Chapter 20 #2
Stron gestured to one of the chairs in the corner for Adryel to sit in, and took another seat in the grouping, the one that put himself between Adryel and Knobb.
She shifted until her balance was right in the stiff Kantenan body armor she’d put on earlier.
At first she remained still, but just seeing that female walk through the room made her nervous.
She started tapping her foot on the floor, out of sight, because she just wanted to get through this.
It felt way too much like the time she spent working for the Rhysgarrds.
“What do you know about the Kantenan guests?” Stron asked.
She felt Stron’s hand on her knee.
When he put his hand on her knee, it steadied the tapping.
Knobb shrugged. If he noticed the intimate gesture between them, he didn’t acknowledge it.
“I hear a lot of things. Some true,” he said, gazing at Adryel, then back at Stron. “Some not so accurate.”
Adryel sighed. She did not want to be in here anymore. It was time to go. “Seriously, are you two going to play this dumb game?”
Both of them looked at her.
Stron looked absolutely shocked.
Knobb looked amused.
“Look. Obviously, I’m not from around here. You likely know why me and my friends are here. A lot of my friends are dead right now. What do you know about that?”
“Direct is always refreshing,” Knobb said. He glanced at Stron. “You could learn something from that.”
“You like direct? Fine, let’s be direct,” Adryel continued. She was in no mood to play around. The longer she was down here, the stronger her feeling of dread built in her. “Who blew up my ship?”
“Why would I know that?”
Adryel stammered. Really, all she had was Baba’s belief that he’d know the answers to that question.
Stron, though took over. “Baba.”
Knobb nodded. “So Baba told you to ask me about the bombing.”
“We never said it was a bombing,” Stron said. “Ships can blow up for lots of reasons.”
Knobb’s smile flickered over his red skin, wicked and amused. “They can. But I’m fairly certain this was an internal job.”
Adryel froze, and her gaze flicked to Stron for a second before going back to Knobb.
An internal job?
That this was orchestrated by someone who they’d brought with them? Someone on their transport?
“Why would anyone blow up their only way off this planet?” Stron asked.
“You’ve never stranded someone to make sure the job was done?” Knobb asked, his eyebrow raised.
Stron blinked. His expression flickered for a moment.
Then he glanced at Adryel. “We’re leaving.”
They hadn’t gotten far out of Knobb’s little cave space, when Adryel pulled away from Stron after he helped her adjust her hood.
“What the hell was that?” She asked as she fiddled with the cloak more, shielding herself from prying eyes.
Though it didn’t help, they were still being watched. Whoever it was, it wasn’t Knobb’s accomplices watching them.
“We need to get out of here.” Stron put his big hand on her arm again.
“Obviously, but what was he talking about?” Adryel said, letting him guide her through the tunnel and back toward the market area. She kept a grip on his arm as he practically dragged her forward. He’d been much slower before. Now, he walked with purpose. She almost had to run to keep up with him.
“Do not concern yourself,” he said, his expression unreadable in the dim tunnel. “It is best that we return and see what else we can find out.”
Adryel gritted her teeth. He knew something but wasn’t sharing it with her, and that just pissed her off.
The way that Knobb and Stron looked at each other had meaning, and there was history between the two of them. Not great history, she guessed from the way Stron wanted to leave.
He didn’t seem bothered while the others in the tunnel were watching them. Of course, Stron’s pace had them moving quickly as well.
Made them easier to spot.
“You think our friends are going to miss us when we’re gone?” Adryel asked, slightly out of breath from trying to keep up with him.
He glanced at her for a second. “Possibly.” His pace slowed slightly. “They may even come calling.”
Relaxing a little as he slowed down just a touch, she continued. “Should we put out the ‘do not disturb’ notice when we get home?” She asked. She was only partially kidding.
Not that they looked like the types to heed a sign.
“It is not a bad notion,” he said.
“Tell that to the ones back at Terra North,” she said, her mind immediately going back to the attack that was just a few hours ago, which was hard to believe.
The blaster fire. The explosions.
