Sedition (26 page)

He doesn’t say anything for a while, just continues to cling to me. After a few moments, he looks up, hatred in his eyes. I know I deserve it. I deserve him to be furious at me. If he wants to hit me back, I’m ready to let him.

“We have to win,” he announces. “I don’t care what happens, we have to destroy her.”

“We will,” I promise. She hoped to scare me, but she made me even more motivated.

Chapter 21
Dine ’n’ Shine

Despite Cash’s requests, I decline to see a doctor. I also decline to hit him in retaliation, although he did give me the option. The offer is a little tempting. The beating he gave me wasn’t just for show; it hurt a lot. On top of what Torenze did to me, I feel like my whole body is on fire. I insist that I’m fine; although I do let him lead me back to bed and try again at bringing me breakfast. He follows it up with a healthy dose of painkillers, and I devour them greedily. It eases the pain and makes it a little easier to assess the damage that’s been done.

I don’t remember Torenze beating me about the head, but apparently he did, and he did a damn awful lot of it. He’s mostly avoided my eyes; he must have been making sure he didn’t damage the delicate tissue there too badly. But he’s more than made up for it in other places, covering my cheeks and nose and forehead with bruises.

It matches the rest of my body. I’m surprised to see the lack of bruising on my stomach and lower back. I remember that Torenze hit me there plenty, but not hard enough to leave the deep, scary bruises like he did almost everywhere else and not enough to damage any internal organs. The other areas are crisscrossed with whip marks from him. And from Cash.

Cash stays with me all that day, allowing me the space and quiet I need to recover. It’s great for the first day, but by the next, the painkillers are making the nightmares worse. When I can’t sleep, I start thinking about the project, and his mother, and where we stand.

“The project, the research… it’s okay, right?”

Cash frowns. “Don’t worry about it,” he orders, giving me more painkillers.

I appreciate them, but I’d appreciate the truth as well. Hell, I used to get beaten like this all the time and still function. I didn’t think I’d turn into such a goddamned baby after just one day.

“Talk to me about Torenze,” I say, half-order, half-statement.

“He held up his end of the bargain.” Cash is short. If he could have said it in any fewer words, I’m sure he would have.

“How do you know?” I challenge.

“The night I picked you up.” He doesn’t meet my eyes as he speaks. “I left the paperwork with him. It was signed when I got you. He’s done everything he promised. Our data is stored on his servers, now; the funding is sheltered in his accounts.”

“Have you spoken with him?”

“You don’t need to worry about him anymore.”

I frown. “What about your mother?”

“Don’t worry about her, either.”

It’s a lie. As long as either of them are alive, I have to worry about them. If Torenze is involved in our business, I have to worry about him for even more reasons. Worse, though, is the condescension, the dismissal. He’s treating me like I’m too fucking stupid or frail or weak to even deserve to hear about this.

“Funny, because it was okay for me to get the shit beaten out of me.”

It’s a low blow, and Cash gets the message exactly as I intend him to. He finally looks up at me, and beneath the typical anger there’s a good deal of shame.

“Do you
want
to hear about this?” my master asks, uncertain. “You don’t have to. If you want… you can stay out of it. I won’t put you at risk anymore. They’re using you to get to me.”

“I asked because I wanted to know,” I point out, unwilling to back down at all. “I thought we were in on this together?”

Cash sighs. “Fine. Yes, I have spoken to Oliver. I called him yesterday, while you were sleeping, and I called him a monster. And then he laughed at me and asked me about the business, like it was no big deal. Like he hadn’t done any of those things to you. Like we just made a nice business arrangement.”

I nod. Maybe Cash had expected something different from Torenze, but I didn’t. “And your mother? I thought he was supposed to shield us from her.”

“He didn’t move quickly enough,” Cash admitted. “He didn’t think she’d be so aggressive, and as he put it, he’s going to protect our ‘business’ interests, not our ‘personal’ interests.”

“I would think that having your house searched would be a ‘business’ interest,” I point out, bitter.

Cash shakes his head. “We need to handle the issue with Lisa and my mother on our own. He’ll protect the business data, but he won’t protect you.”

