by Leela Ash
However, he could understand where she was coming from, and felt terrible that she knew the burden of such a large responsibility. He could imagine that growing up in a place like Greenrock would seem like a simple task, but it was clear, Veronica connected with these people. She cared.
That made her job that much more difficult. Achilles got that. And he had intense respect for her, and for the effort she put into doing her job with as much logic as possible, for making the very counterintuitive effort to put her emotions on the backburner and get to the bottom of things. Despite knowing she had an emotional reaction to the incident, he was impressed by her strength and sense of responsibility. He had never met a woman like her. Shifter or otherwise.
Veronica sighed, a pathetic, shuddering sound that, once again, wrenched Achilles’ chest. He hated seeing her in so much pain. But what could he do about it except try and convince her there was nothing more she could have done and that the fault was his own?
“I want to stop them,” she finally said, looking into Achilles’ eyes with a sudden passionate intensity. Now, his chest was gripped with an entirely different emotion, and he gritted his teeth, silently commanding his inner wolf to hush.
“I want to stop them too,” Achilles replied as evenly as he could muster. His grip tightened on her shoulders unintentionally, and she narrowed her eyes at him daringly. He could tell his touch affected her. But he couldn’t let that affect him too…
“I guess we’ve seen everything we can here,” Veronica said, sighing. “I don’t know what any of this means. And if they took whatever is most important, then they were able to succeed, and we failed.”
“It may not have come to that,” Achilles said decidedly. “Come on, let’s go to the hospital. Maybe Lester is feeling better and is up to talking.”
But Veronica shook her head. “No. Did you see him? He was out cold and there were no visible injuries. He didn’t look like he had been physically assaulted. Whatever happened to him was something else. Energy or something… I don’t know.”
Achilles wasn’t sure either, but her guess was as close to accurate as he could imagine himself. How did he find such a smart human? There was something so different about her. It almost felt dangerous. He couldn’t help reacting to her. And not being able to control these types of things was definitely never good. He had to do better to be on his guard.
“Why don’t we get out of here,” Achilles suggested gently. She was clearly going to continue to beat herself up about this, and a change of scenery might do her some good.
Not only that but he was having a hard time trusting himself to keep his hands to himself. They were confined in this little space and all he could think about was how impressive she was. About how he wished he could know more about her and everything that made her who she was. But getting to know a woman like this was such a waste of time for him. He knew it could only lead to disaster.
Who cared that the Elders were pushing them all to get mates so they could impress their distant ancestors on another planet they might never even get to reach?! They would just have to decide to respect him without a mate if it ever came to that point. They could take him or leave him. And if they left him, that was their own fault for being close-minded about stupid traditions that were outdated and shouldn’t still matter anymore. If they wanted to let that interfere with saving their people, then maybe they deserved to be annihilated.
No, he couldn’t let that bitterness reach him. He had to be positive. Veronica needed a distraction from all of this. And since it was his fault in the first place, he would be the one to give her what she needed.
“Where would we even go? I just want to find answers.”
“It won’t do much good dwelling on it at the moment. We have to wait until Lester is feeling better, then we will have the answers we need. For now, why not just take a walk or something? Clear our heads. Maybe something will come to us then.”
Achilles reached to take Veronica’s hand, and she reluctantly took it. Once he closed his hand around hers, he was shocked by how right it felt. He squeezed it gently as he helped her to stand up, his heart thudding just a little more heavily than it had been a moment ago.
The wolf was on to him, and he was pissed about it.
He let her hand fall from his, regretting every moment it drifted further away from him and back toward her own body. A body he was definitely not going to let himself look at. Not now, not ever. And that’s just the way it was going to have to be.
“So, where do you want to go, then?” Veronica asked, slowly trudging to the door.
“This is a nice place. A lot of acreage. We can just take a look around. Have a walk. I know exercise helps me feel better most of the time.”
It would certainly help him to quell these inconvenient feelings. The fresh air would do them both some good for some very different reasons. He couldn’t allow her to get into his head any more than she was already. But spending time with her wasn’t going to help that.
Still, it was his fault she was so distraught. He couldn’t just leave her alone like this. He would try to help and then he would go back to base and keep working on whatever weird welding creation he was going to make that night. Doing something with his hands would help if nothing else did, right?
Although he could think of a few other things he would like to do with his hands.
“It’s nice out here,” Veronica said.
The glumness hadn’t quite left her voice, but her face was starting to look rosy again. He couldn’t imagine how difficult it might have been for her to witness her friend’s pain and having no power to prevent or help him. Achilles had the sudden concern that maybe they wouldn’t be able to find a cure for Lester at a human hospital. What if what had happened to him was something that couldn’t be reversed with human technology? They would be completely unprepared for the effects of whatever warfare an alien race might have at their disposal. And he had never seen anything quite like it before.
