Page 10 of Redeemed
WE FIND TRAJAN sitting in one of the big dining chairs, engrossed in something on his laptop. “What the hell took you so long?” he asks, like maybe we stopped for cocktails on the way.
David laughs at his irritation. “Oh, sugar bear, have we got a story for you.”
“Sugar bear?” I raise an eyebrow at David.
He sticks out his tongue, plops himself at the end of the church pew, and points at the laptop. “Whatcha doin’?”
“I’ve made a map of Jacques’ safe houses, showing which of the ones we’ve checked out and which we haven’t. He has to be at one of them.”
Steadying myself with a deep breath, I prepare to prove how much I’ve changed. No secrets, remember? “Are you sure you don’t know which one?”
He fixes me with a dark stare. “What?”
The ice in his tone makes it very clear I’ve fucked up, but damn. On the one hand, I know he would have told us. On the other…
“Let’s start at the beginning.” David pats the pew, inviting me to sit. “We had an interesting conversation with your good friend Rollie.”
“Ha.” Trajan closes the laptop. “Is that what he said? I should have warned you. The guy’s a compulsive liar.”
I sling off my jacket and crowd onto the church pew, which is about as comfortable as I’d imagined it would be. “He does spin a good yarn.”
“So tell me what happened.”
David runs through the whole story, including a lot more detail than I would have. For example, I wouldn’t have mentioned the name of the boutique where Rio bought their fabulous crocheted outfit, but then I was more concerned with who might be armed and which supernatural was most likely to try to kill us.
“And he really said I knew where Jacques is hiding? That bastard.” Trajan’s eyes are the color of a storm cloud and his skin is paler than normal.
I lean forward on my elbows. “He also said you’d need to kill Jacques to be free of him.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
The fatalism in Trajan’s voice cuts me deep. “We’ll figure something out.”
“If he’s a chronic liar,” David says slowly, “and you’re not keeping Jacques’ location from us—”
“Of course I’m not.” The words fall like shards of glass.
“All right.” I raise my hands, showing him my palms. “We believe you, but David’s point is good. Trying to pick out the truth from Rollie’s stream of bullshit might take more time than we have. The princess said she could hear waves breaking. Does Jacques own a place on the ocean?”
“But was it really the Princess? Maybe the mirror somehow amplified our wishes and played back what we wanted to see.”
I nudge David with my elbow, pretty convinced he’s the only one of us with any common sense. “You could be right.” It seems unlikely that I’d make up something like the breaking waves, but maybe I did. Either way, I hope his vision of all of us with his family will prove to be true. He gives me a smile that might be too bright, but I let it go. We need information more than we need to process emotional stuff right now.
“So you managed to get in and out alive, and you may or may not have learned anything useful.” Trajan’s got his hands crossed on top of the laptop, his errant hank of hair hanging in his face. There’s something defeated about him that I really dislike.
“Did Sheena come by?” I ask, mainly to give us something else to chew on.
He nods. “We went by my condo. Levy’s been camped out there the last couple of months, but he says he can be out by Friday.”
“Your beautiful condo with the view of forever?” David bounces a little in his seat.
“It’s safer than any of these other places we’ve been staying.”
I raise a finger, not sure I should protest. Can’t help myself. “Except Jacques knows that place and will be looking for you there.”
“It’s warded six ways to Sunday.”
“Yeah, but…” I look at David for help. We’d talked about this before and decided the condo wasn’t safe enough. David’s watching Trajan, so he doesn’t see my concern.
