Broken People (25 page)

Dale stayed. There was no point in fighting.
He’d failed. Chances to succeed had been slim to begin with, but
he’d seen a glimmer of hope at one point. Funny how he associated
hope with gold for some reason.

“Take him away,” Ternchiev told the guards,
nodding at Dale.

“Uncle …” Aurore placed a hand on the old
man’s arm. “He doesn’t have to rot in jail. He can be more useful
somewhere else.”

“You want to let him go?” Ternchiev’s eyes
narrowed at her. “After all he did?”

“He didn’t know all of the details. And we
played him as much as he played us,” she said with a tight smile.
“Actually, you played us all. You owe me.”

“I don’t know …” Ternchiev shook his head,
giving Dale an up and down look.

“Let’s end this unfortunate affair.
Please?”

“Fine. For you.” Ternchiev patted her cheek.
“Escort this man out of the perimeter. And I want you out of town
by morning!”

The doors at both ends of the train car
opened simultaneously. Anya hesitated in the doorway, having not
seen Nicholas yet, and wiped her cheek with the back of her
hand.

“How is Serioja?” Nicholas closed the door
behind him and advanced towards her.

She silently closed the other door then,
just as silently, gesticulated with her hands.

Nicholas let out an impatient groan. She
couldn’t speak. He walked up to her and placed his palm on her
throat, right under her jaw. Her pulse beat wildly under his
fingers and her breath caught. He sent in a small jolt.

Anya coughed and spit a black plastic device
into her palm. “Great. You broke it.”

“It’s all right. They’ll fix it. How is he?”
Nicholas rested his hands on her shoulders and lowered his head to
make her look at him. He wanted a straight answer, even if it
hurt.

Anya slipped the device in a pocket of her
purple skirt. “Not well.” She looked up with glassy, red eyes.
“Rake is working on fixing him, but everything inside him is
crushed. He might have a chance if he makes it until morning,
but…”

“Serioja is strong. He’ll make it.” The
determination in his voice was supposed to give her strength, but
Anya sighed and buried her face in his chest.

“Oh, Nick … You didn’t see him fall!”

Nicholas held her in his arms and rested his
cheek against her head. She had changed her costume, and in the
absence of the mask, with the locks of dark brown hair escaping
from the pins and framing her face, she looked like a helpless
little girl.

“It’s going to be fine,” he murmured,
running a soothing hand on her back. If only he could guarantee her
that.

“
I
sent him out there. I urged him to
do
something … and then he let go. How could he do that?”
Anya mumbled against his jacket.

“Serioja knew what he was doing. He bought
us time when we needed it. No one could ask for more.”

“It’s already too much!”

Nicholas closed his eyes. Despite the way
their relationship had ended, Anya and Serioja had remained
friends, and Anya cared fiercely for her friends. Of course, she
suffered. “Yes, I know. And I’m sorry.”
Sorry for a lot of
things
.

Something in his voice must have triggered
her alarm because Anya straightened her back. “How’s Cielo?”

“She broke her other leg.” Nicholas made a
grimace. “Spinner is mending it already. She’ll have to use
crutches for a while, but she’ll be fine.”

“And Cole?” Anya asked.

“Ironically, he came out of this the least
harmed, just some scratches and bruises caused by the rough
landing,” Nicholas said. “Fei Lin burned a few connectors, though.
According to Spinner, those will be harder to fix, but not
impossible, so we’re good.”

“What about you?” Anya cupped the side of
his face. “Did you eat anything?”

He smiled, touched by her concern. “I’m
fine.” There had been no time to think about his needs. If he
focused on other things and kept the shivering locked inside, he
could get through it without giving his body extra fuel to
recover.

“Then what’s wrong?” Anya’s fingers caressed
his cheek.

His pale face must have given him away
despite the dim lighting. But it wasn’t just that.

“Anya … there’s a fair chance I will be
fired after tonight.”

“What? Don’t be silly. Because of what
happened?”

“Yeah. I only had two members of the crew
maimed under my watch, plus two other only moderately injured.”
Nicholas let out a bitter laugh.

“Stop that.” Anya pulled her lips into a
severe, unhappy line. “That wasn’t your fault. You weren’t there
when it happened.”

