by Kate Rudolph
The doctor leveled a harsh look at the first mate. “If regen gel fixed everything I wouldn’t have this job.” He scanned around her ribs and the device in his hand beeped furiously, causing the doctor to retreat to find something to fix Keana up.
“Even if they don’t have her image, Mebion has seen Andie. Has spoken to her. She’s had more contact with him than anyone on the crew besides you and I.” And Xandr had forced some of that. He wanted to curse himself, wanted to find a way to travel back in time and keep them from ever meeting. His crew had gone years without encountering the duke, he’d almost been willing to believe the threat was past, but ever since he’d escaped from Ixilta hostilities had grown ever worse. Every job seemed to be a trap, like the duke had finally figured out Xandr’s soft spots and was showing no mercy in targeting them.
Keana’s head lolled back and she let out a groan, half frustration and half pain. “It’s not Mebion’s style to hurt the girl. If we’re gone he’ll think she means nothing. He has no reason to keep her when he can chase after us. We can find her again in a few weeks.”
Xandr had to remind himself that Keana was his oldest friend, the one person who’d stood by his side during the most difficult time in his life, the one person who’d sacrificed everything to embark on this life with him. She knew his mind, or had known his mind, better than anyone else for so long. She didn’t see him as the captain, but as her best friend. She knew she had a responsibility to keep him and his crew safe. All of that flashed through his mind, and he held onto the tatters of his control by a thread. “We are not abandoning her to my—to him!”
Keana slumped back on the exam table, the fight going out of her. “You’d risk your life, your freedom when she’s not in any danger?”
“She’s being taken to the Duke of Mebion as we speak. Would you be saying this if it were Sayevi who’d been taken? Or Kiran?” Xandr knew that not all of the crew had accepted Andie with open arms, but he couldn’t believe that Keana would just want to abandon her. “If the crew thinks we’ll just cut them loose as soon as things go wrong, they won’t stay loyal.”
Her gaze shifted to Hayk, silently trying to remind him that they had company. Xandr didn’t care. He turned to the doctor. “Get her patched up. Crew meeting in ten minutes. We’re getting Andie back.”
ANDIE EXPECTED A PRISON cell, so she was pleasantly surprised to wake up in what looked like an office. There was a desk and chair along with the small couch she was laying on. No windows, and the door was locked, but no bars either. Of course, the whole thing could just be temporary until they brought her before a judge or threw her in a hole and forgot about her. Panic followed that thought and she bit down hard on her bottom lip to keep from crying out. Even if they weren’t looking through cell bars, she’d bet her entire minuscule savings that her captors had eyes on her. A camera could easily be embedded somewhere too small for her to see.
Though she’d taken that blaster shot hard, her body didn’t ache and her head felt fine. That in and of itself was concerning. She should have been in a lot of pain. Had she been unconscious long enough to heal? Or had they given her something to speed the process along? She ripped off her jacket and looked at her arms, finding dozens of bruises, any of which could have been the site of a pressure injector used to pump her full of drugs. She shivered, both from the cool recycled air and the thought of what could have been done to her while she was out.
She tested the door again, pulling and pushing and hoping it would magically come unlocked, but it stayed stubbornly shut and Andie was left to resign herself to the fact she was stuck. There was no one to distract and sprint away from now, they really had her. And she was no good at getting away from abductors. She’d been forced to live on Ixilta for six years and only got away because Xandr dragged her into his adventure.
Would he be coming for her now? It felt weak to hope so. She was smart, she’d been instrumental in a few cons and knew how to lie straight to someone’s face. She had her own strengths. She shouldn’t be depending on a hulking Oscavian outlaw to come running whenever she got into trouble. But she wanted him to find her, scoop her up, hold her close, kiss her and tell her everything was going to be okay.
Andie sank down onto the couch and let her head fall into her hands. In the deepest part of her heart she knew Xandr was coming, but the part of her mind that had been burned before told her not to count on it. If Keana hadn’t made it back to the ship, Xandr wouldn’t know where they were or what had happened to them. They didn’t have any comms and he had no idea that the Duke of Mebion was on the planet. She hoped Keana had made it.
But Andie put thoughts of Xandr and his crew out of her mind. If she was going to survive she had to. She couldn’t hesitate to act on the hope that her boyfriend was coming to get her. She needed a plan, and she needed one fast. But it was impossible to plan when she didn’t know what the duke wanted or why he’d snatched her. His men hadn’t even realized that she was part of Xandr’s crew. Could she use that?
Yes, if she could talk them out of holding her before the duke got there. She had no hope of getting away if he saw her. Or maybe she was thinking too much of herself. They’d spoken for a few minutes a couple of months ago. He must have met hundreds of people since then. Why would he remember one measly human? If she could convince the crew that she had no idea who Xandr was or anything about him they might let her go. She hoped. She didn’t want to contemplate other options even as her mind helpfully provided images of prison cells and labor camps.
She was just a human that had got mixed up in alien affairs. Just a girl who wanted to go home.
