Page 64 of Protected By the Convicts
“And your heart?” Sersie asked?
She could see it in his face, his old fears had resurfaced. “You’re already there, safe and sound, forever mine.”
Sersie’s kiss was slow and passionate, as if he were claiming her all over again. He wasn’t letting go of her, not where it counted most, in his heart.
“Will you promise me something, Sersie?” she asked.
“Anything.”
“I haven’t said what it is yet.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll do it.”
She smiled. It was hard not to when that cursed lock of hair that fell into his eyes yet again and he brushed it aside, like he brushed off all the horrible aspects of Narkos and focused on the positive ones.
“Keep this unit together.”
Sersie didn’t do well alone. He needed Vaughn and Ren, even if he’d never admit it. And Ren. . . he too needed people. From the start, he’d isolated himself, kept himself distant because he’d never accepted his fate on Narkos. Even if Vaughn hadn’t destroyed Ren’s ship, that ship never would have made it past the patrols. The Company’s lock in this sector remained too tight. Ren would have been killed. Slowly, Ren had started accepting that this was now his life. And Vaughn, her sweet brooding Vaughn, always felt as if he was on the outside peeking in, unable to breach the glass barrier that separated him from what he needed in life. He’d begun to see Ren, Sersie, and Ky’Li as brothers, men who were already better brothers to him than the one he’d lost. He’d begun to find his way past his internal struggles.
“I promise,” Sersie said with a smile. “But I’d rather you be here. You’re what holds us together. Hell, Hannah, you’re the only reason we are a unit.”
“I may have brought us together, but you three need each other. Don’t let Dresden separate you, okay?”
Hannah ran into the dense jungle, not even sure which way she was supposed to be going. As Ky’Li slipped his arm around her, she glanced over her shoulder one last time and shouted back to the men. “I’ll always be yours, no matter how many miles or planets stand between us. Always!”
“I thought you would kiss them each goodbye,” Ky’Li said.
“I kissed Sersie because he needed it.”
“But not Ren or Vaughn.”
“This was not a goodbye. It can’t be, though I know you’re probably happy it’s just the two of us now.”
Ky’Li swung her around to face him. “Do I want you for my own, yes, but not if it means hurting you.”
She felt selfish and cruel, talking to him that way, but she didn’t want to face reality and Ky’Li would force her to.
“I take no joy in this, Hannah.”
Hannah. . . again. She was beginning to hate when he called her that, but she was starting to realize he called her that when he was upset.
“They are important to you,” he said, his brow creased with worry.
“But not to you?” she countered, again hating that she lashed out at him, because she couldn’t change what was happening.
Ky said nothing. This was one of those rare times that his silence unnerved her. Ky’Li pulled her in against his chest. She always loved how safe she felt in his arms.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For saving me, but mostly for understanding.”
* * *
KY’LI
The drop schedule that Ky’Li and Vaughn had devised worked well for the first three weeks. There were always large quantities of water and usually some food, though food in the jungle was plentiful. According to Sersie, the animals had a special gland that filtered out the toxins in the water making hunting easy and plentiful for Ky’Li. Similar to the animals, select trees here had their own way of filtering out the toxins from the rain and groundwater. Fortunately, Hannah knew which fruits were safe to eat, adding to their water intake. Sersie had taught her well.
