Shades of Treason (28 page)

“Answer it on speaker,” Rykus said.

Stratham closed his eyes. It was a defeated gesture, a relaxation of his face that said he knew he was about to die.

He tapped on his comm-cuff.

“Ramie.” Ash shivered as her name came from the comm-cuff and slithered through the air. “It’s time for a reunion, my love.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

RAMIE
.

The second the man on the comm-cuff said Ash’s name, Rykus knew who it was. How he hadn’t connected the points, seen the full constellation before, he had no idea. Bayis had given him the clue when he’d said Ash was engaged.

Rykus’s cadet wasn’t wife material.

“Jevan Valt,” Rykus said.

“Commander Rykus,” Jevan said, sounding jovial. “I know so much about you.”

Rykus wished he could say the same. He should have dug into the man’s past, examined every acquaintance, scrutinized every action and word that had made it into public record. But he hadn’t. All he knew was that Valt was a legislative assistant for Charles Hahn, the senator from Rimmeria.

“You’ve made a mistake coming here,” Ash said. If a tone of voice could murder, she would be up for conviction.

“Oh, I doubt that.”

“Where are you?” she demanded.

Valt chuckled. “I… am with a friend.”

A chill strafed up Rykus’s spine, making the hair on the back of his neck rise.

“Her name is Dr. Monick,” Valt continued. “She’s a pretty thing. I’d hate to have to hurt her.”

Rykus didn’t move. He didn’t let out the litany of curses that ran through his mind. Valt did know about him, and much more than his name and reputation. He knew about the anomaly program, knew that Ash was brainwashed to obey and protect her fail-safe and, as a side effect, everyone close to him.

“I need a favor from my fiancée,” Valt said.

“What do you want?” Ash’s voice was strong, steady, and something sparked in Rykus’s chest. He was proud of her, proud she wasn’t letting this bastard break her.

“You’re blocking me,” Valt said. “Relax your mind.”

“Ignore him,” Rykus ordered.

Valt’s sigh came through the comm-cuff clearly. “Your fail-safe is giving you bad advice, Ramie. Just like Trevast gave you bad advice. I should have killed him the second I stepped onto the shuttle, but I gave him a chance to live. I gave
you
the chance. All this could have been avoided if you’d just handed over the files.
You
killed your teammates, Ramie. Their blood is on
your
hands.”

Rykus ripped the comm-cuff off Stratham’s wrist. He wanted to squeeze the device until the screen shattered and the electronics snapped. Instead, he ended the call, then met Stratham’s eyes.

“Who’s with him?” he demanded.

Stratham wiped the back of his hand across his bloodied mouth. “He has people. I don’t know how many.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know exactly.”

Rykus threw the cuff at Stratham’s broken nose. “Give me another answer.”

“I don’t know,” Stratham bit out. “The cargo area maybe.”

“Tell him to come here.” The cargo area comprised half the capsule, too large an area to search. “If he comes here, ship security will arrest him but he’ll live. If I go to him, he dies.”

“He says ship security won’t do anything,” Stratham said. “They’ve been told you shouldn’t be here.”

“I have authorization to be here.” Even as he said the words, he remembered the reactions of the two guards. They’d claimed the authorization was a forgery. They’d tried to arrest him.

“Tell him to…” Rykus stopped. Stratham wasn’t looking at him. He was frowning at Ash.

“Don’t listen to him.” Stratham rose to his knees. “You need me. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. They’ll destroy you, all of you.”

He scurried backward as if he were being pursued by a starving beast.

Ah, hell.

“I can help! I can talk to the right people.”

“Ash.” Rykus moved to intercept her, but she slipped past him.

“No,” Stratham screamed. “No. Don’t. The factions—”

Stratham crumpled to the deck, his neck broken.

The sound of it snapping echoed in Rykus’s ears. He stood there stunned, staring down at the man Ash had killed, the man who had information on Valt and the other telepaths who’d possibly infiltrated the Coalition.

“What the hell did you do?” Rykus said. Stratham had been theirs, damn it. The idiot had screwed up his mission to kill Ash, and he’d broken. He would have told them everything he knew.

Ash drew in quick, shallow breaths. When she met his gaze, she did so with no expression. It was as if she’d wrapped her body in heat shielding to block herself from the inferno of his wrath. He wanted to unleash it. He wanted to break things and end this hell they were caught up in.

