The inspector waited on the other side and I stopped walking right in front of him. I held my wrists in front of me and let him stick the handcuffs on.
“Does the weather look good?” Tara yawned.
I shrugged. “Sunny skies all around.”
The Inspector looked out the window. “Really? I was just thinking it looked like rain.”
“Maybe I don’t understand the weather on Ochoa.” I needed him to leave me alone, to not want to spend too much time around me. Stress made my hands sweat. I hated having the weapon on me. The gun wasn’t going to stay hidden forever. “All I know is I just got my period and it sucks. I mean, I needed to bleed this week like I needed a hole in the head.”
He jumped back like I’d struck him. “What?”
“You want me to repeat that? I’d be happy to go into detail if you’d like. The whole thing makes me really cranky and…”
The inspector held up his hand to stop me. “Let’s get out of here.”
Tara nodded at me when she stood. We’d gotten through the first part of this rather unscathed. I should be concerned; nothing ever went this well for us. Only, I’d decided to be an optimist. I understood the weather on Ochoa perfectly.
* * * *
The ride in the shuttle to Olivia’s home base passed in silence. Tara occasionally hummed to catch the guard’s attention—an old trick I’d used myself once on Primus when I’d had to get away from the police. If you could catch their attention making innocuous noises, they weren’t really concentrating and it would be easier to escape.
The inspector’s guards were better trained than he was. Possibly he was a leftover from when Cooper’s dad had been in charge, hired for some political or family reason and not because he had any ability to do his job. People like him had made our lives easy. His guards? They kept their eyes on the windows, watching for potential threats.
My gun dug into my rear end. I’d love to squirm but I wouldn’t let myself. The guards might notice.
Tara could keep testing them with the humming. I didn’t need to. Unless something weird happened, I was going to have to kill all of them. The potential rise in body count made my head hurt.
They hadn’t hurt me yet—although I suspected if they hadn’t been ordered not to, I’d be in a very different situation.
I couldn’t have been the only person to try to kill Olivia since it started. I had advantages few would still possess—I’d been raised to be a rebel and my husbands weren’t beaten down from having their whole world destroyed when Olivia declared war and took over.
We were still whole. Maybe. I had to believe it would be enough.
Either that or I was just completely delusional, which I supposed was a possibility.
The transport slowed, descending fast toward the ground. The pilot was either a lousy lander or in an incredible hurry because he wasn’t doing anything to handle the pressure his rapid descent caused in any of our ears. Two of the guards groaned and next to me Tara stiffened.
My stomach lurched and I ignored the sensation. I’d never entirely gotten my ease of flying back after my mind erase. But puking wasn’t an option, it might expose the gun.
“I’m not sure how you all got involved in this mess, what it was that led you to follow her. I don’t know if you’re drugged, dumb, mean, or sadistic. I want you to know that there are some things we don’t come back from. What I saw in the square?” The image of the naked woman running for her life steeled my spine. “That’s disgusting. What kind of men are you?”
The shuttle touched down with a skid and we all jerked forward. The inspector looked away, unable to make eye contact with me. Good. If my little speech made him feel like shit, then I was glad I made it.
A guard to my left leaned forward. “You’re Melissa Alexander, aren’t you? The rebel princess?”
Tara pointed at me. “Her? The rebel princess? You have to be kidding. Does she look like that girl to you? The one who made bomb threats that got played over and over and over and over and…”
I elbowed her in the ribs. “That’s me. I’m not going to say the name, so if that’s what you’re hoping for, I mean hearing the whole shebang, then you’re shit out of luck, asshat.”
“And you’ve never done anything, rebel princess, that you wish you hadn’t done?”
I leaned forward as the inspector pulled me to my feet. Tara took the chance to shove herself behind me. If we made it through this mess, I’d thank her for her instincts. No way could I have pulled off the ‘kill Olivia’ plan by myself.
“Whatever I’ve done—what guilt I hold for the mistakes I made—they were never as bad as systematically helping to enslave the few women left in the universe. Every one of you who worked with her, who made it possible for her to do this, you’re going to have to live with it forever.”
The guard nodded once. “If you really are who they say you are—if the stories about you are true—then maybe you’ve come to set us all free from her. You’ve come to put an end to it all.”
I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times. Well, that hadn’t been the response I’d expected. Silence descended on the shuttle and no one moved to push me out of it or to make our trip together end.
I pointed at the man’s gun. “You have weapons. One shot. Between her eyes. Then you’re the legend.”
He lowered his gaze. “She controls the drugs. We’re all hooked. If she stops making them, we’ll die. We’re hoping you’ll keep them going. Kill her, but don’t take them away.”
Tara cleared her throat. “Fuck, this is so screwed up.”
I stormed forward. I needed off the shuttle. “You’d better hope the stories about me are true and I’m not just full of shit.”
I wasn’t sure myself.
Chapter 15
Friends and Other Enemies
SHE hadn’t changed her house at all. I don’t know why it surprised me to see that her home looked exactly the same as the last time I saw it. I’d been imagining all kinds of scenarios—mostly one where Olivia lived in a castle manically laughing as she sent women to be abused.
