Authors: Dani Worth
“Yaira!” I snarled at her, pushed her away. “He’s too young and too…gentle.”
She snorted. “And you’re
too
dumb. I remember a time when you were chasing after an older man. Remember that human scientist? What was his name? Jacks?”
I remembered. Suns, I remembered! Humiliation sticks with a woman a long, long time.
Horror, guilt and then hatred even longer.
“Vala, the kid looks at you like he wouldn’t mind getting a little rough.” She shivered then crossed her arms over the girly yellow top she wore. Thing looked like a miniature baby doll dress. She’d paired it with black tights and thigh-high boots with crazy-tall heels. Had to admit, she rocked the strange outfit unlike I ever could.
I looked down at my jeans and plain black vest. I’d fallen in love with Earth denim and paid a small fortune to have the pants shipped in. And though I wouldn’t admit it to my sister, I didn’t like to dress flashy and detract from the beautiful colors on my arms. Plus, clothes really didn’t interest me all that much. I usually just got them filthy while I worked on loading equipment anyway. And I’d kill myself in those boots.
Thinking about that last message from Jarana, I opened and closed my hands a few times. Why hadn’t she transmitted the information?
All these years
.
What if the Tracker had really found Jacks?
What kind of horrific information had she found if she wouldn’t share it over the coms?
Jackson Canfield had left me in the dark. Figuratively and literally. I’d never found out what had happened and the gnawing emptiness ate away at me like a Sector Two disease. Didn’t matter what I did, that fear and guilt came out of nowhere to knock me on my ass and keep me in a state of murky gloom that ruined every relationship I’d risked. Not that there’d been that many. I liked being the keeper of my heart.
The squeak of bad hydraulics hurt my ears as the wide, panel doors opened behind me. I’d need to fix that. Turning, I watched Captain Lux Moyans stride into the loading dock carrying Jarana’s baby girl, Jemelle. One of Jemelle’s fathers, Maska, walked behind Lux carrying on an animated conversation with Kol Frega. Lux’s tall, dark husband drew my eyes every time he came into a room. The human carried a raw, animal magnetism with all those lovely, big muscles, and every feminine instinct in me stood at attention. He nodded at something Maska said. Both chuckled and watched Lux smile down at Jemelle. Everyone on planet was highly amused by the gritty captain’s complete love for the newest baby. She even cleaned up her language around Jemelle.
I marched across the metal loading dock and found myself smiling down at the gorgeous blonde bundle myself. She had her second father’s silky, pale hair and Jarana’s Gwinarian amber eyes. She stared back at me, cooing softly and I melted. “Suns, that child is going to have every person on planet wrapped around her finger.”
“No doubt there,” Lux murmured. She kissed Jemelle’s forehead and sighed as she handed her to Maska.
Maska was a Replicant alien, one who could change into other humanoid forms once he had that form’s DNA. I’d yet to see him change from his own shape, and like Lux’s human husband, he drew attention with his dark skin, long, black braid and prominent tattoo around his eye. He looked scruffy and tough, yet he had a gentle streak that was all too apparent when he held Jemelle—which was most of the time.
“I’d like to ride with you to pick up the Tracker, if that’s okay.” I swallowed a grin as Lux stared at the retreating back of the Replicant as he carried his daughter through the open doors. Looking at Kol, I did smirk a bit. “Think you and Egan are about to add to your family.”
“Working on that.” He tugged the slim captain to his side, tucking her against him, kissing her head. “A lot.”
Lux gave him one of those private smoldering looks that made me feel like an intruder, then finally turned her attention my way. “Why do you want to fly out with me? I’ll have Jarana back here in a few days.”
“She has information I’m impatient to have and she won’t share it over the coms.”
A gleam entered her eyes. “Must be some damned good information then.”
Lux would want to know, but this wasn’t something I could tell her about. I’d barely given Jarana details and had in fact, only shared part of the truth. Yes, I’d been in love with Jacks Canfield when I was too young to do anything about it, but that wasn’t why I wanted to find him. I needed answers. Badly.
