by Terina Adams
Chapter 25
I was curled up on the couch when headlights swept along the wall. Mum returned home late as promised. I jumped up and peered through the lace curtain. When the door opened, the interior light switched on, lighting up Carter’s face. I tensed as a lightning rod stabbed me through the chest. I hadn’t thought it possible to hate someone as much as I did him.
It wasn’t enough for Carter to put Dad in jail. He wanted to hammer the nail in tight. Bit by bit, he would ruin Dad’s world. He had me and Mum; it was inevitable he would take Ajay too.
I let the curtain fall back into place and went to reheat the lasagna. It was almost ten, later than the home time I’d expected, which I’m sure was Carter’s fault. I stared at the lasagna turning on its plate while I tried to push my anger down to my feet. There was no use attacking Mum. She was the innocent in all of this.
Behind the whir of the microwave, I heard the front door open. What could I say to her to make her understand Carter was not the savior, that he was dangerous, that she needed to stay away from him?
“Hey, hon, I didn’t expect you to wait up for me.”
I looked over my shoulder and met Mum’s eyes, but it was the eyes of the man next to her that made my organs drop to the floor. “I didn’t expect you home so late.”
Her smile faltered, and she looked to Carter. No, Mum, you don’t look to him for an explanation. Carter’s eyes remained fixed on me. The microwave pinged, the whirring silenced, and that silence extended throughout the kitchen. To avoid looking at the two of them again, standing side by side, like a couple, I removed the lasagna from the microwave and slipped it onto a plate.
“You haven’t eaten yet,” Mum said.
“It’s for you.”
“Oh…honey.” She looked to Carter again.
I wanted to throw the plate at him, see the meat sauce run down his face and onto his shirt.
“We’ve already eaten.”
We. My offer was for her, not them both.
“I hope you didn’t stay up just to warm me some dinner.”
“No.” I drilled my eyes into Carter. “I stayed up because I thought we could have some alone time. Girl talk, like we used to.”
From bright and jubilant to fallen, Mum’s expression changed in a blink. I should feel guilty for dragging down her mood, making her feel ashamed, but I was too angry to feel anything else.
“I’ll wait in the living room, shall I?” Carter said.
Mum fidgeted with the strap on her handbag, casting him a small smile.
Mum, tell him to go away. All that hate bubbling below the surface, I gathered it up and sharpened it into my stare. His smile deflected it back. And then the departing wink. The furnace in my heart brought tears to my eyes. I was caged, drowning, suffocating in a void, trapped within quicksand, helpless against an unstoppable force rolling over me, and that force casually turned his back and strolled into my living room.
“Honey.” Mum came over and squeezed my arm. “I’ve told you, Carter feels bad for what happened with your father. He wants to help us out.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“Stop this, Sable. You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I? Why are you coming home from work at ten o’clock?”
“I have a lot to learn. I have no experience and Carter did me a favor by taking me on. It’s going to take time for me to learn my job.”
“Is it normal for the boss to bring his employee home?”
“Why are you acting like this?”
“Because…” Carter’s the devil. He wants to see Dad burn in hell and everything he loves destroyed. He wants to turn factions against each other, bring civil war, destroy us and destroy his world. He wants to win. “I don’t trust him.”
“It’s not about what you think, Sable.”
“But I’m a part of this family, so don’t I deserve to get a say in what affects us?”
She moved around me to the kettle. “Not in this instance, no. You’re being unreasonable, and I don’t understand why.”
She put the kettle down and spun to take me by the upper arms. “Honey, Carter is the best thing that’s happened to our family since your father’s imprisonment. I don’t need to tell you how desperate we are. We’ve run out of options. If not for Carter, we’d be on the streets soon. He’s a gentleman. He’s doing this because he cares.”
I broke free of her hold and turned away. All the things I really wanted to say swelled up in my throat and not one of them I could put into words.
In my periphery, I watched her pick up the plate of lasagna. “As an apology for keeping me late, Carter took me out for a quick bite before bringing me home.”
My hands fisted. “This isn’t going to be a regular thing, is it?”
“Of course not.”
Let it go. Punishing Mum wouldn’t help. “I’ll make us a drink.”
She put the plate down, giving me a grateful smile. For the first time in these last couple of months, she’d found a purpose. This job was the best thing for her. She had a reason to get out of bed in the morning, a reason to care about her appearance. It was good for us as a family. We could climb our way out of destitution, ditch this rental, and move somewhere better. Great if it wasn’t all built on a lie. Possible death was the payoff for all these rewards, siding with a psychopath, who would see his own Earth destroyed to seize control.
“Your daddy will be so proud of us. Once the paychecks come through, we can buy a few new things for the apartment. Maybe in a few months, we can think about moving somewhere else, somewhere nice.”
I inwardly groaned. Jesus, I was yet to confess about visiting Dad. I couldn’t keep from her the part I played in having Dad’s visits restricted. If there was one thing I could give Mum in all of this, it was that truth.
