Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vivian couldn’t control her rapid breathing. She wasn’t strong enough to do this. She’d always followed her mother’s advice and avoided danger, suppressing her ambitions in order to make her life as small and safe as possible.
But she couldn’t abandon Xavier.
The hallway stretched for an eternity. With every step she took, she could hear Xavier’s frayed voice, growing more and more inhuman.
Clipped steps sounded in the hall, and Delilah grabbed her arm and dragged her through a door and into another bedroom.
Delilah listened intently at the door frame.
Her sister seemed to have grown up all at once.
Gone was the silly girl and in her place was a serious woman honed by her circumstances.
All Delilah had wanted was to find love.
And instead, she’d gotten Mitzi and now Silas.
“Come on,” Delilah murmured, and opened the door.
The screams reverberating down the hall were ragged now. What was Silas doing to him? Were his soldiers content to stand by and watch?
They approached the end of the hallway. “You have to sell it,” Delilah murmured. “You need to make him believe you don’t care about me. Can you do it?”
Vivian took a deep breath. “I can do it.” She schooled her features into a harsh scowl, grabbed her sister by the elbow, and stepped into the light.
“Stop,” Vivian ordered. She held Delilah’s arm tightly with one hand, her other hand training the gun to Delilah’s stomach.
Silas turned. His face was spattered with blood, and he held a reddened knife.
Vivian made herself look. Xavier was breathing unevenly, his face a sheen of sweat.
His bare chest, so beautiful the day before, was a ragged patchwork of cuts and blood.
Vivian swallowed and tried to keep the horror off her face.
Silas’s eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t kill your own sister.”
“I’ve seen the medical care you have on Mars.” Her clear and confident voice came as a surprise. “I don’t think she’ll die from a single shot to the gut. But Constance Yarrow’s genetic secrets may not survive. How big is the fetus now, sweet sister? The size of a poppy seed?”
“Don’t hurt me!” Delilah shouted. “You can’t make me leave. I love him. Please, Vivian, let me go.”
“Fine,” Vivian said harshly. “My sister wants to stay here. You can have her. Release Xavier, and we’ll go.”
“But I was having so much fun,” Silas mused, twirling the knife. “Almost like old times.”
“Vivian …” Xavier gasped. “Get out of here. Please … while you still can.”
“Not without you.” She turned to Silas. “I want a medical bag. Bandages, disinfectant, painkillers.” She pressed the gun tighter to Delilah, who let out a theatrical groan. Don’t overdo it, baby sister, Vivian thought.
Silas gave a nod to one of the other soldiers, who departed at a run.
“You won’t get far, my dear. We will find you.”
“I want a head start,” Vivian said stubbornly. “I’ll trade you my sister unharmed in exchange for ten minutes without pursuit.”
“Fine,” Silas drawled. The soldier returned, panting, and dropped a bag on the floor at Vivian’s feet. Silas took the knife and turned to Xavier. With fear in his eyes, Xavier flinched away. Silas laughed and kissed Xavier’s brow before cutting the cords that bound Xavier to the chair.
“Pick up the bag,” Vivian growled to Delilah. She turned to Xavier. “Stand up.”
He looked at her, his eyes unfocused.
“Stand up!” she yelled.
Xavier put his hands upon his knees and pushed himself to his feet. He swayed momentarily and then found his balance.
“Go first,” Vivian ordered Xavier. “Start walking.” He took stumbling steps toward the exit. Vivian followed, dragging Delilah along. Silas stayed where he was, a small, sardonic smile on his face. “Ten minutes. Your word as a gentleman.”
Silas put a hand to his heart. “As you say, my lady. I pledge my word.”
As they backed up, Delilah pressed a key fob into Vivian’s palm. “He’s lying,” she murmured.
“I know,” Vivian breathed.
“I don’t like your odds with Xavier,” Delilah continued in an undertone. “He looks terrible.”
“I have to try.”
Xavier had reached the door. He stood with his fingers gripping the handle, heaving. “Vivian, this is impossible,” he panted, not looking at her. “He’ll kill us both.”
“Go out first and walk to the right, around the side of the building. Get on the moped.”
Xavier straightened. “You know how to hotwire a moped?”
“I have the key.”
“Ah …” Xavier glanced at Delilah for only a moment. He opened the door and stumbled out.
“I’ll stall him as long as I can,” Delilah murmured.
“I’ll come back for you,” Vivian vowed.
“Go.”
Vivian grabbed the medical bag from Delilah’s hand, pushed her sister to the floor, and took off running. Behind her, she could hear Delilah sobbing. “Oh Silas, my love, hold me. I thought my own sister was going to kill me.”
As she ran, Vivian shoved the gun into the medical bag. When she reached Xavier, she grabbed his arm, pulling him stumbling behind her.
The moped was parked right where Delilah had promised.
She jumped on, and Xavier clumsily wrapped his large body around her.
The moped came to life in the proximity of the fob.
