Page 33 of Jewel of the Alien Bandit
“Why not just leave me?” I was an inconvenience for him to escape from King Sylve, an extra trouble to account for.
“Stubborn woman,” he grumbled. “I’ve been monitoring your vitals, you aren’t healing properly without your moons, but you are out of critical danger. You might have eventually recovered in the chamber after a time, but we don’t have time. And if you stay here you’ll be used against your own planet.”
We made our way through the airlock attaching the Viper Raul to Vareo’s ship.
“How is no one guarding us?”
This was much too easy, if his assumptions were correct.
“Where would we go? I have no access to the Viper’s transport deck codes, and according to the med bay chamber you’re stable, but showing no signs of improvement. And they have a hive of warships making their way here to worry about.” He made it a point to emphasize the Viper’s transport deck when explaining the absence of any necia being around to stop us from what appeared to be a frivolous escape plan.
I glared at him, and he seemed to sense my agitation. He eased me to my feet and cupped my face in his large hands while his blue eyes pierced into me, making my heart thrum. What was he doing? The ache in my back seized like we were suspended in time.
The longer he stared, the more ragged my breath became, and he leaned in. Lips nearing my own, I could feel the draw of closing that gap between us before he pulled away so I could think of it no more.
Uncomfortable with what passed between us, he cleared his throat and averted his gaze. “Can you walk?” His hands dropped from my face, and grabbed my shoulders making sure I could stand, even though I had been mobile without his assistance since he propped me up.
“I can manage.” Twisting to turn from him made me clench my teeth, but I was made of sterner stuff than he realized. If we were within the moon’s rays this wouldn’t have been an issue. My other loh would have compensated and repaired my back in no time.
“You’re in pain.”
He recognized the twitch in my muscles as I moved. I was hoping I had hidden it well enough.
“You’ve seen my med pod reports, that shouldn’t be a surprise to you.” I lifted my chin and kept my tone even. This wasn’t the time to worry about my comfort. If he had a plan to get us out of King Sylve’s clutches then we needed to hurry.
He nodded, accepting my confidence in my abilities as good enough to continue. I was thankful I didn’t have to labor on the topic long since I could feel my back loh strain with every muscle twitch.
When we made it to Vareo’s transport deck, Carmen was still strapped into the prisoner bonds. Her hazel eyes lifted to meet mine, and she grinned at us both.
“It’s about time you came back for me, Dick head.” She was still ever the diplomat.
“I didn’t come for you,” he didn’t sound pleased to see she was awake. “You’re lucky all I did was detain you.”
“That’s not all you did,” she said with a bit of sultry implication that sent a pang of jealousy through me despite her being the one locked up.
“You knew King Sylve wanted Luan,” he accused.
“Of course I knew,” she spat. “You should be thanking me instead of risking your life to save her. She doesn’t need saving. She’s going to be the Fucking Queen of the Trillume System.”
That didn’t make any sense.
She was talking like King Sylve knew he would have me captured. I cocked a brow at Vareo who was averting his blue eyes in guilt.
“What is she talking about?” I asked him.
Carmen beat him to it, “I’m saying we were hired to bring you to King Sylve.”
And I was dumb enough to follow him into the trap. Went right onto his ship.
I laughed, causing my injured loh to burn. I was never allowed to appear weak in front of people, so laughter was my escape. But none of it was caused by happiness. I steeled myself against the hurt.
“I can explain,” he urged, and I shook my head.
“No need.” I waved him off. “I don’t care how I got here. I care that you’ll keep your word to get us out of this. Can I trust that your interests are aligned with my own?” For now, I thought ruefully.
Carmen made it a point to tell me that he was why I was here, and all that made me do was believe that Vareo had intentions of backing out of his agreements to whoever he was employed with. Whatever bounty was on my head he either had a conscience or thought my Almder would be a better long-term benefit. There was no telling whether King Sylve would keep his word about paying him, and he didn’t seem to know that’s who had hired him before now, he seemed genuinely upset by the idea of working a bounty for him.
I’d like to think that I wasn’t gullible enough to be fooled another time, but I had already acted rashly in boarding Vareo’s ship to begin with, thinking he was something more than a male my loh wanted to mate with.