“I’m not sure they will allow us to see Dad. At least not in the contact room.”
She smiled even though a small crease formed on her brow. “Why do you say that?”
“Ajay and I visited Dad the other day.”
She laughed, but it sounded off, not a laugh at all. “Don’t be stupid. That’s impossible. How did you do that?”
“A friend took us.”
“What? Honey…I don’t understand. You went and saw your dad? Why didn’t you tell me?”
I sighed. There was no going back now. “Something bad happened. Ajay was really upset about it, and I made him promise not to tell you. I didn’t want to upset you.”
She put the kettle down and faced me squarely. “Sable. What are you saying? I don’t understand this.”
“They may not let us see him.”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
“Dad went mental. Three guards had to restrain him.” I hated saying it. Even now, a week later, my throat constricted.
Mom palmed her mouth. She whispered, “Why?”
“The friend who took me was a boy. He drove us there. Dad saw him and lost it.”
“Jesus Christ, Sable.” She closed her eyes. She turned away and I collapsed inside. It had been all my fault.
“Who is this boy?” She kept her back to me.
“A friend. His name is Jax. And that’s all he is, Mum, a friend, or he was, maybe not anymore.”
She faced me again. Seeing her tears made mine threaten at the corners of my eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I had a right to know.”
“I’m so sorry, Mum. I never meant for that to happen. I just wanted to see him.” And I choked. Mum was too devastated herself to react to my emotional outburst. She remained frozen, staring at the bench top.
“I’ve really made a mess of everything.”
Finally she moved. She came over and swept me into a hug. Even though we were the same height, even though in the last few months I’d played the adult while she hid under the covers of her duvet, unable to face life, even though I was risking my life to save hers, at this moment, I felt like a child again. I wanted to be a child again, young
enough so that a mother’s embrace was all that was needed to make the world all right. I hugged her back so tight, like I would never let her go.
She whispered shhh against my hair as I cried on her shoulder. I didn’t want to let this moment go, because it would be the only time in forever I would feel safe, the only time Mum could offer me any sort of security. Once she let me go, I would return to being the one who made the plans. Something I wasn’t ready to do, but no matter, it was something I had to do.
“We’ll sort something out. Even if we have to go back to noncontact visits for a while. We’ll get through this.”
Reluctantly I let her go when she stepped back. “How about you take a cuppa through for Carter?”
Hearing his name, a million pieces inside of me broke. But Mum wasn’t looking at me, she was busy preparing his coffee. I forced a smile when she handed me the cup. “I’ll be through in a minute.” She turned her back on me to finish her own coffee.
I inhaled, then turned and headed for the lounge room. How much of our conversation had he heard? The part about Dad going apoplectic over Jax would’ve made him smile.
He’d seated himself in one of our cheap single-seaters, one leg thrown over the knee of the other, arms splayed on the armrests like he owned the place. His eyes followed me across the room with the hint of a smirk tugging the corners of his mouth. There was the accidental trip, or I could just throw the hot drink over him and not bother pretending. Instead, I handed it to him, because anything else would be a signal to him that he’d won, that I felt backed into a corner.
He reached out. I thought it was to take the coffee; instead he grabbed my wrist, turning it over to expose my pale skin on the inside. I gasped at the suddenness of his action. My pulse jacked in nanoseconds. His grip was a vise, holding my hand in place. “This is what makes you special.” Green eyes looked up into mine. “An ungrafted source of strength.”
If only it were possible to arrow a dart with my glare. “You have it all planned.”
“It doesn’t pay to start a war without already knowing the outcome.”
“You planned on betraying Dad all along.”
“As did he.” He let my wrist go. “Your father and I are very much alike. So if you judge me harshly, then make sure to be fair and do the same to dear old Dad.”
“Here we are.” Mum entered the room bearing two more cups of coffee.
“I’m going to bed.” I should stay and keep an eye on him, make sure he kept his hands to himself, but I couldn’t bear to be in his presence for one more second.
I stormed down to my room, leaving Mum standing where she was, eyes widened in surprise. Once in my room, I swiped my phone from my bedside table and messaged Holden.
Are u available tomorrow to meet?
I sat on my bed, staring at the phone. This was the first contact we’d had since Dominus, since our argument. Fifteen minutes later, with my hand hovering over the buttons, ready to phone him, I received a reply.
Sure. At the club.
I was grateful he never asked what it was about. Perhaps he thought he already knew. We parted with tension. Thank god he seemed to have moved that aside and was willing to see me.
I’ll be there first thing.
I threw the phone onto my duvet and stared at the wall opposite. My world had crashed, but I didn’t feel small, because there was a fire now burning inside of me. Carter was not going to destroy everyone I loved.
Chapter 26
“You’re making progress.”
“But not enough.”
“Sable, you don’t have to defeat everything on your own.”
Holden straightened, relaxing his stance, effectively halting our practice.
