Yes. Yes I do.At this close proximity, I could smell him. He smelled good, like that expensive cologne rich guys wore mixed with… something. Sandalwood,maybe.
“I don’t have time for this ego trip shit.” I spun away from him and walked into the room. “All right, pack it up. The contract is off,” Iannounced.
Maxine and Ronnie shared a look but didn’t question me, just started packing theirbags.
Jeremy Striker was sitting on the edge of the large bed in his pajamas, expression distressed, while Josephine snuggled next to him. He started breathing in and out rapidly, and I knew my decision to call off the protection had probably just given him a panic attack.Shit.I knew both he and Josephine from pictures. Now that I thought of it, I’d never seen a video or interview of Jeremy, it was always Damien. Damien was the face of the company, theschmoozer.
A growl came from the hallway and then Damien walked in. “Fine! You can take us in, but if you get anyone I care about killed, Iwill—”
A cocking shotgun cut him off.Maxine.
“We don’t take kindly to threats. Please try to remember that,” she warned in her Texandrawl.
I smiled. Maxine was a loose cannon, and one day she would probably do something that got us all in deep shit, but for now she was gold. I hated to start off a new client relationship this way, especially one that would be long-term, but Damien needed to learn the way things weredone.
“I told you he would be a jerk,” I said to Maxine. I was done being professional. This guy needed a reality check. He had most definitely screwed up my Zen. Master Aki would notapprove.
Maxine chuckled. “You were right, but he’s still nice to lookat.”
Damien groaned, ignoring our comments as he pulled a suitcase from under the bed, opening it to reveal brand-new sleek black dream bands. They were the new 4.0 model, and I was on a waitlist for them. They were supposed to monitor the heart rate, and if you became too distressed, it would send a small electrical pulse to wake you. It could also take in a team of twelve people, not the regular ten the 3.0 bands could take now. It would essentially put Tatum out of a job, but only if it could wake you before getting aninjury.
We’d found that there was a thirty-second delay from when you got an injury in the Dream Wars to when that injury manifested in your body in the real world. If Tatum could wake us before that, we came out unscathed. Thanks to my gift of mental communication, I was able to contact her from within the dream world, but there were dead zones and it didn’t always work. These bands could really come in handy in thatcase.
“My gift to all of you.” He held out thecase.
Okay, maybe this guy would redeemhimself.
I reached for one as Maxine leapt forward. “Dude, you should’ve started with that. I would’ve been a lot nicer to you,” shejoked.
He just stared at her emotionless, tired. “I somehow doubtthat.”
“Are y’all done acting like teenagers? I’d like to introduce myself,” Josephine Pearl said andstood.
Jeremy was peeking up at us from under his bowed head. He looked anxious as all hell, and I wasn’t sure if introducing myself to him would upset him or not. Now that I knew he had some social challenges, I didn’t want to trigger him more than I alreadyhad.
I turned to her. “It’s a pleasure, Miss Pearl. I’m such a fan. I tried to beat all of your records at cadet school but only managed two.” J. Pearl was the first female cadet at the Dream Wars Cadet Academy. She’d enrolled right after the Striker parents were killed, and she was a freaking legend. Now, even in her early forties, she looked fit and ready to whoop ass, wearing cargo pants, a tight tank top and two heavy-powered guns on her hips. I knew I wouldn’t have to watch her back. Her caramel skin was littered with scars that told a story of theirown.
She smiled, smoothing her black curly hair back, and shook my hand. “I’ve read your résumé and I’m impressed. We’re honored to have you. Please excuse Damien, he isn’t feeling well on such little sleep.” She shot him a look that said “benice.”
Damien just groaned again and put on his dream band. It made a soft hiss as it clicked inplace.
“I’ve been there,” I told her. Four days was rough, but I doubted he would be a fuzzy teddy bear, giving out free hugs under regularcircumstances.
She nodded. “This is Jer. If you want to ask him anything or communicate with him in the Dream Wars, you do that through me. I handcuff myself to him, so if he runs, I can handlehim.”
She was such a badass, but her statement also made me sad. How many nights did this family have to go into the Dreams Wars afraid he would run off and never return? If I were a mother, it would be my worstnightmare.
“Hi,” he said to me, not really making eyecontact.
“Hey,” I responded simply so as to not overwhelmhim.
In the beginning, you used to be able to sleep next to your family and you would all be pulled into the Dream Wars together, within the same vicinity. But the ghouls noticed that when that happened, the people would band together and fight in packs, so they scrambled the field of consciousness—or whatever it was they did—and we all started going in alone, in random places with random strangers. Luckily, Striker Industries put out the dream bands the very next year. I was ten, so Jeremy would have been about the same age then, and those bands allowed us to tie our consciousnesses together with one leader band that took the others to wherever they went in the Dream Wars. Now that leader was me, and I took us away from the concentrated war zones everytime.
Having a leader with a calm mental state, a controlled mind, was key. We would probably all end up dead if Maxine were allowed to lead the dream bands. Her anger and fear would drop us right at groundzero.
I nodded to Josephine. “This is Tatum. She’ll be staying awake while we sleep, and if I contact her to get us out, she’ll wake usup.”
Tatum waved and settled into the comfortable couch that had been put against the far wall at my request. My instructions before taking on a client were three to four king beds side by side and a couch for Tate with a bag of her favorite snacks anddrinks.
