Hijacked by Lolita Lopez
Chapter Fifteen
Misko woke to an empty bed. He was equal parts surprised that Camila had managed to sneak out and disappointed that she wasn’t close enough for him to kiss good morning. “Camila?”
When she didn’t answer, he figured she had gone to meet her sister for breakfast or to get an early start on her inventory and organization project. He decided to follow her example and made his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day. His stomach growled as he zipped up his boots and tightened his laces. Food was definitely the first order of business—and lots of it.
The sky was still mostly dark as he left the housing section for the mess hall nearby. Even though this base was mostly civilian with only a small contingent of militia, it operated exactly like a military base. Chow was served buffet style, and every single person on the base—even Sara—worked a weekly kitchen duty rotation. The food wasn’t exactly delicious, but it was hearty, hot and readily available.
Never certain when he might have his next meal, he filled his tray to the brim and found an empty space at a long table in the middle of the room. No one bothered him as he ate. Most of the early risers seemed to share his feelings about breakfast. Eat a lot and eat it fast. He finished every last morsel on the tray before carrying it and his empty cups of milk and juice to the cleaning station.
When he stepped outside the mess hall, he found Sara waiting for him. She had changed clothes and fixed her makeup, but she looked exhausted as she greeted him. “Good morning.”
“Morning, ma’am.”
She made a face. “Nope. Not a ma’am. Just Sara is fine.”
“Okay, Just Sara.”
She narrowed her eyes. “And Cammy said you don’t make jokes!”
“I do, but rarely.” He stepped aside so a small group could enter the mess hall. “Have you seen Camila this morning? She was gone when I woke.”
“I did see her,” Sara said and glanced toward the hangars. “Earlier.”
He frowned. “Did she go straight to work without eating?”
“No, she had breakfast,” Sara said, still not meeting his gaze.
Suddenly, his stomach dropped. Sara was hiding something from him, something about Camila. Pushing down a wave of panic, he asked calmly, “Where is Camila?”
Sara sighed and gestured for him to follow her away from the mess hall. Having no other choice, he shadowed her around the side of the building to a place with more privacy. She leaned back against the metal wall, trapping her hands behind her, and finally met his worried gaze with a teary one of her own. “Cammy isn’t here. She left.”
His entire body slackened. “Left. Where?”
“Home.”
Her answer was a punch to the gut. Last night, he had surrendered to his feelings and asked her to stay with him. She had promised she would, and he had believed her. Clearly, that was a lie. Now, she was gone. Without a single word. As if he didn’t matter at all.
Because you didn’t. You were just a diversion, a way for her to amuse herself before she ran home to daddy.
Of course, she went home. Why would she give up her life of privilege to live in a rebel camp? Why would she give up the safety and security her father’s wealth provided for the constant danger and privation that she would endure if she stayed?
“Misko?” Sara asked quietly. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” he answered, his voice clipped. “Thank you for informing me.”
Sara seemed surprised, but he didn’t give her a chance to ask anything else. He pivoted on his heel and strode away from her, eating up the distance to the hospital. He wanted to see Andro, wanted a quiet place where he could sit and think and handle his conflicted emotions.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t given that chance. Sara caught up with him outside the hospital and grabbed his shirt. She tried to jerk him around to face her, but he was too tall, too heavy and too strong to be so easily moved. “Hey! Stop!”
He did, but only because he couldn’t abide impoliteness.
“Look at me,” Sara ordered.
With an aggrieved sigh, he turned to face her. “Yes?”
“I just told you my sister is gone, and you leave without asking why?” Sara peered up at him, confused. “I thought you liked her! Cared about her!”
“I thought she cared about me,” he retorted. “Clearly, I was incorrect.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Sara glared at him. “Is that what you think? That she snuck out in the middle of the night to run home to our father because she doesn’t care about you? I mean—what? She came all this way to save you and your crew of fugitives—risked her life—and then just ran home because she missed the mansion and the money?”
When she put it like that, it did sound ridiculous. Still, he wasn’t about to admit he had been wrong. “She said she would stay.”
“Is that what she said? Exactly?” Sara seemed unconvinced.
“Yes, she said—.” He stopped suddenly and realized that wasn’t what she had said at all. “No,” he corrected. “She said there was nowhere else she would rather be.”
“And there is nowhere else she would rather be,” Sara assured him. “She wanted to stay. She cried the whole time she was waiting for the flight to leave. She cried when she jettisoned her pod. Hell, she’s probably still crying now.”
“She’s in a pod?” A fresh wave of panic hit. “She’s defenseless! She could be picked up by pirates or worse!”
“Her pod is invisible on scans. It’s cloaked. She won’t become visible until she’s near enough to Kirs that our father’s satellites will pick up the beacon.”
“But—why? Why did she go?”
Sara stared at him as if he might be the stupidest man she had ever met. “You know why.”
He reared back. “The reward.”
She nodded. “She refused to risk the safety of your cyborg crew or the civilians who came with you or me or anyone else on this base. She went home to save you. She left because she loves you.”
The anguish of that realization threatened to take him out at the knees.
“She refuses to be the poster girl for the emperor’s vendetta against cyborgs. She went back so that shitbag Shui can’t use her as a rallying cause for the elite. None of that join the cause or your kids will be kidnapped by the cyborgs bullshit.”
“It’s a terrible risk,” Misko insisted, his voice thick with worry. “Going home will put an end to your father’s reward and the mercs and bounty hunters, but Shui? He’s unpredictable at best, and at his worst?” Misko shook his head. “What if he doesn’t believe her story? What if he thinks she collaborated with us? Or with you?”
“Shui thinks I’m dead,” she said. “Father had me declared legally and officially dead. I am a non-threat to Shui because I don’t exist.”
“Why would your father have you declared dead?”
She chortled. “That is a story for another time. A time with lots of booze,” she clarified. “And I mean a lot. Like cases of it piled this high.” She gestured above her head. “Tons.”
“Noted,” he said dryly. Coming from a family filled with love and support, he couldn’t make sense of the dysfunction within Camila’s family.
“Cammy told me that you weren’t really able to feel emotion until very recently,” Sara said carefully. “I’m not trying to pry,” she hurriedly assured him. “It’s just that she asked me to look after you. She made me promise I would check in on you. I can’t even imagine having your feelings switched on, meeting someone like Cammy and then losing her. It must be very painful and confusing.”
“It is,” he admitted. His chest hurt badly, as if his ribs were trying to tear free from his sternum. His heartbeat fluctuated, and his medical sensors warned that he was experiencing another spike in hormones and heart rate. Finally, he confessed, “I don’t know what to do.”
“I could turn it off again,” Sara offered reluctantly. “But, maybe, you should allow yourself to feel those things.”
“Why?” He rubbed his chest. “Why would I want to hurt like this?”
“Because that feeling you have right now? That’s going to fuel you when you are at your lowest. It’s going to make you want to keep fighting until—”
“Until what?” he asked, almost desperately.
“Until you see Cammy again.” Sara gave his arm a sisterly squeeze and patted his shoulder before leaving him alone in front of the hospital.
Would he see her again? Alive? Would she ever be able to leave Kirs? To escape the emperor’s watchful eye? How long would that take? Months? Years?
I’ll wait. I promise you, Camila. I’ll wait for you.
