Colliding Worlds Trilogy 01 - Collision (30 page)

“Bull fucking shit.” Ace held a hand against his shoulder, a dark red stain outlining his hand. “Fucking bitch tried to kill me.”

Risa trembled in her arms. “He’s lying. I tried to protect myself. He’s jealous of Jax. He tried to hurt me when I fought back. I swear it.”

“If I wanted her dead, she’d be dead already,” Ace gritted out through clenched teeth.

At that moment, Jax strolled into the room. He stopped, stared, and muttered, “What the fuck?”

“Jax! Gods, I’m so glad you’re here.” Risa ran to him and pointed at her lover’s best friend. “That man tried to rape me!”

Jax looked in shock from Risa to Ace and back again. Ace said nothing, but his entire body tensed like a cable pulled too tight. Sienna prayed silently that he wouldn’t snap. Then, ever so slowly, Jax’s hands dropped from holding Risa. He backed away and raw anger poured over his face.

“Jax?” Risa asked in a whimper, reaching out to him.

“Bitch,” Jax ground out the word.

Risa’s jaw dropped as she stared at her lover.

“What did she do?” he asked Ace, never taking his eyes off her.

“She tried to kill me,” Ace replied. “I told her that I saw her at the coms the morning they went offline. And she freaked.”

The coms.
“The letter …” Sienna couldn’t finish the sentence. She stared at Risa. Like a rain shower, the pieces fell into place.

“He’s lying,” Risa sobbed out as she backed away from Jax.

Jax scowled. “Ace never lies.” He edged closer to her, his hand reaching behind his back. “And he would never, ever try to rape a woman. Anyone who knows him knows what happened to his sister.” A hard look fell over him. He had made a decision. And with the way he looked at Risa, it didn’t bode well for the traitor.

In a rush, Risa charged Sienna. Sienna jumped back, stopping against the wall. Risa pulled out a gun, and Sienna froze with no escape route. Risa grabbed her arm, yanking her in front as living body armor.

“Stop or else I’ll kill her,” Risa threatened, and three men who had formed a semi-circle around the women stopped in their tracks. “I’m so sorry,” she said to Jax.

“You’re sorry?” Jax asked incredulously. “I was your perfect sap. I got you access to the officers’ hall, got you into Apolo’s rooms. Don’t apologize for something you planned out detail by mother fucking detail. No. I give you kudos. You played me good. You’re one hell of an actress.”

Risa trembled behind her. “It’s not like that. At first, maybe. But once I got to know you … I have feelings for you, Jax. That was never an act.”

Jax glared. “For fuck’s sake, give it up already.”

“How could you, Risa? How could you betray your own people like this?” Sienna asked, trying to distract the med-tec as she went through a mental checklist of how to get the gun pointing at her head pointing at anything but her head or the men in the room.

“The Sephians aren’t my people. They were never my people. The woman who gave birth to me left me to die in an alley, like I was nothing but garbage. It was a Draeken who saved me. They protected us from ourselves. And how did we show our appreciation? We stabbed them in the back.”

“You were their slaves,” Sienna replied.

“No, not slaves. Not all of us. Hillas raised me as his own.”

“Hillas.” The single word fell from Legian’s lips no more than a whisper.

Risa turned Sienna to have them both face Legian. “Yes, Hillas is my father. He may not be the one who impregnated my mother, but he treated me like his daughter. He was a far better father than any Sephian could be.”

“He used you,” Legian replied.

“No. Never.”

Sienna felt the gun nudge against her temple. “He loved me. He didn’t ask me to take this mission. But I volunteered. I did it. To protect him.”

“But Hillas is dead,” Sienna said.

“Hillas is not dead. But you will be.”

The gun moved against Sienna’s temple as Risa adjusted her grip. Sienna seized her chance. Throwing her head back, she connected with something that made a loud crunch.

“Ugh!” Risa’s grip loosened, and Sienna jerked away the instant the gun went off. Heat blasted by her face, and the smell of burnt hair filled her nostrils. In slow motion, she watched Risa aim the gun at Jax. Legian yanked her to him. Jax dove for Risa.

No!

Risa shot.

