Nebula Nights: Love Among The Stars

by Melisse Aires

  "You need a witness," Maury added, her eyes bright. "Someone to say you weren't here. I can't, because I was here. But perhaps you were with a friend, hmm?"

  Stark. She'd been with Logan Stark. Relief filled her, buoyant and warm.

  "I was with someone," she told her guard. "I couldn't have killed anyone, I was with a man all night."

  The officer held up his com for her to speak into. "State his name and occupation."

  "Stark," Kiri said. "Logan Stark. That's—that's him up there." She pointed at the LodeStar hologram swirling above them. As if summoned, Stark and his captains appeared, standing shoulder to shoulder, gazing down at the crowd.

  The officer lowered his com. "Nice try."

  "It's true," Kiri cried, flushing with humiliation. He thought she'd seized Stark's face and name from the holovid. "I was with him."

  "Well, vid him up, and he can vouch for you," the officer said cynically.

  "I-I can't," she admitted, her face burning. "I don't have his comlink code. But I have one for his cruiser pilot."

  The policeman showed her his back, his helmeted head turning back and forth as he scanned the crowd.

  "Oh, dear," Maury patted her again. "That's too bad, dear."

  Too bad? It was disastrous. Hauled to port police headquarters? She'd never get her kiosk open, and if she didn't make a profit this week, she'd lose her kiosk too.

  Kiri ducked her head and pulled out her comlink. She'd try to reach Stark's pilot. But her flimsy old unit chose this moment to flicker and sputter. "Come on," she muttered, fiddling with the controls. "Come on, work."

  "Hello-o," caroled a cheery, magnified voice. The news hovie zipped over the heads of the crowd and stopped before them. Kiri held up one hand to shield her eyes as lights glared into her face, nearly blinding her. "Are you Ms. Kiri te Nawa, of Kiri's Kaffe? How about answering a few questions? Is it true that you threatened to kill Mr. Gral Roden?"

  The crowd moved closer. Kiri edged behind the tall helmeted officer, wishing she could just disappear. Her stomach roiled, her breakfast threatening to come back up. She swallowed hard.

  "No!" She glared at the smirking reporter. "I didn't kill him."

  "Stay back," warned the officer. The news hovie retreated a few centimeters, but his gaze and his cameras stayed on Kiri.

  "But is it true that several witnesses heard you threaten to do so?" The reporter trilled the word 'threaten' with relish.

  "I didn't kill him." Little quarker. If she could reach those hovering cameras, she'd smash them in his heavily made-up face. "Go on, leave me alone."

  "All right, we're done here. Bring the woman." It was the female officer, aboard her hovercycle.

  "Come along." A gloved hand grasped her arm, and Kiri was lifted off her feet and deposited in the back of the second cycle. "You'll come to headquarters."

  "No, wait," she protested, wriggling. "You have the wrong woman."

  "Sit down and be silent, prisoner." A bar snapped around her, restraining her forcibly in the seat. The armor-clad male officer stepped onto the cycle in front of her, and they zipped straight up, hovering above the crowd. Faces turned up, eyes staring.

  The last thing Kiri saw before she was whisked away was the newscaster pointing the cameras at her. Behind him, the crowd shifted. Her heart leapt. Through a gap, she saw the face of the one man who could help her. Logan Stark stood at the far side of the crowd, leaning on the wall of the concourse. Watching the scene with detached interest.

  Catching his eye, Kiri waited for recognition to spark, for him to forge through the crowd to her rescue. Instead, he merely returned her gaze for a long, agonizing moment. Her hands clenched into fists. What was he waiting for?

  "Please," she mouthed. "Help me."

  He looked away, his lips moving. He was on his comlink.

  He might as well have slapped her across the face. The hovie rocked under her, but as she was swept away above the crowd, Kiri was blinded by tears. Lying quarker. What had he said to her? 'I'm the man who's going to take care of you.'

  Right. When she needed him the most, he was on a business call. Guess he wasn't interested in saving her after all. She was, as always, alone.

