Ari grabbed my arm. “No strange roaming horses on the ship, right?”
I shook my head. “None.”
“Good. Just checking.”
Jackson tilted his head to the side. “Roaming horses? Is that a thing?”
“On Sandler One it is,” Ari supplied. Jackson dressed, and I did the same. “They are everywhere. They’re not rideable. They’ve been too adapted to the conditions there. Not like the ones we keep domesticated. They will battle to not be captured. Get too close, and they charge as a crowd. The problem is you can accidentally run into them without meaning to. Come into a clearing, and before you can say boo, the dang things are coming at you. If you don’t have a weapon, you’re basically screwed.”
I buttoned up my pants. “I’ve only ever seen them from a distance. They’re very bright. They stayed away from Sandler compounds and big cities. I never got to roam around the countryside. I only saw them distantly through windows.”
They were so many colors. I’d placed my hand against the windowpane like I could feel them from a distance. What would that girl who watched the rest of the world happen from so far think of me now? I felt like I’d lived two lives.
Jackson strode down the hall, Ari following him. I shoved on my shoes and caught up to them just as Ari paused to wait for me. “Sorry. We might be a little gung ho.”
I grabbed Ari’s arm. “The horses on Sandler One. What do you suppose will happen to them in all of this? My father is losing. He used to leave those horses alone. What if the new people in charge hurt them?”
I didn’t know why I’d fixated on this. I couldn’t explain it if I tried. But it was very important to me that there be roaming horses on Sandler One.
“I don’t know.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going to happen to anyone or anything. I want to believe there’s this future where we can all exist peacefully and wild horses can continue to terrify people in pastures all over Sandler One—or whatever they call it after this is over, since I doubt it’ll be Sandler One anymore. I want that. But I stopped believing in happily ever afters a long time ago. I’m just a believer in being with you, and with the three of them, and making this whole crazy thing with us work.”
I hugged him. “Okay.” I was still going to obsess about the horses.
“Hey,” Jackson called after us. “Hurry up.”
Ari and I ran together toward the sound of his voice. Coming into the comm room, I saw what they meant. There were a dozen fighters circling the planet. Sensors showed us that below The Farm had gone pitch black. It was a safety protocol when things were bad. Made it harder to see them. They had to use their tech, and we were good at making tech think it saw something when it didn’t.
I bit my lip, an idea forming in my head. They hadn’t fired yet. I wondered if they could be distracted.
“Can you get through to C.J. without being heard?”
Rohan nodded. “Easily.” He leaned over the back of Canyon’s chair. They didn’t even seem stressed. Jackson rubbed his chin and rocked back on his feet. Ari was quiet. Everyone was in battle mode.
“Okay, tell him I’m going to take over Makenna right now. Right this very second. Canyon, can you pull her up and make her look like she’s on Sandler One. Um, it’s nighttime there. In the main city, right in front of my father’s compound. And is it possible to block any signal Garrison or others might try to send back to the ship?”
“For how long?” Jackson pressed buttons. “Two hours enough?”
I nodded. “Perfect.”
Canyon wasn’t answering but started typing frantically. Images appeared and disappeared on the screen. Finally, Makenna and the background showed up.
“C.J. says if you can fix this, do it.” Ro didn’t look at me, his eyes on the screen. “Light adjustment, Canyon. Four to five… Yep, that’s it.”
I didn’t see any change in the light, but if they did, great.
Jackson handed me his tablet. “Talk into it. She’ll say what you say. No lag. Canyon will make her look right.”
Canyon would? How did that work? He couldn’t see people. I wasn’t going to question it right then. This had been working. I wasn’t going to throw any wrenches into the project.
“Hi,” I spoke as Makenna, and she moved on the screen. “I’m Makenna McMann. And I’m coming to you from Sandler One where we have just taken the capital.” A roar of applause sounded behind her. I looked at Canyon. That was a nice touch. “We didn’t even receive any resistance. Garrison Sandler is defeated. Say hello to a new day. A new existence.”
