Page 42 of Radiant Exception
“Her family perished in a territory skirmish instigated by Meridian, and she lost multiple unit members to Elysian overdoses. It’s not her,” he hissed, turning his head to regard me.
“Stay still.” I moved his head back to face forward.
“This massage isn’t very relaxing. You’re digging in too hard,” he whined.
“Stop being a baby. You have too many knots to work out.” I jabbed my thumb in harder, causing him to grumble.
“Well, I haven’t gotten to talk to her much, but she has excellent emotional regulation, is surely smart and strategic enough to lead a system-wide criminal organization, not to mention she’s wellrespected and has great influence over the crew, yourself included,” I reasoned.
He huffed. He knew I was right to look at her, but he didn’t want Jordan to be the Phoenix. He cared for her. I got that. I’d come to like most of the crew as well, Chadwick withstanding, as he was for everyone else. Whichever of them turned out to be involved would be devastating.
“We can’t rule her out.” I gently ran my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.
He released a soft groan, which went straight to my core. I hated that he was so sexy, even when he didn’t mean to be.
“Talk to me about the others,” he requested, “And keep doing what you’re doing.”
I smiled behind him, continuing to massage his scalp.
“I’d like to rule out our junior officer. He just joined the crew, and as we’ve discussed, is in fact a pretentious child, who’s never had to do a single thing for himself in his entire life.”
Vaughn chuckled. “Agreed.”
“While Natalie certainly is smart enough and has the most influence over the rest of the crew, she wears her heart on her sleeve, and it feels impossible for her to be capable of harming anyone.”
Perhaps it was naive to count her out, but keeping up her bubbly, astrology-loving, kind facade at all times was next to impossible, even for the most experienced covert operative. She’d have to be the most intelligent puppet master in the system to pull it off.
“I grew up with Natalie,” Vaughn divulged.
“You did!?” I paused my ministrations. She hadn’t told me.
“For a while—we were in the same foster home. She’s always been this way. There is no other side to her.”
Hearing that made me happy. Thinking that for even a little bit of his youth, he’d had someone like her around, and that he had reconnected with her, made a warmth spread throughout me. “Good.”
“What about Cassidy?” Vaughn raised a brow.
“Highly unlikely, in my opinion,” I stated.
“Why?” His tone indicated he disagreed.
“Because prior to joining your crew, he was stationed at a heliopause relay on the edge of the system for several years. You know as well as I do that their communication capabilities are ridiculously limited, which is why the posts are deemed so dangerous. If something goes wrong, you’d be lucky to notify someone within a week or two, and it would take even longer for them to get out to you to help,” I argued. “You really think he could have been leading and building Meridian up to what it is today under such restrictions?”
“No, but he’s exceptionally skilled in comms engineering and architecture. It’s not impossible that he might have come up with a workaround,” Vaughn surmised.
“If he came up with a workaround, he could have sold the patent to Starlane and made a fortune instead of having to deal with your grumpy ass in the middle of space.” I refrained from sticking out my tongue to punctuate my point.
“But he has all the emotional qualities you’ve indicated are needed for the Phoenix, no?”
My brow furrowed. “Are you and I talking about the same Cassidy? What have you seen in him that would indicate he’s some sort of epic mastermind?”
“He’s quiet, but charming, and just like Natalie, he has the respect of and influence over the crew, and I’ve seen him code some ingenious comm solutions. I don’t think you should count him out.”
“I just can’t see it.” I shook my head.
“But you’re a bit too close to him to be unbiased, wouldn’t you agree?” Vaughn hedged, a nervous edge to his voice. So he knew we had our own past then.
“He told you,” I guessed.
