Reckoning by Shana Figueroa (35)

Stacey paced the room that she and Kat shared in the forest mansion, staring at the text messages she’d sent to Val on her phone.

The longer Val failed to respond, the more anxious she got. Though her friend had told her essentially to go to hell, when she saw news of Max in critical condition at Harborview Hospital, their nanny stabbed, the Carressa kids missing, and Val herself nowhere to be found, Stacey’s panic reflex kicked in. How did Val always get into these goddamn situations? Some things never changed. Poor Val.

“Calm down, baby,” Kat said from the bed, where she sat completely naked, toweling her hair down after a shower. “I’m sure the police are on it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Stacey rounded on her girlfriend. “You’re seriously telling me Northwalk didn’t have anything to do with this?”

“Max and Val have a lot of enemies,” Kat said, ignoring Stacey’s agitation. “Didn’t some newspaper get a tip a woman was stalking them?”

“So you know nothing?”

With a shrug, Kat shook her head, then shot Stacey her most innocent smile.

She’s lying.

Stacey turned away so her girlfriend wouldn’t see her crestfallen face. She didn’t trust anything Kat said anymore. Choose love, Cassandra had said. I’m trying, goddammit, I’m really, really trying—

“Hey, come here,” Kat said, tossing the towel to the side. She walked to Stacey and pressed her perfect body against her girlfriend’s. “I’ve got a few minutes before my mother’s meeting.” Kat seized Stacey’s lips in a long, deep kiss. “Why don’t I help take your mind off Val’s problems?” Her hands moved down to Stacey’s pants, working the zipper free.

Stacey stepped away. For maybe the first time ever, she wasn’t overcome with lust for her sex goddess of a girlfriend. “I need some air,” she said. “I’m going out for coffee.”

Kat frowned, a rare hint of shock in her eyes. “Okay. How long will you be gone?”

Throwing on her coat, she said, “I dunno. A couple hours or so.”

“Bring me back my usual latte?”

“Sure.”

Kat grabbed Stacey’s arm before she walked out the door. “Baby, you know I’m on your side. I’d do anything for you.”

“I know,” Stacey lied. She wanted with all her heart to believe it was true, but she wasn’t buying it anymore.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she said truthfully, her heart breaking at the realization her feelings were almost certainly unrequited. Was Kat even capable of love? Choose love, Stacey. Choose love… “I’ll be back soon.”

Kat smiled, satisfied their relationship crisis had been averted. In reality, she had Cassandra to thank.

Stacey wound her way through the gilded compound toward the exit, ignoring the half-dozen silent security guards along the way. She hated this place. No amount of expensive wainscoting and designer wall drapes could make it feel any less like a prison. Every time she stepped outside, she felt lucky to have made it out, even though nothing physically kept her in. It took a key card and a thumb print to unlock the steel-reinforced doors at the entrance; maybe she’d pretend she lost the card and stay at a hotel that night.

As she walked by Cassandra’s office, something shiny caught her eye. A metallic object the size of her thumb sat wedged halfway underneath the Alpha’s closed door. Stepping closer, she recognized it as a silver cigarette lighter. It couldn’t be…

She knelt and picked it up. Turning it over in her hand, she gasped when she saw the inscription etched on one side: It’s never too late to quit! Commit arson instead. Love, Val. Holy shit, it was the lighter Val had given her as a gift for her twenty-first birthday. When she’d stopped smoking about a year into her relationship with Kat, she’d lost track of the damn thing, and thought it was gone for good. How the hell had it ended up here? Did Kat have it this whole time? Seemed almost as if someone put it on the ground specifically for her to find—

The door to Cassandra’s office flew open, and a little blond boy ran straight into her. He bounced off her legs and landed on his butt.

She reached down to help him up. “Are you all right, little man?” What in the world was a child doing there? She’d never seen children in Northwalk’s fortress before.

He looked at her with big hazel eyes brimming with tears. “Do something.”

“Do…what?”

“Simon,” an older woman with short red hair called from inside the office, “don’t run away, darling. Everything will be all right. Come back to Nana.”

Next to the woman, Cassandra stood by silently like a specter—as she always did—while Honora tapped her foot, her creepy plastic-like face contorted into an expression of supreme annoyance.

Head down, the boy shuffled back inside. Instead of returning to the woman, he embraced a little girl his same size with black hair and blue eyes the color of steel. She cradled the boy—probably her brother—in her arms as she glared at Honora with a surprising amount of defiance for a kid who couldn’t have been older than five. In fact, the little girl reminded her of…Val.

Stacey’s stomach dropped. Sweet Jesus, please say those aren’t Val’s kids. And that woman, with hair the same color as her best friend’s, except streaked with silver…And please say that’s not Val’s mother. What in the fuck was going on here?

With her chin jutted out, the girl said to Honora, “My mommy’s going to kill you.”

Honora’s lips tightened. She looked at Cassandra.

“She lies,” the Seer said.

The Northwalk matriarch relaxed, confident in the Alpha’s proclamation. Her gaze cut back to the children. “Seems like the girl is the stronger of the two.” She smirked. “Interesting how it often works out that way.”

Honora walked to the children and pulled them apart. They both started wailing. Stacey’s heart clenched into a knot.

“Best to separate them now,” she said.

Simon chanted to himself, “Monogon, digon, trigon, tetragon, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon—”

Honora slapped him hard. Stacey gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth. God, this couldn’t be happening.

