“You remembered my full name,” he said in surprise.
“What can I say? I’m impressive.”
“Your pronunciation could use a little work.” He chuckled to lighten the insult. “So, who are we then?”
“We, as in my crew. We are not kidnappers. We don’t ransom or traffic in life. I have no quarrel with you or the other members of your crew. My dispute is with Josselyn.”
“Josselyn is a member of my crew.” Dev had expected they would eventually have this conversation. He’d much rather be warring with her in bed, but he saw the pain in her eyes. She had to try, and he had to protect his family. Josselyn was now his family. She was with Evan. That is all he needed to know.
“Then she’s a new member. I can’t imagine she has proven herself very valuable.” Violette began to pace.
“Depends on how you define value.” Dev stayed on the floor, observing her. He enjoyed watching her move, like a wild animal endlessly looking for a way out of her cage, mind working, seeming to have forgotten she held the key to her own locked door.
“My father. That’s how I define value. He was a good man. He fought for alien rights. He was a well-respected general and a humanitarian and an alienitarian and...” She paused, studying him. “Well? Don’t you have anything to say to defend her?”
“I know you’re grieving, and while I cannot understand, as my father was no one to grieve over, I am sorry you are feeling pain.” Dev sighed, hoping she would let the conversation end there. She wouldn’t like his true opinion.
“So you admit my father was a good man,” Violette insisted.
“No, only that I do not wish to argue that point with you. A good man is who your father was to you.”
“Are you saying he wasn’t that to everyone else? Because I know hundreds, thousands who would agree with me.”
Dev finally stood. Honesty might get him killed, but it looked as if Captain Violette needed a strong dose of it. “And I saw what remains of the settlement on Florencia’s Fifth Moon. I saw what was done there, what Jack Stephans had ordered done there. I saw the bodies of the dead shoved into a hole in the floor of a castle and left in a pile to rot. I saw the imprisoned innocent in statue form, blasted apart by lasers in their helpless state, turned to so much dust it coated the room, and at first we couldn’t tell what we were stepping on—children, women, men, it didn’t matter. They were imprisoned and then killed while helplessly locked in stone. I saw a settlement whose people were turned to stone and their lives coated with ice because the weather regulating satellite was destroyed by Federation blasts. Josselyn was one of those imprisoned. The entire Florencia Moon settlements were wiped out. That is who the general is to those people but I can’t bring forward hundreds of witnesses because they’re all dead.”
“My father would never.” Violette shook her head. Her voice rose as she charged toward him. She pointed her finger up into his face. “I won’t believe some woman pretending to be my sister. I don’t care if we have the same mother genetically. She is not my sister. And your repeating of her lies about the general will not help you gain your freedom.”
“I thought I wasn’t a prisoner.” Dev wasn’t sure why he had presented her with the full truth as bluntly as he had. Maybe if she understood, she would give up her revenge. The heat of her expression was centered in her eyes. For a moment, he didn’t know if she’d kiss him or hit him. He leaned closer, knowing which one he’d like best. She did neither.
“You’re not, but…” She took a deep breath and stepped back. “I want you off my ship.”
“I didn’t ask to be on your ship.”
“That point has been established.” Violette regained her composure and eyed him with perfect calm. “Let’s not belabor it again.”
Her mask didn’t fool Dev. He knew well how people hid emotions. By Bravon’s fire, he was an expert at it. If she continued to swallow down her grief she’d become a bitter, hollow shell. What she needed was an explosion, a way to release her pain, and Dev needed a fight to bury his. If she yelled at him, struck at him, then maybe he wouldn’t feel the desire simmering in his blood.
“You brought it up.” Dev crossed his arms over his chest.
Now she looked as if she wanted to throw him off the ship into the black. “You’re wrong about the general. He was a good man.”
“Good men are sometimes born from bad deeds. Everyone has secrets.”
Violette strode to the door. The pain and grief building inside her was too much. On her way out, she stated, “You’re wrong. You don’t know anything.”
Chapter 12
Violette stared at Jo in irritation. “I’ll pay for the extra fuel burn. I said fly us to the nearest port as fast as we can get there. I want the unauthorized cargo off my ship.”
Why were her orders being questioned? It was Gil’s fault she had an infuriating Bevlon captive to deal with. Jo was being overprotective of the ship as if putting it at full speed was going to damage the engines. Isaac insisted they let their prisoner starve so that he’d be weakened and more vulnerable and refused to bring Dev food. Ghost…well he just didn’t bother to show up when she called to him.
“Your ship,” Jo said, stroking his hand along the metal control panel. “But she’s my lady.”
“I don’t even have words,” Violette muttered, leaving the cockpit.
“She never lets me down,” Jo called after her.
“Just get us to the port!” Violette marched down the passageway to the small dining area. Without much thought, she grabbed a couple of food packs from a crate before turning around to make her way toward her quarters. No one was starving on her watch.
Violette stopped walking and stared down the corridor. She didn’t want to face Dev. If she looked at him, she’d want to hit him, then kiss him, then hit him, then kiss him, then yell at him, and then kiss him to keep him from yelling back.
