by Kate Rudolph
“Not everything got left in our room,” he said with a grin. Iris smiled back, glad that at least one thing had gone right today.
The station hadn’t bothered with much decoration for these hidden hallways. Unbroken gray ran in every direction, giving Iris a bit of a headache as she tried to judge the distance towards the end. The harsh light overhead didn’t cast any shadows and there was nowhere for them to hide, but at least that meant that they would see anyone coming towards them. “Did you memorize a map of this place?” she asked Toran.
“Of course,” he replied. They didn’t waste any more time talking after that.
Whether it was the late hour or their location in the station, they didn’t run in to anyone. Toran used his unlocking device to get them through two more doors until they came to a large garage that was their destination.
“We need to get in that one,” Toran said, pointing to a large ship sitting beside one of the walls. Inside the garage it looked huge, but she knew that once it was outside it would be tiny. Cargo ships like these were built to dock with bigger ships that ferried back and forth between Earth and the moon, remaining in orbit at all times.
It all seemed too easy. Why weren’t there any guards? Iris knew she should ask Toran, but voicing the question out loud felt like she would jinx it. Couldn’t one thing go their way?
Apparently her thoughts were enough to cause an issue. A door on the other side of the room slid open with a hiss and she and Toran froze where they stood, half hidden behind a small forklift. Her heart beat loud enough that she was sure Toran could hear it, hell the guards could probably hear it. Two members of security spoke quietly to one another as they walked a circuit around the room. As they got close to her and Toran, she and her mate crouched low and scrambled around the vehicle in front of them, trying to remain as quiet as possible.
Iris would have given them away—a misstep sent her sprawling, and she would have smacked against the hard ground if Toran hadn’t looped an arm around her chest and covered her mouth with his big hand to keep her from making a noise. She could barely breathe around his hand, but she was glad he didn’t move it. Her lungs tried to drag in ragged breaths but the security members were still too close; they would hear her in the cavernous garage.
Luckily they didn’t, and several minutes later she and Toran heard the door open and close again as the guards left. Her arms were shaking and she wanted to collapse down on the cold ground, but they needed to move. There was no telling when those guards would come back or when the cargo ship would take off.
She and Toran made a break for it. They slipped into two survival suits which would keep them warm enough and give them oxygen if something happened to the life support system on the ship.
On board there weren’t many places to hide, but some creative squeezing that was sure to lead to cramping had them out of sight just in time. They couldn’t see what was going on and couldn’t speak to one another to try and figure it out, but footsteps sounded outside, echoing like metal against concrete. That was what it sounded like when someone ran up the entrance ramp. A guard? The pilot? Another stowaway? With no outlet for her thoughts, Iris was going to go crazy.
Escaping like this was insane; she didn’t know why she ever thought it was going to work. No, she knew. Toran had told her and she trusted him. He would never let her get hurt, would do anything to make sure she was safe. She held those thoughts close and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to find a way to give herself comfort.
The ship rocked sometime later. She had no way of knowing how long they’d been stowed away. But the motion was unmistakable, they had taken off. It was dark in her cubby and she couldn’t see the wall in front of her. Her legs hurt, as she was stuck in a half crouch, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. The flight from Earth to the moon took hours and she couldn’t afford to make a peep. It had to be worse for Toran, but if she hadn’t known her mate was stowed away in a similar spot, she would have no clue he was there with her. He could become a statue, he had the training. She had to take her strength from that.
And somehow she did. Iris managed to fall into a half doze, half trance, and the time slipped by around her. Only when her ears popped and the shuttle rocked violently did she realize that they were close to Earth, close to home. Only a little more time and they would be safe.
A little while later, the shuttle landed gently on terra firma. They hadn’t had a chance to discuss it, but Iris stayed in place. They needed to wait before they attempted to exit. They had made it off Gamma Station and they didn’t want to get caught now.
A while later a light scratch on her door was all the warning Toran gave her before he opened it. She leaned out and stood as a gasp tore from her throat. Blood surged through the muscles that had been cramping for a long time. She bit down even harder on her lip and tried to keep quiet. Toran wrapped his arms around her and rocked her, and whether it was the gentle motion or her mate’s arms, she started to feel better.
Hand-in-hand. they walked for the door, ready to go home. But when they stepped out of the ship five men in security uniforms were standing in a half circle with blasters pointed at the entrance of the ship, right at them. She and Toran raised their hands in surrender.
Chapter Fifteen
IRIS HAD THOUGHT THAT sitting in that cramped cubbyhole on the shuttle was the worst place she could be stuck outside of an incinerator. It turned out that a relatively spacious detainment cell was even worse. From corner to corner she could manage four paces before needing to turn around, and if she sat on the ground she could stretch her legs completely, but the grime the floor left on her fingers made her quickly stand up and reconsider that decision.
No one was telling her anything. She didn’t know where Toran was being kept, she didn’t know if this was a private facility or if it was run by the government, and she didn’t know if they were being accused of any crime or if punishment here was a more personal matter. She feared that the heavy steel door blocking her in would swing open and reveal Ambassador Yormas with that evil smile on his face. But he was still on the moon as far as she knew, and she doubted that he would do his own dirty work.
