by Gloria Craw
“She’s staying close to the phone. Lisa is due to have the baby any day now.” He turned to address me. “This will be our first grandchild.”
“Oh, congratulations,” I replied.
He shifted his weight from one ski to the other. “Well, I’ll leave you girls to enjoy the day. If I don’t start at the back of the line, people might riot.”
He patted Phoebe’s back and nodded at me before moving away.
“He seems nice,” I remarked.
“He is nice, but he can get odd sometimes. He’s obsessed with some kind of laboratory science. My dad nicknamed him the Nutty Professor. When he’s got something going, he can get so caught up in it that he doesn’t remember his own name.”
The way she described him reminded me of Lillian. Too bad Uncle Thomas was already likenessed to someone. If he hadn’t been Truss, he and Lillian might have made an interesting pair.
Phoebe and I did two runs. We talked on the rides up and laughed on the way down. She had opinions about everything from what music I should listen to, Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco, to what the US involvement in the Middle East should be. There was nothing fake about Phoebe. What you saw was what you got. She had a big nose, a loud voice, and an active mind. She was okay with all three.
The sad thing was that we could have been friends if I hadn’t been sent to betray her.
We were heading to the lodge to get some hot chocolate when she said, “I’m actually glad my creep brother cut me off yesterday.”
“Why?”
“Because if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have ended up bleeding all over and you wouldn’t have stopped to help me.” Her phone beeped with another text. “Crap,” she muttered. “My mom needs me.”
I looked at the darkening sky. “I should probably head home anyway. I’ll be here again tomorrow if you want to hang out.”
“I’d like to,” she replied, “but I’ll be busy most of the day. I’m supposed to help my mom set up for a dinner she’s hosting…” She paused. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. “You should come with me.”
Stunned, I asked, “What?”
“You should come to the dinner. It’s a family thing, so it will be dead boring, but the food will be good. If I have someone to talk to, I might not fall asleep in my salad.”
The spy inside me cheered, but I kept my outside reaction as mild as I could. “Would your parents mind?”
“The serving staff will be hu— They won’t mind.”
I understood the stumble in her words. If human servers were around, nothing about the Truss clanship would be mentioned. Still, I’d get to observe her parents.
Not wanting to appear too eager, I replied, “I don’t know…the road back to my grandmother’s is dangerous when it’s dark.”
“You can stay the night,” she suggested. “I have my own room and an extra bed.”
Mental high five. “Okay, but I’d have to leave early.”
“No problem. I’ll clear everything with my mom and text you.”
I put my number in her phone, and we went in opposite directions.
“Hey, Ali,” she called from a distance. “It’s kind of formal. Do you have a dress?”
I’d make one out of Theron’s flannel shirt if I had to.
“I’ll find something,” I replied, waving good-bye.
Chapter Fifteen
Theron was sitting cross-legged on the floor when I got back. He had three laptops set up in front of him, and they were all running programs.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Violating my suspension and the laws of three different countries,” he replied.
I took my coat and boots off. “Why?”
“I told you I’d take care of the surveillance cameras at the Ledges, and that’s what I’m doing. I was able to get a facial recognition program running about three hours ago. From now on, it will scrub you out whenever you show up on the feed.”
“The security gate won’t be a problem anymore?”
“You catch on quickly, grasshopper,” he replied.
“But why are you taking the risk? You know you’ll get in trouble if you’re caught messing with tech.”
“Two reasons. The first is that accessing the camera feed makes it easier for me to keep tabs on you, and the second is that I’m pissed at Spencer for putting us in this situation.”
I smiled because he’d used the word “us.” What had been my job was his now, too.
Sitting in the chair behind him, I watched him work from one computer to the next. “Do those little things have enough juice to break the laws of three different countries?”
“Stacy tricked these out. They’re nowhere near as powerful as what I’m used to, but she’s pretty good with illegal upgrades.”
When one of the laptops flashed, his fingers started to fly over the keys.
He seemed changed. The previous undercurrent of tension about him was gone. He looked different, too. There was a smile of genuine joy on his lips. For the first time since meeting him, I was seeing him really relaxed. It was quite a transformation.
One of the computer screens started scrolling numbers. “What’s that?” I asked.
“I just breached Greystone Bank’s firewall.”
“Great. Am I going to be considered guilty by association? Because I don’t want to go to prison.”
“Don’t worry. There’s only one other person who can back-trace my programs, and I made sure she’s busy with other problems today.”
“You did something horrible to her, didn’t you?”
“I filled the operating system she supervises with about a trillion Trojans, and some Ukrainian hackers I know are exploiting five of the ten worms I planted. So yeah, you can say I did something horrible to her.”
“What happens if you get caught?”
“She won’t see what I’m doing.”
“If you say so.”
“She’s on my list,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “When I get out of this corner of hell, I’m going to make Ashlee Stentorian pay for snitching on me to Spencer.”
He said her name with both irritation and a little admiration. “Stentorian clan, huh?” I nudged him with my foot. “Is she cute?”