He paced past her. He needed somewhere to direct the rage burning in his chest, but he couldn’t vent like he usually did. He couldn’t run or fight or take his frustrations out in a shooting sim.

He grabbed the medical tower and shoved.

It crashed against the back wall in a cacophony that only made him feel marginally better.

Ash didn’t move. Rykus wasn’t even sure she breathed.

He rotated his reconstructed shoulder. Hell. This wasn’t her fault. She wouldn’t have killed Stratham unless she had to, and the only reason she would have had to was if Valt had threatened Katie. And the only way for Valt to have threatened her was if he was in Ash’s head.

He walked back to Ash and put his hands on her shoulders. He made her look at him. He didn’t want to use compulsion, but he wanted that bastard out of her mind. “
Push him out of your head. Don’t let him back in
.”

He was certain his tone and cadence were perfect, but she didn’t acknowledge his command. It wasn’t until she shook that he realized she
couldn’t
acknowledge it.

Hagan had said she couldn’t give indication—any indication, verbal or otherwise—that telepaths existed. So she was standing there in front of him, doing her goddamn best not to react to his words.

She stared over his left shoulder, swallowed once, twice, then said, “You should leave before we capsule out.”

“That’s not happening.” His words came out so quickly they cut off the end of hers.

She shifted her gaze to his eyes and lifted her chin a notch. “You need to leave. Sir.”

He tightened his hands on her arms. It was the only thing he could do to keep himself from throttling her. “You need my help.”

She shook her head, then stepped out of his reach.

“What are you going to do?” he asked. “Go after him on your own? You’d be walking unprepared into an ambush, Ash. I trained you better than that.”

She glared over her shoulder. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Don’t be a fool.”

“One of us needs to live. Sir. And this is not your mission.”

Her
sirs
were barbs, always had been, but the thing that really cut him was the fact that she didn’t think he would see this through until the end. She thought he’d leave her behind. Abandon her. She really was a fool.

Standing at his full height, he took a step forward, then peered down into her beautifully defiant green eyes. “Get this into your head: you are my mission, Ash.”

He didn’t let her react to his proclamation. He palmed her face in his hands and kissed her.

She was as exquisite as he remembered, all strong and slender and unbelievably sensuous. The tension he’d sensed in her melted when he parted her lips with his tongue.

She let out a little moan, and he was gone. He couldn’t have stopped kissing her then if the capsule had imploded around them. Despite the voice yelling in the back of his mind, despite what he’d sworn he’d never do again and what he knew was right and wrong, he pressed into her. Seeker’s God, he wanted her. He’d do whatever it took to make sure she survived.

They finished the kiss in the same moment, with one last lingering, thrilling taste of each other’s lips.

It physically hurt to break away, but they’d both endured pain before. An inch of space appeared between them. Ash’s eyes opened.

And a throat cleared behind him.

He spun, shielding Ash with his body.

Jon Kalver stood in the doorway. His gaze lazily swung from Rykus to Ash to Stratham’s corpse.

“This a bad time for a jailbreak?” he drawled.

Behind Rykus, Ash let out a laugh. “I’m going to owe you till the day I die.”

The anomaly grinned. “You know how I like collecting favors, sweetheart.”

Ash moved forward, clasped his hand and pulled him close. In a soft voice Rykus just barely managed to hear, she said, “Whatever you need.”

Their intimacy chilled the heat Ash’s kiss had left in him. Kalver and Ash had been close on Caruth—their entire class had been close—but Kalver had just risked his career to save Ash from being sent into hell. And he’d made it to the capsule before Rykus had.

Straightening to his full height, Kalver turned toward him. “Sir.”

The vehemence in that
sir
took Rykus off guard. Several seconds passed before he understood the tone. The anomaly looked like someone who’d just caught a man sleeping with his sister.

John Kalver had seen their kiss. He hadn’t liked it, and not because he was jealous. He hadn’t liked it because he didn’t approve.

Condemnation from one of his anomalies. That proved how completely wrong Rykus’s actions were.

“How did you get in here?” he asked. Despite his moral weakness when it came to Ash, he’d meant what he’d said to her. She was his mission now.

“Maintenance sheath behind the med bays,” Ash answered for Kalver.

