Tangled Fates (11 page)

the dust to clear. When it did, he was staring out into miles upon miles of brown dirt peppered

with sagebrush and other miscellaneous desert plants. It was depressing.

“Do you know what this reminds me of?” Talin asked.

Cohen shrugged, clueless.

“This reminds me of my life,” Talin said, his voice quiet.

Cohen studied the horizon and didn’t quite get it, but said nothing.

“A vast wasteland. A long, long view of nothingness. This landscape is flat. There aren’t

any hills or valleys. There is very little vegetation, very little life, except for the desert animals.”

Cohen sucked down the rest of his beer.

“And most of the animals that inhabit the desert are poisonous. Scorpions, snakes, and

other nasty creatures.”

Cohen didn’t quite understand how snakes and scorpions fit into Talin’s life, but figured

he was about to find out.

“Those scorpions and snakes represent my sadness. They’re ugly. They sting my soul,

and just like when the venom goes into an unsuspecting prey, I don’t know how to get rid of it.”

After a long moment of silence, Talin said, “This—this vastness—that has many deadly

inhabitants, is a really good picture of my life.”

Cohen looked over at Talin and wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he pulled out a Glock and

chased his beer down with a bullet.

“Well, what can you do to avoid the . . . deadly inhabitants?” Cohen asked.

Talin shrugged. “I’m trying to keep my mind occupied.”

“How are you doing that?” Maybe Cohen could get some pointers on dealing with his

own inner turmoil.

“I just finished learning Hebrew.”

Cohen nodded. He was thinking more along the lines of Scrabble. “How many languages

do you know now?”

“Hebrew makes four.”

If he had it in him, Cohen would have chuckled. He had problems getting around the

English language at times.

“I’ve also read the Koran and the Bible.”

“How did that go? Any answers?”

Talin shook his head. “In fact, the more I read, the more confused I became. And you

know I don’t like being confused about anything, so the whole thing just pissed me off.”

Cohen sighed and drank more beer. He didn’t know what to do for Talin—he didn’t even

know what to do for himself. Then he had an idea. “Do you want to talk about Lana?”

Talin slugged down the rest of his beer and tossed the can into the backseat. “Yeah, I do,”

he said, his voice choked. “She was the most gorgeous shade of blue. A deep, dark, navy blue.

Absolutely gorgeous. And she was so damn smart . . .”

For the next hour, Cohen listened as Talin talked about Lana. Both had been scientists

recruited by the SR44 military to help design weapons. They had worked together for a short

time before the attraction was too strong to ignore, and they quickly mated. They had spent all of

their time together—both in work and play—and Talin couldn’t imagine it any other way. “I was

so blessed. I spent every waking moment of my day with her and all resting hours with her. I

hated being away from her.”

When Talin had been sent on the mission to eradicate the Colonists, he hadn’t wanted to

go. Unlike the other Warriors, he didn’t care about the fanfare of being a Savior; the only

concern he had was being away from Lana. He had gone up the chain of command begging to

not be sent, for them to find a replacement. “They wouldn’t do it,” Talin said. “They said that the

mission needed the best intelligence officer, and I was it. My brains got me into this mess.”

And they couldn’t get him out.

“I used to go out of the silo at night and look up at the sky. I’d have conversations with

Lana sitting out there by myself—full conversations with her in my head. And it made me

happy.”

Cohen decided this little chat wasn’t helping his guilt. He couldn’t imagine himself

staring up at the sky talking to Mia, and the dedication that Talin had for Lana made him feel like

an even bigger loser.

“So what do we do, Talin? How do we get passed all this shit we’ve got rolling around

inside us?”

Talin shrugged. “I don’t know. I tried keeping my mind occupied and that didn’t work, so

I thought I’d try your coping mechanism for a while.”

“You mean, drowning yourself in booze?”

“Yeah. How’s that working?”

