Jamie's Heart [Amazon Warriors 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (2 page)

Jamie delivered an uppercut followed by a roundhouse kick to her sister’s head, causing Jordon to hit the dirt floor hard, sending up a cloud of dust.

“What the fuck?” Jordon had always been a sore loser. Jamie smiled at her sister’s ire.

“What?” she asked as innocently as she could manage without laughing.

“Did you double dose on spinach this morning or something?”

“Ha. You can’t blame this on me. You saw what I was planning to do. It’s not my fault you were too slow to react to it,” Jamie said with bravado and held out her hand to help her sister up.

“Bitch,” Jordon said with false annoyance. She took Jamie’s hand with a huff and dusted the dirt from the training room floor off her ass when she stood.

“Ah, I love you, too, sis,” Jamie said with humor, making Jordon laugh, too, as they walked side by side toward the locker room.

“So, you gonna tell me why you were so slow today?” Jamie asked her sister with curiosity and concern.

“I’m just tired, didn’t sleep too well last night.”

“Someone keeping you awake?” Jamie had a knowing smile on her face spread from ear to ear as she looked at her sister. She had no sympathy for Jordon’s “plight.”

“So, when you gonna tell Crimson it was you that fired that shot?” Jordon asked bluntly, blatantly changing the subject before tripping over her own feet and falling flat on her face just as they were exiting the building.

It had always been a mystery to her how Jordon could be an efficient and skilled warrior yet so unbelievably clumsy.

“Jordon Price, everybody!” Jamie called out sarcastically to the entire training gym while she clapped mockingly.

Everyone was used to her sister’s slips and tips by now and Jamie’s subsequent teasing. The warriors around them just laughed amongst themselves as Jordon got up, smiled, and bowed to the crowd.

Jamie knew that her sister was just putting on a brave face because Jordon was incredibly self-conscious about her lumbering nature. Amazons hated showing weakness, and Jordon despised the fact that hers was always rearing its ugly head, but like any stubborn warrior she refused to admit it.

As much as Jamie loathed making a joke out of her sister, she knew that Jordon could manage her self-imposed embarrassment and shame much more effectively if the inevitable taunts came from Jamie instead of from the warriors of the tribe.

As they continued walking to the shower block, Jordon repeated her previous question, and Jamie just rolled her eyes. Jordon had been asking the same question over and over and over again since the night of the Cyclopes invasion.

“It’s been five weeks, and Crimson still wants to know who shot that arrow. She’s made it clear that she was impressed, not angry. Why don’t you just tell her?”

Jamie really didn’t want to talk about this. It was a sore subject for her and something she didn’t want her sister knowing she was upset about.

“I’ve told you why,” Jamie explained with a hint of frustration. “It may have been five weeks since I killed that Cyclops, but since then the tribe has been attacked by the Cyclopes again, betrayed by one of our own, lost some young warriors, one of which was like a sister to us, all while our Crimson found her true life partner and got pregnant. Call me crazy, but I don’t think coming forward during any of that would have helped anything, but when I get the chance, I
will
tell her.”

By now they had reached the shower block and were in the changing room getting ready for a shower.

“So, it’s not because you don’t want to be a warrior anymore?” Jordon asked her without judgment, and Jamie adored her for it.

It was rare for an Amazon warrior to become anything but a warrior. It was in their nature, what they were created to do, to be. An Amazon who refuses their birthright without cause was considered cowardly and shunned to the outskirts of the Amazon community, but Jamie knew that, no matter what, Jordon would never turn her back on her sister.

“Not at all. Graduation is just a few months away, and I’m looking forward to it, but I also want to make the most of the time we have left in training. You should, too,” Jamie stated confidently as they stepped into the shower stall.

“Why?” Jordon asked in bemusement before slipping in the communal shower. “God
damn
it!”

She felt bad for her sister, but it was also funny as shit to watch her sister’s naked ass scrambling on the wet tile, trying to first prevent the inevitable fall then trying to get up from it.

