Free Legacy (Alliance Book 3) by Inna Hardison Page A

you call Ellis, his name is Brody, but you already know that. We grew up together, in Waller, Zoriner territory. He had a girl there, Trina, he was madly in love with. Our people handed her over to your people, and Brody spent years looking for her, and ended up a soldier, mostly hoping to get himself killed, I think. I’m skipping a bunch of stuff here, but that’s the background. Brody had his crew with him that he trained for years. That’s who the other two soldiers are, part of that crew, listed as dead now, so nobody’s looking for them. Hassinger was hunting for these two replenishers and she didn’t want the Alliance to know she’d lost them, so she found the Brody and Trina connection and reached out to him. He thought he could get Trina back using one of our girls as bait. We staged the whole thing in this clearing Brody scouted earlier, and he had most of his crew there to make sure we didn’t lose anybody and got Trina back safely, because he knew Hassinger could only bring a few guards at best.”
    He needed a break, so he paced silently for a bit, not wanting to remember the rest of that day, but he knew he had to, and after a while he told him what happened at the clearing. How Hassinger took control of Brody’s crew and what she did to Trina, not holding anything back, not hiding anything, even telling him how she laughed when she did it. This man needed to know how Brody would see this Brandon kid, this kid who helped his mother murder the girl he loved, and that it wouldn’t matter to him that he is young, or if he knew what he was doing or not. And finally, he told him that Hassinger for Brody was the worst of the worst, and not just because she killed Trina, but because she enjoyed it, and Brody never got a chance to put a bullet in her head.
    Maxton’s head was down when he was done, hiding.
    “I don’t think Brandon knows she’s dead, Riley. That’s why he is protecting her. You should tell him, or I’ll tell him, and try to get him to talk to you, but if he doesn’t, please just shoot him. Find a way to just shoot him,” he said finally, looking up at him, face full of lines.
    Brody was in the room with the kid when they got back, looking pissed off. “If I needed a bloody medic, I’d send for Ella. She is better at this. Or I’d stitch him up myself. Leave, Riley,” he faced him, staring at him, eyes angry.
    “I know who the kid is, Brody. You need to let Maxton talk to him.... That is if you still want information and not just revenge. He is Hassinger’s son, Brody. And I’m not going anywhere. Not until this is over,” he said evenly, and nodded to Maxton, and then slid down the wall and closed his eyes.

THE ROOF
    Brody, May 31, 2236, Reston.
    H e lost it with the kid, couldn’t help it. He knew he was the one who helped her do it and he couldn’t get the image of her laughing face out of his head when he looked at him. Riley was right to stop him, but he was angry at him too. Angry for the way he was with them, Maxton and the kid, old-Riley-like, stitching their wounds, talking to Maxton as if he liked the guy. He wondered if he’d be able to pull the trigger on him when the time came. It would be right for Riley to do it, get his revenge for what they did to all the people here, and Maxton seemed to want him to be the one anyway, and as much as he hated the man, he was a soldier, and he’d have to give him that much, if asked.
    What Riley just said finally registered. The kid was Hassinger’s. No wonder he saw that woman in him the way he did. Maxton was trying to get the kid to look at him now, to listen to him; was talking to him softly, as if he really cared for him. “Brandon. I have to tell you something that’s really going to hurt, and I’d rather I could see you when I did. Please, just look at me.” He did finally.
    “I think you are protecting someone you love, only you don’t have to do that any more. She is gone, Brandon. She’s been for weeks now.