“I know about nothing. It’ll all be fascinating. Where are you from?”
Geoff nodded a couple of times before steepling his fingers. “Is it time for our sad stories?”
“I have no stories. If yours are sad, I’m sorry.” Had all my tales been upsetting ones before they’d erased my mind? Were they the kinds of memories I’d never want to have anyway?
“I was born on the outskirts, on a planet called Milos. Have you heard of it?”
I shook my head. He’d finally started talking, and I wanted him to continue. If I said the wrong thing, he might get mad again and stop. “I’m sorry. My knowledge of the universe is limited to what I read on Master’s.”
“Right, well, it doesn’t surprise me with the stuff they were teaching you. Milos isn’t exactly on the maps of important historical events. A little nowhere planet located in a system on the edge of nothing. Thousands upon thousands of light years of endless space just beyond it. No one has ever seen anything past the void, and those who went out just to see themselves? They never returned to tell us squat. I used to think, when I was younger, that those fortunate enough to make it to the other side had to have found a paradise. Truth is, they probably all died somehow, maybe by a wormhole or a fissure. Space storms. Something no one can live through. Or maybe they are just lost…adrift.”
I leaned forward. “I know so little about space. I feel like a recording stuck on repeat. I don’t know about that, I don’t understand whatever. My general inability to grasp the world around me is getting really old.”
He took my hand in his and squeezed my fingers. “That’s not your fault. Should you still choose not to believe me about how remote it is, there are military fighter pilots who don’t know where Milos is located. It’s really, really out there.”
“Go on. What’s it like?”
He dropped my fingers and leaned back. “Once every ten years or so, the Nobles remember the planet exists. They need the uranium mined there, so they bring women. It must be terrifying for those girls, thinking they’re going to get to marry some monarch and instead they get dropped in the middle of the Delta-Lambda system. Anyway, one of those ladies was my mother.”
My heart skipped a beat. Did the Nobles simply send women off? What happened to the process of selecting the right man for the right woman? I didn’t comment. Those were horrors to dwell on later.
“She was tough. She gave my father three sons before she died giving birth to me. We don’t have great medical care on Milos, and not much food either, but we have lots of alcohol and lots of uranium. When I turned twenty, I worked in the mines with my father and brothers. By then, I was quite the tinkerer. I could make things blow up just as I wanted them to, but there wasn’t much call for that ability on Milos. Apparently, word of my feats travelled off-world. They’d been exaggerated and made extreme, not that it helped me much. I still had to work in the mines. That’s how I expected to spend the rest of my days. Maybe if I got lucky, one day I’d get to fight for a woman in a Deathmatch like my father did.”
How…brutal. “I can’t imagine.”
“Anyway, I was in the mines one day and the walls collapsed. That happened sometimes. My brothers and five other guys were with me. We were doomed. Only, the Nomads were there. I know now that they’d shown up to steal the uranium we were supposed to find that day. That’s our primary objective, to disrupt the workings of the Nobles by making it impossible for them to perform their basic functions of stealing from the local population. The Nomads heard I was in there, and they wanted my bomb-making skills.”
He paused before he continued. Though he faced me, his gaze seemed far away, as if he wasn’t seeing me. “So I’m sitting in the dark with my brothers, thinking about what a waste my life had been. I’d never been anywhere. I’d never done anything. I mined. I ate. I fought now and then, and I slept. The most exciting thing I’d done was build some bombs. A lot of men don’t get wives. That’s the way it goes. Our planet was full of men who will never get to touch a woman in their whole lives. I think the women on Milos have three female babies total a year between them if they’re lucky. But the men find things to do, whether it be working at jobs they love or careers with meaning. I was locked in a mine, listening to my brothers cry as they got ready to die.”
I took his hand. I didn’t even think about the action. How could I not somehow reach out to him, to let him know he wasn’t still trapped in the mine, waiting to die? As far as kidnappers went, he was a pretty nice one. Also, there was the little matter of his kiss still making my blood heat hours later. My son kicked me hard. He either did or did not like me holding Geoff’s hand. Or maybe I was so desperate for understanding I was giving my son way too much credit for knowing what’s going on outside my womb.
