Page 7 of Radiant Exception
How could Darren do this to me? I’d been working just fine on my own for months to weed out the mole on my crew after finding some coding that had led me down a rabbit hole and right to Meridian’s front doorstep.
I’d gone to Darren, who became convinced for reasons he’d said weren’t safe to share, that the elusive head of the criminal organization, the Phoenix themself, was on the ship, but that seemed so unlikely. Why work their ass off on a ship when they could be hiding in a mansion on a private moon somewhere?
What was more likely was that a high-ranking Meridian agent had infiltrated my ship and was running complex smuggling routing data through my systems in the background for the Phoenix, a factI had discovered only a month after we’d started doing runs. Which meant it had to be one of the original crew.
At first, I’d thought someone who’d had a hand in building the ship was responsible, because I didn’t want to believe that someone on board could be a part of a syndicate that was wreaking havoc across the system. But the ship assembly lead was a dead end, and after examining the code, I was able to see when the data transfers had started happening.
Meridian, the scourge of the system, was responsible for more deaths than I could fathom, most of which were a result of ever-increasing overdosing of their proprietary, hallucinogenic drug, Elysian. If intelligence was to be believed, the Phoenix was the person responsible for developing and distributing the drug, which provided funding for most of Meridian. It was no wonder so many were after the Phoenix. Cutting off the head of the snake would likely result in the collapse of operations. The insane bounty levied by IA certainly didn’t make them any less desirable of a target.
TheRadiant, for all her beauty and splendor, was a part of Meridian’s network, whether I wanted her to be or not. So instead, I bided my time, pretended that nothing was amiss as I observed the code evolve and traced the early bits, which weren’t quite as neat as more recent pieces.
What I was certain of, after months of tracking and monitoring everything, was that someone on board was involved, as many of the data transfer logs had actions that could only be performed on the ship. And that left me in a truly terrible spot, because my crew, despite my best efforts, had become like family to me.
I swore after Enceladus that I couldn’t let that happen again. But it was impossible not to let Natalie’s infectious laughter worm its way into your heart, or to see under the bravado of Ethan’s big talk, the loneliness in Cassidy’s eyes, the earnestness in Rion’s tone, or the chip on Jordan’s shoulder, which rivaled my own.
But one of them was betraying all of us. And Darren knew I wouldn’t be able to figure it out myself. He was right, of course, and I hated it, and hated him for it.
I needed Lark Sterling, but I wasn’t ready to admit defeat just yet.
Slumping into the chair in my new office, I absently reviewed the multitude of displays on each of the screens in front of me, most showing the status of the various engineering systems, many of which were off or idling, as theRadianthad been docked at Phobos for almost a week.
My mind wandered back to Vaughn and everything that had happened in the last few hours. This was a standard technique I’d learned to regroup and reorganize my thoughts while working for IA.
“Review what you know. Review what you don’t know. Review what you need to know,” Darren’s voice echoed through my head.
What I knew was that Vaughn and Darren had never connected, leaving me in a very awkward spot—thanks a lot, Darren. Vaughn, who was so much hotter in person than I could have imagined from the photos I’d seen, was clearly NOT interested in working with me. In fact, he might hate me after the stunt I’d pulled in front of Natalie, although surely he had to understand why I’d done what I had.
Oh, and sidenote, that kiss…fuck me. It was hot as hell, but clearly all I was getting from that dickhead. It’s too bad, really. I wouldn’t have minded a nice little no-strings-attached arrangement to scratch an itch and work through our animosity in a more productive manner. However, I had a feeling Vaughn was going to do everything in his power to steer clear of me. If nobody ever saw us together, we wouldn’t have to act the part of a couple with an exception.
However, I’d be irrational not to see that we’d be stronger working together. I wasn’t sure yet what it would take to salvage some kind of partnership with Vaughn, no matter how tenuous, but the mission’s success would likely depend on it. Still, there was a lot I could do without his help, like gathering intel on his crew.
It was clear to me why Darren had sent me to help—not just because he knew I was capable and hell-bent on dispatching the Phoenix—but because how could Vaughn accurately assess a crew that he was clearly close with? He’d be biased no matter how you sliced it, and would need an outside point of view to help him see what he might be missing. Although, I’d have to be very delicate with my observations and questioning, as well as how and what I reported back to Vaughn, if anything at all.
I didn’t want to cut him out if I didn’t have to, but it would be up to him, really. If he was insistent on working alone and pushing me away, I had no problem working by myself, but I’d remain open to the possibility of collaboration so at the very least I could say I’d tried.
Wanting to take my mind off Vaughn since my thoughts kept returning to how his mouth felt against mine and how his warm hands seemed to have left a brand on my body, I decided to give myself a tour of the ship, seeing as my new husband had already abandoned me.
Using the ship schematics I had downloaded onto my comm, I weaved my way through the ship decks, peeking into rooms as I went, tracing my fingers along the paneling and noting any systems panels I encountered along the way, in case I needed to find them quickly.
I had just made it to the upper deck, which, according to the schematics, should have housed the bridge, captain’s office and quarters, shuttle bay, and a small common area so staff on duty didn’t have to go down to the middle deck to access the full commissary.
Upon exiting the lift, I ran smack-dab into a hard chest. Stumbling back, I looked up into the eyes of absolutely the last person I’d ever expected to see again.
“Cassidy?” I breathed.
All I could think about was how impossible this was. How he looked both entirely the same but also completely different from the last time I’d seen him.
Long-buried memories flickered through my mind. The three of us, me, Xavier, and Cassidy pulling silly pranks while we were bored on whatever base our parents were visiting that week. The first time I’d felt my heart flutter, when Cassidy cut his shaggy light brown hair at fourteen. The feeling of belonging to the two of them, eventhough they didn’t have to include me in their boyish hijinks…how safe and protected I’d felt under their watchful gazes…until they’d both floated away, following their own paths and leaving me behind…alone.
The memories turned somber as guilt flooded through me. Cassidy hadn’t been able to afford to go to the same university as Xavier and me, and it hadn’t taken long for us to lose touch. Still, it had hurt that he’d never reached out when I’d lost everything. The news had been everywhere. He had to have known, and yet there was only radio silence.
I hadn’t heard from him in years, and here he was. Light brown hair somewhere between the shag of his youth and the close-cropped cut of his young adulthood, which had ignited my first and most intense girlhood crush. His bottle-green eyes were still brilliant with their flecks of brown in a constellation around his pupils.
“It’s really you,” he choked.
Cassidy had always been tall and lanky, but in the decade since I’d last seen him, he’d filled out slightly—definitely muscle, or so it appeared from the corded skin of his forearms—although he would still be dwarfed by Vaughn.
Without thinking, I reeled my arm back and landed a hard punch on his arm. “What the fuck, Cass!?”
