Dade wondered if anyone had seen the extent to which the new area had prospered. Because clearly, the people weren’t leaving. They were digging in and creating a new life.
“You’ve made it just in time,” Saben’s father said. “The meeting is about to start.”
“What meeting?” Dade asked.
There was a large group gathered in an unused open area. More people than he knew lived here. The crowd was made up of both men and women, but mostly they were young and physically fit. The backbone of the workforce.
A number of torches lit the area. At the far end, a makeshift stage had been erected. Several people were trying to get the crowd to stop talking and focus up front. Their voices echoed in the open structure, yet Dade couldn’t make out exactly what was being said.
“We’re discussing what we’re going to do now that the city has no supply of VitD,” Saben’s father said.
Saben tensed. “It isn’t a good idea to hold the meetings here. You’ll draw attention to yourselves.”
“It’s the only place large enough,” his father said. “Don’t worry, the govies won’t find out. We’ve been careful.”
Dade agreed with Saben that this wasn’t smart. The govies could ignore many things. But holding a public meeting would be like spitting in their face. The new settlement, the portion they’d so carefully begun to reconstruct, could be torn apart.
However, he had to be judicious about voicing his opinions. It wasn’t his place to tell them how to live their lives.
“Come down and meet a few people,” Saben’s father offered.
“No,” Saben said. “We need to be getting back.”
“But you just got here.”
Saben nodded. “To drop off supplies, but there’re other things we need to do tonight.”
“I understand, son. Be careful.” He pulled Saben into a hug.
When Saben’s father excused himself, Dade whistled low. “This isn’t good.”
“No. Though it does say a lot about how frustrated people are.”
Dade nodded.
They stayed for a few more minutes, far enough away that they wouldn’t be noticed. It was the first time that Dade had been able to observe the fallout up close. Honestly, he was surprised that it had taken this long to get people to question the rules so publicly.
Watching their body language, he noted that several were angry. They were the outspoken members who did most of the talking. But the others just looked scared. If this was an indication of what the city felt, the majority were still a long way off from doing anything about their circumstances.
As much as the people were frustrated, mostly they wanted their voices to be heard. They didn’t want to fight. Or at least, the stirring anger could just as easily be put out with a few public programs.
Dade didn’t want bloodshed. Too many would die, and that was a loss that could be avoided given the right circumstances.
The problem was determining who would end up on top of the power structure. There were the obvious choices: the govies could maintain power, the Solizen could snatch it, or any of the other gangs could rise, of course. Yet it was the murkiness of the other possible candidates that made Dade pause. He knew there were shadows in the Underworld who had enough power to make their bid. People like Crispin.
And then there was Clarissa. Perhaps this was what she was so concerned with. What she meant when she’d indicated that there were bigger stakes at play. If her ultimate goal could give these people a level of independence, then he would help her.
Dade needed to do something in order to shape the outcome of this fight. He felt deep inside that this was his calling. He didn’t want to lead. He knew that for sure. But he could fight and help back the right person who would usher in new policies.
“You’d think people would learn by now,” Saben said so that only Dade could hear. “We destroyed one planet with war, strangled the resources until they were gone. This planet was supposed to be a fresh start.”
Dade snorted. “A fresh start to destroy more things.”
“Humans always do.”
Dade thought of the ships docked in the sky stations outside the planet. These people weren’t wealthy enough to buy tickets to leave. They’d have to sell their lives away, and quite possibly the lives of their children. “They’re going to suffer without VitD. It’s a ticking bomb.”
“We could jump to another city,” Saben suggested. “I don’t believe they’re all without VitD even though that’s what Mina thinks.”
“You want to abandon these people?”
“We would come back.” Saben stared hard at the crowd. “We could bring hope.”
Dade was already shaking his head. “No, let’s see how Mina’s idea plays out. We’ll steal what we can until then. And when we get our hands on the recipe, we’ll figure out what to do.”
“That’s why I stayed with you. I knew that you’d become something special. That I could trust that you’d do something to help those I love.”
Dade felt emotion stick in his throat. He swallowed past it and tried to joke. “You hooked your star to a lonely boy locked in a Tower.”
Grunting, Saben gave him a rare smile. “It was the best decision I ever made.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Arden stood in the dark hallway, waiting for Dade’s return. She’d felt conspicuous. At times she heard shuffling from down the hall and expected Roan or Coco or even Mina to show up and ask her what she was doing. It was too early to turn in for the night. The others were still enjoying their downtime, and she was roaming the halls like a specter.
How did she turn into this person? Paranoia had become something she had to overcome daily. That had never been her. Now, she had to figure out a way to deal with that constant feeling pressing at her mind.
Dade and Saben weren’t here. They’d left the compound once again. She’d been watching them come and go for a while now, wondering what they were up to. They were leaving more often lately. That more than anything else made her determined to finally deal with it. To understand what Dade was doing.