The last time I had seen her, she’d been swinging in the backyard like a child and yet she’d been making arrangements to take over the universe. I hadn’t understood her then. Why should I now?
On my right, Tara touched my arm. “You okay?”
“She’s Cooper’s sister. She’s done things that can’t be made right—but I have to go in there and—you know—shoot Cooper’s sister in a house where I once stayed.”
“Well.” Tara sighed loudly. “Nothing is done that can’t be undone. You have that gun. We can take the ship from the guards, I bet they wouldn’t even put up much of a fight. Find our men and get the hell out of here.”
I smiled. “Thanks for that image. I like it.”
“I thought you might.” She motioned toward the house. “Ready to go in?”
“I am. But you’re not going with me.” I turned around to face the guard with the guilty conscience. “You want me to manage this? My friend stays here unharmed. Anything happens to her, I still kill Olivia and then I get rid of all of your drugs, too.”
“Melissa…” Tara grabbed my arm and I shoved her off.
“I couldn’t have gotten this far without you. But what has to happen in there? It’s got to be her and me. I won’t have you there as some sort of bargaining chip for her.”
Tara didn’t answer me right away. Her silence struck me as strange. This was Tara. She should be arguing with me.
“Melissa.” She shook her head before she reached behind her and pulled out a gun. Apparently, she was better at hiding them than I was. Where had she gotten one and why did she have it? “It’s really too bad. I liked you all this time. Some days I even forgot the end game.”
Dread settled on my shoulders like a giant weight even before I fully digested what she said. The gun probably helped me realize things had gone astray fast. I’d had lots of them shoved in my face over the years b
ut never in a million years would I have pictured Tara on the other end of one.
I raised my hands. “What are you doing? What do you mean?”
“I cannot let you hurt the Empress.”
I swallowed. “You work for Olivia?”
She nodded. “Why do you think they left us alone the way they did? Why do you think we’re all still alive? Because I was there watching you on behalf of Olivia. You can get all judgy if you want to, I won’t even blame you, but I did what I had to do for my family and what I’ll continue to do to keep us alive.”
The guards behind me gasped. They were as screwed in this situation as I was. The two redheaded ones who’d tried to help and now these men who wanted me to succeed. If she reported them, they were in as much trouble as I was.
Of course, I really had no idea how much reporting had already been done.
I stepped toward her and Tara’s eyes widened. I’d been taught, by my now very dead mother, to keep those who threatened me off balance. Something I could thank her for, I supposed. Although I would hopefully not be seeing her again any time soon.
“How far does this go? Your husbands are aware of all of this?” I’d left them with my own men. C.J. and Leif had been seated together on the steps. Nolan had her son and at least one of her husbands with him on the shuttle. How fucked were we?
Diana…No, I couldn’t let my head go there at all, or I’d make myself sick.
“They’re aware. Up until recently, when your men came back, we had no issues whatsoever. We were all completely uninteresting to the Empress. I wish you had kept it that way. We all liked you, loved your daughter, even put up with your mom. Then you had to go and make things complicated. The second I woke up on Artemis, I knew it was all over.” She raised her gun. “I mean it when I say I liked you. It would be kinder for me to end it now. The Empress might be cross with me, but she’ll get over it. I don’t think I can tolerate watching you get tortured.”
I pulled the gun from my back and pointed it at her. “Maybe it would be kinder for me to take you out, as well. The Empress might be okay with having me killed—although she’s gone to so much effort to get me here unharmed—but Nolan will skin you alive if C.J. doesn’t get to you first. Hell, even Dane would torture you.”
“Not if they’re all dead.” She rolled her eyes. “And besides, you and I both know you’re not going to shoot me. The Empress, maybe. You have some ridiculous notions about saving the universe even though you want to boo-hoo about Cooper all the time. But me? I’m a mother. I’ve watched your daughter. You aren’t going to kill me. Everyone knows that you came back from the mind erase a shell of the woman you used to be.”
The shot that rang out startled me and I jumped back. Tara’s eyes widened, disbelief registering in them before she hit the ground, her hand barely raising to her head where a hole formed in her forehead. Her eyes faded, seeing nothing else ever again. The guards ran backward toward the ship and I spun around to see who fired, half expecting C.J. or Geoff to be standing there. But it wasn’t.
Olivia Jackson spun the gun she’d used to end Tara’s life in her hand like it was a toy, the slightest smile crossing her regal features as she surveyed the scene in front of her. Two guards flanked her on both sides. If their blank expressions were any indication, the drugs the others wanted me to manage were fresh in their systems.
Someday I was going to have a nervous breakdown. A real one. Between the last five years, my mother’s death, and Tara’s betrayal, I was overdue.
But today was not going to be that day.
“Take the gun from my sister-in-law.” Olivia’s voice still sounded so little girlish. Was it entirely a put on or had she been faking it for so long she no longer knew how to stop?
The guard to her left walked over. I thought for a second about shooting him, but the reality was Tara had spoken correctly right before she died—I didn’t have the stomach for it. Unless someone threatened my child or my husbands, I pretty much couldn’t kill them anymore.
