The caretaker led her into the living room on the other side of the foyer, where her client, a man with black hair and dark eyes, sat on the sofa, waiting. His eyes turned to her and, for the first time in a long time, Kailynn was nervous about being left alone with her client.
The caretaker stood by the door and waited, showing that he planned to be there for the entirety of the appointment.
“Ah, there you are,” her client, Rek, said, motioning for her to sit next to him. She forced a smile and walked forward, sitting next to him.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said, putting as much tenderness into her voice as she could manage. He put his arm around her and she leaned against him. He smiled at her and put his head against hers, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.
They sat like that for a very long time. Kailynn began to wonder why she was worried about being with her client in the first place. He had done nothing more than sit with her and rest his head on hers. She figured he was just lonely and he wanted to sit with someone for a while.
Once Kailynn started to relax, he turned his head and kissed her forehead.
“May I ask you a question?” he murmured.
“Of course.”
“A few nights ago,” he started, his voice quiet and even, “you were with someone.”
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She could not think of a response that fit with the role he had asked her to play. She hesitated before sitting upright and turning to him, nervous. She forced a smile.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I think you do,” he said, a dangerous light in his eyes. She backed away on the couch. “Don’t you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“You were with someone who is very influential in the circles I travel in,” he continued, his expression never wavering. Kailynn could feel her heart begin to race in her chest, though she did her best to maintain her impassive expression. She knew that her picture and name had been released to the public through broadcasts about the assassination attempt, but she did not think that would encourage people to become her clients. If anything, she thought it would cause her to lose clientele because no one wanted to be associated with a criminal.
“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to keep her voice strong, “I’m afraid I do not understand.”
One corner of Rek’s mouth curved upward briefly and he leaned forward, touching Kailynn’s face.
“Don’t be coy,” he whispered. “I know the truth.”
She backed away, standing.
“Clearly, there has been a misunderstanding.”
She knew she was in danger. She could feel it in her bones. Everything inside her was telling her to run as fast as she could.
When a hand latched onto her wrist, forcing her to sit on the couch again, her fear doubled.
“I don’t recall saying I was finished with you.”
She jerked her hand away, glaring at Rek.
“I’m saying that I’m done.”
She tried to stand again, but this time, the caretaker stepped forward to stop her.
“Why don’t you stay for a while?” Rek insisted, also standing. “There are some things we need to discuss.”
“No,” she snapped. “I’m leaving.”
“What about your payment?”
“My company will sort that out,” she said, walking to the caretaker with the intention of pushing past him. The older man grabbed both of her arms and yanked her to the side, forcing her to the ground. She barely had time to realize that she had fallen before the caretaker had pinned her arms above her head.
She began kicking violently, hoping to connect with something, but Rek’s hands grabbed her legs, pinning them as he sat on her knees.
“You misunderstand,” Rek said, chuckling. “I won’t hurt you.”
“Let me go! I will have you arrested!”
“Really?” Rek chuckled. “You think you can do that when you’re a criminal yourself?”
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
“After all, you were the one who attempted to kill Elite Isa,” Rek said, smiling as he leaned over her. “The Intelligence Agency did not find any evidence against you, but isn’t it interesting that you were back at Anon Tower only a few days ago?”
Kailynn blinked in surprise at the man, stilling her struggle. Rek chuckled and tilted his head.
“You think that people don’t know?” he murmured. “There are thousands that would pay more than you could ever imagine to have Elite Isa dead.” He leaned closer to Kailynn. “And you, my dear, are pivotal in securing the kill.”
Kailynn lifted her head quickly and felt her forehead connect with Rek’s nose. He let out a startled cry and backed away, getting off Kailynn’s legs as he nursed his broken nose. Kailynn thrashed her body, pulling her arms free of the caretaker and punching him in the jaw. However, with her position on the floor, the punch had little strength and did nothing more than stun the caretaker momentarily.
In that moment, Kailynn reached for her necklace and pressed the pendant, alerting Nyx that there was a problem.
The caretaker was on her once more, trying to stop her as she kicked and punched, sometimes hitting him as he made attempts to grab her.
However, Nyx appeared at the caretaker’s back, pulling him off Kailynn and putting him on his stomach as Nyx kneeled on his back to keep him down.
Kailynn turned her attention to Rek, seeing that he was trying to get to his feet. She lunged across the floor and grabbed his ankles, toppling him.
“Nyx!” she gasped. “Tie them up! They’re plotting against Elite Isa!”
It took Nyx a few moments to process the words before he used the one set of handcuffs he kept on him to restrain the caretaker as Kailynn tried to keep Rek still. Nyx took off his jacket and tied Rek’s hands to his feet, remaining on top of him to keep him still as he called the Officials.
Kailynn stayed until the Officials arrived and answered their questions as the two were hauled away. Kailynn could not help but ponder the fact that she was in two situations where there had been attempts or plots on Isa’s life. She was sure that the report would bring up many questions and peg her as someone who was a danger to the Elite.