“I can’t use my factional nature if I can’t control it. Not if it means wiping out everyone around me. And I don’t want to rely on anyone. I have to be able to fight on my own.”
“You will, but give yourself time to reach that level of proficiency. People play for years on the screen before they move to virtual. We run them through months of training before we put the goggles on.”
“I don’t have time. Carter has a noose around my neck.”
“Carter won’t hurt your mum and Ajay. Not while he has you.”
“No, but I don’t want him around my family at all. Every day Mum goes to work, I want to be sick. She thinks he’s the best thing that’s happened to our family. He thinks he’s won. I can’t stand that.”
“Winning this game is about patience. You go rushing in and you’ll get yourself killed.”
He came up close and tapped a finger to my forehead. “Mostly it’s about using this, not your body. You’ve got to be smarter, not stronger. Your dad is in jail because of Carter’s cunning.”
He headed for the watercooler. I followed and accepted the cup he handed me.
“Dominus is not a game where those with the greater power win. Remember that.”
“You need to teach me to harness my factional nature.”
He sighed.
“Carter wanted me in. Well, I’m in, and I’m going to be the best, and then I’m going to screw him so badly he’s going to wish he’d killed me.”
At first my stare was combative, then I realized his wasn’t, and I backed down. Once I understood it was sadness in his eyes, I stirred once more. “He started this.”
And now I sounded like a child. I deflated for real this time.
“It’s okay to rely on someone.”
“Will you help me with my factional nature?”
“Of course I will. I’ll help you with anything. I’m Persal.”
Goddamn factions. Why couldn’t he have said he would do it because he was my friend?
“What about Dad?”
“What about him? He’s in jail.”
“We have to get him out. Why can’t he shift like the rest of you?”
“Carter activated his graft.”
“Why can’t you go in and get him out? You have the ability to shift.”
“He wouldn’t let me. If he disappeared, you’ll all be at Carter’s mercy.”
“We are at his mercy.” I slapped my hands at my sides. Holden and Dad were too stupid to see his punishment in jail had not kept us safe. “We have to find a way to reverse Dad’s graft again.”
“That will be difficult. Carter keeps the grafter he and Nixon reverse engineered safe.”
“Which is where?”
“Locked up somewhere within his building. It will be located in his office. I can’t see him wanting it too far from him.”
“Where’s his office?”
“Within the Amex. He runs his company from the fortieth floor. You can see how, for a Persal, it is nearly impossible to get inside.”
“Mum works there. I could visit her at work.”
“He’ll be suspicious.”
“I’m his new favorite toy. Anything to screw Dad, remember? Perhaps the idea of having two of Nixon’s family in his building would be enough for him to welcome me in.”
“Carter’s cunning. He’ll know.”
“Not if I act right. Besides, I’m an earthling, remember? I don’t understand the real meaning of factional segregation, which means my intentions for seeing Mum are innocent.”
Holden scratched his chin while he paced the mat. “I’m not comfortable with this.”
“What’s your plan?”
He shook his head.
“So I guess we do it my way.”
“What happens when you find the safe?”
“I break in and retrieve the grafter.”
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“I’m Persal. Why are you asking me?
“You can’t use your factional nature. The building will be full of people and you’ve yet to control your ability.”
“Then teach me. Give me the control I need.”
I wanted to pull my hair out. Why throw up walls when I was the only one making sense?
“It takes time and use.
”
“You say that about everything.”
“Because it’s true. Besides, using your ability will alert Carter.”
God, I hadn’t thought of that.
“It’ll place your mum in a vulnerable position.”
“She and Ajay will have to leave. Dad will make sure of that.”
“Do you know what you’re saying?”
“It’s the only way. Dad is Carter’s greatest rival, perhaps the only one capable of stopping him.”
“You’ll banish your mum and Ajay from this world, plus there’s no guarantee of their safety in my world. If they are detected, it will raise questions in the senate. And they have a tendency to act negatively before they firm decisions.”
“It’s been three months and you’re no further in getting him out.”
Holden continued his irritating floor pacing. I felt tempted to seize his shoulders to still him. “This will also put you in danger. You’re expendable. Carter wanted you because Nixon tried to keep you out. That’s all. He would be just as happy to see you gone.”
“There’s no other choice. Carter is going to lose control of this, which could mean a war that will destroy your world and spill into mine. He underestimates our power of free thinking. Once half the recruits learn the rules of your world and discover they are from an opposing faction, they will turn on him. He will be forced to kill them or graft them.”
“Don’t you think I haven’t thought about this?”
Then why was he going through with Carter’s plan?
“You know as well as I do Carter won’t release your people. He’ll graft everyone who is not Aris. He’ll be forced to do it because no one will accept a single faction ruling.”
I closed the distance between us. He needed to believe in what I was saying, and it felt like the only way I could convince him was if I filled his vision, forced him to see only me, forced him to see my determination. “You need to teach me quick time.”
“This isn’t going to work.”
“It won’t if you keep saying so.”
