Estranged (24 page)

This definitely isn’t a
beat-cop barbecue
, Kalei thought to
herself.

Kalei noticed that only about half the
guests wore black gloves like her own, while other guests left
their hands remarkably bare: no watches or rings, or even nail
polish. The pattern was so absolute, with every guest falling into
one category or another, that Kalei had to wonder at the
significance of it.

Shenaia and Kalei stood at
the edge of the crowd, looking for any sign of Franklin. That was
when Kalei heard a voice she recognized amid the pounding notes of
the music. Obeying her ears, she stepped around a flirting couple,
and saw him standing with his back to her as he chatted with a
couple of women.
No way, it can’t
be...

Kalei walked up to the man and tapped
him on the shoulder and he turned around, flashing a smile when he
saw her face. Kalei almost didn’t recognize him with the grin; she
had never seen one on the man’s face. But she recognized the strong
jaw and the stern eyes.

“
Qain, what are you doing
here?” She glanced at his two companions, twin brunettes who eyed
her suspiciously over their wine glasses. “Where are Kas and
Teia?”

The woman on the left
asked silkily, “Qain, who is your
Estranged
friend?”

She reached out a hand to Kalei as
Qain replied, “Deviah, Denae, this is my sister-in-law, Kalei.”
Kalei was reluctant to shake hands, but she decided it would be
harmless while she was wearing the gloves. Besides, these women
looked like they would take any excuse to skin her alive, so she
obliged to the courtesy. “Kalei, these two lovely ladies are the
CEOs of Nexware.”

Shenaia stepped up to stand at Kalei’s
shoulder as the women exchanged, “Nice to meet you.”

Attempting to find the manners
appropriate to the venue, Kalei said, “And this is Shenaia, my-
associate.”

The two women laughed, their voices
high and airy. Deviah said, “Associate, that’s a good
one.”

Denae asked Shenaia, “You’re still
using that name? I thought you would have outgrown it by now. Just
because you cannot age doesn’t mean you cannot mature.” The woman
laughed, playing off the insult as a joke.

Kalei whispered to Shenaia, “How do
they know we’re Estranged?”

Shenaia whispered back, “What do you
think the gloves are for?”

“
Oh.” Kalei looked at the
twins with fresh eyes. No gloves. It seemed they were
Untouched.

Shenaia replied to Denae, “It’s boring
to stick with the things we’re born with. I see you agree with me.
You picked up a new pair of breasts since the last time I saw
you.”

While the women bantered maliciously,
Kalei glanced at Qain’s hands, expecting to find them as bare as
the ladies’. But they weren’t.

“
Qain, what the hell!”
Everyone stopped to stare at her, but Kalei didn’t notice. She only
saw the black gloves on his hands. “When did you turn
Estranged?”

Qain raised his eyebrows in surprise,
then brought them together again as he mused, “Uh, I would say...
sheesh, I can’t remember exactly. It’s been years...”

“
Years? It can’t be years.
Just last year you were bringing Kas and Teia over for us to
babysit—”

Qain laughed out loud. “I knew it was
a mistake when Landen sent you into SWORDE as his...” Qain glanced
at the two women, and then smiled at Kalei, “....close friend. You
still don’t know about the girls? Those aren’t my kids. Landen had
me put up the ruse so I could keep an eye on you.”

Kalei grabbed him by his shirt. “What
the hell are you talking about?”

Qain took off his black glove, reached
his hand up, and grabbed her arm. His fingernails held no patterns
or smileys. They were full black. She shoved him off before his
darkness could find her. “So Teia and Kas aren’t your kids? Then
whose are they!”

The crowd shifted and Kalei heard
Landen’s voice behind her. “That’s a good question. The truth is,
we don’t know who their parents are. They’re simply a pair of
orphans we rescued from the orphanage.”

Kalei spun around and to look at him.
Landen Franklin was a bit shorter than he looked in his pictures,
but he was still a couple inches taller than she was. And he hadn’t
aged a day since she last chatted with him a few months ago.
Although today, he wore a trim black suit – not quite black-tie,
but very sharp. He continued, “It was very difficult keeping my men
away from those two. But you know how that goes, don’t you,
Shenaia?” He grinned at her, but Shenaia met his attention with a
level stare.

