CHAPTER 38

Reece

A rty was moving at high speeds when class ended, beating everyone else out of the room and into the elevator before we could catch up. Bromm and I tried, and Foryk kept pace though he remained unaware of the reason for our rush. He didn’t complain though, which was nice. If it had been anyone else I didn’t think they would have been so understanding. Or silent. The big man certainly had a way with no words, that was for sure.

Regardless, Arty managed to find himself the sole rider of the elevator, the door slamming shut right before we reached him.

‘Damn,’ Bromm cursed under his breath. He was panting slightly from the mad dash to try to catch Arty, and he seemed genuinely upset to have missed him. While I was aware of the strange dynamics of their budding relationship, I was concerned for the both of them that they would get hurt. Arty wasn’t ready for a commitment of any kind, and he clearly wasn’t going to allow anyone close to him while he was undercover. Which was why we needed to confront him about it and let him know that even though we knew, we weren’t upset with him.

I was struggling to find a reason for his mission. Despite the assault and the never-ending aftermath, there wasn’t anything that stood out to me that deserved further investigation. Either he was up to something nefarious, which I sincerely doubted after watching him and learning his reactions and mannerisms, or whatever he was investigating was incredibly well-hidden.

Except… There was that one conversation we overheard on our first day as a team. The one about the illegal organisation. Oh, shit. Of course . That was it.

‘Bromm,’ I said, smacking him repeatedly on the arm in my eagerness to tell him what I’d just figured out. He grabbed my hand and firmly lowered it down by my side, and I gave him a sheepish look in apology when he rubbed at the spot I’d been hitting.

Then I noticed Foryk eyeing me weirdly and the voices coming closer as the rest of the cadets approached the elevator.

Bromm must have realised the same thing I did. ‘Let’s talk back in the room.’

Foryk followed close behind, and Dorian’s team pushed through the crowd to make it in with us just in time. While the other team shot us mildly concerned looks, they shrugged off the weirdness. At this point Arty acting strange and distant while the rest of us scrambled to figure out how to fix things was becoming a pattern, so I understood their dismissiveness.

I had to repeat to myself over and over that it was most likely a good sign for Arty to be reacting the way he did. Every time he got spooked he would come back around with a little bit more of those walls of his chipped away. I figured that was why he was freaking out so much, because we were finding those cracks and making them bigger and wider until we were able to squeeze through. We were slowly but surely wedging our way inside and, combined with his secrets, he was afraid.

Of what, was the real question. And Bromm and I were equally determined to find out.

Foryk trailed close by as we entered Brin’s suite, and I exchanged a look with Bromm that proved he was just as eager for privacy as me. I came to a screeching halt, however, when I realised that wasn’t going to be possible, because standing at attention in the centre of the living room was the captain flanked by a brilliantly green, Tornu law enforcement officer with enough badges on his chest to prove he was the one in charge. Arty was also there, though he was sitting in the armchair, his face pinched and pale.

‘Reece Hastings,’ the stranger began and the captain took a step back, submitting to the other. ‘You are hereby placed under arrest for the assault of Katira Christianson and Ari Pifluk. Anything you wish to say can and will be used against you during your trial, so it is advised you remain silent. Please place your hands behind your back and prepare to be restrained.’

My head was shaking in disbelief, and instead of complying I backed up. ‘But there was surveillance evidence that it wasn’t me,’ I protested, not understanding how this was happening.

‘The surveillance evidence has been submitted to the courts and will be reviewed. As of this moment, you are under arrest. Please comply,’ the man said, moving towards me.

‘Sir,’ Arty piped up as he stood, but one look from the captain had him rooted in place. ‘Captain, you can’t let him do this. You know it wasn’t him.’

‘My hands are tied, cadet. Reece Hastings has been discovered to be the assailant by evidence uncovered by the IU law enforcement officials. It is not my place to stand in the way of justice,’ he said, but even though his tone was brimming with apology he was still allowing this man to arrest me for a crime we all know I didn’t commit. ‘Reece, do as he says. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.’

Not knowing what else to do, I turned around and placed my hands behind my back, my shoulders slumped and head bowed in defeat. I knew this was Tarren’s doing. He’d always had it out for me since I was the only mutt in our purist community. It didn’t surprise me he would stoop to such a low to hurt me, but it hurt even more that the captain, who had done so much to protect me so far, was allowing this to happen.

