Rebel Heart Read online

  Robert rose, walking to stand in front of the window, hands clasped tightly behind his back. "The world has a sudden chill about it. Yet winter is almost over. We should be looking at spring flowers. A few crocuses or daffodils would be nice. The east and the west coast are so very different from the mid-section. Do you think they will ever find a common ground?"

  Kaitlyn put an arm around his waist and moved closer to gather the warmth generated by his body, leaning her head on his shoulder. "The country is divided because their needs are different. While part of the country hides behind fear the rest strives to survive. Even their main source of income is different. I don't see how we will ever resolve our differences."

  "Is Savage on the way to the city?" Robert asked as he crossed his arms. "I have this gut feeling Tori will need him. He can't delay."

  Drake cleared his throat once more then steepled his hands, leaning his chin on them. "I delivered the good news a few days ago. Savage knows what must be done; understands he cannot stay in the mountains as he had hoped. But I would look out for Zaria. She was none too happy when she discovered Cameron was to wed Tori. Don't you think there might have been a better way to deliver the message? Jonathan didn't really like getting caught in the middle either."

  "I saw no other way," Robert said. "Savage knew someday he would have to honor the pact we made in the forest seven years ago. They will learn to love each other. Cameron has the perfect emotional stability Tori needs."

  "Whatever happened to falling in love the old fashioned way?" Even though she had not agreed with it at the time, Kaitlyn knew Robert had done the right thing. The codicil to the will was the only way to insure Quentin Morray never got his hands on Tori. The lab was a secondary consideration. But she didn't like it. Had not liked it when Robert had conceived the idea.

  "He has said he will bring back the Phantom. And he will protect her with his life," the corner of Robert's eye began a slow tick as he rocked back on his heels.

  "That fact does give me peace of mind." Kaitlyn tried so hard not to worry. But it wasn't easy. She did not like living thousands of miles away from her girls. Yet this was indeed her home. She had left it once, but she vowed she would never abandon this life for a stifled life within Tower City. If Robert chose to return, she would deal with the trauma then and not dwell on it now.

  "I pray he does not encounter difficulties from Tori."

  "Our Tori?" Kaitlyn questioned with a touch of sarcasm. Tori would be a disappointment for everyone if there wasn't a touch of drama where she was concerned. She could only hope some of the commotion would be tempered.

  Kaitlyn remembered when she'd heard the news of Robert's death. She had not believed it. Yet she had wept for days on end, wishing she could find death herself. Then she'd heard from Jonathan. Robert was alive and he would be coming to the mountains for his safety as well as a time to recuperate.

  Robert had been a shell of his former self when he arrived in early June. The four gunshot wounds had severely damaged several organs. Surgery and an induced coma had helped his body mend. But his mind...

  Kaitlyn had worked hard to help him overcome the severe depression that had seeped into him body and soul with tendril-like tenacity.

  Now seven years later he was still not as vibrant as he had been. But were any of us? He spoke often of the banishment, chastising himself for the places he had sent the girls. Nessa's was too hard for her gentle nature. She would never survive the regime of the school. And Tori's was too easy. She would have the nuns dancing attendance on her night and day. Tori would find a way to control her environment.

  Over the years they had heard tidbits of stories that somehow found there way to the mountains. But Nessa had always worried him. He'd sent them each a Great Dane for company and possibly protection. She wondered if the girls had found their true calling. They would have discovered it on their own. She had not been there to teach them and nourish the earth and the wind. If not used correctly, disasters of such magnitude could engulf the earth, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes... They would need to be careful.

  Tori had been given the gift of the earth. If she understood the calling she would be able to read the earth--pick up all five senses just by listening. She would be able to make the earth move to her command. She would have to guard her temper.

  Nessa could feel life through the wind. So many insights into life and what was yet to come. Nessa rarely showed anger and so Kaitlyn was not quite so worried. But Nessa could control the sky and the weather as well if she wanted to do so.

  They would both be able to read the future. If they heard what the world was telling them. These gifts would not be easy to learn without a tutor. But on the other hand their senses might be more keenly tuned if outside instruction did not influence them.

  After Tori's security breach two years ago, Robert increased the guards at both compounds. Consequently, since that time they had heard little to nothing about the girls.

  "Did you ever discover the outcome of the competition at Nessa's school, Robert?" Kaitlyn cocked her head to one side as she asked. She had hoped and prayed Nessa would win. She'd known all along Nessa was the fastest of the group but the competition was not just about speed.

  "I wrote several letters, all were returned unopened. It was the damn security I set in place. It kept everyone out." His voice cracked.

  "We should be glad the place is secure." Kaitlyn had breathed a little easier when Robert told her what he had done. There had been moments over the last two years when she had wished for news but the twins' lives were so much more important.

  "I only hope the lab in Tower City will prove indomitable and that Nessa's expertise with the computers data bank will keep them save." Robert said.