Rykus opened his mouth to say something but closed it quickly. Ash and Kalver both had the schematics for the capsule memorized, same as every other Caruth-trained soldier. A normal person wouldn’t have been able to remember details from even one level of the gargantuan vessel. Ash and Kalver weren’t normal. Not even a little.

Ash moved to the open doorway, more energy in her steps. “Any weapons?”

“Just my sidearm,” Kalver said.

Ash glanced at where Rykus normally carried his gun.

“Confiscated when I came on board,” Rykus said. Kalver’s should have been too—civilian capsules were gun-free vessels—but it didn’t surprise him that Kalver had found a way to smuggle one in. The man loved his weapons.

Kalver’s gaze shifted between them. “We have an hour before we capsule out. Seems like we should be able to stroll out of here without blowing something up.”

“We’re not leaving,” Ash said.

“We’re not?” Kalver cut his question short and tilted his head. Ash turned hers slightly too, and a second later, Rykus heard it, the quiet buzzing of Stratham’s comm-cuff.

Valt. Rykus didn’t want to answer it, but he needed to know where Katie was and how he could secure her release.

He looked at Kalver. Ash’s situation was still classified. Rykus wasn’t supposed to talk about it to anyone, but hell. He’d already broken protocol. Might as well break a few more.

“Jevan Valt is a legislative assistant for the senator from Rimmeria. He’s the telepath who screwed with Ash’s head. He doesn’t know you’re here.” He hoped that was true. “Don’t make a sound.”

Kalver nodded.

Rykus walked to Stratham’s corpse, picked up the cuff lying on the floor, and handed it to Ash. His fingers brushed hers. She held his gaze only for a second before she docked the cuff in the medical tower he’d thrown to the ground.

She tapped it on.

“Ramie,” Valt said, more agitation in his voice than there had been before, “you’re blocking me again.”

The tension in Rykus’s chest eased some. That answered one question. His command had kicked Valt out of Ash’s head.

Her fingers moved over the tower’s keyboard. It would be quicker to hack through the cuff’s security at a comm or classified terminal, but the tower was the only interface they had available. Ash had the skill to trace the transmission though. She just needed time.

“I’ve ordered her to keep you out of her head,” he said, his voice low and even. “I assume you’re familiar with the loyalty training.”

“I am,” Valt said. “Rescind the order. Ramie and I need to have a private conversation.”

“No.”

“Rescind the order or I kill Dr. Monick.”

“No.” He didn’t take his eyes off the comm-cuff. Katie was one individual, one member of the Coalition’s Fighting Corps. Ash’s knowledge, the knowledge of what Valt was capable of doing and what he wanted from the files, was bigger than one person.

“I don’t bluff, Commander.”

“Neither do I.” Sweat trickled down his spine. His dress-downs clung to his skin. Valt needed Katie alive for leverage. He wouldn’t kill her. That one fact, that one belief, was the only way he kept himself from breaking the long silence that followed. But God help him if he was wrong. Katie might be a member of the Corps, but she was a good soul, a humanitarian. She shouldn’t be caught up in this.

“I’ll trade Dr. Monick for you and Ramie,” Valt said, breaking first.

“Me only,” Ash said. The tower’s screen went black, then reappeared with an unwinding stream of code. She’d made it past the cuff’s external security.

“You and your fail-safe, my love. You both know too much.”

“You’ll kill us on sight,” Ash said. “Then you’ll turn around and kill the doctor.”

“I’ll kill Rykus on sight. You, Ramie, get to live yet again. I need the cipher.”

Rykus moved closer to the tower’s microphone. “Having trouble getting it from Hagan?” He paused, waiting for an answer. When none came, he knew he was right. He’d let Ash live because he thought another one of his resources could get him what he needed. “You fucked up, asshole.”

An Access Denied message flashed on the tower’s screen, highlighting Ash’s face in red light.

“I have things under control.” For the first time, Valt’s voice had an edge.

“You’re sure about that?” Another Access Denied message appeared on the screen. Ash needed more time.

“Ramie’s destroyed you,” Valt said. “You know that, don’t you?”

If the bastard called Ash
Ramie
one more time, Rykus would lose it.

“You had a promising career,” he continued. “You had respect and were regarded as a hero. You’ve lost all that. Capsule security is searching for you. I’ve spoken with the right individuals in the Coalition and in the media, and speculation will soon spread about your mental condition. You have no evidence to support any of your claims.”