Page 26

Garnet

“Y ou got to make sure that you protect the package at all times,” Rok was saying as he pushed the cart of biohazardous something towards their destination.

Garnet followed along beside him, alternating between looking at the ominous thing and Rok’s happy face as he explained his job to her.

Garnet had decided to go along with him to the delivery today. It was a safe one. Safe in that they didn’t expect anyone to attack them. The delivery wasn’t to a station, but instead to a free-floating laboratory out in space that dealt with the deadliest viruses in the universe. Since it was on a small station built specifically for this lab, if something got out of containment, the lab could be shut down and whatever escaped couldn’t spread. There was even, Alred explained to her before they left the Humility, a rumored failsafe that would send the lab hurtling towards the unnervingly close sun of the empty system it was situated in. Empty in that there was no life on any of the circling planets so, even if the lab somehow fell out of the sky and hit the ground somewhere, it still wouldn’t hurt anyone.

And they were taking a box big enough for her to sit in to them. She didn’t know what was inside. For all she knew, it was packaged snacks, but she somehow doubted it.

The client paid extra for discretion, so only Tanin and Alred knew the contents of the box. But she was told that it was very fragile, the specimens inside were very dangerous, and both she and Rok had to be decontaminated before and after leaving the lab. Just in case.

Even with all those warnings, she still insisted on coming along.

She was hiding from Tanin. Which was rather difficult to do considering they lived on the same spaceship.

He’d scared her off. Just a little bit. Garnet wanted him, no doubt. She was eager to explore the dick-barb situation just to know for sure he didn’t have inch long nails or something sticking out of his cock. That didn’t seem likely, but she’d still feel better once she laid eyes on them, so to speak.

Sex? She was so down. She was starting to have dreams about all the things that serious, intense male could do to her.

But intimacy?

That was a bit more than she was really ready for. And something she honestly didn’t expect from Tanin at all. But the way he looked at her when he declared his intentions, the blazing in his eyes, told her that he was suddenly much more invested in her than she ever intended.

Garnet signed up for fuck buddies. She’d been pushing him gently, wanting nothing more than that. It was even going to be one of her arguments to him about why they should do it when he finally gave into her. Fun fucking between friends. Bumping buddies. Pleasure pals.

But that wasn’t what she saw looking back at her the night of the party.

He looked at her with intention . With determination . Some hang up she hadn’t even known about in his head had snapped without warning. Before she could even realize what was happening, he warned her to get ready. She didn’t think he just meant for the sex.

Garnet wanted to get fucked. She hadn’t seriously considered a… relationship .

Not that she had anything against a relationship. Not really. She’d never had time for one in the past. The few times she broke down and convinced herself to let a guy into her life, he turned out to hate how much time she had to spend working, cheated on her because she spent so much time working, or he spent no time working, and she had to take care of him like he was a child. Men were good for sex, and sometimes not even that.

So, what did she do now that Tanin had made that declaration?

He hadn’t pushed since. Not in the time it took to reach this package, nor the time it took to recharge the generators and bring it to this lab, or even the couple days they’d been waiting for the station to finish decontaminating so they could come aboard safely. He treated her like he always did.

But she sometimes caught him looking at her. And not just looking but staring . Giving her that heated look he’d speared her with in the shadows that night. The one that carried a threat. The one that was patient but becoming less so with each passing day.

So, to get some space from him, however little it was, she’d asked to follow along with Rok. She cited her interest in learning more about the job. Even suggesting that maybe she could deliver smaller packages herself one day.

Since this drop off was safe – biohazard aside – and the only people that would be on the station were the scientists who lived and worked there, Tanin allowed it. Now, Rok was teaching her everything he knew about delivering because he believed her story, even though Tanin definitely did not. He knew what she was doing, and he was letting it happen.

Because he was in control. Because it didn’t matter what space she was pretending to put between them, he still had all the power in this situation, and everything was progressing exactly the way he allowed it to.

