by Rebecca Wolf
“Wow Zephyr, if that’s the case that would be really messed up.”
“That’s how these elementalists ARE Penny, you know that. They’re all manipulative bastards at the end of the day.”
“Lets not jump to conclusions,” said Penny slowly, “if we are going to figure this out we’re going to have to be super careful how we go about this.”
“We're going to have to act completely normal like we suspect nothing.”
“Yeah, ok. That could be a problem. Aiden is talking about armed detail wherever you go. I would not be surprised if those guards double as spies, if what you’re saying is the case.”
There was a knock on the door. Both of us went still.
“Yes?” I called out.
“It’s Ms. Dona ma’am, I have your breakfast, may I come in?”
“Ok,” I said. Ms. Dona opened the door, and came in with a tray bearing an assortment of breakfast items. All of them were depressingly healthy. Penny stifled a laugh. She knew what I was thinking.
“Shall I leave it on the nightstand?” She asked politely.
“That will be fine, Thank you.” I said equally polite. She put the tray down and curtsied before leaving. “Did she just curtsy to me?” I asked incredulously, Penny nodded, snickering.
“Ok, that’s the final straw. We need to get out of here!” I said as I struggled out of bed, careful not to use my left arm. Thankfully, there was coffee on the tray and I gulped down a cup before staggering to the bathroom. I used the toilet, then splashed some water on my face from the sink using my good hand. Out of habit, I looked into the mirror. That was a huge mistake. My eyes looked haunted, my face was pale and sickly, and my hair looked like the bride of Frankenstein with bad water pressure.
“Penny!” I yelled through the bathroom door, “my hair needs serious help!” Penny came in and rummaged around the bathroom until she found a brush and some detangler. She wet the brush and started hacking away at my hair, as though she was Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty trying to cut through the briars.
“Ouch Penny!” I yelped, “you’re supposed to start from the bottom and work your way up!” “well how was I supposed to know?” said Penny, “my girl side has silky smooth hair and my male side I always shave bald.”
“Well, don’t quit your day job!” I said grumpily, as she gave a tug that felt like it ripped half my hair from my skull. She finally managed to wrangle my hair into a messy bun on the side of my head. She looked at it with such pride that I didn’t have the heart to say anything but “thanks”. I tried not to look too closely at her handiwork.
“OK, I’m dressed, you’re dressed, let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“What time is it?”
“About 10:30 am.”
“Home.”
“What about the crazy unidentified mad men that are after us?”
“We’ll come up with a plan for that in the car.”
"Do you think Aiden will be happy to just let us go?"
“Good point.” I paused while I thought. “Ok, here’s the plan,” I said. “I’m going to go through my window, you’ll go through the front door, and I’ll meet you around the front.” I went to open the window, but it was locked. After a couple of useless pushes and grunts, and with no latch in site, I gave up and decided on Plan B.
My room let out into a hallway with an ornate railing and a bifurcated staircase. I set a brisk pace, as I grabbed Penny’s hand and ran down the stairs towards the entryway, cursing big houses and entitled elementalists as we went. My arm throbbed with each step, and I cursed that too. We had just gotten to the foyer when a guy with an earpiece stepped out from behind the doorway, his hand on his gun.
“Excuse me,” I tried politely, “would you move aside, your in our way.”
the guy remained stone faced. I tried to veer around him, but he mirrored my movements and we ended up doing that strange yet easily identified doorway dance for a bit. Exasperated, I finally said, “your being extremely rude.” I gave him an air-push out of my way and grabbed the door handle, giving a yank. Gaaah! it was locked as well. Was there no rest for the weary?? Seriously, I just wanted to go home and recover from my bullet wound in peace!
“Zephyr, I’m so glad to see you’re awake” said an all too annoyingly familiar voice behind me. I whirled around and there was Aiden, striding towards me through the entryway.
“YOU!” I said angrily, pointing emphatically at him. “I am NOT happy to see YOU!”
“Where are you going?” He asked, ignoring my angry glares, “I just had Nellie put up tea for us.”
“I’m going home, where I would have been in the first place, if you hadn’t DRUGGED me like a serial killer and apparently taken me to your fortress of doom.”
“I can assure you this is hardly a fortress,” he said as if offended.
“That’s the part you’re latching onto here?” I said incredulously, “Aiden. I am a grown adult. I am capable of making my own decisions regarding my life and my safety. You do not get to treat me like a petulant child just because I make a tactical decision that you disagree with!”
“I would hardly call your demands to go home a tactical decision, sweetheart. You are my fiancé, soon to be my wife. Your safety and wellbeing are my concern. You were injured and your decision making definitely appeared impaired. I attributed your poor judgment to your injury and state of shock. I was therefore qualified to act as your guardian and make decisions for you as I deemed appropriate.”
“Ok, well now that I have been seen by a medical professional and I am no longer in a state of shock, my decision to go home has not changed. Kindly unlock the door so my friend and I can leave.”
