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R eeni whispered, “Please follow Jerome.”
Without another word, Trevor turned and disappeared.
“What the hell is going on?” Leia asked, as she looked from one to the other. “I gather that we’ve come up against somebody who doesn’t like psychics?”
“That’s part of it, yes,” Reeni agreed, “and the other part is just way too simple.”
At that, Bullard glared at her. “If it’s so damn simple, stop jerking me around and explain it.”
She sighed. “I could, but I really do need the cat.”
“What if you can’t get the cat?” he asked in frustration.
“Oh, we can get the cat,” she stated. “That’s not really the problem.”
He just stared at her and shook his head. “It would be a whole lot easier if you could make some sense, and right now, but you’re not.”
“You know,” she began, immediately speaking in a mocking tone, “it would be a whole lot easier if you had a leettle bit of patience right now, yet you don’t.”
Her intentional mispronunciation of the word, combined with the surprised look on Bullard’s face, had Leia chortling with laughter. “Oh, my goodness, I love this.”
Bullard turned to frown at his wife. “How can you possibly love this?” he cried out in an faux-injured tone.
“You do need a talking to sometimes,” she pointed out. “So, if this is the form that you choose to have it happen, that’s fine with me.”
He just stared at his wife in bemusement, then turned back to Reeni. “So, is this misguided payback for all your pent-up anger at all the kids who gave you hell over that red hair of yours? Because I had nothing to do with that.”
“Jesus, did they ever give me hell,” she agreed, with a chuckle. “It still gives me nothing but hell sometimes,” she added in a cheerful tone. “But that’s okay, as most of the time it doesn’t bother me at all. But, every once in a while though, people get a one-two shot, and I pay the price, but most of the time I’m good.”
He nodded. “Having a temper can be a challenge.”
“It can be a great challenge,” she confirmed. “Sometimes to control it, and sometimes to let it loose. I hadn’t realized just how much my father was inhibiting everything I do. But now?… It feels very different, so it’ll take me a little bit to sort some of that out,” she noted apologetically, staring at him. “So, when you ask for answers, just know that I’m dealing with a different deck of cards right now.”
He nodded in understanding. “So much of this is emotion and intuition, isn’t it?”
“It’s all of that and more,” she declared. “Apparently, when I put up all the fear barriers to keep my father away, I was shutting down other avenues to an extent that I’m not even aware of at this point,” she admitted. “So it’s,… it’s a little hard for me to pull out of it right away.”
“Take your time, and do what you need to do,” Leia stated comfortably.
Reeni grinned at her. “I’m working on it. Bullard’s not terribly happy with my lack of progress or my lack of speed, but I am sure he will be pretty cheerful soon.”
“That depends,” Bullard said, staring at her. “It depends an awful lot on what you’ll say.”
And that wiped the smile off her face. “Yeah, that’s the part I can’t control, so that’s over to you.”
“And again we’re talking in circles,” he muttered.
She smiled. “I wouldn’t say circles, but it’s not clear just yet. All I need is Damon and Trevor to return.”
Just then Damon walked in, carrying a huge cat. She stared at it and muttered, “Good God, is that a bobcat or something?”
“No, it’s a Manx,” Dave exclaimed, rushing forward and picking up the big thing as if it were a baby. He buried his face in its fur and sighed happily.
“Yeah, well, you might want to look for something a little extra though,” she suggested.
Dave lifted his head and frowned at her. “Pardon?”
“Take a closer look. Does he have a collar?”
“No, I never put a collar on him,” he stated, not really understanding her question. So he looked to show her, then realized that a collar was on the cat’s neck. Dave’s facial expression turned hard.
“Jesus,” Bullard muttered. “What is it?”
“You know those electronic devices used at some museums, to track when a painting is moved?”
Bullard frowned. “Those RFID tags or the like, to track a stolen painting?”
“Basically that, but tweaked by a hacker,” Reeni said. “Instead of the cat’s special collar sending an alarm that a painting was stolen, it is sending some signal to cut off your lights, internet, satellite, depending on what room the cat is in, or something like that. I don’t understand how that works. Your team can figure that out. Now the cat did not do this by choice, mind you, so you really can’t shoot the messenger,” she rushed to say, making sure they didn’t take it out on her or on the poor cat.
“So, as much as you don’t want to hear this, what’s going on here is literally an inside job. A lot of it has been done by this furry guy, resulting in the electrical outages. However, the rest of it, like the changes made to the outside box, needed somebody else’s help. And it’s connected somehow to our bomb-maker in town, though I’m not exactly sure yet. I was hoping you guys could make some connection there. It’s related to Bullard somehow,” she stated, with a shrug.
