Page 17

Ruby

Sweat coated my forehead with a fine sheen by the time I’d reached the port office building. On my com device, the signal f rom Brace’s com blinked right over the spot, this had to be it. At least, this was the place where his com was, and I hoped it wasn’t far from where he was. I hoped the communications officer from the Varakartoom was right.

Two Rummicaron males in port authority uniform s flanked the entrance to the building. The crest of the Rummicaron port authorit y was a fish-like creature and a sickle, with a row of stars below them. It was emblazoned in gold above the door and decorated each glass pane set into the building. The guards also had it on their uniforms, but only as a discreet patch on their left breast pocket. Backed by such pomp, the males were puffed up and gave me suspicious looks as I walked up to them.

I could not blame them for staring at me like I was dirt. Wrapped up in those blankets to stay warm, I was a frumpy mess with a big belly. The cramps and back pain made me sweaty and pale, and I shuffl ed awkwardly. I was the weirdest rescue party there had ever been, and to them , I probably looked homeless. The guard closest to me eyed me up and down, his beady black eyes narrowing on my face. The other seemed more compassionate, as far as he could even feel such a thing. “Can we help you, miss?” he said.

I nodded firmly, trying to look more authoritative than I felt , when I was pretty sure I was either in early labor or something was wrong. If not for the occasional kick or shift f rom the baby, I would have been terrified. But he was moving regularly, so I knew he was alive, which made Brace my priority. I owed it to my sweet Hoxiam to save him, even if that meant go ing in to massive debt and paying all the credits I did have.

They recognized me just as I said I was here to pay my fines and reclaim my property. The first guard reached for his gun , as if he thought he had to force me inside, but his shoulders lowered again almost immediately after. I was no threat, obviously, and they both knew it.

“Right this way, miss,” the second male said, still sounding softer, kinder. He took me gently by the elbow and adjusted his pace to guide me through the door , h is large stride matching my much slower steps. A blast of warmer air hit me in the face, but it was only warm in comparison to the outside temperatures. The Rummicaron did not need comfy, warm rooms in a foyer ; they probably didn’t have comfortable temperatures in their offices , either. They weren’t fan s of soft things, it was a miracle their city was so beautifully decorated and their food so tasty , i f you ignored some of the more risqu é delicacies they liked, like the bloodworms.

The first guard remained at his post, but my escort guided me past the reception area and , with purpose , deeper into the building. He didn’t talk until we were almost there, but my com indicat ed I was still getting closer to Brace, and that was all that mattered. “Officer Javano has been assigned the explosion fall-out situation. That includes your part in it, miss,” the male said in a low tone that did not carry far. “I understand your ship was blown up? Do you know who did it?” His head was big, shaped like a shark ’s , so it was hard to read any kind of friendliness in his expressions when so many teeth flickered your way. Still, there was a softness to the brown-hued gray of his skin, and an obvious attempt was made to minimize the amount of razor-sharp teeth he showed me.

It was not his place, as a simple guard, to ask me what I knew of the explosion. There had to be some other motive here, but I saw no reason not to be honest. It could not harm my reputation any more than this situation already had. I would not be welcome as a trader in any Rummicaron port ever again. “My crew — which I ditched before arriving here — tried to smuggle goods for the crimelord Jalima. Those goods are not on my ship ; I’d never do something illegal . B ut Jalima wanted them back. He blew it up as payback , t hough I had nothing to do with any of it.”

He frowned but said nothing else, simply kept us walking as fast as my tired, sore feet could manage. How long had I been up? I’d walked through the entire night, missed sleeping, and was growing more and more concerned that I wasn’t in labor — which would be bad. The pain had swelled twice since I’d left Kali’s eatery, and I could feel another wave coming on now. If they were contractions, they were still far apart, but how much longer would that last?