“So he’s in, then, completely in for the project?” I clarify. Reluctance is not something I want to deal with. “He’s not going to turn on us, or leave or anything?”

“He’s not going to help protect you. He just wants to fuck you and hurt you and make money,” Cash says, not answering my question. “I want to be done with him.”

“We need him,” I point out, keeping my tone and my head level. “Like you’ve said, we need to make sure he’s supporting it so it can’t get blown up and exposed before its time. There’s a lot of time left, Cash, it’ll be a good few weeks before any of this can even possibly go public. Is he really on our side?”

Cash stares at me like I’ve grown a second bruised and battered head.

“I didn’t get this done to me to make a fashion statement,” I point out.

“Yes, he’s on our side,” Cash admits. “I’m not really sure how I feel about that, but he is.”

“Feel happy about it,” I decide. “We need him, we’ve got him. Perfect.”

“It wasn’t perfect,” Cash scowls. “It’s not perfect. What he did to you, what I did to you—”

“I’m fine, Cash,” I point out. “It will heal!”

He glares at me a moment, until I start to cower. He stands up suddenly, towering over me.

I duck, covering my head reflexively with my hands. I wait for the blow, and when it doesn’t come, I lower my hands, remembering to breathe. It’s a while before I dare to look up at him.

“It wasn’t perfect,” he points out, placing a soft hand on my shoulder before walking away from the table.

I sit there and tremble for a few more minutes before I can convince myself that I’m being stupid and that I’m safe.

He avoids me for a good portion of the evening, sulking in his office. I hear him coming with some people, yelling at them. I can’t make out the words, but he sounds angry, and the look on his face when he joins me in bed that night confirms it.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, only somewhat out of self-preservation. I don’t think he’s angry at me, but anything that can get him this upset is most probably worth my concern.

“My mother,” he says, fuming.

I curl up to him, a little nervous. “Tell me what’s going on?” I request. “Is this about the project? We’re supposed to be in on that together, Cash. Please, let me in?”

He reaches down to put his arm around me, comforting himself as much as me. It feels good.

“I have to tell you something, Sascha,” he says quietly. “Something I purposely avoided telling you the other day, because you had enough to deal with.”

“Okay,” I encourage him.

“My mother and Lisa have been working together to make our lives miserable.”

I nod. I knew this; that’s what the whole investigation was about. I wait, looking curiously up at Cash.

“It’s more than just the complaint,” he admits. “At first, that’s all it was. Lisa was throwing a fit because your brother didn’t bring you home to be punished. But once my mother caught wind of it… she took it further.”

The news catches me by surprise, and as it registers, I realize the extent of the potential complications. I had assumed Lisa would be thrilled enough to have me out of her life that she wouldn’t have pursued me or Cash, but apparently we wounded her pride.

“What are they doing?” I ask.

“Whatever they can. Not just that first complaint, but others. They’ve scrutinized the tablet you left at Abriel’s, and even though they found nothing on it, they questioned the level of security that was built into it. My mother provided them with a new one, of course. It seems she’s Lisa’s new best friend. My mother is helping Lisa lodge complaints about things you supposedly did while you were in her home, saying you harmed the child, that you stole things—there’s no proof, but so many allegations raise questions and draw attention to us.”

“She doesn’t really have any proof, though, does she?” I press. We’ve covered our trail so well.

“It’s a free woman’s word against that of a slave,” Cash reminds me. “That’s proof enough to warrant more investigation, into you, into me, into your brother.”

I nod, understanding the implications. Problem slaves are euthanized if there is even a hint of a good reason to do so. A vicious dog would have a better chance at surviving such a case. “Why haven’t you told me this before?”

“We need to remove at least one of them from this conflict. Kristine Miller’s only dirty secret is me, and we can’t survive a public attack or attempt to blackmail her. She’s too big. But Lisa isn’t. We need to discredit her,” he tells me, avoiding my eyes.

I look to Cash, scared.

“Cash, she’s Abriel’s wife,” I protest. “Can’t we do something else? Something that won’t hurt him? Or Bella?” My niece is a little brat, but it’s not her doing. “What do you have on Lisa, anyway?”

