by H. E. Trent
“I beg to differ,” Autumn spat.
“Hey.” Luke took a step back and gave Sera’s shoulders a consoling rub. “It’s okay. I’ll handle this. Thank you for worrying about me.”
Sera didn’t look like she believed him, but she gave Autumn one more withering look out of the corner of her eye and then retreated to the inside of the house.
Autumn allowed herself a few seconds of recentering before turning back to the men. Perhaps her imagination simply wasn’t good enough, but she would have never guessed that Luke was, literally, a man’s man.
And he brought me all the way to Jekh. Why?
Nervously, she chafed her arms with her hands and stared out at the mountain range in the distance. She wasn’t thinking about business and where she could scout for property next. She wasn’t thinking about how many places on Jekh she had yet to see.
She was thinking about choices, and how if she weren’t careful, she’d run fresh out of them.
People acted rashly when they were desperate. She had to be careful not to become her own victim so she took another deep breath, fixated on the thin grass abutting the wall of the house, and then cleared her throat. “Perhaps…I’m not always the most observant person when it comes to relationships,” she started as calmly as she could. “But, sometimes, I have an excellent gut.”
Her words were met with silence, so she looked up, then, at one man, and then the other.
Alex had his eyes narrowed in a murderous leer at her, and Autumn had a pretty good idea of why that may have been. Good ideas rather. People didn’t have to do things in shadows if they weren’t afraid to take them into the light. Luke was his secret.
She might have felt pity for them if Luke hadn’t tangled her up in the mess.
“Get on with it,” Alex said.
“Oh, I intend to,” she said with a laugh. “I’m simply deciding how best to go about this. I mean, if you’re a couple and you’re intending to proclaim that in some official capacity, I certainly understand why I wouldn’t be wanted. I’ll get out of your way. No questions asked.” She didn’t bother affixing a conciliatory smile on her face at the end of that speech. They would have all known it was phony. “So, who else needs to be told your good news?”
Neither said anything.
She hadn’t really expected them to.
“I see.” She rotated the sapphire ring on her right middle finger and looked pointedly at Luke. “I believe your little town’s filing office closes at three today.”
“And your point?”
“And it would seem that there’s now something of a priority for us to handle business today, don’t you think? After all, we’re ever so excited about starting our future together, aren’t we?”
“I think you and I both know that’s a lie.”
“Mm-hmm. I was reasonably certain that was a lie from the moment you met me at my ship in Little Gitano, just not for the same reason I think it now. I mean, I understand.” She shrugged. “I get buyer’s remorse sometimes, too, and cohabitation is a big deal. We’re talking about living with people who’ve made zero effort to get acquainted with each other, and yet have to convincingly demonstrate that they have a functional relationship. Well.” Scoffing, she hitched her tote bag’s strap up higher on her shoulder and gestured to the door. “Shall we? I’m a businesswoman. I’m willing to bullshit my way through another transaction if you are.”
Alex grabbed Luke’s sleeve. “Listen, don’t do this. She’s bluffing.”
“Try me,” she said, and the words sounded cold, even to her.
She’d been backed into a corner, and she didn’t like that feeling. If they were going to take her options away, she was going to strip some of theirs, too. She refused to be humiliated so severely once again for something that hadn’t been her fault. She’d suspected that in the end, she and Luke weren’t going to work simply because she was so emotionally stunted and inexperienced in trusting, but never in her wildest dreams could she have predicted being used so maliciously. She’d hoped that was a skill set unique to people like her father.
“Try me,” she repeated, and through clenched teeth.
He was intimidating, Alex Hauge, with his aristocratic glare and looming presence, but he was just one more man for her to cut down. It didn’t matter how big they were or how important. They could all be felled.
Luke took Alex’s hand in his and squeezed it tenderly while leaning into the huffing man’s line of sight. “Hey. It’ll be all right.”
“No.” Alex shook his head. “I’ll figure something out. I’ll…tell my father, and he’ll—”
“No.” Luke shook his head. “No. It’s not the time, okay? I understand that now. I’m not going to make you do that.”
“But—”
Luke squeezed his hand again. He handled Alex in a way that indicated that he knew the man well and he understood him, and that was more than Autumn had ever had with any man. No man paid that sort of attention to her or sacrificed anything for her.
It was her turn to finally get something, even if she had to take a page out of her father’s book and steal it.
“Shall we?” She tilted her head toward the door and tapped her foot impatiently. She didn’t like how she was feeling. Didn’t like the feeling that her head was swimming with dizziness and her stomach knotting anxiously because her heart was shrinking.
But she could fix that later, she hoped. Everyone made mistakes, but everyone was redeemable. She was simply walking headfirst into wickedness rather than stumbling into it as most people did.
With evident reluctance, Alex let go of Luke’s hand.
Shaking his head, Luke walked to the back door.
“You’ll regret crossing me until the day you die, bitch,” Alex said.
She shrugged and followed her new fiancé into the house. “Likewise, I’m sure.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Alex stared at the flyer descending into the street in front of the general store in Little Gitano. He tried to make out the figures inside, praying his agent was within and had news. Having few options, he’d reluctantly recruited Sera to be his eyes and ears on all things Luke.
