Page 6 of Secret Gifts
He smiles and then he slides down to take a seat in front of the log again.
“To meet you. I’ve heard about your latest encounter where Mrs. Bann… um... I mean, Mrs. Mordel had to show her gifts, and I was wondering how you were. They say it was a nasty scrape.”
All the exasperation that can clamber in one breaths is exhaled through my lips at once. Damn it. Everyone knows my mom had to come bail me out again.
“She’s a little overprotective. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds."
I slump down beside him, and my pad falls loosely in my lap. I turn it over before he can see what I’m sketching.
“So, how bad was it then?”
Okay, so it was really bad and I would have died if Mom and Uncle Brazen hadn’t shown up.
“Not as bad as her scolding,” I grumble, detouring the conversation.
He laughs harder this time, but it doesn’t annoy me as it did earlier. It’s actually a little bit of a turn on now, and I really wish it wasn’t.
Drat.
“I’ve indeed heard of your mother’s tongue-lashings from other United members. I’ve only met her a couple of times, so I was never really unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end.”
I smile lightly, and then I look down to my hands.
“It wasn’t so bad. She just worries. Besides, I didn’t deserve it, and I think she knew it. That’s why she backed off.”
His eyes slant curiously as he props back and tilts his body to face me more directly.
“I thought you were the tracker on that case,” he says with a slight bit of an accusatory tone.
“I was, and I did my job correctly. I told the captain it was a trap, but he refused to listen to me. He said Mr. Hedin had already pointed out the trail.”
He narrows his eyes.
"If you were tracking, Hedin shouldn't have interfered, given the fact he wasn't physically there to catch any new clues. That's dangerous."
"That's United Politics," I retort.
“So you told him it was a trap, and he continued on anyhow? Why not tell a general?” he muses. “Why assume all the responsibility? That goes on your record, you know?”
I nod softly while releasing an agitated breath.
“I know, but if I had told on him like a child, then I would have been a rat. The other captains tend to rally for their own, and it would have just been a matter of time before I was shunned all together. My mom is too smart to think I didn’t read the trail right, but she wanted me to confess it to her so she could do something about it.”
“But you didn’t?”
His eyes have narrowed more, and he almost seems a little angry now.
“Of course not. My mom is one of the few who knows the identity of our commander. She would have stormed into his office or home and demanded the instant demotion of that captain. Then my Uncle Brazen, Uncle Grayson, and Aunt Angelica would have shown up to throw in their two cents as well. I would have looked incapable of handling myself.”
He sighs out while leaning back, and then his eyes tilt toward the vacant air above him as he loses himself in thought. His profile gives me a shiver of delight. He's perfect. His firm yet soft skin begs my fingers to stray, but I refrain.
His dark hair slides over his brow as he studies the world above us. He looks twenty, but goodness knows you can’t go based off looks around here.
“And if you had known the commander’s identity, would you have gone to him?” he asks, startling me out of my fixed gaze that has suddenly evoked some twisted fantasies.
“No,” I say with a shrug while turning my eyes to the fire.
“Why not? If a captain ignores a tracker’s fear of a trap, they need to be reprimanded. You should always go to someone,” he lightly scolds, and this time I laugh.
