“Why are we listening to you?” one of the men in the room shouted at me.
I had to answer fast because the second my husbands digested that I’d been yelled at, they were going to yell back.
“I’m the girl telling you how it’s going to be. That’s how this works here. Don’t like it, you can go.”
No one moved. That line would have worked better if I’d been in red, but it would do for now. “We can’t beat them in a frontal assault. We saw what happened, and as much as we’ve screened you and then screened you again, some of you might be traitors. Or maybe you’re not yet, maybe you’re on the fence. You’ll suddenly decide to report to Sandler or Evander.”
A lot of nos sounded. That was good. I hoped they really felt that way. “Some of you will betray us.” I was quiet. This was important. “And if you do that and we catch you, you’ll die.” I held up my hand so they wouldn’t interrupt me. “That’s a lot better option than what will happen to you if you betray the Evander Corporation or Garrison Sandler. Only his sons get second chances, and whatever you think you might be to him, you’ll never be that.”
I had to finish up. “If you want to stay here, you’ll take orders, you’ll listen, you’ll have a job. And eventually, when we figure out how to beat them, you’ll be a part of that, too. It’s not just going to be Tommy planning. Or a Sandler. There are so many people here with so many abilities, and we’re going to use all of them. Maybe we’ll sit back for a while. See if Sandler falls to Evander or vice versa. Who knows? I don’t trust any of you yet. Well, maybe one of you.” I nodded to Trenton. “So prove yourselves. If you want to stay. Otherwise, get out of here. We’re busy.”
I stepped off the chair to cheers. Were they actually applauding? I guessed I really was in charge.
Clay grabbed my hand and tugged me to him, pulling me from the room. “That was the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
Quinn was close behind me with Tommy and Keith on his heels. Nolan caught my attention in the hall. “Well done, Mrs. Sandler. Your father would have choked on his own shock. Doesn’t surprise us at all.”
Well, especially because his niece had been the one to tell me I was meant to do this. Clay pulled me along some more. It wasn’t until we were in our suite that my husbands circled around me. Immediately, it was clear they were not all on the same page about what happened.
Clay grinned from ear-to-ear. “You could have been an attorney. I mean it, you’d win. I think you could get people to do what you wanted anytime. Seriously.”
Quinn shook his head. “Prove themselves? They’re going to be banging on the door all hours of the night trying to do that. You’re a woman, a fucking beautiful one. Some of them haven’t seen more than a dozen in their lives. They’ll want to prove themselves.”
“They won’t bother her if we have her back,” Clay shot back at him. “They were always going to look at her. Now, they’ll listen, too. I like the idea.”
Keith pointed at me. “You’re in charge, so you’ll be the one to green light the time travel. Sorry, I’m a little preoccupied. That was great. Did you just come up with that while you stood on the chair?”
Tommy shook his head. “You did that for me. So I wouldn’t go back up. Paloma, you were not responsible for me. I cannot believe your love for me just drove you to take over running this place.”
I kissed his cheek. “There are many reasons why I did this. Yes, one of them was for you. But actually, I have an idea.” I turned my head toward the door. “I am going to run this place for now. Maybe I’ll have a baby soon.” I pointedly looked at Clay and Quinn. I hadn’t asked them yet what they thought about it.
Clay raised his eyebrows. “Can we do that right now?”
Quinn nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Not right this second, but maybe we could get started on it later tonight.” I loved the idea. But first, I had to tell them what I was thinking. “Look, I’m going to lead right now. Maybe not forever. Maybe someone else will be better at managing other things. The point is, until we trust these people, we need to lie to them.”
Quinn nodded. “Now she’s thinking like a Sandler.”
“I wish I could say he was wrong.” Tommy rubbed my back. “What do you have in mind?”
“We do need a leader. A woman. That will help them in listening to me or to Diana or Melissa or whoever is in charge. It’ll also be great for Sandler Cartel and Evander Corporation to have a target on something other than me.”
