No wonder her siblings had decided not to reintegrate with Tuann society.It turned out the Tuann were mad.
“According to you.I’m not so sure,” Caius said in an oh so reasonable voice that made Gus vaguely homicidal.“Their security measures are extensive, yes, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve as well.”
What was he talking about?Hiskihad been expended during their escape.He had no tricks.None.He would die and take Gus with him.
Gus slapped his hand.“Let him go!Let him go!”
She debated whether she should dose him with another round of the sedative she used on him earlier.
But no.
That sedative would leave him unconscious and vulnerable for hours.That was more of a risk than she was willing to take, considering the group after them.
Kyle gurgled something.
Caius lifted him higher, tilting his head toward him to hear better.“What was that?I didn’t quite catch it.”
“I’ll.Do.It,” Kyle gurgled.
Caius released his grip on Kyle’s throat and patted his cheek softly.“I thought that might be your answer.”
Gus eyed Caius unhappily as he eased backward.“I was handling it.You didn’t need to do that.”
The violence had been completely unnecessary.If he’d just waited one second, she would have solved things.No assault needed.
“And now you don’t have to.You’re welcome.”
“It wasn’t a thank you.”
He’d ruined years of goodwill, a work relationship she’d invested countless hours into cultivating, and he expected gratitude?All because he couldn’t wait a few extra seconds for her to deal with the situation.
He was lucky she didn’t poison him.It would take a fortune to undo the damage he’d just done.Kyle, for all that he was a giant child in a man’s body, was the petty sort.Just look at the dirty glare he was giving them as he grabbed his headset.All the while muttering under his breath about psychos keeping company with lunatic bastards.
See.See what he had done.
“You didn’t have to.I simply felt the gratitude wafting off of you,” Caius drawled.
“You should get your instincts checked out.They’re woefully mistaken.One might even say delusional,” Gus informed him in her best ice princess tone.It was modeled after Selene’s.Another sister of hers and a woman who could freeze a person’s insides with a simple look.
Caius proved immune, his husky chuckle wrapping around Gus’s senses like a warm blanket.“I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Gus informed him.
Kyle was the last contact she’d ever introduce him to.From here on out, she would be moving alone.
“Don’t be so sure,jani.Fate is a tricky bitch.You never know what she’ll bring.”
Wise words from a man who insisted on acting like a brute.
She wondered which was the true Caius.The brilliant tactician?Or the meathead with more muscles than sense?She suspected it was the former and that this was all a show put on to mislead and deceive anyone who got too close.
Her siblings did this.They put on masks and acted in ways to keep outsiders always guessing as to their true selves.Pallas with his mania that hid the sensitive soul inside.Jin’s immaturity that distracted from his razor sharp intellect.Even Kira’s bravado concealed the fear of loss she carried with her everywhere.
“How long will this take?”Gus asked Kyle, ignoring the enigma that Caius was shaping up to be.
“I don’t know.Hours.Days.Months.Do you have any idea just how many cameras there are on Titan?”The question was a rhetorical one as Kyle answered it a second later.“Thousands.There are thousands of cameras on Titan.And did the gardener give me a timeline so as to limit the parameters of my search?No, he did not.I don’t even know what he means by ‘people who don’t belong.’How is he defining ‘don’t belong’?Technically, none of us belong here.Do you know how dangerous space travel is?And to live in space?Permanently?It’s a miracle any of us exist at all.”
Caius stared at Kyle with a combination of fascination and repulsion.“Does he go on diatribes like this often?”
