by Christy,Dena
“I didn’t know if he could help, and I’m sorry if my talking to him has upset you.” He put his hand up to her cheek, and she rested against his palm. “If I had my first choice, I would keep you with me, but I can’t do that. It would kill me if something happened to you if I could have prevented it. Please understand I’m not doing this because I don’t want to be with you, I’m doing it because I want you to be safe.”
How could she argue with that? She wanted to help him find his friends, but she knew her own limitations. Already she’d been stretched so far out of her comfort zone, that she didn’t think her nerves could take much more. Perhaps she wasn’t built for a life of adventure. Sadness settled over her as she realized just how finite their time was together.
“We don’t have to go right now do we?” It was foolish to delay the inevitable, but she needed time to prepare herself to say goodbye.
The longer she spent with him the harder it would be to leave him, and she was foolish to think that they could have a life together. If they had met under different circumstances, perhaps things would have worked out for them and they would have had a chance at a life together. As it stood he was stranded on a foreign planet, and she was a fugitive in her own country. Perhaps it was for the best to start over and try to forget.
“Miranda…”
“It’s okay, I get it. It is for the best, you need to find your way home and I need to get my life back to normal.” She looked away from him. “Vinnie we are ready to hear what you have to say.”
The provider of the shop poked his head in the back room and looked from her to Synn. He must have sensed the soberness of the situation, because his gold tooth no longer flashed, and for the first time since Miranda had walked into the shop he looked sad.
“All I have for you is an address,” he said, and he placed a small slip of paper on top of the counter and slid it toward Synn, and Miranda intercepted it. She picked it up and looked at it.
“This is in the old warehouse district in the east end, how can I get a new life there?”
“Things aren’t always what they seem, and that is why the authorities could never find the people who will help you. They specialize in helping women escape their current situations and forge a new life for themselves.”
Miranda folded the paper in half and tucked it into her purse. She looked up at Vinnie and pushed her face into a smile, even though it was the last thing she felt like doing. He’d been so helpful to them, and although she knew he’d profited from their relationship, he had still gone farther than a simple transaction warranted.
“Thank you for selling the earrings, and for giving us this information.” She hitched her purse onto her shoulder. “Maybe I’ll see you again someday.”
“I hope you forgive me for saying, but I hope our paths never cross again. You're too nice a lady to live a life that causes the selling such beautiful things.” Vinnie inclined his head toward her. Miranda glanced up at Synn, turned on her heel and walked out of the door of the shop.
She headed down the sidewalk, not looking to see if Synn followed. She heard the tinkling bell of the shop door closing, and within a matter of moments his hand was on her shoulder, halting her forward motion. She refused to look at him. She needed to distance herself from him if she was going to walk away. It was what they needed to do, and she could only do that if she put up a wall between them.
“We should get going.” She stared down at a spot on the sidewalk and clutched her purse to her. There was a whole other reason they need to get to their destination quickly since she was carrying more cash in her purse then most of the people around them saw in their lifetime. “We can take public transit out to the east end.”
“Miranda,” he said, his voice soft and gentle. “Please look at me.”
She took a deep breath, turned her head to look up at him. She stared into his navy eyes and tried to block out the pain doing so caused. This would be one of the last times she would get to look at him, and the knowledge only made her feel worse.
“We should go.”
He looked at her for several minutes as if he longed to say something. She looked at him expectantly, but he gave a small shake of his head. He rested his palm against hers and she curled her fingers around his hand, and they started down the sidewalk. Whatever he been about to say must not have been that important, or perhaps it was too important to say in the middle of a crowded sidewalk.
They walked for several minutes, and with every step closer to the bus terminal the more Miranda’s shoulders sagged. She glanced up at Synn from the corner of her eye, and she could see the muscles in his face had grown tight and tense. His body language had also changed, and he appeared to be on high alert. This couldn’t result from their embarking on a trip that would take her out of his life forever. It had to be something else.
“Synn, what is it?” Her steps slowed, and his hand tightened on hers as he continued forward.
“Don’t look back, keep going forward,” he said, his voice a low tense rumble in his chest. “I don’t want you to be alarmed, but there’s someone following us. I don’t want to look back but I noticed his smell a ways back, and it’s only getting stronger. I’m certain he is heading in the same direction we are.”
Miranda’s heart picked up its pace in her chest, and her body trembled. Not again. She thought they covered their tracks, how could he have found them again? Synn was right to find her some place to hide and start her life over. She wasn’t built for this cat and mouse shit.
“What are we going to do?”
“We will keep going straight ahead, until we can find a place to hide. Then I will lure him into the open and eliminate the threat he poses.” Synn’s voice was grim, and Miranda glanced up at him again.
She could see his skin changing at the edges of his hairline, and she hoped he kept it together because there was no way the normally oblivious citizens of Nova Earth could ignore a man with opal skin walking in their midst. She could tell just by looking at him that Synn had grown tired of this cat and mouse shit too.
Chapter Eighteen
Adrenaline pounded through Synn’s body, and he scanned the horizon to see if there was somewhere they could go to get off this street. He needed to get Miranda some place safe, and then he would do what it took to keep her safe. Whatever it took.
