The Significant (63 page)

      
Kailynn smiled and nodded slowly.

      
“You play the game very well.”

      
“Thank you,” Isa said with a quiet laugh.
“I hate the game, but I have been well trained in it.”

      
Even though Kailynn felt a little better
after talking with Isa about what had happened on Fortunea, there was still
something in the back of her mind that refused to be silenced. For three days,
she went about partaking in the entertainment on the ship. The Elites played
several games of Evolu in an attempt to break the tension of the meeting. It
succeeded, particularly when the alcohol started flowing. The pool of money was
getting larger and larger, and everyone was trying to gain more points to knock
Isa out of the top spot.

      
On the final day, when they were
approaching Tiao behind schedule, Kailynn went to Isa’s room, where she found
the Elite on a portable terminal, going through her messages. She turned when
she heard the door open.

      
“Sorry, you’re busy,” Kailynn said,
turning to leave, losing her nerve.

      
“No, please,” Isa said, setting the
terminal aside and rubbing her eyes, “save me from this. I hate war
preparations.”

      
Kailynn closed the door behind her and
walked behind Isa. Isa turned over her shoulder to look at the former
Significant, but Kailynn took her shoulders, pressing her thumbs into the
Elite’s tense muscles. Isa relaxed quickly, closing her eyes as Kailynn
massaged her shoulders.

      
After several long minutes, when she
could tell the Elite was relaxed, Kailynn leaned down and tilted Isa’s head
back, kissing her tenderly.

      
“Thank you,” Isa murmured.

      
Kailynn walked around the couch and sat
next to Isa.

      
“Isa,” she started slowly, “I’m sorry,
I’m probably going to screw this up,” she said, rubbing her forehead, “but this
has been bothering me for days.”

      
“What is it?”

      
“I’ve tried to tell myself that you’ll
tell me when you’re ready and that I should respect your limits on this, but…I
feel like, with this war, and everything going on at home, and the way you’ve
been talking about Venus lately, I should know more about what happened with
Colonel Amori.”

      
Isa took a deep breath, lowering her eyes
to the couch.

      
“I know, I shouldn’t push you, but I’m
scared,” Kailynn continued. “I feel like everyone in the Alliance knows
something about what happened, and they are trying to use it against you.”

      
“Everyone has their own theories about
what happened,” Isa admitted. “When a planetary leader, which Colonel Amori
was, is killed while in the care of another planetary leader, and, at that, a
high-profile one like myself, it makes other leaders extremely nervous.”

      
“Who killed him?” Kailynn asked seriously.

      
“He was assassinated in the middle of the
night.”

      
“Who pulled the trigger?”

      
Isa stared at Kailynn, silent for several
long moments.

      
“He was stabbed to death,” Isa corrected
quietly.

      
“Who was holding the knife?”

      
Isa’s eyes did not leave Kailynn’s. The
longer the silence continued, the more the truth sank into Kailynn’s chest.

      
“Holy shit…” she breathed, closing her
eyes and turning away.

      
Isa lifted a hand to her mouth, rubbing
her face slowly.

      
“I had to…” she whispered.

      
“I…” Kailynn shook her head. “I
suspected, but…” She turned back to Isa. “How many people know?”

      
“Rayal, Tarah, Remus, the rest of the
Syndicate, with the exception of Tia, Venus, you…”

      
“And on Gihron?”

      
“No one,” Isa said, shaking her head.
“There are rumors and suspicions, saying that we hired someone to kill him when
negotiations weren’t going the way we wanted.”

      
“Is that what happened?”

      
“If it was, don’t you think I would
handle myself better whenever he was mentioned?” Isa asked quietly. “No, that’s
not why I…” Isa swallowed hard, trailing off.

      
“Fuck, what did he do to you?” Kailynn
hissed, pained by the terror in Isa’s eyes.

      
“…he tore me apart,” she choked. “He
found every weakness I had and used it against me until he had destroyed me.”
She swallowed hard bowing her head and closing her eyes. “He used me for his
own agenda. He blackmailed me, and tortured me…he turned everyone against me
and against each other, and mentally abused me for months.” Isa shook her head.
“There was no other way to escape him…”

      
Kailynn rubbed her face, standing and
pacing by the seating area.

      
“Kailynn…”

      
“I…I’m trying to process this,” she said.
“I believe you, of course, but…I saw the way you handled everyone in the
meeting. How could this one guy do so much damage?”

      
Isa’s eyes went distant as she stared at
the ground, lost in memories of that time. She let out a shuddered breath and
pulled her sleeves down over her hands, her body shaking once.

      
“It happened very suddenly,” she
whispered. “Before I knew it, I was trapped.”