He was wrong about her father. The general was a good man. She’d seen it for herself. She knew the many missions he took part of to help people. She’d seen the orders he’d signed, and the awards and honors he had received. She’d watched the thank you transmissions.
Violette looked down at the food packs in her hand. Regardless of the fact she wanted to run away and hide, she had a duty to perform. Repeating the words her father said to her on many occasions, she uttered, “Family first. Duty second. Then everything else.”
Since her family was dead that left duty. She wasn’t a killer or torturer or kidnapper. Dev was in her care and duty demanded that she bring him food and see to his needs. Remembering his heated touch, she shivered and tried to suppress the feeling. “Not those needs, Vi.”
She forced her feet to move. The plan was to drop off food and leave.
Drop off. Leave. Drop off. Leave. Drop off…
Violette stopped at the door to her quarters and ran her hand over the scanner. Dev sat on the floor like he merely waited for her to return. His blank expression didn’t give any hint as to what he was thinking. The drugs Gil gave him had worked their way out of his system, and there was a new clarity in his gaze when he looked at her. There was no fear in him, which took away any leverage she might have to keep him in line.
“You may sit on the bed.” She tossed a food pack at him, and he caught it easily with one hand. “There is no reason for you to be uncomfortable.”
Dev studied her for a moment before slowly pushing up from the floor to sit on the edge of the bed. She waited for him to speak and was a little glad when he didn’t. There was no reason to continue their previous conversation. She didn’t want to fight with him. She just wanted him off her ship and for her life to go back to what it was—seeking revenge.
Violette motioned to the food pack he held, “It’s not fancy, but it’s all we have on board.” She tore hers open with her teeth and then drank more than ate the thick contents.
Dev followed suit and tilted his head to consume the meal. When he’d finished, he said, “These are like eat
ing fuel sludge runoff. Your father was a general, and you don’t have a food simulator on your ship? How do you not have access to that technology?”
“We have a Thinean on board, and he requires a special filtration modification in our life support system. It sends off a frequency that is incompatible with food simulators. The units kept breaking,” she explained. “Besides, I was raised on Federation meal packs. One can get used to anything if it’s for survival.”
“I understand. I was raised with branding sessions to make me tougher.”
“You’re comparing meal packs to mutilation ceremonies?”
“They both must be suffered through,” Dev stated.
She thought he might be making a joke, but he didn’t show emotion, so she didn’t either.
Her eyes traveled to his skin. There were scars, but most looked like the result of combat, not branding. The red bloodlines moving over his flesh were less noticeable than before. She wanted to ask him to lie down so she could follow them with her finger, tracing them until she could understand the pattern they would form. “You don’t look branded.”
When she continued to study his arms and neck, searching for the memory he’d mentioned so casually, he stood. Violette took an involuntary step back. Dev dropped the empty pack on the floor next to the bed. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Her breath caught, and she couldn’t look away. The desire she had for him bubbled to the surface. His hands reached for his side, and he loosened his waistband.
“What are you doing?” She didn’t want him to stop but felt some feeble protest was in order.
Dev did something unexpected. He turned his back to her and lowered his pants so she could see a series of small scars moving down his side and hip. They made a path down to the backs of his thighs. “I’m showing you.”
The puckering of strange symbols created a crude pattern in his flesh. Her eyes followed the trail before lifting to his naked ass. Tight muscles flexed. She tossed her empty food pack next to his on the floor and then moved closer. She reached a finger to trace a scar. He stiffened in surprise and glanced back at her.
“How could anyone do this to a child?” Violette glanced at her arm the second the words were out of her mouth. She had her answer. Her father had given her a scar, too.
“Pain conditioning is the Bevlon way.” He held still, not bothering to pull up his pants. Her finger traced the pattern across the back of his thigh to his hip. She had not noticed them before in their frenzied lovemaking.
Love? No. What they did was not lovemaking. It was more primal than that. There was no love here. There couldn’t be. Violette did not feed into romantic notions. She couldn’t afford to. This man was the friend of her enemy. She had to remind herself of that fact. She couldn’t forget it. Then why couldn’t she force herself to leave?
Nothing in this universe was simple.
Violette felt drawn to him, wanting to be closer, wanting to connect and feel. Flattening her hand more fully against his flesh, she let it slide around to his stomach. She stood next to him and leaned her cheek against his back. Heat radiated off his skin. The intimate contact of flesh made it impossible to pull away. His breathing became hypnotic.
She closed her eyes. “I’m so exhausted.”
Why did she admit that? It felt like a weakness.
He turned in her arms. Her head lifted briefly before resting on his chest. Her gaze roamed over his body, traveling over his stomach to the growing arousal between his thighs. He clearly wanted her, but he didn’t move to initiate passion.
He rested his hand on her shoulder. “Then you should rest.”
