Chapter 25: Eliza's Attitude Changed.

 

"Just in time," she said. "I've been cooking. Come in." Vivienne pointed to the apron on her body. Vivienne held the door for Eliza and smiled. "I'm so glad you're here. Killian will be happy too."

She was so considerate, making Briar seem rude and impolite.

Eliza came in and set her bag down and looked at the kitchen where something was actually simmering on the stove. "You've been busy," she said.

"I like to keep busy," Vivienne said, already moving back toward the pot. "Sit down. It's almost ready."

Briar went upstairs.

---

Eliza leaned against the kitchen doorway and watched Vivienne cook.

"Briar was different today," she said.

Vivienne's stirring did not pause. "Different how?"

"I had a certain idea of her. Based on what you told me, mostly." Eliza said it plainly. "You said she was jealous of everything, that she embarrassed the pack, that she had stolen money from pack accounts, that she had deliberately spread rumors about you to the elders."

"I said I believed those things," Vivienne said carefully. "Based on what I observed."

"There were two rogue wolves in the back alley today," Eliza said. "They came at us. I couldn't get the door open."

“OMG! ”Vivienne set the spoon down and turned around. Her eyes went to Eliza's face, her posture, looking for damage. "Eliza. Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine. Briar found a piece of pipe and stood between us." Eliza watched Vivienne's face. "She was shaking the whole time. She did it anyway."

Vivienne looked at her for a moment. Then she exhaled and crossed to her and put a hand on her arm. "I'm so glad you're okay. That must have been terrifying." A pause, soft and careful. "Briar can be surprising sometimes. I do believe she means well. I think it's mostly that she doesn't know how to handle how she feels about Killian and me. The jealousy comes out in strange ways and it makes her behave badly. It's not personal to you."

Damn it. How could she be so easily swayed by that idiot? It had taken months to build that picture of Briar in Eliza's head,* Kallie noted. *Months of careful work. We spent a lot of effort trying to convince her that Briar was greedy, stupid and jealous. We fabricated so many details.

"Now, Eliza is looking at us like this! What on earth is Briar trying to achieve? Is he trying to make everyone 'fall in love' with this idiot? Nonsense!" *

Vivienne echoed Carly, but she also knew that she couldn't give away her true identity in front of Eliza. She had to remain the considerate and gentle Vivienne.

"Mm," Eliza said.

"She's genuinely not a bad person," Vivienne added. Gently. Regretfully. "She just struggles. To be honest, I shouldn't have told you those things about her. I'm sorry. I was just... "Vivienne gently covered her face.

"Don't say that. You're just being kind." Eliza nodded once and did not say anything else, and Vivienne turned back to the stove and stirred the pot and thought about what needed adjusting.

---

Killian came down at the same time as Briar and dinner was ready.

Vivienne moved around the table with easy confidence, setting things where they should go, filling glasses, placing a set of cutlery in front of Eliza with a warm smile.

Eliza picked it up.

And moved to sit beside Briar.

Briar, that seductive bitch! Vivienne's hands paused for exactly one second. She finished setting the table and sat down in the remaining chair and picked up her own fork.

"Briar," she said pleasantly. "I hope you're hungry. I made extra."

"Why do you keep cooking?" Briar said. "You don't live here."

"I'm staying here," Vivienne said. "I cook when I stay somewhere. It's how I was raised."

"You've been here a week," Briar said. "How much longer are the nightmares going to last?"

"I really couldn't say," Vivienne said. She carefully observed the expressions of Eliza and Killian. Fortunately, everyone thought Briar's speech was too rude.

Briar looked at her food.

Eliza asked Killian about the rogue wolves. Two of them, she said, in the hospital back alley, not from this territory. Deliberately looking for trouble.

Killian's jaw set. "I'll send a patrol. The whole stretch behind the medical district has had problems. I should have addressed it already."

"You should have," Eliza said, and looked at him without softening it.

He looked at her. A beat. "I'll have Gideon coordinate it this week."

Vivienne listened and ate and was pleasantly interested in the conversation and thought about the rogue wolves and what they represented as an opportunity.

*The back alley,* Kallie said quietly. *Behind the hospital. Briar walks it every afternoon.*

*Yes,* Vivienne thought.

*And Eliza leaves early on Tuesdays.*

*Yes,* Vivienne thought again, and took a sip of her water, and smiled at something Eliza said.

---

After dinner Vivienne went upstairs and closed the guest room door and sat on the edge of the bed.

She lit a cigarette. She did not usually smoke. But tonight felt like a cigarette kind of night.

"Eliza sat next to that bitch at dinner," Kallie said. "After all the things you did to build that wall."

"I know."

The money story. The elder gossip. The birthday gift incident. Months of work.

"I know." Vivienne blew smoke towards the ceiling. "At least they won't disappear so quickly. Thanks to that bitch, they still act so straightforward and rude." Eliza is cautious. One good moment in an alley doesn't erase months of stories. It just means I need to add to the stories."

Or remove Briar from the alley altogether, Kallie said.

Vivienne tapped the ash and thought about that.

——

A week passed.

Nine weeks.

Briar had stopped counting days and started counting weeks, which felt more like progress. The nausea was lighter now, mornings mostly, gone by ten if she ate something plain and rested for the first hour.

The nursing station was routine now. She knew where the supplies were. She knew which nurses liked to be left alone and which ones asked her to stay and help. She was not fast and she was not always graceful but she was there every day and she was careful and that turned out to matter more than she expected.

Eliza had not told her she was welcome. But three days ago a confused elderly patient had been spiraling in the waiting room and Briar had sat beside her and talked to her quietly until her family came, and afterward Eliza had looked at her from the desk for a moment and said, "You were good with her."

Briar had held that sentence carefully all the way home.

Liam had called from the border rotation the night before. Tired but intact. He had told her quietly that Eliza kept her medicine stores at home, organized by category, accessible to anyone she trusted enough to invite in. That if Briar could get inside that apartment, everything they needed would be right there.

Nine weeks. Past the window for the short suppressant. She needed the next compound and she needed it soon.

She was getting closer to Eliza. She could feel it, the daily accumulation of small things that were not yet trust but were moving in that direction.

She just needed a little more time.

It was a Tuesday afternoon.

Eliza had left early, a family dinner, she had said, gathering her things with unusual speed. Briar stayed to finish the last bin run alone because it was just one bag and the alley was thirty seconds.

She came around the corner into the back alley.

Vivienne was at the far end.

Briar stopped.

Vivienne was talking to a man she did not recognize. Large. Standing very still in the way of someone receiving specific information. Vivienne had her back mostly turned and was speaking quietly, and the man was listening with the focused attention of someone being given instructions.

Briar stood there.

Then she thought: Eliza is gone. I'm alone. Go back inside.

She turned toward the door.

The hand came over her mouth from behind, large and complete, and she was moving backward before she understood what was happening, her heels dragging across the alley floor, fingers scrabbling at the arm and finding no purchase.

She tried to scream. The hand was too tight.

Then the blow came.

That blow came straight at her stomach. He held her shoulder to prevent her from finding any place to hide. His fist was as big as a sandbag. With a loud thud, it struck her stomach.