When Night Falls (17 page)

Chapter
Eighteen

Scarlett showed Rolf to the washroom. Jack opted to go second then disappeared somewhere with Hunter, leaving Scarlett alone with a guy that she couldn’t be trusted with. But neither of them spoke as they made their way through the sections to the back. She was all too aware of the eyes watching them with every step, but that could have just been paranoia on her part. The people there had no idea who she was or the situation between her, Rolf, and Kiera. She had no reason to feel like a leper.

At the washroom, Scarlett stepped back and let him go in alone. He paused on the threshold, one hand on the door and glanced back. He looked on the verge of speaking, but he shut his mouth at the last second and shut the door between them.

Deflating, she slumped against the wall and closed her eyes. Her mouth continued to tingle from the kiss she never should have taken. Her senses reeled from the lingering taste of him on her lips and she had to fight the temptation to run her tongue over them. The situation had already taken such a wrong turn without her adding to it by encouraging herself to do it again.

She opened her eyes and glanced over her surroundings. Spirals of white bled through the soft color of peaches coloring the walls. A painting, framed in a boarder of glossy wood, hung across from her, the portrait of a man in a blue jacket and closely cropped orange hair against a blue backdrop. She recognized the painting, vaguely. Art had never been her specialty. But she had always had a fond love for old things. Post-United History had always been her favorite. She had often wondered what it would have been like to have automobiles and money. She’d of course seen them at museums and in holo-discs, but it wasn’t the same. After the New Leaders took power, everything old was deemed unsanctioned and unnecessary. With the new power came new changes that no one bothered to stop.

Scarlett sighed. It didn’t matter anymore. Everyone and everything was gone. It was just them, the hundred or so locked away on a ship, surrounded by infected creatures. There was some kind of irony in surviving the end of the world only to die in space.

“You!”

Scarlett jumped at the high pitched screech. She leapt away from the wall and turned just as Kiera stormed towards her, a flurry of anger and tears. Caught by surprise, she wasn’t quick enough to see the smack until the crack resounded in her ears and stars had exploded across her vision.

“How dare you kiss my Rolf!” Kiera seethed.

Rubbing the burn on her cheek, Scarlett straightened her shoulders. But she didn’t speak, because there was nothing to say to make what she did all right. Kiera didn’t seem to need any words. She was on a roll.

“Oh I’m not nearly as stupid as you think I am, Scarlett. I’ve seen the way you look at him.” Her fingers clenched and unclenched at her sides. “But he’s marrying me!”

“I…” Still, not a damn thing came to mind to say.

“I don’t want your stupid apologies!” She crossed her arms. “I don’t care what he told you, he
is
marrying me. He promised.” She shifted from her right foot to her left foot and wet her lips. She took a deep breath, seemingly straightening to her full height of five nothing. “I know this isn’t what he wants, that
I’m
not what he wants, but we have an arrangement. He can be with anyone he wants, but he has to marry me.”

There was logic in there somewhere, there had to be, but Scarlett couldn’t see it.

“I don’t understand…”

Kiera huffed, exasperated. “It’s called common decency. Don’t flaunt your affairs where people can see!”

“We’re not having an affair!” Scarlett finally found her voice.

“But you love him.” Kiera smirked coldly. “That’s the same thing. Your kind can just marry whomever you want. You have no idea what it’s like … but I’ve worked too hard and for too long to let you take him.”

“I don’t … I don’t want to take him.” But her words sounded false even to her own ear.

“I don’t care what kind of agreement you two have. It’s like I told Rolf, you can have him. Just don’t embarrass me like you did.”

“I am so lost!” Scarlett rubbed her face, trying to appease the throbbing in her temples. “You want us to have an affair?”

“Of course not,” Kiera scoffed. “What woman wants that? But I would rather Rolf had his … fun, than lose him and I’m willing to look the other way.”

“To keep him,” Scarlett finished.

Kiera nodded. “I’m not delusional. I understand that he feels like now that we no longer have families we can just forget our promises, but I’m not willing to do that. I promised my father that I would marry Rolf Gray and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. If that means I have to let him keep you, well, sacrifices must always be made.”

“Are you insane?” Scarlett exclaimed before she could stop herself. “If you love him why would you—”

“I don’t love him,” Kiera said evenly. “This is business, not pleasure.”

“But you’re marrying the guy, how is that not plea—”

“Like I said, our fathers wanted it.”

“So, you won’t let Rolf go because of some dead promise that no one is ever going to hold you to.”

Kiera’s delicate facial features flexed as though the strain of her thoughts were pushing down on her nerves. Her blue eyes snapped from Scarlett to the wall behind her and back, unable to hold contact.

Scarlett threw her arms open wide. “Look around you. Who the hell is going to judge you? You could marry a fish and no one would blink an eye. The only person hurting you is yourself.”

Kiera planted her hands on her hips. “If the last thing your parents wanted before they died was for you to marry someone, would you forget that promise because you’re suddenly free to do so? No. You do your best to make it happen. No matter how miserable you are.”

“Your parents wouldn’t want—”

“Don’t presume you know what my parents wanted,” Kiera interjected sharply. “I made a promise. Rolf is mine.”

“I’m not.” Rolf stood in the bathroom doorway, a towel in one hand and his pack in the other. His dark hair glistened under the light, freshly washed and swept back from the hard expression on his face. He stared at Kiera. “Give us a moment, please, Scarlett.”

Grateful to get away from the craziness, Scarlett did. She pushed past Kiera and hurried away in search of Hunter.

