"It's fine." She tried to move past him, but again he blocked her way.
When he didn't speak, she arched a brow. "Is there something else?"
"No one can make you feel low unless you allow them to. You're not stupid, Alix." He brushed his hand lightly across her cheek. "And you're very beautiful. I just thought you should know that." Dropping his hand, he handed her the bag she'd forgotten.
Without another word, he turned and left her there.
Alix stared after him as her heart pounded. She didn't know why he'd told her that, but it cheered her immensely.
If only things were different...
He's too good a man for you to betray.
But what choice did she have? They would kill her sister and mother if she didn't.
Sighing, she glanced down at the bag and noticed a small notecard. She fished it out, expecting it to be from Zarina.
It wasn't.
Tick-tock. Don't be stupid.
Remember, I'm watching you.
~PW
Anger burned through her that Whelms would be so stupid as to put that where Devyn or someone else might have seen it. But more than that was the fear of how he'd gotten the note inside her bag.
Could he see her right now?
Of course not.
If she could only convince herself of that. But for all she knew, he could have tapped into the ship's feed...
No, if he'd done that, he'd be able to get the evidence he needed without her.
And still her panic mounted.
Terrified, she tore up the note and made sure to drop it in the garbage chute on her way to her post.
She had two days to their next stop. Two days to find the evidence to convict Devyn Kell or Inspector Whelms would kill her.
* * *
CHAPTER 7
"Alix? We have a problem. Could you please come to the bridge?"
She'd just hung up the dress Zarina had bought for her--a gorgeous black number that was so soft it should be sinful. She knew she'd never wear it.
But Tempest might one day.
Provided we survive this.
"Coming, Vik." She pressed the button to shut the closet door and headed out. No doubt this was Whelms's "present" that the others had found.
As she entered the bridge, she saw Devyn and Vik standing over a panel, discussing a leak in their fuel line.
How weird for Vik to be here after launch.
But that thought vanished as she ground her teeth at the sight of their leak. Thanks a lot, you idiot. A leak like that could get them killed.
She donned an innocent stare as she faced the men and pretended not to know what had been done to their ship. "What's going on?"
Devyn pointed to the red area on the ship's schematics. "We popped a seal and are leaking fuel all over the place."
She had to force herself not to react to Whelms's stupidity as she saw his other gift. "And our hydraulics, too."
Devyn turned with a glower. "What?"
She pointed to the diagram. "You have no hyperdrive right now, and limited stabilizer control. You won't be pulling any of your piloting stunts until we get it fixed." And if they came across any unexpected debris in space, they'd be hard-pressed to avoid it, which could also get them killed.
Yeah, Whelms wasn't the brightest bulb on the string.
Devyn's brow was furrowed with bewilderment. "How did it clear launch prelim?"
She hoped he couldn't detect her lie. "Maybe something snapped while we were launching."
He cursed. "Can you fix it?"
"I can try."
Devyn's gaze went to Omari, who was napping in his chair, and she saw the fear that flickered in his dark eyes. That protective instinct touched her. Unlike her father, Devyn would die to protect his child. "We need to be fully operational. Immediately."
"Will do, Captain." She headed for the door only to have Vik follow after her.
She frowned at him. "You need something?"
"I'm along to give you a hand should you need one."
Great. Just what she needed. Something else to make her nervous. "Shouldn't you be at your post?"
"I was, but the leak was interfering with my link, and so I came out to tell Devyn what was happening and to see if he could repair it."
"I find it odd that you know so little about ship maintenance."
"Because I'm a mecha?"
She nodded.
"It's no different than you not being a doctor. Just because you're human doesn't mean you have an innate ability to do surgery on your own kind or even treat a mild illness, never mind something major."
"True, but I can't upload a program and learn something extremely complicated in a few minutes, either."
He pressed the controls for the lift. "Nor can you be hacked for schematics, diagrams and system vulnerabilities."
She paused at that. "What?"
He stepped inside and pressed the button for the lower deck. "I have no autonomous working knowledge of the ship because Devyn's father is afraid someone could hack one of my databases and use it against Dev. In fact, I have no knowledge of Devyn's weaknesses, medical history or anything that could be used against him. Omari, either, for that matter."
Now that surprised her. "Really?"
He nodded.
"Then how do you run the ship's security?"
"I have to be plugged into the ship to see it. Everything goes to a temporary cache while I'm there. Once I'm detached from my post, all data is wiped."
So that was the real reason why he was so scarce when they flew. It made complete sense now. "His father is that paranoid?"
"No. His father is that good. Syn understands computers and mechanics on a scary level. There are times when I wonder if he's more mecha than I am. He knows exactly how to breach a secured and encrypted network and learn things about people that would astound you. I've never seen anyone like him. He can control the entire universe with a few well-placed keystrokes."
Her stomach hit the ground as she considered him doing a background scan on her.
Don't panic. There's no way he could breach a government's system. Merjack had assured her that they'd wiped out all traces of her past.
She was a ghost now, and not even a filch could find her history.
