Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (28 page)

His eyes sobered of their sugar plums, and he looked at her hands confused. “Get them off?”

“They’re stuck.”

“I take it you don’t mean vegetable oil, soapy water stuck.”

“No, like parasitic jewelry stuck.” When he still seemed baffled, or at least disbelieving, she stopped and showed her right hand to him. He pinched one of the rings and yanked on it. His fingers slipped off of it. As with the carrot driven turtle, Efrat tried again and again, until he finally understood, that his inability to remove the rings had nothing to do with his strength or the thickness of her fingers. “See?”

His deflated expression returned with a big helping of interminable irritation for his bad luck. She shrugged apologetically. He looked away irritated and started to walk again. This time she kept in time with his pace, which was decidedly harder with the shorter legs.

She looked over at him with the intention of breaking the silence. His eyes were once again pinned on her rings. She understood his fascination, but she didn’t like the malicious look on his face. His mind was plotting how he might get the rings. She wanted to believe that plan didn’t involve causing her harm, but she doubted she was misinterpreting his intentions.

“You know Efrat,” his face jerked up hers. “At some point you are going to have to figure out whether you’re a good guy, or a bad guy.”

His face relaxed into guilt and then quickly went to anger, which he directed away from her at nothing in particular in the landscape. “It’s been a long six years.”

“I don’t doubt that.” Cori looked back at Garr. He at least had Remi to keep him sane, and vice versa. Hirem probably stayed strong through the hope of seeing Jill again. Efrat only had his anger to keep his pain in stasis, and she knew as well as anyone that anger only worked for so long. Eventually, sorrow will wear you down.

“I’m not going to pretend to understand your plights, but I know what Jill knew, and that’s enough to warrant me risking my future to get you away from Clark.”
Efrat refused to look at her even though the mention of Jill’s name made his jaw clench. “I’m not sure how these things work,” Cori looked at her hands, “but give me time to figure it out before you start plotting against me. One thing at a time, Efrat.”

“Part of me wants to rip your fingers off to get those rings,” he said coldly still facing away from her.

“I can see that.” Cori instinctively tucked her fingers. “I hope there’s a “but” in there somewhere.”

He looked over at her finally, letting his cool blue eyes settle on hers. He looked stern and he spoke disciplined. “Part of me doesn’t,” he said proudly, like that was the part of him that was still winning his mental debates.

Cori nodded relieved to hear it.

A smirk grew on his lips and for a moment she thought she might be in danger. “There’s also a part of me that just wants to take off one.”
Efrat reached over and wiggled her left ring finger. She looked down at her diamond studded ring. “So we can try that kiss again without you feeling too guilty.”

She opened her mouth to speak a scathing retribution, but she saw his smile widen and he winked at her. She clamped her mouth shut and glared instead. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with any advances from Efrat, but she decided his ornery humor was better than his relentless ire. “You better be careful.” Cori stopped at the door to the greenhouse. “My husband is the jealous type.”

“Mmm,” Efrat nodded looking over the obscure building with his grin still plastered to his face. “I gathered that from our short meeting.” He chuckled like he was remembering something funny. “Don’t worry kitten, I know better than to stick my hand in that can of worms. No matter how conveniently touchable you are.” Efrat opened the door for her.

Cori scoffed. “Conveniently touchable, oh, the flattery, I might just blush, Mr. Alston.” She went inside with him quickly behind her.

“Then again, maybe the ring is just a problem for you.” Efrat pulled her back and dropped her down into a cliché Hollywood kiss.

Her arms flailed searching for purchase, while her legs became virtually useless since she was technically not being held up by anything but Efrat’s arms. She gripped the back of his neck trying to pull his probing mouth from hers.

Panic stricken, she feared Ethan walking in on her at that moment in another man’s arms. She had already almost lost him by choosing to continue seeing Cleos. She couldn’t imagine what he would think of her once again helping Efrat, and once again with his tongue in her mouth. She couldn’t bear causing him anymore grief than she already was with this stunt.

Before Cori had a chance to bite Efrat’s tongue, he pulled away, simultaneously raising her up. The hiss between his clenched teeth was unmistakably pain. Once he had righted her, he pulled her hand from behind his neck. “Damn, kitten,” he seethed feeling the back of his neck. “Couldn’t you just smack me like all the other girls?”

Cori looked at her hand confused. Efrat showed her the back of his neck. A red hand mark puckered there, already starting to blister. Cori stared at the wound with surprise, but then she puffed her chest with satisfaction. “That’s what you get for kissing a married woman.”

He shrugged letting his smirk return. “What can I say, I chose bad guy?”

He rolled her eyes. “Come on, I have an aloe plant.”

49

When Cori finally made it home, without so much as an alarm sounding, she was in awe. In a moment of pure panic, she had considered confessing everything to Danato so she didn’t have to endure the agony of being blamed for something she technically didn’t do. She had been willing to do it though, and that was enough guilt for her to proudly withstand a healthy dose of Danato’s rage.

Unfortunately, Cori knew that if Danato wouldn’t listen to her beyond, “the elementals are out.” The alarms would sound, and she would be lucky to get even a fraction of her concerns across to him before he sent every guard in the building out on a rampage to find them and with Clark’s blessing, kill them.

It wasn’t just the elementals she was protecting. No matter what misplaced trust she had in Efrat, he was still dangerous. If pushed into a corner, he would fight, and as the past has shown, he would win. The morality behind self-defense was already sketchy, especially when both sides are claiming it. She didn’t want her faith in Danato to be so short sighted that she ended up turning this night into a blood bath for everyone, instead of just a really bad night for her.