She found him, tucked away in a deserted corner with Jack. The two were in the middle of a serious battle that involved a lot of tongue and anxious hands. The heat coming off the pair should have set the emergency heat sensors built into every floor in case of a fire. Scarlett stood nearly ten feet away and could still feel the lashes as though standing too close to an open flame.

Hunter broke the fierce kiss. Their labored breathing beat like bird wings through the air. He fisted his large hands into Jack’s hair and gave a tug, eliciting a low groan from the other boy. They stared at each other a long moment before Hunter took Jack’s mouth again with a violence that should have hurt while simultaneously shoving Jack further into the wall. Jack didn’t seem to mind as he slipped his hands under Hunter’s top. It was
then Scarlett quickly turned on her heels and bolted.

She made her way back to her sleeping area and found Mac sitting on his cot. The boy looked up when she approached and gave her a small smile.

“Hey,” she said for lack of anything better.

He gave her a slight wave.

“You okay?”

He started to nod, then broke off in a shrug. He raised a hand and rocked it from side to side in a so-so motion.

Scarlett crossed over and took the empty cot next to his. She knew the owner wouldn’t mind. He was too busy fondling a marshal in a dark corner.

Mac pointed to her and made a sign that made her frown in confusion.

“How am I?” she guessed.

Mac nodded.

“I am…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “I have no idea.”

He signed something else, something longer and complex.

Scarlett watched until he stopped, then shook her head. “I have no idea what you just said.”

His face broke into a wide smile, completely unaffected by the lack of understanding between them. He reached down for his pack and flipped open the top pocket. He fished inside and came up with a data link. Scarlett watched as he typed something then passed it to her.

“It’s going to be okay,” she read out loud. She raised her gaze to his. “How do you know?”

He took the device back from her. A moment later, he gave it back with a new message.

“Aside from the fact that I am all knowing?” She looked up at him, eyebrow arched in amusement.

Mac snickered and motioned her to keep reading.

“We’re human. It’s in our nature to survive.” She sighed and nodded. “This is true.”

He took the link from her. His fingers moved over the screen. Then it was back in her hands.

“But that’s not what you’re sad about.” Scarlett grimaced and met his gaze. “That obvious, huh?”

He made a kissy face and shrugged. Then nodded in a
yeah, kinda
way.

Scarlett groaned. “I shouldn’t have kissed him. Kiera has every right to be angry with me.”

He reached over and tapped the edge of her cot, drawing her attention back to him. He took the link and held it for a lot longer before passing it back.

“Don’t think badly of Kiera. She was raised by a man who sold his daughter to the Gray family in exchange for a seat at the United Council board.”
Scarlett looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

His next message was even longer and took nearly ten minutes to type out.

“He was ruthless. A tyrant who preyed on the weak. Kiera could never stand up to him. Her brother, Darryl, usually tried to protect her from him, but her father would still find ways to make her suffer. After the engagement announcement, Kiera and I tried to run away.” Scarlett gasped. Her head came up, her eyes wide. “You and Kiera?”

Mac nodded, his face grim.

She went back to reading. “We got caught and Kiera was forbidden to see me again. I don’t know what he did to her, but when I saw her again, she wasn’t the Kiera I knew. He’d broken her. The mere mention of disobeying her father had her cowering. It took a year on this ship to get her to finally talk to me again. But no matter what I did or how much I tried, she refuses to forget her notion of marrying Rolf. Even now, when her father is dead.” The device dropped from her fingers and landed in her lap. She dropped her face into her palms. “Oh my God.”

Mac reached out and touched her knee.

Scarlett lowered her hands to cover her mouth. “I’m the worst person in the world.”

Mac shook his head. He pointed to his chest, then at her. “Love him,” he gritted out when she watched him with confusion.

“What good does that do?” She passed the link back to him and folded her legs. “How do you do it?”

His grin was sorrowful. He pointed to himself then rapped the heel of his fisted hand to his forehead, which was either a sign or he just remembered something.

“Dumb,” he said, his grin broadening.

Scarlett’s mouth formed an O. “You’re not dumb. You love her.”

He shrugged.

“Does Rolf know? How you feel, I mean.”

He nodded and bent his head over the link once more.

“Rolf and I have been friends since we were kids. He’s always known how I feel.” She read when he gave her the device. “And he just agreed to marry the girl you love?” That didn’t sound like something Rolf would do.

He shook his head and motioned for her to pass him the link.

“Their parents had agreed to them marrying since Kiera and Rolf were born. They had a contract signed on Kiera’s first birthday. To break it would be a great disrespect.” Scarlett frowned. “But does it still apply if the party’s dead?”

Mac shrugged.

“It shouldn’t, but we’re taught from infancy that our name is the only thing we have and it must be cherished above all else.” Rolf stepped into their section, void of Kiera, Scarlett noted.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

He dropped his pack next to the wall, at the foot of Scarlett’s bed. “Better.” His gaze met hers. “I’m sorry about what happened.”

The cheek that had met Kiera’s wrath tingled in reminder.

Scarlett shook her head. “It’s fine.”

Mac signed something to him, to which he jerked a head in the direction he’d come from and replied, “She’s in the washroom.”

Mac rose without another word and left them, left Scarlet alone with Rolf. She fidgeted uncomfortably and cast her attention to the loose thread on the hem of her trousers.

“We should talk, Scarlett.”

Slowly, she nodded. “I know.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

She heard rather than saw him take the cot Mac just vacated. The iron frame groaned under his weight. He rested his arms on his thighs and folded his hands together between his knees.

“What are you sorry for?”

With a pathetic chuckle, she shrugged. “I don’t know.” She raised her head and forced herself to meet his gaze. “Everything?”