Now what was she going to do?
Jimmy leaned away from her in mock alarm. “Whoa, girl, I can see the steam coming out of your ears.” He started fanning her with his hat. “If we don’t get you cooled down, we’re going to have a mag-8 eruption right here!”
“I’m fine,” she muttered through clenched teeth.
“Ri-i-i-ight.” He drew out the word, his voice heavily skeptical. He swiped his drink from the seat next to him and popped off the lid. “I’ve got an iced tea right here. Nice and cold. I bet if I dump it on your head it will magically make you forget whatever you’re angry about.”
Jenna stared at him incredulously. The tiniest of smiles tugged at her mouth. Jimmy was incorrigible.
“It would work,” he promised. “You’d immediately forget whatever upset you earlier in your rush to murder me.”
She snorted, her passion subsiding enough for her to get control of it again. She gave Jimmy a lopsided grin. “Well, you’re right there. But if I murdered you, what would I do the next time I ended up in a terrible mood? I’d be stuck with the volcanic eruption.”
“That might not be such a bad thing, Jenna. Letting everybody know how you really feel, I mean,” Jimmy returned, his tone suddenly serious.
She glanced at him, wondering how he could know so much about her and so little at the same time.
“That would ruin everything, Jimmy,” she sighed deeply. “Besides, I’m an adult now. I don’t need to go around throwing temper tantrums.” She leaned back against her seat, staring absently at the racetrack. The racers hadn’t come out yet, but their rocket sledges were already lined up at the start line.
“So, what, you were in a towering rage because Lilah forgot to refill the empty toilet paper?” Jimmy questioned lightly, his eyebrows raised. “I guess that would be some temper tantrum.”
She rolled her eyes. “You know it’s nothing like that,” she answered drily, staring blankly at the track. She could feel his eyes on her face, though. A blush started to creep up her neck.
“I’ve got a better guess,” he suggested, his voice quieter. “Zane proposed.”
Jenna turned to stare at him, her heart pounding.
“How did you know that?” she asked warily. Why would Jimmy even guess that she would be upset over a proposal from Zane? Was it obvious to everyone around her?
Jimmy shrugged. “I overheard him giving directions to some of the staff about emptying out the arboretum tonight and asked about it. He told me he was going to propose to you there. His dad actually encouraged him. Quintan thinks that having connections in the Armada will be a good thing.” Jenna felt sick. So Zane didn’t even want to marry her? She was just a “connection”? But how could she get angry about that? Wasn’t she using him the same way?
Some of her doubts must have shown on her face.
“Oh, hell, Jenna, don’t go thinking that Zane doesn’t like you! He does! He even believes he loves you, I think. It’s just that Zane is a rational guy, you know? He does look at all the benefits to being with you, including his dad’s opinion and the fact that your dad is one of the big-shot military guys.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Jenna sniffed. “Zane wants to marry me for purely logical reasons. So romantic of him.” She sighed again. Time for some honesty. “It’s not that Zane proposed, exactly. I’m angry at myself for even being in this position. I like Zane, but I don’t want to marry him. And if I tell him that, then what?”
“Then either he’s a gentleman who gives you some more space and time, or you break up,” Jimmy reminded. “It’s not the end of the world either way. Technically, marrying someone you only like isn’t the end of the world either,” he added. “At least, I’ve never heard of a marriage without fiery passion causing total planetary disaster.” He smiled crookedly.
“Just my luck, it would,” Jenna groused. “My whole family is cursed, you know. Anyway,” she continued hurriedly, before Jimmy could ask what in the universe she was talking about, “I don’t want to marry Zane, and I feel awful about it. Like I’m some kind of skank.”
“Did you tell him yes?” Jimmy asked worriedly. Why was he so concerned? Was he worried that she was going to wreck his friend’s life?
“No,” she admitted. “I told him I needed more time. But I really don’t, Jimmy. As soon as he asked me, I knew. I’ve been dating him for a while, and I’ve had fun with him, but picturing the rest of my life with him? It was absolutely clear to me then. I can’t marry him.”
