Beyond Jealousy (38 page)

Cruz placed his call and made his promise, and then there was nothing to do but wait.

Wait, and finally tell Bren everything.

"He took Miller's spot as head of Military Police after Miller went down for the trafficking," he explained as they stood in the empty parking lot together. "I don't know why the Base sent him, but it must mean something. He's Makhai."

"Shit." Bren lit another cigarette. "No wonder you couldn't tell Dallas."

"Yeah." Even the people who believed the rumors were better off not having them confirmed. Especially someone in Dallas's position. "Eden should be worried, Donnelly. He's not just a soldier I happen to know from the Base. He's my contact."

A muscle jumped in Bren's jaw, the only outward sign of his sudden, palpable tension. "That's a dangerous fucking game, Lorenzo, and it doesn't belong in Sector Four. We'll all get dead."

"Do you trust Coop?"

"Coop's not planning a rebellion," Bren whispered. "A
revolution
."

A dangerous word. The kind that could get a sector firebombed. But for all that he trusted Bren's instincts, his friend would never understand the Base. If the Makhai soldiers had decided Eden wasn't deserving of their loyalty, they had the skills and power to make a rebellion swift and successful.

If revolution was coming, Cruz wanted to know.

A black car turned the corner up ahead, and Cruz straightened. "The favor I owe him will be between us, soldier to soldier. No O'Kanes, no Ace. I knew what I was doing when I made the call. And if you tell me you wouldn't have done worse if Six was bleeding out in there..."

Bren didn't hesitate. "I would have burned the world."

So would Cruz. And he'd be twice as dangerous, because he had two reasons to strike the match.

The car pulled into the lot in silence, and Cruz watched as Ashwin Malhotra slipped from the driver's seat. The back seat held three heavy silver briefcases Cruz recognized as the portable regeneration kits, but there was no sign of the regen tech.

Of course there wasn't. She wasn't here willingly.

Ashwin passed them the cases, then closed the car door and walked to the back of the car. "She sees no one. Hears no one. No threats, and no payment. Those are the terms, soldier."

"I've cleared everyone else out," Cruz replied, keeping his voice flat. Emotionless, as if he wasn't negotiating for Ace's survival. "I'll explain the situation to her."

Ashwin's hand hesitated on the trunk release. "That would put her life at risk. Unacceptable."

And to a Makhai soldier, the lines were perfectly clear. He'd calmly kidnapped the woman from her secure lab, had transported her blindfolded and bound in the trunk of his car toward an unknown fate that must have her paralyzed with fear--and he'd take her straight back to Eden if Cruz did anything that might endanger more than her emotional well-being.

Practicalities. Black-and-white variables. That was what a man like Ashwin Malhotra saw, and Cruz had drifted farther from that world than he'd realized.

It was hard to shut himself down. To consider the options. Every time he tried, he saw Ace's horrified face as the knife twisted in his gut. He saw the pain in the other man's eyes. The blood on his own hands.

He saw Rachel's heartbreak when he'd called her
angel
.

"We could leave her in the room with her supplies and a note," he said finally. "But how do we know she'll help him?"

"It's who she is." He opened the trunk.

The woman inside lay still, unmoving except for her quick, shallow breaths. Her hands were secured behind her back, and the blanket around her had fallen away to reveal pajamas. A pair of noise-blocking headphones had been secured to her head with the blindfold covering her eyes.

Then she shifted, and the delicate lace edge of her sleeve rode up to reveal two bar codes on the inside of one wrist.

Bren exhaled sharply. "Motherfucker. That's not just a tech from Eden. She has Special Clearance."

Cruz shifted his gaze to her face again. Her features were obscured by the blindfold, but even in the darkness he could pick out enough identifying characteristics. Regen techs were rare. Regen techs with Special Clearance...

"Dr. Kora Bellamy," he whispered. She was young but brilliant. She'd put Cruz back together more than once in the short time she'd been caring for the elite soldiers, always with a kindness and compassion he didn't often see.

