My growl was silent, but effective. Jens backed away from the door with his hands up. I know all that! She put her –
“I really can’t understand what you’re saying! Please write it down.”
I huffed, wishing for Leif. It took five whole minutes, but I wrote down the entirety of everything my mom relayed to me, and how she’d gotten us out of the sirens’ lair. I’d already told him she’d busted us out, but he hadn’t believed me before.
Jens’s shoulders were weighted as he read my account. “You have to know how nuts this sounds. What do you expect me to do with this?”
I wrote in bold letters, If you love me at all, you’ll take me to Tucker. You’ll get my necklace back and take me to Nøkken. If I’m wrong, you can put me on whatever pills Grace’s got up her sleeve. I promise you, I’m not crazy.
Jens reached out and held my hand, bringing my gloved fingers to his lips for a kiss that was laced with sadness. “Okay, baby. Okay.”
I knew that tone. He didn’t believe me.
I didn’t much care.
Twenty-Three.
Tucker’s Confession
It was another two days of trying to mute out Jamie’s honeymooning with Britta before I convinced him we needed to move. While Jamie had been in and out of lucidity during my mom’s instructions, he knew we needed to find Tucker before he tried kidnapping us again, so he was on board with at least part one of the plan.
Foss packed up the SUV without complaining and was silent during the first hour of the ride. He didn’t like looking at me anymore, now that I was too thin. I didn’t blame him, but I didn’t care, either.
Foss and Jens took turns driving and sleeping through the night and on till the evening of the next day, stopping only to refuel and stretch our legs. Poor Britta was uncomfortable, but she didn’t make one disparaging comment. I made a mental note to book her a massage when this was all over.
By the time Jens turned off the freeway and down a few winding and poorly lit side streets, he had bags under his eyes and looked more exhausted than irritable. I was wired. I wanted my brother back, like, two years ago, and every day that ticked by without having him annoy me by singing Safety Dance felt like a waste of my life.
Jens took a swig of water after he parked the car in the street. He dumped a little over his head to wake himself up. “This is the only place I can think he’d come back to, and he might not even be here, so everyone be cool.” He shook his head like a dog, flinging water droplets onto Foss, who’d been given the permanent shotgun seat due to his gigantor height. “Britta, I want you to stay here, but move to the driver’s seat. If we need to bust out fast, you’re driving the getaway car.”
Britta’s voice answered with an edge of steel to it. “I can fight, you know. Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I’m useless. Tucker did this to me as much as he did this to you, Jens.”
Jens closed his eyes and leaned his head back, sighing as he looked at the moon. “I’ve been driving all friggin’ day and night. Come if you want. I don’t care enough to fight about it. Vanish Lucy for me and keep her and Jamie out of the way. If Tuck wants to abduct them again, I don’t want him knowing they’re there if we can help it.”
Foss pulled out his machete from under the seat. “Why not just keep all three of them in the car?”
Because we deserve to know why he did this to us, I explained.
Foss huffed. “You know I don’t know what you’re saying when you do that. Why hasn’t your nurse fixed your voice yet? Never thought I’d miss your yammering, but it’s a far sight better than you waving your hands at me all the time or writing on your notebook.”
I gave Foss the finger – a hand gesture understood by most communities, so there would be no confusion.
“Fine. Come if you need to, but keep quiet.” The lateness of the evening and too many hours in the car were getting to Foss, because he laughed aloud at his own attempt at humor. “Get it? You can’t talk. Of course you’d be quiet.” He slapped his knee as he snorted, and I fought the urge to smack him.
Jens pulled his gun out of the glove compartment. “Alright, kids. Let’s do this.”
I leaned forward from my place on the middle bench and covered the gun with my hand, shaking my head. You’ve been driving too long. Not wise.
Jens considered this and nodded with regret. “I don’t like going in without it, though. Tuck’s fast. If he feels like porting, he’ll be gone before we can do anything.”
I took the weapon from Jens, double-checked the safety and shoved it down the back of my pants, letting it rest on the small of my back. I’ll shoot him if he needs shooting. You’re too tired to make that call. Plus, I need to be able to defend myself if he tries anything again.