Jimmy was silent, fiddling with the lid of his drink. The racers started filtering onto the track, and a cheer went up. Jenna spotted Zane, tall and lithe in his red combustion suit. He scanned the crowd of spectators and waved at her. She waved back, a little half-heartedly. She was such a hypocrite.
“You should just tell him the truth, Jenna,” Jimmy finally said, his voice the most serious she had ever heard it. “It’s the kindest thing to do. No matter how he takes it.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “Not yet.”
“Why?” Jimmy frowned. “You like stringing him along? You want to drag this out?”
“No,” she said hoarsely. “But he’ll be upset, probably angry with me.”
“Yeah, he will, I expect,” Jimmy agreed, his voice contemplative. “He’ll take it like a blow to his manhood, but he’ll get over it eventually. Just like anyone else who gets dumped. A few months of ranting, a few weeks of avoiding anything that reminds him of you, and then I’ll set him up with a new girl. It’ll be fine.”
“It won’t be fine for me,” she confessed. “I’ll lose my job if he gets mad at me.”
Jimmy stared at her in confusion. “Lose your job? You don’t work for Zane. What are you talking about?”
Jenna wrung her hands. Zane was walking over to the starting line now, heading for his rocket sledge. He had so much power over her future, and he didn’t even know. But how could she tell Jimmy? It was so embarrassing—so shameful that she’d allowed herself to be used like this, that she’d gone along with it and used Zane too—she felt disgusting and cheap. But something compelled her to tell Jimmy anyway. She needed to tell someone, and Jimmy would probably listen without judging too much.
“My boss—Mr. Carter— pretty much ordered me to stay on Zane’s good side, whatever it took. He was positively thrilled when Zane asked me out. All these months I’ve gotten praise for doing such good work ‘cultivating’ a relationship with the Quintans. Mr. Carter made it perfectly clear, though, that I need to keep it up until the resort is finished. Or I’m finished at Carter & Yen. Worse, he told me that I’ll never work in this city as an architect again.” The words came out in a rush, her voice breathless by the end. Jimmy listened without interrupting, but his eyes got narrower and narrower. She wondered what he was thinking. Did he despise her? Did he see her as nothing more than an opportunist? “Lilah and I will probably lose our apartment too, which I suppose is a minor problem, all things considered, because I’m sure Zane would be kind enough to wait until we could get a contract on a new one, but without a job, I don’t know how I’ll get another one, though if I had to I could go back to Dos Cientos,” she rushed on, “but all I’ve ever wanted to do was be an architect, Jimmy. It hurts so badly to think of giving it up. But if Zane and I can just stay friends, or keep dating, or whatever, until the resort gets finished, then we could break up and it would be all right.” Jimmy listened silently, his face expressionless. Jenna focused on the track, trying to cover her embarrassment at blurting out her worst fears to Jimmy.
Zane had climbed into his rocket sledge now, and he was revving the engine, aggressive and not very polite before the race started. Jenna bit her bottom lip as she studied Zane’s rocket sledge. That wasn’t like him. He was not usually hotheaded; his strength was his calm focus even under pressure.
Jimmy had noticed it too. He was staring at Zane’s rocket sledge,
his brows raised. “Zane sounds like he’s having the same kind of day as you. Expressing a little frustration there, I’d guess.”
“He seemed fine when we separated,” Jenna said uncertainly. “Unusually fine, actually, not at all upset that I asked for time to think about his proposal. He was pretty chatty about his plans for the race.” The start signal was given, and Zane’s rocket sledge zoomed forward, cutting off his neighbor to the left.
“Well, he’s upset now,” Jimmy observed. People around them were cheering, shouting the name of the racer they supported. Zane had a pretty loud cheering section, but Jimmy and Jenna were both silent as they watched the race unfold. Jenna had never seen Zane drive like this. He took chances that paid off, slipped into breaks that seemed too small, and aggressively invaded the space of other racers.
“His reflexes are too fast,” Jimmy said, his voice bleak. Jenna suddenly realized what Jimmy must have seen.
