Chapter 33
“I’m going to kill that motherfucker,” I raged.
“Keep your voice down,” Lark hissed, covering my mouth with her hand.
She was seated next to me in the window seat in my office, just off the bridge. Cassidy was two levels below, in his office, but Rion was fixing some wiring at one of the stations, just outside the closed door.
I gingerly removed Lark’s hand, but kept it in my own. “I could easily make it look like an accident.” I seethed.
She cocked her head, understanding my fury, but curiously, more composed than I was.
“I expected more wrath from you, given your history with the prick.”
She shook her head, casting her gaze at her lap, where our clasped hands rested.
“I’m beyond livid, but we can’t afford to allow our anger to cloud our judgment and miss this opportunity.
” Her eyes met mine. “I want his head.” She growled low, turning me on in a way that didn’t make sense, but my hunger for her never did.
“Ever since you boarded, I sensed a change in him, but when we got closer, I assumed it was jealousy or possessiveness that was swaying me.”
The corners of her lips curled at the edges, her gaze turning sultry. “You were jealous and possessive?”
My cock surged to life, but this was not the time.
“You have no idea,” I grumbled, breaking eye contact to look out into the vast darkness, other than Jupiter, which loomed at the edge of the window.
Lark leaned forward, her lips grazing the stubble at my jaw. “Is it bad that I like the thought that?”
Unable to resist, I pulled her forward so she was practically straddling my lap, capturing her lips with mine.
I didn’t have the will to be gentle, but Lark welcomed my rough edges and demanding efforts, our appetite for one another having only increased once our feelings had been laid bare between us.
She consumed my thoughts more with every passing moment.
I was so damn proud that she had figured all of this out on her own, but perhaps more so that she had put her feelings and history with Cassidy aside to be open to the idea that he was the person we were searching for.
Despite the fact that I still hadn’t decided if I’d allow him to exit the Radiant in one piece, my heart hurt for Lark, knowing that she had lost yet another person she’d trusted, and one of the last remaining connections to her brother.
Had this turn of events tainted every good memory she’d had of her youth?
The fact that she had all but skipped the yelling-angry stage, which I’d often found myself ensconced in earlier in our voyage, meant that she was nearing the more dangerous phase of her ire.
Normally, I would have felt bad for whoever was on the receiving end of whatever she was about to think up, but Cassidy—or maybe I should start thinking of him as the Phoenix—deserved every bit of what was heading his way.
She was magnificent when provoked to become villainous.
And she was mine.
For the first time in my life, she allowed me to envision a future. All I saw was a life full of adventure and love with Lark.
Before things could derail too much further, Lark pulled away from our kiss, panting into the crook of my neck. “You’re distracting me.”
“I refuse to apologize,” I chuckled against her, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head, noting how warm she felt, and how perfectly she fit in my arms. “So what now?” I rubbed a reassuring palm against the small of her back.
Lark heaved a sigh before extricating herself from my lap to sit at my side, her thigh still touching mine, unable to sever the contact we both craved.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “We need to gather enough evidence to prove that he’s the Phoenix, or involved in all of this.
He’s already planning on leaving the ship at the end of this run, so we need to do something fast, to stop him for good. ”
“Would it help if I told you I have backdoor access to every system on this ship, even the ones I’m not supposed to, including the Starlane surveillance footage, access logs, and keystroke trackers?”
She smiled up at me sweetly. “I really do love you.”
My heart pounded in my chest, like it did every time she said those three words. “I love you too.” I beamed.
When the two of us weren’t wrapped up in one another, we spent the rest of the next several days observing Cassidy’s movements and combing through his digital footprint, or lack thereof.
Similar to what Lark discovered in her brother’s communications, there was so much missing that made no sense, unless you knew that Cassidy was the common denominator.
Video footage was missing, glitched, or had clearly been doctored with looped material.
There was a pattern of system logins that appeared to indicate his access time and length had been fabricated or tampered with as well, which meant that the keystroke logs couldn’t be trusted either.
Miscellaneous communications were also mysteriously absent across multiple locations.
Cassidy had been systematically erasing and tampering with multiple data sources since the moment he’d stepped aboard the Radiant, but in doing so, he hadn’t realized he was only incriminating himself. Because the lack of evidence spoke to his involvement.
Still, we’d have to prove he was the one messing with all of it, so he didn’t have the opportunity to blame it on someone else or claim to have been framed.
“The information we’ve intercepted in just the small amount of strings of code you managed to isolate is staggering.” Lark continued to scroll through the decrypted messages, her head resting in my lap as she lay perpendicular to my body in our bed.
“Do you—” I swallowed, nervous to ask the question I’d been wondering about since she’d told me what she’d discovered. “Do you think your brother was involved with this?”
Her lips pressed into a firm line while she considered my question. “I don’t know,” Lark replied softly. “I don’t want him to have been, but I refused to consider Cassidy, and look where that got us.” Her eyes met mine, glassy with emotion.
“If he was, it’s not your fault.” I traced my fingertips along her cheek, down to her jawline. I could already see and feel the guilt she was internalizing at the mere thought that he could have contributed to what happened. “There’s nothing you could find in his comm files?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look; we’ve got too much to sort through already. I can do that later, when we’re not up against a ticking clock.”
I combed my fingers through her hair absently.
“I’ve gathered a list of time stamps of the missing footage that aligns with some of the other missing data, but it’s not enough.
We need to catch him in the act of erasing something to tie him to the system interference, or he’ll walk.
The decoded messages will do wonders to dismantle his empire, but it won’t mean anything if we can’t link it to him. ”
“I guess we’ll have to use his greatest weakness against him to get what we need.” Lark resumed scrolling through her comm.
“His greatest weakness?” My brow furrowed.
She glanced up at me, her blue eyes sparkling as she gave me a conspiratorial smile and said, “Me.”