Page 64 of Trove’s Purpose

“Have you ever been anywhere like this?” She asked. Completely off topic. But somehow, the topic change felt right.

Because if they couldn’t connect due to this sex thing, maybe it was time to take sex completely out of the equation.

“A planet like this?” Trove followed her gaze, looking up. “I’ve been to planets with rings before. Can’t say I’ve ever been to one this pretty though. We’re not typically going planetside anyway. Or, at least, I don’t. If we’re delivering or picking up something, usually Tanin and Rok do that. The twins often go as security. I stay on the ship since operating the weapons is my job. I really only go if it’s a big delivery or they need extra security for some reason.”

“How did you end up on this crew?” She asked next, looking down to face him. He mimicked her motion, always following her lead. Never pushing for more than she was willing to give.

Trove cocked his head. “You mean, how Tanin recruited me?”

“Sure.”

“It’s not a pretty story.”

“Yeah? I know a few not pretty stories myself,” she grimaced. “If you don’t want to talk about it…”

He was already shaking his head. “It’s not that. I just… don’t know that you want to hear about it.”

“I do though. Even if it’s bad. I’m listening.”

And it was true, she found. She was listening. She was not willing to hear him out on the meaningless sex issue, because her stance on that was absolutely steel, unmoving and unchanging. She believed in how special sex could be and she refused to let that be changed. But she wanted to hear about the rest of him. Everything that formed him that might have influenced that opinion he had on sex.

No, she just wanted to know what made him… him.

Beyond the hypersexuality, who was Trove?

He leaned back on his hands. “Tanin recruited each of us. Not really based on our skills, at least not fully. What he was actually looking for were people he knew he could trust. He could teach us or have us learn whatever else he needed, but trust is not so easily forged. Alred gave him lists of people who had the skills he needed, and he picked from there. He needed someone to run weapons on his new ship, and I happened to be great at using big weapons. Or small weapons. Any weapons, really. He found me and made me an offer that I just… couldn’t refuse.”

Chee grinned. “That’s your not pretty story? Sounds pretty enough to me.”

He smiled back. “That’s the heavily edited version. And the only version you’re going to get.”

“Come on. Nothing else?”

“I’m not a good person, Chee. I’ve never pretended to be. The me that lived on Rik-Vane, the person I was before I became Trove, is not a male I ever want you to meet.”

“I’m even more curious now,” she giggled.

Trove smiled back at her, but he didn't elaborate further. And she didn’t push. Kirvan was a person he refused to let her know, and she could only respect that decision, as he had respected all of hers.

Still, she was curious.

Chapter 21

Kirvan

Kirvan grinned as he tracked the barrel of his gun over the tops of the run down, dilapidated buildings of Rik-Vane. It was funny. They were completely at his mercy. They would live and die by his whim. And it really was just his whim. He didn't have to shoot this old-style blaster. He didn't have to rain down fiery death above him.

But all the scorch marks, the holes, the damage showed where he had done so before. And he was going to do so again. Because it was funny. Like kicking a nest of insects and watching them scramble for their pathetic, meaningless little lives.

Sure, it also had the added benefit of making sure everyone down there feared the Unclean. That’s what they called him. Kirvan the Unclean. He kind of liked it. Really had a nice connotation. Like he was so filthy, it had to be represented in his very name. Suitable for him.

Kirvan the Unclean was a feared name in this void cursed station. Which was the only way to survive on Rik-Vane. You either became someone powerful enough to be feared, or you became the slave of someone powerful enough to be feared.

Kirvan had done both.

First by endearing himself to Lusitania, the Dark Bitch they called her. A name she reveled in as she destroyed everyone in her path. She was one of the few females on Rik-Vane, and even more deranged and dangerous than the males because of it. She had never let herself become slave to another. Or, at least, she didn't think she had.

Kirvan had been so young when he showed up here, it had been almost certain that he would die if left on his own. He’d killed before, sure, but not the way these people had killed. Not the way that they tortured and destroyed for fun and profit. It was a whole different game here, and one he was in no way equipped to play.