“So?” Tannin’s expression had tightened, with a definite edge of hostility to it.
“So,” Rian repeated, stressing the word. “It seemed odd. I had my contact track Quaine down. He’s living hard on one of the outer planets. And apparently, he was all too happy to talk for the right amount of currency.”
Tannin’s features turned haunted. “What did he say?”
“Quaine claimed that his father was the one who killed Broc. He had this theory he’d done it to manipulate Broc’s father, Grand Chancellor Harlan.”
Disbelief crossed Tannin’s face. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe not.” Rian poured himself another measure of Violaine. “Quaine claimed a few months before the murder, his father had some kind of mental breakdown—his personality completely changed overnight.”
“This sounds like a load of bullshite.” Tannin grabbed the bottle of Violaine and splashed some in an empty glass. “Isah Ayden killing Broc makes no sense.”
Rian leaned forward over the table. “Think about it. What happened after Broc was killed and you were sent to Erebus?”
“Isah Ayden became the Grand Chancellor and later moved up to be the High President. So what?”
Rian’s expression took on an impatient edge. “Who were the two main rivals for that position on Barasa?”
“Grand Chancellor Harlan because he already had the title and—” Tannin’s jaw dropped in shock. “My father.”
Rian took another swig from his near-empty glass. “What better way for Ayden to ensure he became Grand Chancellor? Kill one rival’s kid and have the other one sent to Erebus for the crime.”
“Frecking hell.” Tannin dragged a hand over his hair, looking totally stunned. “But Isah always told my father he didn’t want to be Grand Chancellor.”
“There’s an obvious explanation. When Broc was killed, Isah Ayden wasn’t human any longer.”
So Rian thought the High President of Barasa wasn’t really Isah Ayden, but a Reidar who’d shape-shifted and taken over the man’s life. But why? To take over Barasa? What could the Reidar possibly want with a single planet?
Tannin frowned and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “You think a Reidar shape-shifted to look like Isah Ayden and took his place to become High President of Barasa? Then what happened to the real Isah Ayden? Don’t you think he might have had something to say about someone impersonating him?”
“The real Isah Ayden is probably dead. Over the years, we’ve gathered evidence of the Reidar taking over people’s lives for various purposes, but we’ve never come across one that’s replaced someone so prominent.” Rian poured the last of the Violaine into his glass, shaking out every drop.
Her brother looked over at her. “Mind heading down to the cargo bay and getting another bottle of Violaine?”
In other words, he had important business to discuss and didn’t want his baby sister around.
She grabbed her half-empty bottle of water off the table and stood, shoving the chair back harder than necessary. Her head ached, and Tannin had already used up her quarter of patience when it came to stupid men and the things they thought were best.
“You know what? Go get your own drinks, Captain. I’m going to bed.”
“Zahli—” Rian growled her name and stood, keeping his hands braced against the top of the table. Turning, she hurried away as her brother called her name again, anger smoldering her insides to ashes.
Rian’s heavy tread behind her on the metal grate flooring increased her pace, but he caught her arm just as she got out into the passage. Crossing her arms, she gritted her teeth as she faced him.
No matter how upset she got, her brother was the captain. She might push her luck every now and then, but when it came down to the wire, Rian would treat her the same as the rest of the crew. And that included disciplinary situations. As much as she wanted to scream at him like when they were younger, when their parents had still been alive, and before Rian had bought this garbage compactor of a ship, she swallowed the words and looked up at him, waiting to hear the lecture on treating him with the deference he was due.
“Zahli, what’s wrong with you? First I catch you drinking with some random Rim-lickers who turn out to be frecking UAFA agents, and now you’re giving me attitude. What’s your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem.” Her voice came out sounding flat and more than a little defeated.
“Yes, you do. You haven’t been yourself ever since we left Erebus. Since that scumrat came onboard.”
Tannin was about the dead last thing she wanted to discuss with anyone, especially Rian. The hurt and rejection she’d been trying not to feel all night, the pain she’d been ignoring with all that wine, came rushing at her, stealing her breath, tightening her throat.
“You’re right. I haven’t been acting like myself, but you’ll be happy to know that won’t be a problem after tonight.” She tried to walk away, but he stopped her again.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Did he do something to you?”
Frecking hell. She blinked, her eyes stinging. She hadn’t cried in front of Rian since she’d been twelve. Why had she drunk that damned wine?
“No, he didn’t do anything. That’s the whole problem. Congratulations. You got yourself a new tech analyst.”
She pulled her hand from Rian’s grasp, moisture tracking down her cheeks, as if this night hadn’t been embarrassing enough. But when she stepped back from her brother, she caught sight of Tannin standing in the doorway of the galley, his gaze locked on her.
And now her humiliation was complete.
She spun and hastened toward the stairs, resisting the urge to run until she got to her quarters and could lock everyone out. She just wanted to have a steaming hot shower and fall into bed, to not have to think about Tannin or Rian’s obsession, or the fact she had no life of her own beyond running the trading-side of their adventures. And the very last thing she wanted to consider on top of all that was how she would face all of them in the morning.
