And that scared him.
“Yes,” he said.
“Then you didn’t mess up. You did what you had to.”
Those words were both comforting and unsettling. As head of security for this little operation, Drakkal had been cautious and disciplined for years. This lapse of self-control was uncharacteristic. It wasdangerous—not just to him, but to Arcanthus, Samantha, and all the people they worked with and cared about.
“What now, Drak?” Sam asked after several seconds of silence. “You’re going to look for her, right?”
Drakkal’s brow furrowed. Finding his terran in this city would be like searching for a particular speck of dust amidst the vastness of space.
But he had resources—money, a network of informants and contacts, and access to Arcanthus, who was one of the best hackers in Arthos—andtenacity. There’d been a period in his life, before he’d met Arcanthus, when Drakkal had been on the verge of surrender, had been about to give up. That wasn’t him anymore. He’d meant what he’d told his terran.
He lifted his head and stood up as bolstering fire swept through his veins. Whether it had been fate or just blind chance, the universe had put the terran in his path. It was up to him to do the rest, and he wouldn’t let the odds deter him. “Not just going to look. I’m going to find her, no matter where she went.”
FOUR
Three Weeks Later
The sudden,insistent blare of Shay’s alarm startled her awake. Her fist reflexively flew up and smacked her nose, sending sharp pain across her face. With a curse, she lifted her head and fumbled with the holocom on her wrist, trying to remember through her grogginess how to turn the damned thing off. Once there was silence, her head fell back on the pillow.
Just another day in paradise.
She opened her eyes and squinted at the holocom’s display, which was blaringly bright in the otherwise dark room. 05:01. Not that it meant much in the Undercity, which was locked in an eternal night broken only by the vibrant, obnoxious neons and holograms on almost every street.
With a groan, Shay rolled onto her back, rubbing the throbbing bridge of her nose as all her other twinges and aches made themselves known—stiff back, sore hips, immense pressure onher bladder. Despite all that, she enjoyed this rare moment of peace.
Slipping her hands beneath the blanket, Shay settled them on her rounded stomach and closed her eyes. Little feet kicked against her palm from within.
Shay smiled. “Good morning, Baby.”
Baby. That was all she could call it. Shay didn’t know whether it was a boy or girl, wasn’t sure of the due date, didn’t even know what she was going to do when the time finally came. But she did know this baby was the only good thing in her life regardless of its conception and despite the piece of shit sperm donor, and she’d do her best not to fuck this up like she had everything else. Shay might have made a mess of her own life, but she wasn’t going to ruin her baby’s. She’d do better for her child.
Just how she was going to accomplish that remained a mystery, but shewould.
It didn’t help that she’d been taken from everything she’d ever known, sold and thrust into this dangerous new world where some viewed her as weak and small, as a curiosity, a possession to be claimed. As a fuckinganimal.
Never again.
It’d been three weeks since her escape from that damned prison cell and every day had been a struggle. She was paranoid, always on guard, always looking over her shoulder, always anticipating the moment when they’d find her. And she was stuck here in Arthos. She had no ID chip and couldn’t get one through the United Terran Federation because of her criminal record—she had at least one warrant out for her arrest back on Earth. If she went to the embassy, they were guaranteed to see that warrant, and she’d be taken into custody. She was royally fucked.
Well, you wanted a fresh start. Doesn’t get much fresher than this. You’re nobody here.
“So, we make do with what we got, right Baby?” she asked softly, running her hand over her stomach as the baby restlessly shifted.
Pregnancy was a state she hadn’t wanted, one she couldn’t afford, but she didn’t resent it.
Fortunately, she’d been granted a better start than she might otherwise have had thanks to the azhera who’dpurchasedher from Murgen. He’d had chips with several thousand credits on them stashed in his pants pocket. But credits only went so far when you didn’t have an ID chip.
“And money isn’t going to make itself.” Despite those words, Shay lay on her pathetic excuse for a bed—an old, thin, lumpy gel mattress on the floor—and cherished the quiet moment with her baby a little longer.
She didn’t bother suppressing her groan when she finally rolled out of bed. “Lights on.”
The overhead lights along the upper walls hummed and flickered on, low and dim at first before strengthening to an uneven glow. Several were burned out.
On her hands and knees, Shay slipped her hand beneath her pillow, curled her fingers around the handle of her blaster, and pushed herself to her feet. Her bladder chose that moment to remind her of how long she’d ignored it.
She hurriedly snatched clean clothes from the dresser and crossed the small studio apartment to enter the bathroom. She set the blaster on the counter, shoved her underwear down, and relieved herself. The moan that escaped from her was embarrassing, but who the hell cared? No one was around to hear.