Cohen sighed, smashed his can, and tossed it in back. Reaching for another beer, he said,

“It’s not. Sometimes I wonder if it’s making things worse.”

Talin nodded, and they sat in silence for a few minutes while looking out over the desert.

“Do you know what
Shalom
means?” Talin asked.

Cohen shook his head.

“Hebrew is an interesting language. Words don’t just mean something. There’s also

feeling
beyond the words. They convey intent and emotion. So
Shalom
translates to complete

peace, where your soul is calm, you spirit free. It’s harmony within, total contentment.”

Cohen nodded, wondering if that was even possible to achieve.

“I do believe I had that with Lana,” Talin said.

Cohen thought about Mia. He had it good, and he loved her fiercely, but they had

definitely had their ups, downs and disagreements. Nowhere near
Shalom
levels. “Well then, you

were lucky, Talin. I certainly didn’t have that with Mia, and I doubt there are very few who reach

that level of peace and contentment with their mates.”

Talin nodded and sucked back the rest of his beer. He held out his hand for another one.

“We’re out of beer,” Cohen said.

“That sucks. We better head back.”

“Do you think we should be driving?”

Talin shook his head and started the car. “Definitely not. But at least we don’t have to go

on any populated roads. We’ll just go back the way we came and catch the dirt road back to the

silo.”

They traveled in silence for a moment. “And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll run over a

scorpion or two,” Talin said. “I wish someone could come barreling through my life and kill a

few of my scorpions.”

Cohen stared out the window. “I’m with you on that one, my friend. Totally with you on

that one.”

Chapter 14

“Okay, people, let’s get this meeting started.”

Annis sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She saw nothing but

blackness as she intently listened to Noah.

The male voices in the room ceased.

Annis did a mental seating chart of where she suspected everyone was. Blake was to her

left, as always. Next to him sat Jovan. She knew this because she had heard him and Blake

talking a minute ago. Rayner was most likely next to Jovan, and then on the other side of table

would be Cohen, Hudson, and Talin. She was pretty certain she was right because they all

seemed to gravitate toward the same seats at every meeting.

“So, as we all know, Annis and Blake took a trip to New York that didn’t turn out quite

as planned. The end result, the death of a Colonist’s offspring wasn’t quite the way it was

supposed to go, but what’s done is done.”

There were a few grumbles around the table.

“Thanks to Blake and Annis,” Noah continued, “we were able to confiscate Susan

Kresper’s laptop.”

“Nice work, guys. I mean, guy and girl. Aw, hell. You know what I mean. Nice work.”

Annis smiled in Rayner’s direction, recognizing his voice.

“So, the laptop has also revealed some very interesting stuff, and I’m afraid we are in

way over our heads here.”

Annis knew that Blake had found an encrypted file, but she didn’t know the code had

been broken or that its contents had been revealed. Apparently, her best friend Blake had been

holding out on her, which agitated her a little bit, as it seemed they had shared so many things

over the past ten months. He had rescued her. He had been the first to let her into the Warrior

realm of fighting, and he had introduced her to so many things: good action flicks, the bonding

of talking to another late into the night, and a nice bottle of Chardonnay.

It was at that moment she realized that she had given very little of herself to him—or to

anyone for that matter—yet she had taken freely. She had never shared much of her life on

SR44, and she certainly hadn’t confided on what had happened after the FBI had captured her.

She wondered if he knew how much she cared for him and how much easier he had made her

transition into this human world. She decided that she would tell him how wonderful he was and

how much he had contributed to the person she was today.

She listened as Noah continued to speak. Yes, Susan Kresper had been convicted of child

endangerment, but she had also been involved in child trafficking. None of that was a surprise.

But what was revealed next did shock her.

“According to the file that Talin and Blake were able to break into, the child trafficking

ring spans thirty-two states and four countries.”

Annis heard the gasps among the others. Their little hunt for the Colonist offspring had

indeed proved fruitful.

