by K Bledsoe
“Too late. So, give me an answer. Will you come with me and help me take care of our planet and people?”
He stood, taking her with him and swung her around in a circle kissing her as passionately as he could. As he released her he whispered in her ear.
“Yes, my princess.”
Chapter Seventy-one
“So, as you saw, Raahi, or we should say Princess Maya, was confirmed this afternoon and renamed the heir.”
The family was gathered in the lounge for the first relaxed evening in days. Lenore went on. “The council is mostly replaced with trustworthy candidates, and I do believe there is a wedding in the future.”
Allison smiled, and Lenore felt her heart lighten at that expression on her daughter’s face. “Yay for Jonah,” she said. “I liked him. What about the prince?”
“Prince Hahn is to be stripped of his title and imprisoned, though he is in shock at the death of his bonded. Doctors are concerned for his sanity, but the bond didn’t seem as strong as the girls’, so he will recover. And they are no longer going to have those tattoos. The king himself said it was an outdated tradition that only led to heartache.”
“Did we get paid?” Quinn asked suddenly.
Lenore figured Allison’s surprised look must mirror her own face.
He cleared his throat and looked like he hadn’t really meant to say that out loud. “Well, that’s why we took this mission, isn’t it?”
“That is why we took the mission,” she reluctantly admitted. “However, there’s a slight snag.”
“What snag?” asked Diarmin as he came in, wearing fresh, clean overalls, an oddity since he always seemed to have grease somewhere. He plopped down on the couch and looked around, either unaware of the sudden tension or trying to defuse it.
“The snag is, we didn’t exactly get what the reward posted.”
“But…”
“How could—”
Both Quinn and Allison started their protests, but Diarmin was the one who interrupted them before Lenore could.
“The royal assets were frozen,” he said. “Pending a lengthy investigation into who might be corrupt and who might not be. Sensible, but not beneficial to us. And technically, it was Lavan who posted the latest reward so there are arguments against any obligations of others. However, we did get quite a lot in, I guess you can say ‘goods and services.’” You know this past week the ship was serviced by the king’s personal mechanics to install our grav plates, and just this morning we received free refueling and supplies. Plus,” Diarmin held up his forefinger, “and this is the bonus. Raahi, or I should say Princess Maya, has given us the specs on the program that deciphers the scrambling tech they have.”
“Nice,” said Allison. “That could be very useful.”
“You mean we don’t get money?” asked Quinn.
“Well,” answered Lenore, “we have the rest of the money given to us by Jonah that will go a lot further now that we don’t have to pay for resupply. When the assets are unfrozen, we can come back to collect, although that might be quite some time from now. And don’t forget, we have the eternal gratitude of a planetary royalty. No small thing.”
“That’s it? After we risked our lives, got captured, stole the dead body of a princess, faked the identity of another princess and affected the politics of an entire planet?”
“Quinn…” began his father, but it was Allison who answered.
“What we did was the right thing to do. Taking down the bad guys, it’s what we do.”
“No, it’s not. We took the job to find the princess, and now we don’t even get paid for that. It’s not fair.” Quinn said and stormed out, not even waiting for a response.
Allison sputtered, face turning red.
“Now, Allison, calm down. Quinn has a point.”
“Huh?” asked Allison.
Lenore tried to defuse the tension with a smile.
“We did break a lot of laws and bent a few morals.”
“But all in the cause of good.”
“Of course, Alli. Quinn is just feeling the let down at the end of a mission. You know how tense I get after a dangerous assignment.”
Allison’s lips lifted in a half smile. “Yeah. We don’t usually say anything, but you do get a bit snippy. Can I look at that new descrambler program, Dad?”
He held up a finger. “As long as you find another job first.”
“That will take all of two minutes.”
Diarmin rolled his eyes and told her the name that the program was logged under and she was off, a kid with a new toy.
“I envy how quickly she can focus on the good and put the bad out of her head,” said Lenore.
“Yes. Her romantic notions won’t last much longer though. She’s growing up,” said Diarmin. “Now, Quinn. What’s up with him?”
“I am not sure, but I think he is still trying to suppress his traumatic experience by focusing only on the business side. You know, being professional to hide emotions.”
“Sounds like someone I know,” he playfully waggled his eyebrows at her.
She pretended not to notice.
“He will probably be worse when he realizes that, in addition to all that happened to us, we now have an extremely powerful slave organization with a personal vendetta against us.”
“Nothing that we haven’t dealt with before.” He gave her a quick hug.
“Yes. But, I have a feeling that things will be different from now on.”
“Different, same. Won’t matter as long as we are a family.” Diarmin bounced to his feet and headed out of the lounge.
Most likely to his workbench. Lenore tried to be comforted with their usual routine, but now that the mission was completed, she had time to worry about the other things she had shoved to the side.
Like… how big was this slave organization and how badly would they want the Keltons? And, even worse, the hints that the Xa’ti’al were involved with them. Lenore shuddered. She wanted to know the details. Were they working together? Was it only a few Xa or the entire group? Was it recent or had the contacts been established for years, maybe decades or more. While her first thought was to delve further into the mystery, her newfound emotions were telling her to get her family as far away from both as possible.
“Found one,” came the shout from the direction of Allison’s room.
Lenore shoved her worries to the side to see what the next job had in store.
Acknowledgments
There are always so many people involved in the process of bringing a book into the world. First thanks go to my writing buddies, Shonna Slayton and Sarah Chanis, who stuck with me from beginning to end, not to mention constantly encouraging me and editing more than I could ever ask for. And a shout out goes to all the AZ Dreamweavers. Simply being around these fabulous writers energizes my determination to keep writing.
A huge thank you goes out to Kelly Long for the awesome cover. It took a LOT of drafts until I was satisfied.
Also, many thanks to my wonderful friends who gave me the emotional support needed to write a book.
And, finally, a simple “thank you” is not enough for my family. They are my inspiration and motivation. My Mom for always believing in me, and especially my kids who shoved me back on track when life tried to drag me away.
Be on the lookout for the Kelton’s second adventure in book two:
The Case of the Dead Priest.
About the Author
K. A. Bledsoe’s writing journey began at the age of six with a story about kids growing up on a space station. Even through other jobs like scooping ice cream, shoe salesman, pharmacy tech, band director and parenting, writing has been a constant.
The author currently resides in Arizona and continues to pen stories in all genres despite the distraction of two cats underfoot and the occasional bobcat or roadrunner strolling through the back yard.
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