In the Ruins (Metahuman Files Book 2)

by Hailey Turner

  What Sakura was known for beyond the décor was how each table was set. Chairs were situated around a black marble table whose highlight was the naked young man or woman that lay on it, their bodies absolute toned perfection that lines of freshly made sushi and sashimi were delicately draped over to cover every inch of skin. A thin strip of black silk was draped over their hips only, while their faces were made up in the style of Japanese geishas or traditional opera masks. The food at Sakura was exquisite, but Jamie could have done without the pageantry.

  Jamie made his way to the hostess, who was checking in several parties, deftly handling their need to be attended to first. The next group in line was whisked away to their table and Jamie stepped up to the small dais, smiling at the hostess. “Reservation for Callahan.”

  The woman glanced down at the information coming up between her fingers and the data rings she wore on her left hand. She quickly tapped out a command on the holographic display before folding her fingers together in a loose fist to close it out.

  “Of course, sir. Your party is waiting.”

  A kimono-garbed young woman stepped forward and smoothly gestured for him to follow her. They took a meandering path around private dining nooks and small bridges set over the koi pond bubbling underfoot. Jamie glanced down at the brightly colored koi fish that swam lazily beneath the lights and glass flooring in certain areas, drifting through the bends of the pond.

  The woman bowed him into the dining area his mother had reserved beneath the outstretched branches of a cherry blossom tree in constant full bloom. The silk-screen walls were woven through with nanotech fibers to better employ electronic jammers for privacy. Patrons were free to use their own tech, but the layers of security ensured a private conversation would remain private within each dining nook. Knowing his father, Jamie was sure those precautions were already being utilized.

  Three of the four low-backed seats were taken while the young woman lying on the table with her eyes closed remained absolutely still as Jamie’s family picked pieces of sushi off her body. Jamie glanced at her ears, noting the silencing plugs that would keep her deaf for the duration of their dinner and ignorant of anything discussed in her presence. She was beautiful, because the restaurant only provided beautiful people for its customers’ enjoyment, but Jamie couldn’t help but think he’d have a better time eating off of Kyle than a complete stranger.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Jamie said as he took a seat at the table beside his younger sister.

  “Glad to see you actually made it out this time,” Leah Callahan said with a quick smile that mostly took the sting out of her words.

  At twenty-five, Leah Callahan had grown into a gorgeous young woman Jamie hardly recognized. Having spent a dozen years away in the military with little extended leave, he’d missed his little sister’s transition from child to adult. Holopics on society and celebrity gossip sites didn’t do her justice, in his humble opinion. Her long blonde hair fell in loose curls down her back, the ends dyed a shimmering pale pink that changed color depending on how the light hit it. Her form-fitting cobalt blue dress with discreet cutouts was the height of current fashion. Her blue eyes were surrounded by smoky shadow that helped emphasize the color.

  Good genes could be designed, and most families they knew tweaked something in their children while in utero, but the Callahans had never done so for their generation. They hadn’t needed to.

  Jamie pressed a kiss to his sister’s cheek. “Good to see you, too, Leah.”

  “You look well,” his mother said from the opposite side of the table as she peeled a piece of tuna sashimi off the young woman’s collarbone. “Was the flight over very long?”

  “Not any longer than usual.”

  “It’s a wonder we never see you more often then.”

  Charlotte Jacqueline Callahan, née Montgomery, was a woman who knew how to make her words hurt without even trying. Jamie really shouldn’t have been surprised dinner was starting out this way.

  Jamie looked across the table and met his mother’s cool gaze with unblinking eyes. Charlotte was gorgeous and looked more like a woman in her early forties than one in her mid-fifties. No wrinkles marred her face, her pale, smooth skin the only enhancement she ever allowed herself. In her day and age, she’d been a beauty who had broken hearts across continents before falling for his father. They made a striking couple even now. Jamie had her hair coloring, whereas his glacial blue eyes came from his father, and he seemed to have acquired both their senses of stubbornness, much to their displeasure.

  Charlotte wore a black and white, off-the-shoulder silk brocade dress that complemented his father’s suit perfectly. Her blonde hair was swept up in a sleek chignon, revealing a choker of diamonds wrapped around her throat that sparkled in the light. Jamie let his gaze drift from her to his father, unsurprised to see Richard Callahan studying him just as intently.

  “You should be more punctual,” Richard said after a brief, tense pause.

  “Work ran long,” Jamie replied evenly. “I couldn’t very well leave before everything was finished. My job will always take precedent over everything else, Father. You know that.”

  “Is that so?”

  Jamie bit back a sigh as he poured himself a glass of nigori sake, resigned to an acrimonious meal. Jamie was reminded of the stark difference between meals with his family and meals with his team. He never seemed to be short of words with the people who were his teammates and friends, but when it came to his family, Jamie was finding himself at a loss more and more these days. It’s not that he didn’t love his family, but the friction his choices in life had created between them always made it difficult for everyone to come together without fighting. Things had become worse since his father officially announced his campaign to run for president back in early December.

