Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

  The next morning both Kara and Alaric showed up at the loft with their things. Everyone else, with an exception of Jonas of course, was waiting together in the kitchen drinking coffee when they knocked. Steve, who had come by to say goodbye to me since he was moving to San Francisco tomorrow morning, got up to answer the door cautiously. He withdrew his gun while moving towards the door. After having heard that Hayden had called my cell, he was worried that Hayden might unexpectedly show up at the door at any time, and he apparently wasn’t taking a chance that this could be him.

  He opened the door to reveal Alaric and a woman I assumed to be Kara. Both pairs of eyes were immediately drawn to the weapon, and they looked at Steve warily. Finally, Alaric extended his hand towards Steve.

  “This is Kara,” he introduced the woman beside him, eyes still fixed on Steve’s gun. “May we come in?” he requested. Steve nodded, stepping aside to allow the pair entrance.

  “I’m Steve,” he introduced himself to Kara. The pair walked in and Steve re-closed the door once they were inside. They walked over to us and I couldn’t help but admire Kara. She walked like a panther on the prowl. Her skin tone was rich and smooth, long black hair gave away her Mexican origins before she even said a word. She smiled widely at Ana, showing off a perfect set of pearl white teeth.

  “You must be Ana,” she said with a noticeable but beautiful Spanish accent.

  “And you must be Kara,” Ana decided with her own bright smile. “This is my husband, Mac,” she added, turning to Mac who was standing next to where Ana sat.

  “Ah yes, Alaric said he’d seen your wedding,” Kara remembered, offering Mac a friendly smile as well.

  “Wait, you were at our wedding? But, I didn’t see you there. How did you know about it even?” Ana wondered with obvious confusion and surprise.

  “I told you I’d been following you,” Alaric shrugged. “And usually I’m only seen when I want to be seen.” He turned to me after his statement.

  “This is Britney Larkin, Jonas’ girlfriend and our ‘charge,’” he informed Kara with mock gravity, his lips twitching slightly as he attempted to keep himself from smiling. “Britt, this is Kara.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Kara told me. “I can see why Jonas would have noticed you and been drawn to you. Your eyes really stand out,” she observed, “in a good way of course,” she hurriedly added. I blushed and thanked her.

  “Yeah, they take a little getting used to,” Steve teased. “They’re unique if nothing else.” I just rolled my eyes and briefly stuck my tongue out at him before returning my attention to Kara.

 “Have you met Jonas yet?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Yes. I was surprised how closely he resembled Alaric,” Kara remarked. “Oh, and he asked us to give you this,” she added, reaching into her messenger bag on her shoulder and withdrawing a perfect rosebud, free of thorns, and handed it to me. I accepted it gratefully, and sniffed the fragrant bud.

  “Thank-you for bringing it,” I told them gratefully.

  “It was our pleasure,” Kara assured me. “Apparently, Jonas has the same romantic nature as his brother, as well as his looks.”

  “They share more than that,” Ana muttered. Kara glanced questioningly at Ana, but Ana just shook her head.

  “Let’s get you two moved in,” Ana said, standing up and moving towards one of their bags, picking it up. “Mac can help you bring in the rest of your things,” she told Alaric. “I think Steve is planning on staying on door guard duty,” she observed, Steve still being standing by the door. He gave a slight nod of confirmation of her statement. “Kara, why don’t I show you your room?”

  “That sounds good to me,” she agreed readily. Ana led the way up the steps carrying one of Kara’s bags, Kara followed behind her, and I brought up the rear with one of Kara’s other bags. Ana took us to the master bedroom that had been her own, and set down the bag. She and Mac had cleared out there things, so the room was empty except for a few decorations Ana was leaving behind and the furniture.

  “This is beautiful,” Kara praised, openly admiring the room’s blues and ocean-like appearance. “Are you sure that you wouldn’t rather have this room Britney? It has to be the best room.”

  I shook my head with a soft smile on my lips. “I’m sure, I prefer my room. It’s smaller, and doesn’t have a private bathroom, but it’s comfortable and has a gorgeous view.”

  The guys brought up another couple of bags and set them in the room before Mac showed Alaric to his own bedroom. After all the bags had been brought in, Mac, Alaric, and Steve joined us in what was now Kara’s room.

  “Well, we hate to go so soon,” Mac began apologetically, “but if we don’t get going, we’ll miss our flight.”

  “Yeah, and I promised Paige I’d get back to San Francisco in time to take her to a late lunch,” Steve mentioned.

  “No problem, we understand,” Alaric assured them. He reached over and hugged Ana tightly. “You better come back here as soon as you get back and you both have time off work,” he instructed her.

