This time, they were making the trip back to Rio accompanied by Cora and Trace. Apparently Cora's compound was close to Rio and she needed someone to help manage the security so she and Trace could concentrate more fully on the colony ship and the fuel compounds. Although Trish had known both the move and the new job were coming, she still felt a little pouty over knowing it wasn't a complete retirement from the compound for Jordan.
She didn't show her pout though - as usual, Jordan had her on his lap while he talked with Cora and Trace over what they needed at their lab.
They were slightly concerned with attempts by the Moon or the Moon's few allies left on Earth trying to get in and see what they were doing and, or sabatoging their plans. The Moon was definitely aware something was going on.
When Trish had tried to send messages to Alex and Bella, they hadn't been returned. Bryant - who was a civilian but also a computer genius - had hacked into the system and discovered the Moon's government had flagged the message and pulled it from the system. It had never made it to Alex and Bella.
She hadn't even put anything damning or important in it, she'd just wanted to make sure they had arrived safely and were okay, and to let them know she was okay.
That the Moon didn't even allow that much communication didn't bode well.
So she reminded herself not to pout. It wasn't that Jordan didn't want to pay attention to her. She was on his lap, his hands touching her as always after all, it was just that he was also focused on larger picture things. Besides, she shouldn't pout anyway.
It was weird how quickly she'd gotten used to having all of his attention and decided she liked it. Then again, she'd never really been the center of anyone's attention before. Jordan had given her more attention than anyone ever had before, and by the time they were in Rio and she'd had his complete attention, she'd found she craved it.
Trish still occasionally wondered if she was the victim of Stockholm Syndrome... but it seemed to matter less and less whether or not she was. She was happy. She was cared for. She was pampered and cossetted and given everything she could possibly want.
Jordan had even asked what she wanted when it came to staying on earth or going to space.
Although, he'd also been very relieved when she'd told him she wanted to stay on Earth. He hadn't brought up kids again and neither had Trish. All she knew for sure was she didn't want them right now and she wasn't sure if that would ever change. Right now she didn't think so... but then again she'd never thought she'd feel okay about being taken by Jordan, raped, and now kept constantly by his side and occasionally dressed up and treated like his little girl. It sounded so wrong when she thought about it that way, so mostly she didn't think about it.
******
Back in their home in Rio, Jordan was making dinner while Trish sat at the counter, idly watching the news vids when another report about Ken and Lisa being missing came on. She tilted her head to the side; the reporters seemed almost angry rather than star struck when they talked about people being taken by the Wolf. That was new.
Their focus seemed to be a lot more on Ken than Lisa. Maybe that was why they were mad too. The son of such a powerful man? He'd probably thought his own family was safe and the clips they showed of him were seriously angry, talking about the egregious conduct of the Wolf, how no one was safe while the Wolf was still in operation, and how the man needed to be stopped.
Gee, if only he'd cared before it effected him personally. Trish snorted. Self-centered jackass.
Although, next to the Wolf, Ken Sr. was definitely not much of a threat. She'd never gotten an up close look at how the Moon's government ran things, but from her seat at the Wolf's compound and their opinion of the level of threat the Moon posed... well she would have put her money on earth. Even now, with Jordan coming to help with security, it was more because the leaders on Earth put stock in being over prepared and anticipating every scenario - even the unlikely ones. They didn't believe the Moon or its allies knew what they were up to and they didn't think any attempts on Cora's compound would succeed, but with Cora and Trace needing to focus their attention, the leaders weren't taking any chances either.
It was just another example of how differently things were done on Earth, where they'd had to fight and scrabble to survive and rise to the top, with the losers often dying. Power struggles on the Moon had stakes, but none of them were life and death they like had been on Earth.
"Are you worried at all about this?" she asked Jordan, gesturing at the vid screen where Ken Sr was ranting about the continued dangers of the Wolf's presence on Earth and making what sounded like a call for the Moon to go to war with the 'dangerous crime lord.'
He didn't even look up. "No."
"He's calling for troops to invade Earth," she said, feeling a little aggravated at Jordan's complete lack of attention.
After all, wasn't he supposed to be in charge of security for the ships?
Jordan snorted. "He has no real power. If it starts to look like things might actually heat up - despite what the Wolf has on him, the Prime, the Secondary Prime, and the Prime Commander, we'll start to release what we have on him. I'd be surprised if the Prime lets him live for a full day once he recognizes the warning for what it is."
Utterly ruthless.
That was the first thought that popped into Trish's head. Jordan didn't sound pleased by what he was saying, he didn't sound worried, he was just completely matter-of-fact. If it came down to it, the Wolf would not care if Ken Sr was killed, even as he fucked and sexually tortured his son, and neither would Jordan.
She frowned. While she understood WHY Jordan had become so ruthless, that didn't mean she liked it.
The reminder of his ruthlessness brought up a whole host of other feelings and thoughts, ones which had been in the back of her mind lurking but not coming out until now.
Killing people was wrong.
No matter that she'd felt a bit of Schadenfraude at Ken and Lisa finding themselves in the same position Alex and Bella had been in, setting a man up for death still didn't sit rightly with her. And no matter that she felt a bit of justification at Ken and Lisa's abduction and current positions, as if karma had come by and hit them in the face, it still wasn't right.
Neither had her abduction and rape been, even if right now she was happy.
The frown on her face was rapidly turning into a scowl.
As if sensing the change in her mood, Jordan looked up from the tomato he was currently slicing. "What, little girl?"
Crossing her arms over her chest and feeling rather huffy, Trish's scowl deepened. "You don't care at all about giving him a death sentence?"
"About as much as he does about giving the Wolf and everyone at the compound a death sentence," Jordan said with an indifferent shrug.
While he had a point, especially considering Ken Sr was just one man while all of Jordan's friends and acquaintances, all the men and women he'd been leading and fighting beside, lived at the compound, Trish's ire didn't lessen. It didn't grow either, since he was kinda justified in his view, but she still didn't like it. She realized that in some ways she wasn't really making an argument about Ken Sr, but she wasn't ready to talk about her real issue yet.
"How does that make you better than him then?"
"It doesn't." Jordan went back to slicing the tomato, completely unbothered.
Trish felt like jumping over the counter and grabbing up the innocent piece of fruit and smushing it in his indifferently bland face.