Bullard stared at her, his face working, as he realized it would be somebody on his own team. He looked around at everybody gathered here, as they all understood the implications of what Reeni said.
She looked over at Damon. “You know it’ll just look bad if I say it.”
He nodded. He faced Bullard, and in an understanding tone, added, “It explains the behavior.”
Bullard groaned. “We’re talking about Jerome, aren’t we?”
She nodded. “At least in part. I don’t know whether he’s being paid to do it, or if this is an experiment. I’m really not sure at all,” she said apologetically. “That part’s not coming through very clearly right now, but, as I said, I’m dealing with some technical issues,” she offered, with a grin.
Bullard turned to Dave, who nodded. “We’ll go get him.”
Someone interrupted, “No, you won’t.”
They all turned just in time to see Jerome stepping into the kitchen, holding an automatic rifle.
Reeni caught a glimpse of Trevor behind Jerome. Probably others saw Trevor there too. Just not Jerome.
“What are you doing with that?” Bullard snapped.
“Her,” Jerome replied, “it’s her.”
“What’s her?”
“She’s the problem. You need to get rid of her. If it wasn’t for her, you would never even be questioning me.”
Bullard stared at him. “If you didn’t have anything to do with it, why are you standing there, holding that weapon?”
“Because it’s the only way I’ll get you to listen,” he replied.
Bullard stopped and stared. “You want me to listen?”
“Yeah, I want you to listen. You never listen to me, never. Ever since I started working here. I told you how I could do so much more, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“And I told you that you needed to understand how things worked around here before you could step up and do more,” Bullard retorted, glaring at him. “Violence and threats and sabotage aren’t the way to get a promotion in life.”
“Obviously because of her I won’t get a promotion now,” he grumbled, as he shifted the weapon on his arm.
Reeni realized just how ugly a position they were in, including Leia, who even now was looking with shock at this man she had welcomed into her home. Reeni asked him, “You tried really hard to get to work here for a long time, didn’t you?”
“Yes, only because Bullard finally had a need, with so many jobs to do and with some of his men busy with family obligations,” he explained, with an eyeroll, “so I managed to get the job. And that was a very lucky coincidence since I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he added, with a smirk. “Yet they don’t really appreciate me. None of them do.”
Leia nodded. “Meaning that you can do so much more, but they wouldn’t give you that chance?”
“Of course,” he agreed, with a shrug. “I worked here for months now, but nobody would talk to me, nobody would let me do things, nobody would let me into that seat of power,” he complained, “and that’s where I belong.”
Bullard appeared to be shocked.
“See? You don’t even know who I am. You don’t know anything about me,” Jerome complained, staring at Bullard. “That’s because you didn’t care, and then this little strumpet comes along.”
Reeni stiffened at the phrase and glared at him.
Jerome sneered at her. “Then she makes a couple little woo-woo things happen, and the next thing you know, you guys are falling all over her. I’m not so stupid or gullible.”
“You are definitely somebody who can be bought,” Reeni stated.
He looked at her. “I didn’t know they had these plans,” he said. “It’s not as if anything was inherently wrong with what they asked of me. They just wanted me to put something on the damn cat. I’m not stupid or anything, but I obviously knew that we were heading for a problem, but I figured, if I rescued everybody here from the group’s plans, then all of you would finally see me for what I could do.”
Reeni stared at Jerome. “Some gang talked you into doing their dirty work, didn’t they? This was just a test, wasn’t it? That’s why it felt so wrong. It wasn’t even necessarily a real attack, but it was all about you getting a chance to be the big man, the big hero, while placating the gang that owns you.”
“Except that I didn’t get the chance, did I?” he snapped, staring at her. “You came along and ruined everything.”
“Yeah, blame me,” she said in a hard tone. “Let’s completely ignore the fact that you set this all up, let this sabotage happen. But some gang was supposed to help you, right?”
“Well, yeah. They were supposed to help me show Bullard how I could do so much more. I talked to a few friends, and they talked to a few friends, and we came up with this idea. We would set off all the electrical at the compound, have things shut down randomly, setting up some really interesting scenarios. Then I would come along and would solve it all.”
“When would you do that?” she asked. “You had plenty of time to be the hero, long before I got here.”
“I could have done it any time, except that you came to the front door, without any warning, and told him that something funky was going on in his house, and then everything started to shift,” he complained. “I didn’t even get a chance to show him how I could fix it.”
