The Breaking

by Imogen Keeper

  The solicitor paced back and forth, looking thoughtful. “Have you ever heard of Pilan?”

  “Of course I have. Everyone has heard of Pilan. It’s all over the holo-vids, and in the news. It’s a constant problem for the government. A hotbed of crime. But I’ve never been there. Never had a single interaction with anyone there.”

  Ajax frowned. What the hell was their plan? Push all the blame onto Rennie? Establish that Rennie and Utto were guilty, but the senator was innocent?

  “Had you heard of Feola before your son died?”

  “No.” The senator glared at her. “But I certainly have since the day she murdered him.”

  Ajax gritted his teeth.

  “Did you know,” the senator said, glancing around the room again, a picture of innocence. “Did you know he’s not the only man she’s killed?”

  All around the room, people inhaled sharply. Sucking in breaths.

  The senator nodded. “She murdered a man on Pilan, and then later, a bounty hunter on Araa-Ara, the planet they absconded to after they escaped Pilan. They’ve left a trail of death and destruction everywhere they went.”

  Ajax nearly rose off his chair. His legs flexed, straining against his efforts to stay seated. Whispered conversation fluttered across the court. Even the adjudicators shifted in their seats, glancing at one another.

  The High Adjudicator shambled to his feet, back stooped. “Silence.” He didn’t have to shout. The court silenced. “Why are you only sharing this information now?”

  “The transmissions from the bounty hunter only just arrived. They nearly killed him too. His name is Torum. He and his partner were able to track their ship to Pilan. They followed them there, learned of their murder of one Argenti expatriate, Quasilliaro, and then followed them to Araa-Ara, where she killed one of them, and they took Torum hostage.”

  Solicitor Jamione gave him a tight nod. He knew the story. They’d hidden nothing. Been honest with the officials, who had been unable to prove any of this and had left it out of their reports, since it was all beyond their jurisdiction. This was nothing more than a backdoor attempt to pollute the case.

  Solicitor Jamione cleared his throat. Waiting until the senator had his say. This was all part of the plan. Let the senator spin his lies and establish his web. None of it mattered. “This is all gossip, from a Vestige bounty hunter. The Guarda inspectors didn’t include this in their reports because all of it fell outside Argenti legal jurisdiction.”

  The senator’s solicitor cocked his skinny head. “It establishes her propensity for violence. She is a murderess.”

  Not true. The senator had just proved how unreliable he was. Plus, he’d just admitted in court that he’d hired Vestige bounty hunters.

  Jamione objected. “Actually, it was Healer Willo who killed Quasilliaro, as well as several of his Vestige guards while trying to escape him after Quasilliaro decided to sell Feola into slavery. And it was also Healer Willo who killed the Vestige bounty hunter on Araa-Ara. We should be asking the senator how he has the connections to hire bounty hunters from the Vestige in the first place.”

  The senator smiled. “Of course I know many intergalactic bounty hunters. Please. I’m no fool, and at the time I hired them, I believed I was rescuing my nephew’s mate from a kidnapper. Little did I know they were both murderers.”

  Feola shifted in her chair and looked over her shoulder. Ajax followed her gaze to see it lock on Nissa. She nodded, and Nissa returned the gesture, with a tight nod and a devious glimmer in her green eyes.

  Nissa rose calmly and walked out of the room.

  Ajax leaned over and whispered in Feola’s ear, “What the hell is going on?”

  She squeezed his hand. “You’ll see.”

  48

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

  Feola took a deep breath, her pulse beating a staccato in her throat. All around the room, Argenti shifted in their seats, trying to get a better view of her after the senator’s allegations. Heat rose up her neck, flooding her cheeks. She turned toward Ajax, denying them a clear view of her face.

  He wrapped an arm around her.

  The gaze of the High Adjudicator settled upon her, as did those of all the other adjudicators. Her skin prickled, and her body itched to rise, gather her skirts, and run. But the time for flight had long since passed.

