by T. R. Graves
Chapter 31
Contracts Made in Hell
Carlie
I suspected the gleeful facade he was displaying was one geared toward covering up the anger he felt over seeing that we were actually able to contact Gran.
"Peter, imagine my surprise." Barone offered a glance toward Jayden, one meant to dare him to ever lie to him again. "I'm so glad to see you are alive and well. I take it Carlie asked that you be notified of our agreement so you could begin the arrangement of getting Tawney to the capital and into the state of inertia sooner rather than later," he said with so much sugary sweetness I almost gagged on the bile it caused to erupt from my stomach.
Gran, completely sober, stood tall and proud. "Yes, John, that is exactly what Carlie was doing. I've been asking for years that this become a priority for your administration. I'm glad to see you've finally been able to strike up a deal with someone in my family that could help this initiative see the light of day."
Barone sighed heavily. "Peter, it's never been a situation where I didn't want to help. I've never been in exactly the right position to help. Not until now. Carlie and I have agreed upon some things that have put me in the position to help." He cleared his throat and glanced around the room. "I'm assuming everyone here knows about the agreement, and I'm going to insist it be kept completely confidential. If it's not… if the first word of that contract makes its way out to anyone besides the four of us, all bets are off. I'll not save Tawney, and each of you—with the exception of Carlie—will be running for your lives toward the Shadow Nation. If everyone keeps that agreement quiet, Carlie will live the life of a queen. If anyone shares its existence with anyone else, she'll live the life of a prisoner… one that'll be praying for Tawney's merciful death. Do I make myself clear?" Barone asked with the maleficence of Satan himself.
The promise embedded within his threat had me cowering behind Thorne only because he stepped protectively my way when Barone suggested he'd imprison me.
No one responded.
"St. Romaine, do you understand me?"
The angry Surrogate, one I'd never want to go up against, nodded and spit is acquiescence. "Yes, sir. I do."
Barone turned to Thorne. "I suppose it's good you found out about this since I was going to have to do something to officially dissolve your engagement to the woman who'll one day be my wife. Do you understand the importance of keeping all of this quiet?" he asked, looking over Thorne's shoulder, obviously threatening Rorie, who was standing wide-eyed watching the scene before her.
Thorne glanced back and understood the unspoken warning. "I understand, and neither of us will ever mention it, sir."
Finally, he turned to Gran. "Now, Peter, you and I both know that Sam and Selma wouldn't agree to this. They love Tawney, but Carlie… Carlie's their daughter. They think she has her whole life ahead of her… that marrying a man as old as her father will shortchange her youth. They don't understand that with Carlie's and my life expectancies nearing two hundred, the twenty-five years between us will mean nothing in a few short decades. It'll be your responsibility—after a few years where Carlie and I are inseparable—to convince them that our marriage will be one made in heaven."
One made in hell!
"I'm committed to doing whatever I need to do to save Tawney and Carlie. I'll tell Selma and Sam whatever you want me to tell them, but I can't guarantee they'll listen to me. You know them both well enough to know they form their own opinions about things… and do what they want."
Barone chuckled. "Sam's always been like that. Even when we were boys playing soldiers of war, he'd refuse to follow the orders he disagreed with. He'd kneel before me and let me pretend to shoot him in the head before he'd do anything that compromised his morals or ethics."
Barone stared toward the neon shimmering hologram before him, but he wasn't seeing the here and now. Instead, he was remembering the past, one where two neighbors grew up together, learning to accept the other's flaws, forgiving weaknesses, and growing into mature men who were charged with leading our nation. From my point of view and because Barone was morally barren, Dad had to do a lot more accepting and forgiving than Barone.
"Sam has never trusted me with his wife, and Selma has never trusted me with their daughter. Both have been right to trust their instincts," Barone said unapologetically.
While Barone was busy sifting through his memories, Gran turned his own stare on me. It was equal parts apologetic, sad, angry, and remorseful. I offered him an infinitesimal grin in order to let him know I don't hold him accountable for doing what he had to do in order to save Tawney.
She's my priority.
Shaking off his gloom, Barone turned toward me.
"Forgive me, dear, for barging in here. I saw the illumination outside the tent and thought it prudent to find out what was going on. For your sake, of course. It's a good thing, too. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to share our good news with Peter, nor would I have been able to let each one of you know how important it is to keep all of this between us," Barone said, scanning the room and making sure the threat embedded in his every word was heard and felt.
