Page 153 of Moon Claimed
Whatwasn’thappening?
Rhona’s telling people what happened in Sandstone.
She’s planning something.
Rhona wasn’t the subtle sort. Aside from this latest move, her efforts had proved clunky, loud, and explosive.
Would her next move be loud though? She wasn’t unintelligent by any means. Somehow, I expected a different approach.
What do you propose?
Reading his text, I rubbed my forehead as the lecturer droned on about enterprise development. Nothing could be further from my mind.
My answer really came down to one question: Did I believe Rhona would be a better leader than me?
If I put my pride and love of a challenge aside, was I thebestpossible leader for the tribe? At first, I’d leaned on Rhona’s confidence so much—in awe of her strength. She didn’t bat an eyelash before confronting a crowd who may disagree and dislike her. People looked to Rhona as a role model and a woman of power.
Theyknewher. With Rhona, they were sure. There wasn’t this need for her to convince the harder-nosed stewards.
And yet.
I sometimes wondered if Rhona valued the title of head steward more than the responsibility the role demanded. And sometimes her actions weren’t in the tribe’s best interest.
… Or was that just my pride talking? Did I just want to believe those things?
I picked up my phone, replying:
Kiss meet tonight
Bite meet tomorrow
Sex meet on Tuesday.
Until certain that Rhona was the better bet, I had to keep moving forward as head steward.
The meets could be over by Sandstone on Wednesday. There was no need to have days or weeks between times. We’d only waited so long between others because of me—and Sascha recently.
Three dots appeared, and I waited for his reply.
When it didn’t come, I jotted down notes on enterprise development, trying to tune into the lecture. This degree was important. I couldn’t waste money paying for a re-do semester. Maybe I wouldn’t set up my own business as I’d once thought, but I had a whole heap of businesses in the grids to manage.
The lecture finished.
I managed a second lecture on business research methods.
I checked my phone.
No reply. Sascha was probably caught up or having a day off without our usual Sunday grid announcement on the cards today. I’d give him an hour.
Wade walked in after knocking. “Hey, beautiful. Ready to go?”
“Thanks so much for doing this on the weekend.” I gathered my things and locked the office door behind us.
“I have no social life anyway,” he said. “This is more important.”
We set out to meet the next stewards on the list. The questions were different this week.
Why is Rhona so angry?