by Kit Rocha
She finally managed to drag in a breath that sounded more like a sob. "Jasper was thinking of you. He screwed up, but he did it for you."
Noelle dragged her closer, wrapped her in her arms and her love and made soothing, sympathetic noises. "I know, Lex. I know."
"Dallas doesn't get it. He has no idea what he did wrong."
Noelle rested her cheek on top of Lex's head with a sigh. "Maybe he does, and he can't admit it. He tried to offer you something he values--power. But Dallas is an intuitive man. A smart man. I think he knows you better than that."
He did, of course. He'd kept Cerys's visit from her and skated around the issue long enough for Lex to realize he knew she wouldn't be happy about any of it. "He wants it all. Sector Two and me."
"Then he's not only greedy, he's stupid." Noelle's voice held no room for argument. "But that doesn't mean he gets to take everything you've built and all the people you love away from you."
Her home, her family. "I should have known it would go down like this. Dallas and I have never been easy."
"Maybe this'll teach him." Noelle cupped Lex's cheek and tilted her head up. "I've never been sure if I think he deserves you. But it's not about me. What do you want?"
The impossible question, because the answer made her sound weak. "I love this place. I've been here so long--Jesus, I helped build it. I want to stay here, Noelle. I've never wanted anything more." A lie, but just a little one.
She wanted Dallas the most.
And Noelle knew it. The other woman had grown in more than one way in the time she'd been free of Eden. She pressed her forehead to Lex's and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Are you afraid to stay because you're afraid you'll go back to him, no matter what?"
Lex had to stop fucking crying. "I know I will. It's not even a question. What kind of idiot does that make me?"
"The kind who's in love." Noelle's lips feathered over Lex's cheeks, kissing away the tears. "But you've got people who care about you. I won't let you go back. Hell, every woman wearing cuffs will line up and take turns sitting on you. You're ours."
She couldn't make that promise, not with Dallas's words still shivering through her. Somehow, I'll fucking well show you. I'm not letting you go. "I can't leave right away--it's been a few years since I kept up anyplace else to go. But I was wondering if I could take your old room for now."
"You should stay with us," Noelle protested immediately. "With me'n Jas. You shouldn't be alone."
"I need to be, at least for a while."
"Okay." Pulling back, Noelle swiped tears from Lex's cheeks with her thumbs. "My room's yours. Anything you need is yours."
"Thanks, Noelle." She drew in a calming breath. "One step at a time. I'll get through this."
"Yes, you will. In better shape than Dallas will, too." Noelle's tiny smile was a little mean. "Just remember how much we all love you. Dallas may be the king of this gang, but you're its heart. If he doesn't appreciate that yet, he will."
"No." Lex shook her head. "He's still your leader, and a good one. I don't want anyone to make trouble for him, not on my behalf."
Noelle touched her cheek, her blue eyes dark with resentment. "I'll follow my leader. I'll obey my boss. But you can't make me be nice to the bastard who hurt my friend."
"Thank you," Lex whispered. Dallas had broken her heart with his unthinking ambition, and he'd do it all over again when she had to leave other people who were dear to her. People like Noelle, who were as much a part of her as Dallas, if only in a different way. "I love you and Jas, you know."
"Of course you do," Noelle replied, voice light and teasing. "I'm adorable, and Jas is irresistible. But we love you back."
The silliness lifted her spirits, her first taste of hope in days. "We'll see, okay?" Maybe she and Dallas could come to an understanding. Maybe she didn't have to leave. "Just...we'll see."
"Good. And, Lex?"
"Yeah?"
"Even if you have to go, I'll still love you. And I'll still be in your life. It's not about this." Her fingers curled around Lex's wrist, covering the O'Kane cuff as she pressed Lex's splayed hand to her own chest. Over her heart. "It's about this."
About love. Belonging. Lex slid her arms around Noelle and hugged her tight. "No matter what. I promise."
For the fourth time in as many minutes, Lex caught herself staring blankly down at the inventory sheet in her hand.
Disgusted, she rubbed her eyes and started over with the top line. "Focus, goddammit. You're not helping anyone like this."
