Finding Jess (First Wave) (17 page)

Jess couldn’t bring herself to look
into his eyes and stared at a spot on his forehead instead, as she gave him a
weak smile. “Everything is fine. I’m just nervous like any other bride would be
days before their wedding.”

Unable to bear staying in bed with
him while lying to him like this, Jess got up and covered herself with her
robe, feeling suddenly self-conscious.

Amun felt her lies like a knife
through his heart. How could he go through with the ceremony when he knew
something about it was bothering her so much? Had she changed her mind and was
afraid to tell him? Before he could ask, she interrupted his thoughts.

“I’m going to get a shower; do you
mind getting Lily ready this morning for me and take her to class? I’m supposed
to meet some of the girls. There’s still so much to do before the big day!”
Jess tried to sound excited, but she was afraid she sounded more like a strangling
mouse.

She peeked nervously at him when he
still didn’t respond to her question and saw him looking at her with sad eyes
that broke her heart. Pulling herself together as much as she could, she
summoned up a brighter smile and walked over to him, put her arms around his
waist and hugged him.

“I love you so much, Amun.” She
whispered as she fought back the tears that threatened to spill as he gently
stroked her back.

“I love you too, Amalaya. Of
course, I’ll take care of Lily this morning.” Amun could hear the catch in her
voice as she spoke and knew that whatever she was keeping from him was hurting
her as much as it was him.

“Jess, if you’d rather wait for us
to be joined…” He couldn’t stop himself from starting to ask her before she cut
him off.

“No Amun, don’t you ever think
that! I want nothing more than to be yours forever. I’m just a little sad, but
it has nothing to do with you. Please believe that.” Jess had leant back to
stare into his sad, dark eyes and wished more than anything that she could pour
her heart out to him. However, she couldn’t.

“Jess, please just tell me what
bothers you. Whatever it is we can get through it together. If you’ll trust
me…” Amun let the sentence hang, unsure how to go on. If it wasn’t about him,
then what could be bothering her so much? What could she possibly be afraid to
talk to him about?

“Amun… I’m just a little sad about
a lot of things right now. Stupid things. Nothing I want to talk about right
now; especially not when I’m going to be late to meet the girls. They’ve become
downright militant about this ceremony.” Jess tried to laugh about it as she
stepped out of Amun’s arms and began gathering together clothes, but Amun could
see through her façade.

He watched as she disappeared into
the adjoining bathroom and vowed to have a private chat with Maggie at some
point today to see if she would tell him what was wrong with Jess. His decision
made, he made his way down the short hallway into Lily’s room to get her ready
for her classes with the other children.

Jess took a deep breath to stop the
urge to break down and sob as soon as she shut the bathroom door. She quickly
began running the water and set the temperature, entering the water as soon as
it was ready.

She allowed the hot water to sluice
down her back and relax her muscles a little; her mind racing with ideas.
Everything led back to the same solution. The one she dreaded the most. The one
she knew she had to do.

Slowly, she began resigning herself
to her decision, knowing it was the right thing to do. She needed to harden
herself enough to keep the others from finding out she was up to something and
forced herself to bury some of her emotions deep enough to do what she had to.
She’d had years of practice burying her true emotions; she could do it again.

*****

Reven laid on his back; a sheet
tucked loosely around his waist and stared at the ceiling deep in thought.
Something was wrong. He knew it… he could feel it. He ran through every part of
his conversation with Jax over and over in his head and still couldn’t figure
out what he was missing. Nevertheless, he knew he was missing something; he had
no doubt about it. She was deliberately hiding something from him; he could
tell by her body language.

He’d spent so much time just watching
her, her easy smile for the other women and the little ones, her grudging
respect for some of the other warriors when they sparred; the way her distrust
of all the Valendran’s showed in the slight tightening of her mouth and the
tick in the vein in her neck whenever she was near one of them. Including him.

It was his knowledge of her normal
body expressions that told him that she wasn’t necessarily lying to him, but
she was keeping something very important from him. And he was determined to
find out what it was.

Feeling a burst of energy he sat up
and grabbed his scanner. After entering in his person access code, he flipped
through his personal files until he came to the video of the meeting he’d just
had with Jax. Against protocol, he’d recorded it, why he didn’t know, but at
this point he was glad he did.

He watched with fascination the
unspoken exchanges between Jax and Gibly when his back was turned to the
whiteboard; and saw (to his embarrassment) when she, and Gibly knew when Ivint
and Banatar were coming down the hallway towards the conference room and how
oblivious he had been to their presence behind him.

