Hard Truths (Kiss Her Goodbye Book 1)

by Rebecca Royce

  Warden laughed. “I like you, Kade. Especially when you’ve been properly fed.”

  “Very funny.”

  Judson groaned. “We have to get out of here tonight. So we need to decide things immediately. Everly isn’t going with Trace or Derrick right off the bat.” I noticed neither of them objected, and I tried not to feel like their discarded favorite toy. I didn’t fool myself into thinking I was going to get a say in where I went. I didn’t really care. I just didn’t want to be hit in the head again. Or worse.

  “She’ll go with me. Unless you think you need to watch her, Jud.” Warden spoke as Constance came in the room, bringing bottles of water for everyone. She handed one to me, placing a hand on my shoulder and squeezing when she did. Constance hadn’t particularly cared for me up until now, but maybe having my head concussed earned me some sympathy.

  Warden took a long sip on his water while they seemed to be waiting for Constance to leave. They needn’t have bothered. I was one hundred percent certain that woman knew everything going on in this house and then some.

  Judson finally answered. “She’s okay. I mean, I can give you some suggestions, Warden. But I don’t want to know where you are. None of us can share that. Meet back here, but only to trade her off. Two weeks at a time. Then back. I’ll go second. Kade after me. Then Derrick.”

  Trace ran a hand over his face. “I got a day and a half maybe. She was asleep for most of it.”

  “If her father hasn’t finished, you’ll go after Derrick. You certainly had enough time to get her damaged.” Judson shot Trace a hard look. “And it’ll be good for you to get some separation. I’d have expected the run off in the middle of the night routine from Derrick but not from you.”

  T stalked over to him. “I don’t have to justify to you not wanting my years of working James Robert Michaels to go to hell. The details of why I took her with me are not your business. That’s between Everly and me. You’re certainly preoccupied. What? Disappointed you didn’t think of it?”

  Judson didn’t respond to him. Instead, when he spoke, it was back to the plan. “If we keep the pass offs here as brief as possible we’ll be okay. Stay off the grid, except for Derrick. Do the opposite. It’ll make them nuts.”

  Trace stormed out of the room. These guys might all have been brilliant. They might all have been troubled. They might all have been absolutely right in their feelings about The Alliance. They might have been a million things. But they were a mess.

  Someone was going to have to help them pull their lives together if they really wanted to be the leaders of this mess of an organization. I just had no idea who that person could possibly be.

  We all took the helicopter together that night. It seemed I was going to be on this thing a lot if I was being dropped off every two weeks. Did J think he could pay the helicopter pilots enough to keep them loyal for those bi-weekly drop offs? I should have asked that, but I’d just had enough.

  Derrick was silent, but he wore a pleasant look on his face. Trace wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. He eventually closed his eyes and was either pretending to sleep or doing the real thing. Kade was thinking about something that bothered him. Judson stared at the floor. Warden nudged me before he took my hand.

  I hardly knew him. I was going to spend two weeks with him. I should have been nervous, but I wasn’t. Maybe it was the concussion or I’d just given up on thinking about any of this. Warden seemed like he cared. His hand was a comfort.

  I couldn’t hear anything but my pounding head thanks to the headphones I wore. I never thought I’d have wished for Trace’s sleep drugs, but right then I’d have taken them happily.

  Since that wasn’t going to happen, I settled in to go wherever I was being taken and tried not to puke in the process.

  That would have to be enough.

  We separated at the helicopter landing pad. Without a word to each other, they exited. Trace went first without a backward glance. He must not have really been asleep because he was the first off the helicopter and he stormed off into the dark.

  Kade went next. He nodded at everyone, including me, before he zipped up his coat and walked in the other direction of where Trace had gone. Judson exited, followed then by Derrick who smiled at me before he left. I had to admit, I was going to miss his slightly off kilter way and the man bun that wouldn’t work for everyone but was growing on me with him.