‘They won’t find you guilty, Reece,’ Bromm said from beside me. ‘There’s already enough evidence to prove it wasn’t you. This is just because they can’t find the real asshole who did it. You’ll be out in no time.’

I couldn’t look at him, shame burning through me at being placed in this position in front of my team yet again. That shame was compounded when Dorian’s team finally caught up and entered the room, just in time to see me being carted off in handcuffs.

‘What’s going on?’ Dorian asked.

‘Reece is being charged with the assault,’ Foryk answered.

‘What? Why? Those charges were already dismissed,’ Cadmus exclaimed, and I was taken aback by the protectiveness in his tone. He even tried to step in front of the officer to prevent him from taking me out of the room, but he was quickly pulled back by Henrik.

‘Don’t. We’ll get him out, but we can’t impede an arrest without getting arrested ourselves,’ he warned him in a low hiss.

‘This is wrong,’ I heard Arty call while the door was still open. ‘You’re wrong. How could you do this?’

‘Mercer, it’s not my call.’

‘Fuck that. And fuck you. I’m not sticking around to watch an innocent man go down for something so heinous,’ he snapped.

The door closed before I could hear any more of the words exchanged, but I did hear their elevated voices.

The officer guided me to the same suite I had been held in before, but before we got there he stopped, glanced up and down the corridor, then leaned in close. ‘I’m sorry, but we have to arrest someone. Fighting back won’t help you.’

I reared back as if he had punched me. He wasn’t making any sense. ‘I don’t understand,’ I whispered back, matching his secretive tone. ‘Is this Tarren’s doing?’

‘Tarren Christianson? He is playing a part it in, yes, but he’s not who you have to worry about. You might be in cuffs right now, kid, but something else is going on. All I can say is I’m sorry you’re getting caught up in it, but when we walk through those doors I can’t be Mister Nice Guy, do you understand? This arrest is real, and it is serious.’

I shook my head. ‘No, I don’t understand. My innocence was already proven.’

He looked me steadily in the eyes and refused to let me break the connection. ‘I don’t have the answers, kid, I just wanted you to know you have people in your corner. Now let’s go, we’re out of time.’

He scanned his hand to allow our entry into the suite. It opened to reveal the team that had spread the rumours about me lounging about as if they were on vacation rather than being held as prisoners. They stopped what they were doing to gape at me and the large green officer. I glanced back at him, finally comprehending that I was about to be spending a lot of time with the very people who dropped my name in the shit to begin with.

‘You can’t be serious,’ I snapped.

‘Get moving, Hastings. Now.’

He gave me a firm shove to force me forward, and I stumbled into the room. It took a little longer than usual to find my balance with my hands cuffed behind my back, and the other boys in the room snickered.

‘Quiet!’ the officer’s voice snapped out like a whip and demanded instant obedience. They complied, eyeing the angry Tornu with trepidation. ‘I don’t want to hear another peep out of any of you, you hear me? Now sit down, shut up, and wait for further instructions. You’re being moved into a proper holding cell today.’

He walked back out into the corridor before any of us could respond. And terse silence permeated the room when I turned to glare at the assholes who had put me in this position in the first place.

‘Who really did it?’ I demanded.

One of them made a sound of derision. A Drakfern was spread out on one of the sofas so no one else could sit there, his feet propped up on one of the arms and his arms spanning the backrest. ‘You’re the rapist here. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you ,’ he sneered.

‘Cut the shit,’ I spoke, my tone serious and possessing a warning note of danger that had never come from me before. ‘We all know it wasn’t me. You saw who it was. Tell me.’

The Drakfern used slow movements meant to intimidate as his feet slid back to the ground and he rose. He towered over me, my Yu’Rom genes lacking his Drakfern height, but I stood my ground and glared the asshole down.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, mutt . We saw you . You’re the fucking rapist, just like we said you are,’ he spat at me.

My blood boiled. Who did this guy think he was? I wanted to lash out, to tear my wrists free from my restraints and choke him with the chain. I wanted to see his face swell and turn purple, and I wanted to see my marks left behind on his skin. I wasn’t a naturally aggressive male, but I wasn’t a damn doormat.

But then the Tornu officer’s words played back in my brain. I needed to be careful here. I was sure there were surveillance cameras watching our every move and that anything I did would be used to propagate my ‘guilt’. These idiots weren’t worth it, so I turned my back on them and walked over to an empty corner to wait.

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’re nothing but a weak little coward,’ the Drakfern tried to get a reaction from me, and while my muscles tensed at the insult it was more in preparation for a physical attack in case he tried to come at me while my back was turned.

