Starflight (Starflight, #1)(84)
Except this twin knew how to wield a gun.
When Doran took a step toward his brother, Gage aimed at him and warned in a shaky voice, “Drop your pistol and stay back. I’m pretty sure I know why you’re here.”
Doran tossed his weapon to the floor and held both palms forward. His mouth seemed to have stopped working, because it took a few tries before he spoke. “How are you alive?”
Gage faltered, as if the question had caught him off guard. “The same way you’re alive. I got out of the house before it burned down.”
“But we buried you. There was a body.”
Gage didn’t look too surprised to hear that. He glanced away from his brother, staring thoughtfully at the discarded pistol before picking it up and tucking it inside his waistband. “The body wasn’t mine. I ran for two blocks and hid behind a garbage bin. That’s where Mom found me. She wanted to keep me safe from Dad, so she let him think I was dead. But she said you knew our secret. She never mentioned it to you?”
“Never mentioned it?” Doran echoed. “She sat next to me at your funeral.” For a long time afterward, Doran went very still and quiet. His eyes were shimmering with unshed tears when he finally broke the silence. “And then she left me with Dad and brought you here to live with her for all these years. Because you were the science prodigy, not me. I was just average. I wasn’t…”
Useful to her.
Solara didn’t need to hear the final words—they were written on Doran’s face. Her heart broke as she watched him try to blink away the moisture welling in his eyes. Abandonment was one thing, but his mom had left him in favor of another child. Solara had never told anyone, but that was the real reason she refused to seek out her birth parents. She couldn’t bear the possibility that they’d started a new family without her.
“Is Mom here now?” Doran asked, and wiped a sleeve across his eyes.
Gage shook his head.
“Good,” Doran muttered. He swallowed hard, his gaze turning sharply to ice. “As far as I’m concerned, she died that day instead of you.”
That seemed to ruffle Gage’s feathers. His chin jerked up, along with the barrel of his pistol. “Watch your mouth.”
“You’re defending her?” Doran asked, flinching back like he’d been slapped. “She faked your death and kept us apart for almost a decade. And for what? To take revenge on Dad? To invent the perfect fuel and drive him out of business? It’s sick!”
Solara agreed. The Spauldings made her glad to be an orphan.
“And Dad’s a total saint, right?” sneered Gage.
“Maybe not, but he’s a victim in all this, too.”
“A victim?” Gage snapped, rage burning behind his eyes. “He knows me! Mom let me call him months ago, to tell him about what I created—how Infinium was going to change everything, and how the Solar League paid a fortune for my first batch. But do you think he asked me to come home?” Gage made a noise of disgust. “No. He begged me to bury the project, just like Mom said he would. He told me Infinium would make Spaulding Fuel redundant and ruin the family legacy. When I refused to play along, he stole the batch from the transport. Then he traced our location and threatened to send someone here, either to destroy my research or to steal it; he didn’t say which.” Gage’s voice sounded broken when he added, “I just didn’t know it would be my own brother.”
Doran’s shoulders sank. He had to be reeling with the fact that not only were both his parents liars, but also that the future he’d envisioned no longer existed. Once Spaulding Fuel collapsed, there would be no company to inherit.
“And here you are,” Gage said flatly. “In my lab, looking through my computer. Mom told me you were just like Dad. I guess she was right about that, too.”
“No,” Doran told him. “Dad sent me here, but I had no idea why. I would never destroy your work. The fringe needs it too much.”
“Right.” Clearly unconvinced, Gage flicked his aim at Solara, then at Renny and Kane. “Who are your friends?”
Before any of them could answer, the com-link speakers activated, and Captain Rossi called through their suits, “Time to wrap it up. Cassia found a tracker on the Banshee’s front landing gear. I’m guessing someone on New Haven planted it there to claim the reward for Daro the Red. So far the skies look clear, but who knows how long that’ll last.”
Solara went cold. “We have to go,” she told Gage. “Now.”
“She’s right,” Doran said. “There’s a pirate named Demarkus on the way, and you don’t want to meet him while you’re wearing my face.”
Gage lifted his pistol. “Nobody’s going anywhere. Not until I figure out what to do with you.”
Her pulse hammering, Solara glanced around the lab for a weapon to use against Gage or a way to distract him long enough to make it back to the ship. Her gaze landed on the bag of Infinium ore samples, and she made a snap decision. With one hand, she snatched the bag off the table and dashed out the open doors and into the hall, hoping Gage was smart enough not to shoot her and risk blowing them all into next week.
She heard the stomp of boots and the metallic clang of a bolt sliding into place. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Gage had locked everyone inside the lab. He’d set down his pistol and was pulling on an insulated suit with the kind of speed that prompted her feet to move faster.