He spent hours watching the video,
ready to kick himself when he had to keep restarting it and paying attention to
her body movements instead of her gorgeous body. He had to keep stopping
himself from staring at the way the fuzzy pink pants molded so perfectly to her
round bottom when she stretched to write on the board; which flawlessly
distracted him from what appeared to be subtle hand (or should he say hand and
paw) signals between Jax and Gibly during certain parts of the conversation.

Turning up the volume, he forced
himself to stop staring at her body while he replayed the video again and again
until the reality of what was truly going on rocked him. His mind immediately
began making the connections between certain movements and behaviors; he'd seen
recently filling in the blanks of the puzzle in his mind.

He sat back roughly against the
wall as the ramifications of what he knew ran through his mind. He knew what
was going to happen. He knew what the real plan was now. Now he had to decide
if he would trust the beautiful but angry female, and the truly brilliant plan
that she had already set in motion or create a plan around hers to make sure
she wasn’t working with the traitor. Even though he didn’t know the entire
specifics of her plan, he knew that he could easily adapt an alternative plan
based on what he did know.

Before he could really think about
it, he began detailing what he needed to do. If Jax was truly working in the
best interests of their people, then his plan would give additional support to
hers. If she was working with the traitor, then she would be taken down with
the traitor.

He sighed as he rubbed his burning
eyes; he’d been up way too long. He felt better now that he had a counter plan
in place, but the thought of Jax working with the traitor twisted him up in
knots inside. He couldn’t help but admire her inner strength, the way her
brilliant mind worked. He snorted out a short laugh and shook his head against
the wall.

“Oh hell! That freaking woman is
going to drive me insane!” He screamed into his own head. Too tired… he was way
too tired right now to try to figure out the devious little warrior’s plan
within a plan; and why she wanted him to figure out what she was doing.

He had a few days before the
ceremony, so he had plenty of time to figure out what she was doing; right now,
he needed some sleep.

Laying back down on his bed, he
still tossed and turned for several more hours before finally drifting off into
an exhausted sleep.

Chapter
Fifteen

Amun was more nervous than he’d
ever been in his life. It was much more than the fact that he was an hour away
from the mating ceremony with Jess. In fact, that was the only thing he wasn’t
the least bit nervous about.

As much as Jess had tried to
pretend, nothing was wrong for the last few days, Amun had known. She couldn’t
hide the glimmer of sadness in her eyes from him. They had originally agreed to
the earth tradition that the bride not sleep with the groom the week of the
wedding. However, every night, Jess had found her way into his bed and made
love to him with a fierceness she’d never shown before. Even in her sleep she
clutched at him as if afraid to lose him somehow.

Amun knew that they were probably
going to use this day to try to capture the traitor, hell it made sense that
the traitor would use today to plan something big thinking they were
distracted. The slight movements of his fellow Valendrans and the female
warriors also did not go unnoticed; and the tension in the air had become so
thick you could almost taste it.

He may have chosen the field of
medicine, but that was after warrior training as was the custom among his
people; and the warrior in him knew something was wrong, and it involved his
mate. His beast had stalked beneath the surface roaring at him all morning that
he needed to go to his mate, but he’d pushed back. He needed to wait.

Whatever was going to happen,
everyone else was itching and ready for; the problem with that was that it was
much easier for accidents to happen when everyone was over anxious. If he did
anything drastic, he could cause a chain reaction that could get someone
killed. Instead, he packed an emergency field kit and hid it in a pocket of his
uniform pants, quickly followed by an assortment of weapons and other medical
devices until his pockets were packed as if for battle. The only thing he was
missing was his sidearm, which was hidden in his boot.

He stood at the front of the dining
hall, waiting with dozens of others for the ceremony to begin as people slowly
came in as they came off duty or woke up and got cleaned up. He’d woodenly
smiled and accepted the enthusiastic congratulations from everyone when they
came into the room, his eyes scanning them for what… he wasn’t sure. However,
he looked for something anyway.

Most of all he kept a close eye on
Reven; he had to know what was going on, he was tense, fully armed and
constantly talking to someone on a private comm. No one else seemed to notice
the casually attired, yet armed warriors carefully stationed around the only
open entrance into or out of the dining hall, but Amun counted five.

Reven stopped talking into the
private comm for a moment and turned catching sight of Amun. Reven’s eyes
immediately took in the pockets of his uniform pants, looking into Amun’s eyes
he gave him all the answer he needed; with a slight nod of his head, he turned
and left the room. Amun ran after him.

Without thinking he took off down
the hallways, following Reven as they dodged past dozens of figures in white
dresses with white veils over their heads all going in the direction of the
dining hall. Amun knew that none of them were Jess; Reven would take him to
Jess.

