The Other Side Of Gravity (Oxygen, #1) (15 page)

Maxton went to him and cupped his shoulder with his palm, using his opposite arm. “My brother.” He paused and they looked at each other. I could only assume he said ‘my brother’ in whatever language they were speaking. “All is well, I promise you. This girl…she—” He looked back at me for a moment, making me squirm because he had to find a way to explain why I was here. “She’s with me.”

The man looked at me and then nodded. “Okay.” I noticed that he had a slight accent that I’d never heard before. It was a little strange, but so pleasant. I actually wanted to ask him to keep speaking so I could listen more. “Come this way.”

Wait—what?

“What?” I spouted and covered my mouth with my fingers, hoping that maybe it hadn’t been as loud as I thought. They both looked back at me with expectation on their face and I lowered my fingers to my chest, still keeping them in a crumpled ball of fingers. “Uh…I was… You’re going to just trust me, let me come with you, just like that? Because Maxton says I’m with him?”

He smiled at me and I wondered why so many people were doing that. I’d never been smiled at so much. It was unnerving and unnatural. They were like weapons, those smiles. Put your smiles away, people.

“Yes, just like that. Maxton is my friend, my brother, my comrade. We’ve been through…” He looked at him and seemed to get emotional. He hung his head as Maxton gripped his shoulder.

“It’s okay, Ivan. Thank you so much for this.”

Ivan looked up and shook his head so hard. “You don’t ever thank me, boy.” They hugged and it was one of those things that even though I had been out of polite society for some time, I knew that I should look away. But I couldn’t. I’d never seen anyone act this way or love each other this way…since my mother. The last time I’d ever seen anyone hug anyone that hard was when she was telling me goodbye…before they pushed her off that ladder.

My chest buckled in on a silent sob as I watched them—an old man and a young man, who clearly had done him a great service at one time. Maxton whispered to him and then looked at me over the man’s shoulder. He saw me.

He
saw me
.
              For all that I was, it was all right there for him to see. I hadn’t meant to. But that scene, them replaying the worst night of my life in some strange way, even if they really weren’t replaying it at all. I wiped under my eye and turned away.

The crying was really getting old. Maybe on the Providence there was a procedure to have your tear ducts removed. They were just sick enough to think of something like that. And sadistic enough. And I had a feeling I’d love to not cry anymore once this was all over, away from Maxton, away from this world that had turned against a little girl who just wanted her mother.

And couldn’t pay her freaking taxes.

Chapter Eight

hol·o·gra·phic – a three-dimensional image reproduced from a pattern of interference produced by a split coherent beam of radiation and lasers.

Maxton

I
knew she was embarrassed for showing herself, for showing her tears and fears and all that she was feeling in front of me, but I was appreciative if nothing else. I knew she’d been through a lot. I couldn’t even begin and wouldn’t even try to imagine it. But I needed her on my side. We needed to be in on this together if we were going to survive. This had nothing to do with the fact that I could almost feel her pulse on my skin whenever our eyes connected, that there was a physical ache when she slept on me and I could do nothing to soothe her when she groaned and moved about in her sleep. This was about survival, not the fact that I wanted that redhead.

So for now, I would wave my platonic flag and be protective in the only way that was fitting. But she’d better hope I didn’t see a crack in her armor or I was slipping my fingers in and pulling it apart.

              Ivan led us to the back of his shop where I knew all too well there was a secret door, I just didn’t know where. It moved every time I was there, to keep anyone from knowing where it was, to keep
them
safe.

              He looked back at me over his shoulder. “Ready?”

              I nodded. “It’s been too long.”

“You’ve been out doing your work to save them, to save us all. Don’t feel guilty for that.”

