“Then what the hell possessed you to even think of bringing her here?”
“Because I built that goddamned world. I have a right to live on Windmere, and I want my wife and son with me.”
“Even if I let you land, he’ll kill her.”
“He owes me.” After everything Duster had done for Michael, even if he gave in on this one thing, which was a big one, they still would be nowhere near even. Michael was so far in Duster’s debt they likely never would be square.
“Don’t think he’s seeing it that way.” Mary rubbed her eyes. “You know how he is.”
“Mary, I can’t turn back. This ship doesn’t have much of a range. If I don’t land and at least refuel, I’m dead in the Void.” What the hell had he been thinking? He’d locked them into this course of action without fully considering what was likely to happen. Duster hadn’t had so much as an inkling that Michael would pull a stunt like this on him.
“You think if I tell him that he’ll change his mind? Given his current attitude, I’m thinking he’ll say, ‘Really?’ with a nasty smirk, and then applaud.”
Racking his brain for a solution, Duster finally begged, “Help me, Mary. Please. I helped you once.”
“You want me to betray my husband?” She laughed without mirth as pain flashed across her face. “The irony of it all. You didn’t trust me because you thought I would betray him. Now you’re asking me to do the very thing—”
“I know.” He was asking Mary to do the very thing he suspected she would do, the very thing he refused to forgive Diane for. Was the universe just punishing him for not letting go of his anger and honestly trying with Diane? Duster realized the idea of betrayal wasn’t so black-and-white.
Taking a deep breath, Duster ran several scenarios through his mind. What if he threatened Michael? Duster knew enough about Windmere’s security to single-handedly lead an invasion. Unfortunately, he would have to lead an invasion of IWOG scum. The thought alone made him sick. As soon as he thought it, he discounted it. Michael would just send a contingent out to his ship and take him down before he could ever get anywhere. Not that he could with his fuel level. He checked the local chart again. Windmere or nothing.
“Tell him this.” Duster settled himself in the pilot’s chair more forcefully. “I’m landing my ship. If he wants to kill me, my wife and an innocent child, tell him to go ahead. If he can live with himself after that, then he should rename his planet Massive Bastard. Michael owes me. He knows it. I’m not asking for his help; I’m demanding it.”
Mary laughed. Not maliciously but with respect. “You’ve got a set on you that must be made of durosteel.”
“Michael owes me.”
“I know that.” All her bright-eyed chipperness was gone. Now Mary looked ready for a month-long vacation.
“Help me, Mary.”
“You know what’s funny? One of the first things Michael did after you left was rename this ball of rock Prime Bastard.”
“What?”
“The name Windmere was stricken from everything like a vulgar word. Now I know why.” Mary smiled at him over the com link. “You named it Windmere, not him.”
“I can’t believe he changed the name back.” Finding out hurt in a way he wasn’t prepared for.
“Massive Bastard, Prime Bastard, we both know who the bastard is.” Mary sounded as tired as she looked.
Duster didn’t say anything.
“Still, you think getting into a pissing match with him is a good idea?” Mary leaned close to the com. “I know he can piss a lot longer, harder and farther than you. Such a contest is over long before it even gets going. Face it, Michael has way more firepower than you do.” Mary shook her head. “Even if I wanted to help you, and that’s a big if, all Michael has to do is toss me into lockdown. Wouldn’t be able to lift a finger to help myself, let alone you.”
Mary obviously wanted to help, but there was only so much she could do. She knew as well as he did that Michael or any one of a thousand operatives could be actively listening to their exchange.
“Tell him that Diane could have given a clear sketch of his face to the IWOG. She didn’t. Diane had a very compelling reason for doing what she did.” Briefly, Duster explained that she was a member of Network Thirteen and why she’d left them alive but limping. “Her only other choice would have been to kill us both. And she could have. But she didn’t.”
“Because she loved you.”
Duster nodded.
“Just like me incapacitating Michael rather than killing him.”
Hope filled Duster that he’d sparked compassion in Mary to help him.