He huffed. And she could feel the boning in his arm shifting slightly under where she had her hand on him. That natural armor they had on their bodies that seemed to grow when needed.
She wondered if he even noticed the shifts in it as he moved.
It intrigued her in a way it probably shouldn’t. Her mind should be focused on the situation at hand, not so intently on him.
If he noticed her attention shift, he didn’t acknowledge it.
He probably just considered her an annoying humanoid he had to deal with right now, anyway.
She started to wonder if her desire to come down here and stick with him, rather than back at her apartment and wait was the best idea.
Okay, she didn’t have to wonder.
The safest thing for her would have been to stay back at her apartment that they’d gotten for her.
But she knew she didn’t usually follow the safest path.
After all, she’d joined a program designed for crossbreeding humanoids with other species, just to see how it would go, so she could get off of Kerde and get away from the Rhysgarrds and their insane reach.
Not her fault she saw stuff when she was working for them.
If they didn’t want their business known, they shouldn’t have done it in front of staff.
Not that she was a snitch.
She had no idea why they thought she was the snitch—she grew up on the streets, she knew better than that. And she was fully aware of what happened to those who did share their knowledge of the Rhysgarrds’s inner workings. She’d seen it.
And where does she wind up? Here, on Kantenan, stranded, with crazy Kantenans after her and by proxy, Stron.
Seriously, she needed to find a ship and just go float around in empty space or something, get away from everything.
She sighed as she walked, evidently loud enough that Stron noticed. His pace slowed as he walked. For a second, he glanced at her, one eyebrow raised slightly, and then he went back to scanning their surroundings.
The tunnel hardly seemed like the same place they’d been in just a little bit ago. Evidently, when they’d been in Knobb’s place, some kind of setting switch happened, like daytime to nighttime.
The lighting had changed—it was darker, but still illuminated. More like a nightlife club rather than the market they’d been walking through before. Now, also the crowd had grown.
More shadows all around them. More places for people to follow them without them noticing.
She didn't like this. And then she caught it again — not a trace this time.
Clear. Unmistakable beneath the stone and shadow and the sour press of bodies around her.
Vetiver and ash. Her stomach went cold. She'd been telling herself it was the cave before.
It wasn't the cave. She stayed close to him, not trusting anyone else at the moment besides him.
But only because she didn’t have a choice on who else to trust.
Stron didn’t say anything at first. “If they think we are in Courtship…” his words trailed off.
“What about it? Will we get a free pass or something?” Adryel asked.
“There are certain things a Gol-Vett is protected from,” Stron said, his pace even slower now. Others who walked around them kept glaring at them.
They seemed to be holding up traffic in the tunnel.
Stron, however, didn’t seem to care.
“Like being in a relationship?” she asked.
His gaze met hers, and it had more intensity than she’d seen before.
“In Courtship. It is not the same as having a companion. Anyone can have a companion, with anyone else. But Courtship is more. And respected as such.” He said the words low, and leaned down, saying the last of it against the side of her head.
Even through the cloth, she could feel the warmth of his skin and his breath, and it gave her a shudder.
Like one of those good ones.
He lingered against her cheek for a moment, before pulling back, his horn grazing the hood.
“Uh huh,” she said.
He pulled away, though he kept his hand on her, touching her back, and she felt like he was prepared to yank her against him if he had to.
In the classes they’d taken before arriving, one of the details was that the Kantenans took mating bonds very seriously, because it was as much a biological response as it was an attraction.
Would it be the same for them? She didn’t know. Graecey had been vague on that point, only saying that was part of the mission of the study. They were testing to see if the attraction went both ways, and if there was a biological connection that manifested when mating with the other humanoid.
Technical talk for “we don’t know, and will have to wait and see.”
Sure, Adryel found this big, horned red humanoid attractive. Pretty much.
But was it attraction, or just general appreciation for the fact that he treated her like a person who mattered? The committee was still out on that one.
Not that she had really expected any kind of mating to work with anyone. She just wanted to get off of Kerde, and as far away from the Rhysgarrds as possible.