They came abreast of the mouth of an alley, and Synn squeezed her hand and pulled her out of the flow of foot traffic. They turned down the alley, and their way forward got dimmer and dimmer, until they were swallowed by shadows. Synn sniffed the air, but all he could smell was dank pavement, and not the pungent scent of urine that had clung to their pursuer. There was a small alcove to the right near the end of the alley, and Synn pulled Miranda inside it and they press themselves against the wall while they waited.
They waited for several minutes, and nothing happened.
Perhaps he’d been wrong. He knew that a soldier wouldn’t smell as rank as the scent of the man following them, so he wasn’t worried that the authorities had caught up with them. But Miranda had a lot of money in her purse, and despite dressing in shabbier clothes today, she still looked like she was of a higher class then the surrounding denizens.
“Are you sure there’s someone following us?” Miranda spoke in a low undertone that was barely audible. Synn didn’t think he’d been mistaken, but perhaps the stress of the past few days and the stress of leaving Miranda had made him paranoid. He’d been sure someone had been following them intending to rob them, and his instincts were usually right.
He grew still and cocked his head to the side.
Synn put his finger up to her lips, and she grew still and tense beside him.
He focused all his attention on listening and his diligence was rewarded when he heard a very soft scuffling sound midway between the alley mouth and where they stood. A glance at Miranda told him that she had not heard it, and he pushed her back further into the alcove motioning for her to be still and silent. He m
oved so he stood in front of her, blocking her from view and he waited. A man shaped shadow fell on the ground to the right of their position.
Synn launched himself out of the alcove, slamming into his target and tackling him to the ground. The man beneath him grunted in pain, and Synn reared back, his fist poised to strike their stalker.
“Are you going to beat me to a pulp Synn?” the man beneath him said in perfect Latrothian. Synn dropped his hand and immediately got up. Relief flooded through him when he saw it was Ryce laying prone on the ground. Synn pulled his friend to his feet and Ryce dusted off his pants with his hands. His fingers found a small tear in the leg, and he scowled at Synn. “It took a lot of effort to steal these pants, now I have to get another pair.”
There was a sour note in Ryce’s voice, and Synn didn’t care, he was just glad to see that his friend was alive. He pulled him close and hugged him before pulling back and clapping him on his shoulder.
“I am so glad to see you, do you know where Cynric is? I could only see you on my tracker, and without the use of a map I thought I was going to spend days trying to find you.”
“I don’t know where he is. I’m having the same problem with my tracker, you’re the only one I could see too. We may have to look into getting on a bigger network to find him.”
“That may be a problem, there appears to be eyes everywhere on this planet. I escaped a lab where they were planning my dissection, and I don’t want to go back there. We must find another way.”
Ryce’s attention was caught by something over Synn’s shoulder, and he turned to see Miranda come out of the alcove. She looked to between him and Ryce, and he realized that they been speaking their own language. She would not have understood a word they said. She walked over to his side, with wary eyes on Ryce.
Synn looked back at his friend, and he could see his eyes traveling up and down Miranda’s form as he gave her a crooked grin and winked at her.
“Are you attempting, in you own clumsy way, to flirt with her,” Synn asked Ryce in their own language.
“Of course I am.” Ryce extended his hand to Miranda. “I’m Ryce. Don’t worry about our little scuffle, we’re old friends.”
Miranda looked up at Synn for a moment before taking Ryce’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you.” She shook his hand before letting it drop. She eased closer to Synn’s side, and he put his hand on the small of her back.
Ryce look at Synn, at Miranda and back to Synn again. There was a speculative look in his eyes and he tilted his head to the side. Enlightenment followed soon after.
“You dirty dog. I was worrying about you there for a while buddy, what with your obsession with Hylda and all. Glad to see that you found yourself a real woman instead of a bucket of rust and spare parts.”
“You two realize that I can’t understand a word you’re saying,” Miranda said. “Maybe we can go somewhere quiet, where we can eat and you two can catch up.”
“That sounds like a great idea.” Ryce walked over to Miranda and put his arm around her shoulder.
Although Ryce was his friend, Synn didn’t like the sight of him touching her. But he wouldn’t treat Miranda like a rag doll by pulling her away, no matter how much he wanted to. Ryce could be pushy, but he was doing this more to get a rise out of Synn, then to put a move on Miranda.
She solved his dilemma for him when she ducked out from under Ryce’s arm and waited for Synn to come stand beside her. Ryce inclined his head to Synn and Synn knew he was admitting defeat on this one.
“There’s a place not too far from here.” Miranda grasped Synn’s hand. He gave her hand a squeeze, and she smiled up at him.
“Good because I’m starving,” Ryce said.
They made their way down the alley and back out onto the street. It didn’t take long for them to reach the small café that Miranda had mentioned. They walked in the door and made their way to the back to an available table in a quiet corner.
“I’m going to go to the ladies room, if someone comes by just order me the special.”
