by Janet Miller
She pondered what to do next. Roan had said this was a residential bubble, so maybe she would have to go to a different bubble to find the information she needed. She knew mining was the principle activity of the colony, but perhaps there was manufacturing as well. Some of the goods must be made here. Also, there had to be offices someplace.
If only she had a map of the colony so she knew what bubbles were where. Another thing she could have gotten from Roan before she’d left.
Suddenly, exhaustion dragged through her. It had been a long time since she’d slept, and even she had her limits. The strain of the marriage meet, the sleepless night before, making love to Roan—all she wanted now was a soft bed to rest in. She eyed the building behind her. Inside had been private dressing rooms and showers complete with linens. She could take a couple of towels and pile them on a metal bench in a room and get a couple hours nap until morning.
This late at night she hadn’t seen anyone about, no one to follow or ask questions of. She hadn’t seen or heard anyone since leaving Roan’s apartment. Once there were people about, she would find a way into one of the other bubbles.
Sonja was just about to move when she heard the sound of boot steps on the path behind her. Turning, she saw a pair of men in the same kind of uniforms the official at the marriage meet had been wearing, but olive-green instead of blue. One was tall and thin, the other short and somewhat round. They didn’t look happy and stood with stunners already drawn and aimed at her.
Fracking hell. That’s what she got for thinking about her temporary husband instead of paying attention to her surroundings.
The tall one spoke. “It’s after two o’clock. What are you doing out past curfew?”
“I’m sorry.” Sonja raised her hands slowly. “I’m new and didn’t know there was a curfew. I couldn’t sleep and was just taking a walk.”
“New?” The man’s hard stare moved over her slowly, up, then down. “You mean one of the brides? You don’t look the part.”
“She has a band.” His partner pointed to her wrist and the narrow band she had decided not to remove. Sonja congratulated herself for her foresight there.
The man frowned. “Yes, but when was the last time you saw a bride dressed like that?”
“I’d say she’s dressed more like a spy than a wife,” his partner said, equally non-smiling. “Maybe we should take her to the office for questioning.”
Sonja tensed. If they took her in, they’d no doubt search her and find her tools and stunner, and once that happened her cover would be blown. She considered whether she could get her hands on her stunner fast enough to disable both of them before they could get her.
Or maybe she could use her knives instead. Trouble was neither man looked like he could be taken off guard long enough for her to get to her weapons before one of them stunned her. She started to lower her hands, hoping they wouldn’t notice.
She was still plotting her actions when a familiar voice came from behind her. “Barnat, Earny. How are you tonight?”
Turning her head, she saw Roan come from the other side of the building. He was dressed as she was, all in black from head to toe.
Some of the tension eased from the men in front of her. “Hello Duman,” the tall one said. “What are you doing out?”
“Looking for my wife, Barnat. I see you found her.” He came to stand next to her and when Sonja looked close she saw that the friendly smile on his face wasn’t reflected in his eyes.
Barnat grinned and lowered his stunner. “You got married? Congratulations!”
“Yeah, congratulations,” the second man, who must be Earny, said. “But what’s she doing out after curfew? And why the bag?” He pointed to her small duffle still sitting on the bench where she’d left it.
Roan gave a rueful grin. “I guess I didn’t wear her out quite enough. Did you really need to go swimming right now, honey?”
Swimming? Sonja blinked at him before realizing he was suggesting her swimming clothes were in the bag. Sonja quickly decided to go along with the ploy. “You know how hard it is to change from ship time, and when I heard there was a swimming pool I got so excited.”
She pretended to look longingly at the vast expanse of dark water and suppressed a shudder at the thought of getting into it. Even if she could swim, which she couldn’t, the water was no doubt far too cold to be comfortable. “I guess I should have waited until morning.”
Roan laughed and threw an arm around her shoulders. The weight of it was comforting even if the hand clutching her shoulder was doing so a little too tightly. “You’re right, that would have been a better plan.” He turned to Barnat and Earny. “I’ll take her home now. Sorry you were bothered. Come by tomorrow and I’ll find something to make it up to you.”
Both uniformed men cheered up at the obvious bribe and after a couple more pleasantries bid them good night. Once they were gone, Roan’s smile disappeared. With a quickness she didn’t expect, he searched her pockets, finding her stunner and one of her knives as well as her lock pick. His eyes hardened as he stared at them. He pocketed the weapons without a word, then grabbed her bag with one hand and her arm with the other.
“Don’t say another word until we’re back. Understand?” he whispered in her ear.
Sonja went docilely, happy to still have two knives but not happy at the tone in Roan’s voice. He pulled her down the pathways to the apartment, moving much quieter than she would have expected from such a big man.
When they got back and the door was secure, she took another look at the dark clothing he was wearing and made a guess. “So how long were you following me?”
Chapter Six
Roan tossed the bag onto the couch, trying desperately to get hold of his temper. It was his rage that had always gotten him into trouble before, and badly as he wanted to let it loose, he knew he couldn’t do that in this situation. Something or someone would get hurt.