Had he been on Earth, he would have had more resources—more people to engage who could have skulked on his behalf—but given the sensitive nature of his issue, his network was limited.
The doors motored up. Trigrian disembarked first, followed by Courtney holding both of her young children, and then Sera.
Sera waved them on into the meet-shop and mouthed something to them, likely that she’d catch up to them.
Once they’d stepped into the general store/town gathering space she looked around. She lifted the long skirt of her traditional-style Jekhan dress off the dusty road, and then hurried across.
Alex moved back into the shadows as she approached, and they started walking as though there was nothing unusual about their rendezvous, even if she was his lover’s brother’s wife, and neither of her husbands was anywhere in sight.
“Well?” he asked. They were on the path to the junkyard. If they were spotted together there, no one would assume anything insidious. It wasn’t the most romantic place in town by any stretch of the imagination.
“What would you like to hear?” she asked.
“Anything. Something. I haven’t seen Luke for weeks, haven’t heard from him.” He stopped near the yard’s gate to peruse a new sign that had been posted.
Relocation to occur on 28th April.
Construction permit held by A. Ray, Arrow Enterprises.
“That fucking bitch,” he murmured. “This is hers?”
“Yes. Apparently so. The permit office changed the signs recently. Previously, they didn’t list names.” Sera rubbed his back and, sitting primly on the edge of the crumbling stone bench on the path, sighed. “Would it make you feel better or worse to know that he’s successfully avoided her since the day they—”
“Don’t even say it.”
Alex knew what they
did. He knew about all the forms that had been filed. Knew that on paper, Luke and Autumn were man and wife, and they shouldn’t have been. Luke should have never put himself into that fucking database. He should have never signed off on her relocation.
“Why is he so fucking stubborn?” Alex murmured.
Sera opened her mouth to answer, but he said, “Don’t answer that.”
There was no good answer—at least not one that didn’t spotlight how stubborn Alex was, too.
Alex jammed his hands into his pockets and paced. He didn’t have much time to sulk. In less than an hour, he was supposed to meet up with Oreva for a weeklong trip to The Barrens for business. Alex needed to get his head in the game. He benefited from Oreva’s work as much as his partner did, and he couldn’t leave Oreva carrying the whole burden. His head was just so cluttered. He’d never felt such impotence before.
Then again, he’d never really been in love before.
“If you want to see him…” Sera started, “I may be able to arrange something.”
Alex stopped pacing but didn’t turn to her. “Like what?”
“Like I said, they don’t see each other. No one on the farm has started asking any questions yet because they’re all so distracted by other things, plus I think Autumn has Cree running interference. Is that the right phrase?” Sera’s forehead creased with concentration. “Running interference?”
“Depends on what you’re getting at.” He turned back to her. “What do you mean?”
Sera’s brow furrowed. Idly, she rubbed her left shoulder. She’d injured that arm during a stampede of sex slaves on a pirate hideout planet. She was able to use it again, but there would likely always be some residual aches.
“I see Cree far more often than I see Autumn. I don’t know if Autumn sends her to the farm on purpose, or if Cree shows up on her own, but she’s always around. She’s not bothering anyone, really. And she even helps out if she can. She taught the children how to play a circle game last night and helped Cet wrap her painted tiles for sale this morning. No one on the farm would say no to volunteered help, even from a Ray.”
Alex grimaced. He certainly didn’t expect them to be outright cruel to her, but of course he was disappointed that she was wriggling herself into the works.
“I think the only people who notice that Luke hasn’t been as omnipresent as usual are Owen and Ais,” Sera said.
“He hasn’t been sleeping at their place?”
She shook her head. “He’s been sleeping in his ship. I offered him a room at our house, but he didn’t want Marco and Jasper interrogating him about why he was there.”
“And I guess the same would apply to Owen and Ais.”
“You should tell Owen. Of anyone you should tell, you should tell him. He knows Luke better than anyone.”
Alex grimaced. “But he’ll tell Ais.”
“And, what? Do you believe she’ll despise you for poaching a potential trio partner from your little sister?”
“No. Honestly, that thought hadn’t come to mind.” He groaned and jammed his hands into his hair. Having no one to impress, he hadn’t bothered brushing it. “I think she’ll be upset at me for the stress we’ve caused her. I don’t like thinking I’ve upset her. She’s so sensitive, and she breaks me when she cries.”
“There are compelling reasons for you to visit Ais, yes?”
“Of course. I enjoy seeing my sister and my nephew.”
“And there’s no reason Luke would avoid them, either. Again, he’s Owen’s best friend.”
“And…” He wasn’t following Sera’s train of thought.
“And it wouldn’t be unusual for you to both be at the house at the same time, Alex.”
“Oh.” Finally catching her gist, Alex scoffed and shook his head. So simple, but he didn’t see where the scheme would do him any good. “He’s a married man.”
“So what?”
“Are you condoning infidelity? Given your seriousness about your trio, I wouldn’t have predicted that from you.”