  The senator’s iron-gray lizard eyes, so similar to Rennie’s, fixed on her. She couldn’t help but swallow thickly. His hair was duller, iron mixed in with the blue, but he had the same charismatic tilt to his head, the same ability to make his eyes twinkle and his mouth smile, commanding trust and feigning intimacy. His brow shifted, the barest hint of a twitch.

  A shiver rose up her spine. She gripped her fingers and pushed it away. No longer that sad, cowed woman. Not anymore. Never again.

  She shook her hair behind her back, refusing to let it act as a shield, letting him see her naked face, red as it was. Let him look at her. Let him see her.

  The doors at the back of the chamber opened again, and this time, Nissa walked in, Reyback on her heels. They walked down the center aisle.

  Nissa boldly shrugged away the reprimands of the solicitors, raised her voice. “High Adjudicator, I request, in my status as formal Ambassador from Triannon and representative of one of our daughters lost in your realm, the ability to call another witness. But it requires the media to turn off their cameras. Voice recording is fine, but the identity of this new witness must remain a secret.”

  Here we go.

  Ajax stared at her.

  She chewed her lips.

  Tam walked to the back of the room and stood beside the doors.

  The High Adjudicator didn’t speak for a long moment, just studied the people in the High Convene. After a time, he inclined his head. “I will permit this.”

  The rustle at the back announced that the reporters had hustled to stop their visual recordings.

  Nissa nodded, and Tam opened the door.

  Feola sucked in a breath. Held it.

  Shepherd walked into the High Convene.

  He didn’t wear the same slick, shiny suit he’d had on Pilan. Instead, he wore a dark-gray, official uniform, emblazoned with medals and insignia. Gone were the swagger and affectation. In their place were shrewd, hard eyes. He even walked differently. More controlled. He prowled.

  At her side, Ajax stiffened and cast her a wary glance.

  She nodded.

  Shepherd stalked down the aisle to stand before the High Adjudicator. Tucked under his arm was a digi. He bowed stiffly before the old man and handed over a slip of paper, an introduction perhaps.

  The High Adjudicator cleared his throat. “This man wishes to stay anonymous for the purposes of this High Convene, but he is Guarda. From the Department of Sex Trafficking.”

  The senator’s smile didn’t fade. Not even a flicker.

  Feola stared at him. Watching. Waiting. Looking forward to the minute it started to dawn on him. The façade would crack. It was just a matter of time. How many women had he helped destroy? Utto hadn’t moved much since her testimony. She refused to look his way, refused to feel anything for him besides contempt.

  “With your permission, High Adjudicator,” Shepherd said, indicating the digi in his hand.

  The old man accepted it, his black robes glinting with the motion. He pulled a small pair of half-moon glasses from his robes and perched them on his nose. After a long minute of reading, his head snapped up.

  He handed the digi back to Shepherd with a tight nod. Shepherd placed it on a table and pressed a few buttons. Holo feeds rose up, glimmering frosty blue. The senator and Rennie walked side by side down a dark, squalid hallway. They were smiling and chatting like old friends, their words too quiet to be heard.

  “I’m working undercover.” Shepherd’s voice was cold as ice, and his face gave nothing away. “I’ve been looking for hard evidence of the sex-trafficking crew and have only recently managed to infiltrate their inner circles.
We know the Upranimus family is involved in trading women as sex slaves. But we don’t know where they are finding them. What they are doing with them next. Where they go.” He indicated the screen. “This is Pilan. That’s Senator Upranimus and his son, Rennie.”

  Only moments before, the senator had testified that he’d never been to Pilan. The chamber exploded with whispered conversation from the shifting Argenti.

  Strike one. Proof the senator was a liar.

  Feola kept her gaze on the senator. His smile faded slightly. The lines around his eyes tightened. But the mask stayed firmly in place. He shook his head and made a dubious face.

  Shepherd surveyed the room. “We know, for example, that nineteen women were sold last year. Fifteen the year before. Twenty-one the year before that. They disappeared after they were auctioned. Where did they go? I’ve been searching for that answer for five years.” Shepherd’s voice echoed across the chamber.