“I’ll tell him.” Mary nodded. “But honestly, Duster, given his snarly attitude, I don’t think he’ll listen.”
“An innocent six-year-old child is on this ship. Even Michael isn’t that ruthless of a bastard.”
Mary leaned into the com. “I’d like to agree with you, but we both know that isn’t true. He’s my husband, and I love him, but like I said just moments ago, Massive Bastard, Prime Bastard or even Ruthless Bastard—we both know who the bastard is. What’s worse is that you and I both know that Michael has no problem living up to those nasty nicknames.”
Chapter Ten
Diane had not been able to sleep. She lay in bed and caught herself biting her nails. Forcefully, she made herself stop. She hadn’t done that since she was a girl and didn’t want to start it up again, not when she forever told Scott not to do it. Instead, she tapped her fingertips against the bedcovers. The longer Duster spent checking the ship, the more agitated she became. “How long does it take to look at the sensors?”
Unless he found something.
Diane slid out of bed, grabbed her robe but stopped short of putting it on. She settled on the edge of the mattress. If trouble loomed, Duster would have told her so they could decide how best to protect Scott. After placing her robe on her bedside table, she moved back under the covers.
What was taking him so long?
A million fears ran through her mind. She thrust them all away. No point in making up things to worry over. Clutching a pillow, she held it tight, tapping her fingernail against her wedding band.
After almost an hour, Duster padded back into the room. Quietly, he removed his pants and slid into bed. Lying on his back, he glared at the ceiling.
“Is everything—”
“Go to sleep.” His voice was low but coldly cutting.
More annoyed by his tone than angry, she said, “We need to clear something up right now. I’m not going to be a wife who calmly accepts edicts from her husband. I’m not an idiot. If something is wrong, I have every right to know.”
“You want to know what’s going on?” Duster rolled until he faced her. Even in the semi-dark, she saw that fury twisted his features.
“Lower your voice. You’ll wake up Scott.” Diane felt a rippling unease as she peered up into his angry face. “Yes, I want to know what’s going on. But I don’t need you to hiss it in my face through your clenched teeth.”
Duster closed his eyes, shook his head and pulled himself away. “I’m sorry. I’m—I may have screwed us all.” Retreating to his side of the bed, he sat cross-legged with his head down and his fists gripped tight in his lap.
“Please, tell me what happened.” She sat up too.
Haltingly, he told her of his conversation with Mary, and Michael’s reaction.
Somehow, Diane wasn’t surprised. Disappointed and terrified but not really shocked. She expected no less from Michael. Gently, she took Duster’s hand. At first, he resisted, but eventually twined his fingers with hers.
“If he demands you choose, you must choose Scott.”
Obviously incredulous, he glared at her. “How noble of you, Diane.”
“I’m not trying to be noble. I’m trying to do what’s best for Scott. If it’s a choice between all of us die or one of us dies, I am the obvious choice to go.” Not that she wanted to die. She wanted to spend a lifetime taking care
of Scott and rebuilding what she had with Duster.
“Gee, well, let’s just make our way over to the airlock, then.”
Diane rose.
He hauled her back down. “Are you nuts?” He pulled her onto his lap and hugged her one shade shy of crushing the breath out of her. “God, you really would, wouldn’t you? To protect Scott. To protect me.”
“Duster, I—”
He tilted her face to his. “Do you think I could live with myself if I tossed you off the ship? How the hell could I look into Scott’s face and tell him what I did to his mother?”
Her heart melted, but she had to be strong to protect Scott. “If it’s as you say, that we don’t have the fuel to go anywhere else, that if we try to land with three people onboard, they’ll shoot us down, then we don’t have much of a choice.”
“We’ll find another way.”
“I’m all ears.”
Duster laughed and leaned his head back with a frustrated futility. “I kinda hoped you might have a plan. The wellspring of my brain has run painfully dry.”
“What if I talked to him?”
“He wouldn’t talk to his best friend, but yeah, he might talk to you, the woman who betrayed him long ago.”