  Warden and I were last. He hadn’t let go of my hand. We walked quietly into the night. I wasn’t sure how long I could make it walking, but I wouldn’t complain, not unless I was about to fall over. The cold air hit me square in the face, and I shivered. Warden took off his coat and wrapped it around me.

  “You’ll be cold.” I tried to take it off, and he stopped me.

  “We only have a little bit to go to the car. I keep one here. I have plans on where to take you and, yes, we will go off grid, but first we’re going to a neurologist. He’s an old friend. Alliance. On our side. Not hated by powers that be, yet. He’ll look at you. I want him to do that before we go. Judson’s a great doctor, but he’s not himself right now.”

  I cleared my throat, my breath obvious in the night. “Will it be warm? Where we’re going?”

  He nodded, pointing to the dark car parked a little bit ahead of us. “And we’ll be inside a lot.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t seem much like myself. I’m… off.”

  Warden opened my door, and I got into it. Men did that where I was from, and I appreciated that he did. This wasn’t a date, but I appreciated the courtesy nonetheless.

  He got in the driver’s side. “I don’t expect anything from you, Everly. If you want to be silent for two weeks, you can go ahead and do so. You got punched in the face so hard it concussed you. This is trauma. K uses the ant phrasing all the time, and I’m over hearing it. But the point remains that non-Alliance people should not be hurt like this. We’re not even supposed to do this to each other. We take a vow.”

  That was interesting. My mother cheated on my father, and he’d killed her. They’d had vows, too. People didn’t keep their vows. Warden started the car, and it hummed as it came to life. It was some kind of SUV. I hadn’t looked and probably couldn’t have told the difference in the dark anyway. I leaned against the side and closed my eyes.

  Sleep welcomed me despite my pounding head.

  The appointment with the neurologist went fine. I was going to be okay. That was the bottom line. It was going to take some time. I was given the same dos and don’ts Judson had given me. I really wasn’t sure where we were. Somewhere in Massachusetts? Elsewhere? Not knowing our current location wasn’t because of my concussion, but because I’d slept the whole way and not paid attention. They liked that my cognitive ability seemed intact, despite the fact that I’d forgotten that Kade had told me his name. I knew my own, who the president was, what day of the week it was, all sorts of things that told them I was okay.

  Warden eventually took us to eat on a river somewhere. The sun was warmer here, not Louisiana warm, but less frigid than where we’d been.

  I leaned back letting it hit me in the face. “I was in the Caribbean two days ago. So weird to think about. Where am I now?”

  He smiled at me. When I’d first met Warden, I’d been struck with the idea that he wasn’t handsome. There was something too rough looking about him. The truth was, he was sexy as sin. It came from the careful way he watched me, the intensity of his gaze, the way he seemed to pay attention to everything. There was heat to all of it.

  And when he grinned, it lit up his whole face. Oh, he was handsome all right. And he knew it. I took a sip of my water and tried to ignore it.

  “You’re in Massachusetts.” So at least I’d been right about that. “We’ll be leaving from a private airport soon.”

  That much I knew. At least I understood where I was now. I looked out the window that overlooked the river. It was a pretty day outside. “More air travel. I’ve never flown so much in my life.”

 
“You’re jet setting. And think of it this way, you can’t do screens right now. You can’t read. Nothing to do, but rest. And where I’m taking you, you can rest. As long as you make no moves to get away. That’ll just piss me off.”

  I held up my hands. “I had ample opportunity to run away from Trace and I didn’t. I’m not going to do that with you unless you start being some kind of abusive asshole. I’m not going to sit around while you beat me or something.”

  He set down his iced tea as the waiter came by and delivered our food. I was just doing soup, a chowder that smelled delicious. Warden had more to eat, ordering a burger and a salad. When the waitress walked away, he turned back to me.

  “I’ve never in my life hurt a woman. I won’t hurt you, Everly. If you try to run away or cause me any trouble in that direction I’ll have to take away some of the freedom I’d like to offer you for the next two weeks.”