And that thought should have been scary, but it made an excited shiver run down her spine. She’d never been with a man so self-assured, so quietly confident before. Tanin didn’t brag. He didn’t boast. He didn’t shout. But that’s where his true authority lay. He didn’t need to do all those things. His power and influence spoke for itself, and much louder than anything he could say.

Garnet was thrilled by it, but nervous all the same. This had very suddenly and quickly become much more serious than she ever intended to let it get.

And she really didn’t know what to do about that.

So, time and space. She needed time and space to get used to the idea of him. Because that’s all he was offering her right now. And when he decided he’d had enough time and she’d had enough space, he’d come back.

And Garnet had to decide what she wanted by then.

“Garnet?”

“Huh?” She blinked, casting her eyes back over to Rok. He was giving her a curious look, big head cocked to the side. He had scales over his cheekbones, like teal-black blush slashed across his face, yellow eyes gleaming with concern. He was so huge, he towered over her, and that big ass horn coming from his forehead, sweeping back over his roughly cut, short black hair, only made him seem bigger. She quickly fixed a smile on her face. “Sorry, sweetie. I was just thinking. You were saying that we have to protect the package at all times?”

Rok frowned. “I said that back there.”

He pointed over his shoulder at the long tunnel they were in. Back towards the docking door where the Humility was connected directly to the station, still visible through the multitude of glass walls that sealed behind them as they moved forward.

The hall consisted of eight individual chambers, each one designed to decontaminate specific things as you moved through. It wasn’t so much a problem on the way in, but as they came out, they’d have to stop in each chamber and let it do its thing. Now that they were all sealed behind them, it was going to take a lot longer to get out than to get here. It wasn’t a super long hallway really, but the walk was taking a while because they had to keep waiting for doors to shut behind them then open in front of them – both doors could not slide open at the same time.

“Garnet, are you okay?” Rok asked kindly as they waited for the last door – a solid metal one – to open and let them into the lab.

She smiled and quickly nodded. “I’m okay. Just thinking.”

“Want to tell me about it?” He offered sweetly. “Probably can’t help you much. I’m not that smart, you know? But I can listen.”

“You’re plenty smart,” Garnet protested, pushing his arm playfully. For all the good it did. Was the guy made of steel? How were his muscles that hard?

“I’m not smart,” Rok assured her. “I’m okay with that. But I do know when someone is focused on something else. What’s wrong?”

Garnet opened her mouth to assure him, again, that she was fine, but before she got the chance, the final door opened. The oddly tall and eerily thin person on the other side had creepily pale skin and huge, black eyes. They took a look at them and smiled wide. Long, sharp teeth glinted in the light as they put their thin, boney hands together.

“Perfect. We’ve been waiting for this. Bring it in,” they said, their voice lyrical and androgenous. “Let me inspect it before we finish our transaction.”

“Of course,” Rok smiled wide, happy, as he pushed the cart forward.

Garnet followed after him, looking back as she did so. She wasn’t sure what really prompted her to do so, aside from the fact that their ship – and Tanin – was back that way.

Literally right there. Tanin was standing in the open door of the Humility, seven glass doors separating them, shouting something she couldn’t hear. Slamming his fist against the glass.

The metal door slid shut, cutting off her view of him, but her nerves were suddenly all standing up at attention.

Why was Tanin there? What was he yelling about? Why-

The thought cut off quite harshly when she turned forward and found herself looking at a male with black skin and five, silvery-white eyes.

It was him!

Her heart immediately jumped into her throat, pounding painfully. Because that was the guy from Rin-Kal that attacked her!

No, her rational brain caught up to her. It couldn’t be.

This male wasn’t wearing the black suit with a toolbelt of weapons slung across his hips. He was wearing the same white, scrub-like clothes as the creepily thin person. He was also not even paying attention to her. Too busy looking at the cart that Rok was wheeling into the front room.

