The Girl Who Dared to Endure (The Girl Who Dared #6)

“You do realize that there have been multiple attempts made on Sage’s life, right?” Quess asked, before I could even formulate a response. “People who were upset at him for quarantining sections of departments and letting their family members die of disease, people he’s kicked out of the Medica, any of his leads who want to be in charge… The old man has shown a remarkable ability to survive all of them.”

I frowned. “I’ve never heard of there being attempts on Sage’s life,” I told him. And I suspected that was intentional. Gossip in the Tower had always been manipulated in one way or another by the council, even when certain subjects were supposed to be classified. The expulsion chambers were an example of that. They allowed the gossip because it served their interests to have rumors circulating about them, as it helped keep the populace in line. And by that same token, they wouldn’t want anyone to know if one of their own had come under attack.

So how did Quess know?

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“My father talked about it a few times,” Quess replied. “He isn’t the biggest fan of Sage and tended to bemoan the fact that the old man survived all those attempts.”

I blinked. Quess had never really talked about his family, let alone told us that his father didn’t support Sage. I had been under the impression that the Medica staff grumbled about Sage being in power for nearly eighty years, but it was all in good fun. Now, hearing that actual attempts had been made…

It only furthered my belief that they were targeting him in some way. Maybe they’d targeted him several times, and when that hadn’t worked, they had moved on to other means, like slowly setting him up as a fall guy should their ration card or DNA schemes become exposed. Maybe it wouldn’t be enough to convict him, but he’d definitely lose the department in the next election, which could’ve been their plan all along, to try to get more control over the council.

Either way, it meant that every piece of the puzzle was there, save for one.

“I need to go have a chat with Liam,” I announced to the others. “I need to see if he can give us the location of the undocs.”

“Do you really think he’ll tell you anything?” Maddox asked.

I honestly wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t give him any more time to come around. I also couldn’t wait for Dylan and Eric to figure out where their hideout was. If Dreyfuss was smart, he’d maintain as much distance as possible, and I doubted they would entrust the information to Plancett, given that he wasn’t related to them. Once I got into that room, I wouldn’t be leaving until I had an answer. There had to be some magical combination of words that would reach him, and I just had to find them.

“I don’t know. But Sage is going to tell the council that I’ve uncovered nearly thirty-five undocs, which will prompt Sadie to move her people again. And if she does that, we lose whatever chance of finding them we might have had, and the whole plan goes down the toilet. Unless we have all the legacies, and the people controlling them, this doesn’t work. We have to know where they are now.”

Maddox gave me a doubtful look, but I didn’t let it deter me. I stood up, nodded at everyone, and then made my way to Liam’s room.

I was halfway there when Leo caught up with me. “Liana, wait,” he called, and I stopped and gave him a surprised look.

“For what?” I asked, curiosity burning through me. He’d still been sleeping when I slipped out of bed this morning, and we hadn’t had a chance to talk since last night. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course,” he said with a lopsided smile. “I just wanted to see if I could help. Or rather, Grey would like to help. He’s pretty good with young people, and I know firsthand, from his memories, that he is correct. We figured…” He trailed off and then gave me an embarrassed look. “Sorry,” he said. “Grey interrupted me to say that he doesn’t need my endorsement. When he says he’s good at something, he’s good at something.”

I was stunned for a heartbeat, confused by the rapid shift in conversation and the fact that I had witnessed an exchange between Grey and Leo that I hadn’t been able to overhear. It was then that I decided that of all the hurdles we had to jump through to make any relationship between the three of us work, that was going to be the first one—especially if we ever got into a fight. I was pretty sure the internal conversation between them was going to drive me crazy.

But this wasn’t the time to bring it up, so I just nodded. “I’d love to have you and Grey with me. I need all the help I can get with this kid.”

He smiled tentatively. “I’ll let him take over now.”

I nodded, and then, on impulse, kissed him. “See you soon.”

His smile brightened even more, and then he closed his eyes. A second later, they were open again, and I could tell it was Grey by the salacious look he gave me. “If Leo gets a kiss goodbye, do I get a kiss hello?” he asked in a husky voice.

“Hey, I thought you were just happy that it was your body,” I joked, but I stepped closer to him and went up on my tiptoes to kiss him. Unlike Leo, who accepted the kiss with surprised approval, Grey immediately wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me closer until not a millimeter of space was left between us. I moaned as he drew my lower lip into his mouth and then used the opportunity to slip his tongue over it, tasting me. I shuddered at the invasion and grabbed the back of his neck, my own hunger mounting.

He broke the kiss after a few more skin-sizzling seconds, taking a step back and panting slightly. “See, Leo?” he said, and I gave him a confused look, wondering why he was addressing Leo out loud. “That’s how you kiss the girl you’re crazy about.”

My cheeks flushed, and I gaped at him. “Tell me you are not teaching Leo how to kiss me,” I groaned.

“Of course I am. I’ve got to make sure that when he’s behind the wheel, he’s at least doing things right.”

I shook my head, torn between laughing and smacking him. A laugh finally escaped me, and I rolled my eyes. “You are a piece of work, Grey.”

“Yes, but you love me anyway. Sucker.”

I laughed at that, enjoying how lighthearted our banter was, but all too soon I remembered what we were doing in the hall, and sobered. “We… um… We should probably get this over with,” I said.

“After you,” he replied. I hit the button on the door the second we arrived and stepped through the portal as the door slid open. Liam stood up from the chair he was sitting in, a wary look on his face.

“What do you want?” he demanded, taking a step back as we entered. I caught movement from the side of the room and turned to see Tian sitting cross-legged on the bed, her chin in her hands, watching Liam.

“That’s not how you treat guests, Liam,” she said imperiously. “You don’t just demand to know what they want. You’ve got to say ‘hi’ first and ask them how they are.”

Liam didn’t look at her, but his words acknowledged that he had heard her. “I would, except they are here, and they want something from me.”

“That makes you smart,” Grey said from beside me. “I’m Grey. And you’re Liam. And we’re going to talk now.”

“Don’t want to talk,” the boy said sullenly. “I want to leave.”

“You know that’s not going to happen,” I said softly. “I’m sorry, but it can’t. Your family has been trying to take down Scipio for several generations, and it ends now.”

“So you’re going to kill them,” Liam retorted. “You’re right. I’m not stupid.”

“Liam, no one is talking about killing them,” Grey started, but I put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him before he could go any further.

“Don’t lie to him,” I said grimly. “It doesn’t do us any good. Liam, the truth is that if this goes according to plan, then they will be found guilty, and will likely be put into the expulsion chambers. Maybe not the children, but… you’re old enough to be tried as an adult.” His face grew pale, so much so that his freckles seemed bright by comparison. He turned away, but I didn’t stop speaking. He needed to hear the truth. “We know that they are your family, Liam, and we know that all of you share one single father, but your mothers were kidnapped from Tower society and forced to get pregnant.”