I sighed, feeling his words slice into me and apply the bandage all at once. I could see Sophelia staring at the side of my face, wondering what his words meant. I scoffed a little at his implication. Yeah, I knew. How could the bad guy be a good guy? How could a guy who worked on the black market be
anything but
dishonorable? How could I possibly be any of the things that he was saying? I looked at her, feeling a stab of bitterness at my life bubbling up, knowing I could never go back. I’d always be the bad guy. But hadn’t I saved her? Yes, I had turned her in, but I had come back for her. I had risked my life and—

Her face. I swallowed painfully. She wasn’t looking at me with disdain or disbelief. She was just waiting. Waiting for me to explain and tell her the reason we were there, the reason for his comment, because apparently, she
could
believe that I could be a good guy. Her face full of wonder and anticipation told me everything I needed to know, and I’d never wanted to kiss a female so much in my life as I wanted to kiss her for believing in me in that moment.

For taking the sting and pain of that epic, old, blazing wound away with just a look, and she wasn’t even aware of it.

I didn’t want to tell her or try to explain—I just wanted her to meet them. Ivan searched for the door while Sophelia and I stared at each other. When I heard him curse and an alarm go off, I laughed. Sophelia followed suit shortly after. I turned to him. “Ivan, where did you leave it?”

“Leave what exactly?” I felt whispered against my ear from behind and felt a shudder go through me.

I looked at her over my shoulder. “He’s looking for the door.”

She pointed to the back door of the shop. “Um…”

“No,” I whispered. “It’s a secret. He moves it every time we use it so it can never be found.”

“What’s on the other side?” she whispered back.

“Aha!” Ivan yelled before I could answer. When we looked over at him, he was standing on a small stool and his face was peeking through the bottom of the holographic door. “Hurry!” he yelled and poked his head back out to look down at us. “I’m holding this open with my chip. It’s not pleasant. Let’s get going, young ones.”
              I gripped Sophelia’s sides gently to maneuver her under Ivan. I heard her small gasp, but it wasn’t anything near what I expected, so I was pleased. When I lifted her without preamble so she could grab the bottom of the doorway, she gasped even louder. I laughed when she looked down at me. “I’m fine. You could eat an entire table of pancakes and you’d still be light at a feather, Red. Climb up.”

Ivan grunted and I thought it was because he was in pain, but I heard him mutter down to me as Soph pulled her legs up like a champ. It was a dark room and there was nothing in there. I felt bad for not warning her about that so I yelled up, “Everything’s fine, Soph. Just wait there, okay?”

“You shouldn’t say things about how much they have eaten or not to a female you care about,” Ivan said to me and gave me a knowing look. I shook my head at him.

“It’s okay, Ivan.” I looked up at Sophelia sadly as she looked down at us both from the doorway. “Sophelia doesn’t like me like that anyway. I was the bad guy from the start, wasn’t I?”

She blinked, her lips parting, her gorgeous face blooming crimson and clearly embarrassed. She licked her lips and tried to smile at my joke, but she looked down a few seconds before letting her gaze latch onto mine. I regretted my joke, both of them. Not because it hurt her feelings, because I didn’t think it did. She had a sense of humor. It was one of the things I love—liked so much about her. I regretted it because she was so embarrassed about my “she doesn’t like me” remark, and I wasn’t trying to force a confession out of her. I wasn’t. I knew that something was going on between us. It crackled in the air every time our eyes collided. So what the hell was I doing?

She let her gaze fall before turning her rosy face back into the door where I couldn’t see her. I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands right before I felt the smack on the back of my head. I didn’t even have to lift my head.

“I deserved that.”

“Yes, you did,” he whispered, not wanting her to hear us. “What are you thinking about this girl?”

“Ivan,” I whispered back and looked up to his tired eyes, “I ruined any chance of anything, okay?” I sighed, wasting my oxygen and not giving a damn right then. “I…” I knew he was going to be disappointed in me. He knew what I did for a living and why I did it, but…what I’d done to her was too far. “I turned her in for the reward money.” His eyes bulged. “Twice.”

“Maxton,” he hissed.

              “She stowed away on Havard’s ship and…I turned her in.” He listened. “I didn’t know her, I just knew that she was supposed to be an escaped slave and we needed the money and… It was so much money, Ivan, it was the money we needed to help them.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and nodded. “But you couldn’t go through with it.” He didn’t say it like a question and that surprised me. “You went back for her, defying Havard, and now you’re both on the run.”

