Before the End (Beyond Series Ultimate Glom Edition)

by Kit Rocha

  "Who says I want anything?" The man's wide grin belied the innocence of the deflection.

  Dallas didn't hide his snort of amusement. "Yeah. Try that on someone who doesn't know you."

  Gideon sobered. "I want my Warriors to have full access to Sector Three."

  Christ, the man didn't ask for much, did he? Just motorcycle-riding vigilantes for God rolling through a sector that might as well be hell on earth. "You want them there as helpers or hunters? Because if I'm running Three, my men need to be the law. End of story."

  "Hey." Gideon held up both hands. "Feed the hungry and heal the sick. Everything else is your show."

  There were benefits to letting Gideon's men in, coldly practical ones. Hungry people were desperate, dangerous, but charity and compassion had a tendency to erode the fearful respect Dallas depended on outside of his gang. He didn't want to leave kids hungry and their parents suffering, but he couldn't save them all. And the slightest show of weakness could kick off a territory war that would leave those same children worse than hungry. Innocents were the first to die when bullets started flying.

  But if he could keep them safe and let Gideon feed them... "One month trial," Dallas said finally. "But only if they agree to answer to Maddox. I can maybe even find them something in the way of resources, but the lines have to be drawn. You can be the carrot, but I'm still the stick."

  "How very manly."

  "Hey, some of us aren't coasting on the reputation of a higher power. Us mere mortals gotta do what we can."

  Gideon laughed. "If I promise not to make your life harder, will you stop pretending you can't afford to give a shit about people who don't wear your ink?"

  That stung, but he supposed it was meant to. "Afford's a funny word. Some prices I'll pay happily. Others...not so much."

  "That's the tricky part--figuring out what'll make you shell out. You did it for Edwin Cunningham's daughter." Gideon tilted his head. "Or was that Lex's influence?"

  "Maybe you give me too much credit," Dallas countered, unwilling to give voice to the depth of her influence. Not here, with enemies on all sides. Besides, he didn't have to twist the truth much to come out looking bad. "Maybe I'm just cold-blooded enough to recognize all the ways I could use a councilman's daughter."

  "Now, that I believe."

  "And she has great tits."

  "Mmm, there you go. Make love, not war, my friend."

  So much for offending the delicate sensibilities of a holy man. Gideon's grandfather may have styled himself a modern-day prophet, but his life's work had been preaching against the strict values enforced within Eden. Love was high on the list of things celebrated in Sector One, and it damn sure wasn't all fraternal or platonic.

  Dallas clapped Gideon on the shoulder. "I keep telling you, man. Choosing one over the other's boring. You haven't lived until you've made love and war at the same time."

  "I guess that's why you--" A noise interrupted the words, and a man whipped around the corner in a flash, knocking Gideon aside. Silver glinted in warning, and Dallas wrenched his body out of the way fast enough for the switchblade to slice across his vest but miss skin.

  The rest was muscle memory. He'd instinctively twisted to put his body to the outside of the attacker's arm--and to get a grip on the man's wrist. A hard yank and a heel planted against the side of his knee, and the man staggered with a grunt of pain.

  Only staggered. If he'd gone down, maybe Dallas would have checked himself, would have kept the man alive to ask questions. But a clatter behind him indicated Gideon was wrestling with an attacker of his own, and Bren--orders or no, Bren would be here by now if he wasn't fighting his way clear of something.

  Dallas kicked him again, popping the man's knee with a solid hit from one steel-toed boot, and snapped the bastard's neck on the way down.

  Dallas spun to see Gideon punch a second struggling attacker in the lower back--hard. The man hit the wall face-first with a sickening crunch and slumped toward the floor, but Gideon hauled him up with a curse. "Colby's man."

  "Fuck." Dallas whirled, took three loping paces toward the last of a dozen corners they'd turned, and almost slammed into Bren. "What happened?"

  "Got jumped." Bren panted a little, and a shallow graze of a cut marred his cheek. "Motherfuckers meant business. You good?"

  "We're good." He jerked his head in Gideon's direction. "Colby's thugs. Did you recognize any of yours?"

  "Same, but they're dead now."

  "Goddamn." Dallas shoved a hand through his hair and let himself sigh. "I suppose I knew what I was getting into."

