Silver Bound (17 page)

The klaxon blared in the bay. Jared wiggled from her arms and squealed with a bright smile.

“A ship is landing. Let’s watch.” He bounced to the small enclosed area behind blast windows to watch the ship coming in. His obsessive little-boy nature already in love with all things flight-worthy, he knew the drill, and most days with a scheduled landing he came to watch.

Despite the smoothed, no-longer-scarred skin, her hand flew to her neck before she stopped herself. She unlocked her feet and joined Jared.

Landing prep signals flashed on the jumbo sign at the maintenance station. Room Cleared. Air Released. Doors Opening.

The bay yawned open. A small hopper nosed into the bay. Tingles raced over her and fluttered in her middle. She recognized that hopper.

The little ship floated to a soft landing. Her father wasn’t known for such a smooth docking with his usual ham-fisted control over all things electronic.

As if the thought would jinx her plans, she forced her mind elsewhere. “Jared, see the striping on the tail fin? That’s the insignia for Grassland. That’s your grandfather. Isn’t this exciting?”

Such an understatement.

“Yes, Momma.”

Jared couldn’t be expected to understand how special it was to meet a grandparent. He’d never done so before, and he’d never meet Lady Quinn, a guilt that still ate at her heart during her worst nightmares. That guilt had influenced her decisions and brought her to this life. She couldn’t regret her marriage even now because it had given her Jared, but she’d never forgive Kalon for his complete betrayal by planning her sexual servitude. Maybe she’d needed those memories and the guilt of her mother’s death to be erased. Perhaps she deserved what’d she’d gone through for failing her mother and failing Guy’s love.

Her foot tapped on the floor to the accompaniment of her son’s excited chatter about the scoring on the belly of the craft.

“Do you think they ran into an asteroid belt?” he asked.

The outside signal displayed Air Pressurization.

“Probably not.” Before she could elaborate and point out there were no asteroid belts between the two planets, Jared rushed through his rapid-fire questions, without breath or waiting on an answer.

“I like that color blue.”

Contaminant Pressure Spray.

“I can’t see the pilot through the front shield.”

Oxygen Levels Normal.

“Do you think he brought me a present?”

Landing Complete.

“The door’s opening. Who’s the man with silver hair?”

And there was her father. Her eyes stung, and her lips trembled into a smile. Fireflies danced in her belly, and she was shocked at how much her hands shook. Jared quieted and slipped his hand in hers, his head tucked against her side.

The doors out to the ship corridors flung wide. Kalon swept into the bay, framed by his favorite bodyguards. “Check the ship,” he ordered before he even looked at Quinn.

“Kalon. Good to see you again.” Quinn bowed his head and bent slightly at the waist. For Quinn, this was a huge concession of humility.

Kalon nodded and cast a stony expression at his former father-in-law. “Likewise. I’d like it to remain good to see you. No encouraging Jewel’s little mental problems.”

She stiffened, and Jared peered at her with a questioning look. “Momma?”

“It’s all right, baby.”

“I’m not a baby.”

“You’re right. You’re a boy.”

“Is that my grandpapa? Why doesn’t Daddy like him?”

She didn’t want to lie and, no matter what she’d planned, she didn’t want to come between father and son, no matter how much she thought it would be best if they never saw each other again. It was best if Jared never knew that his father was capable of murder.

She didn’t answer the question, but Jared had moved on to the next one, anyway.

“What are Ben and Leo doing on that ship? Think they’ll let me go on board, too?”

“I’m sure they will. Come. Your father is waving us out.”

She gave a tug and her son followed, dragging his heels though his small body vibrated like a live wire. If the ship were the only thing in the bay, he’d be running aboard. With Quinn standing there, an expectant expression that bordered on pain, eyes red-rimmed, Jared hung back. No matter her coaxing, he hadn’t moved forward to present himself when the two bodyguards exited the ship.

“All clear,” said one of the bodyguards. Jared might know the difference between the two guards, who didn’t honestly look anything alike, but she’d never kept their names straight.

