Rena hit his communicator. “We need a team in the docking bay to extinguish a fire and we need someone to look for damages on the ship’s outside hull. I’ll be on the control room in—”
Turk took the communicator back. “This is Turk. Captain Rena is going to the medical center for treatment. You can contact me while she is recuperating. Do you have Nade and Jaken in custody?” He didn't see Jaken on the floor where he had left him.
“Jaken was taken to a holding cell and is receiving medical treatment there.”
“Where is Nade?” Rena asked.
Turk repeated the question into his communicator as he carried Rena to the elevator. “Where is Nade?”
“The computer cannot track his whereabouts.”
Rena and Turk looked at each other. Rena frowned. “How is that possible? Everyone on board the ship is given a tracker implant as a safety measure.”
“My guess is that Nade got scared when I knocked his brother out and he somehow found a way to remove his tracker implant.”
“We have to find him, Turk. He could have more detonators.”
“He won’t activate any while he and his brother are still on board, but I’ll make sure the ship is on lockdown until he’s found.”
A nurse was already waiting for them when they got off the elevator. One of the lieutenants must have called ahead of time. The nurse directed him to place Rena on the table and motioned for him to leave.
“We need to do a full scan and you can’t be here for that.”
“I’m not leaving her.” He crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly.
Rena rolled her eyes at him. “Go and take care of my ship, Turk. Find that weasel Nade and lock his ass up.”
Turk wasn’t happy about leaving her, but he nodded and quickly kissed her lips before leaving. He used his communicator. “Lieutenant, place the ship on full lockdown. What’s the status on locating Nade?”
“He is still MIA. Sir, there is a shuttle requesting to dock. Those aboard are identifying themselves as GPOs. Their credentials check out.”
“Tell them what happened and that once the docking bay is cleared, they can dock. As soon as they are on board, have them brought to my location. I’m going to head to the holding cell to question Jaken.”
“Yes, sir.”
Turk was hoping that the GPOs had a way to scan the ship for detonators. Rena was right to worry that Jaken and Nade could have more of them. He also wanted to know how Nade had removed his tracking implant. He planned to beat the answers out of Jaken if he had to.
Chapter 19
After Turk had frantically communicated with everybody on staff to search for Nade, he also called Drako, who would be boarding with the GPO. After getting a distinct promise from Drako about catching Nade, he hung up and continued down to the holding cell. The entire ship was on lock down, so there was no way that Nade had gotten off the ship.
“Where the hell is Nade?” he asked as soon as had Jaken in his vision.
“I don’t know,” Jaken answered. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Jaken, I will kill you where you stand. Where the hell is he?” Turk repeated, slamming his hands up against the cell door. He was furious already, and he knew the first person Nade would go after would be Rena. Turk was not about to risk losing Rena, especially since he had just gotten her back.
“I don’t know,” Jaken returned.
“How the fuck did he remove the locator device?” Turk continued to interrogate him.
“They aren’t hard to get out. They don’t go very deep into the skin, so once you know the location of the device, you can simply dig it out with a knife. It only hurts for a second. Once they aren’t attached to any cells, they turn off,” Jaken answered.
“Are you telling me that sick fuck dug it out of his skull?” Turk returned. He was not sure he actually wanted Jaken to answer that.
“It wasn’t that deep, and probably didn’t hurt much,” Jaken answered, smirking in amusement at how grossed out Turk was about it.
“I swear, Jaken, if I find out you know where he is, I will murder you,” Turk said as he slammed his hands against the cell door again. He was getting pissed, but he knew Jaken wasn’t going to tell him anything, even if he did know. All of a sudden, just by the smirk on Jaken’s face, he knew that something was wrong.
He turned to the lieutenant. “Give me your laser gun.” He started to run toward the medical ward. Rena was in trouble.
*****
Rena wasn’t very happy that she couldn’t go help Turk with the investigation, but at least he had placed the ship on lockdown so that Nade couldn’t escape. However, even if she was able to go help him, she probably wouldn’t have been much help, considering the fact that her entire body ached.
She lay in the hospital bed, patiently waiting for the nurse or the doctor to come and examine her, when she got the feeling that she was being watched. The hair on the back of her neck stood up on end. She pressed the call nurse button. Before a nurse could show up, Nade appeared and picked her up by her throat. She struggled against his grasp. In one desperate move, she forced her knee into his gut.
Luckily, she hit him hard enough to make him drop her. She was barely able to stay standing when she hit the ground, but she managed to swing her leg around and scooped his legs out from underneath him, knocking him on his ass. She was so sore she could have sworn that it hurt her worse than it did Nade. She got herself back up to a standing position just before he did. She swung her fist and connected with his jaw. His head bent to the side, but her blow didn’t knock him back down like she had hoped. He quickly recovered from her hit and retaliated by swinging his massive hand toward her. She dropped down, barely dodging his hit. Staying low, she swung her elbow at him, hitting him as hard as she could in the sternum. She hit him hard enough to knock him down that time, and he struggled, for just a moment, to catch his breath.