Jax didn’t stop. He chopped the med-tec in the throat, knocking her to her knees. The gun dropped to the carpeted floor with a thud. Risa’s hands clawed at her throat as she struggled for air that couldn’t come. Jax had showed Sienna that move a week ago. It was sure death, he said. Her windpipe had been crushed.

Risa was dead. She just didn’t know it yet.

Blood poured from her broken nose. He just stood there and stared while Risa fought to breathe. As her eyes bulged, she reached out to Jax. He did nothing as she grabbed his pant legs before sliding down into a crumpled heap on the floor.

Silence fell over the room. No one moved for what seemed like an eternity in a black hole. Finally, Jax moved forward, only to stumble. Everyone lunged forward to grab him, and Ace got there first. Sliding an arm around his back, Ace helped him to the bed before sitting down on the cedar chest.

Sienna glanced toward the hall. “I’ll grab a first-aid kit.”

She returned from the bathroom a seconds later with her cane and an armful of supplies. Legian had torn away Jax’s shirt to reveal a nasty burn on his hip.

Ace continued to hold a hand against his shoulder. “You’re lucky she was a bad shot, brother. It grazed you.”

Jax remained silent while he stared out the window.

Dumping the supplies on the bed, Sienna grabbed some scissors and faced Ace. He lowered his hand and fresh blood seeped through his shirt.

“Knife wound,” was all he said.

“I’ll call Doc, but it will take him a couple hours to get here. In the meantime, we need to staunch the bleeding.” She cut off his shirt and then dabbed at the wound.

“It’s not too deep.”

She pressed a cloth against the wound, and he grimaced. “You’ll need stitches.”

“Nothing new to me.”

And that was something she had no doubt after seeing Ace without a shirt. Scars of all shapes and sizes littered his skin, his latest addition definitely not making the top three list for worst scars on his torso.

She stood there for a minute, keeping pressure on the wound, as she watched Legian rub salve on Jax’s burn. Every now and then Jax would wince, otherwise showing no sign of emotion.

Suddenly, Ace pushed her away. “For fuck’s sake. Give me a needle and thread already,” he muttered.

“But Doc should do that,” she replied.

He gave her a half smile before winking.

With a wary eye, Sienna backed off and sifted through the supplies for a small pre-sealed bag labeled
Suture Kit
. She tore it open and held it out for Ace. He grabbed the bag and threaded the needle like a pro. She stared while he played doctor on his own body. “Geez, Ace. Sure I can’t help?”

“Nah, I got it,” he replied. His hands were steady, although his voice was tight. Stitching his own wound had to hurt like a bitch.

Sienna heard the screen door open, and she stepped out into the hallway to see a Sephian soldier walking into the kitchen.

“Wait up, Sana,” Sienna called out to the soldier.

The Sephian woman stopped, turned, and faced her. “What can I do for you, Sienna?”

“Get Apolo and his trinity and Doc up here right away. Also, on your way out, send in two able bodies. Oh, and make sure they’re Sephian.”

Sana jumped into gear quickly and without question.

Sienna stepped into the kitchen and rummaged through cabinets. She stopped when she found what she was looking for. An old bottle of whiskey she’d bought when she wanted to kill her pain, back when she had dumbly thought booze could drown the memories of Bobby, at least for a while. Instead, all the stuff did was guarantee a lousy hangover.

She carried the Texas fifth into the bedroom, and Ace’s eyes lit up. “That’s my kind of medicine,” he said as he reached out for the bottle.

Sienna handed him the bottle and bent down and examined his new stitches. “Impressive.”

“They don’t call me Ace for nothing,” he replied before taking a long draw and handing the bottle back to her.

Sienna stepped over to the bed, where Legian had also finished patching up Jax. She offered the bottle. Without looking at her, Jax swung his legs over the side of the bed. He grunted and held his side as he dragged himself to his feet. Then he grabbed the bottle and walked out the room without even looking her in the eye.

She watched him leave and then turned to Legian and then Ace. The solemn look on their faces kept her from going after the human member of her trinity. To keep her hands busy, she pulled together the supplies, shoving them back into the plastic pouch. Ace headed into the bathroom, and she could hear water running. He came out moments later, the blood washed from his hands.

She looked down at her hands. Blood. Strange that she hadn’t even noticed it before. The sight of it didn’t bother her. And that was what scared her. She’d changed. And she wasn’t sure it was for the better.

