Fated Blades (Kinsmen)

“Gabriel agreed to the marriage because the alternative was, in his words, ‘too messy,’” she said. “I thought that if we couldn’t love each other, at least we could try to be a team since we were stuck together. After the fight, I knew we would never be a couple. So I settled for leading separate lives. I made him comfortable.”

For some reason, that word made him violently angry. “Why didn’t you divorce him?”

She gave him a small sad smile. “The agreement my father signed has a ten-year noncompete option. If I divorce Gabriel before the ten years are up, his family will cancel my shipping contracts. If I attempt to hire a different shipping company, I will owe his cousin a huge amount of money in compensation. It will cripple our family financially.”

He had a rotten feeling. “And if Gabriel dies?”

“Funny you ask. If Gabriel dies, I will also be fined. Although this fine will be one-tenth of the amount I’d have to pay if I divorce him. His existence is inconvenient to his family. They want him dead without staining their own hands with blood. They expect me to murder him to cut myself free.”

Rage swelled in him. “Your father—”

“As I said, he thought I was too soft. This was his lesson about hard choices.”

He wasn’t sure who he wanted to strangle more, her father or her husband.

Her eyes were clear, her gaze hard. “I won’t do it. I will not allow them to force me to kill another human being. I alone will decide whose life I choose to take.”

Gabriel was the dumbest man in the galaxy.

Ramona sighed. “My plan was to wait the contract out. Once we got the seco research, I realized that it was the perfect way to get the family’s finances on solid ground. We had to find something to replace relucyte, and the seco presented an ideal opportunity. I threw myself into work.”

He knew that feeling.

“I didn’t expect any marital loyalty,” she continued. “I gave Gabriel plenty of money and all the freedom he could handle. All he had to do, literally, the only thing he had to do, was to be loyal to the family. He was incapable of even that. Do you know how he got our files, Matias? He walked into the cyber center, smiled, and downloaded them. Nobody paid him any attention. We’d labeled him harmless and useless for so long that nobody even questioned his right to be there. He walked right out with all of our research. This is the man I married. And now I am done. I no longer care about his family or the fines. I only want to be free of him.”

She would be free of him if it was the last thing Matias did.

Ramona shrugged as if trying to take off a restraining garment. “Your turn.”

“I needed a law.”

“The sixth-level tech embargo,” she guessed. “That was you?”

He nodded. “Seco development required importing Kelly-particle agitators. There was no way around it. It would take eighteen months to build them planet side, eight months to set up the factory, and the rest for assembly. We didn’t have the time or the funds to do it, but we could buy them for a fraction of the cost. I pulled some strings to get the proposal for lifting the embargo on the Senate floor, but Drewery and his bloc shut it down.”

Surprise slapped her face. “You sold yourself to Drewery for the seco research, and we and the Davenports benefited from it.”

He smiled. “It sounds bad when you put it that way.”

She dragged her hands across her face. “For the love of the galaxy, Matias, why didn’t you ask for help? We could’ve banded together with the Davenports. We have political connections . . .”

“Would you have helped the renegade?”

“For the seco generators? Yes, I would. I would’ve twisted my family’s arms until their elbows were turned backward.”

“Lobbying would’ve taken time. Drewery was a sure bet.”

“Just how did that conversation go? I will push a law through if you marry my daughter?”

“Pretty much. I knew he was dirty, although I had no idea how dirty. That I learned later. My initial plan was to bribe him. We met. He must have seen something he liked, because he offered me Cassida on the spot.”

She shook her head, and when she spoke, she sounded bitter. “At least I have an excuse, Matias. My father made me do it. But you, you did it to yourself.”

“No, I made a strategic decision. It didn’t seem like a bad deal. I would have to marry eventually. Cassida is beautiful, intelligent, and charming.”

Ramona threw her hands up. “Cassida betrayed you!”

“I didn’t say anything about her loyalty. I discussed things with her prior to the engagement. I explained that the life of a kinsman is filled with danger, that one day I might not come home, and if we had children, it might be up to her to raise them alone. I tried to be clear that I worked long hours, but I promised that I would make time for the two of us and if she was in any kind of trouble, I would do everything in my power to fix it. I told her that if she didn’t want to marry me, she did not have to. I would make sure her father wouldn’t force her, although five minutes of watching Drewery and his daughter made it painfully obvious that he has never forced her to do anything in her entire life. I asked her what she wanted out of the marriage.”