Jamie helped her sister up, again, before answering her previous question, and Jamie explained for what felt like the hundredth time.

“Because…we could potentially be warriors for the next eight centuries, and I don’t know about you, but I’m in no rush to start my career early.”

* * * *

He loved being home with his family and his tribe, and he was proud to call himself an Amazon. It had felt like an eternity since he’d been home, and Conrad just wished he was coming back to the place he knew, not the one that had nearly been torn apart from the inside out.

“Hello? Anyone home?” he shouted as he entered the large, two-story log cabin he’d grown up in.

He smiled when he heard the first squeals come from the first floor, just before the sound of thundering footsteps came barreling down the stairs.

Conrad was instantly surrounded by two of his sisters, both grappling to be the one to hug him first. Sometimes his sisters forgot about their superior strength around him, so when they both stopped fighting and embraced him in one big hug, it was tight enough to make a bear squirm.

Conrad just smiled as he struggled to breathe.

That is until sadness caused his smile to falter when he realized that as nice as it was to see his sisters, even when gasping for air, their reunion didn’t sit right with him. It felt wrong. He should have three sisters hugging him to death, not two.

“Girls, let him go. You’re squeezing the life out of him,” his dad said from the doorway to the kitchen with a hint of laughter in his tone of voice.

The Amazon community was still very matriarchal, but Shane Quin was a confident and self-assured Amazonian man who didn’t let the strength and power of the women of the tribe dominate or intimidate him. In Conrad’s eyes, his father was the quintessential Amazon male who always took care of his family and his tribe first.

At his father’s words his sisters immediately let go with their sincerest apologies.

“It’s okay. I missed you guys, too.”

“I can’t believe you’re home, I didn’t think you were due leave for another couple of months!”

“Soph, after I got the news about what Delila had done and that Steph went with her, I just…” Conrad shook his head as he looked down at the floor, still not believing it to be true. “I just had to come back. I mean, I knew Delila was a bitch, bu—”

“Language, son” his father admonished.

All he could do was give a halfhearted laugh. As a soldier, he was used to hearing and using much more graphic language when on assignment. His sisters, warriors in a tribe of Amazons, could probably say the same. Besides, given the circumstance, he assumed the whole family would be cursing up a storm. Yet it seemed, no matter the circumstances, his parents insisted the language in the house remained PG.

“Sorry, Dad, but to do that to the tribe is unbelievable and unforgivable. I still can’t believe Steph went with her. She loves this tribe, men and all. Why would she go along with Delila’s outdated beliefs and leave the only home we have ever known? Did something happen that made her want to leave? Was she unhappy here? No matter how I look at it or try to rationalize it, there’s no way she would have gone with Delila. No. Way.”

The whole room fell silent and solemn. Losing Steph hit the family hard.

“We know, son, no one can explain what happened or why she left. It was a shock to all of us. We just have to hope that she is safe and that one day she will come back to us.” The hope in his father’s eyes was fathomless when Conrad looked at him. It gave him hope that he would see his sister again, too.

“Yes, well, anyway. When I got the news, I spoke to my commanding officer, told him what happened. He’s given me two weeks compassionate leave. I just had to come back and make sure everyone was okay, not just you guys but the tribe, too.”

“You’re a good man, Conrad. Me and your mom raised you right,” his father said with pride and a tear in his eye.

“That we did.” The voice came from behind him.

He turned to look at Beth Quin, his beautiful and loving mother, to view her with reverence.

His mother was one of the most experienced Amazon warriors of the tribe. She had served many years as a valued Amazon warrior and had fought in many wars. She was only a few short years from earning elder status. His mother didn’t go off to war as often as she used to. It was a sign of respect from the tribe. She had done her time on the battlefield. Now she trained the new, up-and-coming warriors, but she was just as respected off the field of battle as she was on it.

She approached him with her Amazonian grace and gave him a loving embrace. Thankfully his mother was more restrained than his sisters.

As they pulled away from their hold on each other, she grabbed his face and looked into his eyes and smiled. “Welcome home, son.”