Ari spoke into his hand. “Fucking brilliant.”
The ships circling The Farm retreated from the planet. Yep, they weren’t going to engage in a battle if their war was over. My father would have to spend all his time proving he hadn’t been displaced. Or better yet…
“Garrison Sandler is dead.”
Another roar.
There had to be a future with roaming horses.
18
Hello, Again
We’d only been gone hours, but it felt longer than that. Canyon brought us back to The Farm. The alarms were still going off, and he had to get around the firing mechanisms to land us safely. It was a good thing Canyon had worked on designing them. We landed without incident.
“Shouldn’t they have turned off the alarms?” I hated to ask the obvious.
“Maybe they left them on for Jackson,” Ari laughed. “Since he’s so nefarious.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “Kiss my ass.”
“Stop.” I held up my hands. I’d asked a legitimate question. They couldn’t blow over it with ridiculousness.
“Yes.” Ro took my hand in his. “If they haven’t, then the danger isn’t over. I can’t get C.J. back on the line. That’s not a good sign.”
I swallowed. How could fear become such a palpable entity in the room so quickly? One second it wasn’t there, and the next, I could feel it like it was a living, breathing thing. I ignored it. I had four guys who were good at this.
“What do we do?”
Canyon scooted back his chair. “We listen to Rohan. This is his territory. Getting through bad situations like they’re nothing at all. I’ll take the back. You lead, I’ll follow.”
Rohan reached into his boot and pulled out a stick. In two seconds, he’d converted the stick into some kind of gun. I stared at it. Was he always armed?
“Wavey, you’re behind me. Right behind me. Ari and Jackson right behind her. Canyon bring up the rear. If I go down, you just get rid of whoever did it. Waverly comes first.”
No, I wasn’t okay with that. “Hold on…”
They didn’t seem to hear, and instead, I was scooted forward, placed just as they’d told me to be. Rohan put his hand behind him, and I took it. He squeezed my fingers and, without letting go of my hand, disembarked the shuttle. The alarm and the flashing lights that went with it hurt both my eyes and my ears as they were meant to. Invaders shouldn’t be comfortable. Otherwise, it was so damned still and empty.
Where was everything?
“Sterling, you may not be able to communicate, but you know we’re here. We’re coming, brother.” Ro spoke barely above a whisper. How good was the Super Soldier hearing? Could Sterling hear them over this?
I didn’t ask. This was serious. Sometimes it was important just to know when to shut up. This was that kind of time. He didn’t have to hold my hand, but I wasn’t going to distract him by telling him that. He turned suddenly and fired. A man fell out of the rafters and onto the ground.
He wore Sandler red. I swallowed. How had he known that was the enemy and not one of our guys hiding? Maybe he hadn’t known. No, I was going to pretend that somehow my Super Soldier boyfriend had miraculously been able to tell the difference.
“Heat signature, on your three,” Canyon whispered from behind just as Ro fired again. Another Sandler soldier fell from the ceiling. I bit down on my bottom lip to stop from screaming. I wasn’t a coward. I’d
been imprisoned, put on an auction block, locked in a house, nearly blown up while I babysat, made sick by a disease created by Evander, and managed to not freak out at being seen naked. I didn’t scare easily.
Ro pointed his gun without looking, and another man went down. They made it look easy. It couldn’t possibly be.
“I think you can drop her hand,” Jackson whispered.
Ro nodded. “I could.”
He didn’t.
Instead, we left the shuttle area and made our way down the main hallway. Rohan seemed to know where he was going, which was good since I was clueless. Why hadn’t I paid attention when they said where to go to hide? Well, I’d expected to follow the crowd.
Ro stopped in front of a control box. He opened it, pulled out a wire, and everything went black. The sudden change in light made me gasp. Ro dropped my hand, and I was pulled against Ari’s side between him and Jackson. I let out an audible breath.
What was going to happen now? We were in the dark. Rohan could see perfectly fine in the dark, but the rest of us couldn’t.
