Torn Between Times (Three Seconds, #4), page 5
“Stop playing that innocent game, Holly. I’ll be heading in there soon. So help me if I see your ass still in that chair,” Warrick said through clenched teeth.
There was some stammering coming through the speaker of his phone as he furiously typed away on his computer. When there was a pause in Holly’s protests, Warrick slammed a fist on his desk, “I don’t give a fuck! You should’ve thought about that before you partnered with Az. If I see your face anywhere near the office, the pizza place, or Val and her friends, I will kill you. No hesitation, and I won’t make it quick either.”
Warrick ended that call immediately jumping on another one. A man’s voice answered. Warrick didn’t waste any time with pleasantries, “You need to roll out the upgraded system now. New badges for everyone, except for Holly. She’s terminated effective immediately. I also emailed you a list of people the system can’t let in.”
“Do you need it installed at your place, boss?”
Warrick shook his head, “No, I already have that taken care of. Also, we’re going to have some visitors. Their information is contained in a separate email that you should have in your inbox.”
“Got it.”
“Thank you,” Warrick ended the call. He ran a hand through his hair smoothing it back. I don’t know if he had slept at all, but he looked much more refreshed than what I had seen in the early hours of this morning. He turned back around so he was facing the door, straightening when he saw me, “Hi, love. How are you doing?”
“I don’t want to be alone,” I said in a quiet voice. “I can’t sleep. I just see his face.”
He crossed the room, “Can I put an arm around you?”
I nodded. Warrick wrapped a comforting arm around me, leading me to a chair to sit. He returned to his desk chair, sighing, “You know I have security cameras in here, right?”
“Not until now,” I answered unable to meet his gaze.
His voice softened, “I’m only telling this to let you know that nothing happens in here without me knowing.”
“Then where the hell were you? Why didn’t you get here sooner?” There was no hiding the anger in my voice.
Warrick dragged a hand down his face, “My signal was spotty. I didn’t get the notifications until I was already almost at the door.”
“Why were you on the phone with Lou?” I asked wanting to change the focus of the conversation.
He rummaged in a drawer for a second, pulling out a box as he said, “Lou wouldn’t stop calling me, so by the time I had a strong enough signal, I finally answered. He was in a panic not knowing how to get to you and your phone was going straight to voicemail. The broken phone on the ground explains that, so here, take a new one before Lou loses his damn mind.”
I accepted the box Warrick had just pulled out, turning on the new phone. It was exactly like my old one, phone numbers included. I looked back up at him, “How?”
“I was able to rescue the sim card.”
“Well, thank you,” I said putting the phone down.
He leaned on the desk, “Val, I’m not going to let that happen to you again.”
“And how exactly do you plan to do that? I know I’m being harsh right now, but I’m being realistic. Unless you’re with me 24/7, you’re not going to be able to make that promise. Even then, you haven’t been a match for Az and I don’t want to risk you dying for the sake of me. Not when there’s so much at stake,” I leaned back in my chair.
He winced, but nodded, “Just felt like the right thing to say, I guess, but you do have a point.”
“Warrick, I’m hurting right now. I’m scared shitless, but I will be fine. I always recover,” I assured him. “We can’t change what happened, we can only move forward. At least I’m not bleeding out this time.”
He shook his head, “Fair enough.”
“What’s the plan now?” I asked successfully changing topics this time.
“Are you up for going into the office? I need you at a meeting,” Warrick asked returning his attention to his computer.
While I was trying to decide how to respond, he typed for a little bit until he looked at me waiting for an answer. I reluctantly nodded, “I have no clothes to wear unless I go back home.”
“I have you covered, if you trust me,” he said moving to stand up. I gave him another nod following him into his closet. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he had completely new furniture in here, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he replaced everything else with Az’s scent on it while I was asleep.
Warrick handed me a hanger with clothes fit for a business meeting: an airy, long-sleeved white blouse and black dress pants. He dug around his closet producing a shoe box containing grey pumps. I took what he was holding out to me and started working on changing in the bathroom. While my back was turned, he snuck in a fresh pair of underwear and a bra.
I met him out in the living room in the fresh clothes he provided, noting the new furniture in here, too. Guess he wanted to get rid of any reminders of what his brother attempted.
“Ready, love?” Warrick asked, handing me my riding gear.
“Yeah, I guess,” I quietly answered. I had no idea what kind of meeting I needed to be present for, but I’m hoping it doesn’t take that long. I’m also hoping he isn’t sliding me in as the replacement for his assistant.
I followed Warrick into the parking garage and pulled my bike into the empty space next to him. Throwing all my gear into my bag and putting on the heels, we made our way up to the top floor walking through the last door before getting to Warrick’s office, stepping foot into a boardroom. I almost tripped, and when I looked up, I felt all the blood drain from my body. Liam gave me a little finger wave while Cian glared at me. I turned around to leave only to run into Warrick’s chest. “Is this some sort of sick joke?” I hissed at him.