  On the holo, the senator and Rennie shook hands with a man wearing a familiar metallic plate over his nose and cheeks. Quasilliaro. All three men laughed uproariously at something the senator said. Ajax flinched.

  The senator’s smile disappeared. He glared around the room. “This is ridiculous. These holos are false.”

  “This man,” Shepherd said over him, “the one they are meeting with, went by the name ‘Quasilliaro.’ He worked for Senator Upranimus. He’s the one who received the shipments of women. We aren’t sure where they came from, but we suspect a variety of planets. Some of the women were Vestige. Most were women of Argentus.”

  Another angry hiss rose around the chamber.

  The holo changed. A woman stood alone on a stage. Her hair cascaded down her back, long and rippling and black. Her skin gleamed, oiled and slicked a warm honey brown. The senator sat beside his son in the audience.

  “They’re auctioning her off to the highest bidder,” Shepherd said.

  No one moved in the audience. Feola flinched, turning back to the senator. What had happened to the woman on the holo? Where was she now?

  The senator’s brow furrowed. For the first time, he looked mildly troubled.

  Shepherd cleared his throat, gaze never leaving the holo. “The senator made frequent visits to Pilan. I have a record. He came once or twice a year for the last several years. Met with Quasilliaro. Rennie played a vital role in the trade there. There were three major figureheads on Pilan. We each had our roles to play. Quasilliaro, Rennie, and I. But we all took our orders indirectly from one man. Senator Upranimus.”

  This time, the noise that rose around the chambers swelled to a cacophony. People surged to their feet. Even reprimands by the High Adjudicator didn’t stop the frenzy.

  Strike two. Proof of the senator’s guilt.

  Feola stood, craning her neck to see what was going on. In his seat atop the dais, even the High Adjudicator looked surprised. People were shouting. It didn’t matter. There was no way the evidence of the senator’s corruption wouldn’t sway the High Convene. At the very least, they would have a fair trial now.

  Ajax let out a happy whoop from beside her. His turquoise eyes blazed warm and hot as he looked down at her. His hand closed around her neck, pulling her forward. When his lips touched hers, he was warm and sweet. She melted into him. Their teeth bumped against each other because they were both smiling. His other hand came up to her waist.

  They were both laughing.

  The final strike against the senator would come when the adjudicators cast their stones. White for innocent. Black for guilty. But now, she felt full to bursting with hope.

  And love.

  “We did it,” she whispered against his smiling lips. “This is what you wanted. Now it’s just us. No past. Just now. Nothing between us.”

  His lips met hers again, and she sighed against the warm, steady solidity of his chest.

  The blow came from behind her. So hard, and so fast, it knocked the air from her lungs.

  She landed on top of Ajax as they hit the floor, tossed forward from the force of the impact.

  His eyes flashed wide with surprise, his hands coming up to catch her, but it was too late.

  The air had left her lungs, and she couldn’t get it back.

  Someone shouted behind her. All she could do was fight to inhale air that wouldn’t come.

  Hard arms closed around her from behind, fingers threading through her hair, pulling it tight, lifting her up.

  She lurched under the pull of her burning scalp.

  She’d barely made it to her feet before she was wrenched backwards, toppled off balance, still frantically trying to suck in air.

  She closed her fingers around the hard hand in her hair, her gaze locked on Ajax as he surged to his feet, wild-eyed, staring just over the top of her head. Her chest heaved, but no air would come.

  Something sharp and cold dug into her throat.

  Ajax went still, crouching low like an animal coiling to spring, hand drifting up to his waist, reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there.

  No one was allowed to be armed in the chambers but for the Guarda.

  The crowd seethed around them, a hundred Argenti shouting about the senator’s lies. No one even noticed them.

  She couldn’t breathe. Her vision spotted. Her knees wobbled, and surely if it hadn’t been for whoever it was behind her pulling her hair, she’d have fallen.

  49

  Too late.

  I was just one second too late.