Cash is silent for a moment. “Nothing. But her husband should have been Demoted.”

I jerk away, horrified. I would rather take a week-long vacation at Torenze’s house than even consider outing my brother like that.

Cash looks at me, and instead of his usual ruthless glare, he looks sympathetic. “With any luck, Lisa will back down when she finds out,” he tells me, indicating that he’s already thought this through. “Maybe nobody will have to know. Just the risk will be enough.”

“Cash, no!” I protest. “We can’t do this. It’s not worth it. The project, the research—”

“I’m sorry, Sascha, but we have to,” he says firmly. The ruthless glare returns. “I get it. He’s your brother. But he’s also married to her. He’s the one who didn’t make things work out. I know you might hate me for it, but I will do this. I’ll try to keep it as minimal as possible, but I’ve already thought it over.”

I feel the tears coming into my eyes, and I try to blink them back. “Cash, please,” I say, quiet. “I didn’t tell you what happened so you could use it against Abriel. We have to think of something else.”

“There is nothing else, Sascha,” he tells me. His tone is cold, but his face shows the regret. “It’s not even about the project, anymore. I will not risk you.”

“I won’t let you!” I snap, enraged.

He’s surprisingly gentle as he threatens me. “I’ll lock you in your room until it’s over if I need to. I won’t risk you or me being taken away. Not for someone who you’ve sacrificed too much for already.”

I break down, sobbing. He pulls me into his arms and I let him, because I can see how much this anguishes him as well. I want to hate him for it but I can’t, just like I couldn’t hate him when his mother forced him to whip me. I hear his words replaying over and over again in my head, searching for loopholes, trying to find exceptions. I beat the Assessment when I was just a teenager; surely I can figure something out, now?

It finally comes to me. “What if Abriel vouches for me? He was the one who actually owned me, he would actually have the legal say… what if I can get him to say it was like you said, it was a domestic dispute?”

Cash considers it. “You think Abriel would speak out against his wife?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Not in general, but this… I think I could convince him. I just need to see him again.”

Cash shakes his head immediately. “Too risky.”

“Cash, I need to see him,” I insist, looking up at him, resolute. “If he helps, if he doesn’t. I need to talk to him before it happens. You can either help me, or I can wait until you’re at work and go on my own.”

He frowns at me for a moment, and I almost expect him to make some sort of threat, maybe to lock me up again. But he’s not angry at me, he’s scared.

“What do you propose?” he asks. “You’ll need a place where nobody will notice you, nobody will care if you’re there. And you’ll need to communicate with him without his wife knowing.”

I’m quiet for a moment, thinking it over, and then I smile. “I have the perfect place.”

I spend the rest of the day crafting an advertisement for a buy one, get one free “Artery-Clogger Deluxe” at the Dine ‘n’ Shine Café. Abriel was always privy to my excursions to the dive restaurant when we were kids, and while our hometown is a half-day’s commute from where either of us lives, I have a hunch that he will get the message. I email it to him from a disposable email address, along with the words “fifth period,” a reference to the time of the school day when I used to frequent my favorite illegitimate dining establishment.

Cash is skeptical when I first propose the plan, but he listens to it, and he defers to me. He explains what kind of statement we will need from Abriel to counteract Lisa’s accusations, and he cautions me repeatedly to be careful.

A few days later, he drives me to my old hometown.

It looks the same, but still so different. New businesses, different landscaping. I want to drive by my parents’ house, but I know better. We head straight to the Dine ‘n’ Shine, the rental hov-car we picked up this morning fitting in well in the parking lot. We wait in silence, too anxious to speak, until we see Abriel enter the establishment.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Cash offers.

I shake my head, leaning over to kiss him. I need to do this on my own.

The Dine ‘n’ Shine is exactly how I remember it, from the skeevy customers, to the barely functional robo-clerks, to the invasive smell of greasy food being cooked in the back. At this time of day, just like when I was a student, most of the clientele are visiting the back of the restaurant, and they do so with lowered eyes. Few places are more anonymous than a whorehouse.

I slide into a seat across from Abriel. “Thank you for meeting me,” I say quietly. “Does anyone else know you’re here?”