29: Doing It Live

SASHA POV

Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt.

“Who…dares…” I grumble, fumbling blindly for the source of the infernal buzzing. There it is. Damn phone. It takes more effort than it should to get my eyes open, and then I’m blinking back the early morning sunlight streaming through the windows of Regional Commander Baryshnikov’s beautiful mountaintop home. How long have I been sleeping? Rika and Zoe have been checking on me from time to time, making me eat and stuff, but everything’s been a blur since the support team arrived in Svartheron’s lair and I didn’t have to be intimidating anymore.

My phone says it’s 7am Mountain time, and also that the buzzing was to tell me I have new messages from Drake. Fuck. I haven’t talked to him in a while. He’s probably losing his mind at this point. Shit. I think the last time I texted him was when we touched down in that valley near Svartheron’s cave. At this point, that’s been more than 24 hours ago.

Hey, Nikki. Haven’t heard from you in a while. How’s the drive? Made it to your aunt’s yet?—Drake

That’s the most recent message. No sense reading the others, at this point.

Yes, sorry. Trip got rough on all of us. Been sleeping pretty much whenever I haven’t been driving. We just got to Aunt Talia’s a couples hours ago.—Nikki

That won’t be enough to satisfy his curiosity for long. Am I functional enough to talk on the phone with him? Where are my teammates?

Not like it matters. Rika’s getting alerts anytime he sends or receives a message. She’ll come intervene if she thinks it’s necessary.

Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt.

Damn, he’s replied already. He’d make such a good boyfriend for someone much needier than I am.

Glad you’re safe. How’s Aunt Talia? Do you have things sorted out?—Drake

I sigh heavily, set my phone down, and stretch. This leather sofa is way comfier than the bed I’ve been using in our townhouse back in Columbus. I wonder if Regional Commander Baryshnikov will let me take it with me when we leave? Now that the grogginess is wearing off, I don’t think I’ve actually felt this good in a long time—I’m actually rested. Sure, I can handle a phone call with Drake. What’s the worst that could happen?

There’s too much to put in a text message. I know you’re working right now, but call whenever you get a chance and I’ll explain.—Nikki

I know he won’t give me a ton of time, but he’s working, so I should have at least a few minutes to figure out for myself what’s happened in regards to Aunt Talia and the rest of my imaginary family—

Bzz bzz bzzzzzzz.

I stand corrected. He’s calling me already.

Bzz bzz bzzzzzzz.

Fuck it. I guess I’m doing it live.

Bzz bzz bzz— “Hello?”

“Hey, Nikki. It’s Drake. I actually just got out of a meeting, so I have time now if this is good for you—”

“Yeah, this is fine. As long as I whisper. Angel and Effie are sleeping, and Aunt Talia just stepped into the other room with her phone.”

“Has she agreed to help your parents out?”

“I’m not sure. As soon as she opened the door and saw me she was just like, ’bozhye moy, zat voman really made you drive all ze vay here?’ and then she fussed over us for a little bit, fed us and sent us to take a nap. I tried to explain and she said, ‘Hush, I know. Your mama has been calling me incessantly since Saturday. I have heard everything. Rest and I vill find vay to get you home. You should not have to suffer for your family’s poor judgment.’”

“Well, she’s right. Why did your mom insist that you make the trip if she was just going to keep calling anyway?”

“I don’t understand why my mother does a lot of the things she does. But if I have to guess, she has no concept of just how long a drive it is from Columbus to…wherever, Montana. Or that I would have to drive rather than fly.”

“Madness. Do you know how your brother’s situation stands?”

“He texted me a little bit ago thanking me because bail had been posted. Exactly how that went down, I still don’t know. Aunt Talia’s been on the phone since she told us to take a nap. I’ve only caught bits and pieces.”

“Well, that’s good, at least.”

“Yeah. It should mean that we can come back to Columbus soon. Once we’ve recovered a bit. Hell of a drive.”

“I can only imagine.”

“What have you been up to, since we left?”

“Working a fair bit. We were pulled in for most of Sunday to support customer service and IT on a system update.”

“Oof. That’s rough. I’m sorry.”