“Don’t be flippant.”
“Diane,” Duster said, then burst out in a stream of almost hysterical laughter. “If he won’t talk to me, that probably means he won’t talk to you either.” He kissed her with a harsh, desperate urgency. “It’s hope—”
“Don’t say it. Don’t say that word. That’s what I thought seven years ago. If I would have held out hope, I would have told you, and we could have survived together. Isn’t that so?”
“It’s not the same.”
“It is. You, me and Michael are all right back in a terrible tangle.” Again she noticed the circular nature of their relationship. She hoped she didn’t have to die to atone for what she’d done in the past. She’d thought she’d killed Duster, so maybe this time her death would put an end to the tumult they kept finding themselves in. “There has to be a way to at least get him to let us land.”
“So what if we manage that? I got news for you; he’s still going to kill you.”
“Maybe not.” Diane struggled to find a way to appeal to Michael. Sadly, she couldn’t think of anything she had that he would want. The only thing Michael wanted was revenge.
“I’ve got all kinds of faith in your ability to charm just about anything out of any man, but not Michael.”
“I’m not planning on charming him.” That was a lost cause before it began. And then the solution struck. “What if you convince him that I’m your prisoner? That you took me hostage? Well, actually, it’s not much of a lie, is it? You have taken me prisoner. So what if it’s with my consent? Michael doesn’t have to know that, now does he?” Diane arched her brow, pleased with herself for finding a solution. If he thought Duster was only keeping her to punish her, he might let them all land and live.
Duster considered. “I don’t see how that will help anything.”
“Tell Michael what you told me when you first took me prisoner on this ship.”
“What?”
“That I took your money and you’re going to make me your whore to work off the money I owe you. I don’t care what he thinks as long as he leaves me in your care. Honestly, Duster, if you want to make me your whore, you’ll find me a willing participant.”
Duster’s eyes and nostrils flared at the idea, but the lust in his gaze faded quickly. “And what about Scott? I can’t even play that kind of attitude around him. Just the thought of it turns my stomach.”
“Scott doesn’t have to know. Tell Michael that. That you don’t want your son to know. What we do behind closed doors—”
“Diane—”
“What? What do we have to lose?”
“I’m not good at lying. I never have been. I don’t think I’m going to pick that skill up overnight, even if you give me intensive lessons.”
Diane extricated herself from his arms. “You may not know how to lie, but you certainly know how to hit below the belt.”
“Aw, hell, I didn’t mean it like that.” He reached for her, but she moved away.
“You most certainly did. If there is no hope of you ever trusting me, then do us both a favor—toss me out the airlock right now. I won’t tolerate a lifetime of this. I’m racking my brain trying to figure out how to keep us all alive, and you’re getting in digs at me.”
“You’re right.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m frustrated and miserable because it’s my own damn fault we’re all in this mess. I thought Michael would never turn his back on me. I’m devastated that he has. You don’t know what I’ve done for him. That I damn near sacrificed my life to build his planet, and now he won’t even let me near it.”
“He won’t let you near it not because of you but because of me. Turn him around about it. Make him believe that you kept me alive only to punish me. It’s really not that far from the truth, is it? Be honest with me, Duster. There is a big part of you that wants revenge. It’s not a lie.”
After giving her idea some consideration, he said, “There’s something about Michael that you don’t know.”
“What’s that? Don’t tell me that alcoholic can read minds?” Diane wondered why Duster seemed so resistant to every idea she tossed out.
“Damn close. Michael can read bodies.”
“Facial expressions?”
“Scents. He could do this when we were on the Damn You, but he worked so hard to keep himself distracted from the stench of misery aboard that ship that he tuned himself out with alcohol. He’s not a drunk by choice, Diane. More so by circumstance. Michael didn’t have a clue what you and I were up to back then because he couldn’t smell it.”
“That’s why he drank so much.” Diane had just thought Michael was a lush like her father.
