Page 20 of Healing Creek
“Yes, I’d been traveling with him.” She studied her tray a long moment. “But I’d been talking about leaving.” Finally, she looked up at him, face almost pleading, though he wasn’t sure for what. “My family is overprotective.” She worried at the edge of a napkin. “Maybe they were right.”
“Right?”
“To be protective,” she said. “I didn’t do a very good job of looking after myself even for the few hours my brother left me alone.”
Instinct made Creek want to hold her until the misery left her face. Guilt weighed across his shoulders. He wanted to let her tell him her story in her own time, but he needed her to talk . “Tell me about him, your brother.”
A slight smile slipped onto her lips. “His name is Martin. He’s a talented medic. We’ve always been close. For the last few years, I’ve been his assistant in his medical research practice. He’s brilliant but not always the best with patients.” That half-formed smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Do you have brothers? Pack brothers, I mean.”
Brothers. All Arena Dogs shared the instinct for pack. But he’d been denied those bonds, time and again. He shook his head but didn’t explain. How could he? “Even if he thinks you left freely, will he not worry?”
“Yes. I’m sure he will.” She looked into her lap, all trace of the smile gone. “But there is likely nothing I could say that would make things better.” Grace took several bites of her meal before she continued. “How long before you’ll be releasing the prisoners? Releasing me?”
He hated that she lumped herself in with vile evildoers. “You aren’t a prisoner.”
“No?”
Creek shook his head. “I’m not sure when you or the crew will be able to leave, but the slaver’s guests are being released today. Right before we go into skipspace.”
“Today?” The color drained from her cheeks and her hands disappeared below the table. Did she fear they’d break free during the transfer?
“Yes. There’s no danger.”
“How are they being released? We’re not at a space port.”
“Most of them came on their own small ships,” Creek explained. “Feeona is handling their release. She’ll ensure they can’t cause us any harm when they go.”
Grace pushed her food away. “Maybe I should leave with them. The sooner to get back to my family.”
“That wouldn’t be safe. They’re vile. People who would buy slaves.” He clasped her fingers on the table. They were cool and stiff but relaxed as he stroked his thumb across the back of her hand. “We’d never leave you in the care of any of those bastards. Besides, we need your medical skills, remember?”
She nodded in response. “Right.”
“Good.” He settled back in the chair. “Now, finish your meal while you tell me about the rest of your family.”
She did as he asked, opening the package of an energy square. “My parents are both scientists at the top of their fields.”
Creek didn’t know much about scientists, but he understood she meant they were good at whatever it was they did. “They are respected.” Respect was important.
“Very much,” Grace said. “When I was growing up, there were always other scientists coming to work with them. Many renowned in their own specialties.”
“And your siblings? You mentioned your brother and a sister, I think.”
“You have an excellent memory.” She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. Hers was warm again and briefly it soothed the constant ache. He couldn’t remember ever having so much warmth and gentleness. How was he supposed to pay attention to her words when she kept touching him? “I have five brothers and four sisters,” she continued. “I’m the youngest. The last.”
The words made her seem sad, but he didn’t understand why. Did birth order matter to human families? If so, no one had ever mentioned it to him. “Ten children. That is large for a human family.”
“My parents have a big legacy to pass on. We were also experiments to them. Could they be the perfect parents? Raising the most perfect children? All of my siblings are brilliant. They’ve made our parents very proud.”
But not Grace, it seemed. She seemed to barely count herself among her successful family.
Grace looked up from her half-eaten meal. “I guess I took more than I could eat. I don’t seem very hungry. Maybe we could go to the med-bay now?”
Creek nodded and took her tray to the waste recycler, silently cursing the family that had made her feel so small.
***
Grace followed Creek to the med-bay, her feet on autopilot. All night her mind had been busy obsessing over the man called Ghost and scenarios where her sister would end up dead. When he’d left her in her cabin with the collar still around her neck, he’d warned her to keep his presence a secret and promised to take her to her sister when they got off the ship. That had been before she’d known it was Arena Dogs taking over the ship. But it didn’t matter. All she could concern herself with was Jennifer’s safety.
