by Isadora Hart
She hummed. “I trust it more on you than hidden in my room. There’s no reason anyone would suspect you’re more than hired help, anyway.” She flushed. “No offense. I mean, people aren’t going to think we’re fucking, though.”
He tutted, wrapping his arms around her, very distracted by the thought she’d put in his head. “I thought we established we were making love.”
Her fingers ran trails along his still bare chest, following every crease in his abs. “I think we do a bit of both.”
“Which are you feeling most like right now?”
She bit her lip, looking longingly up at him. “A bit of both.”
He moved to kiss her, but she wriggled out of his grip.
“Sometimes,” she protested. “It has to be neither. Food will be a here in a minute, then we really have to go.”
He sat back on the bed, watching her shimmy into a pantsuit and pull her hair into a ponytail. She did her make-up simply, and then spent ten minutes drumming her fingers on the table and waiting for the food to arrive.
It was half an hour before they actually left their room to go and find Qugrom.
“Do you think he’ll just let you in?” he asked, walking close behind her and keeping a hand on his knife at all times.
“I think he will. He’ll be curious what I’m doing there, especially after I didn’t show up at the conference yesterday.”
He decided she was probably right, and fought the urge to tell her that she was walking into a nest of vipers. She already knew that. She’d made her choice, and fundamentally he agreed with it.
It was just the reality of knowing she was in danger that made him want to lock her in her room and throw away the key. He’d been on the verge of asking her if she wanted him to be the one to speak to him so many times. She would have never accepted. He wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.
But he was scared.
He couldn’t remember the last time he was truly scared.
One of his colleagues, Kolyak, stood outside Prince Qugrom's suite. He had a whole floor to himself at the top of the space station's hotel.
Kolyak nodded to Vikram. "This is the Prince's suite. It's off limits."
"I want to speak to the Prince," Cassie replied, folding her arms in front of her chest. "I have some important information about the conference."
"I'm afraid the Prince isn't accepting visitors right now."
He was probably still asleep. They'd gotten up ridiculously early.
"This is important," Cassie stressed.
"It's a strict policy."
Vikram held his tongue. He had to let Cassie do her job, and he had to stick to his. Revealing that he was in on this wasn't a risk worth taking.
She pulled out the memory card. "I have highly important information on this memory card that Prince Qugrom needs to see before he speaks at the conference today. His future as leader of the Agalaxians is reliant on what I'm about to tell him."
"Show me what's on the memory card," Kolyak said, folding his arms and staring her down.
"I can't do that."
"Then I can't allow you in."
Cassie, to her credit, didn't glance at Vikram once, even though she was clearly getting more and more wound up. "You might not recognize me as someone that the Prince trusts, but if you've worked for him then you'll understand that he had an amicable relationship with my boss, one that commanded respect. He would relay that same respect to me. I just want you to ask if he'll see me."
Kolyak wavered, glancing at Vikram. Vikram gave him nothing but a straight face.
"I'll be one moment."
He disappeared inside the door of the penthouse, and Cassie didn't let out a breath of fresh air yet. Kolyak was back before a minute had passed, opening the door wider and inviting her inside. "The Prince said he will see you."
She nodded. "Thank you."
He guided them through multiple rooms to a closed door. "The Prince wishes to speak to you in private."
Vikram shook his head. "I'm charged with protecting my client. I won't allow her to go anywhere without me."
"This door is the only entrance or exit to the room. You may stand outside it."
He bristled. "I won't leave her alone."
The door opened. "Miss Maxwell has requested that I extend to her the same respect I showed Archie. I ask she grant me that same respect and allow us to have a private conversation. I never conduct personal business in front of a third party."
Vikram wanted to snap that he couldn't give a shit what conventions the Prince wanted to hide behind, he didn't trust him an inch with Cassie.
Cassie gave him a sharp look, though. "Of course. I understand. Wait outside," she told Vikram. It was the kind of order he'd have received from any of the other charges he'd protected. Cold and detached. With the assumption it would just be followed without question.
He had no choice but to obey.
He nodded, and took a step away.
He watched her disappear into the office with barely-there restraint, and grimaced when the door was locked behind them. He hadn't been prepared for that.
Kolyak gave him a sideways glance. "You don't always have to listen so precisely to Ballar's teachings. Some situations require finesse."
Vikram tried to pull himself together. One entrance and exit, no way Cassie could be whisked away and never found again. "It's hard to get out of the habit of black and white rules."
"Drink? I don't know how long they're going to be in there."
"Glass of water, thanks." His mouth was dry, and his gaze stayed focused on the door, his ears straining to hear the second any voices were raised. He wasn't above busting in there if he thought something was amiss.
When Kolyak clapped him on the shoulder, he jumped.
Kolyak laughed. "Wow. She must be special."
Vikram pinched his eyebrows. Feigning ignorance wasn’t difficult. "What?"
Koyak rolled his eyes. "Nothing. Glass of water," he repeated. "Coming right up."