And Rok didn’t seem upset. He was smiling as usual, talking about how, at Humble Delivery Service, their guaranteed protection of whatever they transported had a flawless track record. It sounded like the lines from an infomercial, well-rehearsed with just enough truth to not be directly called a lie.

Yeah, she had to just be seeing things. The shinuk were a whole species of people with black skin and light eyes. She was just seeing things because this was the first shinuk she had met that wasn’t actively trying to kidnap her. Which was a rather sad thought, really. She was inadvertently becoming prejudiced against a whole species because of the actions of one guy.

Well, one guy and the guys who he hired to go after her.

The creepy person opened the chest and looked inside. It was about the same height and width as two medium sized storage bins from Earth stacked on top of each other. But the gleaming metal body was shined to an almost mirror finish. And when the lid pulled back, it separated into two pieces, sliding apart from each other and opening up with a haze of cold fog.

Nestled inside were dozens, maybe hundreds, of vials of some kind of pink liquid. The vials were about the size of her pinkie. Some held liquid that was as clear as crystal, while others were turbid and murky, but they were all the same glowing shade of pink.

The skinny, tall person gasped with delight. “Beautiful! Absolutely perfect. And not a single vial out of place. Yes. You’ve earned your credz quite thoroughly.”

“Glad you approve,” Rok said brightly, pulling out a tablet from a pocket on his thigh. He hit the screen a few times before turning it around. “Just scan your biometrics here to confirm you received the package as intended, in one piece, and then pay the other half of the delivery fee and we’ll be on our way.”

It was a curiously normal scene. Sure, in her old job, Garnet would have asked for a signature, not a DNA sample, but the process was otherwise the same. The creepily thin person confirmed that they got their package without issue, payment was submitted, and the job was done.

“Thanks for choosing Humble Delivery,” Rok said brightly, stowing the tablet back into his side pocket as the person closed the crate.

“No, thank you ,” they said, taking hold of the cart’s handle so they could push it away. “My friend here will see you out. Nothing personal, by the way.”

“What?” Garnet spoke up, her nerves stretched to their breaking point. What did they mean by that ?

“I’m sure you had no choice,” Rok said brightly. “We’ll deal with the rest from here.”

“Be sure that you not break anything. It’s going to cost a great deal to fix.”

“Consider it a tax,” Rok laughed.

Garnet grabbed onto his wrist, staring between him and the shinuk male. The one that wasn’t following the tall, skinny figure out into the laboratory, leaving them alone in the vestibule that let out into the long hallway. Rok was tense under her hand. Even more so than before.

“As she said,” the shinuk started, pulling a weapon from behind his back. A plasma pistol. Was he insane?! They weren’t on a starship, but space was right there beyond those walls. If he shot that off in here, they were all screwed! “Nothing personal.”

Rok laughed. “I’m not taking it personally. But my captain might.”

“Hand over the female.” The male leveled the gun at Rok’s chest. “At this point, he doesn’t care if he gets only one back. But he will get at least one.”

Rok knew, Garnet realized, having a hard time breathing. He’d known since they walked in. He recognized the guy too, he just hadn’t reacted. Instead, he’d obeyed Tanin’s first rule – always finish the job.

But now, they were trapped with this guy, and he was going to shoot Rok!

Garnet tried to step away from the big guy. To move towards the shinuk male. She was the one he was after. She didn’t want Rok to get hurt because of her.

But she barely had a chance to do more than twitch. Rok was suddenly there, one hand around her waist, yanking her into his chest. His other arm on that side came up and protected her head. Both arms working together to shield her vital organs from the shinuk.

All the while, Rok maintained that bright, professional smile on his face.

“Sorry. Can’t do that,” he said, turning a bit to shield her body more without losing sight of the shinuk male.

“I will shoot.”

“We’re going to leave.”

“I don’t care if I kill both of you. There’s still another left. Hand her over, and at least I can guarantee you both will survive. Trust me, he’s not going to want to kill her. That would be a waste of a good body.”

“Can’t,” was all Rok said again.

“Very well.” The male’s hand tightened on the gun.