“Not anymore. Dealing with Mary has brought Michael to the pinnacle of his ability. If I go into his office and try to lie to him, he’ll smell it.”
“He can read scents?” Diane had never heard of anyone with that unique reader ability. Her skill was rare, but not that rare.
“Pheromones. Subtle chemical changes. He calls himself an emotichemical perceptionist. If we even try to go in there and sell him a big lie, he’ll smell it coming a mile away. Given his current utter disregard for me, I have no idea what he’ll do to me, you or our son.”
“How much time do we have left to decide?”
Duster looked automatically at his wrist and frowned when he saw it was empty. “I’m used to a wrist com. I wore one for the last five years.” With a sheepish glance, he got off of the bed, checked the wall com, then came back and slid under the covers. “Prox ten hours. We’ll be in shooting range about then. Maybe sooner if Michael decides to just put us out of our misery and dispatch a crew to take us out. Given that? Prox four hours.”
“Even if we turned tail and ran right now, he could catch up to us.” Diane tried to fight the wave of nauseous fear that gripped her.
“Sure enough. Knowing Michael like I do, if we alter course in any way, he’ll send someone after us.”
“Why? If he doesn’t want us there, then why not let us go?”
“Alive and loose, we’re a threat to him. You know what he looks like, but I know his security and what he looks like. If we’re dead and gone, hey, no worries. If Mary is a smart security head, and trust me, she is, she probably already knows this. Even if out of kindness she doesn’t point it out to Michael, he’ll see it too. Eventually.”
“There must be something we can do. We just have to put our heads together, and we’ll find a solution. If we got into this, we can get out.”
“That’s why I’m so upset. We didn’t have to be here. We could have stayed on Dahank. We could have gone anywhere else and started over, but I chose to come back to the planet I built. It doesn’t matter what you did seven years ago. What matters, what’s ultimately going to kill us a
ll, is what I’ve decided to do in the last seven days.”
It started to feel like the gods themselves were chucking boulders down on her head. She wouldn’t let him say it, but hopelessness crept ever more fully into her heart. Seizing on the one thing that would be the most difficult for her to do, Diane offered, “Then we won’t lie to him.”
“Puts us right back where we started.”
“Not really. You don’t trust me, do you?”
“Diane, I’m not—”
“You don’t. That’s the truth.”
“Fine. Yes. It’s true. I don’t trust you. I’m going to have to relearn it.”
“You want me to be your whore too.”
“No, I want you to be my wife.”
“A polite name for whore.”
He grinned, remembering their prior verbal sparring. “Not my wife.” Very gently, he tilted her head back and kissed her.
As much as she wanted to lose herself in his touch, she knew she couldn’t. Not now. Pulling back, she peered up into his eyes. “There is a part of you that secretly thrills to have me at your mercy.”
Gritting his teeth, Duster looked away.
Lifting up, Diane whispered in his ear, “Think of how much bigger and stronger you are than I am. I could fight you tooth and nail, and you could do whatever you like.” Sliding her hand up his leg, she touched his growing erection below the covers. “It excites you to even think about it. Forcing me to be your willing whore for somewhere between seven hundred and seven thousand nights.”
“Stop it.” Shoving her hand away, Duster uttered a growling sigh. “You know I wouldn’t.”
“I know that and you know that, but Michael may not. It’s not really a lie.”
“He’ll figure it out.”
“By the time he does, maybe he won’t care. He’ll see I’m not a threat to him.”
“He’ll worry that you’ll seduce me, pretty much like you just did, and then I’ll go against him and try to take over Windmere. Pretty much like I did on the Damn You seven years ago.”
“I’m not trying to seduce you. I’m trying to show you that we wouldn’t be lying. And I would never try to compel you to take over Windmere. Why would I? Like you said, who the hell would want Michael’s job?” It upset her that she just couldn’t make him see the reason and logic in her plan. Switching tactics, Diane said, “Fine. Let’s run it your way. What’s the truth that you would tell Michael?”
Stripper: The Fringe, Book 4 Page 11
