Chapter 21

Fighting

      

       "I can't keep doing this with you Brie, it's too much."

       "Oh I agree with that West, but I'm the only one willing to sacrifice what we have now, for what we could have."

       "Says the one person with less to sacrifice."  As soon as he said it I could tell he regretted it.  Better out than in, I told myself, every truth was one step closer to getting us in a better place.

       "You know what we have, I want you to look at me in my eyes and tell me you don't feel it too."  It was all I could get out before I heard the phone ring.  The kitchen was silent, not so much as a breath I could hear echoing above the shrill ring of the phone that was on the island.  Seth reached out a long arm towards it, snagging it and flinching when he read the caller ID. 

       "Yes," he answered the phone, getting up from the table and walking away into the dining room.  "Yes she is, can it wait until what we discussed yesterday?"  That was the last I heard of the conversation as he walked out of earshot.  When I turned my head I noticed Madlen biting her nail, looking concerned and glancing over her shoulder towards her husband at regular intervals. 

       "West," I said, reaching for his arm to turn him around.  He jerked away, his stark white face and white eyes staring at me like I would sprout fangs and attack him.  "Just listen, this is going to be the last time I try like this again.  I can't take it any more so you need to listen." 

       "Don't force this on me Brienne..." West said, unable to finish the thought as his father entered the room again.  He looked to Madlen, nodding his head and sitting down next to her, head in his hands.

       "West, Brienne, would you sit back down please," she said, coughing half way through when her voice came out uneven.  West took up a chair at the end of the table, far enough away from me to be considered in a another postal code.  I sat back down in my own seat, debating against conjuring up some shots before they spoke.  It didn't seem like good news, Madlen looked about ready to pass out herself.

       "That was Nikolai, um Chairman Kristoff.  That's what we wanted to talk to you about Brienne, he called over the weekend to speak with Seth."  Madlen paused, glancing at her husband.  He shook himself out of the daze he seemed to be in, and began speaking.

       "The Chairman would like to speak with you Brienne.  Just an informal meeting to help them pin down Remy, and some of the information you gathered in your encounter."  He didn't add much else, but I knew there was more.  Too much had happened in Venezuela for it to be a simple meeting. 

       "Is he going to lock me up right away, or should I temper down my story?" I asked Seth, knowing somehow he would tell it to me straight.

       "It's tough to say kid, he seems really eager to get you there.  He just tried to get me to bring you in tonight instead of on Friday like we discussed.  I think it isn't good Brienne."  I sighed, reclining in my chair like West had before.  I had so many options, and none of them

       "I knew it was going to happen like this, eventually, but not this soon.  What are my chances of running?"

       "Running?  You can't run." West said, at the same time his brother said roughly the same thing, reminding me he was still in the room.  He had stayed so quiet I hardly noticed him.

       "You want me to give myself up to them?  Let me tell you this, the current chairman, your future father in law, first told me in the hospital that I was lying about Ren raping me. If it wasn't for the fact JP witnessed it, I wouldn't be here. Nikolai told me I was a spy, sent by my father to reenter the magical community so that I could find out a way to strike at them from the inside.  Then he proceeded, against my doctors’ orders, to have a full trial in my hospital room, with on the record testimony from every professional he could drag through the room that I was damaged and deranged.   This is the kind of man who will not simply question me and then let me go, he is going to lock me up.  Isn't that what your fiance said to me last night in the cabin?"  I dared West to answer, staring at him with an intensity I rarely brought out.

       "Raquel told you that last night?" Seth asked, looking more shaken than he had before.

       "With marked happiness," I informed him sourly.  I could still recall her face as she said it.

       "Surely she wouldn't be so cruel."  Madlen said it, with a face that suggested she knew differently.

       "What are my chances if I run?"  I asked it again, with much more pleading in my tone than I wanted.

       "You cannot run."  West said it with a tenacity I wasn't expecting, and something I didn't want to dissect too much.

       "What are my chances Seth," I asked again, trying as hard as I could to block out West.

