by Wren Weston
Old.
“That was why I hoped that we could be equals. That was why I hoped that we could be friends. I can’t remember when I’ve ever had one. A real one, one who I could trust.”
“You’ll always be trying to find an angle, Mother. That’s why you’re the first to see it and expect it in others. You don’t want a friend. You want a lapdog who won’t bite you back.”
“Fine. If I can’t have a friend, then I’ll take a stubborn bitch who bites. As long as the family has its prime.”
“You do have a prime. It just isn’t me. You also have a chief of security who is more than a capable replacement. I’m leaving, Mother, and I’m taking my mark free and clear when I do. You’ll let me, or I’ll visit Chief Shaw, and he and I will have one very long chat.”
“I could do the same.”
“You could, but you won’t. I understand now what Senator Dubois meant about needing time. I’m done with this family for a while. I don’t want anything to do with any of you.”
With that, Lila left the room.
Chapter 30
Lila prowled through the great house, searching each floor, each room for Alex. It didn’t take long to find her in the wine cellar, drifting from wooden rack to wooden rack. As a girl, Lila had never understood the layout of the place, row upon row of corks, labels hiding like skittish cats from their master’s touch. How anyone ever found anything in the room had always been a mystery, for the light inside had always been far too dim. Alex did not seem to mind it. Perhaps as a slave, she had been forced to memorize the placement of the bottles.
She certainly hadn’t known the layout when they were teenagers. They’d often snuck to the cellar and stolen wine on nights Alex slept over. One time, they’d hid under the table in the center when Ms. O’Malley had come to fetch Gregorie for the chairwoman, both fretting that the woman would turn them in. Ms. O’Malley had not even seen the pair, or more likely, had pretended not to, and they had laughed about it in a drunken glee for the rest of the night.
How things had changed.
How much they had stayed the same.
Had Alex ever snuck down into the cellar after bending Jewel’s mind, uncorking an expensive bottle to celebrate? It would not to be too hard to misdirect one.
Lila tossed a crimson velvet bag onto the table, one she’d kept in her secret compartment since the day she’d made chief several years before. Something hard inside whacked against the oak, echoing in the room.
Alex jumped, nearly dropping the bottle in her grasp.
“You frightened me,” she said, putting her hand up to her heart.
“I brought you something. A gift of sorts.”
Alex’s initial smile faltered after she noted her friend’s expression.
“Which bottle do you fancy these days?”
Alex shrugged, turning back to the racks. “I suppose I like Gregorie when you and I get a chance to relive the old days. I buy Masson whenever I have extra money from my slave’s stipend. It’s cheap, but it’s a decent wine. I doubt the Massons ever drink it themselves.”
Lila noted the small barb in Alex’s voice. How long had it been there?
Months? Years?
Since the first day they’d become friends?
“Do you begrudge the Massons their success?”
Alex chuckled, though the mirth was forced. “Of course not,” she said, replacing the wine she’d pulled from the rack.
“Do you begrudge my family for having what you no longer possess? Or me?”
“I’m not jealous. Why would I be? You are in a position that you do not want.”
“So are you, but my position is so much higher. That has to be frustrating.”
“If I had to choose between the two, I’d choose this. It’s much less stressful.” Alex turned back around and pulled out a few bottles, scanning the labels before moving on. “I told you. I tried that life, and I wasn’t good at it. I’m happier here than I ever was there.”
Lila leaned against a rack, blocking Alex’s path. “That might be the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard. I might have swallowed it the other night, but don’t expect me to swallow it now.”
“I don’t know what you mean. When? Which night?”
“That’s a good question, actually. Who is the real Alexandra Craft-Wilson? The one who speaks to me or the one who whispers into my sister’s ear?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You claimed that you had some epiphany after you lost Grace Medical, that you were glad not to be the one who ruined your family, yet you dabble with mine. Did you hand Jewel the plan all at once, or did you feed it to her one part at a time?”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“You betrayed this family after everything we’ve done for you and Simon. You betrayed me.”
“I’d never betray you. Why are you saying these things? Did your mother accuse me of something? Did it ever occur to you that she’s playing with your head again?”
“Not this time.”
“Why is this time different?”
“Because my mother never does something unless it would benefit her more than it might cost her, and she risks a PR disaster if the media gets hold of what you’ve done.”
“What have I done, exactly?”
Lila tossed a pair of handcuffs upon the table.
They fell upon the red velvet bag with a muffled thump.
“Stop being cute. It’s tedious.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed, and her gaze returned to Lila’s face. “You’re not Chief Randolph anymore. You can’t arrest me for anything. What would you even put in the report? I have done nothing.”
“The idea came from somewhere.”
“You can’t arrest me for telling stories.”
Lila pursed her lips. Her mother had been right. “It’s called conspiracy, Alex. You’re damn right I can arrest you for it.”
“For telling stories? It’s not my fault if someone acts on something I mentioned in passing.”
