Falcon (Kindred, #5)

EIGHT-1

EIGHT

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“You made an impression.”

Devon had her head turned down against a towel and was trying to shake water from her ear when she came out of her bathroom the next morning to find Bess standing at the end of her bed. “Have you guys ever thought about knocking?” Devon asked.

Bess made a dismissive hiss. “You don’t have anything Swallow and I haven’t seen before and Wren is a doctor, he doesn’t care about n***d bodies.”

“And Raven?” she asked, hooking the hand towel around her neck.

Devon had been using it to dry her hair and had a bath towel wrapped around her body. It wasn’t likely that she’d be walking around n***d anywhere, but that wasn’t exactly her point.

“He wouldn’t let it distract him,” Bess said and propped a hip on the end of the bed. “What about Falcon? Are you ok with him walking in on you n***d?”

“Falcon?” she asked, that was a name she hadn’t heard yet.

“Zave,” Bess said. “He told us that you know his real name.”

If Devon had been paying attention, she might have heard the twinge of innuendo in Bess’ voice. All Devon could think about was the word “s*x” on his lips. She hadn’t handled that murmur. If he walked in and saw her nude, she’d probably burst into flames.

Zave handled himself with such composure. But maybe walking in on her while she was n***d and damp from the shower, he might not find it so easy to hold himself aloof. And that kiss, if it was just the slightest hint of what he was capable of doing to a woman, Devon wouldn’t stand a chance if he made a serious advance on her.

“I caught him spying on me,” Devon said when she caught the suspicious glint in Bess’ gaze.

“When you were sneaking out at two in the morning?” Bess said. “This estate is his, he can wander where he likes, when he likes.”

She wouldn’t suggest otherwise. “Whatever he was doing, I’m glad that I got to meet him.”

“Sounds like you did more than that,” Bess said.

Squirming at the scrutiny of this curious woman, Devon didn’t like the idea that Zave had shared the news of their kiss. She believed some things should stay private, and their impromptu first kiss lost some of its magic now that she knew everyone in the building was aware of it.

“Why do you say that?” Devon asked. Although she kept her head up, she let her eyes drift down.

“Because of this,” Bess said.

In her peripheral vision, she saw Bess hold something up and had to see what it was. The black device was lit and a shot of energy made Devon leap forward. “A cell phone!”

“It’s encoded to call only one number, and after the call, I have to take it back,” Bess said. “We need you, and Zave wants your trust... Call your brother. I’ll come back when you’re done.”

Bess put the phone on the bed and left with a smile on her face. Devon opened the dresser drawer to look for the dress she’d put in there last night. Except it wasn’t there. The drawers were all empty, and she spun on the spot desperate for something to wear. She couldn’t exist in the towels she’d found stacked in the bathroom.

That was when she saw it, the door in the corner—which had previously been locked—was open. Dashing over, she poked her head past the frame and was stunned again. Rows and rows of brand new clothes hung on the rails of the walk-in closet. Grabbing open the drawers, she found underwear, accessories, makeup, everything a woman could want.

Had this been here all the time or had Zave set it up after their kiss? She didn’t want to be seduced by the material, but it had been a long time since she’d had choices and that was what thrilled her, not the high-quality of the garments or the sparkle of the jewelry, but the idea that she could make her own decision about what she could put on her body.

The various styles made her head spin, and it took her some time to remember how to be decisive or even which of the clothes were her type. Trying on a few things, she got to check out her reflection in the vast mirror on the far wall, and although she didn’t usually wear much, she put on some makeup just because she could. She got so caught up in the enjoyment of playing with these frivolous things that she almost forgot about her brother.

Talking to him could lead to so many answers, so as soon as she tied her hair back, she went back to the bedroom, climbed onto the bed and pressed call on the device that was displaying her brother’s number.

“Who is this?” came a stern voice on the other end of the line.

Suppressing the urge to weep, she yelped, she’d never been so pleased to hear her brother’s voice in all her life. Cursing all those times in their childhood when she’d fought with him, run away from him, or made his life hell, Devon never wanted to be away from his voice for this long again.

“Rig!” she said, meaning the word to sound strong, but it came out as more of a whimper.

“Jesus, f**k! Von! Rave said you were calling ten minutes ago, where the f**k have you been?”

She hadn’t been told that he was sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. “I’m sorry,” she said.

The men were in contact. That was encouraging. It suggested more than a loose association and hinted at mutual respect. Much as she didn’t like to be discussed behind her back, her brother cared about her and if these people were willing to be forthcoming with him then they would rise in her estimations.

“Sorry? What the fuck.”

Drawing up her knees, she hugged them with one arm. “I’m sorry, I got carried away with something else. Oh, God, it’s so good to hear your voice.”

“Do you know what the f**k I’ve been through? What the f**k happened to you? I was so f*****g worried!”

His urgency and panic betrayed that he had been through an ordeal of his own, maybe not as horrific as hers, but he’d felt her absence. “I’m ok now. I’m safe.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, well, I know that,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

There was no concern in his voice, no worry, all she sensed was relief “You know where I am? Can you come and see me? I’d feel better if you were here.”