  Ajax didn’t move a muscle. His body tensed, coiling in preparation for… what?

  There was nothing he could do for her.

  Utto had knocked the wind out of Feola when he’d hit them. She couldn’t breathe. Her face turned deep red, her chest lurching with the effort to suck in air, her eyes wide and terrified, mouth working hard, but in a minute, her body would override the fear and panic and she’d likely pass out.

  She’d be fine. Assuming nothing changed in the meantime.

  The stylus at her throat didn’t move. The fucker must have taken it off one of the solicitors.

  Utto held her tightly in his grip, one hand fisted in her hair. A low rumbling sound filled Ajax’s ears. His own growl.

  Utto growled back, a deep resonating purr, his chest rising with it.

  Ajax shook his head and took a scant step forward, body tightening in, knees slightly bent as he studied Utto’s posture, looking for an opening.

  Utto’s gaze darted nervously around the growing crowd. “Everyone back up. Back up.”

  Ajax didn’t move. The crowd around them surged.

  Feola’s eyes rolled back. Finally, she stopped fighting for air. Her eyelids drifted closed. Her hand fell limp to her side. Her chest ceased its frenzied heaving, but the redness in her cheeks faded, her nostrils flaring slightly as she inhaled.

  “This is my woman. My mate. I’ll kill her. I will fucking kill her before I let anyone else have her,” Utto bellowed.

  Like hell. Ajax’s growl got louder.

  The stylus stayed right there, hovering just over Feola’s jugular. A nasty choice of weapon. Nothing clean about jamming a pen into someone’s neck. Ajax glanced around the room. There was a lot of stuff. Digis, papers, and files. But nothing useful.

  Utto backed up, pulling Feola’s limp body with him until he bumped against the dais. The High Adjudicator stared down with curious eyes.

  Ajax closed in, maintaining the distance between himself and his unconscious mate.

  “Stay back,” Utto shouted. Sweat poured down his forehead. A drop ran down the side of his nose to land in Feola’s luxurious hair.

  Ajax growled louder, throat vibrating with humming fury.

  In his peripheral vision, Tam and Spiro shifted, moving closer.

  The Guarda closed in, rezals aimed right for Utto’s head. “Drop the stylus,” one of them said.

  “Drop the rezals.” Utto tightened his grip on the stylus. The fine skin of her neck swelled around it. “I’ll fucking bleed her dry before I let you ha
ve her. Back away.” Another millimeter or two, and he’d break the skin.

  Her pulse fluttered along the vein.

  The Guarda closed in. If they took a shot and Utto’s arm bucked with the momentum of the blast, it could pierce her throat.

  “Don’t shoot,” Ajax murmured, not wanting to enrage Utto further.

  “This is my mate.” Utto tossed his head, glaring at Ajax, then the Guarda, then Spiro, who’d closed in on his other side. “I’m not losing h—”

  A dozen things happened at the same time.

  One of the Guarda shifted.

  Tam appeared on top of the dais.

  Another Guarda squatted low.

  Spiro moved in, holding something blunt in his hands.

  Tam held a finger to his lips.

  The Guarda raised his weapon.

  “No,” Ajax roared, but it was too late.

  The rezal blast took off the top of Utto’s forehead, spraying Tam with red.

  Ajax grabbed Feola around the wrist, hauling her body up against his own, so her neck wouldn’t be pierced and her body wouldn’t be pulled down as Utto’s bulk dropped to the floor.

  Then she was in his arms, and everything else just faded away. His hand shook as he checked her pulse. She was fine. Breathing easy. Warm color. Healthy as ever.

  Dimly, he was aware of someone leading him out of the High Convene and back toward their room.

  * * * * *

  A knock came to their chamber door only a few hours after Utto’s death. Ajax froze in his spot on the bed, arms around the warm body of his blessedly intact mate.

  Tam stuck his head in the opening, his gaze landing on Feola’s sleeping form. “Fifty stones of innocence,” he whispered. “The Adjudicators didn’t waste any time.”

  “For me? Or Feola?”