Chapter 60
CHAPTER SIXTY
Aiden woke to his head pounding. He opened his eyes to find himself splayed on a cot in an austerely appointed cell. He moved his head, and the lumpy pillow he’d been resting on shifted. A folded-up jacket.
Across the small room, there was a set of bunk beds.
Veselko was dangling from the top one, pulling himself up into dangerous crunches.
Elenor lay on the bottom bunk, arms crossed under her head, legs crossed at the ankles.
Nannette prowled the space, jacket and cravat abandoned, pacing the same six steps back and forth.
Every third or fourth trip across the room, she kicked the door.
The thick wooden slab had an old-fashioned set of bars worked into the middle of the top third, and they rattled with every blow.
Everyone but Evelyn was accounted for. Aiden flicked his gaze around the cell, hoping he was wrong, that she was curled up in a corner in an attempt to decompress alone while in a confined space, but he knew he was fooling himself.
The last thing Aiden remembered was looking through the clear forcefield into Evelyn’s eyes. She had been horrified and guilty that Vinnie had played them all, once again. And now she was alone, the one thing he’d promised her she’d never have to be again.
Task one: Get out of this stupid cell. Task two: Locate Evelyn. Task three: Determine the least invasive way to surgically affix myself to her side.
Aiden sat up slowly on the cot and scrubbed his hands over his face, not realizing he was still wearing the glasses. He slid them off and shoved them into the pocket of his jacket.
“I have had it with these lying ass clients,” he said, staring at the door.
He saw no latch on this side to try to pick with his telekinesis.
He could try to rip the door off the wall, but expelling that much energy while his head was throbbing seemed like a bad idea without knowing what was on the other side.
A wave of despair threatened to overtake him as scenarios played through his mind. Rotting to death in this cell, abandoned to their fate. The rest of the crew attempting to launch a rescue and being pulverized by Bauder’s military forces in the attempt. Evelyn, alone, taking on Emil Bellica.
She could take him. If she just gets out of her own way, she could burn his empire to the ground.
“Usually, as long as their payments clear, I don’t give much consideration to their integrity,” Elenor said. “But Vinnie’s gone too far this time.”
“What was in that gas?” Aiden asked the room at large.
“Nothing toxic, kiddo. We’re fine. Well. Annoyed, but fine.” Elenor rolled onto her side and gave him a visual assessment. “You hit your head pretty bad on the way down.”
“Always trust the gut. And carry antacids. Cover all the bases,” Veselko said between crunches.
Nannette paused in her pacing. Aiden strained his ears as she flapped her hand at them to shut up.
Elenor tapped the bottom of the bunk, and Veselko’s workout stopped rustling the fabric.
He flipped himself around so that he was entirely supported by the bed and stilled.
There were footsteps echoing in the corridor.
“Sir! The prisoners have been contained as instructed,” said the guard. Young, if Aiden was gauging the voice correctly. Child soldiers felt a bridge too far for Bellica, but the guard on the other side of the door couldn’t have been an adult for long.
Sounds like his voice still cracks when he’s stressed.
“Excellent, Anders. Top work. Hmm. Anders, you seem to have a spot of something on your uniform.” Aiden frowned. The man speaking sounded familiar. “Can’t have that, can we? I have just the thing right here.”
The worry Aiden had for Evelyn turned to anger as he realized who was on the other side of the door.
“Son of a bitch,” Nannette whispered.
My sentiments exactly.
A flash of light broke through the cracks in the door. Aiden heard a jittering noise, then flailing limbs and clattering weaponry. Keys jangled as they hit the ground, and again when they were picked up and inserted into the door of the cell.
The door swung open, and Mathias stood before them in a Bauder officer’s uniform. He kicked the guard’s weapon away from his twitching body and reached down to tie his wrists together behind his back.
Nannette had resumed her pacing. On her approach back to the door, she reared back and punched Mathias in the nose right as he entered the cell.
It made an unsettling crunch as the cartilage succumbed to the impact of her fist. Blood poured out of his sinuses.
He swore and patted his pockets in search of a handkerchief.
Aiden was sorry he only had one nose to break.
“Nice way to greet your liberator,” Mathias muttered. He lifted the cloth to his nose and prodded it gently before letting out a hiss. “You broke my fucking nose. That’s way hotter than it should be. Fuck. Ow.”