      
Kailynn walked back to Isa and sat with
her.

      
“Then this is really for revenge,” she
hissed. “Gihron wants you to be killed for his death, even though they don’t
know the truth. Isn’t there some way you can convince them that you’re innocent
and that someone else was responsible? Or just tell them it was self-defense?”

      
“No,” Isa said. “It’s more complicated
than that.”

      
“Why?”

      
Isa looked at Kailynn seriously.

      
“Because General Decius, when Colonel
Amori was coming to Tiao, contacted me personally and asked me to take care of
him. And I didn’t.”

      
“Just tell him there was no way you could
have predicted what happened.”

      
Isa closed her eyes.

      
“Colonel Amori was General Decius’
younger brother,” she said quickly. Kailynn’s eyes went wide, her mouth falling
open in surprise. Isa sighed heavily. “The betrayal ran far deeper for him than
losing a comrade.”

      
Kailynn let out a long breath, her eyes
distant as she tried to think over the situation.

      
“No wonder you’re so nervous about
Gihron,” she whispered. “You really think he’ll kill you, don’t you?”

      
“I’m worried he’ll do worse.”

      
“What do you mean? What could be worse?”

      
“Isa,” Remus said, walking into the room.
They both turned, startled. “We have a problem on the command deck.”

      
Isa sighed heavily and stood, swallowing
hard as she walked out of the room. Remus stopped her at the door.

      
“Are you alright?”

      
Isa glanced at Kailynn before shaking her
head and leaving. Remus rounded on Kailynn.

      
“What the hell was going on in here?”

      
“She…” Kailynn hesitated. “She told me
the truth about him. About who did it.”

      
She could see Remus’ mind working around
the words, trying to figure out the meaning. When he realized who she was
talking about, his eyes widened.

      
He fought with himself for several
seconds about what to say.

      
“Just how bad were things when he was
around?”

      
“You can’t even imagine,” Remus breathed.
“If I could kill him a thousand times over, I would, and it wouldn’t be enough
to pay him back for what he did to her.” He stepped closer, looming over
Kailynn. “This is a very heavily-guarded secret. You
cannot
speak of this, do you understand?”

      
“We have to figure something out. This
war is all about revenge. She is the sole target.”

      
“Yes, we all know that,” Remus said
strongly. “And she knows it, too.”

      
Kailynn glanced out the door, frightened
and confused tears rising to her eyes.

      
“Why didn’t you protect her?” she asked
darkly.

      
Remus ground his teeth together.

      
“Do not accuse me,” he snarled. “You know
nothing about it.”

      
Kailynn pushed past him, hurrying to her
room. She closed the door and sat against it, hiding her tears of confusion in
her hands.

      
Remus returned to the command deck and
saw Isa near the front windows with the crew.

      
“You’re right,” she said.

      
Remus walked to her side and looked in
the same direction as everyone else.

      
There were several ships docked along the
Dani-Kahl Gate. It was not uncommon to see ships docked for repairs or fuel at
the Gates, but the ships were very old, and the hulls were marked with a red
circle, a twelve-point star in the middle.

      
“Gihron,” Remus murmured.

      
“Carrier ships,” Isa noted. “They’re
picking up fuel for the war ships.”

      
Isa and Remus both counted the number of
carrier ships.

      
“Considering the amount of fuel each
could transport, we’re looking at half their army already at our door,” Isa
stated. She glanced at the other ships that were traveling out of the gate
pathway toward Tiao. “Keep a steady speed. Do not activate any stealth or
weapons. Let’s just quietly pass by.” She glanced at Remus as the crew answered
with a chorus of “yes, Miss.”

      
“It’s begun,” he murmured. She nodded.

      
“I made the first declaration of war five
years ago,” she said. “It’s time we deal with it.”

Chapter
Thirty-Three

      
The first three months of the war were
the most stressful and terrifying.

      
Kailynn was extremely tense, worried
about every announcement of ships shot down and troops destroyed, terrified
that General Decius was going to exact his revenge for his brother’s death. Isa
was also tense and nervous, partially from the war, but also from the way
Kailynn looked at her. The two shared a bed, but never touched one another,
their anxieties keeping them apart.

      
The war took place mostly in the
territory above Tiao’s atmosphere. Support troops from other members of the Alliance
quickly came to Tiao’s aid and lessened the burden on the planet’s resources.

      
Gihron retreated into neutral territory
when they needed to repair and regroup their forces. Due to the rules of
engagement, Tiao could not attack when they were in that space, meaning that,
for two weeks, the apprehension of the battles starting again reached a fever
pitch.

