Chaos Reigning, page 14
“If I died, Father would send the RCDF to investigate. House James would have to be certain that they could withstand the investigation—or that the results wouldn’t matter.”
I mulled it over while watching meteors blaze colorful trails overhead, but the motivation didn’t become any clearer. House James had upped the stakes far more than I had expected and I didn’t know why.
And not knowing drove me crazy.
Alex had moved close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. I wished I could turn to him and lose myself in mindless pleasure for a few hours. I needed the release—both literal and figurative. Nearly dying had put me on edge. Frustration made it worse.
I kept my hands to myself and sat up. “Ready to go inside?”
He stood with fluid ease, then offered me a hand up. I healed fast, but my left shoulder was still a little tender, so I gave him my right hand and let him haul me to my feet. I turned on the light on my com while he gathered and folded the blanket.
“Are the others still up? Do you want to join them?” Alex asked.
It was just after midnight. Most people had probably sought their beds, with or without company. “No and no.”
A shadow moved in the dark. I spun and lifted my light. Aoife squinted as I blinded her. “Do you mind?”
I dropped the light back to the ground and ordered my pulse to slow. “I thought you went to bed.”
“I was patrolling. And watching the meteors. And eavesdropping.”
“Learn anything interesting?”
“You might have been the only couple who was actually here for stargazing.”
I laughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never hooked up in the dark. It’s practically a requirement at a party like this.”
Alex growled something too low for me to catch and Aoife laughed.
My com vibrated. When I checked the screen, my breath caught.
“What is it?” Alex demanded.
“It’s an alert from the security com monitoring the bugs. Sentiment analysis on the recording from the study found raised, angry voices.”
Alex stepped closer. “What are they saying?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tap into the stream remotely. Why don’t we go find out? We can stumble in on them.”
“Absolutely not,” Alex and Aoife both said at the same time. They hadn’t realized that I had been joking—mostly.
I turned and headed toward the house. “It’s creepy when you do that. You know that, right?”
Alex fell into step beside me. “You have no idea who or what is in there. It could be a trap. It could be Lord and Lady James arguing about the roast they served for dinner. Barging in blind would be a mistake. You have the recording. Listen to it, then decide what to do.”
“I’m going to.”
“You shouldn’t—wait, what?”
“Barging in blind would be a mistake. I’m agreeing with you.” I smiled at him. “Is that so hard to believe?”
His expression told me that he didn’t quite trust me. And he was right to be suspicious. While I might not be planning to enter the study, I certainly planned to walk past it. Slowly.
Alex protested quietly when I turned from the main door and headed for the kitchen. I ignored him, and he and Aoife followed me.
I slipped through the kitchen door and snagged an apple from the basket on the counter. I didn’t think I would be caught, but if I was, then I had an excuse to be in this part of the house because the main entrance led into a hallway that bypassed the kitchen and study entirely.
I settled firmly into my public persona, looped my arm through Alex’s, and swept us out into the hallway that led past the study. The study door was firmly closed, but light glowed from under the edge. I walked as slowly as I could manage, leaning on Alex like I was still injured and a little drunk.
A trio of raised voices could be heard through the door—two masculine, one feminine. I couldn’t make out their words, and the voices cut in and out, as if they were in a malfunctioning silence field, but one of the men had the lilting accent common to the Silva family. The Silvas ran the Syndicate, the largest crime organization in the universe. The Consortium had spent years trying to wipe them out, to no avail.
I could only hope that my bug was still recording because if a Silva had risked coming here in person, then House James was either deeply in debt to them or planning something big.
We were almost back to the main hall when I heard the study door start to open. I backed into a shadowed art niche set into the wall and pulled Alex with me. Aoife eased through the doorway into the main hall before silently melting into the shadows.
I tugged Alex’s head down to mine as an unknown person stepped out of the study. “Kiss me,” I murmured.
He hesitated for a heartbeat, his eyes questioning, then his lips covered mine, softly, slowly, barely touching. I’d meant for it to be a platonic kiss between friends, a way to deflect suspicion about why we were in the hallway.
I’d thought I had it under control. Instead, I ignited.
I pressed up toward him, desperate for more. His mouth opened, or mine did, and then his tongue slid against my own. His kiss reflected his personality: slow, deliberate, thorough. I moaned and lost myself in the delicious sensations. Distantly, I heard footsteps but they didn’t register for several long seconds. When Alex pulled back, I realized the footsteps were heading away from our hiding place and this might be my only opportunity to see who had been in the study.
I leaned past Alex and peeked down the hall but only caught a glimpse of a dark-haired man in a suit disappearing into the kitchen. It could have been anyone.
Following would be a bad idea, but I entertained it for a few seconds before sighing and turning away. Alex looked completely unruffled while heat still swirled through me, muddling my thoughts. I’d asked him to kiss me and he’d complied. Insecurity tried to rise, but I discarded it. His tongue had been in my mouth. No matter what mask he wore now, he’d wanted to kiss me.
And I’d wanted to kiss him.
