Fighting Fate: Book 2 of the Warrior Chronicles

by Leigh Morgan

  “He’s been hanging out with Thorson. The two of them really clicked. They were up all night talking about Camelot of all things. I went to bed when they started in on what they termed that damned Scottish play.” Said Jordon. He downed the last of his coffee, slapped the table, and continued in his over-the-top pirate voice, “All aboard who’s coming aboard.”

  And their merry band left for the boat.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Once they got to the boat and started it, Jordon jumped off. “Jesse’ll man her. I just remembered I need to be somewhere else this morning.” And he was gone.

  “What was that all about?” Taryn asked Jesse.

  Jesse shrugged. “That’s Jordon for you. You never know when the mood will strike and he’s off to do something he momentarily forgot was on his agenda. Only Jordon never forgets anything so he probably never intended to go with us.”

  “Well that’s as clear as mud.”

  “Welcome to my world.”

  “Can you handle this boat, it’s rather large.”

  “Oh, I can handle the big ones just fine, my lady. No worries.” Jesse grinned at her and made his way to the wheel.

  Lauren sat Olive and Taryn in their seats, helping to secure them. “Would you like me to secure your bag Ms. Campbell?” Lauren asked Olive, always the gentleman.

  “No thank you. I believe I’ll hang on to it.”

  Taryn slapped a Life is Good baseball cap on her head, slid her aviator sunglasses higher on her nose, and sat back in her seat, enjoying the fine mist of lake water on her face as Jesse sped away from the dock.

  They were in the middle of the lake when Olive put the first bullet in Lauren’s leg. “Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll be taking that pendant from you.”

  Lauren didn’t seem the least bit surprised. Taryn could hardly move. Lauren was bleeding from his calf, through his khaki slacks, turning the material a grotesque bronze. The sight of the blood galvanized Taryn. She rushed to Lauren, pulling off the frog tank Reed had given her as she went.

  The second shot hit the deck right next to her, making a spitting noise that was all but drowned out by the movement of the boat. She didn’t know much about guns, but she watched a lot of documentaries out of professional habit, and she recognized that sound. Her aunt was holding a .22 caliber hand gun, preferred by many assassins. Accurate and lethal if one hit a vital organ or the brain stem. If not, there was hope for survival. Taryn ignored the shot and made a tourniquet above Lauren’s wound with her tank.

  “Somehow, I pictured you undressing for me a little differently.”

  “Shut up you idiot. You’ve been shot.”

  Lauren winced as she tightened the knot. “I noticed.”

  “Taryn, darling, I will shoot him again if you don’t do exactly what I say. Look up dear.”

  Taryn finished off her work and did as bidden, still kneeling at Lauren’s feet. She saw Jesse in the area reserved for the captain, manning the boat. He was looking straight at her, both hands on the controls. The red dot, clearly visible on his white polo shirt, was from a laser sight. Taryn whipped her head around, looking for a shooter. There were no boats right next to them and they were at least a mile from shore. Jesse saw the dot too. The controlled fury on his face said that.

  Lauren looked down at her when her eyes swung back to him in what-do-we-do-now panic. Her gaze moved to his hand where he’d moved it out of Olive’s line of vision. He gave her the hand signal he always used every Thursday before they raced. For them it had come to mean, swim your heart out and I’ll meet you on the other side. What he said was, “Do what she says, Taryn”

  When Taryn moved away Lauren had a red dot on his chest too. “Just in case your heroism gene kicks in, Taryn, I want you to know at least one of them will die.”

  “You can’t possibly hope to get away with this, Aunt Olive. You’re in the middle of a lake in Wisconsin. Even if you do manage to get away, Jordon has resources all over the world. He’ll find you and he’ll kill you.”

  Olive’s smile turned as serpentine as the cold calculation in her pale eyes. Taryn hadn’t realized before that moment that her aunt was a sociopath. The old bitch hid it well. Taryn stood less than an arm’s length away from Lauren, realizing the boat had stopped and they were merely idling, rocking with the gentle sway of the waves. No one around them seemed to be paying any attention at all. No one knew they were a heartbeat from their last. Helpless anger washed over Taryn, making bile rise, burning the back of her throat.

