Untrained Eye (27 page)

“Maybe because your gifts are low?” I heard the sound of the water
emptying.

“So there’s a big ol’ plug like in the not-so-fancy baths, huh?”
My teeth clattered together. My body shook.

“No, there’s a safety switch.” She sounded sleepier by the second.
“Looks like you kept your knack for healing.”

“As much as I’m happy. I would have preferred to help Catalina.”
My eyelids were heavy. I tried to stay awake but I felt warm, dozy, and sleepy.

“You did your best. If you had healed her, she would still have
been running the gauntlet like the rest of them.” She squeezed my leg. “It’s
better if you step back sometimes.”

“Meddling in other folks’ lives.” I sighed, that sounded familiar.
“Guess that nut didn’t fall too far from the nutcase, huh?”

Frei squeezed my leg again. I knew it was the only action she
could
manage. “Not meddling. You can’t know what is planned for someone. It’s nice to
help but some people need to overcome things themselves.”

I could see that she had been having this argument with my mother
for a long time. My mother didn’t listen as much as she should.

Frei was of few words but great wisdom.

“Unless I ask, I’m meddling though, right?” That illuminated a lot
for me. There I was getting angry at my mother when I’d run roughshod over what
people may want and inflicted what I thought they’d want on them.

“Something like that. Sometimes scars and pain remind someone why.
Suffering helps you see others’ pain. If you take that away, they can forget
how and why they survived.” She sighed and it turned into a yawn. “Everyone is
a sum of their parts.”

“Like Renee?”

Frei was quiet for a second and I wondered if she’d fallen asleep.
“I would have done the same thing. Someone up there wants you to understand you
can’t heal everyone.” She yawned again which made me do the same. “Taking it
away helps you realize how not helping . . . can be what is needed.”

It made sense. I had a lot to learn about how to fit in with
people. I had a lot to learn about myself and my burdens. I would be too
tempted to step in when, maybe, sometimes it would be better for me not to.
Like Catalina. Now she was free. She had a road of recovery to follow, sure,
but had what none of the other kids did.

“You charge for this service?” I asked in a heavy voice, glad that
life had returned to my legs.

“No. The smart-ass is free.”

“Yeah, you are that.” I smiled when she poked me. “Free that is.”

Frei mumbled something but it faded as she drifted off to some
dreamscape. I let myself relax, feeling safe and secure. I felt understood too.
Maybe I was freer than I’d been before. Yeah, free. Free was warm, cozy,
restful security. I hoped Frei felt that way too.

Chapter 31

WHAT WAS IT about a knock at the door that fires shock through the
system? Frei and I were in the same position that we’d fallen asleep in. We’d
been there a good amount of time too as the sun had moved around when I peeked
my eyes open. It looked like late afternoon. Guess we’d been tired.

“You hear that?” I whispered, hoping that it was somebody else’s
door. Then the thought entered my head that we didn’t have neighbors.

“I’m hoping they will go away.” Frei’s groggy tone sounded like I
felt. It made me chuckle and I hauled myself to sitting.

“You doing okay there?”

Frei groaned as she rolled over. She unearthed a flip-flop from
beneath her. “Am now.”

The knock sounded again. I glanced at faces peering in through the
glass. It was my group. “Looks like we’ve been spotted.”

“Hopefully it’s not another drama,” Frei muttered, getting to her
feet. She headed to the kitchen and pulled shorts and a t-shirt off the stool.

She’d got a change of clothes. I wasn’t sure I
could
get
out of my shorts. They looked like hot pants.

I sighed and clambered to my feet. I felt like I was walking on a
ship in a storm. I felt woozy. Miroslav must have been with them.

“Might want to get some salt and water,” I mumbled Frei’s way.

I opened the door and got a dusty blast of air in my face.

“Can we come in?” Jessie looked up at me, then averted her eyes as
she reached my stomach. “Miroslav is gonna drop.”

I glanced back at Frei who nodded and I held open the door. All
eight of my group bustled in.

“What are you doing, trying to walk in this heat?” I muttered at
Miroslav as he staggered to the sofa. “You need to rest after yesterday.”

“Wanted . . . to . . . say . . . hi.” He sat forward, sweat
dripping off him.

Frei walked over and handed him a cloudy glass of something.

“Hi, Miss Locks.”

Awww, the kid was cute. I noticed the quiet smile on Frei’s face
as she dropped to her haunches and checked his pulse. He gulped his drink as
she stared at her watch.

She smiled. “Dropping nicely.”

Miroslav’s cheeks filled with color and a crooked grin spread
across his face. Smitten.