      
Isa and Kailynn finally blew up into an
argument that ended in a hurried, frantic fuck on the floor of the
entertainment room. However, once they had both calmed down, things seemed to
lose their urgency. Both of them felt as though they had been holding their
breaths for months, and they were finally able to take a breath when there was
no longer suffocating tension between them. That meant, when Gihron came back
into the battle territory, they felt prepared to deal with it.

      
But the breath of fresh air did not last
long.

      
As the war moved into the fifth month,
Rayal pulled Kailynn into his office.

      
“We have to talk,” he said seriously,
locking the door and turning on the scrambler to keep anyone from
eavesdropping.

      
“Why? What’s wrong?” Kailynn asked
hurriedly. “Did we not get the support troops from Kreon?”

      
“No, no, they showed up late last night,”
he assured, sitting across from her and sighing heavily. “You have been on edge
for months, so I’m a little worried about talking to you.”

      
“We’re at war!” Kailynn hissed. “Am I
supposed to be at ease?”

      
“No,” Rayal said. “But something’s wrong.
Something else is bothering you.”

      
Kailynn sighed heavily and rubbed her
face, groaning.

      
“I’m scared, okay?”

      
“About what?”

      
“This asshole General Decius.”

      
“He hasn’t even entered Tiao territory.”

      
“Yeah, but…” Kailynn closed her eyes.
“Isa told me…the truth about how Colonel Amori died.”

      
Rayal’s eyes widened.

      
“She told you?”

      
“Yeah…” Kailynn groaned again, rubbing
her face, trying to focus her thoughts. “I just…how am I supposed to handle
that information? I don’t know what to do with it.”

      
“It took me a long time to come to terms
with it, as well,” Rayal said with a knowing nod.

      
“And she didn’t even shoot him,” Kailynn
whispered. “She
stabbed
him.”

      
“Twenty-four times,” Rayal hissed.
Kailynn choked hearing the number. “She snapped. Apparently there is a breaking
point for Elites, and Colonel Amori found it.”

      
“Fuck…” Kailynn breathed. “She said she
was worried that General Decius would do worse than kill her. What did she
mean?”

      
“Probably that he would try to do the
same thing Colonel Amori did.”

      
“Take over Tiao?”

      
Rayal nodded. “Take over Tiao, destroy
the Alliance and Venus, enslave half the system…” Rayal sighed heavily. “She’s
trying to figure out the best way to deal with the war without bringing him
close.” He closed his eyes. “Which is why…”

      
“What?”

      
“Why the last thing I want is for her to
be distracted,” Rayal said slowly.

      
“By what?”

      
“You.”

      
Kailynn blinked in surprise at the former
caretaker.

      
“What the hell are you saying?”

      
“I need you to remain calm,” Rayal
started.

      
“Are you about to tell me to leave again?
Because I’m not going anywhere!”

      
“Kailynn—”

      
“No, I’m not leaving!”

      
“Kailynn!” Rayal snapped. “Shut up and
listen to me!”

      
Kailynn went quiet.

      
“I screwed up,” he said slowly.

      
“How?”

      
“We’ve been working endlessly on this war
and monitoring all of our connections and learning what Gihron is doing that
I…I fell asleep here last night…as a result of me being unconscious and not
paying attention…some footage got into Venus’ mainframe.”

      
Kailynn stared at Rayal for a few
moments, trying to figure out what he was talking about. He looked at her
apologetically.

      
“I’m sorry, Kailynn. I really am.”

      
Kailynn’s stomach turned violently in her
abdomen and her heart fell. Fear consumed her entire being. She leaned forward,
her world spinning around her.

      
“Venus knows?” she choked. “About Isa and
me?”

      
“I’m afraid so.”

      
“Does Isa know?”

      
“I don’t know,” he said honestly.

      
Kailynn stood and ran out the door, even
as Rayal called to her. However, he did not chase her.

      
Kailynn did not bother to find a vehicle
to get to the Syndicate Building. She climbed to the surface of the city and
ran along the walkways toward the Syndicate Building. She barged into the front
door and was immediately stopped by the guards. With the repairs done to the
building, the security office of the Syndicate Building had grown and the
robots would not let her pass through the doors without providing a retinal
scan and a blood sample. Her heart was racing in her chest, making it hard to
breathe as she pricked her finger on the reader and looked into the retinal
scanner.

      
When she was cleared as having access to
the building, she ran through the doors, weaving around the robots and
operators, startling everyone she passed.

      
Ignoring the elevator, Kailynn ran for
the stairs, passing Chronus on the way.

      
“Kailynn?” he called. She ignored him,
slipping into the stairway and climbing the steps two at a time. She made it to
Isa’s office and angrily jabbed the button to open the door.