“Yeah, it’s pretty,” Achilles agreed, trying not to think too loudly, lest this surprising woman somehow pick up on the thoughts. “The air is nice.”
“When do you think he’ll be able to speak to us?” Veronica’s voice was quieter now, but there was a hopeful note to it that Achilles was grateful for. She didn’t think he was going to die, at least. That much was good. And he likely wouldn’t. They would just have to be careful. And if he didn’t come to consciousness that night, then Achilles was going to have to do some research to figure out just what had happened and how he might be able to reverse the effects.
Whoever had come hadn’t wanted Lester to be able to talk. If they had been able to extract information from him, perhaps, they had all they needed. But if he hadn’t spoken, maybe they had left him alive so they could try again.
It suddenly dawned on Achilles that this had to be the case. They had rummaged through the old man’s house, found nothing of use just as Achilles himself had done. Then, upon interrogating the old man and finding he had nothing useful to offer them, or that perhaps he refused to offer them anything, they made him pay for it. But left him alive so they could come back later and finish the job.
It didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t have been killed outright unless they still saw a use in him.
But Achilles wasn’t going to let them fulfill that use. As soon as he was done there, he would call Gavin and see what he could find out about the creatures that were after Lester and calling him. But he couldn’t make it obvious that he was asking for a reason or the others might become suspicious. Maybe he would just call him up and see if there had been any progress, then see what Gavin had to say. Or maybe, the answers he needed were in the book he had stolen and hidden in his bedroom.
Suddenly, he was eager to leave, and he took a glance at Veronica, who was now walking at a steady pace and seemed to be feeling quite a bit more at peace.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
She seemed surprised that he could tell she had been feeling off in the first place, and he offered her a kind smile.
“Good. It’s getting late. Maybe we should get out of here.”
Veronica nodded, though her disappointment was almost tangible in the air surrounding them. Achilles gritted his teeth, wishing he didn’t understand and relate to the feeling so well.
They trekked down the hill toward Veronica’s car, and she hesitated before approaching it.
“Is there somewhere you need to be? I can drop you off if you’d like.”
Achilles was tempted to accept the offer, but upon remembering how much he had fucked up already, shook his head in refusal.
“I have some other stuff to take care of right now, but thanks.”
Veronica seemed surprised, and maybe a little crestfallen, but she nodded and offered him a bright smile regardless. He wished she wouldn’t do that. Try and mask what she was really feeling so other people wouldn’t worry about her. He was going to worry about her anyway. And not because she was helpless or vulnerable either. But because there were a lot of ways that she wasn’t. And he didn’t want her to get into any trouble because of that.
“Well, then, I guess you can give me a call later on and I’ll keep you updated on how Lester is doing,” Veronica said. “I know you don’t want me to call you because it would draw attention to… whatever we’re doing here. Our investigation.”
Achilles felt terrible. Secrecy wasn’t exactly his ideal choice, but he also hadn’t considered how it might make Veronica feel to have to stay quiet. And the way she had said that? She knew there was more going on than an investigation. She had felt the same damn connection he had. And the more he tried not to think about it, the stronger and more tempting to explore it, it became. What kind of poison was this?
“Right,” he said, standing as tall as he could and doing his best to make his voice gruff and noncommittal. “It’s for the best and thank you for respecting my wishes about this. We don’t need anyone prying in places they shouldn’t. I know my friends and I aren’t exactly popular here and having it look like you and I are in cahoots, or like I’m being investigated, would make it much harder for us to settle down here and try to fit in.”
Veronica’s face lit up and she let out a musical laugh. Achilles quirked his brow at her. What had he said that was so funny?
“Sorry,” she said apologetically. “It’s just that no matter what you guys do, it’s hard to see you really ‘fitting in’. And that’s not because you’re not great, it’s just that there’s never been guys who looked so…” She trailed off, studying Achilles’ face for a moment before looking away with a slight flush on her cheeks.
He caught a vague whiff of her desire and had to ball his fists as he commanded the wolf to stay at bay.
“I just mean, it’s obvious you’re not from around here, and folks likely won’t forget it. But you’re right. I don’t want your stay here to be miserable. We can keep all of this between us.”
She offered Achilles an understanding smile and he gaped at her as she crossed the space between herself and the driver’s seat of the car. Before he knew it – before he was ready for it – she was driving down the road without a care in the world. Or so it seemed. He wouldn’t pin her as the type to be careless. Then again, he hardly knew her. Maybe he was giving this woman too much credit and, in the end, even if things did progress between them, he would just be disappointed.
Well, there was no time to worry about that now. He had to go look at that book. And if he found anything useful in it that could help Lester, he would just have to find a way to implement it so that they could finally talk to the eccentric old man.
11.
“Hey Ronnie, where you been?”
Veronica sighed and glanced to her deputy. “Lester was attacked.”