       "I think they would execute you if you ran Brienne.  They would assume you went back to Remy, not matter what."  I took a deep breath in, letting it out to hang in the air.

       "I won't let him take me Seth, I can't."  It was a warning, and a vow rolled into one.

       "No," West said, getting suddenly to his feet.  The chair he was in fell backwards, the sound like a buckshot against the stillness of the kitchen.  "I won't let you run, or get yourself killed, we can figure something out Brienne."  I shook my head at him.

       "West, I won't let him.  I cannot, I know too much, I am too dangerous to them for it to end well for me.  I'll be damned if I let them kill me, or lock me up for the rest of my life."  Though, I spoke to myself alone, what really would I be missing out on? At least I wouldn't have to witness my mate marry someone else.

       "There has to be some way, I can talk to Rocky," he said, obviously scrambling for an idea.

       "She would be the first to swing the axe," Dante said, interrupting my words that were much the same as his own.  "its best, if you care for Brienne at all, to interact as little with her as possible.  Your future wife cannot know about this, or Brienne's good as dead."

       "Well dad can do something right?  You can talk to him about her?"  It was said with all the hope he could muster, but by the way his voice broke in spots he knew it was a lost cause.

       "I can try son, and I sure as hell will try, but I have to say that it most likely won’t work.  The Chairman is one stubborn man, and add to that what Rocky must be telling him.  Have you done anything to her that could hurt your case?" Seth asked me, and it took me a moment to recount all the shady things I've done recently.

       "No, nothing outright.  But I know things that might make it difficult to let me go."  I looked to Dante, praying against everything he could pick up for me at least a little here.

       "What things?" West asked, looking from me to where I was staring at his brother.

       "It doesn't matter now, in a week it won't make a difference," I told him, hoping he would let it go.  I was at my limit emotionally, which was saying something.

       "What things Dante?" he said, sitting down and staring intently at his brother.

       "West, let it go."

       "Tell me now.  What does she know that I don't?"

       "West, listen to me.  Let.  It.  Go."  I closed my eyes against the coming waves, thinking my life couldn't possibly be more cursed than to have to tell him this now.

       "Tell me!" he roared, causing most of us to flinch back.  Dante looked at me, and I knew what I should do, what he was asking me to do.  It wasn't fair, but sometimes life leaves you little choice.

       “I know that Raquel was never pregnant, at least not by you."  I said it at almost a whisper, as if the softness of my voice could cushion the blow.  West nodded his head and I continued.  "She could never have carried your child West, so either she lied, or she was sleeping with someone else."  I could hear Madlen and Seth take in a deep breath, a sharp intake of air that never released.

       "Because you're my mate?" he asked caustically, bitterness etched into his tone at every syllable.  I winced, hoping I could weather what he was about to throw at me.  "It all comes back to you, doesn't it?  You want me to believe this fantasy now?  We," he said, indicating the table of people around him, "don't believe in these kinds of things.  We are taught logic, reason, and evidence.  Fated mates is a tale that girls tell themselves when a boy dumps them, it's for children Brienne, it's not what people who are sane believe in."

       "Weston," Seth warned, a clear frown marking his brows.

       "I won't stand here and let you lie to yourself, and then take it out on me for bringing it to your door.  You don't want to believe it was all a lie West, I get it.  You're going to be angry, depressed, unbelieving that what you thought about your decisions wasn't true.  You are going to feel shaken, at your deepest level, because a lie that she told made you do something you now regret.  When the anger goes, when the sadness lifts, when you realize what is real, where will I be?  I can either be by your side, or I'll be gone."  I stood then, staring at him, daring him to speak with my eyes.  I just needed something from him, anything to hold onto.  I felt like I was falling, and there wasn't anyone I could see to help me.

       "This is all impossible."  He said it quietly, and it had the feeling of being a personal thought alone.

       "West, I'm offering to stand with you on this.  I cannot, and I will not, continue to fight alone."

       "You want to upend my world and then make me choose?" the chair scraped against the floor again, a harsh sound that mimicked his voice.

       "There is always a choice, and it's the hard ones that yield the best outcomes."  I stood as well, forcing my hands to stay where they were instead of reaching for him like they wanted to.