It was designed for a Martian build, and Vivian wasted precious seconds raising the pedals to their maximum height.
She pressed the accelerator, and the moped sprang forward with a lurch.
She crashed into a stack of crates next to a wall, sending them flying in the moped’s wake.
“Steady,” Xavier murmured in her ear. “Keep your foot light on the pedal. It only needs a touch.”
Shaking, she tried to obey. They sped closer to the populated area and a few pedestrians jumped out of their way.
“Will he let us go, do you think?” Vivian gasped. “Since he still has Delilah?”
“No,” Xavier said grimly. “At least … he won’t let me get away. Turn here,” he said at the next intersection. “Don’t follow a pattern.”
Vivian turned the wheel, and it screeched. The back tire hit a ladder propped against a wall, and it banged to the ground blocking the street. In the distance, she spotted the arching steel bars elevating the hanging track of the caterpillar train. “Should we …?”
“Yes. Ditch the moped.”
At the station, a vendor looked at their bizarre appearance in startlement. “Shirts,” Vivian demanded. “Do you sell shirts?”
With wide eyes, the vendor pointed to a small display of T-shirts.
Vivian pulled the credit chit from Xavier’s front pocket and handed it to the vendor.
She slipped the shirt over Xavier’s body, and he hissed through his teeth.
With a steady hand on his arm, Vivian led him up the stairs.
The train was just pulling up, suspended from the elevated rail.
As they stepped inside, she could see uniformed men rushing up the steps.
Vivian pulled Xavier deeper into the train car, among the crowd.
The doors closed before the men reached the platform.
“They’ll be at the next stop,” Xavier wheezed. “Vivian, you have to leave me.”
“Absolutely not,” Vivian said fiercely. She opened the bag and rummaged to find a few painkillers. “Take these.”
He took the tablets from her hand and placed them in his mouth. “The end of the train should have a balcony. We’ll need to jump.”
“Jump …” Vivian took a deep breath. “Right, let’s go.
” They slowly made their way through the swaying cars, careful not to draw attention.
The bored passengers barely glanced their way.
At the final train car, Xavier wrenched open the door, and they stepped onto the balcony.
Air whipped around Vivian’s face as the train barreled forward, suspended from the rail.
Xavier’s eyes were feverishly bright as he took in the scene.
He grabbed the medical bag from her slack fingers and put it over his shoulder without wincing.
The soldiers’ painkillers must be powerful to have kicked in so fast. He pointed up.
“See those arched bars holding the rail in place? We’ll grab onto one of them and pull ourselves off the train car.
We’ll then inch ourselves down the side as best we can until we’re at a safe drop. ”
“I don’t think I can do this.”
Xavier took her face in his hands. “Vivian Bowen, you are the bravest, stubbornest woman I know. You can do this. I know it.” He kissed her, the briefest brush of lips.
She stared up into his intent brown eyes and nodded.
With Xavier’s arms helping her balance, she scrambled up onto the balcony railing and clutched the side pole for support as the balcony lurched from side to side. For once, she was taller than him.
She stared up at the arching bars that supported the track, stretching from the ground to above the top of the train and back down again. They weren’t much taller than the walls of her compound on Arcadia.
“On the count of three,” Xavier said as he pulled himself beside her.
Separatist soldiers would be waiting for them at the next station. She would jump, or they would kill her.
“One. Two. Three.”
Vivian pushed up and clutched the hard metal bar with both hands.
Behind her, the train rushed away. She perched above the street, her feet dangling in the air.
Xavier’s ragged breathing whistled in her ear, but she dared not turn her head.
She took her hands and shimmed them across the arch moving lower and lower.
She jumped.
The low Martian gravity served her well as she nearly floated to the ground. She had a moment to think of Xavier’s more fragile bones. She angled her body to catch him as he fell to try to soften the blow. He dropped on top of her with a pained grunt.
For a moment, the briefest of moments, they stared at each other, dazed. Then, Xavier clambered to his feet, picked up the medical bag, and looked around.
“There.” He pointed to an alleyway. The corridor was dark and narrow. Trash kicked up in their wake as they hurried along. He pointed at an older, rusty door. “Try that one,” he gasped.
Vivian tested the handle.
Locked.
Of course it was locked.
Nothing had gone right all day. She was alone with an injured man in a strange place. Her sister was in the hands of a sadist. Tears stung her eyes. She had failed.
“We’re at the outskirts of a Martian separatist dome,” Xavier panted. “That door was built to keep out Martians, not Earthers. You can break it down, Vivian.”
She pushed her shoulder against the door uncertainly. It rattled. She tried again. It shook and held. Remembering Shiloh’s lessons, Vivian shifted her weight to the ball of her left foot, pulled her right foot toward her shoulder, and extended her leg straight out to the door.
The lock broke, and the door crashed open.
Vivian turned triumphantly to Xavier only to find him swaying on his feet with a glassy-eyed expression. She wrapped her arms around his waist and helped him into the dark room.