When AJ McConaway picked up the phone on a February afternoon, she had no idea what she was in for.
Four
He fell asleep on his couch after his tears were spent. I draped a blanket over him, then slipped into the apartment’s tiny kitchen and out onto the tiny deck off the back of it. The sun was climbing in the sky, the air chill but not unpleasantly so. I leaned against the deck’s railing and dialed Kate, hoping I wouldn’t wake her. It was nearly nine o’clock back home. She should have been up.
She answered on the third ring, sounding groggy. “AJ?”
“When can you be on a plane?”
I heard her sharp intake of breath. “It’s him?”
“It’s him and I think he needs you more than he needs me.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for a few long moments before she whispered, “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.” I pressed my lips tightly together and swallowed a sigh. “He wants you to come.”
“You told him?”
“Told him what?”
“I don’t know. That we hadn’t stopped looking? That you and I—that he—I don’t know, AJ. I don’t know.”
I turned around, leaning against the rail and staring up toward the building’s eaves. The gutters needed cleaning. “He needs us. That’s all that matters. How’s your arm?”
“It’s a good thing that I went for the X-ray.”
I grimaced. “That bad?”
“Bone’s cracked and there’s some nerve damage. I’m in a brace and a sling.”
“Damn,” I breathed. “I’m sorry, Kate.”
“It’s not your fault. It was bound to happen sooner or later.” She sighed and I dimly heard the sound of her bed creaking. “Your uncle checked on me before he left this morning.”
Then she’s staying at the house. Good. “I’ll have to call him. He needs to fly out here, too.”
“He said to have you text him instead. He’ll be tied up in meetings and won’t be able to talk, but he’ll know what to do if you send him a message.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll book a flight,” she said. “Can you pick me up or arrange for a cab or something?”
“Of course. You didn’t even need to ask.”
“Is he really okay?”
“No,” I said. I couldn’t stop my sigh this time. “No, Kate, he’s not okay. Something broke and I don’t know that it’s something I’ve got any prayer of fixing. You might have better luck, though.”
“But it’s him?”
“No doubt,” I assured her. “Absolutely no doubt in my mind that it’s him.”
“All right. I’ll call you when I’ve got a flight.”
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Okay. Just let me know when you’re scheduled to land and I’ll come pick you up.”
“Okay.” She didn’t hang up right away or say good-bye. Finally, she asked, “Did he really want me to come?”
“He wanted to make sure you were okay,” I said, swallowing hard as I remembered the pain and hope in his voice. “He misses you.”
“I miss him.” She sighed. “I’ll call you in a bit.”
“See you in a while.”
Kate did hang up then and I stood there on Tim’s balcony and stared out over the grass of the small, fenced-in yard he shared with his downstairs neighbors. The morning air was chill but still smelled fresh with a faint tang—probably from the waterfront that wasn’t too far away. I fiddled with my phone, trying to compose the message I’d send to Uncle Chris. I could hear cars in the street on the other side of the building, their wheels making soft noises on the slick pavement. Leaning against the railing, I closed my eyes and sighed, head dipping to rest against my arms.
“Oh god,” I whispered. “What the hell are we going to do now?” Mat was still out there somewhere, beyond the Portals and beyond my reach. Tim was here, but there was something in him that was broken, something that he’d let me see in the unguarded hours we’d just shared.
His phone was ringing inside. I grimaced, lifting my head and glancing back over my shoulder.
Don’t wake up. Please, just sleep through it. You need it. It seemed like he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in days, maybe weeks.
I slipped back inside in time to hear someone buzz the door. I swore softly and darted toward it, casting a quick glance toward Tim, who was still passed out on his couch, sleeping the sleep of the dead.
Just go away. Whoever you are, just go away.
My thumb mashed the intercom button. “Who is it?”
“Lieutenant O’Connell. Can I come up?”
At least I recognized her voice. Glancing toward Tim one more time, I sighed and buzzed her in.
When I opened the front door to let her inside, I found that she wasn’t what I’d expected at all. She was pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, her red hair worn short, held back by a navy blue bandana. She was in blue jeans and a gray US Navy sweatshirt, hands shoved deep into the kangaroo pocket at its front. The smile she gave me warmed the room and I found myself smiling back without thinking.
“You must be AJ,” she said, extending her hand.
“I—” I swallowed and started over. “Yeah. Lieutenant…thanks for calling me.”
Her hand stayed extended for a moment and her smile lost most of its intensity, turned sad. “He needed you,” she said as she tucked her hands back into the pocket of her sweatshirt. “He still needs you. If you’d heard the way he sounded…” Her voice trailed away as she glanced toward him. “I don’t think he’s crazy, but there are a lot of people out there that would.”
I followed her gaze, crossing my arms tightly against my chest. “Anyone who’s been through half of what he’s been through would be lucky to be sane.”
There was a brief hesitation before she asked, “Did he tell you?”
“About who took him? I already knew. We’ve known for a while.”
A brow arched as we adjourned to the kitchen, leaving Tim in peace. “We?” she echoed.
“We.” I leaned against the countertop, watching her. There was no hint of deception that I’d been able to perceive thus far, but I’d learned that sometimes it paid to be overly cautious—a lesson both Bryn Knight and Triskele Myanev had taken great pains to teach me, by words and by example. “Maybe you know her.”
