Page 44 of Star Crossed Delta

SABA

S aba and her twin spoke with each other every week.

One morning, while chatting with Shiloh on a holo call in the library, Saba sensed a presence.

She glanced up. Her breath hitched as she spotted Mak standing at the door, shoulder-leaning on the jamb, arms crossed, face closed off.

Saba gave Shiloh a hasty farewell and shut the screen on her incredulous face. Turning, she stood to her feet and shot him a quick smile.

‘My ?arrum .’

Mak’s lips turned up a bit, but his eyes remained wary as he tracked towards her and offered a soft, quick kiss.

‘Who were you speaking to?’ he rasped, almost a little too casual in his attitude.

Saba had promised him always to speak with honesty, so she confessed. ‘Shiloh.’

His brow rose even as his eyes narrowed. ‘She’s doing OK?’

While his words were carefully framed, his tone was glacial, the warmth in his eyes fading.

Saba sighed. ‘She’s well.’

Mak sat on the edge of her reading desk and nailed her with a searching look. ‘Where is she?’

‘On The Selburnia ark ship,’ Saba told him, nervous, playing with a loose thread on her overalls. ‘But it keeps moving, so I’m not sure where in the flotilla it is.’

‘That’s because Zolan keeps stealthing it so he can keep going with his pirate side hustle. She’s still with him?’

Saba exhaled and shrugged, caught between protecting her sister and maintaining her covenant with her husband.

‘The truth, Saba,’ he growled.

‘ Naam , she’s with her man.’

‘I trust you’re keeping confidence, wife.’

Saba was well aware of what he was asking, and it stung that he was contemplating that she’d ever betray him again.

She turned to him and nailed him with a long look. ‘When I married you, you became my family, and my loyalty is to you, first and always, whether you believe it or not.’

His eyes remained wary, skeptical. ‘So why didn’t you tell me you spoke with her on the regular?’

She hesitated, sensing the trap she was walking into. ‘She asked me not to say -.’

He scoffed, his mouth twisting into its former bitterness. ‘There it is. Your devotion lies with her first.’

Saba raised her hands in frustration. ‘She’s my twin, Mak. I must value her discretion, but I would have told you if she had crossed the line.’

‘Is that right?’

His voice hardened with every word. ‘Pardon my cynicism. The Lisades have not been forthright with me in the past.’

Saba’s eyes stormed, and she sucked her teeth. ‘You keep lumping us together. While my uncle and Suri were not real with you and let you down, Shiloh and I are not the same.’

He stared her down. ‘Yet you both conspired to lie to me and the entire Order at the altar.’

Saba refused to allow him to get away with such a cheap shot. ‘Will you ever forgive me, or will you continue to dangle my sin before me whenever it suits you to punish me?’

Her words hit home. She noted how he flinched at them.

After a tense stare-off, he exhaled. ‘I’d prefer if you held off speaking with Shiloh for now.’

‘I can’t promise that.’

‘Let me at least make sure your conversations with her are above board.’

‘What d’you mean?’ she demanded.

‘I need to be certain that her lover is not using the calls as link-throughs to hack our systems and steal intelligence through either encryption, exfiltration, or both.’

‘You’re paranoid,’ she whispered.

He snapped his body to her with ire. ‘Woman, I’m careful.

Signet and the Sauvage Corp have been the victim of plenty of attacks, from freakin’ Nightshade to cyber extortion rings after our encrypted data.

I also know some of Zolan’s lieutenants are fans of ransomware and very fond of genus coercion.

In essence, they’ve amped up their gang-level protection rackets and parlayed their bullying into the digital world. ’

Saba jolted. ‘He wouldn’t dare.’

‘His people do dare, perhaps not to his knowledge, as I hear he’s losing control of his clan, and his lackeys are going rogue.’

They glared at each other for a long moment, their strong wills clashing even as their angry and fast breaths were mired together in disagreement.

He leaned into her, his expression softening. ‘Woman,’ he groaned.

Her whisper was soft. ‘Honey.’

‘ Fokk , I hate fighting with you.’

Her flight and fight simmered down, and she took a shaky breath, softening at his confession. ‘I don’t like it either, Mak.’

His eyes raked over her face. ‘You’d think we’d be past the distrust by now,’ he rumbled, frustration blazing in his eyes.

‘Will we ever be?’

‘I want to be,’ he rasped.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment until she sliced hers away.

She gazed at the parchment scrolls on her desk, unseeing, heart aching.

Without warning, Mak’s arms encircled her from behind.

He pressed his mouth to her exposed collarbone. ‘Hell, woman, I’m beginning to take every single breath for you.’

She melted, body, mind, and soul at his words.

She turned her head, and they shared a lingering, soft kiss.

‘I, too,’ she whispered against his searching lips.

It wasn’t quite the truth; she was already lost in him, gone, over the freakin’ edge in love with him.

Silent, he pulled away from her, touched his mouth to her temple, and strode out of the library.

She was left standing alone, hand over her heart, trembling with need.