I handed the drugged-out man my weapon without even resisting.
“I couldn’t let her live,” Olivia continued once I didn’t have a gun in my hand. “No one threatens family. She’s supposed to be taking care of you, not risking your life.”
I shook my head, the surreal nature of this moment making my head spin. “She seemed to think it was to monitor and report.”
“She was always an idiot.”
I walked toward Olivia. “Why save me? I came here to kill you.”
The Empress motioned toward the house like she wanted me to go inside and I entered like I’d come for a visit instead of to assassinate her.
“You’re family. We all try to kill each other all the time. I might end you myself. I’m not going to have anyone else do it.”
Did it make me sick in the head that I actually understood her reasoning? “Are you going to end me the way you did the rest of your family?”
“End them?” Olivia shut the door behind her. We were hardly alone. In the front room alone there were four more guards. Why had I thought I’d get anywhere near her to kill her? If every room had this much protection, then there weren’t enough bullets in the gun to get my task done.
Not by myself, anyway.
Olivia crossed in front of me and I followed her toward the kitchen. Nothing had changed since the last time I’d been here. The walls were still a cheery yellow and a clock made to look like a kitten ticked on the wall. She lifted a bowl that had candies in it and offered it to me like I might want to eat one.
“I’m good.” I shook my head. She had candy? We’d barely had water for the last five years. “You killed your family. Are you going to end me the same way?”
She giggled and shivers wracked my spine. “No, I didn’t. They’re in the basement, silly, where they’ve always been.”
An image of her entire family decomposing in the basement crossed before my eyes and I pushed it away. “Alive or dead?”
“Alive, Melissa.” She walked toward me and pulled me into her arms like we were close. She smelled like cherries and the sweet smell made me gag. “We can go see them all in a few minutes, but now I need to ask you a question—how far away is Cooper and when should we expect him?”
“I really don’t know where he is.” I pushed back out of her embrace. Was there enough air in the room or had it all suddenly been sucked out? I wasn’t even lying. I didn’t have the slightest idea where Cooper was or when and if he would be arriving. I was supposed to be killing her. The what comes next hadn’t really been determined. We could have used at least one hundred more conversations on this subject before I pushed forward with this. So far I’d made it with luck and apparent interference from Tara.
Now I was on my own.
“Well, no matter.” Olivia shrugged. “He’ll be along. If there’s one thing I know about Cooper, it is that he will never abandon you. You’re his Melissa and even if I don’t love the way you Nomads share, I have to say it works for all of you. Cooper was never happier than when he thought we were all fooled and didn’t know he’d joined up with you. Gallivanting around the galaxy as a husband to Melissa Alexander worked for him in a major way.”
So much for our great secret. “Tara was a mother.” I realized my response constituted a non-sequitur to our conversation but my mind wasn’t working the way it should. Everything seemed…slower. “You took that woman from her son.”
She shrugged. “I take a lot of people from their families. Such is my prerogative. I haven’t taken you from yours, even though you had a baby with someone other than Cooper. How does that work, exactly? I mean my brother was fine with you procreating with someone else? He doesn’t want to kill her?”
“It’s a special set of circumstances.” I wasn’t going to tell her how little Cooper wanted to risk bringing someone into the world considering his family’s level of crazy. “Why did you do this, Olivia?”
I couldn’t bring myself to call her Empress. I’d never
been very impressed with royalty. Cooper’s iconic status was the least interesting thing about him to me.
“Why did I do what?” She spun in a circle. “Arrange to have you brought here? Save your life from Tara? Or why did I do all of this?” She waved her hand in the air. “Take over the universe?”
“Let’s start with the universe and go from there. Why did you destroy worlds? How did you manage it?” I’d always wanted to know, and since I had no idea what was going to happen to me next, now seemed as good a time as any to get some answers.
She touched my arm. “Because I could. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t wake up one morning and just know what I was doing. I didn’t say ‘Wee, I’d like to be in charge.’ My mother and I plotted it for years.”
“Your mother…” Cooper’s father’s second wife was dead…as far as I knew.
“She started the plan, set up the drugs, started giving them to the guards. I just picked it up where she left off. There wasn’t much left to do. She taught me everything, how to pretend to be simple, how to pick a useful husband I could manipulate—how to do all this. I got rid of all my chains. I am the woman in charge.”
“I…” There really weren’t words, at least not ones I knew, to express what I wanted to say to her. “I am all in favor of throwing away chains. I get that. There are so few of us. We’re supposed to be in charge, but we’re not. Mostly, women are chattel. The Nomads are supposed to be better. Sometimes we are, sometimes we’re not. But you blew up worlds. You have your hands on nuclear devices and you used them. No amount of…reasoning can ever explain that.”
She rolled her eyes. “You sound just like them. Come on, Melissa, if you’re going to be just like my family you can go and hang out with them.”
She grabbed my arm hard and two guards rushed behind her to assist. Although I put up no resistance—really, what would have been the point?—all three of them pushed me along until we made our way to the basement. Or at least that’s what it must have been at some point.