by Isadora Hart
There was nothing more that she could do today. They stopped by reception on their way to their room and sent a memo to Qugrom. “You’ve had a lot of calls from a Jensen at the Universal Rights Foundation,” the receptionist said after sending the message. “He says it’s very important that you call him back.”
He’d been blowing up her phone, too, but she hadn’t answered any of the calls. It wasn’t worth trying to defend herself, and like he’d said, no one could get to the space station in time to stop her.
“I’ll give him a call, thanks.” She smiled at the receptionist and turned her phone off completely after sending a quick text to Miranda to apologize for running off.
They took the elevator up to her floor and walked side-by-side to her room. There, she finally did the thing she’d been meaning to the past couple of nights. She pushed her single bed against Vikram’s so it made a double, then climbed into it, grabbing the TV remote. “What kind of movie do you feel like?” she asked, patting the spot beside her.
He didn’t hesitate like she’d expected, and patted the spot in between his legs for her to sit between. “Action. Of course. The only genre worth watching.”
She rolled her eyes, but passed him the remote, cradling his free hand in hers and lacing their fingers together.
She could get used to this.
To coming home and having him wipe all her stress away, just like that.
23.
VIKRAM
It was the last day of the conference and everyone was either vying to get a word in before the IU representatives decided on whether they were likely to legislate, or not following the debates at all. Vikram sat with his arms folded watching the room and resisting the urge to fall asleep.
He hated listening to these people talk about something as though it wasn’t affecting the lives of millions. It was all so dehumanizing.
Cassie sat on the edge of her chair, though, eyes glued to Qugrom’s hand, waiting for him to press the button and give his speech. Vikram wasn’t surprised when he saved himself until the end of the day again. He seemed like the kind of man who needed to have the last word on everything.
He was surprised when he didn’t change his stance, though. He toed the same line he had been doing the entire week. He didn’t look at Cassie once, though, and Vikram knew there was some fear there.
He was scared of the consequences, but not taking action to stop them from happening.
He must have something else up his sleeve.
Vikram tensed and resisted the urge to sit closer to Cassie as she looked at Qugrom, completely aghast. “I can’t believe it,” she hissed under her breath. “That bastard.”
Miranda put her pen down. “I guess it’s time to dig out the press contacts, then.”
“I can’t believe it,” Cassie said again, shaking her head. It was beginning to wind down. The IU wouldn’t announce their intentions for a couple of days, maybe even weeks, and it would be after the delegates were long gone.
All that came now was the after-party, the schmoozing and drinking. He hoped Cassie wasn’t planning to attend any of it; he didn’t think she would.
Miranda pulled out her phone and began tapping away, before she frowned and handed it to Cassie. “It’s not front page or anything, but you should see this.”
Cassie’s face paled, and her eyes quickly scanned over the article. “Shit,” she muttered. “Shit, shit, shit.” She looked at Vikram, and he had no idea how he could be connected to something in the press. “Let’s go back to my room,” she said. “I’m done with this shitty conference, and I need to figure out what I’m going to do about Qugrom. I should probably ring the Director again. He’ll be better placed to deal with this now. He’ll know what to do.”
Miranda put a hand on her arm. “You’re rambling.”
Cassie flushed. “Right. Thanks.”
She stood up and looked around, as though she was paranoid everyone was staring at her. They weren’t of course. Everyone was occupied with excitement that the conference was over, even the people who were clearly on the losing side.
They hurried toward the elevator and she even opted for the stairs when there were other people from the conference taking the same ride. “You can take the elevator,” she told Miranda. “I need to speak to Vikram anyway.”
“Sure?” Miranda checked, holding the door to the annoyance of everyone inside.
“Sure.”
And then he and Cassie were starting up the ten flights of stairs to get back to her room. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Not here. Wait until we get back.”
He frowned. “Really, what’s going on.”
“Not here.”
He didn’t bother arguing after that, but stuck especially close to her side, and kept looking over his shoulder. Had she seen something that had put her in danger?
Eventually they got back to her room, and her shoulders slumped. She tapped on her tablet and then handed it to him.
His rage was immediate.
It was a picture of them from the day before, his hand on her cheek as he tried to comfort her. It wasn’t a kiss, and it wasn’t even sexual, really, but it was so far out of the professional boundaries he was supposed to adhere to that he knew he was in deep shit.
“Fuck,” he cursed, barely stopping himself throwing the tablet at a wall. “Fuck.”
He pulled out his phone and saw five missed calls from his boss.
Cassie was chewing on her lip. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
It was his own fault. He’d thought that he could get away with fooling around with a charge without it having on repercussions on his career. He was an idiot. He deserved to get the chewing out he was about to. “I have to ring my boss,” he said. He wanted to do it in private, but he couldn’t leave her alone, either.
Cassie grabbed her keys. “I’ll go and sit with Miranda. We’ll be locked in her room, and I won’t open the door for anyone. I’ve got the panic button.”
