Sheena couldn’t believe Carleton and Elsa were here too. Bri’s suite was even smaller with the six of them in it. Outside of her glaring openly at him, she and Nate hadn’t even exchanged hellos when he’d delivered the castle keepers. Finding out Nate’s meddling mother had zapped her guard droids only made her madder.

She paced the width of the room. “Bringing Carleton and Elsa here wasn’t an accident. Nate’s mother got involved because of Bri.”

“Hey now. I did not instigate this MacNamara reunion,” Bri denied.

Sheena snorted. “I didn’t say it was your fault, Bri. I said you were the reason. The Provost doesn’t want me recruiting you.”

“I’m not letting you recruit me, so that’s a moot point.”

“Except my former mother-in-law doesn’t know that part of our discussion, now does she? What the hell did you see that’s got the Provost concerned, Brianna?”

Bri looked around the room and then shook her head. The truth would help none of them. It especially wouldn’t help her. “The only person I could possibly tell is Nate, and then only if he showed me a specific set of orders.”

“Nate, of course. It always comes back to fucking Nate,” Sheena spat.

“If that’s true, then why didn’t you stay with him when you had the chance?”

“Shut up, smartass. You know that’s not what I meant.”

Bri laughed at her own joke, but sobered at the concerned looks she and Sheena were getting from the others.

“Before you go tearing my head off… I’m not being disloyal to the family. Until I can understand what I saw, I couldn’t answer you honestly anyway. My situation is no different than Nate not being able to tell you the truth about Angus and Erin. Until he decides it’s time to talk, we’re sort of stuck playing the game by his rules. That’s how I am too.”

“Except the Guardians are trying to push you off-planet faster than any other female in the program, Brianna. Why would they do that just to keep you quiet?” Sheena asked.

Bri shrugged. “Someone wants me gone—one way or another. Everyone else who saw what I did is dead already. I never got officially debriefed, but I managed to get a coded message back to my handler. If I hadn’t, the Provost would have sent someone here to find out what I knew. So it’s safe to say the Provost now knows what I know, which is probably why she forced Carleton and Elsa to come here. She wants me to believe she’s protecting them from the people who’re after me.”

Sheena pointed to Carleton and Elsa. “I took care of that before I came after you. Now they’re really involved when they didn’t have to be because of her. Carleton and Elsa were supposed to be safe from this shit. If this damn secrecy continues, I won’t hesitate to call for help myself.”

“You do realize Mom and Dad worked indirectly for the Provost all the time they served as AAS Matchmakers. She valued them, Sheena. I know she did. And they liked her too. More importantly, they trusted her. In the beginning, that was why I went to work for her.”

“She destroyed my droids on purpose.” Sheena huffed and crossed her arms. “Do you think she believes Angus and Erin are actually Mom and Dad.”

Their gazes shifted when Carleton cleared his throat.

“From what the Provost said to me, I understood that to be exactly what she believes. Or at the very least, the Provost is choosing to believe the new MacNamaras are clones of the originals. Since none of us know exactly what they are,” he glanced at Angus and Erin exchanging guilty looks with each other, “we can only make our own surmises about her actions.”

Sheena ran a hand over her face. “Why would Nate lie to his precious mother as much as he is to us? That shocks me more than anything I’ve heard so far. He adores the woman and thinks she can do no wrong. He was livid when I refused to work with her. What the hell is he hiding from us?”

“Deceitful buggers—one and all,” Erin muttered.

“This political intrigue is quite fascinating though. Are we all Nate’s prisoners then?” Angus asked.

Sheena and Bri both shrugged.

“No more than you were already,” Sheena said softly. “But don’t worry. Bri and I are not going to let this bullshit go unchallenged. We both have significant leverage within our organizations… and the Guardians owe me personally. Neither Bri nor I will hesitate to use our leverage if that’s what it’s going to take to normalize the situation.”

Carleton stood and held out a hand to his life partner who’d said nothing all evening. Elsa was as overwhelmed as he was. “If you’ll excuse us, Elsa and I need to retire for the evening. It’s been a rather long day.”

Angus rose and walked to the door behind them. Reaching around Carleton, he opened it and motioned to someone outside. Carleton and Elsa moved back against him once they got a good look at the guard, but Angus put a hand behind each and propelled them forward again.

“This is Darcone. I know he looks a fright, but he’s really a pussycat on the inside. Don’t let his growling put ya off either. He gets his jollies from scaring people shitless. But despite all that, he’ll see ya get next door safe enough.”

Snickering at Darcone’s glare as he pushed them out, Angus smiled and closed the door behind them. He turned back to his new family. “Alright then, I think it’s time our good Admiral learns a lesson about fecking with the MacNamaras.”

“Yeah. Feck him. Don’t you agree, Sheena?” Bri said, smirking.

Sheena shook her head at her sister’s irreverence, but she agreed with Angus. In fact, her brilliant mind had already come up with the best way to accomplish that goal.

* * *

Erin wasn’t keen on the plan because she felt the risks were too high, but Angus was downright gleeful. The two of them left Bri’s suite drawing the ever watchful Berg away to escort them to medical on a trumped up headache excuse.

Sheena waited until she heard nothing outside the door. She went to her bedroom, grabbed one of her wrist coms, and then returned. She held it out, pressed a few buttons on it, and then waited.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am working for the wrong side. You have way cooler shit than anything I ever got from work,” Bri said, looming over her brainac sibling.

“This is part of my hobby. I’ve never give it away to anyone I worked for. They’d find a way to defeat it faster than I could blink,” Sheena said, seeing the com finally land on the channel. “Plus, I hate being a prisoner. I got captured once. Luckily all they wanted was money for me. I got myself out eventually before my organization had to pay the ransom. After that, I made my boys. I’ve never been captured again.”

Bri chuckled. “How’s it feel to be so freaking smart?”

Sheena raised her head. “Lonely and misunderstood most of the time. Righteous in moments like this.”

Snorting, Bri leaned down and kissed the top of her sister’s head. “I understand you. I just think you need to get laid more often. Or at least drunk. Life is hard enough on this planet. Being miserable is too much to ask of anyone… even someone as brilliant as you.”

Their gazes both turned to the door when they heard it click open.

“Bingo,” Sheena said, quite pleased. She tapped a few buttons to record the settings. Now she could unlock the door anytime she wanted.

“Next time you feel inclined to give me a present, I really, really want one of those wrist coms,” Bri said, opening the door.

Grinning, Sheena held the watch out and wrapped it around her sister’s wrist. “I have other ones. Luckily for you, I made the band adjustable on them. You’re an Amazon compared to me.”

Bri admired the device on her wrist. “You’re the best sister ever.”

“Remind me later and we’ll program it to shut down your restraint collar too.” Sheena opened the door and stuck her head out. Two of her SDD’s were already waiting silently in the hall for her. She turned back to her sister. “Right now, I’m going to go have a private conversation with Admiral Tiberius.”

Bri grinned and stuck her head out. “Okay, but you’ll never get laid with those two walking vibrators trailing after you. Nate won’t be able to get it up with them around.”

Even though keeping her anger in place might have served her better, Sheena giggled over her sister’s teasing as she walked out the door.