Before she could think of her next move, however, Nade started to get back up. Rena started to feel a sense of hopelessness. How much more would it take to stop him? She didn’t know if she could last much longer. As soon as he reached toward her, she swung again, but he caught her fist, picked her up, and threw her across the room. Her back slammed into a bunch of chairs before she finally crashed into the wall. She tried getting up before Nade could get to her, but she didn’t have the strength.
She grabbed an IV pole and swung it hard at Nade’s ankles. She was surprised that he ended up on his ass again, and even more surprised to see Turk come rushing through the doors at the same time. Turk had his laser gun aimed at Nade. “Stay down, or get shot,” Turk said, walking toward Nade and Rena. He hit the call button on his communicator. “Send security to the medical ward. I have Nade in custody.”
He put out his hand to help Rena up, keeping his laser gun pointing at Nade the entire time. He pulled Rena into his side, feeling how weak she was when he helped her up.
Turk helped Rena get to one of the few hospital beds that hadn’t been knocked over in the scuffle.
“See to her, now!” he demanded the only nurse in the medical bay.
Drako appeared almost as soon as the ship’s security began dragging Nade out of the door.
“I want him locked up for the rest of his life.” Turk roared at Drako.
“Damn it, Turk, calm down. We will get justice, but first I need you to fill out a police report on what all happened. Rena will have to fill one out, too,” Drako responded with a smirk.
“I hate paperwork,” Turk said as Drako handed him the police report form.
“Don’t leave anything out, Turk. Start from the first part of the day, where Rena was missing. If we can, we will get them for kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder, along with everything we’ve got footage of them doing to vandalize the ship,” Drako told him.
“Thanks, Drako, for helping to handle this and for letting me come here to help Rena.”
“I’m glad things are working out on both
counts. When do you think you’ll come back to your ship?”
“I’m not sure. I actually wanted to make you an offer.”
“What kind?”
“One where you take over my ship as captain and I remain here with Rena.”
“Does Rena know what you’re planning?” Drako asked.
“No, she has no clue, but I will tell her when the time is right,” Turk answered.
“Better be soon. The investigation is over, Turk, so we just have the small details left to deal with. The GPO will be off the case soon and you’ll have to tell her, if she doesn’t find out through someone else first — which, knowing Rena, will piss her off.”
“I’ll talk to her, and you talk to Carolina to see how she feels about it.”
“Are you sure about this, Turk? You worked so hard for everything you have.”
“I worked even harder to get her back. I am so sure about it, Drako.” Turk never felt more confident.
“Well, I am going to talk to Rena about her police report. It looks like I’m going to have to take the statement myself, since the doctors are looking at her. Let me know when you are done with yours,” Drako said as he walked past Turk to get to Rena.
Turk started to fill out his report. After getting through all the details about that day and mentally reliving the horror that Jaken and Nade had attempted to cause, he was furious all over again. He couldn’t believe how close he had come to losing Rena forever. He still had so many things to tell her, and so much time to make up for, that he wasn’t sure what he would have done if anything would have happened to Rena. Two of those close calls in a row. Just thinking about what could have happened to her tore him to shreds.
He glanced over at Rena, and was glad to see that she was giving the doctor and Drako hell. He knew then that he could never love anybody else the way he loved her. Now that the investigation was complete, he never wanted to leave her side. Now he just had to tell her that he was giving his ship to Drako so he could stay on board with her. He knew that she was going to argue with him about it and try to talk him out of it, but he couldn’t ask her to leave her ship for him, and honestly he would rather be on board with her all the time than only see her once in a while. Plus, her ship was better equipped for children than his was. He knew that without a doubt. The rooms on his ship were smaller and there was no play place.
Turk knew one day they would have a family together, and they would need the right accommodations. Rena’s ship had a daycare service, a play place, two- and three-bedroom suites — everything they would want for their little family.
Thinking about their future together made Turk’s decision a happy one. He was certain he was making the right choice. He looked back at his police report and finished filling in the last details. He then walked over to Rena, climbed onto the hospital bed with her, and just held her hand. He wanted to be as close to her as possible without hurting her. He was going to be with her for the rest of his life; he knew that without a doubt in his mind. They would grow old together, and he would love every second of it — the good and the bad.
He couldn’t wait until they let her go so that he could take her back to her place and show her just how much he loved her and needed her.
“Did you turn your report into Drako?” Rena asked.
“I’ll hunt him down as soon as they let you go from here. I’m not quite ready to leave your side yet.” Turk kissed Rena’s earlobe.
She giggled. “Turk, I’m all right. They’ve got Jaken and Nade now, and Drako said he’s got a lead on the person they are working for. Everything is all right.”
“I know,” he answered.
“So go hunt Drako down now. I’d rather be at home with you when I get out of here than have to wait around for you. They are just waiting on my scans to come back anyway.”
“All right, my love. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He got off the hospital bed.
