Lila ducked into her bedroom, the straps of her bag cutting into her
good hand. She dropped it and changed into a much more expensive version of her outfit, a sweater marked by her family’s coat of arms and a pair of woolen trousers. Then she stuffed her old clothes into the bag and shoved it in her closet’s secret compartment.
Just like that, all evidence of her time with Tristan had disappeared.
It was for the best. They didn’t work. They never had, and they never would.
At least no one in her family had found out where she’d been on vacation. It hadn’t helped that she’d been forced to take a cab back to the great house. Shirley had refused to abandon her broken Firefly into her care when she’d tried to leave the shop. “I’m still looking into it, Hood,” Shirley had said, her shrewd eyes meeting Lila’s behind the mesh hood. “Take a cab today, then steal a new car as soon as you can. A Nostaru Y-class if you can swing it. It might not look like much, but they’re hard to tamper with and they’re full of airbags. It’ll take a beating, and it’ll protect you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Shirley shook her head. “I’m not sure that you will. Only luck got you out of this today. Someone wants you dead. Someone smart. I don’t like the look of this at all.”
Lila hadn’t liked it either, not when her eyes slid to Shirley’s workbench. Two plastic cubes had been melted into the brake lines, but the mechanic had refused to hand them over. “They were rigged to blow from some signal. There was another one on your kill switch that never went off. Like I said, Hood, you were lucky. I’m looking into it, though.”
She had said no more.
Lila didn’t like the confused looks that Sergeant Hill and his rookie had given her, either. She’d walked several blocks from where the cab had dropped her off and ducked under the southern gate on the Randolph compound.
They’d eyed her bag curiously, a bag she’d need to unpack.
But not today.
Lila sat down at her desk and pulled up her search results.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Commander Sutton is downstairs waiting for you,” Alex said, peeking inside. “Also your mother requests your presence at dinner this evening.”
“Who else—”
“Everyone else will be suffering with you, including Senator Dubois,” the slave replied, rolling her eyes.
“Well, in that case, the chairwoman will have many targets. Please tell Sutton to come up.”
“Up here?”
“Yes. Leave the door open.”
Alex bowed. Her clicking heels retreated down the corridor.
While Lila waited for Sutton, she scanned through the latest search results on the BullNet data. This time, she’d received a hit.
She looked up as the new chief entered the room, her leather blackcoat duller than the polished ebony furniture. Lila’s heart stuttered at the uniform she’d never be allowed to wear again, at the position she’d worked so hard for, now slipping through her fingers. If she’d known two weeks ago that she’d never wear the uniform again, she might have tried to enjoy it more on her last day.
Alex put down a kettle of hot chocolate and two mugs, then closed the door behind her.
“I haven’t been here since you were a rookie.” Sutton smirked, running her finger over the silver coat of arms. “It looks exactly the same. It looks just like your office, actually, except for this on the wall.”
“That was the point.”
Sutton nodded and tucked her arms behind her back. “So when does your new position become official, madam? The militia looks at me like they already know.”
“They might. Someone might have spotted me at the clinic yesterday.” Lila picked up a little pin molded into the shape of a star from her desk. She ushered Sutton to the couch, plopping down on one end while Sutton sat on the other. “It might come out tomorrow night at the Closing Ball, no matter what my mother has promised. She’s not always subtle in these matters.”
“In that case, I suppose we should make plans to address the militia.”
“You’re probably right. Sometime early next week, perhaps. And on that day, you’ll need another star for your collar.” Lila pressed the little pin into Sutton’s palm. “I thought you might like one of mine. I could get you a new one, if—”