Forsaken (27 page)

Dom
shot me a warning look. She obviously thought I was being too
confrontational, but I had the final call when it came to all things
involving Russ and my mom, so she didn't actually say anything.

"Actually,
I got involved in fashion almost by accident. It's pretty much the
last thing I thought I'd end up spending two months a year on. I
joined the army as soon as I graduated from high school and then
spent three years in Iraq. I ended up leaving at the end of my second
tour despite the fact that I didn't have any idea what I was going to
do with myself."

Russ
took a second bite of his lasagna and smiled at me. "This is
really good by the way. It's not quite the same recipe as your mom
cooked, is it?"

"No,
not quite. We were out of nutmeg when she made it."

Russ
nodded and took a drink of juice. "Who knows what would have
happened after that, but my grandfather died a couple of weeks after
I got back to the States. He...well, he left me a lot of money.
He didn't approve of my parents. He didn't approve of any of my
family really, but I guess he respected me for having entered the
military, despite him telling me not to."

"So
what happened next?"

Russ
did a half snort, half laugh thing that somehow didn't look unnatural
coming from someone who was probably a billionaire.

"I
nearly self-destructed. Booze, parties, you name it. I surfaced two
months later just because I'd gotten so stoned that I'd lost my
wallet. I got another set of credit cards ordered and realized I had
a choice to make. I could either become the kind of man who was
worthy of the fortune my grandfather had left me, or I could let it
destroy me. There wasn't any kind of halfway measure there."

"So
you decided to own the money rather than letting it own you."

"Yeah,
that's as good a way of saying it as any. So I took a crash course in
finances, put my money to work and then started looking for causes
that were worthy but needed a little push."

I
looked over at Dom, wondering if he'd been telling the truth or not,
and she nodded. Interesting.

I
turned back to Russ and raised an eyebrow. "And the fashion show?"

"It's
one of the few shows that actually mixes pro designs in with designs
from high school and college students. They do it without attributing
the designs to anyone until weeks after the show. By the time anyone
knows a given design was done by a student rather than a big name,
the student in question is usually sitting on a quarter of a million
in orders for their new design."

"That's
a good cause as causes go, but there are those who would argue that
there are better ways to spend your money, other things you could
support that would be better causes..."

Russ
shrugged. "It actually pays back, so it helps me preserve my
working capital, but honestly, I still have more money than I know
what to do with. I support Alicia's show because it fosters talent.
I'm not interested in just giving people handouts. I've seen what
that does. It could have destroyed me, and I'm not going to do that
to other people. I'll foster talent almost wherever I find it,
because I think that ultimately it will help make the world a better
place."

I
checked with Dom again and got another nod, this one more emphatic
than the last one. He believed what he was telling me, and strongly.
I took another bite of my lasagna and shrugged.

"I
can't argue with your aim. What did you do in Iraq?"

Russ
looked a little like he wished I hadn't asked the question, but I was
realizing that he wasn't going to lie to me. It was impossible to
know for sure if he was just that honest with everyone, or if he felt
like he needed to make a good impression with me because of my mom,
but I was prepared to take shameful advantage either way.

"I
was a sniper, Adri. I killed people from incredible distances without
any kind of warning. I saw things I hope you never have to see, but
the point I kept coming back to was that war was about destroying
investments. Roads and bridges, factories and refineries, but even
more than that, it was about destroying human capital. I think that's
part of what brought me back after I inherited all that money. An
incredible, almost incalculable, amount of time, money and effort
goes into raising a child. They are tiny little universes of
possibility, and I extinguished them one after another."

Russ
looked up at me almost like he was surfacing from a deep hole and
shrugged. "I don't regret what I did, not really. I was killing
according to clear rules of engagement, rules the people there knew,
but it still seemed like a senseless loss on both sides. I now have
the ability to help people realize that potential. I'm going to do
that to the best of my ability."

"How
do you decide who gets help and who doesn't?"

"I'm
a pretty good judge of character. It's not that hard once you know
what to look for; it's all about observation. I learned that while I
was in the armed forces. It took a while to learn a new theater of
operation, but I expected that when I started this."

There
was a challenging glint to his eye, but it was a challenge I was
willing to pick up. I didn't want to like Russ. If he couldn't back
up what he'd just said then I'd be able to write him off as a lame
poser.

"Fine,
read Dom and me then."

Russ
leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile. He knew he was in
the middle of an audition and seemed to welcome my stubbornness.

"I
can do that, but before I do you, I need a promise from you, Adri,
that you won't react negatively to what I'm about to say."

"You
don't need a promise from Dom? Are you only going to say mean things
about me?"

"No,
but the promise from you is the most important. It will actually bind
her better than her own promise."

A wave of alarm washed through me, but I tried very hard to keep
it off of my face. "Do you have any idea how ludicrous that
sounds?"

"Probably,
but that doesn't change the fact that it's true. Do I have your
promise, Adri?"

"Okay,
you have my promise. Let's hear it."

Dom
let out a hiss of frustration but I held a hand up, silencing her.

Russ
nodded and pointed at Dom. "Your friend, Dominic, is one of the
more dangerous people I've met recently. I can't explain it, but it's
the truth. From a thousand yards away with a high-powered rifle I
could take her down in a heartbeat, even as rusty as I am right now.
In close quarters, I suspect she'd tear through me before I could
even blink."

My mouth dropped open. "How can you possibly know that?"

I
got a shrug in response, but after several seconds of silence he
decided to humor me. "She moves like she's dangerous. She's got
the kind of situational awareness I usually only see inside a combat
zone. What's more, she seems to feel like she needs to defer...no,
to protect you. Generally that would mean someone like her would be
packing all kinds of hardware, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't have
anything bigger than a two-inch knife on her. That could just mean
she has something secreted nearby, but I suspect it means she's just
that good with her hands."

