Page 81 of Caught By Menace

Menace’s heart raced as the awful truth was spilled. All around him, the room had grown eerily silent. Like him, they were all affected by the ugliness.

“Her man, Sandy?” Dankirk continued. “He stopped me on the way out and asked me if you were smart or fast or useful. I thought maybe if he could find a job for you he might make yourmother take you in and support you. I had no idea he was going to turn you into a gun mule. This whole thing? It’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault, Danny.” She sniffled and used the hem of her shirt to wipe the moisture from her cheeks. “Even back then, I could have said no. I should have been smart enough to realize that they were using a homeless kid to do their dirty work because I was expendable. I was a nobody, a nothing, but I kept telling myself that I could use the gang right back. I could get myself off the streets.”

“And you did,” Dankirk confirmed. “You just didn’t know the whole story. I thought I was protecting you.”

She laughed harshly. “Well, a load of good that did me. I’ve got the whole fury and might of the Harcos forces bearing down on me as we speak. They think I have an inside line on my gunrunning, terrorist-loving mama.”

“I’m so sorry I lied to you.”

She reached for his hand. “It’s okay. I would have done the same thing to spare you any pain.”

Dankirk shook his head. “What are you going to do?”

She shrugged. “What I always do.”

“What? The right thing? The honorable thing?” He scoffed with irritation. “Naya, just run! Let me cut that damn chip out of your arm. I’ll take you away. They will never find you again. You can start over with me. You can have the life you’ve always deserved.”

Panic seized Menace. What if she said yes? Would he ever see her again?

“I can’t, Danny.”

Selfish as it was, Menace exhaled in relief. He hadn’t lost her irrevocably.

“Why not?”

“There’s no starting over for me. I tried. I got taken to a whole new culture and lived on a spaceship and you know what? Mypast still bit me in the ass. I can’t outrun it.” She lifted her chin. “I have to face it.”

“Naya, for once in your damn life, will you listen to me? Be a coward.Run.”

She shook her head. “You don’t know the man who is after me. He is not the kind of man who lets loose ends live. The second I stepped foot on that ship and he caught a whiff of my misdeeds, I was marked for death.”

“But you’re innocent,” Dankirk insisted. “You had nothing to do with this terrorist bullshit.”

“Do you think he cares? No, there’s no justice up there. It’s the same crap we’ve dealt with here.” She smoothed her hands over her head and straightened her shoulders. “I won’t put anyone else at risk. If I’m going to die, I may as well go out doing something noble. Look, those weapons are going to get so many innocent people killed. They’re going to bring war to The City. I can’t let that happen.”

“There’s no way you’re getting into the Sixer stronghold.”

“I have to try. Hell,” she said sourly, “if I do manage to walk away from this, it’s straight to Kovark for me. You know what that means.”

Menace knew all right. It meant starvation, beatings and rape.

Dankirk cleared his throat. “I could record a message for Jennie, if you want.”

“No,” Naya refused gently. “She’s got her new life. I’m not about to drag the stinking carcass of our old one into it.”

“She’s happy. I saw her last week. It was a good thing you did, helping her escape with Josef.”

“I’m glad.”

Dankirk hesitated. “When I met your man, I thought he—”

She held up her hand. “I can’t.”

Menace’s chest ached at the pain filling her voice.

“Some things are too good be true, huh?” Dankirk remarked.

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