"It's okay." The quiet voice came from the doorway. Lex barely managed not to flinch, startled, as Rachel swung in to kneel beside her. "Amira and I can handle the inventory before opening."
"I need to do something," Lex argued.
"Plenty to do." Rachel plucked the clipboard out of her hand and nodded to the door. "Start with picking up your phone call. Someone's on the line for you."
"Which phone?"
"End of the hall."
Lex wiped her hands on her jeans and headed for the extension. Maybe it was Doc, calling to say he'd changed his mind about her tattoos, or Walt Misham, with a line on transports out of the city.
But it was neither. "Hello?"
"Lex." A female voice, soft and nervous, and it took her a moment to recognize it as Jade, the woman who'd waylaid her outside of Cerys's quarters.
Apparently, word hadn't traveled outside the sector yet. "Sorry, honey. If you're looking for a ride out, it'll have to be with someone else. I'm kinda in the doghouse over here at the moment."
"Oh." A world of disappointment in that one word, too much for even a professional to hide. "I'm sorry for your trouble. I'd just thought... I'll be traveling to Five tonight, and if I disappeared on the way back tomorrow, Woods wouldn't miss me for another two weeks--"
Lex froze. It was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, so it had to be a trap instead. "Gareth Woods? That's your client?"
The pause was perfect. Hesitation, and then a muffled curse, as if the woman had let too much slip. "Now you know how desperate my situation is."
"And why you came to me." Lex tucked the receiver between her ear and her shoulder and dug her cigarette case out of her pocket. "I mean, that's the deal, right? You figure I'll off him for you?"
Jade exhaled sharply and began to laugh. "It was clumsy, wasn't it? Slipping his name into the conversation that quickly. Pacing has always been my problem. I start off so patiently, and then I wait too long and have to rush."
"Don't feel bad. I'm really fucking paranoid at the moment."
"I meant everything I said, you know. About being friends with your sister, and that you're a legend." The amusement in Jade's voice faded. "I just didn't tell you everything. I know Woods tried to kill one of your people, and I know you're taking him down tonight. I don't want to die in the crossfire."
Lex's heart skipped a beat. It all made sense suddenly, the one thing Cerys could have handed Dallas to ensure he'd consider her crazy fucking offer. Something he wanted more than power or money, more than air. And even, in a perverse way, more than her.
Gareth Woods.
Tonight. Cerys must have come through with the setup. Maybe she was about to clue Dallas in, or maybe he already knew. Either way...
"Can you get me in?" She glanced around quickly, confirming she was alone in the hall. "Tell him you're bringing a friend?"
Jade inhaled sharply. "You don't know what you're asking."
She didn't give a damn. She was tired of Dallas and his excuses. He could claim he was going after Woods to protect her, but it boiled down to plain, old-fashioned vengeance. "Yes or no, Jade?"
"You can't come here. But I could convince my driver to stop on the way, if you can be ready and waiting."
Only one more question, one that dug its claws into her and wouldn't let go. "Is it a trap? Is she trying to get rid of Dallas, or dealing with him square?"
Jade hesitated long enough to cinch fear tight before whispering, "
I don't know. But Cerys will win either way. She always does."
"No shit." Lex crumbled her unlit cigarette with a grimace. "Pick me up on the east side of the bridge, near the border between Two and Three. I'll find a way."
"All right. Dress like a rose." A pause. "You remember what that means, don't you?"
It meant she'd be raiding Noelle's closet to get her frilly white dresses and lingerie back. "I remember."
"Five o'clock. Lex?"
"What?"
"If you can't get me out, don't leave me to a slow death. Tonight I want to be free, one way or another."
"Damn, girl. Don't be so morbid." Frowning, Lex hung up.
Jade could still be playing her, counting on her need to one-up Cerys--or, worse, to protect Dallas. It wasn't hard to connect the dots on a foolproof plan to get them out of the picture, and with the perfect justification: interfering with Cerys's rightful business.
And in Sector Five, no less. Woods probably chose the locale because he needed to make a drug run anyway, but she'd have to tread carefully. Mac Fleming would recognize her in a heartbeat, and it could blow everything to hell.
