“Well, you look like a kid to me,” Hallie said candidly. She knew that her outward appearance suggested she wasn’t far off his age. One of the side-effects of her transformation tohochlen.
“I’m not,” he insisted. Which just made him seem even younger. It didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. There was an edge to him that Hallie had noted with Jonah’s other men. Something she’d come across with low city’s street gangs. A familiarity with violence. And the way he was holding the gun let her know he was trained to use it. Her chest tightened with a familiar mix of apprehension at what the dangerous young man might do and sorrow for the experiences he’d had which had drawn that hard shell around so young a person.
“How did you get stuck with this job, then?” she asked. She seemed to have him all to herself, and she might learn something if she could get him talking.
“Jonah asked me. Personally.”
There was a weight and reverence to those words which told Hallie just how much of a hold Jonah had over the young man. Brock.
She thought back to the conversation she’d overheard between Knot and No-knot. Jonah provided the men in his employ with pay and food. From what Knot had said, it didn’t sound like there was too much fighting involved. Even so, from what she’d seen of Jonah, he kept his people occupied, one way or another. Giving them something to do and a sense of purpose, even if it was just obeying his orders. There were patrols. From the way the armed men had moved, Hallie also guessed there was some kind of training regimen. There was also the house and equipment to look after. All necessary tasks, but still a far cry from daily life in either of the island settlements, which had looked like it involved hard work from morning to night, with little prospect of real money. Although there was food available in the settlements, it had to be grown, produced through effort, and she could easily imagine there were times when even basic food was scarce. For a young man, bored and restless with his life, she could see how joining Jonah’s group would be attractive. There was more to it, she thought. The kind of hero-worship that Brock was showing didn’t just happen from being paid and fed. She remembered the way Jonah had stood outside the house, caught in the brilliant beams of the floodlights. His presence had commanded her attention, even from her hiding places - first in the stables and then in the forest. The effect must have been even more potent close up. And over time could have been almost impossible for an impressionable young man to resist.
“And do you always do what Jonah asks?” Hallie asked, doing her best to keep the judgement out of her voice. Brock may never have met his grandfather, but even so she was struggling to reconcile what she knew of Devin with this spoiled young man.
“He’s trying to build something, you know?” Brock said. And there was that note of reverence again. Hallie tried not to show her disgust on her face. She didn’t think Jonah had any intention of building anything at all, unless it was his own fortune and power. “Keep us independent of thehochlen.” The last word was said with an approximation of the scorn and revulsion that both Nicholas and Jonah had managed to put into it. Hallie couldn’t help wonder just how much direct experience Brock had had withhochlen. Even if he’d lived in low city with his mother, he might not ever have met one of the elite - Hallie certainly hadn’t. All her impressions and beliefs abouthochlenhad been gathered from what the elders around her had said and taught her. It had taken actually meeting and working with some of the elite for her to learn that not all of that was true. She wasn’t going to change his mind by arguing, though.
She tried to shift position, to get more comfortable, and winced as more pain shot through her head. She could feel her body working to heal itself, far more quickly than any human would. In a little bit of time she’d be more than capable of dealing with the young man. Just not right now. And there was also the matter of the rope ties to deal with. For now, she could keep him talking. It distracted her from the cold that was working its way through her.
“I met your mother, you know,” she said in a friendly, conversational tone. “She seems like a decent woman. Hard working. Did you join Jonah’s crew to get away from her? Some kind of teenage rebellion?”
“Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brock said, hot anger in his voice, shoulders tight as he took a step towards her, gun lifting a fraction.
Hit a nerve, Hallie thought, and kept the satisfaction off her face with some difficulty. It was hardly a great leap of imagination to work out why Rhodda’s son might want to be here, away from his mother.
“Does she know that you’re one of his followers?” Hallie asked. Another guess, based on what she’d seen and heard so far.
Brock’s face twisted into an ugly snarl and he lifted the gun. Whether to shoot her or smack her on the head with it, Hallie never found out, as the door behind him opened and two men appeared, silhouetted in brighter light from the next room. Hallie’s heart sank. The two people she least wanted to deal with right now. Jonah and Findo.
“You were supposed to tell me when she woke up,” Jonah said. There was a hard edge to his voice. Seriously displeased. Hallie wondered if he was the sort that punished every single failure of his men, and suspected that was the case.
Brock flinched, ducking his head. “It just happened,” he muttered, sounding defensive.
“We’ve been having a lovely chat,” Hallie said, voice bright. “He’s been telling me all sorts of things.”
“No, no, I haven’t,” Brock said, panic showing on his face as he turned to Jonah. “You know I wouldn’t. Not ever.”
“Oh, come now, don’t be so modest,” Hallie said, still in that falsely cheerful tone. “It’s been sointeresting.” She saw Jonah’s eyes narrow as he stared at her for a moment before transferring that stare to Brock. The young man looked like he might faint from fear, which was not going to reassure Jonah in the slightest, Hallie thought.
“Told you she was trouble,” Findo said, more than a hint of satisfaction in his voice. As he came into the room, Hallie couldsee a fearsome bruise and impressive swelling on one side of his face, which must have been from where her stone had hit him. She couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t won. Not yet. But she’d done some damage.
“We can handle one little girl,” Jonah said, tone dismissive. Hallie’s smile grew as Findo frowned. He was used to being in charge, and not used to being waved away so easily. “Bring her,” he said to Brock, and turned away, leaving the room.
“On your feet,” Brock said to Hallie, moving towards her and waving the gun at her. Glad to have something to do, she thought, and wanting to look tough in front of his boss.
“Really?” Hallie said, staying where she was. “Did you forget the fact I’m tied up? You’ll need to untie my ankles at least before I can go anywhere.”
Brock stopped mid-way across the room, frowning as he stared at her ankles.
“She’s lying,” Findo said. “On your feet, Hallie, there’s a dear.”
“It doesn’t matter how you ask me, it’s not happening,” Hallie said. It had the benefit of being true. She’d been left in an awkward position wedged between the stone wall and the wooden floor and had been unconscious and still long enough that her whole body had seized up. With that and the chill seeping into her bones, she was quite sure her limbs weren’t going to work properly.
Findo made an irritated sound and stepped forward, putting one hand under Hallie’s arm, lifting her to her feet. She made a low sound of pain as his rough handling made her head swim, but managed to get her balance enough to stay standing when he let her go. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of falling at his feet.
“Such a gentleman,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her words, as Findo turned away. “But I still can’t walk.” That was also true. The ties around her ankles were tight enough thateven standing was difficult, pulling her feet too close together. She was swaying slightly, off balance from the head wound and change of position.
Findo turned back to her and scowled, eyes travelling from her head to toes. He made a low sound of irritation and, before Hallie knew what he was planning, lowered his head slightly and lifted her over his shoulder so that her face bumped against his back, legs dangling down his front. He put a hand on the back of her thighs, holding her in place, then turned and walked out of the room. She wanted to object, to cringe away from being so close to him, at being touched by him, however impersonally, but she knew he was more than capable of dropping her back on the floor and dragging her by her hair or her feet. This was probably the least bad of the options available right now.
“I’ll take her now,” Findo said. There was a note of final decision in his voice and Hallie’s interest sharpened. He didn’t mean just carrying her. He meant taking her with him. That did not sound like good news for her.