Lights embedded in the ceiling gave the cell a soft glow, but made it impossible to sleep or get a sense of time passing. She wasn’t sure if she’d been stuck in that incinerator with Toran hours ago or if days had already passed. Things had been moving fast. She was so tired that her eyelids kept dropping shut and she felt the need to scratch the gravel out of them. She curled up on the small bench affixed to the wall and flung her arm over her head, trying to give herself a little darkness to make it easier to sleep. It didn’t do much to help, but her limbs were so heavy that lying down was better than nothing.
When she got out of this she was going to find Toran and then sleep for a week. She couldn’t rest until she was sure her mate was safe, but that needed to happen really soon or she was going to scream.
The sound of movement in the hallway caught her attention and Iris flipped back over and forced herself to sit up. If someone was coming for her, she didn’t want to be caught lying down. She couldn’t quite manage to stand. That took too much effort.
Her door opened, but it wasn’t Yormas coming to kill her or Toran coming to save her. One of the guards stepped in and instructed her to stand before placing laser cuffs on her hands. He and his partner silently escorted her down the hall and Iris tried to get a good look at where she was in case an impossible opportunity to escape presented itself. After all, she and Toran had escaped the freaking moon, what was one little cellblock?
The guards led her to an interrogation room and affixed her cuffs to a sensor on the table. She could barely move, but some clever twisting let her rest her elbows on the flat surface. The guards left, but she wasn’t foolish enough to think they were gone. There had to be cameras and other security measures in here to make sure the interrogators remained safe.
But when the door opened and her boss Selma wal
ked in, Iris could have been knocked over with a feather. The older woman gave her a disappointed look and sat in the seat on the opposite side of the table. “When the police called me, I thought there must’ve been some sort of mistake,” said Selma, unexpectedly answering one of Iris’s questions. This wasn’t a private facility, it belonged to the police. Was that a good thing? Or bad? She didn’t know anymore.
“I’m sorry.” The apology came out automatically. What must Selma think about her now? She’d lied about her whereabouts and ended up arrested. “Why did they call you?” Was that normal? Did the police normally call a person’s boss? Then again, Selma worked for the SDA. They knew everything.
“You’ve never received even a traffic citation and now you’re causing disturbances on other planets and illegally stowing away with the man you’re supposed to be investigating?” Selma shook her head and glared.
Iris bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that the moon wasn’t a planet. It wasn’t important. She didn’t have a response, and Selma hadn’t asked for one, so Iris remained quiet.
“You have a bright future. When you got into that mess with your ex I thought it was just bad luck.” The implication was a stab to her heart. She hadn’t realized how much Selma knew about Dan, as she had tried to keep that information separate from her work life. But of course Selma would know. And she hated to be judged by that one mistake of a relationship. She bit back the urge to tell Selma that Toran was nothing like Dan, that the thing between them was real in a way she’d never experienced before. Selma continued. “You’re not the kind of girl to make stupid decisions. I told you to investigate Toran NaLosen, not take off to a pleasure station to let him take advantage and get you into trouble.”
If she bit her tongue any harder, Iris was going to bleed. This didn’t feel like a dressing down from her boss. It felt like her mom was yelling at her.
“What’s so special about this Detyen that you’ve lost your head?” Selma looked truly confused. Maybe if she’d seen Iris any time in the past few weeks she would’ve realized that something was different, she might’ve thought that something was wrong. But Iris had kept their communications to comm calls and emails to avoid uncomfortable questions.
A crazy part of Iris wanted to say exactly who and what Toran was to her, why she was acting this way. But she knew that if she explained, things would go from bad to worse. She didn’t care about her job right now, didn’t care if she got fired or was blacklisted or anything like that. But she couldn’t bring more attention to Toran, she had to protect him. And at this moment protecting him meant keeping their connection a secret. “I was investigating another angle. Things got out of hand.”
The raised eyebrow Selma shot her spoke paragraphs. But instead of saying them out loud, she merely sighed. “Ambassador Yormas of Wreet has issued a complaint against you and now I need to do a full investigation into your recent projects. I’ve never heard of this guy before, but it seems he made an impression.”
If Iris explained, would Selma believe her? Selma had to know about the darker things that lurked in the galaxy, the dangers that faced their planet on a daily basis. Something caused light to glint off the lens of one of the security cameras and Iris decided kept her findings to herself. Even if she could trust Selma, she couldn’t tell her here, not when anyone could be listening. “I didn’t mean to cause this much trouble,” Iris said quietly.
Selma just shook her head. “I’ve talked to the authorities here. You can go home. But no more off planet jaunts until this is all settled.”
Iris wasn’t sure she ever wanted to leave the planet again, not unless she had her own transportation to get back. “What about Toran?” Was he still here? Had someone come to fetch him? Did Yormas happen?