I nodded. “Yes. And the other time I turned her in was just for show, it wasn’t real, but she no longer trusted me and thought it was. The look on her face…” I shook my head. “We needed the money.
I
needed the money.” I looked at him. “You needed the money.”

              He got my gist and his eyes began to water. “You didn’t…”

              “I did. I’ve got it.” I felt her eyes on me and looked up into the doorframe to see her watching us once more. “
She
got it; for you, for us, for them all. She’s the bravest female I know.”

Sophelia looked stricken by that comment and I made a mental note to compliment her more. “I didn’t do anything but—”

“Thank you, young one.” Ivan was full-on crying. I’d seen it many times in my days, but it must be a shock for most people to see a grown man of older age cry. Not just cry, but bawl and be passionate with his words of thanks. He looked up at her and held out his hand so she would reach down and touch his fingers. “Thank you. I know you don’t understand yet, but thank you. You’ve saved my heart.”

Sophelia shook her head forcefully. “I—”

Ivan just smiled and that stopped any other words she would have said. I noticed that about her. Smiles were her undoing, she didn’t know what to do with them, and that was a tragedy. She’d been deprived of pancakes, cheese…and smiles.

I wanted to give her all three.

I lifted my arm, calling up the screen under my skin, bringing up the program I needed. I punched the number I wanted to transfer to him, turned my forearm over, and waited. His mouth trembled as he turned his arm over and let me give him the silver that was not only going to save his life but his business and his family.
Our
family.

Ever since I was a kid, I’d known Ivan. And we’d always helped each other, stuck up for each other, dodged the Militia, hidden each other, broke the law for each other, gone hungry for a day so the other could eat and then they’d return the favor. There were things I’ve done for this man that I wasn’t proud of, but he’d done things for me that I could never repay.

When the beep signaled that the transfer was complete, I moved my arm away, but didn’t get far when he jerked me in for hug. “You be careful,” he said in his harsh, aged voice. “And take care of that pretty girl you got up there,” he said louder, for her benefit.

“Ivan,” I sighed and leaned away. “Now is not the time for you to play
fairy godmother
.”

He grinned, showing his little teeth and gripped both of my shoulders. “Something I’ve learned on this soulless planet is that if you find someone with one, you don’t let them get away from you.” He jerked his head toward the door and made a hoist with his hands for my foot. “Why do you think I held on to you for all these years instead of sending your aggravating behind out to pasture?”

I let him lift me a little, but grabbed the door quickly to pull myself up. “It wasn’t because of my good looks and debonair—”

“Pish posh.” I turned sitting in the door just as he was looking at his arm. His eyes jerked up at me and they were as round as melons were before they were broken down for protein packs and juices. “No…Maxton, no. It’s too much.”

“Old man, you’ve done more for me than any other person on this entire planet.” I held it together, just barely. I swallowed and gave him a hard look. “Take it. It’s for you and them. You take care of them. Get it ready.” I leaned in, swinging my legs up. “We’ll be back in the morning.”

He nodded, still looking stricken. He waved and wiped his face. I closed the door and was left in complete darkness with Sophelia, only our loud breaths to keep us company. I lifted my arm, letting the lit screen under my skin lead me. I grabbed Soph’s arm to guide her and she jerked, a small gasp erupting from her lips.

I couldn’t help myself. “One day, you’re going to get used to me. And you’ll stop gasping every time I touch you.”

I still had her arm in my fingers as we stood in the dark. I could barely make out her face in the small light the screen provided.

She shook her head, looking down at the floor. “I’m not…gasping, Maxton. You’re…taking my breath away.”

I didn’t know what to do as I stared at her downturned head, but I knew this wasn’t the time or place to try to start anything, and honestly, her confession sounded more like something she was confused about it. So I just moved us to the light switch I knew was there and pressed the button on the wall, looking over to see her blinking.

She looked at the switch on the opposite wall. “No command lights?”

I shook my head. “Ivan said it would be picked up by bots and scanners if they were looking. These are old-school. Some of the first kind that were brought when they arrived here from Earth. There’s hardly anything tech in here, to keep them safe.”