Page 47 of Collin: Episodes 13-15
“I still dream about him sometimes. Those things he was teaching us. Sometimes I really, really hope that cloak-and-dagger stuff caught up with him.”
“I hope it caught up with him, too.”
“You know he was starting to talk to me about how to get men to bring me home or back to their offices? I was just a little girl. You think… No, I know…he wanted to use us.”
“He didn’t get to.” Collin forced himself to breathe and look away out the window. “He didn’t have time. He’s gone. And if he ever tries to come back, you call me. If you can’t call me, call Damian, or Richard, or Émeric.”
“I bet Ash could even help or Ellisandre. We know some interesting people now.” She sighed. “Is it bad that sometimes I just want to pretend that we don’t have any family except you and I and run away?”
Collin covered Alice’s hand with. “No. It’s not bad.”
In the afternoon Alice decided to try her hand at navigating the subway to the airport on her own. She was excited to do it and had Ash in her ear on a headpiece when she left so she could narrate the journey back to California to him. She assured Collin that she’d turn the phone off for takeoff and not call Ash back until she’d landed. Then she booped Collin’s nose and reminded him she liked being silly, not stupid. Collin gave her a hug at the door, and security made sure she left without being followed.
Monday morning, Collin woke up sore but rested and dragged himself downstairs with both his doms and Damian to see Nihal in the gym. Richard, Émeric, and Damian went off to do their own routines, and Collin was introduced to yet more joys of stretching and strength drills. By the time he made it back upstairs to shower and get ready for the office, he wanted to go back to bed.
“Smoothie,” Mr. Reevesworth said, holding out a reusable carrying cup. “You probably need to eat more. You’re burning calories.”
“I haven’t even showered yet.”
“Just a sip.”
It did help wake him up.
Once in the office, Collin drank two mugs of black coffee back-to-back in Chinese class but felt himself finally rousing. At least he was able to give Ash a run for his money. Then he had etiquette class since his teacher had a conflict for later and had needed to reschedule. As little as he expected to use some of what he was learning, he did appreciate it. And there was always the chance that if he ever did attend parties and functions with his doms he would need what he was learning. If nothing else, it was a confidence booster to know how to greet someone no matter what general area they were from, how to use various place settings, and who was supposed to enter a room first.
Collin arrived with Mr. Reevesworth’s lunch in hand a bit after midday to find Damian already there with his own food. He looked at the clock and grimaced. He was late. Those couple of minutes he’d stopped to talk with Veronica had gotten away from him.
“I want to make the appeal myself or at least be present,” Mr. Reevesworth was saying to Damian.
“The judge has agreed to a short session at two o’clock this afternoon.”
“We can make it.” Mr. Reevesworth nodded to Collin to shut the door and then pulled Collin down on his lap, kissing his ear. “Do you need the toilet, boy?”
“Yes. And I brought lunch.”
“I see that. Damian, give me just a moment here, and let the court know I’ll be there. You have all the latest evidence ready to go? Have you checked with Ash?”
Damian waved a thumb drive. “Latest is right here. Probably less than three hours old. He managed to catch them online again. We didn’t quite get a full trace though, but we know it’s central California.”
“You think Dana is in California?” Collin asked, moving toward the restroom.
“That’s where the imagery Ash was able to grab is coming from.”
They ate lunch together, and then Mr. Reevesworth let Collin go to his team while he and Damian left for court.
At his desk, Collin shared his findings from his Friday trip south with Eliza, Katharine, and Veronica and handed Eliza the rough draft of what he was calling an “imagination” trip. They brainstormed for an hour, and Eliza took the details in hand, showing Collin the proper way to complete a proposal and pointing out where he needed to locate more details. Following up on all those points took him most of the rest of the day.
Damian dropped by at five as Collin was wrapping up. He knocked on the door and stuck his head inside. “Got a minute?”
Collin nodded and joined him in the hall.
Damian pulled him into an empty conference room. “I’m heading out to California. Flight’s at eight.”
“Because of Dana?”
Damian nodded. “The court pressed Barker’s team for information on her and her guardian, basic things, and they had very thin answers. The judge is ready to dismiss the inheritance lawsuit but is keeping the case open on the grounds that it could be an unfounded case, in which case those who brought the suit could face consequences. Ash’s video evidence and a few other things has raised suspicions of ‘malicious use of a child’ and potentially imprisonment of a child. It’s kind of obvious she’s not in school right now even though they claim she is. The court didn’t even get mad when I suggested Dana was a fabrication.”
“So, you’re going to California?”
