Page 78 of Caught By Menace

“Six months?” The bottom dropped out of his stomach. He didn’t even want to imagine the horror she would endure in that amount of time. “Vicious, I made a mistake yesterday. I have to talk to her and apologize. I have to make this right.”

“Menace, I want to help you. I’m doing everything I can to—”

The door to Vicious’ office burst open and Hallie stormed into the room. The general’s secretary was two steps behind her. “Ma’am, you can’t just barge in here! You have to follow the proper procedure.”

Hallie pinned the young soldier with a glare. “You can stuff your proper procedures where the sun don’t shine.” She pointed to the door. “Now get the hell out!” The secretary didn’t linger. He beat a hasty retreat and closed the door. The furious little sprite turned her gaze on her husband. “What have you done?”

“Good morning to you too, Kitten.”

“Don’t ‘Kitten’ me, Vicious!” Hallie’s hands were drawn into tight fists. She was shaking with anger—and fear. “Am I next?”

Menace watched his friend’s face contort with confusion. Vicious walked around the side of his desk. “Hallie, what are you talking about?”

“I know what happened to Naya.” She wiped at the tears now dripping down her face. “I know what you did to her. I’m not stupid, Vicious. I can read the writing on the wall.”

“You are not stupid.” Vicious caressed her face. “There is no writing on the wall, Hallie.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

Menace hated to interrupt the couple’s tiff but he needed answers. “Who told you Naya was arrested?”

Hallie narrowed her dark eyes at him. “She told me herself.”

Menace reeled with shock. “They let you see her?”

Hallie shook her head. “She sent me a message. It arrived twenty minutes ago but the time stamp was from last night. I got the warning loud and clear.”

Vicious stiffened. “What warning?”

“That she’s been compromised and I’m not safe.”

“Compromised?” Vicious cupped Hallie’s face. “Do you know something about Naya’s activities with the Splinters?”

“Is that why she’s being persecuted?” Hallie gripped her husband’s wrists. “Naya is no more a terrorist than I am. Anyone who thinks that our work with the Red Feather was in any way connected to the Splinter cell on Calyx is crazy.”

“She ran guns,” Vicious said forcefully. “She didn’t deny it during her interrogation.”

“And I forged documents,” she countered. “A lot of us did shady or stupid things back on Calyx. It doesn’t make us terrorists.”

“No,” Vicious agreed, “but Terror’s evidence against her is persuasive.”

Hallie pursed her lips. “You better than anyone should know that Terror isn’t infallible. Do I need to rehash my trip to the colonies when Terror was my escort?”

Vicious paled. “No.”

Menace wanted to ask Hallie if he could see the message but the door opened again. This time it was Admiral Orion crossing the threshold and he looked pissed.

“Orion?” Vicious let his hands fall from Hallie’s face and stepped beside her.

“We have a huge problem, Vicious. Your man contravened a direct order.”

“My man?”

“That one-eyed son of a bitch,” Orion shouted. Recovering from his outburst, the admiral shot Hallie an apologetic look. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

Vicious growled in frustration. “What did Terror do now?”

“Yesterday he requested two pilots and a stealth ship to conduct a covert mission. After the Splinter attack, I ordered all unnecessary missions grounded for forty-eight hours so we could reassess the security situation. That electrical spike that fried so many systems last night? That was your man sabotaging my ship so he could go off on one of his covert ops.”

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