It was a tribute to Jens’s exhaustion that he didn’t argue further. He dug into his red bag and pulled out an old key, looking on the brass thing with something resembling remorse mingled with fond reminiscing.
Jamie clapped his hands once to get everyone’s attention, holding up a paper that read, “No one kills Tucker until Lucy gets her necklace back.”
Foss was bored with all the rules, so he got out of the car, shutting his door quietly. I used my small handful of seconds to take as many precautionary measures with the gun as I could, knowing how quickly things could go south if I wasn’t the adult in the heated situation.
Britta held my hand and Jamie’s as we walked behind Jens toward an old apartment building down the street. Out of the three streetlights, only one was functional. There were several cars parked that were missing a wheel, missing a mirror or even a whole window. Loud music blasted from a barely standing house to our left, though it was well past three in the morning. It was your typical low-income neighborhood I’d been well familiar with in my family’s travels around the nation.
We approached the three-story apartment building that looked barely inhabitable. It was a slum fit for rats, but certainly not humans. I wondered why Jens had a key.
Jens motioned for Foss to fall back as he led us up the stairs, and for all their animosity, the two actually worked pretty well together. Jens shoved the key into the lock at the end of the hallway on the left, and opened the creaking door slowly, knife drawn. Jens disappeared inside, and Britta led us in behind him, with Foss waiting in the hallway for signs of an altercation to make his move. Cigar-bogged air bashed me in the face, and I had to cover my nose and mouth to keep from choking on the thick fog that was well past the occasional patio cigar. No, this stank of days, if not weeks of lighting one after the other, relying only on the fact that the windows were too thin for insulation to ventilate the small space.
A solitary lamp was on, shedding light on the only occupant in the one-bedroom apartment that had seen better days, and hopefully, better wallpaper than the mustard and brown polka-dot design that looked sickly and stained.
Tucker St. James’s dark hair conflicted with the seventies-style faded yellow wall motif, but the sallow tinge to his skin wasn’t too far off. With his cocky smirk nowhere in sight beneath his overgrowth of facial hair, Tucker looked up from his cigar with too much sadness to calculate in a single word. “So you’ve come,” he said simply. “Get on with it, then.” He took another puff, flinging ashes into an overflowing glass vase that had certainly not been meant for such tarnishing. Tucker wore his signature fitted pants he’d left unbuttoned at the waist, his usually crisp tailored shirt was wrinkled, stained and looked like it hadn’t seen a washing machine in a week. He was barefoot, with his suspenders hanging down over the arms of the mustard and brown floral-patterned overstuffed chair, his too-long legs flopped open in a surrender to his long life.
Jens’s resolve was cracking at having to do the terrible deed of offing a trusted friend. “You stole them from me and handed them over to sirens who tortured and almost killed them. I’ve got every right to end you.”
At this, Tucker blinked with a flicker of life that made his voice crack with emotion. “Almost? I’ve bee
n trying to get into the lair for months. The last time I tried, I ported in without a problem and found myself right in the middle of a watery mass grave. I assumed Jamie and Lucy had died with the sirens. No idea what killed them, though.” He put out his cigar, adding it to the overwhelming pile of butts in the vase. “They’re alive? Have you seen them to confirm it?” He stood, despite the threat of Jens’s drawn knife. He stumbled forward, and I got a waft of strong Gar coming off him. “Tell me I didn’t kill them!”
Jens took a step back, but kept his knife up. “Why do you want them dead? Did Johannes send you?”
Tucker regained enough of his personality to scoff. “That Tonttu jackal doesn’t have enough gold in all his hills to buy me off. I don’t wish them dead. Jamie’s your brother, and Lucy… Well, she’s more than you can handle, but I wouldn’t take her away from you.”
