I roll my eyes. ‘You’re a Graves. Nico sees you getting up close and personal, he’s going to give us a minute. You want privacy, this is how we get it.’ Nico may not trust Hunter, but he’ll still want to be on his good side. Man’s smart.
There’s a long pause from behind me. ‘I’m sorry about this,’ Hunter says softly. And then he does as I told him to do, stepping into my space, curving an arm around my waist.
Shock runs through me as my body catches fire. I lean back into him as a shiver runs up my spine, tilting my head to one side to offer up my neck. When he drops his head to brush his lips against the bared skin, electrical currents zip through me to my fingertips. This reaction wasnotpart of the plan.
But this is what I could have had. How is the guy who makes me feel likethisalso a Graves? The universe still manages to be unfair in ways I never imagined, despite all the times it’s screwed me already.
Trying to mask the strength of my response, I turn in his arms, curl a hand around his shirt and tug on it. He walks me back until I bump up against a desk, arm still around my waist, hand resting in the curve of my spine. A curtain of vines partially conceals us now – but Nico can still see two pairs of legs, and the outline of our bodies, so he doesn’t object.
‘I was wrong,’ Hunter whispers, keeping in close. He sets my skin tingling again, but I force myself to pay attention.
‘Yes,’ I agree. ‘Please provide a comprehensive list of ways in which you were wrong.’
He doesn’t even give me a flicker of a smile. His lips press together, brows drawing down, and he closes his eyes a moment, exhaling softly before he speaks. When he does, though, he meets my eyes. ‘Cleo, thisiswho we are. We don’t fight fair. We break rules, and we kill people.’
His words take me utterly by surprise. It’s as though they break down a dam inside me, my pulse kicking up a level, as heat of a different sort rushes through me. I’ve been screaming into the void for so long that GravesUP is evil – the shock of hearing it from Hunter unleashes something.
Words surge up in me, but I stay close to him, his arms around me, as they pour out in a furious whisper. ‘Damn right it’s who you are. It always was. It was GravesUP that charged my father more than his yearly salary for his meds. It was Graves that sold the debt to the gangs that sent me running. I didn’t run all the way to Mars because I wanted to; I ran because it was my only choice.’
Hunter jerks back from me, and by instinct I keep hold of his arms to stop him from breaking away and alerting Nico. Hunter closes his eyes, and I see the sorrow written on his face, in the twist of his mouth, the way the lines of his jaw go hard. ‘And we got you anyway, however far you ran,’ he whispers.
I feel tears burning behind my eyes. ‘You did.’
Hunter swallows, forcing himself to meet my gaze. ‘My whole life, I didn’t see,’ he whispers. ‘All of it has been a lie. I thought the fact that we created things nobody else could, thatwe did things nobody else could, gave us the right – the duty, even – to keep going.’
I reach up to touch my fingertips to his cheek. ‘More than one thing can be true,’ I murmur. ‘What your grandfather did, getting to Mars? That was extraordinary. Doing it to build a lifeboat for himself, instead of a place that could save so many others? Not worth it.’
‘Never worth it,’ he whispers. ‘I understand why you didn’t tell me who you were. I’m so sorry you had to lie.’
I trail my fingers down his jawline, trying not to let him see the way something inside me is unclenching as he speaks.
‘Cleo.’ His words spill out in a whisper. ‘I want to – I want to hear everything. I want to understand and apologize until I run out of words, but Graves is far worse than what happened to you.’
‘You’re only just figuring that out now?’ I murmur.
‘I mean my sister just told me why they’re here. You remember the very first thing we did on the bridge?’
‘Take your clothes off?’ I offer, but my smile is weak. It still draws an answering twitch from him.
‘Believe me, I noticed that. We tried to send out a message, so we could get Orbital to override the systems and save us, because nobody else could. You said it yourself – Pax can override any system on Mars.’
My insides swoop like I’m falling. ‘Hunter, who’s your sister about to screw?’
He looks like he’s in pain. ‘They’re going to use the UN register to remotely access some of the smaller colonies andsettlements. They’re going to blow their seals and take them out, make it look like it was caused by a malfunction here at Pax, when this base blows up. Graves always leaves back doors in our software – Marguerite can hide her tracks.’
‘Even the smallest colonies – that would kill hundreds of people, maybe thousands. Why would they do that?’
‘To claim the territory, and all resources there, because technically once everyone’s dead, they’ll be abandoned.’
‘They can’t,’ I breathe, a low knot of horror in my gut assuring me that they absolutely can.
Hunter shakes his head slowly. ‘And if the deaths aren’t enough, this will turn Mars into a battlefield. Everyone will suspect Graves, and they’ll start their own land grabs. It’ll be chaos.’
It’s like cold water is trickling down my spine as I imagine the future he’s painting. Imagine the raids, the attacks on the innocent. ‘I wish I could say I was surprised,’ I say softly. ‘I’m horrified, but I’m not surprised.’
‘I am,’ Hunter confesses. ‘And that’s on me. I think I understand, now, why my father pulled away from it all, buried himself in his art. I bought into what it meant to be a Graves, but I think he saw the truth of it. He shouldn’t have run, though. He should have stayed to fight. Tried to make us something better.’
‘That’s not always easy,’ I murmur.
