Terkels twist, p.2
Terkel's Twist, page 2
“Damn it, Terk,” Levi growled, shooting him a look, before turning to look at Ice. “No secrets. Remember that?”
“No secrets, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for discretion.” Then she turned, looked at the others, and added, “Bailey’s not here. It’s just Alfred in the kitchen. So it’ll be a little less fancy.”
“I don’t need fancy,” Terk replied.
At that, Alfred returned with a big tray of cinnamon buns. “You forgot to mention that Celia’s been in the kitchen helping me too.” Alfred beamed. “I keep trying to get her out of there, but she won’t listen.”
“None of you ever listen,” Levi growled again. “We do the best we can do, but it’s like shepherding goats.”
“I think the phrase is sheep.” Celia walked in calmly, carrying a stack of plates, and put them on the sideboard. Terk sat in the closest chair.
“Well, sheep at least follow along blindly,” Levi snorted. “Trying to get you guys to do anything is impossible.”
“That’s because we know that you’re doing it to get us out of the way.” Celia picked up a plate and plunked a large cinnamon bun on it, then walked over and put it down in front of Terk. Then she went back and grabbed another plate and did the same for Merk. When she went back a third time, Terk looked over at Levi. “See? You might get one after all.”
“I’ll probably have to get it myself though.” He growled yet again.
He watched as the cinnamon buns quickly got divvied up. But, before he could say anything, Ice walked over and put a large plate down in front of him, with two cinnamon buns. “Just in case you really feel like we did you wrong,” she murmured.
He glared at her. “You know these are cinnamon buns, right?”
“Yep, I sure do.” She gave a bright chuckle. “I also know that you get them all the time.”
“Sure, but I haven’t had one in a while, at least a couple days.” He rubbed his hands together, looking at the plate with delight.
Terk watched the byplay, a smile on his face. It was so lovely to see them together. For the longest time, he thought a romantic partnership wasn’t something they could manage long-term, so their energy sliding along in a cozy pairing made his heart smile. His own intuition warned him that those two strong-willed and dominant people in a relationship would always be a challenge. Yet they were still handling everything pretty well.
So maybe challenges themselves weren’t bad after all. And, for these two, maybe that was what really made things work for them. Terk didn’t say it out loud, but they had restored his faith in humanity, and somehow they seemed to have done that for a lot of people.
They were the first couple to marry and to have children in their circle of professionals, and, because they had survived, they were now surrounded by many other happy couples. The energy flowing easily from Levi and Ice then raised the energies of everyone in the vicinity, which in turn made the collective energy vibrate at a higher level, thus repeating the cycle. “How many weddings do you have scheduled this year?” Terk asked.
Ice rolled her eyes. “There have been requests for quite a few actually.”
The little bit of hesitation in Ice’s words and mannerisms had Terk eyeing her expectantly.
She added, “But some people have family who can’t come. Well, that and the security risks. And others just wanted to have a quiet affair, and then, of course, some wanted to go to Vegas.”
Merk snorted at that, but he kept his head down and buried in the cinnamon bun. “Ceremony is just that, ceremony,” he stated. “It really has nothing at all to do with the life that you live.”
“That’s our opinion too,” Ice agreed, “but, for some people, there’s a reverence to the pomp that helps solidify the seriousness of a promise made. And, in your case”—she looked at Merk—“you never really got a divorce.”
“Well, we did, but I guess we didn’t …” He shrugged, gave Ice a gentle smile. “Who knew that, even drunk, I could pick out the best partner.”
At that, Ice laughed. “And apparently it was reciprocal.”
“Absolutely.” The conversation was light and gentle for the rest of the time, as Terk scarfed down the cinnamon bun, even as he kept one eye on Celia.
As soon as his plate was empty, he pushed it back and said, “We need to talk, Ice. What are the plans?”
“Yep,” Ice agreed, “that’s number one,” as she looked at the tablet in her hand. “Terk, update us. What are we facing?”
With that, Terk quickly went over the news from the last scenario.
“Should we expect the rest of your team to come?” she asked. “Or just half of them?”
“I tried hard to keep them out of it. So I don’t know. There have been so many attempts on their lives already, I didn’t really want them all in the same place, while another attack is happening.”
“That’s what being a leader is all about,” Levi noted calmly. “We have a lot of people trying to get involved in this too.” He frowned and continued. “I know you don’t like that idea, but we have to do something in order to keep the information flowing.”
“Are you sure you guys don’t want to take off and just let Merk and me handle it?”
“Not happening,” Ice stated, her voice cool. “This is our home. They brought us into this by sending Celia here. And, if I haven’t said it to you before, I’m staying.”
“Thank you very much for letting me come in. And … for staying,” Celia added.
“You’re welcome,” Ice replied gently. “When shit hits the fan, this is the stuff we do. So far, since your arrival, we have had no attacks on our compound … yet.” Ice stared at Terk.
“No, but there will be.”
“When?” she asked almost immediately.
“Forty-two hours at best.”
That answer was so precise, her eyebrows went up. She wrote it down, then checked the wall clock immediately. “Now that’s a very specific figure.”