  “Don’t worry we will,” she promised. We walked Steve, Ana, and Mac downstairs and to out to their cars to see them off. After a multitude of hugs and goodbyes, they all left, leaving me standing awkwardly between Kara and Alaric, unsure of what would happen next and feeling uncomfortable about having been left with people who were practically strangers. Of course, it hadn’t been like I’d known anyone before either. Though it was hard to believe, at one point, Ana, Mac, and Jonas had all once been strangers too, and not truly that long ago either. I hadn’t even know them a full year yet.

  “Well, we better head back in,” Kara voiced when both cars were out of sight. Alaric agreed, and we all went back inside. I felt like crying, realizing that I had just watched three of my closest friends leave, not knowing when I would see them again. Instead, however, I forced back the tears and offered to help Kara unpack her things, which she gratefully accepted. As we began emptying her bags, I was surprised by the small arsenal she had brought with her.

  “What are these?” I inquired, holding up a couple of heavy bricks of some sort of almost putty-like substance.

  “Be careful, Britney,” she warned me. “That’s C-4 you’re holding,” she informed me.

  “As in…explosives?” I asked with wide eyes, carefully but quickly putting them down.

  “Right,” Kara confirmed for me. “You never know when it could come in handy,” she explained nonchalantly, as if it were not unusual at all to have several bricks of explosives in her bags.

  I watched as she carefully stored two handguns, two rifle-sized guns, what looked like a taser, and the C-4 in the long cabinet that the TV rested on top of. I was thankful that she had at least separated the explosives from the firepower.

  “So, do you and Alaric work together?” I questioned her as I started hanging up some of her clothing in the closet, shocked to see that someone who obviously spent plenty of time with guns and such had so many dresses.

  “We’ve been partners for about four years now,” she informed me.

  “That’s a long time,” I commented, absently wondering just how far their partnership extended. It was plain that Alaric held different standards than his siblings did, especially after his comments about sharing rooms the day before.

  “These dresses are really nice,” I remarked as I hung up a simple yet very attractive sapphire blue noodle strap dress.

  “Thanks,” she replied. She looked at me briefly and gave me a friendly smile. “Feel free to wear them if you want,” she offered. “I think we’re probably almost exactly the same size, so they should all fit you, and I think several would like look rather stunning on you.”

  “I might,” I said, giving the dress another admiring look before hanging it up, though not knowing when I’d ever wear it, especially since I wasn’t seeing Jonas really anymore. “I’ve never been much for dresses to be honest, but maybe I’ll start wearing more,” I told her, remembering how much Jonas had liked the white dress I’d worn when we’d gone to the park together.

  We worked together in companionable silence for a little while after that, hanging up clothes and setting things up. I could tell she was thinking about something, but decided to wait for her to bring it up. As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait long to find out what she was thinking about.

  “Jonas doesn’t seem to like Alaric I noticed,” she finally mentioned with uncertainty. “When we went over to see him he seemed to resent Alaric a bit.”

  “He just isn’t used to him yet,” I assured her, “I’m sure he’ll warm up to him eventually,” I promised encouragingly, hoping it would end up being the case.

  “When Alaric first came back after having talked to you in Seattle, having found out that he might have a little brother, he was so excited,” she confided. “I think he’s hurt that Jonas doesn’t seem to want to accept him.”

  “Well, I’m sure that will change...eventually,” I said uncertainly.

  “I hope so too.”

  After another hour, we had finished getting her settled, and went in search of Alaric. We found him taking care of the last touches in his own room. The items Ana had been storing in the room were now all gone, and it made the room look even bigger than my own room. Its walls were a sandy brown and the carpeting was soft and a blue green that matched the curtains at the window. The bed was the same size as the other two in the loft, and there was a dresser, nightstand, and wall-mounted TV in the room as well.

  “All settled in?” Kara asked him as she walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and turned her face up to his. At 5’ 10” Alaric was a couple inches taller than Jonas and about half a foot taller than Kara.

  “Yup,” he announced, leaning in and kissing her. I looked away, blushing slightly as their kiss deepened, seemingly undisturbed by the fact that I was standing right there. They soon pulled away however and I turned back to them.

  “So, anyone hungry?” inquired Alaric, looking at Kara and then me. “I was thinking we might hit one of the local restaurants in honor of our moving in and getting acquainted. Do you know of any good places, Britt?”

 “There’s a good Australian place that Jonas took me to once,” I told him, not missing the fact that Alaric had readily picked up using the nickname Jonas had gifted me with, whether I had wanted it or not.

  “Sounds good to me,” Kara said eagerly. “Do you think we could call Jonas up and see if he could meet us maybe?” she suggested. Alaric shook his head gravely, though he appeared to wish he could agree.

