Cooper (16 page)

"Yeah. I get that. We'll make plans when the trial date's set. Usually they're a few days after captivity. Rothmen's is tomorrow. Both the other mates are going to attend that one."

"Cooper, everything is changing so fast. I'm scared," she admitted, laying her head on his shoulder as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah, I know. Me too. But we have to keep the big picture in mind. You're free of a man who's been brutalising you your whole life. I've got my legs back. And the biggest part of the big picture? We found each other. Everything else is just the ground settling around the new, you know?"

She nodded. "I don't even know if he left anything in his Will for me. Maybe it all goes to mother…Gloria."

"If that's the case, then you have no reason to stay there. You can come to me and become my lab assistant. Or I'll be yours."

She looked at him hopefully. "Yeah. I can't be Guild if I'm penniless, can I? Good. Is it awful to hope he left me nothing and I can be let off following the plan for the Greater Good?"

"You have to remember that no one controls you now. Certainly not the Résistance. At any time, you have the right to walk away. The Grand Plan was for you to be my mate, not a mole in the Guild, remember that. Someone down the food chain from Regis came up with this scheme for you. And it was flawed from the start because you were a girl, not a boy. Remember that, too. No one expects you to save the world all on your own. Be my mate, help me understand the mates' abilities. That's enough of a contribution."

"Have your babies?" she said with an impish chuckle.

"Not if it means sending them to war. You're not a breeder of warriors. You'll never be that."

She hugged his neck tightly for a moment and then rose. "I better go. Colt's right. I need to be somewhere 'expected' when I hear the news. God, this is going to be a nightmare."

"My brave, bright and beautiful mate can handle it all in her stride."

She leaned down and kissed his lips tenderly. "You know, we got our miracles from Marquez, didn't we? I wonder if we should give him credit."

"I'll give credit to anyone, as long as it means keeping you in my life. Be safe, Amy Hays, and know I love you."

She smiled into his eyes that had gone cat. Had hers turned too? "I love you, too. See you soon."

"No, that's absurd," Gloria Hays said with a huff of disgust. "My husband would never have left controlling interest in his businesses to Amy. She's…unstable."

"Be that as it may, your husband's Will is clear. You get the house and a comfortable settlement in line with your pre-nuptial contract. Any children of the union get the rest. The Will was drawn up when you were pregnant with Amy. There has been no amendment since."

"Well then, Maxwell had better come back, so he can address this oversight." She sniffed imperiously, brushing back a golden lock of hair from her perfectly made-up face.

It had been two days since Hays had been abducted, and with no ransom demand, the police were assuming the worst. Though nothing could be finalised without a body, or a seven year time-lapse, Gloria had insisted on consulting her husband's lawyer. The news he gave her was
not
good news for her.

Amy sat quietly in the chair next to the woman who had nurtured her in her womb and given birth to her. Those were the only motherly acts Gloria had carried out in the last twenty-one years. She wanted to feel sorry for the woman, for the loss of her husband and for this slap in the face, but she couldn't. For years her so-called mother had stood by, condoning her husband's acts of brutality. It was as good as inflicting those wounds herself.

"Will the Board accept the Will and allow me to take over my father's role in the company?" Amy asked, keeping her back straight, her head lifted so she conveyed the image of poise and confidence her mother had tried to drill into her.

"I…I'm not sure, Miss Hays. You will need to speak to his CFO, Malcolm Horeman. But I'll be happy to inform him of the contents of the Will if he needs verification."

"Thank you, Mr Hamish. You have been most helpful."

"You have my condolences for your loss." He bowed his head as if bowing to royalty.

Amy wasn't sure what to make of this. There was no way her father would have left a Will that gave her control of his companies. As soon as she was born, or any of the years since he'd decided she was deficient, he would have had a new Will drawn up. Was Hamish a part of the Résistance and made sure all but that first Will disappeared? It made sense. Why leave her in play, having to survive the life she'd been given, if a Will would rob her of her position of power.

"Come along Amy, I will need to pull a few strings to make sure the police are doing everything in their power to get your father back. This is unconscionable. How could he have been so remiss in his obligations to me? To leave his businesses to you? He would have preferred to die intestate before that happened."

"He probably thought he had plenty of time to change it. He was probably so busy that he never got around to it. A Will does bring up the whole issue of mortality, and most people don't like to think about that until they have to."