Two Sephians stepped into the bedroom and froze when the saw the body on the floor.

Sienna pointed to the body of who had been one of her closest friends. “Get rid of that.”

Some days she wished were like
Groundhog Day
, where she could get a do-over. Today would have been one of those days. Whoever said ignorance was bliss really nailed it. Yesterday, Risa was her friend. Today, Risa tried to kill her. A part of Sienna would always love the traitor. And hate her.

She’d been through a lot in the past few months, but today she felt like she lost her innocence. Betrayal did that to a person. She had a feeling she could never become the trusting Sienna she’d used to be. She was a different woman. Jaded.

She watched without emotion as one of the men grabbed Risa’s body by the shoulders and the other by her feet, and they carried her out of the cabin and out of her sight. She didn’t know what they would do with the body. The truth was, she didn’t care. Someone she’d considered a friend had caused the death of hundreds of Sephians. That was unforgiveable.

Sienna walked into the bathroom and scrubbed her hands. Even after she knew they were clean, she kept scrubbing. Tried to wash away Risa’s betrayal that had seeped under her skin. The med-tec’s actions made no sense to her. She was the hand that led to the ambush, the base attack, and who knows what else. Hundreds of deaths would rest on her soul. What in the world could lead someone to do something so terrible?

Sienna didn’t stop scrubbing until her hands had turned red from scrubbing at them. She turned off the water and grabbed a towel. It seemed that death surrounded her, followed her. After she was dead and gone, would she be thought of as a great leader, a traitor to her kind, or the devil itself?

She hung the towel back on its hook and didn’t realize Legian had come in until he wrapped his arms around her. She started before sinking into his embrace.

“You okay?” he asked as he rocked her to a silent rhythm.

“Depends. Seems like I need to redefine ‘okay’ every day.”

He held her, saying nothing. She felt his love pouring through her, and like always, it was her anchor.

“But, yeah, I’m okay. You?” She turned around in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his waist. She held him. She didn’t want to pull away. With Legian, she felt safe. But safe didn’t cut it. Not anymore.

He responded by tightening his embrace and kissing the top of her head.

With a deep breath, she broke the connection. “I should check on Jax.”

“Want me to come with you?”

She shook her head. “It may be better if just one of us go. How about you stay here and search through Risa’s things. See if you can find out if she had anything else underway. It would be good to know more details before Apolo gets here.”

“As you wish,” he whispered before kissing her forehead.

• • •

It took Sienna the better part of an hour to find Jax passed out with the empty bottle of whiskey by his side. With a bit of help from a Ranger on patrol, she was able to get Jax back into his bedroom, although she wasn’t sure he’d appreciate the reminder once he awoke.

“Unexpected turn of events,” Apolo said as she pulled a blanket to cover Jax.

They made eye contact, and she stepped out the room, clicking the door shut behind her. Apolo followed her to the living room where his trinity, Doc, and Legian waited.

“Doc, Jax has a laser burn on his hip, and Ace patched up a cut on his own shoulder. They both need to be checked,” she said before she sat down next to the remaining member of her trinity.

“As you know, I’m not skilled in human medicine, but I’ll see what I can do. Where do I go?”

She nodded down the hallway, and he hustled off in that direction.

She sat there and scanned the faces in the room. Finally, she blurted out the words. “We found the traitor.”

Apolo leaned forward, eyeing her with interest.

“It was Risa, the med-tec.”

Murmurs filled the room.

She heard a gasp from the hallway. She looked to see Doc holding a hand to his mouth in shock. He clenched his fists, closed his eyes shook his head.

“Doc, Jax needs you now,” Sienna called out.

The doctor jerked up. Nodded and muttered, “Yes, yes,” repetitively as he stumbled to the guest room and disappeared. She had no doubt he’d blame himself — just like Jax — for not figuring Risa out earlier. She imagined there would be too much self-blame going around for a while. That’s what happened when someone close betrayed you. Someone had to be blamed. And if Risa was already dead, people would blame themselves.

But not Sienna. She had enough stuff in her life beating her up already. Guilt wasn’t going to get added to that list.

She turned back to the room and continued. “Unfortunately, we were forced to kill her before we could get much information from her. So we still have no guarantees that she was operating on her own.”