Blind Loyalty - M J Marlow (i am reading a book .txt) 📗

head will still be spinning into next year.” “You are a tough little bird, aren’t you?” Mikhael laughed. “As much as I might prefer to partner your lovely cousin, I think Stefan needs to be demoted for a while. He is far too impatient to be your partner.” “And Mikhael is far too cocky,” Stefan snapped. He looked at Joanna. “It is your decision, little one. Either of us will be honored to work with you.” “Stefan,” Joey decided. “I feel the need to be challenged and I think you would be better at that.” She saw Glory stamping her foot and turned. “We ready to go through the routine?” “About a year ago,” Glory teased her. She clapped her hands and everyone moved into position. “All right everybody, Captain Joey is going to talk us through the routine. Listen close. We’re going to run it right after.” The routine was deceptively simple and everyone caught onto the moves by the third run-through. She and Glory left to get Stefan and Mikhael their uniforms and returned to find the pair settling in among the others quite well. When it was time to go to lunch, the pair chose the pizza parlor. Dmitri came to find them and was proud to tell them that he had been chosen to play running back on the team. The trio broke into Russian then and spent a good ten minutes of back slapping and laughing. Joanna decided then and there that she would learn Russian. They spent several hours at the pizza parlor and wandered home slowly as Sarah pointed out the different buildings in the town to their new boarders. When they got home, the den underneath Joanna and Sarah’s room had been set up for the triplets. There was a staircase up the back wall that led to the landing outside of their bedroom. Joanna knew this position had been chosen for them specifically. They would be able to get upstairs quickly if Joanna needed them. The family had a backyard barbeque and the Russians were amazed. They had thought all Americans were soft and feared the weather; but this family at least enjoyed the brisk air. They ate, they talked, and they went on a stroll. When it was time to come in, Adam blew the bugle call and everyone responded. The house settled down for the night and everything was quiet. Dmitri was the one who woke as he heard something; just a creak on the floor above them. He got up and went out of the den in time to see Joanna walking like one in a trance. She had her hand on the doorknob when he caught up with her. “He won’t stop, Dmitri,” she sighed as his touch on her shoulder broke the spell she was under. “He’s not going to stop until he has me back.” She let him take her to the table and stroked her hands as he told her to tell him everything. “He keeps telling me that I owe him a son and he is coming for me. Tonight he added that he would start killing my family off one by one unless I came willingly.” She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I can’t let him hurt my family, Dmitri.” “Your family is strong, little one,” he said to her firmly. “You are strong. You need to trust that they will stand if he comes after them.” He cupped her chin in his hand and looked at her. “Your family is your shield; don’t let your enemy turn them into your weakness. Yes?” He looked up to see his brothers standing in the doorway side by side. “You see us three, little one?” Joanna nodded. “We are one in heart, in mind, and in purpose. We will not let this monster have you. Your family will not let this monster have you. So it is up to you whether you stand or you fall.” “When he talks to you, little bird,” Mikkael said as he came into the kitchen with a small box in his hand, “is it when you are awake or when you are asleep?” “Both,” Joanna told him. She watched as he passed the box over her head and the lights began to blink. When he got to her ear, it went wild. Mikhael nodded and got a pair of tweezers out. He pulled the tag and turned it off. “Very good work but not anything your Aidan couldn’t better.” He saw her blush. “We could remove this, little bird; but then the attacks would be physical.” “Your hunter will have allies in place you might not expect,” Stefan added. “You must be ready for a move from people you might believe you can trust.” He saw her bite her lip. “Our babushka has such a tell.” “A tell?” “You bite your lip when you are anxious or upset,” Dmitri spoke up. “You must learn to curb this impulse if you are to keep your enemy from knowing your thoughts. Your hunter was your father for fifteen years. He knows how to manipulate you. You must not let him.” “One thing only you must remember,” Stefan told her. “I do not move without talking to my wolves or my father. Can you remember that, little one?” Joanna nodded. “Then you will go back to bed now. My brothers and I will search the perimeter and then return to our beds.” “No,” Joanna shook her head. “You won’t.” They looked at her. “It’s a trap,” she said as her senses went on alert. “He is trying to draw you out. He wants to see what will happen with you three.” She looked at the brothers. “You can’t be seen to do anything a teenaged boy would not do.” She got out the kettle and put some milk