“There’s nothing wrong with Harem Station,” Luck says. “They could do a lot worse. We grew up there.”
Mighty Boss shoots him a look like… Yup. Just proved my point.
I look at Valor to see if he’s got anything to say about this, but he’s staring down at a monitor, watching Veila’s final video message with a weird look on his face.
“Tell him, Jimmy,” Crux says. “Those kids are all pure-bred Akeelian males and they belong with us.”
“Do you have a school for them?” Mighty Boss argues. “Parents? No,” he says, answering his own rhetorical questions. “Mighty Minions was built for kids. We can raise them right.”
“Fuck you,” Luck says. “Tell him, Jimmy. All the boys come with us. We can raise them just fine.”
But can we?
We do have some kids on Harem. Outlaws fall in love too. And some of them start families. But they never hang out for long. It’s hundreds of levels of bars, and shooting galleries, and arcades. Everyone’s packing heat and coming in hot. There’s drugs, and fighting, a whole lot of swearing.
It’s just not a place for little kids.
I look at Mighty Boss, then all my brothers—except Valor, because he’s replaying that fucking Veila message from the beginning again. “I don’t know, Crux.” I shrug. “I’m not sure he’s wrong.”
“What the fuck?” Luck yells. “They’re our people.”
I put up a hand and say, “What if we take the older ones?” to Mighty Boss. “Say… fifteen and up? And the little ones can stay here and… you know. Have fun for a while.”
I look at Crux and think about the little one. Canis. How angry and filled with hate he was back on the Lair when we were escaping. And his final threat to Veila as she admitted defeat.
“You didn’t see it,” I say to Crux. “You have no idea what these kids went through.” Then I look at Mighty Boss and say, “The older ones. They’re never gonna get over it. The best we can hope for is to bring them back with us and teach them how to be men.” Then I look at Luck. “But the little ones can start over.”
Everyone in the room frowns.
Except Valor, who is still looking at that fucking message like Veila is the only one here.
“How do we even know you’ll treat them right?” Crux says, directing his words to Mighty Boss.
Mighty Boss tips up his chin and says, “I will send a token of good faith to ALCOR.”
“ALCOR’s dead,” Valor says. First thing he’s said this whole time.
“No, he isn’t,” Mighty Boss counters. And he looks straight at Crux.
“What will you send?” Crux asks, completely ignoring that last statement.
“Part of me. One of my AI’s. She’s been restless in the collective and has asked to be set free. If you take responsibility for her, I’ll give you another AI. To fill in the station gaps until yours comes back to his senses.”
“What the fuck?” Luck says.
“Later,” Crux says, putting up a hand to silence him.
“She can be persuasive,” Mighty Boss adds. “Maybe even help you get him out of there.”
“What the hell is he talking about?” That’s me.
“Later,” Crux growls at me. Then he sighs and says, “OK. We have a deal.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO – DELPHI
“So that’s what happened,” I say, then take a sip of my fruity tushberry cocktail through a bright green straw and blink at my new princess sisters as they just stare at me, silent.
“Holy mother of fucking suns!” Nyleena says. Then she turns to Lyra and says, “I told you we should’ve gone with Crux and Valor! You always make me miss the good shit.” Nyleena turns to me and grabs my hand so quick and fast, I pull away, startled. “Next time you get involved in crazy plots like this, I’m your go-to girl, got it?”
I like the one called Lyra a lot. But truth be told, this Nyleena is a crackpot. She’s silver, so that alone makes her creepy. And even though there was such an obvious and immediate attraction between her and Luck when we finally came home, both of them are in some kind of stupid denial.
That kinda pisses me off. I liked Luck at first but anyone who refuses to acknowledge their soulmate connection is an asshole.
I know. Because I don’t have one.
Well, I do. The boy who I now know is now called Leonis because he’s one of the forty-odd boys who came back with us.
But he doesn’t count.
Jimmy is my one, no matter what our DNA says.
The asshole boy came back with us too, but the little one didn’t. I was sorta sad about that. I could’ve been a mother to him. There’s no hope in hell of Jimmy and I ever having kids since we’re not bonded like that. But I could’ve raised that little one here. I would’ve started a school, and fed him good food, and taken him to the parks, and read him adventure stories before putting him to bed.