  “Did Mary tell you she had cancer? Were you too preoccupied globe-trotting to even notice how sick she’d become? You always were a self absorbed little cunt. No wonder she went through her treatments alone. Pity it didn’t kill her.” Olive’s smile widened as she waved the small black gun in her hand. She looked at the antique, small faced diamond watch on her left wrist. “No matter, the poison I put in their food this morning ought to be making all four of them sick right about now.”

  Taryn’s blood ran cold. “Four of them?”

  “Mary, Reed, Daisy and your new friend, Mari. Mari hadn’t been part of the initial plan, but when I found out she was the one who made the Goddess replicas, I added her to the list.” Olive shrugged. “It seemed only fitting you should lose your only friend and the one who has the means to help you bring secret teachings to the masses. I believe that’s how you phrased your mission at dinner last night.”

  “You are a dead woman.” Lauren said.

  “Perhaps. Or perhaps I walk off this boat with the full cooperation of Jordon Bennett. I am the only one who has the antidote to the poison I’ve administered. I’ll let him choose, his daughter or his wife. One will live. One will die, along with Mary Campbell and Taryn’s friend.”

  “Why do you hate my mother? What has Mary ever done to you?”

  “She made my brother, weak man that he was, adopt you.”

  “You’d do this to your brother’s family?”

  Olive laughed. “I did this to him too, with the same elegant, untraceable poison.”

  “You hated him so much?” Taryn’s heart contracted, how could she have been so blind? Malevolence emanated from Olive, battering Taryn with invisible waves of toxicity.

  “Oh yes, but not half as much as I loath you. Sacred Springs should have been mine. It moved from eldest female to eldest female in our family until our mother deeded it to James. She said she saw darkness in me, and that the land must be nurtured by those possessing the light. What she saw in me was power. James was weak. His quest was for truth. Mine is for knowledge. With that knowledge I will wield the power of the divine.”

  “You’re mad.”

  “Quite. Now, be a good girl and hand over the goddess you took from the well.” Olive said, leveling the gun once more at Taryn’s chest.

  Taryn pulled the pendant from her sports bra over her head. She held it by the leather cord over the side of the boat. “Can you swim, Aunt Olive?” she said, her voice deceptively calm.

  “Rest assured, if you drop that, I will find it and you will be responsible for the immediate deaths of your husband and your lover. Somehow I don’t think you’ll be able to live with yourself should that happen. And I’ll make it happen, Taryn. Now put the pendant in the wooden box in my bag.” Olive kicked her bag across to Taryn. It landed at Lauren’s feet.

  Taryn didn’t see the red dot on MacBain’s chest flicker off. Nor did she see the six red dots that peppered her aunt’s back at the spot where her heart should have been.

  Taryn moved from the edge and grabbed Olive’s bag, deceptively innocuous with its bold sunflowers all over it. Taryn treated it like it held a nest of vipers. She found the box and slipped the pendant inside, securing it again.

  “Now, the bracelet. I wouldn’t want to leave without my brother’s life’s work.”

  Taryn’s head jerked up. The pendant was one thing. Her legacy from her father was quite another. “Why didn’t you just kill me when you killed my father?” The w
ords stuck in Taryn’s throat. Saying them aloud cauterized the pain of his death, leaving righteous anger in its place. One doesn’t attack from a place of emotion. One reacts from a place of emptiness.

  Taryn stood, bracelet still on her wrist. Sensei was right, emptiness was making Olive strong. If Taryn wanted to defeat her, she’d have to channel it too. “Answer me, Aunt Olive.”

  “So, the bastard tiger finally shows her claws. Alright, I’ll satiate your curiosity.” Olive shook her head in mock dismay. Taryn recognized the pride in her intellectual superiority coming to light. Olive was at her core a narcissist. She couldn’t help showing others how smart she was or how stupid they were in comparison. Her eyes lit with the fever of her genius. Now she’s no longer empty.