      
Isa turned, surprised to see a flushed
and flustered Kailynn dart into the room.

      
“She knows.”

      
“Who knows what?” Isa asked, watching
Kailynn pace by the desk, running her hands through her hair quickly, her nails
scraping her scalp.

      
“Venus knows about us,” Kailynn panted.

      
Isa blinked several times, startled by
the news.

      
“Are you sure?”

      
“Rayal said that some footage of us got
into her mainframe last night.”

      
“…oh.”

      
“
Oh
?!”
Kailynn snapped. “That’s all you can say?!”

      
“If it’s already in her mainframe, then
she knows,” Isa said simply. “But it’s clearly not an urgent matter to her,
because she did not contact me.”

      
Kailynn stared at Isa, her mind blank.

      
“How can you be so
fucking
calm?!” She began pacing again. “Shit, shit, shit. This is
really bad. This is
really
fucking
bad.”

      
“Kailynn,” Isa called, walking to the
younger woman.

      
“Fuck, this is bad,” Kailynn muttered,
stopping when Isa took her wrists, pulling her hands from her hair. “She’s
going to have me killed.”

      
Isa squeezed her hands and looked her in
the eye.

      
“No, she won’t,” she said strongly. “I’m
not going to let anything happen to you.”

      
Kailynn shook her head.

      
“She knows…” she whispered. “She
knows,
Isa.”

      
The Elite leaned forward and kissed
Kailynn slowly, holding the younger woman close, trying to keep her still to
slow her heartbeat.

      
When she pulled away, Kailynn’s terrified
tears started falling down her face.

      
“Gihron wants you dead, and Venus wants
me dead,” Kailynn breathed.

      
Isa kissed Kailynn once more, pushing her
back until her hips hit the desk. Isa’s lips parted from Kailynn’s, her breath
fanning over Kailynn’s heated mouth.

      
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Isa
repeated. “I promise.” She captured Kailynn’s lips once more. “Gihron wants me
dead, but I’m still alive. We’re going to win this war. If Venus wants you
dead, I’ll wage war on her, too.”

      
Kailynn closed her eyes and leaned her
head against Isa’s.

      
“I love you,” she whispered.

      
“I love you, too,” Isa responded, taking
Kailynn’s chin and lifting her head once more to kiss her. Kailynn wrapped her
arms around Isa’s neck as they kissed. Isa’s hands dropped to Kailynn’s hips
and she picked her up, pushing her back to sit on the desk, knocking files
aside. Isa pushed her hips between Kailynn’s legs, her fingers tight on
Kailynn’s hips as she held their bodies together,

      
Kailynn moaned, breaking the kiss as her
head fell back, her body shuddering, Isa’s lips immediately began working over
the flesh of Kailynn’s neck, one hand skimming up Kailynn’s body to palm her
breast.

      
“Isa…” Kailynn gasped. “We’re in your
office…”

      
The Elite chuckled against Kailynn’s neck.

      
“Venus already knows, doesn’t she?”

      
Kailynn smiled at Isa’s risky behavior,
her body lighting on fire at the danger. Adrenaline was pushing her senses to
new heights. Each touch on her body, the gentle tickling of Isa’s breath on her
skin, the heat of Isa’s body as is pressed against her—all of it made Kailynn’s
head swim with sensation.

      
Isa’s hand dropped down Kailynn’s body
and her fingers slipped past the waistband of Kailynn’s pants, pressing into
the warm flesh between her legs. Kailynn gasped and her body bowed, sending
more files scattering to the floor. She let out a choked moan as Isa’s fingers
expertly worked their magic.

      
Kailynn grabbed the back of Isa’s neck
and forced the Elite to her, crashing their lips together. Isa’s fingers slipped
deeper into Kailynn, her thumb pressing into the sensitive clit, slowly moving
it under the pad of her finger, varying the pressure.

      
Kailynn wailed wantonly into Isa’s mouth,
her hips bucking against the Elite’s hand.

      
All at once, her body snapped and the
overwhelming pleasure wracked her nerves. She let out a choked sound and fell
back on the desk, shaking and trembling as her muscles sang in bliss. Isa
smiled and leaned over Kailynn as she recovered, peppering kisses to her neck.

      
When she felt Kailynn moving, she backed
away.

      
Kailynn’s arm was extended completely,
her middle finger high in the air.

      
“What are you doing?” Isa chuckled,
confused, watching Kailynn move the insult around in the air.

      
“I don’t know where the cameras are in
here, but I’m letting Venus know exactly what I think of her,” Kailynn said,
continuing to wave the finger to different portions of the room.

      
Isa laughed richly, leaning forward and
pressing her forehead to Kailynn’s.