Days of Redemption (The Firsts Book 6)

        DAYS

         OF

  REDEMPTION

      
C.L. QUINN

           
 
Published February 2014

                          
       Blak Kat Publishing

This book is dedicated to the wonderful readers who have made this series so successful
. I promise many more stories to come.

                           Charlie Quinn

One

T
hat damned backseat was stuck again.  Every time she tried to lower the seat to carry her floral arrangements in the ancient hatchback, Lauren broke a nail and her temper skyrocketed.  If she could just pull out a little more profit, she could buy a newer used car.  Or a van. 
God,
that would be nice!
  But that wasn’t happening anytime soon.  She struggled with the defective latch and finally got the seat to drop, carrying herself with it.

Nice. 
Elegant
.  Her ass in the air and her face in the floor.  Was this the right life for a woman with a doctorate?

Hardly.
But it was her best choice for now.  Lauren felt like she was a walking advertisement for living with the consequences of your choices.  And it was true.  She was responsible for the nasty turn her life had taken.

It still sucked.

She finally got the ten orders loaded successfully, groaned in relief, and turned the key.
Dead
.  No response at all.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”  It struck her
that lately the phrase could be her theme song.

Tired of fighting with the car, she picked up her old flip phone and dialed a number.  A quick answer brought a sigh of relief.

“Merry, thank God!  Can you come and get my latest delivery?  This car refuses to do anything I want it to do.  It’s like dealing with a jackass.  You can’t get it to go when you want it to go, and you can’t get it to stop when you want it to stop.  Thank you.  I’ll give you an afternoon off with pay anytime you’d like.”

Lauren left the ornery car abandoned in the tiny parking area behind her shop and headed back inside. 
She hung the useless key on a hook and looked around her floral shop.  Being clever, she had been able to decorate her showroom just as she wanted to with the minimal funds she had at the time.  And while she enjoyed being surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants, it wasn’t what she should be doing.  It wasn’t what she was trained to do.  But she couldn’t do what she was trained for anymore, not from her self-imposed exile.  No. 
She
couldn’t let them find her
.

The past few years of Lauren’s life had taken a turn
she could never have imagined.  No one could have.  And because of that turn, she was a hunted woman.   So, like people in witness protection, she couldn’t do anything that might flag her location to her enemies, like working a decent job in her chosen field for decent pay. 
Hell no, nothing like that.

Waiting for Merry to show u
p, Lauren began a new arrangement and wondered if she would ever be free to live her life again without worry.  Since she’d come here last year, no one had bothered her.  Her plan had been to lose herself in the underbelly of a large city, and it seemed to have worked.  Here in Chicago, no one knew or cared who she was.  She was the ‘nobody’ she’d needed to become.

And s
he’d changed her appearance quite dramatically, she’d had to. They would be searching for a tall, very thin blonde woman, and she didn’t look anything like that anymore.   With her hair now black, and the added weight, her appearance was so different she knew it would be difficult for them to know it was her, even if they looked right at her.  The concern was real, since these days, video surveillance and cameras were on nearly every street corner.

Lauren hoped she could remain invisible long enough for them to give up searching for her.  But since she’d betrayed their trust, she was afraid that might never happen.

They had needed to be betrayed! 

The research facility she’d worked with had kept supernatural species captive for study, which, tragically, she’d found, included torture and inhumane projects. 

Lauren had been satisfied and well-paid in the job she’d landed right out of college, where she’d been working in genetic research for a large pharmaceutical company in the U.S.  But when the representatives from the SRS showed her evidence of the most incredible thing she’d ever seen…a virus that transformed a human being into something completely different genetically, her professional curiosity had shot into overdrive.

Project V’s directors had convinced her that the vampires they kept and studied were dangerous, monsters that killed humans
and lived on their blood.  That their mission was noble.  It wasn’t true.  She had realized that she’d been misled when she found that the vampires weren’t evil, or dead, or the undead that they were portrayed as in movies, and by the SRS.

The SRS.
  The Supernatural Research Society.   The title made them sound so official and proper.  In reality, the council was a collection of overfunded bullies who sought to rule the world using powers obtained from the imprisoned subjects.

Lauren pulled a dozen yellow roses from the freezer and began a bouquet for a young bride who needed it and twenty boutonnieres by Saturday for her wedding.   As she selected ribbons and greenery, her mind w
andered back to why she was here.

Vampires.
  Only they weren’t her problem.  No, she was in danger from the humans who’d tortured them, who ran the secret lab facility that she’d help destroy.

So, yeah, she was fucked.  But she’d do it all over again. 
Helping to rescue the subjects and close that lab had been the right thing to do.  The
least
she could do.

So for the past year, Lauren had built a small life for herself as an obscure flower shop owner in the low-rent part of Chicago, where she
eeked out a day-to-day living.

The SRS was still active…she knew it was.

Although she had no quarrel with the vampires, that world was so different than hers, she was happy to be outside of it for good.  Too much power, too much passion,
too much everything
, in their world.  Not to mention, she was merely human, and didn’t belong there anyway.

She tried to be satisfied with
her average life tucked away safely just outside the downtown area, her little flower shop,
Floral Magic
, a tiny oasis on a rough street.  She hoped to be able to afford a small greenhouse sometime next year.  But the car would have to come first.

The bouquet was shaping up very nicely.  Lauren had to admit she had a skill for this.  The bride w
as a sweet little blonde who would be lovely in white and yellow, and her groom, a handsome red-headed attorney, was a lucky guy. 

