Page 87 of Tanin's Treasure
Since this drop off was safe – biohazard aside – and the only people that would be on the station were the scientists who lived and worked there, Tanin allowed it. Now, Rok was teaching her everything he knew about delivering because he believed her story, even though Tanin definitely did not. He knew what she was doing, and he was letting it happen.
Because he was in control. Because it didn’t matter what space she was pretending to put between them, he still had all the power in this situation, and everything was progressing exactly the way he allowed it to.
And that thought should have been scary, but it made an excited shiver run down her spine. She’d never been with a man so self-assured, so quietly confident before. Tanin didn’t brag. He didn’t boast. He didn’t shout. But that’s where his true authority lay. He didn’t need to do all those things. His power and influence spoke for itself, and much louder than anything he could say.
Garnet was thrilled by it, but nervous all the same. This had very suddenly and quickly become much more serious than she ever intended to let it get.
And she really didn’t know what to do about that.
So, time and space. She needed time and space to get used to the idea of him. Because that’s all he was offering her right now. And when he decided he’d had enough time and she’d had enough space, he’d come back.
And Garnet had to decide what she wanted by then.
“Garnet?”
“Huh?” She blinked, casting her eyes back over to Rok. He was giving her a curious look, big head cocked to the side. He had scales over his cheekbones, like teal-black blush slashed across his face, yellow eyes gleaming with concern. He was so huge, he towered over her, and that big ass horn coming from his forehead, sweeping back over his roughly cut, short black hair, only made him seem bigger. She quickly fixed a smile on her face. “Sorry, sweetie. I was just thinking. You were saying that we have to protect the package at all times?”
Rok frowned. “I said that back there.”
He pointed over his shoulder at the long tunnel they were in. Back towards the docking door where the Humility was connected directly to the station, still visible through the multitude of glass walls that sealed behind them as they moved forward.
The hall consisted of eight individual chambers, each one designed to decontaminate specific things as you moved through. It wasn’t so much a problem on the way in, but as they came out, they’d have to stop in each chamber and let it do its thing. Now that they were all sealed behind them, it was going to take a lot longer to get out than to get here. It wasn’t a super long hallway really, but the walk was taking a while because they had to keep waiting for doors to shut behind them then open in front of them – both doors could not slide open at the same time.
“Garnet, are you okay?” Rok asked kindly as they waited for the last door – a solid metal one – to open and let them into the lab.
She smiled and quickly nodded. “I’m okay. Just thinking.”
“Want to tell me about it?” He offered sweetly. “Probably can’t help you much. I’m not that smart, you know? But I can listen.”
“You’re plenty smart,” Garnet protested, pushing his arm playfully. For all the good it did. Was the guy made of steel? How were his muscles that hard?
“I’m not smart,” Rok assured her. “I’m okay with that. But I do know when someone is focused on something else. What’s wrong?”
Garnet opened her mouth to assure him, again, that she was fine, but before she got the chance, the final door opened. The oddly tall and eerily thin person on the other side had creepily pale skin and huge, black eyes. They took a look at them and smiled wide. Long, sharp teeth glinted in the light as they put their thin, boney hands together.
“Perfect. We’ve been waiting for this. Bring it in,” they said, their voice lyrical and androgenous. “Let me inspect it before we finish our transaction.”
“Of course,” Rok smiled wide, happy, as he pushed the cart forward.
Garnet followed after him, looking back as she did so. She wasn’t sure what really prompted her to do so, aside from the fact that their ship – and Tanin – was back that way.
Literally right there. Tanin was standing in the open door of the Humility, seven glass doors separating them, shouting something she couldn’t hear. Slamming his fist against the glass.
The metal door slid shut, cutting off her view of him, but her nerves were suddenly all standing up at attention.
Why was Tanin there? What was he yelling about? Why-
The thought cut off quite harshly when she turned forward and found herself looking at a male with black skin and five, silvery-white eyes.
It was him!
Her heart immediately jumped into her throat, pounding painfully. Because that was the guy from Rin-Kal that attacked her!
No, her rational brain caught up to her. It couldn’t be.
This male wasn’t wearing the black suit with a toolbelt of weapons slung across his hips. He was wearing the same white, scrub-like clothes as the creepily thin person. He was also not even paying attention to her. Too busy looking at the cart that Rok was wheeling into the front room.
And Rok didn’t seem upset. He was smiling as usual, talking about how, at Humble Delivery Service, their guaranteed protection of whatever they transported had a flawless track record. It sounded like the lines from an infomercial, well-rehearsed with just enough truth to not be directly called a lie.