“Daughter,” Quinn choked. He blinked while his throat visibly worked. A few heart-stopping moments passed before he got himself under control and smiled with misted eyes. “This must be Jared.”

Suffocating with a strange pressure in her chest, she flung herself into his strong arms, crushing a protesting Jared between them. It was so good to see Quinn. She hoped this wouldn’t be the last time. Arms in a chokehold about his neck, she sobbed in his ear, tears coursing down her cheeks.

“Papa.” She hadn’t called him that since she was around sixteen. “I missed you.”

“Where is he?” Kalon loomed over them, casting a shadow on the reunion with her father.

Quinn let her go, and she wanted to crawl into his lap like she did as a child when a nightmare had woken her. His face pale, mouth downturned and lined with fatigue, he looked Kalon in the eye. “There’s no one else aboard.”

Jewel held her breath and stared at her slippers.

“I’d expected the good sheriff.” Kalon frowned at his two guards. “Open the hatches on the hopper and disengage the docking. Once it’s far enough away, blow it.”

Guy.
The scream filled her head, but she bit her lip to keep it in as her vision grayed.

Her lungs and eyes burned with the effort to show a calm façade for her son’s sake. Before her legs gave way, her father caught her into another hug.

The scent of his familiar pine aftershave kept her from blacking out. She clung to him as he whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry.”

Montgomery tried to talk himself out of it, but the idea of another man going through what he’d experienced brought him here. To this moment in time when he’d broken the law. Again.

With codes bought from a bay mechanic, he’d started the quiet ambulance ship and pulled it out of docking. Once clear of the medship, he entered the coordinates sent to him by Jewel. He’d spent the travel time pretending to study his latest findings in the silver-tip programming routines.

The hacked scanner sat on the seat next to him, ready to be keyed to Jewel’s Broker. By transmit, she’d convinced him to aid her escape from her crime-lord ex-husband. Against his better judgment, and with Lady Wells’s urging, he was now on his way to help track down the Broker and get Jewel and son off the station. He wasn’t sure whether he was altruistic or just trying to impress the wife he’d done so poorly by for so many years.

Cover story memorized, he shouldn’t worry, but the moment
Geanus Station
responded to his hails, the ambulance’s proximity alarms prompted visuals that made him nearly turn and return home to his wife.

Dark, with scorch marks along its side, a small skipper marked with the official seals of the Taphgan Mounties limped off to port. Its view windows flickered before going out completely. The pilot on that craft might need his help.

He flicked his comm to local scan and signaled. “I’m a doctor. Does anyone aboard the Taphgan skimmer need medical assistance?”

The comm crackled with static before a weak voice replied. “Mounty Brice Levski, here. I need…”

The connection popped out as a second small vessel jettisoned from the docking bay farthest from him. This place wasn’t welcoming in the least.

His fingers slid across the controls to scan the new ship, but before he could take the vitals, the vessel blew apart in a spray of silent fireworks.

A hard thump resounded in his chest and his mouth dried.

“Hope nobody was on that.” He flicked the comm back over to the mounty’s ship. “I’m coming to help you right now. Hold tight.”

“This is
Geanus Station
control. You’re cleared to land” blared through the cabin. His controls and audio went dead.

His ship lurched forward. He was being towed in, and the man in the skimmer needed medical attention.

Dr. Wells gripped the control handle and tugged, but the ship kept moving forward. Helpless, he watched the dark skimmer list farther to the side before it dropped from view.

His mouth turned to dust. Visions of his Aissa flashed before him. His wife, smiling for the first time in years, caught in sensual bliss beneath him. His thoughts spun until he threw off his safety harness and unlocked his med bag. He had to have something to get him out of this mess.

***

The bay chilled through her thin wrap and slippers. Fighting the trembles, Jewel stood immobile, wishing she had Guy’s jacket, but she’d left it in her bed, where she wrapped herself in it every night. Jared had been taken to his room to play with a nanny. Her father was locked into temporary quarters.

She was alone. Her hands wanted to wrap around herself, around her waist to hold herself in, but she didn’t move.

