Chapter 19

“Dear God,” Veni whispered, watching the man fall to the ground from several stories up. “Why?” she cried out.

“Because going home as a failure was not an option,” Reid whispered calmly. “But now, with any luck, that should put an end to it.” He looked over at Anders, as if asking his opinion.

Anders nodded. “I would think so, at least for the moment. We can get the governments on it from now on.” And, with that, he backed up, got around the multitude of vehicles clogging up amid the chaos and slowly pulled the vehicle forward.

“Is it safe to drive like this, without a windshield?” she asked.

“Safe enough, but, once we get settled, we’ll switch out vehicles again.”

“Good,” she muttered, “I hope we’re safe now.”

“I think it’s over,” Reid suggested.

She smiled up at him and asked, “Like over-over?”

“Really over-over,” he said, with a chuckle. “The governments can sort it out from here on out.”

“Great,” she muttered.

“You know that our government will also expect a copy of that material, right?”

She nodded. “I know. I’ll give them exactly the same copy I gave my father.” When he looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. “The lab work without anything to do with me.”

“Ah.” Reid nodded. “That makes sense.”

“I don’t want anybody else yanking my chain, the way my mother kept trying to do,” Veni admitted. “It’s one thing if I choose to go into a lab and do the work, trying to find something that I can apply my skills to. It’s another thing to be forced into it.”

“Understood,” Reid confirmed, “and Terk and I will back you the whole way.”

She smiled. “At least Terk’s name seems to get some response from people.”

Anders chuckled from the front seat. “You have no idea. Almost everybody in this industry owes Terk for their lives at one time or another,” he shared, with a shrug. “We’re all indebted to him.”

“Yet he probably doesn’t want that at all,” she murmured.

Reid looked at her in surprise and asked, “How do you know?”

She shrugged. “From you. From what you keep telling me. When you guys do this kind of work, and you have this kind of skill, I can’t imagine that anybody wants to be thanked for it. It’s more a case of just Go away and leave us alone.”

He burst out laughing, understanding that totally, but he nodded too. “Terk is kind of reclusive.”

“Of course he is,” she stated, with a smile.

As they walked down the hallway to their new hotel room, they found the door partially open. Reid immediately tucked her behind him and pushed the door wide as he stepped in.

Somebody sat in the living room, a cup of coffee in his hand, talking on his phone.

Reid frowned at him. When he ended the call, he asked, “Riff? You’re back?”

Riff assessed the two of them, then smiled. “I’m escorting you home.”

She stepped forward, staring at him. “Where is home?”

“Home is at Terk’s place,” he shared. “Both of you get to report to Terk after this.”

“What if we don’t want to?” she asked, frowning at him.

“Then don’t, but I’m pretty sure you’ll find out that you’re more than eager to be there.”

“Why is that?” she asked.

“Because Terk and I are like you two,” Riff murmured, with a smile. “And there’s nothing quite like knowing you are accepted where your home is, where you can grow and where you’re protected,” he added, with emphasis.

She sighed. “But do you think he’ll let me come? It’s not as if I can do much.”

Riff burst out laughing. “If you would have opened up your end of the psychic communication pathway at all, you would realize Terk’s been talking to you the whole time. You just haven’t been listening very well.”

“I did hear somebody earlier,” she admitted. “I thought I was either losing my mind or that maybe it was another prisoner.”

“It was another prisoner,” Riff confirmed. “Terk sent me in to get him out from under the Russian influence. He’s recuperating at Terk’s right now.”

“Seriously?” she asked, staring at him in delight. “You mean, I did some good?”

He nodded. “You did a lot of good, and that’s another reason why Terk would like to see you. You have an open invitation to join them,” he said, with a smile. “I just tend to be a little more direct about it, but it is your decision.” He looked over at Reid. “Nice job, by the way. Now you guys are off the hook, and we can get you home again.”

Reid stepped forward and asked, “Was that you dealing with the sniper?”

Riff just smiled.

Reid nodded, then asked, “What about Anders?”

Anders stepped in behind him. “I’ve already got my orders,” he shared. “I’m heading home on the next flight. Riff’s taking over from here.”

“Sounds good to me,” Reid said. “Thanks for your help, Anders.”

Anders smirked. “Anytime for family.”

Riff stood and stretched, looking around. “You got any food here?”

“No, not yet, but feel free to get some,” Veni suggested, as she walked in and collapsed on a chair. “I’m exhausted. I need a bath, and I need some sleep. I’m not leaving until I deal with my mother’s body.”

“What is it you want to do about her burial?” Reid asked curiously.

She frowned. “Honestly, back to Russia is where she would want to be.”

“Then we’ll arrange that,” Reid stated, “but you won’t go for a service or funeral or anything inside Russia. We can contact your father and have him take care of the details.”

