The Society by Karen Guyler (feel good fiction books .txt) 📗

“It’s not safe for us to be out here.”

He hurried away from her and Lily.

Eva held Lily to her, pulling her close, rubbing her back to make her warmer. It took about ten strides before Charles stopped, hesitated, then returned to them. “Eva, you don’t understand—”

“Damn straight I don’t because you won’t talk to me. An explanation right now otherwise we’re going home.”

“I told you it’s not—”

Eva stepped closer to him. “That man just tried to kill me and it wasn’t the first time.” He looked shocked, but she silenced him. “You owe me an explanation. If you’re so worried about who’s after us, we can fly to Sweden, Per’s invited us.” Charles shook his head. Of course he wouldn’t want to see Per now, after his failed nomination. “We can go to India, I can check on the installation at Tirupudur—”

“No, we can’t.”

“I’ve got our passports with me, why not?” Eva hugged Lily closer, small comfort while her parents hissed their argument at each other. How damaging was that for her, knowing they were in danger, that men, faceless, nameless, were after them?

 “They’ll have flagged our names at airports, ports. Our passports are useless. We’re going to see CJ, a contact of mine. He can help. He’s our only way out. The longer you stand there, the closer these men get.”

“Does this have anything to do with why you trashed our house?”

“I was looking for something, I thought Lily had it. Turns out I was right.”

“You should have told me they were important.” Lily said, proving she’d been listening all along. “I’m not psychic.”

“Locked away, Lily, in a hidden safe, I shouldn’t have had to tell you not to break into it.”

Eva looked from Charles, “We have a hidden safe?” to Lily, “You broke into a safe?”

“It’s not that big of a deal.”

“You’re eleven, how did you know—”

“Does that matter?” Lily sighed. My parents, the Gestapo, her current favourite insult. “I just recorded the bleeps when Dad was opening it once. I’ve got an app that tells me what keys are the likely ones. Can we go now, it’s cold.”

“You have a safe-cracking app?” Eva dialled back her reaction, focussed on the important thing. “What was in it, this safe I don’t know about?”

“A chess set Dad doesn’t even play with.” Lily, trying to justify herself.

Eva couldn’t hold back her almost shriek. “This is about a chess set?”

“No,” he jumped in. “It’s about what’s in one of the pieces, information that’s been keeping us safe.”

“From this Society?”

Charles shook his head. “Now’s not the time.”

“Now’s exactly the time.” Eva snapped.

“It’s complicated.”

“I think I can keep up.”

Charles looked at Lily, shook his head again. He was right, Eva could have screamed. Lily shouldn’t hear whatever this was, she already understood too much. Eva pulled it back to more general ground.

“The piece is lost, you can’t get it back?”

“It was my wish stone,” Lily said. “The whole point is to lose it. It was Anya’s idea. You take a token, something little that you can carry around with you, you make a wish and, when you lose it, you wish’ll come true. I didn’t know.”

“Charles, something so important you couldn’t have put it in a safe deposit box?”

“No, they’re not safe.” That word again. “We have to get off the street. I’ll explain, I will, but later.”

“Come on, sweetheart.” Eva took Lily’s hand, and they followed Charles into a street the mirror image of the one they’d just left, more two storey flat fronted, square houses, yellow brick with dark painted wooden window frames and doors.

Eva’s coat smelt of the man burning. Every waft from the cutting wind blew his death throes at her, a punishment for what she’d done.

At least wherever they were walking seemed to be a nice area. At the last house at the far end of the cul-de-sac, Charles didn’t knock on the front door but took a couple of steps onto the short front path and looked up.

He waited.

This was his plan?

“Mum, I want to go home.”

“I know, sweetheart. We just have to wait while Dad does whatever he’s here to do.”

“Eva, Lily, come here.”

They joined him on the path and he pointed at her and then his left hand, at Lily and mimed a pregnancy bump.

“Playing charades, that’s what we’ve walked all this way for?”

Exactly what Eva was thinking.

Apparently Charles’ charade was too difficult for the person in the house to guess. The front door remained closed.

Charles pointed at his watch and gestured an oval around his face. Eva had no clue. Some kind of code?

“We’re freezing, Charles.” She tried to hurry it along.

He strode up to the door and knocked.

“Is this CJ even home?”

He nodded.

No handy letterbox to shout through, so Eva took her growing anger out on the door.

“Eva,” Charles chided, “you’ll just make things worse.”

“Will getting in there make us safer?” When he nodded, Eva banged harder, yelling. “Open the door.”

She nearly hit the man who did. He was around her age, immaculately groomed, in a white linen shirt over white linen trousers, small rimless glasses. She’d have said he was a yoga guru, apart from his socks, brown with smiling pumpkins lined up in neat rows on them.

“My husband said you can help us, can we come in?”

Charles cut off his retort. “I’ll forget about the extra you took in fees. But because you did that, know I’m in deep.” Charles looked at Lily, began again. “I was counting on the right amount for something serious. Now I’m short, I’m on the hook for it. I don’t have an issue with your higher fee, but you should have told me. As of now, I’m overlooking it.” His cryptic comments were the open sesame they needed. The man stood back to let them into the narrow hallway. “CJ, my wife Eva and daughter Lily. We need your skills, of course I’ll pay.”

“Follow me.” CJ led them into the warmth of what was probably the master bedroom in the