We eventually reached an office , though. There were no guards, and the walls were all glass that had been turned opaque, a milky white I couldn’t see through. My escort knocked on the door and then gave me a final , piercing look with his small, black eyes. “Officer Javano will take your situation into account if you are honest. You did good coming in yourself ; that shows good faith. Good luck, miss.” His eyes darted to my belly, and when I reached down and reflexively clutched it with the advancing pain, his eyes narrowed even more. But he walked off before the door opened, leaving me to face this new officer all by myself.

The door made no sound when it slid sideways into the wall to grant me access. The office beyond was d im ly lit but sleek and gray. A hard, uncomfortable - looking couch, a large desk with a small, low chair in front of it, and a much larger swivel chair behind it occupied the room . Someone was sitting in that chair, but they had turned away from the door , and I could not see them. Very dramatic, very villain-like. I would have laughed if it w ere n’t so dire, and if I didn’t feel like someone was trying to squeeze me in two.

I panted through the pain, forcing myself to step inside , even though I wanted to just lie down and curl up in a fetal position. “I’m here,” I said through gritted teeth, making my way through the office with firm steps, forcing myself forward so I wouldn’t back out and run. No, I wouldn’t run, running was beyond me at this point. Outside this office, only more danger waited. De’tor was still looking for me. He knew I was pregnant, knew it was his baby I was carrying , somehow. This was no longer about the missing Kanfray for him.

The person in the chair did not respond, and my labored breathing had to be drawing his attention. I ached so bad ly , and I was so tired from everything, but I had to see this through. In my mind, I was certain that if I could just get them to release Brace back to me, everything would be all right. My pained gasp finally drew out this Javano, the officer who held the fa te of my Brace in his hands. The chair began to swivel, turning until I was face to face with another Rummicaron male.

It’s curious, I had never seen a Rummicaron before who was scared out of his mind. That’s probably why it took me a few seconds to process what I was seeing. They were hard to tell apart because they were all gray and hairless. Each Rummicaron was different, of course, different shapes, different shades of color. To someone who hadn’t grown up seeing all these minute differences, it took even longer to read their expressions, to recognize what w as going on.

Javano — if that’s who he was — had his brow crunched up in a tight frown, his mouth pulled in to an even tighter line, and his fists curled around his armrests with knuckle-straining force. He looked identical to the guard who had brought me here at first, identical to pretty much any male I’d seen on the street. And then I realized he had a tiny scar by his left eye, a little V- notch — and that wasn’t distaste or anger ; it was fear. An emotion that a Rummicaron could feel and express under certain circumstances. An emotion even they could not fully suppress.

I turned, realizing too late that the threat was not in front of me , but at my back. My movements were sluggish from exhaustion and pain, and I saw him but could not dodge. De’tor was so suddenly at my side that it felt like he’d appeared as if by magic. His purple glowing lines highlighted every tight muscle on his body. Amethyst eyes bor ed into me with something detached, something colder than the icy weather outside. “There you are, female,” he said, his deep voice rumbling with sub-harmonics that made my stomach twist. No, maybe that was just my baby responding to the sound of his father’s voice.

“You shouldn’t have come here, but I knew you’d be back for him, for your ship. Where else would you go?” he s aid to me, but he did n’ t seem to want an answer. I stubbornly kept my mouth sh u t and tried to glare, but that was hard on the heels of the fading wave of pain, ebbing out of me until my body felt slack and limp.

He lifted his chin, and I was left staring at the hard, sharp angle of it. “Thank you for the use of your office, Javano. I will be taking this one into custody, if you don’t mind.” The Rummicaron officer made some kind of noise in the back of his throat that was probably meant to be consent, but De’tor did not need an answer from him either. “Expect your payment in your account today,” the crimelord’s right - hand man said as he dragged me to the door , a comment thrown casually over his shoulder.