Shrugging, Lux squeezed Kol and moved away from him toward the ship. “Come if you want. You can help load supplies when we get there.”
“You’re leaving now?”
“You got fifteen minutes to get what you need.”
She wasn’t kidding. Lux would fly out in a hot second if I didn’t make it back. Growling, I turned and ran toward my pod to grab at least one change of clothes. I felt Bastian’s gaze on me all the way out the door.
Yaira ran with me. “Fifteen minutes? I’ll help pack.”
“I can’t believe you’re running in those boots.” I couldn’t help but notice several men and a few women nodding and smiling at Yaira as we ran. She might wish Bastian would pay attention to her, but she’d have no trouble attracting just about every other person on Kithra—Gwinarian or otherwise. My sister had the kind of looks that made you think of movie princesses—like the ones I saw on Earth vids. Only, she dressed a lot hotter. Didn’t look like any other botanist I’d seen. Well, other than Lana, one of our mothers.
When we reached the tunnel leading to our temporary home pod, I sped up, not taking the time to admire the beautiful blue foliage outside the clear dome walls as usual. I slammed my hand on the door panel. It read my palm, unlocked the sliding door. “You grab the clothes. I’ll grab the knives.”
“Vala, you’re going to a supply station. Why would you need knives?”
I didn’t answer. While Yaira had been studying botany with our mothers, I’d traveled and learned the hard way it was better to be outfitted with weapons no matter where you went. Plus, I loved my knives and hated leaving them anywhere.
Diving to the floor of my sleep pod, I placed my hand over the lock on the floor safe. We didn’t have crime on Kithra—not with so few people living here—but I always played it safe with a few things. The floor panel slid open, and I pulled out the wooden box that held the custom knives I’d designed myself. Sharp, kithronite blades flowed gracefully from polished, curved tiger’s eye handles. It had cost me a fortune to buy the kithronite because the price of the metal that had been mined and stored off planet had skyrocketed. I was getting ready to throw the box in the bag with my clothes when I decided to slide the knives into my boots instead. Before shutting the safe, I took a few precious seconds to stare at the silver filigree ring resting in the bottom. I’d carted it around for years after stealing it from Jacks. Old guilt curled in my gut as I slipped it on my thumb.
“Better hurry. You have less than four minutes left.”
I grabbed the bag, kissed my sister’s cheek and took off. “See you in a few days,” I called over my shoulder.
Flying with Lux was always an experience, and since it was only the two of us on the ship, the crazy captain felt free to daredevil it through the debris fields. After one particularly close call with a massive hunk of rock, I groaned and covered my eyes. “I know I said I liked the stunts, but come on!”
All she did was laugh and swerve—around what I didn’t know because I kept my eyes covered.
“Do your men know you take these kinds of risks?”
“They do and they love me as I am, thank the fucking universes. But I’ll slow. Sheesh. We’re almost there anyway.” She slowed the ship down and glanced at me. “By the way, the ship’s sensor is showing me we have another passenger. How much you wanna bet it’s that sexy kid who’s been following you around?”
I leaned over to look at the sensor and sure enough, we had company. “It could be anyone.”
“Suppose so, but I spotted him by the ship before we left. That is one stunner of a young man, nearly as pretty as my Egan. If I were you, I’d be all over that.”
“He’s too young.”
She lifted one dark eyebrow. “How very un-Gwinarian of you.”
Shaking my head, I smiled. “Yeah, I know. But I’m not into having a relationship right now, and he seems the type.”
“Vala, he’s what…eighteen? Nineteen?” She chuckled. “He’ll take sex any and every way he can get it right now. There is absolutely no difference between humans and Gwinarians when it comes to teenaged male hormones.”
“He’s twenty.” I watched the heat blob moving around on the sensor screen, before muttering. “And trust me, I’m thinking about it.”
