"What would you have done if Rafe was here?" She glanced at Tuck, tossed a gun to him, and slid behind the wheel.
"Sat in the back. Why isn't he coming with?"
She shrugged. No sense explaining when she couldn't understand it herself. "Doesn't matter. Let's ride."
The gates opened enough for them to drive through and Kaia put the rover into high gear. She didn't trust Silas not to offer Aimee something she couldn't turn down.
Kaia roared through the streets of Duskcairn toward The Asylum, the facility where those who'd broken a rule were taken to serve out their time. Before civilization was destroyed, it was where Xarians who'd suffered from a multitude of mental iniquities were sent. Parts of the behemoth lay in ruins, and more than a few 'residents' had died there trying to get out of doing their time.
The moment the rover stopped, she knew things were bad. Instead of waiting in the lot where Kaia was to pick her up, Aimee was beyond the barricade. What filled Kaia with concern, however, was the man standing in front of Aimee. Silas.
“Shit. Fuck. Goddess damn it. I told her tostay awayfrom Silas, but did she listen to me? No, of course not! Let’s go.” She climbed out of the rover and stepped past the barrier. She only got a few feet when a hand reached out and grabbed her arm.
“Unless you want to lose that hand, I suggest you let me go right the fuck now,” she growled.
“You don’t want to go interfering. It’s none of your business.”
At that voice her world tilted. Sheknewthat voice. Intimately. Pain ripped through her and she found it hard to breathe. Two years. It had been two years since she’d last heard that deep voice. Baz. He’d been her lover once. Then he’d disappeared and her and Rafe’s worlds were shattered. Now here he was working for the likes of Silas. Her gaze traveled up from that hand to the arm, shoulder, neck, jaw, nose, and settled on those golden eyes she knew so well. She had two choices in that moment; let the pain tear through her, or let her fury rule. She chose fury. “Let. Me. Go. Right. Fucking. Now. Or. I. Will. Cut. Your. Fucking. Hand. Off.” she snarled.
Baz let her go as if she’d burned him and she stalked toward where Silas and Aimee stood.
“Well, if you don’t have the coin, there are other ways to pay your debt,” she overheard Silas say.
“Goddess damn it, Aimee! I told you not to gamble!”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry. It’s just…”
“You couldn’t help yourself anymore than you could stop yourself from getting into that stupid fight. I know.” She sighed then turned to Silas. The man was a viper. “How much does she owe you?” From the smug look on Silas’ face, she knew she wasn’t going to like the number.
“Five thousand Recha.”
“Olene, give me strength.” Olene was the Xarian Goddess of Mercy.
“She can work it off,” Silas said, leering at Aimee. “A body like hers, it shouldn’t take more than a year for her to make back that much.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not!” Kaia snarled at him. “No fucking way are you whoring her out,” she added, moving to stand in front of the younger woman. She’d found Aimee when she was five. The girl’s parents had been killed by reavers and she would have died as well if Kaia and her men hadn’t reached her in time. She’d become like a daughter to her and Kaia would do anything to keep her safe. She was going to have to do a lot of high-risk favors to get up that kind of coin, fast, but to keep Aimee safe it would be worth it. “How much time are you willing to give me to get up the Recha?” She watched as he thought about it, and then he seemed to come to a decision.
“Maybe we can come to an agreement.”
She felt more than heard Baz come up behind her but she trusted him slightly more than she did Silas so she didn’t turn around.
“No, SIlas, we’ll find another way.”
“No, no, this could work,” SIlas said. “Tell you what, meet me tonight at The Denizen at ten to discuss a proposition. You do thisone thingfor me and we’ll call it even.”
“What is it you want me to do?”
“Nuh uh, not until tonight. Be at Denizen at ten, or I come for the girl, got it?”
“I’ll fucking be there,” she said and turned to go. She stepped around Baz and motioned for Aimee to go ahead of her.
“Kaia, wait,” Baz said.
“I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“Please. Just give me two minutes of your time. That’s all I ask.”
Kaia sighed. “Tuck, take Aimee to the rover and keep her with you. I’ll be right there.”