Keith furrowed his brow. “Who did you have in mind?”
“Your father posted fake footage of Quinn and Tommy dying. We believed it. The only reason we figured it out was because Canyon has devices in his eyes and Rohan thought to ask him to look. Why can’t we have a fake leader? Someone we make up, we invent, who’s not real. Can you imagine your father wasting time and intel to try to find that person? Can you imagine what we could do while he did that?”
Quinn’s eyes darted around in their sockets the way they did when he was really thinking about something. “Just a fake girl. You or whoever is giving orders isn’t really the one doing them; it’s coming from… Makenna McMann.”
“How did you just make up that name so fast?” Tommy shook his head. “Never mind. I forgot. This is you. Yes, okay. Makenna McMann. She’ll have to appear in footage, talk to the troops, so to speak. Who can make that happen?”
I imagined any number of people could, but the ones who came to mind, I said quickly. “Jackson. C.J. Keith, if he wanted to.” I’d never forget how he made Tommy’s shuttle not flyable by messing with the code when we all first met. “I’m just Paloma the mouthpiece of Makenna. And as we trust people, we let them into our inner circle, we tell them. Eventually, when we have an entire group that we know isn’t going to go blabbing to Sandler or Evander, we drop the act. They want to follow us anyway. They technically will be.”
Clay took my hand in his. “What do we have to do to get started?”
I had a few ideas.
Lewis stayed behind with Diana. Otherwise, everyone I thought needed to be with us was in the room. Melissa, C.J., Nolan, Wes, Dane, Geoff, Cooper, Cash, Sterling, Damian, Judge, Jackson, Canyon, Rohan, Ari, and my husbands were in various positions around the room, staring at the image we’d loaded on the screen.
Keith had spent the afternoon not thinking about time travel, or at least not entirely thinking about it, and he had made an image of a woman we could stick into footage whenever we wanted to. She was older than me by maybe ten years, with dark-brown hair and bright green eyes. I thought if she stood next to me—and I was already treating this like it was real—she’d be a little taller than me, too. She was less curvy.
I leaned against Keith’s side. “Is she someone you knew?”
He shook his head. “No, actually. Quinn helped. So did Clay. I think she might be a compilation of three different women we knew in our lives.”
I didn’t want to hate a fake image of a woman I’d suggested we create, so I wasn’t going to ask if they’d been women they admired or loved in some way. I was holding to the idea they’d only loved me. Everyone else before was prologue.
“Okay,” Nolan said to the room, “this is a good idea. I love it, actually. And the image works great. I have no problem with her. But, I’ve got to say the attitude is wrong. I once knew a girl who looked at a camera and announced to the world that she was going to blow shit up. I think that’s the kind of backbone we need right now.”
Melissa groaned. “From you? You were the one who wished we hadn’t made that tape.”
There was a story here. I’d get the details another time. “We haven’t uploaded any personality types yet. That’s why I called all of you in.”
Jackson spoke next. “We’ll need to give her a history. A Dark Planet as a home. Dead husbands. I can write up a history that no one will question.” He smirked. “But yeah, I wouldn’t mind some attitude on our fearless leader. We’re all following her now. Let’s see how she inspired
this kind of loyalty.”
Sterling stepped forward. “We’ll get this done. In the meantime, we’re all following Paloma’s lead right? That’s what Diana thinks should happen, and I agree.”
I’d kind of taken the role without even asking any of them about it. “Unless someone would rather do it.”
“Wrong answer.” Melissa put her arm around me. “I get it. I was there when you were being raised. There is always going to be a part of you that wants to say please and thank you. This is leadership. It might not have been your idea—maybe you didn’t consider it until Diana told you that you should lead—but now you take it. We all want to follow you. A real leader knows they are the only one for the job. That’s why I can’t do it. I’m not the only one for the job anymore. Not here, anyway. So what’s it going to be, Paloma? Are you our leader or aren’t you?”
