Chapter Seven
As I laid on a hospital bed, my restless legs tingled with nervous energy. I was itching to get out of this sterile medical room. It reminded me too much of the last couple of days I’d watched Mum’s health decline.
Gods, I miss her.
The hiss of the sliding door jarred me from my thoughts, and I bounced up onto my elbow, regretting it instantly. My shoulder had been cauterised and sutured, but whenever I moved, the twinge of pain left me grimacing through heaving breaths.
A male nurse entered the small room and smiled.
“You’re clear to leave, Lieutenant Harthwaite.
Here is a course of painkillers.” He offered me a small glass jar, half-full of tiny white tablets.
“No need to return unless you have any issues. Your sutures will dissolve as the wound heals.” He motioned to the open door.
“Two of your colleagues are here to take you home.”
Frowning, I glanced to the brightly lit hallway. A bronze face with dark, spiky hair atop peered around the door, a set of white teeth beaming at me.
“Saul, what are you doing here?” I groaned, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I still wore my silver dress, now adorned with bloodstains in various shades. Some mine, some not.
Dressed in his black security uniform, Saul strolled into the room. “Torz told us to come collect you.”
“Us?” I eyed the doorway as a hoverchair was pushed into the room by our superior officer, Captain Arlo Zaynes. I chuckled to myself. I’d never thought I’d see the day the stern, stoic head of security, with his buzz haircut and mass of tattoos, looked so domesticated.
Arlo raised his eyebrows when he spotted me. “You really did get yourself into a pickle, didn’t you?”
“Tends to happen when she does these things alone,” Saul slighted.
Shocked, I glanced at my burly comrade. An air of disappointment rippled off Saul’s bulky shoulders, making me believe he was pissed with me. I frowned. “Why are you angry?”
“I’m not.” He dropped his stance, puffing out his broad chest. “But how many times have I told you I’ve got your back? I can’t guard it if you mosey off on assignments by yourself.”
Wow, I’d never seen him so animated in this way. “I had to keep a low profile.”
He eyed my attire, crossing his thick arms over his chest. “Really?”
I wasn’t sure how much Torz had told Arlo about Zuli’s blackmail, let alone Saul, but given their involvement with the undercover supply runs, I had no doubt they would be briefed at some point.
“I was running an errand for Torz. In an unexpected twist of events, I ended up…well, like this.” I looked down at my bare feet.
I had no idea where my shoes were, or if they’d been recovered from the crime scene.
I must’ve passed out just after the third Puran keeled over.
My stomach roiled at the thought. “Is Torz mad?”
My two colleagues exchanged a dubious look. Saul screwed his face up whilst Arlo scratched the purple-and-black tattoo scaling his neck, the frown deepening his stark brow doing nothing to ease my unrest. “He’s, um…he’s fuming.”
“Shit.” I rubbed my face with a despair that lingered on exhaustion. The political aftermath of the incident would be Torz’s responsibility to clear up, but how the fuck was he going to explain the situation to Chaz? I’d killed three of his men.
“Come on.” Arlo lined the hoverchair up against the bed, took his jacket off, and draped it around my bare shoulders. “I’m sure things will be okay. It’s Torz. He lets you get away with everything.”
“No, he doesn’t,” I mumbled, clasping the jacket at the neck and eyeing the assistive chair before me. “And there is nothing wrong with my legs. I can walk.”
“You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“I’m fine.”
Arlo’s icy-blue stare pierced through me. It was no wonder he ran the department as Torz’s second. His cool, no-nonsense demeanour could freeze anyone in their tracks. I, for one, never wanted to get on the wrong side of him.
“Get in the chair, Lieutenant,” he commanded with a firm, flat tone.
I stifled my groan of reluctance and complied. “Yes, sir.”
* * *
By the time we arrived on Level Ten, I was laughing like a six-year-old child…and squealing like one. Arlo swung the hoverchair out of the elevator, marginally missing a clerical worker, then an elderly couple, as we hurtled down the corridor towards Torz’s apartment.
I giggled as Arlo pulled me to a stop outside the apartment door. Chuckling to himself, Arlo looked back at Saul sweating and panting behind us. “I think you need a few extra sessions at the gym, young man.”
Saul narrowed his brown eyes. “Don’t young man me. I’m having an off day. I ate too much at dinner.”
I snorted as Arlo typed a code into the digital keypad and let himself in. I’d already asked why I was being taken to Torz’s apartment and not my own. Arlo’s answer had left tremors of dread in my bones: “He wants to see you.”
As usual, the apartment was warmly lit and immaculate. Arlo pushed me through the lounge towards the door leading to Torz’s chaotic headquarters full of rubbish and boxes and mess. I braced my feet against the plush carpet, refusing to go any further, and halting the chair’s momentum.
“I’m not going in there,” I said. “I’ve had enough chaos for one day, and that room gives me a headache.”
There was a pause, and as I stood up on wobbly legs, I found Arlo flashing another doubtful glance at Saul. I didn’t care. I trundled over to the comfortable-looking sofa, questioning why Torz rarely used this room when it was spacious and welcoming—a complete contrast to the shithole next door.
Lowering myself onto the firm but comfortable cushions, I released a pent-up sigh. My whole body ached. Bruises were forming along my arms and legs, and the tightness in the front of my left shoulder was beginning to throb, confirming the anaesthetic was wearing off.
Let’s hope the painkillers the nurse gave me work.
The whoosh of the opening office door had me glancing up, and Arlo disappeared into the room of doom. His low voice announced my arrival, then there was the sound of swift, muffled footsteps before a weary-looking Torz appeared on the threshold.
I met his hard gaze, the roar of disconcertion flooding my brain.
