Page 20 of Crush

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“So you broke into a secured facility?” Teq crossed all his arms over his thorax. He’d seen how Adeline wasn’t entirely comfortable around the other Earther female. “This is how you honor the IDA contract of connection and communication?”

Kinsley hunched, making herself smaller. “I had to,” she whispered. “I had to make sure I wasn’t…losing it again. Anyway, it wasn’t that hard.”

“What is it saying now?” Adeline asked Ollie.

He squirmed to get down, and she let him slide to his feet, although she kept a hold of his hand. “It’s not really words. But it’s so happy to not be alone anymore.”

“Rocks don’t talk,” Teq repeated obstinately.

Ollie shrugged. “I guess some rocks do.”

Teq tapped out an urgent message to Mag, then switched to the ship’s internal scanning system. TheDeepWanderwasn’t the most advanced model available—and they’d had to do many of the repairs and mods themselves—but he’d have to insist on another safety and security upgrade now that they had the Earthers aboard. And he made an extra note to himself about Kinsley saying she’d had no trouble accessing the bay; that shouldn’t have been possible, at all. The scan beeped its completion, finding no incursion, no leaks, no anomalous signals.

He took a step closer to the stone.

Adeline grabbed his arm. “Teq. Be careful.”

He paused, more from shock than the strength of her grip, which wasn’t nothing. Had anyone ever cautioned him before? Maybe Amma had, but he didn’t remember. While he’d come out of the hatchling grotto sturdy enough to clear slag, it had been obvious he was tuned to the composition and flaws of stone in ways to make a strong crusher. And he’d thrown himself into the work, sometimes literally.

After a breath of hesitation, he put one hand over hers. “I said you would be protected on theDeepWander. I break many things, but not that promise.” He eased away from her.

Because if anything broke here, it might be his focus and restraint. Given his tough hide, how could her soft fingers leave such a mark, invisible yet enduring?

But the reminder of the potential dangers of the unknown changed his course, and he ushered the Earthers out of the processing bay. He made sure to secure the access doors with his personal encryption. He would know if anyone tried to break in again.

Mag was striding up with Dorn and three others. “Teq,” he called. “What is going on?”

“Kinsley needs an escort to her quarters,” Teq replied. “We can discuss the protocols later, but she breached the secondary ore processing bay, potentially endangering a hatchling.”

Jerking her head up, Kinsley stared at Oliver, then Adeline. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Adeline flicked her fingers, silencing the other female. “We’ll talk later too.” Though her tone was as cold as the shadow side of an asteroid, she squared off to Mag. “Kinsley made a mistake, but Earth is a closed world, and per the IDA contract, if you have any disagreements with her, including legal, moral, or personal concerns, you may not impose your own penalties but must let her go back.”

Kinsley straightened in an awkward movement, her eyes wide with alarm. “I can’t—” But at another gesture from Adeline, she settled to her heels.

Mag twitched his carapace, obviously aggravated, but his tone was even when he said, “You need not worry. We would never harm a guest, not even one who tried to steal from us.” Over Kinsley’s objection of “I didn’t! Not this time!” he continued, “Dorn, Reji, take her back to her quarters and make sure she is safeguarded.”

Flanking the smaller Earther, the two orcs looked huge, and Teq felt a pang of uncertainty. Did all the Earther femalesfeelso small? Kinsley had only been responding to whatever message the rock was emitting, the same as Oliver. Although she’d broken through their locks to do it.

Adeline was typing on her datpad. “Kinsley, June and Carmen are on their way and will stay with you until…until we figure out what’s happening. None of us should be alone.”

The other female nodded, although she did not raise her gaze, as the trio left.

“I don’t know that she meant any harm,” Adeline murmured to Teq.

“‘Not this time’?” When he repeated the Earther’s ambiguous concession, Adeline sighed.

But Teq couldn’t reassure her, not when he had to explain the situation to his apex—and anyway, he was troubled himself.

If the orcs lost the fortune before they even got to the Luster…

Maybe all the Earther females would be going back to Earth.

Chapter 8

Adeline’s jaw ached while she watched the orcs talking amongst themselves. She was worried for Ollie, worried for Kinsley, worried for what would happen next. Dammit, she might even be worried for a chunk of rock? How much fretting could one body hold before her jaw just clenched itself into a black hole?

She forced herself to not clutch at Ollie, but she didn’t let him go too far either, and when Teq gestured for her son to approach, she was right on his little heels. Nobody questioned her boy without her right there.