Turk kissed her lips before he walked out of the hospital doors. He was pretty sure that Drako would be either working in the command room or questioning Jaken and Nade. He went to the command room first, hoping he was there, but had to turn around and head to the lock-up area. Luckily, he caught Drako heading out of the lock-up area.
“Here’s my report,” he said, handing the paper to Drako. “I’m going to go tell Rena the news, so wish me luck. I’m going to tell her as soon as we get home.”
“Good luck, my friend,” Drako said, knowing that Rena would either be pissed off or excited. There was no in-between with her. He knew it almost as well as Turk did.
Turk quickly returned to the hospital bay. He was relieved when he saw that Rena had been discharged. He headed to her suite.
Chapter 20
His anticipation built as he approached Rena’s suite. He was starting to worry about how she would react when he told her his plans.
Turk walked into Rena’s place, glad to see that she had just arrived herself. He walked up behind her and kissed the side of her neck. He wrapped his arms around her. “What did the doctor say?”
“He said that outside of the bruised ribs I am fine. I’ll just be really sore when the pain medication wears off. He gave me a full prescription, so I can’t exactly pilot the ship right now. I was going to see if you could stick around a while longer, so that you can take over until the bruising gets better.”
“Yeah, actually, I need to talk to you about something anyway”
“What’s that?” She turned to face him.
“I’m signing my ship over to Drako to stay here with you.”
“Why are you doing that?” she asked with a quizzical look.
“Because I don’t want to be away from you for long amounts of time, so I just did it. Drako is retiring from the GPO and his mate is aboard my ship, so it seems logical to me.”
“Are you sure about this?” she asked, still confused.
“Rena, I love you so much, I’m not leaving your side again.”
“You don’t have to do that. We’ll make it work somehow.”
“Rena, I want to. How are we going to start a family if we are on opposite sides of the universe?” he asked. “Once we do have kids, I don’t want to be away from them, I want to be there for everything.”
“Isn’t it a little early in the relationship to make a decision that big?”
“Not to me, Rena. I have always loved you, more than you’ll ever know. I wanted to become a pilot to see the universe, but you are my life. You are everything to me. My travels would be empty without you. ”
“You see a long future? Involving what?” she asked, holding back a smile.
“I see us getting married in the very near future, having one or two children, buying a house on a planet that we both like. Maybe the first planet we lived on together, or maybe the planet where your mom lives. Hopefully, down the road, you would let me co-pilot the ship.”
Rena’s eyes were starting to water. She wasn’t sure how much more of the sweet talk she could take. Her heart ached to start their life together immediately. She could envision coming home to Turk, sitting on the couch with their children, or sitting at the dinner table together. She wanted it so much. She nodded her head as she grabbed him by the back of his neck and kissed him fervently. “I want nothing more than that, Turk. I have never stopped loving you, and I don’t think I ever will. I’m ready to have all that.”
“Now?” he asked, shocked at her reaction. He was expecting more resistance from her.
“Yeah, we put my ship in both of our names, and we’ll co-pilot. Since I’m the boss I can make sure that we have the same schedule for now.” She turned to wink at him mischievously.
“Rena, I want you to think about all this for a while. I want you to be happy.” Turk remained serious.
“Yes, Turk. Let’s start a family.”
“Don’t you want to get married first?” Turk asked.
“It’s not necessary. I just want to be with you any way I can and I want a family with you
. Everything else is like you said before, icing on the cake.”
“You used to tell me when we were together how you always dreamed of a big wedding with family and friends, a huge reception, you in a white dress. Don’t you want that?”
“I just want our life to start.”
“And it can, soon, but I’m not settling for a wedding that is less than what you’ve dreamed of your entire life. We’ll start our life together, Rena, but let’s have the wedding you wanted first. I want our lives to start out the exact way you always envisioned it. I don’t want you to regret anything.”.
“With that being said,” he said slowly as he bent down on one knee. “I don’t have a ring yet, but would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Yes!” She threw her arms around his neck as tears began streaming down her face. “You’re so sweet, Turk. I can’t wait until our life begins.”
“Neither can I.” He returned kissing her cheek. “Did you hear from Drako about Jaken and Nade yet?”
“Yeah, the officials are transporting them to a prison ship tonight, and are hoping to draw out their leader. They are going to be put on trial through the galactic judicial system,” she answered.
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about those two causing problems any more. It seems like a good time to start new, especially since we have a bunch of maintenance to do to the ship.”
“I’ll start making calls about the maintenance on the ship. You can start making calls about the wedding.” She winked again.
“Or, we can wait until tomorrow,” he said as he raised an eyebrow. He grabbed her ass cheek and kissed her lips. She moaned in agreement.
About the Authors
KD Jones has published more than forty books in five different series. She has been a huge fan of both romance novels and science fiction novels since she was sixteen years old. Her favorite television shows when she was growing up were Star Trek and Doctor Who. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found curled up on the couch with a good book, working on her hobby of photography, or spending time with her family. As a single working mom, she wants to show her son that a person can follow their dreams no matter how old they are and where they are in life. Dreams can come true if you work hard and believe in yourself.
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