This attraction was a complication I didn’t need. And now that I knew how good it would be, the temptation would be even worse.
I retreated behind my public persona and let out a nervous, slightly tipsy giggle. “Do you think they saw us?” I asked in a too-loud whisper. I wasn’t positive this hallway was under surveillance, but better to be safe.
“No.”
I pouted. “Too bad.”
Alex’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he fought not to laugh. “Let’s get you to bed.”
Aoife reappeared. She moved entirely too quietly for comfort. “Do you need help?” she asked.
“I’ve got her,” Alex said. He bent and easily lifted me into his arms. Thanks to my muscle mass, I was much heavier than I looked, but Alex didn’t even seem to notice. Aoife led us up the main stairs. The rest of the house was still, dark, and quiet.
When Alex showed no signs that he was tiring or uncomfortable, I snuggled into his arms and leaned my head against his shoulder. Not too many people could carry me so effortlessly, so I decided to enjoy it while I could. Plus, I hadn’t been entirely faking my limping walk earlier—I was sore and tired. Today had been a thousand hours long.
Aoife swept the room for bugs and trackers while Alex set me back on my feet. “Thanks for the lift,” I said.
“You’re welcome.”
We were both ignoring our scorching kiss. I tried to convince myself that it was for the best. I failed.
“The room is clean,” Aoife said.
“Did either of you see who left the study?” They both shook their heads. “Then let’s hope the video caught something.”
I sat down with the security com. Aoife paced. She’d been in constant motion since the attack and I didn’t know what to say to her to get her to settle. I had as much trouble reading her as I did Alex. I was so used to understanding people’s motivations that not knowing was super frustrating.
I turned my attention to the device in my lap. The security com automatically surfaced data the software had tagged as potentially important. Even with the filters, it was still a large amount of data. I jumped to the place where the sentiment analysis had first identified anger.
Both bugs in the study were set to stream data in real time rather than buffering it for later transmission. There were pros and cons for each option, but real-time streaming meant I might get some data before the bug was discovered. Buffering meant I might get everything, but if the bug was discovered before the designated transmission time, then I would get nothing.
Whoever was in the study was definitely using a silencer, but not a quality one because it kept cutting in and out, leaving me with choppy audio and still images. Silencers were rigidly regulated and getting caught with one without authorization meant an automatic ten-year sentence. As the daughter of a High House, I had permission. House James did not.
But the black market thrived for a reason.
It was difficult to piece the recorded conversation together from two-second clips interspersed with five seconds of silence. The tone was definitely angry, and they seemed to be talking about the hover bike failure.
Then a sentence caught my attention. I played it again.
“You—tarina von—dead b—o excuses—take car—myself.”
Trying to fill in the blanks was a guessing game, but based on the rest of the conversation, the man with the Silva accent was upset that I wasn’t dead already and he was planning to fix it. The other two were trying to placate him, but it wasn’t going well.
“That sounds like a threat,” Alex said from behind me.
I locked my muscles against the urge to jerk in surprise. I’d forgotten Alex and Aoife were hovering nearby. I had the com set to a low volume, but apparently it was loud enough for them to listen in.
“This audio is awful, but I agree. It seems pretty clear that they knew about the ‘accident’ and are upset that I’m not dead. The man sounds like a Silva, but it’s hard to say for sure. I’m hoping to find a picture.”
I turned my attention to the video clips, and Alex leaned over my shoulder to see the screen. I was excruciatingly aware of him, but I kept swiping through the video clips. Lord and Lady James were easy to spot. The dark-haired man was far more difficult because he spent most of his time facing away from the camera.
“Stop,” Alex said at the same time my hand froze above the screen. Finally, one frame showed the man’s face—and it was a face I recognized.
Alex cursed. “Pack your stuff. We need to leave, now.”
I closed my eyes against a wave of bright, burning anger. There was no mistaking Riccardo Silva’s face. He was one of the younger sons of the main branch of the Silva family. He was smart and cruel and power hungry.
And he was the man responsible for cutting out my oldest brother’s tongue.
Chapter Fourteen
I couldn’t believe that Riccardo Silva had been less than five meters away, and I’d let him escape. I clenched my fists against the helpless fury and disappointment. Once again, I’d failed.
Alex was right, too. If Riccardo was here, then things were far worse than I had expected. Silvas rarely left their ships because they were hunted by the RCDF throughout the ’verse. I needed to leave, pronto.
But not before I cracked open the safe in the study.
“What do you know about Riccardo Silva?” I asked.
“He has a grudge against Bianca,” Aoife said. “And he maimed your brother.”
Bianca had told me that Alex and Aoife had helped her rescue Ferdinand, but this proved it. No one outside of family knew what had really happened to my brother. Most people didn’t even know that he’d been hurt because Father had sent him off-planet just days after his return.
I nodded slowly, thinking it through. “If Silva and House James are working together, then I have to warn Father and the rest of the House. We thought Silva had been hired for a single job, not a collaboration. I need to know what they’re planning even more than I did before.”