Dr. Wells marched down the ramp of the ambulance ship that had been towed in only moments before. On his usually placid face, he scowled at everyone equally until he saw Jewel. He smoothed his features and nodded at her.

“Bring his equipment down here,” Kalon commanded.

In response, Kalon’s guards conferred with the doctor, and they all went back into the ship.

After moments of unloading comp stations and gurneys, arranging medical bags and making ignored entreaties to check on the incapacitated ship outside, Dr. Wells pronounced himself ready.

All the while, she remained cold and empty. The hustle and conversation dulled to a buzz in her head. She’d never be warm again.

Kalon took her arm in a harsh grip. “I said, let’s get started.”

“On what?” Her voice sounded far away.

“What you didn’t know when I let you make this little escape plan of yours is that I wanted the doctor here, and I’ve already procured a sample of your lover’s DNA. It was easy. He was in his cups at the bar and one of my men delivered a punch to the nose. Plenty of blood for the med swab. That’s all the good doctor needs to take off the collar.”

Guy in his cups? That didn’t sound like him. She wished she’d seen him one last time. How had he been?

“The chances aren’t as good.” Dr. Wells splayed his hands in front of him. “It’d be better to have him here. Without him, she only has a fifty-fifty chance.”

“Good enough for me.” Kalon hauled her forward. “She’s no good to me as she is. Jared needs a sibling. We’re expanding the family.”

Bile rose in the back of Jewel’s throat. Fifty-fifty chance she could escape. Her plan of sneaking the doctor and Guy aboard to remove the collar had gone horribly wrong. Horribly.

“It’s all right, Doctor. Guy…” Her throat closed, and she had to clear it to speak. “Guy won’t be here, and the risk is no matter.” She stepped forward to the comp.

“I’ll need the Broker.” Dr. Wells motioned Jewel onto the gurney.

Once she was settled, Kalon reached for an impenetrable small-weave metallic bag. A tag on the ties had a small thumb scanner, which Kalon activated. Unlocked, the pouch came open and exposed its contents. The Broker.

Kalon put her collar’s home base on the comp, where Dr. Wells studied some sort of swiftly scrolling code.

The doctor didn’t even look, nor seem terribly concerned. “You kept it in a booby-trapped bag.”

“I take no chances with my property.”

“Indeed.”

For all the possibility she’d be free of the collar in moments, she wanted to grip it in her fingers, keep it on her neck and never let it go. This silver collar gave Guy a permanent claim to her, and she didn’t want to lose that connection even if she’d lost him.

It didn’t matter if this killed her. Guy was gone. She’d left him and married someone else, but in her dreams she’d always returned to him. Now she’d never have him.

Her son would be protected. She’d made backup plans with her father in case everything went to sourgrass. Quinn promised to take Jared and disappear. Go somewhere Kalon would never find them. She clung to those meager thoughts of hope.

Wells fiddled with the medscanner in his hand and adjusted the Broker’s position on the table.

“Start the sequence, Dr. Wells. That’s what you’re here for.”

“Here we go, Jewel. It’ll all be over soon.” The doctor patted her arm, his hand hot against her cold skin.

The air around her gave a tug, as if a stream of air wrapped itself around her and pulled, an invisible current charged, dense and real.

“The readings worry me,” Dr. Wells said to Kalon.

Her heart beat rapidly, rushing in her ears. It was all going wrong. She’d be meeting Guy soon, after all, in the afterlife. Her body relaxed against the gurney and another chill washed over her.

“Do what you need to do to get rid of the collar. She’s no good to me enslaved to a dead man.”

“Attenuating the signal between devices.” The doctor’s attention narrowed fully on the U-panel before him.

She floated and let her arms fall slack off the side of the gurney.

“Signal lock,” Dr. Wells announced.

“Sever it. Let’s get this over with.” Kalon’s order echoed in the silent bay.

Her world narrowed as the doctor’s hands flew.

“Done.”

Nothing happened. Almost a let down.

No. Not quite true. She no longer felt the connection to Guy, and the hum of her collar ceased.