No one said a word or did anything more than clench jaw muscles or grip fists.
"I think we all see eye to eye. Now, I'd like St. Romaine to round up Sean and Simon. They're under my protection, and I can't protect them while they're out in those woods. Carlie and I will be waiting here until you return," Barone said.
Jayden's glance snapped my way. I shrugged. I'd added them to my immunity list so he suspected they were somewhere near.
"Go. I'm at the end of my patience and am ready to retire."
I nodded encouragingly, but Jayden was slow to leave me. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was leave me with Barone. I nodded one final time, and he left. There was no doubt in my mind that he'd return quickly. He had no intention of leaving me alone with Barone for too long.
"C-Carlie… we never refilled your MicroPharm. Why don't we do that while we wait on St. Romaine to return?" Thorne suggested, and I noticed Rorie was nowhere to be found.
Good girl! I'm glad to know I don't have to remind her to make sure she's not to be seen or heard when Barone is around.
I glanced toward Barone for his permission, an act that pleased him based on his encouraging smile and nod.
"I'll not have you wanting for anything, Carlie. Let Angleton take care of you. Healthy is what you have to be during these formative years. By the time you're thirty, you and I are going to have a family bigger than any that's existed in decades. That means you have to take care of yourself now," Barone proudly announced.
Little did he know that what he wanted for me was not what I wanted for myself. I'd never seen myself having the first kid, much less a litter. Still, he needed to assume I was going to concede to his demands and bend to his will.
At least for now.
Thorne pulled back the curtain and held it for me while I passed through to his makeshift exam room, one where he could privately refill my MicroPharm. Just when he was about to let the curtain drop behind me, Barone reached up, held it in place, and followed the two of us into the tiny area of the tent where Sean had been earlier.
As if he watched physicians in action every day, he sat down on the stool Thorne usually used, crossed his arms, and stretched out his legs casually. He tried to look bored, but I wasn't nearly naïve enough to believe his presence was benign. He had an ulterior motive and only part of it had to do with him not wanting Thorne and me communicating without him. Suspicious for me was where he'd positioned himself. At the head of my bed rather than the foot.
When Thorne lowered my shirt, Barone would get a glimpse that few non-clinical people had ever gotten of me, a glimpse that I wouldn't mind giving Jayden, but was nowhere near ready to give to the president. I may have resented Jayden and his arrogance and insistence that I go more and do more my whole life, but that was nothing when compared to the resentment I had for Barone. I hated him in a whole new way, one that m
ade it clear to me that my claims of hate where Jayden was concerned was anything but.
Love and hate. There's a fine line.
In Jayden's case, my hate was born from love. In Barone's case, my hate was fueled by pure abhorrence and didn't have the first smidgeon of love embedded within it.
"Sir, she might be more comfortable without an audience," Thorne suggested.
"I'm anything but an audience. You on the other hand are nothing more than her physician, will never be anything more than her physician. Mind your business and refill her MicroPharm so I can take her back to our tent."
Begrudgingly mollified, Thorne went to work and took great care to make sure Barone saw nothing more than his backside while he added particles to the MicroPharm reservoir and applied ointment to the visible snakebites.
While Thorne worked, Barone mused, "Carlie, do you remember our kiss?"
Gulping, I closed my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to pretend for the rest of my life that he'd not ever laid a hand on me, but I couldn't.
"I know you thought I was a pervert… think I'm a pervert. The truth is that your grandfather and your parents refused to give me a complete genetic sample from you. I'd long suspected you were special and they were hiding something from me and the scientific community. I decided to take matters in my own hands. I got you alone, kissed you, and retrieved my own genetic sample.
Thorne's eyes closed. He'd just gotten confirmation that his suspicions were correct. He was as sickened by and disgusted with Barone as I was.
"That's when I learned what they'd been hiding. That's when I found out that you have the potential to be the longest living human ever to officially exist. Imagine my surprise when I ran a match and found out that our children would live almost twice as long."
Every muscle in my body tensed, and while his open admission that he'd kissed a sixteen-year-old girl, one who'd never been kissed before, should have brought him shame, it didn't. He felt no humiliation when it came to doing what he had to do when it came to furthering his cause, immortality. No cost too great. For me… for the sixteen-year-old girl, it brought shame. It also brought betrayal and contempt.