“Yeah, do that,” she said. “As crazy and twisted as their relationship was,… I know she still loved him, and he loved her.”

And, with that, Riff announced, “Okay, I’ll check in with Jonas, so he can make arrangements for your mother’s body to be taken back. While I’m waiting for his confirmation, I’ll go roust up some food. Again, you understand you won’t go to her funeral or anything. Being there is far too high of a risk, and we would strongly advise against it.”

“I understand, and that’s fine. I got to see her alive, and that’s… far more than I thought I would get, honestly.”

Riff nodded, then looked at the two men, still standing here, staring at him. “I’ll be a couple hours.” And, with that, he was gone.

Anders looked over at Reid. “Do you want me to stay until he’s back?”

Reid immediately shook his head. “No, we’re good. It’s over, and we need to discuss what we’ll do from here,” he shared, looking over at Veni, who had collapsed in the chair, staring out into space.

Anders nodded. “In that case,” he said, with a smack on Reid’s shoulder, “I’ll see you next time.” And, within minutes, he was gone too.

Reid sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms. Almost as if that unlocked the dam, she burst into tears.

It was a while before she looked up at him, her sobs finally quieting down to just a gentle hiccup, and she murmured, “I know you don’t like me to say it.”

“So don’t,” he replied, laughing at her. “You needed that. I mean, not everybody loses a parent on the same day they gain freedom from a regime.”

She sniffled and nodded. “To think that she knew about her cancer and didn’t tell me. I don’t know what to do with that.”

“And that’s a betrayal or a secret or whatever you end up calling it that you’ll have to accept somehow,” he stated gently. “But she did what she felt was right for you. She did all she could to protect you.”

“Of course. Isn’t that what every parent says to their child?” she muttered, with a headshake.

“Often, yes,” he agreed, with a smile. “Now, do you want to shower? I don’t know how quickly we’re leaving once Riff gets back, so…”

She looked at her watch. “I’m not going anywhere tonight. I’m exhausted.”

“Good enough, but food is coming, so maybe take a shower and then have a nap. He did say he would be a couple hours.”

“And I’ve eaten into that with all that crying,” she muttered, as she got up. “But, yes, a shower would be good.”

She headed to the bathroom and turned on the hot water. When he walked in behind her, she smirked and asked, “What’s the matter? Now you don’t trust me in the shower alone?”

“I don’t want you to fall. I don’t want you to break down in tears again. So, if you’re okay…” And he looked at her hesitantly.

“I’m fine,” she murmured, with a wave of her hand. “But feel free to join me if you want. You probably need a shower too.”

His eyebrows shot up, and she knew she’d surprised him.

*

Reid chuckled. “Iwanted to take it slow. I had no idea this was going from zero to sixty quite so fast, but—”

“I’m totally okay to go from zero to sixty. I know it sounds cheesy, but how about zero to forty-five or maybe zero to ninety?” she asked coyly. “It’s been a hell of a long week, and it’s not even over, and we’ll be moving in with strangers.” She shrugged. “So I’m feeling a little bit… I don’t know how I feel. I guess I’m uncertain about it all.”

“So, you think making love will make a difference?”

She shook her head, laughing. “To that? No, hell no. But to the way I’m feeling on the inside? Absolutely,” she murmured, as she walked closer, the shower filling the bathroom with steam behind her. “The thing is, we don’t always get what we want in life, and sometimes, even when we do get it, we don’t really see it as being the way we wanted it.”

She added, “So it becomes a case of take what you can, yet make the most of it. That has been a lesson that I’ve learned this week. Seeing you again after all this time?” She shook her head. “It’s been amazing, and I really, really, really love the fact that you’re back in my life. But I have to admit that it feels that something is missing.”

“What’s that?” he asked, looping his arms around her lower back and tugging her closer.

“This,” she whispered, as she reached up and kissed him gently.

By the time she slipped back, he was already humming at the sixty mark and looking down at her with a glazed expression.

“That’s right,” she said. “Remember that part.”

He grinned. “I did, but we didn’t get a chance to explore that side of our relationship very often.”

“No, not very often. But, when we did get together, it was dynamite,” she murmured. “Now, that shower is waiting for me, and you can bet I won’t let the hot water go to waste.”

And right in front of him, she stripped down to the skin and stepped in the shower. He was two seconds behind her, dropping his clothing into a heap, sending mental messages to Riff to ensure he was slow as hell coming back with food.

You’ve got a couple hours, and I’ll give you a warning before I come in.

Reid chuckled, as he stepped under the water.

She frowned at him. “Riff talks telepathically?” She immediately flushed. “Oh, my gosh, I totally forgot he’s coming back.”