“Not as rough as driving across the country overnights—”

“Let’s not. Have you been able to do anything fun?”

“We went to Easton last night, once we got out of work, just to be out of the house for a while.”

Hmmmm. Rika didn’t mention anything about that to me, that I remember. But I’ve been sleeping quite a bit since the fight with Svartheron, which was…in the early hours of yesterday morning.

“That sounds like a good time. How was the people-watching?”

“We saw some interesting characters. There must’ve been something going on with, like, Pokemon Go or something. Definitely saw several clumps of nerdy-looking people on phones near fancy signs and stuff. And we kept seeing this woman at different stores, just giving the sales associates hell for stuff they had no control over.”

“Are you sure it was the same woman?”

“Positive. I refuse to believe we live in a world where multiple woman opt for the same bad, short, bleached-blonde hairstyle. And that temper! She was scarier than the mean-mug body-builder type who kept turning up while we were wandering around.”

“Mean-mug body-builder type?”

“Yeah. Just a huge dude, probably in his 40s but built like a dump truck. He looked like he was having a really bad day.”

Fuck almighty, that sounds a little too much like Anselm for my liking.

“And you saw him more than once?”

“Probably five or six times. None of us believe for a second that there were two middle-aged blond dudes that large with the same beard and pissed-off expression at Easton at the same time. Callum’s convinced he was following us for some reason.”

Fucking hell, Anselm. We HAVE to get back to Columbus.

“That’s…terrifying. Do you have any idea why—”

“We’ve heard that there might be some…specialized law enforcement officers in the area.” He pauses, as if giving me space to ask a clarifying question, but I’m pretty sure I know exactly what he’s talking about. “And Callum thinks this dude’s probably one of them.”

On the money. “But why would that kind of specialized law enforcement have any interest in you?”

“I’m not sure. We know the law, and we keep it, even though some of us find it a little stifling.” Another pause, a heavy sigh. “More than a little stifling, and possibly…in need of review.”

There’s the inclinations our scouts indicated he has, although not worded in such a way as to be considered definitive evidence. Even so, someone like Anselm would consider such inclinations to be heresy worthy of severe punishment, were he to hear of it.

“Be careful.”

“Trust me. No chance of us being anything but careful. We’ve got plenty of work to do. We’ll stay home and stay busy.” He swallows hard. Nervous? “At least…until you get back.”

“Why—”

“I just…thought it’d be nice to meet up again. Once you come back to town. After you’ve rested and stuff. I know it’s a long trip and you’ll have classes to catch up on—”

“I’m sure we can work something out.”

“Great! That’s, uh, great.” I hear one of his friends in the background; can’t make out the words, but there’s a sense of urgency to the friend’s voice. “I’m sorry. Boss has called another meeting. I have to go.”

“Not a problem. You’re technically on the clock. I’ll text you once I know when I’m coming home.”

“Sounds good.”

Click.

Not ten seconds after I’ve hung up, Rika comes into the room.

“Ah, good, you’re alive. We’ve been worried about you,” she remarks. “And Samson’s a bit annoyed that his living room has been commandeered for your convalescence.”

“Any of you could have moved me if I was a problem. I’m not that heavy,” I grumble.

“Teasing, lovely. Great work on that call with Drake. Seems there might be a little something to Anselm’s suspicions about him, after all.”

“Maybe. But not enough to warrant Anselm being in Columbus spying on them in our absence.”

“You think that was the ‘mean-mug body-builder’ he was talking about?”

“I think if I gave the description he gave me to our sketch artist back at HQ, the artist would come back with a portrait of Anselm.”

Rika frowns and shakes her head. “You might have a point. But we’ve gotta stay here at least another day, logically, with the cover story you’ve constructed.”

“Why would he be interfering with our work like this?”

“We’ve already discussed his potential motives.”

“If it’s paranoia driving him, there’s a solid chance he’ll take all three of them out personally while we’re here running out the clock on my imaginary family crisis.”

“Well, what resources could Aunt Talia logically have that could help get us back to Columbus sooner?”

“Connections to the Russian mafia.”

Rika cackles. “I love the way your brain works. Let me go get Zoe and Samson and we’ll iron out the details together.”