Dealers' Choice - Susan Hayes Page 0,4

the walls of the room while her body twitched on the floor at his feet. Even knowing this wasn’t the real thing, the urge to inflict even some small fraction of the hurt she’d done to them was almost overwhelming.

Almost, but not quite.

He eased his grip from around her neck and the simulation gasped, sucking in a lungful of air. Veth, the doctor had designed the hologram to react like a real person. Which meant she’d react to pain… No. He wasn’t plotting that course. It didn’t lead anywhere good. If he tapped into the darkness coiled tightly in his soul, he didn’t know if he’d ever manage to lock it away again.

He let her go and the simulation swayed but managed to stay on its feet. “How’s that for an honest—” He didn’t get to finish his weak attempt at a joke, because his brother lunged at Ariel with a wordless howl of fury, grabbing her by the hair.

“Why did you do it?” He screamed, pulling the sim’s head back, so she was looking up at them. “Why did you steal our lives, Ariel? What was the fraxxing point of it all?”

The sim smiled, and Ward’s stomach twisted in recognition. He knew that expression. Feral and cruel, it always heralded a new round of punishments and humiliations.

“I was following orders. That’s all,” she said.

Vic snarled. “Whose orders?”

The smile didn’t leave her face as she answered, “The Gray Men, of course. You know that.”

The shock of hearing her admit to it was enough to remind them both that this was a sim. Their handler had been careful to never mention who she worked for, not once in all the time they’d been dancing to her demented tune.

“You’re not her.” Vic released her and stepped back, his hands fisted and clamped tight to his side. “This isn’t real.”

Ward dropped a hand onto his twin’s shoulder. “It’s not real,” he repeated.

Vic turned his head, and Ward tightened his grip. There was more darkness in his brother’s eyes than he’d ever seen before, and it worried him. Vic was the strong one. The one who had the best chance of making it through.

“I didn’t realize.” He didn’t elaborate. There was no need. Vic would know what he meant.

“Neither did I.”

“Computer, pause program,” Xori said.

The sim froze. He watched it for a second, needing to be sure she wouldn’t move if he turned his back on her. No. On it.

He sucked in a deep breath and moved the same time Vic did, both of them pivoting to face Xori.

“But you knew, didn’t you, doctor?” Vic asked, his words clipped.

Xori nodded. “That you were still angry? Yes, I knew.”

“But he was getting better,” Ward protested.

“You’re both improving. Not being angry isn’t the goal. We’re all angry about things in our past. It’s what you do with those feelings that’s important.” She held out her hands, palms up. “There’s an old human adage that I’d like you to think about. Each of us has two wolves inside us.”

“I like this story already,” Ward murmured.

“You would. Why are there never foxes in these stories?” Vic grumbled.

Xori shook her head, a small smile touching her lips. “They could be foxes if you’d like. The point is, there are two animals fighting for dominance within us. One represents all our darkest feelings: anger, sorrow, regret, arrogance. The other stands for the best parts of us: hope, peace, kindness, and love. The animal that wins this fight is the one we choose to feed.”

She looked at Vic. “Pretending one of the foxes isn’t there isn’t a solution.” She turned to Ward. “We have to be aware of both sides and then decide which one to nurture.”

Was that what Vic had been doing?

Ward gave an inward sigh. If that was true, then he would need to stick around a little longer. He couldn’t move on until he was sure Vic was going to be alright without him. Getting him together with Xori was part of the plan. They’d make a good team. Take care of each other. It had taken him a while to see it, but now he knew what he needed to do. First, he’d make sure Vic was happy. Then, he could walk away and leave him to his new, better life.

Chapter Two

Dinner. Not a date. Just dinner.

She would keep telling herself that until she believed it, because that’s all it could be. Humans still had some oddly rigid rules when it came to relationships in general, but