Once we arrived at the space station, I didn’t waste time seeking out our stowaway. Instead, I left the ship and went after the Tracker. I found her cursing in one of the wide supply station hallways as her boot heel fell through one of the hexagon shapes in the metal floor. She leaned against the wall, her pretty, shoulder-length dark red hair sliding to cover her face, and took her boots off. She glanced up at me, a wry smile twisting her lips. “You couldn’t wait for me to get to Kithra?”
Rumor was Jarana spent time tracking these days only because it paid well, and she was still buying freedom for certain Replicants she’d mistakenly sent to a nasty prison planet called Bastilleen. She’d made it clear she’d be retiring to work on Kithra’s rebuild once she got them all free.
Shivering as a cold breeze swept through the tunnel, I frowned at her. “Why wouldn’t you tell me what you found over the coms?”
“I don’t want to talk about what I found here either.” She muttered something under her breath and glared at the floor.
It was hard not to chuckle. She looked like such a bad ass standing there in her weird faux leather outfit with that hoity expression on her face. The boots in her hands weren’t the only things ruining the effect though. I crossed my arms, aimed an eyebrow at her pink toenails.
She sighed. “It’s hard to come off tough when you’re standing barefoot on extremely uncomfortable metal.” She glanced down. “And when your men think it’s funny to paint your toenails girly colors while you’re sleeping.” She nodded her head toward her bunk room. “Let’s talk in there so I’m sure we’re alone.”
I followed her into the room and grimaced at the tiny, depressing space. “This supply station is the sorriest hunk of metal I’ve ever seen.”
“The Company cares only about mining kithronite.” Jarana dropped her boots on the floor and crossed her arms. “So exactly who is Jackson Canfield?”
“I told you. He came to Kithra when I was sixteen. He was a professor studying the caves.”
Shaking her head, Jarana leaned against the gray wall. “He was no professor. The instant I started searching the webs, alarms sounded. I had more than twenty tracking systems on my ass within seconds and a request from some pretty high-up government officials within two minutes.”
Frowning, I slumped onto the bunk.
Jarana leaned over, her face not far from mine. “You better come clean with me because I can guarantee we’ll have someone on Kithra before long trying to figure out why I was looking for the man.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, stared at her. “I don’t know exactly who he is. I fell in love with him when I was sixteen and he’d have nothing to do with me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You had me tracking someone because of a girl’s crush?”
“Partly.”
“Bullshit.”
“Look, I don’t know for sure, but I watched the man for years—every time he came to Kithra to visit—and the last time I saw him, his behavior was…off.”
“Off how?”
Sighing, I pushed her away from me and sat forward. “You know how my family went on vacation days before the explosions?”
“Yeah, I heard the story.”
“Two days before we left, I saw him running from the caves and the look on his face—” I broke off, unable to articulate the absolute hell of guilt I’d carried all these years.
“What kind of expression?” she asked, voice low.
I looked up. “You’re already figuring it out. Fear and guilt. I would have searched him out that day to find out what was going on but I couldn’t find him. I tried to contact him on the coms but he didn’t answer.”
“How do you know he wasn’t killed in the explosions?”
“Because I did manage to find out he left Kithra the day after we did.” I’d also found out he’d been the donor behind our family’s vacation money gift. I didn’t tell her that part, just touched her arm. “Jacks always contained his emotions, even when he grew annoyed with that girlish crush of mine. I only saw him lose it once before that day and well, that was due to passion.”
“I thought you said he didn’t have anything to do with you.”
“We kissed once. But the passion I’m talking about wasn’t for me. I could tell what he felt for the man I saw him kissing was strong.” I held my breath. “But that last day, he was upset, running, and something told me it was bad. Days later, the explosions happened in those caves.”
Jarana stood straight, every muscle in her body taut. “You think he knows what happened, don’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“And you never told anyone about this?”
“Not a soul. I don’t know for sure and still can’t really believe it. I did spend some time around the man and he was kind. He let me down gently. A lot.” Sighing, I squeezed my eyes shut. “It’s hard to explain, but a part of me is terrified he had something to do with what happened and the rest of me is still that young woman who loved this man. I hired you to find him because I have to know.”