The Dream Walker (24 page)

Chapter 56

As they rode the elevator up, Beverly and Abby chatted about lunch.
“I was thinking a Caesar salad with some leftover turkey,” Abby said.

“
Sounds good to me,” Beverly said. “I’ve got two more pounds until I’m back to my pre-baby weight, so I’m all for a salad.”

Abby rolled her eyes.
“You look fine, Beverly.”

“
What about you, Alaina? Does a salad sound good?” Beverly asked.

Alaina smiled. She loved Caesar salad.
“It sounds grea
t.
”

“
You’re in great shape, Alaina,” Beverly said. “How do you do it?”

“
Liberty said you’re a dancer,” Abby said.

Alaina
’s cheeks warmed. She was about to say she was a dancer but then remembered Nico’s words. People did what they had to do to survive, which was exactly what she’d done. There was no shame in it. “I’m a stripper,” she said. “Working the pole is a workout in itself, and I also go to yoga class.”

Abby and Beverly stared at her a moment, then both smiled.
“Seriously? You’re a stripper?” Abby said.

Alaina nodded. Their silence was not an indication that this was going well. She waited for the feeling in the elevator to change, for them to become judgmental and view her as a person not worthy of their attention as they tried to act like they were okay with what she did for a living.

Beverly threw her head back and laughed. “Oh my God! I’ve never met a stripper before!”

Abby giggled and grabbed Alaina
’s hands. “I bet you have stories,” she said.

Alaina nodded.
“Yes, I do.” Wasn’t that the truth.

“
You’ll have to tell us about them some time,” Beverly said. “We’d love to hear about them.”

The elevator dinged and the door parted. Liberty stood in the kitchen with a woman with long, red hair, and Annis, who Alaina recognized from the night before. The three women were drinking coffee and laughin
g
.

“
Alaina!” Liberty said, and came over to hug her.

Alaina bent down and accepted the woman’s embrace.
“Hi, Liberty,” she said. She couldn’t help but smile.

“
Alaina, this is Faith,” Liberty said, gesturing toward the redhead.

“
Hi, Alaina,” Faith said, tossing her red hair over her shoulder and smiling. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“
Same here,” Alaina said.

“
Hello, Alaina,” Annis said, waving.

Alaina couldn
’t help but notice how Annis didn’t quite meet her eyes and tilted her head as if she were listening harder than she was seeing.

“
I’m blind during the day, Alaina,” Annis said, “so excuse me if I’m not looking directly at you.”

Well, that made sense.
“That’s okay, Annis. Thanks for being there last night. You were very comforting.”

Annis smiled and nodded.

“We’re thinking Caesar salad and turkey for lunch,” Abby said. “What does everyone think?”

“
Sure!” Faith said, setting down her coffee cup and moving to the refrigerator. “If the garbage disposals we all love haven’t finished off the turkey . . .” She took out a large platter. “There’s some left, but not much.”

They all worked together cutting up lettuce and turkey, and Alaina
’s mouth salivated when Liberty suggested putting onions in the salad.

“
It’s not really a Caesar with them, but I do love them,” she said.

Once the salad was ready, they took their bounty to the dining room, and Alaina admired the large oak table and opulent furnishings. It was beautiful, but very comfortable.

“You know what I’m thinking?” Faith said, looking devious. Alaina couldn’t help but laugh. She really liked these women. She thought of the women she had spent the past ten years with. There was always back-biting and competition to get the big bucks from the customers. Peggy had really been her only true friend. Tears welled in Alaina’s eyes as she remembered Peggy’s fate.

“
Oh, no. What?” Beverly asked, scooping the salad into her bowl. “I know that look, Faith. What trouble are we going to get into now?”

Faith scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“I was simply going to suggest we have wine with lunch.”

“
Excellent idea,” Abby said. “Can you help me, Liberty?”

“
Of course.”

Both women disappeared around the corner and returned carrying two bottles of wine and glasses.

“So much for my diet today,” Beverly said, smiling.

Alaina accepted the full glass and dove into her salad. Even though she
’d had Caesar’s salad and wine dozens of times, everything just seemed to taste better at this meal.

“
So you and Nico looked pretty cozy down there,” Abby said with a smile and a wink. “What’s going on with you two?”

Alaina shrugged.
“I like him, and he says he feels the same. He says he wants to be with me, and that sounds pretty good to me.”

Abby nodded and took a sip of wine.
“That’s so great. I hope you two get mated soon.”

“
Mated?” Alaina asked, confused.

“
Sorry,” Abby said, “that’s what it was called on SR44. It’s basically getting married, except the SR44 male takes it far more seriously than a human man would.”

Alaina took a long sip of wine, remembering her conversation with Liberty about mates.
“Well, I don’t think we’re near that. We’re just kind of getting started, you know?”

She remembered that Nico said he never invaded others’ dreams, and for some reason, she just didn
’t feel comfortable telling anyone they had shared a lot of time together in her dreams. It just sounded crazy, and she didn’t want these people to think ill of Nico.

“
Tell us about what happened at the warehouse,” Liberty said. “You were so shaken when they brought you back here.”

Alaina nodded. She thought of the pallets, the cot, stabbing George . . . that she could share. She took another sip of wine and started talking.

Chapter 57

Hudson and Noah turned around while Nico slipped on his sweats.

“Can I get some water, Noah?” he asked.

“
Don’t forget your pleases and thank you’s,”Hudson sai
d.
“We’re trying to teach Killian about that.”

Nico nodded, threw out a
“please,” and took the water from Noah. “Thanks, man.” He took a long sip and sat back down on the gurney.

