Submission's Edge
Page 19
He had to matter.
It was a source of both frustration and great pride for me. I admired him for it. But I also wanted to slap him for the danger it involved him in.
Things had changed, in every way. There was much more at stake here — and not just for their evolving definition of what their marriage was becoming.
But the first clue something was off that cold, windy morning… was the fact he didn’t take me to the actual spaceport.
It was nothing more than a windswept field, the long green grass waving in the breeze. The chill had me shivering as he turned to me. In the distance, I could see it. Rather than the usual massive starship — Martin always corrected me by calling it the “escape vehicle”— he usually boarded at the spaceport, this was instead an older, much smaller transport. The gray metal of the hull was scarred and pitted, several colors of paint visible at various spots, one panel still gleaming, as if it had been recently welded to the ship. It was completely unmarked. No Coalition code, no call letters, no name. Only two flashing amber beacons and the low hum of the engines, more vibration than audible sound at that distance.
The sudden wistfulness in his eyes had fear clutching my heart.
What’s happening here?
“Diandra, I’m leaving.” He glanced back at the ship. “But as you’ve probably guessed by now… not for the contract.”
“But… why?” I shook my head. “Forget I asked that. It doesn’t matter… just stay. Don’t go, whatever it is. I need you. I need… what we’re becoming. Don’t leave us. I need you to show me what I am, what we are.”
“I need to tell you something. The leader of the artificials — he made me a proposition before he let me go. He told me I could come back to them, but if I did… there was no going back again.”
“You mean... join them? Are you nuts?”
“No. Not them.”
“Oh thank God. Martin, I—”
“Just listen to me, girl.” Martin dug into his coat, pulling the lapel out to retrieve it from an inside pocket. “I saw things... while I was with them. Truths I can’t unlearn. What I had back there... was purpose. Doing this?” Martin waved at the city on the horizon. “Again? It’s rotten, it’s... bankrupt. There are things going on — out there — that you would be ashamed of. Infuriated by. Injustices — and wrongs. I cannot participate any longer in the system that allows it. I can’t do this anymore.”
“What are you saying? Are you... leaving me too?”
He didn’t say anything. Pulling his hand from his coat, he held it out to me, hand open. Sitting in his palm was a small data disc.
“What is this?”
“It’s a hull identification backdoor spoof.” He tipped his head toward the ship in the field behind him. “With this, we can get anywhere in the galaxy…and nobody will know who we really are. What that ship really is.”
“What is that ship?”
“It’s not Coalition, that’s for sure.”
Which meant it…
Criminals? Pirates? What has he gotten himself mixed up in?
“I don’t… why do this?”
“Because it’s coming. War is coming.” He inhaled deeply, looking off toward the city. “And I’m not so sure we’re going to be on the right side. There… is a place. A place where people can really live free again, a place that… doesn’t answer to anyone here.” He held up the disc. “This is what will get me there.”
“Martin, listen to me.” I stood close, grabbing the lapels of his jacket, pulling myself up until our lips nearly brushed together. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I’m not letting you go. Not ever again. I am yours, whatever you will have me be. Always. My home is... wherever you are. My life is wherever you are. I love you, more than you will ever know, and nothing you say or do will change that.”
“Even if I leave you here, because I’m too scared to risk you being hurt ever again? Even then?”
I swallowed down the painful lump, knowing the next few seconds might determine if I would ever see my beloved husband again. “Yes. Even then.”
“Good. But we won’t ever have to face that choice.”
“W-why not?”
He took my hands away, and as he stared into my eyes, cold metal wrapped around my wrists with a crisp snapping sound. I looked down. They were cuffs.
“Because you’re coming with me.”
Oh God!
“Where? Where are we going?” My heart was flip-flopping in my chest, fear and exhilaration warring within me.
“It’s a place called Thal-Essen.”
I gasped. It was on the other side of the galaxy, at the very edge of even the periphery.
“We can live as we are there, as we were meant to be. Together.”
“Martin, our home, our things...”
“They’re just objects.” He snapped a chain lead to my cuffs. “They don’t have any meaning. They don’t matter anymore.”
“But we’ll be... outlaws.” I whispered it, as if my lips needed clandestine practice at uttering the word. “Rebels.”
He merely stared at me, his silence saying what needed to be said.
“Last chance, my love. Say the word, and these come off. You go back to your life... without me.”
My entire body shuddered as I peered up at him, in awe at how gorgeous he looked in that moment, his dark hair, his chiseled jaw, the hard, determined look in his striking eyes. He was a different man, a better man.
But he was still my husband.
“I don’t have any life, unless you’re part of it.”
He smiled then, and brought my bound hands to his lips. Kissing them gently, he murmured against my skin.
“I will always be part of it, Diandra. I love you. And I will never stop loving you.”
And then, led by the chain clenched in Martin’s fist, I stepped onto the transport. Away to a new life. One that, for the first time, had meaning.
One that mattered.
To both of us.
The End
# # #
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Other Books by Trent Evans
Published by Shadow Moon Press
A Message of Love
What She’s Looking For
Captive, Mine
(with Natasha Knight)
Submission’s Edge
The Chronicles of Muurland Series:
The Fall of Lady Westwood
The Dominion Trust Series:
Becoming Theirs
Her Troika
Expecting Surrender
Quinton’s Crucible
Tamara’s Choice
The Valley of Surrender Series:
Maintenance Night
Maintenance Week
Lacey’s Surrender
Falon’s Captivity
The Terran Captives Series:
Taking The Human
The Yielding of Rose
Published By Stormy Night Publications
The Doctor and The Naughty Girl
What The Doctor Ordered (Box set)
From The Author
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ion's Edge