Chapter 39
We didn’t get much sleep. Roys woke from the shivers. He ate, but the food wouldn’t stay down. At one point, he was back at the toilet for over an hour, and we took another shower. I didn’t want to say it aloud, considering how horrible he felt, but I somehow found the night comforting.
We were together. I was right there through all of it.
He didn’t have to drag himself to the bathroom or sleep there out of fear that he wouldn’t make it in the middle of the night.
Bringing him to bed and holding him through the chills or cooling him off during the sweats was something I could give, and he thanked me profusely for it.
Tried twice to tell me I could head out, that this was his mistake, but I didn’t want to abandon him anymore.
By the time morning came, Roys managed three full hours of sleep.
His alarm went off before mine did. At some point, he coiled around me like a python.
Our entangled limbs caught further in the blankets that called for us to stay a while longer, though I knew Roys would tug himself out of bed when he shouldn’t.
“Why don’t you stay in the shuttle today?” My lips brushed against his forehead, and his beard tickled my neck. Damn, I really loved the beard. If he shaved, I might be forced to riot.
“Because you know as well as I do that my reaction time at the present moment is horrendous, the others will be suspicious, and we all need you to be on the lookout from the shuttle.” He kissed my neck, making me wonder how it would feel to wake up like this every morning.
He wasn’t wrong, much as I loathed to admit it. Arana’s pirate problem could arrive any day. The shuttle had the best tracking, albeit imperfect. If we needed to get away, I would be ready.
“Then make an excuse to stay nearby,” I said.
“Oh, are you the one giving orders now?”
“Seeing as our captain is somewhat indisposed, yeah, I guess I am.”
“Hot.” He grumbled, still clearly half asleep. It made his voice all gravely and I couldn’t get enough of it. “If I had any energy, I’d jump you.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with me because that is clearly one of my lines.”
Roys laughed. The sound rumbled against my chest where he snuggled a moment longer. Not that I minded. We should get up, but I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I wondered if I could ever get used to it, or if every morning we were together would be as unreal as the first.
A few minutes later, we were together in the bathroom.
Roys had a spare toothbrush, and we grabbed a five-minute shower, seeing as Roys had broken into another sweat.
By the time we were ready in the breakfast area, the others were waking.
Arana had a knowing look. She sat across from me moments prior to Zavir.
He had nothing to say because he wasn’t quite awake, nor did anyone else since they did not know I never returned to my room last night. My commlink blinked.
Arana: Nice night?
Lucky: None of your business.
She could believe whatever she wanted. If Roys were up to the task, we absolutely would have stayed up all night fucking.
I wasn’t complaining, though. Being together, sharing a bed, waking to his warmth and his scent all around me and my hand in his hair; that had always been a dream.
A reality I would never meet and feigned never to wish for.
Now it was real and ours, if we wanted it to be.
Malwin though, I did not know what to do there, what to think, if that was a future I could be a part of. Kids were… easy to break and difficult to mend.
From the sounds of it, Malwin had a real childhood.
Roys’ life as a military officer, a captain at that, put him and Dinah on a military base for family members.
They were protected and had more access to schooling, housing, and health benefits than any place like the colonies; that was for certain.
The military nabbed plenty of the desperate from their promise of family benefits alone.
“Lucky.” Ryker slapped my back. I sat at an empty table. Everyone walked to the exit with Ryker canting his head. “Time to go.”
“Right.”
Ryker tossed an arm around my shoulders. “What were you thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
“You were dead silent throughout breakfast and didn’t hear the captain call us out.”
Said captain waited by the door like he had to watch all the kids leave the classroom without issue.
With his visor under his arm, his expression lay bare for the few of us remaining.
That expression hardened, and his eye twitched, like it used to, and I gave him a peculiar look that had him clearing his throat.
“Move it, Ryker,” Roys warned.
“Hey, why are you only calling me out?” Ryker squeaked at Roys’ snarl and, since he had his arm around me, urged us both out the door. “Someone’s in a mood.”
“Guess so,” I said.