*****

Jess was so nervous she’d been on
the verge of vomiting all morning long. She knew she had to do this; and inside
she felt strong enough, tough enough to go through with it. But her hands still
wouldn’t stop shaking, and her stomach was still doing flip flops. She nodded at
Maggie, who was dressed in a plain white shift dress with a veil over her head.

“Come Lily, give Jess a kiss, and
we’ll go with Tarvok to wait for her like we planned. Remember, no talking.”
Maggie led Lily over to her and Lily immediately ran into her arms for a hug.
Jess held her little body close and squeezed her tightly, breathing in the
clean scent of her baby shampoo. Jess fought her tears as she sat Lily back
down on the floor and kneeled down so that she would be eye level with the
little girl.

“You remember what we talked about
right? Can you do this for me? It’s just a little joke on Tarvok and Amun. I’ll
be in there soon.” Jess brushed the hair out of Lily’s face. Lily didn’t look
happy at all; her lower lip stuck out; she wouldn’t meet Jess’s eyes, and she
still wouldn’t answer. Jess looked nervously up at Maggie, who was waiting to
take Lily to the dining hall.

“Lily, I know you’re upset because
we changed things a little, but we really don’t have time to discuss it right
now we need to go, or we’ll be late.” Maggie tugged the little girl reluctantly
to the door, but Lily turned around and ran back to Jess giving her another
hug.

“I love you.” Lily said as she held
Jess tightly.

“I love you too. I’ll be with you again
soon. Now go on.” Jess gave Lily an encouraging smile and pushed her gently
towards Maggie.

“Jess, are you sure?” Tara asked
nervously wringing her hands in front of her.

Maggie and Lily waited by the door
while Jess walked over to Tara and gently squeezed her hands.

“I’m very sure. I need you to go
now before Tarvok gets curious. Go!” Jess smiled as she shooed Tara towards the
door and hid behind a closet door while they went outside. Jess heard what must
have been a brief exchange with Tarvok before their voices trailed off down the
hallway.

Squaring her shoulders she walked
over to the full-length mirror and pulled the veil down over her face and tried
to gather her courage. This was it.

She walked out of the door and
turned the opposite way from the dining hall, knowing the exact path she needed
to travel. It wasn’t until she’d almost reached the east entry that she felt
someone behind her; nervously, she picked up her pace, determined not to turn
around and see who was behind her.

“Jess, wait! Please!” Jess’s heart
nearly sank to her knees when she heard Lily’s voice behind her.

Turning around, she saw Lily
running to catch up to her. She’d barely caught the little girl as she flung
herself into Jess’s arms.

“Honey, you have to go back! Please!
Go to Amun now!” Jess told her as she set her back down on the floor.

“But Jess…” Lily began before she
was interrupted.

“Ladies, I don’t think either of
you should be here. I’ll escort you back to the others.” Jess glanced up as a
tall Valendran she’d seen many times before walked up to them.

“Hi Atane!” Lily greeted him as he
stopped in front of them.

“Hi Lily. Come we must go now
before someone worries.” Atane reached down and touched Lily’s arm to turn her
around when he was thrown back slightly by a shock. Shaking his head, he just
stood there for a moment stunned, while Jess grabbed Lily and looked around the
hallway for someone who may have shot at the Valendran. There was no one there.

“Jess why did my arm bands shock
Atane?” Lily’s innocent question rattled Jess, and she brought shocked eyes up
to meet Atane’s. The flashing of his eyes momentarily froze Jess to the spot,
until Lily looked up at her with her big blue eyes.

“Lily, you need to run. Now! Run to
Amun!” Jess shoved the little girl towards the hallway past Atane a little more
roughly than she intended.

“No Lily, you should stay with me
and let me get you and Jess both to safety.” Atane countered through gritted
teeth, not taking his angry eyes off of Jess.

Lily looked between Jess and Atane
with a confused look on her face for a moment before she began slowly sliding
along the wall past Atane.

“Let her go. She’s just a little
girl. She’d only slow you down.” Jess said, desperately trying to distract him
from Lily’s escape as she moved closer to him.

Just when Jess thought Lily would
get away, he reached out and grabbed her at the last second; grabbing her
violently around the upper arm. The sizzling flash could be heard loudly before
Atane hit the wall with a resounding thud.

“Run Lily! Run! Go get help!” Jess
screamed at Lily, running over to the little girl; she shoved her down the
hallway while Atane struggled to get up.