Miranda tucked her purse carefully to her side and turned away and walked toward the sign that indicated the washrooms were just down the short hall.
“So you think casting her aside is a good way to thank her for sleeping with you and saving your life?” Ryce looked down at the menu as if they were discussing the weather. “I wonder if the food here is any good?”
“I am not casting her aside. I am trying to not mess up her life any more than I’ve already done. How do you know that she and I are going our separate ways, anyway?”
“You’ve talk about it with her haven’t you? Her mind is like an open book, how else could I know?”
Synn’s heart picked up it’s pace. Ryce could read Miranda’s mind? She didn’t have a special ability to block her thoughts?
Synn looked down at his hands. It still didn’t mean that she was the one, the Mark still hadn’t appeared. But it reinforced the notion that there was something off about the whole situation.
“You can’t read her mind can you?” Ryce looked up at him his face growing serious.
“No.”
“Don’t you realize what that means? According to all the stories she’s your true mate.”
“Those are just stories.” Synn gave a dismissive wave of his hand. She couldn’t be his true mate. How could he let her go otherwise? “We have no proof that it’s true. Besides, the only way to know is if the Mark appears and it hasn’t yet.”
Ryce stroked his chin for a moment. “So you’re just planning to leave her?”
“She saved my life, at great risk to herself. The least I can do is make sure that she gets her life back. And she can’t do that with me. I don’t know how much of this place you’ve experienced, but from my end it’s too risky. I am being hunted as we speak, and I won't sacrifice her life for the sake of my own needs.”
“Well I think your a fucking idiot but it’s your happiness you’re throwing away, so who am I to argue.”
Synn glared at his friend, but caught sight of Miranda coming back to the table out of the corner of his eyes so he smoothed out his features. She’d finally come around to his way of thinking, and he didn’t want Ryce’s opinion to sway her into wanting to stay with him. It would kill him to let her go, but he had to do it.
A waiter shuffled over, the look on his face saying he’d rather be anywhere but there. He held a small pad of paper in his hand and a pencil.
“What can I get you,” he said with as much enthusiasm in his voice as was evident on his face.
“What’s good?” Ryce glanced at the menu one more time.
“It’s all edible,” the waiter said in a monotone voice.
“We’ll have three specials,” Miranda said and the waiter dutifully jotted down and walked away. “In places like this is best just to go with the special, since there isn’t one dish that’s outstanding.”
“Don’t people take pride in their work?” Ryce said.
“Some do,” Miranda said. “A lot don’t and those are the ones that are doing jobs the government has told them are the only ones they can do.”
“Nice planet you got here. The government spies on everybody, tells them what they can do and tries to kill visitors. Awesome.” Ryce rolled his eyes. He looked over at Synn. “We need to get the hell off this rock.”
“I’m open to suggestions.” Synn didn’t know how they were going to do it without their commander and a ship to take them off the planet, but Ryce was more than welcome to come up with a plan.
“We need Cynric,” Ryce said as his mouth tightened. “And we can't find him.”
“Who’s Cynric?” Miranda asked as she glanced over at Ryce.
“He’s our commander, and we can't leave this planet without him.”
“So Cynric is the commander and what do you and Synn do?”
“Synn’s the pilot and I’m the weapons expert. If you need anything flown through an asteroid field or in a dogfight, S
ynn’s your man. You want somebody who can handle any kind of weapon, create havoc and cause explosions, I’m there. All together as a team we’re awesome. Separately, Synn gets himself kidnapped and almost dissected. And I have to resort to stealing the pants off of passed out hobo and smelling like pee. Speaking of which,” Ryce said as he looked over at Synn. “I hope you have a place to stay. I need a shower.”
“Yes I have a place you can shower, and I have extra clothes too.”
“Thanks man. So what do we do next?”
“You go back to the hotel, and I take Miranda somewhere she’ll be safe.”
“I am right here you know,” Miranda said with a frown “I think I should be the one to decide when I go.”
Synn didn’t want to argue with her in front of his friend, so he said nothing. Their food arrived, and Synn wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Ryce picked up his fork and shoved a big bite into his mouth. His look of relish faded, and he looked like he had to force that first bite down.
“Well he was right, it is edible.” Ryce shrugged his shoulders as he took another bite. Synn pushed his plate away, he wasn't in the mood for food right now anyway, especially not very good food. “We need to get off this planet of this is the food they have to offer.”
“We need to find Cynric,” Synn said. “So far this mission has been a disaster, and I hope he’s still alive.”
“I agree brother,” Ryce said as he shoved another forkful of food in his mouth. “But look on the bright side, it wasn’t a total loss. At least you lost your virginity.”
* * *
Miranda pushed her fork around in her food, not sure what to make of Synn’s friend. She’d known he was coming on to her when he’d first seen her in the alley, but as soon as he shook her hand he stopped, as if just by touching her he knew the direction her interests lie. Under normal circumstances she would find him amusing, but right now she was too tense to enjoy the effects of his humor. He was right about one thing. He smelled like pee. She was too polite to say anything to him, but she noticed two patrons had shifted away from him.