"Amy, just shut up. What would you know about anything, you stupid girl. Just don't get it into your head that this Will makes an iota of difference. Your father didn't plan for you to have any of his businesses, and I will make sure that remains the case. Until he comes back..."

Amy turned to face her mother in the empty, well furbished hall that led from the lawyer's office to the elevator. "Mother, let me be clear on some things. First, I am not a
stupid girl
. Second, I will not
shut up
. Third, I have every intention of taking control of my father's small empire and becoming a member of the Guild Board. I doubt I will be permitted to rise beyond that position, but that will be enough for me. Deirdre Rothmen is my role model. If she can move with the times, so can I."

Gloria's red lips fell open and she choked on her surprise. Amy never let her gaze falter. She now had the cat gaze as her own. It would serve to intimidate those who would challenge her. Her mother…
Gloria…
would be the first and easiest to put in her place.

"Amy? You're insane if you think I'll let you –"

"And there's another thing. I am not now or have ever been
insane
, as you well know. Most of my trips to the sanatorium were for my benefit, to get me away from you and
dear old dad
. I think I will find, with a little money sprinkled in the right places, that my medical report declares me perfectly mentally competent to assume the mantle of power." Amy grinned, enjoying turning the tables on this immaculate, heartless bitch.

"I like the sound of that,
assume the mantle of power.
You know, you did me a favour letting
dear old dad
beat me. It made me stronger. It made me into a vindictive bitch set on payback. Cross me, Gloria, and you will be the first one I take down."

Did she really sound as scary as the expression on Gloria Hays' face seemed to indicate? Thank god she had the cat backing her up. On her own, she would have been a cowering victim waiting for the next person to decide to abuse her. But not now; and never again.

Amy strode away, leaving Gloria to either follow or find her own way home. The house would belong to Gloria, and she was fine with that. Plans to set herself up in one of Silicon Valley's residential areas, so that she could oversee some of her father's budding internet projects, were already forming in her head. She'd take some of her mother's staff with her. Maybe even employ a certain nurse and her gardener boyfriend, too. It wouldn't hurt to be surrounded entirely by Résistance if she was to do this thing. And being in Silicon Valley would mean she could be close to Cooper.

And above all else, she was determined to have Cooper in her life.

They fought their way through the reporters at the gate. Their numbers had been slowly dwindling in the past few days with no fresh news to report. Gloria, who had caught up with her and taken the limo with her, shuddered in relief as the gates closed behind them. Not a word had passed between the two women the whole ride home.

Once inside, Amy changed into jeans and sweater. Her cat-phone, as she jokingly thought to call the burner the Sons had given her, suddenly buzzed and she scrambled to answer it. Since their time in the hotel she and Cooper had been forced to make do with a few daily phone calls. She'd spoken to him before going with Gloria to the attorney and it was likely he was keen to know what the outcomes of that were. If Hays had left her nothing she could have stepped away from the Guild and become his mate, full-time.

But that wasn't going to happen now. Whoever had placed her here, doctored her blood tests, and kept an out-dated Will legal, had wanted her to stay in play. For all the people in her life who had risked so much to support her, she would play the part created for her.

"Amy, you okay?" Cooper's anxious voice soothed her jangled nerves.

"Yes. The visit to the lawyer was surprising."

"How?"

"I'm the main beneficiary of my father's Will, drawn up before I was born."

The silence on the other end of the phone was telling. After a moment, Cooper cleared his throat and asked for clarification.

"Someone obviously wants me in the Guild, playing my part. Anyone who could orchestrate my birth and change my DNA results could do this."

"Yeah. Sometimes I wish the Résistance was less disjointed. I know it's for their safety, but the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing most of the time. We can't make a concerted move on the Guild when everything we do is piecemeal." His disgust and frustration came down the line like a wave.

Knowing that wasn't really what worried him, she tried to reassure him "I can do this Coop. I stood up to Gloria after seeing the attorney and she was terrified of me. I know I can play this role assigned me."

"But you shouldn't have to. Being a chess piece in this master-plan is just shit, and you know it."

"Aren't you just a chess-piece, too? Aren't all of the Sons, all of the Résistance? It's not like our cause is unimportant. It's the most important cause that has ever been. The buck stops here, like it or not. The buck stops with us." Her voice had faded out into little more than a squeak by the end, as her resolve faltered.