  I set down my spoon after taking a small bite of my chowder. “I get it. I’m brain damaged but not dumb. I’ve seen what the people after you do. I’d rather not see it again. I’m not going to cause any trouble.”

  “Good girl.” He rubbed my foot with his under the table. I could have kicked him away. I didn’t. “Then we should have a wonderful two weeks, even if we’re technically in hiding.”

  I didn’t ask him where we were going. If he’d wanted me to know, he would have told me. Instead, I ate in silence with Warden, watching the river and appreciating that my head was hurting less. I supposed at this point, whatever was going to happen was going to happen.

  Maybe I was fatalistic at heart.

  Chapter 12

  We flew on a private jet to Georgia and then changed to a car for hours. When I asked Warden where we were headed, he just said Florida and left it at that. As the state could mean any number of things, I sat back to wait.

  W didn’t like to talk when there wasn’t much to say, and I didn’t find staying in silence to be a problem with him. I drifted off to sleep, which happened a lot more than usual with my healing brain. I’d be awake and then hours later I’d wake up not having known I’d fallen asleep. For all his bluster in the restaurant, Warden was actually being gentle with me.

  His version of Florida wasn’t anywhere I’d seen before. There weren’t any oceans that I could see, we weren’t on an island, and there were no theme parks in any direction. Instead, we drove down a long, bumpy road—that seemed to be a theme for me lately—and ended up in what essentially looked like a log cabin.

  I was wide awake when we pulled up. The cabin was huge with solar panels and a satellite dish on the ground next door. Warden sighed. “I’ll be honest. It’s not my favorite place in the world. I never set out to live off the grid. However, my father foresaw there might be the need for this someday. He bought the land, and when I inherited, I finished the project. We are, as they say, off the grid here. No one and I mean no one, knows it’s here.”

  I got out of the car. “It’s actually beautiful.”

  “It’s functional. I’m not going to kid you, Everly. I’m a spoiled son of a bitch. I like room service. I like spas and casinos. I like fine liquor to go with my fine dining. But this will do for the next two weeks and then for me to come back to. Assuming I can trust you not to even tell the others where I am?”

  I held up my hands like I was under arrest. “Look, I get it. I’m always at risk with you guys. Trace made that clear, too.” He might shoot me in the head. “I don’t need to be constantly threatened to remember all that. I get the idea. I don’t want to end up locked in Judson’s basement while you watch me being tortured.”

  He smirked at me. “Judson would never stoop to having someone tortured in his house.”

  “The point here is that I get it. I won’t ever tattle where you are. Truth is, I’m not even sure where this is. I slept so much you could have turned the car around and taken me to Maryland for all I know. You’re safe with me, Warden. Even if I’m never really safe with you.”

  His smirk fell, and he nodded once to me. I didn’t know why what I’d said made him upset—I’d really only spoken the truth—but he hadn’t liked it. I needed to know Warden a little better before I was so open with him. I chewed on my lips. I’d gotten careless being around Trace and Derrick. They didn’t seem to mind if I was slightly flippant with them.

  Warden came up behind me. He put a hand on my back. “Let’s start over. We’ve both made our points. From now on, consider yourself safe with me, Everly. Okay? Nothing is going to happen to you while you’re with me.”

  Had I hurt his feelings? I nodded. “Sounds good.”

  “Great. Now let’s go inside my weird looking house. I have homes in five cities. In any one of them I’d show you such a good time you’d forget that anyone else ever existed. Here? You’re going to see me out of element.”

  I walked toward the house, noting the flat roof thanks to the solar panels. The house was on stilts, putting it off the ground in the event of flooding. Or that’s what I assumed. Wood paneling covered the outside with a wraparound porch around the exterior. One room had a balcony on it, too. “When I pictured off the grid, I have to admit, I kind of thought of someone living in a trailer somewhere. This doesn’t look like roughing it to me.”

