Stolen Flyght – Chapter 4

The Flyght ship we’re taking to Sonoma is, of course, Diamond class because nothing is impossible for Ken with his own company. I reunite with my crew, giving Carlos an embarrassing hug, while Lia giggles at his sincere blush. I nod at Simon and Gloria and their team as they walk through the airlock. Thankfully, Ayala, aka. Mr. Sumo, is handling his end of the work from Palo Alto. I don’t like him and his shit-eating grin.

We’re greeted by the captain and her crew, and they stay out of the way while everyone gets settled into their rooms. I ignore the wary stare she gives me. I don’t have the best reputation in the business now, and I fret over giving Ken a bad name. Regardless, we’re on our way within ten minutes of boarding, and my stomach settles once we’ve reached orbit. I take the time to meet with Carlos and go over my tech problems, check in with Gus and Ken, then assure Lia we’ll all eat together soon.

In Jinzo’s room, I dump my bag in front of his closet with a sigh and flop onto the bed. I’d like to curl up and go to sleep, but if we stay up and eat a late meal, then sleep through the transit through the jump ring, we’ll be on Sonoma at the right time of day not to feel any lag.

Jinzo closes the door and sets his bag next to mine.

“You and Gus made up?”

“Yeah.” I look up at him in confusion, and he brushes his own neck with his hand.

“He puts his mark on you whenever you’re together,” he says with a chuckle and a smile.

I touch my fingers to my neck, and the tender skin there smarts. “Oh, crap. You think everyone knows?”

“Knows what? That you have four lovers? I would hope so.” He kicks off his shoes and puts them next to mine at the door. “What do you want to do this evening?”

“Besides sex?” I ask, a hopeful lilt to my question.

His returning smile is relieved. “Yes.”

I hold out my hand to him, and he joins me on the bed. I maneuver myself so that his arms are around me, and we’re settled into a comfortable embrace.

“There,” I say with a heavy sigh. “That’s what I want to do.”

Jinzo lays a soft kiss on my hair and strokes his thumb over the skin of my upper arm. “This is it? What about food or drinks or seeing the rest of the guys?”

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and allow my body to relax without answering him.

I feel like, right now, I can take a moment to unwind. We have our marching orders, and we’re on our way to make these nebulous plans happen. Sure, there are a lot of unknowns and the possibility of death in my near future, but that’s all the same existential worries I’ve been dealing with for weeks, anyway.

Jinzo’s chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm, and the calm lulls me into a blissful state. Mmmm, I love this man. I love Ken and Gus, too. I think I may even fall for Mat with time. We have the chemistry to make it happen. My eyes slide shut, and the room hums me to sleep.

I’m falling, falling…

My wristlet buzzes, and I full-body flinch, inhaling sharply before groaning.

“Fuck.”

Jinzo turns so his body cradles mine. “You were almost asleep.”

“Almost,” I say, turning my wrist over to see what needs my attention.

Twenty-three unread messages in my secondary inbox. Huh. Really? I just dealt with my messages!

To quell the number of unsolicited messages I’ve been receiving since achieving unwanted fame, I worked with Carlos thirty minutes ago to set up rules on my inbox. Anything from trusted sources goes straight to my inbox, and I’m alerted. This way, I don’t miss anything from my consorts or people I need to hear from. Everything else goes through a filter. Requests for quotes or comments about recent news are trashed. Anything that looks like it may be genuine goes to the secondary inbox, and I’m alerted when the algorithm detects a higher than average amount of activity.

There’s no way I have this many messages in so little time.

Rolling to my back and raising my hands, I gesture through to the secondary inbox and scroll through the messages. What the hell is going on now?

“I want you to know that I’m with you. You have my support.”

“It’s shameful the way you’ve been treated.”

“Your brother got away with murder! If a woman had done that, she’d be in jail. There’s no way I’m supporting this Reformer bullshit.”

“We’ve fought too long and too hard to get where we are. The bank will hear from me if you don’t get your farm back.”

“Huh,” I huff out.

Jinzo lifts his head. “What is it?” He props himself up when he sees my furrowed brow. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know. I have over twenty messages in my secondary inbox from women I’ve never heard of before.”

“What do they say?” His body becomes rigid.

“Nothing threatening. They’re all messages of support, actually.”

I scroll through more of them.

“I heard of your plight through a mutual friend, and I’ll be there to support you on the day of the auction.”

Hmmm, did Malina’s and Alipha’s networks already start spreading the word? My newfound friends said they would help out, but I never imagined they would be so quick. Each one of the messages is positive and kind but vague. No one mentions specifics, possibly because they’re worried about being hacked or the messages ending up in the wrong hands. Maybe?