He did pull her close to him as he guided them to a very trafficked area.
What he was up to, she had no idea. First he was in a big hurry, now they were holding up the foot traffic in the middle of the market?
What was his plan? Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a couple of their followers. They were matching their pace.
He stopped, and turned, so he faced her. One of his hands, he placed on her shoulder.
"Trust me," he whispered, before he leaned down, his hand moving from her shoulder to the side of her face.
He raised her chin, and pressed a kiss on her lips.
In the back of her mind, she started logically following what he was doing—making a scene, a demonstration that they were mated.
That was the logic in the back of her mind.
That logic disappeared when his lips parted. She followed his lead, and the taste of him hit her hard.
A touch of the wine from before. But that was overpowered by him.
The taste of him.
Man. Sensual. Raw.
Whatever it was, it engulfed her immediately.
Overwhelmed her, was more like it.
She grabbed onto him, and he pulled her so close that she felt his heartbeat. It pounded as hard as hers did.
Or maybe that was just hers. It didn't matter.
Nothing mattered, not right now, anyway.
Stron wrapped his arms around her, grabbing her hips, and lifted her in the air. He growled something about traffic, and they were moving backwards. Sideways?
She wasn't sure. She just clung to him for a few breaths, until she hit something hard.
Part of the cave wall, she guessed, and his lips attacked hers again.
This time, it was even more intense than before.
They were pressed against each other, she held onto him, and his hard body pinned her against the wall.
Their lips danced around each other as his fingers meshed into the tangles of her hair. She should have been annoyed by that, but she wasn't.
Her hand slipped into the inner fold of the cloak—Baba's cloak, with its hidden pockets. Her fingers found the small pouch she'd tucked there. The data chip. Everything she'd heard in that club. Every name, every deal, every crime. Her insurance policy that had become her death warrant.
She didn't plan it. Didn't think about it.
But suddenly her fingers were working on instinct, pulling the tiny chip free.
Her other hand found the heavy family crest pendant hanging against his chest—that ornate piece he wore with such pride.
She felt for the back of it, where the metal scrollwork created ridges and patterns.
The magnetic clip snapped into place with the softest click, hidden against the decorative metalwork where no one would ever think to look.
She didn't know why she was doing this. Why she trusted him. She barely knew him. But pressed against him like this, feeling his heartbeat thunder against her palm, his lips claiming hers like she mattered—she knew. If anyone in this galaxy could keep it safe, it was him.
It felt right. It felt true.
It felt—
A crackling noise erupted between them.
They jerked apart.
Adryel didn’t even realize she wasn’t touching the ground until he released her.
She gasped in shock.
Stron looked back and forth around them, and she realized they were wedged between two of the stalls in the marketplace. One of the vendors glanced at the two of them, and Stron glared at him.
The crackling went off again.
It was her communicator! The one that she’d gotten earlier from Graecey before they were marched out of the ship. She’d been wearing it tucked into her clothing for the last few days.
It hadn’t made a sound since she’d gotten it.
And Adryel was pretty sure she was going to strangle whoever was on that communicator.
How dare they interrupt a kiss like that one?
“What was that?” He asked.
Adryel wiggled the communicator, on a chain around her neck, out of the top of her outfit. It was glowing. Her eyes darted to Stron’s.
Then around the two of them at the other Kantenans who were staring. Evidently, it was much louder when it was out of her dress.
The charm went off again. “Adryel?” called a panicked female voice.
“What?” Adryel snapped into it.
Kantenans were turning and looking at them. Including the ones who’d been following them before.
Damn! She moved closer to Stron, if only to hide herself. Not that it would work. They’d made them already.
“Adryel?” Janae’s voice came through, gravelly and broken up.
“No, shh!” Adryel fired back. How did she turn this thing off?
“What is the matter?” Janae asked.
“Shh. No. Not now,” Adryel.
“Silence,” Stron snapped and grabbed the necklace. He squeezed the communicator, crumpling it in his hand. “You didn’t tell me you had a tracker!”
“I didn’t think about it,” she fired back.
“Come on, we have to hurry.”