Geoff squeezed my fingers before bringing them to his mouth to kiss my knuckles. “You’re kind. I can see in your eyes that you care what I went through that terrible day.”
“I do. I can almost picture it—the darkness, the knowledge that you were done for.”
He kissed my hand once again. “Anyway, suddenly this loud voice came through the darkness. It was a projection, which travels over great distances to small spaces. The Nobles use it in the prison colonies. The Nomads wanted to speak to me. If I agreed to come with them and join their cause by blowing up whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it, they’d save us. Otherwise we were all dead.”
They’d blackmailed him? These were the people Geoff worked for? Whom he’d kidnapped me to bring me back to? The better option than the way the Nobles lived?
“That’s awful.”
“Yeah, well, everyone is horrible when it comes to it. So few people are worth their spit. Maybe it’s how we live, all spread out like we are. Who knows? The Nomads at least got me out. I chose to help them, obviously. Then…one day my wife found me. Things changed afterward. They were pretty good. And then she died.”
He kissed me, yet he was so clearly in love with his wife. What would it be like to adore someone past their death? He wanted affection, and I sat nearby. I hardly knew the man and I didn’t want to only be a warm body or convenient because he rarely saw women anymore.
“What do you mean, she found you?”
Who was she? Who held his heart and that of other men so strongly that they willingly shared her? Assuming that’s what he did. He was a Nomad and he’d told me Nomads shared wives. But maybe he didn’t? I was seriously confused.
He kissed my hand a third time and I squirmed. I need to be careful. He is so dangerous to me…to who I’m supposed to be. I’m not a whore. Not anymore, no matter how he makes me feel. The stern lecture did nothing to quell the need within me.
“I was in a bar. Really, really loaded. Riddled with aggression and no idea how to feel better other than to pound someone into oblivion. This woman came in. She was young, and she had this bald guy with her. You saw him, actually. Nolan.”
I nodded. The bald man’s severe see right through me stare would be next to impossible to forget. “Right.”
“Every man in there wanted her instantly, which wasn’t surprising. With no women, we all want every girl we encounter. Yet no one dared approach her with Nolan there. I was really low back then. Things were looking dire. There wasn’t any real future for me that I could see and Nolan looked pretty badass. I think I thought he could finally do it—end me. What was the point of anything? I shoved him from his chair, and he landed on his ass. Nolan actually growled and then y—um—my wife laughed.”
Wow. The woman had a lot of confidence. “She laughed?”
He grinned. “As loud as I’ve ever heard anyone cackle. Nolan and I both turned to her. He looked as shocked as me that she found any amusement in my display. I mean, he loved her, and he was on the ground and I was one step, maybe, from being totally out of my mind. Then she stood and told Nolan to get up and for me to come with her. We had things to do.”
“And you went.” It wasn’t a question.
“I
’d have followed her into the depths of hell. I never wanted to be out of her sight ever again. She inspired that kind of loyalty in people. Later, she told me I looked like the saddest person she’d ever seen, and my sadness pounded at her from across the room. She wanted to show me happiness still existed—even for people like me.”
I think his love story constituted the strangest I’d ever heard. He loved his wife when she’d already been with someone else and everyone was fine with it. How did that work? I needed—needed?—to find out, but…
The com beeped loudly and then an alarm went off. “Shuttle approaching. Shuttle approaching.”
“Shit.” He jumped to his feet. “Strap in, sweetheart. I don’t know what we have here.”
I obeyed. I wanted to be rescued, or at least I thought I still did—spending time with Geoff played havoc on my mind—but I didn’t want to end up as collateral damage to whomever was out there. Please be a good pilot, Geoff. My studies had made the Nomads sound pretty scary with amazing skills.
Closing my eyes, I tried to breathe. The last thing I needed was another bout of vomiting.
“Shuttle 2-5-3-1, do you read me? This is Transport 4-2-15 from the Visci system. Can you hear me? Over?”