Hurt even worse than he was right now. Making love to his wife last evening had been the best experience of his life. Getting jabbed by whatever had been in that needle of hers and then waking to find her gone had been close to the worst.
His wife had left him. Made love to him, drugged him and then left him, without a word, without an explanation. Just walked out the door, taking her bag with her.
And she had the audacity to ask the first question when he was the one wanting to wring answers out of her? It was unbelievable.
Roan took several deep breaths before answering. “I found you about an hour ago.”
She frowned. “How?”
He pointed to her wristband. “There’s a short-lived tracer in it. Won’t work for more than a couple of days, but until you had a tracker inserted I wanted to be sure I could find you if we got separated.”
She glared at her wristband. “I guess I should have taken it off. But you were able to follow me for an hour and I didn’t notice?”
Her eyebrows went up, and he realized she was impressed. What kind of woman was impressed he could follow her without being seen? Not what she’d first appeared to be, with her outer colony peasant skirt and blouse, that was for certain. Then she’d looked like some kind of farm girl.
Some sweet farm girl she’d turned out to be with her stealth equipment and weapons. Who was this woman he’d married?
Sonja shook her head. “I never had a clue you were there. I even thought you were asleep when I left.”
“Asleep or drugged?”
She winced. “You remember that.”
“I remember that. And if you hadn’t drugged me, the door’s alarm would have woken me.”
“I didn’t set off the alarms.”
“You didn’t set off the ones you found. There were others.” Like the one at the top of the doorway that had triggered when she’d opened the front door. It had a passive switch that a standard lock pick tool like the one he’d taken from her wouldn’t detect. That was why he’d installed it in the first place.
A man couldn’t b
e too careful when living in a mining colony full of prisoners. He’d just never expected that he would need to protect himself from the woman he’d married.
Sonja shrugged. “Alarms on top of alarms. And you can out-stealth me.”
“I’m glad I found a way to impress you,” Roan said dryly. “But I have some questions too. What is this all about? Why did you leave in the middle of the night?”
“I had some business to attend to.”
“Business?” He stared at her. “What kind of business could you have in the middle of the night?”
“Nothing that concerns you.”
It was all he could do to keep his temper. “Everything about you concerns me. Sonja, you are my wife.”
She stiffened and that stubborn chin of hers went up. “That’s not necessarily true.”
An empty pit opened in his stomach. “What are you talking about? We were married just last night. We both agreed to it.” At her expression, the pit widened. “Unless…are you already married?”
If she already belonged to someone else their marriage would be invalid.
Sonja startled and shook her head. “No, nothing like that.”
Roan let out a relieved breath, but she didn’t let him relax long. She folded her arms and faced him.
“I’ve read about Gaian marriage. There is a three-day period where either of us can back out of it.”
Sweet Gaia, he hadn’t expected she’d studied their customs enough to know that. In fact he hadn’t even considered that his wife might take advantage of the grace period. Of all the marriages he’d seen, and that had been more than a few, given his business, none of the wives had taken advantage of the grace period and left their husbands.
She was really planning to leave him? After what they’d shared in bed earlier, this was the last thing he’d expected. Of course he hadn’t expected to find his wife dressed for stealth and sneaking around the bubble carrying an illegal stunner either.
“So running away was your way of asking for an annulment?” He pulled the dart, knife, stunner and lock pick out of his pocket and slammed them onto the table. “And what about these? Don’t tell me that lock picks and stunners are standard for a new bride’s trousseau these days.”
Sonja returned his glare for a long moment, and then he saw something in her face. Weariness, and possibly even guilt. She looked sad, like she wasn’t happy about what had happened, and he didn’t think it was just because she’d gotten caught.
Could she also be unhappy about leaving him?
He’d woken to the sound of the door’s alarm, still sounding after she’d been gone for some time. His head hurting, Roan had grabbed his own illegal stunner and headed into the living room, not bothering to dress. He’d thought his home had been invaded, and his first thought had been to protect his new wife, in his fuzziness not remembering her sticking him with a dart.
But then he’d remembered, and realizing Sonja was gone and that she’d taken her bag, he’d known she must have triggered the alarm. He’d thrown clothes on and followed her, using a pocket locator to track her wristband.
He’d wondered if she intended to meet one his competitors or one of the enemies he’d gathered over the past few years. He even wondered if she’d been a plant to get inside his home.
He could barely believe it possible, though. How would any of his enemies have managed it? First to find a woman Roan could attach to, then bring her in to the same marriage meet he’d bought his way into at practically the last minute? It would have to have been an incredibly elaborate plot.
If any of his enemies could have accomplished something like that, why plant a woman in his home? Anyone capable of pulling off a scam this good should just bring in better merchandise and undercut his sales.
Wanting an explanation, he’d followed her as she’d traveled through the bubble, anger burning a hole in his gut, waiting to find out the depths of her betrayal. But instead of meeting someone, she’d carefully examined every unoccupied building in Beta Residence, breaking through the security of each one just to search, not taking or leaving anything.