“Obviously, this is way out of our jurisdiction,” Noah said.

“I wasn’t aware we had a jurisdiction,” Hudson said.

“Well, we kind of do. We stay out of human problems unless they can help us catch a

Colonist.”

“That’s kind of a load of shit, Noah,” Cohen said. “I’m looking around the table at two of

you who are mated to humans, and you, Noah, are mated to a fucking half-breed.”

Annis wished she could see so she could witness Noah’s reaction to Abby being called a

half-breed. When she felt Blake tense up next to her, she imagined Noah burning a hole through

Cohen with his stare.

“Nothing wrong with being a half-breed,” Blake said. Annis guessed he was trying to

diffuse the situation. “At least Abby got the better half and not the shit that I’ve got pumping

through me.”

“Damn straight she got the better half,” Hudson said, and everyone laughed because

Hudson was Abby’s father.

“Okay, then, now that Cohen is done insulting my mate, let’s get back to our discussion.”

“I wasn’t trying to insult anyone, Noah. I was simply pointing out that—”

“Cohen, shut up while you still have your overused liver where it belongs, because I’m

about two seconds away from removing it, making
paté
out of it, and feeding it to the cat,” Noah

said.

“Don’t do that to Neptune,” Rayner said. “The poor feline would probably die from

alcohol poisoning.”

Laughter broke out around the table, but Annis was confused. She leaned over to Blake

and asked, “What’s
paté
?”

“Some call it a delicacy, but that’s up for debate. It’s like a cracker spread that’s usually

made out of mashed up liver.”

Annis put it all together and laughed along with the rest, relieved the tension that Cohen

brought to the table had been calmed.

“Nice one, Rayner,” Hudson said, and Annis heard what sounded like palms slapping.

Perhaps a high-five?

“Yeah, it was,” Noah said, still chuckling. “Just riding you a little bit, Cohen. You need

to chill, my man.”

Cohen was silent, and Noah began to speak again.

As she listened to Noah, she felt Cohen’s gaze on her. It was intense, as always, studying

her, and the hatred he felt for her was palpable. She inhaled deeply and tried to concentrate on

Noah.

“We need to turn the information over to the proper authorities,” he said.

“Agreed. We don’t need to be messed up in this,” Rayner said.

“But the question is, how do I explain that we are in possession of a dead woman’s

laptop?”

There was silence for a moment.

“Might as well tell whoever you’re going to tell that you also know where the ex-FBI

agent is who broke into Area 2 down in Arizona,” Jovan said.

“Hey,” Blake interjected.

“Why don’t you just meet him at sundown and get your glow on in front of him, Noah?”

Rayner said.

Annis joined the laughter. The secrets they shared were truly remarkable.

When the laughter died down, Noah said, “Okay, you assholes. Enough of the sarcasm.

We’re keeping our shit on the down-low. I’m only telling what needs to be told, no more, no

less. But I’ve got to figure out who to tell. I’ve got a lot of contacts around the country, but

which one do I go to? Second, I need to figure out how to tell them without them wanting a

bunch of information.”

Annis listened to them talk a little longer, wondering when it would be sundown. It had to

be getting close, and she was getting antsy to get her sight back for the night.

There was a beat of silence, then Noah said, “You guys keep thinking about how this is

going to go down. In the meantime, I’m starved. What’s for dinner, Hudson?”

“Not
paté
,” Hudson said.

As he listed off the dinner menu of chicken breasts, mixed vegetables, baked potato, and

a salad, light began to shimmer before Annis’s eyes. A minute later, forms took shape, and her

sight was crystal clear.

She looked around the table and smiled. Hesitantly, she met Cohen’s gaze. The hate

wasn’t present. It was an emotion she couldn’t quite place.

He looked away quickly and focused on Noah.

Annis, however, didn’t.

As Cohen leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head, she couldn’t

help but stare.

The muscles grooved like small mountains out of the sleeves of his shirt that read,