She’d refused to ask questions. Or at least had till now. At first because of stubbornness, she wanted Dade to volunteer the information, to include her. After that talk they’d had, she’d thought they’d moved forward and he would finally share his plans with her.
But clearly he hadn’t. Or else she wouldn’t feel like this.
Arden was nervous. And damn if that didn’t beat all. Nerves were not something she generally felt unless it was in warning that something bad was going to happen. She’d never had a problem telling anyone else what she thought.
This situation was different. It was about her feelings for Dade. More than anything, she didn’t want to screw up things with him. Though maybe she’d already done that. It was difficult to tell.
Waiting made those nerves jangle. They strung tight and nearly caused her to scream.
Dade and Saben were silent as they turned the corner into the sleeping areas. Yet she knew they were there, had been tuned into the shadows for so long that all she felt was a huge relief that they were back. Except for the knots inside her that seemed to tighten instead of releasing.
Dade fell still, his body tensing when he caught sight of her. “What are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
Arden tried to force a smile. It felt false and brittle. Possibly she was snarling more than smiling, and that wouldn’t do any good. She didn’t want this conversation to come across as an interrogation. Not when she knew she had to apologize too.
“Can I talk to you?” The words felt like dust in her mouth. Arden swallowed and shook out her hands. Then she forced them down. She was going to make herself vulnerable, but she needn’t look as if she were panicking.
It was time. She’d done a lot of thinking about what Dade had said to her. About Niall and his accusations. She was acting selfishly, though not on purpose. But she could see how others would think that she made decisions
that would be best for herself. The air needed to be cleared. She was sick to death of living like this. The stress was eating her alive.
If they were going into the CRC—if she was going to die—then she needed to know that there was nothing standing between them.
Saben and Dade looked at each other. And then Saben gave her a curt nod and continued on down the hallway.
“Sure,” Dade said. The smile he gave her seemed genuine. Perhaps he had waited for her to come to him. It made her feel worse that he knew her well enough to know she’d needed time to come around. Perhaps she was every bit as selfish as Niall had accused her of being.
She was as much responsible for creating this rift between them as he was. Probably more so, if she was honest.
Why were they pulling apart? She didn’t know. If she could answer that question, maybe other answers would come as well. The more she tried to hang on, the slipperier her connection to him felt. The relationship she wanted with him was just out of her grasp.
“I want to make plans. I want them to be solid between us. I want to know going into this job that we have a future after we leave here,” she said.
“Of course we have a future.”
She pressed a hand to her stomach as it twisted. “What if something happens when we do this crazy scheme of Mina’s? What if one of us doesn’t come out?” A coldness spread through her. “I don’t want us to end like this. I can’t go into the CRC feeling this way.”
“What way?” He was calm when he asked, and she realized he was going to make her say it, that he wanted her to articulate her feelings aloud.
“I don’t want to feel like you and I are separate people working different agendas. I want to work with you, Dade. I want to help you.”
His eyes narrowed, speculatively.
Okay, so she was going to have to grovel some more, because she’d said that before and then had done nothing different. “I want to know everything you’ve been doing. It’s obviously important to you since you’re gone all the time.”
“Why now? What has changed since the last time we spoke?”
Everything. Her life felt so different. She felt different. Focused again, as if she’d lost sight of what made her whole. The drive of revenge made for a sharp knife cutting through her bullshit.
She wanted vengeance. Lasair deserved this. Maybe not all of them did. But while they all weren’t complicit, they’d all share in the same fate. Her anger had grown, become a thing inside her with teeth and a life of its own. She felt it eat at her from her inability to stop the backstabbing she hadn’t seen coming.
For now, her fury had to be focused. If she did something good, then maybe that would soothe the monster, promise it retribution. Uri would curse the day he crossed her.
It wasn’t just her, though. Dade had changed too. When he’d come back to the compound after the confrontation with his father, his eyes had hardened. He was more serious, more determined to do . . . something. Even though he insisted that speaking with his father hadn’t hurt him, she knew he had to be devastated. She, if anyone, knew what it felt like to be betrayed by family.
“I spoke with Niall,” she admitted. “He brought up a lot of my issues. It made me realize that I’ve been too focused on myself.”
His silence spoke volumes.
“I’m sorry,” she added. “I don’t mean to cut you out. It’s just, I get focused and don’t see beyond it.”
“I know,” he said. “Though you need to realize that I was meant to be more than just your sidekick.”
Arden blinked, shocked by that statement. “What do you mean? I don’t treat you like a sidekick.”
“You don’t treat me like an equal either.”
“Yes, I do.”
He was already shaking his head. “You make decisions alone. You expect me to go along with them.”
The roiling queasiness of her stomach twisted more. “I don’t mean to.”