When the bubble’s security team had caught her, and he’d seen her body tensing for action, he’d known that if he didn’t do something she’d end up in custody or would have to fight her way out. That could have led to her being hurt, and whatever else was going on with her, she was his wife. Even if it was a role she seemed intent on shirking, even if it she’d drugged him, he still wanted to be her husband.
So he’d rescued her, making up a story that made little sense even to him, but he had a good relationship with Barnat and Earny and knew they wouldn’t question it. If his wife wanted to go for a swim in the middle of the night, they’d probably even let her, particularly if he bribed them to look the other way.
He’d followed her for over an hour, expecting to discover the worst about her, but now he wasn’t so sure. She looked as tired as he was, but he didn’t intend to let either of them sleep until he knew what was going on.
Somehow he’d have to get some answers.
Roan grabbed her arm and directed her to one of the seats at the eating counter in his small kitchen. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long story. Sit down and I’ll make some javi.”
In spite of her clear dismay, Sonja’s face brightened, and Roan knew she was familiar with the Gaian substitute for Earth coffee.
Javi was made from a root vegetable not unlike a carrot. After drying and grinding, a small spoonful of the resulting powder mixed in a mug of hot water made a drink that tasted similar to the finest brewed coffee in the universe. Once, Roan had imported some real and very expensive Earth coffee just to try it and afterwards he’d decided that while the flavor was similar and the caffeine content identical, he liked javi better.
Well, at least they had one thing in common. In spite of the anger he was harboring for his new wife, Roan was glad of that. He didn’t say anything more until he’d finished preparing two mugs and put one in front of her. She took a deep sip and sighed appreciatively. “That tastes so good.”
Roan took the seat opposite and sipped his, felt the caffeine throw off the last of his drug-induced headache. “Glad you like it. Now tell me what this is all about.”
Sonja sighed again but this time with resignation. “What do you want to know?”
Everything, but he’d settle for one answer at a time. “Let’s start with why you were at a marriage meet when you didn’t plan on becoming a wife. And don’t tell me that you did want to get married and just changed your mind afterwards. That wouldn’t explain the contents of that bag of yours.”
The contents of her bag. He should have known there was something wrong as soon as he’d seen what she had with her. It had been too much and too little.
Women were often brought to the meets with no possessions at all, only the clothes on their backs. Roan had been asked too many times to provide a complete wardrobe for a new bride not to have noticed. When he’d asked, he’d been told the women were refugees escaping poverty or natural or man-made disasters on their home planets. That also explained how nervous the women often were.
But Sonja had a bag. Sonja had too much with her to be a refugee, and he’d noticed from the first how self-possessed she was. No, she wasn’t escaping a bad situation. But she hadn’t brought what a normal woman heading to a marriage meet would have, either. The few women who came here from Gaia generally had at least one or two trunks of clothes.
Certainly they wouldn’t have a single duffle bag and a lock pick, not to mention the stunner and dart. He needed to take a good look at that bag of hers to see how she’d managed to smuggle those past the officials.
Sonja looked so innocent drinking her javi. Except for the fact she was wearing clothes suited for working under cover of darkness and had been carrying a small arsenal in her pockets. Oddly enough, Roan thought the clothes she wore now suited her better than the simple skirt and blouse she’d been wearing earlier.
Even her hair was different, coiled into a tight bun at the back of her neck. He liked her hair better down, though. Roan considered making her undo the bun, or maybe even do it for her if she didn’t start talking soon.
“I tell you what,” he said. “I think you need someone to trust. I want you to trust me, so I promise to listen to the problem. If it is something I feel I can help with, I’ll do anything in my power to do so.” He forced a grin. “Remember, I’m the Dealer, and believe me, that can be a lot of help.”
Sonja watched him, suspicion in her eyes. “Why would you do that?”
“Because you are my wife. That hasn’t changed.”
“And if I don’t want to stay your wife?”
Roan schooled his face and avoided a grimace. “We’ll face that later. In the meantime, tell me what is going on.”
She seemed to think a moment. Then her light blue eyes studied him for a long time. “It starts several years ago.”
“How many years?”
“A little over six. I’m from Camalin Eight in the deep Outer Colonies. I don’t expect that you’ve heard of it.”
“No,” Roan admitted. “But there are a lot of places I’ve not heard of. I’ve been stuck here for quite a while.”
Her lips twitched in what could almost have been a smile. “That wouldn’t make any difference. It isn’t like my home planet is on the main trade routes. Camalin Eight is what they call a garden planet. Lots of fertile soil, good water, plenty of sunlight and air.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It was. It was my family’s home. We had a farm there.”
“A farm?” Roan could have laughed at the irony. He’d thought his new wife was a farm girl and it turned out he was right. Or she had been, at least.
She nodded. “I lived there with my parents, my younger brothers, and my sisters, Suna and Sulla.”
A tickling sensation woke on the back of Roan’s neck. “Your sisters? Younger or older?”
“Younger. Suna was just short of eighteen, Sulla twenty. I was twenty-one and the oldest.”
