Rivals (Book 2 of The Warden series) Read online

  “It’s dumb luck, Ethan. You said it, Danato said it. Everything that I’ve brought to the table is just another one of my mistakes turned into a serendipitous benefit. You are the only one doing anything of value here.”

  “Then why does it keep happening? Maybe it isn’t luck, maybe it’s just you. Maybe you are that fucking amazing!” His heart was about to jump out of his chest, he couldn’t believe he was arguing in defense of her, and she was arguing in defense of him. This was a very interesting turn of events.

  She smiled, apparently seeing the same twist. “You are supposed to be taking advantage of this opportunity to get me off your back.”

  He shook his head and crossed his arms. “I don’t want you off my back. I love the competition. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to let you beat me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t walk away from this rivalry with your head held high. So, no, you aren’t quitting, end of discussion.”

  “Oh, yeah?” She crossed her arms to mimic him, but the crook in her smile gave away her amusement.

  “Yeah, and no more Cori-bashing, I won’t have you talking like that about my friend.”

  She mock saluted him and crouched down to poke at the heart. He pushed away the urge to hug her. It was comforting to finally know what thoughts were clanking around in her head the last few months. However, understanding her better would only make it more difficult to deny his feelings for her. He didn’t want to push her, especially since she had explained very clearly why she didn’t want to be with him. But at the same time, she had also confirmed what he suspected: She was attracted to him and had considered being with him.

  “You know, Cori…” She looked up from the fire. “It is possible to be a rock for yourself, and still lean on someone else when you need to.” She seemed to contemplate this for a moment before nodding. She smiled warmly at him and went back to poking her meat.

  15

  Although the heart was chewy and far from tasty, Cori devoured almost half of it, and Ethan finished the remainder. If Danato had accomplished anything by sticking them in the time bubble, he had guaranteed her complete and utter devotion to processed foods.

  After a few baritone belches Ethan announced his fatigue and lay down to sleep. When she didn’t follow, he looked up at her with concern. “Aren’t you tired?”

  She sat watching the flames dance. A few thoughts were rambling through her mind. Once in a while the sorrow demon would throw out his reminder, but she ignored it. “In a bit,” she said with a hint of a smile.

  He continued to watch her. “Are you worried about the dreams?”

  She shrugged. “No, I’ll sleep close.” The worry etched on his face diminished and he lay back and closed his eyes.

  Cori basked in the serenity left by her cathartic day. She hadn’t been that honest with anyone, including herself, in a long while. It felt good.

  She looked through the fire at Ethan. He was right. She had spent so much time trying to avoid leaning on him, but it never occurred to her that it wouldn’t make her weak. But then, it really wasn’t about rocks anymore. All the emotional cards had been dealt, tallied, and shown. No more Go Fish for either of them. The only thing left to ante was the attraction.

  He had wanted her from day one. She had never considered him then, but now it was different. He was different. She was different. The things that mattered before either didn’t matter anymore, or weren’t a factor anymore.

  She had been keeping her distance, trying not to be a tease. She wondered if she had kept him distant for another reason. Maybe she was afraid she would make a move on him.

  Why not?

  Grief? Guilt?

  In the end it was just the two of them. Vince was gone. Whether she waited another month or two to satisfy some preconceived mourning period, she was still going to want Ethan. And he was still going to want her.

  She watched his chest rise and fall with his steady breath. If he knew what she was thinking right now, he wouldn’t be breathing so slow. As it was, she could feel her own heart thump harder in her chest.

  He’s dead.

  Sorrow demon be damned. Guilt be damned. Grief be damned.

  Cori crawled around the fire. For a moment, she thought he might refuse her again. She pushed the thought away and slunk up beside him. She wet her lips and made a mental plan to straddle him just as she started to kiss him.

  She didn’t want there to be any confusion about what she wanted from him. She didn’t want him to think about the consequences. All she wanted was to offer him the experience he had waited so long for.

