Page 30 of Healing Creek
She allowed herself to lean into the embrace for a moment before she straightened her shoulders and met his gaze. She sniffled. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Flecks of gold lightened Creek’s brown eyes. “You can tell me anything, Grace.” He brushed the tears she hadn’t been able to stop from her cheeks with the backs of his fingers. “Do you want to go to the garden to talk?”
He was halfway to his feet when she pried herself from his grasp and stopped him with a hand on his chest. “No.” The garden would be perfect. Safe, private…and cowardly. Her fingers tightened in the cloth of his shirt. “I think… I think we need Mercury. And…” She dared a glance down the length of the table and almost lost courage.
With a finger under her chin, Creek turned her face back toward him. His eyes demanded she finish her thought. “I’d like Samantha to be there, too. If that’s okay.”
He took a breath to speak, but Samantha beat him to words. “Of course, I’ll be there.” The woman’s voice was calm and confident and reassuring, but it was Creek’s gaze that held her focus. It was Creek’s words that she clung to. Creek’s reassurance that allowed her to breathe.
“It will be all right. You’re stronger than you believe, my butterfly.”
***
They ended up moving to a small workroom near the ship’s bridge. Creek explained they were using it as a sort of command post, and it was where Mercury had been while the others were eating. Much to her relief they kept the group small. Creek and Grace walked there in silence with Lo and Samantha and when they arrived Mercury asked the humans that had been there, including Knock, to leave the room. They sat at the table and Creek pulled her chair close to his. He squeezed her hand and turned sideways in his chair to face her. “There’s something you need to tell us, Grace?”
“Yes. I…” She hesitated so long she feared they’d see that, even in her truth telling, she was choosing how much to reveal. “I told you about my family and about how they’re all scientists.”
Creek nodded.
“Well, my sister is a geneticist. That is, she…”
“We know what a geneticist does.” Mercury’s growly voice interrupted. He was growing impatient.
“Right. So, she’s the reason I was kidnapped.” Now she’d hurried it too much. “Six months ago, my sister disappeared. Most of my family thought she was probably off working on some secret project and…” she shrugged. “I guess they were right. But I was worried that she wasn’t doing it willingly. You see, I knew what research she’d been doing. I knew it was dangerous.” Her words tripped over each other as she spoke faster. “I knew if anyone else found out. Found out what she was working on then, well…”
“Grace, breathe.” Creek’s strong voice stopped her and allowed her to inhale much needed air.
She nodded. “She was researching the Arena Dog genetic codes.”
There was a collective breath that should have sucked all of the air out of the room, but Grace kept going. “And Roma found out. They kidnapped her. They wanted her to work on the fertility problem. And when she wouldn’t cooperate, they paid Morgan to kidnap me. They’re using me, threats to hurt me, to force her to work for them.”
She stopped then. To let it sink in. She was shaking and her stomach was in knots.
The sound of chair legs scraping back from the table scratched across her nerves like sandpaper.
It was Diablo. Red flashing in his dark eyes. He was up on his feet but not moving closer. He paced in a small pattern on the other side of the table.
Mercury’s stormy gray eyes thundered at her as he leaned forward on a growl. “I think there’s more to tell.”
Her cheeks were wet again. Heavens, she was a leaky faucet dripping everywhere. She sniffled.
A warm soft squeeze of her hand pulled her gaze back to Creek. His ears were alert. His face relaxed and patient. “Go on,” he encouraged.
Could he really accept all of what she had to tell them? What was worse? The connection to Roma that she’d hidden or neglecting to warn them about the threat of Patel and Santos still on the ship? She held his eyes, not allowing herself to see the obvious alarm on the faces of the other men.
“Before we met. Before you found me. A man came into my quarters. He was working with the men that came from Roma—to destroy theAbundance. He was going to take me off the ship and take me to where they’re holding my sister.”
Grace heard low growls and whispers all around her, but she focused on Creek. His hand holding hers. The concern in those brown eyes. “He warned me if I told anyone, he’d make sure my sister was killed, and if I kept his secret and left the ship with him, he’d take me to my sister. I’ve been so worried about her.”
“He’s still on the ship?” Creek’s gaze flashed away from hers for only a second then it was back, warm and reassuring.
“Y-yes. Him and another man. They’re in the slave hold now. They’re the two men who got in a fight the day the auction guests were supposed to leave the ship. They didn’t want to leave without me.”
Finally, Creek’s features hardened. “You let me leave you there with men who’d threatened you.” His scowl deepened. “You must have been very afraid.”
Could he really be more upset by that than all her other lies of omission?
“Is the com unit in the med-bay locked down?” Diablo’s growl was so thick she could barely understand him.
