Not an easy task, I now realized with a shudder.
Erik could have all kinds of law-breaking friends. Or at least, suspected law breakers. I was living proof that A.I.R. sometimes made mistakes. Big mistakes. I was living proof that actions were sometimes misinterpreted.
A holoscreen materialized on the wall in front of me, air dappling like clear jelly. Erik’s image appeared on the screen. Seeing him, relief and shock filled me at the same time. He had a black eye, a cut lip, and drops of dried blood on his chin. He’d been beaten, that much was obvious. But he was alive, and that was the most important thing.
Like me, he was tied to a chair.
I watched as Cara stepped into Erik’s room, her expression determined. Erik spotted her and smiled wryly.
“Bradley’s been notified,” she said. “He’s on his way here and wants to speak with you.”
“Nice move, bringing him in.”
“We think so.”
Who was Bradley? I hated not knowing. He had to be someone important because a look of sheer torture had passed over Erik’s face. A look he’d quickly masked. Had I not been studying him so intently, I would have missed it.
“Trying to break me, Cara?”
“Of course we are, Erik.” She paused, studied her blood-red nails. “You deserve to be broken in body and in spirit.”
“Well, you’ll have to do better than this. I stopped caring what Bradley thinks of me a long time ago. You, too, for that matter.” He smirked at her. “It wasn’t smart of A.I.R. to send in the ex to interrogate me. I truly don’t give a shit what you think of me, babe.”
Cara popped her jaw. She turned away from Erik, away from the camera, hiding her expression. “I still care about you, Erik.”
“Still?” He snorted. “You never cared about me, or you would have stood by my side when they kicked me off the squad.”
She spun around, rage flashing over her face. “You really want to go there?”
“Yeah. Why not? I’ve got good memories of you sneaking into my cell and—”
“Argh!” She reached out as if she meant to slap him, but stopped herself in time. She backed away from him. Deep breath in, deep breath out. “You’re as good a manipulator now as you were then. ‘I’m innocent, Cara.’ ‘You have to believe me, Cara.’” She pounded the wall. “I let you trick me once, but never again.”
“Trick you? Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night, babe.”
Steps clipped, she paced around his chair. “Why are you acting this way?”
“Because I can,” was Erik’s response.
“Are you trying to hurt me further? To cut me inside?”
A part of me felt guilty for being part of this intimate conversation. Another part of me eagerly listened, wanting to absorb every detail I could.
“At one time, I would have killed anyone who hurt you,” he said. He ran his tongue over his cut lip. “Even myself. Now, I just don’t care. You’re hurt? So the hell what. Nothing I do to you will equal what you did to me all those months ago.”
Once again, she turned away from him. “What do you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything from you,” he said without emotion.
“Did you expect me to quit A.I.R for you? To plead your case when it was obvious you were guilty?” She laughed bitterly, as if she almost wished she would have had the guts to do it. “That’s stupid.”
“Yeah, maybe I was stupid for expecting the girl who claimed to love me to defend my name.” He didn’t sound emotionless this time. He sounded torn up inside. “I expected the girl who claimed to love me to believe there was a good reason that I was caught with Onadyn.”
“There are no good reasons,” she snapped.
He looked away from her, disgusted.
A moment passed while Cara composed herself. She straightened her shoulders, turned, and squared her chin. An air of determination fell over her; she was all business now. “You’ve been evading us for a long time, Erik.”
Slowly he grinned, the action a little mocking. “Is that a big surprise? You’re out for my blood.”
She waved a hand in dismissal. “We don’t care about you; we’re after bigger fish. We want to know where the Onadyn is being made. We want to know where it’s being stored. We want to know how it’s getting to the streets undetected. You give us those details, and you can go free.”
“So you can destroy it?”
“Yes.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Sorry. You won’t get any help from me. Besides, I won’t bargain with that information. Ever.”
“It kills humans,” she said, rage blanketing her pretty brown eyes. “You know that.”
“And you know I’ve never sold it to a human.”
“Do I? Your every action screams guilt.”
“It saves aliens, Cara. You know that, at least.”
I was right, I thought with surprise, happiness, and relief. By selling the Onadyn, Erik was trying to save aliens. And they had beaten him up for that? Saving lives wasn’t a crime.
“Aliens can receive their Onadyn from proper suppliers like they’re supposed to do. Making it, selling it, and buying it without a license is illegal and dangerous. It must be regulated.”
Erik didn’t say a word.
Cara approached him and traced a fingertip across the width of his shoulders. “If you won’t tell us about your supplier, we’ll beat the truth out of you. And then we’ll beat the truth out of your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he snapped. Fire blazed in his eyes. “Leave her the hell alone.”
Tsking under her tongue, she sifted her hands through his hair. “You’re a liar. Camille’s something to you. Oh yes. She is indeed. You’re seething with the need to protect the little princess.”
“I’ve only ever told you the truth,” he said through clenched teeth, glaring up at her. “She’s innocent.”
“The Erik I knew would never have involved a civilian.”
“This Erik did. I brought her into this when I shouldn’t have. That’s my bad, not hers.”
“Uh-uh-uh. You have feelings for her.” Cara’s tone was light, but her features were dark, as if a storm cloud covered them. “I can see it everytime you look at her. And I should know. You used to look at me that way. Besides, why else would you have hidden your relationship with her?”