  Chapter 8

  The new port authority headquarters was nice enough, if one entered through the front, with a reception area and pleasant, uniformed officers to answer questions. Kiri had been there to fill out a theft form a few lunar months ago when someone stole her old display holocam.

  It was considerably less pleasant when she was hustled in through a dark tube full of flashing beams and blipping monitors that held the stench of fear and sweat and other bodily functions, and ordered to stand still while droids scanned her body and clothing. From there, more helmeted officers chivvied her into a small room with a large chair, holovid monitors humming ominously.

  At least the officer on duty, a tired-looking Indigon with silver hair, was not wearing a full helmet. But then he turned his piercing blue gaze on Kiri, and she pressed back into the chair, deciding she preferred faceless helmets to eyes that looked as if they could reach deep inside her and rip out all her secrets.

  He gave her a slight smile as he scooted his rolling stool closer. "You'll be fine. Just sit quietly." The upturn of his thin lips did nothing to warm the chill of those deep sapphire eyes, or the trembling deep inside her. She felt ready to fly into a million pieces.

  "What are you going to do?" she demanded, eyeing the contraption of wires and small pads dangling from a metal arm projecting from the chair beside her head.

  "Question you. It won't hurt, unless you try to get away. Then you'll receive an unpleasant shock."

  "Already had several of those today," she muttered.

  "I do not mean in the metaphorical sense," he said. "This would be physically painful."

  Didn't he know that after having her world jerked out from under her and then having the only man who could have saved her refuse to do so, her pain was so deep it was physical? A cold, hollow void in her chest that made it hard to breathe. She'd let Logan Stark fuck her, and he'd turned away from her like a complete stranger. Even Tal hadn't done that.

  "Now," the officer said, pausing with a thick black cuff in his hands. "Look at me."

  Kiri did, and strangely, she felt calm flow through her, almost as if she'd been drugged.

  "You're doing that mind control on me, aren’t you?" The panic was still there, but its wings were tethered now, as if wrapped in padding, along with her hurt and anger.

  "Yes. You ... appear to need it."

  "Thank you," she remembered to say.

  The officer gave her an odd look. Must not get a lot of suspects with manners.

  Kiri let him fasten a cuff around her wrist and attach one of the monitors to her inner wrist and another to her temple.

  "So, I just tell the truth and then you'll know I didn't kill the gambler, right?"

  "Correct." He scooted away from her, and Kiri let her breath out in a whoosh. If all she had to do was answer a few questions, she could do that. And they'd soon see she was innocent.

  "We are ready."

  A holovid sprang to life in the center of the room. A grim being faced Kiri, with a grayish face that could have been carved from cerametal—a Freyan.

  Even with the shot of whatever mind-padding the Indigon officer had given her, perspiration broke out on her upper lip and prickled under her arms. With a supreme effort she kept her face stoic. Freyans were known for their ferocity and lack of the softer emotions. They made great wardens for places like the prison planet, Deep Six. This one wore the uniform of the Port Authority, with epaulets across his blocky shoulders.

  "Kiri te Nawa," the Freyan rasped, his voice like the crushing of beans in her grinder. "You are here to be questioned in the death of Gral Roden. Answer the questions truthfully. If you are judged to be untruthful, you will be detained. Do you understand?"

  Kiri nodded. Although, did anything she said or did really matter? She'd lost
her credit, her home and apparently her reputation in one day. All that was left was for them to drag her off to jail. She'd pinch herself to make sure this wasn't some bizarre nightmare, except that she could feel the cold of the monitor patch on her face, and she had to pee, so she must be awake.

  "First question." Her attention jerked back to the holovid. She was awake, all right.

  The Freyan questioned her about every aspect of her argument with the dead gambler and then moved on to her activities of the evening and the night.

  Kiri was too miserable to be more than fleetingly embarrassed about admitting that she'd had dinner and then sex with a stranger. She confessed every detail she could recall of meeting Stark, going to the restaurant and then to his penthouse with him for the night. Fortunately the Freyan did not seem interested in what happened there, only that she'd stayed the night and had not returned until this morning.