“You’re safe here, love. Please, turn around,” Warrick said in a calm and quiet tone. “They aren’t the only ones in this room.”
“No,” I shook my head. “I can’t do this. Not after what just happened. I can’t breathe, Warrick.”
“Val?” a familiar voice asked.
Warrick watched me as my eyes widened. I slowly turned in the direction of the voice to find my dad standing there in his military attire.
Chapter 4
Nothing could’ve prepared me to see my dad standing in front of me. My legs slowly moved towards him, my hand covering my mouth as more tears threatened to spill over. The moment I was within arm’s length, I reached out, letting my fingers settle on the crisp fabric of his uniform. “You’re really here,” I whispered.
My dad softly placed his hand over mine offering me a kind smile, “I really am.”
He pulled me into a hug, temporarily lifting all the pain off my shoulders.
“This family reunion is nice and all, but can we get this started?” Cian asked impatiently.
My dad and I pulled back. I shot the two vampires a glare. Warrick cleared his throat, “James, Val, please take a seat.”
I scanned the room seeing several pairs from different worlds seated around the table. Sarind and her second were there next to Liam and Cian. There were four other unfamiliar faces, though. Two looked like humans dressed in Medieval times clothing, insignias with dragons on their shoulders while the other two looked like elves from Lord of the Rings. My eyes finally landed on Lou who was sitting across from me on the other side of Warrick.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Warrick started in a very business-like tone. “There’s been some recent unfavorable developments and we need to think about moving fast. I’ve come to find the silver, venom coated bullets don’t work on Az and I have my team diving into other potential weapon options. I’ve never seen a wolf heal like that from something that should do some serious damage. Az is a much bigger threat than what we originally thought and we need to take him down fast. The last thing we need to do is give him more time to become even more powerful. James, please fill us in on the changes from your world.”
“Right,” my dad nodded. As he spoke, he looked at everyone around the table, “Our world has seen a lot of destruction up to this point. I’ve tried to relocate as many people as possible without raising suspicions, but it’s now getting to a point that I have to be very selective. Based on the damage and how fast we’re losing our military strength, we’ll be losing our world soon. His attacks are starting to get out of hand. He’s no longer just focusing on major military bases. Now, he’s targeting anyone and anything in his path relishing in the chaos he’s causing.”
“We need each of you to make sure you have your people ready on a moment’s notice. When you leave today, you’ll be given larger devices that have a bigger reach to allow you to transport more at once,” Warrick cut in.
Cian tapped his fingers on the table, “Have you been able to recruit anyone else outside of who’s here?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Warrick shook his head. “I have one more world to visit, sooner rather than later, but that’s my last target.”
Everyone sat there in silence letting this information soak in. I could feel the tension in the room, but was tired of no one saying anything. I kept my eyes trained on the table surface as I asked, “How do you know your next round of weapons are going to have any shot of working?”
Warrick stood up and walked over to the wall of windows. It was a cloudy day, I’m sure something Cian and Liam are appreciative of, but no signs of any storms. Warrick stood there contemplating how he wanted to respond. He sighed, “I don’t. There’s no way of testing these. I’m just hoping to take a chance with what I have. Thanks to you, I have blood samples so the best I can do is test them to see if the weapons cause any sort of reaction.”
I only nodded my head. It made sense he’s going that path, but there’s still a lot at risk in that not working.
“She does serve more of a purpose than just warming your bed, Warrick,” Cian said. “Poor Liam was hoping to get his shot this time around.”
My head snapped up to find Liam grinning at me. Warrick’s head whipped around, a growl rumbling low in his chest as he stalked back to his seat at the head of the table placing his hands on the table, “This is neither the time nor the place for that shit, Cian. Move on from what happened. Val has, you can too.”
My dad was watching me carefully. “What is he talking about, Val?” he whispered.
Not daring to take my eyes off the two vampires, I answered, “We have a lot to catch up on.”
“Your little girl isn’t as innocent as you think,” Liam chuckled.
“Can I circle back to something?” Sarind calmly interrupted from her seat. Everyone’s heads turned to her, the tension fading away.
“Be my guest,” Warrick said sitting back down in his chair.
“You mentioned our enemy has gotten more powerful. When you first came to me, you asked if I could see what the outlooks are or if I could try to see what would happen with him. There was a little bit of time where I could see those things, but now they’re gone,” Sarind explained furrowing her brows.
“What do you mean?” Warrick asked leaning forward.
“Anything I try to see that pertains to him results in nothing. I’m worried he might’ve gotten involved with an incredibly powerful group to help strengthen him,” she hypothesized.
Cian turned to Warrick, “Which world did you say you were going to visit?”
Warrick ran a hand through his hair, “I didn’t. I’m planning on going to the witch world. They would be a major advantage, but with what you’re saying, Sarind, I’m worried he may have beat us there.”
“I wish I could tell you if that were the case or not,” Sarind mentioned.
“Don’t worry about it,” Warrick waived her off. He turned to Lou, “Do you have any issues with making a jump two days from now?”
“Why not sooner?” Lou asked.