“And you shouldn’t. There are few things I cherish more than my bonds to Marco and Jasper, but as far as I’m concerned, Luke’s marriage is illegitimate.” She gave a halfhearted shrug. “Especially given that neither seems to have any desire to consummate it.”
“She probably thinks he’s gay,” he mused. She probably thought both of them were gay, and Alex was surprised at how few fucks he gave about what she thought.
Sera shrugged. “I don’t know what she thinks. She may simply be too busy building her empire, or perhaps she never wanted that from him in the first place. Perhaps he was a means to an end.”
“He’s more than that.” How anyone could be in the presence of Lucas Cipriani and not want everything he had to offer floored Alex. There had to be something seriously wrong with her. Alex had never realized just how incomplete he was until he’d had Luke poke at him and shake him out of his complacency.
Sera nodded solemnly. “I know.”
“I’m leaving sometime in the next couple of hours. I’ll be gone for a week. Maybe more, depending on conditions down south.”
“The offer still stands for when you return. Tell me the time and day, and I’ll get him where you need him to be.”
Alex gave the post of the sign a frustrated bump with his foot and let out a breath.
Sneaking around like they were doing something wrong. Maybe to some people, they were, but the circumstances were unusual. They were on Jekh, and Jekh was a place where the desperate converged. Alex could admit he was desperate, and he was tired of pretending that he wasn’t all the time.
“I’ll call you,” he said, kicking the post again. “When we’re close.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
When Duke stepped through the front door of Owen’s house, it took every ounce of restraint Luke had not to grab him and shake him or kiss him or…something.
In the back of his mind, he was aware that he was supposed to be keeping his hands to himself. He had a wife somewhere or other. A marriage on paper only, with the wife being maintained in a separate residence like some Victorian British landowner or something.
He was also aware that Owen and Ais were hovering nearby, and using some restraint seemed prudent.
Duke shut the door behind him and set his bag on the floor by the coat rack.
“You…spending the night?” Luke asked.
Duke nodded and pinned his gaze over Luke’s shoulder.
Ais sidled around him with Michael perched on one hip, and stood right in front of Duke. She stared up at him, saying nothing, and Duke didn’t flinch.
“Are you angry with me?” he asked her.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.” He gave one of Michael’s curls a gentle tug.
“Owen and I are leaving early in the morning. We’re taking my mother to fetch her friends from the bunker.”
“We’ll be discreet.”
“We don’t care if you are,” Owen said and leaned against the kitchen counter. “We just wanted you to know that there’ll be some activity outside at around dawn and that people will be paying attention then. It’s up to you if you want to be seen. You have every right to be here. No one expects you to sleep in your ship all the time, but you never know who’s watching. You never know who might accidentally say something that could get you into some trouble later.”
“Understood,” Duke said.
“Do you want dinner?” Ais asked Duke. “I don’t know if you’ve eaten.”
“Don’t trouble yourself,” he told his sister. “My belly is full enough.”
Owen gestured to the staircase of the two-story house. “If you want to actually sleep in the bed, one of you is going to have to make it.”
“Right about now, I’d sleep in a bathtub if the water was soft.” Duke scooped up his bag and, after giving Luke a look over his shoulder, started up the stairs.
Luke started to follow, but as soon as he got his foot up on the first step, Ais took his
wrist.
She watched Duke disappear down the hallway, and then pulled her red gaze down to Luke.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to lecture me,” he said quietly and nudged her chin up with his thumb. Briefly, all the what-ifs curled within him, paralyzing him with the options that were either unfeasible or didn’t exist. He would have been happy being hers and Owen’s, but that wasn’t how things worked out. He knew that what he was doing with Duke wasn’t just him trying to snatch a consolation prize, but it was hard not to question himself when he looked at her and saw so much of her half-brother in her features.
“I’m not going to lecture you. I…” Looking to Owen, then back, she put on a wavering grin. “I don’t like not knowing what’s going to happen. I don’t like the uncertainty of this. You’ll get hurt, or he will, but I don’t know how to counsel you.”
Duke poked his head around the corner of the hallway and looked downstairs. “Are you coming?”
“Yeah, in a minute,” Luke said. “Ais is reminding me that I’m an insufferable reprobate.”
Duke shrugged and left without debating the matter.
Luke scoffed and dragged his hand through his messy hair. “See what I’m getting myself into? He doesn’t even come to my defense.”
Ais grinned. “He’s got your number, as Owen might say.”
“Yeah, I guess he does.” Luke shifted his weight and scratched his itchy left ring finger. It was as if the flesh there taunted him with his attempted infidelity—with the ring he hadn’t put on, and probably never would. The band he’d bought with barely a cursory glance was in one of his numerous duffel bags, zipped out of sight. Whether or not Autumn was wearing hers, he didn’t know. Didn’t care, really.
“I guess no one said this was going to be easy,” he said.
Owen joined them at the base of the staircase and leaned against the balustrade. “You used to be good at making women go away with no hard feelings.”
“Yeah, well, this one had the hard feelings even before she showed up.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know if I’ve told you, but I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”