“
So, what happened, Nico?” Noah said, sitting in the chair Alaina had occupied.

Hudson pulled over a weight bench and sat down.

“Alaina and I were jumped at her apartment,” Nico said. “That psychopath George came out of nowhere. Killed her friend as well. He’s half-Colonist, by the way, and so is everyone else who was in that meeting in the church.”

“
How do you know?” Noah asked.

“
He confirmed what Alaina said: they can all see the ash.”

“
Haven’t seen anything on the news about the body,” Hudson said.

Nico took another drink.
“My guess is you soon will. That body will start stinking pretty soon and someone will call it in.”

“
I’ll call it in after we’re done here,” Noah said. “I’ll use the scrambler so that 911 can’t trace the call. No one should be left to rot like that.”

Nico nodded.
“After we were jumped, we were taken to the warehouse. Shit got ugly. I think George beat up Alaina a little bit, and he shot me.”

“
When were you stabbed?” Hudson asked.

“
At the apartment. I got a little mouthy with George and he didn’t appreciate it.”

“
Where is George?” Noah asked.

Nico shrugged.
“Alaina said she stabbed him, but I wasn’t in any condition to verify.”

“
Blake and Jovan didn’t either,” Noah said. “But based on the amount of blood she had on her, I think she probably killed him.”

“
There is something else you need to know, Noah,” Nico said.

“
What’s that?”

“
I had the feeling that George wasn’t in charge, and he told me that Daniel really wasn’t leading things anymore either.”

“
And? Who is?” Hudson asked.

“
Micah.”

There was a beat of silence, then both Noah and Hudson cursed violently. Hudson stood and walked over to a boxing bag, punching it so hard Nico thought the thing would tear.

Noah stood and rubbed his thumb between his eyes. “Put the pieces together for me, Nico,” he said, shaking his head.

Nico explained he believed Micah had the whole thing set up from the beginning.
“He was following this Colonist around, and then he realized he could use the Colonist to get what he wanted: all of us dead.”

Hudson cursed, then hit the bag, which did open up this time and a small waterfall of dirt drained ou
t
.

“
But, Noah, you threw a big wrench in his plans by insisting that all of us went in pairs on patrol. By demanding that a Savior went with a Platoon member saved our lives. They most likely would have jumped us if it was just a couple of Saviors patrolling.”

Noah nodded, sighed heavily, and sat down.
“Thank God I don’t have any more blood on my hands.”

“
You never did to begin with, my friend,”Hudson said quietly, coming back over to the be
d
.

Noah nodded.
“Go on, Nico.”

He studied Noah for a moment and wondered if the nod was in agreement that no, he never did have any blood on his hands, or a nod to just appease Hudson.

“I also think George and Daniel became fixated on Alaina, but for different reasons. This is just a guess, but Alaina said Daniel referred to her as his ‘pet project,’ so I can only assume that he was determined to making her into a killer. Alaina also said George was very upset she knew he killed someone, so I think it’s a possibility he looked at her as a loose end, as well as a way to get back Daniels’ attention.”

Hudson nodded.
“Makes sense.”

There was a beat of silence as Hudson and Noah took it all in.

Nico cleared his throat. “Noah, Alaina’s my female. If you don’t want her around here, that’s fine, but we’ll be leaving.”

Noah stared at him for a beat and then said,
“Well, I’ve left that decision up to Abby and the girls.”

Nico was confused. Noah never left any important decisions up to the females. He was all about protecting them and sheltering them as much as possible.

“I trust Liberty and Jovan when they say she isn’t a threat. And I trust your instincts as well, Nico. I’m just trying to get away from being the one to always lay down the law.”

Yes, the females had their freedom, but if it didn
’t fit within his parameters, Noah put his foot down. Now it seemed he was trying to change his dictatorial ways.

“
Seems some shit has changed,” Nico said.

Noah nodded and sighed.
“I also trust myself. Alaina was so worried about you, so scared . . . yet she held it together—for you, Nico. And she cares about you a lot. I could see it. We needed you down here to stay hooked up to Bev’s equipment. That stuffs a bitch to move.”

Hudson nodded.
“Noah was all for letting her stay, but instead of laying down the law, he put the decision in the females’ hands.”

Nico thought about Abby and Beverly taking Alaina away to get to know her.
“I wonder how things are going.”

Noah shrugged.
“Let’s go find out.”

Nico gingerly walked out of the gym flanked by Noah and Hudson. They rode the elevator up to the main floo
r
.

They were greeted with loud, vivacious laughter, and they followed the sound.

The females were still in the dining room, and three empty bottles of wine sat on the table. Alaina stood on her chair, swaying her hips seductively, while Faith was on her chair trying to mimic Alaina. The rest of the females had tears rolling down their faces as they giggled and laughed. Even Annis, who couldn’t see the antics, was cackling. Nico didn’t think he’d ever seen or heard Annis cackle before, and none of the females noticed the three Warriors standing at the threshold.

Nico watched Alaina
’s backside as she gyrated, her hands up above her head. She threw her head back, her dark hair cascading down her back, her eyes closed. Nico could see she was laughing as well.

Her hips swayed, and Nico became aroused just watching her, and then he realized other males were looking at her as well. It was time to put an end to it.

He walked over to her and pitched her over his shoulder. She hung down his back and hit him a couple of times in a weak attempt to get out of his grasp in-between fits of laughter.

“
Apparently, I’ll see you guys later,” she said between giggles.

As he left the room, he heard Noah say,
“So, I take it she’s staying?”

“
Oh, God, yes,” Abby said, still laughing.

“
And we are so getting a stripper’s pole!” Faith interjected.