“All right,” his father commanded with his deep timbre after a beat of silence. “Everyone in the kitchen. We can interrogate Conrad in there.”

They all followed his dad back into the kitchen and sat around the center island. His mom and dad embraced and kissed passionately, just like they always did, on the other side of the island where his dad was cooking dinner. Their public displays of affection used to creep him out, but now he was used to it and just smiled and shook his head, looking away. Some things never change.

His sisters sat on either side of him. They may be experienced Amazon warriors who fought wars for the tribe on a regular basis, but when it came to family, especially their brothers, his sisters were all little softies.

They were a close-knit and loyal family, at least he thought his family was, but now that Steph had defected with Delila, he wasn’t sure anymore. If they were so close, surely one of them would have seen his sister’s abandonment coming. Once again, sadness welled up inside of Conrad and threatened to overwhelm him.

“So, you heard from Cole and Connor? They coming home?” Conrad asked to distract himself from his thoughts.

“Cole is trying to get home, but he’s in the middle of deployment, and we sent a message to Connor, but we’ve not heard back yet.”

“That’s not like him?” Conrad asked, concerned.

“But I trust him. If something was wrong, he would find a way to let us know. So, I’m going to give it another week before I go to the CIA and find him myself,” his mother stated in a calm, matter-of-fact voice that sent chills down his spine. He knew that tone and the deadly intent behind it. The CIA would learn quickly that you don’t mess with Beth Quin’s children without severe consequences.

“So tell us how you got home. I know you got leave, but weren’t you in the middle of an assignment?” his oldest sister, Selene, asked.

As an Amazon male, Conrad was not born with the inherent skills the female warriors were and therefore couldn’t go to war, fighting by their side. Most of the males in an Amazon community, like himself, usually lived and worked amongst the humans as soldiers, doctors, policemen, or as other public servants. Each profession helped to protect mortals in their own way, a choice males were greatly respected for.

After graduation, Conrad chose to become an agent of MTF, the mythological task force. It was an organization made up of creatures that mortals believed to be myths, and their aim was to protect the secret of their kind’s existence. Conrad’s unit within the MTF was responsible for disbanding any threat that may intentionally or unintentionally expose the secrets of their world to the humans, protecting both the mythical world and the mortal one.

“I was on assignment in Aeaea—”

“I thought that island was a myth,” his mom interrupted, and he turned and raised one quizzical eyebrow at her.

Seriously?

“What…? Don’t look at me like I just lost my mind,” she said in frustration. “Just because we’re real doesn’t mean
all
myths are.” His mother defended herself as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a pointed look.

“Fair point. Well, Aeaea is real and so is Circe, the minor goddess of magic. She had been going to the main to get food and whatever else she might need, but while she was there we found that she was turning humans into animals if she felt they slighted her in some way. We managed to get her into custody shortly after we found her. It happened a lot quicker than we thought and allowed me to come home sooner.”

He’d had enough small talk. Conrad had to ask the question he’d been dying to ask and dreaded asking.

“So, what happened? What led to Delila’s betrayal and Steph’s defection?”

Conrad’s mother sighed heavily and wrapped an arm around his father’s waist, resting her head against his shoulder. “Delila brought Cyclopes to the estate by telling them we planned to attack them soon. It almost started a war which, as it turns out, is what Delila wanted. She wanted Crimson to be weak and distracted by a new war so that she’d have a better chance of taking Crimson’s leadership. When Crimson’s relationship with Sloan became clear and the Cyclopes failed to kill Crimson and instead sided with her, Delila was enraged. Delila called for a challenge of leadership, and she fought Crimson and lost by a country mile. Crimson banished Delila from the tribe. Even her sisters turned their backs on her. Before she left, she made a speech to the tribe, defending her beliefs and calling for any likeminded warriors to join her, promising to form a new tribe, a tribe that would follow the traditional ways of the Amazon. Before we knew it, Stephanie stepped forward, a look so ice cold on her face that she didn’t look like my daughter anymore.” A tear rolled down his mother’s face, and her voice cracked with emotion.