  “No. They’re watching his every move and, I’m sure, would follow him to the place. If they saw Britt, they’d probably follow us back here and then they’d know where she was staying,” he explained to us. “For now, it’s best if he stays as far away as possible.”

  <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

  “This is great!” Kara exclaimed quietly as we entered the Australian-style restaurant and took in the authentic decor surrounding her. Alaric made a sound of agreement, and I saw Daria come over to greet us excitedly.

  “Britney!” she cried happily. “Where’s Jonas? You two haven’t been here in a long time.”

  “I’m afraid Jonas couldn’t come,” I informed her, a sad note in my voice. “Daria, this is Alaric Matthews and Kara-“

  “Montoya,” Kara supplied.

  “Kara, Alaric, this is Daria Ferris. Her family owns this place,” I introduced.

  Daria’s eyes went wide as she took in Alaric. “Are you related to Jonas and Ana?” she queried.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I’m their brother,” he told her, not appearing to see any harm in telling her.

  “I didn’t know they had a brother!” she exclaimed with surprise at the revelation. “But you do really look like them. Oh, I should probably take you to a table,” she realized, recalling her job. She led us to a quiet table, promising to be back to take our orders soon.

  “So what is authentic Australian cooking?” Kara wondered aloud, beginning to flip through the menu before her.

  I grinned, remembering my own introduction to Australian cooking. “Wallaby stew,” I laughed, picking up my own menu. Alaric gave me a strange look. “Sorry, private joke,” I explained to him. He shook his head and turned to Kara, who was sitting in the booth next to him and across from me.

  “Mostly stuff that you should be familiar with, just maybe prepared a bit differently then you’re used to,” he told his girlfriend. Daria had soon returned, and promptly took all of our orders. I took a long drink of the fresh cranberry juice that Daria had brought me, beginning to feel the same discomfort I had felt watching Ana, Mac, and Steve leave. I was counting on strangers to take care of me now, and I still wasn’t sure quite what to expect from them. As if reading my thoughts, Alaric cleared his throat and then began speaking.

  “We know you don’t know us very well Britney, but we’re glad that you seem willing enough to trust us so fully. We think we have a rather good idea of what’s happened and what’s going on from what we’ve gathered from you and the others,” he told me, a serious expression on his face as well as on Kara’s. “We have promised to do our best to protect you, and I think now might be a good time to discuss some rules and things so that we can.

  “Either I or Kara is to be with you at all times, whether at the loft or on a run,” he started, “We don’t want to suffocate you, but it’s imperative that we keep close to you. However, with us, you can go just about anywhere you’d like to. Does that sound acceptable to you?” he asked, making sure I didn’t have any qualms so far.

  “Sounds fine,” I approved, having already expected as much.

  “Good,” he said with a nod. “Now, Jonas tells us that you’re a good shot and know a share of hand-to-hand fighting, that’s good. However, I don’t think you need to carry the gun he gave you since both Kara and I will always have a gun at the ready if we need to protect you from anyone. So I would suggest just finding a safe place to keep it for now.” He waited for my reaction, and again, I nodded understanding and acceptance. I wasn’t eager to be toting around a gun anyway. It was a relief to be able to leave it behind now.

  “We also want you to tell us about any emails or contact that you receive from your father or anyone connected to him,” Kara said, speaking for the first time since the discussion had begun. “We’ll want to read it and see if they mistakenly offer any clues that may be helpful to us,” she explained.

  “So all we ask is that you never go off on your own, warn us about and show us any emails or messages from your father or Hayden, keep your gun in a safe but easily accessed place in your room, and don’t do anything too reckless,” finished Alaric.

  “Sounds fair enough to me,” I surmised, not having any problems with the new rules. I was sure I could convince one or both of them to go out for runs with me now and then. The only thing I didn’t like was that I wouldn’t be able to go to the park to sit and think by myself as I had been beginning to do again before the mess with Hayden had begun. Still, they were much more lenient than Jonas would be if he were the one laying down the rules.

  “Good. Then everything should go just fine. Or, at least, as fine as can be expected,” he amended.

  A couple minutes later, Daria brought our food, and eating occupied us and stopped all talking for the first several minutes, excepting a few comments about how good the food was. However, Kara began to pick up conversation once again.

  “So, Britney, what are you studying for your degree?” she asked me curiously.

  “Actually, I’m not really sure. I was considering criminal justice,” Alaric coughed a little at the admittance but said nothing. “But I’m not really sure to be honest. I’d just started college classes about a month ago.”

  “Oh, well, I guess all this will give you a little extra time to decide then,” she commented, though she appeared as uneasy about my possible major as Alaric was. “What’s Jonas studying, or has he already graduated?”

