Rivals (19 page)

She stopped her approach and knelt down on one knee to bring her to eye level with him. It actually brought her beneath him, but it was appropriate either way. “That doesn’t matter, though.” She could read the resentment in his eyes. “I didn’t follow your plan.”

“Your plan worked.” His words were almost congratulatory, but his face showed nothing but controlled fury.

“Yes, but…” Cori shook her head. “I didn’t have your back.” He didn’t say anything. He was a proud man. Too proud to acknowledge any hurt feelings. “I get that. I know you think I’m just too stubborn to follow orders. Everyone thinks that. That wasn’t what stopped me. I didn’t want to leave you. I hated doing that. I thought I was being weak, but that wasn’t it. I just felt… I knew it was a futile fight.”

“Clearly it was. You made the right choice.”

“Stop giving me kudos. I know what you’re thinking.”

“Really? What am I thinking?” Belus asked, stepping closer to face her down with all his derision intact.

She fought back tears. She knew he wouldn’t offer her any more sympathy with them. “You’re thinking you could have respected me more for failing with you, than succeeding on my own.”

His eyes flickered over hers. He nodded. “Something like that. I would have tried to fit the word ‘deserter’ in there somewhere.” Belus pushed past her, despite her fragile state.

She grabbed the only clothing she could hold onto, which turned out to be his sleeve. He stopped short of dragging her on her belly. “Belus, I know you can hardly take me at my word, but I promise you, if I had felt right about the plan, I would have followed you into that room, even if that meant dying. I’m not a quitter, and I do have your back, just not when I know you’re wrong.”

“Isn’t there a song about standing by your friends even though they’re wrong?” he said.

“Yeah, a few, and they’re all bullshit. A good friend should be the
first
to tell you you’re wrong. A good friend should have the fortitude to accept the criticism.”

Belus pulled his sleeve away from her gruffly. “You didn’t tell me I was wrong. You just abandoned me.” He walked away without looking back.

Cori wanted to yell after him. She wanted to grovel and beg for forgiveness, but Belus wouldn’t respect her for that. He wasn’t like Danato, who balanced his love and respect for her with his devotion to his job. Belus expected her to earn her rights every single time. Including the right to call him friend.

34

Danato was surprised to see Cori come into his office. He rushed over to help her to a chair and shut the door behind her. “I thought you would be at home.”

“I’ve been in bed for the last three weeks, I need something to do.”

“Well, I sympathize, but I don’t know what you can do.” He sat down at his desk.

“I thought you would have been desperate to have me back.”

He smiled. “I am. As soon as you’re ready. Until then you can study for your written test.”

“You got me back in the running?”

“Yes, Mr. Godfrey was more than thrilled with your performance since you saved his butt. Not to mention I sent him a copy of your medical chart. I insisted that anyone capable of recovering the prison when they are that close to death deserves the right to complete the application process.” Danato hated the sound of the word ‘death’ in reference to her. He knew the job was a risk, and he knew that Cori was up for the challenge, but part of him wished he hadn’t let her apply.

Cori took a deep breath. “Just doing my part, boss.” She said it jokingly, but he knew she was trying to be respectfully humble, like Ethan had always been with him. 

He had noticed a change in her temperament toward him in the past months. She had come to depend on Belus for her training and duty assignments. When she came to him, it was more for personal attention: conversation and advice. He knew it was partly because she missed Ethan, but he thought, or at least hoped, that she was starting to relax her defenses with him.     

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Cleos. I know you disapprove of him, but he was better to me than the morphine was.” Danato didn’t want to hear her praises for the prisoner. “Where did you end up moving him to anyway?”

“What do you mean?” He knew exactly what she meant.

“Have you built his dark room yet, or is he still in the basement?”

Danato didn’t want to have this discussion this early in her healing. He didn’t want to have this discussion at all, but he had no choice. He knew she would never let it go, and he had no intention of lying to her, lest he break that tenuous trust she had in him. “He is still in the basement.”

“When will the room be finished?”

“It hasn’t been started, and it won’t be.” Cori’s cold glare left him wishing he had lied. “Aside from the obvious reasons not to,” he explained, “there is no money for it, and the board would never approve the funds.”

“I don’t care about that. I made them a promise.”

“A promise you could not back up.” Danato shook his head.

“They saved us all,” Cori argued.

“Yes, and they have been given as many incentives as we can provide without rewriting our rules to suit them.”

“I’m sure that went over well with the lava monster.”

“Actually,” Danato chimed in, hoping to cheer her up. “Rodan has been moved outside. The thought process was sound. The water woman got pretty much everything she wanted too. I’m leaving the hot chocolate issue to you.”

Cori’s forehead crinkled in deep thought. “You’re saying everyone got what they wanted except Cleos.” She pursed her lips with determination. “Danato—”

“Don’t,” Danato said flatly. He could see the wheels turning in her head. She was preparing a full-on debate to try to win the issue. It would be a pointless argument that would only end with him asserting his authority. “I’ve explored every option. There is no way to move him without violating prison standards.”

“It’s just one prisoner.”

“I know your conviction, Cori, but understand that moving one prisoner is not just about space and cost. If I move him, I have to take into consideration the vulnerabilities of every prisoner around him and his to them. I can’t move him if it will risk lives to do so.”

“You don’t trust him.”

Danato didn’t like the statement. It meant that she
did
trust him. He had up to this point resisted the urge to ban her from seeing him. He knew that would only put a match to her gasoline. “I don’t trust any of the prisoners. I have already spoken with him. We’ve come to a few minor agreements that will make him more comfortable. He was moved to a bigger cell, and he has been given better furnishings.”

Cori stood up and went to the door for her dramatic exit. 

