The Ring Bearer (4 page)

Cori gulped back her volume before continuing to speak but she still spat the words out with the same disgust she felt at the time. “Clark shot her in the head. She was inches from my face when the back of her head exploded.” Cori threw out her hand to describe the distance a little more thoroughly. “I didn’t know what to do? I wanted to strangle Clark with my bare hands, but I just yelled at him. Then Hirem picked up the gun and went after Clark.”

“He attacked Clark with a gun,” Danato said flatly like an investigator taking down the notes from a witness.

Cori frowned. “I don’t think he really intended to shoot him. I think he just wanted to die with a clean soul.” Danato wavered at her insight into Hirem, but he urged her to go on. “I was angry and sad. I can’t explain all that now, but just believe me that I felt personally affected by watching them die. After he shot Hirem, I went after Clark; I suppose to strangle him like I wanted to…I don’t know. Efrat stopped me. He made me listen to reason. He knew what Clark was. He knew how much danger I was in. He told me to leave and not come back.”

“You left.” Danato’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t just break them out then.”

“I was on my way out the door, when Clark caught me. He talked about having that meeting with you.”

“Yes, I understood that part.”

“No, you don’t, because Clark wasn’t offering a meeting so we could discuss what happened. He was offering a chance for me to keep my mouth shut so he could describe the events in his own words. He expected me to back him up.” Cori could see Danato wasn’t surprised by this. She wasn’t being blunt enough. “Danato he was going to kill me.” His eyes widened like she hoped they would. “I don’t mean he was angry enough to kill me. I mean he had the gun pulled and he was seeing if I would cooperate to cover up the mess, or if he would have to kill me. The line was drawn and I barely kiss-assed my way over it.

“After he was done threatening my life, he threatened Efrat and the others. He put their lives in my hands. I know your mad Danato, but I was going to wind up walking in with a lie either way last night. Either my lie or his, and I chose mine.” Danato looked at her hand, but didn’t take it.

“Then what happened.”

“I left.”

Danato stepped forward and leaned on her door. She didn’t attempt to reach out to him since his presence was not intended to be affectionate. “Explain to me why you didn’t pick up that phone right then and call me.”

“I didn’t think you would help the way I wanted you to.”

“You didn’t think I would help let them go, you’re damn right I wouldn’t.” He glared at her through the bars.

“No, I didn’t think you would help them at all. I’ve read the files Danato. They have no convictions. Hell they don’t even have any charges against them. You signed the paperwork to put four people in this prison and hold them indefinitely when the only crime they committed was not cooperating with a militaristic government.”

“That’s what you got out of reading those files. You think I housed them for the money.”

“What other interpretation is there?”

Danato moved away taking a moment to think before he responded. “Invasion of privacy aside, did you happen to see another file in that drawer?”

Cori thought back to that night. “There was one other file marked deceased in red,” she offered more as a question than a statement.

“I take it you didn’t read it.”

“No, I wasn’t interested in lingering,” she murmured.

“Did you wonder why it was in there?”

Cori sighed not understanding why he was dragging out his point. “No, I was preoccupied. Why are you even bringing it up?”

“You said that there was no other way to interpret why I would sign on the elementals when their histories were clean.” Danato turned to her. “I am offering you another interpretation so that your flagrant mistrust for me can be alleviated,” he spoke softly but the disdain was still there. “The deceased prisoner file was my wife’s.”

Cori was already looking at him, so she couldn’t afford more shock than her mouth dropping open and her eyes bulging. She couldn’t remember the first conversation they ever had about his wife. She couldn’t remember if he had mentioned she was a prisoner.

At the same time she realized how close she was to getting answers about the part of Danato’s past that he refused to share. She respected his privacy enough not to pester him about it, but she wasn’t sure she would have passed up the file if she had understood what it was.

“Did you check the dates by the signatures in the elemental files?” Cori shook her head. She could already see where this was going and her heart ached to think of it. “It’s the same date as on that deceased stamp on the front of her file. I signed those papers the same day a signed my wife’s death certificate.” She frowned at him as he approached the bars. She reached her hands out to him, but he bypassed her and reached through the bars to grab her under the chin.

She instinctively pressed on his chest, prepared to push him away. He noted the movement and caressed her cheek with his thumb like that was his intention all along. “Now, as someone familiar with the loss of a lover, you tell me. Do you think I read those fucking files?”

Danato’s voice arched to new depth and his grip tightened on her face. She shook her head—as best she could. Tears of empathy and shame poured down into his hand. “If you had brought me the key and expressed your concerns about his incarceration, I would have read through the file. I would have seen the misdirection. We could have fixed this Cori! Together!”

He dropped his hand taking in a breath as he looked her over with the same disappointment she had seen in him so many times. “You are so worried about whether or not you can trust me, but you never give me a reason to trust you.” Danato gripped the door. “If you ever go behind my back like this again, I will suspend you. You will be back on cleaning duty like your first fucking day! Do you understand?”

Cori’s heart clenched. She had never considered being demoted so low. The thought of going back to janitorial work, made this entire place seem intolerable. “Yes, sir.” Her voice shook. The coldness between them was only exasperated by her subservient prescribed response.

His expression softened, but only enough to make her hope that he would offer reassurance of his love, which he didn’t. “Why didn’t you tell me about it all before Clark came to get you?”

“In case you didn’t agree to not send the collectors out right away. I knew they would need time to get away.” Cori could feel the lie roll off her tongue and she hated it, but it was too soon to ask Danato for asylum. She needed to let this moment play out. When he was calm again, she could negotiate with him. “And…I just didn’t want to. I knew this would be the end result either way.” She motioned to her cell. “I just wanted another hour of normalcy, before all my screw ups caught up with me.” Her tears trickled down. She didn’t bother wiping them away. “I just wanted another hour before I lost every last ounce of your trust.”