  "With Nessa manning the tower computer security system, I'm sure it will be." Kaitlyn smiled at the thought of her girls all grown up and so very capable. She yearned to embrace them.

  "And Tori doing everything to undermine its strength." Robert turned from the window, striding to the liquor cabinet to pour himself and Drake a shot of whiskey. He held up his glass, "To my girls."

  Drake accepted his glass, "To your girls."

  "Perhaps that is not a bad thing. She will test it with experimentation and Nessa will discover its weaknesses." Kaitlyn frowned and hoped all she said was true. The system would need testing and she prayed the girls remembered how to access the secret tunnel from their room.

  "Always the optimist," Drake said. "I hope your confidence in the girls is valid and their safety insured."

  "The world is filled with pessimism. I prefer to look at the glass of water as half full." Kaitlyn paced the parlor. "What I am most worried about are the friends who are really their enemies. People can be bought. I hope they have learned to trust no one."

  "Tori will rebel at the idea of a betrothal. Where on earth did you come up with the idea? And if Cameron and Tori are to be wed, she will have to learn to trust him and possibly the Phantom," Drake said.

  "Trust no one, my mantra. I discovered the idea of a betrothal in an old romance novel I discovered in the archives. I was trying to recuperate and was bored to tears. I had been on my back for months and needed to relieve the tedium," Robert said, stroking his chin and grinning.

  "Days," Kaitlyn corrected. "It was only days that you were on your back."

  "Well, it seemed like months. I had nothing to do so I read--read anything I could get a hold of--things I would have never considered days before." Robert looked pointedly at Kaitlyn seeming to say I acknowledge your time frame. "I jumped on the idea as a perfect solution to Tori's upcoming problems."

  "Securing the lab before Quentin Morray could steal it?" Drake said.

  "It does have its merits, although convincing the young couple this is best for them as well as the country will not be easy." Kaitlyn had heard a short version of Cameron's and Tori's encounter in the forest. She was heartily glad Tori did not have her dog with her.

  "Cameron is honoring
you and the commitment he made to you in the forest. Otherwise--" Drake said.

  "He would have nothing to do with Tori if I hadn't asked him for that favor. At the time I had no idea I would ask him to marry my oldest daughter. I had merely hoped to bind Cameron to the cause and not just his research," Robert said through gritted teeth.

  "A stroke of genius," Drake said, "and I don't believe you need to feel the least bit defensive. All will work out in the end.

  "No genius, the betrothal was a necessity. I had always prayed my daughters would find true love, but now it seems at least one is being bartered as if she were chattel." Kaitlyn did not need to have the gift of sight to foresee the battle of wills yet to unveil itself.

  "And no doubt she will fight Cameron until she finds herself in love with him," Robert said, musing out loud.

  "Let us pray she falls in love. We did not raise our children to go down without a fight." Kaitlyn felt herself tearing up once again and turned away to hide her troubling emotions.

  "Pray too no one is hurt in the process," Robert said. "Quentin will stop at nothing save killing Tori. He needs her alive. But I have heard horrific tales of the way he treats women. Some returned to their homes with scars that speak of torture."

  "That was quite the risky undertaking. How did you get Jonathan here without anyone knowing?" Drake asked. "As for the Morray's torture, these stories are not rumors. Everything you have heard is true. The thieves he captures he cuts out their tongues and sometimes cuts off their hands."

  "Jonathan's trip here wasn't hard to arrange. It was simply a trip to see his aunt. He came here under the guise of seeing relatives." Robert's head jerked and his fingers tightened around the glass he held, seeming to ignore the Drake's comments about Quentin Morray.

  "And he brought back a legal and binding codicil to your will," Drake said.

  "Perhaps our youngest can find true love." Kaitlyn had heard tales of rape and torture. She needed to ignore these stories, but she prayed the girls would take heed. Their would be spies at Tower City when the twins arrived and once more she could only hope and pray to the god's above, all of the gods, that the twins would not be gullible.

  "True love, soul mates, that does not happen often. You two are rare indeed."

  "And you are sounding a bit jaded, Drake," Kaitlyn said.

  "I have reached the age of forty-five and I have yet to fall in love." Drake drummed his fingers on the table.

  "But you have wed three times," Robert said,

  "Obviously, marriage is not good for me or the women I marry. And my inability to find a soul mate is not from lack of trying," Drake said.

  "And perhaps you were more interested in sex than you were the women you were with," Kaitlyn said with a rare smile forming in her heart. She had always felt a kinship with Drake and had wanted what was best for him.

  "Perhaps I was. They were all very beautiful," Drake agreed. "But, Kaitlyn, you know if Robert had not stolen you before I even had a chance to get to know you, well, quite possible we would have found true love."

  Robert snorted. "Well, I would have never let that happen. Back to the girls, they should arrive on the same day if everything goes according to plan."