She'd be terrified. She'd be upset. But if he shut her in a room with Ace, she'd get past all of those things and do what she always did.

Preserve life.

Ashwin pulled her up out of the trunk. She began to thrash, only stopping when he set her down and squeezed his hand around the back of her neck. Not hard enough to hurt, but she stiffened and stilled with a whimper.

Then he led her into the club.

Bren held back. "Nothing like this comes for free. You know that, right?"

He knew it better than Bren did, because he knew Makhai soldiers had a code, one that transcended military protocol and city laws. Nothing transcended a promise between soldiers. When the time came to pay the price, Ashwin would be ruthless in collecting.

As long as Ace survived, Cruz would pay. "Let's hope he doesn't ask me to set the world on fire."

"And if he does?"

For the first time since he'd left the Base, Cruz didn't feel pulled in opposite directions. Blood had a way of simplifying things. He'd do his best for Dallas, for all the O'Kanes, but his loyalties would never be divided again.

Rachel and Ace were his. If that meant razing everything in his path, it would be worth it. As long as they were alive. As long as they were safe.

"Cruz?"

"If you see me reaching for my lighter, start running."

Hell shouldn't have been so comfortable.

Ace was warm. Peaceful. Pain had been replaced by a bone-deep lethargy, the kind of exhaustion so far beyond tired that he drifted there for minutes or hours, wondering if opening his eyes was worth the trouble.

Probably not. This had to be a dream, because he wasn't alone. A solid wall of muscle radiated heat along one side of his body, and the other side was pressed up against soft curves. A pair of entwined hands rested on his chest, and sleepy whimsy imagined them guarding his heart.

If he really was in hell, this was a trick. Rachel and Cruz had slipped from his life, shoved out of it before they could walk away, and this moment could never be more than a fantasy. A dream. A cruel taunt, reminding him of what he'd lost, what he'd never been worthy of trying to take.

But if he kept his eyes closed, he could pretend. Just for a little while longer.

"His breathing changed," a feminine voice whispered, the words seeping through the layers of cotton around his mind. "Should we go get Doc?"

"Not yet. Let's see if he wakes up first."

What a shitty trick. It didn't even sound like Cruz and Rachel. Comfortable illusion shattered, and there was no point in trying to reclaim it.

Ace turned his head and opened his eyes, blinking until a pale face framed by brunette hair swam into focus. He parted his lips to ask where he was, but his throat was so dry he only managed the first word in a rusty whisper. "Where...?"

Soft fingers framed his face. "Shh, you're okay. Jas will get you some water. You've been asleep for a long time."

The bed shifted, and Ace twisted his head in the opposite direction. Jas was reaching for a bottle of water, the worry etched on his face already giving way to a grin. "Here."

The water helped. Ace drank half of it in slow sips before sinking back to the pillows, struggling to hide the ache of loss as Noelle smoothed the blankets back into place. It wasn't fair to feel so empty with the two of them beaming at him like he was their own personal miracle.

Maybe he was. But not enough of one.

"What happened?" he asked finally, glancing back to Jas. "Is everyone else all right?"

"Fine. Cuts and bumps, nothing a little med-gel couldn't fix. We won, by the way."

"Of course we did." He owed it to them to find a smile, so he squeezed Noelle's hand and gave her a grin. "Did Dallas get a chance at that bootlegging bastard, or did Lex get to him first?"

"Dallas killed him." Noelle curled up at his side, her hand settling on his chest again. "Lex knows the value of a symbolic victory."

"Yes, she does." Jasper hesitated. "How do you feel?"

"Tired." He stretched, flexing his feet and taking mental inventory. His last clear memory was being stabbed, but aside from a general ache, no part of him hurt much worse than the rest--which meant Dallas had opened his cashbox and purchased Ace a new lease on life. "Dallas called the regen tech and her magical silver briefcase, I'm guessing."

