Page 85 of Bound By Stars
The lights switch back on in sections above, revealing the inventory of bots and filling the room with an electric hum. I spin, walking down the line and scanning the rows.
Is this what my parents had been whispering about on Earth? Did they come to Earth to steal the winning design? My mom is ruthless, but this doesn’t seem like her brand of deception. She orchestrates. She lines up her moves. She expertly maneuvers, manipulating people to her will so carefully they can’t see they’re being moved like pawns.
Weslie stands at the end of a row of her bots, mouth tight and eyebrows pinched. Her scowl deepens, and she shifts her gaze from the bots to me. “Did you know about this?”
I shake my head. “Of course not.”
Guarding something behind an angry half smile, she shakes her head slowly. “It all makes sense now.”
“What does?” She can’t really believe I helped my parents do this.
“Why you wanted to help with ILSA. Why you’ve been slumming it with a dust mite. Why you lied about being engaged!”
“I didn’t lie. I told you Skye and I had a plan!” A few minutes ago, she was in my arms. I search her eyes for some spark of the girl I was just kissing, but her guard is up. She’s slipping away.
“Oh my god, the plans. That was the goal the whole time, wasn’t it? Get ILSA’s specs and turn them over to your parents’ company!” She spins back to the cargo bay door, releasing a breathy laugh and holding down the control as the heavy door creaks open. “You played me.”
That’s not who I am. My throat tightens. “You know me better than that.”
“I hardly know you at all. We’re basically strangers.” She crosses the hall, opening the exit door.
My mind is reeling for evidence. But I’m backed into a corner. I’m being trained to run this company. She has no reason to believe me aside from the time we’ve spent together, but for all she knows it was all a lie. “Wes, I would never…please…”
“You must have had a good laugh behind my back. The stupid Earther girl handing over her design, falling for a Big Six heir.” She whips around and marches away.
“I fell for you, too.” I jump on her confession, not hiding my desperation. “I honestly don’t know how they got the plans.” All my muscles tighten in place like cement is hardening in my limbs. Everything is changing between us in seconds. If I let her go, let it end like this, she might never speak to me again.
She’s halfway down the white hall, eyes forward. “Drop the act, Jupiter. It’s over.”
There’s a finality in her words I can’t accept. It pushes me forward. I have to make her believe me, but she’s already running up the stairs. “Wait!”
Passing a porter outside the arboretum, I slow, nod, and grin like everything is normal. When I start up the lower steps of the grand staircase, she’s already near the top and ignores my pleas to slow down. I barely catch up in the hall, feet from her door. Reaching out, I brush her palm with my fingers like I did in the escape pod bay.
She yanks her hand away, walking faster. “Don’t touch me!”
“Please listen to me. I—”
“I think I’ve listened to you enough for one space crossing.” She presses her palm to the access pad next to her door. It slides open and she steps inside, out of sight.
I hurry to the doorway, gripping the frame. “Will you please think about this for a second?”
She crosses her arms.
“You were supposed to deliver the specs with your presentation on Mars anyway. Wouldn’t it have been a hell of a lot less work to wait instead of chasing you around this ship and convincing you to let me help you?”
She frowns, chewing on her lip. The tension in her expression softens slightly.
Relief washes over me. Thank the universe, she’s listening to me at least.
Narrowing her eyes again, she resets her shoulders, and my heart sinks. “Probably would have. But you people are known for greed, not intelligence.”
Dropping my head, I clench the doorframe tighter. How can someone be so infuriatingly shut down? One minute she’s kissing me and the next she believes I’ve masterminded a scheme to rip her off. That I’m as ruthless and cutthroat as my mother.
I meet her cold stare. “There’s a part of you that knows you’ve got this wrong because you know me. You want a reason to think I’m not on your side because that makes it easier. But this was never going to be easy, Weslie!”
Her face is stone. “Then let me simplify it.” Hand raised, eyes locked with mine, she hits the door button, and it slides closed between us.
I squeeze my fists and eyes tight, pressing my knuckles and forehead to the thick metal between us. Pushing off, I head for my family’s quarters. At first speed-walking, but by the end of her hall, I’m in a full sprint.