Harley stared at her in surprise. “What? When? What happened? Did he file a report?”
“No. I thought I’d go up there for a visit and found him on his floor with the door open. Something attacked him.”
Harley creased his brow in confusion. “Something? What do you mean, ‘something’? Was it an animal attack?”
Veronica opened her mouth to reply, dumb stricken by her haphazard comment. “No, it wasn’t an animal attack. I don’t know why I said it that way. I just don’t see how anyone who could consider themselves a human being could go in and attack an innocent old man.”
“Well, what did you find there? Any clues?”
Harley was already on the offensive, crossing over to his desk and sitting down at the computer to take notes. “We should go out there and check things out together, don’t you think? You could have missed something.”
“No.”
Veronica startled them both with the tone of her voice. Harley looked up at her, his expression almost hurt. “Well, why not? It couldn’t hurt anything.”
It could hurt plenty if there is still something lurking around there wanting to hurt people, Veronica thought. She wasn’t about to let Harley have a taste of those horrifying space creatures if she could help it. It was bad enough poor old Lester had come face to face with them. If she was reckless enough to let that happen, after what had happened to her on his property, then there was no way she was going to go back there alone. Even with Harley.
No, she would wait to go back again with Achilles if they went back at all. At least he had some idea about what to do with these creatures. She was starting to feel just as useless and helpless as Achilles must have thought she was. All she seemed to be doing at the moment was getting people into trouble without even realizing it.
“I did a thorough investigation myself when I was there. There’s nothing left to look for. It was probably just some thugs who wanted to give an old man a run for his money. You know how kids can be.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t sound like the kids here. People know Lester is a little bit off his rocker, but nobody has ever tried to harass him that way before.”
Veronica sighed. “Trust me. It isn’t going to do any good looking at his house again. Like I said, I investigated it thoroughly and there was no evidence to say who did it. Our best chance is to wait until Lester is in a position to speak about what happened to him so we can get a positive ID on the criminal. It’s a waste of resources to be doing a bunch of sleuthing and guesswork.”
“But Ronnie−”
“My mind is made up!”
She hadn’t meant to raise her voice, but now that she had, Harley backed away from his desk. He was clearly miffed about it, but he knew better than to push the subject with her.
“Leave this case to me, Harley. And that’s an order.”
Harley scowled and turned away from her for a moment to conceal what was probably a very disrespectful look.
Finally, once he had composed himself enough, he turned, once again, to face her. “Fine. It’s your call. I know you and that guy have some weird history together.”
Veronica’s brow shot up and she stared at Harley until he was squirming in place. “I didn’t mean it in a weird way,” he mumbled finally, gazing at the ground submissively. “I just know he’s like an uncle to you or something. Your grandfather was close to him, right?”
“Yeah,” Veronica stated. “And it would mean a lot to me if you would just leave this one to me. There’s plenty of other things to worry about. Why don’t you see if there’s any news about the Warner case?”
It almost made her feel sick to bring it up. The memories she had somehow absorbed from those evil monsters they’d encountered at Lester’s property hadn’t left her mind. She wished she could do something about it but sending Harley on a false lead was better than nothing. The case was open and shut to her as far as she was concerned. But how could she ever explain to Harley exactly what had happened?
“Do you think it could be related to what happened to Lester, Ronnie?”
All traces of Harley’s anger were gone as he searched his friend’s eyes impl
oringly. He didn’t know what a landmine of a question he was asking. Ronnie sighed and shrugged her shoulders heavily. “There was no evidence to indicate that the two cases are related. It was probably just an electrical fire, but I would feel better knowing you’re working on something like that while I’m preoccupied, okay?”
“Okay. Whatever you need. Let me know if I can get anything for you, Ronnie.”
Veronica nodded, feeling horrible about lying to her friend. But she knew it was a necessary evil at this point. There was no way he could handle the whole truth of the matter, and she wasn’t about to force him into it.
She had been sitting at her desk for about an hour, looking over some of the articles she had saved from Lester over the years about the serpent mound when the phone’s ringing startled her out of her thoughts. She answered with some trepidation. These days, she had no idea what to expect. Who would be on the other line?
“Hello. Sheriff Mitchell speaking.”
“Sheriff Mitchell! This is Greenrock Mercy Hospital calling. We wanted to inform you that Lester Gammon is finally coming ‘round and should be available for questioning within the hour.”
“Is that right?” Veronica suddenly felt a surge of hope. She had to see Achilles. They would go to Lester as soon as possible so they could finally figure out just how bad things were getting.”
“That’s right, ma’am. We were told to inform you, as he appeared to be attacked in his home.”
“Can I ask what kinds of injuries he sustained?” Veronica asked, grabbing a pad of paper to take notes on.
“Well, the doctor would be able to tell you more when you arrive. I’m technically just the nurse…”