We meandered onto the shuttle where Maddy sat by Galya. They chatted about their plans for the day. Maddy glanced at me. My heart lurched. I wanted to fall at her feet and cry in her lap like a child until she smiled, and I soared.
A start. A real fucking start.
I returned the gesture and then went into the cockpit to begin the preflight checks.
Roys called out to the others in the cabin, ensuring everyone had everything.
By the time I finished the checks, Roys took the copilot seat and removed his visor.
His cheeks had color to them this morning, even if a slight tremble remained in his hands.
“Feeling alright? You were glaring earlier. I wasn’t even bugging you,” I said.
“I wasn’t glaring.”
“Yes, you were, when Ryker,” I stopped and stared. Roys cocked a brow. I smiled, feeling hot and giddy, like all the energy in me wanted to jump out at once. “Jealous.”
“What?”
“Earlier. Ryker had his arm around me, and you were jealous.”
“And what if I was?” he challenged in that low voice he had to know made me hot under the collar.
He leaned over the console to grasp my neck and bring me in for a kiss that sucked the air from my lungs.
Then it was over, and he sat back, grinning.
“I’d much rather be the one with my arms around you. ”
“You disgust me.”
“Liar.”
Completely.
With the last of the checks complete, we took off.
Roys got sick once on the flight over. We had plenty of flight bags for that purpose, but it was good he sat up front.
I offered to toss the bag once everyone was gone.
He gave a confirmed moan and slept the rest of the flight.
Roys got everyone ready after we landed, and they headed off.
We kept a private chat open for the two of us on the commlink where I regularly checked in.
Roys: I never expected you to be such a worrywart.
I didn’t bother writing a response, even if he wasn’t entirely incorrect.
My nerves were fried after these weeks of emotional torment.
Everything with Roys, Maddy, on top of Arana’s predicament had me checking over my shoulder.
I opened the cockpit doors to inspect the cabin and then returned to run a perimeter check.
The shuttle buzzed while inspecting the area, then the holo screen flickered.
A brief interruption easily explained by poor weather or shitty equipment.
But Arana had a hit on her, and I was a paranoid bastard.
The diagnostics came up clean, which meant we were fine…
Or someone had equipment capable of jamming our less than state-of-the-art systems.
After sending a message to the team about the flicker, I inspected the cabin a second time.
Nothing out of the ordinary. I would have heard if anyone got in because the shuttle doors were not quiet.
Nothing warned of disaster, save my gut clenching after the prolonged absence of communication.
They could be busy, but Roys, at least, would have sent confirmation of receiving my warning.
A chill ran down the back of my neck. I opened our private comm. “Roys, did you receive my message?”
He didn’t reply. My stomach dropped, and the cargo doors opened.
Blaster fire landed on the back of my pilot seat. Had I been sitting there, the hit wouldn’t have been fatal because the bastards had them set to stun. Mine wasn’t.
I took their surprise as an opening and fired. The doors were halfway open, revealing the right side of an armed, suited body. My attack hit them in the shoulder. A scream followed blood splattering across the entry.
They expected me to be in my seat, fooled by their jammer so I wouldn’t see them coming. They couldn’t shoot through the cockpit’s glass, so they were banking on surprising me from the cargo bay.
I rolled toward the pilot seat when the second shooter spun around the corner.
Their shots hit where I had previously stood.
I leapt into the cockpit and the door shut.
The blaster shot rattled the door, signaling that they kept it on stun.
My best guess was that they didn’t want my guts all over the cabin.
The abductors wouldn't want an investigation to lead to their involvement. It’d be better if they tossed my body into the flora where my death would be marked as a horrible accident.
I set my commlink to ping the others. Their response never came. Either my comm was jammed from the same equipment messing with the sensors, or they were under attack too.
“Fuck.”
The door stopped rattling. I jumped into the pilot's seat. They wouldn’t want the ship to appear as if it had been under attack, so I placed my bets on them not messing with our engines.
The alarms blared, signaling the assholes were connecting to the internal wiring.
Most likely to open my cabin door without doing damage.