“Didn’t see that one coming?” Veselko said, swinging himself off the top bunk. “Having an off day?”
“Everyone’s a comedian,” Mathias said, examining the handkerchief.
“Does it count as liberation when you’ve set us up to be in the damn cells in the first place?” Aiden asked.
“Or a philosopher.”
Elenor swung herself off the bottom bunk and settled herself back into her jacket.
She offered Aiden a hand up off his cot.
He took it, and she gave it a reassuring squeeze.
He was impressed by how much she could convey in a simple touch.
“It’s all going to be okay,” for example, and also “What a fucking idiot.” He squeezed her hand back, hoping he conveyed “Absolutely, everything will be fine” and “I know, right? What a putz.”
Veselko hopped off the top bunk and scooped up Nannette’s jacket, holding it out for her to shrug into and mouthing “nice aim.” She bowed before working her arms into the sleeves and pulling the cravat from the pocket.
“Hey, asshole, you seem to have left vital fucking information out of our briefing,” Veselko said. “Also, you may want to set that before it heals crooked. It sucks when they have to break it again to fix it.”
“He’s right, you know. On both counts. Come here,” Elenor said. She reached up for Mathias’ face. He leaned down toward her. She examined his nose gingerly, and he hissed again at her touch. “You need ice soon. And a splint.”
He nodded. “I don’t suppose you’d accept that I was just following orders?”
“That excuse hasn’t flown on our planet for over a hundred years,” Aiden said. “Also, what sort of psychopath instructs their ringers to go in blind?”
“Vinnie,” Nannette and Veselko said at the same time Mathias said “Corvinia.”
“Cold bitch,” Elenor said. “That’s her niece she abandoned. Well, as good as. What the hell was she thinking?”
Mathias looked at Aiden. Blood was still trickling down his face into his mouth. He mopped it up and shoved the handkerchief into his pocket. Nannette shoved her cravat at him. A remarkable show of grace considering she was the reason he was bleeding in the first place.
“Think about how you’re feeling right now. Is there anything you wouldn’t do to get to her? Any line you wouldn’t cross?”
What an absurd question to ask. He could only assume the man had never been in love. Aiden would gladly have torn apart space and time to get to Evelyn if he could.
“No. None.”
“Then give her the same credit.”
The slap of hard soles on stairs echoed out of the corridor. Mathias cursed and started to drag the prone guard into the cell by his ankles. Veselko hopped over the body and grabbed the blaster Mathias had kicked away. He brought it back into the cell and handed it to Nannette.
“Friend of yours?” Aiden whispered. Elenor helped him maneuver the unconscious guard onto the cot he had previously occupied.
Mathias shook his head. “Some of the last of the loyalists are scattered throughout the building. The men who secured you are ours, which is why you’re all in one cell, but there are still a few we need to take care of.
” He straightened his jacket. “Emil is going to send for you. Plan’s for me to replace the guards he sends and deliver you in their place after we incapacitate them. ”
Nannette gestured to his bleeding nose. “This is why you don’t spring shit like this on people.”
Mathias gave her as rakish a grin as he could manage. “I’ll make it work, cupcake.”
Aiden was pretty sure he saw steam come out of Nannette’s ears as she gaped at Mathias’ turned back.
“Anders? Why aren’t you at your post?” The footsteps were getting louder as the soldier approached the cell.
Aiden watched as Mathias transformed before them. His posture changed as he assumed the rigid bearing of a military man. He flung open the door of the cell and strode out with the calm certainty of a man who was right where he was supposed to be.
“Where’s Anders?”
“Relieved him. I wanted a go at the redhead,” Mathias said. He oozed entitlement with every word, manufactured a a cocky laugh. “She’s feisty.”
“She’s armed,” Veselko whispered. Nannette rolled her eyes before checking the blaster’s charge. Satisfied, she raised the weapon and aimed it at the door.
The new soldier laughed. “Hope it was worth it.”
“You want a taste?” Mathias asked. “Still got plenty of fight in her.”
“Spoils of war, am I right?” the man replied.
Aiden’s stomach turned as he saw the shadows of the men’s feet approach the door to the cell. He pulled Elenor behind the bunks as the door swung open to reveal the expectant soldier. His hulking frame filled the doorway. Nannette barely had to aim the blaster before she blew him away.