“I’ve never seen her. I run across her digital signature often enough, but she’s an abide-by-the-law type. Not interested.”
“What are you looking for right now?”
“Anything and everything related to the Truss. I’ve already found some interesting things.” He glanced at me. “Spencer is an idiot. He should have had me working this angle from the start. I can find out what color underwear they’re wearing when I do this stuff.”
“If you’re saying I’m no longer needed, I’ll gladly fly home.”
He shook his head. “You’re still necessary. We need to cover both angles, the things technology can tell us and the things personal interaction can reveal.”
A graphic popped up on one of the screens. Theron typed something and numerical digits started scrolling again.
“Breaking the law looks good on you.”
“Women find me superhot when I’m committing felonies.”
I pushed his shoulder.
“I’ll be able to dig a lot deeper when I get my own equipment,” he continued. “I had a friend break into my apartment in New York. He’s overnighting a bunch of stuff to me.”
“Interesting group of friends you have. Hacker and thieves.”
His brown eyes sparkled. “We’re part of a loosely organized but highly skilled criminal network.”
Noticing the sharp scent of cooking tomatoes and cheese coming from the kitchen, I asked, “Are you making dinner again?”
“Yep. We’re having lasagna tonight.”
“It’s not vegan, is it?” I asked, scrunching my nose. “I’ve had some really bad experiences with vegan lasagna.”
“What’s lasagna without cheese and sausage?”
“I think I love you.�
�� I sighed.
“You should play harder to get. If it only takes meat and cheese, you’re going to get into a lot of trouble.”
“I have other criteria, too,” I replied, heading into the kitchen. “Like shoes. I only fall in love with guys who wear nice shoes.”
Opening cupboards, I looked for Theron’s plates and glasses. I found some mismatched stuff and set the table. Then I got things out of the refrigerator to put a salad together.
The timer on the oven went off. “Playtime is over, Theron. Come and eat.”
I put some lasagna on my plate and stared lovingly at it. “I miss meat and dairy so much I have dreams about it,” I said.
He laughed as he sat next to me. It wasn’t the laugh of sarcasm that usually came from him. This time it was playful. Working with tech had done wonders for him.
“Do you want to hear about my awesome day?” I asked.
He nodded, so I gave him a rundown, keeping the really good stuff till last.
“Phoebe invited me to dinner tomorrow night,” I said. “All the Truss are going to be there. She termed it a family reunion, and she keeps talking about the family business. I’m pretty sure it’s all code for clan business.”
He looked troubled. “Are you going to go?”
“You better believe it. She invited me to stay the night, too.”
“Spending the night isn’t a good idea.”
“Why not? I came here to find Nikki and to get a feel for Phoebe’s parents. The best way to do that is to spend as much time with them as I can.”
“It’s supposed to storm tomorrow night, which will make it difficult to get to you if you need me.”
“We’ll have to risk it. I can’t pass up this opportunity.”
He watched me take a bite of lasagna. “Short of locking you in a closet, there’s no way I can keep you from doing it, is there?”
“You could try the closet thing, but I’d thoughtmake you into letting me out. You’ll just have to submit to my will. I do have a small problem, though. The dinner is formal, and I don’t have a dress. Do you think your friend Stacy would lend me something?”
A strange look crossed his face. “Ah…I don’t think you wear the same size. There’s a clothing store in town. They might have something.”
“Ian wants me to go down for breakfast tomorrow. I’ll have a look around then.”
“Sounds good. I need to pick up my equipment anyway.”
I hadn’t extended an invitation for him to come along, but driving separately didn’t really make sense.
“What did your criminal activity reveal today?” I asked.
“I found out Phoebe’s parents are struggling financially.”
“I don’t think so. They’ve got to be paying three grand per night to stay with the rich and famous.”
“Credit cards are amazing things,” he replied.
“Does Spencer know?”
“I doubt it. I had to go through layers of information to put the numbers together. As I said before, Spencer is an idiot.”
“You really don’t like him.”
“I really don’t,” he confirmed.
I might have felt the same way had Spencer gotten me sanctioned from the thing I loved most in the world. “What else did you find out?” I asked.
“That there are a lot fewer Truss than we thought. Before Sebastian took over they were more than eight hundred strong. They were the largest clan, actually. Now there are less than seven hundred of them. That’s a huge loss over just a century.”
“You’ve got to let Spencer in on this information.”
“Not yet,” he replied, shaking his head. “When I tell him, he’ll shut me down, and I need a few more days with my tech.”
I nodded. Theron was helping me, and I didn’t want him to get shut down, either.
He watched me put a third helping of lasagna on my plate. “How much food can you hold?” he asked.
“A lot. Which reminds me, what are you planning for Thanksgiving dinner…Grandma?”
“Grandma?”
“I told Phoebe I’m spending Thanksgiving with my grandmother…that’s you.”
He pulled a face. “Who says I’m planning to cook for Thanksgiving?”