  "Good, they will need time to reacquaint and form a viable strategy," Drake said.

  "They won't even know each other," Kaitlyn said, another tear sliding down to her cheek to be hastily wiped away.

  Victoria

  "Visitors, Tori. Do you want me to show them around?"

  From the lab, in the farthest section of the research center, Victoria DeMontville, head technician--Tori to her friends--looked at her sister with prudent concern. She was tempted to erase all the data from the multitude of computers sitting in front of her, but then again she was determined she would remain composed and business-like. As Advisor DeMontville's daughter, she was attempting to nurture a reputation of being a mature and competent research scientist, the perfect liaison to the Council of Representatives. In keeping with that scope, she had been spending her mornings in the laboratory and her afternoons in correspondence seeing to her newly acquired and desired respectability.

  Visitors, of course, would mandate a change in the schedule she had just made. Courtesy demanded that she entertain any political groups that wanted to snoop around under the cloak of diplomacy.

  These days one just never knew who would turn up at her door.

  "What group do they represent?" she inquired.

  "It's Sheridan."

  She swore then quickly bit her tongue. She had been trying very hard to control her language. Victoria DeMontville should not lower herself to gutter language--not as a banished hoyden might do.

  She glanced quickly to Vanessa, her twin and confidant. Nessa was ten minutes younger, a sweet and innocent lady, so unlike herself.

  Nessa always berated her when she slipped up and swore or did some other uncivilized deed. She was her conscience now that they were back together and trying to make up for the years they had lost.

  "Shut down the computer, Tori," Nessa said softly.

  "Well, then, there goes the whole entire day," Tori commented dryly.

  Tori moved quickly, rearranging files, hiding manuscripts, and very thoroughly obliterating, at least on screen, all progress in identifying and manufacturing a vaccine for the deadly signe virus. But more importantly, the process also hid her new research--the genetic surgery. It was not a difficult task. With Nessa's help, she had programmed everything herself.

  In keeping with the staid and dignified position she strove for, Tori had meticulously designed and choreographed the research facilities in Tower City. Computer terminals were connected to all the cities in the nation including all negotiable Outsider villages. All she had to do to placate these gentleman was turn on the alpha computer link.

  Yet even as she did so, she glanced at Nessa, the stubbornness in the set of Nessa's expression belying any pretense of the mature young lady.

  "You know Sheridan," Tori said, "He will have questions already prepared. And he will demand answers. If he only knew what we aren't going to tell him." She didn't need to say the words aloud. Both of them knew she was looking to find some excuse that could exempt her from this confrontation. She was anxious to get back to work.

  "You have no choice. You will have to put on your best smile and greet Sheridan," Nessa said simply.

  Tori paused then shoved the current logbooks beneath a stack of papers on her desk, nodding to one of her aids. "Give him the grand tour. Everything is ready." Hope nudged Tori's arm and she absently stoked the head of her Great Dane then rubbing behind his ears. "You're sure?"

  "Yes, Nessa. Begin the inspection in the sterilization rooms. Then move on to the botanical rooms. Sheridan and his minions will surely want to see it all, but we'll greet them first with the least conspicuous rooms, hoping to bore them to tears before they enter here. That should set them up royally, I think, and whatever questions they have perhaps they will have forgotten them. Hurry. I wouldn't want to keep them waiting."

  Nessa was grinning now. "You're deviousness will thwart you someday," she said wryly. "For now I pray your luck holds."

  "Of course it will. Sheridan is too naïve and he trusts me. He won't see anything. He'll never even guess at the subterfuge."

  "Don't underestimate him," Nessa warned.

  "Don't worry. I need only to offer him all the access he wants before he takes it," Tori muttered. "And with you as my emissary, I have sweetness and virtue at the forefront of my deception. He will never guess."

  "If he does guess, though, I do not want to be within a hundred mile radius of his temper."

  "It could blow sky high."

  "Now there's an understatement," Nessa laughed. "But it is not really a laughing matter, is it? And that's a fact."

  With serious eyes, Tori watched her twin, looking at her intently for several seconds. "Nessa...oh, how you have changed. Perhaps father was right. Maybe I did dominate you to the detrime
nt of your own character. I'm sure that today you've told me "no" at least ten times and disagreed me with me more than that."

  Nessa smiled softly then walked by Tori, humming quietly despite her sister's words. "I learned a valuable lesson. Don't make light of it. It is bad enough we have to show Sheridan our progress. But if he discovers the computer blocks and the hidden codes, we're in deep trouble."

  Tori watched Nessa with a mixture of trepidation and pride. Then she turned her attention back to the formidable task at hand. Hers was truly a fine laboratory, named for the tiny white flower she'd found that day in the forest. The flower had not served its purpose. Too tiny and fragile, she could barely coax it to grow within the confines of a laboratory; indeed, it was a rarity in the forest also. Still, she knew it was the link she sought.