“Oh no,” she groaned. “He didn’t.”
“He must have,” muttered Jimmy. “His father is going to murder him.”
“He’s always telling me that only idiots take nanospeed!” Jenna protested. “Honestly, I thought that was the whole reason he liked sledge racing! So that he could prove that he could beat these hopped-up guys with his own natural abilities.”
Nanospeed. The nanobot drug that enhanced reflexes and snap judgment. It was a coveted boost for contests like racing, where the human mind didn’t have the time to process all the information. Racing by reflex let decision-making bypass the brain altogether. Like everything else, it was available at the QE for the right price. But only fools used it. It was highly addictive and tended to wreck the lives of those who took it. Living one’s life by reflex was never a good idea, but with repeated use, the nanobots tended to short-circuit the critical thinking areas of the brain. Addicts ended up with incredible reflexes, super pain tolerance, hyperaggressive feelings, and a penchant for risk-taking. Not a recipe for a happy life. Zane had told her that his father had laid down very few rules for him in his use of the QE facilities, but the use of any of the drugs—especially nanospeed—would result in a one-way ticket to the monastic colony on the ice planet of Kirtuth. Zane had always laughed about it. “As if I were that reckless,” Zane had told her. “Does my father not know me at all?”
Apparently his father knew him better than Jenna did. Jenna would never in a million light years have expected Zane to break this rule.
The race wasn’t even close. With his specially crafted rocket sledge and his drug-enhanced driving abilities, nobody stood a chance, not even the guy with the Tabanid. The cheering crowd went wild when Zane crossed the finish line. Jimmy sighed. “I hope this was the first time he’s taken it. If he’s smart, it will be the last.” He stood and offered his hand to Jenna. “Come on, let’s go down and greet the victor. See if we can knock some sense into his head. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to keep Quintan from ever finding out.”
Down at the sound barrier wall, Jenna waited with Jimmy for the gate to slide open and fidgeted nervously with the rings she wore on her right hand. Was it her fault? Had Zane decided to throw caution to the winds because she had not accepted his proposal?
But he couldn’t honestly think that taking nanospeed would make her more likely to say yes? Who would want to be married to an addict?
When the gates finally opened, Jimmy strode into the track, with Jenna trailing more timidly behind. Normally, she never came down to the track to greet Zane after a race. Many of the other racers used nanospeed as a matter of course, and their behavior after the race was crude and sometimes erupted into violence until the drugs had worked their way out of their systems. She usually met Zane outside the changing station, when he’d had a chance to shower and all the men were detoxed.
The QE offered a detox process for those who just used the nanospeed for racing. Theoretically, the nanospeed user took an antidote and lay down in a comfortable room for twenty minutes or so. That was the amount of time it took the antinanos to work their way through the bloodstream, deactivating all the nanospeed they encountered. The users had to be monitored the whole time for side effects—which meant that if Zane went in for detox, his father would surely hear about it.
Jenna didn’t know if Mr. Quintan was serious about the Kirtuth threat, but she knew he was not a joking kind of man. She didn’t want to find out.
“Zane!” Jimmy called, catching his friend’s attention as he was shaking his hair after removing his helmet.
“Jimmy!” Zane shouted in return. “Did you see that? I am the master of mayhem! The ruler of the track.” He strode toward them, shoved his helmet into Jimmy’s hands, and headed directly for Jenna. His eyes were obsidian pools of intensity, boring directly into her. She took a step back, but he reached her in two quick steps and took her face in his hands. Then he kissed her hard. For a moment she was frozen in shock. He was trying to force his tongue into her mouth before she tried to yank her face away. Zane seemed oblivious to her response, instead wrapping one arm around her back and pulling her body close to his, his other hand holding her head in much too firm a grip. She gasped and tried to squirm away, turning her head to the side.
“Zane!” she protested.
“Jenna,” he said, his voice loud enough to carry to the surrounding racers, “will you marry me now?”
