Even amidst this circus of finger pointing and blame dodging, Cath’s hands still rested gently clasped below her waist.“I’m afraid the lessons Elodie needs to learn are those you are unequipped to teach her.”She frowned.“And I did caution you about teasing Darby.”
Blair cocked her chin.“So this is my fault?”
Rhett ran his hand through his closely cropped hair.“This is getting ridiculous.”He cracked his knuckles.“How about the three of us,” he said, motioning to Cath and Aiden.“Go tomywarehouse?”He turned to Blair.“I’ll knock this runt down a few pegs and my guys will get some answers out of your mom.I get what I want and you get to be first in line for Director.Win,win.”
Blair caught Aiden and Elodie as they stole a glance at each other.Blair’s insides boiled.“You can do whatever you want with that one.”She thrust her finger at Elodie.“She’s the reason all of this has happened.But you won’t harm my family.”
“Blair!Enough!”Aiden charged forward.Rhett lashed out with the stock prod.Metal spikes jabbed Aiden’s ribs, and he let out a strangled shout as he convulsed and collapsed.
Blair wobbled and gripped the edge of her desk as her brother’s knees slammed against concrete.
Cath ran to Aiden’s side and sank to the floor beside him.“This ismydoing!”she shouted.“I’mthe reason Aiden joinedEos.”
And now Blair knew.It had been Cath, not Elodie.Cath had taken Denny away just as that monster had taken their real mother and father.The Key had never matched Cath for a reason.The Key knew she shouldn’t have had children.She didn’t know how to care for them.How to nurture them.She hadn’t been the one who stayed up with Aiden all night as he sobbed for the parents who were never coming back.That had been Blair.She had always been there—would always be there.How had this happened?Cath had destroyed Aiden.Blair’sbrother.Her Denny.Her love and her life and her reason forbeing.
Aiden grunted as he struggled to his knees.“Mom, don’t—”
Cath leaned into Aiden and kissed the top of his head before rising to her feet.“I’m the one you want, Blair.I’mEcho.”
Blair felt as if someone had sucked all of the air out of the room.“What?”she wheezed as she pressed herself away from herdesk.
Rhett clapped his hands on top of his head.“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”He seemed to harden as his eyes bore into Blair.“Our most wanted person in Westfall is your fuckingmother?”
How could she have missed this?Blair surged toward her imposter of a mother.“How?”She bit off the word so ferociously, spittle flecked Cath’s cheeks.
Aiden coughed.“Mom, don’t tell her anything.”
“She is not your mother!”The words burned Blair’s lips as she spewed them at Aiden likeacid.
With a snarl, Rhett stomped forward.The prod’s metal tines crackled and sparked as he stabbed the air in front of Cath and forced her up against the wall next to Elodie.He holstered his weapon and returned to Aiden.His fingers twitched over the shiny black rod as he slammed his boot against Aiden’s chest and shoved him back against thewall.
The door hissed open, but Blair couldn’t tear her attention away from Rhett looming over her injured brother.“You said you’d do all sorts of unspeakable things to them back atyourwarehouse.This,” she ground her pointed heel into the rug, “is mine.And I have bots that will cart you away and burn your body before it’s even cold.I said not to touch my family.”
Maxine glided ghostlike from the door to the corner of Blair’s huge black desk.She didn’t make a sound when she set down thegun.
Lava flowed within Blair’s chest and heat crept up her neck.She squeezed her fists to keep from erupting.“Do not test me again, Major Owens.”
Rhett’s grip tightened on the prod as he shifted away from Aiden.
Blair kneeled in front of herbattle-bruisedbrother.To her, he would never look older than he had that day in the clearing, his round face tipped up toward the moon.“Why won’t you let me save you?”Tears burned her eyes.“I love you, Denny.And the onlytruelove, love that can withstand anything, is that of family.”Blair’s gaze cut to Cath.“Bloodfamily.”Her chin quivered.“I love you, my sweet, sweetboy.”
Aiden leaned back against the wall and rocked his head from side to side.“Spare me.Your one true love is your job.This office.”He threw his cuffed hands in the air.“The Key.Not me or Cath or anyoneelse.”
Blair pushed herself to her feet, shook back her tears, and smoothed out her black skirt.She would fix her brother later.He would see, they would all see, that everything she did, she did for him.But in order to cure Aiden of the poison these women had fed him, Blair needed to erase them from the picture.
“You started this,” she snarled and stalked over to Cath.“You’re the one who can end it.A recorded confession and answers to some questions will be a good place to start.”
Cath studied Aiden and then Elodie, who had done a terrific job nearly blending into the wall.“You’ll let them both go?”
Blair’s gaze swept over the pistol on the corner of the desk and settled back on Cath.“I’ll take you and let them go.I can fix the trouble they’re in with the Council.Especially if I’m trading an Eos leader for two kissing teens.”Blair crossed her arms over her chest.“As Director, I won’t need any leverage.And the Key will appoint me immediately.”She paused and hung a smile on her lips.“After all, this is what happens when citizens don’t have effective leadership.”
Cath’s foot hung in the air for a moment before she committed to stepping forward.
Aiden pushed himself to his feet.“Mom!You can’t.They’ll killyou!”
Blair hiccupped back a sob.Aiden was choosing between them, and he wasn’t choosing wisely.
Cath’s eyes rested on Aiden as she clenched and unclenched her fists.
