The Complete Tempest World Box Set

by Mankin, Michelle

  “What? Why?” I stuttered.

  “I’ve been lobbying to get your older brother’s request for early parole denied. They don’t want him out understandably. They signed statements requesting that he be kept locked up. But apparently that whole process got Jude asking them a lot of questions they couldn’t answer. Your recording of that song jarred loose some memories at just the right time. The Clarks want to arrange a supervised meeting. I told them I thought you might be able to drive down tonight to see him tomorrow.”

  • • •

  “Thanks for coming with me.”

  “No hay problema, mi hermano. You know I’ve got your back, the way you’ve always had mine.” King hit me with a meaningful glance as we stood side by side leaning with our elbows on the railing at the water’s edge. The sail sculptures at Canada Place cast shadows over us. “After seeing what he did to your pixie firsthand, I’m looking forward to teaching him a lesson, esé, but are you sure he’ll show?

  “He’ll be here,” I confirmed.

  “I hope he comes soon. I looked online. The Peace Arch border crossing already has a ninety-minute wait tonight. We don’t have a lot of time to spare if we want to make it across for that meeting with Jude and his parents tomorrow.” Breeze lifting his black hair, he leaned back while tapping his knuckles on the steel. “If you don’t mind my asking, how come you’re so sure he’ll show up to his own ass kicking?”

  “Because he doesn’t know that’s what it is. I texted him from Melinda’s phone when she was asleep the other night so he would think I was her.”

  He hissed in a sharp breath, but looked impressed. “Clever.”

  “Necessary. Dude needs to know that he can’t pull that shit with her. She won’t press charges. So it’s up to me.”

  “Órale.” He nodded. “But he seems like a pussy. He might tell her what you did to try to get her sympathy. You sure she’ll understand Southside justice?”

  I remembered what she had said when I had told her about the night they took Jude away. She had absolved me of blame, knowing that under the circumstances I hadn’t had any other choice but to fight. “Yeah, I think she knows that I can’t let him off the hook that easy. She might be mad at me at first, but she’ll get over it.”

  • • •

  “Did you know the Canucks have a game tonight?” Melinda started right into me the minute I answered my cell. “Everyone’s asking me if I know anything about Tyler’s black eye.”

  “I’m gonna have to plead the Fifth, babe.” Actually by the time we had gotten to the waterfront, I had begun to reconsider my plan. If I really wanted to be Melinda’s champion, I needed to control my anger. What that meant was that I couldn’t give Tyler the ass kicking he truly deserved. But I made damn sure he knew exactly how I felt about what he had done to her. When I did, he had bowed up and thrown the first punch, so I had thrown the last one, dropping him with a sweet right hook.

  She sucked in a breath. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that,” she muttered, and I knew she got me. “Are you ok?” she whispered.

  “Blue,” I countered. “Give me a little cred. I grew up on the streets. Cowards like Tyler Sutter wouldn’t last more than five minutes where I come from.”

  “No offense intended. I just don’t want to see you get into any trouble on my account.”

  “Everything’s cool. Your goalie was too embarrassed to ever tell anyone what happened. I think he received the message I was sending, but if he comes anywhere near you again I want to know. Alright?”

  “Sure.” With that one word of assurance she was letting me know she trusted me to handle it, knowing my temper, knowing my past. When was she going to get it, that she was too good for me and not the other way around? “But he’s not my goalie.” I heard a sound like water running in the background on her end.

  “You home for the evening now?”

  “Yeah.” She sounded exhausted.

  “Hard day, huh?”

  “Yeah. I wiped out twice on the high turns trying to get less air using the new aerodynamic crouch position that Katherine prefers.”

  “You ok?” My gut cinched tight, but I tried not to let on. There was a fine line between being supportive and overprotective about her competing in such a dangerous sport.

  “Yeah. I’m fine. I got a couple of bruises. The trainer checked them out. Nothing serious.”

  I could feel King’s eyes on me as he rolled the Hummer closer to the border checkpoint.

  “I’m glad it wasn’t serious. Promise me you’ll be more careful tomorrow. Winning’s not everything, Melinda. You are.”

  “Sager,” she said my name in that breathy appreciative way of hers that was my favorite way to hear it next to when she shouted it or moaned it while I was balls deep inside of her. Thinking about how tight she felt around me made my cock hard. It pressed against the zipper of my jeans, not a good problem to have in the passenger seat beside mi hermano, miles and miles away from my cure.

  “I’ve gotta get off the line, and let you get to bed early tonight.”

  “Oh.” I could hear the disappointment in her voice. I felt exactly same.

  “Not because I want to but because we’re coming up to the checkpoint.”

  “You’re going home?”

  “Yeah just for the night because I’ve got to be up really early to meet Jude in the morning.”

  “What?” she screeched. “Holy shit, Sager! Why didn’t you tell me that from the beginning of our conversation? How? Why? When did this happen?”

  “I’ll tell you.” I grinned, loving how excited she was for me. “If you wanna pause long enough to let me get in a couple of words?”

  I heard her huff.

  “Dude.” King reminded me.

  I nodded to acknowledge him, and how close we were to the checkpoint now.