Frei was oblivious and headed into the kitchen as the rest of the
group found any space possible to cram themselves into. Jed sat in Frei’s chair
with Jessie on the arm. The frenemies, Leigh-Anne and Jane, were inseparable
mode on one side of the sofa as close to Miroslav as possible while Ian, Ryan,
and Ty sat on the side nearest to Jed. 

Jessie cleared her throat and met my eyes. “Miss Samson, we have a
card for you. We know that you probably don’t want it but we weren’t sure how
else we could say thanks.”

She presented it to me like I’d won a trophy.

I took it. Someone’s exercise book had been de-covered. They had
turned it into a work of art, at least to me. There was a picture of me
dangling from the roof.

My throat tightened up as I stared down at it. It was one of the
most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Someone, Jed by the detail, had drawn Frei
in her red shorts.

I wasn’t allowed to tear up. I was a mean, badass criminal. I did
not get sniffles over a card.

“You guys worked really hard,” I croaked, rubbing at my throat. Go
figure how I could be so watery over an exercise book.

“Are you okay, Miss Samson?” Jessie asked.

I sucked at being a hardened criminal.

“Kinda touched.” I was not going to cry. No crying. Mean, mean,
lunatic.

I held the card out to Frei with a shaking hand as she brought
over a tray of coke and glasses. The group all stared at the tray like it was
treasure of some kind. Illicit treasure too.

“They don’t get soda,” she whispered to me. Her gentle tone was
enough to put me on the edge of crying. I was a smushy ball of well . . .
smush.

“How are your ribs?” Jed asked as I watched Frei grin at the card.
She wasn’t one for sentiment either but I could see emotion bubbling in her
eyes.

I turned to look at Jed, he looked away. I wasn’t sure if it was
my bare midriff or something else.

“Nothing wrong with them.” I pulled my top up enough so he could
see.

“How?” Jessie exchanged a glance with Miroslav. “When you were
walking away they were already bruised.”

I glanced at Frei who was still examining the card. “Your shirt
ripped.” She sounded deadpan and calm as always. “Dirt. It was just dirt.”

“From a wall?” Jessie’s eyes narrowed. Uh oh genius alert.

“From the roof,” I said, hoping that worked. “Not the cleanest
place to lie down.”

The other kids laughed. Miroslav smiled but Jessie wasn’t buying
it and sat scowling.

“Why don’t we celebrate?” Frei put the card on the work top and
smiled at the group. They were so happy with their pop that all I could hear
was gulping and slurping. Guess they’d need a refill.

I raised my eyebrows at her but she shot me a “go with it” look.

“It calls for a celebration,” Frei reiterated. “It’s not every day
that Miroslav walks this far.”

“Uh huh.”

She shrugged as the kids watched us with interest. “How ’bout a
pool party?”

“Miss Locks,” Leigh-Anne said, a lot more shyly than she ever
spoke to me. “We don’t have suits.”

Frei waved her hand. “You are all wearing shorts and t-shirts.
It’s hot out. You’ll be fine.” She glanced at the pool. “Plus this one has
bubbles.”

Cue the excited chorus of oohs and chattering. I had to fold my
arms to stop from hugging Frei. There were times when she was ultra-cool.

“Just leave all your stuff on the table.” My words were met with
blank looks. My experience since Serenity told me everybody had a cell phone,
especially teenagers, so I didn’t get it.

“No?” Frei said as if covering me as I tried to figure out why I
was being looked at so oddly. “Well, go on then. She went and tapped something
under the panel and the water gushed out once more. “Samson and I will fix you
some dinner.”

My stomach grumbled but only I heard it as a herd of unruly teens
hurtled over to watch the pool fill.

“After you get changed.” She cast a look up and down my outfit.
“You’re being stared at.”

“Not surprised, I look crazy.”

Frei arched an eyebrow. “It’s more the tight fitting clothes and
the bare midriff. Move.”

I rubbed my hand across my stomach. “Mine? You’re the one in fine
detail on the card.” I pointed out the red shorts.

“I’m ignoring you.”

I grinned and pointed to the card again. “He’s even got the detail
on the stitching.”

“Can’t hear you.”

I chuckled and turned to head up the stairs. Jessie was watching
me go. Her eyes flicking over me as if she was trying to figure me out.

Good luck to her. It would take a lot more than genius to find a
description for me other than different. I shook my head at my outfit as I
climbed the stairs. Different and something else.

FREI WAS CONSPICUOUS in her silence as we prepared dinner. Hot
dogs seemed like the perfect thing. The group, including Miroslav were making
the best of playing in the pool. Gone was any surly angst-filled coolness.
Nope, right now they were a bunch of giggling kids. It was great to watch.

“They don’t own anything,” Frei told me as she handed me some more
bread to toast.

