Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson
69
Damon
The last personI wanted to see the altercation between me and Mercy is Kai, but of course, he witnessed the whole thing. I walk around my desk, rubbing my face and dropping into the soft leather seat as he enters the office.
Kai sits across from me in the seat Mercy just vacated and I ignore the rock that’s churning in my stomach. If I think Kai is going to let me get away with not talking about this, I’m as big of an idiot as Mercy thinks I am.
“What are you doing?” Kai asks.
“My job. Is there a problem with that?”
“You know I’m not talking about your job, Damon. What in the lower levels of Laird’s realm are you doing with Mercy?”
“Trying to get to an understanding.”
“Bullshit.”
I raise my eyebrow at his use of English slang. “I don’t really need your opinion on this.”
“Well you’re getting it,” he says and I exhale, sitting back in my seat. “Once you entered a relationship with Mercy, you don’t get the option to walk away. Not with that woman. It doesn’t work that way.”
“I don’t think you understand what she and I had together. It’s not the same as the rest of you.”
“Really?” he asks with disbelief. “Enlighten me.”
“We were bored. Cooped up, and I crossed a dangerous line. One that put you, Alex, my mission, and most of all, her, at incredible risk. I let this happen. I made her a target. All because I couldn’t keep it in my pants.”
“Damon,” he says gently. “You saved her, more than once.”
“I exposed her to enemies I didn’t even realize were on my ship!” My voice ricochets off the wood-paneled walls. “It’s one thing for me to take a loss like that, but another entirely to take that from you and the others.”
He eyes me and I run my hands over my hair, wanting to shake it all off like a bad dream. “You feel guilty about us?”
“You love her and I had one fucking job. One. To keep her safe until you got there.”
He stares at me for a moment, absorbing this information. Then his eyes narrow and he asks, “You know what I think?”
“No,” I say, not believing he’s repeating exactly what Mercy just asked. “But I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“I think you’re intimidated by the feelings Mercy brings out in you.”
I roll my eyes. Did they share notes?
“I’m not intimidated by her. I just have a new focus, one that doesn’t involve screwing a girl in a relationship with my three best mates.”
He shakes his head and says, “When you’re ready to get real, come talk to one of us. If it isn’t too late.” He stands and hands me the data pad in his hands. “There’s new intel on Target One.”
“I heard.”
“Newer.”
I raise an eyebrow and open the document. A photo of the the market appears. “That’s the brothel, right? We’re set to shut it down in three days.”
“We need a change of plans,” he says. “Target One has set up an auction for that night. He’s selling off the girls. He knows we’re on our way and wants to cash out while he can. Before we find the birthing ring.”
I nod, excited the plan is falling into place. “So we prep and get ready for ten. I’ll tell the teams.”
He pauses. “About that.”
“About what?”
“Alex and I aren’t going on this mission. We’re staying here.”
I look him over. Still thin from the imprisonment. Alex still moves slower than full speed. “I understand. Keep healing. You can monitor everything from here.”
“It’s not about healing, Damon,” he says. “It’s about Mercy. We’re not leaving her again, especially not now. And, as your commander, I’d like to tell you to also stay, give this to someone else, but I’m not going to force your hand. It’s a decision we each have to make on our own.”
“Dimka?” I ask.
“Dimka is in the process of making a decision. You know bringing down this system is very important to him.”
“It’s important to all of us.”
“It is,” Kai says, standing. “And you have to figure out where you want to be when we finally take it down.”
The implication is clear. With or without them and Mercy. I have to decide now.
I transfer over the data to my own system and hand him back the pad. “I think you already know what I’m going to do.”
“Damon…”
I hold up my hand. “We’re done.”
He nods and makes his way back to the door. “I’ll need reports on the mission.”
“Got it,” I say, shifting my gaze to my desk. I can’t look him in the eye. Not at the disappointment or upset. I’m hanging on my conviction by a thread, and one more push and it’d unravel.