“Cori.” He knew she wasn’t giving up yet. She turned back. He resisted the urge to ask her to sit back down. “This discussion is over.” He tried his best to soften his voice. “I’ve done what can be done. If you plan to take over this job, you will need to be prepared for disappointment.”

“I assure you, I am,” she said before giving the door its second round of abuse for the day.

35

Ethan ran across graveled roofs, giving chase to his prey. At the first alley, he skipped the vacancy with ease. With the ending of the next roof, he was forced to leap. At the edge of the building, he jumped with little hope of landing on the other side.

For several seconds, his feet were suspended in the air, searching for solid ground. When the last hope of reaching the next building left him, he gave in to the plummet with a long, drawn-out curse.

Two men on the roof behind him skidded to a halt at the roof’s edge just in time to see him miss his target. “Ethan, you crazy son of a bitch!” they yelled from above as he fell.

Ethan’s skin burned as the pool below slapped him harshly. He went under hoping he had landed in the deep end. He hit the bottom with a nice bump and relaxed into the atmosphere of muted sense.

Overhead he could hear his friends laughing and yelling. He waited several seconds before two splashes followed him into the pool. They swam to him to check if he was conscious. He crossed his arms under the water and shook his head, refusing to surface. They swam back up to wait for him on dry land.

After emerging and wringing out their clothes, Daniel, Ethan, and Heaton headed back to where they started. Heaton was a tall skinny black man who insisted on trying to pull off dreadlocks. So far, he was unsuccessful. He walked with a slight hitch in his step alongside Ethan, the last vestige of his shortened career in the British military.

They made their way back to an old Volkswagen van via sidewalk instead of roof.

“What were you thinking?” Daniel mused. “I mean, did you suddenly think, ‘hey maybe I’ll catch her this time.’ I can’t believe you even tried. Again!”

“Just because no one has ever caught one doesn’t mean I can’t try,” Ethan defended his insanity.

“No, it just means you’re stupid to try,” Heaton chimed in as he opened the side door to make room on the back seat for wet coats to be draped.

“You knew there was a pool, right?” Daniel asked.

Ethan gave him an annoyed looked.

“Are you thick?” Daniel scolded. “You never would have made that jump in a million years; I hope to hell you knew there was a pool to catch you.”

Ethan ripped off his coat and handed it to Heaton to hang up. “Haven’t you ever tried to go beyond what the rules tell you?”

“The rules of gravity?”

“The werewolf rules!” Ethan shouted back.

Heaton and Daniel exchanged a look. Heaton put a finger to Ethan’s chest. “They aren’t rules. They are facts. The fact in this case is that no one has ever caught a female werewolf, therefore it is likely that no one ever will; therefore… un-catch-able.”

Ethan glared at him as well. He still wasn’t ready to believe that.

Heaton looked back at Daniel. “He still doesn’t get it.”

“I get it.” Ethan shoved Heaton’s finger away. “What’s the harm in trying? It’s sport, right: the most challenging hunt ever.”

“Ethan.” Daniel leaned sideways against the van. “The harm is: that werewolf was toying with you. She knew you couldn’t jump that roof. She just basically double-dog dared you to jump it,” Daniel pushed his hands off his temples, miming his brain being blown away, “and you did.”

“Lucky for us,” Heaton said. “She
did
know there was a pool there to catch you.”

“The dangerous part is this,” Daniel continued. “She has your scent. Any time she wants to mess with your head, she’ll hunt you down. You’ll conveniently find her, and think you have the drop on her, but she will already know your every move. Trust me, Ethan; Cori has got to be easier to catch than a fem-wolf.”

“This isn’t about that!” Ethan snapped.

“The hell you say. Freud would have a hay day. Of course, he would have thought you had an obsession with dogs, not Cori.”

“It’s nothing to do with her.” Ethan ground his teeth.

“How did that go, anyway?” Heaton asked, walking around the van to the driver’s side.

They all loaded into the vehicle with Heaton driving. Daniel settled into shotgun before he continued. “She’s a lot more than he gave her credit for.”

“Really?” Heaton glanced to Ethan in the seat behind Daniel.

“I said she was pretty,” Ethan said from the back seat.

“Bullshit!” Daniel objected. “You made her out to be “Sarah plain and tall.” She’s Cori short and tight.” Daniel gave a grunt and a hip thrust to add to his description. Ethan punched his shoulder.

“Doable?” Heaton asked.

“Totally.” Daniel rubbed his shoulder. “If she weren’t in such bad shape, I would have tried.”

“You said she was fine. What’s wrong with her?” Ethan asked.

Daniel gave Heaton a glance. “I told you what was wrong. She is recovering well. I was referring to in such bad shape over you. She was downright pissed when she realized you weren’t going to be there.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Ethan said, trying to be only passively interested. He had poured his heart out numerous times when he was drinking with these two, but he didn’t like offering them his life story sober. He wasn’t entirely sure why he did it drunk.

“Actually,” Daniel continued, “she may have been pissed ‘cause I told her every bleedin’ thing you ever told us about her.”

“What?” Ethan sat up straight in the back seat. He couldn’t remember all his drunken confessions, but he knew some of them were rather hostile in theme. “Like what?”

“That she wasn’t that hot, but you’d do her anyway, because she’s a safe investment.”

Before Daniel could laugh at his exaggeration, Ethan’s seat belt was off and he was around the seat with fists wrapped in Daniel’s shirt pushing into his chin. “You son of a bitch, that’s not what I said! She’ll hate me now! How could you do that?”

Heaton stopped the van and grabbed Ethan’s arm gently. “Ethan, he didn’t say that to her. Daniel, tell him you didn’t say that!”