He let out a long sigh. “Look, I get it. You’ve been working on your own for a while. You may have had Lasair, but it wasn’t as if they micromanaged you. Working with me will be different. We’re going to butt heads a lot. Probably have versions of this conversation over and over. But hopefully it will get better each time. And eventually trusting each other will come naturally.”
“I want that.” She licked her lips. Her whole mouth felt dry. She was messing this up. “I want to be a team: you, me, Saben.”
“I’ve made some decisions in the past few days,” he said. “This is more for me than bringing back the Ghost. That will only do so much. We have a chance to shape this city’s future.”
“You want to lead?”
“No, but I have a vested interest in who does, or at least helping take out those who will cause the most harm.”
She nodded. That would benefit everyone. It wasn’t something she’d concern herself with normally. But he was right, if they could manage to swing the power dynamic to someone more worthy of it, it would help her in the long run.
“I’ve also decided that my father needs to be dealt with,” Dade said. “I’m moving on with my life. Starting over.”
She understood that completely. It was exactly how she felt about Uri. Though it didn’t sound like he was so focused on revenge. Rather, he sounded sad.
“I want to go with you to steal the VitD.” The twisting in her gut had eased. She felt silly, though, asking for this. It was such a minor thing. “And I want to help you with everything else too, of course. Altering the power structure, taking out big targets, whatever you’ve got planned. But I want to do the small stuff with you too.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He pulled her into his room, grinning from ear to ear. “I have something for you.”
They were alone in the room he shared with Saben and Roan. She immediately felt privacy settle over them. She liked these moments where it was the two of them, craved them. One thing they had to put on their to-do list was getting their own space.
He went over to a drawer and took something out. Bringing it to her, he bounced, excitement evident in each movement.
“What’s this?” she asked. She held the mask in her hand. The material felt cold—almost wet. Though she knew when the red mask with horns was attached to her face, it wouldn’t feel like that at all.
He smirked. “You know what it is.”
A Ghost mask.
“For me?”
Nodding, he pulled her into his arms. “Of course.”
“You trust me with it?” She couldn’t believe it. He was sharing this with her. And that made her feel a growing warmth inside. It was reassuring, their connectedness. He’d put it all into motion before she’d asked. Anticipating that she’d want to go with him. “You planned this?”
“No, I’d hoped,” he said, then winked.
She scrunched her nose, the word sounding foreign. “Hope.”
Dade leaned forward to brush his lips lightly against hers. “Yeah, that thing that sometimes you have to rely on because there seems no other path forward?”
“That’s logic.”
Laughing harder, he kissed her again. She felt the warmth spread through her, banishing the last of her tension.
Arden clutched the mask in her hand as she wrapped herself around him. Melted into the sensations that now played riot in her body. They were the good kind of emotions this time, light and fun. The bubbling joy in her heart that made her feel giddy.
When they panted for breath, she teased, “So you’re making me your sidekick?”
Dade’s smile grew wide and dazzling. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yes, I like the sound of that.”
Arden laughed.
“I’ve made some decisions too,” she said. It was time to acknowledge it.
“Okay, I’ll help you with whatever you need.”
“I want to go back. I’m going to take over Lasair.”
He nodded as if he’d suspected as much.
“I don’t just want
to repay Uri. I want to take everything from him. And those people, my family, they don’t deserve what has happened to them. They need to rebuild too.”
“Done,” he said. “It will help with my plans anyway if you’re controlling the gang.”
“Dade,” she cautioned, “they’re not—well, it’s not going to be like you’d want. They’re not going to suddenly live on the legal side of the line.”
“I know.” His gaze seemed calm, confident. “It’s okay. We’re not going to take control by following the rules. I know that.”
They kissed again. This time slower and hotter. Before they got too carried away, she asked, “So we’re going to get through this stupid CRC thing. We’re both going to make it out alive. And then . . . ?”
“And then we’re going to decide whose ass to kick first.”
“That sounds like a most excellent plan,” she agreed.
Then he kissed her until her toes curled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Arden’s back was pressed to the dumpster, her phaser at the ready. She leaned out, peering around the metal container to look over the street. The area was quiet. There was no movement that she could detect. Lasair had warehouses all over the city. She had chosen this one because it had the least foot traffic. Before she’d left, they kept it stocked to the brim with VitD that would be made into Shine at some point. She hoped that was still the case.
Dade was next to her, keeping track of the alley behind them. They were both squatting, keeping low behind the cover of the metal. And were dressed identically in black synth-suits and the Ghost’s signature masks. Considering what they were about to do, Arden thought a statement was in order.
She’d never gotten such a rush on a job before. It was amusing, really. Of all the things she’d done, stealing VitD from Lasair and then giving that cargo away without any expectation of payment was turning out to be the most satisfying. Maybe Dade had a point. They could do good and get vengeance at the same time. Until she could oust Uri from Lasair, becoming a thorn in his side had to be enough. And she would do it with pleasure.
The Stolen Sky (Split City Book 2) Page 20