Chapter Thirty-One
“Are you sure you’re following the right heat signatures?” August asked the orb from the front seat of the rental van.
“I believe,” he murmured and lifted a fist to his forehead.
Beside Vivian in the rear of the van, Xavier made a face at the back of his cousin’s head.
She had to agree with Xavier. It had been difficult enough to understand the Martian worship of the abstract concept of the Intelligence.
She found it especially off-putting to watch August waiting on a small ball of metal.
She closed her eyes wearily against the headrest, hidden from view behind tinted windows, as the vehicle glided along the narrow streets of the Catena warehouse district.
Just as Xavier had predicted, they’d found Delilah gone from the militia headquarters.
In a matter of moments, the Intelligence had tapped the security cameras, identified her and Silas departing during the night, and directed August to follow her trail.
What was Delilah doing now? Was she unharmed? Her sister must be terrified, but Delilah was practiced at masking her fear with a happy face.
The anxiety clenching her belly was an old companion. For a few weeks, when no one in her family was in danger of violence, the awful pain in her stomach had lessened. If only she’d appreciated it at the time, instead of being caught up in worries about finding a husband.
“Vivian.” She jumped at the sound of her name. Xavier took her hand and squeezed it in his light grip. “You needn’t come on this chase. We can find you a safe house.”
“Absolutely not,” she snapped. “I won’t let you leave me behind.”
“If anyone is staying behind, it should be you, the man with a thousand cuts,” August said from the front seat.
Xavier banged a hand against August’s headrest. “I’m coming with you. Ready to fight. And it can’t be more than forty cuts.”
“Oh sure, that’s a convincing argument,” August grumbled.
“We’ve got to jump in here real quick,” Intelligence said. “August, stop here, please.”
“Here? Why would they go to a rover parking lot?” Xavier peered out the tinted window. “Unless … you don’t think they left the dome?”
“Only one way to find out.” August turned to give Xavier and Vivian a stern look. “Stay here, out of sight.” He opened the door, and the orb zoomed out. The van door rattled as August slammed it shut.
Vivian discovered one of her nails was cracked and ran it up and down the length of her black pants, letting it snag over and over.
Beside her, Xavier breathed steadily. “I should’ve gone with him,” she whispered in the silence.
“Delilah doesn’t know him. She’s not going to trust a stranger with a sword. ”
“August knows what he’s doing. And he has the orb to help. We cannot risk being sighted by the Catena militia.” He leaned over and brushed her hair back before pausing to lightly touch her neck under her ear. “What’s this?”
She shivered under his long fingers. “You left marks on me. Last night.”
“Mm.” He kissed a red bruise on her neck. “I do beg your pardon. How terribly brutish. I don’t know what came over me.” He smiled wickedly as he said the words, and Vivian’s heart grew lighter.
She reached up to trace his stubbled jaw. “I liked it,” she confessed. “As if you were saying, ‘You’re mine.’ ” She wet her lips, and he followed the movement with his eyes.
“But you aren’t. Mine.” Even as he lifted his head away from her, his hand remained, rubbing her collarbone with his thumb. Vivian swayed into his touch.
Why not? she wanted to demand. Why can’t I be yours? And you mine? She wished he would kiss her again.
Xavier’s hand stilled. “When this is all over, you’ll be back in our dome fulfilling the terms of your contract and choosing a spouse. Isn’t that what you said you wanted? To return to Arcadia with Delilah by Presentation Day?”
She couldn’t fully control her wince. “You’ll let me go that easily?”
“I cannot—” Xavier’s throat worked. “Not even for you. I’ve agreed today to stop opposing the Red Mothers initiative in the Council. But I could never stand by and watch you suffer to bring my child into the world.” He grimaced.
Vivian pulled back and drew her knees up on the bench of the van. “I know.”
A wave of sadness came over her. How could she now be content with the restricted life planned for her? How could she find satisfaction in a practical, arranged marriage after knowing the terrifying and wonderful intimate trust Xavier had offered her the night before?
He cleared his throat. “I wish I could help in another way, but I spoke truly when I said Aunt Constance holds the purse strings to Dorsey Estate. She would never permit me to draw the expense to buy you out of your contract, even if such a thing were possible.”
“Oh—Xavier, I hope you didn’t think … I would never ask you to do that.” She swallowed a sudden lump in her throat.
He traced the line of her brow. “Nonetheless, I wish it was an option I could offer freely.”
Had he fantasized about a life with her? Free of the strict parameters of her contract? She wanted him. Desperately. But she wasn’t sure she wanted the walled Dorsey Estate. And she didn’t relish the idea of her role on Mars being defined by her relationship with him.
Then what did she want?
She remembered picturing swapping lives with Alvin the greenhouse worker. And that beautiful law library. If this was a fantasy, why couldn’t she have it all? Independence, intellectual growth, and … love.
The comms device on the opposing seat made a crackling noise. “All clear. I’m on my way back to you.”
She let out a breath. Delilah was the priority. Not playing out some doomed romance. She was here for her sister.
August opened the back of the van, sword in his hand. “There’s a landing pad missing its transporter. The Intelligence rates the likelihood that they’ve gone to Catena’s terraforming station at 83 percent.”
“That’s uncharacteristically imprecise,” Xavier remarked sardonically.
“I’m rounding.” August bared his teeth. “Come with me. I could use Vivian’s assistance.
” He led the way to a large rover labeled Air Quality Control.
Next to it lay a body with the Intelligence bobbing over it.
“Vivian, move him back to the van for me, will you? You’re the strongest of us.
” He gestured with his sword to Xavier. “Stay with the rover, X.”
She crouched down and picked up the body under the shoulders. The weight felt like no more than lifting a young child. So strange, to be with two powerful men, and be the only one capable of lifting a heavy load. “Is he …?”
“No, he’s only unconscious.”
Vivian carried the body with ease across the parking lot and held the man one-handed as she opened the back door of the van. “Should we tie him up?”
August shook his head. “If we do so, it might be days before someone finds him. I’ve no wish to have his death on my conscience. With the dose I gave him, he should be out for at least four hours. That should give us enough time.” He pulled the man’s fob from around his neck. “Come on.”
Vivian pushed down a wave of nausea and followed August.
They would find Delilah. Today.