“It is. And accurate, as near as I can tell you at this point.”
“Good, that gives us time to prepare.” Ice looked over at Levi. “That’s shorter than we thought but maybe better than we deserve. We’ve got a lot of security plans in place because we’ve been expecting this—and we do have a skeleton crew of us here.”
Terk nodded. “Is Stone around?”
“Yes, Stone is definitely here.” She smiled.
“And I presume the satellite is up and running?” Terk asked them.
“Always,” Levi said, stepping in. “We have all the entrances and exits covered. We’ve enlarged our coverage area a bit, and we’ve got hidden cameras around, approaching the area. I’ve got offers going to buy a few more acres around our place, so we can expand our security a bit farther,” he shared, “but, so far, I haven’t managed to get any bites yet.”
“That would be a good move.” Terk stared off in the distance. “This won’t be the only attack at your place.”
“Nope, it’s not the first and sure won’t be the last,” Levi agreed. “Considering that families are expanding here, it’s not a bad idea to continue to expand our holdings as well.”
“Did you consider buying one of the properties next over?” Terk asked. “It’s coming up for sale.”
“Which one?” Ice looked at him.
Terk frowned, got up, and moved to the map in the middle of the dining room table. Then slowly turning the map, Terk pointed with his finger. “That one.”
“MacGyver’s place,” Ice noted.
“Yes, that’s the name.”
“Any idea why he’s selling?”
“He’s got cancer. The family won’t want to keep it after he’s gone, so he’ll sell it first.”
At that, Levi got up and walked out of the room. Ice nodded. “He’s good friends with MacGyver.”
“Sorry but also good. It’s perfect timing too.”
“That would be great, if we can come to an agreeable price,” Ice said.
“He’s got a large property.”
“Yes, he does. Quite a few acres.”
”That would be a very helpful holding to have,” Terk added.
“Agreed.” She hesitated. “Terk, is there anything else you’ve intuitively picked up on that we should know?”
“I’m not sure. Everything feels odd here.”
“Well, take some time to adjust.” Then she turned her attention to Celia, looking over at her keenly. “Are you feeling okay? Do you need to lie down?”
Celia waved her hand. “I’ll be fine. This is pretty fascinating to watch. Do you always believe what he says?”
“Always.”
Terk looked at her. “Are you ready to tell me what happened to you?”
“More than what Ice already told you?”
“While I did hear some things from Ice, I find that it’s always better to hear things in someone’s own words.”
“Well, I don’t remember very much,” Celia stated flatly.
He frowned. “Were you drugged, do you think?” he asked, then turned to look at Ice.
“Yes, she did have quite a cocktail in her system, when we brought her into the compound, and we’ve been doing as much as we can to get that cleaned out. We have already cleared some of the issues, but obviously stress is a huge factor. Plus, being pregnant limited our treatment options.”
“Of course,” he murmured. He studied Celia intently.
She shifted uneasily, stiffening, then she glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Do you have any foreign connections?”
She looked like she had been struck by a thousand watts. “Why would you even ask that?”
“Where were you six, seven months ago?”
She flushed, then glared again.
He just gave her that flat stare. He knew when people were hiding something, and, although she had every right to be upset over what had happened, he had to be sure nothing was hidden from him. Trust had to work both ways.
“I was in London at the time.”
At that, he sat back. “Doing what?”
Celia looked at Merk and then Ice. When her gaze landed on Terk, again a flash of hostility crossed her face. She turned her head. “I was there for an interview.”
“And then what?” he asked, his gaze unwavering.
“I’m not exactly sure. I did a bunch of work in England,” she said thoughtfully. “And then I traveled to France. … Nothing seemed to be any different or out of ordinary. Nothing seemed to be difficult. It was all good. Normal—until I was kidnapped.”
“When did you realize you were pregnant?”
“When I woke up here. I don’t think I realized it even while I was walking here. As far as Ice could tell, I’m approximately six months along.” Her glare upped in wattage. “And, no, I don’t know how this child was conceived or what happened afterward.”
He could see her pain, the fear of finding out the truth of what happened to her. … “Zero signs?”
“This entire conversation is making me uncomfortable.”
“That’s fine.” He continued to study her. “You can blame me all you want. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re carrying my child and that I want to know exactly how that happened and how you are connected to these attacks.”
“I’m not. I’ve got nothing to do with it.” She stood and held her belly protectively. Her words were literally venom now, and her eyes shot daggers. “And it’s not your child. Maybe you should explain to me why you think it is and how I got that way?”
*
Celia just wanted to get away. There was almost a magnetic spell around that man, but he was also dangerous as hell. Her hands cradled her belly. While she waited on Terk to respond, she repeated the mantra in her head, We’ll be fine, a mantra that she had been working on ever since she found out the crazy turn her life had taken. We’ll get through this. We’ll be fine.
Though, in reality, she wasn’t sure how she was ever supposed to be fine, given this nightmare she was in. She had hoped that, when she saw Terk, she would recognize him and would have remembered something about him and that somehow this would all begin to make sense.
