Chapter 9
KIERAN
“ I t would be suicide!” Conor turns around, hands thrown up like the fucking dramatic prick he is.
Even though he tries to hide it, Lochlan flinches at the word, and it makes my blood boil. When he shoots me a pleading look while Conor isn’t looking, I nearly give in. He’s desperate to kill the fucker. Not as much as Miles, but given Conor is Miles’ little lackey, Lochlan would take it.
It has been my responsibility to work with Miles to keep the city running smoothly since my mother passed and he stepped into his position shortly after.
While I was very young for my role at the time, he isn’t much younger than my parents would be.
Not that age means he has wisdom or my respect. Those are both lacking.
Pairing that with my personality and lack of giving a shite, Lochlan has been forced to be the mediator between our two groups. He can at least pretend to be charming, where Rohan and I are more liable to put a bullet through someone’s skull.
That’s why Rohan works closely with Jude to oversee our guards and Lochlan is more politically involved—even if he hates it.
I usually ply him with trips to the city for partying, betting, or drinking as a reward for taking on the challenge.
Something I might have to ask Jude to do later because I shake my head no to his silent request. Lochlan’s head lolls back as his jaw clenches, and I know he’s fighting a groan of disappointment.
He’s not the only one trying to hold it together.
I managed to force myself to look presentable today—even if I had to send Jude to get my clothes because I couldn’t step inside my own room—but my mind has been on Eden every second.
On how this distance is killing me. On how I might just hand her a blade and let her kill me than endure this any longer.
But I won’t go into the afterlife without her, either, so I need to find a way through this.
I refocus on Conor, who has his hands on his hips as he stares out of the window.
We are across the mountain from my half of the compound, connected by a thick, metal suspension bridge.
It keeps distance between us while maintaining optics, which is important when it comes to keeping my pawns in place.
Despite the obvious drawbacks—a bridge is far too easy to bring down—we’ve been forced to utilize them both in the compound and the city itself. It keeps us off the ground, and, as we learned with our fathers, it is even easier to manipulate vehicles.
“The benefits outweigh the drawbacks,” I argue, trying to bury my annoyance. When I learned that Miles was down in the city, I should have left.
For some reason, I thought I could give Conor a quick order. How wrong that was.
He turns around. “You understand how volatile the air is down there, don’t you?”
I narrow my eyes at him. Is he calling me stupid? “I think everyone does.”
“Then you understand that starting fires would not only put a majority of our population in the direct path of ash and smoke, but it would also clog the limited oxygen that those near the valley have? The lower class in the foothills? The middle class still at the bottom of the slope?”
I press a hand to the table, slowly standing. I don’t like the way he’s speaking to me, and I let that anger filter across my face as I rise. It’s enough to make Conor’s demeanor shift, and I watch fear trickle through him.
“I understand that it would trap the rebels, force them out into the open, and kill some in the process. That is my priority right now.”
He swallows hard, clearly nervous now that he realizes how much he’s pissed me off. “Kieran, we empathize with your anger, but we have to think of the good of the city?—“
“I am,” I snarl. “Those near the valley are being attacked. The supply chains have been disrupted. By doing nothing, we are letting a disease fester in our city.”
“Then we do sweeps through the forest. Increase our patrols around the valley to keep the rebels contained there. We give the people protection ? — ”
“That doesn’t work!” I slam a hand against the table, barely holding myself together. “We were doing that, and they still—” The words freeze in my throat.
Conor nods, his voice lowering. “This is an issue that is close to you. I can respect that. But we also have to think of the good of everyone else, and killing the people who are unfortunate enough to live at the base of the mountain isn’t the solution.”
I grind my teeth, noticing that Lochlan is looking at me. I don’t meet his gaze, though I can read his confusion that he tries to mask.
Conor is under the impression that I want to burn down the forest to find Eden, an idea he isn’t fond of.
He thinks that finding the rebels isn’t worth the risk it would pose to the lower class and classless in the foothills, even if it was to save my wife.
He just doesn’t know she doesn’t need saving.
I thought using Eden as an incentive might actually get the arseholes to listen to me.
