Page 10 of Fire And Ice

“Did you really see your old man standing in the woods this morning?” Steel wanted to know. “Cuz we never saw him.”

Amira nodded. “Yeah, I saw him.” She turned and went back to the door.

“Well, that’s fucking great!” Diesel barked. “Did you just up and invite your whole damn family here?”

Amira turned around. “I never invited anyone, not even the three men that are with me.” She went back through the doorway.

“Where are you going, darlin?” Luther called out.

Amira turned again and smirked at him. “It’s Amira, and I figure I’d go back to my cell honey. Since you all have nothing else decent here. Or we could go pitch a tent?”

He shook his head at her.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Your land. But I saw my grandfather and told you about the bad guys coming round, so I got nothing more to say to you.”

“Bad guys?” Luther looked puzzled. “Ahh, hell no. We’ve got more to talk about that’s for sure darlin. You said something about your grandmother coming back. Just what did you mean by that?”

Amira shrugged. “I guess we’ll all find out when she gets here huh?” Then she walked back downstairs and went back into her cell.

Her three protectors followed her.

Closing the door softly behind her the best she could. She paused. Diesel hadn’t left the door unlocked as she’d said. She just stared at the lock and her eyes grew wide. She’d never had this kind of power before. She’d also been surprised when she held out her hands to push that huge biker away and he went flying. She hadn’t even touched him but he went flying all the way across the room.

Kinsen stared at her for a moment then asked her, “How did it go? With Griffen, I mean. We heard some of it but not all of it.”

Amira looked over at him. “I told him to go to hell. I stopped caring about what he wants. He ran me out days ago and then he comes here to talk? I don’t think so. He doesn’t get to do that. I also told him I knew Milo wasn’t dead and he called me a liar. I told him he was the liar and I know what I saw. Then I told him we were done and that he should go back home.” She shook her head. “He did seem a little nervous when I told him my grandmother was on her way home and that she would sort things out.” She shrugged. “He didn’t take it all that well.”

Jacks shook his head. “Well, he wouldn’t would he? I don’t understand any of this. What the hell is going on, Amira?”

Amira got up and stalked over to the bars. “What the hell is going on? I’ll tell you. I saw him today. I saw Milo in his true form, huge as day, standing there in the woods this morning. He saw me too. He knows we’re here.”

“What?” Jacks frowned. “That’s impossible. We were all told that he was dead.”

Amira grabbed the bars and shook them. “That fucking bastard. He let the world think he was dead then followed us here. He knew he’d never find the mountain without me.”

The bars seemed to wobble as they bent.

The three men stared at her hands gripped around the steel as it bent to the side.

It took a moment before any of them could seem to speak.

“But if we can’t see it, he can’t see it either,” Kinsen pointed out. His eyes were still on the funky looking steel bars. Then he shook his head. “If Milo is still alive, he’s pulled the biggest betrayal than anything that’s been in our past. I can’t believe his dad would have been able to pull it off. Griffen just wouldn’t do anything like this. Milo was his golden boy.”

Amira growled. “Griffen knew I was living with Milo. He’s been around my whole life. But because I have blue hair and am the granddaughter of a shaman, he’s ignored me all my life. Do you have any idea what living with him was like? Do you have any idea how many nights I went to bed without eating all day? He may never have raised his hand to me but he ignored me every single day. I couldn’t go outside. I couldn’t even look out the window in case someone out there saw me. The only two people I ever saw was Milo or Griffen, so don’t you tell me he was a great grandfather either. He was nothing in my eyes. He couldn’t wait to get me out of his son’s house after Milo died.” She air quoted the word died. “I wouldn’t be surprised to find him out there waiting for me to lead them to the mountain. Well, I’ll be damned if I’ll do that. They are after the gold now and I don’t think they want to share it with anyone.”

Kinsen shook his head. “You don’t know that.”

“We always thought Griffen was odd but he is a good leader,” Jacks added.

Amira glared at him. “I knew the real Griffen Wicks. And the real Milo Wicks. He played my mother and he was going to trade me back for a bucket of gold from the mountain.” She stared at the men. “You all know about this. You even told me some of it. He used to glare at me and curse me under his breath. While it’s true, he never hit me but he let me know every day that he couldn’t stand to look at me. He cursed my blue hair because it reminded him of her. It reminded him of my mother and my grandmother. He told me that it made him almost sick every time he was with my mom. God...” She paused. “I hate that man.”

“I still can’t believe he would fake his own death.” Jacks shook his head.

Amira’s eyes widened as her hand reached for the amulet Griffen had given her before he’d pushed her out the door a few days ago. “Oh, my God,” she whispered under her breath.

“What?” Kinsen stared at her.

“Griffen gave me an amulet that once belonged to my mother,” she explained. “He said he found it in Milo’s things. How did he know the blood that stained it was my mother’s? Milo must have told him everything.”