But there wasn’t anything. Nothing at all.
How was it even possible? He said he was the father of her child, but she could only look at him suspiciously because she’d never met him before. So how had he impregnated her? She could only imagine the ways such an event could have come about. None of them filled her with joy, nor gave her any measure of comfort. She had absolutely no idea who the father of her child was because she had no way of knowing when or how she got pregnant in the first place. A fact that just blew her away.
“So you’ll ask me questions but not answer mine?” Celia asked Terk.
She didn’t live in a world of casual relationships, where people routinely had unprotected sex and got pregnant out of the blue like that. She was always extremely careful, and her last breakup had been just ugly enough that she wasn’t even close to being interested in another relationship and hadn’t been for a long time. Yet she’d been kidnapped, held captive, impregnated, wired up with C-4, and released in an unknown rural area.
When?
Where?
And most certainly, why?
But she also knew this world was pretty messed up, and all kinds of people were out there. People who didn’t give a crap and had ulterior motives, which also made her very suspicious of everything and everyone. Including him.
The bottom line was that this mess was not what she wanted in any way, shape, or form. She needed to find the answers, or she would never be safe. To have Terk so adamant about her baby’s paternity had sent her world into a tailspin.
She turned, left the dining room. She only stopped at the kitchen door, when, out of the corner of her eye, Alfred stepped out and handed her a cup of soothing tea. She smiled out of habit. “I’m really not an invalid. You know that, right?”
“I know you’re not an invalid,” Alfred stated, “but this meeting was always going to be stressful.”
“Right from the beginning.”
“So, if there’s anything we can do to make it easier, we should.”
“Why does everybody think it’s his child?” she murmured.
“I don’t know, but Terk is …” Alfred stopped abruptly, thinking about how much to tell her, then frowned, deciding it best to leave it to the others to tell her. “Let’s just say, … Terk knows stuff.”
She stared at him. “Knows what stuff? And why haven’t I heard about it?”
“You have. People have mentioned it, yet you’ve barely scratched the surface of the crazy. The details are not mine to tell you, and that’s probably how everyone feels around here.” He shrugged. “It’s just that nobody’s come out and said anything clearly yet. But that conversation where he knew about the neighbor having cancer and it being the right time to buy real estate? Well, that’s prime Terk for you.”
“Maybe,” she murmured, “but here I am, carrying a child, … six months’ pregnant. Yet everybody else seems to know something about it that I don’t. I didn’t even know I was pregnant, until I woke up here.”
Alfred immediately patted her shoulder gently. “Honestly, this has been something Terk has been trying to deal with during the same time as well.”
“Right.” Celia took a deep breath. “I just wish he didn’t think I was to blame.”
At that, his voice sounded from behind her. “As soon as I know you’re not to blame, then I’ll be fine with it. In the meantime, from my perspective, it looks very suspicious.”
She turned and glared at him. “Well, from my perspective, you don’t look that believable either.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know you. I don’t know who the father of my child is. I wasn’t expecting to be pregnant, and believe me. I feel very leery of all males right now. To think that I’m in this position and have no conscious memory of how I got here is terrifying.”
“Yet earlier you said I was not the father.”
“What?”
“Right out in the hall, you very specifically said, I was not the father of this child. Why did you say that?”
“Because I don’t know you. It’s not possible. It can’t be. And, if it is possible, then I don’t trust you.”
“That I can understand,” he agreed. “I can tell you, however, I had nothing to do with it. I did not rape you. I didn’t force myself on you in any way. I haven’t donated to a sperm bank. Until all this started, I had no knowledge of the existence of a child—or of you for that matter.”
She sagged under his revelations. “Well, at least that’s plain talk.”
“I do find plain talk works the best,” he noted, “in my world anyway.”
She nodded slowly. “Nothing makes any sense right now.”
“That is often the way this kind of thing happens,” he murmured. “I’m very sorry that you’re in this situation. It’s definitely something I would not have wanted for anybody. It’s certainly not something I thought would happen personally in my own life,” he stated, sounding resigned. “Are you angry about the pregnancy?”
“I’m scared,” she stated bluntly. “I’m in an ugly scenario of having lost months of my life. You’re making claims that it’s your child, and, all the while, I don’t have the slightest idea how I even got into this situation. Yet at the same time, my maternal instincts have already kicked in, and I don’t want anything to happen to my child.”
He smiled, although it wasn’t enough to hide the jet lag.
And something about that tilt of his lips made her realize just how tired he was and how reasonable he was trying to be.
He added, “Believe me. I don’t want anything to happen to him either.”
“Him?”
“Him.” Terk nodded. “Male energy.”
“Are you ever wrong?”
A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “Not that I can remember.”
She groaned, as she stared at him. Just because she had come to the same instinctive answer herself didn’t help. She also thought she knew something else that she had no intention of sharing at this time. “If, for the moment, we consider the fact that you aren’t wrong, I don’t even want to think about how?” she asked, scared and edging away from him. “Somehow we—you and I—produced a fetus that neither of us knew about?”