“Yes, but I should have been …”

“Nick,” her voice softened, “it’s not your
responsibility. You’re not the manager, remember?”

“Of course not…” It just felt like that. He
wasn’t sure why. “I’m just saying Big Dino might not see it that
way, so I need to take that possibility into consideration.” If he
were indeed fired, he’d have to leave the circus. He had some money
put aside, and since this was only supposed to be a temporary job
anyway, it should have been a relief to leave this mad circus
world. It wasn’t. If he left, he would probably never see Anya
again since the circus was constantly on the move.

“Big Dino likes money,” Anya said. “And you
made him lots the past two weeks. He’ll forgive everything
else.”

Nicholas shook his head. “He won’t forgive
me for attacking his precious Nightingale.”

“What? Why on earth would you attack Cielo?”
Anya slapped his chest lightly, as if they were joking, which they
were not.

“She was going to kill the guards. There’s
no middle ground with her. She’s either all sunshine and rainbows,
or death and destruction. She sees one gun aimed at her, and she
goes ballistic. I get that she’s been too abused as a child, and
she can’t help it, but I had to stop her. Those guards were only
doing their job. They didn’t have to die when there were other ways
…”

“You did it, didn’t you?”

“Well, someone had to …”

“Nick …” Anya’s sigh was
self-explanatory.

He could get away with it while working at
the circus, but if he manifested his powers outside of it and
assaulted someone, the laws would have to be applied. And if he was
put into the system, it would become general knowledge he escaped
the drafting committee and was wanted in at least seven
countries.

“Did you hurt her?”

“Nah, maybe bruised her a little.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to her. She’s reasonable
when she’s not in the zone. You talk to the Golden Lady to put in a
good word for you with her uncle. She likes you, though God knows
why.” Anya rolled her eyes. “You’re such a fool.”

Nicholas grinned. She was probably
right.

The door behind him opened, and Jacko peeked
inside. “Big Dino wants to see you.”

Well, that was fast.
Nicholas let go
of Anya and started for the door. Before heading out, he glanced
back at her, raising his eyebrow.
You were saying?

Big Dino’s round, black eyes gleamed in the
lights hanging above the sturdy bed. His thick, sausage-like
fingers shifted on the large mound formed by his belly under the
covers. He was fully awake.

Spinner rested a hand on Nicholas’s shoulder
and leaned in to whisper, “Don’t keep him up too long. He needs to
rest. And don’t antagonize him. The stuff we gave him can make him
irritable.”

Nicholas nodded and took a step closer to
the foot of the bed as Spinner left the room. No, this was not a
good time to antagonize Big Dino.

“From what I heard, you had a pretty
exciting night.” A smile played on Big Dino’s dark lips. That smile
could become extremely cruel on occasion.

Nicholas’s eyes darted to the left where
Cielo sat in a chair, her bandaged leg held up by a contraption. Of
course she’d run up to her protector and rat him out. He lowered
his head, prepared for a good scolding. Would a beating be part of
it before he threw him out? Probably not. Rake and Spinner had seen
a little of what he was capable and wouldn’t dare. They had too
many wires inside them to risk it.

“Do you know what you did wrong?” Big Dino
asked.

“Lots of things!” Nicholas let out a
disgruntled laugh.

Big Dino stared at him without blinking.

“Oh, you want a list? Let’s see …” Nicholas
pretended to count on his fingers. “I shouldn’t have let Rake and
Spinner drag me into this.” In his defense, it had seemed harmless
at the time.

Big Dino gave him a slow nod, as much as his
short neck allowed.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to do the show.”
They wouldn’t have had to do it if they had access to the funds.
Having been the circus accountant for the past few years, Nicholas
could have accessed them in Big Dino’s absence, but everyone knew
that, after the circus and the Nightingale, money was what Big Dino
cared about the most.

The tightening in Big Dino’s green cheeks
agreed with him.

“And I definitely should not have let the
circus get involved in the heist.” That part had been stupid, and
it had failure written all over it right from the start. But, once
again, it hadn’t been Nicholas’s decision. He’d been a puppet in
the knife throwers’ hands.

