Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jax
T he command room was a few feet from the elevator and pretty much the only thing on this level. Sherrod hacked the electronic lock quickly and we were in. Everything was proceeding normally, smoothly. That was usually when all hell broke loose, so I wasn’t relaxed in the least. Instead, my heart was rattling around in my chest and my palm was sweaty as I held my blaster. I kept an eye on the door, and then Sherrod. I had no idea what he was doing really, but he didn’t know that.
He plugged a cable from a port in the side of his head to a port at a control panel and his cybernetic eye went green.
“I’m in,” he said, eyes moving quickly side to side. “The program is…fighting me a little.”
“Can you control it?”
“Yeah.”
I let him work, wishing I knew more about computer systems than the basics.
Thanh’s voice came in over coms, letting us know about the grid. When Sherrod took it down, I breathed a sigh of relief. Then she was facing the first group of droids and my body started to feel hot all over.
“Are you going to do this the whole time?” Sherrod asked me.
“What?” I snarled.
“Pace and talk to yourself? It’s distracting.”
I didn’t bother to answer but I did try to stop mumbling to myself, even though it was in an effort to calm myself down. How many missions had I, or Thanh, gone on that were even more dangerous than this? Hell, the Battle for Sanctuary had practically gotten me killed, and half the squadron Thanh had been leading didn’t make it back. Those odds were a hell of a lot worse than these. So why did this feel ten times more frightening?
Because I know what it’s like to be in her arms, to have her smile at me. I know what it could be like between us if she’d just give us a shot. Everything is different now, and she is…home.
It was a startling revelation actually. Even with my parents, the closest thing I’d ever had to a true home, there had always been an ache deep inside, a sense that something was missing. I’d thought it was my Zorestran ancestry, or a larger purpose. But seeking those things out had produced nothing but dead ends and harsh disappointment. Now, this small, intoxicating, infuriating female comes along, and that blank space in my life is suddenly filled and I’m whole.
It didn’t matter where we went, what we did, who we were, as long as I was with her, I’d be happy. I knew that, and it filled me with as much terror as it did joy. I’d been on this side of the galaxy long enough to know how easy it was to lose what’s precious to me, and if I ever lost her…
I closed my eyes and swallowed down the sharp edges of that line of thinking. Instead, I opened my eyes and focused on Sherrod disabling the droids at each corridor, latching on to each time I heard Thanh’s voice over the coms. Finally, they were making their way down the longest corridor and then it was the last one to the vault. We were almost done.
“You really love her,” Sherrod said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I glared at him.
“Just focus on getting them through the droids.”
His smirk was annoying and if he hadn’t been instrumental to this plan I would’ve punched it off him.
“You never looked at me the way you do her,” he said.
That shocked the hell out of me. He’d acted like we were never engaged and that was perfectly fine with me. But here he was, bringing it up at the worst time.
“And I’m not jealous,” he continued. “It’s just an observation. I’m happy for you, I really am. Finding someone who understands you, sees you and loves you anyway? That’s the rarest thing in the universe.”
“What the fuck would you know about love? You’re the most selfish asshole I’ve ever met.”
I didn’t expect the sad smile, or the way his hands tensed. Was that really regret I saw on his face?
“Yeah, I am. But with you, I came close to knowing that kind of love. I doubt I ever will again.”
The sadness seemed real, and this vulnerability from him was rare. Which is how I knew something wasn’t right.
“Sherrod, what’re you up to?”
“Oh, Jax, I really am sorry about this.”
My eyes shot open and I raised my weapon but it was too late. A stun bolt hit me, paralyzing my body but keeping me conscious. I fell, limp and useless to the floor, my mind reeling with panic as Thanh called for me over the coms. There was shouting, blaster fire. She was under attack and I couldn’t fucking move!
Sherrod disconnected himself from the console and crouched next to me. Murderous rage burned through me and I swear I could feel his throat in my hands as I choked the fucking life from him.
“That something that I needed from here? Well, it’s in a different section and it’s not something I’m willing to trust you with. I know, I know, I have ‘issues’, I don’t deny it.”
He checked the com bracelet and tapped it, changing the display.
“The stun will wear off in a minute, more than long enough for the rest of the team to get pinned down. The droids have already started attacking however, and because I needed my path cleared, I’m afraid I had to trigger a lot of them so I wouldn’t encounter any of them where I need to go. So once you’ve got your body back, you have a choice. Come after me or go help Thanh. I’ll be on the fifth level, a left, two rights and a left, just so you know. Take care, Jax.”
And then the son of a bitch ran out, just as I heard Thanh call for me. I was going to kill him, slow and bloody.
But first, I had to get the fuck up. I didn’t doubt that Sherrod had likely accounted for my size when shooting me with the stun bolt, but there was no way he could anticipate the adrenaline shooting through my system like rocket fuel. I let myself get good and panicked, as well as furious, and soon I could wiggle my foot.
Come on, come on!
I strained and struggled, willing motion back into my body, but the most I got was some anemic tremors until I could feel the stun releasing its cramping grip on my muscles. Finally, I was able to turn over onto all fours and crawl to the door, snagging my blaster along the way. I didn’t care that I could barely walk straight, Thanh needed me.
I stumbled to the elevator and went down to the sixth level. I would find Sherrod after this, and he would pay.