Rok struck, grabbing his hand. His pistol. Covering them entirely. Jerking it up. Pointing it away from them. Even as it was going off.

The smell of burnt flesh, noxious and nauseating, hit Garnet’s nose as blood, so dark brown it was nearly black, dripped down from the new hole in Rok’s hand.

Rok didn’t even flinch. Though only his first finger and thumb were now functional, the other three limp and unmoving, that was enough for him to keep hold of the shinuk’s pistol.

She thought Rok would shove him away. The shinuk must have thought so as well. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for Rok to jerk him closer instead. Their skulls struck together with a horribly dull crack. More blood, dark black, dripped to the ground as the guy collapsed with a dull thud.

Rok’s injured hand dangled as the other three grabbed Garnet, scooping her into his arms. He turned and hit the exit button. As the door slid open, Garnet could see the shinuk groaning, moving sluggishly on the floor. Bleeding profusely from what was, undoubtedly, a broken nose. But still alive.

Because Rok was obeying Tanin’s other rule. He hadn’t gotten permission to kill this guy yet.

Rok came to a halt in front of the first glass door and looked up. Cheerfully, he addressed the camera in the corner.

“Open it, or I break it.”

Nothing. The people in the lab weren’t going to help them.

“Alright,” Rok laughed, bringing back one of his non-injured hands.

Garnet, still being held in his arms, felt the force of the blow he landed on the glass vibrate through his entire body. He grunted with the force of it. The glass door remained intact, but when he pulled his fist back, she saw a very obvious crack.

He pulled his fist back again, aiming for that same spot.

Then, before he could hit it again, the metal door behind them beeped and slid shut. A second later, the one in front of them came up.

“Thank you!” Rok called to them happily, still dripping blood, as he walked forward. The glass door shut behind him and the next one opened.

There was no decontamination process. Whoever was on the other end of the cameras clearly didn’t want those doors to be broken. They opened even smoother and faster than when they had come inside.

From where Garnet was held cradled in Rok’s arms, she could see the trail of dark brown blood being left behind from his hand. A maimed, probably now useless hand.

“Why did you do that?” She asked, tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at his mutilated palm, the fingers now dangling limp and unmoving. “You’re hurt.”

“I’ll be alright,” Rok promised her, still beaming. “I’m tough. I’ve had worse. Besides, we can’t use our mediring, but we can still use one on a station if we stop! Will be expensive, but I haven’t spent any of my gem money! So that works out just fine.”

The gem money that was his portion from her kidnapping in the first place. Knowing he’d be using that money to fix an injury that was her fault only made her feel worse.

She shouldn’t have come off the ship. What was that guy even doing here anyway? How did he catch up to them so fast?

Well, actually, that was easy. She already knew that their subspace generator was shit. Other people’s generators could re-charge in half a day. It wasn’t a matter of them catching up, it was a matter of them just slowing down and waiting.

But how did he know where they were?

Tanin was still there in the hall. Standing at the other end. He wasn’t yelling anymore, but he was waiting in front of the last glass door that had multiple shatter points punched into it. Proof of his efforts to try to get through.

No wonder the people on the other end of the cameras had been so willing to let Rok pass quickly.

The last door, broken as it was, didn’t open all the way, but that wasn’t a deterrent. Rok, ever so gently, set Garnet down and allowed her through before he squeezed his way into the crack, making the glass crack and the metal frame groan as he did so. And Garnet didn’t think that was regular, run of the mill glass either.

“Good work,” Tanin said when Rok came through, putting a hand to Garnet’s back and pushing her through the open door of the Humility and back into main stowage before the two of them followed after.

The door shut and sealed behind Rok. Garnet heard the now familiar thudding and groaning as the starship disconnected from the station. Alred was already getting them away.

“Report,” Tanin said, looking Garnet over carefully. Examining her still broken fingers and the bruising she still carried from her last interaction with that guy. They were well healing at this point, but her fingers still hurt sometimes.

