Chapter Six

She followed Thrice through the door with Ivory in her arms as she realized she was homeless. There was no going back to her condo. Her computers were lost. Her mementos. Everything that mattered but wasn’t living was in her condo, and she would never see it again.

Thrice sat her bags down in the kitchen before taking her into the living room. Brandi was there sitting in Jabari’s lap with a blanket wrapped around her. She took one look at Piper and jumped to her feet.

“What happened?” She wrapped her arms around her friend leading her out of the living room back to the kitchen. “Piper, where are your keys?”

She handed them to Brandi, who gave them to Jabari.

“Can I help?” Quinn walked in.

“Piper this is Quinn. Quinn this is Piper. I’m looking for the mint tea and the bourbon.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know, just like you didn’t need to be my designated walker all those years ago.”

“Pasta or a burger and fries?”

“Burger and fries,” Piper and Brandi said at the same time.

“Have a seat I’m putting the kettle on.”

“Brandi.” Quinn was giving her the, you may die look.

“Quinn, I’m well enough to put a kettle on the stove.”

“All right but if Jabari asks I did it.” They all laughed. Quinn found the bourbon and the cups. “If we time this right we can be upstairs before the guys come back.”

“Where did they go?”

“No idea.”

“Brandi?”

“I think I know where they went, but we’ll wait for them to come back.”

She knew she would be safe for now. Thrice wouldn’t just leave, he wasn’t like that. Oh, now you’re an expert on alien men. No, but she felt like she knew him at least a little.

“The foods ordered. Piper would you like me to leave?”

Yes, but she held her tongue. She knew the value of not trusting anyone. So did Brandi.

“Brandi’s my only friend, my sister. You may not want to get entangled in my life.”

“Brandi’s my sister, which makes you my sister. I’m going to do whatever I can to help you, but that doesn’t mean you have to let me in.”

No, it didn’t, but it was the best offer of friendship she ever got after Brandi’s.

“Stay.” Brandi flashed a smile at her before handing out tea bags.

“One night when Piper and I needed to calm down we decided to make hot toddies and pretend we were proper southern ladies. The only problem we didn’t know what we were doing. So, over the years we’ve experimented until we found a combination we both liked.”

“Brandi loved peach tea with whiskey.” Piper shuddered.

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes it was, don’t listen to her.”

“We settled on mint tea, which I can drink by itself, and bourbon.”

The kettle whistled. Quinn brought it to the table and poured.

“Let the tea steep first then pour the alcohol.” Piper stared into her cup. “My father said he's sending Jenkins after me.”

Brandi’s sharp inhale said it all.

“I was kidnapped.” She gave Quinn a quirky smile. “I don’t know if Brandi told you that part yet. Then I spent the night with Thrice and Hale. Thrice and I ate and talked and relaxed.” Her lips turned up in a smile, and her eyes got dreamy.

“My father knows you were sick. He said some pretty disgusting things about you.”

Piper picked up the bourbon and tipped it. Brandi stopped her. “Not too much. You know your dad hates me. Of course, he said horrible things. We both expect that.”

“I couldn’t take it anymore. I hung up the phone and dropped it out the window. When we got back here, Thrice took me to my place. It was trashed.”

She looked at Brandi as they thought about her condo.

“Do you think it could be the same people?” Brandi’s condo wasn’t trashed, but someone had broken in.

“No, I found out who was in mine.”

Piper sighed and lifted Ivory from her lap. “I acquired a cat.”

“Can I hold her?” She passed Ivory to Brandi.

The rest of the story tumbled out. By the time the food arrived, they were drinking the tea while laughing and crying over memories of childhood and how life could and would screw you over.

“I don’t know what to do. Jenkins is coming; my place is toast, and I need to disappear. Oh, and if Thrice is right, aliens are coming for me. I don’t want to put any of you in danger.”

“I was just in danger. You kind of get used to it.”

“I’m going to have to agree with Brandi on this one. Besides you don’t think we’re going to just let you walk out the door?”

“But your mate.”

“Mekhi? I swear I wish someone would try to hurt him. Not wish, what I mean is he may be a healer, but my male can fight.”

“He shouldn’t have to, not for me.”

“Then for who? The government?”

She looked up a bit lost. Quinn was acting like they were sisters. Of course, she knew Brandi would. although at times it shamed her to admit that she was waiting for Brandi to cut her losses and leave her alone.

“I know that look, Piper.”

“It’s still hard to believe at times. When I went to college, my father warned me that everyone there would hate me. Some of them did. When I told Brandi who my dad was, she gave me a smile and said, ‘that’s nice’”

“What she means is I was clueless. I had no idea who her dad was.”

“And she didn’t care when she found out. You’re the second person who doesn’t care.”

“Piper, there’s a whole world that couldn't care less about your dad, but he’s kept you in a bubble. He never wanted you to find out.”