Jens lunged so quickly, I scarcely saw the whole movement. He slashed at Tucker’s arm, drawing a clean slice across his bicep. “That’s a lie! From the second I told you I had a girlfriend, you were all over her! Don’t think I didn’t hear your subtle flirting she cringed at. Don’t think I didn’t see you checking her out when she wasn’t looking.” Jens shouted, despite the open door, punching his chest with his free hand. “I’m always looking! I see everything that comes near her, so don’t tell me for one second you didn’t try to take her away! I know how you work. The shiny new thing turns you down, and she’s your next infatuation until you conquer!”
Tucker cupped his wound but didn’t raise a hand to fight back. “I didn’t understand, or maybe I did. But I didn’t want her for myself! I wanted my friend back! The real you, not the housewife version! I heard you talking about your garden. Your garden! Planting tomatoes and parsnips like a common garden gnome. You were meant for more than that! I admit, I thought she was holding you back and gladly tried to wedge myself between you two so you could get some perspective, but I don’t care about that anymore!” He looked deranged as he lunged for Jens, gripping his friend by the collar with bloody fingers. Jens was too stunned to stab again, having never seen his BFF so out of control. Spittle flew from Tucker’s lips as he spoke inches from Jens’s face. “When I got used to you two and got to know her, I stopped trying to break you two up. I was even a little happy for you! I swear! I didn’t know they’d do what they did. Lucy told me she wouldn’t seal the deal with you because of the laplanding bond. I was trying to do you a solid! I didn’t know! I didn’t know! They said they could fix it!”
Jamie, Jens and I were completely confused. Jens pushed Tucker back onto his sofa chair. “Who said they could fix what?” He readied his knife again that still had some of Tucker’s blood dripping from the tip. “And I don’t need you to help me get laid! I promised her dad I’d do whatever I could to make sure she stayed a virgin till she got married. The laplanding had nothing to do with that!”
I cocked my eyebrow at the blast of news I hadn’t been privy to. Sure, no dad wants his daughter sleeping around, but that dad and Jens had this arrangement threw me completely. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
Tucker shook his head, holding the injury on his arm with such a sincere expression of sorrow, I almost softened. “The sirens! I was only trying to help you and Lucy. The sirens said they could break the laplanding bond! After what Jamie did to her when he was poisoned, I thought it was the only way she could actually be with you. Sweet girl, honest! I like her, and only wanted to help her! They said they could help her!”
“How did you even know about them? The sirens were supposed to have been killed off!”
Tucker hung his head, his voice catching with emotion as he tried to get out his plea. When he looked back up at Jens, tears were streaming down his angular cheeks. “I helped many of the sirens escape the massacre twenty-five years ago. A couple Huldras and I had an underground lair built so they could live. No one knew that their powers wouldn’t work on the Other Side. This world’s still filled with pissed off Undrans that might recognize them! They begged me for help, Jens. I couldn’t kill them! They were helpless and hunted! It was wrong what Undraland did to them! Murdering a whole race because they couldn’t be controlled? All they had to do was banish them to the Other Side, like the Huldras, and all would have been fine!”
“What? They can’t control people with their voices on this side?” I’d forgotten to mention that detail to Jens. “Why isn’t that widely known?”
“The sirens themselves didn’t know until they fled to the Other Side. Then they were stuck here, obvious marks to the Huldras. The Huldras were pissed that they’d also been kicked out because of the sirens, and knew what they all looked like.” He swiped at his tears, smearing a line of blood over his cheek. “What was I supposed to do? They didn’t deserve to die. Pesta did, but most sirens didn’t do anything, Jens. You were a kid back then. If it’d been your call, I’d bet all my fortunes you’d have done the same thing.”
“I could’ve helped you,” Jens whispered. “You should have just told me what you wanted to do with Jamie and Lucy. I wouldn’t have killed the sirens for just existing.”
Tucker laughed humorlessly. “I couldn’t have known that. You’re living with the Domslut! She’s a known siren killer!”
“And you sent her straight into their lair without any protection, without consulting her Tomten. You stole her and ran! There’s no forgiveness for that!”
“I know!” Tucker shouted. “That’s why I haven’t asked for any. They took Jamie and Lucy and shut their charmed walls on me. The walls I’d charmed for them to keep Undrans from entering without invitation! I was going mad trying to find them!”