I continued to ignore him. All four of them spent the next few turns – or however long it was that we were waiting for the Tornu officer to return – spewing insults at me and trying to coax me into a fight. I refused to take the bait, losing myself in my mind and everything that had happened these past few weeks.

One thing I was positive of was that Arthur Mercer was a good person. I blatantly refused to believe otherwise. Even today with everything he was going through, he still stood up for me despite his inability to actually do anything. He still believed in me and stood by me in spite of the accusations and arrests.

And Bromm saw it in him, too. I wasn’t attracted to Arty so I struggled to wrap my head around the jealousy I felt when those two were together, or when I found out that they had fooled around. It probably stemmed from my desire to have a real friend, one I could have all to myself without anyone trying to take them away with lies or manipulation. I knew it wasn’t the same, that their attraction for one another was real, and it was obvious it burned hot , but that didn’t stop the pang of self-consciousness that I wasn’t enough for him; that he wouldn’t want to remain friends if he had someone like Prince Brommyt Min’Tuk by his side and in his bed.

I had never wished to be gay more than when I saw those two making heart-eyes at each other. I wanted his attention on me, and it was such a deeply rooted response that it confused me more often than not. If I hadn’t been so confident in my sexuality I might have started questioning myself. Stars, I had started questioning myself, but I kept shooting it down. Was that it? Was I attracted to Arty and was refusing to acknowledge it?

Well… either way it didn’t matter now. I was being carted off to a jail cell while he was with Bromm, so there wasn’t anything I could do about it now.

Nor could I tell Bromm about my epiphany. Whatever Arty was truly here for, it had something to do with that illegal experimentation organisation. There was no other explanation. I just prayed to the stars and anyone who would listen that he would find what he was looking for and successfully take them down. If anyone deserved a win it was him.

Maybe it would even help him to heal his past traumas. At the very least he deserved a good night’s sleep without being haunted by those nasty nightmares of his .

Something banged loudly against the suite’s front door, and each of us jumped, the other guys immediately pausing in their verbal assault. It happened again, and then the door suddenly slid open only for the Tornu officer and CWO Brin to tumble inside. Brin was huffing and puffing, her face flushed and her eyes wild. The officer was in a similar state, but was composed enough to close the door and, for some reason, engage the locks.

‘Brin?’ I drew her attention to me. She relaxed marginally when she saw me and immediately joined me in my little corner, her arms going around me in an embrace.

‘Oh, thank fuck you’re okay,’ she mumbled into my chest.

I wasn’t able to hug her back with my arms stuck behind my back, so I settled for resting my cheek against the top of her head and nuzzling into her. ‘I’m fine, Brin. What’s going on?’

‘We’re under attack,’ the Tornu stated as he stood above us as if he could physically shield us from whatever was going on outside with his body alone.

‘An attack? From whom? Where are the others?’ I asked, my voice rising in pitch alongside my worry.

‘I don’t know,’ Brin admitted. ‘All I know is that Xander sent Kir to come get me because it’s not safe. Then there were these… soldiers . They had weapons I’ve never seen before and they were shouting and shooting and people were dropping…’

‘Did you check the other rooms?’ I asked.

‘No–’ she began but was cut off by the Tornu… Kir.

‘The other rooms have already been overrun. The Carina is compromised, cadet. Stars, Nova Station and everything on it has been overrun.’

‘What do we do?’ asked one of the other apprehended cadets, this time someone other than the Drakfern.

‘We hunker down and wait it out until we either find a way out or we’re captured,’ said Kir, his expression hard but he sounded beaten .

‘That can’t be it,’ I argued. ‘There must be something we can do.’

Kir came to stand behind me and released my wrists from their restraints. I rubbed them, relieved to be free but wondering how long it would last.

‘The captain has been captured,’ he informed us.

‘No!’ Brin cried. ‘No, he’s fine! You’re lying.’

The sadness in his gaze as he looked down at her told me everything. He was being truthful.

‘No…’ she repeated, and then slumped to the floor and hung her head as tears streamed down her pink cheeks.

I settled beside her and pulled her in close, letting her cry into me. There wasn’t anything to do. If Kir was correct and the entire station was under siege, we would either have to wait until someone came to get us – which would be whatever side won – or we’d have to go out there and fight, and possibly lose our lives in the process.

But by the way Kir was behaving, I got the sense there was no point to either. Whatever was going on out there, I suspected we had already lost.