Page 61 of Mountain Struggle

“I’m sorry,” she said lamely. “I don’t know why I said that.”

Jens’s frown cleared up, and he nodded. “It’s okay.”

Before she could embarrass herself further, she moved towards the boy and his grandfather, who were both on the floor, surrounded by Lego pieces of all shapes and colors.

Jamie was wearing a look of intense concentration, as was the case when he was immersed in a Lego construction. He didn’t even notice she was there.

When Tess had first arrived in Chamonix, she’d spent hours googling the best organizational methods for the little pieces, looking for a system that would keep the pieces off the floor but allow Jamie to find them whenever he needed them.

Nothing had worked. Jamie liked them best in a large bucket that he could overturn when he started playing. It always amazed her, the complex creations Jamie was able to put together, at only five years old.

She’d watched his process, whereby he’d spend a few seconds, up to a minute, searching for the perfect piece. She understood now that time wasn’t time wasted—while he looked for the piece, his mind was thinking ahead to the rest of the construction. It was exactly like when she sat down to write—she had a vague idea of where she was going, but the details she only fleshed out once she was inside the book.

So she’d given up on fixing Jamie’s system—it wasn’t broken in the first place, and the Lego pieces were easy enough to place back in their large buckets when he was done playing.

“Hi Jamie, hi John” she said. They both looked up from the Lego.

John winked at her. “You’re going to have to help me get up,” he said in his raspy voice.

“Sure. Just let me know when you want to get up, John,” Tess said, laughing.

The older man looked at her for a moment too long—it seemed to Tess that he was also checking up on her, trying to determine if she was okay. Tess liked Damien’s father—she knew he and Damien had a complicated relationship, but John had always treated her kindly and it was clear he doted on Jamie.

Lately, however, she’d started feeling uncomfortable around the older man—like she was keeping a secret from him.

Since I started sleeping with his son.

It had nothing to do with John, of course, and everything to do with her, and the uncertainty in her and Damien’s relationship.

Damien asked me to move in.

He sort of told his son about us.

Does that mean I’m Damien’s girlfriend now?

It was a conversation she and Damien would have to have together at some point, but it seemed foolish to think of such things when there was somebody out there trying to kill them.

“I’ll help as well, grandpa,” Jamie said, his expression serious. “But first, look at the chameleon’s tail. It has a light, so he can see where he’s going.”

Tess heard a car and moved towards the window.

“Stay away from the window, please, Tess,” Jens asked tersely. She hadn’t even heard him move, yet suddenly he was standing beside her. “It’s okay. It’s Damien—he’s home.”

Chapter 20

Damien

As soon as he set eyes on Tess Damien knew, from the tight expression on her face, that she wasn’t doing well.

Physically, he didn’t have any concerns. Tess’s injuries from the previous day were mild and seemed to be healing well, and Jens had told him everything had been quiet all day.

Damien trusted Jens with his life. Of the entire team, Jens was perhaps the most overqualified—a doctor, he’d been a member of the German Special Forces Command for ten years before joining the PGHM. He knew that anybody trying to hurt Jamie and Tess while Jens was with them would pay for it dearly—just like he knew that, if necessary, Jens would lay down his life to protect them.

Emotionally, however, Damien could tell Tess was worn out—and, from the way she glanced at the doorway every so often, that she really needed to get out of the house.

Before his father left for the night, Damien asked him if he could stay home with Jamie the next morning, knowing the older man would say yes. Jens had immediately offered to come back as well, even though it was a Saturday and he was meant to be off.

Damien himself had spent half the night poring over more old case files, looking to see if any other cases jogged his memory.