by Eve Langlais
If he wanted to kill her, he’d have done it already. “Did you come here to see if I’d beg for my life? Because that won’t happen.”
“I shouldn’t be here at all.”
“I’m surprised any of us are here after that streaking stunt. Or were you trying to set a record for vomiting passengers?” She arched a brow.
“Didn’t have a choice.” Said with a scowl. “Somehow, the citadel kept following us. Took us five jumps before we found the miniature drone hiding in the bay relaying our coordinates.”
“There are drones on board?” She slammed to her feet. “I need to see Karo.”
He blocked her way even more thoroughly than the door. A big man, he filled the small space of her cell with his presence.
The fact that he loomed meant she had to crane to see him.
He glared. “You are not going anywhere. The child is fine.”
“If there was one drone, there could be more.”
“I know, which is why it took eight jumps before we found them all.”
“Are you sure?”
His steady gaze searched hers. He nodded. “I’m sure.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Other than the hull stuff?” He shrugged. “We lost a cargo hold and all its contents, mostly seeds and farming equipment.” Which they used to trade with the colonies who thought it more valuable than any rock or metal. “No lives lost, so one positive.”
She eased out a breath. The crew already hated her for the lives lost as a result of her actions. She’d probably be dead already if they’d lost more. “I’m sorry I got you involved.” She truly was.
“Involved in what? Gonna explain that to me now?” he growled. “You said you stole something of theirs. What did you steal? The gypsies are determined to get their hands on you.”
“I know.”
“So give whatever you took back.”
“I can’t. And I didn’t really steal it. It was mine to start with, but they refuse to see it that way.”
“I should hand you over.”
“You can’t do that.”
“You’re right, I can’t.” His eyes blazed, and his fists clenched by his side.
She stepped closer. Could it be… Could he still care? She reached out, and he flinched away.
“Don’t.” He uttered the word with a cold glare. “Don’t think I am doing this for you. I’m doing it for the child.”
Her lips flattened. “She is your child, too.”
“Impossible. You were never pregnant while we were together.”
“I was. You just didn’t notice. And I never told you.”
He snorted. “How can you hide a nine-month pregnant belly?”
“Because I didn’t carry her for the full term.”
His brows shot high. “You used a steel womb?” The derogatory term used for women who chose a mechanical surrogate rather than have a baby naturally.
“I didn’t have a choice.” She’d not even known she was pregnant until the end of her first trimester.
“Why? Explain to me what’s going on.”
She hung her head instead. “I can’t.” Couldn’t tell him because she wasn’t even entirely sure herself. Her teacher had told her growing up that the Rhomanii would be out for her blood because of something her parents had done. She hadn’t expected that vendetta to extend to her child.
Annie warned me. And she didn’t listen.
“Can’t?” He barked the word as he raked a hand through his hair. “You seem to think you’re calling the shots here. Have you forgotten who’s captain of this ship?”
“I’ve forgotten nothing.” She would carry the guilt the rest of her life.
“Except how to tell the truth. Petrov is running a genetic match as we speak. Care to come clean while you still can?”
She raised her gaze to meet his. “She is your daughter, Kobrah.”
“Let’s say by some fucked-up chance she is. I still want that divorce.”
Which was better than him opting to become a widower. “I’ll give you what you want when you get us to safety.”
He loomed closer, the heat of him scorching. “I don’t think you’re in a position to bargain.”
No, but she did have one tool left in her arsenal. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. Hoped she’d properly read the reason for his anger.
Her mouth pressed against the hard line of his lips. For a moment, she wondered if she’d misjudged. He felt like stone against her, nothing like the man she once knew.
Then it unleashed. The passion that stole her breath. The desire, molten hot.
His hands cupped her ass and drew her upward that his mouth might better plunder hers. She laced her arms around his neck, the intimate contact the first since their last time together.
Her back slammed against the wall, but she reveled in the brutish passion, every bit as frantic as him. Her hands grasping at every part of him. Her mouth devouring.
She reached between their bodies to touch him. Found him ready, the hard steel length evidence of his desire. She squeezed and panted, “I’ve missed this.”
She should have kept her lips sealed.
He groaned. “Fuck me, what am I doing?” He shoved away from her.
“Kobrah.” His name emerged soft, and she reached for him.
Evading her hands, he turned away. “No. I can’t do this again. I won’t.”
He walked right through the wall that opened only an instant before he would have hit it. He didn’t look back. Didn’t tell her what he planned to do. She couldn’t stand not knowing.
“Kobrah?” This time the word held a query.
He paused and turned to face her, his face a cold mask with no sign of passion.
“What are you going to do?” She hated the plaintive note.
“You will stay here until further notice.”
“But—”
The doorway disappeared, leaving Dara alone.
She rubbed her tingling lips.
He’ll be back.
Chapter 5
Do not go back. That phrase kept repeating itself in his mind as he took long strides away from the brig.
