And that, of all things, made sense. Aryn watched him as he drew away and bit her lip.
“Okay. I won’t confront him about this.” She saw Cade’s sigh of relief, and almost regretted what she was about to say next. “But I am going to talk to him.”
“What?” He followed her, a scant step behind as she went to the sink and splashed water on her face, blotting her eyelashes carefully and applying concealer under her eyes. “Are you insane?” His voice was a hiss.
“The very opposite. For the first time in years, I am living in the real world.” Aryn lifted her head.
“What are you going to say?”
“I haven’t decided that yet.”
“I strongly suggest having a plan!”
“Noted, Mr. Williams.” She made her way out of the rooms, walking down the hallway with the blood beating in her ears.
He was right. She should really have a plan. But when she knocked on the door of Ellian’s office, she found that she still had nothing to say.
“Aryn.” He opened the door. “Mr. Williams.”
“Mr. Williams was just going,” Aryn said. She slipped past Ellian into the room.
He stared at her, his eyes faintly narrowed.
So you’re the one who supplied the Warlord with his weapons. She could say it. It would be so damned easy. He knew that she knew something. He must have seen her throw up in the bedroom. He had cameras there, didn’t he?
He did, she decided, but right now she was too angry to be afraid.
“I would like to go to Ymir,” she said.
“What?” He stared at her, his hand still on the doorknob. “Why?”
A very good question. Why did she want to go?
To bring weapons to the resistance movement. She could hardly say that, however.
“I’d like to see my parents.” That was good. Plausible, even.
Ellian blinked, and then put on his concerned face. This conversation was clearly not going how he had expected.
“Are they sick?”
“Not that I know of. But, Ellian—” she could not bring herself to say the words my love “—it has been two years.”
“I thought you said things were very bad there,” he temporized, going to sit on the edge of his desk.
“Not in the city,” Aryn said, shrugging. She paused a moment, trying to keep the edge from her voice. “And you’re known to the Warlord, at least. Couldn’t you come up with some reason to be there?”
Now it was his turn to be blindsided.
“You want me to come with you?”
No. “Of course.” Aryn managed a little frown. “Are…are you too busy?” She was supposed to look sad here, she knew, even if her heart was leaping with the hope that he might not be able to go.
He considered for a moment, looking at his desk, at her, at the door that separated them from Cade. And then, chillingly, he smiled.
“You know, I believe I am too busy. But you absolutely must take Mr. Williams with you. That is my condition, Aryn.”
Something about this seemed off, but she could not for the life of her think what it was. What did that smile mean? At least they seemed to baffle one another equally. Maybe that was the basis of a good marriage. She tried not to start laughing; she was worried she might not be able to stop.
“Very well, then.” She nodded. Tried to think of what came next. “I’ll tell you when I’ve made the arrangements.”
“Thank you.”
They stared at one another, her trying to guess his thoughts, his face saying plainly that he was just as confused as she was. Then she left, him looking after her.
“Good night,” she said, somewhat mechanically, at the door.
“Good night.”
Outside, she looked up at Cade’s face.
“Are you…hurt?”
“No.” She frowned. “We’re going to Ymir.”
He stared at her like she’d gone insane.
“Why?”
Aryn paused, choosing her words carefully.
“I’m not entirely sure,” she said finally. That would have to do. She set off for her bedroom with a sense of dubious victory. If Ellian was going to try to influence events on Ymir, she was going to do as much as she could to undo everything he did. There was a certain poetic justice in that.
Chapter 15
The spaceport thronged with activity, but Aryn did not seem to notice any of it. Cade had raised his eyebrows to see her out of her evening gowns, realizing how much more naturally she moved in pants, boots, and a jacket, but she hadn’t returned his smile—he almost thought she hadn’t seen him at all, all morning. She stared out the car windows, answered in murmurs, and when she stepped out of the car, she would have left her bags behind if Cade had not rescued them. Her distracted thanks died mid-sentence and she peered around herself, studying every passerby.
The more Cade watched this, the more uneasy he got.
“Are you looking for someone?” he asked finally, and she jumped.
“No,” she said instantly.
“Very convincing.”
Her eyes flashed and she threw him a look before starting through the crowd to the private terminal, her arms crossed over her chest.
A baggage assistant pushed the piles of luggage on a cart, leaving Cade free to study Aryn. She was vibrating with tension, her strides short and her shoulders curved forward. Her head swung side to side as she looked for…
“Aryn.” In the swirl of the crowd, he was relatively sure no one could pick their voices up on scanners. After three days of watching her suspicious behavior, he had decided that he would confront her here. Whatever she was doing, researching weapons, he could stop her now before Ellian found out. Neither one of them wanted to fight that man, Cade was sure. He would keep Aryn safe, and Talon would stop Ellian from giving the Warlord…well, whatever the weapon was.
“Yes?” She turned reluctantly and backed up when he approached her. When Cade held out his hand to draw her closer, she paused before taking it.
