Tuesday Teaser July 31, 2018: Gina’s Wolf Part 21

Can you believe tomorrow is August? Only twenty-three more days until kids go back to school in North Dakota! I bet all you moms out there are counting the days. My mom always put the flag out for the first day of school. She said it should be a national holiday.  LOL! More importantly to me, only two more months of hot weather. I die during the summer. I don’t like heat and even though North Dakota doesn’t get as hot as other places and the summer is really only four months long, I long for fall before June is done.

I have been working on Gina’s Wolf and I think I need to do some re-writing. Gina has become too vague. I mean, I’ve always seen Gina as a strong, stand-up-for-herself woman. Not a whiner or a too-stupid-to-live sort of woman, but someone with strong opinions and a secretly iron will. Not as brash as Glory or Victoria, and not just blurting out whatever is on her mind, but when I re-read, I don’t feel like I know who she is anymore. What are her feelings for Cole? She doing a lot of kissing and groping already and I’m not sure she would. I’m going to run that by my local critique group and get their take on Gina’s personality.

What do you think?

Here is the first bit of Chapter 8:

Chapter Eight

An hour later Gina was seated between Cole and his dad at a long table in the mayor’s office in City Hall. Four other men from Cole’s family stood against the wall. She had been introduced to them on the way over. They all had such odd names, like Stone and Sky, and even though they were fully dressed, they seemed somehow feral with their long black hair and hard faces. The conference room, with blank white walls, tan carpet, and a large wooden table, was staid. Pens and stacks of blank paper sat on the highly polished table  in front of each of the twelve chairs. It was business-like and official. Cole’s family just didn’t seem to fit the boring, civilized furnishings.

A few of the leading men of Omaha were at the table. Mayor McGrath occupied the chair at the head of the table, wearing a neat, plain brown suit, his gray-streaked brown curls neatly combed. Although she’d never officially met the mayor before, she had served him coffee more than once. The first time she’d seen him she’d been surprised by his plain and casual attire. That was not how her stepfather dressed. On top of that, Mayor McGrath was always polite even to a nobody who served him at the coffee shop across the square from City Hall. He always had a friendly word for anyone he came in contact with.

This afternoon, when Cole and his dad introduced her with a brief explanation of who she was to Todd and asked that she be allowed to attend the meeting, he nodded calmly. Maybe strange young women often demanded to be included in crucial city affairs.

“You are welcome,” he said. “You might give Omaha an advantage in these negotiations. But please do not speak on Omaha’s behalf.” He chuckled, sounding amazingly relaxed. “I get that pleasure. If there is something you think I need to know, write a note and send it down the table to me.”

She remembered his little chuckle from the days when she had made frothy coffee drinks. She recalled he took his coffee black.

Memories of her old job made her hands clenched in her lap beneath the table. Whatever happened, her stepfather must never know about Lachlan and Ceara. If she hadn’t known that already, what happened to the Anderses was a brutal reminder.

Cole must have felt her tension, because he leaned his shoulder against her. His father was a strong presence on her right. Sandwiched between the two of them, with a line of savage men behind her, she felt safe.

That feeling of safety diminished slightly when Major Ellis entered the room, flanked by four burly men in the uniform Omaha’s City Guard, and followed by two other men in Kansas-Missouri gray. The Guardsmen peeled away to stand behind the mayor. One of the Kansas-MIssourians was Lieutenant Mott. The Lieutenant’s cool gaze passed over her without a flicker of interest, checked for a half second when he saw Cole, and passed on to Mayor McGrath. Major Ellis gave her one brief cold stare before turning his attention to the head of the table.

“Sir, I am Major Ellis, personal aide to President Gerald Todd of Kansas-Missouri. This is Lieutenant Mott and Lieutenant Booker.”

The mayor took his time getting to his feet. He nodded impassively to the Kansas-Missourians. “Ryan McGrath, Mayor of Omaha.” He indicated the men on his left and right. “Captain Peterson, commander of the Omaha City Guard.  Judge John Case, chief judicial officer of Omaha. Please be seated, gentlemen.”

The major put a hand on the back of the chair indicated but didn’t sit. He nodded at the Wolfe men against the wall. “We met the requirements. Only three of us entered Omaha.” His voice was stiff and cold. “You are overstaffed.”

McGrath smiled blandly. “Not at all.”

“We came under a flag of truce,” Mott began.

McGrath cut him off smoothly. “We will honor the truce. You will leave unharmed.” His teeth showed in a smile that was a thinly veiled threat. “Unless you break the truce or do something to hurt one of my people, that is.”

Major Ellis pulled out the chair and sat. “We are not here to cause trouble, but to end it.” He sent an icy stare at Lt. Mott. “Sit.”

Like an unruly but reluctantly obedient dog, Mott took his chair. Beside Gina, Cole let out an almost subvocal growl. She felt an urge to pat his hand soothingly. He obviously recognized Mott as the man who had been in command when he’d been shot on the train. She wanted to tell him that when her stepfather learned that Mott had spoken out of turn at this meeting, Mott would be punished.

Mayor McGrath waited politely until everyone was seated. “The point of this meeting is to come to an agreement between Omaha and Kansas-Missouri, one which will allow both sides to walk away with something they want, if not everything. I see no point in beating around the bush. To be perfectly plain, gentlemen, all Omaha wants is to live in peace. We have no interest waging war, but we will, because neither do we wish to become a vassal state to Kansas-Missouri. Tell me, Major, how can Omaha best avoid war and remain independent?”

Major Ellis smiled his most charming smile, handsome and calm, and absolutely terrifying. He looked down the table at Gina, and then back to the mayor. “That is very easily obtained, sir. President Todd is entirely willing to sign a non-aggression pact with Omaha, providing one small stipulation is met. Simply return his daughter to him and our army will immediately depart for Kansas City.”