Page 154 of Sky Song
“We’re here for the records, Cricket,” Simon informed her in that unemotional voice of his. He must be a great joy to have around domestically. Cricket wondered if Gemma had any regrets. Maybe a tiny bit? Dr. Ragberg sure was a rat, but personality-wise the comparison skewed heavily in the doctor’s favor.
“I don’t have them.”
Simon wasn’t impressed. “But you know who does?”
Cricket glanced at Paloma who was hiding fearfully in Ren’s embrace. Gearing up for a confrontation that may very well end with her death, Cricket crossed her arms - a strange gesture for someone stark naked. She didn’t care. She felt no shame or fear. Standing there as vulnerable as she’d ever been in her life, she was the most empowered for she had nothing left to lose.
“I destroyed them.” She felt Paloma’s and Ren’s disbelieving gazes at her bare back.
Simon made a growling sound of annoyance deep in his throat. “It’s an expensive mistake to make.”
“It wasn’t a mistake. I did it for him.” She pointed at Lyle.
Simon’s eyes never flickered. “He’s expendable. So it was a mistake.”
If she thought she’d hated Simon before, words couldn’t describe the loathing she felt for him at this moment. Dizziness attacked her anew.
“You wasted our time, Cricket.” Her name sounded so strange uttered in Simon’s emotionless, accented voice. Lucifer's voice.
The silence emanating from Paloma and Ren was deafening.
She closed her eyes briefly, battling the onslaught of emotions along with the nausea. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.” Cricket’s voice cracked as her gaze went to Lyle’s form. His chest rose with each shallow breath, but otherwise, he remained still. “Don’t kill him.”
“I won’t need to, by the looks of things.”
She swallowed hard on her urge to launch herself at Simon, to kick and hit and inflict whatever damage she could. She wouldn't come close, she knew, but the urge was strong. “I will cooperate, I swear I will. Just take us out of here.”
Simon’s fine eyebrows twitched - a Rix ethnic trait, so painfully reminiscent of Lyle. “Without the records, you’ve lost your bargaining power, not to mention you pissed me off. Your reasoning baffles me. What did you think would happen when we come and find nothing left?”
“I didn’t say there was nothing left.”
Simon’s energy flared. It was hard to hold his gaze. He was as formidable in person as she’d imagined he would be from mama’s tales, and mama hadn’t exaggerated. If anything, she had come short of conveying how truly frightening Simon was. And yes, despite her bravado, Cricket was intimidated almost to the breaking point.
She took a small breath in. “I am the last surviving subject, Simon. I’m also the most successful one - healthy and strong andalive. Thank you for your genes.”
As was the case with the Rix, it was impossible to say if he was looking directly at her, but Cricket knew he was. Their gazes locked and held, hers full of challenge, his blazing with murderous intent.
“His orders were to eliminate all subjects,” Simon ground out through gritted teeth. “I ought to fix his mistake right here.”
“I’m sure you’ll find it easy to kill another male’s human mate.”
“You aren’t his mate.”
She kept her gaze direct, still naked, still at his mercy. “Take me back and let your doctors study me - wouldn’t it get you what you want?”
“Without the records, it will take decades to recreate the serum from your sample alone,” he snarled.
“In a hurry? Good news! Take Lyle back with you as well. He would remember the formula. He studied it.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“I’m pregnant.”
Simon’s breath hitched for one second. “Not by him. Rix and humans don’t mix…” He stopped, and Cricket knew the exact moment he put two and two together. Rix genes were now coursing through Cricket’s blood, forever fused into the composition of her native body.
“You decide, Simon.”
Lyle moaned and moved, and her attention snapped to him. Turning her back on the Rix defenders, she dropped to her knees and gently lifted Lyle’s head to her lap. They could shoot her in the back of her head, and there was nothing she could do about that. She had no other resources. She’d taken her gamble, and prayed that mama’s judgment hadn’t failed her, for mama had been convinced that Gemma wouldn't have picked a bad man.