What possessed him to kiss her? The second she plastered her mouth to his he’d known he should shove her away. How dare she use seduction? How dare she exploit his weakness?
His body betrayed him. Damn it for craving her touch. Her kiss.
He’d come close to taking her against the wall. Thrusting into her body, indulging after abstaining for so long. And he would have fucking loved it. Despite the time apart, he all too clearly remembered how it felt to be deep inside her. The pleasure…
Good thing he’d come to his senses.
Barely. Even now, he fought an urge to turn around, to release her from her prison, to free her from her clothes. He couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
Requiring distraction, he spent the next few hours overseeing repairs, strategizing with his officers who had varying ideas of how to move ahead now that the citadel appeared to have ceased chasing them. The question remained: For how long.
Had the Rhomanii given up, or did they bide their time? His ship needed to recover. Not to mention they’d been lucky so far with no fatalities. However, he knew their luck wouldn’t last, not if they had to face the citadel again.
Abrams had a simple plan. “Toss her ass out an airlock.”
“We can’t kill her.” The very idea clutched his heart in a vise. Funny, because a few days ago he’d have agreed with his chief of engineering.
His first mate had a different suggestion. “I’ll bet we could get a decent bounty if we turned her in.”
Not usually into biological entity trading, most of his crew would make an exception for the woman they knew had betrayed their captain.
“We’re not selling her either.” Not until he got more answers.
“Then how do you plan to deal with the next citadel we encounter?” asked Einstein. She sat in her hover seat, her withered legs tucked under a blanket. A you
th spent on an asteroid with little gravity and fewer nutrients had left her with certain physical disabilities, but it didn’t impair her sharp mind. “The ship can’t handle another series of streaks. One, two, yes, but if we need three or more, there’s a chance we’ll suck the power core dry, and then where will we be?”
Adrift in space… Kobrah tucked his hands behind his back rather than scrub his face in fatigue. It pulled at his limbs and, combined with the turmoil in his head—and heart—made it hard for him to come to a decision that was best for everyone.
Who was he kidding? He knew what had to be done. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Meanwhile his crew fired questions at him.
“How long does the captain plan to keep her aboard?”
“Where are you taking her and the child?”
“Have you decided to make another go of your marriage?”
He replied to the last. “Of course not.”
“Then what is your plan?”
That was the question with no clear answer. What did he want to do with Dara? Throttle her? Kiss her?
His crew had a point, though. He needed to make some kind of decision. One that wouldn’t put his entire crew and his reputation at further risk.
“Let’s grab a few hours of sleep and reconvene. I’ll give my orders then. Alert me at the first sign of anything happening.” While they appeared to have lost the chasing gypsies, it could be they just waited for the crew of the Moth to lower its guard.
Despite his mind being tuned to the woman in the brig, he headed toward his room instead. Even he knew what a bad idea it would be to confront her again until he’d gotten some rest and managed to regain control of himself.
Entering his quarters, he halted. Not because Michonne, Damon’s wife, was inside. He wouldn’t have entered at all if Michonne was there alone. But she had a companion. A few feet tall. Arms crossed. Expression stubborn.
Familiar…
“I want my mother,” the child stated.
Before Michonne—with an exasperated look—could answer for what he feared might not be the first time, he did. “Your mother is unavailable at the moment.”
That drew a flashing blue-eyed gaze. For a moment he expected the harangue to turn his way. For her to launch into a temper tantrum. Apparently, he knew nothing of children.
A smile stretched Karolyne’s lips as her arms stretched wide and she ran at him. “Daddy!”
Er, daddy? He didn’t have time to process the word before he was being hugged. “Eep.” An odd sound emerged.
From him.
Worse, he didn’t know how to react to the pint-sized person latched onto his legs. Did there exist a special word or tool to detach them?
“About time you got here. Your daughter is as stubborn as you,” Michonne exclaimed, making her way past him to the door.
He almost retorted, “Not my daughter,” but held back. Even he knew better than to bark that claim with said child still latched on. “Where are you going?” he asked, surely not panicked at all at the thought of being left alone.
“To see my husband. I’ve been minding the child most of the day, which is more exhausting than you’d think.”
He happened to glance down and caught Karolyne sticking her tongue out at Michonne. “You can’t leave,” he couldn’t help but bark.
A command spoken to a retreating backside. Michonne waved. “Best of luck and don’t worry. If she kills you with questions, my husband will mourn your loss as he takes command.”
Not exactly the most reassuring endorsement. The door sealed shut.
He glanced down at the child still wrapped around his legs. How long would this last? Should he perhaps peel her off? And if yes, where should he start?
A gap-tooth grin met his puzzled one. “I was waiting for you, Daddy.”
“Um.” What to say? Even he had enough common sense to not reiterate his belief they were not related. Impossible.
Yet, Dara stated it with certainty. Let’s say he entertained the idea, why not tell him? They’d talked of having children. Several, as a matter of fact. Why hide Karolyne?
