Male pride. It crossed species and planets, just like he’d said earlier. “You’ve earned your lockdown,” she hissed as she moved to his side.
He reached for her hand, pressed it to his mouth, and released it. “It’s worth it. You can’t listen to this conversation, Parker.” Before she could protest, he held up a hand. “Intergalactic security rests on what is said here. I’d prefer you to be in the dark and safe. Do you promise to not listen in?”
Chapter Six
Rafer held his breath, waiting for his mate’s negative reply. The last thing he expected her to do was actually listen and obey.
In his rank as High Commander of the Fleet, he was used to commanding instant obeisance from over ninety percent of the ranks. That his mate was usually disobedient was just ironic.
Parker’s spunk pleased him, though, perverse as it might be.
He’d expected nothing more than her hissed threat of lockdown when she’d seen that he’d moved from the bed and to a position by the window. Stating it was worth it, he hadn’t been lying. The last thing he wanted was for a Lieutenant to see him in a position of weakness. Especially as he expected his team had been the one deployed to the hotel, and it would be Jyk coming to see him. It never did any good to show any disadvantage to a Likyen—it was in their nature to overtake the weak.
Few people were aware he was even on this Griljerrd planet. It should have been a secure location for him to recuperate. As it was, this abduction attempt was obviously further proof that someone on his staff was a mole.
Considering he’d handpicked his twenty-strong team, selecting each individual carefully, and having been with most of them, save for four or five, for the last twenty-five annals, it was more than aggravating to know that someone had turned traitor.
“I do manage to pass my deyas without eavesdropping, Rafer. I’ll cope with being in the dark,” Parker murmured around a laugh.
As she left the room, he watched her walk out. The sexy sway to her hips as she moved had parts of him tightening that he hadn’t realized could work at the minute. It was almost reassuring to have physical proof of that.
His eyes were glued to her even as she closed the door and left him alone with one of his men. He had to take it on faith that she wouldn’t listen in.
“I thought I told you not to come to Madison,” he murmured coolly, letting his gaze drift over to the Likyen.
“It’s a good job we were here. We weren’t planet-side. But when your twinling contacted headquarters, we were transferred over.”
“I hate it when my orders are countermanded,” Rafer spat.
Jyk shrugged. “You might answer to a rare few, Sir, but even you have to obey orders that come from up above.” He huffed. “Well, usually. Why didn’t you tell them you were coming here to claim your mate? There wouldn’t have been such a fuss when you left the clinic.”
Rafer ignored that particular remark. “Where’s Henrik?”
“On leave.” Jyk frowned. “As from minus forty-eight heurs ago.”
He grunted. “That figures.”
“I can’t find it in me to believe that he’s behind this, Sir. Coincidences don’t exist, but he’s always been loyal to the core. “
“Everyone has a price. And you might think differently if you’d been on the other side of the ship.” Rafer grimaced, remembering last semanal’s explosion. Only seven deyas ago, but agony was still flowing through him like a riptide on a Shuzon beach.
“Why would he turn traitor now? There’s no reason for it, Sir.”
“You know I’m on the brink of leaving the Fleet, Jyk. When the status quo changes, so do the men affected by that shift. I expected some resentment from my men. I won’t deny. You’ve all been in exalted positions by being in my task force. I can’t guarantee where you’ll be stationed once I leave. I just never thought someone would….”
“Maybe it was an accident, Sir.”
“Like my mate’s almost abduction is just a coincidence, Jyk? I don’t think so. And if you weren’t so busy trying to defend the only man it could be who ratted out our starship’s location in that quadrant last semanal, as well as disclosing our position in that last stand at Hydra, then you’d see that he’s the only suspect.”
“I don’t want to punish you for retiring, Sir. Why should he?”
“We all have different motivations, Jyk. There’s no way of understanding everyone’s reasons for doing anything. I had Headquarters start an investigation into him. It’s only been a few deyas since I instigated it—the minute I woke up I knew it had to be Henrik behind all this. They’ll give me the confirmation I, and the rest of you, need to believe me.”
Jyk grimaced. “What do you want us to do about this receptionist who has been abducted?”
“Act like it’s my mate is the one being held. Get her back here as soon as you can. Spare no expense or resources, do you understand me?” When Jyk nodded, he continued, “Do you have a suspected location of where the woman is being held?”
Jyk nodded. “She has a personal comm unit. We tracked that.”
“Why haven’t you gone to release her?”
Jyk sighed, then took a seat in the chair Parker had vacated twenty mins ago. “It isn’t as easy as that. The woman recounted a description of her captors. ‘Dressed in a black so intense it glowed,’” he quoted. “What does that tell you?”
For a second, Rafer couldn’t take it in. Then, outrage hit. “Do you mean to tell me Barconians have infiltrated Madison?”
Jyk grimaced. “Sounds like it. It could be a ploy. That fabric isn’t too hard to get your hands on. It’s available at all the markets on five or six planets. It could be the Barconians, or the kidnappers could be setting them up for a pretty huge fall.”