  “Thirty-three is a sacred number to the druids. Ovates study for twenty years before they exist. Your father began your training at thirteen. I knew he found various items from antiquity, The Druid’s Scroll, Ceridwen’s Cauldron, the Goddess Compass and so many more. I had his office searched, stole his journals, but nothing. Not one clue. When I was told of the package you received from James’s attorney on your thirty-third birthday, I knew he’d given you all the clues he’d found. He gave you the map and the key.”

  Taryn inched closer to Lauren during Olive’s bone chilling recitation. She was so wrapped up in her genius she didn’t seem to notice. Taryn spared a quick glance at Jesse who remained in exactly the same spot, although his hands now were out of sight.

  “My patience paid off. I shall drink from the well and be healed. I alone shall channel the power of the old ones…” the maniacal gleam in Olives eyes told her that her aunt would stop at nothing in her quest to kill the people Taryn loved.

  With a quick jerk of her head she hoped Jesse would understand, Taryn made the hand gesture to Lauren a tenth of a second before she jumped in front of him, forcing him over the side. Time slowed for Taryn as she saw Olive lift the gun and fire. Taryn heard the soft spit of the bullet before she felt her upper body jerk, the momentum carrying her over the side. Before she hit the water, she felt the boat shake with a heavy impact.

  Taryn hit the water and heard nothing but the rushing of water in her ears and the pumping of her heart as she bled into the lake, one thought coursing through her mind. Swim.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  “Did you know Merlin has a doctorate in chemistry from Edinburgh University? He also has some sort of degree in herbology. How cool is that?” Daisy’s enthused voice slipped past the cloud in Taryn’s head as she opened her eyes.

  The first thing she noticed was that she was in a giant bed with burgundy sheets, which was convenient if she bled all over them. The second thing she noticed was that she was clean and dry. The third thing she noticed was tightness around her chest, but surprisingly very little pain.

  “Daisy, give her some room to breathe.” Jesse said.

  His voice brought it all back, the shot, the fall to the water, the sudden pain in her chest, but her memory was hazy and disjointed and she struggled to make it clear. There was a hand on her shoulder and then Merlin’s calming voice in her head. Don’t move, you’ll tear your wound. I’ve given you something for the pain, but you swam close to a mile before Jesse’s men fished you and Lauren out of the water, so there’s some damage that will take time to heal.

  “I put your pendant around your neck. I think in the time you let me wear it I grew an inch.” Daisy said.

  “You had your sister’s pendant less than four hours, sweetheart. I don’t think you grew an inch in that much time.” Reed said.

  Taryn pushed Merlin’s hand away and struggled into a sitting position, her head clearing with the pain the movement caused. “The poison?” she managed, her throat suddenly dry. Mary Campbell handed her an insulated cup full of ice-cold water with a thick bendy straw.

  “We were never poisoned.” Mary said.

  Taryn’s gaze traveled the room looking for Jesse. She spotted him, standing away from the rest of his family, who took up the circumference of the bed. Jesse’s arms were across his chest and his expression was shuttered, like a stray dog unsure of his welcome.

  Mary urged her to take another sip of water while sending Jesse a glance that she’d seen her mother wear before, when as a young girl Taryn had gotten in a heap of trouble and had to explain something to her father. That look said, be brave, child. I’m on your side, and it scared the shit out of Taryn now.

  “Jesse? What’s going on?”

  Everyone in the room quieted. Merlin took a step back and seemed to fade from her sight, yet she could still feel him. Mary moved to stand beside Reed and Daisy. Jordon moved to Jesse’s side but remained silent. Mari took Magnus’s hand, keeping her eyes down. Jesse’s voice held no emotion as he spoke.

  “I suspected Olive immediately after the abduction attempt the day we met. Someone besides me had been trailing you, reporting to an international number in the UK. By the time you disappeared in Wiltshire, I knew for certain. That’s one of the reasons I was so scared when you ran from me.” Jesse heaved as though the simple act of breathing had become difficult.

  “I suspected she may have harmed your father, and since there was no autopsy, Henry arranged to get what samples were still viable. Although we couldn’t confirm that he’d been poisoned, all the indicators were there.”