“You never made any attempt either, did you?”
“No, because I was trying to offset you,” he snapped, glaring at her. “What the hell was that all about? Who walks up to somebody’s goddamn gated compound, especially somebody like Bullard, and tells him that he’s got a problem in his own house for crying out loud,” he cried out. “None of us. I even talked to the guys, and nobody had any idea who you were or what you were up to. Nobody could even begin to see that you would be a problem. Sure enough, right out of the blue one day, you show up with this cock-and-bull story about somebody having a problem with his electronics. And, sure enough, that’s exactly what we were doing, but not to hurt anybody,” he added, growling at her. “Just to show Bullard that I could do more, that I could step up and fix things.”
“Oh, yeah. You broke it so you could fix it, supposedly, yet you never stopped the sabotage.” She stared at him. “Now look at you. You’re standing there with a weapon in your hand, trying to tell Bullard that you’re some specialist who could do so much more. Instead you have just proven yourself to be a bully, a mercenary, a man with only violence as his trade in life. Do you really think Bullard will let you loose with anything right now?”
Jerome glared at her. “All I ever wanted was to work for Bullard. He was somebody in the industry with a big name, and I wanted that respectability,” he explained in frustration, then turned to Bullard. “The whole mercenary thing was getting to be a bit much, and I needed out. So, when I got hired here, it was perfect. However, very quickly I realized Bullard had me pigeonholed as this trainee, and you would never give me a chance to get out of that beginner’s slot.”
Bullard, to give him credit, still stared at Jerome, half in shock, Reeni suspected, but Jerome’s words rang true. “I see, so, when I came along I just ruined all your plans.”
Jerome nodded. “Honestly, I didn’t realize it, but the people I was working with on the side had plans of their own.”
“Oh, so was that all their lovely bomb-making equipment we found?”
He nodded. “I didn’t know anything about that,” he declared. “That’s not on me.”
“But you were part of it,” she declared, “so it is on you.”
“No, it’s not,” he repeated, pulling back the lever on the gun and pointing it in her direction. “It’s not.”
She stared at him, wondering what it would take for him to realize the situation he was in. “At least nobody got killed. At least in this scenario, everyone is still standing, and no one was killed. But if the gang finds out that we know about you and your participation in all this, it could get ugly. Of course, if you would have helped the police, things would be different now.”
He stared at her in shock. “Are you nuts? The gang would kill me.”
She nodded. “And when your gang buddies find out that you’re no longer doing this with them, don’t you think they’ll have something to say about that too?”
He swallowed and shrugged. “They know I’m with them.”
“You’re a mercenary,” she declared, her tone caustic. “I’m pretty sure they know that you’re out for the highest bidder. You helped them—no, scratch that—you paid them, didn’t you?”
“Oh, I didn’t pay them much. I needed some help though. They had to make the devices. I’ve got one device like the one on the cat too,” he shared. “It’s just something I can attach to my watch, and then I can set things on and off as I need to. That’s how I took over the power box outside on the street. They gave me another device to set it off. They’re harmless though.”
“Harmless, “she repeated. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars of city damage, the worry, the stress. Harmless? Where in all of this was your rescue?” she cried out. “There’s no rescue to be had here. All you did was make things worse because you wanted to be in control, because you like to play games.”
He glared at her. “Who do you think you are?” he roared. “I was just showing Bullard that I could do more. So much more.”
“And you did do more, more sabotage. You showed him how you could mess up the electrical here, even the satellite, but who’s to say that Bullard will want anything to do with you now?” she asked. “Your methodology is definitely not in line with who and what Bullard is.”
“What do you know or care?” Jerome asked, staring at her. “You sure as hell don’t know anything about his code.”
“Sure I do,” she argued, “especially after I did some soul-searching once Bullard and I had our little gate incident, but none of that has anything to do with you and why you’re here creating such chaos. You’ll have to explain this to an awful lot of people.”
“I don’t have to explain anything to anybody,” he declared. “Nobody knows that I was involved with that gang at the apartment building.”
“That’s why you kept complaining about me, the closer you got to the upstairs apartment, isn’t it?” she asked. “Because you knew that, if any of your bomb-making buddies were there, they could easily finger you or could see that you had fingered them.”
“I shouldn’t have been anywhere close to that apartment,” he stated, with a shudder. “Those guys don’t fool around.”
“No, they sure don’t, and that’s why you’ll tell us who they are.”
“No, I will not,” he stated, with a headshake. “I absolutely will not.”