“Let’s just say that I told him to take his time.”

She looked at him in delight, threw her arms around him, and muttered, “Perfect. Time is what we need. Maybe a nice long hot shower and a nap would be perfect,” she suggested, waggling her eyebrows.

“As if you’ll have a nap,” he teased.

“I might,” she declared, “depending on how much you exhaust me.”

And, with that, she launched herself at him again, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and plastering her body to his, from chest to thigh, skin to skin, the heat instantly surging between them. She wiggled several times, trying to get closer. When he finally lifted her and pinned her up against the shower wall, she chuckled. “I think we did it this way before too.”

“We might have,” he murmured against her throat, his hands busy caressing her thighs, then back to her plump butt. He murmured, “I… I’m so overwhelmed with emotions right now that my memories are a little thin on the ground.”

“That’s because it’s all about sensations,” she whispered, as she wiggled deeper into his hands. “Yet you could hurry this up a bit.”

“I don’t want to hurry anything up,” he shared. Yet he positioned her a little bit higher, her thighs spread and wrapped around his hips, with him right at the heart of her.

“Yes,” she whispered.

And, with that, he drove in as hard and as deep as he could. Then he stilled and shuddered in place. She closed her eyes and moaned. “Dear God,” she said, among her whimpers. “After everything we’ve been through, who would have thought this would feel quite so nice.”

“Well, me for one,” he replied, chuckling. “I can’t say this ever feels bad with you.”

And he started to move again, sending water splashing everywhere, as it crashed down on top and all around them, as he thoroughly made love to her. By the time she exploded in his arms, he was cresting on his own wave and crashing back down to Earth. Yet still not even back to Earth. It was like finding a halfway station, where nothing quite seemed real anymore.

She looked up at him and whispered, “God, I’d forgotten.”

He shifted her position ever-so-slightly and asked, “Do you want me to turn off the water?”

“No,” she whispered, as she put her arms around his neck. “I want to do that again.”

He laughed. “Sounds good to me.”

He gave her a moment to rest and then started to drive deeper and deeper. She cried out in his arms several more times, before he allowed himself another climax. By that time, they had turned off the water, as it had run cold.

*

She chuckled, asshe stepped out of the shower. “I wasn’t thinking I could sleep. Yet right now?… I’m kind of tired.”

“Or do you need food first?” he asked. “I can have Riff come back with the food.”

“That might be a good idea.” She frowned at him. “You really can talk to him telepathically, can’t you?”

“I can,” he said cheerfully. “So can you. You just have to open that door in your mind.”

“What if I don’t want to?” she asked mutinously.

“Then don’t,” he said, gently looking over at her. “Your time frame, your decision. You get to be comfortable in what you can do and when you want to do it. It’s your choice.”

She sighed. “Okay, fine. That sounded very foolish on my part.” She opened the door in her mind and called out, Riff, the coast it clear. It’s safe to come back again. Bring food.

His tone was clear as a bell, when he replied, Good thing because I’m walking up the stairs right now, and I am bringing food. Ensure you’re all dressed when I get there.

Laughing, she relayed the message to Reid, and he nodded. “I heard,” he said, as he leaned over and kissed her hard. “Now, let’s not make the poor man blush.”

She chuckled. “I don’t think he would blush that easily.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll have to learn a whole new way of communicating between ourselves, blocking out the others.”

And, with that, they quickly dressed, and, by the time Riff walked in with hot food, they were sitting here, waiting for him.

“Glad to see you guys have worked out a few issues,” Riff announced. “Any problems with going home now that your father will oversee your mother’s funeral in Russia?”

She shook her head. “No, but obviously we need to talk to Terk.”

“You need time to recuperate and rest,” Riff noted, “so I suggest you do that all at Terk’s place.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said, with a yawn. “Although it seems fairly intimidating to be working with people who are so much more talented.”

Riff shrugged. “Everybody there is incredibly talented. Even a few people who didn’t have abilities when they started are slowly developing some.”

“People without abilities are there?” she asked in surprise.

He nodded. “Not all partners came with abilities,” he shared with a smile, “and it didn’t matter in the least. You’ll be welcomed for who you are and what you are, which is as a person. So don’t expect anything less, and you’ll be treated just fine.”

“I never expected anything differently,” she noted. “I’ve heard such amazing things about Terk.”

“And they’re all true, dammit,” Riff agreed, then burst out laughing. “In fact, he’s listening in on this conversation as well.”

“I’ll have to learn to tell when he is and when he isn’t,” she murmured, “because it’s all new to me.”

Not that new, Terk replied. You managed to talk to me just fine. You’ll find your abilities will grow incredibly, once you get here. Everybody’s have.

She smiled at Reid, reaching out to hold his hand. “I can’t wait.”