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“You woke up?” I asked, tossing down the hose. I smiled to myself. I wanted Silar to get his rest, but I couldn’t help the surge of hot fluttering in my belly and the pleasant surprise of being with him again a full minute before I’d expected to crawl back into bed.
God, girl. You are so far gone for him.
But when the voice answered, it wasn’t Silar’s voice. It was a voice that crunched its way through what sounded to be an utterly mangled nasal passage.
“Haven’t slept more than an hour at a time since you broke my nose, bitch. Wouldn’t let myself until I tracked you down.” The hand on my arm got tighter at the same moment a weapon was pressed to my temple. “And here you fucking are.”
27
CHERRY
God fucking damn it.
With an obnoxiously strong hand on my arm and a weapon pressed to my head, I tried to take rapid stock of the situation as Magnus’ goon forcibly turned me around and started marching me towards the closest gate. He pulled me through it until we were no longer in the protective embrace of Silar’s meticulously maintained fencing.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, heart on fire, my eyes scanning desperately for signs of an accomplice. So far, it looked to be just him.
“Told you what would happen to you,” he spat, grinding the weapon, some kind of blaster, harder against my temple. “You’re going to the bottom of Lake New Nippissing. But I’m going to have fun with you on the ride back. By the time we get there you’ll be in so much fucking pain you’ll welcome the water.”
I blinked. Ride back? He had his own ship here?
I mean, of course he did. He’d have to. How else would he have gotten here, unless he’d jumped on a last-minute supply transport like I did? This planet didn’t seem to have any other public transport or tourist services.
So why the hell hadn’t I heard it? Why hadn’t Silar heard it?
“How far is your ship?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.
“Not far. Just near those weird fucking trees. So don’t get any ideas about trying to escape before we reach it.” He cast me a suspicious sideways glance. I was momentarily cheered by how fucked up his nose looked from the side, but it didn’t last long when he continued, “My ship is cloaked. If you don’t think I’ve got the money to pay for the tech to shroud my shit then you are goddamn delusional. You have no idea who you’ve fucked with.”
Well, that would explain the silent arrival. It also meant we’d leave just the same way. No sound. No blips on any radars.
Silar would wake up and I would just be… gone.
For the first time, the reality of the situation caused panic to truly flare inside me. I was going to die.
And I was never going to see my husband again.
I could scream. With Silar’s hearing, it might be enough to wake him even in his deep post-coital stupor.
But then I’d be putting him in harm’s way. Despite all the large animals Silar dealt with and the predators I knew lurked beyond the fences, I’d never seen Silar with anything besides a simple knife. There was no way he’d have a weapon to rival this blaster.
If I screamed his name now, I’d only get to watch my husband’s death before I experienced my own.
Hell no. That was absolutely not an option. Whatever happened to me was my own fucking thing. Shit had caught up with me and I’d just have to figure out how to deal with that. But I was absolutely not going to involve Silar. I thought of him, safe and sleeping in our bed, and gulped down a hot stone of sorrow. But all that did was force the sorrow into my gut, my eyes, until I wasn’t sure if I was going to cry or throw up.
At least I had him for this long.
At least we’d had tonight together. At least I’d finally gotten to scrape the surface of the formidable, multi-layered, nearly impenetrable being that was my husband. But even with that grief-stricken gratitude, there was so much regret. Regret I hadn’t tried to get close to him sooner. Regret we’d only had this one, single chance to –
“Take your filthy hands off of my wife.”
No!
“Jesus fuck!” The man whirled me around, the gun digging into my skull. “Drop the weapon!”
There Silar stood. As if carved from metal, turned silver by the night. Every muscle was taut with tension though his stance looked cool, relaxed, his face an unreadable mask.
His eyes were so bright white they put the fucking stars to shame. A long-bladed knife glinted in his right hand.