Her exhaustion was more than just lack of sleep. It was the weight of everything sitting on her shoulders that she had to face alone. Dev was not part of her life. He was a brief, passing moment. She could never care for him. Life had made sure of that. But for right now, in this instance, she took comfort in the fact that he was warm and breathing, and that she liked the feel of him against her. Before when they came together, it was an explosion. Now, it was…
He ran his hand slowly down her arm, causing her to shiver at the brush of heat.
Now it was something she could not define.
She lifted her head to gaze into his dark eyes. There was a sadness in him, a regret. Did he feel it to—the temporariness of their time together?
Dev kicked off his boots and then stepped out of the pants that were piled around his ankles. He leaned over and lifted her up into his arms. He laid her down on the mattress and then settled next to her, keeping his body on the side closest to the door. The narrow bed would only fit them comfortably if Dev rested on his side. He arranged his arm over her waist and held her against his chest.
“Sleep,” he said.
The word sounded like an order, but she didn’t protest as she closed her eyes. Yes. Sleep.
Chapter 13
Even before Dev lay down beside Violette, he knew he would betray the trust she’d shown him when she’d leaned against his body. The path for a man in his situation was pretty clear. He needed to escape his captors without leading them back to his crew, and before his friends decided to engage in a rescue mission. He didn’t want anyone hurt, not over him.
He touched Violette’s cheek as she slept. She was still clothed, and he was naked. Her parted lips acted like a lure to his, begging him silently for a kiss. He denied himself. He was good at denying himself. When the urge became almost too much to bear, he made himself picture each member of his crew, even baby Parker, and then he forced himself to imagine their ship exploding in a space battle that did not need to be. He made himself feel it until he experienced the pain fully.
Then he imagined this woman next to him, so stubborn in her cause, so hurt and alone, and he knew what a future of revenge would mean for her. She’d assembled a crew that would most likely give her little by the way of familial affection. There was nothing wrong with that, except humans tended to need some kind of emotional connection or other drives would take over. For Violette, that drive would be vengeance. It would consume her, and she would never stop coming after Josselyn until either or both sisters were dead. And for what? General Jack Stephans? To Josselyn, a century of good deeds would not erase the mass genocide of her people. To Violette, her father was not the man Josselyn had known before going inside her stone prison.
Violette’s soft breath tickled is cheek. The lights had dimmed in the room, the timer obviously indicating that it was nighttime on the ship. Still, he waited next to her in the quiet minutes longer than he needed to.
He had one advantage. Josselyn did not want Violette dead or harmed. Whereas Violette would never stop, and the longer she chased her sister, the more ingrained the hatred would become until there was nothing left of her soul.
Revenge would not bring Violette happiness. Maybe he could change her course. She’d hate him, but he’d give her a chance at a different life. He would save his crew, and hers. Dev would like knowing that she was there, out in the universe, a woman who had once touched him without fear or hesitance. She had done more for him than he could ever explain. With one gentle finger tracing his scars she’d made him feel as if he wasn’t a demon. She’d seen him as a man.
In a perfect universe, he’d kiss her now, those parted lips. He’d let her ease the ache in his body. Already his cock was tight with need. But to kiss her now would be a betrayal. She’d given him a single moment that he could hold on to for the rest of his days. And, hate it as she would, he was going to give her the same gift. He would save her from herself before she was too far down the path she was on.
Dev slowly slipped away from her. He dressed as quietly as he could manage. She made a small noise but did not wake. When he was ready, he turned toward the bed. There was no medical unit in the room to help sedate her. He was going to have to use force.
“I know you won’t forgive this, but hopefully, you will understand I must do my duty,” he whispered, so softly the words weren’t r
eally audible. “This is for the best. I’m going to help you change your destiny.”
He watched his hand move toward her like it was someone else’s. The motion to subdue her was easy, however, forcing himself to perform the task was not. His arm slid under her head and his hand clamped her mouth before her eyelids even fluttered. She struggled in confusion as he lifted her from the bed. Her feet pushed off the mattress in an effort to dislodge his hold. Her fight wouldn’t work. She was small and fragile compared to him. All he could do is make adjustments so as not to injure her. One arm secured her waist as he continued to hold his hand over her mouth to muffle the protests.
Violette clawed at his arm and then suddenly stopped. Her head tilted a few times as if becoming aware. She elbowed him hard in the stomach. He grunted in surprise as she struck a rib.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he stated.
“Men mef me mo,” came her stifled response.
“I can’t let you go.” He lifted her feet off the ground. “But we have two options. Either we can use the escape pod, or I can take over this vessel. I assure you both tasks are within my skill set. When you started your foolish errand to come after us, I learned everything I could about the model of your ship.”
Dev couldn’t understand her muffled response, but didn’t dare take his hand away. From the tone, he could well guess she was cursing him. Her feet dangled above the ground as he brushed his arm against the scanner to open the door. It took a few times before the device registered what he was doing.
Since he had no desire to steal her ship and subdue her crew, he decided the escape pod was their best bet. “Don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
He carried her pressed against his front side as he made his way down the long corridor. The ship was laid out to factory standard, and the halls were easy to navigate after his hours exploring the design in the VR room.
His Fire Maiden Page 8
