Legacy (Alliance Book 3) by Inna Hardison Page A

live with himself because of it; I can see it all over him. So I need you to let me talk to him and maybe we can have him come with us. We can use more soldiers anyway, and you can’t get any more of your crew out without it raising alarms all over the place. Just let me talk to him.”
    Of course. Riley didn’t know he had leverage now. “I can get Maxton to do whatever we need him to do for us without having to keep him alive or taking him with us. He cares about that kid, and as long as I have him, Maxton will make himself useful. So no, I won’t let him walk out of here, not with us, not in any manner. I can’t trust him.”
    Riley shook his head at him. “You will, Brody. You will. Because I won’t let you use that kid against him like that. You should know what that feels like, Brody. You’ve done it before, with me, remember? I won’t let you do that to him,” he said, angry again, and he got up and pushed the button for the elevator, not looking at him anymore.
    “He is Alliance through and through. He referred to you as bloody apes a few hours ago, never mind what he did to this whole city, and you’re fighting me over him? What am I missing?”
    Riley faced him, getting into the elevator. “Trelix did too, in his own way. Darky, ape, it’s the same thing, Brody. I don’t care about that any more; only with Maxton, I don’t think he ever meant any of it. I think he took one look around that room when he woke up, and spat out things he thought would piss you off the most, so you’d just shoot him. I think he played you at the lab, too, looking fearful so if things went badly, you’d go after him and not any of his men. He is decent. Drake-decent. You can’t not see that. Let the damn kid go. You know he can’t go anywhere but the lab, and they can’t call this in, no place for them to call it in to. Loren explained it to me earlier, the whole S-5 thing. These guys are on their own. They’re ghosts, and I know you know that.”
    Maybe he was right about this Maxton. He was as good as they got as soldiers go, he knew that much by now. And they had enough manpower to guard him. The kid was useless to them. And he couldn’t stand looking at him. Too much of that woman in his face. At worst, he owed Riley a conversation.
    Trelix met them at the door to the comm room. “Not a word, from either of them, not even to each other. I’ll bring you some coffee, Riley, now that we can make it hot again,” and he was gone. Maxton had his eyes closed, and he couldn’t see the kid’s face from the door. He got his knife out, snipped the ties at the kid’s hands, and walked around him. The kid was staring at him like he wanted to kill him, not even trying to hide it.
    “I want to let you go, Brandon, but I need to make sure my crew is safe if I do, and I don’t know how to do that with you,” he said evenly.
    “I am not interested in harming your crew, just you. Your crew will be safe, but I will find a way to kill you for what you did to her, I promise you that.”
    He looked over at Maxton, who was watching this intently now. Riley was still standing by the door, smiling.
    “Hey Riley, I don’t trust this kid not to lunge for me. Please cut the tie at his feet. I don’t think he’ll kick you,” and he grinned at the kid. Brandon stared at him with a confused look on his face as Riley snipped the tie and helped him up.
    He put his hands behind his back, looking at the kid, who was still standing there like a statue. “You are free to go, Brandon. Hallway, make a left, you’ll see the elevators.”
    The boy didn’t move, still looking at him. “What’s going to happen to Maxton? It doesn’t make sense that you’d just let me go.... What will you do to him?” Finally a moment of decency. A first, less him protecting Hassinger.
    “We are going to cut him up into tiny pieces and feed him to my girlfriend’s birds, Brandon. She collects crows, or some other ugly things, and they like feasting