Andie let that idea settle onto her shoulders, let it sink into her skin and become her truth. Andie Munster was a girl who’d been abducted from Earth and had been trying to find her anchor ever since. She didn’t want to be mixed up with Oscavian outlaws and dukes. Why would she? She belonged on a small blue planet far away from here. And she had to convince whoever was in charge that was the truth.
Her heart ached to even think it, but she couldn’t focus on her heart right now, not when her survival and freedom was at stake.
And waiting for someone to come see her wasn’t going to work. She went back to the door and started banging on it, crying for help and demanding to be seen. She let fear into her voice, no longer trying to mask the desperation that she truly felt. She wanted out of there and she wanted out of there now. She just wanted to go home.
To Xandr.
But she wasn’t thinking about him.
Her hands ached from hitting the door and she was sure she was bruising her knuckles, but she didn’t care. Minutes passed and she lost track of time, but when her arms ached with exertion and she wanted to cry from the torture she was inflicting on herself the door flung open and Andie stumbled into the arms of the guard who’d been wearing a hat earlier. He glared at her and shoved her back into the room, stepping inside after her and pointing at the couch, silently commanding her to sit down.
A part of Andie wanted to fight, but she didn’t know where she was and she doubted she’d get far out of the room if she could even get around the guy. She sat.
And in walked the Duke of Mebion.
He hadn’t changed since she’d seen him at a party several weeks before, though instead of formal clothes he now wore a suit with a militaristic cut that made it clear he was a man of power. His dark purple skin seemed to soak up the harsh light of the room and he’d pulled back his lavender hair so it stayed out of his electric blue eyes. He’d probably be as tall as Xandr if they were in a room together, but he didn’t have her outlaw’s muscles. He didn’t need them. An air of authority hung around the duke, as if the world was waiting to operate on his command. He’d flirted and joked with her when they’d first met, but all traces of kindness were gone from his face.
He looked at the guard who’d opened the door. “Leave us.”
“Your grace—” The guard looked ready to protest but bit his tongue from saying anythi
ng more when the duke raised his hand. The guard swallowed and bobbed his head. “Yes, your grace.”
And then they were alone.
The duke studied her for several moments, looking at her from top to toe. Andie almost expected him to make her stand so he could circle her like some kind of jungle cat, but he remained rooted in place, his back ramrod straight and expression tight. “What has Karday gotten you into?” he finally asked.
“Who?” Andie didn’t have to pretend to be confused. She didn’t exactly want to answer the duke’s questions, but keeping silent was unlikely to get her out of this mess. Back on Ixilta she’d known what to say to those in power if she ever fell under their gaze. How different could it be here?
Mebion stared at her for a moment, letting the silence stretch until Andie was almost bursting to fill it, but she kept her mouth shut. This was a man who knew how to yield words and quiet, and she couldn’t let him gain any more control than he already had. So no matter how awkward it felt, she kept her mouth shut and waited for him to respond.
“I’m not here to play games. You were apprehended in the company of Karday Xandran’s longest known associate. You were identified as attending an event with him, though he went by the name Jarsa. Perhaps you know him as Xandr Kasko. The man matters, not the name, and he’s gotten you into a lot of trouble. Trouble I can help you with if you let me.”
“That all seems kind of complicated.” Andie didn’t want to betray Xandr, but for the first time she realized that she might not be able to. She’d heard Mebion mention the name Karday at the party several weeks ago, but it had somehow managed to slip through the cracks of her memory and she’d never asked Xandr about it. She’d seen him wear the identity of Captain Jarsa like a second skin and had wondered at the time just how well he could hide his true identity. And now with Mebion throwing these names at her she had to wonder who the real Xandr really was.
No.
She wasn’t going to let Xandr’s enemy turn her against him by twisting her mind into knots. She knew Xandr had his secrets, that he didn’t want to talk about his past. And she knew that he had a history with this man, one that was fundamental to his entire existence as an outlaw. But if she was going to trust anyone about who exactly Xandr was, she was going to trust the man she loved, not some stranger.
And there was that damn word again, but now was not the time.
“It’s not complicated at all, I assure you.” Something in Mebion loosened and he leaned against the desk, letting his hands rest loosely on the edge. “Karday Xandran is a fugitive who must face Oscavian justice. It is my duty as his duke to find him and bring him home where he can face the consequences of his actions.”
“What did he do?” Andie hated herself for asking as soon as the words escaped. She’d just resolved not to trust the duke at all, and here she was prying into Xandr’s past.
“That is for the court to decide. But he must face them. I can tell you’re a good person, someone who got mixed up in all of this and is, perhaps, just looking for a way home.” He leaned in, as if closing the distance made it more intimate.
How could he know those things? It was what Andie was trying to project, but she hadn’t said a word. And it was all bullshit. She’d found a home on the Seventh, at Xandr’s side and with his crew. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable place yet and she was still facing resistance from some people, but she was one of them. And she had to get back there somehow.
She leaned back against the cushions and crossed her arms, her face a mask of defiance even as she spoke. “What do you want to know?”