“Tanin, please,” she grabbed his hands, stopping him. “Rok’s been hurt. He needs help. He needs-”

“I’m alright,” Rok promised again, laughing as he held up his largely useless hand. “Could use some bandages though first, captain.”

“Fine.” Tanin nodded his head once. “Goldie should still be in medbay. The mediring can seal the hole at least until we get to a station. Get fixed up then find me to give your report.”

“Aye, captain!” He laughed, strolling merrily away like he wasn’t still bleeding onto the floor.

When Garnet made to step after him, needing to make sure that he was okay – since he only got hurt because of her – Tanin brought her up short. He stopped her by tugging on her wrist, bringing her back into his grasp as he continued looking her over.

Garnet frowned at him. “That guy, Tanin. He was there. That guy, he was…”

“I know.” He looked up from his inspection of her body. “Right after you two stepped through the first doors, Alred came back through. He’d gone into their system to check it out and he saw the other ship attached in the back. He came in while they claimed they were decontaminating in preparing for our arrival. It was too late to stop him, and we couldn’t do anything to the station without risking you two. Alred very nearly revealed himself, but I convinced him not to. I knew Rok could take care of you.”

“How did he find us? How did he know?”

Tanin shook his head. A human move he’d picked up from her. “I don’t know. But that laboratory had to have known him and allowed him entrance. It would be almost impossible to forcibly board that station with its precautions in place. And where he entered was an emergency exit. Usually, those can’t be accessed at all.”

“He was dressed like one of them. They let him stay there. He even waited until we passed on the package before doing anything.”

“I imagine Gissrn offered them a great deal to go along with it.”

“Or maybe Gissrn owns this lab and hired us to bring the chest here and just had that guy waiting for us!”

“Possible, but unlikely. This station isn’t owned by Gissrn. As it happens, I know the female who does own it. She’s ruthless and demented, and I’ve no doubt she’d experiment on a human if she had the chance. But she won’t risk her funding by being blatantly illegal like that. No, however he knew we were here, I don’t think it was that type of set up.”

“Then, how…”

“I don’t know.” He put his finger on her chin, tilting her up to look him in the eyes. “But I will find out.”

***

“No more deliveries. Not until we figure out how we’re being tracked.”

Tanin’s announcement to the packed rec room made Garnet wince with guilt. Even if, logically, she knew it wasn’t her fault, that she and Goldie were being hunted not because of anything they did, it still felt like it. Running the Humility wasn’t cheap. The guys needed their steady stream of deliveries to survive, and because of them, they were losing out on good credz.

Despite that, not one of the guys looked upset by the announcement. Well, Vytln looked disgruntled, but it was his baseline level of displeasure, nothing new or intensified. He was posted up in the corner, arms crossed, giving Tanin an expectant look.

They all were. All the guys had gathered. Even Alred, in his light form, was standing beside Tanin with his wrists clasped behind his back. His featureless face somehow managed to look serious and stern, his shoulders held stiff and strong.

They’d disconnected from the lab station and were free floating their way out of the solar system. They were going to keep moving until the generators recharged, upon which they’d be swinging their way directly to their final destination. It would still take a couple more jumps to reach Hir-Fallow, but they weren’t stopping for jobs along the way anymore.

That shinuk guy finding them once was already a coincidence. Twice meant that he had some way of tracking them. Either by directly tracking them or directing them where to go by hiring them for jobs to get them to specific places. Regardless of how he was doing it, Tanin was calling a halt to their delivery jobs until they figured it out.

“The twins and Alred did manage to get us some information based on what he found in the lab station and through twin’s connections,” Tanin said, waving to his combot, causing the little device to project an image in the air.

Garnet knew very well that it was just a holo display of the guy, but she still found herself jumping, wincing back in her seat, when that shinuk male was suddenly standing in front of them. He was wearing a very plain jumpsuit, expression unreadable, looking out at nothing.

