow. He can’t come.”

  “Fool,” Olly muttered, but I ignored him.

  I ignored Dante too and turned to Nick. There was pain in his eyes, they were focused, and he seemed to be bracing for my next words.

  “You said you weren’t sure I was worth it,” I whispered, and when he nodded, I added, “I know I’m not.”

  His eyes softened then. He knew what I was going to do, and I had no choice, not really, but it still hurt, and he knew that too, so he helped me.

  “You know what you want, baby, just make yourself say the words.”