Beyond Control(54)

"Yes, you will. In better shape than Dallas will, too." Noelle's tiny smile was a little mean. "Just remember how much we all love you. Dallas may be the king of this gang, but you're its heart. If he doesn't appreciate that yet, he will."

"No." Lex shook her head. "He's still your leader, and a good one. I don't want anyone to make trouble for him, not on my behalf."

Noelle touched her cheek, her blue eyes dark with resentment. "I'll follow my leader. I'll obey my boss. But you can't make me be nice to the bastard who hurt my friend."

"Thank you," Lex whispered. Dallas had broken her heart with his unthinking ambition, and he'd do it all over again when she had to leave other people who were dear to her. People like Noelle, who were as much a part of her as Dallas, if only in a different way. "I love you and Jas, you know."

"Of course you do," Noelle replied, voice light and teasing. "I'm adorable, and Jas is irresistible. But we love you back."

The silliness lifted her spirits, her first taste of hope in days. "We'll see, okay?" Maybe she and Dallas could come to an understanding. Maybe she didn't have to leave. "Just...we'll see."

"Good. And, Lex?"

"Yeah?"

"Even if you have to go, I'll still love you. And I'll still be in your life. It's not about this." Her fingers curled around Lex's wrist, covering the O'Kane cuff as she pressed Lex's splayed hand to her own chest. Over her heart. "It's about this."

About love. Belonging. Lex slid her arms around Noelle and hugged her tight. "No matter what. I promise."



For the fourth time in as many minutes, Lex caught herself staring blankly down at the inventory sheet in her hand.

Disgusted, she rubbed her eyes and started over with the top line. "Focus, goddammit. You're not helping anyone like this."

"It's okay." The quiet voice came from the doorway. Lex barely managed not to flinch, startled, as Rachel swung in to kneel beside her. "Amira and I can handle the inventory before opening."

"I need to do something," Lex argued.

"Plenty to do." Rachel plucked the clipboard out of her hand and nodded to the door. "Start with picking up your phone call. Someone's on the line for you."

"Which phone?"

"End of the hall."

Lex wiped her hands on her jeans and headed for the extension. Maybe it was Doc, calling to say he'd changed his mind about her tattoos, or Walt Misham, with a line on transports out of the city.

But it was neither. "Hello?"

"Lex." A female voice, soft and nervous, and it took her a moment to recognize it as Jade, the woman who'd waylaid her outside of Cerys's quarters.

Apparently, word hadn't traveled outside the sector yet. "Sorry, honey. If you're looking for a ride out, it'll have to be with someone else. I'm kinda in the doghouse over here at the moment."

"Oh." A world of disappointment in that one word, too much for even a professional to hide. "I'm sorry for your trouble. I'd just thought... I'll be traveling to Five tonight, and if I disappeared on the way back tomorrow, Woods wouldn't miss me for another two weeks--"

Lex froze. It was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, so it had to be a trap instead. "Gareth Woods? That's your client?"

The pause was perfect. Hesitation, and then a muffled curse, as if the woman had let too much slip. "Now you know how desperate my situation is."

"And why you came to me." Lex tucked the receiver between her ear and her shoulder and dug her cigarette case out of her pocket. "I mean, that's the deal, right? You figure I'll off him for you?"

Jade exhaled sharply and began to laugh. "It was clumsy, wasn't it? Slipping his name into the conversation that quickly. Pacing has always been my problem. I start off so patiently, and then I wait too long and have to rush."

"Don't feel bad. I'm really f*cking paranoid at the moment."

"I meant everything I said, you know. About being friends with your sister, and that you're a legend." The amusement in Jade's voice faded. "I just didn't tell you everything. I know Woods tried to kill one of your people, and I know you're taking him down tonight. I don't want to die in the crossfire."

Lex's heart skipped a beat. It all made sense suddenly, the one thing Cerys could have handed Dallas to ensure he'd consider her crazy f*cking offer. Something he wanted more than power or money, more than air. And even, in a perverse way, more than her.

Gareth Woods.

Tonight. Cerys must have come through with the setup. Maybe she was about to clue Dallas in, or maybe he already knew. Either way...

"Can you get me in?" She glanced around quickly, confirming she was alone in the hall. "Tell him you're bringing a friend?"

Jade inhaled sharply. "You don't know what you're asking."

She didn't give a damn. She was tired of Dallas and his excuses. He could claim he was going after Woods to protect her, but it boiled down to plain, old-fashioned vengeance. "Yes or no, Jade?"

"You can't come here. But I could convince my driver to stop on the way, if you can be ready and waiting."

Only one more question, one that dug its claws into her and wouldn't let go. "Is it a trap? Is she trying to get rid of Dallas, or dealing with him square?"

Jade hesitated long enough to cinch fear tight before whispering, "I don't know. But Cerys will win either way. She always does."

"No shit." Lex crumbled her unlit cigarette with a grimace. "Pick me up on the east side of the bridge, near the border between Two and Three. I'll find a way."

"All right. Dress like a rose." A pause. "You remember what that means, don't you?"

It meant she'd be raiding Noelle's closet to get her frilly white dresses and lingerie back. "I remember."

"Five o'clock. Lex?"

"What?"

"If you can't get me out, don't leave me to a slow death. Tonight I want to be free, one way or another."

"Damn, girl. Don't be so morbid." Frowning, Lex hung up.

Jade could still be playing her, counting on her need to one-up Cerys--or, worse, to protect Dallas. It wasn't hard to connect the dots on a foolproof plan to get them out of the picture, and with the perfect justification: interfering with Cerys's rightful business.

And in Sector Five, no less. Woods probably chose the locale because he needed to make a drug run anyway, but she'd have to tread carefully. Mac Fleming would recognize her in a heartbeat, and it could blow everything to hell.

They might need backup. Damn near suicidal backup.

Lex picked up the phone and dialed.





Chapter Twenty-One



She might have underestimated exactly how much money Gareth Woods put in Mac Fleming's pockets.

Oh, she'd anticipated that Fleming probably had a honey hole somewhere that he lent to Woods when the man needed a place to lay low, get high, and abuse some women, but she'd never dreamed he'd let Woods do it in his house. And yet that was exactly where the driver stopped, outside the stately white mansion Fleming had spent years--and a fortune--building.

Lex adjusted the wide bracelets covering her cuffs and clenched her hands in the frilly lace of her short skirt. "You get that Mac Fleming knows my face, right?"

"He's never here when Woods is," Jade replied, staring out the window. Her own hands rested in her lap, clamped together so tightly that her knuckles stood out, pale and sharp. Her ashen face and strained eyes could have been nerves, but Lex had seen people on the edge of withdrawal before.

The woman was about to freak out.

Lex swatted her arm. "Hey, keep it together. What about Fleming's guards? Anyone he might have taken to the summit in Sector Two?"

"No, just Finn," she said after a moment, shaking her head. Her thumb brushed compulsively over the inside of her wrist. "He's the guard who brings the drugs. No one's allowed to handle them but him." She finally looked at Lex with a wan smile. "It used to just be me and Woods in the house for the night, once Finn left. Now he brings guards. A lot of them. He's terrified of Dallas O'Kane."

"He should be." After all, Dallas wanted him dead badly enough to make deals with the devil.

Through the divider, Lex heard the driver's door open and close again. Jade took a deep breath. "Finn won't come in right away. Gareth likes to watch me deal with the withdrawal symptoms. The timing is quite precise. I suppose I'd be impressed with Mac Fleming under other circumstances."

The back door opened, and they climbed out. Jade wobbled a little, and Lex steadied her. "Just do everything you're supposed to do. I'll work it out."