It wasn’t the first time she had seen him, but it was the first time she had the space to actually note any of his features. She wouldn’t call him handsome or ugly. If anything, his simple features seemed wrong for the danger of the guy they were attached to. He should either be handsome and icy cold, or he should be grotesque and ugly. But even with the five eyes, he was just… a guy. His nose wasn’t big or small, his lips weren’t big or small. He just… was.

But he was muscular. His skin shined in a way that didn’t seem very fleshy, but she wouldn’t call it shiny like a carapace. He had a tail, long and fleshy, that she hadn’t noticed before, short but pointed ears, and three fingers alongside his thumb instead of four.

“This is Neelai Pod Qarall. Though he does not officially work for King Gissrn in any capacity, Alred was able to connect them through Neelai visiting the king’s palace from time to time. He was a known and registered legal bounty hunter at one point, but his license has long since been revoked. Neelai has been charged with multiple crimes, including assault, kidnapping, and murder. But whenever it comes time for him to go to trial, the charges are dismissed, placed on someone else, or the punishment for them amounts to little more than a fine.”

A hired thug for a king. Garnet frowned at his expressionless face, hating how uncomfortable it made her to stare at him. Maybe it was just because this was only a holo recreation of the guy, but it seemed like there really was nothing there. Like he didn’t have a single emotion behind those eyes. He wasn’t ruthless or malicious. He simply didn’t care about the things he did.

And that’s exactly how he looked at her when he had her in hand. When he’d been pulling her hair, trying to shove that cannister in her face. He wasn’t angry or determined or even guilty – though that would have been a stretch even if he wasn’t a king’s hired thug. Instead, he was detached and unaffected. And that was somehow worse.

“Since he does work for Gissrn, even if there is no official record of it, he is well equipped and well paid. He is also thorough. He always plans an escape, and he always gets the job done. Gissrn has sent him after our crew, and he won’t stop until he gets us.”

A rush of warmth, so hot and heady it nearly brought tears to her eyes, crashed through Garnet with such sudden strength, she choked on her next breath.

Tanin didn’t say he was coming after their females. He didn’t single out Garnet and Goldie by name – though everyone knew it was them he was really after. He said ‘us’, because they were part of the crew, therefore, Neelai was coming after all of them.

And not one of the guys in the room contradicted him. None of them argued that it was really Garnet and Goldie he was after. None of them even looked back their way, like they needed to visually distinguish the difference between them.

Because there wasn’t one. Garnet and Goldie were part of the crew. And because the crew was a single unit, anyone after one of them was after all of them.

It was more than she ever would have asked for, and it made her want to help more. To somehow do something else for them – though nothing came to mind. Maybe she could fix the synthesizer so it didn’t make crappy food anymore. Or maybe she could clean everyone’s room. Anything to show her appreciation to these guys that accepted them just like that.

Garnet shared a look with her sister, and something similar flashed in Goldie’s eyes. She wasn’t oblivious to what they said either. Or what it meant.

“This is King Gissrn Rudimint of Pod Qarall,” Tanin continued, the holo changing as he moved on like he hadn’t just casually dropped something that had touched them to the core.

This time, it depicted a tall, handsome, peacock of a male. He was the same species of Neelai, but they were obviously two very different creatures. The holo showed Gissrn smirking in a particularly obnoxious way as he managed to look down his nose at the camera. He was wearing a suit of gold, the jacket of which literally shined, positively dripping in platinum jewelry. He was even wearing a cape over one shoulder that appeared to be a rainbow fur of some kind.

He went right past tacky and straight into kitsch. It was a lot. Entirely too much. Combined together with a completely punchable face that made her lip curl with disgust.

“Officially, King Gissrn has never been charged with a crime of any sort. Not since we reported him, and nothing beforehand,” Tanin said. “Unofficially, he has a reputation that, while not directly connected to his name, does get a little too close to him.”

