Page 61 of Desperate Measures

Though her curves had gotten the most attention from admirers through the years, it was her hair she loved best. Its color and thickness matched her mother’s, and Charity had worn it to her midback and simply styled as Faith had, in a tribute to the parent who’d been taken from her too soon. To see it lightened and shaped in lovely but unfamiliar waves had felt like renewed loss. Thanks to such hair framing her altered face, Charity could no longer see the woman who’d given her life.

“It’s a lot to adjust to,” Selt agreed as they approached an official fleet shuttle, which would take Charity to what she referred to as Planet Farm Hell. “I wish we could have come up with a different solution.”

She drew a breath. Be a grownup. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me. I really do. I hope I haven’t seemed ungrateful.”

“You’ve taken it better than many would, so don’t worry. If it were me, I’d be ripping stuff apart.” He paused as they reached the shuttle and took out his com. “Special guest coming on board. Clear the entry.”

“Acknowledged.” After a second, the deep voice on his com spoke again. “You may board.”

Selt climbed the few steps to the open hatch ahead of Charity. “All clear. Come on up.”

She did so and entered a small space. On either side of her were closed doors One led to the cockpit and the other, the passenger cabin.

She offered her hand to Selt. “Thanks again. Take care of my aunt and uncle.”

He shook her hand, then bowed. “We will.”

She hesitated before adding, “If it isn’t too mushy for a Nobek, tell my sister I love her when she checks in or decides to stop roaming the galaxy.”

He chuckled. “I think my pride can handle passing along your message.”

He handed her the small carryall containing her most needed essentials. Her travel bin had already been loaded, or so she’d been told. Heaven help the shuttle personnel if her luggage went missing. She’d lost enough already.

“Safe travels,” Selt said.

Charity nodded. She unpinned the chevron-shaped phase device from her blouse. She dropped it in his waiting palm.

Selt, still phased, disappeared the instant the device left her hand. The door to the main cabin opened as its sensors discovered her presence.

She turned to it and stepped in the passenger area. It was large, but besides a couple of bowing fleet attendants, only five people, all Kalquorians, occupied the space.

Plenty of room to spread out. In her depressed state of mind, she should have been relieved by the option to keep her distance from fellow passengers. She’d considered going to her sleeping cabin to hide for the three-day journey. But a member of the group was young…not merely young-looking as Kalquorians tended to be even in their forties and fifties…but truly young. Somewhere around her age, she was certain.

He was handsome as well, veering toward cute.

She tried to keep her glances at the man casual as she handed off her carry bag to a Nobek attendant who said he’d take it to her sleeping cabin. “You’re free to sit wherever you wish. We’re taking no additional passengers,” he informed her.

She smiled acknowledgment, thanked him, and let her gaze dart to the eye candy. He was watching her. Was he an Imdiko? Or a Dramok? Dramok, she decided. His regard was too direct to be anything else. He had an injured air that subtracted slightly from an aura of control, which was what had initially confused her as to his breed.

The Kalquorian woman sitting next to him, curvier than the scant few of her kind Charity had seen, glanced at the young guy, then Charity. Her black brows rose.

Uh oh. Mom’s scented a potential rival for her baby boy’s attention. Charity repressed a smirk as she drew nearer the group. Her polite expression got harder to maintain when the woman pointedly glared at the elder man seated on her opposite side, who was definitely an Imdiko.

He didn’t bother hiding his grin but stood as the rest of his clan and his supposed son did too. The men bowed to Charity as she came to their seats, two rows of three facing each other.

“Matara, are you traveling alone?” the older Dramok asked as he stood his full height of at least six-and-a-half feet. “Please join us if you’d like. I’m Dramok Codab. My clanmates, Matara Diju, Imdiko Jadel, and Nobek Gruthep. And our son.”

The handsome-going-on-cute man smiled warmly at her, vanquishing the aura of hurt and rendering him gorgeous. He stepped in the aisle and indicated she should take his seat as his Imdiko father and mother moved over…both beaming at her. “I’m Dramok Ilid. Here, sit next to Mother, Matara—?”

“Jennifer Seng,” she said, barely remembering in time to use her assumed name. “Thank you, but I hate to impose—”

“Not at all!” Diju enthused. “Sit right here next to me. Ilid can sit on the aisle seat; he doesn’t mind. How nice to have someone close his age for him to talk to during this long trip to Haven…how old are you if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Twenty.” Charity took the offered seat, and they sat too.

“Lovely. Ilid is twenty-three, so you’re bound to have lots in common.”

Not a jealous mom after all. A mom eager to matchmake, perhaps dreaming of grandkids. “You’re going to Haven?” None of them looked the farmer type.

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