“Fine. I’ll walk you there.”
It was only down the corridor, but he wasn’t taking any more chances than he had to. He kept her too-close and resisted an urge to wrap an arm around her shoulders as they walked. He’d fucked it up now, why not go all the way and just give in to his instincts?
Why not just cup her face and kiss her in front of everyone like he’d been resisting since the first time he saw her?
They paused outside Miranda’s door, and Cassie’s hand hovered between them for just a second. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “If I hadn’t had a breakdown, none of this would have happened.”
“You didn’t coerce me into anything. I can face the consequences of my own actions.”
She flinched at that, and he knew it was colder than he’d intended. It had to be, though, because otherwise he was going to punch something.
She knocked on Miranda’s door. “Hey,” Cassie said to the aide. “Fancy a drink?”
“Sure.”
Vikram hovered in the doorway. “I’ll be in your room. Let me know if you need anything.”
Her smile was strained. “Of course.”
“Don’t answer the door for anyone.”
“I won’t.”
He couldn’t put it off any longer. He shut the door and walked back to Cassie’s room, taking out his phone and calling his boss.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Rosen, his boss, demanded. “Have you seen the papers?”
It was hardly front page news. “I’ve seen.”
“What were you thinking? Do you have any idea of the damage you’ve caused our reputation?”
Vikram gritted his teeth. He wasn’t sure whether to believe Rosen or not. He was just one guy caught in a slightly compromising situation. “The picture is misleading.”
“Is it? It looks like you’re touching your client. It looks like you’re breaking all the professional boundaries we’ve worked centuries to build our reputation on.�
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“I was helping to protect my client’s reputation, and provide a good service.”
“I couldn’t give a shit about some lower-down in some stupid charity’s reputation. She’s unimportant.”
He bristled, pacing around the room to stop himself blowing up. If he did that, it would all be over. “I’m sorry,” was all he could say. “I made a mistake.”
“You sure as hell did. I’m pulling you from the job, and putting you on suspension for a month. Unpaid. Report back to Suytov immediately.”
“What about Cassie? She still needs protection.”
“Her protection will be looked after by someone else, and you won’t have any more contact with her. At all.”
“I’m not leaving until my replacement has arrived.”
“You will do as you’re told.”
“Rosen, she’s in danger. I want to do my job.”
There was a long pause, and then a concession. “Fine. A replacement will be there within the hour. And then I want her out of your life. For good. You can rest assured you’re never going to get put with a female client for the rest of your life,” he finished on a mutter. “Dismissed.” He hung up before Vikram could respond.
Vikram did throw his phone across the room now. It hit the wall above the headboard of their makeshift double bed and he saw the screen crack. He didn’t care.
He hadn’t been fired and he should have been grateful, but he resented that losing his job for following his heart was even an option. He hadn’t done anything Cassie didn’t want. Their relationship was personal not professional, now.
He knew he was being stupid, and that he was wrong, but it turned his stomach that what he and Cassie had felt over this past week could be bad in any way.
24.
CASSIE
Cassie sat on Miranda’s couch, a glass of scotch in her hand. Her foot tapped aggressively on the floor, and it was a good job it was carpeted, otherwise it would have been far more annoying.
Miranda chewed on her lip, sipping from her own glass. “What happened?” she asked.
“He needs to ring his boss about the newspaper.”
“No. I mean, what happened in the picture in the papers.”
Cassie hated that she blushed. “I lost it a bit after Qugrom didn’t change his mind and Vikram was just trying to calm me down. It was really nothing.”
Miranda raised a single brow. “Right. Nothing.”
Cassie groaned. She was so tempted to let it all spill out. She shouldn’t be ashamed that she’d had a relationship with someone. “It was a little bit what it looked like,” she conceded. “There’s a bit of something there, you know?” A vast understatement, but the only one she felt comfortable making. She’d never spoken to Miranda about relationships before, and she was still wary that she was going to embarrass herself when Vikram inevitably told her that he had to stop speaking to her because of his job. “But we’re both professionals. Nothing was ever going to happen. That was just a bit of a slip up. That’s all. I can’t believe someone caught it on camera.” She shook her head and downed her drink. “So stupid.”
Miranda was quick to top up her glass. “This conference was a real shit show start to finish, huh?”
“You’ve got that right. I’m almost relieved I’m never going to have to attend one again.”
“You really think the director will fire you? It was just one little thing. People will have forgotten about it in days.”
“I directly disobeyed him. I’m going to get the boot. I’m at least going to be booted down to being back in the field, even if I stay within the company. I can’t wait to get back to the front line. To actually see the people I’m helping.”
“I don’t think I could ever go back. It’s too much for me.”
Cassie absorbed all the guilt that came with that statement. “You shouldn’t have stayed. You should have gone home.”
