CHAPTER ELEVEN
CRISTIAN WISHED he could have stayed unconscious. Familiar nausea rose up in waves, bringing the acrid taste of vomit to his mouth. He'd never get the last twenty-four hours out of his head, no matter how hard he tried.
He wanted to forget the screaming and pleading that had come out of his mouth until his voice was hoarse. He wanted to forget when he broke down and cried, weak, helpless, and groveling in front of the men who despised him. He wanted to forget the lying. He lied to his best friend that his parents were okay. He deserved every agony he’d suffered for that. He lied to Caina, the only girl he’d ever wanted. And he’d lied to her about something she could never forgive.
But even if he had to do it over again, he still would. He’d still bait Joshua into meeting him, he’d still lie to them. If he didn’t, there was no hope at all for their father. When torture wouldn’t make Cristian betray his friend, they’d hauled Joshua’s bleeding father in front of him, and electrocuted the older man until Cristian agreed to do what they asked if they would keep Joshua’s father alive.
They probably never meant to keep their promise, but he had to try.
Now he watched Caina slide down the wall and put her head on her knees to cry. Joshua knelt next to her and tucked her under his arm, bending his head down to hers. She reached up and clutched at his sleeve, though she kept her face hidden. The little sounds she made as she let out her grief were almost more than Cristian could take, but he didn’t have a choice. Apparently, he was going to remain conscious through this, just like he’d been forced to for everything else he didn’t want to feel.
“Tell me about the Nostekoi.” Joshua said, his voice flat. Only the scarlet eyes burning like waiting embers gave away his emotions.
Answering with as much clarity as he could manage, Cristian said, “I don’t know m-much about them….except you don’t want to tell them ‘no’. They know everything about…everything. I don’t think some of them are completely human. They’re different, but I don’t know exactly how. It’s some kind of army.”
Even as he spoke, he started to shake. He lay there, tensing his muscles and trying to stop it. The tremors had been constant since he was captured. At first, he thought the trembling was a reaction to the torture, but when it wouldn't quit, he began to fear that he wasn't just damaged on the outside; he was crippled somewhere deep inside. He didn't even know what he was afraid of. He just was. All the time.
If Joshua noticed, he didn’t say anything. “So all they wanted was the colony? They murdered my mother and tortured my father for that?”
It didn’t surprise Cristian that Joshua didn’t know how much his family fortune was worth. His amnesia had left peculiar cultural gaps. Didn’t everyone have money to buy jump ships? Couldn’t everyone afford to attend an elite academy in another galaxy that all but guaranteed a seat on the Alliance Council? Cristian’s family was pretty well-off, even wealthy, but they were nothing compared to the massive weight of the West family finances. Like other colony owners, everything they did financially reverberated through the twin galaxies and twenty-five planets.
“Yes.”
Trying to offer more information, he continued, “I don’t know w-where they took me. They hit me with plasma before they took me anywhere. I only s-saw the inside of one building, but it was huge. It had a landing bay for at least fifty ships, and the rest of the building could have been its own city. It was like they w-wanted your dad to give in, but if he didn’t, they had a plan B.”
“They didn’t need my father. You were plan B,” Joshua said, his voice angry.
Cristian answered, his voice low and ashamed. “I d-didn’t know what other choice to make. If I didn’t help them find you, they were going to k-kill him.”
Joshua had turned away, and Caina’s face remained buried in her arms.
He was just about to give up when Joshua’s shoulders sagged. “Thank you for trying to save his life. I just wish you hadn’t dragged Caina into this. At least you did what you could,” Joshua added.
He said it like he understood the slim hope for his father’s survival. Cristian had seen the Nostekoi in action, and he was pretty certain that at this point, Joshua’s dad was dead. Whether they would ever get some kind of confirmation of that, he didn’t know. He also didn’t know how long his friend would be filthy rich. If the West holdings were now in the hands of the Nostekoi, Joshua would only be able to use credits so they could track him.
Dylan spoke, and Cristian realized he’d forgotten he was there. “We’ll be at the nearest med clinic in three hours. I’m going to call my wife to let her know where I am, and get some sleep.”
Joshua found a blanket stashed in one of the compartments, and wrapped it around Caina, sitting by her side. She wasn’t crying so hard anymore, but she didn’t lift her head either.
Cristian’s knee was a throbbing, stabbing agony now. He closed his eyes to try to ignore it.
“Pull the rest out,” the man with the scar on his cheek said.
The touch of cold metal and the whirring of the drill couldn’t drown out his screams. “Please, please don’t…NO!”
Cristian twitched awake. Had he spoken aloud? The rest of the cabin was quiet, so he hadn’t. This time.