He hesitated, however, searching the darkness at her back a second time, though now with a different sort of suspicion on his face.
“It’s not a trap,” she said with a snort. The idea that she could take on someone like him, a trained alien soldier, was laughable.
He must have realized the idiocy of it himself, for he cracked a sheepish smile and stepped in without further prompting. Pettus kept going until he was at the center of the room before the large window. True to his position as guard, he kept her in his line of sight the entire time, subtly watching her out of the corner of his eye while she shut the door.
She stopped about ten feet away, crossing her arms over her chest and propping a hip against the wall in a nonchalant move she’d perfected when she was thirteen and constantly annoying her father—on purpose.
“What is it you wished to speak about, Delaney?” Now that they were safely within the confines of the massive bedroom, it was apparently all right to call her by name.
“Can you tell me about her?” she asked. “Olena?”
His mouth twisted in displeasure, and he glanced back out the window.
“That part I already got,” she stated dryly, and when he glanced back at her with another frown in place, she elaborated. “People don’t like her very much.”
“No,” he agreed, “they don’t.”
“Why not?” she persisted. “If I’m going to pretend to be her, I should probably know a little more about her, don’t you think?”
“Ruckus—”
“Isn’t here,” she cut him off. “So I’m asking you. Please.”
She felt a little bad pressuring him into it, surprisingly. They may have even been friends under different circumstances. Met at the club, hung out. He didn’t have the same magnetism that Ruckus did, which was actually a good thing, because it meant that she could think clearly in his presence, but he didn’t instill in her wariness like Trystan did, either.
“She’s extremely self-centered,” he conceded on a massive sigh, “as I’m sure you’ve also gathered.”
Oh yeah.
“I’ve never really seen her interested in much of anything. Except for parties—she loves those. And big, flashy events.” He canted his head, gaze sharpening to search for her reaction to his next words. “That’s why we were certain we’d find her at the club.”
She lifted a challenging brow. “And here I thought you had aliens there spying for you.”
He chuckled. “You’re smarter than you look, Delaney Grace.”
“Well, I look like Olena so…”
“Exactly.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling now as well. “What else?”
“There isn’t much else, to be honest.” He shrugged. “At least not much I could tell you. I rarely spoke to her, and when I did, it was only in passing, when Ruckus was too busy to do so himself. She didn’t listen to anyone; it was a wonder that she bothered to take his advice as often as she did. Even her parents had trouble with her.”
“So, you don’t know any of her likes or dislikes?”
“She didn’t like very much, as I’ve said,” he reiterated. “As far as dislikes … does everything count? I mean, the girl literally abandoned her home planet. Doesn’t that speak for itself? If there was anything here she cared about, she might have chosen otherwise.”
Delaney quirked a single brow. “You’re forgetting: I’ve met Trystan.”
“You’re saying you’d run, too?”
“I’m saying I don’t know.” And how had this conversation turned to her? She needed answers, and she found herself extremely dissatisfied with the ones Pettus had been able to offer.
“One time,” he said, and his voice had lowered, as if he was afraid of being overheard even though it was still just the two of them, “a few years ago, she pretended to drown. Ruckus wasn’t there; he had a meeting with the Basileus and had placed me in charge. I pulled her out of the pool and tried to revive her—at least that’s what I thought I was doing. Turns out, she thought it’d be funny for Ruckus to walk in on me giving her mouth-to-mouth, and for her to pretend we were kissing.”
That was pretty messed up. “Ruckus didn’t really buy that you were making out, right?”
“No,” he confirmed. “He’s smarter than that. But there was no reason for her to do it in the first place. She could have gotten me in serious trouble, could have cost me my job, and she didn’t care. All she thought about was that it’d be funny.”
No wonder everyone thought she was bitch. Olena treated people like playthings. If that was what people expected of her, Delaney was in more trouble than she’d thought. She couldn’t do stuff like that, fake her death for a laugh.
If this was the girl she was pretending to be, she needed to be on her A game, and she couldn’t do that when she didn’t know anything else about Vakar—or the Kints, for that matter. Somehow she needed to get answers, and after his reluctance to tell her anything about Olena without Ruckus there, she doubted Pettus would spill about how Vakar operated.
She was about to lie and say she was going to try to sleep after all when her stomach growled loudly. Which gave her an idea. She couldn’t make someone panic by faking her death, but a little trickery? That her conscious would allow.
“You’re hungry.” Fortunately, Pettus had heard the sound as well.
“It’s been a while since I’ve eaten,” she confirmed. Then she pretended to hesitate before she asked, “Can you get me something to eat? I don’t think I’ll make it to morning without.”
“I’m not supposed to leave my post,” he told her, though not with very much conviction.
Her stomach growled again—she was actually hungry, but that would have to wait.
“All right.” He sighed. “Stay here and don’t answer the door for anyone. Understood?”
She nodded, only just catching his words through the pounding of her heart. He left and closed the door behind him, and she waited, counting to ten under her breath. If they’d passed the kitchens on their way up to her room earlier, she hadn’t seen them, so she didn’t know how far away they were. It was a matter of guessing how long to wait so that she didn’t accidentally run into him leaving or returning, before going herself.
She felt a bit guilty, especially considering he’d just gotten done telling her that horrible story about Olena and how she’d played him. But this wasn’t the same, right? She wasn’t faking her death or trying to trick him into making out with her so …
Yup, decidedly not the same.
Initially she’d only intended to lure him in and grill him for information, but now … the opportunity to get out of this room, to really explore and find the answers she so desperately needed, was too great to pass up.