Geoff swiveled in his chair to look at me through the open hatch from the pilot’s chair. “Don’t say a word, Melissa. If you give us away, I’ll be really pissed.”
What would he do to me if he got pissed? The reminder served to put me on notice. I didn’t know him, and our short acquaintance hadn’t changed the facts. He’d kidnapped me. I was his prisoner. What would he do if I pushed him too hard?
“This is Shuttle 2-5-3-1, Noble transport 55. We are en route to our destination and not stopping for citizen contact. What is your situation?”
Pretending to be a legitimate Noble shuttle pilot. Check. What other skills did the Nomads need to have to get by? Geoff tapped his index finger on the dial as he waited.
“Please note, Shuttle, I have come from Planet Hall. The citizens there stopped a rebel attack on their iron mines. They’ve imprisoned the traitors. The planet’s communication system has been knocked out. I’ve been dispatched to let the Nobles know what happened.”
“Shit.” Geoff spoke to himself, or maybe to me, but not to the microphone until he’d calmed himself. “Message received. Transferring it through proper channels now. Return home. Help on the way.”
The response crackled. “Thank you, Shuttle 2531.”
“All right, we’re safe. You can unhook, sweetheart.”
I appreciated the sentiment, but I planned to stay put. He’d faked being a Noble as though it were commonplace after he’d basically threatened me to keep me quiet.
He swung around, facing me. “What’s wrong? We’re safe. This was a lucky break. We can use this to our advantage. Why do you have that pinched look on your face?”
I hadn’t realized I’d made a face. “I don’t know.” Even if I wanted to analyze my emotional state, I didn’t want to do it with him around. I really didn’t want to explain that nerves made my hands shake and my knees knock together. I might become a quivering mess and never rise again.
“Bullshit.” Geoff stood. “You’re pale as a ghost. Minutes ago, you were bright and vibrant. That encounter spook you? They were harmless.”
“I…” Oh, what the hell. “You scare me to death.” There I’d said it. If it made him even angrier, then so be it. I had to get off his ship. Lying and pretending weren’t on my agenda. Truth had to get the job done.
He put a hand over his heart. “I scared you? What did I do?”
“You threatened me.” How did he not know? He’d been the one doing the warning.
Geoff shook his head. “When?”
“You told me if I gave you away, you’d get pissed.”
“Shit.” He stared at the ceiling briefly before he met my gaze again. “You thought I meant I would somehow hurt you? Let me clarify. If you had given us away and the other ship knew we were Nomads, I would’ve had to destroy the other ship. I’d have had to open fire on them. Otherwise, they might come and hurt you. Melissa, you’re never in any danger from me, not in this life or the next one. The rest of the world, maybe. You’re safe as a kitten from me.”
I unhooked my belt and stood. My hands were shaking, but I didn’t care. I needed answers. Cowardice had to go away. “Because of some vow you made?”
“That’s right.”
A mind-splitting headache hit me like someone had taken a bat to my head. I doubled over before falling to the ground. My eyesight fled and my stomach lurched. My poor son jolted inside me. What was happening? I couldn’t do anything but cry out.
Geoff grabbed me. “Melissa. Are you okay?” He hauled me onto the couch. “Shit. Shit. Shit. This is my fault. Protocol. I went too far. Deep breaths. Please. It’ll pass. I’ll stop. It won’t happen again. Don’t be sick. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m such an ass.”
The world went blissfully black.
* * * *
When I woke, I heard new voices around me. They were muffled, but soon an incessant beeping prompted me to open my eyes. I found myself inside a plastic tube. Why? Wires were attached to my arms and two nodes touched the outside of my nose. A soft whooshing noise came and went.
“Stop pacing or I’m going to strap you down.” A blond man wearing jeans and a green T-shirt faced Geoff. I couldn’t make out more because his back was to me. “It wasn’t your fault. Look at her. See again. See a million times. She’s fine. The protocols are tricky. There’s no exact way to manage this. Even I don’t know.”