O’Connell’s brow climbed higher and I bit the inside of my cheek to kill a smile.
Curiosity’s piqued. Maybe there’s hope for her after all—or none left at all. I’m not sure it matters either way. “I know you were part of the search for them. So was she.”
Her eyes widened fractionally and she stared at me for a moment, then leaned back against the counter with a slight shrug. “I suppose he told you?”
“Someone else did,” I said. “I don’t think it really matters who. It just matters that I know.”
“Seems like you know a lot,” she said. I shrugged again and she smiled wryly. “I guess there wasn’t much harm in contacting you then, huh?”
“He said something about that.” I crossed my arms, watching her expression. “Why do you think someone would tell him not to contact me?”
Her eyes grew distant for a moment before she sighed softly. “What he went through where he was fucked him up. Maybe they were worried about that, how he’d react to you and how you’d react to him.”
Possible, but I don’t know how likely that really is.
“Something tells me that you believe that about as much as I do,” O’Connell said, apparently taking note of my silence. “The truth is that I’ve got no idea why someone would tell him not to contact you. It’s not like my report said killed—it says missing—and you don’t seem like the type to scream from every rooftop that he’s alive just like that.”
“Mm.” Maybe they were worried about the press figuring out that he was alive—one of the two heirs apparent to the company coming back from the grave or some shit. I don’t know. My gaze drifted toward the living room as my frown deepened. She kept on watching me.
“I wish I had more answers.”
“That makes two of us.”
“How did you know what happened to him?” she asked.
I looked at her, smiling ruefully. “Because UNSETIC recruited me almost two years ago to look for him.” My smile faded quickly. “I know about the pathways and the Cabal and what they did to him. They broke him. They owned him.” I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. “But I can tell that they don’t anymore. His emotions are too raw.”
O’Connell grimaced. “Well, you’re ahead of me, then. He hadn’t told me all of that. Some, sure, but vague, not that much detail.” She frowned again. “Maybe the ones who told him not to contact you didn’t know you were a part of this. I mean…I don’t think he actually wanted to join. He made it sound like he was blackmailed into signing up.”
“There’s something going on here and I don’t like it.” My phone was heavy in my pocket. I could call Bryn myself. She’d answer.
But what do I do when I found out she’s as clueless as we are?
A shiver wracked me and I leaned heavily against the countertop. I knew in my gut that she didn’t know anything, which meant there was something rotten afoot.
Conspiracies inside of a conspiracy. Why does that kind of bullshit surprise me at all?
She glanced toward the living room and headed for the back door. I straightened and followed her out into the chilly sunshine.
“You think there’s something crooked going on,” she said without preamble once the back door clicked shut behind us.
“You don’t?”
“Fuck that,” she said. “After that conversation, I know there is. I’m just not sure what to do about it.” O’Connell exhaled a quiet breath slowly, perching on the porch railing with a balance so exquisite I found myself momentarily envious. “I’ve got exactly one contact in UNSETIC right now and he’s the same person who ordered your brother not to initiate contact with you. I’m tapped out and we haven’t even started to scratch the surface of what’s going on here.”
“I’ve got a couple people I can call,” I murmured, chewing at my lower lip and staring past her at the sky. “But I have to hope that they’d have told me that he was back if they knew. That makes me think they’re as much in the dark as we are.”
She frowned, tilting her head back. “That doesn’t bode well for any of us, does it?”
“I guess not.” I glanced toward the door and sighed softly. “But his survival’s not a secret anymore. The fact that he’s here isn’t a secret anymore. Either someone’s going to get angry and do something about it, or they’ll fade back into the background we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Why do you think they gave the order?”
I closed my eyes, heart sinking. I was afraid I knew the answer, and the answer was one I didn’t like.
“They don’t trust him,” I said simply. “And after what he went through, I guess I can’t blame them.”
“What did he go through?” O’Connell asked softly.
“It’s his story to tell, not mine.”
“He has nightmares about it, whatever it is.”
I winced slightly and barely managed to suppress a shudder. Of course she’d know, wouldn’t she? If they’ve been in the field together, she’d know. “Are they bad?”
“If he’d been armed, I think he would have killed me on accident.”
My lips thinned as I nodded slowly. “Well,” I murmured. “I guess that’s that.”
Silence stretched for a moment before she asked, “Who is she?”
“Who’s who?”
O’Connell smiled faintly. “The one you mentioned. The one who was with me, looking for him? Let me guess. A little more blond than ginger, Irish with a temper and a RAF uniform. I remember wondering why she gave a damn. Now it makes sense. Were they together?”
I nodded mutely, leaning against the railing next to her and staring at the grass. “She’s my best friend, Lieutenant, and she’s never stopped looking for him. We found him once on the other side and then we lost him again. You’ve got no idea what this means to us.”
“That’s how you know,” she said softly, a faint hint of wonder in her voice. “That’s how you know what he went through on the other side, wherever he was. When the…the aliens or whatever had him.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “When the whatever had him.”
That whatever’s going to pay a price for what they did someday. One way or another, there’s going to be a reckoning and I’ll be damned sure that I’m there to see it.
And so will he.
