Betrayed Hero (Atramento Book 2)

by Nix Whittaker

  They had to as he was afraid if they didn’t talk, he would lose her.

  ___

  Megan said from the doorway of Natasha’s bedroom in the Nasser house, “You are leaving, aren’t you?”

  Natasha glanced over her shoulder from the small bag she was packing. “Yes, but I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with these clothes. It isn’t like I’ll ever wear these clothes again.”

  Megan came in and sat on the bed next to the bag and said, “Keep them. Maybe you can wear them when you come visit.”

  Natasha looked at the girl and asked, “If I visit can you make sure Warren isn’t around?”

  Megan smiled sadly. “He mucked up that bad, didn’t he?”

  She huffed. “He was making out with Isabelle at the funeral.”

  Megan winced. “Not very bright either, is he?”

  Natasha picked up one of the scarves and draped it around Megan’s shoulders. “They bring out the green in your eyes.”

  Megan’s eyes sparked. “I don’t have green in my eyes. They are brown. I’m all brown. Brown hair, brown skin and very brown eyes.”

  Natasha said, “You are beautiful, Megan. And I will have to come visit to convince you that you really do have green in your eyes.”

  Megan smiled. She helped with the packing by picking up a shirt and folding it.

  Megan said, “You’ll have to go soon. Warren is in his office at the University, but he will be back soon. That is if you want to avoid drama.”

  Natasha knew if he saw her leaving, she might lose her temper and there would be a fight or there would be more hurt when he let her leave. She wasn’t sure which would be worse. Natasha finished packing and turned to Megan. She ruffled Megan’s hair. “I’ll visit. Keep at the model. I’ll want to see it when it is finished.”

  Megan grinned. “Promise?”

  Natasha was serious as she said, “I promise.”

  ___

  Warren said as he entered her room, “Natasha, we have to talk.”

  He hesitated as the room had that empty feeling. He went to the drawers and pulled one open, but it was empty.

  He spun around and looked at the door when Megan said, “She left.”

  Warren looked her over, worried. He knew Megan liked Natasha. After their mother’s death, she hadn’t dealt well with people leaving. But she looked fine, so when she said left, she surely meant just for a short while. His heart stuttered though, and it called him a liar.

  He tried a smile, but it was a little strained. His hand on the drawer clenched tighter until his knuckles showed white. “Do you know when she will be back?”

  Megan said, “She is gone for good, Warren. She saw you making out with Isabelle and she left.”

  He said, “That is what I want to talk to her about. It was nothing.”

  His chest tightened and he found it hard to breathe.

  Megan snorted. “All men say that. You are going to have to come up with something better than that if you are going to get her back.”

  Warren felt sick. “But it wasn’t me. Isabelle kissed me.”

  Megan rolled her eyes. “And how did she get close enough? You are going to have to admit that you let Isabelle twist you up like she always does because you want to hold on to this fairy tale. You aren’t children anymore, Warren. And she is a viper.”

  “Piranha,” he corrected softly.

  Megan frowned and he sat on the bed with a sigh. “Natasha called her a piranha. She looks for a weakness and then she gets everyone to attack in masses. She was right. She is vicious.”

  Warren buried his face in his hands. “I’ve been a fool.”

  Megan had her hand on her hip. “I won’t disagree with you there. You will have to do some grovelling to get her back.”

  He said, “She won’t want me. I’m not going to chase after someone who doesn’t want me.”

  Megan huffed. “Now you really are a fool.”

  He didn’t think his heart would survive if he went to her and found out she really didn’t care for him. He was the only one who had spoken at all about love. Natasha had always been careful to avoid the word. Maybe it was because she didn’t love him.

  Chapter Eleven

  Whatinga May, 2087

  Freya looked up from her desk on the side of her lab. She smiled at Warren. “Thank you for coming.”

  Warren said, “I should have come earlier. But life has been a little hectic lately.”

  He placed another sample of the flower on the table. “Here. Dad said you can have this. And if you need more to go through him.”

  She gave him a soft smile. “Thanks for that. It is very difficult to explain to the City Council why I need to do tests on their precious Weather Shield. Especially when my field is in human medicine.”

  After his dealings with the city, he couldn’t disagree with her. “The city is far from perfect. Did you hear that it was Digger making the drug?”

  Freya said, “It makes sense. He is one of the few people who has direct access to the Weather Shield. Are you going to tell me what happened? I mean both times you just rushed out of here. The first time I thought you were dead when everyone said you had gone missing.”

  Warren shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “I came very close to being dead when I went missing, so you weren’t wrong. Natasha found me bleeding to death in the city somewhere. I think I got spooked by my argument with Digger and was trying to take the danger away from my family. I went to hide in the city. But obviously I’m not very good at hiding as he found me almost straight away.”

  Warren pointed to the atramento on his cheek. “Without this here I would have died. It accelerated my healing.”

  Fascinated, Freya went up close to him and studied his cheek.

  She asked, “How does it work?”

