Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5

by Janet Miller

  But he couldn’t.

  He had thought that the day he’d been sentenced to the mines was the worst day of his life, when he’d faced his parents for the last time, knowing how he’d disappointed them. Today was very nearly worse.

  He knew Sonja would have to leave him. They were going to have to get Suna out of the colony, and she wouldn’t let her sister go alone. There was no hope of keeping her here, and worse, he was going to have to help her leave.

  It was an impossible situation, but the man he was wouldn’t accept anything else. He wanted to keep Sonja with every fiber of his being, but he needed to make it possible for her to go. There was no other choice.

  The man he was also needed to keep her safe. Once again, he was reminded of how dangerous some of the residences could be, and he knew Delta was one of the worst. As he’d said, it was rare that women and children were targeted, but mistakes happened.

  He was vigilant as they headed for the shuttle station. Again as they passed through the overgrown part of the path, he felt a prickling at the back of his neck, his instinct telling him that someone waited in the bushes. This time, though, it was stronger, and he knew there was danger in front of them.

  For a moment he considered returning the way they’d come, but a sound from behind told him they were surrounded.

  Roan pulled Sonja closer and whispered in her ear. “I think we’re about to have company. If you see an opportunity, run to where this path meets the main one and get to where there are people.”

  Sonja stiffened, and she glanced at him. A small smile played around her lips, but she nodded. “Don’t worry, I know what to do.”

  Roan slipped his hand into his pocket and found his switchblade. He hadn’t carried it last night into the marriage meet, one of the few times he’d followed the rules about weapons in the bubbles. Of course that meant it was also one of the few times he’d been injured in several years. He pushed Sonja ahead of him, hoping that when the time came she’d run.

  It was rare ambushers would hurt a woman when all they wanted was a man’s credit wand, but he didn’t want Sonja caught between him and an attacker.

  She moved down the path as he’d hoped, giving him plenty of room.

  Their attackers didn’t make them wait long. From the bushes came two men, one moving in front of him, the other behind, trapping Roan between them. Both stood threatening with drawn knives. A third man entered down the path, stopping Sonja with a hand on her arm. He held a stunner on her and his expression meant business. “If you don’t want her having a headache for the rest of the day, I’d suggest you give us what we want.”

  Three of them, two knives and a stunner, and he armed only with a switchblade. Roan resisted the urge to groan at the unfair odds.

  For a moment Roan wished he’d kept one of Sonja’s weapons. Her stunner would have come in real handy right now. Roan considered his options and reached his hand into the pocket where he stored his credit wands. He had one he kept as a decoy with a miniscule balance for just this purpose. He didn’t want Sonja panicking with a man holding a stunner on her.

  Fortunately, Sonja didn’t look even close to panic. She still had that strange half smile on her face. Instead of pulling away she even leaned slightly towards him, her free hand sliding down her leg…

  And then things happened almost too quickly to keep track of. Sonja’s free hand jerked up, hitting the man’s arm hard. The man didn’t lose his grip on the stunner, but he did lose focus. At the same time she hit his hand, her knee came up, hitting him in the stomach and driving the breath from him.

  As the man doubled over, his face etched in agony, Sonja’s hand shot forward and now there was a knife in it, short-bladed but shiny.

  The two men next to Roan dropped their jaws and stared at Sonja, giving him plenty of time to get his own knife out and blade extended. They took one look at the six-inch knife in his hand, glanced back at Sonja who was now kicking the feet out from under their disabled leader and scrambled back down the path and out of sight.

  Sonja’s opponent rolled onto his knees, gasping for breath. Sonja kicked the stunner from his hand, and it slid down the path towards Roan. He grabbed it and aimed it at the man. “Okay, honey. You can let go of him now.”

  His little wife stepped back, knife held at the ready in one hand, a huge grin on her pixie-like face and sheer delight in her ice-blue eyes.

  Roan had never seen her look happier.

  He turned his attention to the man on the ground. “I would suggest finding another way to earn extra credits. This one doesn’t seem too safe.”

  Stepping past him, he took Sonja’s arm, and they headed swiftly down the path, only stopping when they heard someone approaching. Roan saw the olive-green uniforms of the prison guards and pocketed the stunner he’d taken from their attacker before the officials could see it. When he looked at Sonja, one leg was bent at the knee and he saw her knife disappear into the top of her boot.

  Eyes wide, she looked believably frightened as the guards came closer, even gasping for breath as if she’d been running in a panic. “There were three men. They attacked us. They had knives—so we ran!” She pointed back the way they’d come and Roan saw her hand shake as if with fear.

  He wanted to applaud her acting but put a look of worry on his face instead. The men exchanged looks and nodded. “Okay, we’ll take care of it.” They headed down the path and Roan and Sonja continued on. When they reached the main road to the shuttle, Roan took Sonja’s arm and pulled her close.

  “Little wife, you are a far more interesting person than I ever expected.”

  All she did was grin at him. “Oh, Roan. You have no idea.”

  Roan watched as Sonja entertained Allan with her version of the ambush in Delta Residence. They’d arrived back at his apartment to find that his friend had once again broken through his security and had made himself at home, ostensibly to use Roan’s superior computer linkage to discover the whereabouts of Sonja’s missing sister. Roan also noticed Allan had helped himself to a couple of beers.