Dr. Wells reached her first, which relieved her immensely. She didn’t want Kalon to be the one, especially if it wasn’t going to be Guy.

He whispered, “I can get you a few minutes. That’s all I can do. Remember. Only minutes.”

A cold cylinder slid into her hand before he pressed her fingers around it. She clutched at it blindly. She didn’t understand but couldn’t manage the words to tell him so. The doctor’s cold fingers touched her neck as he worked the necklace around to search out the clasp.

It fell. One bounce on the floor with a ping, and it rolled away to land halfway beneath the comp. Like an inexorable pull, she couldn’t look away from the sparkling collar she’d worn for over two months. Around her, everyone spoke at once, bodies pushed past her and a cruel grip on her arm still didn’t get through to her dazed mind, which was completely awash with one thought.

She wanted it back.

Her sluggish limbs all seemed to reach for the silver band, and every part of her programmed with nanobots burned. Hot and alive. So alive. Sexual awareness punched through her and put her teeth on edge.

She wanted to fuck.

She pulled her legs together and clamped her thighs shut. Nipples, hard and sensitive, rubbed against her wrap. She managed to move, to wrap her arms high around her chest to cradle her hot and aching breasts. A clamoring in her head resolved into a voice, and she forced open the eyes she’d squeezed shut.

“She’ll need a few hours to adjust. The programming has lost its constant stream of instructions. The nanobots embedded in her are actively seeking commands. They’ll fall into the failsafes, but until then, she’ll be confused.”

“I’ll take her to her room.” The hard voice rasped over her nerves, made her flinch and her skin crawl. Her ex-husband, who she needed to escape.

But, go where?

Guy was gone. Sobs wracked her body and she curled on her side into a ball.

Her mind frantically looked for the connection over the collar, but it wasn’t there. Gone. That thread of constant energy, even while dormant, had taken residence in her consciousness for the past two months.

“Guy?” Her voice shattered in a weak thread.

“Let’s go. I’ll send for the magistrate and get the marriage digisignature renewed. First you need to rest for a while.” Kalon gripped harder, the source of the pinch on her arm, and lifted her into his arms, unresisting, her insides crumbling, and strode out of the bay.

A dizzying rush of movement, corridors bright and cold, and then darkness. Her room. Her bed. She slipped into the nightmares of despair. Guy’s jacket clutched to her stomach, she let the whirlwind take her and wept.

The doors closed and she sank, her mind caught in a dark storm.

***

While inside he pitched and yawed, Montgomery maintained his outer calm. Why he risked himself after he finally got Lady Wells back, he couldn’t fathom. Never had he taken such a chance before, but after having his wife for the past few weeks, he couldn’t completely turn his back on Jewel. Not sure what it said about his new frame of mind, but he didn’t think he’d be able to ignore the need to help silver-tips ever again.

A gargantuan hireling of the crime lord waved him back onto the ambulance ship. “The boss said he’d wire your payment. Your services are no longer needed. You’ll have a passenger to take with you.”

With employees such as this, it was a miracle Geanus still had a functioning station, much less a thriving black market, smuggling business and flesh trade empire. Another hired gun escorted the silver-haired Quinn, gagged and restrained, from the bay. Of all involved in this mess, Montgomery thought the elder might be in need of his services before this was done. He looked pale and sickly, like he’d keel over any moment with heart failure.

“A moment.” He held up a hand then hurriedly searched his med bag for the appropriate device. After programming the common synthesized med into the multi-shot, he administered the meds to the elder before waving all three men onward. “That should help. Your heart rate seemed elevated.”

Still gagged, Quinn nodded thanks.

Montgomery could do nothing more. He’d slipped a tranq gun into Jewel’s hand, all he had to help her at this point. He was done here.

He’d go back to the
Jeffreys,
back to his wife, and forget all about silver-tipping, even if the silver sheen of his wife’s lips was a constant reminder.

Locking the shaking Quinn into the passenger seat, Montgomery left Jewel behind and tried not to care that she was now alone.