“What’s going on?” he asked her, his voice low. He saw the answer on her lips and cut it off. “Don’t say it’s nothing, Aryn. You know how I was trained. You know what I’ve seen. I may not be able to put the pieces together yet, but I know you’re up to something.”
She paused, considering this.
“And?” she asked finally, her head tilted slightly as she looked up at him.
He swallowed, looking out over the crowd. He thought he saw a familiar face, but as he turned his head sharply, it vanished. He was jumping at shadows again, the chaotic swirl bringing tremors to his muscles. His heart was beginning to speed at the thought of a transport ship, with its glass partitions and flashing lights—
They weren’t going on a transport. They were going on a private ship. Cade took a deep breath, and when he saw Aryn’s silent wince, he realized he’d been crushing her fingers.
“Are you hurt? I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
“Are you all right?” Her voice had lost its edge.
He looked down and was lost in her eyes. Slowly, as if she wasn’t quite sure what she was doing, Aryn reached out a hand and laid it against his chest, over his heart. In a dream, he covered it with his own, watching her lips part and feeling his heartbeat slow as her blue eyes met his. How long since someone had seen him, seen his panic and asked if he was all right?
And, surprised by the question, he told her the truth.
“No.”
He saw her struggle with something, looking away and biting her lip. When she looked back, she had come to a decision.
“Do you need to go? We can go.” But it was clear it would cost her.
“What’s going on?” he asked her again, his voice low. She would have stepped back, but he held her hand trapped against his chest.
“It’s nothing,” she said, after a pause. “You stay here. I’m going to get you a drink of water.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Even if he felt something
melt inside him at that little bit of kindness.
“Stay here.” She was gone with a glance over her shoulder, and he braced himself on the edge of the luggage cart, gripping the metal until it started to warp. He only had to last a few more minutes in this hell of noise and lights and people moving with no pattern and—
The sound was so faint he hardly heard it: a little cough, someone clearing their throat.
Aryn. His heart turned over. He had left her alone and—
He was plunging through the crowd the next second, yelling her name, shoving people aside as they shrieked in complaint. For a terrifying second, he could not find her in the sea of people, and then he caught a glimpse of her auburn hair, her head twisted to catch a glimpse of him. The man pulling her away had a gun to her back and his hand clamped around her arm.
The crowd parted before him, apparently seeing the trail of downed carts and passengers he’d left in his wake, and Cade had thrown his knife before he was even aware of drawing it. The man went down with a scream, the blade embedded in his calf, and Aryn stumbled away—into the convenient grasp of another black-clad man who’d materialized out of the crowd.
This one didn’t draw his gun because he didn’t have a chance. Cade was on him a moment later, his world narrowed to his opponent and his hands catching the weak points he had scanned for. Weight slightly lighter on the left leg—a strike to the thigh weakened the muscle. An opening at the neck of his coat gave the space for a strike to the trachea, and the man’s knife had gotten tangled in its holster. The man was on the ground choking a second later.
“Cade!” A figure hit him from the side, tiny but fast, and he went over. He caught a glimpse of Aryn, her hands outstretched where she had pushed him, and behind her, a would-be attacker sprawling into the space Cade had occupied a moment before. A serrated blade skittered across the floor as Aryn reached out to help him up. “Are you hurt? Did they get you?”
Behind her, the attacker pushed himself up and grabbed her, another knife appearing against her throat.
No. Cade’s gun was in his hand, but the man’s eyes met his, and a tiny shake of his head confirmed Cade’s worst fear: this was a trained killer, no green bounty hunter looking for some quick cash. If Cade moved, Aryn would die.
But as he watched, his world narrowed to Aryn’s terrified face, the man bent to whisper in her ear. A second later she was released and the man shoved her hard in the back. She stumbled forward as something heavy hit Cade on the back of the head.
The world went black.
He came to some while later, Aryn’s arms around him awkwardly and the hard floor of the terminal beneath him. Her face swam into view slowly, her hair falling to curtain them, her eyes filled with tears. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying…
“Cade?”
“Hey,” he managed softly.
“Oh, my God.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Can you see me? Can you move?”
He started to push himself up and winced. His head hurt like crazy.
“Don’t.” Her arms were around his torso. “Don’t try to stand yet. Cade…”
“What was that?”
“It sounded electrical.” Her brow furrowed. “You went down like a sack of bricks. Heavy bricks. You’re really big, you know that?”
He managed a weak laugh and regretted it when pain stabbed through his head.
“What…did he say to you?”
She sobered at that.
“He said not to go on the transport, to stay here, where I was safe.”
“What?”
“He said they’d been hired to kill me.” She frowned and bit her lip. “And they thought it wasn’t fair, because I was just someone’s wife.”
“Huh.” He stared up at the ceiling.
“What?” She was looking down at him.
An interesting question, that, and one his sluggish brain wouldn’t provide an answer to just yet. The warning made no sense. If these people were the professionals their skill suggested, they would have no qualms about killing her—not if they’d taken the job. In fact, everything about this suggested that they had only meant to scare her. Her, and the more he thought about it, him as well.
