Hidden Gem

by Lissa Kasey

  “What about Candy? Is he the real thing or the clone? Which one is really dead?”

  Paris glanced up. “You’re much more involved than I’d like you to be.”

  “Tough. In case you haven’t noticed, someone is killing kids. Cutting them up into little pieces like some fucking science project. Most of them can be traced to kids with successful eye-dyeing surgery. Does your all-knowing government know why that might be?”

  Paris shrugged. “Jealousy? Money? Revenge? It takes so little to make people kill nowadays. How did you get access to classified medical records?”

  “Who’s Candy?” Ino asked. “Is he real, or is he the clone? You mean Cameron Jr?”

  “Your special project is dead, Ino. You may convey that to your employer. I will get a message about his sister to Cameron,” Paris told the man.

  “I’m supposed to bring Junior back home.”

  “The North doesn’t export even known criminals to the South, and Cameron Jr is under binding contract. One that cannot be purchased without his consent, and any connection to the South instantly voids all offers.”

  “He’s a whore?”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing. I was a whore for ten years. Now I’m a senator and one of the most powerful men in all of City M.”

  “His father will have a stroke.”

  Paris’s smile was vicious. “One less asshole.”

  Shane shook his head and went to the nursing station. “Is there anyone who can talk to me about Misaki Itou’s status?”

  “Are you his contract owner?” the woman asked.

  “That would be me.” Bart stepped off the elevator with a handful of guards and Candy following behind. Bart handed the woman a stack of papers. “I think you’ll find everything in order. I’d like to speak to a doctor as soon as possible about my charge’s condition.”

  The nurse flipped through the pages. “Right away, Mr. Rothnow. Let me tell them you’re here.”

  Bart turned to Shane, opened his mouth to speak, but instead shook his head and spun on his heel to talk to Paris. They spoke in hushed tones. Ino stared at Candy. Candy glared back.

  Shane sighed. Candy had a right to know about his sister. “Can I talk to you in private?”

  “Guards go where I go outside the Gem.”

  “Agreed.” Shane motioned down the hall to an empty area of vending machines. Candy followed with the large guard known as Manny dogging their steps. “The other man is the detective looking for you.”

  “I know who he is. He’s a hired assassin. But I’m not going anywhere. Bart owns my contract, and no one from the South can purchase it. I had that written in. So Daddy is SOL.”

  Shane sighed. “Candy, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to spit it out.” Shit, he hated to be the one to tell people when someone had died. “Your sister, Victoria, was murdered.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry. But you had to know. Aki said you cared about her. The news reports are stating that it’s you who did it. So your clone.”

  “Tori’s dead?” Candy wobbled on his feet. Shane grabbed his bicep to hold him up. Manny brought over a chair. “My sister is dead? She was only sixteen! It’s that bastard’s fault! If my dad hadn’t decided I wasn’t good enough, she’d be fine!” He touched a necklace, fingers gripping it like it was his lifeline.

  Shane nodded. Anger was okay. It was a form of dealing; so was blame.

  “My best friend is in the hospital bleeding to death of Goddess knows what, and my little sister has been murdered by my clone. I think I’d like to go back to bed and start this day over.” Candy put his head in his hands and yanked on his hair. “I so need Aki right now.”

  “Bart’s talking to the doctor,” Manny said. “They’ll take care of our boy. And Hansworth is here. He won’t let anything bad happen to Aki.”

  Candy refused to look at either of them. Finally he quietly said, “I need a minute.”

  Shane glanced his way and nodded, then headed toward Bart and the doctor. Manny stood guard over Candy, a silent barrier as the kid fell apart.

  “We’ll let you know as soon as we have more,” the doctor was saying as Shane approached.

  Bart nodded and waved the man off.

  “What’s the word?”

  Bart sighed and glared at him. “Candy says you offered to buy Aki’s contract.”

  “He refused.”

  “Why?”

  “Why did he refuse? I don’t know.”

  “No. Why did you offer to buy his contract? Do you wish to own him? Do you wish to free him? Do you pity him? Do you love him?”

