Page 63 of Mountain Target

“Was it really scary, Commandant Fontaine?” one of the girls who’d been sitting besides Ren asked as Beau walked through the gym. She was a slight thing, with a tanned face and a sophisticated-looking haircut that made her face look longer than it was.

Beau stopped.

“I could tell you how I felt at the time, but perhaps you might want to ask one of your schoolmates, who was there as well,” he said, staring at Ren pointedly.

The girl turned to look behind her, her eyes taking a moment to focus on Ren, who stood frozen, like a deer in headlights.

For a moment, Beau regretted his outburst. He wondered what he could do to take his words back.

Then the girl and her friends fairly exploded in excitement.

“Ren?”

“You were there?”

“Did you feel it?”

“What was it like?”

As Ren started speaking, they all turned their backs to him, excluding him from their little circle of confidences.

Beau stifled a smile.

“You know that girl?” Irina asked, coming up behind him.

“She’s the niece of … a friend,” he answered lamely.

“A friend, huh?” the young woman smiled. “You didn’t seem to be enjoying yourself up there.”

“Your boss was enjoying himself enough for all of us,” Beau replied.

The photographer laughed, genuinely amused. “He’s not the easiest man to work with,” she acknowledged

“Why do you work with him?” he asked, genuinely curious. “Your work is astounding.”

“Thank you. The thing is, he always ends up putting himself—and anybody near him—in the kinds of situations that lead to great pictures.”

“What’s that?” Gilles asked, coming up behind them.

After a couple more minutes, Beau excused himself and made his way outside. He was almost at the door when something pressed against his arm. He looked down to find Ren’s arm on his own.

“Ren. How are you doing?”

“Hey. Do you think you could take me home? We’ve been dismissed already.”

A cackle of girls surrounded him. “You really do know him,” a voice said, sounding very impressed.

Somebody else giggled.

Beau no longer wondered what an animal in the zoo might feel.

“I told you I did,” Ren said. She seemed to have recovered some of her self-confidence and pushed her hair back from her eyes. It was nice to see her eyes again. “He’s my neighbor.”

There was a twinkle in her eye as she said the word neighbor, that made Beau think perhaps he and Valentina hadn’t been as quiet as they’d thought they were, when they were outside talking.

“Uh … I could, I guess,” he replied, trying to answer her original question. “Drop you off, I mean. Call your aunt first.”

“I’m not a baby,” she hissed quietly, so the other girls couldn’t overhear.