"His trial is tomorrow. You still want to be there?" Coop's voice was stiff with condemnation.

"Yes. Will I meet you at Macca's?"

"Yeah. I'd normally go with a contingent of Sons. We usually like to present as a force, so that the accused can see what they created. But I'll go with you instead. Get Miguel to drop you at ten tomorrow morning. Make sure he loses any tails."

She gave a little laugh. "He's very effective, our Miguel. To think I never even knew he was Special Forces before a few days ago. I should've known."

"That's the point. Covert work requires that a target
doesn't
know. He's good at his job."

"Yes, I guess he is. You all are. And so will I be."

"See you tomorrow morning, Amy. Maybe you'll change your mind after seeing Hays again. He's a lightweight, as far as the Guild is concerned. You know that, don't you?"

"I am only too aware what I'm stepping into. I've been surrounded by these people my whole life. I know what monsters they all are."

She heard him sigh at the other end of the line. He hated what she was contemplating doing. And she understood, she really did. But she couldn't let him dissuade her.

Late that night she was wandering the corridors, restless and yet oddly light. She no longer feared running into Hays when she left the sanctuary of her room. The house, except for Gloria's presence, was a safe domain.

But as she headed past Gloria's room on the way down to the kitchen, her keen ears picked up a strident female voice. Curious, she edged close to the door and listened. It was a bit of a struggle, but she managed to hear everything the male voice on the other end of the line was saying to Gloria.

"Calm yourself," the unemotional male voice said. "You are not helping. The Will can easily be fixed. And your daughter might be flexing her claws for the first time in her short life, but she is no match for you. Remember who you are, Gloria. Remember whose blood runs in your veins. You allowed that bastard Hays to undermine you. You know as well as I do that there is nothing tainting our blood. If Amy is imperfect, then it comes from his line, not yours."

"But father, you don't understand. Today I saw a side of Amy I've never seen before. I think she's more Guild than any of us ever thought. She was formidable. I think that is the only word I can use to describe her. And I think she plans to take what is ours. If I'd had a son…"

"Not again with your childish mewling. You had no son, you had a daughter. Just as I only had a daughter. I am starting to wonder if we have put too much value on sons, and not given daughters their due. Certainly, you are all emotionally unstable. But some of you overcome that weakness. Rothmen's wife, for instance. She has stepped up magnificently. What if you did too?"

"Me, father? But…But I could never. I wouldn't have the first clue…"

"My fault, of course. I should have trained you, instead of throwing you into a marriage with that imbecile and expect you to produce a grandson for me. I undervalued you, my dear." The voice was insidious as a snake's hiss. If the devil had a voice, he'd sound just like this.

"Really? That's…That's good to know. But Amy. What about Amy?"

"What do
you
want to do about the girl?" he asked her, empowering Gloria in a way she had likely never been empowered before.

"If Hays can be taken, then so can she. I want her out of the way so that I get everything.
We
get everything, father." Gloria sounded so much like a little girl trying to win favour with her god-like father that Amy almost felt sorry for her.

Except that she was plotting Amy's death.

"Then if that is what you want, my dear, that is what you shall have. Not yet. Not until the dust settles a little. But soon. Before she gets a chance to flex her meagre muscles."

"Oh, thank you, father. I knew I could count on you. She's unhinged. All those years of heavy-handed punishment have unhinged her. But she's frighteningly coherent and focused. I hardly recognised her today."

"Yes, yes, you've made your point. Go to bed now, Gloria. Who knows, Hays might turn up unharmed. Or better yet, as a badly beaten vegetable. You would, of course, then step in as his legal guardian."

"Do you think…?" Gloria's voice sounded childishly hopeful.

"No. I actually think he's as dead as so many others of the upper Guild are who have gone missing in the last six years. There is something rotten in our ranks. Or should I say
someone
. I have an idea who, but as yet I have no evidence connecting him to the missing members. If you were twenty years younger I might marry you to this man I suspect. But unfortunately you are past your prime, my dear."

"I'm still a beautiful woman," she objected sulkily.

"You are an aging matron. Your only value now is your blood. You are, unfortunately, my only legacy."

"I thought you said you hadn't given daughters their due."

"So I did, how very perceptive of you. My default thinking is still along old lines. You must remind me to start following the new. Goodnight, daughter. All will be well, I promise you."