Deadly Expectations (45 page)

She confirmed the time for me and said good-bye.

“Ray, can you tell me what I need to ask about these when I take her in?”

“Sure Anna,” then he whispered.
 
“She shouldn’t be living alone … too much of some of these could be bad news.”

“I know.
 
I’ve been all she has for the past few years.
 
She’s outlived her family.
 
She just forgets to take them at all when I’m not here.
 
Getting new prescriptions without me is something she hasn’t done before.

I sighed.
 
Mrs. Desmond was starting to fuss with getting more baking in front of Denis and Paul had come to see what Ray and I were whispering about.

“At least her medical records show me as next of kin now,” I said while I leaned back against Paul.
 
He put his arms around my middle.
 
It was sad to think about it.
 
“I can make arrangements for her when the time comes.
 
I don’t know what to do now.
 
I can’t leave her alone again.”

“She won’t be alone again,” Paul said quietly.
 
“Don’t worry about it … we’ll make sure that family is always with her now.”

“Thanks,” I said and wiped my eyes.

“Mrs. Desmond,” I said loudly.
 
“Can Ray and Denis stay in the rooms on the top floor?
 
It’s much nicer than my living room.”

“Can you imagine the talk?” she asked me.
 
“Unmarried with two single men in my home?
 
And we are on the top floor dear.”

I pointed upstairs.
 
“You have two bedrooms upstairs with beds in them and you expect family to sleep on the floor?
 
There will be no talk.”

She sighed in defeat so I went upstairs to see what sort of shape the rooms were in.
 
All the lights worked and other than a bit of dust and some boxes of things she must have forgot were up there the rooms were fine.
 
It was just a finished attic so the roof sloped steeply on either side.
 
There was spare bedding in the closet so I pulled it out for Ray and Denis and took it upstairs.

“You just have to make the beds up," I told them when I got back to the table.
 
"I hauled up the bedding.
 
If you’re going out in the evening then you’re still welcome to my floor.
 
She’ll hurt you if you wake her up sneaking in late.”

“Thanks Anna,” Denis said.
 
Mrs. Desmond had put the plate of baking in front of him and was heating up the oven to make something to reload it with.

“Pace
yourself
,” I whispered to him.
 
“I showed Ray a couple of places you can go for a run.
 
There’s a lake with a trail around it too that I forgot about.
 
I’ll show you on the map later.
 
The secret is to keep showing interest in what’s on the plate but eat slowly.
 
Otherwise you’ll just get round.”

“Now you tell me,” he laughed.

Ray and Denis went upstairs to get their rooms ready and I sat next to Paul while Mrs. Desmond finished putting a couple of pans into the oven.
 
Then she put on the kettle for tea.

“My son says that you can read the family like me,” she said.

I looked at Paul.
 
I wasn’t sure if I should be talking about it but he nodded and tilted his head to her as she sat down.

“I suppose,” I answered.
 
I didn’t really want to talk about it because I had only a rough idea what I could say.
 
"I didn’t realize it was impolite.”

“Well now you do,” she said.
 
“What made you want to try?”

I thought about it.
 
“When Damian’s men came for me I could tell that they were similar to him in some way but I didn’t know how I knew.
 
I guess they smelled the same … maybe tasted?
 
Neither
I guess
.
 
I don’t know what to call it.”

Ray and Denis had come back downstairs.
 

“Paul said you claim to be able to see who their mother is as well,” she said.

I felt like every time I opened my mouth I was offending someone.
 
Paul put his hand on my leg under the table and gently squeezed.
 
He didn’t let go.
 
It was a warning, but I already had a good idea what not to say.

“Yes,” I told her.
 
“But if I don’t know who she was … I can’t make a match.”

“I never knew such a thing was possible … whose did you find?”

Paul squeezed a little harder.

“The third of Damian’s men who came for me,” I said quietly to the table again.
 
I didn’t see the harm in talking about one of Damian’s dead men.
 
The only person at the table he was a relation to was me.
 
I took a quick look over at Paul and he turned his head away.
 
He’d suspected that’s what I was doing by the pond and would have been happier if he didn’t have to hear it.

“How do you do it then?” she asked.

“I put what ever you call it about them here.”
 
I pointed to the spot under my upper lip.
 
“Then I take away everything that is similar.
 
It takes a few minutes.
 
When I compared what I remembered of Damian and the dead man all that was left was me.”

I made a face.
 
“It was dirty and angry but it was unmistakably me.
 
There’s a dark poisonous cloud over Damian’s line now.
 