If Danato was even remotely affected by the conviction in her voice he didn’t show it. “Cori,” he said firmly, “I may still need to send the collectors out after them. I can’t just let them run freely. They may not have to go back to Clark, but we will have to register them and decide what to do with them. Especially, if they are haphazardly or accidentally going to burn, drench, and electrocute things. Do you understand that?”

“Does that mean you might be able to offer them asylum?” Her voice pitched a little too much revealing her enthusiasm.

“I don’t know. I can’t answer that yet. That will be for Belus to figure out with our head bureaucrats. You’ve dug us in too deep to do this under the table. We have to go by the books now, or risk being audited. Believe me, as much as you hate being under my thumb, you would hate an audit.”

Cori exhaled feeling the stress of having to now convince Belus that the elementals should be taken from Clark. Oh, the joy of paperwork. She hated doing things by the book. She hated books. Reading—words—snore. “When do you think I can get out of here?”

“If I give him the elementals back, Clark will release you of his own free will. Supposedly,” Danato added as an afterthought.

“You think he might try to detain me?”

Danato shrugged. “It’s nothing, I just don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I.” She grimaced. “I should have just let Daniel kill him,” she murmured.

Danato reached his hand through the bars and caressed her cheek. She leaned into his hand like it was a life preserver to her drowning body. “You leave Clark to me Cori. If anyone is going to be aiming weapons or fists at him, it will be me. Understood?”

She nodded into his hand. As he pulled it away she clasped onto it with both hands. “Danato!” He paused from the veracity of her plea. “You’ll forgive me eventually won’t you? You’ll always forgive me, won’t you?”

He pulled his hand out despite her vehement grip on him. He took in a deep breath letting his exhaustion show as he exhaled. “Yes, Cori, I will always forgive you…eventually.” He walked away not allowing her a retort. She wondered how much more he was going to hate her when he found out that the elementals hadn’t even escaped.

5

Daniel hadn’t intended to fall asleep on the couch. When he heard the door shut he snapped upright. Ethan stood at the door looking every bit as pissed as when he left. Heaton got up from the chair he had been napping in and met him at the door. “How did it go?” He asked.

“Procedure bullshit,” Ethan ripped off his coat and hung it up. “We have to check with the board before proceeding.”

“Feck that, just go break her out,” Daniel contributed hanging over the back of the couch. Heaton gave him a look that said he wasn’t helping matters.

“I haven’t even talked to her yet. Danato wants to talk with her first.”

“Feck that, she’s your wife,” Daniel spouted again.

“Dude!” Heaton scolded since him since he didn’t get the hint with the scowl. “I’m sure this will all pass. She’s not in any danger. Danato just has to figure how to proceed so he doesn’t make things worse.” Heaton looked back at Daniel. “That’s how things work in the grown up world.”

“What?” Daniel shrugged innocently.

“What about the grown up world?” Nevia asked as she strolled downstairs yawning. She was still in her pajamas, rightfully so, since the sun was barely up. She was wearing the loose fitting t-shirt that she had worn her first night with him. He cringed at seeing the memorabilia, but only because he liked it so much.

“Where the hell have you been, bloodhound? You missed everything,” he rebuked.

She looked between them all. “I was sleeping. I couldn’t hear anything. What happened?”

“Serves you right, going to bed early. I’ll tell you what happened,” Daniel began.

“Daniel,” Heaton interrupted. “Do some breathing exercises or something before you lob off someone’s head with a glare.” He made it sound like a jibe since they were in company, but he gave him a stern look that suggested he needed to be careful.

Daniel generally kept his temper in check, for obvious reasons, but something about the intrusion into the house last night had set him off. He wasn’t sure if it was the attack on Cori or simply the disruption of what should have been a nice evening or because he had just had a blow out with Nevia and he was already on edge. No matter the reason, he needed to calm down.

“Fine, you tell her. I’m going to make coffee.” Daniel jumped up and headed to the kitchen. On the way by, Ethan mumbled something to Heaton about filling her in so he could rest. Daniel exchanged a glance with Heaton as Ethan jaunted upstairs.

While he filled the water pitcher for coffee, he took in some deep breaths. It probably looked as asinine as it felt, but it did make him feel a little better. Nevia settled on a stool at the end of the island, while Heaton joined him in the kitchen.

Heaton reached over his shoulder for the basket of tea bags. Daniel waved him away. “I got it.”

“You don’t know how I like it.”

Daniel turned to him. “Earl Grey, dash of cream, no sugar. I know your bleeding drink, you eejit. Just because I don’t wake up on the edge of your bed in the morning doesn’t mean I can’t make a fecking cup of tea.”

Heaton looked almost suspicious of the offer. “You don’t usually offer.”

“Cause, I’m not a poof, but I’m making coffee for Miss Late Start, so I’m already outdoing my gentlemanly hospitality for the year.” Heaton looked to Nevia. She shook her head in response to a question he didn’t actually ask.

“Alright, back to it,” Heaton said and settled down on the stool next to Nevia to explain last night’s events, leading up to the all-night-er for Ethan. By the time the coffee was percolated and the tea steeped, Nevia was up to speed.

“Damn it, the only good gun fight I’ll ever see in this place and I missed it,” Nevia said without the humor that might have been implied by a less gun crazy woman. “Sorry guys didn’t mean to drop the ball.”

“There was no ball, just the usual juggling act that comes with this place.” Daniel slid her coffee over pre-doctored. “Taste it.” He gave Heaton his and waited for him to taste as well.

“Well, I’ll be damned. The man can make a cup of tea,” Heaton said after tasting his tea.