He'd kissed me to get to get the genetic sampling my parents had refused him. I only thought I loathed this man minutes ago.
Before I knew what was happening, I jerked up. At least, I tried to. Thorne saw in my eyes the moment insanity took over. Craving Barone's instant death more than I'd ever wanted anything, I had a fleeting glimpse at what a crime of passion looked like. For everyone's sake, Thorne held me back.
"Carlie, when Tawney is in the state of inertia, where will she live?" Barone, unaware of the war raging inside of me, mused.
As if a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured over my head, I stopped fighting. I stilled. The fight that had inflated me whooshed from my body and left nothing behind to hold me up. Curving in on myself, I slumped. Then, I lay back, closing my eyes again, and remembered that I'd given Tawney's life for my own.
He'll do worse to you. You might as well get used to it.
A single tear dripped from the corner of each eye while I let Thorne refill the particles. A few seconds later and catching me off guard, I felt palms on the sides of my head and thumbs stroking away the tears.
"Carlie, can you open your eyes? I want to look at your pupils and make sure there aren't any unexpected effects of the particles."
I almost started crying for real when I came eye to eye with Thorne, when I saw despite his quiet, gentle words, he was experiencing his own internal battle. My scientific equal was as angry as I'd ever seen him, and the regret over my situation and the subjection he felt over not being able to intervene—not without risking Rorie's life—was wearing on him in a way that made me add him to my list of people who needed more from me than just immunity.
He needed someone he could really talk to. Keeping those raw and powerful emotions locked up and never sharing them, never having anyone who could take on at least a few of his burdens seemed cruel. Thorne was too good of a person to bear these kinds of crosses without a confidant who will listen without judging, reacting, or burdening him even more.
Okay. I might not be the person for the last two.
I might react with anger over what he was going through and my own situation might add more of a burden to him, but I definitely wouldn't judge. I knew why he did what he had to do. Rightfully so, his priority was Rorie. If he ever put anyone above Rorie, he wouldn't be the man I'd come to respect, and I wouldn't have been able to care for him so easily.
It was time for me to lighten his load. Rather than wallowing in my situation, I sucked in a breath meant to give me strength, smiled at Thorne, and gave him a small wink, one that suggested he and I would get through this together. He smiled back, and before Barone got too curious about Thorne's assessment of my eyes, he went back to work.
"Do you want to know why you are so attracted to her, Angleton?" Barone sang from behind Thorne.
Thorne didn't answer. He ignored the president and kept working. Apparently, the question had been rhetorical.
"You're attracted to her because before I knew better, I wanted you to be."
I cocked a brow that told Thorne my pheromone theory had been solid.
"There are four people within the borders of our nation that have the genes necessary for me to have what I need in order to create the superior race. You are one of those people. When I programmatically merged your sperm with Carlie's egg, I found that the two of you were destined to have children with IQs over two hundred. Every scenario I tried, I got the same results."
This news was a little more difficult for Thorne to ignore. A shocked stare met mine, and with it and for the briefest moment, Thorne allowed himself to think of me as the mother of his children. Just as quick, he mourned the children we'd never have together.
"Why are you telling us this?" I snapped.
It took a few seconds before he answered. "The two of you will never marry as planned, but you will co-parent genetically altered children."
It was Thorne who spoke this time. "I'm not sure what that means."
Happy to finally share his plans, Barone said, "Carlie's eggs will be fertilized with something better than a single sperm. They will be fertilized with a sperm that will be modified with your intelligence, St. Romaine's strength and agility, and my charisma."
My anger returned. I was just about to give Barone a piece of my mind when we heard people enter the infirmary. A second later, the curtain separating the exam room from the rest of the tent was snatched open.
A wave of relief shot through me when I saw a larger-than-life Jayden standing before me. He scanned the exam room until he'd made sure I was there and safe. He wasn't angry enough for me to think he'd heard anything Barone had said. That didn't mean he wasn't worried. He was, and he was drenched in sweat. I couldn't have been more relieved that he was back. Safe.
Given his appearance, he'd run like it had been a matter of life and death to get to where Sean and Simon were camped out and back to me. I planned one day to tell him thanks for doing that.