"Not exactly. I called, but she wouldn't come." Jas looked away. "Fleming pulled a power trip. He figured he'd punish Dallas one way or another, I guess."

It didn't make any damn sense. He slid his hand over his abdomen, searching for a wound he already knew he wouldn't find. His fingertips found only smooth skin--
too
smooth. "Dallas obviously found someone who was willing to show up. If he had to ask Jared or Gia, I can deal with the payment."

"Cruz called in a favor."

Ace stared at him, his heart suddenly thumping. How big a favor did it take to make Jasper look that wary? "From where?"

Jas shook his head. "He wouldn't tell us. All he said was that it would be too dangerous for us to know."

"He went a little crazy," Noelle whispered. "It was bad, Ace. We thought..."

She didn't finish, but she didn't have to. They'd thought Ace was going to die. He couldn't blame them. He'd thought it, too. By all rights he should be dust on the wind, but Cruz was a hero, and a hero never let anyone slip away.

Noelle kissed his cheek and climbed from the bed. "I'm going to go find Doc. If he says it's okay, we can get you some real food."

Ace watched her leave the room, a smile curling his lips in spite of himself. If anyone had told him a year ago that he'd be harboring a sincere fondness for a councilman's daughter, he would have laughed himself sick.

Women from Noelle's world had traded Ace between them like a dirty secret, but she'd rejected the lessons of that life with a courage that made them all look a little cowardly. Ace was twice a coward, because he couldn't even ask the question burning a hole in his chest. "Alright, brother. I suppose picking her up off the street wasn't your
worst
idea."

"Not by a long shot." Jas sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Turned away, but Ace didn't need to see his face to understand the gravity of his words. "You fucked up."

Which time.
But if he said it like that, Jas would think he was joking. There was no reason to assume he wasn't. Everyone knew he couldn't be serious.

He had to prove them wrong. He had to try. "I know."

"No, you don't. You didn't see them, man."

"Then tell me."

"Rachel lost it," he said simply. "When we thought we couldn't get a tech out here for you, Doc started talking about putting you down like a fucking dog. She tried to strangle him. But the surprise was Cruz." He shifted on the bed, turning to face Ace. "I thought he'd lock it down, you know? Try to prop Rachel up, get her through it. But he couldn't."

"He would have." It was impossible to imagine an alternative, a world where Cruz didn't do all the right things for Rachel. She was the one who mattered to him.

Deserved
him.

Jas snorted. "Tell me, you say, and then you don't listen when I do."

He closed his eyes, wry laughter rattling up through his chest. "Because it sounds a lot less fucking manly to say
make me believe
."

"Truth. And I've got another one for you--if they couldn't get it through your skull, then I don't stand a chance."

"I'm scared," Ace admitted, and then groaned. "Fuck, Jas. Why in hell do they have to be so
perfect
?"

That brought a chuckle spilling out of his friend. "I'm just spitballin' here, man...but have you considered that maybe they're not, only you're too fucking in love with them to notice?"

No, he really hadn't.

Ace struggled into a seated position. The room spun woozily for a second, and fuck if he knew why. Maybe he was still light-headed from his injury. Maybe Jas had just upended his world. He only had one lifeline left, and he lunged for it as everything else fell away. "If they were that worried, why aren't they here?"

Jas's smile faded. "Because you told them they didn't belong here."

Despite her bone-crushing exhaustion and the mysterious regen tech's assurance that Ace would be fine, Rachel slept fitfully. Not deep enough to dream, but nightmares dragged at her anyway, bloody and desolate. Every time one began to seem too real, too focused, the heart-pounding fear jerked her up out of a shallow doze.

She was staring up into the darkness, trying to fall asleep again, when the door opened.

"Ace is fine," was the first thing Cruz said, even before he eased the door shut. He continued as he approached the bed, toeing off his boots and stripping his shirt over his head. "Doc's with him now, but Noelle said he was awake and talking and seemed good."