Miranda immediately shook her head. “That isn’t what I meant. I don’t feel any guilt about what happened here. I did what I thought was right. And I followed the instructions of my superior, so I’m sure I can still keep a job in admin somewhere,” she teased.
Cassie laughed, but then buried her head in her hands. “I can’t believe it all fell apart in a week.”
At the same time, though, memories of her and Vikram flooded her. Even in between the grief of losing Archie, and the failure of the conference, they were some of the happiest moments of her entire life. Vikram had made everything feel okay even though it wasn’t, at all. He’d been there for her like no one ever had before.
And she loved him, at least a little bit.
She knew she’d carry him with her for the rest of her life, hold all the guys she met in the future up to the Vikram pedestal to see if they were good enough. She knew he was going to pick his job over her—it was something he’d worked his entire life for, and even loving someone a little bit wasn’t enough to trump that. She couldn’t blame him.
He was so important to her now, though, and she’d always have that.
She couldn’t bring herself to see this week as a total failure, or to wish it hadn’t happened.
“Things will seem normal again so quickly,” Miranda said, entirely confident. Cassie wished she could have that much optimism—or that she could act as well as Miranda. She didn’t know enough about the aide to decipher if she was genuine or not.
“You’re probably right. It’s the not knowing, I guess. Facing Jensen is the last thing I want to do right now.”
“It’ll be over before you know it.” Miranda topped Cassie’s glass up again.
“I feel like I’m alone at the drinking table,” she joked. Miranda had only taken a couple of sips from her first glass. “I thought we were drinking to failure together.”
Miranda laughed, scratching the back of her head. “I still have a headache. I don’t think drinking is going to help that.”
“It helps everything,” Cassie said with a wave of the hand. “Thank you, though, for listening to me. I know I’ve been whining and a bit all over the place this week in general. I hope I haven’t snapped too much.”
Miranda’s smile was tight. “You haven’t, don’t worry.”
“I hope Vikram’s call is going okay.” She chewed her bottom lip.
Miranda stood up, suddenly, and Cassie jumped. “I’m sorry,” Miranda said.
“Why?”
She watched, eyebrows pinched, as Miranda turned around to rifle through her purse.
And then there was a gun pointed in her direction. “I’m sorry,” Miranda repeated, but there was no shake in her hand. No hesitation as she pulled the trigger.
Cassie barely had time to dodge the fatal shot, and it grazed her cheek instead. The sting made her cry out, but the adrenaline kicked in before the pain could properly register.
She had to get to Vikram. She wanted to go for the door, but she would have been a clear shot for Miranda, so she threw herself behind the couch instead. She took a bullet to the bicep as she moved, but it wasn’t critical. Miranda had been firing the whole time, and she had to be out of bullets soon. Cassie knew weapons—she’d lived in war zones for months at a time—and this was the sound of a gun with bullets, not a laser pistol.
It was loud, but the soundproofing in these hotel rooms was top of the range, and the chances of Vikram hearing her through multiple walls was non-existent.
She had to get to her panic button.
On her knees, she peeked above the arm of the couch for just a second, and immediately heard the sound of the trigger. She barely dodged in time.
She was unarmed and trapped.
Miranda could have come after her though, and hadn’t. Maybe she was wary that Cassie had a knife on her, but Cassie decided to take it that her aide was reluctant. She’d apologized twice. Maybe she could work with that.
If she ignored the graze on her cheek and the shot in her arm, anyway.
She peeked her head back above the couch once more,
and met the same response.
Then she heard Miranda attempting to reload.
Cassie launched herself toward her purse, and snatched it from under the coffee table before diving back behind the couch.
Once there, she scrambled to find the panic button and pressed it as hard as she could.
Vikram was the only hope she had now.
The first shot came through the couch just at the side of her head, and she couldn’t hold back the scream. There was no hesitation or compassion as Miranda emptied the clip into the couch. Cassie huddled against the wall, making herself as small as possible in the corner, the knife from her purse clutched in her hand. One bullet caught her in the thigh, and she whimpered, pressing her hand against the wound.
When she heard Miranda reloading again, she took a deep breath and decided to make her move. She had a knife and a few moments to make it count. If Miranda unloaded another clip into the couch, one was going to hit her somewhere more damaging than the thigh.
She stood up and ignored the throbbing in her leg as she ran around the couch. Miranda had fully reloaded by the time Cassie got there, knife brandished. She barely dodged a shot and grabbed Miranda’s gun hand, knife going to her throat.
But she hesitated. She looked into Miranda’s tear-stained eyes and she couldn’t do it.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered instead.
Miranda didn’t respond, she just struggled against Cassie’s grip.
And then there was a series of blasts on the other side of the door, and it slammed open. Vikram was there, guns in each hand and fully enraged. He bared his fangs and pointed his barrels in Miranda’s direction.
But they didn’t go off.
Cassie and Miranda were too entwined, she realized, as he threw the guns on the floor and strode toward them instead.