Kalei interrupted the exchange. “So
what? It was all a joke? Some kind of sick game?”

Landen set his glass down on a nearby
waitress’s platter. “I wouldn’t call it a game. It was more of a
means to keep in contact. Family visits are much more personal than
a security camera on the wall, not to say that we didn’t take
advantage of both opportunities. Speaking of family, I’m betting
you are here to find out where your husband is, right? Don’t worry,
he hasn’t left the city. I made sure of that. I believe they kept
the kids penned up with him too. As for their exact location, well,
I’m afraid I can’t share that information with you. But...” He
waved the subject off with a sweep of his hand. “This isn’t the
place to be talking about family disputes. This is a party! I think
it’s time to kick things off. How ‘bout you?” He smiled at her, his
face radiating energy and excitement.

Kalei pressed her hand against her
forehead in an attempt to drive back a growing headache. “No.” Her
head was spinning. Why the hell was he keeping tabs on her? And
what did he mean when he said that he’d made sure Fenn hadn’t left
the city? But what pissed Kalei off the most... “Why the hell would
you take two innocent girls and put them in harm’s way! Raising
them around a bunch of Estranged?” Kalei spun around and walked up
to Qain, her face just inches from his. “And you. How could you lie
to your brother! What happened to the venturing entrepreneur Fenn
was always looking up to? The big brother who was always doing
everything bigger and better because he was just so awesome like
that. Where the hell is he? ‘Cuz he sure as hell ain’t
you!”

Qain laughed and leaned back. “Oh, I’m
still at the top of the food chain, sis. I’m on the Board of
Directors for the number one tech company in the world. I’ve got
ladies, I’ve got drinks, and – even better than all the rest – I’ve
got top access to the best stuff in the whole damn city.” He
wiggled his black fingers in front of her nose as he grinned
maliciously.

Kalei pulled her gun. Behind her, a
couple of voices cried out and the crowd pulled back as sudden as a
quickly drawn breath. Then everyone froze.

Kalei glanced over her shoulder.
Shenaia had her gun drawn too, aimed straight at Landen Franklin’s
head. Franklin and a half dozen of his guards scattered throughout
the crowd had their own guns and returned the favor. For the most
part, everyone bore standard issue pistols, but Landen’s revolver
was twice the size, silver, and polished to a reflective sheen.
There was no branding it, the gun was clearly custom made. The
overall design was as sleek as any sports car’s, with the cylinder
shaved down until just enough metal remained to hold the bullets,
and a deep red ink was painted into every streamlined etching along
the barrel.

Kalei lifted one hand up in surrender
and, with the other, she slowly placed her gun on the floor,
turning to face Landen as she did so. She glanced at Shenaia, who
still held her gun at the ready. Kalei forced a polite smile onto
her face, stood up straight, and said, “Come on. I’m sure your
guests don’t want to start off the night with
bloodshed.”

Franklin looked off to the side,
knitting his eyebrows together quizzically, then he looked back to
Kalei and replied, “You know, I have to disagree. I think they do.”
He pulled the trigger.

Kalei heard the sound of a voice
blaring over a speaker. The thick distortion the microphone added
to his voice reminded her of the time she went to see a comedian
with Fenn. The man had pranced back and forth across the stage,
sending the entire audience into fits of laughter with his
quips.

But this voice wasn’t telling jokes.
He sounded serious, impassioned, excited. She tried to focus her
attention to hear what he was saying, “...proven ourselves to be
the best this city has to offer. Every single person in this room
has the power to make a difference in this city. And we already
have. Take a look around, between the tech and port industries,
Celan has the biggest economy of any other city in Dendara. Why?
Because we made it that way.”

Kalei’s head was groggy. She couldn’t
fully wrap her thoughts around what he was saying. She couldn’t
even make sense of where she was. She felt like she was...
floating. Her arms and legs hung limp before her, but they came in
contact with nothing. Around her, she felt... nothing. The only
thing she felt was a tight pressure across her chest and
hips.

