Page 159 of Tracked and Taken

“On a station?”

“On a station, Boss.”

“Notice served?”

“Served. Counter-notice issued. He alleges Junction One Security has not adequately protected his storage allocation from unauthorized incursion.”

“By his neighbor?”

“By his neighbor. Whom he is building the fence against.”

The corner of her mouth does the thing.

“Take it under advisement.”

“Already advising. Petra Phan has been seen in the Finder’s Market negotiating with a vendor about ownership status of an item she may or may not have purchased.”

“Carry on.”

“Carrying on.”

The exchange is, on the surface, three years of shorthand running clean.

His eyes have not, in any of it, gone to her throat.

I watch the man not-look at something for the entire exchange, and I have not in my career seen one do it this cleanly. The discipline he prepared not to look.

“Boss.” A beat. “Welcome back from Iris-Nine.”

“Thanks, Ardent.”

“Vosk.” A second beat. “Glad you brought her home in one piece.”

It is the correct sentence.

It is calibrated to the exact register a deputy delivers to a contractor who has just brought his boss back from a BioSystems facility. The sentence is correct. The register is correct. The man delivering it has spent the last four minutes performing a calibration so precise that the sentence at the end of it is, by every read I trust, the entire reason he came.

I return the nod.

He goes.

The smell goes with him and leaves its shape behind, the way a chemical does in a room after the source has left it.

My tail does not move until he clears ten meters past the corner. Then it tightens hard enough that Natalie feels it. I do not loosen it. I am not, in that second, a charming male eating noodles. I am a bonded male who just watched another male refuse his mate’s throat.

Natalie picks up her chopsticks. Looks at me.

“You went quiet.”

“I was eating.”

She watches my face. I watch her watch my face. Her dark eyes narrow a fraction.

“You don’t have to like him.”

“He’s a good deputy.”

“You said that with your entire chest.”