Milo had been quiet since the call. As Dylan disappeared out the door, he turned his chair, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pressed his head to her stomach. They stood quietly for a moment, as she stroked her fingers through his hair. Finally, he raised his head. “Well, that went better than expected. You did good,” he said. “He liked you.”
“He did?” It hadn’t seemed that way to her. She wondered what he would have done if he hadn’t liked her. “What did you think was going to happen?” she asked.
He held her gaze. “I thought he would tell me to kill you.”
And she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask whether he would have done as his uncle ordered.
Where did Milo’s loyalties ultimately lie?
Chapter Thirty-One
“Oh, mankind, race of crocodiles! How well I recognize you down there, and how worthy you are of yourselves!”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
“How are you feeling?” Elvira asked.
She glanced at the thermometer; his temperature was normal. Luther actually looked much better. He had some color and was out of bed. “I’m fine,” he snapped. “Stop fussing.”
She wanted to scream at him. Of course she was fussing. What did he expect? He held the life of her babies in his hands. He was a conscienceless monster. She wanted to ask about them, to beg him to reconsider.
Last night, she’d taken thirty minutes off to go visit the delegates from the Trakis Two, but their shuttle had been empty, and no one knew their whereabouts. And now the whole colony was buzzing with the news that the Trakis Two shuttle had exploded, but no one knew the details or whether anyone had been hurt or killed in the explosion, and she couldn’t ask Luther. He might get suspicious.
“Where the hell is Silas?” he asked. “I told him I wanted to see him.”
How was she supposed to know? She bit back the words. Her head ached and her brain felt mushy and uncooperative. She’d been watching Luther around the clock, terrified that he would die on her and then everything would have been for nothing. She clamped her lips closed and forced a smile to her face. “I’ll go see if I can find out.”
She needed to get away from him. The hatred was churning inside her and she was fighting the urge to scream at him, to rake her nails down his face. She’d sold her soul to a monster, but it wasn’t as though she’d had a choice. It had been either that or stay on Earth and meet the inevitable end. She’d done this for her children so they would have a future, and now it was all falling apart, crumbling.
Where was Destiny?
It was as if she had vanished off the face of the planet.
Could she have been eaten by some wild indigenous animal? They hadn’t actually encountered any carnivores big enough to eat a person yet, but who knew what was on the planet?
Even if that were the case, it wouldn’t explain how she had gotten out of a locked cell. How nobody had seen her.
She headed to the door, but it opened before she reached it and Silas stood there.
“How is he?” he asked quietly.
“He’s fine.”
“Good. I have some news.”
He stepped past her and she followed him back into the room.
“Do you want me to go?” she asked.
“No,” Luther said. “Stay.”
Damn. She wanted out of there. She wanted to find out what was going on. Though maybe she would have a better chance of that in here. She sank down onto a chair at the edge of the room and held her hands together on her lap to stop the tremor.
“Well,” Luther said. “Give me your report.”
“The shuttle was set to explode using a motion sensor trigger. We had someone watching from a distance and they didn’t see anyone enter. But it exploded.”
“Bloody incompetents.”
“Maybe. I’m not so sure. Anyway, we found no sign of any bodies, so whoever triggered the explosion got out.”
“And no one has seen them?”
“Not since yesterday morning.” Silas pulled a flash drive from his pocket and crossed to where a viewer sat on a small table. “Well, until now. You might want to watch this.”
“What is it?”
“A recording from the head camera of one of the men who were watching the shuttle.”
Elvira shifted so she could see the screen. At first, she couldn’t make out what it was…something burning. The shuttle?