21.
CASSIE
Cassie’s heart was pounding in her chest, as she took a seat opposite Qugrom in the plush penthouse office.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” he said, pulling a bottle of scotch from the side and pouring himself a glass. “You look like you’re about to shit the bed. I think you need one of these, too.”
Her cheeks flamed. She’d thought she had her face controlled. Maybe he was just bluffing to unease her.
She was so far behind in how to play political games in person. She wasn’t a poker player. She could deal with logic and facts before they happened. In the moment it wasn’t so good.
She took a sip of the scotch when he passed her the glass despite it being so early in the morning, and wondered if, by doing so, she'd failed some kind of test.
"So, what are you doing at my door before breakfast?"
"I'm here to blackmail you."
He raised a brow. There was no hair there, just scales stretched over a brow bone. "I see."
She pulled the video player from her purse and inserted the memory card—she'd remembered to pull it from her bra and put it into a pocket in her jacket before coming to his suite. She handed it to him, allowing the evidence to speak for itself.
He watched in silence, never betraying a reaction.
This was why he'd gotten as far as he had. He wasn't the Prince of Agalax by blood—he'd taken the crown from the rightful heir many years ago, through political maneuvering and a coup that had cost the lives of thousands. And yet he'd ruled after that with continuously positive approval ratings from his people.
When it was finished, he took the memory card from the video player and crushed it between two sharp claws, his face still impassive. "I assume that wasn't your only copy of the footage, though it's always good to be optimistic."
"There are more."
"Prove it."
"I'm not so foolish as to bring the other one in here and let you crush that, too.
"
"Other one? At least there's only one other I have to rat out and destroy, then."
She cursed her stupidity and refused to falter. "You're to change your stance at the conference today."
"Or?"
"Or I'll leak that footage to the press, and everyone will know that you're a liar and a hypocrite."
"Oh no. My poor reputation," he sneered. "I'm sure that will last a whole few weeks before it blows over and all is forgotten."
"You might think I'm naive, but Archie wasn't. He knew the consequences this tape would have if it was released. You can't play it down to me."
Archie had been so excited about this. He'd been certain it would change the course of the entire conference. He was just as skilled as Qugrom, he just hadn't chosen to use his skills in the same way.
Qugrom eyed her, disdain all over his expression as his beady eyes traveled over her body. "Then, yes. I'll change my stance at the conference today."
She resisted the urge to squint at his completely inauthentic response. "I'm unconvinced."
"Are you? I thought you were certain that Archie's plan would work."
She didn't know what else she could do. She'd told him what she had, made her demands, and made clear the consequences. She could only follow through with those consequences if he didn't comply.
She took the video player back from the Prince, snatching it out of his hands despite all the etiquette rules she was breaking, and gave him a sickly sweet smile. "I look forward to your arguments for backing a bill to outlaw the use of torture across the Intergalactic Union at the conference today, Prince Qugrom. Truly, it is an inspiration to see someone of your stature advocating for such a noble cause."
He didn't reply as she turned around and opened the door. She was met by the intense stare of Vikram. He relaxed a little when he saw her, but neither dropped their act quite yet.
Qugrom's bodyguard showed them out in silence.
It wasn't until they were back in the elevator that Cassie allowed her shoulders to slump. "Well, that was intense."
"How did it go?" he asked, still tense even though she stood in front of him unharmed. "I was half expecting you to never come back out."
"I… I don't know," she admitted. "I mean, he said he agreed to my demands, but I don't think it was at all sincere. Also he broke the memory card, so yours is the only one, now."
"He took it off you?"
"I gave him the video player to watch. It's small."
"I see."
"It's not like I wasn't expecting him to do it, really." She shifted her weight, feeling completely off balance. "I just have no idea how that went, at all. I wish Archie was here. He would have known. He would have never been talked down to like that in the first place."
Vikram took her hand for just a second and squeezed. "You have the information, and you know what to do with it. He was just trying to save face by looking unaffected. He's backed into a corner, he knows it. He'll change his stance at the conference today."
She let out a breath and tried to push her doubts away. She'd followed Archie's plan to the tee, even if she didn't have the same negotiating skills.
It would work.
It had to.
22.
CASSIE
Cassie and Vikram were met by Miranda in the lobby. She stood with her binders, shifting her feet and not doing a very good job of hiding her worry.
She brightened when she saw them, but Cassie wasn’t sure the smile was entirely real.
“How did it go?”
Cassie shifted her weight, looking across the lobby for when the prince would make his entrance. “I’m not sure. I mean, he said he was going to change his stance, but it wasn’t very convincing. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in there.”
“We’re still going in?”
“I’m not going to wait to hear it from someone else if he’s done what he said he was going to.”
Miranda nodded, and then fell quiet as the elevator doors opened on the other side of the lobby. Prince Qugrom stepped out, flanked by two bodyguards, looking completely unaffected by their meeting this morning. Cassie hated that it was taking all her concentration not to fidget.