Nyx took her back to Companion, both of them silent. When they got out of the car and were about to head into the building, Nyx took her arm. She whirled around, still on-edge.
Her guard pulled her to him and hugged her tightly.
She did not understand what had prompted him to hug her or why she felt like the hug was exactly what she needed, but she was grateful for the attention.
“Everything will be alright,” he whispered.
When Kailynn got to her room again, after a lecture from Jak about how she was getting into trouble so often, she got on her bed and stared at the ceiling, allowing her thoughts to form and vanish as they pleased.
The beeping from her phone caused her to jump out of her stupor. She grabbed the phone from the desk, popping out the earpiece and putting it in place, cringing at the discomfort.
“Hello?” she said when the soft beep told her that the call was connected.
“Good evening,” Isa’s voice said, her tone worried. “Are you alright?”
“How do you already know what happened?”
“Rayal called and told me about the arrest,” Isa answered. “Are you alright?” she repeated.
“I’m fine,” Kailynn said. “I’m worried.”
“Understandably,” Isa said. “Did he hurt you?”
“No,” Kailynn assured. “I promise, I’m fine.” She heaved a sigh. “Are you going to kill him?”
“No, not yet, at least,” Isa admitted. “Rayal and his team will try to get information from him about a plot.” Isa hesitated before speaking again. “Kailynn…your account about what he said…”
“I didn’t lie,” Kailyn murmured when Isa did not continue. “He said I was pivotal.” Kailynn opened her eyes. “Does th
at mean anything to you?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Isa whispered. “Kailynn…I know it’s asking a lot, but I would like you to come here. It’s safer.”
“Isa, he said he saw me in Anon Tower. They can monitor where I am, apparently. Going there would be more dangerous, wouldn’t it? They might be waiting until I’m there to attack you.”
Isa heaved a sigh on the other end of the call.
“It worries me not having you close,” she said gently. “I won’t be able to protect you if you need me.”
Kailynn could not help but chuckle.
“I broke that asshole’s nose,” she reminded the Golden Elite. “I’m pretty good about protecting myself.”
Isa let out a soft laugh as well, but her tone did not lighten.
“Perhaps in some ways,” she agreed. “But when it comes to politics, things get far more vicious.”
The two were quiet for an indeterminable amount of time, acutely aware of the other person on the call, but not sure what to say. Finally, Kailynn spoke.
“I have a few things I need to take care of. I probably won’t take my phone with me,” she explained. “I’ll be alright, I promise.”
“Will you let me know when you are back on the radar?” Isa said with a light chuckle. Kailynn smiled.
“Of course I will.” She was quiet for several more seconds. “Isa…”
When she did not continue, Isa asked her what was wrong.
“Please be careful.”
With those words, Isa understood the intensity of Kailynn’s fear. She had been trying to quell Tarah’s fears ever since the assassination attempt. The caretaker was constantly terrified that something horrible was going to happen to the Golden Elite. Now that Kailynn had uncovered another person plotting on Isa’s life, the Elite was sure that the Significant was nervous.
“I will,” Isa whispered. “I promise.”
Kailynn was thoroughly irritated when she was sent to various locations in Trid trying to find her brother. The Heart of Trid gang had been staying quiet since their release, waiting for the worst of the anger to blow over before resuming their normal activities, which including drug trafficking. Kailynn found one member of the gang in one of the exchange alleys who told her that her brother was at Aron’s house.
However, Aron told her that Theo had left nearly an hour previous, saying he was going to the car garage to grab a few things.
Kailynn could only roll her eyes when she went to the car garage and no one was there.
As she was walking back to find Raphael and spend some time with him, she ran into another member of the gang, who told her that Theo went to Sonya’s house.
She went to the woman’s house, recalling that Sonya and Theo were in a difficult-to-define relationship. She kicked herself for not checking there before.
When she knocked on the door, it took several minutes for anyone to answer. Theo pushed the door open, fighting the rusted mechanisms. He had his shirt off and his pants were undone, causing Kailynn to roll her eyes, already irritated from her searching.
“Lynni,” he greeted, surprised. He walked forward and hugged her quickly. “I have been looking everywhere for you.”
“You have?”
“You’ve been gone for weeks. I thought you had been killed and dumped somewhere.”
“Thanks for having so much faith in my ability to take care of myself,” Kailynn groaned, pushing her brother away. She glanced back into the room, seeing Sonya walking around naked, picking up a bottle of alcohol and taking several gulps. Kailynn rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket, pulling out a card. “Here.”
Theo glanced at it, taking it slowly, confused.
“What’s this?”
“Thirty thousand credits,” she said. “This with your money should allow you to get the other members of the moron committee out of Uren.”
“Thirty…” Theo looked between Kailynn and the card several times. “But…”
“Theo,” Kailynn said, “don’t do anything so fucking stupid again.”
