Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

‘My partner in crime jumped at the life imprisonment, his family promising they would find a way to get him out or transfer him to Sicily. And no doubt they did.

‘I think my family promised me the same, but it didn’t matter. I heard the phrase “military service” and I felt it was my only salvation. Those dead Leeches haunted me in my dreams. They weren’t Leeches, they were people. I couldn’t live with myself. I didn’t want to live with myself.

‘Before the hearing, under house arrest, I spent long, sleepless nights thinking about how Elites and Leeches are really no different. The same fragile, vulnerable creatures whose lives can all be extinguished just as easily. Elite birth doesn’t guarantee you anything. A heavy roof beam falling on you kills just the same regardless of your status. And yet, the Elite would move heaven and earth to save a fellow Elite, while leaving the Leeches to die.’

Eloise turned out to be a wonderful listener, and the story just continued pouring out of Rivas.

‘The option of military service came with a number of stipulations. I had to agree to a ten-year stint minimum—training time excluded. I wasn’t allowed any contact with people from my past life, not even my family, until the three years of basic training were over. The two years at the Special Forces School also didn’t count towards my ten years, so it will be another three before I can resign my commission. If I go back to civilian life, which I won’t, I’m not allowed near civilian aircraft, which includes working for my father. Not that he would want to have anything to do with me after I accepted joining the military.’ Rivas paused to take a deep breath.

‘I have not heard from my family since that day in court. I guess I could look them up now that the limitations placed on me have expired, but I don’t really want to. They allowed me to waste my youth dicking around. There was no discipline in my life; there were no rules, no expectations. It ruined who I was—who I could have been. It made me the person who got intoxicated and risked other people’s lives for shits and giggles. I couldn’t change what I’d done, but I had control over what I was going to do with my future.

‘Technically, I was free to walk away from my basic training anytime I wanted, but without my family’s support and money, it really would have been the rest of my life in prison with the ghost of my victims keeping me company. These days I’m glad I had that impossible choice hanging over me.’ Rivas laughed bitterly. ‘The first year was a nightmare. Probably not as horrible a nightmare as what Major Toscano has been through, but I was one hell of a spoilt brat when I started.’ There wasn’t even a trace of self-pity in Rivas’ voice, though his eyes widened involuntarily as the unpleasant memories surfaced.

‘I think the only reason I survived was because I genuinely felt I deserved it. I was unfit, my body wrecked by booze and recreational narcs, and the side effects of going cold turkey are not something I would recommend to anyone. I was prescribed nano-meds for that. More often than not, they went missing before I could take them.

‘I’m sure there were those who decided I didn’t deserve to be there. Even if they didn’t know exactly what my crime was. Not many Elites end up in the military as a result of a court order. They must have assumed it was something bad, and they were right.’

Suddenly Rivas paused, realising he had said much more than he had ever intended. His cheeks heated up as he struggled to maintain eye contact.

‘I suppose you didn’t need to know—’

His words were muffled by her lips covering his. Puzzled, he pulled back.

‘Was I that bad?’ she asked, alluding to her lack of experience in the non-VR world.

‘What? No! I just wasn’t expecting it. Not after telling you what I did.’

‘Your Major Ingram—Toscano—whatever’—she shook her head—‘seems to believe that I’m no better. Having had the resources to make a difference but not doing anything. Living an ignorant life. I suppose she is right. I’m the last person to judge you…’

Rivas wanted nothing more than to pull her in for a long, passionate kiss, but the moment was gone. Shared experiences and a sense of failure had brought them together, but not in a romantic way. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight in companionable silence. Sometimes, there were no good things to say.

After a moment, her arms moved around his torso to reciprocate the hug, and their bodies melded together in a perfect fit.

‘I don’t have anywhere to go when this is over,’ Eloise whispered after a while. She didn’t know exactly what damage the self-destruct mechanism had caused, but she had instructed Jeff and the original Tilly to create an explosive that would blow everything to smithereens, so she assumed there was nothing but a small crater left.

‘You do have the resources to start anew, right?’ Rivas asked.

‘I… I don’t know,’ Eloise admitted. ‘I didn’t keep track of the money going in and out. My lawyers handled all the contracts, and I know Tilly supervised the accounts, but I never bothered to look into it. As long as I had the money to upgrade my equipment to the newest version as and when it became available, I didn’t care. There should be a small fortune somewhere that is all mine, but I don’t know where.’

‘We will contact your lawyers when this is all over. I’m sure the Roc’s Tilly will be able to give you some answers in the meantime. I mean, once you have had some rest, you will be able to fix her grief problem, correct?’

‘Yeah, I will. For now, I have something else to do,’ she announced cryptically.

Rivas’ eyebrows furrowed