She looked over at Damon and Trevor. “Surely one of you guys is getting something.”
“Yep, I am,” Trevor confirmed, looking at the angry young man. “I’m getting a Marta and a Josiah.”
At that, Jerome’s face paled. “What? No way. How the fuck—”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’ll be sure to let the police know that you cooperated,” Reeni quipped, with half a smile. “At least as far as sharing their names.”
“No, no, no, no, no, you don’t understand,” he muttered, staring at her in horror. “I’m not kidding. These guys will kill me.”
“How was it that you managed to be a mercenary?” she asked curiously. “You’re obviously scared of these guys.”
“I’m not scared,” he stated, “respectful maybe. But they made it very clear that, if I wanted what I wanted, and if they helped, then I would have to shut up about their stuff. Help them from time to time.”
“Did you ever get an idea of what it was they were really trying to do?”
“No, I didn’t want to ask too many questions. I,… I don’t do bomb stuff,” he muttered.
“You know perfectly well what is required of mercs,” she snapped.
He glared at her. “But I’m not one of them. That’s not… I’ve been honest since I started working for Bullard here.”
Reeni snorted at that. “Right, honest. Are they also the ones who cleaned your background history, who gave you your fake cover story, as some computer expert?” He looked at her, puzzled for a moment, and then she added, “So you could work here for Bullard?”
“Sure. So, when I got here, Bullard needed somebody to do basic computer work, so it wasn’t hard to clean up some of the incoming information before it got any further,” Jerome noted. “I was a little worried at the time, but I was hired temporarily. Then, when it turned out to be a good deal for them,” he said, with a proud smile, “I was doing more and more, but then it stopped. It’s as if they couldn’t quite figure out what to do with me.”
“There’s a reason for that,” Bullard declared, “and that’s because I had a bad feeling about you. I may not have known your whole story, but something always felt off .”
“No way.” Jerome glared at Bullard. “No way anything was off. This is all I ever wanted, and I played it right.”
Reeni shook her head. “Yet, when you got that opportunity to fix the sabotage , be the hero , you blew it. Now what will you do? You might shoot all of us. You might wound half of us,” she added, with a shrug, “but you sure as hell won’t take us all out and go on your merry way.”
“But I didn’t do anything, so I can just leave.”
Reeni snorted. “I don’t think the cops will be too happy with that response. Plus, they need to know more about these bomb-making friends of yours.”
“I’m not telling them anything,” he said in a panic. “No way I’ll do that, and you,… you can’t make me.”
Smiling, she walked closer to Jerome and smirked. “Remember those times you saw me touch things, all those electrical items?”
He brought the gun up. “Oh, I remember all right. You’re some weird freak,” he claimed. “I should do the world a favor and take you out first. At least then I won’t have to worry about anybody else listening to you. Besides, your father was right.”
She stared at him and sighed. “That’s all right.” She placed her hand on the gun barrel. She noted the smoothness of it. “These things aren’t even wood anymore, not all metal either, are they?”
“Only the barrel,” Bullard muttered behind her.
She nodded, letting her hand slip around the metal barrel. Then she jolted some electricity toward the end of it. Shocks flared off Jerome’s hands, and he dropped the rifle to the ground. Immediately somebody behind her picked up the gun.
Jerome stared at her. “What the hell? What did you do to me?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she replied in astonishment. “What could I possibly do? I just touched your gun. I didn’t do anything else.” She shared a quick glance with Trevor.
“You did. You did too,” he cried out, looking over at Bullard.
She touched Jerome’s hand and asked, “You don’t feel anything now, do you?”
Immediately he grabbed her by the neck, pulling her tight against his chest. “No, but you’ll be my ticket out of here, you bitch,” he muttered. “I don’t like the look on any of their faces.” He started to back up, pulling her with him and out of the room.
She asked Trevor, Do I have to be nice?
Nope, now you sure don’t , Trevor said cheerfully.
Good . She reached up with both hands, grabbed Jerome’s watch with one hand and his ring with the other hand and just pulsed energy between her hands. The energy surged and crackled, and Jerome cried out, as the smell of burning flesh filled the air. She shut it down and twisted to look at the man, now crying on the floor. She looked over at Trevor. “I am so sorry. Honestly, I tried to shut it off right away.”
“That’s okay,” Trevor said, as he looked down at Jerome. “Lucky for him, Bullard can fix it.”
“Not sure I will though,” he declared in a hard tone. He looked at her at her and asked, “Could you always do that?”
