Page 22 of Black Hand
“Don’t listen to her. She’s just a prude,” Alice muttered as she stabbed her knuckles into my back.
“Unless you let me borrow yours, I didn’t bring anything else to put on.” Ignoring the human, he smirked at me.
“Where are we going?” Weary to the bones and still slightly lightheaded from blood loss, I blinked the rain out of my eyes and peeked through my lashes at the shifter.
“We can use my parents’ house if you like.” It was Alice who answered, her words making Dominic and me turn to face her. “They died a few years ago, so I haven’t been there much, but it’s kind of out of the way.” When we just stared at her, she snorted a crazed laugh that bubbled out of her mouth. “I don’t want to die either, Brooklyn. And the way I see it, the two of you aren’t gunning for my throat. I have a better chance of surviving whatever is coming with you than I do alone.”
“I’ll be damned, the human has a brain,” Dominic drawled, and that only earned him a blistering glare from the said human.
“The only thing going for you is that swinging penis, so what’s your point?” she challenged, hefting the satchel higher on her shoulder.
I laughed.
And I couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that bubbled out of me, not even if my life depended on it. Leave it to Alice to call him out on his attitude while chipping at his ego. She had a way of leaving you speechless while wondering if she was really that brave or she just had no sense of self preservation. That was what made me like her in the first place.
“You two get in my car. I’ll be right back.” Shoving the satchel at my chest, she was already entering the house before I could call her back.
Shrugging a shoulder at the glaring shifter, I walked up to the beat-up pickup truck and tried not to rip the door off when I opened it. The thing looked one bolt away from falling apart. We didn’t have to spend a long time wondering where Alice went. All the barking and screeching coming closer made it clear enough. The human was taking all the animals with her, which had me grinning at Dominic.
The feline was not happy about it.
I was going to enjoy the ride.
12
For two days after arriving at the small farmhouse a few miles outside Chicago, I avoided Dominic like the plague, pretending to be busy by helping Alice situate all the animals she brought with us. I also made sure the building could withstand an assault in case they found us. He was busy himself, constantly shifting out of sight and prowling the perimeter to ensure our safety.
We weren’t safe.
Nor would we ever be unless I did something. That still didn’t mean I was ready, not in any shape or form, to face the shifter and answer his questions. I expected him to corner me and demand to hear the truth the second we stopped the rattling pickup truck, but to my surprise and even though he’d been eyeing me strangely since then, he never breached the subject. It suited me fine, at least until I realized I had questions of my own. Watching him move around like the earth should bow to him for gracing her with his weight on her soil was a small worm eating at me, too, and it only made curiosity burn hot inside my brain.
Who was this male?
What insanity made him enter a nest of Atua, not once but twice, and save my life in the process. Hatred and resentment followed that thought because why hadn’t he come sooner. Then maybe he could’ve saved Veronica’s life too. Could he have done it? Would he have done it? And the most important question of them all …
Why me?
What mademeworth saving but not my friend.
Dominic was already wary of me, the distrust evident in his every action. I pushed all those questions aside so I didn’t lose my mind. Focusing on Alice and rebuilding her trust in me was my priority. Human or not, she was my ace in this game. I had to have a solid plan to destroy the Syndicate, and I only had one chance. If things went sideways, there might be a chance that Alice could get me to one of the reservations. If a Shaman allowed passage, Atua would be able to pass the protections they had around their lands. How true that was, I wasn’t sure, but it was worth a try. So, I needed her calm and well if I was to proceed with my plans.
“Brooklyn?” Alice called from inside the house.
I kept my gaze on the surrounding trees hiding the property from the main road. A narrow path made by moving vehicles sneaked through them, and it led to the gravel that was poured at the front of the house to create an open space to park and nothing else. The wide wooden porch where I stood leaning on the banister wrapped around the small home, two rocking chairs and a swinging two-seater the only furniture on it. Alice brought them out when we’d arrived and said the house felt wrong if they were not where they were supposed to be. It made me think of my parents.
I didn’t know my mother and I had vague memories of my father. Every time I tried to remember anything specific or recall a time I’d spent with him, no matter how far in the past it was, a splitting headache would almost bring me to my knees. I knew something was off about it but never cared. Not until Noah pulled out that dagger and mentioned my father. There must be more to it than just him dying to protect the Council, that much I knew.
The tension in my temples started throbbing with just those thoughts, so I shook my head to clear my mind. It wasn’t worth the suffering, and at the end it didn’t really matter. I couldn’t bring my father back from the dead, but I could kill Isiah, Frederic, and Samir. To kill a snake, all you had to do was cut off its head. The three of them had ruled over us for as far back as I could remember, and their cruelty and evil had spread like a virus among the Atua. Their egos made them micromanage the Syndicate to the point that no one loyal to the Council could think for themselves. I was going to take advantage of that if it was the last thing I did. They had just made one mistake: they were so hungry for power that everyone who showed even the slight promise of it had been eliminated without even the blink of an eye.
Or so they thought.
In three years, I had over a dozen shifters hidden inside the reservation. Granted I hadn’t been polite or nice about it, and I definitely hadn’t given them the option to refuse, but they were alive because of me. That had to count for something. If they agreed to help me, there was no doubt in my mind that I could bring the Syndicate down on its knees. They would pay for more than just Veronica’s death. The problem I was facing was how to get them to trust me. I couldn’t get Dominic to look at me without glaring, so how in the world would I convince more than a dozen or so? Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t hear Alice walking outside to join me until she spoke.
“How old are you?” She didn’t look at me as she leaned over the banister next to me, her gaze tracing the line of trees.
“Older than I look. Why?” That was the wrong thing to say because she pursed her lips, jerkily pushing her glasses up her nose with a stiff forefinger.
“Must be over ninety because you are losing your hearing.” Turning her head to finally look at me, her lips stretched into a wide smile at my frown. “Next thing you know,grandma, you’ll be senile. You’ll need my help so you don’t wander off and get hit by a car or something.”