“Don’t I even get a thank you for last night?”
“Your right. I apologize.” I said, feeling a mixture of guilt and frustration, “I appreciate everything that you did for us last night. Thank you for coming when Penny called.”
he smiled a little in response, “your welcome.”
“Now, kindly open the door so we can go home,” I said.
he set his jaw “I’d rather you stay here.”
“No, thank you,” I said frostily
“Let’s compromise,” he said finally, “you can go home if you take four of my men with you.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Fine. Three of your guards as long as they respect our privacy. No coming into the bathroom with us or other freaky shit like that.”
“I assure you, they are highly professional.”
Three guards were dispatched, and they followed us to the car. Things got a little awkward when we argued about whose car we were taking. Finally it was decided that Penny and I would get into their bullet proof SUV with two of the guards, and the other one would follow behind with Penny’s car. The car ride was brutal on my bullet wound, but I was worried if I said anything they would turn around and head back. Eventually we got home. Then, we had to wait while they swept the house in search of mad men and explosives.
We finally got the all clear, and Penny and I went into the house. Just being home, with the familiar smells and second-hand comfy furniture put me more at ease. I took a deep breath and offered everyone a cup of coffee. Everyone declined, so I made one for myself and motioned for Penny to come up the stairs to my room with me. Penny and I went into my bedroom. One of the guards moved to follow.
“Umm... where are you going?” I asked him.
“I go where you go.”
“You stay outside my personal space.”
“Ok,” he said, moving to enter the room.
“The bedroom is my personal space.”
He gave me a glare. I glared right back, hands on my hips, until he looked away and sighed. “I’ll be right outside the door. If your going to do something stupid, tell me first.”
“Not likely,” I muttered as I shut the door firmly behind us. Penny moved to sit on my bed, and I pulled out a notepad and
began to write.
"They might have placed bugs when they did the house sweep so we’re going to have to write everything out."
"This all seems a little paranoid, Zephy."
"It’s not paranoid if my theory turns out to be correct."
"So how do we figure this out? We need a game plan."
"Ok… step one- "
We stared blankly at each other for several minutes, at a loss of where to start.
“Jerry.” I wrote finally "Jonathan used him against me. If we lean on him, he might know something."
"Ok, how do we track him down?"
"We use his credit card info from when he bought drinks."
Penny gave me a devious grin. “Sometimes you’re a little genius, you know that?”
“Only sometimes?” I grinned back, relieved we had the beginnings of a plan.
Four-thirty pm rolled around, and Penny and I started getting ready to head out.
“Where are you going?” one of the guards asked us suspiciously.
“To work, duh.” said Penny, as she got the car keys and headed for the door. I moved to follow, and the guard blocked my path. I put my hands on my hips. “Excuse me.”
“Boss says no going back to work.”
“You had no idea we were going back to work until this second. How could he have possibly told you that?” I challenged.
“He debriefed us last night.”
“About what, exactly?” I asked, my anger flaring.
“About appropriate protocols to secure your house upon arrival, as well as the status of your work as an insecure location.”
That bastard. He had already planned for me to come home.
I pulled out my phone and dialed.
“Zephyr.” He answered on the second ring.
“Controlling where I go was not part of this agreement,” I steamed.
“You don’t need to work anymore anyway. Your about to marry me, and I am filthy rich.”
“That is NOT THE POINT.”
“What exactly is the point?” he asked calmly.
I swear the calm voice he used was going to make me combust in fury if he used it anymore.
“My unemployment was not in the contract, you can’t make me give up my job!”
“Your worksite is not safe. Anyone can go in or come out. It’s impossible to secure.”
I had a sudden realization. I didn’t have to put up with this. “Aiden, my job is very important to me. I am going to work. Your guards are welcome to come with me, but if they try to stop me from leaving my home, it is legally considered kidnapping and I will be forced to call the authorities.” I got ready to hang up feeling very self-satisfied.
“I’m afraid you can’t do that as per our contract.”
“Ummm what?”
“Yes, in our contract it states that we cannot bring incriminating evidence against each other to authorities. By bringing this to their attention you would violate that clause.”
I banged my head against the doorframe in frustration. Penny raised her eyebrows at me. The guard looked at me as though he was concerned for my sanity. I took a deep breath and tried a different approach.
“Ok, Aiden, I understand your concerns, but wrapping me in bubble wrap, and placing me under house arrest is not practical. I’m sure we can think of a better solution that still allows me to live life normally.”
“I will think about it,” he replied.
Ok, I had had enough of this. I hung up. I’d let him think about it while I handled things the way I should have initially, I was an air elemental, God dammit! There was no reason that I should be cowed by norms just because they were physically intimidating.
“Ok guys, you win. I’m going back to my room.”