Nicholas paused to stare at his
well-polished shoes. He was digging his own grave. Better get it
over with. He straightened his back and raised his chin. “I
shouldn’t have brought the circus to the Hrad … and I shouldn’t
have attacked the Nightingale.” Out of them all, that was the
highest offence. “Sorry about that.” He gestured at Cielo’s throat
where his fingers had left dark bruises.

Cielo nodded. She wasn’t normally this
quiet. Nicholas swallowed, forcing down the lump in his throat.
Sweat gathered under his collar. If she wanted him out but didn’t
want to get her hands dirty … Big Dino would never say no to
her.

“Do you know how this could have all been
avoided?” Big Dino asked, still calm and lucid.

If I’d grown a backbone overnight
?
Nicholas couldn’t honestly say he’d ever had one. He’d run away
from responsibilities his whole life, so what on earth had
possessed him to get involved now? But it seemed like an easy thing
to do in the beginning, and he didn’t mind helping people. It was
what the circus did. It had helped him when he most needed it, too.
And this was how he’d repaid it. One more thing to add to his long
list of failures.

“I should have seen to my own business,”
Nicholas said.

“That’s one way to put it …” Big Dino
twiddled his fingers.

“How much longer are you going to try to get
him to wet his pants?” Cielo asked in an arguing voice. “My leg
might be numb, but we still have a circus to pack by morning.”

Big Dino frowned at her interruption. Oddly
enough, Cielo was the only crew member who dared to address him in
that tone. No wonder she was his favorite.

“Like I was saying—” Big Dino glanced at
Cielo, and she pursed her lips, “—there is another answer. All of
this would have been avoided if you were the manager.”

Nicholas sucked in a breath.
That
had
been unexpected to say the least.

“I understand you have been put in an
impossible position where you had no choice, and you did the best
you could under the circumstances,” Big Dino said. “The crew
vouched for you. No one could have done more.”

It sounded like a compliment, and Nicholas
blinked, startled. He wasn’t used to receiving compliments. People
were usually disappointed in him, and he’d made it his life’s
purpose to keep it that way. If no one ever got close, they
wouldn’t be hurt when he got caught. And sooner or later,
telecharchers always got caught.

“I … don’t know what to say,” he
admitted.

“To start with, you should be pleased I’m
not throwing you to the dogs,” Big Dino said with the beginning of
a smile.

“Yes, of course.” Nicholas hurried to nod.
“You’d be right to do it, too.”

“And I was going to … until someone opened
my eyes.”

Cielo shifted in the chair and winced. “Can
we get to the point?”

“So, what I’m proposing is to make your
position official,” Big Dino said.

What? Official?
Nicholas stared for
several long seconds, unable to do anything else. “You want to make
me manager?”

“Yes, with all of the bonuses associated
with the position,” Big Dino said. “You’ll get a monthly paycheck,
a share of the profit, access to some of the accounts, and full
decisional range in my absence. What do you say?”

The ground swayed under Nicholas’s feet. “I
don’t know where to start …” This was insane!

“Say yes, and we’ll figure out the rest of
the details later. Okay?” Big Dino yawned, showing a set of sturdy,
yellow teeth. “I’m getting sleepy here.”

“What about … what about her?” Nicholas
nodded towards Cielo.

“It was her idea actually.” Big Dino let out
a louder yawn.

“I don’t understand … I could have killed
her!”

“You could have, but you didn’t. You’re no
murderer.”

“But I am.” Cielo’s voice was merely a
whisper. “Whenever there’s danger, I go to full power. I can’t help
it.” She sighed, then brightened up. “You’re the first person able
to stop me. We’ve been looking for someone who could do that, but
we didn’t know if you were strong enough. Now we do.” Her smile
turned hopeful. “You
must
become the manager!”

Had she used the voice on him? Would he be
able to tell if she did? Nicholas narrowed his eyes at her. “And if
I refuse?”

Cielo’s green eyes also narrowed, gleaming
with a challenge as she smirked. “Don’t make me make you.”

“Good. You two kids wrestle it out between
you two, but if it ends up with even more broken bones, I don’t
want to hear about it.” Big Dino closed his eyes. “Send for that
Armstrong guy and wake me when he gets here.” The next moment, he
was snoring softly.