Page 78 of Healing Creek
Helen spoke up. “I have the bridge crew holding off the Alliance Enforcer lieutenant who boarded before you arrived, but we can’t hold him off for long. David, you go and distract him a bit longer. I want to speak to Creek.”
She barked the orders like an alpha leading a pack. David obeyed his mother at once, practically jogging out of the room. Creek had seen the Alliance vessel. He supposed it had been too much to hope he could avoid them.
“Jennifer, you finish up here and then leave Grace’s care to the medic and come and join us in the executive meeting room. As the victim, your statement will be most important. We can try to keep him focused on that.”
When Helen turned and strode into the hall, Creek followed. Helen didn’t look back. The hallway widened to a large observation point. It was clearly a busy thoroughfare for the ship and the crew’s eyes watched him as they strode past. He followed Helen to one side of the observation port where she spun on her heel to face him. Her cheeks were flushed red and her breathing was heavy, but her words were calm.
“Creek, I can’t thank you enough for the role you and your people have played in rescuing Grace and Jennifer from danger.”
His heart thumped slow with the shame. He’d done so little. But she wasn’t through talking.
“I can see Grace is very attached to you. But you’re a smart man. You can see that she needs special care.”
He didn’t need to listen to all her reasons why he shouldn’t be with Grace. He couldn’t bear it. “And my life is full of danger.”
“Yes, exactly. That’s why I must insist you leave her here with us.” Helen heaved a sigh. “She has always been fragile.”
That he could not let stand. “You might find she is stronger than you believe. At the laboratory she saved herself and her sister.”
“Was that before or after her seizure?” Her raised voice drew the attention of passing crew members.
His jaw clenched as he choked down any further argument. He would not convince this woman that Grace was strong. In the end, Helen was right that Grace was ill. Too ill for the war they would be walking into if they stayed with Mercury’s pack. And staying with Grace didn’t seem to be on the table. Even if it was, could he walk away from the war to free his people? Could he walk away from his heart?
“Mother? Creek? Everything okay?” Jennifer appeared at his shoulder. Her face and lip were less swollen. She’d washed her face and brushed her hair.
Helen folded her arms across her chest and glared at Creek. “Do we understand each other?”
“Yes.” At his decisive confirmation her glare eased.
“Then everything is fine.” She took Jennifer’s hand. “Let’s go deal with the Enforcer.”
Creek followed in their wake.
They found David and the Enforcer outside the room where they were to meet. The Enforcer, introduced as Lieutenant Clayton, wore a crisp, deep green uniform, and looked Creek over with sharp gray eyes. He smelled of chemi-wash and the heavy metals of an overburdened air processor.
“Lieutenant, this is my daughter, Jennifer.” Helen put an arm around her daughter then waved a hand over her shoulder at him. “And this is Creek, a cousin on my mother’s side of the family.”
The woman lied as smooth as sandsilk.
The Lieutenant’s mouth opened as if he would speak then closed a moment before he made a humph of acknowledgement despite not being at all convinced.
Helen and Jennifer preceded them into the room and sat at one end of the long narrow table. David positioned himself at Creek’s side and he was grateful. That left the Lieutenant opposite them.
Creek sat quietly and listened to Jennifer recount her story of how Roma’s men had kidnapped her and forced her to work in the lab. Clayton questioned her extensively on how she knew the men worked for Roma and how she knew the work she was doing was for Roma’s benefit. It was clear to Creek that the Lieutenant was looking for a way to avoid taking action against the very formidable Roma.
Despite the obvious reluctance, Jennifer’s testimony was clear and convincing…until she got to how she’d escaped. They’d had no time to discuss their story and she looked to him as she spoke. It mattered not what she said, he would back her up.
Clayton finally grew frustrated with the sparsity of information Jennifer provided and turned to him. “Mr. Creek, how exactly did you locate the lab where Jennifer was working?”
Helen interrupted. “You mean, where she was being forced to work with regular beatings and threats against the life of her sister?”
“Yes, of course.”
Creek kept his level gaze on Clayton. “After Grace Hobbs-Venter escaped her captor, she came to me and asked for help locating her sister. We hired a mercenary who located the lab and brought us to the planet.” Feeona was more of a smuggler than a mercenary, but he thought it sounded plausible enough—and left out a lot of people he needed to protect.
“I’ll need the identity of this mercenary.”
“You will understand that we agreed to keep their involvement anonymous, considering they would incur the wrath of Roma in helping us.”