“Wait!” Theo said, quickly fastening his pants and closing the door to Sonya’s place, stepping into the hallway as Kailynn turned around. “Where did you get this money?” he whispered, stepping close to her.
“None of your business.”
“It is!” he hissed, grabbing her arm when she tried to turn away. “Are you whoring?”
“No.”
“Does Raphael know?”
“Stop it, Theo!” Kailynn snapped, jerking away from her brother. “I am not whoring, so don’t accuse me.”
“You have no circles, you have no product, so what the hell else could you exchange for this amount of money?” Theo growled. “I’m not going to accept it if you don’t tell me where you got it.”
Kailynn rolled her eyes.
“What does it matter how I got it?” she said sharply. “It’s sitting there, in your hand. What do you want me to do? Give it back?”
“I want to know where you got it!”
“I worked for it,” Kailynn said.
Theo looked at the card.
“Brad? He pays you this much?”
“I had to pick up some other jobs to pay for this,” Kailynn said. “The point is, I worked, and I didn’t whore myself in the Walking District. Alright?”
“No, not alright,” Theo said. His expression turned suspicious. “You paid for us to be released, didn’t you?”
Kailynn quickly saw that the amount of money she would have needed to break them out of Uren would be impossible of obtain outside of Anon. She tried to think of a response, of some job she could tell her brother that would appease him without telling him that she was working as a Significant.
“How did you get all that money?” Theo whispered. “Even if you were a whore, there is no way you could get all this so quickly, and everything you paid to get us out.”
Kailynn looked at the ground, trying desperately to come up with something.
“Lynni,” Theo breathed, worried, “what have you done? How did you get this?”
“Theo,” she started, her voice weak, “it doesn’t matter how I got it.”
“It does. It matters to me!”
“Why?”
“Because I want to know what my baby sister had to go through to get us out,” Theo said. “I want to understand why you have been so absent. And I want to help you out of whatever trouble you are in.”
Kailynn could not help but bark a laugh.
“You can’t.”
“Kailynn, what did you do to get this money?”
Kailynn looked over Theo’s worried expression. He was struggling to think of any jobs where she could obtain so much money in such a short amount of time, and his inability to come up with an answer terrified him all the more. He walked forward and took Kailynn’s shoulders.
“Please, tell me.”
She looked at her older brother, her resolve to keep him in the dark about her job as a Significant chipping away. So much had happened so quickly since she had started working as a Significant that the thought of actually being able to confide in her older brother was too appealing to resist.
She dropped her head and Theo’s hands tightened around her shoulders.
“It’s alright,” he whispered. He pulled her into a tight hug. “It’s alright. I’ll help however I can.”
She braced herself, unsure of her brother’s reaction.
“I have been working, Theo,” she started, her voice weaker as she pulled out of the hug. “I found work…in Anon.”
Theo’s eyes shot wide.
“You’ve been working in Anon?” he hissed. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have been caught and killed!”
“I know.”
“Who would even hire you? You don’t have citizenship.”
Kailynn hesitated once more.
“Kailynn,” Theo urged.
She took a deep breath to steady herself and closed her eyes.
&nb
sp; “I was working at Companion,” she whispered. She opened her eyes and spared a glance at her brother. “I am working as a Significant.”
Theo was still and silent. She could almost see the words fall into place in his mind.
Suddenly, his hand struck her across the face so hard she saw stars.
“You better be lying,” he growled.
“Theo—”
“You were working as a fucking Significant?” he growled. “Fuck, even whoring is more honest than that fucking circus.”
“You don’t understand—”
“How could I not understand?!”
“You were going to be killed!” Kailynn snapped, shoving Theo away. “You are all I have left! I couldn’t let you die!”
“But you didn’t have to go be a slave to fucking Anon and cater to their sick desires!”
“You don’t know anything about it!” Kailynn yelled. “Fuck you, Theo! I did it to save your life so I wouldn’t have to hear that you were dead!”
“I know what happened to Father upset you—”
“What the fuck do you know about it?!” Kailynn barked. “I found him! You didn’t! And you are the only family I have! What the fuck was I supposed to do if you died?!”
The tears were forcing Kailynn’s voice to break. She turned away and pressed a hand over her mouth, trying to compose herself. Theo took a deep breath and closed his eyes, shaking his head.
“Fuck, Kailynn,” he sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “This would have never happened if…”
“If you hadn’t had such a shitty plan for shutting down Venus?” Kailynn snarled.
“Yes,” he admitted. “If not for Venus, things would be very different.”
Kailynn’s heart stopped. She recognized the tone of Theo’s voice. It bespoke determination and decision.
“Theo, no,” she said sharply.
“You know it’s true. If it weren’t for Venus, the Trids would not have to scrounge for food and shelter. We would not be freezing to death in alleys and being killed by Officials without reason.”
“Theo, no, not again,” Kailynn pled. “This is how I got stuck in this shit in the first place. There is no way to shut down Venus.”
The Significant Page 24