Page 17 of Touch the Stars
There was nothing but honesty in his words.She let her shoulders droop as the fight drained from her.
Baatar plated some of the sizzling food from the pan and set it on the table next to her soup bowl.
Bing.
“Situation update.”The familiar woman’s voice from the cabin filled the galley.“The artificial propellant trail has diverged.”
“In which direction?”Baatar asked to the air.
She leaned forward, keeping her voice at something a little below a stage whisper.“Hey, are there other people aboard this thing?”
“It is the ship’s artificial intelligence,” he murmured back.
“Into the Bajiki Syndicate sector,” the ship replied.
Baatar’s expression hardened, his gaze like ice.Then he turned back to the pan of food on the stove.“Noted.Stay on course for Ghara.”
“So?”She drew out the “o” sound.“What was that all about?A trail of what?And what’s the Bajiki Syndicate sector?”
“The Bajiki Syndicate is an enemy of the Gharan Empire, where I am from.”He scooped out portions of the pan’s contents onto another plate.“They should not be in this area or anywhere near your planet.”
“Then why are they?”She sat back in her seat and folded her arms in front of her.“And, for that matter, why areyouhere?”
He met her gaze.“I was looking for you.It is possible they were too.”
Say what?There was no way she’d heard that one right.
She gave her head a shake.“Why me?”
Baatar carried the second plate to the table and sat across from her.It was like he was intentionally avoiding eye contact.Her stomach muscles clenched.This couldn’t be good.
“Tell me, Baatar.Why the hell are any of you here, and what have I got to do with it?”
Or Kris, for that matter?
He fiddled with the sharpened chopstick-like utensils he held in his hands and sighed heavily, his gaze locking with hers.“The grand emperor needs an heir.”
“Oh, fucking A...”She made a hand-waving I-knew-it gesture.“Iama sex slave.”
Just not Baatar’s sex slave.Was it wrong to feel a little twinge of disappointment over that?
Revulsion flashed in his eyes.“No.Never that.Kaitlyn Bergh, youarethe heir.”
Say fuckingwhat?She reached up and gave her translator stone a finger tap, because there had to be a glitch in the technology.Something was not adding up.
“My mission is to bring you safely to Ghara and deliver you into the care of our current grand emperor and the Ancient Ones.”
Wow.Just wow.“So, you’re telling me that there are other aliens after me too?”
“It seems so.Since the Bajiki trail is at least a month old, I must deduce they could not locate you and left.”
“Hold up.You mean they…the Bajiki baddies…were here amonthago?On Earth?”
He nodded.“That is an approximate calculation.”
“Well, fuck me.”She glanced down at the hot food in front of her.She couldn’t eat it.Not now.
“Are you in distress, Kaitlyn?”