  Roan shook his head and used the commlink to order dinner from one of the Beta Residence eateries that delivered. Once it arrived, the three of them sat around his table and ate heartily, Sonja only making a couple of comments about how she could do better.

  After what she’d made for breakfast, Roan believed her. Perhaps he should get some food into the house.

  He didn’t begrudge his friend joining them, although he would have liked to eat dinner alone with his wife. Maybe he’d manage a meal with her tomorrow.

  He could hardly believe Sonja’s enjoyment over the incident at Delta Residence. The more he learned about his wife, the more he realized there was a lot more to discover. He wanted to know the real her, the woman he’d seen this afternoon, grinning as she’d disabled a man with a stunner.

  So far he’d seen her make an excellent meal from scraps in his pantry, break through security that the most skilled thief would have trouble with, and take down an opponent half again her size. Add that to the way she made love, with all of her heart in it, and Roan knew he’d met a woman who far exceeded his wildest dreams.

  A meek, pliant and happy little wife she was never going to be. And he loved her for that.

  That thought sent a surge of fear through him. Was it possible he’d fallen in love with his wife so soon? It would be bad enough if he merely liked her when she dissolved their marriage in two days. But if he loved her, losing her would be devastating.

  He’d hoped that if there was no reason for her sisters to leave he might be able to persuade her to stay, if only to be with them. But things had changed.

  Roan had thought he knew what the company was doing with respect to the wives. He’d known that some of the women had arrived under suspicious circumstances, but Sonja’s story had told him just how wrong what was happening with the marriage meets was.

  Then he’d told himself that the women at least had good lives with the men they married, and
it sounded like Suna’s marriage had been happy. But she should never be forced back into another marriage meet after her husband died. It was unfair and sheer greed on the company’s part, and he couldn’t let it happen.

  Suna had to be rescued and taken from Ares Five, and that meant Sonja would need to go with her.

  For a brief moment, Roan thought about leaving with her and wondered if she’d let him come. It was possible she wouldn’t. But even if she did allow it, did he want to leave and abandon everything he’d worked for? Could he break the promise he’d made his father and mother to return to Gaia after serving his full term? What kind of man would that make him?

  Not a man he wanted to be. He needed to keep his promise to his family at all costs. If only it wasn’t going to cost him the one woman he could love.

  Fortunately they had more urgent problems to prevent him from dwelling too much on his suddenly bleak future. They had to find Suna first, and Allan hadn’t been able to get a lead on her in spite of his searching.

  Roan told Allan what Sulla had said about Suna’s disappearance almost six months ago. The other man nodded. “At least I know when to look now. You must have taken care of Miles’s effects after he died.”

  “I’m sure there wasn’t anything about a wife.”

  “True, but it would tell us where they lived. If we know the apartment, then we can probably find where they moved her.”

  Sonja beat Roan in asking the question. “How do you figure that?”

  Allan smiled. “It’s simple. All of Miles’s belongings were packed up and shipped off planet. But Suna would have had possessions too, and the company wouldn’t have wanted those to arrive on Gaia for Miles’s family to ask questions about. So they must have packed her stuff and sent it to wherever she is now.”

  He pointed to the screen of the datastore he had linked into Roan’s machine. “All goods movements are recorded, even within the residences. We find all shipments with the origin of that apartment and look for their destinations.”

  “The furniture and such would have been sent back to the company,” Roan pointed out. He turned to Sonja, who seemed puzzled, and explained, “Prisoners get a simple apartment and furnishings but can rent better stuff if they want.”

  “Like you have,” Sonja said.

  “I like my comforts,” he admitted. He’d lived long enough with prison issue until he had been able to afford better. “Anyway, from what Sulla said, Suna and Miles had upgraded furnishings.”

  “The company may have allowed Suna to keep most of that to make her more comfortable. That kind of shipment should be easy to track.” Allan went to work with the keypad, entering dates and names. “I’ve found the apartment number where they were living when Miles died. Now to track the shipments.” He went through the list. “Here is the one to Gaia. That one you were signature on, Roan.”

  Allan concentrated again and finally let out a whoop. “Found it. Shipment of furniture, clothes and other items to Omega Residence, one of the smaller apartments, so it is likely a single.”

  Sonja smiled. “So when do we go get her?”

  Roan traded glances with Allan and sighed. “Unfortunately we don’t. Omega Residence is strictly off-limits to prisoners or even anyone in the prison authority. Only people who work for the company are allowed there.”

  “Then why is Suna there?”

  “Because it’s the only place the company could put her where she’d be safe until they could put her into a marriage meet. There aren’t any unmarried men there, just couples and unmarried women, and they are the only ones allowed to go there.”

  “We’re a married couple.”

  “But we don’t work for the company and my tag would show that.” Roan rubbed his arm where the tracking tag was buried. “I couldn’t get a shuttle capsule to take me there.”

  Allan broke in. “We could maybe use a maintenance shaft like we do with the smuggling.”

