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They approached the end of the hall, and Levi peered out. On the left was the hallway that led back to their cell, but as Levi turned to the right, he saw the back of a Jorvlen striding away from them.
Was this the Jorvlen he’d heard outside the office? Or had he come from their cell block and already seen that he and Cora were missing?
Levi took a deep breath. No. If that was the case, an alarm would be blaring out across the ship, not just the regular morning announcement.
Levi waited until the Jorvlen was out of earshot before taking Cora’s hand and sneaking down the left corridor.
By the time the daytime lights came on, they were both back in the cell where they’d started, falling into a deep sleep. Levi rested especially well with the knowledge that the Jorvlens were none the wiser and that he and Cora were undoubtedly one step closer to finding the stone.
Chapter 9
Cora awoke to the dissonant sound of metal scraping against metal and then to the equally horrible sound of a Jorvlen’s voice.
“Food!” the voice yelled, and Cora opened her eyes to see an ugly gray beast scowling at her, then at Levi, who was waking up beside her.
Cora suddenly realized she’d been curled up in Levi’s arms all night, and they exchanged a smile. The Jorvlen rolled his eyes but said nothing before leaving.
Cora figured if the Jorvlens took two more seconds to think about it, they’d realize she and Levi didn’t have much of a choice. The cell only had one cot, and the floor was made of cold, hard metal. Of course, they’d be sleeping together, even if they weren’t sleeping together.
As Cora stretched awake and watched Levi collect the food tray that had been shoved into the cell, she realized they weren’t quite doing that yet either.
Cora smiled as she caught herself. Yet. What a telling word. She felt a stirring in her lower body when she wondered with anticipation how soon it might be.
“I hope you like slop,” Levi said as he came back with the food tray, laden with two piles of what looked like oozing gray oatmeal. It was entirely unappetizing, but Cora hadn’t eaten since the Jorvlens picked her up the day before. She knew the same was true for Levi.
The slop would have to do.
She struggled to get the stuff down, and it seemed Levi did, too. But she knew they needed their strength.
“Again tonight?” she whispered after the Jorvlen had come back to collect the food tray.
Levi grinned. “If you’re up for it.”
“Absolutely,” she replied.
He knew she meant the search for the stone, but she hoped he understood her second meaning. Pleasuring each other again tonight, exploration of each other’s bodies, learning everything there was to know.
Regarding the detective work, Cora was more than up for it. She’d been waiting years for the chance to take down Umbrosis and the Jorvlens. She just never thought she’d be doing it from the inside. In some ways, getting kidnapped was the biggest breakthrough she’d had. Now she was finally in a position to make some real change and atone for letting Samantha down when she needed her most.
She finally had a partner to support her—someone who was as passionate about stopping the Jorvlens as she was and who had the skills to get it done. She had no doubt that together they’d be able to take down the whole operation.
As they snuck out of the cell that night, she felt a tightness in her chest and a sinking sensation in her gut urging her to stay close to Levi just in case anything happened. Only when she went to step in front of him as they approached the corner at the end of the hall did she consciously recognize it for what it was—fear.
Not fear that something would happen to her, but fear that if they were caught, she might lose him. Realizing it struck her in the heart. It was almost as scary as losing her parents and brother back on Egshur.
She managed to hold herself back from the urge to protect Levi, though, knowing he could take care of himself. But the moment had quelled any doubt she might have had about how much she cared for him, and that was terrifying in an entirely new way.
“In here?” came Levi’s whisper as they moved toward a maintenance room not far from the office they’d broken into the night before.
Cora nodded. She’d gone back over all the files she’d stolen the night before, at least as much as would fit on the limited space on her comm. There wasn’t a whole lot on the office computer after all—just general information about the stone and its properties, as well as some old files from when the Jorvlens last had their hands on the artifact. But she did find something else that was useful.
Some broken file paths pointed to the ship’s mainframe, and her mission was to break in to get the information they needed. The easiest way was to go straight to the source.
They slipped into the maintenance room and shut the door quietly behind them. The place was a mess of pipes and cables jutting out from the walls, crisscrossing the room, and then disappearing into some other section of the wall.
“Look for a vent,” Cora whispered.
The two of them used their comms as light sources, peering up into the ceiling amid the chaos of the ship’s bowels.