Clearly, I was wrong. But given how annoying these pricks are, I tend not to keep them up to date on information they don’t need.
The only thing they need to be aware of right now is that the rebels are still running free after daring to touch my wife.
Hence the reason I want to set everything on fire.
“There isn’t another option.” Not one I want to hear. “I have tried everything you’ve suggested, and all it has led to is our guards overworked and attacked. I refuse to do more sweeps through the forest when they always result in casualties on our part.”
“We could change the approach.” My head jerks toward Lochlan, who is already looking at me.
“Sending the guards into the forest, where the rebels know the land better, has only put them in danger. But if they are getting into the city, they have to have hiding spots. Instead of sweeping their domain, we could conduct routine searches of homes and businesses. It keeps the control in our hands.”
Leave it to Lochlan to find a good middle ground. I see his point, too. He and I know that we sent the rebels scattering, so they must have hiding spots up the mountain or even in the city. But his explanation works for what Conor knows as well.
Too bad the prick is already shaking his head. “There is already too much unrest. If we steal people’s privacy, invade their spaces, it’ll make them even more distrustful of us.”
Lochlan stands, coming around the table as he meets Conor’s gaze head-on.
“Not if we stage it like a campaign. Miles can give a statement that we want to provide them with the safety they deserve and that the rebels might be infiltrating areas they aren’t aware of.
We don’t accuse them or make them feel like we have no trust in our own people. ”
I don’t, to be clear. I don’t trust anyone outside my inner circle.
“It would improve morale for them to see us pouring resources into protecting them.” His dark blue eyes glance my way. “We can even incentivize it.”
I arch a brow. “How?”
“Offer something in exchange for information. Money. Food. Medicine.” He shrugs one shoulder, head turning to Conor. “I’m sure you and Miles can figure that part out.”
I turn my gaze on the bastard as well, waiting for his protests. For someone who is so adamant about the care of the city’s citizens, he’s been uncooperative when it comes to finding the rebels.
Maybe he just actually has morals, and, as someone who lacks those, I can’t understand why he’s blocking obvious solutions. I’d rather have to sacrifice a few innocent people than let a single rebel live, but apparently, that’s no way to treat our city according to Miles and Conor.
“I can talk to Miles,” he finally agrees, and I take that as the end of this conversation.
It’s not exactly setting the bastards on fire as I’d hoped—and the only reason Conor even was told about it was because I wanted a mandate to stay indoors issued—but it’s a step in the right direction of me killing everyone who had a hand in Eden’s kidnapping.
And when I get my hand on that fucking rebel leader—Parker—he will die a very, very slow death.
He’s been a pain in my arse since he took charge of that makeshift group a couple of years ago, right before I met Eden.
Despite having limited foresight unlike his predecessor, he still has managed to be a fucking problem.
“Send Lochlan the draft statement. I want it released in the next forty-eight hours, and we’ll get the guard assignments sorted.”
Conor nods, and I turn away, ready to get back to my side of the mountain. Lochlan’s heavy boots are loud against the wooden floor as he follows after me.
“He was never going to let you burn down the area that provides protection for the classless,” he says as he stops beside me.
I pull my gloves from my back pocket, tugging them over my hands. Lochlan does the same. “We could stand to cull them from society.”
He shakes his head as we make our way toward the bridge. “Then you should act without telling Conor or Miles. You know how insufferable they are.”
“It would only have caused more problems for me.”
Lochlan scoffs. “For me .”
I smirk, glancing back at him. The bridge is wide enough for two people to walk side by side, but we are careful to keep some distance between us when we walk—just in case. “Now why would I care about that?”
His dark blue gaze narrows. “Prick.”
That has me chuckling as I step off the bridge, the dirt soft beneath my boots. Lochlan’s steps click as he closes the distance, and I fall into place at his side as we head to his house.
My house sits at the center of our compound, farthest from the road and on the cliff’s edge.
It provides the safest position and is slightly larger than the other two.
Rohan’s house sits closer to the bridge to the right of mine, and Lochlan’s is on the left, near the start of the road.
It makes it easy for us to move between the three, especially with walking paths connecting them.
“Avoiding your house still?”