“When’s Mommy coming?” Asked with a soft cuteness that squeezed his heart.
“I’m afraid your mother is—”
“In jail. I know. Because you think she did something bad.”
“She did.” She cost people their lives.
“She did it for me.”
Looking at the child, he had no doubt she spoke the truth as she knew it. “Do you know why the Rhomanii are after you?”
He’d found the words to peel her from his leg. Karolyne wandered away from him, running her fingers over the old books from Earth he collected, kept on a shelf. “Mama says it’s ’cause I’m special. They want her, too. They just can’t see ’cause of her necklace.”
“What necklace?”
“She calls it an…” Her nose scrunched. “Art. If. Act.”
“An artifact?” That hid her from drones? He’d never heard of such a thing. Then again, he’d never encountered knives that could slice those alien machines like soft cheese.
“How long have they been after you?” he asked.
“Since I was born.” Spoken matter-of-factly.
“And how old are you?”
“Almost five years old.” She beamed. “Mama says I’m tall for my age. One day I’ll be as tall as you.” Karolyne didn’t doubt for a moment he was her father.
Which reminded him. “Ivan, have the results come in yet?”
The computer linked them immediately, and Ivan replied, “Ah, Captain, I was just about to contact you. We do have results. We ran them three times to be sure.”
“And?”
“Meet us later for a congratulatory cigar.”
Punch. The news socked him in the gut. The genetics didn’t lie.
She is my daughter.
He looked at the girl.
Those eyes. Her mother’s. But everything else about her…
My flesh and blood.
He swept her into his arms and headed out of his room.
Rather than protest, his child giggled and looped her arms around his neck.
“Where are we going, Daddy?”
“To visit your mother.” Because, suddenly, he wasn’t tired anymore. And he needed answers.
Chapter 6
When the cell door opened, Dara was ready to launch a harangue, which had replaced her initial plan to seduce her husband. She refused to seduce the man who left her alone for hours—after that scorcher of a kiss—with no word.
She was ready to pepper him with a litany of complaints, but she held her tongue as she saw what Kobrah carried.
“Karo!” She held out her arms, and her child wiggled to get down, immediately running to her mother.
“Mommy.” Karo snuggled into Dara, and for a moment, everything felt complete.
Kobrah ruined it. “She really is my daughter.”
“I told you she was.”
“And I was supposed to believe you?” He kept his accusation bland, and yet the expression in his eyes was anything but. He kept his temper in firm check, most likely because of Karo.
“I might have lied about some things—”
He snorted.
“—but I would never lie about that.”
“You might not have lied, but you purposely hid her from me.”
Their daughter took his side. “Mommy was bad for not telling you.”
“Karo!”
A snort escaped him. “Don’t chide the child for being astute. At least she got my smarts.”
“Now that you know, what are you going to do?” The question that plagued her. Kobrah could very well decide to keep Karo and raise her, leaving Dara where? Possibly shot out an airlock.
“Everyone keeps asking me that.”
“If you can get me to the Jerminian system—”
“What’s in the Jerminian system?”
“Something that might help us.” A safe pla
ce that she should have never left. Her teacher had warned her the universe was a big, bad place. She should have listened. She’d tried to stay away. And now for the last two years had been trying to return, only to have events conspire against her.
“I’m helping you.”
“Your ship almost got hijacked by the Rhomanii.”
“But didn’t. We lost the citadel that was trailing us.”
“Did you? Or are they setting a more elaborate trap?”
She could see he’d thought of it. “We’re on guard for any tricks.”
“Are you prepared to be on guard the rest of your life? Because that’s a guarantee if Karo and I stay on board.”
“I can’t exactly abandon you.” His pointed glance at Karo said it all.
She might have said more, but that was when she noticed a shimmering at the cell door. That could mean only one thing.
A cloaking device. And where there was something hidden…
“Behind you,” she yelled.
“I am not falling for that old trick,” he said with a snort.
Since he wouldn’t listen, she shoved Karo behind her and lunged for the door.
Kobrah cursed and whirled to grab hold of her, only to curse again as he saw Dara grappling with the tentacles of a small drone. She held tight to the wiggling appendages, one of which had projected a needle. A sleeping draught she assumed.
“Do something,” she yelled, but he was already in motion.
He pulled a dagger from a sheath at his side—Dara’s dagger—and jabbed it through the cranium of the tiny drone she wrestled with.
It no sooner dropped to the floor than three others crammed the entrance.
To give Kobrah a chance to get them all, she gripped the appendages of two and threw herself to the floor, doing her best to hold them while he took care of the third. In short order, there were four melting puddles, one little girl clapping her hands, beaming at her daddy, and a disgruntled Dara.
She wiped her hands on her pants. “I thought you got them all?”
“We did. We went through every inch of this ship. More than once.”
“Then that means there’s a citadel hiding nearby.”
“No shit. Damon!” He barked the name, and the computer put them in a communication channel. “We have a situation.”