Rian was going to stab him again. Tannin could see it in the set of the man’s shoulders as he watched his sister disappear down the stairs.
Tannin tightened his fist where he’d braced it against the bulkhead, fighting every instinct within him that told him to go after Zahli, to make things right, to hold her and treat her the way she deserved to be treated.
Rian turned to face him, shoving his hair back with a sigh, beads on his wrist clinking slightly. “I’d like to kick your ass about now for upsetting Zahli. But it’s a bit hard to do when I assume you were apparently following orders.”
Tannin pushed away from the bulkhead and stepped further out into the passage. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be sorry, just go and fix it.”
A weird kind of exhilaration mixed with apprehension filled him. “Are you telling me the rule you filled me in on this afternoon no longer stands?”
Rian’s eyes narrowed as an annoyed expression tightened his face. “I didn’t say that, did I? This is exactly why the rule stands. We all have to live and work on this ship together. I can’t have crew at odds with one another. Relationships complicate things. People pick sides. Loyalties get divided. You never know what sort of shite you’re going to come across out there in the black, so we need to be able to trust each other. I’m sure there’s a better way you could handle this. One that adheres to the regulations and doesn’t leave my sister a blubbering mess.”
His moment of hope shot down, aggravation replaced the jubilant feeling. “She wasn’t exactly a blubbering mess. In fact, I seriously doubt Zahli would ever be a blubbering mess over anything.”
Rian grabbed his shirt at the shoulder and steered him a couple of steps along the corridor. “Just go fix it and get back here so we can finish our conversation.”
Tannin jerked from his grasp with a glare and stomped down the steps. Rian might as well have asked him to single-handedly go find every Reidar in the galaxy, be
cause it surely would have been easier than fixing what was wrong with Zahli and him. The only way to repair this rift would be to give her what she wanted, what they both wanted. But that went against Rian’s damn regulations.
Arriving on the crew level, Tannin stopped at the end of the landing and dropped down to sit. He braced his elbows against his knees and looked down the passage to Zahli’s door. What the hell was he supposed to say to her? The sight of her tears had cut him deep, like someone had gouged into his chest with a blunt object. Far more painful than when Rian had stabbed him.
And that small realization broke something within him, bringing back her words from earlier in the night. Some things are more important. He’d spent the past twelve years confined on a prison planet, no freedom, no rights, no dreams. He’d only had survival and a drive for something other than that which had been unjustly thrust onto him.
What was the point of escaping, only to find himself confined in other ways? If he didn’t follow his heart, take what small measure of happiness he could grasp wherever and whenever he found it, he might as well have stayed on Erebus.
He stood, because the choice had been made. And when he thought about it, there really wasn’t any choice to begin with—he might fix it, but not the way Rian would want it fixed.
He didn’t bother knocking at Zahli’s cabin, but popped the crystal display off the panel to override the system. Locked, of course.
It took him less than a second to get through the security and have the door slide open in front of him to the gentle, slight tinkling of the bells hanging just inside. Clicking the display back in place, he slipped through the opening before the hatchway could close and lock.
The lights around the room were bright, but Zahli was nowhere to be seen. The only evidence she’d come in was a trail of her clothes starting just beside her bed and disappearing into the privy facilities. Maybe he should come back later, because Rian expected him back in the galley. But instead, he stepped forward and caught the sound of water rushing. Just across the threshold into the privy, he spotted a pink bra with little purple butterflies printed across the cups. Christ. As he moved farther into the room, he got the weird sense he’d stepped into a dream, one of those dreams he’d always wished were real, the ones where he woke up hard, aching, and gasping.
Steam rolled out along the floor and wafted through the air, sweet scented, tempting him onward. The shower stall came into view, the sheer crystal partition mostly misted over, but giving him a glimpse of those curves he hadn’t stopped thinking about since the first day he’d met Zahli. With a rough movement, he whipped his shirt off, hoping she didn’t go nuclear.
He swung the screen away. A rupture of steam washed over him and he stopped short, the toes of his boots at the edge of the welling water.
Zahli turned as he reached for her, surprise one of the many emotions that crossed her face. He didn’t give her a chance to say anything, didn’t want any words to mess up something that should have been simple between them. He concentrated on her face, knowing if he looked anywhere else, he’d never get out of this shower—the last place in the entire universe he wanted Rian to catch him.
Instead, he studied her watery eyes, her cheeks flushed pink from the steam, the brush of freckles across her nose, and the passionate warmth lighting her eyes when she comprehended what him being here meant.
He couldn’t ever hurt again, would rather face Rian’s wrath and risk losing his place on the Imojenna than see pain in Zahli’s expression.
Not daring to move his hands from the chaste roundness of her shoulders—because if he touched her anywhere else he’d be lost—he leaned down and caught her lips, tasting her tears and wanting to kick his own ass for being the cause of them. The urge to pull her flush against him, to shove her up against the wall and slide naked and wet against her hit him hard, like a drug in his system, like an addict trying to resist the high.
With a groan, he broke the kiss and pulled back. She touched her hands to his chest, her skin heated from the water as though she had a fever.
“Tannin—”
He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers.
