The Hidden Gemstone

Chapter: 27

Cody's POV:

I shivered against the cold wind as it blew past me. The storm had stopped a few minutes ago, and piles of snow littered the roads and the sidewalks. It was one of the reasons I chose to walk to Alex's house instead of taking a ride; the Jeep was too old to make it through the thick snow, and Noah was too overprotective of his new car.

It took me roughly thirty minutes to get to Alex's house. My legs still ached from the exertion at the warehouse, but I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. I didn't think her father or older brother would be home after what happened last night, but I also wasn't expecting the old woman who opened the door to be at home either. I blinked and double-checked the address just to be sure I was at the right place.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked, her tone weary and bored. She was dressed in a knitted sweater and a yellow skirt, her gray hair tied back in a bun. Her face was wrinkled, but I assumed that was the contribution of her scowl more than her age.

"I'm a friend of Alex's," I answered, unsure of how else to introduce myself although the statement sounded foreign in my mouth. I was more than that to her, but I didn't mention it. "I came to talk to her brother."

"Which brother?" the woman asked.

"Xander," I answered. The woman raised an eyebrow as though that alone wasn't enough. At that, I remembered the conversation I had with Alex in her room, when she mentioned her grandmother. She seemed to have arrived early. I thought of what Alex said about her. "The scrawny one who likes music?"

"Ah," she said and moved to give me space to enter. "Him. He's in the kitchen." I moved past her and into the house, nodding at her. "Although what would a fine young man like yourself want with that little menace and his pathetic sister?"

I stopped, feeling as though someone punched me in the gut, even though none of her words insulted me. I turned around to face the woman and tried to keep my tone as calm as I could. "I can assure you, ma'am, your granddaughter is anything but pathetic."

"Keep telling yourself that," she said and I resisted the urge to snap, letting her walk out to the front yard. I now understood why Alex preferred to disappear into the woods than be within the vicinity of this woman. I tried to ignore her words as I made my way to the open kitchen. I found Xander sitting on one of the stools at the counter, his back to me. At the sound of my footsteps, he turned around and raised his eyebrows in amusement when he saw me.

"You look like you already met Grandma," he guessed, taking a bite of the Oreo in his hand.

I ignored his comment and got straight to the point. "I need to talk to you and River."

His eyebrows went up higher, and he shifted, facing the hallway with three rooms. "River!" he called. A minute later, the door to one of the rooms opened, and River walked out, tying her golden hair into a ponytail. She looked healthier than the last time I saw her. There was color in her face, and the bags under her eyes were nonexistent. She was dressed in a pink sweater and jeans, and her feet were bare, her toes curling against the cold floor as she walked toward us.

"He wants to talk to us," Xander briefed and jumped up from the stool to the counter, next to his pack of Oreos. "Have a seat, Martin."

River rolled her eyes but sat down in Xander's previous spot. My gaze traveled from her to Xander as I tried to wrap my mind around the lack of hate in their interaction. The last time I saw them, they pretty much wanted to throttle each other.

Masking my confusion, I sat down on the stool in front of River. I ran the events of the warehouse in my mind before sighing and starting, "Your sister's hurt. Like shot-in-the-leg-and-bleeding hurt."