“ He has a harem, ” Alred said. “ It’s filled with females of many species and races. All beauties. It’s well known, and, while not illegal, it’s certainly not a popular choice among his people. As far as I’ve been able to tell, none of them were captured and collared the way our females were. However, I will say that there is a rather large turnover for the members of the harem, and finding information on previously known females within it is… difficult. ”

“They tend to come from poor areas,” Tanin said. “He offers money to their families. Something like a bride price, but it’s very clearly a purchase. Whenever a female leaves him, there’s usually a small announcement made, and there’s a story about him setting her up for retirement somewhere nice. However, Alred has yet to track any of them down.”

“ Staying in the harem comes with many restrictions. No male friends or relatives, they have to maintain a certain standard of beauty at all times, and they are not allowed anything without permission. Also, most stringent, is that they are not able to leave Gissrn’s palace. Ever. They may not be kidnapped and chained, but it does not appear that any of them have any sort of freedom while they’re there. ”

“Nothing can be proven. But it’s a safe bet to assume that he picks poor females because he knows he can maintain control over them. Furthermore, despite the size of his harem and how many shinuk females are in it, Gissrn actually has no younglings of his own. Females don’t tend to last that long in his care.”

“ I’ve a few ideas about why. None of them particularly good. ” Alred added. “ I feel it is most likely related to his clear and unhealthy obsession with the concept of beauty. Something with happen to his females making them lesser in his eyes, and suddenly they are no longer worth his care or affection. They are then disposed of. ”

Garnet was frowning. Looking at the holo of the guy, she could understand what they were saying though. The gold bedecked male clearly had a flare for the ostentatious. She imagined he would only accept the most beautiful of females at his side.

But if one were to age or maybe gain or lose weight or even just cut her hair in a way he didn’t like…

She didn’t know him, she didn’t know how unreasonable that thought might be. Or how accurate.

“There are rumors,” Tanin said. “From people like us. The authorities won’t hear them, but the underground always talks. It’s known that he purchases concubines, and those who sell their daughters or sisters or themselves know they won’t ever return. No one ever hears from them once they’re gone. It might not be an immediate death sentence, but people know better than to take him up on the offer if they care for their family at all.”

The underground people like them. Garnet knew he meant criminals, the lost, the forsaken. Those that no one cared about, so they had to take care of each other. If they were warning each other away from the king, it was because it was the only way they could escape his reach. The authorities couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do anything about the king, so they had to spread the word of warning amongst themselves. In that way, it was almost more trustworthy than if the authorities declared him a criminal outright.

What would have happened, Garnet wondered, if Tanin hadn’t found them? If he did, but delivered them anyway? What would have become of Garnet and Goldie? Once they began to wrinkle with age, or if they got fat and heavy with a baby, or they tripped and fell and ended up with a scar? How ‘imperfect’ was too much for him?

Or, worse, how would he make them suffer for actually being beautiful? The things he could do to them…

Her stomach turned as she was assaulted with the possibilities.

“This is our enemy,” Tanin was saying, looking at the others with that same calm, steady energy that always comforted her so easily. And it was still working now as his tail whipped up, striking the back of the hologram king. “He is wealthy. He has a lot of influence. For some reason, the peacekeepers haven’t come after him despite the evidence we have provided. And now, he’s put a price on our heads. Not through official channels, and not with his name attached. No licensed bounty hunter will touch this hit. But it’s high enough that some will try. We have to be ready.

“Here’s our plan moving forward. First, we’re going to re-scan the females. I know we’ve done it twice already. But we have to make certain you don’t have anything on or in you that might be tracking us. Second, we will do the same to everything you came here with. The chest you were in has already been surrendered to the peacekeepers, but your clothes, your shoes, even the gemstones we have left. Bring them to Alred and Sway so they can analyze them. We need to make sure that there is absolutely nothing that can track them here.

“Which brings me to the third thing: We’re going to have to look through the entire ship. Top to bottom. Inside and out. We have to look everywhere for possible tracking equipment that might be on us somewhere. Vytln, Rok, Sorbet, Tebros; you four are in charge of that. Look everywhere, in everything, in every room. Got it?”