I
sat back in my chair and shook my head like I was trying to clear it.

"Am
I wrong?"

"No,
you're mostly right. Dom is dangerous, and she's here to keep an eye
on me."

"Are
you going to fill me in on the parts where I'm wrong?"

I
looked at Dom for half a second and then shook my head. "No,
you're just going to have to live with not knowing. It's not my
secret to tell. It's not even just Dom's secret to tell. Okay, what
have you observed about me?"

Russ
tapped his fingers on the table for a couple of seconds before
continuing. "You're both harder and easier to understand. I came
here expecting to ask you what your passion is, what it is that you
want to pursue. With your mom it's blindingly obvious. She wants to
be a world-class photographer. She'd love for it to be in a different
area than fashion, but she'll take fashion if that's all she can get.
You're different."

"How
so?"

"You
don't have a passion. Only that's not quite right. You had a passion
but now it's gone. There's a listlessness to you that isn't the way
you would normally move. I think your passion is to find someone you
can believe in more than anything else and then to back their
passion."

It
didn't seem very flattering, especially not from someone who was in
the business of finding stuff people were passionate about and then
helping them develop their gifts. In his world there probably wasn't
a worse insult to apply to someone.

Russ
held his hand up, stopping me before I could take off on my rant.
"That's not a bad thing, Adri. In some ways, you're more like me
than you realize. You're what I think of as an enabler, but not in a
bad way. If you believed in your mom with everything you had, then
she'd be Anne Geddes famous in a matter of years. Don't feel guilty
that you haven't gotten behind her and pushed though. That's a huge
sacrifice, and you should never feel guilty for not pouring yourself
into someone else's dreams. When you find the right person, it will
flow naturally. The key is to either find someone who won't use you
up and discard you, or to learn to limit just how far you go for
people."

It
was like he'd held a mirror up for me and I'd seen myself for the
first time. It was more disturbing than I'd expected it to be. I'd
just opened my mouth, I think to thank him for his insights, when the
phone rang. Nobody ever used our landline. I was pretty sure Mom had
gotten it more out of habit than anything else. I let it ring a
couple more times and then the machine picked up.

"Adri,
it's Ben. I need you to pick up if you're there!"

Dom
moved even faster than I did. She made it to the phone and tossed it
my way while Russ and I were still turning towards it, him in
curiosity, me in shock.

"I'm
here, Ben. What's going on?"

"I
can't leave. My boss showed up a couple of seconds after I finished
talking to Dominic and he did something to me. I physically can't
make myself leave, and they've been really careful not to leave a
telephone around since then. I was going to call Dominic's guy, but I
can't remember his name. I can't remember anything. It's like they
wiped the memories away."

I
made it over to the answering machine and managed to kill it. Dom was
back at my side with her hand out for the phone.

"Ben,
I'm going to give Dom the phone."

"No!
I...I can't seem to talk to her. Every time I think of calling
her, something odd happens. Adri, I don't know what they did to my
mind, but it's not right anymore."

I
looked at Dom, completely at a loss for what to do next. She bit her
lip for a second, looked at Russ, and then nodded.

"Put
it on speaker, Adri, and ask Ben if he gets the same kind of panicked
feeling at the thought of overhearing me talk to you."

"Ben,
what about if you listen to Dom talk to me, and you only talk to me?
How does that feel?"

"I...I
think I can do that."

I
knew there was a chance this would all come back to bite me, that
Russ might turn me in, but I still hit the speaker button. Ben
probably didn't have much time, and this was the only way to get him
and Dom talking.

"Okay,
go."

Dom
took a deep breath and began talking very quickly. "It would be
very useful to know Ben's address. The shop, and anywhere else he
thinks they might take him."

I
looked around for a notepad and a pencil, but Russ had already
grabbed one off of the kitchen counter, and he started quickly
writing as Ben started telling 'me' where the shop was.

"They
haven't taken me anywhere else so far. I just work the shop during
the day and then sleep in the apartment in the back at night. Can you
guys get me out?"

Dom
was chewing on her lip again. She looked more worried than I'd seen
her in a long while.

"I
don't think I could get him out by myself. It's at least a two-person
job and he's just undone all the work we did to try and keep you safe
from his...bosses."

"What
about James?"

Another
headshake. "Alec will never allow both James and me in the city.
He'll be worried that we'll leave and never come back. James might
really do it, too. He's mostly recovered from the last fight, but
he's really, really mad at Alec right now."

I
bit my lip and then told Ben what I knew was the last thing he
wanted to hear. "Ben, we might be able to get you out, but
Jasmin is going to have to be involved."

There
was a hitch in his breathing. "I don't want to see her again."

"I
know, but I don't have any other way to get you out. If Jasmin flies
out and brings Isaac, then they might be able to do it. Alec might be
willing to come help, but I'm not sure he can just disappear like
that right now. If I can come up with another option then I'll take
it, but I think you need to start adjusting to the idea that the
cavalry might include Jasmin."

Ben sighed and then he cleared his
throat. "Okay, do what you have to do. I believe Dom now. Every
word. If I don't get out soon, I'm worried that I won't make it much
longer."

Dom
already had her phone out, but she paused for just a second to
reassure Ben. "We'll work as fast as we can. You should hang up
now. We can't risk someone walking in and seeing him talking to you."

"I
heard. Bye, Adri. If I don't...well, just tell Jasmin I'm sorry I
didn't wait around so that we could've talked things through."

Ben
hung up, and I sat there for a couple of seconds holding the phone
while Dom dialed Ash. "Yeah, it's me again. Look, we've got a
problem."