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Santi’s grin faded, Boaz glanced away, and Kaal’s smirk disappeared.

Xander swallowed. ‘He freakin’ hit her.’

Silence.

Xander turned away again, one hand braced on a bulkhead. ‘He laid his hands on her, and I wasn’t there.’

His growl leaked despair.

Santi moved first, stalking to Xander and placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. ‘Lo siento mi amigo, for being assholes.’

Miral stepped forward, eyes flat, voice quiet. ‘We’ll get her back. If you promise to have my six, I’ll destroy Eugene.’

Kaal cracked his knuckles one by one. ‘She’s family and for her, I’ll tear him into atoms.’

‘We’ve got your back, brother,’ Boaz added. ‘Just say the word.’

Xander stood motionless, shoulders rising and falling.

No one spoke. No one moved. The only sound was the murmur of the ship’s systems all around them.

Xander wanted to raise his head to the heavens and howl, instinct screaming to unleash all his spectral powers to find her, but he clamped the urge down.

What Savvine needed was his head screwed on right, not a wild, feral reflex.

Nada!

The savage roar came from deep within him, and he lurched as the spectral spirit jolted out of him, unseen to anyone but him.

With a whip of untamed energy, it raced away from him and glimmered through the walls of the ready room.

His eyes tracked it as it disappeared into the void.

Fokk.

He knew where it was headed and exhaled, leaving it to its own devices.

He had a rescue to mount.

Then, finally, he turned.

His eyes weren’t red, they were burning.

‘No mercy,’ he snarled. ‘We plan this to the nth degree and hit hard. We take her back, and once she’s safe, we finish this.’

Silence answered.

Then Kaal’s voice cut through it with a snarl. ‘Let’sfokkhim up.’

SAVVINE

On theVeleno di Sogni, Savvine’s head throbbed as the luxury of Eugene’s pleasure yacht pressed in around her, glass, velvet, and suffocating silence.

Eugene was flitting around the room, muttering like a madman.

He slumped on the dirt-streaked velvet divan at one point between torturing her with his endless humming, his ceaseless pacing, and his occasional sips at her.

He appeared to nap, and she wondered if synth bots ever dreamed of electric sheep.