  He shrugged, but explained as much as he understood. “It is a biofeedback which is powered by naturally occurring EM fields the body generates. It works much like a programmable Nano. Except the body is the machine and the atramento are the program. To be honest, it is not my field and I only understand half of what Hal told me.”

  Distracted while she studied the atramento Freya asked, “Hal?”

  He was feeling a little uncomfortable by Freya’s scrutiny. “Mmm, she is a bioware engineer who lives in the city. Though she has broadened her field to also include bigger machines than what you can put in the body.”

  Freya pulled away from him like she was avoiding being burnt. “Hal. A small Asian girl with black hair who likes to annoy people?”

  He grinned at her succinct disruption. “Do you know her?”

  Freya said, “Your parents introduced us.”

  She waved to the cheek. “Do you know how it directly interacts with the body?”

  He said, “Not the foggiest.”

  She tapped her lip thoughtfully and the unconscious gesture reminded him of Portland who always did that when he was thinking. A pity that Portland never had children. He would have been a good father.

  Freya came out of her thoughts. “Would you mind if I took some blood samples?”

  Warren said, “If it will help you.”

  She nodded her head decisively. “Yes, it might. As I think if this atramento works as you say it does, then it might be what we need to find a cure for Ambrosia.”

  He followed her as she led the way into the working part of her lab. It was better than going back to his own work, anyway. For some reason he couldn’t drum enough enthusiasm in himself to continue with translating the book he had retrieved from Hal.

  Warren would figure out later why he was like this as it was very different to his usual attitude. But nothing at the moment was as it should be. Not without Natasha.

  ___

  Natasha found her dad working on the large flash unit. He looked up when he heard her trudging her way over the gritty sand.

  “What the heck are you doing here?” Sergei growled.

  Natasha ignored her father’s belligerent ton
e and hugged him. “Nice to see you too, Dad.”

  He kissed her cheek. “That doesn’t answer my question. What are you doing here? I thought you had settled in the city.”

  Natasha wrinkled her nose, then said, “It is all right, but it isn’t my home. I’ve rented a small place in Edge. I’m going to set up a business here.”

  He touched her cheek. “Since when have you been into tattoos?”

  She grinned as she realised he was changing the subject. “I’ll do one for you as well. This tattoo has special abilities. It can keep you healthy.”

  She smiled when she saw the look of disgust on his face at the thought of putting a pretty pink tattoo on his face for everyone to see. “I’m healthy enough. Is that your business? Are you going to ink everyone in the Edge?” he said.

  His scepticism didn’t intimidate Natasha. “I’ll start there. I thought I would see if I could start up that salvage business you always spoke about. There are factories just down the road which are rusting in this weather.”

  Sergei dismissed the idea with a motion of his hand. “Bah, there is hardly anything there. Bandits have stripped them bare. You will be lucky to find scrap metal.”

  Her eyes sparked with the idea of the challenge. “Maybe, but I would like to find out. There is so much which we do without because we don’t have the facilities to make it. Some of the factories in the city just need a few parts and then they could run. We now have the resources we didn’t have when we didn’t have the Weather Shield. Things would be cheaper because they wouldn’t have to be made by hand. Or imported for a fortune from other city states.”

  Sergei shrugged and changed the subject again. “Where would you put the stuff you fixed, that is, if you find anything? And who would buy it? No one on the Edge has that kind of money. Only the city people and transporting it there would cost you a mint.”

  Natasha said, “I think you would be surprised. There are places and there will be a way to make it cost effective. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’m not afraid anymore.”

  She also had a few aces up her sleeve. Hal for one. She could sell her things to Hal or she could sell it to those in the city. Megan had already put in an order for things if she could find them. It seemed there were some things which were only made in Europe in the past and the only way to get them now was salvage.

  Sergei said, “Afraid of what, Sweetheart?”

  Natasha shrugged as she answered, “My future. Of not making something of myself. Of never meeting someone, of never falling in love and dying alone. Of not being remembered or loved. Mom had that and she’ll never be completely lost because of that. I wanted that, but I was also afraid it would never happen for me.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “Ah, that stuff your mother stuffed in your head. We all die alone, Sweetheart. Even when we have someone. But what about grandkids?”

  She chuckled at his single-mindedness. “Maybe, in time. Just not right now.”

  Natasha couldn’t bring herself to admit to her father about Warren and all that had happened between them. Not yet anyway.

  ___

  Warren closed his eyes for a second. He could almost see Natasha there in front of him. He had left his home and his father’s house as her presence haunted him there. He had imagined conversation after conversation between the two of them where he apologised and they went back to how things had been. But even those dreams were painful.

  Worse, because he knew she was right. He had made a fool of himself. He should have run when Isabelle had asked to speak to him.

  Warren opened his eyes and looked down at the books in front of him. The only safe place was his office at the University as Natasha had never been there. Still, it wasn’t the same.

  His hands clenched on the spine of one of the books stacked on the corner of his desk. He tried to concentrate on his work. It had always been easy to fall into his work. The words, the people and the nuances had always enticed him. Not anymore.

  Warren threw the book and growled in frustration. He had been trying to translate some of the other words in the book, but every time he looked at the words and all he saw was Natasha.

