Penumbra (The Midnight Society #2) (32 page)

Epilogue One

Shadow

I had been to my share of dinner parties before, ones that usually involved business dealings or someone showing off their estates and the new five-star chef they hired. Those were usually boring, and to some degree, awkward. However, the little dinner party we were having tonight, for all my new guests, was by far the most fucked up I’ve experienced.

The food itself was fantastic, a fusion of Cajun and Island flavors. It was nice to sit down at my own table and have a home cooked meal, especially after being on the road for so long. Aria seemed to enjoy the food as well.

I wondered if anyone noticed since the beginning of dinner, we were holding hands under the table.

Earlier, Beau and Cairo offered to cook—giving them a chance to acquaint themselves with one another—while Reiko, Aria and I sat down to discuss what our next steps should be.

The other woman Aria brought back with her, Isadora, a.k.a. the infamous Mr. Friday, had excused herself from our presence and retired to one of the guest rooms. Aria filled me in on what happened during the poor woman’s wedding.

At this point, Calisto’s body count was enough to fill its own cemetery.

Every person under my roof had a vendetta against her, and from the sound of it, was willing to do whatever it took to get revenge.

But that didn’t necessarily mean I could trust all of them.

I also had to reorganize my priorities. Finding Lincoln and bringing him back in one piece was now at the forefront.

The only thing that consoled me at the moment was the fact that Lincoln was resourceful, when he chose to be. He’d find a way to hang in there while we searched for him.

The conversation during dinner started off casual at first, pleasant introductions and comments about how great the food was. Everyone was trying to be on their best behavior. Even Cairo had decided to use a fork and knife tonight, instead of shoving food into his mouth with his over-sized hands.

However, the elephant in the room was so apparent that its ass was practically resting on each of our shoulders.

“So, have you always lived in New Orleans?” Reiko had asked Isadora, after a long moment of silence.

“I’m going to kill your sister. Tell me what the best way to do it is,” Isadora replied, looking straight at me.

And with those words, the eerie calmness of our little dinner party escalated into a dog’s breakfast.

“We need to get Lincoln back first,” I replied.

Isadora shook her head. “No. Your sister’s head at the end of a stick first,” she replied, calmly, as she set her fork down. “I have nothing against Lincoln, despite him being the indirect cause of my wife and my friends being slaughtered, but his life is not my priority.”

“You left out your family,” Beau said, in between bites.

Isadora gave him a wicked glare. “Delilah was the only family I had.”

“I have to agree with Isadora on this one,” Cairo chimed in. “If we can get to Calisto first before she commits another mass genocide, we may be able to save Lincoln as well. From what Aria said, it sounds like Calisto wanted to keep him alive, for some reason.”

“Calisto’s a psychopath,” Aria replied. “As far as I’m concerned, Lincoln’s life is hanging by a thread. We need to find out where he is and rescue him. Beau, you said your brother can help?”

“Half-brother,” Beau corrected.

I was taken aback. “What? Donald had more than one bastard? ”

Beau shrugged. “Shouldn’t be much of a shock,” he replied. “Old dad wasn’t known to be the most faithful. I wouldn’t be surprised if the zipper on his pants had voice activated sensors on them.”

“Your dad was a good man,” I replied, trying to honor the memory of my friend. However what Beau said had some truth to it. Donald was known to dip his finger into multiple honey pots.

“A good man with at least two known bastards, and counting,” Beau replied. “But back to the issue at hand. Lincoln needs rescuing and I know just the man that will get it done. I just need a time and place.”

I tried to get a sense of Beau, stare him right in his jade-colored eyes, but he was a difficult one to read. Perhaps I was getting worse at it? After all, I had failed to read Calisto.

Could I trust this man with Lincoln’s life?

“I owe him one,” Beau continued. “After all, I pointed a gun at him and almost pulled the trigger.”

That didn’t help with my trust level.

Aria leaned into me and whispered into my ear. “He’s rough around the edges, but ultimately, he helped us,” she said. “I wouldn’t have made it back to you if it weren’t for Beau.”

I looked at Beau again, and finally gave him my attention. “Give me a day or two. I have a source that may be able to tell me where they’re holding Lincoln.”

“I think all our priorities have shifted here,” Reiko announced. “The first thing we need is to establish a network and financial stability. Only then will we have the resources to fight Calisto on every front.”

“How long is that going to take?” Aria asked. “Once again, I have to stress, Calisto is temperamental. Lincoln might not have very long.”

“Without hard cash on hand for initial setups, it’ll take me at least a month to get the Midnight Society back to where it was before,” Reiko said. “With hard funds, it’ll take probably two weeks.”

“Well there lovely lady, no worries on that front,” Beau said. “I brought a whole wad of cash. Let’s say I give it to you in exchange for a favor or two.” He winked.

“Hey fucker, that’s my girl,” Cairo announced as he scowled at Beau.

“I know,” Beau replied. “You have to forgive me. Whenever I’m around an exotic beauty, I seem to lose control of myself.”

I whispered to Aria. “D
id he make a pass at you too?”

She nodded. “Yes
. But don’t worry; I’d rather get in bed with a goat.”

I was relieved that she didn’t fall for Beau’s southern charms. I had treated her so badly, it was a wonder that she didn’t run into another man’s arms out of spite for me.

“Great, we have another Lincoln on our hands,” Cairo sighed.

“Another Lincoln?” Aria asked.

“Another man that I have to watch out for, tempting my woman,” Cairo replied.