In the background, somewhere out in
the nothingness, the voice continued. She recognized belatedly that
it was Landen Franklin’s voice. “...isn’t the only valuable
resource in this city. We are a valuable resource to this city. So
why should we let our resources go to waste? Why should we lose our
minds and our bodies to the ravages of old age? Why should we let
everything we are, and everything we’ve built fade away just
because time has decided we’re done?”

Kalei forced her eyes open, tired of
being left in the dark. She saw another pair of eyes about forty
feet below, peering back at her. She blinked and realized she was
looking at a lion. Abruptly, she yelled and tried to pull back, but
there was nothing to grab, nothing to push off. Instead, her sudden
movement sent her spinning as she realized she was dangling by a
harness, with the cord attached firmly to the center of her back.
And beneath the harness, she was appalled to find that someone had
dressed her in tight blue, polyester shorts with a black halter
bikini top. The harness fit awkwardly around and under her breasts,
acting more as a push-up bra than an actual restraint. Around her,
the world slowly slid by and she saw curtains, a dark recess with
lights and scaffolding, and then – an audience. About fifty to a
hundred people looking up at her. She glanced down again and
realized she was dangling above a stage, with the lion penned in a
small glass enclosure below her.

Kalei knew she had to find
a way out. Her hands scrambled to find the clasps of the harness.
She knew she could survive the fall, even if it was a forty-foot
drop.
I mean, I’m Estranged. I survived a
gunshot to the head. A little fall should be nothing.
Her racing heart didn’t seem to agree.

But as her hands closed on a clasp,
she noticed the lion shift with anticipation below, and she
realized that it wasn’t the fall she would have to worry
about.

At the head of the stage, Landen
Franklin turned around, a small microphone pinned to his shirt. He
saw her and smiled as he said, “Ah, our first guest is awake. See?
This is what I’m talking about. Not even a bullet could quench the
fire in this young woman.” The crowd roared and cheered in
response.

Kalei tried in vain to stop herself
from spinning, but the world continued to turn, and as the clapping
died, Kalei found herself facing the left half of the stage. Lying
on the floor, dressed in halter-top and shorts to match Kalei’s,
complete with a harness strapped around her chest and a cable
stretched out slack behind her, was Shenaia.

“
Shenaia!” Kalei didn’t
know why she called out. Perhaps it was just to make sure the young
woman was alive. Seeing her lying limp like that awoke fierce
emotions of fear and concern in Kalei that she didn’t know she
could feel toward the teen. “Hey! Shenaia!” Kalei couldn’t see if
her efforts were working. She was already spinning away.

But she heard Landen say, “Ah, I see
your sister is stirring as well.”

Kalei yelled at the curtains, “Why the
hell are you guys always calling her my sister!”

Landen and a few members of the
audience laughed. “Kalei, you can’t be serious.” As Kalei turned
again to face the crowd, Landen walked over to the front of the
lion’s cage to look up at her. The lion stood up, eying the man
hungrily. Landen looked into her face, and Kalei glared back at
him, hungrier than the lion. After a brief pause, Landen laughed
again. “You really don’t know. Kalei, that’s your sister Jenna over
there.”

Kalei didn’t have a response. Even as
he finished saying it, her spinning harness turned her to look at
Shenaia. She was starting to sit up now. Her short hair was mussed,
the heavy makeup was smeared... at this distance, it was hard to
see much more detail than that. But now that he said it... it had
been almost twenty years since Kalei had seen her sister, even if
she was alive... but now that he mentioned it, there was no
mistaking the way she held herself, the set of her jaw as she
clenched her teeth, and if there was still any doubt—

Shenaia abruptly leaped after Landen.
“Franklin, you son of a bitch!” The harness stopped her attack, but
the way she fought and pulled against it brought a memory to the
forefront of Kalei’s mind. A bully had pulled Jenna by her
backpack, and she had fought against the restraining straps with
the exact same stance, the exact same swipes of her hand as Shenaia
did now. The bully had gone to the hospital and Jenna was suspended
for a week. This really was the nineteen-year-old version of her
sister Jenna. How could she not see it...? Then again, she had
never expected to find that her older sister was younger than her.
Yet before Kalei could fully grasp the idea, the harness spun Kalei
away from her sister, and she found herself facing the curtain
again. Kalei wasn’t sure if it was the spinning or the roiling
emotions that made her nauseous.