  The end of the presidential election was a little over a year and a half away, which was a veritable lifetime in politics. The fight for prominence was going to be a slog for all parties, but the Republicans had it worse, coming off a two-term president. Rarely did the party in power win the presidency three times in a row, but Richard Callahan was determined to do so. As the current Senate Majority Leader, Jamie’s father had the political clout and the financial wherewithal to win his party’s nomination. The presidency was a prize he wouldn’t give up without a fight, which meant their family was all-in, whether they wanted to be or not.

  The midterm election last year resulted in the Democrats still controlling the House with the help of Independents, and the Republicans holding the Senate by a slim one seat margin of majority. Richard was still the Senate Majority Leader, but it was a tenuous position at the moment. Jamie didn’t know how his father was going to juggle a presidential campaign with the rigors of bringing his sometimes fractious party under control for votes.

  It was only the middle of January, and the political and media minefield Jamie was staring down for the next few years because of his father’s decision was enough to give him a headache, if he could even get those anymore. As a metahuman, Jamie’s enhanced strength and durability meant it took a very hard hit to make an injury of any kind stick.

  “We’ve gone over this, Jamie. Your family needs to come first,” Richard said.

  “You do,” Jamie replied shortly. He picked up his metal chopsticks and pulled several pieces of sushi off the woman’s body, one at a time, and put them on his plate. “It’s why I do the job that I do.”

  “And I decided to run for president because I love this country just as much, if not more, than you do. I serve, as you do. It’s time you showed up to support me.”

  Jamie shoved a piece of tuna into his mouth and chewed slowly in an effort to clamp down on his rising anger. Beside him, Leah tapped away at her slim tablet, very much unwilling to join the conversation, while Charlotte watched her husband and son tear at each other using words as weapons. His mother’s silence spoke of her position better than if she’d joined the argument.

  Jamie swallowe
d his bite of sushi with effort before taking a sip of sake. “I could have sworn I told you last year that I wouldn’t let you use me for your own gain.”

  Richard’s gaze went cold and assessing, reminding Jamie of several COs he’d had in the past who hadn’t much cared for him on a personal level. Jamie didn’t shift beneath his father’s attention, merely systematically devoured the pieces of sushi he’d put on his plate before reaching for more.

  “That was uncalled for, Jamie,” Charlotte admonished.

  “There are laws in this country detailing why I can’t parade myself around in uniform for your campaign. I need the both of you to remember and respect that, because I’m not crossing that line for your political gain,” Jamie reminded them.

  Despite being deployed Stateside with the MDF now, Jamie didn’t see his family all that often. Metahumans who worked for the government were required by law to keep their identities secret. That was extremely difficult when it came to his well-known family. If he ever left for civilian life, his identity could be revealed, a fact his father had been reminding him about for months already.

  “I don’t require you in uniform, I merely require you here, with your family,” Richard replied sharply. “I announced my candidacy on December seventh. The media asked about you the very next day. Hiding isn’t going to make this go away, Jamie.”

  “Then perhaps you should stick to the excuse you’ve used for years when it comes to my absence—that I’m deployed and unavailable.”

  “That story becomes difficult to believe when you’re seen in public around D.C.”

  “Then tell them it’s none of their business.”

  “I’ll do no such thing. That will only invite them to keep digging.”

  “Then it seems we’re at a stalemate.” Jamie dipped his piece of salmon in his sister’s tiny bowl of soy sauce rather than pour his own. He’d always used her soy sauce if they sat next to each other during the meal since they were little children. Leah had a tendency to over-pour the salty condiment, providing enough for two people, and never minded the amount of wasabi Jamie mixed in. They ended up with a nice compromise neither had given up on over the years. “Don’t expect me to cave, father. If I won’t cave for the enemy, I won’t cave for you.”

  Richard’s eyes narrowed as he set down his chopsticks. “Is that what you see your family as? The enemy?”

  Jamie was out of practice when it came to fighting with his family. That was a poor choice of words, in retrospect, but he’d said them. What’s more, he’d meant them. “I have never seen you as my enemy. Your job, however, is detrimental to mine in the sense that it threatens my classified identity.”

  “You were ours first, Jamie,” Charlotte said quietly as she studied him.

  Jamie set down his chopsticks, the few pieces of sushi he’d eaten souring in his stomach. “I will always be your son, Mother. But what I am now is something I can’t walk away from. You’ll support Father’s ambitions, so why can’t you do the same for mine?”

  “Because Richard’s ambitions won’t get him killed.”

  And therein lay the crux of the matter. A mother’s love for her children, as distant and as cool as Charlotte had loved them at times, was still love. She’d carried them both in her body, eschewing a surrogate over wanting to feel them alive in her womb. His mother had never stopped loving him, even when he’d been breaking her heart with his decision to stay in uniform again and again and again.

  Jamie knew he wouldn’t ever stop breaking his mother’s heart.

  “I’m sorry my choices keep hurting you, but the work I do is important to me,” Jamie said.

  “And you will always be important to us.” Charlotte took a sip of her sake-based cocktail before meeting his gaze. “But you know where we stand in regards to your job.”