  Her hands shook as she braced them on either side of his shoulders. She had never anticipated being with Ethan. The thrill of acting on complete impulse, with no more than one step planned in advance, was intoxicating.

  She brought her leg across his hips but didn’t touch. She got into position and prepared her simultaneous descent onto his lips, chest, and pelvis. Her heart was about to break through her chest. She leaned in knowing that she didn’t have to plan any more of the night, because she knew he would have plenty of ideas where they should go after the kiss.

  She lowered herself onto him. The movement seemed to go in slow motion. The world around her blurred. Their lips froze an inch from touching. The inch may as well have been a mile, because she couldn’t move.

  She screamed in frustration as she realized what was happening. She felt the distance between them stretch as the blurred world seeped in between them. She felt the hand on her shoulder, and she tried to fight against it. She wanted one more second. One more inch.

  Her guttural scream caught up to her as she fell away from the time bubble into the real world. She stumbled and landed on her butt. She stopped screaming, but she could feel her teeth still clenched in a feral sneer.

  Danato stepped into her field of vision and asked her something. His voice was muffled and unintelligible. “What?” she said, or at least that’s what she thought she said. Her voice was just as muffled.

  Danato pointed to the far wall under the lookout station. She saw Belus waving at her to come over. Two chairs stood next to a table behind him. A large wooden box sat on the table.

  Thick, strong arms looped into hers and she was lifted to her feet. She confirmed her suspicions that it was Danato who had lifted her like a rag doll. He pulled her chin to face Belus again and pointed to him. The one-syllable muffled grunt she heard from him made her feel like a child being sent to a naughty chair.

  She walked over, surprised by how spry her legs were. Everything felt fine, even good, except her ears. Someone had misplaced an entire stuffed animal in each of her ears.

  She sat down next to Belus, who had already taken the other seat. She pointed to her ears.

  He nodded at her and pointed to his open box. It contained two rows of gold tuning forks. Each was stamped at the base with a number that meant nothing to Cori.

  “Where’s Ethan?” She probably sounded like a megaphone to Belus, but to her it still sounded like she was talking under water.

  Belus smiled, finding some amusement at her expense. He skipped the verbal communication and just pointed. She followed his finger.

  Ethan had not gone far. He and Danato were only about ten meters away from her. They were facing her, but not looking at her. Instead, their eyes were fixed on a tall, leggy blonde in a red business suit she could only see the back of.

  “Who the hell is that?” She must have still been on a bullhorn setting, because her outburst caught everyone’s attention. Danato gave her a mortified glare. Ethan abruptly coughed into his hand. The sparkle in his eyes told her he was trying not to laugh. The businesswoman also turned to face her.

  Her slender length was only accentuated by her hollow cheeks. Her hair was bleached blond with dark roots, giving her that “yeah, I dye it, so what?” look that women had come to enjoy. The stick-straight hair was piled in a bun at the base of her scalp. The intentional flyaway strands gave her a casual thrown together look, but
Cori knew she had spent at least an hour getting them to all flyaway perfectly.

  The woman smiled at her with a pleasant toothy—but not too toothy—smile. To top it off, the bitch had perfectly straight marshmallow-white teeth. Cori was about to plow the woman into the wall just for that slight.

  Bleached hair and bleached teeth.

  Cori must have been glaring at the woman pretty hard, because she lost her smile as quick as she gave it and turned away.

  Something whirred in her ear, sending her eardrum into convulsions. She howled and pulled away from the tuning fork Belus held. He checked the number on the fork and made an X on his clipboard chart. He rewrote over the same X a couple more times, to get it good and noticeable on the paper.

  He had already made three other marks which she hadn’t noticed him checking. She got the impression that whatever that fork had done to her, it wasn’t good for her ear.

  She looked back at the threesome, but they were gone. She caught sight of a red suit and fishnet stockings stepping through the exit door. Cori caught her eye again. She smiled and waved as she slipped out of sight.