“Are you planning on tipping off the media?”
The slave eyed the handcuffs. “Why on earth would I do that?”
“Because you believe it’s your insurance policy. My mother only let it go this far because none of this was ever about you or Jewel or the senator. It wasn’t even about making me prime. It was about teaching me a lesson. She was more than willing to sacrifice Jewel for that, just as Jewel was willing to sacrifice Senator Dubois to get her way. Just like you were willing to sacrifice us all to get what you want. Even me.”
“What do I want?”
“Opportunity. I couldn’t do much for you as chief. You wanted me in a position to help you, really help you, and this was the only way you knew that I’d accept becoming prime.”
“You’ve been around your mother for too long. Too many plots have left you paranoid.”
“I already knew that Dr. Rubio worked for you at Grace Medical, but I took another look at her accounts after dinner. Her financials showed a fairly large salary for an overglorified test tube washer. Why would a medical student get paid so handsomely?”
“I have no idea,” Alex said, turning away again. She snatched up a bottle of Gregorie and dodged Lila’s gaze.
Lila ripped the wine from her grasp. “Why did you pay her so much?”
“I had hundreds of employees. You can’t expect me to remember every one, much less their salaries.”
“Oh, I think you remember her quite well, and I think you told Jewel about her. About how you could depend on her if you need a tough job done as long as you rewarded her appropriately. How else would a girl from a poor family suddenly earn a full scholarship to medical school? What exactly were you paying her to do during all those vacations? What would I find if I dug a little deeper?”
Ale
x swallowed. “Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because sometimes secrets aren’t for you to know. They’re not always bad. Sometimes they’re just private.”
“Then tell me about this one.”
Alex didn’t speak for quite a while. She sat at the table and fiddled with the bag’s strings. “If we were ever friends, you won’t ask that of me.”
“Were we ever friends?”
Alex’s head snapped up. “What did you expect? That I would be happy as a maid in your house? That I would be happy at the thought of becoming the next Ms. O’Malley?”
“I thought you’d be happy not to work in the damn mines!”
“I was doing you a favor, Lila. You were never meant to walk around in a blackcoat and order your toy soldiers about. It’s time to put away childish things and take up what you were born to do. Your mother would have forced the issue at some point. I only helped you come to it sooner.”
“So that I would help you?”
“Yes! Can you blame me?”
Lila picked up her cuffs and slid them into her pocket. “I always wondered why my mother agreed to keep you in the great house. I suppose she knew it would only be a matter of time before you showed your true colors. She understood you far better than I ever did.”
“My true colors? Don’t pretend that you’re perfect, Lila. I might not know the details of what you’ve been up to in your security office, but I know enough. You’d hack into my life right now, privacy be damned, laws be damned, so long as you’d decided that the cause was just. The only difference between us is that I saw you for what you were when we were growing up and I accepted it. I liked you for it. Don’t pretend for a second that we’re all that different.”
Lila headed for the door, the bottle of wine still in her grasp.
“What are you going to do?”
“You ruined a good man, and because he is a good man, I can’t do a damn thing about what you’ve done. But I’m done protecting you. What happens to you now is up to my mother.”
“How do you know I won’t go to the media?”
“That didn’t take long, did it?”
“You’ve abandoned me. I have to look after myself.” Alex snatched up the velvet bag.
“I think you’ve always been looking after yourself.”
Alex pulled on the strings and withdrew a large silver coin. “My mark,” she said, her thumb brushing the Saxony seal and her name, engraved on the back. “You’ve had it all this time, haven’t you?”
“The chairwoman gave it to me the day I became chief. I can assure you that it’s been a heavy burden, but not nearly so heavy as it is today. You keep it now. I don’t want it anymore. And I wouldn’t go to the media if I were you. I might dig further into that little secret of yours. I admit that I would hack your life right now if I thought the cause was just, and in this case, I suspect it would be.”
“To protect your sister? What a joke. You’d—”
“To protect Senator Dubois, you ignorant little twat. You, my sister, and my mother have put him through enough. He doesn’t deserve to have his career ruined and his life mocked in the press, to have the hurt rubbed in his face every time he turns on the news. To have everyone know. So you bet your ass that I’d dig up all your secrets to prevent that from happening. I’d tell them to the world.”
Lila left the cellar and returned upstairs. It wasn’t until she reached the kitchens that she remembered she couldn’t drink the wine she’d taken.
She left the bottle on the counter and jogged upstairs to her room, snatching her riding jacket before slipping from the great house.
Night had fallen. Shadows loomed upon the grounds.
Lila didn’t care if it might be dangerous. She just needed to get away from everything for a while. She needed to move. She needed to feel the wind arcing around her helmet and chilling her skin. She needed to see bluebonnets and a thousand crumbling buildings fly past her as she rode down a winding road. Like Dubois, she needed to think. She didn’t even care that she had no destination in mind. She’d take her Firefly out tonight, assassin be damned.
She wouldn’t let fear stop her.