“Arlo, Saul,” he rumbled, “you may leave.” A pause. “Now!”
Saul frowned at me with sympathy before following Arlo out the main entrance. A suffocating silence settled between us as the door closed behind them, and I swallowed down the thick lump forming in my throat.
Still dressed in his evening suit, Torz stood a few paces away. His dark hair was tousled to one side as if he’d vigorously raked his fingers through it every minute for the past few hours. His brooding scowl lasered my skin, and a profound guilt swamped me.
“Torz, I had no choice. I had to kill them.”
He began pacing, balling his hands into fists.
“This is becoming a nightmare.” Halting his steps, he peered at me and pointed to the door.
“That scene was a bloodbath. Media teams are all over it, questioning if Delta Ring is failing at protecting its citizens; damning the Purans even more so than usual. The whole situation is a mess.”
I squeezed my eyelids shut, holding back the grief trying to rip through my chest. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Striding towards me, he dropped his gaze to my bandaged shoulder peeking out from under Arlo’s jacket. He sat down on the coffee table in front of me, so close his legs straddled my knees.
“How bad is it?” His voice had taken on a tender note, one that surprised me.
Drowning in his intense stare and equally charged emotions, I tried to lighten the mood. “It’s only a shoulder. I have another one.”
“Don’t, Rems,” he snapped. “Don’t. You could’ve died.
” His scowl transformed into a frown, and I sensed the warmth of protection stirring within him.
“I shouldn’t have put you in that position…
on your own...in a damn dress. Gods! I shouldn’t have sent you to negotiate with Chaz. ” He huffed. “I’m the one who’s sorry.”
“It’s my job, Torz.”
“No!” He pinned me with his resolute stare, and I discovered a whirlpool of remorse and doting concern. Swallowing thickly, he gently added, “It’s mine.”
My brow furrowed. How could he say that? I freely chose to fight the oppression. Just because he led our team didn’t mean he had to place himself in harm’s way over me, or anyone else.
“I’m finding myself in a predicament,” Torz said.
“It seems I’m having to put my security team at risk to protect Marla Hyde.
If anything happens to her, Zuli will expose me, and it seems assassination attempts are coming left, right, and centre.
If I denounce Zuli’s manifesto, she will also expose me.
If I endorse her, my position as Delta Ring Commander will be secure, but…
I’ll be betraying everything I’ve accomplished with the Purans, and I have no doubt Nikos Russo will raise hell against me…
starting with you. Don’t give me that look, Rems. You saw the way he eyed you up. And he knows…”
“Knows what?”
His eyes dropped to his feet, a clench of shame trickling across our bond. “He knows our history.”
What? “How? Did you tell him?” I instantly regretted the distaste in my tone, especially when Torz shot me a flat look.
“No. He’s Quoram-born. He has some kind of ability to sense such things. I don’t know.”
“Russo’s Quoram-born?”
“Yes. If you look at his hair, there’s a violet tint near the temples.” He sighed, pushing his fingers through his hair again. I wanted to reach out and take those fingers, caress them, soothe them…
“I can’t chance it, Rems. Everything’s a fucking mess.”
“Then what are you going to do?” I pressed gently, still staring at the hands I desperately wanted to hold.
Pensively studying the plush carpet between us, Torz’s emotions wreaked havoc across our bond.
The swell in my chest was building with an ardent frustration for him.
He didn’t deserve to be put in such a position.
He’d only ever wanted to help the Puran people.
Why was that seen as an offence in our society’s eyes?
“If I endorse Zuli, perhaps I’ll still be able to get supplies to Chaz and Russo, and then…
I’ll think of something to…to stop the...
” He growled, rubbing his face vigorously.
“Maybe, just maybe, she’ll lose the vote.
” He shook his head. “I read through all the remaining manifestos last night. Do you know, five out of the eight will condemn the Purans in some shape or form? It’s disgusting. ”
“Are any of the others favourable?”
“Governor Joules from the Amythest wants to leave Quoram and find another world the whole civilisation can actually reside on. I see the appeal, but it’s not compelling enough. The closest habitable planet is two-hundred flight-years away.
“Governor Farrow from Platuum wants to enforce compulsory acceptance of the Damson bond.” Torz threw me a yeah, right look, and I smiled in understanding.
“But it’s Governor Dix’s from the Foundler whose idea sings to me the most. He wants to build a refinery on Pura, offering employment to the Purans.
The plan is flawless. The refinery model will give us enough power to sustain generations without relying on Quoram’s energy field, plus it’ll pull the Puran society out of poverty.
But…” He sneered with disgust. “It’s the least popular due to the single-minded bastards in power. I’m ashamed to call them my equals.”
Overwhelmed by the need to comfort him, I reached forward and squeezed his arm, but he flinched, pulling his arm away. My insides dropped, remorse gripping my shoulders as he rubbed his inner forearm, twisting it away from me.
He shot to his feet and awkwardly motioned to the covered injury. “Sprained, remember?”
Sensing his embarrassment, I frowned. Did it hurt that much, or did he really not want me to touch him?
“I…um…” His awkward mannerisms suggested the latter, and as I became stuck in the confines of my remorseful and confused mind, I barely registered his next words.
“You should take it easy, Rems. A knife wound to the shoulder is nasty. Take the next few days off.”
“W…what?” A lump of panic rose in my gullet. “And do what, exactly?”
“Rest.” Torz flashed a tender smile, no doubt aware of the despair swirling in the pit of my stomach. “You work harder than I do.”
Narrowing my eyes, I stuck my tongue out at him. “Maybe you should pay me more.”
Torz’s laugh fluttered through my veins, filling me with a soothing warmth. But the cold emptiness quickly returned, reminding me that this wonderful man was not mine, and never would be.