  Jamie knew his mother dreamed of the day he would retire from the MDF and choose a less dangerous life. Leaving wouldn’t stop him being a metahuman and neither would it stop her from reliving the day she almost lost him. No matter what path he chose, Jamie knew one or both of them would be forever unhappy.

  “I have balanced my time as best I can between my duties at work and the ones at home,” he said.

  “It’s not enough,” Richard replied.

  Unspoken went his parents’ opinion that it would never be enough. Jamie prided himself on being an excellent commander who did his best to find the best path forward, but he didn’t know how to dig his way out of this hole. Going on four years of having this same sort of argument had yet to fix anything.

  “What would you have me do?” Jamie asked irritably. “You say you want me with you, but you know I can’t risk my identity.”

  “No one sees your face when your work takes you into the field.”

  “That’s not the point. Showing up once won’t be enough for you. It never is.”

  “Then maybe you should think about cutting back on your work if you won’t outright quit. Change teams or take up a desk job. Something that doesn’t have you fighting in such a way that you show up in the news and have to risk your life all the time,” Charlotte said more than a little tartly.

  The sudden shortness of breath Jamie experienced at her words was something he fought hard to get under control without anyone noticing. It took him only a few seconds, but it felt longer in some ways. The mere thought of someone else leading his team was a nightmare he’d dreamed too many times to count over the years, and the panic blooming in his chest was difficult to get under control.

  “I’m not going to ask to be reassigned, Mother. My team needs me,” Jamie got out in a mostly steady voice.

  “Your family needs you more.”

  What Charlotte didn’t understand, and probably never would, was that his team was family. They were his, and always would be, chosen by luck and chance, forged through the brotherhood of war none of them could ever leave behind. Trying to make his parents understand that was a futile effort.

  “Your mother is right, Jamie. If you can’t make the next campaign stop, we can work you into one later this month or in early February. Your sister has been doing more than her fair share of appearances during this initial stage. It’s time you helped out as well,” Richard said into the silence that settled over the table.

  “No,” Jamie said.

  “This attitude of yours is unacceptable.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t be the son you want. I wish things could be different, but they aren’t. My answer is not going to change.”

  Pulling the napkin off his lap, Jamie set it on the table and pushed himself to his feet. Leah finally pried her eyes away from her tablet, gaze swiftly glancing around the table to take in the lines drawn, once again, within the family. “Well, that lasted longer than I expected.”

  “Now is not the time, Leah,” Richard snapped, gaze locked on Jamie.

  “It seems my continued presence will simply spoil the mood and the meal for everyone. I’ll take my leave,” Jamie said in a ruthlessly polite voice. “If you’ll excuse me.”

  Richard raised an eyebrow, staring him down. For all that he put forth a calm, unruffled appearance to the world, Jamie knew where to find the glimmers of his father’s anger. “Running away won’t make this problem you insist on ignoring disappear.”

  “No, it won’t. But neither will my staying fix it. Good night, everyone.”

  Jamie turned his back on his family and left their dining nook with measured strides. He kept his expression neutral from long practice. If there was anything his family and the Marine Corps had in common, it was the way they taught you to never show your true feelings to the world at large, and to always wear a calm expression.

  He’d just managed to exit the restaurant and head through the outside lobby for the central elevator bank when a familiar voice called out to him.

  “Jamie, wait!”

  Jamie swore softly before turning around to face his sister. Leah hurried out of the restaurant, purse in hand, the buttons of her fashionable
trench coat undone. Behind her strode the pair of bodyguards she never went anywhere without, both of whom rocked to a hard halt once they saw she was with him, keeping a polite distance.

  Leah frowned at him as she approached, long legs eating the distance between them. She came to a stop in front of him, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. Jamie was surprised to see that she nearly matched his height of six feet two in the five-inch heels she wore.

  “Drive me home,” Leah told him.

  “I’m really not in the mood for an argument, Leah.”

  “Mother and Father think I left to try to talk some sense into you, but we both know that’s not going to happen. I don’t want to stay with them after the mood you put Father in. So you can do me the courtesy of driving me home before you head back to D.C. Your bag is back home anyway, isn’t it? You were supposed to stay for a couple of days, but I know that’s not happening.”

  “All right,” Jamie conceded, offering her his arm. He looked over her shoulder at her bodyguards, tilting his head in a dismissing manner. The two men slipped back inside the restaurant with silent affirming nods of their own.

  If it were anyone else but him, Jamie knew Leah’s bodyguards would never leave her. But the men and women the Callahans employed for their private security knew Jamie could handle any threat that came at him or his sister. Several of the long-time employed bodyguards knew of his status as a metahuman and had been duly sworn to secrecy when they accompanied his family to his recovery at the MDF. Their nondisclosure agreements had been written by extremely ruthless government attorneys. He was pretty sure a clause about jail time if they so much as thought about him being a metahuman had been squeezed into the document.

  Leah slipped her hand around the crook of his elbow and matched her stride to his. The multitude of gold and diamond bracelets and rings she wore sparkled in the light as they headed for the elevators that would take them to the lower levels. Jamie didn’t remember his sister wearing so much jewelry the last time he saw her.