CHAPTER TEN
THE HOUR AFTER ANDIE was taken almost tore the crew apart. Though Keana had kept her thoughts of leaving Andie behind to herself, she wasn’t the only one who thought it. Taryn had declared that it was suicide to try and infiltrate the most secure building in the city, but it was Kiran’s objection that surprised him the most. His head of security seemed to regret the words as they came out of his mouth, but he agreed with Taryn. The crew of the Seventh didn’t have the firepower to take on the small army the Duke of Mebion was sure to employ, and they certainly couldn’t attack a fortified position and expect to win.
“We need proof that she’s there before we can act,” Malax said. The fact that he wasn’t wholeheartedly agreeing with Taryn was another surprise, but Xandr would take his allies where he could get them. Yes, he was the captain of the ship, but this rescue mission was riskier than any job, and the only payout was getting Andie back. He needed at least some of the crew to agree that it was a good idea.
“I’m working on that,” Xandr replied. He had contacts on Praltez and those contacts had eyes and ears everywhere. If anyone could figure out exactly where Andie was being held, it was them.
“That asshole duke doesn’t know who he’s messing with,” Sayevi said with startling fierceness. “We’ll get Andie back.”
That was the problem. Mebion knew exactly who he was messing with, and though Xandr had changed a bit over the last decade, some things remained fundamental. If Mebion found out who Andie was to him... he had to hope it didn’t happen. The duke didn’t care about minor players, but the woman Xandr loved? She wouldn’t escape this unscathed. He hadn’t even loved the last person the duke had taken from him, and the scars from that altercation ran deep.
“I want everyone prepared to move quickly the second we get confirmation. Kiran, work on the assumption she’s being held in the fort by Oscavian guards. Sayevi, we need options to get off the planet because Mebion will be in pursuit so long as he is able. We’re not letting a member of our crew rot because it’s too dangerous to retrieve her, and I hope you know that I would say this for any of you.” He hoped. Would he put everything at stake to save anyone in that room? Would he walk to a one on one face-off with his greatest enemy when he was almost certain to lose? Xandr wanted that answer to be yes, wanted to be the type of man who was worthy of his crew’s loyalty. But he couldn’t be absolutely certain. Nevertheless he didn’t let any of that doubt seep into his words. He needed his crew’s confidence and their faith. It was the only way to get Andie to safety.
The crew broke up and prepared in tense silence. Keana gave Xandr a long look but didn’t approach him, and everyone else followed her lead. He knew exactly the kind of horrors Mebion could inflict and it was taking most of his energy not to imagine him doing them to Andie. He wouldn’t. He shouldn’t. The man could be cruel, but he saved that cruelty for when it counted. He’d never been one to torture a person for information. That wasn’t how Oscavians operated. But punishment? Yes, Mebion would be more than happy to torture for punishment.
He had to tell Andie the truth.
The thought hit him out of nowhere and Xandr was happy he was alone for the moment or his expression might have scared a member of his crew. He didn’t tell anyone about his past. Keana only knew because she’d been there. They’d both agreed to leave it as buried as it could be, but in the last few years with Mebion chasing them down it was becoming more and more clear that the secret wouldn’t keep. Andie needed to know what she’d gotten herself into, what the consequences of being with him could be. When they’d pretended the relationship between them was merely physical it hadn’t been an issue. But Xandr’s whole heart was engaged now and he didn’t think he could let Andie go.
She had to know who he was, and why Mebion was after him.
Would she want to stay if she knew? Had Mebion already told her?
His blood ran cold at the thought that Mebion would be the one to reveal Xandr’s secrets. He could just imagine what that man would say, how he would twist the facts until Xandr was the villain and Mebion was the conquering hero, the one who’d saved his lands from certain ruin while Xandr campaigned for something disastrous.
As if holding fast against slavery was a sin.
He pushed through the fog of his past. He couldn’t tell Andie anything until she was safely returned, and as every minute ticked by the chances
of her being completely unharmed slimmed to none. Mebion liked to think he was a creature of ultimate control, but he’d always lost it when things got rough. If Andie didn’t play carefully she might not return in one piece.
His communicator beeped and Xandr saw it was one of insiders. He answered the call and hoped he could get to his woman in time.
MEBION DIDN’T STAY with her for long, but once he left Andie almost wished he’d stuck around. It was boring to be a prisoner. She was taken back to her days on the ship that had brought her to Ixilta, but back then they’d kept most of the abductees in cryo-sleep, only waking them when it was time to take them to market. In those hours when she’d been awake with her fellow prisoners she’d been consumed by terror and confusion. They’d been crammed into dirty cells and stripped of their dignity and most of their clothing.
In a strange way, Andie almost missed it, even though she rarely thought of those tense hours anymore. It hadn’t been possible to forget just how bad the situation had been. But now she was locked in a plush office. Mebion had even instructed one of his men to bring her food and water, which now sat untouched on the desk. If she let herself, she could pretend she was just waiting for a meeting that had been delayed.
Terror hung in the background of her consciousness, but everything was too boring for it to do more than merely simmer.
She’d fed Mebion as many lies as she dared, but she didn’t know if he believed her story of being captured by Xandr and forced to work for his crew. She’d told him that Xandr had promised to send her back to Earth once she worked off whatever it would cost to buy passage, but she’d made sure to say that she didn’t believe him. Mebion had lapped it up, grinning a bit maniacally and nodding along as she spoke.
