“We have to,” he insists. “There’s no other choice.”
“Quinn,” I ask. “Why this ship? What has you so convinced the owner hid something here? And why don’t you like him?”
“The man who owns this ship is an asshole,” Quinn tells me. “And he kidnapped my sister. He’s not going to get away with that, Fiona. He’s going to pay.”
Chapter 18
Quinn
I’ve known he was bad news since I was a teenager, since the first time he looked sideways at Hayden. I’ve known he was bad news ever since Ezra noticed it, too, and told me to watch out.
Only, after my school years ended, I didn’t keep watching out.
I got reckless, and it cost my sister.
“He didn’t kill her,” I tell Fiona. “He just took her.” I don’t know why I’m telling her this. I don’t know why I trust her enough to tell her the story. It doesn’t make any sense. We’ve only just met and no matter what the political state of my planet is in right now, the truth is that Fiona isn’t a Sapphiran. She’s not one of us. She’s a human and humans lie. Aliens lie, too, but humans are especially good at it.
“But why?”
“Why does any man take a woman?” I ask, and let my words sink in for a minute. “When my brother and I finally found her, she was hysterical. Her whole world had ended over the course of a few days. He’d taken her, and hurt her, and she’d managed to escape.” She’d managed to live. Hayden is a fucking badass and in that moment, I knew my little sister was unstoppable.
“Did you go to the authorities?” She asks. Fiona’s eyes are wide and I wonder if she’s thinking about her own recent kidnapping. I wonder if she’s thinking of trying to get the Mirroean police to help her press charges against her parents when she goes home.
“It was my fault she was taken,” I admit. It’s something I don’t want to admit, something I don’t want to talk about.
“It couldn’t have been your fault. You were young.”
“I was 21,” I tell her. “It was years ago, but I was old enough to know better.”
“Tell me,” she whispers.
“Ordinary day. Nothing special. Hector LeBlaie owns most of Diamond, the city we grew up in. Everyone knew who he was. He’s the ultimate businessman. One day, there was an event. A gala. We’d gone as alumni representatives of our school.”
“All three of you?”
“Just me and Hayden.”
“How old was she?”
“Not nearly old enough to survive what she went through. 19. She was 19 and beautiful. Everyone wanted her and she wanted no one. That’s Hayden. She’s tough. Brave. Fierce. Kind of like you,” I add, and Fiona flushes.
I don’t think anyone’s ever complimented her before.
“We were at the gala when Hayden was asked to go meet with Mr. LeBlaie. He wanted to talk with her about the speech she was going to give, or so the messenger said. She thought it was strange and asked me to go with her.”
“What happened?”
“As soon as we stepped into his office, I knew something was wrong. Someone hit me, punched me in the gut. They caught me off guard. I was smaller then, dumber. I wasn’t as aware of my surroundings. I should have known better.”
I feel Fiona’s hands on mine and she whispers gently to me.
“It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known.”
“I was on the ground and saw them haul her away.”
“That must have been terrifying.”
“I passed out from the pain. They hit me on the head and I couldn’t take it. Everything went black. When I came to, the gala was over and I was outside in the streets. I didn’t have anything on me: no money, no wallet. Nothing. I managed to go to the police, but they didn’t believe me. Hector had an alibi. He’d been at the gala the entire time and he didn’t even know who my sister was, or so he said.”