Lauren stopped, a rose suspended in her hand as she
caught her image in the mirror behind the counter.   There wouldn’t be a wedding in her own future.   At thirty-four, she’d always thought she’d be married with a kid or two by now.  Just one more life expectation that got lost in the process of living.

She was happy with her appearance now, at least. 
An added thirty pounds had changed her body completely.  The asshole director of the vampire project she’d worked on, a creep named Joubert, had called her Olive Oyl.  Behind her back, but she’d been aware of it.  And yes, she used to be outrageously thin.  Lauren remembered the pinched and sharp features of her face back then, but, as a scientist, fascinated with her work and horrified by it at the same time, the combination of obsession and stress had killed any interest in food.  For a long time she’d paid no attention to her appearance.  She’d considered it irrelevant.

Now, there was time to think about those little things
, time to find enjoyment in food again.   To practice with mascara and eyeliner.  And vibrant lip glosses!

Much longer than it h
ad ever been, her hair was now glossy black, thanks to a bottle, more dramatic than the brassy dishwater-blonde it had always been.  It was fuller and softer too, the benefit of good nutrition. 

The ex
tra pounds rounded her figure, creating sexy curves. 
And, what the hell...she had
breasts!
Her face had filled out, too, with feminine curves that highlighted her eyes and lips.  Now, her extra height made her stately and striking, instead of ungainly and awkward.

She smiled more than she used to.  Was she happ
ier now?  Somewhat, maybe, except for her lost career and limited options.  However, since the alternative would be death, she wasn’t complaining.

Lauren looked up as Merry arrived in front of the store with a screech.  God, she wished that girl would slow down, for her own safety as well as everyone in her path.  But she’d tried to convince her and all she got for her efforts was the eye-roll usually reserved for parents. 

No point trying to keep a hurricane-force to a slow crawl.  Merry was Merry.  And Lauren loved her.  The twenty-year old girl looked like a leftover from the 1970’s Goth period, but she had the softest heart.  The kid took in six kittens and their mother that the owner of the smoke shop next door had found in a dumpster.  Kohl-lined eyes with a gentle soul…that was Merry.

The tiny string of tinkling bells
that hung in the path of the front door of
Floral Magic
swung wildly as Merry stormed through the entrance.

“Hey, Queen!”

Lauren had no idea why she called her that, she just did.

“Hey, Merry X.”
  Lauren’s nickname for Merry
did
have to do with modern shortcut for Christmas, but Merry liked the fact that the X made her sound mysterious.  Proving she wasn’t as cool as Merry, Lauren wanted to cut those long bangs that always fell over Merry’s pale green eyes.

“You
gonna get rid of that piece of shit now?  Seriously, man, it’s gonna strand you somewhere you don’t want to be stranded someday.”

“Yes, I am.  In another few weeks, I can put a down payment on something manufactured this decade.  Until then, Billy
will take a look at it and see if he can get it running for just a little longer.”

“He’s a good kid.”

Lauren smiled. 
Kid
.  The young man who delivered Lauren’s supplies was actually a few years older than Merry.  But Merry
did
seem to have an older soul.

“Thank you, my angel, for coming to my rescue.  I promise
, I will reward you handsomely.  The deliveries are in my car out back. I’ll help you carry them around.”

It took three trips to bring all the arrangements from the small parking area behind the store out to
Merry’s car.

As soon as the last one was loaded, Merry blew Lauren a kiss and peeled away from the curb.

With a shake of her head, Lauren walked back through the shop and stepped outside to lock up her immobile car, although why she bothered she did not know.  A shadow moved towards the back of the alley and she glanced down it to the series of dumpsters that lined the brick wall, but when she didn’t see anything, she hurried back inside and locked the rear entrance.  Three more arrangements yet to finish tonight and she could go home to her tiny apartment.

After he heard the lock click on the door, a nicely dressed man stepped out from behind the nearest rubbish bin.  He knew she wouldn’t see him now since the back of the store had no windows.  His sharp eyes missed nothing as he scanned the alley to ensure he was uncompromised.  No one was around.  No witnesses.

Slipping his cell phone out of his pocket, he hit a button and waited.  A moment late
r he smiled as he spoke into the small black box.

“Yeah, it’s her. 
Sure, it took a while, but she doesn’t look anything like the fucking picture you gave me.  I had to double back on everything to verify it.  But there’s no doubt.  It
is
the woman you wanted me to find.”  He paused as he listened, then rolled his eyes while he slipped his gun out to check the clip to see if it was full. 

“I know
he wants her alive.  No problem, she’s five ten and about a hundred and thirty pounds.  Hardly a challenge.   Tonight, from her place.  What?  Sure.  I’ll give you a fucking call to let you know I got her.”

As he dropped his cell back into his pocket and returned the 9 mil to his holster, he muttered, “Fucking moron,” and disappeared into the shadows between the buildings.

The day finished with a decent amount of receipts, enough to finally make her expenses for the month.  That left some time for the remaining days of the month to create a small profit.  Still, there wasn’t ever much surplus for luxuries.

Pulling the embroidered tulle curtains over the windows as she did every night before she closed, her eye went to a figure standing across the street, just out of reach of the streetlight. 
Just a figure, nothing ominous
, she told herself.  No reason to become paranoid, there were a lot of people in this big city.