“This will go in his file, of course. He can talk to the judge at his hearing if he wants to go home, or back to his quarters, I mean. That’s none of your concern anymore. You’re suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.” Selma stood from the table and was out of the room before Iris could put together any more questions. Everything happened in a whirlwind after that. The guards came in and released her from her cuffs. They had her sign several pieces of paperwork that she barely managed to read, and in no time she was outside the nondescript facility and shunted into a taxi on her way home.
It killed her a little to leave Toran behind, but she was out and much more useful to him from there. She was already making plans to call Sierra and Raze and all of his people. She’d raise up an army and level the building if she had to, he just had to hold on for a little while longer.
The taxi dropped her off in front of her building and Iris walked up the stairs in a daze. She opened the door and didn’t realize that something was wrong until the cloying scent of an overly masculine cologne tickled her nostrils. She looked up and saw a blond man sitting on her couch. Had she really thought that he was the epitome of masculine beauty at some point? Had she really been willing to share her life with him and overlook all his flaws? Had she been that blind?
“Dan, what the hell are you doing here?”
PATIENCE WAS KEY TO getting out of a situation like this. Toran sat calmly on the bench in his cell and waited. He tried not to dwell on what was going to happen, on the things that could be done to him. And if he let himself think about the fact that his denya was somewhere in this building locked in a similar cell and facing an equally uncertain future he would go mad. So though it went completely against his nature, he forced those thoughts to the back of his mind. He couldn’t help her while he was locked behind solid steel. He had to get out before he could find her.
Hours ticked by and no one walked near him. He’d have heard it in the echoes on the walls if they had, but his only company was his breath and his heartbeat. He wanted to pace, but the cell wasn’t really big enough for that and he didn’t want to give his captors the satisfaction of watching him stew. He’d known this was a possibility when they climbed aboard the shuttle to leave Gamma Station. But he’d said nothing to Iris. She was worried enough already and it was better to be imprisoned on Earth than on the moon. That had been his thought, at least. And he hadn’t wanted her to worry during the long, uncomfortable ride. Maybe he should have warned her. Now he had plenty of time to think of that mistake.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the bond between them, but the connection was incomplete, and though he could feel Iris’s presence nestled in his heart, he could not focus and pinpoint whether she was okay and what direction she lay in. He wouldn’t regret his decision not to seal the bond under such precarious circumstances as they’d been in. Iris deserved a perfect moment, even if it would give him comfort to know through the metaphysical connection that she was all right. He had to go on faith instead, a difficult concept for a Detyen.
The sound of footsteps in the hall almost had him flinching, and he was standing at the ready when the door opened. It took him a moment to recognize the older man standing haloed in the bright light of the hallway, but when he did, Toran had to fight back a smile. Yormas wasn’t the only man with friends in high places.
“General.” He nodded in greeting at Sierra’s father.
General Remington Alvarez glared at him. “Let’s get you out of here.” The older man turned to the guard standing beside him and waved him into the cell. “Take those cuffs off of him now.” The laser cuffs that Alvarez was referring to were so lightweight that Toran had almost forgotten he was wearing them. He could move each of his hands independently, but if he got too close to any of the guards or one of the guards got jumpy and triggered the cuffs, they would be pulled together to immobilize him.
Toran held his hands out, ready to be freed. He had questions, foremost in his mind about the location of Iris. But for the first time today things were looking up. Another one of those questions was how the general knew he was in the cell. Had Sierra or Raze been keeping an eye out? They must have been.
In a matter of seconds the guard had undone t
he cuffs and stepped back, giving Toran a good deal of space. Once the guard was back through the door, the general began walking, expecting Toran to keep up. In a few quick steps he pulled up beside Alvarez and walked in step with him. “Are we going to retrieve Iris?” he asked. “Or is she meeting us somewhere?”
Alvarez shot him a look, his steely eyes unreadable. “Miss Mason was released two hours ago. She was sent home and the cab that dropped her off reported a safe entry into her quarters. She’s safe.”
But why hadn’t she come for him? Who had let her out? He repeated that question to Alvarez.
“Do you think I have all of the answers? If you knew the amount of favors I was calling in today, you would be embarrassed. If it weren’t for my daughter...” He shook his head and cleared his throat. “Whatever this mess is, it better not bring her down too. She’s already in enough trouble, and now she has that man beside her kicking up enough dust to choke someone. Whatever game you’re playing, you keep my daughter safe.” Alvarez never raised his voice, and from his tone he might have been speaking about the weather. But Toran felt the threat to his bones. Alvarez loved his daughter, that much was obvious. And he hated that he couldn’t protect her, that she was willing to throw herself into danger for people he thought were strangers and aliens.
“Sierra has given light to Raze where before there was only darkness. She is hope, and I will protect her as if she were my own sister.” He might have been wary of her when they’d first met, but those days were long past. Sierra had proven herself to him, and after Iris, she and Raze were the closest thing he had to family, with Kayde and Dryce not far behind.
The general still looked wary, but he nodded and let the subject drop. “I’m to take you back to your quarters.”