“I’m trying to give you time to get your affairs in order before leaving again,” Warrick said unable to hide the impatience.
“Sure,” Lou nodded keeping his answer short.
“What’s after the witch world?” one of the elves asked.
“We’ll be heading to James’ world,” Warrick answered with no hesitation.
I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to head back home yet, especially if it was as bad as my dad was saying.
No one said anything else, so Warrick stood back up, “Thank you all again for taking this time to talk through some strategy. Stick around a little longer if you can. I’d like to catch up with each of you to see how we can continue to support your groups.”
Everyone joined him with getting out of their chairs. I couldn’t wait to get out of this room away from Cian and Liam. I glanced at Warrick who nodded for me to come over to him while the others started talking amongst themselves. He placed a hand on my arm glancing at my dad approaching from behind me, “How are you holding up, love?”
“I’d like to get out of here. You don’t need me anymore, do you?” I asked.
“No,” he shook his head. Warrick removed his hand from my arm, extending it towards my dad, “Thank you, again. You helped drive the message home.”
“Happy to help, Warrick. If you don’t mind, though, I’d like to have a moment alone to catch up with my daughter,” my dad said.
“By all means, please use my office. It’s about the most private space you’ll get,” Warrick moved so we could make our exit.
I muttered another thanks and led us into his office, hung up on how formal Warrick was acting around my dad. I gave one last look towards the room we were just in. I guess Warrick was bringing everyone here last night which explains why his signal was spotty. After shutting Warrick’s office door, my dad and I moved chairs over to the corner farthest from any doors to minimize any chances of being overheard. My dad studied me for a moment before looking around the space, “This place is a lot nicer than I thought it would be.”
“The office or the world?”
“Both,” he answered still looking around. He finally brought his attention back to me when he asked, “How are you holding up, Val-pal? You were pretty anxious getting into that boardroom and don’t think I didn’t notice those scars you’ve tried hiding under the makeup.”
My dad has always been quick to pick up on when things were wrong with me. I let out a nervous laugh, “You don’t miss anything, do you, dad?”
“Nope, so start filling me in,” he ordered.
“What do you know so far?”
“Warrick only filled me in on who’s with you, who we’ve lost, and what Az has been up to.”
“Okay, I sighed. “I need you to promise me that you’re not going to get all wound up and try to make things right. Like Warrick said back there, we’ve moved on and are leaving that shit in the past where it belongs.”
My dad held out his hand for us to shake on it. I rubbed my hands on my legs, “Alright. I guess I’ll go in order. I’m sure you’re aware of Warrick attacking me once he found out I was trying to get info out of him.”
“Unfortunately, yeah, and I’m sorry if I ever gave the impression I was okay with him killing you. That was all a ruse to get Az off my back. I am proud of you for finding ways to get into my system and get everything you need,” he smiled at me.
“Took me a second, but Lou helped me eventually get it figured out. Anyways, I’ll skip through reliving all that part and just jump to where Cian and Liam came in,” I started. I took another steadying breath because my nerves were still wreaking havoc on me, then continued, “I decided to take out some of Cian’s vampires and he didn’t like it, so he got ahold of me with Warrick’s help and put me through some torture.”
“Is that why you have the scars?” he asked with a stern tone.
I slowly nodded, “Unfortunately. Cian basically decided to bleed me out and Liam got to have some fun. Nothing really happened in Sarind’s world, thankfully. At least nothing crazy negative, but what are your thoughts on Warrick?”
My dad leaned back crossing his arms, “He’s a loose cannon, let’s his anger take hold of him too quickly, and he’s aggressive. I can’t leave out the fact he’s crazy powerful and smart. He knows how to use those things to his advantage. He’s also related to Az who’s been a pain in my side ever since I found out he’s the one behind this damned war.”
It was very rare for him to throw any kind of explicative, big or small, into a sentence. I raised my eyebrows at him, but he ignored me as he continued his assessment, “But that man has been more instrumental in us making progress than anyone else. We would’ve been done for if he hadn’t reached out to me. I can tell he really cares about you, too, Val. It’s written all over his face, in how he carries himself, and in what he says about you. Why do you ask?”
“Well, because there’s a werewolf tradition, I guess that’s what you’d call it, that basically means him and I are destined to be together,” I responded holding my breath for his answer.
All he did at first was nod. Then, he leaned forward looking at me, “If you’re asking if I’m okay with you being with him, the answer is yes. Although, I don’t know why you’d need to ask me. You’re on your own now. You take care of yourself. I’d support you in just about any choice of man. Well, except for Az, but I think that one’s a given. So, anyways, what had you all shaken up before that meeting? It’s very unlike you to show that side.”
I dropped my gaze to my lap, “Az tried to pay Warrick a visit last night, but I guess Warrick was out trying to round you all up. I stopped by his apartment and Az greeted me.”
“What did he do to you?” my dad asked, his voice dropping to a dangerous tone.
I held up a finger, “You promised me you wouldn’t try to do anything. I can’t lose you too, okay?”