  “He’s on his last year,” I told them. “He’s studying computer science.”

  “Really?” asked Alaric suddenly, seeming astonished at the news. “I would never have taken him for a computer geek.”

   “I could hardly believe it myself when I first heard,” I admitted. “But he really is good with computers, and it came in handy when he was looking for people, trying to trace them.”

  “I’m sure,” Kara observed. “I studied psychology myself. It always fascinated me how people act the way they do.”

  “You enjoy deadly accurately understanding and guessing what your prey will do next,” Alaric corrected. She smiled and shrugged, not trying to deny it. I just barely held back a shudder at the thought of Kara hunting someone down like the panther she reminded me of.

  “What did you study?” I quizzed Alaric.

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “I just dabbled mostly,” he told me.

  “He never bothered to finish college,” supplied Kara.

  “Not much point to, I was making more than enough money,” he said in way of justification. “I saw no point in wasting time studying for nothing.”

  “Well, but what if you decided you wanted to start a different line of work?” I argued mildly. To my surprise, he laughed outright at my words.

 “That will never happen, trust me,” he assured me, still amused that I would even think it possible. “I’m more than satisfied with my particular line of work,” he informed me with a quick wink, as he was careful not to admit to his “particular line of work” in this public place.

  I didn’t say anything more about it, and we moved on to other topics for the remainder of our meal. When we were finished, Alaric paid the bill and we left, heading back to the loft. After we’d gotten back, I decided to retreat to my room for a while in order to give Kara and Alaric time alone together.

  Once in my room, I looked around, trying to decide what I should do with myself. I had no homework to worry about anymore, I couldn’t talk to Jonas, or anyone for that matter, and it wasn’t as if I had a lot in the way of hobbies or anything. To my astonishment, Alaric came to my room, after I’d spent several minutes looking around blankly, carrying an acoustic guitar and a couple books.

  “I figured that since you’re pretty much as good as stuck here until further notice, I might offer you something to do,” he explained to me, holding up the guitar.    

  “Have you ever played a guitar before?”

  “No, but I’d like to learn how to,” I told him eagerly.

  “Well, in that case, this is your lucky day,” he commented with a brilliant half-smile that made my heart ache for Jonas. “I’ll teach you a few chords you can practice just to get you started. After you’ve got them down, you can look through these books for others and some songs.” He showed me some basic chords to memorize, transitioning from one to the next quickly and smoothly. Finally, he handed it to me and had me try it for myself. It didn’t take me long to realize just how difficult and even painful it was to hold down the strings.

  “Don’t worry,” said Alaric, seeing me flex my left hand and grimacing somewhat, “your hands will get used to it the more you play and it’ll stop hurting,” he reassured me.

  “How long will that take?” I questioned.

  “Depends on how often you practice. Since you don’t have much of anything else to do, not long,” he reassured me, flashing another grin as he got up to leave. “Keep practicing. You can keep it in here for now so that it’s there whenever you want to play it.” He left for a minute and retrieved a stand that I could keep it on, and then showed me how to tune the guitar by ear.

  “It takes time and practice to get it tuned right,” he let me know after he showed me how to do it. “But you’ll get the hang of it after a few times, and it’s really not very hard to do.”

  “Thanks Alaric,” I said gratefully. “I really appreciate you letting me use your guitar like this and showing me how to play.”

  “No problem,” he declared. “I know it’s going to be hard for you to be stuck here all day. I can only imagine how much freedom you must be used to, living with your father who was probably always too busy to pay much attention to what you did or didn’t do. My uncle was rather good about that, but then again, he was training me, so we spent plenty of time together.”

  “I did have more freedom to do what I wanted,” I agreed. “But Steve used to be my old bodyguard/babysitter,” I laughed. “So I wasn’t completely free to do as I pleased.”

  “Ah, I was wondering where exactly he fit in all of this,” he responded. “So he ended up joining our side then, eh?”

  “Yeah, he was going to take me back to my dad at first, but I managed to somehow convince him not to,” I recounted, remembering the night when Jonas and I had inadvertently run into him after the dance. I had never realized that Steve was the big brother of one of my best friends, Dan, who was now away at college with his girlfriend and my closest friend from high school, Jenelle. It had taken some convincing, but I had finally won him over to Jonas’ and my side, and he’d agreed to help us as much as he could.

  “Well, I need to get back to Kara,” Alaric declared, remembering his girlfriend. “Good luck with that,” he pointed at the guitar I still held, “and practice hard,” he instructed.

  “I will,” I promised as he left, closing my door behind him.

 

 

Reviews

[Zachary_James]

Your writing style is AMAZING!!!!