  Finally, the Freyan turned to the Indigon, who sat quietly by the humming monitors. He didn't seem to be paying much attention to them, just watching her with those eerie eyes.

  He nodded once. "She speaks the truth."

  "Very well. Release her." The Freyan's rock-like visage disappeared.

  Kiri closed her eyes as they filled with sudden, hot tears. She covered her eyes with her free hand, barely noticing as the Indigon removed the cuff and the monitors.

  "It is over. You're free to go."

  Free to go. That was a good one. Go where? All she had left was her stand, and it was besieged with gawkers and news cameras. Okay, she just had to think. She'd let them gawk, but she'd only answer questions to anyone who bought a coffee. That would work.

  She was fine, just fine. She'd been alone before and gotten through.

  Swiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Kiri slipped from the interrogation chair and followed the Indigon from the small room

  In the passageway outside, he gestured toward a holovid display at one end. "Follow the signs, you'll be out in a sec."

  Kiri nodded. She took a deep, shaky breath and continued along the passageway, only to stop as a female officer stepped out of a doorway.

  "Ms. te Nawa? In here." What now, were they going to issue a warning to stay out of trouble? Her face stiff with renewed humiliation, Kiri stepped into the small room. The door shut behind her, leaving her facing the occupant.

  She glared, resentment burning through her chill. "What are you doing here? Come to gloat?"

  Logan Stark rose from his chair. Her hands fisted at her sides, nails digging into her palms. How dare he look at her as if she were space trash, habitually in and out of jail.

  "Stay away from me. I've nothing to say to you. You let them question me. When you knew I wasn't here—couldn't have done it."

  He looked startled, then his face hardened. "Kiri, this was the best way."

  Thought he could intimidate her into believing him. Kiri turned her back on him, ignoring her tears to reach blindly for the controls on the doorway. Two strong hands closed on her arms, turning her back to him.

  When she struggled, his grip tightened. "Kiri. Listen to me."

  She fought him. "No, let me go."

  Stark pulled her hard against him. When she kicked him on the shin, he shook her.

  She glared at him. "You quarker. Y-you wouldn't even speak up for me. That's all I wanted. Instead you were on some business link."

  "Listen to me," he repeated and this time she froze, her gaze locked with his. "Of course I spoke up for you, little wildcat. I wasn't on a business call; I was speaking with the captain. I followed you here to the station, made a statement that you were with me the entire night."

  He'd spoken for her? "You did? Then why—" her lip trembled. "—why did they question me like that?"

  His hand stroked up and down her back, warm and soothing. "Because if I'd simply given you an alibi, you'd have remained a suspect. I may be a well-known businessman, but I wouldn't be the first man fooled by a beautiful woman, and the police know that. Now that you've been questioned under the lie detector, they know for certain you had nothing to do with the Vulpean's death—or at least that you didn't kill him."

  His words shocked her out of the warmth of knowing he'd supported her. "What do you mean, at least I didn't kill him? You think I hired someone?"

  "It's common enough."

  She shoved at him and this time he let her go. She gave him a scathing glare. "Oh, of course you'd think that. Because I'm such a femme fatale, I have galaxies of males vying to do my dirty deeds, even though I can't pay them."

  He gave her a wry look. "Look, we both know you could talk most men—or women—into doing what you want them to. And don't tell me you don't know just how charming you are, because I won't believe you. You're an operator, Kiri te Nawa."

  Kiri's face flamed, and she fought his grip. "Let me go. I don't have to stay here and listen to your sleazy insults."

  His eyes narrowed, and as his grip tightened, Kiri froze. In his own, urbane way, he was as forceful as that Freyan, his gaze nearly as penetrating as the Indigon's." And where will you go?"

  She lowered her gaze to his broad chest. "I'll go back to my coffee stand. If they want to ask me questions, they can buy my coffee first."

  "I believe you'd try it. But you've no credit, no coffee and nowhere to sleep," he said. "And from the look of you, you've used up most of your emotional reserve. Kiri, look at me."