“I thought she’d died.” Geoff rubbed at his eyes. “It was like a fucking nightmare. Find her and then lose her.”
The blond man put his hand on Geoff’s shoulder. “She’s not dead. The machines are balancing her adrenaline and calming her. The baby is safe. We’ll do a full scan on him later. All is well. I’m more concerned about you.”
“She’s awake.” Geoff rushed to my plastic enclosure. The barrier blurred his face and he seemed a distortion of himself.
Funny thoughts…
“I know. I heard it when the beeping started again. It means the patient woke.” Blond man stiffened his spine before he turned and walked toward us. Even with the hazy plastic between us, I could make out his face. He had blue eyes to go with his blond hair and a long, aristocratic nose. His shoulders were broad, yet he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Geoff, both of them well over six feet tall.
“If you knew she woke, why didn’t you say something?” Geoff snapped at him, rocking on his heels.
The blond shrugged, seemingly unconcerned with Geoff’s temper. “I thought she might like a moment to collect herself.”
Geoff shook his head and then spoke to me. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Think so.” I tapped on the plastic. “What happened?”
“You are inside a modified body scanner, a healing machine. It’s safe for you, safe for the baby. You had a little bit too much adrenaline spike in your blood. You passed out. It’s all been fixed. This machine reset your levels and you woke.”
He made it sound so perfectly fine, when it fact the pain that had been surging through my brain had felt like a special kind of hell. “Are you some kind of doctor?”
“Some kind, for sure.” Geoff snorted.
“I’m Dane Hartman and yes.” He punched Geoff in the arm. “I’m a doctor. We can take you out of there now. Give you some water, see if you’ll eat something, and then check on your baby. Sound good?”
I liked the idea of getting out of my container. Dane pushed a button and the plastic made a grinding noise before separating into two parts above my head and retracting until it sank into the table I lay on.
Finally, I could see the room. As I swung my legs over the side of the medical bed, I took a good look around. Seven beds filled the space, with computers, monitors, and vials lining the walls. Things seemed strewn here, there, and everywhere, or if there was an organizationa
l method, I couldn’t immediately discern it.
Dane ran a hand through his hair and stared at me. “Melissa.” His use of my name caught my attention. “You okay? We’ll have your vitals on the screen any second. I don’t anticipate any problems.”
“What happened to me?” It seemed a good place to start.
The doctor ran a hand over his face in one long motion. The strained movement brought my attention to the dark circles under his eyes. Geoff had them, too. Did neither of them ever get any sleep? My kidnapper moved from Dane and limped to take a seat on a chair against the far wall. His movements were stiff, like his body didn’t want to bend.
“You had your mind erased, as you know.”
Geoff yawned loudly. “Dane helped invent the technology. No one knows more about this, sweetheart, than he does.”
Dane gave him a quick glance over his shoulder before he walked to the counter with one of the sinks and filled a glass with water. He palmed something, a substance that immediately dissolved into the liquid. When he finished, he delivered the liquid to Geoff. “Drink this. You’re dehydrated. It’s water.”
He lied. Geoff, rubbing his eyes and practically rocking in the chair, hadn’t noticed. I opened and closed my eyes. The right thing to do would be to tell Geoff. Lying counted as sinful. And yet…
I scooted on the table. It might be interesting to see how this played out. I needed off whatever ship we were on now. Had Dane given him something helpful or harmful? I didn’t want to play my hand too soon. Geoff was right. Cards helped with the intrigue.
Dane touched his wrist and a second later a voice sounded in the room. “Need me, bro?”
“In about two minutes, if you would.” A beep sounded when Dane touched his wrist again.
“You anticipating some kind of trouble you’ll need Nolan for?” Geoff asked after he took a long sip of his water.
“Not trouble.” Dane faced me. “I’m not the premiere expert on mind erasure. The chief doctor on the project would be far more qualified, though any of the doctors on the team are well versed.”
Kidnapped by Her Husbands (Wings of Artemis Book 1) Page 5