Devyn picked up his link while he continued to scan the ship for other problems. He checked the ID and saw his parents' number. Putting it in his ear, he clicked it on. "Hi, Mom."
"It's the other parental unit. Not as pretty or as fierce as your mother, but loving nonetheless."
He smiled at his father's deep voice in his ear. "Sorry, Dad. It's that time of day. I just assumed you were Mom wanting to tuck me in."
His father laughed. "Yeah, and she'll want to burp you, too, I'm sure."
"Probably. So did you find anything on our ghost?"
His father hesitated before he answered. "Is she around to overhear anything?"
"No."
"Good, 'cause there's definitely something weird about her situation."
Devyn checked his chronometer. Less than two hours since he'd asked for the search and he already had an answer... that might be a record even for his father.
And to think Claria's "experts" had found nothing after days of searching.
"Enlighten me."
"Her father, Tyson Gerran, was a typical freighter, in debt out his ass to over half a dozen creditors. He came from the lower ranks of the Kronobian desert and is the son of a nomadic branch of the Boudins. His father sold him into the military when he was seventeen and was conscripted to the crew of the Silver Eagle."
"A League ship?"
"No. Strictly local military. His record's peaceful and mild. Nothing out of the ordinary, one way or the other. He did his fifteen years of service and earned his freedom. He then went back to his father and sold that bastard, along with his mother and younger siblings, into slavery and used the money he made for a down payment on his own ship."
Devyn sucked his breat
h in over treachery so raw he could barely understand it. "Damn, that's cold. But what has that to do with Alix?"
"In short, she's a slave. Just like her mother, Doria, and her fifteen-year-old sister, Tempest. All owned by her father, who marked his daughters as such the moment they were born... until a few weeks ago when he was executed as a smuggler."
Devyn went cold as each revelation hit him like a physical blow. Just how many lies had she told him?
Alix had a living sister?
A mother?
And she was a slave... "He was executed by whom?"
"The Rits."
Devyn's heart stopped beating at his father's tone. His father was a Ritadarion... one who wasn't a friend of that government since he and Devyn's mother had brought down their ruling house several years before Devyn was born.
This was getting fuglier by the minute. "You don't think it's a coincidence."
His father scoffed. "Do you?"
"Not really. I don't believe in them."
"I knew I raised you right."
That he did, and right now, every instinct Devyn had was on high alert. "Did you find out anything else?"
"Just that she was scheduled to be auctioned off, along with her mother and sister. The Rit gov called it off literally right before they were hauled to the block."
"Why?"
"That, there's no record of. It only shows the canceled auction."
Devyn let out a slow breath. Wasn't that interesting? "So who owns them?"
"The Rit gov. Holding them for her father's debt, which he owes them for the cost of his trial and execution. You gotta love the Rits and their sense of irony."
Sonofabitch.
That only left Devyn with one conclusion over all of this. "She's a spy."
His father made a sound of agreement. "I'd lay money that Merjack is using her to get intel on you that he can use to fry you."
"Kill her, baby! Don't let that bitch hurt you."
Devyn grinned at his mother's bloodthirsty order that she yelled out from across the room. Gods love that woman, she had a hair-trigger on her temper that was unrivaled. He was the only person she reined it in for. "Tell Mom not to worry."
"Easier said than done. She's already suited up and ready to meet you at your next stop so that she can kill Alix herself. I've had to disarm her three times since I started the search--which is why it took me so long to find it all. You're making my life a living hell, buddy. Don't get hurt or I'll never live it down."
"I'm on top of it."
His father gave a sarcastic laugh. "In all seriousness, I don't know what game they're playing. But you know how much Merjack would love to have a piece of us. You stay out of Rit territory whatever you do."
"Don't worry. A wise man once taught me that an enemy known is better than one unknown, and as long as you know who and what you're dealing with you can handle it."
"Yeah, but what I'm willing to face myself and what I'm willing to let my son face are two entirely different things. You walk with caution every step of the way."
"I will, Dad. I promise. Love you guys. I'll talk to you later."
"Launch the bitch out of an airlock now before it's too late!" He shook his head at his mother's angry tone.
His father sighed. "We love you, too. You need anything, call."
"Devyn, baby?" His mother must have snatched the link from his father. Her voice was now fully in his ear and it was low and lethal. "You kill her, you hear me? You don't take a chance with your safety. I want her heart handed to me. Don't you dare let your compassion rule you. You take her out before she hurts you or Omari."
"That's your maternal advice?"
"Absolutely. If she so much as breaks one strand of hair on your head, I will rip her into so many pieces, she'll be begging me to kill her. No one touches my babies."
Devyn had to bite back a laugh at a threat he knew she'd more than deliver on. As his father had said, his mother was tiny, but fierce. "All right, Mom. I have to go now. I can't kill her while I'm talking to you."
"This isn't a joke, Devyn," she snapped at him.
He glanced over to Omari, who was now snoring while Manashe slept at his booted feet. "Believe me, I know. I'm going to handle it. I'm not about to endanger Omari any more than you'd endanger me."
"Good. Love you, precious."
"Love you, too."