Or maybe I’m being pranked?

I’m not sure.

Then I see it, way at the bottom of the list — a vidmessage from Lena Almas, wife of Gabriel Almas. Ugh. What does she want? Last time I saw her was in that restaurant on Sonoma when she was sure I would jump at the chance to be one of her husband’s wives.

“Shit. What the fuck does she want?”

“What?” Jinzo asks, sitting up and tucking his legs under him.

“There’s a vidmessage here from Lena Almas too.” I sigh and close my eyes, tipping my head back. “Why? Why does the universe hate me so damned much?”

Jinzo squeezes my upper arm. “Share it with me. We’ll watch it together.”

I cringe as I select the video and share it with Jinzo. He grabs his datapad and sits on the bed next to me.

When Lena Almas pops up in front of me, I know this video will not be good.

“Vivian Kawabata, I’m not sure where you are right now, but if I ever see you again, I’m going to wring your neck for all the trouble you’ve caused me the last few days.” She takes a deep breath. “I know you turned down our offer, but this is sabotage. There was no reason to go to these lengths to make your point. Now, because of all the trouble you’ve caused me, I’m rescinding our offer. There’s no way we will ever work together if this is how you act. Fuck you,” she says, her voice matter-of-fact. “And we’ll see you at the auction.” She laughs. “If you thought you were going to get your farm back, then you’re mistaken. It’s mine now.”

The video ends and dumps me back on my home screen.

“Fucking hell. What happened?” Jinzo asks.

My upper lip sweats as I remember my message to Malina and Alipha. Maybe I went too far? Or maybe they added more to my message than I’m aware of?

I comb through my secondary and then my primary inbox looking for a clue as to what went down without my knowledge. But something tells me I’m not going to find any answers without talking to Malina or Alipha. This vidmessage from Lena is connected to all the other messages I got, I just know it.

“Did you…?” Jinzo reconsiders what he’s going to say. “Did you ask someone to help you with this issue, with the Almas problem?”

My cheeks heat. Jinzo takes one look at them and nods.

“You did. When?”

“Ummm…” I’m not stalling. I’m thinking back through the days. “I called Alipha and asked her for help the day Dad stormed in on us, and then this morning I sent a message to Malina and Alipha.”

“What kind of help?” His eyes narrow.

I hold up my hands. “Nothing specific. I just asked for help. I suggested that…” I lick my lips and swallow. “That we all, the women of Ossun, would work together better as a team?” I sound unsure of what I said, yet I can remember the call distinctly. It didn’t seem scandalous to me.

“You what?”

My whole face heats.

“No offense, Vivi. But that seems like a bit of a long shot to me.”

“Why?”

“Women don’t work together much.” He shrugs. “It’s natural for networks to close up around the center female.” He holds out his hands. “Don’t get me wrong. It would be nice to see more women work together. It’s just… rare.”

“Skylar and I work together,” I point out.

“You’re family. That’s different.”

“Malina has women in her network.”

He shrugs again. “That’s also different since there’s a romantic component there.”

I try not to imagine Malina with the other women.

He places his hand on my arm. “Maybe it’ll work. Maybe I’m underestimating the power of friendship among women. And maybe next time be more specific in what you want because I suspect Alipha’s been on the offensive for you.” He chuckles. “That’s certainly a lot better than her working against us, though.”

“No shit. She can be ruthless.” I rub my face and try to shake off the sleep from earlier.

“Can you forward all the messages to me? Including the one you sent to Malina and Alipha? I’d like to look them over.”

“Sure.”

As I’m sending the messages over to Jinzo, a new one pops into my primary inbox. Carlos wants to meet up in his room.

So much for some downtime before dinner.

I sigh and swallow a groan as I get back to my feet.

“Wait,” Jinzo says, holding out his hand. “Where are you going? You were literally dead on your feet five minutes ago and lying down to nap.”

I unzip my bag and find my slippers. Holding them in my hand, I frown at them. They’re perfectly fine slippers, but they remind me of my original slippers, the ones on the Amagi. Anger flares in my chest, and I catch my breath to halt a full-on meltdown. Memories flood my forethoughts of all the little mementos that I salvaged from my home before the bank took everything. But I push them back. Push, push, push. I take the memories of the bracelet Mat gave me and shove them into a tiny compartment. Stay there.

“Carlos needs me. So I’m going to head to his room.”

“Then I’ll go look into dinner,” he says, getting off the bed and grabbing his slippers.

I want to tell him to stay and relax. Someone should enjoy this momentary respite before everything blows up. But I know Jinzo. He doesn’t like to sit still.

“Okay.” I lean in for a kiss and let his lips linger. Mmmm. That’s nice. “I’ll see you after.”