  “I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and if my brother hadn’t died, I’d have lived my whole life without knowing that anything was ever hard.”

  I followed him inside. As we walked in, lights flashed on and an air conditioner started to blow. “Who looks after this place when you’re not here?”

  “A woman and her daughter. They’ve never seen me, and they think they’re talking to a man named Steven. I called her from a burner phone when we landed in Georgia, and she made sure this was ready. Food in the fridge. Then she left. She doesn’t want to know me, I don’t want to know her. Bit of a survivalist.” He pointed upstairs. “Two bedrooms upstairs, one down.”

  I wandered around, looking. There was nothing in the house that I could see that identified anyone as living here. It really was a space empty of any personal effects. There were two black couches and a coffee table but not much else. There wasn’t a screen to be seen anywhere, which was good since I’d been banned from them until my head healed.

  “There is one thing I like a lot.” Warden motioned with his head, and I followed him out the back door to see what he was talking about. A giant pond caught my attention. It was beautiful, with floating moss and great big trees with gray branches hanging over it.

  “That is beautiful.” A thought dawned on me. “You know I’m from Louisiana, right?”

  He nodded slowly. “Sure.”

  “So I have to say this because I don’t know how it is in Saudi Arabia or Southern California where you’re from, but I suspect it isn’t someplace like here, right?”

  He leaned against the wall. “Have I mentioned how sexy your southern accent is?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Hush. I asked you a question.”

  “It is not someplace like here. I was born in Atlanta. Moved to Saudi Arabia pretty fast and stayed a decade. Then back here but to San Diego. No, not like here. I consider San Diego home. Why?”

  I pointed at the pond. “You don’t want to swim in that pond. I mean, I wouldn’t. There are probably alligators in it.”

  “Alligators.” Olive skinned Warden paled a second when I said that. “Right. Alligators. I had dreams of fishing in that pond.”

  I opened the door to step out onto the porch, loving the humid air that hit me. This was like home. Or close. Baton Rouge wasn’t New Orleans. We didn’t have quite the humidity rate. In any case, it made my bones feel better. I wasn’t cut out for the north, although I think if I’d gotten to stay there I could have come to love the beauty of my surroundings.

  I tended to be adaptable, as I was proving every day.

  “I think we can fish. I’m good at it. But we’ll scope things out first and try not to be dumb about it. They can look like floating logs. We’ll have
to get bait. I bet there’s a place that sells it somewhere around here. A long drive maybe, but wherever we’re going to go to get groceries.”

  Warden pulled on the end of my hair. “You’re better at this than me. I think it’s a good thing you came with me. I might have been eaten by a crocodile.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Alligator.”

  “Whatever.”

  He was ridiculously adorable about this. “They’re not at all the same thing.”

  “To me, they are close enough. How are you feeling? Are you hungry?”

  I was, actually. “Awake for the moment and, yes, hungry. I can make us food. Maybe. Depending on what you have. I will admit that I am better at making reservations than dinner but I’ll manage.”

  “You cook tonight, I’ll fumble through tomorrow.”

  Sounded like a plan. Strangest kidnapping ever, but I wasn’t going to complain. I’d had a few minutes of a taste of what it would be like if other members of The Alliance had taken me. My father had really not considered the fact that he had a family when he did this.

  Or maybe he didn’t care. He’d killed my mother.

  I discovered quickly that there was warm water if I let the faucet run. And that there was gas to cook with. Pasta seemed fast, and he had it in abundance. I started making spaghetti. It was a good thing it wasn’t very complicated because by the time it was finished, I was too tired to do more than serve it.

  “Everly.” Warden sat next to me after I placed down the pasta with the sauce that I’d opened from a can sitting next to it rather than on it. “Did you wear yourself out?”

  I shook my aching head. “This is just ridiculous.”

  “No, it’s not. This is standard. You heard the doctor. Let’s save this. Eat later.”

  I didn’t like that idea. “I’m hungry. Even if I faceplant I’m eating it.”