Alex and Minna both pinned their gazes on her.
“That's me,” Evelyn said with a lift of her hand.
Dracht, scraping fingers thoughtfully through his goatee, asked, “And how did someone know that you specifically would come asking for it one day?”
“We chose my name as a password,” Evelyn explained. “It didn't really matter whose name became the key, so to speak, as long as we all remembered which one it was. As well, it didn't matter which daughter used the password. The disciple who wrote it intended it to be protection and perhaps explanation if our existence came to light.”
“That, and there is no other complete list of the daughters to be found anywhere else,” Minna said.
“Not the correct version anyway,” Alex added with a grunt.
“What if he asks you to lead them to the Garden of Eden?” Christian asked.
“You can't just walk in if you're not one of us. It takes permission and special circumstances. The Guardian has to allow it,” Evelyn said.
“Besides that, you can't find it without one of us. We're the only ones other than the Guardian who knows how to get to the Gate.” Alex spread her hands and clapped them back together again after she'd made her point.
“The Guardian?” Christian looked confused.
Evelyn glanced between the four men. “The Guardian of the East Gate?”
Christian looked blank.
“The angel God put there to protect the Tree of Life.” Rhett proved he knew a little more about it than Christian.
Evelyn nodded at the same time Alex and Minna did and said, “Correct. Not just the Tree of Life but the entire Garden.”
“Huh.” Dracht grunted, arms still crossed over his chest.
“All right. Make me a list of the names so I can give that to Father Valanzano before they try and find this box you're talking about. Then we'll wait for a reply while we're baiting the other Templars into a trap and go from there once they're in our custody. In the meantime, I've arranged for you to visit your sisters before their burial.” Dragar gestured to Dracht, Rhett and Christian. “You three come with me for a moment.”
“I'll make the list,” Minna offered, standing up.
“Thank you, Dragar. We'll see you all shortly.” Evelyn thought that went a lot better than she'd imagined. She stood up when Dragar nodded and met Rhett's gaze for a lingering beat while he filed out of the room behind his brothers. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.
“C'mon, Ev. Let's go get ready to say goodbye.” Alexandra slung an arm over Evelyn's shoulders and led her out of the room.
With a lot on his mind, Rhett followed his father and brothers through the halls to an enclosed office. Like the rest of the stronghold, the furniture was heavy, thick and sparse. A desk framed by walls of bookcases sat in the middle of the room. Three chairs with leather cushions and burnished studs offered seating. On any other day, the brothers would have sank into the comfortable confines for the oncoming conversation.
“Shut the door, Christian,” Dracht said with a gesture.
Christian closed the door behind him.
Rhett stood next to Dracht while his father perched on the corner of the desk, meeting each of their gazes dead on.
“The plan we discussed has been put into motion. False details were relayed that the girls would show up at the funeral for their sisters tomorrow. At the same time, I made a discreet call on a separate phone to Valanzano telling him that the girls would be transferred to one of the other safe houses here in Athens and that the funeral was to be used as a cover for the move. I have no doubt the Templars will intercept that phone call and show up at the safe house to try and nab them,” Dragar said.
“How many of us do you want at the safe house? If all nine show up, it could get messy. The element of surprise will help,” Christian said.
“I want you and Rhett here at the stronghold with the girls. Dracht, Raoul, Benecio and I will apprehend the men at the safe house along with some of the other Templars we've recalled from duty. Once we have them in custody, Dracht will call you while I inform Valanzano.”
“Who is going to Italy for the transfer of the Knights?” Dracht asked.
“I'll take Raoul and Benecio with me. The girls are more familiar with you three, so I want you here until we get the rest of this straightened out.”
“What about the visit to the mortuary today? You still want us to leave in separate cars?” Rhett asked, comfortable with all of the other plans. Everything, so far, was going according to their tentative schedule.
“Different cars, different departures. I can't imagine any of them would think we'd bring them here, but just in case they've outguessed us, I'd like to cover our actions as well as we're able,” Dragar replied.
“I'll take Alexandra with me and go out the back entrance,” Dracht said. “That'll split us up even more.”
Dragar inclined his head. “Good. Then I want everyone back here with no other stops in between. After that, it's just a waiting game until tomorrow.”
“I'll take personal pleasure in seeing the bastards brought in.” Rhett, annoyed that their own brothers had deceived them, looked forward to their capture.
Chapter Thirteen
“How are you feeling?” Rhett asked.
Evelyn watched the streets of Athen's whip by out the tinted windows of the car. They had left the stronghold separate from the others, staggering their departures as Rhett suggested. She'd added a cream colored, crocheted shirt over the lemon yellow one underneath, affixing the single button across her chest. Paired with the gray slacks, it would have to do for the impromptu viewing of her sisters. She wouldn't complain; she wasn't up for a shopping trip and there was no time for it anyway. She felt lucky that they were allowed this last chance to see the girls before they were buried.
“Better now that the truth is out and we can all move forward from this. I'm anxious to have the others in custody and to figure out what happens after that.”
“Soon. Dragar's got the names now thanks to Saul. He's getting a team together while we do this. It's just a matter of figuring out where they are,” Rhett said.