and cocoa into it; then she got down four mugs. “You’re going to join me in a cup of cocoa and then we are all going to go to bed.” She looked at Mikhael. “After you put the damn tag back in my ear.” “Are you certain you are only sixteen?” Dmitri asked her; awed by her take on things. She was correct. If they did anything a teenaged boy would not do they were telling her enemy who they were. So they had their cocoa and made certain all the doors were locked and then Mikhael turned the tag back on and returned it to her ear before they went to bed. “You owe me a son, Joanna,” James’ voice flooded into her ear. “I will have what you owe me or I will hurt someone you love until you come to me.” “Leave me alone,” Joanna snapped back. “I’m not listening to you!” She got into bed and put the pillow up over her ears. He kept talking, but she was not listening to him anymore. Let him try. She was not going to be his victim any longer. “You hear me you bastard?” she hissed softly. “I’m not listening.” James slammed his fist down on the table of the cabin he was using across the lake. The girl actually thought she could defy him? He had seen her at the door until one of the Russians had caught her. They had sat down to a cup of cocoa and talked. He could just imagine what his girl could find to talk to three teenaged foreigners about. He should have put in a two-way this time. He had waited for her to come to him but it had never happened. She and the trio had gone back to their beds. He turned to his companions. “She needs to be cut off from her support,” he told them bluntly. “I don’t care what you have to do to make this happen,” he continued; “but I want the girl in my hands by the end of the week, if not sooner. Is that clear?” They nodded and he sent them away. Then he made a call. “Has any action been taken on the petition?” He listened and his scowl darkened. “Can they do that?” He slammed his fist down again. “Do everything you can to stall them. I want that petition to stand for at least another week. Can you do that for me?” He smiled then. “Good man.” “James,” a female voice purred out to him from the bedroom. “Are you coming?” He entered the bedroom and smiled as he saw Clare Dearborn splayed out on the bed ready and willing. “You are going about this the wrong way, my lord.” “How so, my pet?” James said as she got up and came to undress him. “The girl trusts me, my lord,” Clare told him as she removed his clothing slowly and maddeningly. Her lips, her hands and her body caressed and petted and pressed against him as she revealed more of his body to her attentions. “Let me draw her out.” “You I hold in reserve, my darling,” James told her as he pulled her into his arms. “As long as she trusts you we have an edge. We may need that before this little game is over.” He pushed her back against the bed. “I trusted your brother to keep her in place and he betrayed me.” “I am not my brother, my lord,” Clare said softly as she ran her hand up his leg slowly. “I know who I belong to.” “Show me,” James ordered. When they were through he stroked her bare arm, as they lay entwined together. “I should have you show Joanna a few things, my pet. You are insatiable. He pushed her out of bed. “You’d better get going. You need to be in play tomorrow at the mall.” He took a package out of the nightstand. It was wrapped as a gift. “Find a way to slip this into her shopping bag without being noticed.” “She will have a shopping bag?” “She is a teenaged girl going to the Mall, my darling,” James said to the woman. “Of course she’ll have a shopping bag.” Clare Dearborn got dressed and slipped out the back to her waiting car. She drove out the old road so she could not be observed from the lake and arrived at her apartment. She smiled as she saw her contact waiting for her in the parking lot. She slid him the package and he kissed her on the cheek and left. It was getting very dangerous playing James Leighton, but she was not going to stop. That monster had murdered her best friend, and her brother. She was not going to let him hurt Joanna. Joanna was in the Food Court with the trio and Sarah when Clare came up to them. She smiled as Joanna introduced her in perfect French to the Russian boys and they responded in perfect French to Clare’s questions. Knowing her watcher did not know French she told them about the package she had slipped into Joanna’s bag. It had originally been a time triggered smoke bomb set to go off while they were in the movies. She suggested the Joanna ‘find’ it before they went any further and turn it over to Lost and Found. “My brother loved you like his own, Joanna,” Clare said as she laid her hand on Joanna’s, still speaking French. “In his memory, I do all I can to keep you safe. There may come a time, however; when he will put me in a position where I must betray you or he will know I am a spy.” “Don’t jeopardize your own life for me, Madame,” Joanna smiled at her. Clare moved off and Joanna turned to Sarah. “I just found this really cute top. What do you think of it?” She pulled it out and the package came out with it. Joanna frowned and picked it up. “What’s this?” She turned to her companions.