It must have been a part of me then.”

Paul had relaxed his grip on my leg by then so I took his hand in both of mine.
 
He started to pull it away from me but then changed his mind.
 
I was surprised he even stayed at the table but then talking about the man by the pond was probably less bad than talking about Denis.
 
I didn’t want to embarrass anyone else after seeing how much Ray didn’t like me talking about it.

“How many are similar to Paul?” she asked.
 
I looked over at him and he nodded.
 
He was looking down now but squeezed back when I squeezed his hand.

“Four,” I told her.

“And Ray?” she asked.
 
I looked at Ray and he nodded too.

“Three … and there were six that I could read but were unrelated to any of the others.”

“And my other brother.
 
What does he call himself?”

“Pilot,” I still didn’t want to say anymore than I had to.

“And what did Pilot tell you?”

I sat quietly.

“Paul says he has told you everything.”

“Not everything dear,” she insisted.

“Who are my loyalties bound more tightly too?”
 
I asked her.
 
“My line or my mate’s?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“I see what you’re trying to do,” she said.
 
“You are bound to your line … until you have found one of your mates.
 
Then you are bound to his.”

Damn, I thought.
 
It would be easier for Paul to understand my silence if his father told him that I couldn’t speak.

“Paul’s line wants you to break your silence … so you must.”

I thought about what I had to say to protect Alina and her baby.
 
Could I stop anyone in the family from hurting her or killing her to keep Damian from bringing another soldier into his family?
 
Could I choose between her life and Paul’s if I had to?

“I know enough to complete my task.
 
There are others with parts to play that are just as important as mine.
 
I know enough to stay out of their way and not make their jobs any more difficult than they already are.
 
Otherwise I won’t say anymore unless I need help or one of the others does.”

Paul took his hand from me and crossed his arms.
 
His father was openly glaring at me.

“When did she become so blatantly disobedient Paul?” she asked.

He took a minute to answer.
 
I could tell from his tone that I had stepped in it again.

“Recently,” he said angrily.

“Paul … how is this any different than if the Colonel sent you off somewhere?
 
There would be nothing you could even tell me to reassure me.
 
You’d know what you had to do and enough to keep from endangering anyone else but you would probably never know the big picture.”

“It’s completely different,” he said, he was almost growling.

“You’re right,” I admitted.
 
“This is completely different.
 
You already know what I’m going to do Paul.
 
He’s going to come for me and I’m going to kill him.
 
I’m going to cut away whatever ties him to his long line of lives so he never hurts anyone in the family ever again.
 
And along the way I have to figure out whatever it is that gets us both killed while there is still time to keep it from happening.
 
I know that’s not such a big deal to you but it is to me because I really will be starting over on the other side.
 
You won’t.”

I stood up and started for the door.
 
I hadn’t looked at anyone but Paul since I started my rant.

“So I’m sorry if I have no time to fuss with what anyone else is doing because I honestly don’t really care.
 
I have enough to deal with in the next few months.”

And with that I left and went back to my couch downstairs.
 
I lay down and pulled the blanket up over my head.
 
Either Paul would be right behind me or he would be a good long while so after half an hour I decided he wouldn’t come down any time soon.
 
I took a handful of cash from the box then I put on my coat and grabbed an apple.
 
I quietly left through the back gate.
 
Unless Paul was watching from Mrs. Desmond’s laundry room they wouldn’t see me in the dark.

My first stop was the convenience store a couple of blocks away.
 
I bought a couple of hot dogs and two of their prepaid cell phones.
 
Then I headed the dozen or so blocks in the other direction to another convenience store and bought two more.

I hated not knowing how much I could trust Pilot but I hated keeping things from Paul even more.
 
Pilot had hinted that it wasn’t past Paul to try and stop Alina from having Damian’s child like Damian would try and stop me from having Paul’s.
 
It was just better to keep him in the dark for now.
 
I would tell Ray to go to Alina when the time was right but for now everything had to continue just as it was.

I let myself in the back gate and locked it behind me then I went inside.
 
I was still hungry from the jump and wanted some real food.
 
Paul waited at the kitchen table.
 
I stopped for a moment to see if he would start on me right away and when he didn’t I kicked off my boots and took them down the hall to the closet to put them away with my raincoat. I had left chicken in the fridge for my dinner so I put it in.

Paul still hadn’t said anything so I took the phones to the table and started unpacking them.
 
He watched me for a minute then he sighed and started helping me get them out of their boxes.
 
I plugged in two to charge on the counter.
 
The other two I plugged in at the table.