  “It’s all because of you, Blue. I sent a tape like you suggested. I wish you could be with me when I meet him,” I admitted.

  “I wish I could be, too.” She sighed. “King’s going though, right?”

  “Yeah, Juaquin will be there.”

  “Good, you’ll be fine then. Just tell Jude the things you remember, Sager. The stuff you miss. Be yourself. He can’t help but love you the way you love him.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Melinda

  Visibility sucked. Early morning fog clouded the mountain. Plus, I was also having trouble with that weird darkening around the edges of my peripheral vision that I had experienced twice after working out too rigorously. I blinked repeatedly as I swished through the snow covered straightaway at a hundred and sixty kilometers per hour. I knew the course by heart though and pressed on. At the corkscrew, I leaned one way and then the other, hearing Katherine’s words in my ear about being aggressive and running my race but also remembering Sager’s request for me to be more careful. His were the admonitions I chose to follow. He was my hope. He was my dream for the future.

  Taking the safer worn grooves in the middle of the course rather than the faster pristine snow on the outside that was treacherously close to a sheer plunge, I ducked into my crouch and breathed a sigh of relief when the fog finally broke. Spotting the familiar mounds of the kickers, I took them hard. But my caution at the top had cost me. I knew I had lost precious seconds I couldn’t afford to lose. When I returned to the start Katherine was waiting. She didn’t look pleased.

  “What the hell was that Melinda Blue?”

  “There’s fog mid-course...”

  “I’m not interested in excuses...” I stiffened as her voice morphed eerily into my father’s.

  Excuses have been the story of your life from the moment you learned to string words together....

  “I’m sorry.” My chin ducked to my chest. “I shouldn’t have been so cautious. I know the course. I could do it blindfolded. I’ll do it better this time.”

  She acknowledged my comments with a curt nod.

  I moved to the gates, tense and waiting fo
r her countdown, so eager to please, so willing to do whatever it took to get one word of praise.

  This time I stormed out and flew through the fogged in portion, closing my eyes and relying on instinct to charge the course, tame it and make it mine. My pulse thundered through my veins. I felt the hollowness of empty air as I traded caution for speed along the danger markers on the course. I felt light as air and near euphoric from the rush of adrenaline because of the reckless risks I took, but when I crossed the finish line this time my teammates cheered.

  I had beaten the best time by a fair margin. If I duplicated that kind of a run at Sugarloaf I was almost certain to go to the top of the podium.

  • • •

  Sager

  I strode through the doorway into the small windowless conference room of the downtown hotel with my heart in my throat and my pulse roaring in my ears. A long shiny table with high backed leather chairs similar to the set-up on Black Cat’s executive level cut a swath through the middle. Ignacio sat at the head on the far end but it was the middle aged couple and more importantly the pale, inky haired teen beside them that captured and held my attention.

  “Jude.” I stopped on the other side of the table directly opposite from him. I found it difficult to breathe. So many years had passed. He wasn’t the little boy I remembered anymore. The regret of all of those lost years weighed heavily on me.

  Yet when he looked up and smiled at me, I saw the Jude I had once known in his more mature features, and I guess he saw the younger me as well because he spoke my name and started to stand. His adoptive father stopped him with a cautionary hand on his arm. I swallowed hard and smiled trying to put everything I felt for him into it.

  “Good morning,” I said making eye contact with everyone else.

  “Buenos días.” Abuelita rolled in behind me. King guided her chair into an empty spot and put the brake on before pulling out a chair and taking a seat beside her. I could tell he was studying my little brother. Since Jude had his adoptive family attending, I had decided to bring some of my own, too. I moved to the other side of Abuelita, and she reached for my hand before I took my seat, squeezing my fingers. Her expression proud, her approving gaze did wonders for my confidence.

  “Good morning everyone,” Ignacio greeted, shuffling through a stack of papers. “My client has requested this meeting in order to reestablish a relationship with his younger brother whom he sorely misses.” Jude glanced at me, and I returned his gaze. I didn’t attempt to hide my desire to reconnect with him. We had lost too much time already. He turned to the middle aged man with salt and pepper hair at his side and said something too low for me to hear. The man’s brows drew together, and he leaned closer whispering something in my little brother’s ear. Jude shook his head, and the man glanced at me for a long moment before nodding.

  “Jude would like to speak with his brother privately,” Mr. Clark declared, his gaze on Ignacio. “He knows the proceedings in this room are being monitored and recorded. He’s comfortable with that, but he would like a couple of minutes alone with his brother without all of the pressures and expectations from the rest of us.”

  Smart kid. I beamed at him.

  “Sager,” Ignacio called, and I turned to him. “Is that ok with you?”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “No problem.”

  Everyone streamed out of the room in a single file slow moving line while Jude and I stared across the table at each other. Looking at him, staring deeply into his dark brown eyes was like seeing a younger version of myself reflected in a mirror. Both our brows were furrowed as if we measured each other against the images of our minds’ eyes.