When she came in, she found the men drinking in the living room—it was probably the only reason no one had tried to track her down already. Danato wasn’t indulging since his palette was too sophisticated for beer, and he could hardly reveal his hidden stash to anyone. Cori wondered what he would think if he knew her and Belus had been siphoning from that stash.

They all gave her a “hey” hello when she came in, like she was part of the drinking game they were playing. Danato left the party and joined her in the kitchen as she searched for a snack. Betrayal always left her stomach empty. “Well, how was it?” She looked at him trying to decide what he meant. “Was the party any good?”

“Oh,” she chuckled thinking how many years had passed in her mind since that little soiree. “It was wonderful. Thank you so much.” She hugged him remembering how fun the first half of her night had been—and the worst of it was still yet to come.

“What took you so long?” He said pulling her back to eye her carefully for any signs of trouble. Luckily the immediate frosting of her body kept her neck from bruising. The skin that had ripped off her leg was hidden by her dress.

“I had to take care of a few things. About a gazillion “thank you’s” for the band and some small talk with the lead singer turned into some large talk.” Danato’s eyes searched her face. He could probably see it already: the shame and sadness that lurked behind her eyes. It prevented her from smiling as big as she should have, considering she had just had a night of music and dance.

She wanted to beg him for the asylum now, but timing was the key. She had to let everyone assume the worst. Once she was clear of the initial reactions, she could start to explain things. Of course, the longer she hid the truth, the worse she would feel, and the harder her punishment would be. Not to mention she was going to break Danato’s heart, again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked squeezing her shoulders gently.

“Nothing, I just need to get to into some comfortable clothes. I’ll come back down for a little bit before I go to bed.” Cori kissed him, thanked him again, and walked away. Her stomach was roiling even more for a snack, but it would have to wait until later, if there was time.

She went upstairs and showered. She slipped into some clean clothes that she thought would be comfortable enough to wear in a jail cell. She slipped on her Abalone and Fish t-shirt, a parody of the Abercrombie and Finch name brand, and a pair of jeans.

She wrote a quick note to Ethan, and tucked it under his pillow. It didn’t say much, just that she was sorry and that she hoped he could forgive her for putting him through this. Love wasn’t mentioned, but that was the reason behind the apology.

Instead of returning to the party, Cori stood on the balcony overlooking the downstairs. She watched her husband interacting with his friends. They laughed and playfully fought. Danato even found enough humor in their raucous to chuckle once or twice.

She wasn’t sure how long she watched. All she knew was that it wasn’t long enough. The banging knock on the door, seemed to shake the whole house. The men stopped and looked to one another, shocked by the late hour visit. Nothing was spoken, but everyone shared the same expression, “this can’t be good.”

“Who the hell is that?” Danato groused as he got up to answer the door. Cori left the balcony and began her descent to the main floor. “Clark what are you…” Danato said after he opened the door.

“Danato, where is she?” Clark barked out of sight behind Danato.

“Who?” Before Danato could get an answer from him, he barged in without admittance. She had hoped that he would need an invitation like Belus, but apparently arrest warrants transcended the house etiquette. She wouldn’t have time to explain before Clark took her.

“What’s going on?” Danato shuffled back as Clark and six of his men entered the house. Cori continued to the main level where Clark caught sight of her. He may as well have had cartoon devil horns, for as menacing as he looked at her. He looked burned, but she knew it was the frostbite that had done it.

“Take her into custody,” he commanded with satisfaction.

As soon as Clark barked the order and pointed at her, the room erupted into organized mayhem. Three men charged her and grabbed her. Ethan hopped the back of the couch with Heaton and Daniel flanking it to join the defense. Danato slammed the door with his cane and went head to head with Clark, which was a losing battle for Clark since Danato overshadowed him in more ways than height. “What’s this about?”

Ethan reached her and stood in front of her and her captures. The two men flanking her, held her arms tightly, while the third remained back up, aptly at her back, shoving a gun into her spine. “Release my wife,” he said with smooth sadistic intent.

The two flanking soldiers each gave their resistant statements. “Not a chance.” and “Back off.”

“She is being detained for her crimes!” Clark shouted above the din of flared tempers. Everyone paused waiting for the remainder of his explanation. It was probably only to keep things civil that Danato even listened, but it might have been her history keeping up with her. Or it might have just been the fact that she wasn’t defending herself in the least.

“The elementals have escaped.
She
assisted them in that escape.” Clark pointed a crooked index finger at her.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Danato growled. “She hates them, she wouldn’t help them.”

She was surprised to see that Ethan didn’t react to the statement. He either didn’t believe it, or he was so intent on hurting the men holding her, that he hadn’t registered it yet.

“She attacked me and my men,” Clark was trying to yell but his vocal chords were muted from his recent bought of cold weather. She resisted the urge to smile when he croaked into silence and had to clear his throat to continue. “She assisted all three of them in their escape. Ask her yourself.”

Danato looked over at her. She could see him over Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan didn’t make any changes to his stance, but his glare softened as if he was waiting to hear from her as well. “Ask him why it was only three of the elementals.”

Danato donned disillusionment along with his suspicion. He probably had hoped that this was all just a horrible mistake and not what it really was: disloyalty to him. Still he managed to turn his attention back to Clark. “Why only three?”

Clark’s maniacal smirk shifted into a grimace. “That has nothing to do with this!” Clark’s voice went hoarse again, but his attempt at volume was enough to incite her own voice to rise.

“That has everything to do this!” She chided letting her teeth bare even after the statement was done. Clark eyed her not willing to justify himself. “Tell him, or I will.”

“Go ahead, he won’t care,” Clark said allowing his voice to calm back to conversation level. Danato looked between them, but didn’t say anything. He was still evaluating who his anger should be directed toward. At the moment it was everyone.