“Aye, captain,” they all intoned at the same time.

“Once everything is clear, if we still don’t find anything, we’re going to have to go to a new station. If he follows us again, we set up a trap and catch him. Don’t kill him without my permission but do whatever it takes to restrain him. Got it?”

“Aye, captain,” everyone called.

“Good. Let’s get to work. Garnet, Goldie, with me. Everyone else, start searching the ship. Coordinate with Alred to get it done.”

Garnet and Goldie stood, approaching the captain slowly as the rest of the guys filed out, each of them with a serious look on their face. Like they were going off to battle.

“Captain,” Goldie started cautiously, “We’ve already been scanned twice. At this point… what are the odds that the mediring will find anything?”

“Low,” Tanin admitted. “But I want to check again. And I want you two to do a physical scan as well. I want you to feel every part of your own bodies to see if you can detect anything under the skin. If you’re being tracked, that’s most likely where it would be.”

Garnet shivered, hating that idea, as she wrapped her arms around herself. “I thought that scanner thing could see down to, like, the cellular level.”

“DNA, actually,” Tanin corrected. “If you’re trained to use it anyway.”

“If it can do that, how can it not see if we have a tracker inside us?”

“Because none of us are trained on it. And there are some devices that are built specifically to avoid detection in a mediring. You have to know exactly what you’re looking for or have a specially programmed scanner in order to detect them. It’s not cheap tech, but it is the sort of thing that Gissrn would be able to afford. And the sort of thing he would definitely splurge on in order to ensure the return of his treasures in case they were lost.”

Garnet grimaced, hating that too. Just because of a terrible stroke of fate, he had succeeded in getting his hands on them and now they were going through all this. Being kidnapped was bad enough, but having foreign bodies shoved under her skin without her permission was worse. After all he must have spent just trying to secret them back to Holivair, he would want some assurance that they would definitely get there.

And that they would never truly be able to escape.

If the collars he put around their throats somehow failed, if they somehow managed to get away, it still wouldn’t matter so long as he had a tracking chip that couldn’t be detected forced into their bodies.

A warm hand pressed against her cheek. Tanin. He lifted her face to look at him.

“Don’t be afraid of him,” he said. A simple order. A quiet command.

And there was so much power in it. He didn’t beg her not to be afraid. He didn’t tell her that there was nothing to be afraid of. He didn’t lie and say that the king was never going to get his hands on her or something like that.

Don’t be afraid.

Just that simple. Because regardless of what else might happen, Tanin was going to take care of it. He was going to deal with this problem. Gissrn would come after them, he would send whoever he could hire, but it didn’t matter, because Tanin would deal with it.

Because that’s what he did. Tanin solved problems. He did what he needed to in order to make sure that he and those he claimed were safe.

And that included her.

All at once, the worries and uncertainties that had been plaguing her seemed to vanish. Garnet relaxed as she nodded, leaning into his touch. Trusting him.

He would fix the problem of this Neelai person. Tanin would figure out how he was finding them and deal with it. And if he couldn’t, he’d find Neelai and end his pursuit directly.

Just like he was waiting out Garnet’s uncertainty, and then he’d deal with her.

Because to him, her nervousness over the intimacy she hadn’t expected, over his physical features she hadn’t expected, were just small problems. Simple things. And he was telling her not to be afraid of them because he’d deal with it.

He wouldn’t hurt her. Dick barbs or relationship issues aside, he would never hurt her. And if the intimacy between them didn’t work out, he wasn’t going to take it out on her. Because he’d asked for it. He wanted it. He was risking just as much as her, if not more, because even if they hooked up, got really close, then things turned sour and they broke up, he would still feel responsible for her. Both as her sponsor and as her employer.

He was just that type of guy.

“I’m not scared,” Garnet said, surprised to realize that it was true.

She was sure that this Neelai guy would come after her or her sister again, and she was determined to do whatever it took to stop him.

But she also had Tanin, and what was to fear with him at her side?