Page 16 of Guard

Myrria shook her head. “No one. There is no one.” But her words had been too fast, and even she could hear the lie in them. But it wasn’t a lie. She had not been unfaithful. Not in all the long years she’d been left behind.

The madam sighed, tossed back the last of her drink, and walked swiftly back to the cart to refill the glass she drained. “I would not judge you if there was someone.” She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “And not only because I run a house ofpleasure and do not judge others for their natural desires, but because you have waited long enough.”

Myrria took a sip of the blue gin and let the tart, slippery drink slide down her throat. Serena had become a friend after so many years, but even she had never mentioned her husband’s long absence before.

Serena turned to face Myrria. “He is not returning, my love. His ship has been destroyed or he has decided not to return because life without a wife and child to support is easy. Either way, it has been too many years to hold out hope. Even the law does not consider you married anymore.”

Myrria couldn’t reply. It was what she had thought more times than she wanted to admit, but only in the darkness of night when the bitter recriminations bubbled to the surface.

“Even if he is alive,” Serena continued, walking closer, “he has abandoned you and Zala. Please do not fool yourself into thinking that he will have been faithful all this time.”

“That makes it right for me to take a lover?” Myrria’s voice cracked.

Serena smiled with such warmth that it made Myrria’s chest tighten. “You have been faithful enough to a man who does not deserve it. You deserve a life as well.”

Myrria knew that everything Serena said was true, and for the first time since her husband had left, she could see what happiness might look like. Rixx had shown her what it would be like to be protected, cared for, defended. She had not known how much she craved those things until he’d arrived.

“If I ask you for the truth, will you give it to me?” Myrria asked and then drained the last of her drink.

“Always,” Serena answered without pause.

Myrria forced herself to ask something she had wondered since the first day she’d walked through the doors of the pleasure house and breathed in the sweet perfume that hung in the air. It had not been an unfamiliar scent. “Did you know my husband? Was he a client here? Did he come here when he was married to me?”

Serena took a deep breath and exhaled as if she had been waiting to tell Myrria the truth for years.

Chapter

Sixteen

Rixx gave the machine a pat as it whirred happily, satisfied that the mechanisms were working properly after a few simple tweaks. If he had better tools and some different parts, he might have been able to improve upon the design of the machine, but for now, it would have to do.

He thought back to how garments were constructed on his home world—careful hand stitching using animal sinew—and wondered if a machine would ever be a welcome addition. The Dothveks were a tribe rooted in tradition and devoted to the old ways over allegiance to modernizing, which their enemy the Cresteks had fallen victim to, but things were changing. There was a treaty with the Cresteks and many Dothvek males—like him—had taken to the skies with the female bounty hunters.

“She’s going to love it.” Zala rocked back on her heels and rubbed her hands together. “Her work will go much faster now.”

Rixx wished that he could give Myrria something more than faster work. The woman already worked too hard. He could see it in the wrinkle that formed between her eyes when she was deep in thought and believed no one was watching.

Footfall outside the door made him jump for the tenth time that day, but he no longer believed that the Zevrians were about to burst in each time. If they came, they would be loud and rough, pounding on the door and yelling orders. They would not arrive in a shuffling of feet or murmuring of voices. Even so, he whirled when the door opened, going instinctively into a battle crouch.

Myrria slipped inside and shut the door quickly behind her, holding up her hands when she spotted Rixx. “It’s only me.”

Zala was unable to hide her excitement or wait to reveal the surprise like they’d planned. “Look, Mama! Look what we did.” She stole a guilty look at Rixx. “Well, Rixx did most of the work, but I helped.”

Rixx smiled at the girl. “We did it together.”

Zala bobbed her head up and down. “We fixed it together.”

Myrria gave her daughter an indulgent smile, although Rixx detected strain on her face and a hum of something dark and tense beneath her forced grin. Then the woman’s gaze landed on the sewing machine on the table, dusted and polished so that it no longer wore years of grime. “You fixed…this?”

Whatever dark emotion had been simmering inside her evaporated like morning mist as she walked toward the table and placed her fingers cautiously on the gleaming contraption.

“Rixx said it wasn’t broken as bad as we thought it was.” Zala vibrated with excitement as she watched her mother. “He fixed up so it purrs like a…” She glanced at him to supply the unfamiliar word.

“A glurkin,” Rixx said, smiling as he thought of Pog, the green shape-shifting pet he’d shared a ship with and who purred loudly in its sleep. “A Lecithin shape-shifting creature.”

“This will make my work go much faster.” Myrria’s voice was a reverent hush. “I’ll be able to take even more work. Serena was just saying that she has more work for me if I ever get around to cloning myself.”

Zala nudged Rixx with her elbow. “I think she likes it.”

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