Page 40 of Escape Clause

“All of Caradonia knows who you are.”

That sounded troubling until she recalled the holograms taken for promotional purposes at the reception.Vorgol must be really good at marketing.

But still? That fast?

She shook off the uneasiness as she got off in the penthouse lobby. Eagerness bubbled up inside. She doubted her husband would be home yet, but that would give her time to freshen up and put on something pretty.Bow chicka wow wow.

Why did Prudence plant that phrase in my head?But her friend may have been right about sex bringing them together.

I have a home, a real marriage with a man who cares for me. He may not be in love with me yet, but that will come.She already loved him.

As she approached the penthouse, the door flew open. Hair mussed, eyes ablaze, Krogan grabbed her and dragged her into the apartment. “Fizzak! Where have you been? I was scared to death!”

“I was—”

He crushed her lips in a hard, plundering kiss. Shaking hands roamed over her body. He murmured something she couldn’t catch.What happened? What’s going on?She’d never seen him frantic like this.

Then he released her so abruptly she almost fell. “We need to talk,” he said ominously.

* * * *

While waiting for Hope and fearing the worst, the remnants of Krogan’s protective shell had shattered like fragile glass, the tiny shards cutting him in a thousand different ways. Seeing her at the door had delivered a staggering punch of relief and despair. Relief that she was alive and well, despair because this incident had revealed that her connection to him hadendangered her life. People would use her to strike at him. He couldn’t risk jeopardizing her life. He would rather give her up and know she was safe than lose her to violence.

He ached to grab her, hold her, bury himself in her one last time, but if he did, his courage would fail him. He strode to the wide windows. The blood-red sunset looked like he felt. He was bleeding inside.

I can’t do it.

I must do it.

“Where did you go?” he asked dully.

“I went to the bakery in the cozi. I was helping Larth.”

“The cozi!” That had been one of the sites blocked by Stervak’s mob. He raked his hands through his hair.

“I didn’t expect to be gone so long. I told Larth I’d watch his booth while he visited his wife, but he got back late. I’m sorry I worried you. What’s going on?”

“I contacted you multiple times. You didn’t answer.”

“I didn’t get the messages. I must have left before they came through.”

“When you didn’t reply, I came home to reassure myself you were here safe and sound. Don Juan said you’d left this morning right after breakfast.” He’dabout died knowing Hope was out there alone with Stervak and his mob running amok.

They’d arrested hundreds of illegal demonstrators, but unless guards remained at the sites, others swarmed in as soon as the security forces moved on to the next site. A relatively few individuals had disrupted an entire city, interfered with transportation and commerce, and caused inconvenience and emotional pain to people already grieving and worrying. And, they had issued threats against his wife’s life.

Eventually his security force would quell the uprising and locate and arrest Stervak, but until that happened, Hope remained in jeopardy. The uprising could spark copycats. Anytime he made a decision malcontents disagreed with, more unrest could occur.

For the benefit of all citizens, he refused to cave to mob demands and cancel Cosmic Mates. Stervak refused to accept the truth that their survival was imperiled. The birthrate was stagnant; no babies had been born in two years. So many women had died in the pandemic that they couldn’t sustain their population even if all the women in stasis recovered and started reproducing. They were in dire straits.

He had to do what was right for his people. And he had a hunch that Stervak didn’t object to CosmicMates at all—his former political rival was using it as a ploy, twisting the truth to force Krogan to resign.

He had to stay the course he’d set.

He had to protect his wife.

Finding her gone, fearing she might have been assaulted, kidnapped, or even killed by Stervak’s mob had shown him what life would be like without her.

“I’m sorry you were worried about me,” she said.

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