  Bren flexed one scarred hand, eying his busted knuckles. "Shivs only come out when the meetings were productive. I take it everything went well."

  "Depends on whether or not you were planning a vacation anytime soon." Dallas swept up the knife that had almost slipped between his ribs and stepped over the limp body of the man who'd been holding it. One of the servants would find the fallen men, and it wouldn't be the first time Cerys had cleaned up an assassination attempt in her hallways. "Mad's crazy cousin here decided to make a power play on my behalf. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to kill him or not."

  "You like me too much for that." Gideon tossed Dallas another knife, this one a switchblade. "Besides, I just saved your life."

  "My dignity, maybe," he huffed in return, but he still grinned. "Even if I could have taken them both, I don't want to think about what Lex would do to me if I came back to the room with a hole in my hide."

  "You, she'd kiss all better," Bren muttered. "I'm the one who'd have to deal with the queen's rage. Which, come to think of it..."

  Dallas slugged Bren on the shoulder lightly. Well, kind of lightly. "Don't get too attached to the idea, buddy. Her rage is mine now, too."

  "Uh-huh." Bren grimaced at the men on the hallway floor. "Want me to clean up or make sure everything's ready to go?"

  "Leave them. I want to get the hell out of this sector."

  "Yes, sir."

  He brushed past Gideon, who shook his head. "Shouldn't he be sticking around to guard your back against a second wave?"

  "Want a lecture on assassination tactics? Chase him down and ask. Don't blame me if you can't sleep tonight, though." Dallas shook his head and clasped Gideon's hand. "It's time for me to haul ass. I've got to head home and break it to the boys that we're expanding operations."

  "Take care, O'Kane. Let me know if I can help."

  "Oh, you'll be hearing from me. Believe it."

  Dallas watched Mad's cousin turn down the corridor to his own quarters before tucking his new switchblade into his pocket. The second knife he kept handy, toying with it as he resumed the walk to his suite.

  At least Gideon's motives were clear now. He was probably hoping to lure Dallas into letting the Warriors move into Sector Four, too. More people to feed, more people to save. More to preach to, spreading their message of love above all else.

  Maybe Mad and Gideon's grandfather had truly believed it, but the two of them were more practical. Love was powerful, but it didn't put food on the table or a roof over your head. It didn't protect you against all the assholes with hearts too dead to feel anything but hate.

  He could deal with Gideon. And Scott was a nonentity, a spoiled child on a throne he'd built to feel special. He'd backed Dallas just to infuriate Colby. Cerys and Jernigan were the mysteries. Their motives were the ones that could come back to haunt not only Dallas, but all of the O'Kanes.

  The risks were worth it. They'd always been worth it before.

  He wouldn't think about what had changed in the past week. How much more he had to lose if everything fell to pieces.

  The folded paper on the silver tray had been waiting for her, silent and damning, and Lex didn't want it.

  But no one ignored a summons from Cerys, not on her compound, so she crumpled the paper in her fist and made her way through the serpentine corridors, with Mad dogging every step.

  To her credit, Cerys didn't make her w
ait. She greeted Lex with a smile and waved her inside. Mad caught Lex's gaze, and she saw the protest there, the offer to face this battle at her side, no matter what Cerys wanted.

  But Christ knew what the woman wanted--or how condemning it might be. "Wait for me here."

  He nodded, and Cerys closed the door, trapping Lex in her domain. The room was dark compared to the rest of them, all heavy woods and deep, rich fabrics.

  Cerys moved to a table where an open bottle of wine sat between two crystal glasses. "That one has layers, doesn't he? One might almost think he's not very subtle, but I imagine that's the point."

  "You imagine?" As if the strategy was foreign to her. "Haven't you been playing the same game for years, Cerys?"

  "Most women do." She poured two glasses of blood-red wine and offered one to Lex. "Subtlety isn't generally the provenance of men, my dear. You can pretend to find that distasteful, if you wish, but we both know the truth."

  "Or maybe you hang with the wrong men."

  Cerys sighed. "So angry, Alexa? Still? I'm not your enemy. At worst, I'm the woman who took you in and did her best to give you the tools you'd need to survive."