Jyk’s reasoning calmed Rafer down a little. The idea that the Federation’s most wanted enemies could be walking around Madison playing the tourist had shards of pain throbbing behind his eyes. His voice was a hiss when he spoke, his rage so deep he knew it would exhaust him of all his energy reserves if he wasn’t careful. “Get her. Now.”
“Is that wise, Sir? If they’re Barconians…?”
Rafer held up a hand. “Barconians or not, go. You know if they are, they’re weaker planet-side than they would be on their ships. That gives you an advantage over them. If these bastards are setting up the Barconians as patsies, then there’s even less reason to worry.”
“Who do you want to head the raid?”
“You.”
Rafer would have had to be blind not to recognize the flash of pride on his Lieutenant’s face at being selected as team leader for this mission. He returned Jyk’s salute and said, “Don’t come back without her. Do you hear me?”
Jyk squared his shoulders, nodded, and made his retreat. Moments later, the doors whirled open and Parker strode into the room.
“Have you finished being a he-man?”
“What the Griljerrd’s that?”
“Being stupid by refusing to rest when you should be doing nothing more taxing than sleeping.”
He chuckled at her blunt retort, then sighed as he moved the hover chair across the room. “I should be in bed, I agree. But I couldn’t let Jyk see me there. I’m not on my death bed.”
“A good job,” she snapped. “You’d have more worries on your hand than meeting your maker if you were.”
“Why? You’d do your best to bring me back, would you?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You bet your damned ass I would.”
Her militant words should have pissed him off. After close to one-hundred annals of being in charge of thousands of men, of issuing an order to jump and being immediately obeyed, Parker’s refusal to toe the line thrilled him. “I had to speak to Jyk. When you said you’d managed to contact the Fleet and they were already here, I knew it could only mean one thing.”
“What?” she asked, frowning at him as his chair flattened out again so he could lie supine on the bed.
For a second he w
as breathless as his ragged body accustomed itself to this new position. He’d done far too much traveling for his current condition. He knew that, had been stupid to come so far in such a state, but the instant he’d woken up after being in a coma for five deyas, he’d needed to see Parker.
It had driven him to issue commands, to bark at his medics, to make demands. He’d had to be here, had needed to be close to Parker. It was a childish desire, but a man deserved to be slightly truculent when he’d almost been blown to pieces.
“The closest Fleet station to Madison is over two semanal’s travel away. They had to have followed me here.”
She frowned. “Why would they do that? And didn’t you travel on a Fleet ship?”
Rafer shook his head. “No. I came on a passenger ship. It was the only way I could get over here. I had to bend and break a lot of rules to come to Madison.”
That seemed to appease her for some reason. “This is where you should be.”
“Exactly,” he told her with a smile. “The only team who would follow me, countervailing direct orders, would be my own.”
Any satisfaction she’d found in his earlier words disappeared at that. “Do you mean to tell me they’re your men?”
“Yes.”
Her lips tightened at his admission.
“They’re the best, Parker. I’ve sent them to get your receptionist now.”
“What would they have done if they weren’t your men?”
He grimaced at her perception. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if they can go there now, that means they knew Tisiya’s location but hadn’t acted on it. They’re only acting now because you told them to.”
“They’d have monitored the location, Parker. Just to clarify the situation and try to discern who they were up against. As it is, I’ve told them to go now and hit hard. She should be back before the evening.”
“You need to rest,” she replied rather than make comment. “I promised you lockdown and that’s what you’re getting. I’ll see you later on, okay?” As she spoke, her head was buried in a closet. She pulled out a blanket, then carefully lifted it over him, tucking him in. “Sleep well,” she murmured, kissing the least injured part of his face.
It was a testament to how true her words were that he didn’t try to move his head and kiss her lips with his own. He did need to rest. Enough so that he chose not to question why her mood had suddenly soured when she’d learned the team working to save her receptionist was his own.
Chapter Seven
With her back to the salon, Parker chose to peer through the windows and over the complex. At this level, lilac clouds blanketed the sky, making it difficult to see through the layer. Still, she kept on staring.
Darkness had hit, and like Rafer had promised, Tisiya had been returned to the hotel before notte had fallen. The receptionist had been hideously grateful to be rescued, when she’d never been the intended target at all. Tisiya’s sobbing thanks had only heightened Parker’s guilt, and made her feel all the more concerned.
Why had she, Parker, been targeted at all?
Why, after all these annals in a position of power as part-owner of Madison Hotel, would someone try to snatch her now?
It made no sense. Not unless Rafer’s position in the Fleet was the reason for it.
Had he brought danger with him to the hotel?
It seemed that was the only explanation. What did that mean? She had to endure the knowledge that his presence on Madison put her in danger, that every deya he was here, she might be abducted? Did she send him away to keep herself safe? Or let him heal, recuperate, and send him off to find the people behind the abduction? Which would throw him back into the fray—one huge nightmare for her.
“You’re quiet,” Knox murmured. He moved behind her, rested a hand on her shoulder, and curled the other about her waist.
She settled into his hold as though she were born to be in this position. And on some deyas, it really felt like that. The Shuzon mate bond was alien to Earthlings, but that didn’t make it any less wondrous to be a part of such a union.