They might need backup. Damn near suicidal backup.
Lex picked up the phone and dialed.
Chapter Twenty-One
She might have underestimated exactly how much money Gareth Woods put in Mac Fleming's pockets.
Oh, she'd anticipated that Fleming probably had a honey hole somewhere that he lent to Woods when the man needed a place to lay low, get high, and abuse some women, but she'd never dreamed he'd let Woods do it in his house. And yet that was exactly where the driver stopped, outside the stately white mansion Fleming had spent years--and a fortune--building.
Lex adjusted the wide bracelets covering her cuffs and clenched her hands in the frilly lace of her short skirt. "You get that Mac Fleming knows my face, right?"
"He's never here when Woods is," Jade replied, staring out the window. Her own hands rested in her lap, clamped together so tightly that her knuckles stood out, pale and sharp. Her ashen face and strained eyes could have been nerves, but Lex had seen people on the edge of withdrawal before.
The woman was about to freak out.
Lex swatted her arm. "Hey, keep it together. What about Fleming's guards? Anyone he might have taken to the summit in Sector Two?"
"No, just Finn," she said after a moment, shaking her head. Her thumb brushed compulsively over the inside of her wrist. "He's the guard who brings the drugs. No one's allowed to handle them but him." She finally looked at Lex with a wan smile. "It used to just be me and Woods in the house for the night, once Finn left. Now he brings guards. A lot of them. He's terrified of Dallas O'Kane."
"He should be." After all, Dallas wanted him dead badly enough to make deals with the devil.
Through the divider, Lex heard the driver's door open and close again. Jade took a deep breath. "Finn won't come in right away. Gareth likes to watch me deal with the withdrawal symptoms. The timing is quite precise. I suppose I'd be impressed with Mac Fleming under other circumstances."
The back door opened, and they climbed out. Jade wobbled a little, and Lex steadied her. "Just do everything you're supposed to do. I'll work it out."
"Remember to smile," Jade replied as the driver took her other arm with a gentleness that spoke of loyalty. The old man had given Lex one long, searching inspection when they stopped to pick her up, but hadn't spoken a word then or since.
Two bulky guards in uniforms so cleanly pressed they screamed Eden moved aside as they made their way up the steps. More guards leapt to open the main doors. They performed their job in efficient silence, keeping their hands and gazes to themselves.
And then there he was.
Lex had only seen pictures. She'd looked him up herself, but she'd also stumbled across papers Dallas had left lying around, files still open on his tablets. Gareth Woods, polished and urbane. A cultured, bloodthirsty monster.
His gaze flicked over her, appreciative but dismissive, and the intent stare he turned on Jade warped the very concept of affection. When he stepped forward to sink his fingers into her hair, it made a mockery of the caress Lex had seen a thousand times. This was ownership, stripped of any choice or chance of escape.
He tightened his fingers and wrenched Jade's head back, lifting his other hand to her cheek. "You brought a friend for me. What a sweet girl you are. A sweet, thoughtful girl."
As tense as Jade had been in the car, she was serene now. And she was good, steel nerves beneath a honeyed smile as she played her game. "I'm your rose, sir. But she's something special. Something most men will never taste."
Gareth glanced at Lex again, his eyes heavy with speculation and dark lust. "And what's that?"
"A rose with thorns."
The whispered words hung in the air like a tantalizing challenge. Gareth released Jade and slowly turned. "Is that what you are?"
"Barely." Lex lifted her hair and tilted her head to bare the back of her neck--and the tiny, ancient scar that nestled there, a legacy of Cerys's training. "If you have thorns, they burn them off."
He touched the scar, lingering with a chilling reverence that only got creepier when he lifted his thumb to his lips and licked it. "Jade is such a lovely girl. She struggles at first, but she pants for it before it's over. Do you struggle? Or is the prick of your thorns more subtle?"
Lex kept her gaze fixed on the far wall. "You'll have to find out."
He laughed, delighted, and dragged Jade to his side for a quick, rough kiss that she endured placidly. "You bring me the best gifts," Gareth crooned. "You deserve a reward. Would you like that?"