  Jephry said from the doorway of Warren’s office, “I take it today is a bad day to visit.”

  Warren turned to look at the Enforcer and waved for him to enter his office. Warren ran a hand through his hair. “I just can’t concentrate here. It doesn’t feel right.”

  He knew it wasn’t really the place, but something else. Besides, he had never liked working at the University. Usually he didn’t notice as he would sink into his work.

  “But that is my trouble. What brings you here, Jephry?”

  Jephry placed a folder on a table. “I have collected some interesting data on your friend Digger and his sister.”

  Warren picked up the folder and flicked through it.

  He wasn’t as sad by the revelation as he had expected. “So, Isabelle was into it all up to her eyeballs?”

  Instead, Warren’s voice was rough with his anger.

  Jephry said, “Yip. In deep, that one. Digger was the face and she was the brains. Only things started to fall apart when their main distributor was taken down.”

  Jephry pointed to something on the page and when Warren looked down, he realised he recognised the name. “The guy who Misha and Hal took down?”

  “Yip. They tried to get others, but none of the gangs would move their product. They were losing money. The market here at the University is small compared to what they can get in the city. Digger started to gamble to try to cover their loses. Isabelle invested what money they had but she knew it was only a stopgap. She was looking to marry money.”

  Warren gritted his teeth. “You mean me.”

  “I suspect you were a viable option,” Jephry drawled and Warren snorted.

  Warren placed the folder on the table. He was sick to his stomach, had he been blind to the nature of his friends? “So, what is going to happen to Isabelle?”

  “That is why I’m here. I thought you might like to come along with me.”

  Jephry gestured to the door where another Enforcer stood. “We’re about to arrest her.”

  ___

  Isabelle returned home as they approached her house. She had bags of shopping on her arm as she strutted up to the door.

  Harold and his partner Rawiri moved fast. Rawiri got between her and the door to her home and Jephry asked, “Miss Isabelle Hauser?”

  He flipped out his badge and she frowned as she glanced at it.

  Isabelle sighed, exasperated. “Surely your people have asked enough questions. Yes, yes, my brother was a very bad man. Can’t you just leave me alone, now?”

  Jephry said in his authoritative voice, “You are under arrest Miss Hauser for the production and distribution of a class A drug.” He took her bags from her arm and passed it to Warren.

  She glared at Warren. “Did you come along to see my humiliation?”

  He was honest as he said, “Yes. Also, to make sure you don’t hurt anyone else. I saw you in the mall. You told Digger I was alive and you hired those gang members to beat me up. What was the point? To scare me enough not to return?”

  Isabelle sneered. “They were supposed to kill you. I knew you were injured. A beating should have finished you off. Why the heck didn’t you die?”

  Jephry answered, “He has a guardian angel.”

  She looked sharply at the agent. “That woman? Well, she didn’t stick around for long, did she?”

  Jephry pulled her hands behind her back and cuffed her.

  Warren said, “Because you chased her away.” Because he had let her go.

  Her eyes pierced him. “You could have had it all, Warren. We could have married and been the power couple of the city.”

  He said, “If I had to have a life with you in it, Isabelle, it would be a worse fate than the one you are facing now.”

  Her eyes snapped with her anger, but she didn’t say anything.

  Jephry
directed her to his vehicle. He closed the door after she had been seated. Jephry turned to Warren. “I hope you aren’t going to just hide here on this hill and you are going to chase after that girl.”

  Warren said, “Don’t worry, Jephry. I won’t be walking back to her, I’ll be running.”

  Jephry nodded and followed his partner and they left.

  Warren went to find his father. He was in his greenhouse. He was pruning. A task he usually reserved for times when he needed to settle his emotions as it required a still mind.

  Nasser didn’t even turn when he entered but said, “Have you made up your mind yet?”

  Warren stopped and thought about that for a while. “I think I made up my mind a while ago. I just got distracted. I’ve been hiding here and in my books. I think it is time for me to stop hiding.”

  His father turned. “Excellent. You can take this to her.”

  Nasser picked up a box and placed it in Warren’s hands. “You should know how to deal with this. Your mother would approve of her having it. Now get out of here and don’t come back until you make it right with that girl.”

  Warren smiled slightly. “I promise, Dad.” He hesitated. “It isn’t like my sister. She went to Freedom because she wanted exactly that. I won’t be very far and you should visit.”

  Nasser snorted. “What made me sad about your sister was that she was running away from life, as well. Not that she wanted freedom. One day she will come back. It just makes me, as a parent, sad to see a child in pain.”

  He patted Warren’s arm. “Go to Natasha. She is good for you.”

  Warren was carrying the box outside when Megan said from the corridor. “Have you figured out how you are going to make it up to her?”

  He hesitated. He looked down at the box. Maybe this gift would soften her heart. Except that was a gift from his father. Warren needed to come to her with his own gift to make her aware he was willing to change and that he was sorry.

  He looked at Megan. “What do you suggest?”

  “Well, she loves her home at the Edge. Most of the city has forgotten it. Maybe you can do something for the Edge.”