Yang’s family. Maybe she could give him some insight into how best to use the information. “He switched over the crew member families and replaced them with his own men.”
She stopped and turned to look at him. “That’s wicked.”
“Yep.” Perhaps he wouldn’t mention how he’d gotten his own place on the fleet. Though he hadn’t had a lot of say in the matter—Rico had knocked him out and given him no choice.
“All of them?” Destiny asked.
“We don’t know for sure. But all of them on the Trakis Two.”
She blinked, processing that information. “But you said Dr. Yang’s daughters were on the Trakis Two.”
“Not anymore.”
“Oh, poor Dr. Yang. Have you told her?”
“Not yet. We just found out. Not sure if we’re going to tell her. We might need her help at some point in the not-too-distant future and offering to get her family for her might make all the difference.”
“But that’s…”
“That’s what?”
He turned again so he could see her face; she had a cute little furrow between her brows. “I don’t know. It seems bad, but really it won’t make any difference to Dr. Yang’s daughters. And not much to Dr. Yang. Except put off her feeling horrible.”
She was amazing. A few days ago, she had seemed so naive. But it had only been ignorance and already she was coming up with her own version of morality.
“But won’t she find out?” she asked. “Won’t she be expecting them to join her?”
“Right now, Kinross has put a lockdown on the other ships waking up any of the Chosen Ones or family members. And most of the people are happy to follow his leadership.”
“People like to be led.”
“Yeah. My guess is some of them, including the retired crew rotations, will never be woken. He’d have a mutiny on his hands if they ever work out what happened to their families. Your Dr. Yang was an exception. She must have been woken for a reason.” And he was guessing that had something to do with Destiny. But what?
They came to another junction. “Right again,” Destiny said.
“How do you know?”
“I’m not sure. But I think I have a good sense of direction and I can sort of visualize in my head where we are in relation to the building.” They walked on. “So Kinross is not a good man?”
“He’s using child labor to build a goddamn church.”
“That’s not good. You don’t believe in God? I read the Bible and the Book of Everlasting Life. I think they are as much fiction as Fifty Shades of Grey.”
“Probably more.”
“And not nearly so…interesting.”
“You like the idea of being tied up? Does pain turn you on?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. You turn me on.”
“Maybe that’s just because you have no other options right now. Once you meet more people, that will change.”
She sniffed. “I have options. Dylan said he would…fuck me if I asked him nicely. Hard.”
He’d kill fucking Dylan first. He was messing with him. “Don’t even think about it,” he growled.
“Would you be jealous?”
“Yes.”
“I knew you liked me really.” Her tone held more than a hint of satisfaction. “Anyway, so what are you going to do about Kinross?”
“Nothing, except make sure he can’t bother us on Trakis Two.”
“What about everyone else?”
“Hey, you’re mistaking me for someone who gives a fuck. That’s their decision. If the assholes want to follow him, why should I give a damn?”
“But that’s…” She trailed off, clearly unable to come up with a word. He decided to help her out.
“Immoral?”
She scowled. “Maybe amoral. But I was thinking more along the lines of lazy. You know he’s a bad man, and he shouldn’t be in charge, and you’re just going to make sure you and your friends are safe and then leave everyone else to suffer. What about the poor little children?”
No one had helped him when he was a child. Except that wasn’t entirely true. Rico had taken him in. It wasn’t Rico’s fault that he’d been a pretty new vampire as well as a natural asshole. He’d actually made sure Milo didn’t starve and had some sort of an education, if a somewhat eclectic one. “They’ll survive. Children are tough.” But he felt a stirring of guilt and he also realized he didn’t want Destiny to think badly of him. Maybe he wanted to be her hero. Just for a little while. Maybe he’d been hoping that they would part ways before she realized he wasn’t hero material at all.
“They shouldn’t have to be tough.” She stopped. “We’re nearly