Lila came upon the garage and gripped the door handle.
The second her fingers touched metal, a gun cocked behind her, lost somewhere amid the trees and shadows.
Chapter 31
A thousand thoughts flew through Lila’s mind, and she cursed herself for freezing, rather than spinning and reaching for her Colt.
“Put your hands up and turn around.”
Lila paused, unwilling to give up her one chance to draw.
“Do it, now!” the woman snapped, breaking into Lila’s panicked thoughts. “And do it slowly, or you’ll be dead before you hit the ground.”
Lila finally did as she was bid.
Cristina Rubio peeked out from around a tree, night-vision goggles perched on her head, a gun aimed at Lila’s chest. A Weberly revolver, no less. Her hair was stringy, her eyes were wild, and her black coat matched the one Lila had seen on the security videos so many days ago.
“I waited too late, didn’t I?” Rubio’s words rushed together as though she had been drugged. “I should have returned yesterday to finish the job while I still had the chance.”
“Is that so?” Lila crept forward slowly. Several cameras had been trained on the garage. If she could get Rubio into their path holding a gun, then whoever was watching the feeds would alert the nearest patrol.
“Stop. I told you. Don’t move.” The doctor stepped out from behind the tree, gaze flicking up to the roof of the garage, to the door behind Lila, to the darkness beyond. “The militia came to our condo. I saw them.”
“Yes, you were to be detained for helping my sister poison her fiancé. I see now that you should be detained for other reasons entirely.”
“Why couldn’t you have asked me about Senator Dubois before you went under? I could have given you too much anesthesia. I could have made a mistake in my work. There are so many ways a person can die when they’re in surgery. So many accidents can happen.”
“It’s never an accident when a prime dies in surgery,” Lila pointed out, her fingers twitching. Rubio had not moved. She’d have to depend on her Colt to save her. Perhaps she could draw it before the doctor had a chance to get off a round. “Do you honestly think you would have survived an investigation? Killing me wouldn’t have saved you.”
“I would have risked it.”
“Like you’re risking it now? Commander Sutton already knows what you did. Do you think the charges are automatically—”
“I heard the militia talking over their radios. Commander Sutton doesn’t know why she’s detaining me. I have a chance to get away after you’re gone.”
“Your bullet will draw every militia—”
“It’s not a bullet. It’s a poisoned tranq. I learned my lesson last time. You’ll be dead before anyone finds you, and I’ll be gone.”
Her hand kept shaking.
But she didn’t pull the trigger.
Lila’s fingers weren’t any steadier. She was a fast draw and accurate, but the woman across from her didn’t need to be faster or more accurate. She only needed one little prick upon her skin. Anywhere would do. Lila had moved far too close already, just trying to back Rubio into the path of a camera.
Even a poor shot like the good doctor could hit her with ease.
“Here I thought someone had tried to kill me for a good reason. But no, you were just trying to cover your own ass. Just like everyone else.” Lila backed away slowly, trying to increase the distance between them as much as possible. She’d draw and chance it once Rubio got started talking, once the doctor stopped paying attention.
Just like Maria had done with the merc two weeks ago.
The doctor would be yet another body on
a concrete floor. Something to dream about, but not regret.
Rubio bristled at Lila’s irritated tone. “I’m not covering my ass. I’m protecting my life. I worked hard to get where I am. I have a wife, a good job—”
“Had. And you got them by lying.”
“Everybody lies. Everybody makes deals. Just like your sister. I notice that you haven’t arrested her yet.”
“Last time I checked, she hadn’t tried to kill me.”
“That’s not why you sicced your dogs on me. I didn’t do anything except steal a drug and synthesize it. She’s the one who poisoned her fiancé, not me. And yet here you are. You think I don’t know the score just because my parents were—”
A shot rang out, cutting through Rubio’s words.
The doctor jumped slightly as though startled, as though something had taken away her train of thought. Her Randolph pendant hopped at her neck, and her eyes lost their focus.
Lila startled as well, but she didn’t feel the weight of a dart strike her neck. She didn’t feel a needle burrowing into her, pumping poison throughout her blood.
What she didn’t feel, she saw.
The thick puff of red mist at Cristina’s temple.
The stream of crimson winding from the hole.
The meaningless shake of the doctor’s body after the second bullet struck her.
Then a third puff of air.
Rubio’s finger clenched on her trigger in shock or instinct or malice.
Lila grabbed her chest. Her body filled with a second rush of adrenaline, her heart pumping, pumping, pumping.
Lila looked down and spied the dart in her collar, caught in her leather jacket.
Rubio crumpled to the ground, staring at the black sky after one last, quiet gasp.
A dozen militia sprinted toward the garage from all sides, boots pounding in the gravel.
Someone grabbed Lila’s shoulder, wrenching her around. Sutton panted in front of her, eyes roving over her body, weapon pointed at the ground. “Are you hit?”
Lila shook her head, her scarf too tight around her neck.