Invaded (Alienated, #2)(86)

He’d expected a sniff of dry laughter, but as they reached the top floor, David clasped Aelyx’s shoulder, keeping his eyes fixed on the gritty concrete floor. “I want to thank you. If it weren’t for you, Syrine never would’ve looked at me, let alone invited me to the colony.”

“I didn’t do as much as you think. She’s crazy about you.”

With his head hung low, David tugged open the heavy door leading out of the stairwell. “I’m going to take real good care of her. I promise.”

Aelyx lowered a brow as he preceded his friend into the expansive space that would someday become a penthouse. Paint-splattered plastic tarps covered the floor, crinkling beneath his boots as he made his way toward the center of the room, but he was too distracted by David’s comment to notice anything more. The boy had spoken with such finality.

The steel door clicked shut with an echo, and Aelyx turned to face David, who leaned back against the door with his pistol drawn and trembling in his grasp. Before Aelyx could process what his eyes were trying to tell him, the rustle of plastic sounded from the opposite end of the room, and he caught a glimpse of an eerily familiar soldier before the man’s fist slammed against Aelyx’s cheek.

The force of the blow knocked him to the floor. Stars exploded behind his eyes, followed by a jolt of pain and ringing in his ears. He barely had time to blink before the soldier kicked him in the stomach, expelling all the air from his lungs with a whoosh.

“Enough!” David shouted.

At his command, the assault stopped. It was then that Aelyx understood his “friend” hadn’t brought him here to admire the view. Anthony Grimes—the man who’d failed twice to kill him—had been expecting his arrival.

“He’s supposed to look roughed up,” Grimes said. “So his corpse matches that kid from Lanzhou.”

“I said no more.”

Aelyx sat up slowly, ignoring the ache in his gut, and swiveled his head toward David, who finally had the decency to look him in the eyes.

“I’m sorry,” David said. His voice cracked and his gaze shone with unshed tears. “I’m so sorry.”





Chapter Twenty-One


Grimes shook his head in disgust and glared at David’s trembling form. “Jesus, you’re pathetic. You’d have your meds by now if you weren’t such a pansy.”

You’d have your meds by now…

So the pair was working for Jaxen, who wanted Aelyx dead for some inexplicable reason. That probably meant they’d choreographed the attack on Christmas morning—the one in which David had thrown himself into the path of a bullet to “save” Aelyx’s life…thus gaining complete access to him as his bodyguard. Now that Aelyx thought about it, he realized the assassination attempts had increased once David joined the PR tour. The surprise meeting with Grimes in the stairwell, the letter bomb, the poisoned food.

Had David facilitated them all?

He stared at the boy he thought he’d known—the one he’d visited for advice and trusted like a brother. Molten rage surged through Aelyx’s veins, flushing his skin. He couldn’t believe he’d pushed Syrine into David’s arms. Had he ever cared for her, or was that a lie, too?

“Syrine,” Aelyx said, remembering how she’d opened the tampered envelope and tried to eat from his plate—before David had stopped her. “She kept getting in the way.”

“It wasn’t like that,” David insisted before emotion choked off his words. He swallowed hard and splayed his free hand. “Jaxen tricked me. At first, he said all I had to do was watch you, but then he changed his—”

“Shut the hell up,” Grimes interrupted. “Just shoot him already.” Aelyx made a move to stand, and Grimes swung at him. The man’s knuckles caught the outside of Aelyx’s lip, and his head snapped back while the metallic tang of blood crossed his tongue. “Stay down!” Grimes ordered.

David’s face contorted in anguish. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I wanted to tell Jaxen no, but Syrine finally gave me a reason to live. He’s the only one who can get the drugs. I kept stalling, hoping the meds would cure me and I wouldn’t need them anymore. But—”

“But then he’d have no power over you,” Aelyx finished, then paused to spit blood onto the tarp-covered floor. “And he won’t give that up.”

The flash of fear behind the boy’s eyes said he knew it, too.

“Shoot him!” Grimes yelled.

David raised his weapon and lowered it again. Clearly he didn’t want to carry out the murder, and Aelyx saw a sliver of opportunity to save himself. But he had to act quickly. Grimes was growing more agitated by the second, his breathing an audible hiss through his teeth.

“Jaxen will never give you the full cure,” Aelyx said in a rush. “Not when he can keep you at his mercy with weekly injections. What will he force you to do next? When will it end?” Aelyx had to appeal to the boy’s dwindling sense of integrity while offering a chance for survival. “I was only half joking when I said we could freeze you and look for a cure. You don’t have to do this. You can change your mind, and nobody has to know.”

While David hesitated, clearly tempted by the suggestion, Grimes pulled an ammunition clip and a pistol from his pocket. “Don’t even think about it,” Grimes spat. “Jaxen would kill us both, and you’re not the only one he made promises to.”