Brandi gave her that I told you so look, and she laughed feeling lighthearted for the first time since she talked to her dad.

The door opened, and the guys walked in carrying her computer equipment and a couple of bags.

“My computers! Wait my father can trace them.”

“It won’t do him any good.”

“Maybe but I need to destroy them. I left them because it didn’t matter, now it does.”

“Follow me.”

She nodded and picked up one of her laptops. They walked to an elevator that was hidden in the wall of the kitchen.

“This is nice. I would have never known it was there.” Her stomach dropped when the door closed, and she was alone with him. “Thank you for going to get my belongings you didn’t have to do that.”

“I know what it feels like to lose everything.” The door opened. There was a long hallway before them but only one door. He opened it up and took her inside.

Her first impression was that of a suite of rooms at some of the best hotels her father stayed in. Her second was that it was a home in the making.

He took her to a door that wasn’t clustered around the main part of the living space.

“I believe this room was meant to be an office.” They walked in. It was large with wide windows. It would be beautiful with the sun streaming in. The room smelled old, and a trace of flowers lingered, but not dirty. It was strange, but the smell gave it a sense of history and comfort.

In the middle of the floor, there was a beat-up old cherry wood desk and a chair. The only pieces of furniture in the room.

“The desk and chair were here when I took over the space. I never got around to throwing them away.”

She walked to the desk allowing her fingers to stroke the worn wood. “I love it.” The desk made her feel…happy. She shook her head. That’s what happens when your life gets turned upside down. Nothing makes sense. She stopped fingering the desk and started setting up her computer system.

“Nothing can track you here.”

“I know you’re right. It’s just that I know my dad. If the technology is out there even if it’s alien. He’ll find it and use it.”

“Did your father torture you?”

“Heavens no.”

“He may be mean and cruel, but he’s not sadistic…” Damn, open mouth. The brief flare of pain in Thrice’s eyes told her more than she wanted to know. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to know. It was just that now she needed to plot the death of someone. That was never easy.

She dropped to the floor and started plugging devices into the power cords they brought.

“No one should ever hurt a child.”

“Not everyone believes that.”

“If I saw that happening, I would stop it.”

“I believe you.”

She stood up and wiped her hands down the front of her jeans before she sat down. She patted her hand on the side of the desk and watched out the corner of her eyes as he slowly walked over to it. Finally, he cocked a hip against it and leaned in to watch her. Her fingers were flying over the keys. This is the one thing she was sure of. The computer was her home, where having brains was a good thing, and she didn’t have to worry about her sometimes klutzy self.

“Were you going to let your dad marry you off?”

One day. She was putting it off as long as possible. It had just seemed inevitable. She was groomed to be the political wife. The power behind the power. Why fight fate? Then last night she dreamed of Thrice. He kissed her, made love to her and every inch of backbone she tried to hide screamed she wasn’t going to marry some dickless man.

“I told myself I had to get married, eventually. What’s the difference? Will you get married?”

“It’s not that easy for the created. We mate, but there is only one for us. There are times we can enter into a long-term relationship, but the female will die before we do. That brings its own pain.”

“Are you looking for your mate?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Why would a male who looked like him want something permanent?

“Oh?”

“I just mean I get it. You can have anybody why settle?” Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she disarmed every tracking system her father had on her computer. The first ones were easy. They were what you expected to find if someone tried to hack you, or a nasty piece of adware was added.

The next were more difficult. These had been programmed by the government a few of them were done by people on her father’s payroll. The code was subtle; a few even mimicked her coding style close enough to make her think it was something she had done. When she was finished, she turned everything off and gave him a sad smile.

“I made sure everything I needed was backed up. Do you have a hammer?” He nodded and went to bring her one.

She took a deep breath when he passed the hammer to her. She crossed to her laptop before opening it then smashed it until it was barely recognizable. Her shoulders shook, and her breathing rattled as she repeated the swings until a primal rage ripped up her body and came from her throat.

Then she moved to her portable server and then on to her backup laptop. Now her mouth was moving silently as she repeated every time she was told to shut up or every time she was made to feel like all she had to contribute was her body. Memories of smiling while she kept her pain inside, swamped her. Thoughts of how she promised herself it would be okay as she rubbed a healing balm over her heart when she knew she was lying, took over. Feelings of helplessness seeped out of her body to taunt her. Tears of anger rolled down her face. Why had it taken this long for her to get to the point that she was ready to stand up for herself?

It didn’t matter she was here.

The hammer dropped from her bloodless fingers. She staggered to the window. It was dark outside, but that suited how she felt.

“Can you get rid of those for me?” Her voice was flat.

He lifted his hands to touch her, then placed them behind his back.

“I will.”

“Thank you. Today I declare my independence.”