Because right now the pieces pointed toward open rebellion, if not against the whole Consortium, then at least against House von Hasenberg. I had to find out how extensive it was—my siblings’ lives depended on it.
“Pack your stuff,” I said, “but be quiet about it. Anything you can’t afford to leave behind should be on your person, if possible. I have to get one of my trunks to Chaos. It has too many useful supplies to be left behind.”
I stared at it, trying to figure out how to sneak it out. If I took it through the house, even with the vanisher, I risked getting caught leaving. Maybe the balcony? I switched my gaze to the door, considering it.
“How full is it?” Alex asked.
“Three-quarters.” I grimaced at him over my shoulder. “I brought a lot of stuff. I can carry it easily enough, but I don’t want to drag it through the house. Taking it over the balcony will be tricky—many of the weapons and electronics inside shouldn’t be dropped from the third story.” I headed off the obvious question. “And sadly, I didn’t pack a rope.”
“I can climb down with it,” Alex said. At my skeptical side eye, he smiled. “Have a little faith.”
“Okay. First we’ll get the supplies to the ground, so we can grab them on our way out, then we’ll hit the study after everyone is asleep. I don’t suppose one of you brought a codebreaker?”
“I have one,” Aoife said reluctantly, “but I still agree with Alex that we should leave now before they have a chance to try something else.”
I’d already decided the potential reward outweighed the risk, so I ignored the second part of her sentence. “You and Alex can hit the office while I’m in the study. If we’re going to be setting off alarms anyway, then we might as well hit both.”
“You’re not going alone,” she said, “but nice try. I can handle the office while you and Alex are in the study. Or, better yet, Alex and I can handle both while you wait outside.”
I laughed. “I don’t know what about our interaction so far makes you think that was even an option, but you get points for persistence.” I tapped my fingers against my lips. I felt like I was forgetting something. It took me far longer than it should’ve to remember Ying—I was a bad friend.
“I have to let Ying know what’s happening. I already told her to be careful, but I need to let her know I’m leaving.” And persuade her to leave with me.
As the plan ballooned in complexity, so, too, did the chance of failure. I had to get the three of us, my trunk, Ying, and her guard out of the house without getting caught, after stealing from two locked, potentially alarmed safes. No problem.
“Aoife, go pack what you need and pretend to go to sleep. When it’s time, can you loop the security video again?”
She nodded.
It was half past midnight. Late, but not late enough for sneaking around. “After you leave, we’ll turn out the lights so anyone watching will assume we’ve gone to sleep. Alex can take the trunk down and hide it on the ground. Then, after we’ve given everyone a couple of hours to find their own beds, we’ll crack the safes and head to Chaos.”
Aoife didn’t look entirely convinced, but she left for her room after a long look at Alex. He closed the door behind her, then turned off the lights and perfectly navigated through the dark room. He smiled when he caught me watching him and sprawled in the chair across from me.
It still made me very nervous that he knew part of my secret. I had to suppress the desire to tell him exactly how important it was that he keep quiet. He could destroy my life. He could destroy me. But if I made a big deal of it, I would draw even more attention to the very thing I wanted him to forget. I bit my lip and let it go.
I needed to warn my family that something was happening. I put on a pair of smart glasses because they produced less light than a com. They were already paired to my personal com, so I used them to set up a secure connection. I didn’t want House James to be able to easily intercept my messages. If they wanted to, they’d have to work for it.
Our sibling chat channel was filled with the usual gossip, but nothing like the bomb I was about to drop on everyone. I assumed either Alex or Aoife had already snitched about the attack to Bianca, so I decided to give my siblings all of the information I had. I summed up the hover bike failure, the weirdness from Chloe and Stephanie, and Riccardo Silva’s presence in one dense paragraph.
None of my brothers or sisters had posted messages recently, so I also included a paragraph about my plan to raid the safes and then get the hell out. No one was around to tell me not to do it, but in the unlikely event that I didn’t make it, at least they would have enough information to destroy House James on my behalf.
I knew what it was like to be the one sitting at home waiting for news and only getting partial updates—it sucked.
That done, I sent a formal note to Father, warning him about the new treachery taking place in House James. I had considered waiting until I left, but an early warning with little information was better than no warning at all. I told him I’d send an update once I learned more and to not send the RCDF while I was still here.
It was late in Universal Standard Time, so hopefully he wouldn’t see the message until in the morning when it wouldn’t matter anyway. Because when Albrecht von Hasenberg made up his mind, no amount of pleading or logic would change it. And I could absolutely see him sending in the RCDF and mucking up all of my plans.
Family taken care of, now I debated how I was going to alert Ying without alerting the household. I could send her a message, but it ran the risk of interception. I suppose I’d have to grab her on my way down to the study and her guard could meet us there. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best I could do.
Now I had to wait.
I looked through the display on my glasses to Alex lounging across from me. “You should get some sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”
“I could say the same to you.”
I chuckled quietly. “I’m wound too tight for sleep.”
