Page 79 of Darkness I Become
“Of course, sugar,” Lana replied, rubbing her upper arm sympathetically. “Let’s get you a bunk, and then I’ll see about getting Tara to bring you something to eat.”
She led Asha to the dormitory and showed her to her old bunk, chattering away about how they’d look after Asha in the wake of Cade ditching her. Asha felt horrible by the end of it, but she had to stick to the plan.
“Do you think you could get me a visit with Angel tonight?” she asked Lana, trying her best to seem sorrowful but resigned.
Lana balked. “Why would you want that? Cade’s already been to tell him your new situation, so I—”
“I want to try and smooth things over,” Asha said, adding just the right amount of hesitation to her voice. “Things didn’t go well with him before, with Cade. And now that I’m unattached, I…I need to appeal to him, don’t I? I don’t want him to get rid of me.”
Lana bit her lip, and Asha knew her words rang true. Currying Angel’s favour as an unattached woman was undeniably important in this hellhole, and Lana’s silence told her that Angel getting rid of her in the wake of her new status was very much a possibility.
That fucking asshole,she raged, but she forced her mouth into a thin, hard line, suppressing her emotion. He wouldn’t be in charge for much longer.
“I can try,” Lana said after a moment. “He doesn’t always agree to see every girl. Only ones he’s interested in.”
Asha—and Cade, for that matter—was confident that Angel would agree. The thought of Asha coming to him on bended knee, begging for his favour, would be too tempting a proposition for his sadistic side.
“If you could just ask, that’d be…well, I’d really appreciate it.”
Lana kissed her cheek. “Of course. Anything you need, sugar.”
She left Asha to get settled into her bunk, and Asha wondered if the bubbling cauldron of guilt in her gut would ever go away.
Lana returned only a half hour later, telling Asha that Angel would see her that night at approximately ten o’clock. She then led Asha to the kitchen to eat, since the evening meal had already been served and cleaned up. On a counter, exactly where Cade had told her it would be, Asha spotted a basket of red wine that they’d brought back from the Settlements.
“You really shouldn’t take it too hard, girl,” Tara was saying to her as she ladled soup into a bowl. She was a short blonde girl with a sweet disposition. “I always thought Cade seemed kinda stuck up, anyway. With his special soldiers, thinking he’s better than everyone else.”
Asha’s stomach was doing flip-flops, but she merely nodded. Lana remained silent, looking as perturbed as she had earlier at Asha’s situation. Asha only hoped she wasn’t doubting the story too much.
She ate her soup in silence, sneaking furtive glances at the wine basket. When she finished eating, she went to pick up a bottle.
“Maybe I could bring this to Angel tonight?” she asked Lana, hoping the nervousness in her voice came off as appropriate. “As a peace offering?”
Her guilt returned with a vengeance when Lana gave her a gentle smile and said, “Of course. He likes to be served, and, well, you know his weakness for drink. It might make him a little less…”
“Violent?” Asha offered, unable to help herself.
Lana bit her lip. “Try to get him to drink a couple glasses before you offer yourself.”
In no way would she ever offer herself to that man, but Asha nodded as though she appreciated the advice. She sat back at the table and waited for the kitchens to clear out as the women either went to bed or took a rare moment for themselves. Eventually, even Lana left to check on her little sister.
As soon as she was alone, Asha seized the wine bottle and uncorked it. From her bag, she withdrew a smaller bag loaded with a white powder.
“Odourless, tasteless, and invisible once dissolved,” Leo had told her in a hushed voice. “It’s a powerful sedative and poison, but it’ll take some time to achieve full effect. You’ll have to stall until then.”
Asha took a deep breath. “Alright.”
He pressed the bag into her palm and closed her fingers around it.
“Be careful, Asha,” he said seriously before he released her. “Donotdrink the wine. Not even a sip. I have no antidote.”
On that ominous note, she’d kissed Cade goodbye.
“While you’re with Angel, we’ll take care of the rest,” he’d said. “After we’re done taking out Angel’s inner circle, I’ll come get you. Don’t leave Angel’s Wing until I do. Understood?”
She’d nodded, and now, looking around her to make sure there were no witnesses, she dumped the white powder into the wine and sloshed it around so it mixed well. She hadn’t thought it would be so easy—that Lana would’ve asked more questions. But then, that was why Cade had chosen her for this mission: they underestimated her. As a woman in this brutal micro-society, her role wasvictim,notthreat.
How wrong they would be. She re-corked the bottle with a tool Cade had given her, went to the dormitory, and waited on her bunk for the end of life as she knew it.