"And?"
He cringed. The one thing he hated about talking to his mom . The one grueling, awful thing she insisted on...
He made a kissing noise at her.
She kissed him back. "Good night, baby. Sleep in peace... after you kill that bitch."
"'Night, Mom." He hung up and ran his hand through his hair as he debated what he should do.
Confront or wait?
If he confronted Alix, she'd only lie again. At this point, he'd lost track of how many of them had come out of her.
But if he waited... he might be able to turn the tables on Merjack.
The man hated his parents. Even though Merjack's father had almost killed Devyn's--had ruined Syn's life for the first half of it-- Merjack still wanted blood from them.
And for what?
Because Merjack's father and grandfather had committed murder, and Devyn's father had uncovered the evidence and brought them to justice for it?
Obviously sanity ran shallow in their gene pool.
But that didn't matter to him right now. Ousting the traitor among them did.
And now that he thought about it... Fuck mercy and screw deceit. It wasn't in his genetic code to play head games. Devyn Kell might be a lot of things, but a coward wasn't one of them.
It was time to face the devil in his midst and make her squeal. He might have been blindsided by Clotilde.
But this time, that advantage was with him.
"So Devyn threw away his entire military career to save Omari?"
Nodding, Vik helped her repair the hydraulics--that was the one thing she could take care of without a spare part. She was rerouting the lurine coils to compensate for it. Should they be attacked, it would give them the boost and stability they needed without tearing up the engines.
Vik held the line higher so that she could get to the screw. "He loves that boy more than anything."
She frowned at his low tone. "But don't you find the concept of love unusual?"
"Not at all. Love I understand completely. It's hatred that puzzles me. I don't comprehend finding pleasure in cruelty."
She paused to look at him. "You know, Vik, you're amazingly human at times."
"I know. But I wonder if the feelings I have are real or just electrical stimulations in my cortex that simulate human emotion. I wish I knew if they were real or imagined."
Alix smiled at him. "And that makes you completely human, sweetie. We all have those doubts."
"Truly?"
"Every day. In fact, my mother always says that emotions are what the gods gave us to distract us from the pain of life. They are what make life bearable and what keeps us going no matter how hard it gets."
"And what happened to your mother?"
She jerked around to find Devyn standing behind them. When had he arrived? She didn't understand why he got so angry at Zarina when he was every bit as silent when he moved.
Bracing herself for the deceit, she dropped her gaze back to her work. "She died."
"When?"
Vik scowled at him. "Are you all right, Devyn? I sense an elevation in your heart rate."
"I'm good. Why don't you go plug in and check on things for me? I want to see if anything else has malfunctioned."
There was no missing the accusation in his tone. Somehow he was on to her. She knew it.
Vik handed her the wrench in his hands and left them alone.
Alix swallowed as a cold chill went down her spine. Something wasn't right.
How does he know? What had clued him in on her treachery?
More than just her feelings picked up on his hostility. She cou
ld see it in the depths of those dark eyes. See it in the way he had his jaw clenched.
He definitely knows.
"Is there a problem, Captain?"
He moved closer to her with the gait of a ferocious predator. The air around him sizzled with his restrained fury, making her feel trapped. Suffocated. If she weren't on his ship, she'd run for it. But there was nowhere to hide that he wouldn't find her.
"I'm curious."
She tried to act nonchalant against the frigidity of his tone. "About?"
"You."
You're so busted.
Don't panic. You don't know that for sure. It's your nervous paranoia. There's no way he could know anything.
Yeah, right. Sweat beaded up on her skin as she felt the air between them thicken with his growing fury and her fear. She was way too aware of how massive he was.
How dangerous.
"Tell me about your mother, Alix. How did she die?"
She licked her lips as a bead of sweat trickled down her back. "I don't like to talk about my mother."
Devyn wanted to strangle her. So much for playing it cool. He'd had all good intentions, until he saw her talking so comfortably with Vik. Charming the mecha. As soon as he'd neared them, his temper had ignited.
Damn, I'm just like my mother. Suicidal the moment my temper kicks in.
His father would have kept his cool and played her right into a confession. Unfortunately, he'd rather beat the truth out of her.
A veil came down over her face as she confronted him. "You know, don't you?"
Lie. Give her a dose of what she gave you. But it wasn't in him to play those games. He was a soldier, not a politician. "Yeah, I know everything about your mother and your sister."
Alix wanted to cry as she heard the anger in his voice. Fear seized her. She threatened his crew.
His son.
It would only stand to reason that he'd want her blood. "So what are you going to do with me?"
"That depends."
"On?"
"Whether or not you help me."
His words caught her off guard. What could he possibly want with her? "I don't understand. Help you do what?"
"Merjack sent you after me, didn't he?"
She nodded. There was no point in protecting him or even lying. Not now.
"Then I want you to help me take him down. Hard."
She scoffed at his offer. As if... "I can't do that. He'll kill..." She bit her lip to keep from saying anything more.
"Your mother?"
She winced and nodded. "And my sister. I can't let them die or be raped--which is his other threat should I not cooperate."