Ro spoke into his tablet. “I’ve turned off all the lights. They won’t be coming back on.” His voice resonated through the station. “I can see you. As though the lights were on and so can several others on this station.” Several was an exaggeration, but then again I’d pretended to be Makenna, so I wasn’t exactly going to ping him for his lack of clarity. “You have two minutes to run for your ships. Garrison Sandler is dead. Is this the place you want to die? For a cause already gone? I could be anywhere.”
And as if to illustrate his point, Rohan vanished in front of my eyes. Or at least it seemed that way. I turned, and although it was hard to see in the dark, I thought Canyon was gone too. Jackson took my other hand, pulling us on.
There was nothing but silence. I spent so much time in my own company I was used to the quiet, but this was oppressive, like the lack of sound could come down on my head at any time. I forced myself still.
Ro gave them two minutes to run. I heard no footsteps. What did that mean? Was Sandler Cartel here on The Farm staying to fight? Ari let go of my hand and grasped the back of my neck instead. He rubbed circles with his thumb.
Ari spent a huge portion of his life seeing monsters. If he could keep going, I would survive this. I…
The sounds of running feet caught my attention. People were headed for their shuttles. Then the noise stopped abruptly.
“What happened?”
Jackson answered me, a whisper against my ear. “Enemies are dead.”
“He gave them two minutes.” I wasn’t going to argue about it, I just found Ro to be really attached to his word. He’d said it.
Ari spoke this time. “Two minutes, three seconds.”
“Waverly, Jackson, Ari. Cover your ears,” Canyon’s voice sounded, and I barely managed to get my hands over my ears before a deafening sound knocked me to the ground. I breathed heavily. What in the universe was that?
The lights came back on, and Rohan stood over us. “Sorry about that. Canyon’s instruction only came through on this speaker. Everyone else, including our own people, are going to be incapacitated for a minute or two. Canyon is collecting those who don’t belong to us.”
How did he know who was who? The exact amount of Canyon’s limitations—if they could be called that—evaded my understanding. “The babies?”
“They’ll be fine. No permanent damage.” He offered me his hand, and I took it. Ari and Jackson stumbled to their feet. “Let’s go make sure everyone is fine. You can see them with your own eyes.”
I threw my arms around Rohan. “Thank you. For rescuing everyone and for being you.”
His arms were slow to go around me, but then they tightened so much for a second he stole my breath. Ro quickly loosened his embrace. “Sorry, too much. You just startle me with your kindness. I will keep you safe, always. Even if it means killing everyone else.”
Rohan did have a way of putting things that made him truly unique. “Don’t kill everyone for me. Maybe just a few people.”
Ari laughed from behind me. “I love our girl when she goes all Sandler on us.”
“I was always a Sandler. I just didn’t know it before.”
With them, I really got to be me.
Our people were physically unhurt. They’d all managed to get to their various hiding places when I’d temporarily distracted Sandler Cartel by pretending to be Makenna. Now, hours later, with all babies asleep, strapped to their mothers, we stood in the secret room, noise removing button pushed, to talk about just what the hell they’d though they were doing doubting Jackson.
“I’m afraid it was my idea,” C.J. spoke from where he sat.
I zeroed in on C.J. His idea? Melissa’s husband and Jackson had a lot of history together. My guy had the same reaction. He stroked the bottom of his chin. I’d never forget that Jacks was a survivor. He’d been through a ton and come out the other side. He killed and he lived for doing so. Right now, I only saw danger in his gaze.
“I told you I didn’t give out my code to anyone. It’s fingerprint based, eye based, and then a four-digit code to boot. I asked you to trust me, and I’ve never given you any reason not to. You think I would hurt one hair on this woman’s head? I live and breathe for her now. It was fast, all-encompassing, but she is mine—ours—and we would die for her.”
C.J. rose. “No, I don’t think you did it. I just managed to convince a few people to vote with me to piss you off.”
“What in the ever loving fuck?” Jackson threw his hands in the air.
Melissa groaned. “He came to us and asked us just to support him. To trust him. We did it because we always will. C.J., did you go all spymaster on us again? Was this a plot?”