  Cori instinctively waved back. She didn’t even know who the woman was. She had no reason to be so rude or judgmental to her. On the other hand, she was taller than her, skinnier than her, and prettier than her.

  Bitch.

  “Where are they going?” Cori said. Belus smiled and placed one finger on her lips. He mouthed, “Wait.”

  After two quiet tuning forks, she heard the distant hum of the third. “I hear…” She changed her voice to a low volume. “…something.” He did the same to the other ear.

  “How’s that?” Belus said in a normal volume.

  “Much better.” She poked her fingers in her ears and wiggled out an itch that she couldn’t actually scratch. “So what’s with the skirt?”

  Belus held up one finger while he finished marking his chart. He may as well have asked her to hold her breath under water, as anxious as she was to find out the answer. “The cochlear nerve is very sensitive to the time bubble. Which makes sense since it is basically–”

  “That’s very interesting,” she interrupted. “Did you notice that woman in the red skirt suit that was talking to my… our… people?”

  Belus nodded and looked over to where they had been. He must not have realized they had left already. “How was the wizard world?” He gave her a smug smile. He seemed to understand the hellish boredom she had just been through.

  “Belus! Who was that woman?” She spoke slowly so he could understand her.

  “Let me walk you home,” he said as he slipped off his chair.

  “I don’t want to go home. I want to go wherever the other three went.”

  “Sorry kid, that’s a private meeting.” He closed the box and slipped the paperwork into an envelope taped to the top of it.

  “What are they meeting about?”

  “Come on, we’ll talk after you’ve had a drink.” He headed to the door.

  “I don’t want a drink.” She pouted.

  “Then we’ll talk after I have a drink.”

  16

  Without much choice, Cori followed Belus home. She stepped through the front door and left it open for him as she hung up her coat. She looked back and saw him standing patiently just outside the door. “Were you raised in a barn?”

  “You have to invite me in.” Cori stared at him a moment, not sure if he was just being polite to wait for an invitation or literal. “No, seriously, I can’t enter until you invite me.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Like a vampire?”

  “No, not like that.”

  “Oh my God, are you a leprechaun?” she blurted out before establishing some relevancy for the accusation.

  Belus lowered his eyelids, mostly hiding the eye roll he gave her. “No, just a dwarf, but I don’t live here and the house has certain properties that don’t allow unwelcome guests.”

  “I guess goblins don’t count.” Cori paused. “So what do I—”

  “Just say, come in!”

  “Come in.” She threw the words at him like a hot potato from un-mitted hands.

  Belus stepped inside and shut the door. “Burr! Never have and never will get used to being cold to the bone.” He hung up his coat and headed into the living room. “Alright, time for a drink.”

  “I don’t think Danato keeps liquor here,” she said just as Belus slid back a panel of wainscoting in the living room wall to reveal two shelves of liquor and glasses. She smiled at the ingenious hiding spot. “I knew that man had to be a drinker.”

  “Danato doesn’t drink a lot, but he is a connoisseur of fine hard liquors. Not one bottle in this collection is under one hundred dollars, and there is even one that is nearly eight hundred. That’s the one you can’t see. Invisible bottle.” That statement notwithstanding, Cori still tried to see the un-seeable bottle. “I don’t advise partaking in that one. He has been nursing that for 17 years.”

  Belus poured himself a sip of dark rum, while Cori slipped off her shoes and settled in on the couch. “Care to try one?” Belus waved his hand to display the array of bottles to choose from.

  Cori shrugged. “You pick.”

  “Hmm, what does a woman drink when she is rearing for a catfight?” He glanced at her with a playful, almost flirtatious smile.

  She grinned at him. Almost simultaneously, they said, “Tequila!”

  Cori laughed as he poured her a little bit more than a sip of tequila. “I feel bad. I should be serving you. You’re my invited guest.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I used to live here once upon a time. The house just doesn’t remember all that.”