  As soon as the door clicked closed, I leaned forward, elbows on the table and spoke from my heart like Melinda had suggested. “Jude, I miss you. So much. No matter what happens today or tomorrow, please know that. Please understand. I love you. I will always love you no matter what. I was only a kid back then, too. If I had any power, any means I would have petitioned to adopt you myself.”

  “Sager.” His voice was hesitant, higher pitched than mine but confident and steady. The Clarks had been good to him. I had seen that every year when I went to their house on his birthday to check up on him. “I miss you, too. But all I could remember at first was the violence. The sound of flesh against flesh. Bone cracking against bone. My therapist says I suppressed most everything else. But lately I’ve started to remember a lot of things. Mainly about you. You shielding me with your own body when Rigby got angry. You singing to me to drown out the other scary stuff, you sobbing when the cops separated us.”

  “I remember all that, too. But I try to think about only the good things now.”

  “Like what,” he countered.

  “Me and you, Jude. Just me and you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Melinda

  “That’s wonderful, Sager. I still can’t believe this is finally happening for you.”

  “Me either, Blue. And if you hadn’t encouraged me to take a risk, it might never have happened.” He sighed. I could imagine him raking his hand through his silky hair. “I have once a week supervised phone calls to start out and the real possibility of face to face visits with him in the near future.”

  “I’m so happy for you.” I smiled to myself feeling confident they had a bright future together. “When do you get to talk to him again?”

  “Friday,” he answered. “After the Carter Besille thing. He listened to all of our music and watched YouTube videos of our performances when he found out that I was in the band. He’s very interested in the behind the scenes aspects. Tour logistics. Marketing. All of it. So I plan to share with him how the taping for that talk show appearance goes. Then I’m gonna call you to give you an ETA on us.”

  “Us?” she queried.

  “Me. The band and April. They all wanna come show their support. I hope that’s ok.”

  “Of course. That’s great.” Tears burned my eyes, but I managed to keep my tone restrained. “Are you still in Seattle?”

  “Yeah, I’m sitting on the little twin bed in my old room. King and his mom are in the kitchen making dinner. He’s trying to show her a healthier way to make enchiladas that doesn’t involve frying the corn tortillas. He worries about his dad since the heart attack. We both do. Once we eat, we have to head back to Vancouver. We need to finalize the set list and choreography plus a million other things before we head out to New York City on Friday. You’re leaving in the morning, right?”

  “Yeah.” Katherine wanted me to get in some last minute work before then. “The team flies to Portland and then we take charter buses to the resort. Beth told me Mary Timmons is coming out to do some promotional shots with me.”

  “You sound nervous.”

  “About the marketing, no. About the race, oh yeah. The leading ski cross racer in the world is going to be there. Muriel Mueller. How in the world am I going to beat her?”

  “Trust your talent and your training. You’re going to kick her ass, Blue.”

  “Maybe. I hope so.”

  “I know so.”

  “Get my mind off of my nervousness. I need to think about good things. Positive things. Tell me more about Jude.” I settled my head onto my pillows. A hint of his scent, the cardamom wood and leather, clung to the cotton case making a pang of longing pierce my chest. Tucking my cell between my ear and my shoulder, I hugged the down filled pillow wishing it were him while I listened to him talk about his plan to have Jude and the Clarks visit him backstage when the tour ended in Seattle. I absorbed every word feeling his happiness as if it were my own because I was so far gone for him. I was hopeful, like he seemed to be, that this might be the beginning of a new and better chapter with him and his brother free from the taint of their troubled past.

  “When do you have to get up in the morning?” he asked without any segue.

  “Ridiculously early,” I admitted. “I have some new drills to run through with Katherine before taking the bus, the SkyTrain, the plan
e and then the bus to Portland.”

  “Planes, trains and automobiles, huh?”

  “Close.” I sighed. “Only without any of the comedy. Everybody’s started to get real quiet and serious with the competition we’ve all prepared so hard for closing in.”

  “I should let you go so you can get some rest,” he said sounding like that was the last thing he wanted to do.

  “I should let you go, too,” I admitted, ditto on the last thing for me, too.

  “What are you wearing?” he asked, and I grinned.

  “I’m in my bra and panties. They’re purple, but don’t go there. Not tonight,” I admonished, shutting him down before this went any further. I was missing him too much and too keyed up about everything to relax. “I’d better hang up.”

  “Yeah. I guess that’s for the best,” he agreed.

  “Only Sager,” I whispered softly.

  “Yeah, Blue?”

  “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  For loving me. For understanding what’s important to me. For making me finally feel like I’m safe and sheltered. I felt at home when I was inside his arms. “For giving me a second chance,” I said simply deciding the rest was probably too much to say over the phone.

  “You’re welcome, babe, but you didn’t need one. I never gave up on you in the first place.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Sager

  Bass from the Dirt Dogs’ latest hit thumping in rhythm with the flashes of light on the Mine dance floor, I ran the pad of my thumb over the screen of my cell wishing it were her soft skin I was tracing instead of just a glass screen.

  Sager: How’d your new drills go?

  Melinda: Good. The slackline is helping improve my balance :)

  Sager: Did you eat a good breakfast?

  Melinda: Define good :-

  Sager: Did you eat any AT ALL?