Jade's breathing hitched, and the sudden raw scratch in her voice wasn't an act. Full of desperation and self-loathing, deep enough to fill an ocean. "Please."
Woods released her so abruptly she stumbled and shook his head with a chiding sound. "That's not how you ask."
Shuddering, Jade folded her knees and sank to the floor. Her hands trembled until she laced them together, pressing them to her stomach. "Please, Gareth. Give me relief from this pain."
"Fine." He nudged her leg with his shoe. "Scoot to the door and call for Finn. I'll be getting to know our new friend."
Jade started to rise, but he moved fast, planting his foot in the small of her back and driving her roughly to the floor. "Crawl."
Woods was at the wrong angle to see it, but Lex caught the searing hatred in Jade's eyes, the fury that would have burned him alive if thoughts were weapons. She lifted her gaze, just for a moment, and Lex could almost hear the words, as if they'd been spoken out loud.
End him.
And then Jade crawled.
Lex searched the room behind Woods's back. Any sort of blade, even something heavy she could use to knock him out until she could crack his worthless neck--but there was nothing she could lay hands on without alerting him.
And she was running out of time. When Fleming's bodyguard showed up, the odds would tilt, and not in her favor.
She drifted toward the line of vintage pipes and pre-Flare drug paraphernalia on display behind the table. "I've never taken any of the stuff Jade is on. Is it good?"
His interest sharpened as he watched her, but his smile was so damn smug she wanted to punch it off his face. "She's crawling, isn't she?"
"I know she thinks it's good." Lex turned and eased up to sit on the table. "I'm asking about you. That's what I'm interested in."
His brow knotted slightly, and he slipped his hand into his jacket. "I could buy you a dozen times for what Finn's about to give her. She's earned it by being good." He withdrew a tiny plastic bottle that rattled when he shook it. "But these. Slip one under your tongue, and you'll forget all about your thorns."
"I don't want to forget them." She leaned back, bracing her arms behind her, and her fingers brushed the long stem of a pipe. "They make me interesting."
Irritation flashed in his eyes. "A modest struggle to protect one's virtue is charming. Disobedience
isn't. If you want a chance at the rewards Jade enjoys, show yourself her equal by following her example. A decent girl kneels to her superiors."
Oh, hell no. "Did you know that men with no patience for conversation tend to fuck the same way?" Lex closed her hand around the pipe, which wasn't a pipe at all, but a heavy length of blown glass. "And that's not nearly as fun as it sounds."
His face turned red as he took a threatening step forward. Over his shoulder, Lex saw Jade braced against the door, her eyes closed and her face drawn. No one would interrupt this moment.
Not if she moved fast.
Woods made the decision for her. He raised one arm to strike her, and Lex swung the length of glass around--a fucking bong, of all things. It hit his shoulder and shattered.
Roaring, he flung a hand up to his face. Blood trickled from between his fingers and another cut marred his forehead. "You bitch!" he bellowed.
But not at her.
The door rattled as Woods whirled and lunged toward Jade, who was struggling to drag herself to shaking knees as her patron barreled toward her, damn near frothing at the mouth. "You traitorous, treacherous whore--"
Footsteps thudded in the hall, heavy and quick. The world narrowed to the cool glass in Lex's hand, the warm blood trickling down her wrist, and slowed to a crawl. By the time she slid off the table, Woods had his hands around Jade's throat.
Lex had trained for this. Every week at Orchid House had brought a new trainer, a new situation. A new way to kill. It would make sense to hear Cerys guiding her. Instructing her.
But the words that drifted through her mind now belonged to Dallas. Throat. It's soft, lots of bleeders, and you don't have to do much damage to straight-up kill a motherfucker.
The anatomy lessons at Orchid House did the rest. She reached around and grabbed his upper arm, but he didn't even seem to notice. All his attention was on Jade, on her red face and bulging eyes. On ending her life.
Lex stabbed the broken glass into the right front side of his throat, thrusting it home with all her strength. The wicked shards dug deep into his flesh, and she dragged her makeshift weapon back toward her, slicing through the large blood vessels in his neck.