  “Where do you live now? You don’t live in the prison, do you?”

  He handed her the drink and sat down in Danato’s usual chair. He looked miniscule in the big chair. “No, I have a small cottage off the east side of the prison. If the summer ever makes it back around, I’ll have to invite you over for a barbeque.”

  “I’d like that.” Cori sipped her tequila. She didn’t know what good tequila was over bad tequila, but if strength was a measure, it was very good tequila. “The east side? So is that off the old rainbow, near 5th and gold?”

  “What?” he asked, confused by her quip. Cori slapped her knee as she mockingly guffawed at her leprechaun joke. “Oh, funny. No, it’s on the corner of 5th and kiss-my-ass.” He rolled the insult together, making it sound like a real name. Cori laughed for real. “I see someone is getting her sense to humor back. The bubble tends to leave you feeling a little off kilter; luckily you’re on the fun half of the kilter.”

  “Either that or my alcohol is bypassing my liver,” she said. Belus nodded and went back for another sip of rum. “So, what were we talking about before you forced me back to my home to drink really old liquor? Oh, yes, who’s the leggy wish-she-were-blond?”

  “Leggy?” Belus laughed.

  “What’s so funny about that?” Cori asked, offended that she wasn’t getting in on the joke.

  “It’s a short-man joke.” Belus brought back the bottle of tequila and poured her another sip even though she hadn’t finished her first sip. He set the bottle on the coffee table and settled back into Danato’s chair. “All dwarfs are leg men because the tits are too far away to enjoy.”

  Cori barked a laugh to show her appreciation. “I’ve never heard that before, that’s good.”

  “No? How can you tell if a dwarf is looking at your eyes instead of your chest?”

  “How?”

  “He’s not,” Belus said flatly.

  After a slight pause, Cori laughed hysterically. “I had no idea you were so funny,” she said, wiping away a gleeful tear.

  Belus shrugged. “You got to have a sense of humor about yourself otherwise someone will have it for you.” He took a draw of his dark liquor, looking like he enjoyed the flavor much like she might enjoy chocolate cake.

  She smiled and sipped on hers as well. The taste was pungent, but t
he liquor was smooth and warming to her throat. She wasn’t sure she could ever appreciate it the way Belus and Danato did, but she liked being invited to the party. When she couldn’t wait any longer, she started to ask the same question again. “So, about—”

  “Oh, please don’t ask again. I’m just coming to that.” Belus took another sip, giving it a hasty squish before swallowing. He set his drink down and moved his full attention to her. “She is a liaison to the bigwigs on the board. The board of the prison is made up of a dozen or so high-ranking officials from across the world. We are the ‘Area 51’ of Russia.” Belus air-quoted Area 51. “The board doesn’t get together physically any more than they have to. If they meet twice in their own lifetime, that would be too much. So, instead they send out leggy blondes to do their correspondence work.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Sophia, I think she said.”

  “You’ve never met her before?”

  “Liaisons have a high turnover rate. It’s not exactly a full-time job. By the time a need for one arises, the last one has already moved up in the ranks. I have my suspicions that they’re using interns.”

  “Not a very secure practice.”

  “If they are interested in careers in high government, they might be the most secure option. Always choose the upwardly desperate when you want loyalty.”

  “What does she want with Ethan?” Cori sipped on her tequila since it was still in her hand.

  “I’m not entirely sure. She didn’t discuss anything with Danato first. We suspect that it has to do with the two competing resumes we sent to them for you and Ethan.”

  “Will they reject one?”

  “Legally they can’t. Everything that goes on in this place is seedy and underhanded, but believe it or not we have a company handbook that identifies where and when to be seedy.”

  Cori nodded, strumming her fingers on her glass absent-mindedly.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing bad,” he clarified.

  “Why didn’t she need to speak with me?” she asked, trying not to sound jealous.