Page 4 of Her Cyborg Commander
River’s eyes narrowed, and he saw the flash of pain as his words landed like physical blows. “You’d think so, but we’ve already established that some of uswerecompromised. I—we can’t be sure.” She tapped her temple with a trembling finger. “We can’t take our security for granted, because some of us have already had it taken away.”
Angry at himself for starting them down this path but too stubborn to back away from a fight, Edge folded his arms and glared at her. “I’d know.”
“You didn’t. None of us did,” she fired back. “You are our leader, Edge, but that doesn’t make you infallible. I know you want to protect all of us, but youcan’t.”
Their gazes locked. “I protected you. Didn’t I? Every way I could. No matter what the cost. And I’d do the same for everyone else in Haven. Cyborg or not.”
That should have ended it. He’d taken beatings to keep her safe. He’d killed for her, and he’d do it again.
Her words were little more than a whisper, but he heard them clearly along with the pain threaded beneath them. “I never asked you to do that. The people you hurt…the ones you killed. You shouldn’t have done that for me.”
“After what they did to you, you couldn’t protect yourself. If I hadn’t done it, who would have?” he asked, but his anger was gone. No matter what she thought of him, he never wanted to be the reason she was in pain.
She raised her chin and gave him a look of pure defiance that made his cock twitch with desire. He hadn’t seen this side of her until recently, and he liked it, even if he refused to acknowledge his interest in her.
“We’re not on Reamus anymore,” she said. “I can take care of myself, Edge. You worry about everyone else.”
The room was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat. Everyone was watching this exchange like it was some kind of spectator sport.Fraxxingwonderful. Now he was distracting the others from what was important. It was time to end this conversation and get back to what mattered—preparing for the fight coming their way.
“Thanks for clarifying. I’ll do that.” With that said, he pushed back from the table and reluctantly dragged his focus from River to Tyran. “Now, about opening up the armories. What say we put it to a vote?”
3
Leavingthe council room after the meeting took longer than she’d expected. Everyone wanted a chance to wish her good luck and thank her for all she’d done while she’d been part of the council. The only one who didn’t approach her was Edge. He had left mere seconds after the meeting was adjourned, which was probably for the best. The two of them couldn’t seem to be in the same space for more than a few minutes without things getting heated between them. It had been that way since they’d come to Haven, and at times she missed the way it had been before they’d come here.
River tried to push the thought aside, but it lingered even after she said her final good-byes and headed home.
Before. Her time at Reamus had been a never-ending nightmare, but she and Edge had managed to survive, in part, by leaning on each other. He had protected her as best he could, and she had been the only one who could reach him when he fell into his darkest and most dangerous moods. He’d kept the other males away from her because he knew her programming made it impossible for her to deny any request for sex. He’d done what he could to keep the guards away from all the cyborg females,too. Not that any of them dared to touch River. They knew she was the personal project of one of the head researchers and kept their distance.
A shiver danced down her spine and left her feeling cold despite the afternoon sunshine. She tried not to think abouthim. The man who had rewritten her entire personality and made her into someone else. Someone she didn’t recognize. Even before they’d come to Haven, she’d worked hard to undo the behavior modifications and programming that was forced on her. She would never be who she’d been before the changes, but she wasn’t that person, either. She was someone new, and that would have to be enough.
A message came through one of her internal channels. She didn’t feel like talking, but she checked the sender’s ID in case it was important. It was Phaedra, and the message was brief, not needing an answer.
“If you need anything, let me know. Change is a wonderful thing, but it’s also scary as hell. I’m here if you want to talk or just eat chocolate mousse and hide from a certain grumpy cyborg we both know. By the way, he came back after you left. I think he wanted to say good-bye and good luck to you. That male needs a swift kick in the thrusters…but we both knew that already. Anyway, I wanted you to know he was looking for you. Do with that information what you will.”
River snorted softly. The last person she wanted to deal with right now was Edge. He’d been an important part of her life once, but that time was over. They weren’t imprisoned any longer, and she wasn’t the same person. Their friendship, if that’s what it was, had been a product of their situation. There’d never been anything romantic about their bond, despite her secret wish that he saw her as something more than a victim to be protected. He never had, and given the way he’d spoken to her today, he never would.
Just one more thing she needed to put firmly in her past. Tomorrow was a new day, the first one in her life where she’d be free to do whatever she wanted.
Instead of walking straight home, River opted to take a stroll through the city. She wanted to see for herself how everyone was dealing with the bombshell news that they’d been infiltrated by the Shadows. Everyone at the meeting had reported their observations, but she’d been focused on setting up the system and then scanning the cyborgs to clear them from any suspicion. Her part in that was done for now, another task she could let the others finish. Even if it would be hard for her to relinquish the chance to check herself for corrupted code, or anything else that might indicate she’d been compromised. Again.
The first thing she noticed on her walk were the empty sidewalks. It was a warm, clear afternoon, but there weren’t as many beings out and about as there should be. Shopkeepers stood at their doorways, chatting to each other as they waited for customers. Some of the food vendors appeared to have packed up early, leaving street corners empty.
The citizens of Haven were persevering, but she could sense the unease that permeated every part of the city. Everyone seemed to be staying close to home, and those few beings she saw walked with brisk purpose, as if it wasn’t safe to be outside.
They couldn’t continue this way. As much as it pained her to admit it, Edge was right. They needed to do more than simply wait for the next blow to fall. The fact she could actually think of going on the offensive without a sense of dread told her how much of her old self she’d recovered since being freed. She’d never again be the fearless soldier the corporations had originally programmed her to be, but she no longer lived with constant anxiety, either. It felt like she had finally found the balance point between the two states.
Her stroll took her past the space port. Unlike the rest of the city, the port was still a hub of activity. Cargo shuttles came and went, transferring goods between the surface and orbital platform where most trade vessels were required to offload. For security reasons, only a few of the smaller vessels were permitted to land at the port directly. Their captains were all carefully vetted and their crews had to undergo medical scans before being allowed to leave their ships.
Another lesson the colony had learned the hard way after a visiting ship had brought a common virus with them and infected nearly all the Vardarians.
River stopped near the fence to watch for a while. Like every other cyborg on the planet, she was not permitted to leave, though the council had pushed that restriction to allow them access to the orbital station and the shipyards now operating in orbit around Liberty. She’d taken several trips to the platform in the past year as part of her leadership duties. If her plans worked out, she’d be making many more.
She had recently applied for flight training, and her acceptance letter had come only a few days ago. As preparation for the application, she’d accompanied one of the pilots on their daily flights to the platform. Thrash had been a surprisingly patient teacher, and his encouragement had helped her decide to try for a career as a pilot.
She had other options, too, but none of them offered the sense of freedom that came with flying. Up there, she was only responsible for herself. After giving up so much of herself to help others, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more.
The sun was low in the sky by the time she returned home. She lived near the bridge that spanned the Sterling River. From her kitchen window she could see the water swirling by, and she’d even had a swing built so she could sit out on her deck and take in the view. Tomorrow morning, she intended to start a newtradition and have her breakfast outside so she could enjoy the morning light on the water.