  “I don’t see why that matters.”

  “It matters a great deal because for most of those reasons, I won’t sell you the contract.” Bart held up his hand as Shane began to protest. “Final say is mine since I am the legal holder of the contract, which means Aki is mine. I say who he sees and who he doesn’t see. It is my duty to protect him even when he is not seeing straight enough to protect himself.”

  “I would never hurt him. More than once I’ve defended him while assholes you’ve let into your establishment harassed him. I’m here now because he’s hurt, bleeding, and no one will tell me why.”

  “All while digging into a past that is likely better left unrevealed? What is it you really want from him, Detective? He cannot be your lover and still be a whore. I’ve seen many try and all fail. Eventually the jealousy will make you hate him.”

  “I’m working on the serial killer case. It may be related.”

  “Do you have an evidence to say Aki is related to this case at all? History of a prominent family? Surgery? An attempt on his life?” Bart nodded as Shane shook his head. “I follow the news. I may not have all the details about the case that you do, but I can put together the basics. He’s unrelated, and you’ll do well to stop digging. You’ve pulled up enough of his past, and it’s hurting him. The whole reason I sent him to Paris was so Aki would remember his place.”

  “As a whore. Owned property.”

  “As a protected companion. Shall I have Candy regale you with the nightmares he’s been having? Panic attacks thinly veiled as bathroom breaks? He drowns himself in creating lust for other men to keep his brain from wandering to horrific memories from the camp. He clings to Candy to create some sort of stability because you keep unraveling the structure that makes him feel safe. I don’t take care of him simply because I own his contract. There are plenty of brothels with owners who treat their whores poorly. I take my responsibility to them as seriously as a general does with his soldiers. Honestly, if he didn’t protest so much, I’d have banned you months ago.”

  Shane didn’t know what to say. He shouldn’t have involved Aki in this case. It was true that the psi was likely unrelated. He had to admit to himself that he dug into Aki’s past because he wanted to know; he wanted one less barrier between them. But something in his gut kept saying that Aki was related to all this, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Was it really worth torturing the kid just for a gut feeling?

  He sighed to himself. “Can you at least tell me if he’s okay?”

  “You obviously know he’s different than other people. They did a scan of his brain and have found numerous tumors.”

  Shane’s gut clenched. Aki was dying?

  “He has antibodies attacking them, destroying them, only to have them reform in a different place. The ISS says they’ve never seen anything like it before. The antibodies are literally eating the cancer. Just not fast enough to stop it from spreading.” Bart ran his hands through his hair, ruffling the short cut that always seemed perfectly styled. “They don’t know what triggered it or if it’s been going on for ages and is just now showing external signs. A CAT scan is not part of a companion’s normal physical, though it will be for Aki from this day forward. He’s had blackouts before, usually caused by his ability, but nothing so severe as to warrant a scan this deep.”

  Shane closed his eyes as he t
hought of Aki’s smile and gentle touch. Maybe he should have stolen a kiss this last time. Was that really only two days ago? “But he has A-M strains….” The words fell from his lips before he realized he was saying them. Shit.

  “Yes, which is probably part of what is attacking the cancer cells.” Bart sighed heavily. “It’s really just a matter of waiting to see what is stronger, his healing abilities or this cancer.”

  “Is there anyone who doesn’t know about A-Ms?”

  Bart’s smile was sad. “I was a soldier, Detective. There’s a lot of classified information I know. Aki, however, really is just a simple companion. He’s happiest with an uncomplicated life. Think about if you can truly offer that to him.”

  Shit, double dog damn. Fuck. “Can’t make this easy on me at all, can you?”

  “Nothing is easy, Detective. If it is, you should run the other way, because it’s going to turn around and bite you.” Bart nodded as Hansworth stepped up beside him.

  “I’d like to talk to the detective.”

  “I won’t sell Aki’s contract.”

  “Not asking you to. Yet.” Paris turned to Shane, dismissing Bart. The soldier shrugged and headed toward Candy. “You and I need to have an in-depth conversation about Misaki’s needs.”