  "Not out of the goodness of your heart. And you've been repaid." Lex crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly doubting the wisdom of her decision to bar Mad from the room. "What do you want?"

  "To see you. To admire the woman you've become. If you can credit me with nothing else, surely you can understand the pride I feel at seeing how much you've accomplished." She held out the wine again. "One drink. That's all I ask. Perhaps you'll discover I have something to offer in return."

  Appeased, Lex accepted the goblet. The pride thing was bullshit, but a proposition... That made far more sense. "I'm listening."

  Cerys circled to take a seat on a low, sleek couch. "You've come far since I last saw you. For the longest time, I thought you weren't going to make a move at all." Cerys's gaze dropped to the collar circling Lex's throat. "Having Dallas O'Kane in hand makes you a powerful woman. More powerful than you realize, since he's just doubled his territory."

  Sector Three. The news only compounded Lex's already surreal disbelief. "You think I'm playing him."

  Cerys froze with her glass almost to her lips. "Playing is a crude description of what we do, but yes, Lex. I assumed you were seeing to your own interests as well as his dick."

  And of course, those two things had to be intimately connected. "Good thing you're sitting down, because this might shock you, but any attention I lavish on Dallas's dick is for its own sake. I take care of my interests in other ways."

  "So defensive. So vehement." Cerys sipped her wine, and from the amusement in her gaze, Lex could tell she didn't believe. Not yet. "You don't need to be ashamed of who you are. You're exactly what I need. A woman strong enough to carry on the work I've started."

  Lex's blood chilled. "You've got to be shitting me."

  "Your time in Four may have honed your edges, but it's been abominable for your vocabulary."

  Fuck my vocabulary. Even thinking the words put a grin on Lex's face. "I ran like hell the first chance I got. What makes you think I'd ever come back here for more than a grudging visit?"

  Cerys set aside her glass and crossed her legs, her posture relaxed and easy. "Because for all that you hate me, you're not stupid. It doesn't matter whether you hold his leash or he holds yours. Maybe you truly love one another, but that's even more reason to consider my offer. Dallas O'Kane is hungry for power, and you could give him an entire sector."

  It was what he wanted--he couldn't have worked his ass off for so many years if ambition didn't drive him--but at what cost? "He wouldn't take it. Not like this."

  "Not without a battle? Without bloodshed? Wealth, influence and information, served up on a silver platter." Cerys quirked an eyebrow. "Perhaps you don't know him as well as you think you do."

  "He knows how I feel about this sector." She took a step closer to the couch. "I can't run it unless I'm here, and I'd rather die."

  Cerys's face froze into a polite mask. "I see. I'm sorry you feel that way, Lex."

  The words held just enough threat to send a shiver up Lex's spine. "Don't be sorry," she snarled. "Find someone else to carry on your little legacy and leave me the hell alone."

  "If you insist." It seemed too easy an acceptance, but Cerys rose and changed the subject. "I heard you visited your sister today."

  Rage. Lex went with it, let it explode in a hot rush of temper as she threw her goblet at the wall beside Cerys's head. The delicate crystal disintegrated, raining wine and sharp little shards all over the couch.

  Even Cerys couldn't mask her shock. She tried, struggling to compose her features, but her hands trembled and her voice, when she spoke, was strained. "You always did have a temper. It's a pity you've abandoned your lessons in self-restraint."

  "I missed on purpose." Lex's voice wavered, and she steeled it before continuing. "My sister. If you fuck with her life, make things hard, even breathe funny in her direction, I'll kill you. Slow and painful, with my bare fucking hands. Count on it."

  "You've become shrill, darling." Cerys smoothed a hand over her hip and turned away. "It's a sign of a weak will."

  "Test me, Cerys. I'm begging you."

  "Begging. Another bad habit you've learned from Dallas O'Kane." She'd regained her cool by the time she turned, and her words sounded bored. "If you've run out of things to throw, you may take your leave."

  "Gladly." On her way toward the door, Lex ran her hand over a small statue on a side table. It was porcelain, pre-Flare, almost certainly worth more than Cerys had paid to buy her all those years ago.

  She took great pleasure in tipping it off the table and listening to it shatter on the floor behind her.