“I can’t come there.”

If they were in such a remote place, that made sense because her brother couldn’t fly a plane or sail a boat. Also, if they were in the Pacific Northwest, her brother was all the way back in New York, which was too far for a quick daytrip.

“I’ll come to you,” she said. “I’ll find a way. I’ve been trying to get them to let me go, but they just won’t and—”

“Rave says you can help,” Rig said. “That true?”

Her exuberance reduced at his new neutrality. “Maybe.”

“Don’t be in any rush to leave there. It’s the safest f*****g place on earth.”

“So you do know where I am?” Because she would feel better if he had her exact GPS coordinates as opposed to a vague inkling that she was still on Planet Earth.

“No, not really, just that you’re with the Kindred, and when Rave’s around—”

“I’m not at Rave’s house,” she said, assuming he meant Raven. “I mean he is here, or he was yesterday, but—”

“He’s still there,” Rig said. “I know you’re confused. I know this is messed up and you’ve been through some s**t. If I could bring you here and keep you safe, I’d do it. When it’s time, I will, I’ll figure something out for you. But those guys saw me good, they got me set up, and we’ve seen some s**t together.”

“You trust them?” she asked the most important question.

“Yes, I trust them, Von. I wouldn’t be telling you to stay there if I didn’t.”

Her brother was a shady character who surrounded himself with men she’d cross the street to avoid. But when it came to her, his heart was pure. “Are you trying to keep me safe, or are you involved in something you don’t want me to see?” she asked.

“I’m always involved in s**t I don’t want you to see,” he said as if it was a joke, but there was too much truth in the statement for her to laugh. “When you went missing, Von, I was so worried, and I couldn’t do s**t about it. There’s only one guy you call when you need a desperate situation sorted, you know? Tracking people down isn’t his gig, but, like I said, we’ve seen some s**t together. Those guys you’re out there with, they’re the real good guys, better than me that’s for f*****g sure. And they’ve got skills, proper skills to keep you safe.”

Her eyes were wet, in part because she wanted to be with him, as it would make them both feel better. Also because he was sacrificing his own ego by admitting he didn’t have the ability to keep her as safe as these people did.

Rig had a healthy ego, so healthy that his pigheaded confidence often got him into trouble. Apparently, he drew the line at taking risks with her safety.

“They kept me locked up,” she said. “For days after I got here, weeks maybe, I don’t know.”

“Rave told me when they had you, told me you were sick. They’ve got a guy, he patched you up, right? Rave kept me in the loop.”

All along her brother had known exactly what was happening to her, and she’d been oblivious to his involvement. “Why didn’t you come? Why didn’t you call? If I had known you were friends with these people...”

“Because they like to keep their s**t low-key. They did this for me as a personal favor. Rave said he had a guy already on the inside, didn’t surprise me, Rave always knows somebody who knows somebody, you get me? But you were never supposed to see their faces, never supposed to know who they were, that was the deal. They got you out, they got you better, and they got you back to me. You were never supposed to know f**k all about them.”

“But that changed when they found out I had information?” she asked, not sure if she should be grateful or offended. “So now that they can use me...”

“You can be pissed if you want,” Rig said. “Put up all those barriers, hide behind that meek little personality of yours, be the gal who can’t stand up for herself.”

With a growling expression, she pushed back against her brother’s impatient taunting. “I’m not meek,” she asserted.

“Sure you are, ninety percent of the time, and then it’s like you bottle it all up and it blasts out in one short burst of rage or sarcasm. And then it’s as if you’re so mortified by the fact you showed an emotion, that you actually reacted to something, that you shut the f**k up for like six weeks. Are you that scared of losing people, Von, that you keep your mouth shut and just hope to blend in?”

“Please don’t,” she said, swiping tears from her cheeks. “I really don’t need to hear about my flaws.”

“It’s not a flaw, it’s who you are and I love you, sis. It’s better than my personality. I just keep spouting s**t, blowing hot air. I make a lot of noise, but don’t say shit.”

She laughed, the only time he was self-deprecating was in front of her and when there was no one within earshot. “I am grateful for what they did. If they hadn’t gotten me out...”

And that was the thought she’d tried not to confront because for whatever reason, Zave was there, he made the purchase, and brought her to his cloistered home. That act had saved her life, had saved her from a horrific fate.

She’d thought about the women who’d been in those metal boxes with her, terrified of the fates that laid in their futures. Those women were tied to beds and floors, or maybe they were chained to walls or trees, God only knew where they were and what they were enduring. They were being subjected to appalling treatment, she knew it because the type of men who would buy another human being weren’t the type who would have a strict moral code. Except Zave. Except the Kindred.

It would be a nice fairy tale fantasy to believe that every woman was rescued by their own knight in shining armor and that they were all staying in houses like this on remote islands, discovering closets full of clothes, bathing in luxurious bathrooms, and being brought food and clean water while being treated like a decent human being.