“Please, don’t say anything. I have to go back up to the galley. Rian’s waiting for me.” He took one breath and then another, before straightening. “You were right, and I’m an idiot. Some things are more important, and I should know that better than anyone. I’m not making any promises, and obviously Rian can’t ever know about this, but I need you to know that you’re what’s more important to me, Zahli.”
He dropped his hands from her and moved back, then swung the screen back between them. She grabbed the edge and looked around it, watching him with a teasing smile as he bent to pick up his shirt. “Tannin—”
He held up a hand then shrugged into his top. “Nuh-uh. I told you not to say anything. Not one word. Otherwise I’ll be in that shower and all over you. And when Rian comes looking for me, I’m pretty sure his pissed off face will be the last thing I ever see.”
“Your loss.” She ducked back behind the screen and stretched, running her hands over her wet hair where it streamed along her back. Groaning, he spun away from her and avoided stepping on her clothes as he retreated into the main room.
“Not for long,” he murmured to himself. As he tapped the crystal display to open her door, he heard her humming, the soft melody rolling out of the privy along with the steam. It took him two tries to put the right commands in because he was too busy picturing her as he’d last seen her, posing for him, teasing him, tempting him to throw caution to the wind.
Okay, so he’d decided to defy Rian, but that didn’t mean he had a death wish. Enough self-preservation won out over his lust to stop him from taking a stupid risk.
He jogged back up to the galley, surprised Rian hadn’t come looking for him already. Callan and Jensen had joined Rian at the table, full glasses of Violaine all round. Lianna had presumably gone to bed, while Ella and Kira had already retreated to their cabins earlier.
“What happened?” Rian asked as he approached the table.
Tannin shrugged. “She’s still not happy, but we talked. Things should be okay. It won’t cause you any more trouble.”
Rian looked down at his legs and then back up again. “And?”
“And what?”
“Your legs are wet.” Jensen indicated with a nod.
Oh Christ. He glanced down at the splashes of water that darkened patches of his pant legs. “Yeah, I knocked over that bottle of water she had.”
Lame. It sounded so lame. But plausible. Rian looked suspicious, but that wasn’t unusual. The three returned to their conversation as he dropped down into one of the free seats.
He only half listened as Rian talked schematics and subterfuge. Taking a mouthful of the Violaine, Tannin hoped it’d go some way to calm the heavy pounding of blood through his veins.
Tight anticipation and desire rode him.
He wanted Zahli more than he’d ever wanted anything, even more than he’d yearned for freedom. Exactly how long he could live on the edge like this?
Chapter Sixteen
“Tell Uzair the rest will be paid in due course.”
Zahli crossed her arms and watched as Rian handed over the whole nineteen and a half thousand credits she’d managed to talk Payton out of to the two rough-looking men who’d delivered the delta-shield. And just what did her brother mean by “the rest”? How much could he have possibly agreed to pay for the frecking thing?
Jensen maneuvered the hover-pallet into the engine room and then he, Callan and Tannin lifted the main unit off and set it close to where it would be spliced into the engine. Zahli tilted her head as Tannin bent, the muscles in his shoulders and back flexing taut against the thin material of his shirt as he moved a few of the smaller components.
Part of her refused to believe what’d happened last night, insisting the shower scene had been a wine-induced hallucination. Of course, if it had all been in her head, Ta
nnin certainly wouldn’t have left after one brief kiss. No way. He would have gotten naked and joined her, taken her to bed, and then told Rian he cared for her, so the frecking rules could go to hell.
But if she’d needed proof that last night’s brief encounter had been real, the heated, intimate smile Tannin had given her first thing this morning would have confirmed it. He looked a little rough around the edges, tired eyes and scruffy hair, but all the guys had turned up at breakfast sporting a similar appearance. Apparently it’d been a late night as they’d planned how they might get proof Isah Ayden was really a Reidar.
The two thugs took their hover-pallet and walked down the ramp as Rian went into the engine room to inspect the Imojenna’s latest upgrade. Tannin came over and leaned against the bulkhead next to her, brushing dust from his hands onto his pants. She bit her lip over a smile, enjoying having him near, wondering if she dared get closer, wondering how far she could push the boundaries before her brother worked out something was going on between them.
Rian paced around the parts as Jensen got down next to the main unit, pulling a panel off the side and looking in.
“Let me guess. You want to know how long it’s going to take to install?” Jensen’s voice echoed a little from inside the shield generator.
Stopping once he’d completed a lap, Rian crouched down next to Jensen, bracing a hand against the shield’s outer armor.
Jensen continued, “If Lianna and I work through the night, we’ll have this installed at about this time tomorrow. Of course, then we’ll have to run sims and worst case scenario—”
“We’ll do that once we’re on the way to the Tetsu transit gate.” Rian pushed back to his feet.
“Why aren’t we going through the Rim gate?” Zahli asked as Rian walked back toward her.
“If we travel through a less-used gate, security is likely to be more lax and not notice any glitches in our authorization codes.”
Rian brushed past her, so she followed him out of the engine room, Tannin keeping up beside her. “And what are we supposed to do for food this month? Even the protein powder for the meal replicator is getting low.”
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