  “I’m not quite sure what you mean by that.” Shane glared at the man. Hansworth was refined and handsome, the kind of man anyone would choose over someone as scruffy and gruff as himself. He was a senator, used to showing off wealth and power. Shane wondered if he ever really had a chance.

  “Misaki needs someone to take control, provide structure as well as emotional support. I’m willing to train you to be what he needs.”

  “I’m not going to be his pimp.”

  “He has Bart for that.” The man paused and looked down the hall at the rush of passing nurses and doctors. “He’s not as breakable as you think.”

  “He’s in the fucking hospital bleeding to death.”

  “They’ve stopped the bleeding. Now they are just waiting for him to stabilize. And he will. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. He fell into a coma for a week when I was first training him. He remembers almost none of it. Simply fell asleep, and I couldn’t wake him. His body had shut down to heal something internal. My guess is the malnutrition from his time on the streets had done more damage than I’d thought. Or perhaps an unhealed injury from his time in the camps. By the time the ISS figured out he was healing, they had lost the chance to pinpoint the problem. Tumors in the brain? Perhaps.” Hansworth shrugged. “He did, however, see this coming. He spoke of dreaming of being in the hospital with pain in his head and blurry vision. Everyone was sad.”

  Shane let the words filter through him. Aki had survived something like this before. He’d be okay again. He had to be. But had he ever been Precog? Was his power growing? “You know Ino’s kid brother died of some sort of cancer. Maybe it wasn’t a premonition, maybe it was a memory. One of my coworkers suggested cryogenics.”

  Hansworth glanced back at the Southern detective. “I will look into it.”

  “Bart doesn’t think we should be digging into Aki’s past.”

  “You won’t be. Work on your case. Let Bart and me worry about Misaki.” Hansworth looked him over like he was assessing Shane. “I bet you’ve never been submissive a day in your life.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “To learn to dominate, you must first learn to submit. This should be fun. For me at least.”

  Shane felt heat fill his face. “I’m not going to hit Aki. I’m not into those sorts of games.”

  “Not a game for Misaki. And no, I do not expect you to strike him. His discipline is more about structure and tasks, occasionally humility. And he certainly doesn’t get pleasure from pain, though his tolerance is above soldiers trained to bear torture. It’s all about control, Detective. You excel at control, do you not? As soon as Misaki’s recovery is assured, you and I should meet. I can’t wait to see you on your knees.”

  SIXTEEN

  AKI DREAMED of faces and lights. He could smell the stench of burning flesh again. Was he back there, then? Had everything been a dream? Some elaborate fantasy he’d created to keep himself from going crazy?

  He dragged open his eyes and glared at the bright light above him. A hospital, but not like any he could recall. It felt more like a hotel room than the sterile environment he remembered from his past. He could see nurses and doctors passing through an open door and machines whirring around him. A mask covered his nose and mouth, giving him air. Yet the smell of burned flesh lingered. The panic danced at the edge of his consciousness as though it were waiting for the right moment to descend again.

  Closing his eyes a moment, he took a deep breath and centered himself as Paris instructed. When he opened his eyes, it was to stare into a familiar face he hadn’t seen in years. “Hyeon…,” he whispered, feeling like it couldn’t be true. Surely he was dreaming now. Hyeon was long dead. Aki had seen the man’s lifeless corpse.

  “I heard a rumor that there was a very interesting psi down here in ICU, so I thought I’d stop in. Glad to see you awake, Aki.” Hyeon gripped Aki’s hand, and for once it was just a warm touch with no memories.

  “Are we still there, Hyeon? Did I dream of escaping?” Aki’s voice was so faint he was surprised the other man heard him.

  “You escaped.” Anger crossed his face briefly before an easy smile took its place. “You’re in the North. Contracted to a man by the name of Bart Rothnow. Funny that you run to be free only to sell yourself into servitude.”

  Aki wanted to defend himself, point out how good his life was, but he just didn’t have the energy. And Hyeon was dead. He was probably talking to some sort of illusion. Maybe something in his brain had finally broken and he was conjuring self-deprecating visions of dead lovers. At least he didn’t have many of those.