“When I got the salad stuff out of the fridge, I saw the turkey.”
“Maybe I’m cooking it for myself.”
“Nope. You’re cooking it for both of us, because you want to show off. And I’m happy because in a small way, it will be like a real Thanksgiving.”
He spun his spoon a couple of times. “It’s interesting how you process things,” he said. “We go along with human holidays, but it’s to fit in among them. We have our own celebrations, so Thanksgiving and Christmas don’t mean much to us. It’s different for you, and that might never change.”
I let out a long breath. “You’re the first to get that,” I said. “Everyone expects my humanness to fade away. They don’t believe that parts of me are hardwired now. I’m never going to be all dewing, but I’ll never be human, either. It’s not a fun position to be in.”
“I think there’s something else up with you,” he said thoughtfully. “Leaving your human family seems like a decision to you. We see it as destiny. Making the decision to leave them is harder than accepting it as fate.”
It was an accurate and rather profound observation. The only way he could have come to that conclusion was if he’d gone through something similar. “Did you choose to leave someone?” I asked.
“Sometimes I see it that way,” he replied, looking sad. “Destiny took someone from me, and I’m having a hard time accepting it. A girl I was in love with likenessed to my brother earlier this year.”
“Whoa,” I muttered.
“I used a different four-letter word,” he said, “but yeah. Usually when likeness divides a couple, the third wheel, which in this case is me, just lets go and moves on. I’ve always had a bad relationship with destiny, and I’m still struggling with the moving on part.”
“That’s… I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged. “It isn’t a surprise. I usually get the short end of the stick.”
“What does that mean?”
For a moment, I saw how deeply hurt he was. “It means I’m like your father. I can’t join a human’s mind to do anything. I thought you would have picked up on that by now. A vibration as slow as mine is a telltale sign.”
“Katherine told me that happens sometimes,” I replied. “It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal since we hardly use our joinings anyway.
He snorted. “They may not get used much, but being a healer, a reader, a sensation maker, or having any other type of joining is like a badge of honor. I don’t have a badge at all. Our kind has overcome a lot of lesser emotions, but snobbishness isn’t one of them. Whether they choose to acknowledge it or not, we aren’t respected like the others. ”
“That’s why you mentioned my father when we first met,” I deduced.
“I guess so. In a twisted way, I wanted to know if Spencer had thought enough of him to go to the trouble of telling you his name.”
Seeing how seriously Theron was affected by not having a joining, I was curious how my father had dealt with it. Maybe the same way. I would never know.
“When destiny likenessed Amy to my brother,” he continued, “it was like I was getting screwed all over again. I lost it a little. Actually, I lost it a lot. I did some reckless things.”
“That’s when you hacked into the NSA.”
“I’ve been hacking into government systems for years, but only when I was asked to. Believe me, Spencer and the other clan chiefs have been plenty grateful for the information I’ve given them in the past. All that gratitude went flying out the window when I—”
“Went off the reservation,” I finished.
“Right. Take it as a warning. I get self-destructive when destiny takes a crap on me.”
He shifted position and twirled his spoon some more.
“You�
�re not as big and bad as you pretend, Theron Falco. You’re just messed up…like me.”
“Maybe we should form that support group you talked about. The one for freaks.”
I grabbed my glass of water and lifted it. “Here’s to the freaks,” I said.
Theron clinked his cup to mine. “Yay us.”
Chapter Sixteen
The next day, the roads were a mess as we headed down the mountain. The plow hadn’t cleared them, so a dusting of snow covered patches of ice. The back end of the Land Rover slipped a couple of times, but like before, Theron handled it fine.
He’d been in an uncharacteristically good mood that morning and hadn’t said anything insulting to me since I woke up. I was super excited to see Ian, so we made a pretty happy pair.
When we hit another patch of ice, my stomach flip-flopped. “I can’t understand why people live up here,” I said.
“Some like the solitude. Frank only leaves the mountain on Easter Saturday, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“It takes all kinds, I suppose.”
Theron looked at me. “Yes, it does. Even ones like you.”
“Your rudeness is showing again.” I smiled. “Fortunately for you, I’ve grown used to it.”
Betsy’s Diner was off the main road. It was a cute little place. Natural light spilled in through the windows, and the butter-yellow tablecloths had arrangements of fake daffodils in plastic vases on them. The only downside was the smell of burned grease in the air.
It was a seat-yourself situation, so Theron took a booth in the corner. As I scooted across the vinyl-covered bench, my pants stuck to something sticky. He noticed me pause and the look of dread on my face. “It’s probably syrup,” he guessed. “Betsy’s is famous for pancakes.”
“Hasn’t Betsy heard of a washrag?”
“I don’t know. Betsy has been dead for twenty years. Her granddaughter, Patricia, runs this place now. If you want, you can leave a comment about it on the bill. I wouldn’t mention it before your get your food, though. Patricia might spit in your eggs.”
“That’s a serious health code violation.”
Theron shrugged. “How often do you think a health inspector makes it up here?”