“And in the whole mess, it never occurred to you to tell me any of this? Months! I was out of my mind for nearly three months! Do you know what they did to them? They electrocuted them, kept them in pitch black cells for months! Starved them! Mental torture! All to break the bond? Bull! They’re cracked, the whole lot of them! Can’t control something with their voice, so they try to break it apart, bit by bit! Well, they sure broke her alright! And Jamie? Raving lunatic! Didn’t even know who I was! You took what was left of my life and crushed it!”
Tucker dropped to his knees in front of Jens, hands pressed together in supplication as sweat stained his shirt. “Do what you have to. I won’t fight back or ask for mercy. Just know that I was trying to fix your life, Jens. I was trying to help Lucy.”
“You should have told me! And if you thought you couldn’t, you should have come to me the second things went sideways!”
“I knew I couldn’t come back to you without her! Come on, Jens! You know you would’ve killed me on the spot if I didn’t get her back first. That’s why I’ve been here at our in between place for weeks, waiting for you to come and avenge her. I thought she was dead!”
Jens’s blade trembled, but he didn’t lower it, instead keeping it poised above the nape of Tucker’s neck. “She nearly was dead when we found them.”
Tucker’s tears fell fast now as he sucked in what he most likely assumed would be his last breath. “There’s no forgiveness for what I’ve done, but I am sorry, Jens.” His hands shook as he laced them behind his neck and hung his head. “End it.”
Twenty-Four.
Sentencing Tucker
Foss had grown in many ways. He didn’t push me around anymore. He understood (vaguely) the difference between an employee and a slave. Heck, he’d even gone so far as to make Britta tea to be nice. But I knew my former husband, which was why when Jens hesitated and I heard Foss barge into the room, I wasn’t all that surprised.
Britta was, though. She jumped and accidentally dropped my hand, revealing me to the woeful Tucker.
Foss yanked the gun from under my shirt, cocked it and aimed at the fire elf’s head. “Sorry does nothing.”
Then he pulled the trigger.
Britta screamed and Jens shouted, and I could hear Jamie’s outcry in my mind. But I knew a little something Foss didn’t. While I knew him like the bac
k of my hand, he hadn’t taken the time to really know me. The bullets were safe in my jeans pockets, where they would stay.
Again and again he squeezed the trigger until he grew frustrated and pulled out his machete.
I ran and threw myself in between Foss and Tucker, shielding the unworthy foe with my body. I couldn’t overpower Foss, but I could make him pause.
“Move!” he bellowed, and for a second, I wondered if I’d overestimated how much I actually meant to him.
Stop! Just wait a minute.
Jens lowered his knife. “Stop, Foss. This isn’t the way. It doesn’t do anything.” He shook his head. “I won’t have Tucker be the first elf to die of stupidity. If what he says is true, he didn’t mean for this to happen to them.”
Foss was incredulous. “I don’t care if he meant for this to happen! It happened! You may not care what he does to your girlfriend, but no one abducts a Tribeswoman and lives to brag about it! This fool dies tonight. If not by your hands, then by mine. He stole from me every bit as much as he stole from you. I bought Lucy. She’s my wife in Undraland still. My property. Tucker stole my property, so I have every right to end him. This is how you deal with thieves, Jens!”
Yes, it was a very good thing the gun wasn’t loaded and in my hand. I didn’t have stellar self-control when those words rained down on me like fire.
Jens postured, and in that moment, I saw the power struggle they were locked in, even though I’d taken myself out of the war by choosing to be solely with Jens. “Well, we’re not in Undraland, are we? Lucy’s not your property, and she’s definitely not your wife here! So back off!”
Foss fumed, spitting on the floor. “A man who doesn’t protect his household doesn’t deserve to have one.”
Jens rubbed his eyebrow, his head spinning. “Let me think it through first. Killing him does nothing. There’s no post to hang his head on when you’re done to send a message, Foss. Everyone already thinks Tucker’s dead.”
Lucy at War Page 11