Evelyn admired him instead of the view. To go along with the jeans and dark blazer, he'd shaved and combed his hair away from his face. He'd never even met Galiana or Genevieve yet he took pains to look respectable. She knew he wore a holster under the blazer—probably wore it at all times—and the knowledge reassured her. Even with the wound she'd inflicted, Rhett was a force to be reckoned with.
“How did you get that scar above your eyebrow?” Evelyn gave in to curiosity at last.
“In Jakarta. Barroom brawl.” He smiled without taking his eyes off the road.
“...it wasn't from work?”
“No. Some drunk picked a fight when we were off duty. Christian and I almost got thrown in jail.” Rhett rumbled a laugh, obviously reminiscing.
“You're pretty close to your brothers.” She said it as a statement and not a question.
“I am. This has been our life since I can remember.”
“Do you ever wish you were doing something different? Living a more normal life?”
“Define normal. If you mean do I wish I was sitting at a desk all day punching numbers or some other typical job, then no. I like what I do, if that wasn't obvious.” He glanced at her.
Evelyn quirked her lips and looked out the front windshield.
“Why do I get the feeling that wasn't the right answer?” he asked.
“It's just dangerous, that's all.” With an abrupt change of subject, she asked, “How do we know the others aren't following us?”
Evelyn took his few seconds of silence to mean she'd caught him off guard with the swerve in topic. Either that, or Rhett was deciding whether or not to pursue the former subject.
“We don't. I've done my best to lose any tail in the city though. What's on your mind, Evelyn?” he asked.
“I don't know. I think I'm just moody about this. It's hard to say goodbye.” I
t was this and it was also other things she didn't know how to mention.
“Is that all?”
“Mostly. I have a bad feeling I can't put my finger on.”
“Do you get those feelings often?”
“Not really.”
“You're not reassuring me here, Evelyn.”
“It's hard to reassure you when I can't even reassure myself.”
Papadopoulos Mortuary felt as cold on the skin as a midwinter day. It seeped through the layers of clothing all the way to her bones. The sterile room in the back wasn't meant for guests or loved ones; it was a place to store coffins and bodies in the time between viewing and burial. The gray floor matched the gray walls and even the ceiling fit into the monochrome theme. It made the glossy, cherry wood caskets stand out like sore thumbs.
Evelyn stood next to Minna and Alexandra while an assistant opened the lids so the girls could say their final goodbye.
In her lifetime, Evelyn had experienced many deaths of her loved ones, and each time was just as hard as the last.
Galiana's skin was starting to mottle near the hairline and closer to the back of her neck. Her face, a ghastly whitish-blue, looked peaceful. Youthful. The inky web of her lashes fanned down over the high crest of her cheek. If she wasn't so pale, even with the light layer of make up, Evelyn would have thought she'd just been asleep.
An assistant at the mortuary had been kind enough to obtain clothing according to Evelyn's direction, so that Galiana would go to rest in a stylish dress of peach and cream. Genevieve, who'd suffered more physical facial damage than Galiana, was outfitted in the earth tones she always preferred.
With Rhett hovering at her back, she bent to place a small kiss on Genevieve and then Galiana's cheeks, restricting her tears to silent trails of saline that dripped harmlessly onto the satin lining the caskets.
Minna expended her grief in quiet breaths, murmuring soothing words while she stroked her hand over their hair and followed suit with a cheek kiss.
While Alex took her turn, Evelyn dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief Rhett pressed around her shoulder and into her fingers. She felt him touch the small of her back reassuringly, his broad stature like a wall looming behind her.
“You find some kick ass sales in heaven, Galiana, and we'll be seein' you sooner than you think,” Alexandra said.
“Alexandra.” Evelyn should have known Alex would say something like that.
She thought she heard Minna, Rhett, Dracht and Christian all muffle a laugh. Evelyn didn't know whether to be amused or beat her wayward sister to a pulp.
“What?” Alex said. “You know you were all thinking it.” Alex went over and kissed Genevieve's temple next. “Tell Eurijah I'll be taking that necklace back she 'borrowed' like a thousand years ago when I get up there. Love ya.”
The irony was that it had been a thousand years ago when Eurijah borrowed Alex's necklace and was never able to return it before her untimely death. Evelyn discovered she couldn't chide Alexandra for being herself. It was just her way, and probably made it easier to cope with the loss. Alex hadn't ever liked to show much emotion in front of anyone.
“If you two even think of snibbling and snarffling over me when I die, I'll kick both your butts when you get to heaven,” Alexandra announced when she turned from the caskets. She eyed Evelyn and Minna with her brows up.
The girl was impossible.
“Snibbling isn't even a word. Hush and let's go.” Evelyn pinched Alex's side to get her moving for the doors. She glanced a last time at Galiana and Genevieve before the assistant eased the lids back into place. Knowing that she would see them again was the only thing that kept her from breaking down completely.
Rhett caught her elbow with his fingers and steered her toward the back entrance. “Your sister is something,” he murmured near her ear.