For doing everything he'd done for my family and me.
Snapping me from my thoughts, Barone jumped up and backed as far as he could against the wall of the tent. Apparently, he wasn't accustomed to anyone but him commanding a room. I almost giggled when I saw Simon's giant exotic cats. They were as majestic and imposing as anyone or anything I'd ever seen. For Barone, they were dangerous and terrifying.
"What the hell is this, St. Romaine? You were supposed to bring Sean and Simon. Not zoo animals."
Jayden shrugged. "They're my brother's pets, and they go where he goes."
"Manniless!" Barone shouted.
Dammit! Is every person I hate at this camp?
Charging in as if Jayden weren't near and someone was trying to kill the president, the former Lead Surrogate, Isaiah Manniless, ran into the infirmary tent, looking around and trying to decide exactly who he was going kill
for Barone. He looked at Jayden as if he were his first choice.
At least he did until he saw Sean, Jayden's double. Isaiah's stare bounced between the identical twins as he tried to figure out which of the two men took his Lead Surrogate position from him and left him with guard duty. Which was going to die.
"Don't just stand there like an idiot! Shoot these animals," Barone yelled, nodding his head and waving his arms in the direction of the cats. "Shoot them now!"
Without any hesitation at all and like any loyal soldier would, Isaiah whipped his gun from its holster and aimed it at the first animal, one of the male black panthers, Jadbalja.
Of the four intimidating cats, there were two males that were clearly larger and more dominant than the smaller, more graceful females. Each male and each female was distinguished by the pureness of their coat. There were a male and female black panther and a male and female white panther.
None had the same eye color. The black male's, Jabdalja's, eyes were the violet hues of the purple pansies in Gran's genetics lab. Bagheera, the white male, had the jade eyes of a Surrogate. A pure white Sasha had irises as magnificent as the gold typically reserved for tigers, and Vixen's eyes, hers were midnight blue and stunning when coupled with her pure black coat.
There were reasons beyond the pureness of their coats, the brilliance of their eye color, and the intelligence they obviously possessed that made me take notice of these exotic animals. I couldn't help but notice that all four pairs of eyes had suddenly dilated and fixed themselves onto the threat within their midst. Isaiah.
The Surrogate Soldier was intuitive enough to stop and assess the danger he was in, to realize that as soon as he killed one member of the group, as soon as he killed Vixen's mate, the other three would pounce on him and maul him until there was nothing left but a bloody carcass. He was outnumbered and smart enough to know it.
"What the hell are you doing? I've ordered you to shoot them!" Barone, ignorant to the reality that after these massive animals had killed Isaiah, their immediate threat, they would focus all of their vengeance on Isaiah's leader. Barone.
"Sir," Isaiah said, trying to keep calm and steady while looking for a way to edge his president out of the danger they'd so clearly gotten themselves into. "I'd like you to ease your way over to me. Behind me. From there, you and I will make our way out of this tent. We'll have other chances to kill them. Right now, we just need to get out of here."
It wasn't until that moment that Barone comprehended just how much of a threat these wild animals were to him and Isaiah. On his way past me, he grabbed my hand and tugged, silently suggesting I follow him out of the tent.
Interestingly enough, I knew the threat wasn't directed toward me so I pulled back.
Using a placating tone, Barone said, "I am to be your husband, and I expect you to come with me."
The hair on the back of my neck prickled. Some of it had to do with being ordered around. The other part of it had to do with the instant understanding that he and Isaiah were going to leave the tent and make sure that Jabdalja, Vixen, Bagheera, and Sasha were trapped and killed. The threat they offered to the president would be eliminated. The animals' deaths would be swift and decisive. And unjust.
Rather than go slow like Barone and Isaiah. Rather than make my way to the tent's door. I—acting as if I'd known these animals my entire life and was confident they wouldn't try to kill me like they so clearly wanted to do with Isaiah and Barone—popped up and ran to stand between the two largest ones. I had the raven-black Jabdalja and Vixen on my right side and the snow-white Bagheera and Sasha on my left. I'd never felt more powerful.
"John," I said, purposefully using his name and solidifying our relationship. Acting the part of future First Lady, I held my head high, squared my shoulders, and bowed my chest. If I didn't show the confidence required of this position, my request would be ignored, and I knew it. "I want to add these animals to my immunity list."
