Rise of the Dark Alpha

444  My Way or the Highway

~ SASHA ~

Careful, Zev cautioned in her head. If you're too confident he'll know you're up to something and then he'll get more stubborn until he figures out what it is. Don't give him a hint about the Gateway. At all.

I won't, she replied without looking away from Nick, who was huffing and running a hand over his head.

"This is just a tactic—"

"Nope. We're going to handle getting our baby back without you. If you happen to be around, you can help us—if you even mean what you say about caring about Zev and our baby."

"Of course I mean it. I also mean it that you can't get into that place without me. What are you going to do—storm the place? Send them all over there? Bad idea. Some of them will get away, sure. But they're prepared for that. Most of them will be tranquilized and in a cage before you can say, 'whoops!'

Sasha let herself feel her grief at that idea and shook her head. "So ruthless. That's why we don't need you anymore, Nick. I refuse to need you. I would rather die than be in your debt, do you realize that? Now, leave. Or I really will turn Ernie loose on you."

"But you said you'd protect me!"

"The Team doesn't live by their word, why should I? I'm kicking you out of Thana. The Chimera refuse any more human interaction, at all."

Nick's eyes widened. "You're crazy. Zev, she's crazy. You know this. You know you can't rebel, they'll kill you all."

But before Zev could answer, Sasha broke in.

"Try."

Nick stared at her, stunned. Then his eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"

Neither of them responded to him. Nick turned to Zev and his voice turned pleading. "Zev, please, you know I'm trying to keep you alive, and your kid, all of you! You can't do this. It will be the end of the project and they'll—"

But Zev pushed past Sasha, put himself right up in Nick's face, and snarled, "You should be more concerned that I still want to kill you, and the only reason I don't is that she told me not to."

Nick licked his lips. "You don't understand… you don't have a clue the ripple effect if you kick me out."

"Will they kill you?" Sasha asked with a tone more curiosity than concern.

"No, of course not. But they'll stop trusting me and you need me there, on the inside—"

"No, Nick. We need you and your lies out of our lives," Sasha snapped.

Nick rubbed his hand over his head again. "Look, I get it, alright? I do. I understand that I… deceived Zev and separated you two. But it really was for your own good. If I hadn't, Sasha you would either have been killed or brought into the project—as a test subject—and Zev, you wouldn't have had the freedom you did. You would have been locked in the compound like the rest of them."

"And yet, here we are," Sasha said airily. "I get that you're not used to disappointment, Nick. But you're going to have to deal with this one. The Chimera are gone and they're never coming back. If any humans show up here now they're just going to find an empty world. You're welcome to explore, but like I said, watch out for the creatures."

She turned on her heel as if she was leaving and Nick darted forward, catching her arm.

She didn't even have time to yank out of his grip before Zev was on him, snarling and snapping. Nick, for the first time, didn't seem in any way intimidated by him. He whirled on Zev and got in his face.

"You have got to let me help you! If you don't, you're both going to die—and you think that leaves your kid in any kind of safety, Zev?"

"Tell me what you can bring to this that no one else can, Nick?" Sasha said as the two men glared at each other.

"I have their trust," he said quickly, looking back and forth between them. "No matter what else is going on, I have their trust. I have the keys to the Kingdom. You kick me out and they think you're still here, they stop trusting me. And if you think I'm a bastard, wait until you see who will step into my place!"

"Then keep their trust," Sasha said.

"I… what?"

"You have bruises and it's very obvious Zev tried to strangle you. Tell them that you caught us all trying to leave and you tried to stop them, and now you're sending them back to intervene before we can go. It will take them some time to get through here. They'll think we just managed to leave because we had warning. You still look like one of their guys, and we still get away."

"I… that's…" Nick stumbled, his eyes darting. But he couldn't find a way around it.

"It's simple, Nick. If you really want to help us, you do whatever you can to keep yourself in a place to do it when we show up, okay?"

"Of course I will, but can't you see?" he pleaded, hands open toward Sasha, "You have to come with me. They need to believe you're still trusting the plan too—"

"Nope. No way. No how, Nick. Either you go alone, or you get eaten. Those are your choices. But you're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll figure out how to spin that to your advantage in the end."

"But—"

"No buts, Nick. This is your only chance. I've called Ernie off. He'll follow you to make sure you actually leave, but other than that he's not going to get in your way. Because we want you out of here. So you grab your stuff—except for the device—and you leave."

Nick shook his head. "It's a death sentence for both of you—and your kid."

"Well," Sasha said breezily, though her blood ran cold, "I guess we'll see if that's true. But it's not changing my decision. So… goodbye, Nick. Goodbye and good fucking riddance."