“That’s not what I’m doing,” I tell him hotly.
“Not yet. But if you go in there with Melissa, you’ll start. She won’t say it’s okay, because for her it’s not. You killed her friend. You gotta learn to live with that.”
I shake my head in frustration.
“You told Hyperion here because you thought he’d make it all better, didn’t you?”
I want to leave. I want to pull my knife, take my best shot at him, and shut his mouth.
“But he couldn’t do it, could he? What’d he tell you, Kitten? That you’d never get over it?”
“ I killed a woman.”
“ You’ll never get over it.”
Stupid freaking know-it-all pimp!
“You’ve done it, haven’t you, Hyperion?”
There’s a long pause, a silence that fills the room, expands then bursts, leaving it feeling empty and cold.
“Yeah,” Ryan admits roughly.
“We all have. Anyone who really wants to live has done it.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m okay with it,” I mutter.
“No one says you should be.”
“This is pointless,” I snap, sorry I brought it up. “We need to decide where we go from here.”
“I told you, same as I told the people out there: we don’t make a move with your friends until we get our hands on the guy who killed Rebecca.”
“They’ll never hand him over,” Ryan tells him honestly.
Vin spreads his hands. “Then where we go from here is nowhere. Not with the cannibals.”
“You’re being impossible,” I growl. “You know you don’t stand a chance without their help.”
“I also know everyone here won’t work with those people, not in a million years.”
“Not even if they get Bryan,” Ryan agrees.
“Nope. It’s just not going to happen. So I don’t care that they won’t hand him over. In fact, I’m counting on that.”
“Because then it’s their choice that you don’t work together, not yours.”
“We tried to be reasonable,” Vin says in mock sadness.
I begin to the pace the room, unable to hide my frustration. “You’ve already been living on borrowed time here, using the Leaders you captured to put on a show. That can’t last forever. Eventually one of them will get sick of prison and betray you, even if it means dying. Then what will you do? The Colony will be at your door in a heartbeat and your Guard can’t hold them off.”
“I could hand it over to Marlow instead,” Vin suggests calmly. “Absorb it into The Hive.”
“The other Colonies won’t just let that go. They’ll take it back.”
“We’ll find out.”
I stop pacing, my eyes landing on his unnaturally calm face. “When?”
“Soon,” he says quietly, watching me too. “In the next half hour or so.”
“He’s on his way, isn’t he?”
“He’s been spotted. He’s bringing an army. Just like you said he would.”
I square my shoulders, standing tall and defiant. “You don’t think that I—”
“Why would I?”
“But you don’t trust anyone.”
Vin looks down at his desk where his hands are clasped together loosely. He’s absently spinning his ring on his finger the way he does when he’s thinking, only I wonder if it’s as unconscious an act as I imagine. He pauses, pulling the ring from his finger and looking it over thoughtfully.
“Today is as good a day as any to start,” he mutters.
“What’s the plan?” Ryan asks curtly. “What will you do when Marlow gets here?”
“I haven’t decided,” Vin says on a sigh, slipping the ring back on his finger. “I’ll open the doors. I’ll let him in. I’ll listen. From there, I don’t know.”
“Letting him in is pretty much letting him have this place,” I remind him.
“It’s better than letting the Colonies have it back.”
“They’ll probably take it back anyway.”
“Maybe. But they have bigger things on their mind right now.”
“Like what?”
“Like the mess you started with the Vashons.”
I scowl at him. “We didn’t start anything. Marlow sent us to them and—”
“He sent the Colonists there too,” Ryan says.
“What?”
Vin is nodding at Ryan. “I think so. The timing is too perfect. He sent you there and days later the Colonists attack an enemy they’ve left alone for at least four years? Pretty convenient.”
“But why?” I ask.
“Because he’s not strong enough to attack them himself.”
“The Colonists or the Vashons?”
“Take your pick. He hates them both. Now they’re busy fighting each other.”
“The Hive boat,” Ryan says bitterly. “He sent us sailing down the river in the dead of night in a bright white boat, straight past the Colonies, heading for Vashon Island. He probably gave it a day, and then went to the Colonies and told them he’d been to a meeting with the Vashons. A meeting they called about joining forces and overthrowing them.”
“It’s not completely a lie,” I say.
“But it was the other way around. It was him bringing the idea to the Vashons.”
“Intent is everything,” Vin agrees.
“So now Marlow has the Colonies fighting the Vashons, two of the largest forces left in the city. His two biggest rivals.”
“And one of his closest men is on the inside of an undefended Colony building,” I say, looking to Vin.
“He thinks he’s coming here to take this place,” he says quietly. “He has no idea it’s already been taken.”
“He’ll kill people,” Ryan warns.
“Not if I throw the doors open and go out to meet him.”
“That’s why you’re opening the doors to him?” I ask skeptically. “To save the lives of the people inside?”
“Well, that and I don’t want him damaging my home.”
“You still think you can hold onto it?”
He stands suddenly, his eyes hard. Determined. “Either I keep what’s mine,” he says severely, “or I’ll watch it burn.”
“And what happens to the people inside? The ones following you? Trusting you blindly?”
“We all have our own paths to follow,” he replies coldly.
I scoff at him. “You’re full of it.”
“Usually, yes.”
“You won’t leave these people to die and you won’t leave them to Marlow. You’re not that selfish.”
He raises his eyebrows at me. “Since when?”
“Since you tasted real leadership. Not control, not fear, not power. They follow you because they love you and you get off on that more than anything.”
“I wouldn’t say more than anything. I’m still a man, Kitten.”
“Then act like one.”
He grins slightly, eyeing me. “Gladly.”
“Stop.”
Vin and I both look at Ryan. He’s standing just behind me, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes locked on Vin. He’s not himself—not the warm, funny guy I’ve come to know and love.
He’s Arena Ryan, made of stone and fire.
“Stop talking to her like that,” Ryan warns Vin, “or I’ll show you what a man looks like.”
Vin’s grin doesn’t falter, but his eyes change. They’re amused. “I understand it’s meant to sound like a threat, but I feel like you’re flirting with me, Hyperion.”
“You’re not my type and she’s not yours, so back off.”
“Is that how it is? You’re finally staking your claim on her?”
“She’s not a piece of property to be claimed.”
Vin snorts. “That’s cute, but it’s a lie and you know it. Things aren’t like they used to be. Resources are scarce. She’s one of the rarest items I’ve seen in a long time and if you don’t hurry up and mark your territory, someone else will and it won’t be sweet and it sure as hell won’t be pretty.”
Ryan tenses. “It won’t happen like that. Not as long as I’m alive.”
“You’re walking around with a diamond in your hand hoping a city of thieves will let you keep it. Once Marlow marches through that door, you won’t be able to keep her any more than I can keep this Colony.” Vin’s voice lowers, softening slightly. “We’re both about to lose everything. I’m willing to destroy what’s mine to keep it from being taken. What are you going to do?”