They looked at me suspiciously, but let me go. I went back down the hall, locked my door behind me, and tried to open my window. It wasn’t just locked, it had been nailed shut. As if THAT would stop me. I pressed my right hand against the windowpane and emoted air out. The glass shattered. I kicked out the rest of the glass and peeked over the side. The guard outside was shielding his head from the raining glass. Oops, I had forgotten about that guard. He looked up at me, and he did not look happy. He reached to start the engine on some sort of jet pack that had been strapped to his back. Seriously? Apparently Aiden had covered a lot in his debriefing. Footsteps pounded down the hall. It sounded like the cavalry had been notified of my jailbreak. I dashed over to my desk and grabbed the first thing I found, an ugly paperweight. I leaned out my window. The guard was already halfway up the side of the house. I aimed for the jet pack, adding some extra force with my element. It got one of the propellers and the guard went down with a shout. I hoped that jet pack was expensive, it would serve them right. The guards were banging against the door, but the lock held. I crouched on the sill and leapt into the sky. I spotted Penny’s car from above, as it rounded the corner of our block. Landing a few yards ahead, I got in when she stopped the car.
“I was waiting for you to think of flying out,” she said. “For someone so smart, you can be super slow sometimes.”
“Hey, I’m recovering from a bullet wound, cut me some slack.”
“Did the bullet hit your head? No? Then I fail to see the significance.”
“Ouch. Penny, what’s with the passive-aggressive behavior?”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” said Penny, grimacing, “I think I’m just really freaked out by this whole situation. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
“Ok,” I said, struggling not to feel hurt.
“I’m sorry. Say something mean to me. Then we’ll be even.”
“No,” I said, turning up my nose with a half-joking expression “I’d rather you suffer with the guilt for a bit.”
“Ouch,” said Penny, “well, I guess I deserve that.”
I felt the last of my anger dissipate. We could never stay mad at each other for very long.
The bodyguards showed up shortly after we opened, looking disgruntled but resigned to being there. All-in-all, it was a pretty uneventful night. Everyone in town had heard there was a break-in. we expected more customers than usual to come and check out the place to see if there was any evidence that they could gossip about. It was almost a given that when anything big like this happened in the neighborhood, everyone would rubberneck for cheap thrills. Barely anyone showed up. It was strange. Those who did come were disappointed that they weren’t able to find anything. There was literally nothing left to find. The bar looked exactly as it normally did. I was coming to realize more and more, that Aiden was nothing if not thorough. He was definitely a difficult man to outmaneuver.
At the end of the night we pulled Jerry’s information, and we resolved to visit him after we closed up. If Aiden got wind of what we were doing, he was likely to do something completely insane. We decided we would slip out after going home, as that would be the time the guards would least expect us to leave.
They watched us like hawks as we got into their SUV. We did the same routine we had done when leaving Aiden’s house. Two of the guards got into the van with us and the other one drove Penny’s car home. We waited again while they checked the house, and when we received the ok, we got out. We went to our respective rooms, and that’s when I encountered the problem.
Chapter 17
Aiden was in my room. Where my window used to be there was a metal sheetת and he was in the middle of soldering it to the window frame. “Real classy,” I said angrily. This is what came of involving Aiden in our issues. We should never have called him for help. I’d rather deal with two-faced Jerry, than an over controlling Fiancé. He turned at my comment.
“Hi sweetheart.”
“What the hell is this?” I asked, glaring at him.
“This is an extra security measure.”
“Aiden, my room is on the second floor, this is not to keep me safe, it’s to keep me confined.”
“Were you planning on going somewhere?” he asked, facing me
directly. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the new security feature, a knowing look on his face. “Maybe to see a certain someone named Jerry?”
“Oh, so you’re spying on me now?”
“Sweetheart, I don’t need to spy on you. You left the paper with the written conversation you had with Penny on your bed. It was out in the open for anyone to see.”
I silently cursed my own stupidity.
“Aiden, my room is private. What were you doing in my room in the first place if you weren’t here to snoop?”
“I was notified that you had a broken window and a busted door lock. I came to fix it.”
“Neither of which would have been broken in the first place if you had just respected my right to self determination.”
“I understand that you find it difficult to trust me, but how you could think that I would stoop to hiring a gun toting duo is beyond me. And right after our engagement party? Please,” he scoffed, “I am so much more calculating than that.”
“Well, at least you admit it,” I sneered.
“If you are determined to go see Jerry, we can go see him together,” he offered.
“That defeats the whole purpose Aiden, which you obviously already know since you read the damn paper!”
“Sweetheart, I could have easily called him before you got home and warned him about you coming.”
“So you’re saying my witness is compromised, and there is no point in going?”
“On the contrary, I think you should go and see for yourself that I was uninvolved in this whole fiasco.”
I felt like somehow I was being manipulated, but I couldn’t pinpoint how. His sudden transparency regarding the situation made everything seem even murkier. He really was a devious mastermind.