  Jesse nodded at Merlin. “Merlin came to me with his own suspicions and a vial of liquid he’d taken from Olive’s bag. We had it analyzed, and found that what Merlin stole was lethal enough to have wiped out everyone in this room. Merlin was the one who synthesized an antidote.”

  “It’s not an antidote, really. It’s more of a neutralizing agent.” Merlin said with a shrug.

  “Everyone took it this morning. Including you.” Jesse’s mouth quirked in an almost sad, half smile. “Thorson put it in those small haggis sausages you devoured. You ate so many I was afraid you’d make yourself sick.”

  “But I thought you were kept out of the plan for keeping me safe?” Taryn said, confused.

  “That’s what you and your aunt needed to think. If she thought I was part of it, she might have figured out that I knew she was the one trying to hurt you.”

  “And the boat?”

  “It was a calculated risk. We wanted Olive to make her stand there. We wanted her to feel it was secure and she could easily get away. Henry had six teams on the water and four more with sniper rifles on shore. We couldn’t risk searching Olive’s bag, and once we found out about the poison, it was my thought that the risk to you from Olive would be controllable. I didn’t believe the probability of her actually being armed herself was very high.”

  “None of us did.” Jordon said. Jesse ignored him, content to take what he must have thought was his share, the full share, of the blame for that misstep.

  “Where’s Lauren?”

  Jesse’s eyes closed as if the question brought him pain and Taryn’s gut twisted as she sobbed, “No.”

  “He’s being debriefed by Henry right now” said Jordon. “There were shots fired, Taryn, and the police may come calling. Our stories need to be consistent.” Jesse was staring at her stoically, like he had some reason to be feeling guilty.

  “And Aunt Olive? Where is she?”

  Jesse stood tall and strong before her, like a general at his court-martial, proud, making no excuses for his actions, certain his chosen path was true. Jesse was kind. He was also a hard man. Taryn had no idea just how hard until that moment.

  “On her way to the morgue.”

  “What happened?”

  “She shot you. I jumped down and shot her full of the poison she brought to kill my family. You and Lauren were ultimately fished out and brought here. I took my time getting to shore. Once there, I called the paramedics, saying Olive collapsed and just stopped breathing, which was true. I also told them I tried to resuscitate her, which was not true. When they look they will find evidence of a resuscitation attempt. She was old. She was fragile. She had a
heart attack and slipped away while you and MacBain decided to swim.”

  Jesse waited. Taryn wasn’t sure what he wanted from her, so she simply gave him the truth. “She killed my father. She tried to kill my mother, and yours. She would have made Jordon choose between his wife and his daughter. She would have killed Mari simply for being my friend. She was evil and she never would have stopped harming people.”

  Taryn looked into Jesse’s eyes, not feeling any remorse for the older woman’s death or the manner of it.

  “I’m glad the bitch is dead.”

  …

  It took three weeks for Taryn to fully heal. MacBain was up and about in half that time, reminding Jesse every chance he got that he was the one who’d taken a bullet for Taryn. Now that the danger to Taryn was over, MacBain teased him mercilessly.

  “It was only a flesh wound, MacBain. Let it go.”

  “Never mate. Going to remind you of it every chance I get.”

  “Don’t you have a home to go to?”

  “I do. I’ve also got a Bringer of the Light to protect.”

  “You’re going to be a thorn in my side forever, aren’t you?”

  “Only if I’m very lucky.”

  “I despise you. You know that, right?”

  “I believe you’ve mentioned it, once or twice.” MacBain said throwing down a pair of jacks.

  Shannon O’Shay tossed down a full house taking the pot. “Get a room, already. You two are worse than any old married couple I’ve ever met.”

  “The only old married couple you know is Seamus and Mary and they haven’t been married long enough to snipe at one another.”

  “Speaking of marriage, has mom agreed to marry you?” Magnus asked.

  Shay scowled around a huge unlit cigar. He wouldn’t harm his body by actually smoking the thing, but he was feeling like chewing on something since the last time Mari turned him down. “Not yet.”