Page 99 of Lau Ahi
“What does that mean?”
“I wanted your permission to move back to DC.”
Knowing that she hadn’t been in DC all this time hiding from me made me feel… something. Relief wasn’t the word but she’d invoked some type of emotion.
“It’s not my place to determine how you move. Ask Pappy.” I wasn’t about to decide based on our relationship but I didn’t want my anger to keep her away.
“I already have and he gave me the okay along with a multitude of threats, which I appreciated.”
I folded my arms trying to decipher what her motive was. “So why come to me with any of this?”
“Because your opinion is the only one that matters to me.”
“So if I tell you to stay out of the area you’ll do it?”
“I’d do anything for you, Ori, but that’s a story for another day.”
I had questions. It was only right that I did because none of what she was saying made sense. I prided myself on being intelligent but it seemed both sides of my family were keeping me in the dark And I needed to know why.
“You are free to move however you need to, Faith. I wouldn’t think to place restrictions on a grown woman. That’s not how I operate.”
Her asking me for permission irritated me because it seemed she still hadn’t grown a spine. Of course, knowing how theConsortiumworked she knew well that we were dangerous but no matter how much time had passed she was still a part of the organization. That meant the Elders had to decide if she could be harmed without retribution. They focused on keeping order and since most of them were my mother’s peers I doubted they would allow anything bad to happen to her. Even if they might want to curse her out for how she left.
“Thank you. When I get to town I’ll give you the information on where I’ll be. Until things are settled I don’t want to interrupt your life by running into you and causing you stress.”
“Impossible. But thanks for the heads-up.”
“You’re welcome. Hopefully, we can talk again soon.”
I gave her a noncommittal sound before I hung up the phone.
No matter how bad things were between us my mother was another responsibility on my plate. I knew blood between her and her brother was bad and her waltzing back in with open arms while he was still on the outs would mean that the bad would only get worse. Being near me at all put a target on her back, probably one larger than was already there. I wasitching to get away from government work but the politics of theConsortiummight be what did me in.
DO OVERS
ASHA
I handed off my badge looking behind me to see exactly where Ori was. He’d been stopped by a colleague and instead of having me sit and wait for him he told me to go ahead. I wasn’t exactly comfortable here without him but he said that Alec would be walking down to meet us. The building was almost like a regular office building but once you walked in you knew that things were different because of the level of security.
The badge I had been given was the visitor’s pass that they’d taken the first day I’d gotten here and I’d gotten used to carrying it around for the last few weeks. Today was the first time that we’d driven to work together and the act of near domesticity was almost unnerving. We’d both sensed that something had shifted yet again. Since he’d moved in Ori and I had fallen into a routine that would involve our normal actions simply done together. But this morning changed. A conversation over coffee and glances that I could feel him giving me as I moved about the bathroom. It had been strange sharing a bed with a person who didn’t seem to want this situation. I told myself it was resignation, his way of accepting his fate and trying to get used to a new normal, but it didn’t feel that way anymore. We’d woken up closer to one another. Physically. But that seemed to do something to our mental as well. Life felt settled but that acknowledgement mademe feel unsettled. And now walking into work together chatting as though everything was fine had my head spinning.
“Dr. Avery!”
I retrieved the visitor’s badge from the security officer as I walked through the metal detectors and I scanned the massive space to see who’d called my name. It didn’t sound like Alec but I might’ve been wrong.
“Over here.”
I looked around until my eyes landed on a person I’d met the first time I’d been in the office. I knew that he and Ori weren’t on the best terms so I wondered what it was he wanted.
“Good morning, Agent…” I couldn’t recall his name so I hoped he’d fill in the blank.
He came to a stop in front of me his face looking baffled at my forgetting him. His face was that of a normal, nondescript white American man so it wasn’t as though he was someone striking enough to remember.
“Anderson. Agent Anderson.”
I nodded despite not really caring about his name, since I wouldn’t bother to remember it. “Right. Is there something you needed?”
“I wanted to speak to you about the Rawlins case.”
