Page 15 of Her Cyborg Commander (The Drift: Haven Colony #9)

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Regrets gathered around Edge like a storm cloud as he ran across a string of sunbaked rocks that rose out of the desert. The rocks kept him safe from whatever predators moved beneath the sand, but not even his armor could shield him from the searing wind and unrelenting heat of this place.

It probably wouldn’t help much against River when she realized that he’d jammed the door, locking her inside the shelter while he listened to the message alone. He hadn’t done any permanent damage to the structure. The goal was to give him enough time to get clear and listen to whatever Jens had to say without putting River in harm’s way.

It wasn’t that he doubted her courage or her strength, but this wasn’t a risk she should take. Not when he could do it instead. Edge had never been one of Jens’ projects. He’d gone through his own hell at the hands of other researchers, but no one had messed with his mind.

It took him less than five minutes to reach a spot far enough from camp that River wouldn’t be able to catch up to him before he’d played the message. They still needed to work out a plan and fill Eddi in before they ran out of time, and he figured it would take more than a few minutes for River to finish yelling at him for what he’d done. He didn’t feel good about what he’d done, but eventually she’d come to see that he’d made the right decision.

At least, that’s what he hoped. A small voice in the back of his mind was telling him it wouldn’t be that easy.

He took River’s comm unit out of his pocket, switched it on, and set it to scan for any incoming signals. It locked on to one almost immediately. That had to be it.

A quick scan revealed the tag Eddi had mentioned. Petal. That was all the confirmation he needed. Edge tapped into his onboard systems and brought up every decryption program he’d been uploaded with or discovered on his own. Surely one of them would work.

The sun beat down on him without mercy as he waited for something to happen. When it did, it wasn’t what he’d hoped for. Instead of the message from the mad scientist, he heard River’s voice.

“You asshole! You promised to talk about this, and I believed you,” she shouted through their internal comm channel. Her anger wasn’t what struck him, though. It was the pain that underscored every word.

“ I’m sorry ,” he sent back. “ And I didn’t promise we’d talk about this. I promised we’d talk, and we will. I’ll be back as soon as I can, and then we’ll work this out .”

“No.”

That single word filled him with a deep sense of dread. “ Minx? What do you mean? No what? ”

“ I’m not sure ,” she admitted. “ But I’m also not sure we can work this out. You lied to me. You took away my choices and told me it was for my own good. Do you know who else used to say that to me?”

He shook his head, as if she could somehow see him right now. “ It’s not like that. I’m not like him.”

“ Prove it. Come back and we’ll listen to the message together .”

He nearly did it. The comm was halfway to his pocket and he was already moving before he caught himself and forced himself to stop.

“ It’s too big a risk. If you’re compromised …”

Pain replaced the anger in her voice. “Is this the future you see for us? You using what was done to me as justification for ignoring my wishes?”

“It will only happen this one time. River, if it was any other battle, I’d let you fight it, but this is Jens we’re talking about.” He paused, swallowed hard, and then added, “ I need to keep you safe because you’re precious to me. You are the one good thing in my life, minx. I can’t lose you.”

Her answer was so slow in coming he wondered if she would say anything at all. When she did speak again, her tone was wry but wary. “ Did it every occur to you that I felt the same way ?”

He let go of a breath he’d held far too long and pushed some humor into his next reply “ Honestly? Not until right now. You can add it to my long list of personal flaws and epic screwups .”

She actually laughed a little. “ Believe me, I will .” She paused for a beat and then asked, “ You’re determined to do this without me. Aren’t you ?”

“ I am .”

“ Then do it fast because I’ve got the door open and I’m headed your way. If I get there before you get that thing decrypted, we throw out your plan and go with mine. Deal ?”

Fraxx . She’d gotten out faster than he’d expected. “ I don’t like it, but you have a deal. See you soon, love .”

He broke the connection before he realized what he’d said. Love. The way he’d said it, it was more like a term of endearment. Only, he’d never used that word before. Not in any context he could remember.

The device in his hand beeped, pulling him away from that dangerous line of thinking.

He’d found the decryption key. The message was ready to play. Part of him considered waiting for River. She’d be here soon, and if he waited, it would go a long way toward mitigating the damage he’d done. It was probably the smart choice, but something in his gut kept insisting something about this message was dangerous.

He tapped the device once, and a voice he’d never wanted to hear again came through the speaker.

“Hello again, Petal. You were so clever, getting away from that vile planet so it would be easier for me to retrieve you. If you hadn’t, I would have come for you eventually, but that prison planet you were forced to live on was a veritable fortress.”

Edge listened to every smarmy, nauseating word and thanked the stars River would never have to hear this crap.

“I know you’re eager to see me again, but the ones I work for now don’t know you like I do. They’re not convinced that the improvements I made to you are working as intended.” Jens uttered a phlegmy sigh. “They’re wrong. Of course they’re wrong. You are my masterpiece. My beautiful, perfect Petal. But they insist that I do this. Sleep well, my pet. We’ll be together soon, and oh, I have such plans for us.”

He crushed the comm unit as soon as the message ended. He didn’t want to hear it again. Ever.

“Sleep well?” he mused as he dropped the pieces onto the sand. “What the hell does that…”

The bottom fell out of his mind before he finished speaking. As he fell into darkness, his last thought was of River.

She would never let him live this down.