Jenna felt sick and trapped. Where was Jimmy? How could she get out of this? Why wouldn’t Zane let her go?
Zane reached down and turned her head back toward him and leaned down so his forehead was touching hers. “I can see the answer in your eyes!” he declared. He straightened up and clasped her hand with his, lifting it into the air. “Listen up, everyone!” he shouted at the crowd of racers and spectators, his voice echoing across the track. “Jenna Donnell has just agreed to be my wife!”
“Zane, wait, no . . .” Jenna protested, trying to wrench her arm away. What was wrong with him? It was like the nanospeed had complete control. Suddenly, Jimmy was there, putting a hand on Zane’s shoulder.
“Zane,” he said quietly but firmly, “let Jenna go. You’re not yourself right now.”
“I’m more than myself,” Zane crowed, squeezing Jenna’s fingers until they throbbed. “I’m the happiest man in the entire Union!”
“But you’re hurting her,” Jimmy continued calmly. “Why don’t you head into the detox room, and we can talk when you get out?”
“I don’t need detox, Forrest,” growled Zane. “And you are spoiling the moment. Go away!” Jenna noticed that a crowd of onlookers was gathering, including some of the other racers who probably needed detox too. There were catcalls and jeers, the postrace aggression all focused on the small triangle of Zane, Jimmy, and Jenna.
Jenna was more frightened than she had ever been. Zane seemed on the edge of violence. She couldn’t break out of his grip. Jimmy still hadn’t taken his hand off Zane’s shoulder, and he was still trying to convince him to let her go, but Jenna could see that Zane was getting angrier by the second. She needed to end this, now, before there was no way of hiding it from his father.
Suddenly, without warning, Zane dropped Jenna’s hand and stepped away. She gasped in relief, but only for a second. Zane drew his arm back and planted his fist right into Jimmy’s jaw, knocking his head backward.
“Jimmy!” cried Jenna. That was it. This was going to end now, no matter the consequences. She sprinted to the detox door and jabbed the emergency switch, calling the security detail that manned the detox center. Seconds later, five fully suited security officers rushed out onto the track and surrounded the two men. Zane was now grappling with Jimmy, trying to throw him to the ground. The security forces wrenched the two men apart, and Jenna ran to Jimmy’s side. “Are you OK?” she asked him breathlessly.
“Why are you talking to him, you tramp?” screamed Zane, fully out of control. “You are mine!” Jenna lost it. Months of shov
ing down her feelings and trying to please everyone but herself boiled over under Zane’s insults.
“I am not yours, and I never will be, Zane Quintan,” she declared loudly, her voice rising with every word. “There’s your answer. I won’t marry you, ever!” She turned and stormed away from the track.
She never looked back once.
8. The Opening
Jimmy had never seen Zane look so defeated. He had finished his detox an hour ago but had refused to leave the room. Eventually, Jimmy had gotten permission from the security officers to go inside to see if he could help.
Zane sat in the armchair in the corner, his head in his hands. He didn’t look up when Jimmy walked into the room.
“Hey,” Jimmy greeted awkwardly.
“Hey,” mumbled Zane from behind his hands. He didn’t say anything more and still didn’t even lift his face. Jimmy glanced around the room. It was pretty sparse; just the cushy chair that Zane hunched in and a single bed with starched white bedding. No windows or lamps, nothing that a racer still detoxing could hurt himself with. That was a relief, come to think about it.
He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, springing up and down to test it. “Not bad,” he observed. “I mean, if you’re going to spend eternity in here, you might actually get some sleep. There’s nothing to eat, though. No bathroom, either,” he commented lightly.
Zane finally raised his head. His eyes were red. “I ruined everything today,” he said hoarsely.
“Well, not everything,” said Jimmy. “You didn’t actually burn the place down. You didn’t kill anyone either.”
“My father is going to kill me,” Zane countered grimly.
“He might,” admitted Jimmy ruefully. “They called the security manager down while you were detoxing. He let me know that your father had been notified, and he is on his way over.”
The Quintan Edge (Roran Curse Book 2) Page 8