  Mad's lips twitched as he fell in beside her outside. Before they'd made it three steps, the door slammed shut with enough temper that the twitching turned into a grin. "Now I'm jealous. You got to break things and I didn't."

  "I'd let you go back and break her face, but Dallas would bitch."

  "Maybe. Might be worth it, though." He slung an arm around her shoulders. "Until I started a sector war, I guess. Or maybe two of them. That's the best part of being an O'Kane and a descendant of Sector One's Prophet. No one knows who to wage war on first."

  Lex relaxed into his embrace, allowing herself a moment to indulge in the comfort of it before straightening her spine. "Better to let it slide, then."

  They turned a corner, and Mad jerked to a stop as a brunette stepped out of an alcove in front of them. She was pretty, in a soft sort of way, with a flowing robe that hugged her curves but hung modestly to the floor.

  Mad recognized her. He didn't release his grip on Lex, but he nodded. "Jade."

  "Maddox." She turned to Lex and bowed as low as most initiates bowed to the head of their house. "You must be Lex."

  "Yeah." Lex tipped the girl's face up with two fingers under her chin. "But I'm not in the mood right now. Sorry, honey."

  She didn't flinch, but her suddenly slumped shoulders screamed disappointment, along with something worse. Resignation. Jade straightened her back but lowered her gaze. "I only want a few moments. Could I walk with you?"

  Damn it. "Five minutes, okay?"

  "Thank you." Even her smile, wide as it was, couldn't chase the shadows from her eyes. Mad released Lex and fell back half a dozen paces, and Jade took his place. After a few steps, she glanced at Lex again. "You look so much like her. Avery, I mean. She was my dearest friend while I was in training."

  This woman looked years older than Avery. "And you chose to come here instead of taking on a patron?"

  "Chose is always an interesting word in this place, isn't it?" Jade stared ahead, but her voice turned wry. "I chose to excel at my training. I chose to devote every waking moment to becoming extraordinary, thinking it would bring me more latitude. I miscalculated."

  "Let me guess--instead, it turned you into me." Lex smiled a little. "Overachiever and pariah, a
ll rolled into one."

  Jade laughed softly. "Your greatest sin isn't that you're a pariah. It's that you're a legend. Legends are dangerous. They have power over people's imaginations."

  "Then the smart thing would be to stay away from me, right?"

  "It's too late for me." She lifted one shoulder in a helpless shrug. "I'm a legend, too."

  "Kindred spirits, then." Lex stopped and leaned against the wall. "Are we chatting, or are you getting around to asking me something?"

  Jade folded her hands together with another nervous glance at Mad. He'd stopped, far enough back to be out of easy listening range, but he made no attempt at hiding the fact that he was watching them both.

  Wetting her lips nervously, she turned back to Lex. "I know that he helps women escape sometimes. The ones who are pregnant and want to stay that way, or who've been hurt."

  The ones no one bothered to go after because they weren't important or notorious enough to be legends. "If you're talking to me, it must mean you think Mad can't help you."

  "When I was seventeen, Cerys needed influence within Eden to keep Sector Two whole. And one of Eden's councilmen needed..." Jade laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. "He needed his ego stroked by a virginal whore. The Rose House specialty, and I have stroked his sad little ego very thoroughly." She looked away. "Every other weekend, for the past seven years."

  And she wanted out. "That's a slightly stickier situation than normal. But you know that."

  "I do," she agreed, still staring at some invisible spot on the wall beside Lex's head. "Especially since he had me leashed."

  Drugs, the kind meant to keep her compliant. Obedient and helpless. That sort of thing would make a piss-poor leash if getting clean was easy--or even likely. "Your chances are slim, then. You want to try anyway?"

  Jade met her gaze, and there was steel in those brown eyes. "I can give Dallas O'Kane plenty of incriminating information. In return, I want a safe place to fight and protection if I make it. I know you can't answer now, but I need to ask. I need to know."

  It could be a trap, Cerys's backup plan in case Lex threw her offer back in her face--literally. Or it could have been her way of getting rid of Dallas all along. Spiriting away some councilman's drug-addicted fuck toy guaranteed trouble for him and his sector. Cerys wouldn't have to lift a finger to have Dallas out of the picture forever.