       "That sounds a whole lot like Remy.  It's hard to not to see what you do and hear what you say, and wonder what is you, and what is him."  I felt like he had slapped me.  I could take rejection and a good amount of pain, but somehow comparing me to my father was a finality in and of itself.  It was separated me from everyone I had ever really cared about, or hoped to care about.

       "You have such power West, and I was sure that if you used even a fraction of that you could see truth when it came to you."

       "Power that you constantly try to manipulate.  How do I know you're not manipulating me right now?"

       "Because I am not Raquel.  If you cannot see that by now, then you are not the man I thought you were."  I absently heard the front door open, shuffling feet and laughter interrupting the sobriety of our confrontation.  It was like being hit by something, the sound was so jarring.

       "Hey!  Let's go guys, Logan and I came to take everyone out for a spin in the new car dad gave me."  Mave said it as he entered the kitchen, but the next words dried up when he took in our faces.  He nervously scanned each face, I'm sure each one worse than last.  "Oh, well...um we can come back later.  Carry on then."  Just as they turned I jumped up, snapping my fingers and throwing my bags over my shoulder as I turned to speak to Madlen and Seth

       "I'm going to go and let you all speak.  I cannot thank you two enough for helping me, taking me in, showing me things that will never leave me.  You can let Marion know the details about the meeting, and I can make my own decisions from there."

       "Brienne," Madlen said, her eyes filling with tears as she stood.  I had a good feeling Madlen would be able to hear me, so I spoke to her and Seth silently.

       'He needs you more than I do.  You have to let me go now, for your own safety.' I told them, both of their expression blank framed in white faces.  I saw Seth nod, and I turned on my heels to leave.  I didn't dare look at West, I knew if I did things would be over for me.  I would never have the strength to leave him if I turned around so I took the easy way out for once and sprinted.  I ran out the door, finding Mave and Logan arguing outside next to a new cherry red Mercedes.  The tears were falling down my face faster than they ever had before, and I could tell it startled them as much as it did me.

       "What's..." Logan started to say but before he could get it out I ran into his arms.  I had never run to someone before, never had taken solace in the arms of another, but I couldn't stop myself from throwing myself at him.  He hugged me back with equal intensity, as if he was scared what would happen if he let go.  The sobs were making it hard for me to talk, and I knew I needed to get moving before someone came out to stop me.

       "Take...me with you?"  I managed to squeak out, and I could feel Logan look over my head to where Mave was standing.  Something passed between the two and before I knew it we were in the car, tires moving smooth and fast over the drive.

       ***

    

       I didn't speak the whole way to their place, which did indeed turn out to be as big as a middle class house, and they didn't ask me much either.  I couldn't take any more, and it was as if they could sense that too, Logan sat in the back of the car with me.  My head was in his lap, and he was threading his fingers through my hair and exchanging nervous glances to Mave through the rear view mirror.

       I stumbled with my bags into the entry way, the dried tears seemed to tighten my skin and it almost hurt to blink against the shining light of the chandelier above me.  It would have looked right at home in any lavish mansion, except for the underwear that hung from its branches, making it seem like some bizarre s****y Christmas wreath.

       "Classy," I said jokingly, but it would have been funnier if I could muster a smile.  As of now all I could do was stare blankly around as my scrambled brain tried to formulate some kind of plan.  I heard a distant ringing, a popular song translated into short techno beats, and the guys exchanged another knowing glance.  When it went silent, another phone rang on its heels and it left little doubt who it was now. 

       "Go ahead, I'm going to take a nap," I said knowing the exhaustion seeping into my bones wouldn't leave me standing for long.  "You can tell him where I am, if he cares."  I sounded dramatic and very girlish at the moment, something quite unlike my normal personality.  Is this was love did to you?  Turned the rational suddenly irrational?  No wonder poets and artists have focused on love, it was dangerous, consuming, and had the ability to obliterate who you once were.  I threw my bag down on the floor and slid into the lush sectional that lined the wall of the living room.  I was staring at the elaborate ceiling which had modern looking crown molding that made intricate square designs that spanned the room. 