“Excuse me?” Reiko asked, annoyed, “But I can look out for myself. You don’t need to worry.”

Cairo snickered. “Yeah, sure,” he said sarcastically.

Reiko smacked him upside the head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t start pretending that you never tongue-wrestled with Lincoln.”

I didn’t like where all this was going.

Abraham, I could have really used your wisdom right now. You always had a way of calming everyone down during the council meetings, when things got out of hand.

Of all the people Calisto had to take away from me, why you? I thought she loved you like a father, as I had.

“You dumb oaf, it was before we were officially together,” Reiko said.

“We were still checking each other out,” Cairo said. “We had already gone on two dates.”

“This is stupid,” Reiko shook her head. “I was seeing Lincoln at the time too. We ended up together, didn’t we? I haven’t looked back since.”

Cairo eyed her suspiciously. “We already had sex at that point. Oh God baby, please tell me you didn’t sleep with Lincoln.”

Reiko looked down at her plate and frowned.

“I know, Delilah,” Isadora said, to no one in particular. She slammed her fist down on the table.

Did she just talk aloud to her dead wife?

“Delilah and I think we’re all acting insane here,” Isadora announced. “Calisto needs to die and we need to figure how to make that happen.”

“Did you sleep with Lincoln?” Cairo interrogated Reiko.

“It’s none of your business whether I did or not!”

“I poisoned all the food,” Beau announced.

There was a moment where the only sound heard were our forks, dropping onto the plates.

“Just kidding,” he teased, as he stabbed his fork into a piece of chicken on Cairo’s plate, and then shoved it into his mouth. “I thought I’d lighten the atmosphere with a joke. Probably a bad one seeing as how people are dying and all.”

And then, the chaos erupted again, with everyone’s voice shouting over one another. I took a deep breath and rubbed my temples.

This was the new fucking Midnight Society? These were the people that were going to help me take down Calisto, a criminal mastermind? How the hell was I going to get back my best friend with them?

Abraham, old friend, if you’re watching down on me now, I need your help more than ever.

Aria rested her hand on my arm and looked at me with hopeful eyes, ones that told me everything was going to be alright.’

“You want to get out of here and go for a drive?” I asked.
“I can’t concentrate here. I need to clear my head and figure out how to get Lincoln back.”

She nodded.

#

The rain had stopped and the clouds had disappeared. The night sky was filled with stars again. Two nights in a row, I was treated with this gorgeous view.

I inhaled the warm spring wind that breathed against our faces as we drove up the long winding path.

We had been driving in silence for ten minutes--Aria recognizing my need for quiet while I thought about saving Lincoln.

I turned and looked at her as the wind gently blew through her hair. She looked like a goddess against the backdrop of a perfect starry night. I smiled at her, marking the end of my period of silent concentration.

“You remember our first date when we were sitting in your car?” Aria asked.

“You mean the first date where we ended up eating at McDonalds?”

“Yeah,” she said with a smile.

“I’ll never forget it.”

“The air that night was exactly the same as now,” she said.

The look of happiness on her face suddenly changed, as her lips bent into slight frown. She turned away from me and looked out the passenger side window.

“What’s wrong I asked?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

Something was wrong. She was internalizing her thoughts.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” I repeated.

There was a long, agonizing moment of silence where I waited for her to speak.

“Can I trust you?” she asked.

I was puzzled.

“Of course,” I replied. “I’ll never betray you.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said. “Can I trust you won’t hurt me like you did again?”

I frowned. I wanted to give her the reassurance she wanted, but I remembered what needed to be done.

“I think I’m being the biggest idiot in the world for giving you another chance. But I love you, and that can’t be helped.”

We arrived at the highest peak of the cliff and I parked the car. I looked up into the glittering sky and couldn’t help but feel that the entire universe was looking down on us at this very moment, watching the story of our lives unfold like a drama.

“Why did you treat me so badly for those two weeks? I had lost my best friend, I had my life stripped away from me, and when I needed someone the most, you abandoned me,” she said. “I feel like I have a right to know.”

I looked at Aria and felt my heart break a little as I saw the look of hurt seep through her beautiful visage. Light tears trickled down her face.

“There were three reasons,” I replied. “I was scared, I was ashamed, and I couldn’t trust myself.”

“What were you scared of?”

“I watched everyone close to me die—Abraham, James, Brevin, and Donald,” I replied, “And all because I wasn’t smart enough to figure out that the person I was hunting all along was Calisto. She’s smarter than me. It’s always been the case. If she had been born a man,
she’d be running the Midnight Society.”

“You underestimate your own intelligence,” Aria replied.

I shook my head, recalling all the times at the Academy that Calisto had crushed my test scores without even cracking open a book.

“I was the Midnight Society’s leader, and at the end of the day, I couldn’t protect any of my people. I was played for a fool, and they all died,” I said.

“That’s not true,” Aria said. “You saved me.”

I shook my head. “I almost didn’t,” I replied. “Right now, I don’t t
rust myself. I know I said I’d always protect you, but I don’t think I can make that promise anymore. Calisto knows me better than anyone else. If she comes after you, I’m afraid I won’t have the brains or the brawn to save you. That’s why I sent you away with Lincoln. I thought he could protect you better than I ever could.”

Aria shook her head. “You idiot,” she replied, “You big stupid idiot.”

“It was also hard for me to face you, after Justin died,” I continued. “I was ashamed to look at you, knowing that I was the direct cause of your best friend’s death.”