She nodded. “Yeah, more or less.”
“Damn, I guess I’m lucky it was just the gate.”
She gave him a ghost of a smile. “Yes, you certainly are. I do try not to hurt people though.” Then she heard the cat screech and looked over at him. “The cat really wants that damn thing off his neck. The electrical currents are not good for him at all.”
Dave had it off within seconds, and the cat was soon purring, rubbing up against Dave’s legs. “He’ll get some salmon right now, poor little guy.” And, with that, Dave and the cat went straight to the refrigerator.
Reeni looked over at the others hesitatingly.
Damon nodded. “Good skill.”
“I have to have metal though,” she murmured.
Damon looked down at Jerome, saw both the ring and the watch, and smiled. “People never think about jewelry, do they?”
She shrugged. “Not really, and, in this case, that’s a good thing.”
“It’s an absolutely great thing,” Damon declared, with a bright smile.
Trevor raised a hand, holding the envelope they had retrieved from the bomb-making apartment. “Now that we have Jerome, let’s check out what was left behind in the bomber’s apartment.”
They all gathered around the kitchen table, as Dave, with his precious cat scarfing salmon beside him, stood guard over Jerome, who was still moaning and rolling on the floor.
Trevor opened the envelope and looked through the documents. He jumped to the end to find a signature. “The authorities had a mole in place, tracking this international terrorist group.” With that language, Trevor met Bullard’s gaze. “Seems the Josiah that Reeni mentioned was also known as Reeves.”
Bullard grimaced. “Nasty bastard. His bombs killed hundreds of people. We finally traced them back to him. Then we lost him and his group. That op was my one failure.”
Trevor shook his head. “Not according to this.” Trevor pointed to one page and read from it. “Thanks to the intel from Bullard’s group, we got one of our men inserted into the gang. Once he was accepted, we allowed the terrorist group to leave the country, to cement our inside man’s position and his safety.”
Trevor read on. “Bullard was known to the terrorist group and was their number one target, especially after the death of Reeves. His wife, Marta, was spearheading an attack on Bullard and had a new bomb-maker, plus a plant in Bullard’s organization, some mercenary named Jerome.”
Bullard clapped his hands. “Kudos to our inside man.”
Reeni smiled. “This undercover agent’s report just threw Jerome under the bus.”
“Not only that,” Trevor noted, “but gives the names of the terrorist group members who had settled here, including alternate addresses for them. Wow. The local cops will love this.”
“Speaking of cops”—Damon looked over at Bullard—“wanna do the honors?”
Bullard nodded. “Time to get the cops over here, so they can get this information to round up the gang and also to take Jerome off our hands.” Bullard pulled out his phone. “How the hell will I explain how we came into possession of this undercover statement? You think the cops will be mad that we entered their crime scene and interrupted the chain of custody with this piece of evidence?” He didn’t wait for an answer, just smirked and dialed.
She gave him a hard look. “Just keep me out of it. Other than that, tell them whatever the hell you want.”
Trevor smiled, picked her up, and swung her around in a huge flying hug. When she finally was on the ground again, he kissed her hard.
When he lifted his head, she smiled up at him. “I’m not sure what I did to deserve that,” she muttered.
“Lots of things,” he said, smiling. “You’re finally coming into your own, and I love it.”
She hesitated, frowned at him, and asked, “You’re not scared of me?”
He chuckled. “No, not in this lifetime, absolutely not.”
She smiled. “Good to know. I always worry how people view me.”
“People who don’t know us will probably always have something to say,” he replied, “but the people who do know us will have a whole different story. You come home with us, and Terk will want to spend some time with you.”
“Yeah, I don’t know about that. I don’t really know him, don’t really know anything about him. Even though I could really use some training, he doesn’t run a home for runaway psychics.”
Trevor chuckled. “That has been mentioned a time or two.” Just then his phone rang. He looked down at it and smiled. “It’s Terk.” He put it on Speaker and said, “Hey, boss.”
At that, Terk laughed. “Since when do you ever call me boss?”
“We pretty well got our answers,” he began, “but you should see what Reeni did.” He quickly gave him an explanation.
Terk laughed. “Now that’s a skill I could use. So, Reeni.… Are you coming over here to spend some time?” he asked to the room at large.
At that, she frowned and asked, “How did you know I was here?”
“Because your energy and Trevor’s have been linked since the beginning,” he replied. “We don’t shy away from that kind of thing here.”
She hesitated at first. “I would like to come, but I’m still dealing with a lot of stuff.”
