Some of OT that I've redone; Jake's in Copenhagen to meet with his uncle, who's also his employer. It's the beginning of Chapter 2, after his lunch with his step-mother in Paris and when he's received a couple of cryptic notes from Owen Taylor --
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After the shower, I downed some coffee and went straight to dinner with Uncle Ari’s client. Even if I'd had the time for a nap, I don't think I'd have been able to sleep; worries about my uncle were already driving me away from my happy place.
First of all, Uncle Owen had both the American and Danish mobile phone numbers, and he knew my address in Texas. He also knew the American e-dresses I'd set up for Tone and me, so the legal crap could stay separate from the rest of our world. Why wouldn’t he contact me through one of those? Why send a note via snail mail? I mean, yeah, it made sense with that key...but a follow-up? And to Copenhagen, when he knew I only came here every couple of weeks?
This is how it'd been for the last eleven months. Ever since Tone was almost knifed to death, in jail. His scars are almost as raw as his legal situation, because he revealed all kinds of illegal crap a judge, deputy sheriff, assistant DA and pair of Texas Rangers were pulling. Crap that got Tone's lover, a guy names Collier Winston-Royce, killed. I got tied in because I'd been through pretty much the same thing.
You see, I made this woman who worked for the city pay for damage she did to a city car; I was one of the transportation schedulers, at the time. Her name was Loreen Cullingham and she was cousins with that deputy sheriff, Wilbur Nussewald. He set me up on a drug charge and I did twenty-one months at a state prison. Then she and Nussewald pulled even worse on Winston-Royce, setting Tone off on his war against them.
I'd been out on probation for just over a year when he and I connected, and damned if didn't he get me an exoneration. But to do that, he'd pulled some pretty illegal crap, and the great and glorious state of Texas was not in a forgiving mood.
Only now it had a new Attorney General and he wanted to "put all the horror behind us," so Tone's lawyer, a guy named Castillo, was pushing to get a pardon in exchange for "the great service Tone did for the state." It looked like they were about to come around, too, meaning we could return to Copenhagen and begin rebuilding our life together.
If Tone still wanted to.
I say that because the last couple months he's been distant and irritable. At first I'd shrugged it off; the negotiations between Castillo and the AG had kept going on and on, and half the time it was before a judge who wasn't in any rush to finish things, so yeah, when I said it was tearing at us, I meant it. But Tone and I'd been through too much together for us to give in. Which is why it was so weird that he was acting like he'd stopped even wanting to try.
And now Mira was asking me why I stuck around. That was too damn unsettling.
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After the shower, I downed some coffee and went straight to dinner with Uncle Ari’s client. Even if I'd had the time for a nap, I don't think I'd have been able to sleep; worries about my uncle were already driving me away from my happy place.
First of all, Uncle Owen had both the American and Danish mobile phone numbers, and he knew my address in Texas. He also knew the American e-dresses I'd set up for Tone and me, so the legal crap could stay separate from the rest of our world. Why wouldn’t he contact me through one of those? Why send a note via snail mail? I mean, yeah, it made sense with that key...but a follow-up? And to Copenhagen, when he knew I only came here every couple of weeks?
This is how it'd been for the last eleven months. Ever since Tone was almost knifed to death, in jail. His scars are almost as raw as his legal situation, because he revealed all kinds of illegal crap a judge, deputy sheriff, assistant DA and pair of Texas Rangers were pulling. Crap that got Tone's lover, a guy names Collier Winston-Royce, killed. I got tied in because I'd been through pretty much the same thing.
You see, I made this woman who worked for the city pay for damage she did to a city car; I was one of the transportation schedulers, at the time. Her name was Loreen Cullingham and she was cousins with that deputy sheriff, Wilbur Nussewald. He set me up on a drug charge and I did twenty-one months at a state prison. Then she and Nussewald pulled even worse on Winston-Royce, setting Tone off on his war against them.
I'd been out on probation for just over a year when he and I connected, and damned if didn't he get me an exoneration. But to do that, he'd pulled some pretty illegal crap, and the great and glorious state of Texas was not in a forgiving mood.
Only now it had a new Attorney General and he wanted to "put all the horror behind us," so Tone's lawyer, a guy named Castillo, was pushing to get a pardon in exchange for "the great service Tone did for the state." It looked like they were about to come around, too, meaning we could return to Copenhagen and begin rebuilding our life together.
If Tone still wanted to.
I say that because the last couple months he's been distant and irritable. At first I'd shrugged it off; the negotiations between Castillo and the AG had kept going on and on, and half the time it was before a judge who wasn't in any rush to finish things, so yeah, when I said it was tearing at us, I meant it. But Tone and I'd been through too much together for us to give in. Which is why it was so weird that he was acting like he'd stopped even wanting to try.
And now Mira was asking me why I stuck around. That was too damn unsettling.
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That last paragraph is the basis of the rest of the story. Why does Jake stick with Tone? And the resolution needs to address that.
Problem is, I don't have the answer, yet.
4 comments:
Personally, I think Jake stays with him because he knows how badly 'Tone needs him. Without Jake, 'Tone would almost certainly be dead or at least be spending the rest of his life locked away. Also, I like to think Jake needs 'Tone a lot more than he'd like to admit as well. I imagine a relationship forged with so much drama would be difficult to maintain in calm waters.
Thats a definite possibility...but I'm struggling with it. I don't know if that's what the story's after...but it keeps rearing its head and nudging me, so who knows?
It will come to you.
I bought another copy of RIHC6 for a new friend of mine and I'm hoping he'll be a new fan of yours.
Thanks!
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