“I seen some with cell phones.” At least what I thought were cell
phones.

“It’s a GPS tracker and barcode scanner. All of them are chipped
and the scanner checks if they’ve removed it.” She focused on the bubbling
water. “Monthly. They don’t realize of course.”

Cell phones weren’t a big thing when I’d been sent to Serenity at
sixteen but when I was released, they were everywhere. To think that these kids
didn’t have them felt strange.

“What do they think it is? Do they know about cell phones?”

Frei shrugged. “I doubt it. They don’t leave unless with staff and
they live here all year round.” She smiled. “At least they aren’t tagged like
we used to be.”

“Tagged?” I didn’t want to know but morbid fascination took over.

“Like cattle.” She ran her finger over the rim of her right ear.
There was a big scar there. “We were told that it was tradition. Everyone had a
ring in their ear.”

“Jäger was around then wasn’t he?”

She looked away.

“Nan used to say that unless you walked in
somebody’s shoes, you wouldn’t know if you’d get the same blisters.” I smiled
and made sure to catch her eye. “I’m glad you are who you are today.”

“He is a violent man.” She blinked at me then stared down at the
food. “I have a lot of scars from him.”

“He do anything else?” The fact he’d laid a hand on her made me
want to knock his teeth out.

“No.” She averted her eyes.

“Huber would have torn him apart if he’d known, right?” I asked. I
could tell that Huber would have seen it as damage to his property.

“Yes. I never told him.” She shrugged. “Jäger likes his women
vicious. The more twisted, the better.”

That said an awful lot about me.

“I can’t believe I let that out.” She shook her head. I could see
relief in her eyes that she had. Jäger was nothing but a big bully picking on
kids who couldn’t fight back.

“You ain’t told Renee?”

“No.” Her eyes widened. “She can never know. She won’t understand.
She’d go after him and get hurt.”

Her accent flipped to fill with the true tones she hid so well.
Her hands swished about as she talked. Her energy was so different when she
dropped the barriers. I couldn’t help but stare at her.

“She’s a good person,” Frei whispered. “She will rush headlong into
any danger to protect people and forget she’s not made of Kevlar.”

Frei pushed the hot dogs around. I watched her for a moment,
thinking about it. “But the whole thing with Yannick must have shown her she
needed to be careful.”

“It made her hide information from you and risk lives because she
was protecting you.” Frei sighed. “Her default will always be to keep us safe.
That’s the core of her. That’s the real woman you need to see. She loves us
both enough to place herself in the line of fire.”

“Yet she left you because you stuck up for someone.”

Frei spooned out the hot dogs and I started putting them in buns,
squirting on a line of mustard, and piling them on a tray.

“I broke a criminal out of a police station.”

I concentrated on the hot dogs “Why?”

“I needed to.” Frei arranged the serving platter. “They risked
their necks to save someone close to me. . .” She huffed out a breath. “I
couldn’t ignore it.”

“But they were guilty?” I wasn’t going to ask what of but I could
see why Renee would have been angry and I could see why Frei had to act.

“It’s irrelevant.” She leaned against the counter. “These kids, if
they survive will always be a family. They will always look out for each other.
Right or wrong.”

I turned and watched the kids for the moment.
Jed was dive bombing into the center, making the girls shriek. “You thought CIG
would arrest you when you went to them to help Renee?”

“I was certain of it.” Frei clapped her hands, drawing the kids’
attention. Cries of delight rang out as Jed hoisted Miroslav out of the pool
and they all trudged water across the floor.

“Guess we should have dried them off first?”

Frei glanced at the patio doors. We had a seating area in a sun
room. I used it to meditate and I was sure Frei did too. “Sun will dry them
off.”

She picked up the tray and led them through. I was glad it had a
fan in the ceiling for Miroslav.

We all piled around the table. I sat next to Frei, unsurprised to
see the Worcester Sauce present. She had it on
everything
. I was kinda
relieved to see her smother her fries in it and stick mustard on her hot dog.
She had been prepared to risk everything to help Renee. They were more alike
than she realized.

I raised my hot dog up in the air. “To heroes.” I looked at Frei.
“Especially unsung ones.”

In response Frei chomped her hot dog and mustard fired out,
hitting me in the chin. The group laughed as I scraped the mustard off. I knew
someone else who would have done the same thing. Someone I missed like crazy.

Renee and Frei were definitely two nuts from the same nutcase.

THE GROUP STAYED until the bell sounded for curfew. All afternoon
they’d chatted and bickered and laughed like a family. As they filtered out, I
took Jed by the elbow and slowed his exit. His worry lines had grown deeper
throughout the afternoon.