Chapter 76
The thought of having to sneak in and free the prisoners before they could be executed made Jo’s head hurt. She could only handle one catastrophe at a time, and presently, the one at hand had just become even more complicated with Cassidy’s amnesia. She rubbed her temples, thinking that now might be a good time to take a nap, not that sleep would come easy.
Instead of moving from the couch, she studied him for a moment and then found herself asking the question she knew he would never answer. “What happened to your family?”
He stared at her blankly for several seconds, not even blinking. It was the sort of stare that made her think his next move might be to crush the glass in his fist or throw it at her. Instead, after he regained control of himself, he slowly turned to look out the window, not saying a word.
She wasn’t surprised that he said nothing. She didn’t expect an answer. She probably didn’t deserve an answer, even though she’d let slip more about her family to him than she wished she had.
“I don’t talk about that.”
It was a civil answer, an acknowledgment of the question, nothing abrasive about it. Just a statement of the fact. Something had, in fact, happened to his family, but he never repeated it to anyone. That was just the way of it. Asking about it again would get the same result.
She could respect that. After all, she hated talking about what happened to her mom and only did so if someone dragged it out of her. Zane was probably the only person she’d ever retold the entire story to in a calm, non-confrontational fashion, with only tears of sorrow and not of anger at being provoked. Her reason for asking Ryker about his own family stemmed more from a place of wanting to know if he could help them more than morbid curiosity meant to bring up memories he’d rather have washed from his mind like every single thought her aunt had ever had up until a few hours ago.
“What about your work background?” Jo asked, hoping she wasn’t pushing it, hoping the civil wouldn’t quickly become the uncivil. There’d been a time when she’d been able to talk to Ryker without completely pissing him off or losing her cool herself, and she’d just as soon return to it. She had enough angry people on the other side of the battlefield to worry about without having one in her own camp. “Are you really KGB?”
He shrugged, not seeming to be offended by this question. “KGB, CIA, I am what I need to be when I need to be it.”
“I have no idea what that means,” she said, half laughing.
“I think you do,” he replied, finishing off his drink. She wouldn’t have minded having one herself, but then it was early in the morning, and she knew it would do nothing for her anyway.
Other questions came to mind, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t answer any of them, and a flurry of messages on her IAC told her something was going on at the front of the house. With a sigh and a smoothing of her braid, Jo pulled herself to her feet. “Duty calls,” she said, wishing she could just turn them all off for a few hours. But if they didn’t get her through her eye computer, they’d just come and find her and physically drag her back.
“Good luck,” Ryker said, an air of defeat settling around him like the dust on the bookshelves that probably hadn’t been touched for at least a couple of years.
“Thanks.” Jo gave him a meager smile and then headed off to the front of the house.
Everyone was in a flutter as they took positions by windows, weapons in hands, a nervous energy radiating through the main living room and the entryway. “What’s going on?” Jo asked Mikali, who was standing near the front door with a Glock in his hand.
“A strange car just pulled up out front. We don’t know who it is.”
She turned to scan the room for Lucas and found him standing over by one of the windows, not armed but staring out, the look on his face telling her that he didn’t know who it was either.
Jo felt out toward the vehicle, thinking, if it were full of Vampires, she should know it. But she didn’t get the sense that it was full of anything, and only a tiny fluttering in the bottom of her stomach registered the hint of a threat. Telling everyone to stand down seemed the practical thing to do, but she didn’t. Instead, she moved to the front door, pulling it open.
A white SUV sat directly in front of the walkway to the door. The driver’s side door opened, and one person got out. Dressed in a white coat, with a white, wide-brimmed hat on, she came around the end of the vehicle and up the steps, her white-blonde hair blowing out around her. The vague idea that, if an angel could drive, this might be how she would arrive, entered Jo’s mind as she stepped out onto the porch. “Can I help you?”
“Well, I’ll be! Ain’t you the spittin’ image of your mama!” the woman cooed, a huge smile on her pretty face.
“Excuse me?” Jo asked, wanting to place that face somewhere in her memories, fighting against her own limitations to find that smile in the back of her mind. Where had she seen this person before?
“You’re Jo, ain’t you?” she asked, folding her arms. “Jo McReynolds?”
“Yeah. And you are--”
“I knew it! I just knew it! Well, I reckon that must be your brother. Hi there, Cadon!”
Jo hadn’t even noticed her brother sneaking up behind her. She moved aside so he could come out of the house. “Who the hell are you?” he asked, as if her chipper attitude and the fact that she was dressed oddly gave him the right to judge her.
She just laughed. “I had a feelin’ y’all was in trouble. I wasn’t gonna do nothin’ about it, figured I’d already done my part. But damn it, when I realized Cass needed me, well... . Here I am.”
“Cass?” Jo echoed. For the first time, she looked directly into the girl’s eyes and realized one of them was blue and the other silver. “Are you….”
An ungloved hand was extended across the porch, and Jo took it as the woman proclaimed. “I’m the gal y’all have been lookin’ for. Heather McBride. At your service.”
Jo’s mouth fell open as Cadon said the phrase that would’ve come out of her mouth if she’d been capable of speaking. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
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