“That’s good,” he noted, “and we’re all dealing with a lot of stuff too. Maybe when you’re here, you’ll have a chance to deal with some of that. Plus, we have healers here who can help you,” he added. “Make plans to come back with Damon and Trevor.” And, with that, Terk ended the call.
She looked over at Trevor. “Does Terk just expect everybody to obey?”
Trevor smiled. “He’s also a precog, so, if he saw you there, he probably wouldn’t have wasted too much time with explanations, just would have extended the invitation to get your ass in gear.”
She smiled. “It would be nice to find acceptance,” she said in a small voice. At that, a gentle arm patted her on the back. She turned to see Leia, smiling at her.
“There is acceptance here too,” she shared, “particularly now.”
Reeni rolled her eyes at that. “I’m really not into doing demonstrations like that.”
“In this case it’s much appreciated,” Leia noted. “No bloodshed, which I’m grateful for because I wouldn’t want to spend the afternoon in surgery. I also won’t deal with Jerome’s burns. The police can do that.”
“Or, you know, maybe Bullard will,” Trevor noted. “I think at the moment he’s trying to figure out what happened to that young man.”
“Jerome took a wrong turn in life somewhere,” Leia explained, “and he couldn’t wait for somebody to see how majestic he is.”
Reeni rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a lot of us are pretty messed up on the inside.”
“But not you,” Leia stated, giving her a gentle hug. “You’re doing just fine.”
*
Trevor stuck close to Reeni. The rest of that day and even the next were fairly traumatic for her. The police were back and forth at the compound. Statements were taken. More statements were made, and the whole time Trevor felt her nerves, afraid that somebody would mention her part in it. Sure enough, she was mentioned in the sense that she had been taken by the gunman, but something had gone wrong, and his own gun had misfired. Then somehow he had electrocuted himself.
The cops were all stunned and confused, and nobody had any idea how that worked. The police certainly didn’t understand, and neither did the rest of Bullard’s team. By the time the explanations were done and dusted, it was well into the afternoon of the next day.
As Reeni sat here, nursing a cup of coffee, Bullard walked in, with a big smile. “I hate to say it, but you’ll have to make a trip to the US.”
She winced, knew what was coming. “God, I really don’t want to go to Texas, don’t want to confront my father,” she muttered.
“You’re not going alone. My lawyer is going, and Trevor, and we might just send a team, in case you need them there,” he shared.
“What are we going for?” Reeni asked.
“The judge is hearing your side of the story, and, with both your mother and your sister free, they’ll be speaking as well,” he explained. “They’re also asking if they can see you. Apparently your mother has some apologies she wants to make.”
Reeni groaned. “That sounds like heavy storm weather coming soon.”
“It is, but it’s heavy weather you need to bear,” he stated, glaring at her.
She glared right back and snapped, “Says you.”
“Yep,” he agreed instantly. “I’m calling the shots, not you. So you get your ass over there and fix this.”
She looked over at Trevor. “Do you think…”
He smiled cheerfully. “I’m coming with you. I won’t leave you alone at this stage.”
She smiled, then looked over at Damon and asked, “And you?”
“I’m heading home to my family. Then I’ll see you in a couple days.”
“You will?” she asked.
“Yeah, when you get to the castle.”
“Castle?” She stared at him in shock.
“Yeah, that’s Terk’s place, and my home base,” Damon stated, with a huge grin. “It’s quite something,” he added, with a boyish grin.
“It really is quite something.” Leia chuckled.
“Now that is something to look forward to,” Reeni stated, looking over at Trevor. “Why didn’t you tell me he had a castle?”
“Because I wanted you to come for me,” he said in a dry tone. “Not for the castle.”
She felt the heat roll up her cheeks, not ready to have this personal conversation in front of everyone. “It’s not as if we’ve had any time to discuss us , especially not alone.”
“Nope, no time alone, but we’ll fix that,” he declared, with a note of humor.
“Yeah, sure, maybe after this business with my father though.”
“Sounds good to me,” And, with that, he looked over at Bullard. “How’re we getting there?”
“My plane’s taking you over.” She stared at him, and he nodded. “I’m coming along too, to ensure nothing else goes wrong. I don’t travel commercial if I can avoid it.”
“Nice job if you can get it,” she muttered.
“It sure is.” He chuckled. “That flight is on the agenda for two days from now.”
She paled, but Trevor pulled her closer and whispered, “It will be fine.”
She took a deep breath, then nodded. “For the first time I think I might believe you.”
“As you should.”