       "Brienne," I heard Mave say as he took up a place on the couch near my hip.  I heard Logan talking from the kitchen area, muffled voices that I couldn't and didn't want to distinguish.  "What happened?"  He asked it with a kind voice and matching eyes. 

       "I need something to drink."  I scanned the room, not finding the bar easily like I wanted.  Mave grinned, something secret working behind his eyes.  I saw him close his eyes, and second later a shot appeared in front of all of us.

       "Oh Mave, I'm so proud," I said through tears that were still lingering in my eyes.  If only I was being selfishly sad at the moment and I could praise him like he deserved.

       "I knew you would be, now tell me what has you so upset.  What did West do now?"  He asked it with a light tone, but the way he was being careful with me indicated he knew just how wrong things had gone.

       "Long story or short?"

       "Um, short?" he half asked, looking over his shoulder to where Logan was now standing and shaking his head.  I'm guessing that call went well then.

       "West is my mate, my fated pair, my other half, whatever you feel comfortable calling him.  That means Rocky was never pregnant, or she was cheating on him, both option West does not believe.  Her father wants to bring me and 'question' me, which really means he wants to lock me up because they are scared of me, and what Remy would do if he came looking for me.  All three of those things I just explained to his family.  Now I have a week to decide what to do, which will most likely lead to my death either way."  At this the two guys ran through a list of curses that would have made anyone cringe back.

       "I knew she was lying," Mave said.  "I just knew the whole thing didn't feel right from the start."

       "We tried to warn him, but he was too upset.  Then he went and proposed to her and it was pointless to try and get him to talk to us about it.  He's about as headstrong as anyone I know, especially when he thinks he's doing the right thing." Logan said and it was the first time I saw the coiled aggression under the surface of his normally kind personality.  He looked about ready to rip someone apart.

       Neither of them spoke after that, or offered me empty promises, they just took a spot on the couch, one at my head and one at my feet.  They melted much like I did into the couch cushions and all three of us took a deep breath in and out.

       "How long have you known about what happened over the summer?" Mave asked, breaking us from the silence that I was enjoying. 

       "Dante told me after I fought with my father on the island."

       "Wow."  Logan sounded like it surprised him.  "And you never said anything?  Why not call her out on it?"  It was a good question, one that had run through my head a million times since I talked with Dante about it.

       "Dante didn't react too well when I told him, it made me think about what they all must have gone through, and it was clear everyone was still raw about it. I was trying to get to know West, nothing kills a potential relationship like me bringing that kind of news down on him.  He would have resented me until the end of his life, even if he didn't mean to, it would have happened.  That kind of truth is as chaining as it can be freeing.  I kept holding out for Dante to say it, come around to what I was saying but nothing happened.  Then I had to say it today.  My time is running out, and somehow I know this situation isn't going to end well for me.  I'm looking at threats coming at me from every direction."

       "What did West say?" Mave asked, jaw clenched as he spoke the words out.

       "It wasn't pretty.  He needs time, it's not something he said, but I can tell.  Unfortunately for everyone involved, time is something I don't have, and even if I did have it, he might decide something else for himself."

       "I know he cares about you, I think he's in love with you actually.  That week you were gone he was like a different person, like he wasn't as full of life, it was as if a piece of him was missing and he couldn't find it."  It was almost too hard to hear, I had to bring myself back to reality, if I had any chance of surviving this week.

       "He had sex with her, in the room right next to me last night.  He let me walk out of his house today, after telling me I so much like my father he had a hard time listening to me, and not hearing Remy.  I can wait, I can give him time, but I don't have the time to give him.  So that leaves me little choices, except to concentrate on figuring out how not to get killed by weeks end."  I let that hang in the air, tasting how the truth felt as it left my mouth.  It wasn't dramatic, it wasn't an overstatement, it was just what I was facing.  And as if I didn't know already, my father's voice popped into my ear.  'Face the enemy in front of you Chere, and make it wish it chose easier prey.'