So this Javano was in Jalima’s pocket, but he clearly did not enjoy the position. With the fading wave of pain, a little more clarity and stamina came back to me , too. Not a lot, but enough to spark a mutinous fall of words. “Where is Brace? I came back here for Brace! What did you do with him?” I did n’ t need to ask him what he wanted from me, he knew I did n’ t have the money to repay him for the Kanfray. He was here for his son, and he couldn’t have him. Over my dead body. Which it very well was going to be, because how could I possibly fight him?

I had his gun, still clutched awkwardly in one hand beneath the blankets . A ll I had to do was raise it and fire. Then what? I’d be a murderer, trapped in a building full of people with the ability to arrest and disarm me on the spot. I’d go to prison, and Brace would still be stuck. My mind filled with images of my poor guy in a cell, back to being starved so he could be controlled. It would be his worst nightmare, and he’d be pushed to the brink again, and snap. He’d hate himself when that happened.

My fingers tightened around th e gun, clutching it beneath the blanket against my side. When I thought I could shoot him, I would. De’tor didn’t deserve anything but death for willingly putting my male in danger, for wanting to steal my child from me. How had I not seen what an asshole he was back then? I’d let myself be tempted by smart conversation and sexy muscles. Not that I found any part of him attractive now, not after I’d been with Brace and k new how sexy it was to add love and tenderness to the mix.

“You mean the Hoxiam?” De’tor said, his pace slowing when he realized I could not keep up and he’d nearly made me fall over twice. His grip on my arm shifted to my elbow, and now he was still holding me but also lifting me a little, easing my steps. He shook his head, his free hand going up to touch one of his horns. It was broken, the tip snapped off, and from the looks of it. His handsome face pulled into a mean snarl for a second, rage flashing in his amethyst eyes. “Sheer luck that a Rummicaron patrol caught him. Idiot didn’t want to hurt innocent bystanders and let them take him.” He tilted his head my way, a sneer on his face . “He abandoned you.”

If he thought that would drive a wedge between me and my mate — the male I loved with every aching, sweat-soaked part of me — he was wrong. “Javano informed me of the situation, and here we are. I knew you’d come back for him. Humans are always sentimental.” Then he shocked the hell out of me by adding, “ B ut I’ll take you to him. Soon. Don’t worry.” He laughed loudly, head tossed back as if he found my reunion with Brace the most amusing thing in the world.

“First, you’re going to hand me my child, then you can see him.” We’d reached a hallway with a set of stairs — metal and dark — with only small red lights at intervals along the steps. I drew in a painful, tired breath at the sight of them , e xhausted just thinking about being forced to climb down .

“You can’t have him,” I said numbly, though I didn’t know how I could stop him. “He’s not ready to be born yet, it takes nine months,” I added. A wave of pain was rising again, sharp and hard ; it began low in my back and radiated to my front as if someone w ere clamping down on me. This was definitely a contraction, and I wanted to laugh and curse at the same time. Here I was , trying to convince the bad guy I wasn’t ready to have my baby yet, while my body was doing everything in its power to expel my child. Fuck , it hurt, and the timing couldn’t be worse.

“News flash,” De’tor said, his deep voice turning darker with his sadistic glee. “Kertinal only gestate for four months . Y ou are ready.” And, in the ultimate betrayal, that’s when my water broke. Proving what he said was true . I t gushed out, a shocking fall of water, instantly cooling against my flesh. Most of it was absorbed by my clothes, but it ran down my pant leg and splattered onto the floor.

De’tor’s long, blade-tipped tail swung around, nudging under my chin so I had to look away from those telltale drops and face him. “See? You will give me my child, and then I will give you to that beast of yours. It’s a win - win,” he said. I knew it wasn’t , but the pain of this next contraction was overwhelming, I couldn’t think straight.

My hands were digging into his arm, blunt nails biting against his tough skin. Vaguely, I knew that meant I’d dropped the gun, but I hadn’t heard it fall and didn’t recall doing it. I shouted with this one, a scream of pain , rage , and impotence. He was going to win ; he was going to get away with this.