Page 81 of Radiant Exception
Darren glanced behind me to see where my attention lay.
“Every single one of them was handpicked by me to come here today. Their lives have all been destroyed by Meridian, and we’ve got an armada in orbit, waiting to escort us back into the inner system,” Darren reassured me. “His trial will start immediately. The evidence you both uncovered is irrefutable.”
I gave a slow nod, still in disbelief.
Vaughn released my hand to wrap his around my waist. “You did it, Trouble,” he whispered in my ear, then placed a soft kiss at my temple. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Wedid this,” I repeated, smiling up at him.
“How ya doin’ kiddo?” Darren dropped onto the bench next to me.
It amazed me how much life could happen in only a couple months.
I gave him a wry smile. “I’ll be better when all of this is over.” I couldn’t help but glance at the bank of elevators across the lobby. I’d been forced to stay in the lobby when Vaughn was escorted upstairs for his standard Starlane exit interview.
“I can only imagine, after being one of the star witnesses in the trial of the millennium.” He leaned his back against the wall behind us, mirroring my own posture. “How are you feeling about all of that?” he asked cautiously.
I shook my head. “Honestly, I hated every second of it.”
One of his bushy grey eyebrows arched.
“I hated the attention. I hated that my family got dragged into all of this. But most of all, I hate that it took me so long to see him for who he truly is.”
Darren grunted in agreement.
I shifted to face him, leaning my shoulder against the wall, instead of my back. “Will it ever get better?” I asked, knowing he wouldn’t have an answer for me. “People always say time makes it easier, but with X, time has only made things worse.”
His expression softened at my vulnerability.
“I’m glad that I finally know what happened, and that Xavier wasn’t knowingly helping him, but it doesn’t make any of it easier,” I told Darren. “It won’t bring him back.”
Immediately upon the news breaking that the true Phoenix had been discovered and captured, all the corrupt officials our decoded correspondence had exposed had been rounded up. Many had turned on Cassidy in an attempt to lessen their sentences, which worked for a few, but not most.
Their cooperation resulted in mountains of evidence, which easily buried Cassidy. With so many key figures exposed and apprehended, as well as their leader, Meridian had crumbled, as we’d hoped. Still, only time would tell how things would turn out in the long run. Vaughn kept reminding me to focus on what we’d accomplished, rather than the unknown.
“I will never be able to equate the boy I grew up with, to the monster he became.” I shook my head, still in a daze over all of it.
I felt numb about the fact that Xavier’s life was lost because he’d wanted to help a friend and then tried to do the right thing when he’d realized what he’d walked into. I still harbored so much anger over his loss, but I was proud that he’d stood up for what he knew was right. And I was thankful that Xavier had protected me fromCassidy while we were growing up. If he hadn’t, I didn’t want to think about how things would have turned out for me.
“None of us truly saw him for who he was,” Darren tried to comfort me. “It always rubbed me the wrong way how covetously he watched you, and the glint of jealousy in his eye when he regarded Xavier, but it never would have crossed my mind that the kid would turn into the most prolific criminal the system has ever seen.”
“It’s always the things you notice when nobody realizes you’re watching,” I commented absently.
I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to Vaughn at that moment. I loved the way his eyes would roam over every inch of me when he’d talk to me while I showered, his fingers clenching the counter, like he couldn’t stand to be so close but unable to touch me. Or how his attention would zero in on anyone in the crew when they were talking to him, as if they were the most important person in the world. Or how tightly he held me every night; he could never get close enough.
Despite how hard he fought to put up this big brash facade of the captain, he was so gentle with his intentions.
It was hard to think of Vaughn compared to Cassidy, whose icy veneer during the trial flummoxed me, so far from who I’d thought he was, and such a contrast to Vaughn, who couldn’t help but wear his heart on his sleeve with those he cared about.
It was difficult to look Cassidy in the eye when I’d testified against him, but a necessary evil, and a position he’d put me in. In court, I’d finally seen who he was inside: cold, calculating, and brutal to his very core. He was given a life sentence, but many speculated hewouldn’t get a chance to live out his time, given that so many people had been affected by the things he’d orchestrated.
I should have felt vindicated when the verdict came back. But Xavier was gone. There was no relief in learning Cassidy’s fate, just guilt and remorse.
Other than Vaughn and the crew of theRadiant, the only good thing that had come from the Phoenix was the bounty that was delivered immediately after the trial. I transferred my share to Vaughn, which he’d been arguing with me about ever since. But I didn’t want the money. It wouldn’t bring Xavier back, and it was better for Vaughn to have it.
“Things seem to be going well with Vaughn,” Darren hedged.
I narrowed my eyes at him. He was like a second father to me, and discussing my love life with him felt like a special kind of torture. “I’m not talking to you about Vaughn and me.”