  “Why do I smell burned flesh if I’m in the North?”

  “They cauterized the blood vessels inside your nose. You were bleeding very heavily. I’m surprised you can smell anything at all.”

  Bleeding? Why had he been bleeding? He thought back and remembered the dinner party. He’d looked at the Asian man with pretty blue eyes. Eyes almost like his own, only not pale in the center. Unlike Hyeon, memories of the other detective brought up a wall. Not a faded memory or even the idea that there never had been one, it was more like the slamming of a door. Some sort of barrier that stood between him and something that had been locked away on the other side.

  Jackson had introduced him to a doctor who was used to getting inside people’s heads. Vitoric? Perhaps he’d seek her out. Maybe she knew what the barrier was and how it got there. He sighed and glanced up at Hyeon again. The man was still so handsome. More so now since Aki could never recall him looking so healthy and clean.

  “You’re a lovely illusion even if you’re not nice to me,” he told the man. “I missed you a lot.”

  “What makes you think I’m an illusion, Aki? Don’t you feel me holding your hand?”

  “I saw your body in the camp. Your eyes were open, empty, dead. Everyone was dead, guards, doctors, everyone. I was alone….” Aki shuddered at the memory. And he couldn’t feel inside the man’s head like he’d been able to two years ago. It had been almost a constant buzz of emotion at the time. Aki had gotten so used to it that when he’d lost Hyeon, he’d fallen into a void of not feeling anything. Only now someone else had filled him with emotion. He thought about Shane and his beautiful smile, and Candy who always worried and held him, and Paris who always looked out for him. He had a new life now. If it wasn’t a dream, he really needed to get back to it. “I want to go home now. Back to the Gem. Thanks for visiting me, Hyeon. You look so good. I hope you got to Heaven or wherever. Someplace peaceful.”

  “You killed them all, Aki. And you don’t even remember it.”

  “I would never hurt anyone,” Aki whispered. His eyes slid shut as the weight of his eyelids could no
longer be denied. This time when he slid into sleep, it was filled with glittery shoes and slices of cheesecake shared with friends.

  The second time Aki awoke, he was surrounded by what he considered his family. Bart was parked in a chair. Paris leaned against the wall. Candy was asleep at the end of the bed, the top half of his body on the bed, the bottom half slouched in a plastic chair. Manny guarded the door, and Shane paced the hallway beyond.

  Aki must have made some sound or movement, because Candy shifted and glanced his way, then was up moving toward the head of the bed and gripping his hand. “You awake, sweetie?”

  Everyone moved. Aki sucked in a deep breath. Were they real this time? What was real? “Am I dreaming?” But Candy’s colored clouds were there, faint, but still edging at the back of Aki’s brain. “Why am I fuzzy?”

  “You’re on a lot of meds,” Bart said. “The doctors said they’d probably affect your psi ability, but we were to exercise caution touching you, just in case. How are you feeling?” He glanced up to Manny. “Call the nurse.”

  “Is this real? Are you all real?”

  Shane walked up to the bed and touched Aki’s leg, gripping it lightly through the blanket. “It’s good to see your eyes open, Peanut.”

  “But I’m really here, right? Not in the South. Please tell me I’m not dreaming this.”

  Paris stepped up to the bed, looking concerned. “You’re in the North. You’re awake. First time in a handful of days. How are you feeling? Are you in pain? I can get the doctors to give you more meds.”

  Aki shook his head. He was tired, and his head ached with the dull throb of a fading migraine. “I dreamed of Hyeon. He looked so good. But it made me afraid. He said I killed them all.”

  “Who’s Hyeon?” Shane asked. “Killed who?”

  “Lover who died in the South. No idea on the second part,” Candy answered. “You hungry, sweetie? You haven’t had anything in days. We should probably get some broth or something in you. It’s so good to see your eyes open.” Candy blinked several times, and his eyes looked watery. Was he trying not to cry? “You need to stay with me, you know. We’re besties, right?”