“She's always been blunt. I suppose it's a coping mechanism or something on days like today.” Evelyn pushed the handkerchief into her pocket to return to him later, after she'd washed it.
“I'm sorry you won't be able to go to the cemetery. But at least you'll know that they'll be buried like you wanted. Once this is all over, we can do a memorial if you'd like the proper way.” He led her out the back door and into the sunlight.
“That might be a good idea.” Evelyn and her surviving sisters hadn't ever had a memorial for any of them before. It had felt too risky to gather in one place in case they were being watched. Usually they were on the run by then, doing their best to stay one step ahead of the Templars. Alex would balk at the thought. She couldn't be sure what Minna would say.
While the others parted off in pairs to travel back to the stronghold, Evelyn walked with Rhett to their car. He went around to open the passenger door for her and closed it once she was inside.
Evelyn tracked him in the rear view mirror while he made his way around to the driver's side. She could still smell the subtle scent of his cologne on her clothes and the seats. When he got in, she examined his profile while he slid the key into the ignition. The engine growled to life. They were slated to leave a few minutes before the others, staggering their exit like they had from the stronghold.
“Do you think we'll ever be able to live like we used to, Rhett? In our own houses in the cities of our choices?” she asked. He glanced at her, the pale green of his eyes serious.
“I'm sure you will. It'll all depend on how much protection we think you need, what you're willing to accept, and where you all want to live, really.”
“We'd planned to move back here in the not too distant future. Crete, maybe. I don't know what the girls will want to do now, but I know we won't be splitting up to live separately again.”
“You lived apart before?” He backed the sleek vehicle out of the slot, one arm slung behind her seat. Once clear, he put the car in gear and cruised toward the street.
“We scattered across the globe after Eurijah was killed. We wanted to make it harder to track us down. And if they did manage to find us, then at least we wouldn't put any other sisters in jeopardy by living together. That was our thinking. But finally, when so many decades went by without an attack, we felt pretty secure living close to one another again. Now I doubt I could be separated from them for very long.”
“You shouldn't have to worry about it after this. You can live anywhere you want to.”
“Will you and your brothers go anywhere we go? I mean, won't that be disruptive for you?”
Rhett stopped at a red light and searched her eyes. He said nothing for long seconds. “For a while. At some point I'm going to pick a home base and settle there, start a family of my own. It isn't something I've considered so far due to my lifestyle. They'll replace me with someone you can trust.”
Evelyn was unprepared for the stab of jealousy that hit her. She had no right to feel so possessive over him after knowing him such a short time. Or did she? They'd shared more than just a kiss, and their situation was far from some casual meeting in a club or at a party. They'd been chased, shot at, hunted. He'd put himself in the line of fire for her.
Remembering the look they shared the night before across the sand pit, her cheeks flushed. She would have bet in that moment he felt just as possessive over her.
“So you can have little Templars of your own to train and get into the family business, I'm sure.” She didn't phrase it as a question. Templars were generational. Of course Rhett would eventually settle down and have children of his own.
Evelyn hated the thought of him growing old, growing infirm and feeble.
“I don't know how the kid thing works for you. Have you had any?” he asked.
“Alexandra and I are the only two that haven't. I chose not to because the thought of watching them grow old and die didn't appeal to me. Alexandra just isn't the motherly type, not really.”
“How did you 'choose' not to back before there was birth control?”
Evelyn studied his face while he drove. Confiding in him shouldn't be so easy. “Like our abi
lity to heal, we have an innate knowledge of when the precise time is to conceive. So if you don't want to, then you avoid relations with men until that time has passed.”
“Very handy little extra sense. I guess you're not susceptible to disease or anything like that then?”
“No. Though if we ingested enough poison or something like that, we'll die.” She watched his reactions while he took a longer route back to the stronghold. By the way he watched the rear view and side mirrors, she knew he was making sure he lost any kind of tail.
“Does the immortality get passed down to the children?”
“No. That comes from eating fruit from the Tree of Life.” Evelyn folded her hands in her lap, memorizing the strength of his jaw, the masculine bridge of his nose. The scar above his eyebrow only added to his appeal in her mind.
Rhett met her eyes and held them at the next red light.
He said nothing else for the rest of the trip to the stronghold.
The scent of grilled chicken wafted through the kitchen. Evelyn, impressed with how well equipped it was, decided to help Rhett make dinner. Not bothering to change, she'd found a full length apron to don over her clothing, the strings wrapped twice around her hips and tied off in the front.
Dusk had settled over the landscape a few minutes before, bleeding orange fingers of light through the windows.
“Smells pretty good,” Rhett said from the island where he stood piling ears of corn wrapped in foil from the grill onto a plate. “There's salad fixings in the fridge, too. We can do that last.”
“How many months out of the year do you live here?” she asked, turning over a few pieces of chicken with the tongs. An overhead vent quietly pulled the rising steam away.
“Months? I don't stay for months at a time anywhere. I move between the strongholds and houses depending on where I'm needed to work,” he said, setting down his own pair of tongs.
“Oh. You don't have a place of your own for vacations and things like that?” she asked, glancing over at him.
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