But he was having trouble thinking about that, because it had just occurred to him that Aryn must have dashed to catch him as he fell, trying to keep his head from hitting the ground. And before that, she had tackled him to get him out of the way of a knife. He looked up at her frown and saw her face soften.
“Are you really all right?” she asked him quietly.
“I think so.”
And then the moment shattered.
“Aryn!” Ellian’s voice was strong, parting the crowd, and Cade saw Aryn’s head jerk up.
Ellian’s two guards came to haul Cade up, and he saw the dislike in their eyes as he straightened and stepped back, pulling at his cuffs. His head was spinning, but he was not about to admit that he needed help—not to these people, not when they looked displeased to have found him with his head cradled in Aryn’s lap.
“I was so worried,” Ellian was saying. His hands were around Aryn’s arms and he held her close, oblivious to her hunched shoulders.
As Cade watched, forcing himself to stillness, Aryn laid her head on Ellian’s shoulder and the man enfolded her in his arms. He bent his head to whisper and listened for her answer, something so low that Cade could not hear it. The man’s answer, however, was instantaneous.
“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t possibly allow that, my love.”
“But—”
“Aryn.” His tone was sharp. “Do you understand what just happened?”
No. Cade saw the answer on her lips, an echo of his own, and suppressed his smile. Aryn seemed to understand instinctively that this didn’t make any sense.
And Ellian should understand it, too. Cade narrowed his eyes slightly, studying the man’s face. Ellian’s pupils were dilated, his hands clenched where they held Aryn close to him. He was certainly in the grips of emotion, even if Cade knew no more than that.
“I nearly lost you,” Ellian said into Aryn’s hair. “I won’t take that chance again. Here, follow James to the car, my love. I want to have a word with Mr. Williams.”
Aryn’s eyes went to his, and Cade gave a tiny nod, one he hoped Ellian did not see. She left, looked down, shoulders rigid with the effort of not looking back, and Cade looked up into the coldest eyes he ever hoped to see.
“You failed,” Ellian told him, his voice ugly. “I told you Aryn was the most precious thing in the world to me, and you left her alone? You let her go into the crowd without you?”
Any explanation would be useless. Cade bent his head. He should walk away. The chance was there, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he stayed, he would be lost.
But he could not leave her.
“Give me one more chance.”
When he looked up, he saw the faint smile that crossed Ellian’s face. The man held Cade’s eyes for a long moment, and Cade wondered just how much he saw.
“Very well.” Ellian sounded almost pleased. “One more chance, Mr. Williams.”
Chapter 16
“And then when they called me…” Ellian drew a shuddering breath. “They said it was a warning, but I was so worried. A warning to me could have meant your death.”
Aryn closed her eyes. She wished he wouldn’t keep saying that. Whatever tenuous self-control she had was rapidly evaporating as Ellian talked. She had been sure it was just a warning. It made sense that they wouldn’t want to kill her…wouldn’t it? Because she was just Ellian’s wife, not Ellian himself. And—
And at last she understood that someone might very well want to hurt her to get back at him. Someone like Samara. Someone like Aryn, two years ago. Lord, she’d been such a fool. She was supposed to be fighting people like Ellian, not marrying them.
She would make it right, she promised herself. She had a debt, and she would repay it.
“A
ryn?”
“Yes?” Aryn looked over at Ellian. She managed a smile. “I’m sorry. I was…thinking.”
“You must rest when you get home.” Ellian’s voice was decisive. “You’ve had a terrible shock, my dear.” He slid closer to her on the seat, his eyes on hers, and cupped the side of her face gently.
She tried not to move. She had not let him touch her in days, finding clever ways to leave dinner early, ducking out of shared parties. She knew she could not get away with it for long—the rumors would start soon if they had not already—but she could hardly bear to be in the same room with him, let alone feel his skin on hers. He let her believe he was the man who had saved her. He was a liar. And he had the deaths of thousands on his hands, if not more.
“I’ll rest.” Aryn nodded jerkily. “The next flight isn’t until tomorrow, anyway.”
“What?” He drew back, his eyes narrowing. “You aren’t…you aren’t still going, are you?”
“Of course I’m going,” Aryn said. On the floor of the terminal, Cade’s head cradled in her lap, she had feared for her life—and then, a few moments ago, she had decided that it did not matter. If someone would hurt her for what Ellian was, then they were almost on her side. She would not let that, of all things, stop her from doing what must be done.
“Aryn, it is too dangerous.”
“It isn’t,” Aryn said simply. “They don’t want to kill me, they said so themselves.”
“But—” He broke off and looked out the window, his face becoming expressionless, as it did when he thought. He did not look at her for a very long time, and they were already climbing the side of the Diamond Tower when he said quietly, “If you wish.”
“Ellian…” He looked halfway between sad and triumphant, and she could not understand it. When he drew her face close for a kiss, there was no way to resist, not without sparking his anger. She held herself very still, letting his lips press against hers. It felt like an eternity before he released her, and she scrambled out of the car as soon as the doors opened, desperate for fresh air.
Dragon's Honor (The Dragon Corps Series Book 1) Page 9