  When she finally did, her hands resting on his broad chest, his gaze was waiting, steady and certain. "Let me help you. I wasn't insulting you when I called you an operator. I know it isn't easy for a woman to make it alone in this city."

  Her knees were trembling. She locked them, and let go of him deliberately. "All right, but just—just until I get things settled."

  He exhaled, pulling her against his side. "Good enough for now. Come on."

  His arm around her, Stark walked her along the corridor and out into the front hall, where they found Maury waiting, perched in a chair with her hovie-cart close at her side. She hurried to hug Kiri, her lined face worried.

  "Oh my dear child, are you all right? You look ... well, they didn't use interrogation methods on you, did they?" She pulled a disposable tissue from the depths of her capes and offered it to Kiri.

  Kiri took it, wiping her wet face. "Not too bad. Just some questioning—an Indigon and a Freyan."

  Maury straightened to exchange a look with Stark. "I see. Well, I think you should go somewhere those news cameras can't find you."

  "She will," Stark promised.

  Kiri found she didn't want to let Maury go. "Thank you." She hugged Maury, thin under all her shawls. "Thank you for sticking by me."

  "Well, of course," Maury patted her back. "You've stood by me, my dear. I'm only returning the favor. But all's well that ends well, if you know what I mean." She cast a significant look at the man behind Kiri.

  Kiri grimaced. "It's not quite like that."

  "Perhaps," Maury said. "In any case, I must get on my rounds. Goodbye."

  She hurried away, hovie-cart following. Leaving Kiri alone with Stark, who slid his arm around her again, as if she were his now. "She's your friend?"

  "I sell her souvenirs at my kiosk. We look after each other."

  "Good. Ready to go?"

  She shrugged. Then, because he waited, she nodded.

  "There," he said, steering her back toward the hoverway. "That wasn't so hard, was it? Accepting my help."

  "Oh, I've no doubt you'll think of a way for me to repay you."

  "Of course," he agreed coolly. "That's how I got where I am."

  Kiri closed her eyes for a sec. Yes, it had been a hellish day and a half, but she was snapping at his hand outstretched to help her—again.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "That was petty. I do appreciate your help."

  He looked down at her, searching her face as if she were speaking in a foreign tongue without a translator. "I meant what I said, Kiri. I do expect something from you in return."


  "What, free coffees for life?"

  He shook his head. "How could anyone as lovely as you possibly be so quarking blind?"

  "Hey." She wasn't sure if he'd just complimented her, insulted her, or both. She stopped in her tracks, pulling free of his arm. "Look, Stark, we both know I'm not like the women you usually have—"

  He gave her a look. "And how would you know that?"

  She waved a hand. "The kind of things they leave behind, for one thing. I've never owned underthings like that in my life, but if I did I certainly wouldn't forget them somewhere.

  "And besides," she went on, ignoring his smirk. "You're…you, and I'm me. We're not exactly a matched set." Unlike the undies.

  His amusement disappeared. He hadn't liked that, but it was the truth.

  "Be quiet." Ignoring the travelers passing by, Stark backed her against the wall. He held her there with the press of his much larger, harder body. His warm hand cupped the side of her face, holding it turned up to his. Kiri waited, her heart pounding with the suffocating excitement only he seemed to generate in her.

  "I want you, Kiri," he said baldly. "I want you in my bed and in my house. I want to fuck you as often as I can. I want you there to look at and perhaps even to talk to if you've anything intelligent to say other than that you're not worth my interest. I want to dress you in lovely things chosen for you and then take them off of you, whenever, wherever and however I want."

  He stared at her, his face taut. "Now do you understand me?"

  Mesmerized by the absolute determination in his gaze, she nodded. He really did want her. No man had ever wanted her for more than quick and dirty sex. So this was how it felt.

  He kissed her, hard. His mouth closed over hers, hot and damp, his lips biting at hers, tasting and possessing them, demanding that she open to him. His tongue swept into her mouth, tangling with hers, coaxing her to suckle it and then doing the same to hers. She accepted it, reveled in it. When he kissed her she could forget everything around her.