Maybe I shouldn’t have needed their approval, but I did. I met each of their eyes—Tommy, Quinn, Clay, and Keith. I saw nothing but acceptance in their regard. They believed in me.
“I am. So let’s do this thing. There are plans to be made.”
Clay Sandler
I couldn’t have predicted this turn of events ever. If asked, I would have said I was going to end up alone, probably shot in the head by someone I pissed off. But instead, Paloma had come, and she’d made me believe. Now she was going to make all these people believe. That was what she did.
She took what was broken, and just by the sheer force of her will, gently imposed, she changed the course of things. No one had left. She’d told them to go—those new people who managed to get here after our disaster in Sandler space—if they didn’t want to follow her, and not one of them had left.
The trick would be to do that again, this time with Makenna McMann. Where had Quinn even come up with that? She was probably some teacher he’d had that he hated. The woman was going to be trolled around by people trying to kill the rebel leaders in no time flat. I hoped it wasn’t that. If I asked my brother, there was no guarantee he’d own doing that anyway.
On the screen, Canyon had the image of this woman put her hand on her hip and stare forward. Everyone must have liked what he’d done because they cheered. They wanted attitude from Makenna. Okay, I could see how that would work.
But that wasn’t what I liked about my woman. I loved Paloma just how she was. Okay, she’d owned leadership and that was great as long as she said it was. When she was done, I’d see to it she never had to do it another day. If that was when she woke up tomorrow, then so be it. I liked the idea of Makenna because she gave Paloma an out. At some point, she’d step back, if she wanted to, and Makenna would simply appoint a new spokesperson.
“Who’s going to speak for her?” We hadn’t decided, and I wanted to know. Who will do the talking?
Rohan glanced my way. “Once we decide on the voice, anyone can. There’ll be a Makenna mic. Use it, and she’ll say whatever you want her to. The image will speak her words. Pretty simple technology.”
I sometimes wondered where we would be as humanity if Earth hadn’t been destroyed for so long from a nuclear explosion. But those were questions for another time.
“I’m concerned about cadence,” Judge called out. “I mean, if I say something and then you say it, Rohan, the tone and inflection will change. Analyzed, it will be easily seen through. Should we assign one person to do the talking?”
I shook my head. “If we get that kind of analysis, we’re already sunk with this.”
The trick was going to be to make sure no one had the time to check her out. She would be here, there, and everywhere. They’d never find her.
And in the process… they’d leave my girl alone.
We’d just have to make sure no one tried to take her to get to Makenna. But no one was going to be anywhere near Paloma who could hurt her. Our days of letting her down were behind us. If I was nothing else, I was diligent. We all had our rules. Mine would be to watch her back. Always.
16
Turning Off The Chip
Paloma
Considering how many times I’d been intimate with my husbands, the level of anxiety I had that evening surprised me. Not much was changing, except this time, we were going to make love with my fertility chip off. I might not get pregnant. We weren’t even sure I could and wouldn’t know until we tried for a while.
Making a baby could take a very long time, even if nothing was wrong. I pressed the button to turn off the fertility blocker and waited to feel like it was the wrong decision. Nothing happened. I was still as certain I wanted this as I had been when I’d suggested it to the guys. I could blame how cute Helene was, except I’d been thinking about having a baby pretty consistently since we’d almost lost Tommy and Quinn.
There was never going to be a perfect time in this universe. We had to make our happiness when we could.
Truth was, I had no idea which one of them was going to come to bed first or if they’d be in the mood to have sex tonight. They might all be tired.
Tommy came through the door, leaning on his cane, but not as much as he’d done that morning. Maybe he was getting more proficient at it using it.
“They’re taking to Makenna perfectly. Melissa even made a speech about her old friend leading us. Makenna told them you’re working as spokesperson. It’s perfect. For now, anyway. We’ll see how this goes.”