She waited until Lily was out of
sight before turning back to Atane, by then it was too late. He grabbed her by
the upper arm hard enough that she knew she’d have a nasty bruise from it.

“I’ll get her later. You and I have
somewhere to be, so let’s go. And if you try anything I have orders to kill you
right where you stand.” The angry glint in his rapidly changing eyes terrified
Jess into compliance as, he pulled her roughly towards the east entry.

*****

Reven cursed under his breath as,
he, and Amun dodged all the women and little girls all dressed in the exact
same white dress and veil. It was slowing them down as they tried to get past
them in the hallways. Damn that woman! He didn't expect her to use the others
as a distraction like this. The only good thing was that if they didn’t know
which one was Jess, maybe the traitor wouldn’t either. Which was obviously Jax’s
intention. And with Amun by his side, he knew Jess would call out to him the
moment, she saw him.

Reven was taking a big chance, but
with all the little surprises Jax had thrown into this plan, he was short of
time and tired of scrambling to try to keep up with her antics. The trickle of
women going through the hallways had slowed down enough for them to pick up
their pace, as Reven led them to the only place where he knew there was an
intentional hole in the plan.

He said a quick prayer as he threw
open the east entry door and slid to a startled stop right next to Jax. He
turned just in time to stop Amun from charging across the short bridge.

“Hold yourself together warrior! We
need calm and thought right now!” Reven growled sharply at Amun, using far more
effort than he wanted to admit trying to hold the man back.

Reven took a quick assessment while
Amun tried to calm himself. Jess was being held against the chest of the
warrior Atane in the middle of the bridge, with a 9mm held under her chin. Jax and
twelve women that he could see, and he had no idea how many he couldn’t see,
were surrounding them on both sides of the bridge.

He scanned the area looking for a
vantage point that would give them an edge and the only thing that looked
promising was a scrawny looking tree on the other side of the bridge. There was
no way to get anyone up there with any element of surprise, and he quickly
discarded it, looking for other potential areas that could give them an edge.

“It’s nice to see you finally
joined us Reven. Atane and I were just going to have a chat.” Reven glanced at
Jax, her flippant attitude completely at odds with her rigid stance, her hands
steady as she pointed her own weapons at Atane.

Hating the fact that this was her
game, knowing she was right from the start and finally fitting the last pieces
of the puzzle together, Reven swallowed his own rage and played along.

“Took a little longer than I
thought to get through the hallway.” Reven replied, waiting to see what her
next move would be and hoping she’d give him some warning first.

“Ah, I thought it was a nice touch
myself. Since you’re here, I’m going to assume you got my little… memo, and you
did your part right?” Jax asked casually, like she was having a normal
conversation in the dining hall, so casually that it took a moment for Reven to
realize what she was asking.

“Of course. You didn’t really think
that I wouldn’t get it did you?” Reven replied with a cocky grin, mimicking her
casual attitude. He could see Atane looking startled and confused at their
exchange, nervously shifting his feet.

“Good, let’s get this done then.”
Jax whispered quietly to him before giving Amun a reassuring smile and turning
back to Atane and Jess.

“So Atane, well not really Atane
huh? I’m betting you killed him and took over his image after you tried to kill
Ivint at the cabin. Right?” Jax asked him, her voice tinged with anger.

“Took you long enough to figure
that out didn’t it girl? But it’s too late.” Atane kept glancing nervously
behind him as he addressed Jax, not wanting to take his eyes off the crazy
woman for too long. He’d been there long enough to know the woman was seriously
dangerous.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Were you waiting
for someone? Like the … how many guys did he bring?” Jax turned to look at
Reven with a devious gleam in her eyes. Reven wasn’t surprised to see that she
was actually enjoying this; he just hoped she was as good at plotting as she
thought she was. He spoke quickly into his comm and then forced himself to grin
broadly back at her.

“It looks like it was only five of
them. They must have thought they’d have a much easier time getting out of here
than this.” Reven made a quick motion with his hand and from behind the tree
line yards away, one of the tact team members from the ship Adaria dragged an
obviously badly wounded Relian out into the open.

“Sorry buddy, looks like we can’t
show you the others because I don’t think they made it.” Jax needled Atane as
she watched him flash frightened eyes at his comrade bleeding on the ground.

“Look, we don’t want to kill you
man. We have too much to do since this place has been compromised. We want our
girl back, and you can go on your way. Take your friend with you.” Jax looked
at him with a sly grin as she put her weapons back in the holsters strapped to
both thighs. Shocked at her careless attitude and unsure if she was truly safe
or not without her weapons, Reven took up a protective position around Jax.