“Wait. He doesn’t know?” She looked between the two of them.
Ace grimaced. “All I know is we walked for a long time. And then we rode.” Her brows furrowed as he continued: “I came in with a sack over my head. Agent Reyes does paranoid very, very well.”
She digested that for a moment. She turned back to Alex. Would the new understanding between them hold? Had he earned her trust back?
Alex held his breath. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake. Thomas had been adamantly opposed to the idea. He thought Lena needed a clean break with everything and everyone in her past. Alex had argued that she’d had a couple too many involuntary clean breaks in her life. Thomas should have understood. His childhood had been just as traumatic, but he’d put it behind him. Alex remembered what it felt like to be torn from people he loved, even forty-three years later. It wasn’t something one should forget.
She was suddenly subdued. Did she suspect how hard he’d had to fight for this brief reunion? She searched his face. He didn’t know what she found, but she nodded at him.
“I’ll be discreet.”
He returned her nod. “Good.” He turned to Ace with a sardonic smile. “Looks like you get to go home, after all.”
Ace squinted at him, and then he turned to Lena. “He’s joking, right?”
She gave him a small smile. “Sure. Reyes is the comedian of the place.”
“I’m a laugh-a-minute.” He put his hands on his hips. “We know the rules, kids?”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “No going outside? No talking about where we are or anything related to where we are? And like that?”
“Exactly.” He crossed to the door. “Unless Ace already ate it all while he was waiting for you to be done with your lesson, there’s food in the basket by the table. Enjoy your lunch. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Wait. You’re leaving us?”
Ace crossed his arms and raised his brows. “You’re going to trust us to be good? Funny, I kind of figured you’d be sitting here with us the whole time, holding our hands, and leading us in campfire songs.” That earned a smile from Lena. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were the trusting type, Alex.”
The excitement and gratitude playing over Lena’s face made it worth the hassle.
“I’m not. But everyone has to start sometime.”
***
Alex left them and headed straight for his little-used office. After the frenzy of activity at the Council offices in Azcon following Lena’s disappearance from the collapsed Council building six weeks before, he had earned an hour of quiet. He also had no desire to rehash this decision with Thomas. He had as much a right to make it as his partner did. That was a simple fact.
They had originally envisioned themselves running things together from this end. As soon as it was practical, Alex had taken a large step back. He’d reassured Thomas that he wasn’t relinquishing his founding role, merely using his strengths in the best way he could to further their cause. He belonged out in the trenches. Thomas didn’t always understand the decision.
Maybe Thomas needed help? He had to manage a zone, a school, and a quiet revolution’s worth of reports on the Council’s actions. Alex had only himself, the plan, and the people on the ground. It hardly seemed a fair division of labor. Perhaps it was time to find a replacement Alex, someone with the skills and the tenacity and the drive to bring their ideas to fruition on the outside.
Which brought him around to Jackson Lee.
Alex had a moment’s warning when he heard the lock click over. Other than himself, only his partner had access to this office. He sighed.
Thomas leaned against the jamb. “Thought I might find you here. Left them alone, did you?”
Alex pursed his lips and nodded, unrepentant. He’d made his views clear. That Thomas had thought he’d talked him out of them was irrelevant.
Thomas came into the room and closed the door. He sat heavily on a chair placed at an angle to the desk. Alex leaned back in his own chair and hiked his feet up onto the desk, crossing them at the ankles. His friend was gathering his thoughts. He let him gather.
“My objections to this friend of hers, and to this visit, are not rooted in a desire to keep her isolated.” Thomas raised his pale regard to Alex. “She is both young and volatile—”
Alex’s mind flashed back to the scene he’d walked in on: Lena grinning up at Jackson, green eyes shining and full of mischief, legs wrapped around his waist. He forced the memory away. “Do you think I haven’t taken that into consideration?”