Page 11 of 3 Secrets to Love (Romance Tales from the Quadrants #2)

Phalon

I had no weapons.

Not even anything I could use as one.

My best hope was to take over the jet by surprise.

And quickly.

I hated leaving Xacalla and those kids, but they remained safer at the side of the spaceport than they would be with me.

At first glance, I didn’t see anyone around the jet, which meant someone was likely inside.

Before getting any closer, I scanned the rest of the area to ensure no one stood guard anywhere else.

I didn’t know where the being inside the spaceport would go next and knew they were armed.

No one around me.

With quick and quiet steps, avoiding the heat from the burning jet, I hurried toward the other spacecraft.

The cargo door lay open at the back, and I peeked inside.

A quick glimpse revealed a mercenary in all black and a mask covering their face, so I couldn’t even tell their species.

They paced back and forth on the other side of the door, holding a plazer with both hands.

I stood no chance against that one, either.

I ducked back, contemplating how to get inside.

The jet’s cockpit was much larger than in any of the spacecraft I’d previously flown, but if I could get in there, I would have a better chance of taking it over.

Yet, it was much higher up than the cargo bay and I had no ladder to aid my climb, as I did with my own jet.

I sighed.

These mercenaries, wherever they were from, really didn’t want any of us to get off the planet.

Yet, I refused to accept that option.

I wasn’t going to die on Arodin. And neither were those in my care.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the being from inside head toward the jet.

Without thinking, I circled around the spacecraft to come up behind them.

Then I attacked.

Launching myself at them, I had one goal.

To get their weapon.

If they’d spotted me, I would have failed.

But I grabbed their plazer and rolled out of the way just before the mercenary inside fired.

They missed me, though not by much.

Yet, I now had a weapon.

If I could figure out how to use it.

The plazer wasn’t like any of the ones I’d used in gaming, and none of the jets I’d flown were equipped with any sort of weapon.

The being I’d tackled got up and headed toward me.

I aimed the plazer at them.

When I pulled the trigger, nothing happened.

I had no time to try again, instead using the weapon to knock them across the head.

The being went down, much harder than when I’d tackled them.

Yet, the mercenary from inside charged toward me.

I dodged as they shot at me, still trying to figure out how to fire back.

I pressed all the buttons across the top of the weapon, some of them causing the plazer to light up and make a high-pitched buzz.

I figured that was a good thing. Pausing to take aim, I pressed the trigger again.

Laser light shot out of the barrel, but I missed and was knocked back by the force of the kickback.

Somehow, I had figured out how to use it and made the mercenary back off for a moment.

I shot the weapon again as plazer light fired toward me.

Being a space racer and then an aerobatics pilot meant I had to have a quick reaction time.

But my body didn’t move the same way as any of my jets.

I got hit.

Or, at least, my jacket did. A hole right through the baggy material in my armpit. The mercenary barely missed my heart.

I think they assumed they’d shot me as they lowered their weapon and went to their fellow crew member.

I used their presumption against them, firing in succession until they both lay on the ground. Dead.

I waited several moments for any indication of anyone else from inside or around the spacecraft.

I didn’t trust there were only two of them in the large jet.

Yet, no one else came.

I dragged the bodies off to a nearby field, not wanting anyone to come across them before we left, especially not those in my care.

Armed with two plazers, I searched the rest of the jet.

No one.

I just had to signal Xacalla and the kids to come to me before we could depart and leave behind this frigid planet where almost everything on it tried to kill us.

Not wanting to leave the jet, I hunted for a flare.

Much easier to find and shoot than the plazer.

Then I waited for them to get on board.

***

“Hey,”

I greeted Xacalla when she rejoined me in the flight deck.

It hadn’t been as hard as I believed it would be to get the cargo spacecraft, usually requiring three flight crew, off the ground, but I’d needed her help until we reached outer space.

Then she’d left me for a bit.

“Are the kids all settled in?”

“Yeah, they’re in the upper deck, resting.”

Xacalla sat in the seat beside me.

“Though my boss isn’t very happy about the way this wish went down.”

Shaking my head, I scoffed.

“It’s not as if any of it was your fault. At least we found them.”

“But that doesn’t matter as much as the Four Corners Wish Foundation disciplining me to assure others something like this won’t happen again.”

As I steered around an asteroid field, she grabbed the arms of her chair.

“Zenda wants me to resign. They recognize I’m not at fault but feel that celebrities won’t participate any longer if they think they will have to chase after the children they meet. They’re worried about donations dropping, too.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

She seemed to love her job, and the whole situation was unfortunate.

Though I would never tell her I was glad she’d been the one assigned to bring the Kalpierenes to meet me, even if it did cause us to nearly die and she did lose her job from it.

Xacalla shrugged.

“I don’t think I have a choice. If I continue to work for them, I definitely won’t be allowed to help carry out any of the wishes. There is back-end administrative stuff, but it’s not as fulfilling.”

“You could work for me.”

I didn’t have a chance to stop the words before I blurted them out.

“I’m not sure what though. Maybe you could be my manager. Or my bodyguard.”

“Funny.”

As she gave me a fake smile, she wrinkled her nose in the cutest way.

Stars, this was why I never spent too much time with those I was attracted to.

It led to me wanting to spend time with them in ways that involved more than getting naked and having sex.

Sure, I’d known Xacalla for a long time, but I’d never thought about her as anything more than my teammate’s kid sister until a couple days ago.

Now, the idea of not seeing her left my stomach queasy.

“Anyway…”

She released a heavy sigh.

“Minister Taleron of the Council of the Quadrants has asked me if I would look after the children for now, so that’s something to do. There are apparently two parties claiming to be the official caretakers for them, and no one on the council is sure which one is telling the truth.”

“That is a problem.”

I worried if it was safe to go back to Eurebly with both parties there, waiting for the children.

“Did she give you any idea on what each group is saying?”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“She said it was best if I didn’t know until the situation had been resolved. But I think the Kalpierene kids would be able to tell them if either or both groups are out to end their lives.”

“You would think.”

The space ahead was clear for quite a distance, so I had a chance to turn to face Xacalla.

“So, did you talk to anyone else while you left me all alone in the cockpit?”

She blushed as a warm smile spread across her lips.

“I talked to my sister.”

“Oh, really?”

I had seen her older sister in passing during previou.

“family and friends”

events, but never really talked to her since becoming an aerobatics pilot.

“And what did Brely have to say?”

“She told me I’m spending too much time with you.”

Xacalla’s cheeks reddened even more, leaving me curious as to why her sister’s caution would make her blush.

“I don’t see a problem with that. Do you?”

With a soft laugh, she glanced away from me, instead, staring ahead into the emptiness of space.

“I mean, it hasn’t been that bad unless you consider getting shot with a plazer, flying through space at speeds that wreak havoc on my body, and almost dying in a snowstorm.”

“True.”

I reached over and ran my fingers under the palm of her hand to see how she would react.

“But is any of that truly my fault?”

She closed her hand around mine, the simple gesture leaving my heart racing for reasons I didn’t understand.

I’d had plenty of fans proposition me for sex, and I took many of them up on it, but this was a whole lot different.

It meant something more.

“Maybe some of it, but there were parts I enjoyed, too.”

“Really? Which parts?”

I had to know; my desire to learn everything about her on overdrive.

She smiled, biting her tongue between her teeth, but never released my hand.

“I’ll tell you when this is all over. Right now, I need to stay focused on the kids behind us.”

“Okay, I will hold you to that.”

While I didn’t want to pull my hand away from hers, I needed both of mine to get the spacecraft moving faster so I could get us to Eurebly as swiftly as possible.