He set down his cane and limped his way over to the bed where he sprawled out on his back. “I wouldn’t mind if you, say, wanted to discuss these things with me before you do them next time. Just so I can be prepared to kill someone with my cane if they do something bad. There has to be a use for the thing besides helping me get around. Oh, and Judge wants me to come see him. He thinks he can make something for my leg that might bypass the muscle, like electronically do what the muscles should do? Wants to talk to me about it.”
I walked toward him. “Judge is pretty amazing. I bet he can do it if he says he can.”
“Hey, now.” Tommy’s eyes were closed. “The only people who you think are amazing share your last name and for that matter have the first names, Thomas, Clay, Keith, and Quinn. They’re it.”
I climbed onto the bed, straddling his lap. He sucked in a long breath and opened his eyes. I smiled at him. “Hi, Tommy.”
His smile curved up more on one side. That was Tommy’s ‘I’m amused’ smile. It was different than the truly joyful one or the smirk he usually gave if he was not amused at all. “Hi, beautiful. Did I not say hello when I came in? I’m sorry.”
I held up my arm. “I just turned off my fertility chip.”
He leaned back on his elbows, his gaze going from my turned off chip monitor to my face. “Yeah? How long does it take before you are able to get pregnant?”
“When we have them installed, they tell us that we can be instantly pregnant the second we turn it off. I suppose I could check on that. Ask Ari if you’d like.”
He shook his head. “If something goes wrong, we ask Ari. Until then, I’d rather not discuss with my cousin that we desperately want to put a Sandler in your belly. Like since you brought it up, each one of us has been having a hard time not letting it invade our thoughts. So why don’t we see if we can get you pregnant?” He leaned over and pressed on his tablet.
“Right now? You need to communicate with someone right now?” There was something that pressing?
“I’m telling them not to come in until I come out. We’ll each get a turn. They’re cursing me out over the tablet. Basically, it’ll be last man standing to see who comes in when.”
That would be cute if I wasn’t slightly afraid they might actually hurt each other. “There’s no rush with this, Tommy. It could be months, years, until I get pregnant. If at all.” Fertility was a problem. The virus that wiped out the ability to make girl babies could be cruel. Sometimes, in addition to regular fertility issues, we simply weren’t able to have babies at all.
“Whether or not we make a baby right this second, doesn’t interest me as
much as practicing to make one, and I want them to leave me alone to do it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “So no sharing tonight?”
“Not tonight.” He kissed my chin, tugging on my neck to bring my mouth down to his. With Tommy’s leg the way it currently was, sex was certainly easier if I was on top. That didn’t mean I was going to lead things. This was Tommy, and he usually liked to lead the way in bed. I didn’t mind in the least.
“What can I do, Tommy?” I sat back. “Take off my shirt? Strip for you?”
His eyes widened. “I don’t think you’ve ever stripped for me, Paloma. I think I’d like to see that very much. Do that.”
I winked at him and moved off his body. I’d offered to do this, but I’d never technically done it before. Usually they were so excited, they practically ripped my clothes off my body. I could always tell him I’d changed my mind. The thought was appealing. Shyness had no place between us anymore, and yet…
The heat in his gaze led me. He wanted me and this would be something special between us, something neither one of us would ever forget we’d done. I swayed my hips. I’d only seen this in movies, and for that matter, only once on earth when I’d been scanning through my tablet’s selection and chosen the wrong one.
I’d watched fascinated for a minute as the very beautiful actress had taken off her clothes for two men watching her. She’d had music to dance to. I was only moving to the sound of my own heartbeat in my ears.
Okay, I would pretend. Tommy watched. I would make this about Tommy and me. What would be like if he was up here with me? I made my hands his hands. When I took my shirt off, I pretended they were his. I threw my head back. When Tommy touched me, when he really touched me, it was like the world ceased to spin and it was just the two of us. I could almost conjure the feeling if I let myself, enough that goosebumps broke out on my skin.