“It’s been a busy deya,” was all she said.
“It’s certainly been action-packed.”
“Tisiya could have been killed, and all because she’d been mistaken for me.”
“She wasn’t, though. Instead, the men behind it are in custody, and she’s with her family.”
“That doesn’t make it right. Or okay.”
“No, it doesn’t, but what else can we ask for? Tisiya is safe. She’s on sabbatical until she can get her head around what happened to her, and we’ll do our best to support her, and do whatever we can to help her. This could have ended much worse, Parker, I agree, but it didn’t.”
“Why did it even happen, Knox?”
Her mate sighed. “Rafer’s presence is the catalyst for change. It was always going to be that way, we knew that, but I don’t think we figured it would be such a huge change, and within the space of a deya.”
“He says he’s here for good, Knox.”
He snorted. “I doubt that.”
“He told me he wanted to be here.”
“Now that I do believe. So much time spent away from you must have been torture.”
The compliment was ordinarily enough to make her blush, but now she was too concerned for even that basic bodily reaction. “What will he do here, Knox? How can we make him stay?”
“You’re his mate, Parker. He won’t want to be apart from you.”
“He’ll be bored out of his mind. This is a pleasure planet, Knox. Nothing more worrisome than a few corrupt Garda and some scams to fleece the tourists. How can a soldier, a man with such a huge amount of power, just retire?”
“He must have something planned. If I know my brother at all, I know that. He couldn’t always be a soldier, Parker. He couldn’t be in the Fleet forever.”
She nodded, but a frown of concern still marred her brow. “If you say so, Knox.”
“I do. Look, it isn’t up to us to entertain him, Parker. He’s his own man. Just because this lifestyle will be totally alien to him doesn’t mean he can’t settle in. Just give him time. He might want to work in the hotel, take over a part of the management. God knows we need it. I’m still looking into that room scam in reception. He’d be good at that. He was always an analytical olan.”
“I just don’t want to lose him again,” she whispered, turning around in his arms and burrowing her face in Knox’s shirt. “And I hate feeling so weak and so goddamn pathetic about this. I feel like such a prat, relying so much on one man.”
Knox snorted. “You rely so much on two men. Just like we rely on you. Over sixty annals together and you still don’t see that’s how it should be, bebba.”
“I do, but I don’t have to like it,” she retorted.
He chuckled at that. “Your body is your own worst enemy, Parker. It’s one thing to rely on him emotionally, it’s something else to need him physically. That’s the way of our bond. You’ll feel more settled once he claims you. Properly. In the Shuzon way.”
Now she blushed. “Oh crap, it’s the Ceremony again, isn’t it?”
More chuckles tickled her ear. “You only just realized that?”
“I won’t be able to walk for a semanal,” she half-complained, but a smile quirked her lips.
“That’s the aim,” Knox said with relish. “And it’s a good sign, too. On Shuzon, after the claiming, the males gain more respect from their peers the longer the females are tucked up in bed.”
She gasped at that, and jerked back to slap him on the chest. “I will not have the hotel knowing I was fucked silly.”
“You won’t have a choice,” he promised. “By the time your body recognizes Rafer, you’ll already be sleeping it off. These last two annals, they’ve been hard on you, Parker. Hard on your body. It will take time for you to get back on track, for your soul to recognize Rafer’s.”
“I’m just glad he’s here,” she whispered.
&n
bsp; “I know. I am, too. If he hadn’t come, then I’d have summoned him anyway. We couldn’t keep on the way we were. Not with you passing out all the goddamned time. If anything, I’m furious as all Griljerrd with him for taking so long to get here.”
“He said he couldn’t get out of his contract.”
“You two have done a lot of talking, haven’t you? I thought he was resting.”
“When the Fleet arrived, I went to check on him. He was awake.”
Knox pressed a kiss to her jaw. “That’s something neither of us should be. It’s time for bed.”
He was right. Parker was exhausted by everything that had happened, and in such a short space of time. She’d never expected to see Rafer today, never even imagined in her worst nightmares that one of her staff would be abducted and that she would be the intended target….
It could have all ended so much worse than it had started. For that, even though she still had concerns, Parker could only be grateful.
* * * *
“I’m tired of this lukcin bed, felixi. You’ve got to let me out some time.”
She wagged her finger in front of Rafer’s face. He quickly snatched it, pressed it to his lips, then suckled the tip.
He’d been touching her more and more often, something that in itself had told her how he was recuperating. How he was on the road to recovery.
At the start, he hadn’t had the wherewithal to even hug her hard, never mind start something there was no way he could end. Now, however, he was getting cheeky. And he was bored. Shitless.
A semanal in bed was a lot longer than she’d hoped for. He’d been pretty well behaved. Surprisingly.
“What do you intend to do if I let you up, huh?”
“Not much,” he retorted. “It’s not like I’m ready to go running. But you heard the medic. I can at least get off this olan mattress.”
“Tell me what you want to do, and I might let you.”
“I didn’t realize you were such a tyrant.”
A Menage Made On Madison [The Federation 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 8