“I hope they haven’t cleared our seats away,” she muttered, ignoring Qugrom, not wanting to know if he sent a look in their direction at all. “We only missed one day.”
She wanted to keep talking to Vikram, to ask him to watch Qugrom and read his body language, but he was in professional mode. He wasn’t standing too close, and he had an eagle eye watching everyone. She knew he wouldn’t want to be distracted.
So she just had to wait. She wanted to squirm and find some way of fast-forwarding time to just see what Qugrom did and then she could either relax or go back into planning mode.
Their pod of chairs was still set up when they entered the conference room, and she got more than a few looks from delegates who clearly hadn’t expected her to be making a reappearance. She knew it was suspicious, really, that she took a day off and the next time she showed her face the most influential delegation at the conference changed his tune, but she couldn’t not be there.
She sat back and had no intention of making a move to speak today. She was just going to observe.
That didn’t mean that as the debating started and she, once again, listened to people talk around the actual issue of universal rights and suffering, her hand wasn’t hovering over the button begging her to put some of them in her place.
She’d tried that, though, and it hadn’t worked out well.
Today she was going to be sensible.
It wasn’t until after they’d broken for lunch and she’d been forced to endure sympathies and being talked down to from people who claimed to know what she was going through that Qugrom actually took the microphone. He was going to be the last to speak before the day was set to close, and she laced her fingers in her lap, curious to know how he was going to address it. He’d given himself all day to plan a speech—had four aides swarming around him rapidly scribbling things down throughout the conference.
It should have been a great speech, about how this was an issue that just couldn’t be overlooked by the IU, and this was the time that they had to make a stand against rights abuses like this.
It wasn’t, though. It was exactly the same as every other speech he’d given since the conference had started: about how the IU wasn’t an organization in a place to make this kind of legislation, and it needed to be up to individual planets to create laws against torture. The IU was about economics and trade only.
She gripped the arms of her chair so hard her knuckles turned white, and she wanted to stand up and get the video out right then and there, show it to the room and show them that he was a lying hypocrite.
She stayed sitting, though, just barely. Vikram and Miranda were fixing her with sharp looks as her lip curled in disgust.
She’d completely fallen apart at every stage this conference.
In the hot seat, she hadn’t been able to be a professional at all.
She was the first person out the door when Qugrom sat down and the conference was over for the day—she stormed out of there without looking back, assuming that Vikram would be following her.
It wasn’t the elevator back to her room that she headed for. She needed to walk it off. What she really wanted was some fresh air. She wanted to be back on Archie’s home planet, surrounded by that green space, but she didn’t think she could cope with the flight there, locked in the metal tin for hours.
So she’d have to find somewhere else. She was walking through corridors that led to smaller meeting rooms and offices right now, according to the sign. People were in there, working, but they paid her no mind. She was dressed like an office drone, and she wasn’t well known like some of the delegates.
“Where are you going?” Vikram asked, easily keeping pace with his long legs.
“I don’t know. I just want to be outside.”
“I don’t think
outside is this way.”
“I don’t think outside is anywhere on this stupid fucking place.”
“We could go for a drive if you want,” he offered. “My ship is just in the hangar.”
“I can’t deal with being in a ship for longer than about ten minutes. I just want to hit something, to be honest.”
He laid a hand on her shoulder, and she resisted the urge to use him as her punching bag. He was just trying to help. “Cassie,” he said, “I know how to get outside. You’re going the wrong way.”
She blinked back sudden tears. She’d just wanted it to work. She’d just wanted it to be over. “I can’t believe he didn’t change his mind. What does he think is going to happen?”
Vikram’s hand moved from her shoulder to her cheek, and his thumb wiped away the single tear that had fallen. He brought his hand back swiftly, though, and stuffed them in his pockets. “He’s testing you. He wants to see what you’ll do now.”
“What am I supposed do now? I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Yes you do. What would Archie have done?”
“I don’t know. I was just his aide. I wasn’t him. I’m not the same as him. I can’t do this like he could.”
“You don’t want to be him. You just want to do this one thing.”
“I want you to help me,” she pleaded. “What would you do?”
“I’d do nothing. I wouldn’t go and see him and let him know how much it’s getting to you. Just send him a memo and tell him nothing has changed. If he doesn’t change his stance tomorrow, you just have to release the material. It was always a possibility he wouldn’t give in to your demands.”
“No it wasn’t. Archie had been so certain.”
“He wasn’t perfect, and he didn’t know everything,” Vikram said softly, hand coming out of his pocket and almost going back to her shoulder. “He was good at his job, but he wasn’t a god.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she looked around the metal corridor with empty meeting rooms on either side. “What am I doing here?” she muttered, shaking herself off. “You’re right. You always seem to be. I’m not going to stress about it. In fact, I’m going to spend the rest of the day watching movies and not feeling bad about it.”