  Roan almost groaned aloud. He didn’t want to discuss his illicit business with Sonja.

  She, of course, appeared even more interested. “How so?”

  Allan either missed his warning look or chose to ignore it. “Roan uses the maintenance shafts that lead down to the mines to smuggle goods in and out. There are several in every bubble but most are locked and guarded. Roan knows which ones aren’t.”

  “The result of long study and a little bit of computer hacking.” Roan decided if she knew this much he might as well tell her the rest.

  “Allan works in the prison data processing center and uses his access to help me keep the company and prison computers unaware of the shafts we use. One of the advantages of the two systems is that it is possible to make the company believe the prison is maintaining a shaft while the prison thinks the company is responsible. That way no one keeps track, and the shafts are left alone. I can use them to take shipments in and out and no one notices.”

  Sonja looked impressed. “That’s brilliant.”

  Another bit of strangeness about his wife. She actually seemed to like that he bent the rules. “Thanks. Trouble is, we can’t use the Omega Residence maintenance shafts because all those shafts are purely under the company’s control. They know a shaft is a means of getting in and out of a bubble, and they guard the ones in Omega Residence well.”

  Roan looked over at Sonja. “There are too many unmarried women there for them to take chances with prisoners breaking into Omega and attaching to them.”

  Allan shook his head. “I’d forgotten about that. You’re right, we can’t get to her that way.”

  Sonja’s eyes narrowed in irritation. “So how do we get to her?”

  “I’m afraid we don’t, unless we can come up with a good excuse to get her out of that bubble.”

  The three of them sat thoughtfully for a moment. Roan couldn’t see any way around the problem.

  Finally Allan spoke up. “There is one way to get her out. Have her attend a marriage meet and then steal her away before she gets there.”

  Roan shook his head. “It’s too soon. They’d wait at least six months before sending her to a meet to make sure someone attaches.” That would work for him, though. If Sonja had to wait a month she’d have to stay married to him. Even if she left, he’d surely be able to claim her later.

  She seemed to know what he was thinking. “I have people waiting for me at the spaceport, but they can’t be here as long as a month.”

  “With a ship?” Roan had wondered how she was planning to leave.

  “A freighter. Partners of mine, sort of.” Sonja looked like she didn’t want to explain that last remark. “They’ll leave in less than a week.”

  Allan grinned. “You misunderstood me. I didn’t say wait for them to set her up. We’ll break into the company computer and set her up ourselves for a marriage meet.”

  Sonja jumped on the idea. “It means getting back into a company computer. Should we try for another clinic?”

  Allan shook his head. “I don’t think those computers would have the proper access. We may have to get into one of the company offices or even find a company p-tab instead.” He started to pack up his datastore. “I’ll have to think about it for a little bit.”

  Sonja’s face fell. “There is something else, you know.”

  “What’s that?” Roan asked.

  “Once we get her free, we’ll need a way to get her to the spaceport.”

  Roan nodded. “I was thinking about that. We might use the smuggling route.”

  Sonja turned to him. “How would that work?”

  Roan was going to answer, but a knock on the door interrupted him. Roan looked at Allan, who moved quietly to the bedroom and shut the door.

  Sonja watched as Roan checked the security screen. He indicated to her to be silent, pasted a cheerful smile on his face and opened the door.

  “Barnat, Earny. What can I do for you?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sonja watched Roan invite the prison guards she’d encountered last nigh
t into the apartment. They stood comfortably in the room as if they were old friends, and she remembered that Roan had promised to “make things up to them” for not arresting her for being out after curfew.

  But when Roan brought that up, the two men shook their heads.

  “That’s all right,” Barnat said. “We know you’re good for it. We’re here about something else. You’ve got trouble headed your way.”

  Roan’s smile slipped away. “How is that?”

  “One of the company goons was in our office this afternoon, a guy named Oran Wilcan. He was trying to get our cooperation in arresting you,” Barnat said.

  “As if that would ever happen,” Earny said dryly, and both men chuckled.

  “Arrest me for what?”

  “Assaulting a company officer.” Barnat looked amused. “The goon happened to be moving a little stiffly. I don’t suppose you had any trouble at the marriage meet last night.”

  “And if I did?” Roan said cautiously.

  “Did you start the fight?”

  Roan shook his head. “You know me better than that.”

  The other men relaxed, and Barnat nodded. “Yeah, we do. You wouldn’t start a fight in a marriage meet, and I say if the goon started it, then the goon got what he deserved.”

  Sonja jumped in. “The other man drew a knife. Roan got cut, but he still put the other man down, and he was unarmed.”

  Earny grinned. “I’d expect nothing less. Your man is quite the scrapper.”

  He turned to Roan. “Don’t worry about things with us, or the rest of the Beta Residence squad. We aren’t going to do anything. But I wanted you to know what was happening. Since you have a new wife and all, you might want to stay close to home for a little while. I know you’re officially off work because of your marriage, but perhaps you should also take a vacation from any of your unofficial activities. For the next few days, at least.”

  Sonja realized that Barnat and Earny also knew about Roan’s smuggling operations and were probably on the payroll. A surge of pride swept through her at how thorough her husband was.