“Why plot against me?” I wondered what Jackson saw right now. Did he see this room or the time he’d spent with Melissa all those years ago on the ice planet? When his mother had betrayed Melissa? Did he see Melissa’s men as those people who he’d seen as so old when he’d been so young?
I put my hand on his back. “I’d like an answer to that question.”
Paloma hissed out a breath. “Seriously, I would too.”
C.J. held up his hands. “Jackson was the scapegoat. I knew he didn’t do anything. He’s the best of men.” Jackson’s muscles didn’t relax when C.J. spoke those words, which said volumes of the level of tension in my guy right now. “So he had to be held back. Without Jackson to blame, the person doing this would have to use someone else. They’d make a mistake making the switch. We’d catch them.”
He made it sound so simple. “Why not tell him that’s what you were doing?”
C.J. looked down for a second. “I’m long out of practice with this. I misjudged. I didn’t see the five of you leaving. I hoped for a public scene. A display of Jackson’s temper. I didn’t discuss this with anybody lest Sterling, Canyon, or Rohan hear me.”
Sterling leaned against the wall in the corner of the room. “That is where you made a mistake. Jackson has no temper that you’ve ever seen. What little displays you took as temper weren’t him actually angry. Jackson is silent in his fury, and he has family now who won’t let him hurt. Did it work? Your plan?”
C.J. smiled slowly. I’d never thought of him as frightening, but boy had I been wrong. “Right before Sandler Cartel arrived for a last stand, it did work. Someone tried to get into the system to pretend to be Tommy.”
Canyon strode to the computer. “Did you catch him?”
“No. It stopped abruptly. The battle.”
Canyon tapped on the tech, his eyes moving quickly over whatever he saw. He’d be quiet until he worked out what he needed to see. It was Jackson I was worried about. All traitors aside, C.J. had used him—preyed on what he knew of Jacks’s background to get him to react.
I pointed at C.J. “You should be ashamed of yourself. We’re all in this together. They travel through time for the belief in this place. You don’t do this to people who are on your side.”
&
nbsp; Melissa opened her mouth, and C.J. held up his hand. “Old habits die hard?”
“Not good enough.”
Jackson laughed, a small sound. “It’s okay, lady. I got this. I don’t need you to scorch and burn.”
I nodded, pressing my head against his back for a second. “Okay.”
“I’m sorry, Jackson. It might have been a miscalculation. But I’ll do anything to protect us. All of us. I’d have gotten Nolan worked up if I’d thought it would help.”
Nolan snorted. “You couldn’t do that. I know you too well.”
Diana stepped into the middle of the room. “Uncle C.J., I think maybe you need to step back from voting for a while. Take a time out.” Her voice was low. “I trusted you. You came to me and asked for my support. Told me you knew things I didn’t. Now, I have to live with the role I played in hurting Jackson when it was all nothing but a game. I get that you have all of these abilities, but we aren’t pawns. I love you. I think you need to think about that for a while.”
The smallest smile traveled over C.J.’s face. “Well done, D. All right, I’ll take a pause. I am sorry, Jackson. I never saw you guys leaving. You would have known much faster if you hadn’t taken to the skies.”
“You’d be dead if we hadn’t taken to the skies.” Jackson let go some of the tension in his shoulders. “How did they get past the security shields?”
“I don’t know,” C.J. answered. “Oh wait. I’m taking a breather. Maybe someone else should…”
Jackson patted him on the arm. “Kind of impressive you knew how to fuck with me like that. Be aware, I will feel free to screw with you anytime I want to now. Let’s look at what happened?”
Rohan shook his head. “There are aspects to regular interactions that will never make sense to me.”
“None of that was regular,” Quinn answered him. “Trust me. I don’t get it most of the time either, and even I know that’s not normal. Let’s all look at the systems.”
Diana walked up to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I should have.”
Paloma was on my other side. “I voted no. I mean we all did. I know Keith took the brunt of it from you guys for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the Sandlers stuck with Jackson.”