“Shut up,” the Northwalk matriarch snapped at Simon. She looked at the girl. “You, too. Or should I hit him again?”

The girl fell silent, though angry tears streamed down her plump cheek.

“Smart girl. You won’t even remember you had a brother.”

Honora shoved the boy at their nana—Val’s mother. He buried his head in the woman’s leg while she caressed his head.

“There, there, it’ll be all right,” she said in a soothing voice, her face totally devoid of compassion.

“The girl will be your successor,” Honora said to Cassandra. “We’ll hold the ceremony tonight.” She looked at Val’s mother. “You keep the boy for now. We’ll decide what to do with him when we hear back from the Omega.”

The succession ceremony…for the Alpha, not Northwalk leadership.

Kat lied to her. Of course Kat lied. That’s what she did. Stacey knew all along, but couldn’t accept it. In fact, she might have continued not accepting it if she hadn’t been standing in front of Cassandra’s door at that exact moment, accidentally witnessing this horrific exchange…Ha, “accidentally.” Bullshit. Someone wanted her to see it—probably Cassandra. Why? The Seer told her to choose love, and she fucking did that already. What more did the Alpha want from her?

“You,” Honora said, noticing Stacey for the first time. “Fetch my daughter.”

Too stunned by what she’d seen to argue, Stacey turned and walked away from the office, back toward her and Kat’s room. Do something, the boy said to her. He was right—she had to do something. But what in the world could she do to help those poor children? Breaking them out of the Northwalk compound by herself wasn’t an option—too many guards. Asking Kat for help was out of the question now, too. She was done forgiving Kat’s lies, or trusting her with anything.

Stacey stopped in the middle of the hallway to swipe tears from her eyes. The walls closed in around her. She couldn’t breathe. Where could she go? What could she do? Do something. Do something…

Looking at the lighter she still clutched in her hand, she read the inscription again. Love, Val, it said.

Choose love—

Cassandra told her to choose love, but she didn’t specify what kind of love. Stacey had chosen romantic love with Kat—and she’d chosen wrong. She should’ve chosen the love of friendship, and love for herself, to have the courage and self-respect to do what she knew in her gut was right. Following Julian hadn’t been her test—this moment was her test. Accompanying Kat’s brother on his homicidal errands had just been the prep, so she had the perspective she needed when the real test came.

Sucking in a lungful of air, Stacey dropped the lighter in her pocket and stood tall. She knew what she had to do. Time to fight for love.

She walked quickly, but not too fast to be suspicious. When she reached Julian’s room, she pressed her ear against the door. Hearing nothing, she slipped inside. Her heart thumped against her rib cage as she searched his room, looking under his bed and in his drawers. Pulling open the closet, she finally found it—the small blue duffel bag. She reached down and grabbed it at the same moment she heard the knob on the bedroom door turn.

Oh shit.

Stacey dived into the corner of the closet half a second before Julian walked in. If he found her in his room, stealing his precious drugs, he’d kill her—or worse. She held her breath as he moved around, catching glimpses of him through the closet door slats while he threw off his clothes. Glancing up, she stifled a curse when she saw a row of business suits hanging next to her. If he decided to change into something more professional, she was screwed.

She had to get out of there. One thing she could count on was Kat always having her cell phone within arm’s reach. God forbid she miss a call from Mommy Dearest. With shaking hands, Stacey texted Kat: On my way out, your mom said she wanted to see you asap—you and Julian. She hit Send.

He began to whistle some awful tune as he opened and closed different drawers. A pair of underwear and socks landed on the bed, and when he walked into her field of view, she saw he was naked.

Hurry up, Kat.

He disappeared again, and a few seconds later a tie was tossed on top of the undergarments. Shit, he was preparing to don a suit.

Come ON, Kat!

She bit her lip as his approaching body blocked the light coming in through the slats, a scream rising in her throat when he grabbed the closet’s knob—

Someone knocked on the door. He stopped and turned away from the closet. Sweet Jesus, thank you, she mouthed.

“Finally got rid of the beard?” he said when he answered. “Or whatever the opposite of a beard is.”

“Don’t be jealous,” Kat said. “It’s unbecoming.” Stacey heard the door close, then Kat walked into her field of view, a simple blouse and slacks hastily thrown on. “I’m sorry you don’t understand love.”

“I understand what a completely useless emotion it is.”

“Get dressed quick. Mother wants to see us right now.”

Was he still naked?

“Don’t want to have a quick fuck first?”

Kat laughed. “Maybe after. Come on, let’s go.”

Were they joking? Who wisecracks about incest while walking around naked in front of their sibling? Ah hell, it didn’t matter. They could screw like bunnies and have oodles of inbred children for all she cared. Would’ve been nice to know before wasting half a decade on a bed of lies. That was what she got for blindly following her heart—or more accurately, her vagina. Screw Northwalk, screw Julian, and screw Kat…Claire…Kitty…whatever her name was.

After more opening and closing of drawers and the rustling of clothes, Stacey surmised Julian threw on something less formal than a suit and followed Kat out of the room, shutting the door behind him. She exhaled a huge sigh of relief. Certain death at the hands of her ex-girlfriend’s psychopathic brother—averted. Now all she had to do was slip out of the mansion without being seen, get to Harborview Hospital as quickly as possible, and perform a miracle.