She could ignore her headache—it wasn’t that strong any more. The doctor at least had fixed that.
And if she really tried hard, she could ignore that cold, stone-like feeling creeping up from her left hand.
Because it was just her imagination.
. . . .
It was just her imagination.
Chapter 16
Carson Blake
He was starting to get worried. Nobody had come to see him, nor had Nida reappeared.
He stood sharply, the chair behind him toppling as he did.
“Right,” he muttered as he strode from the waiting room. He caught the first person he could find, asking them for some information on Nida.
He was shocked to find she’d already been discharged.
Too shocked.
Figuring the nurse had been wrong, he checked in with the hospital’s records himself—something he could do with his rank—and confirmed the news.
She’d left without him.
And worse than that, she’d been discharged.
When he’d taken her to the hospital, she’d appeared in a bad way. Yeah, capable of walking, but he’d seen the pallid, sickly hue to her skin, and the horrible, tense way she’d clutched her left hand.
. . . .
But they’d discharged her. Apparently, nobody could find anything wrong with her, well, physically wrong. According to the records he’d accessed, the doctor who’d seen her had made a note about stress and possible hypochondria.
In a way, he couldn’t believe it. He’d expected the doctors to find . . . something.
Because there was something wrong with her.
He shook his head as he marched forward.
He headed back up to her apartment.
In fact, he reached the lift at the bottom of the building at a jog, and didn’t wait when a cadet rushed up and told him to hold the lift.
Instead, Carson crossed his arms and waited for the lift to shoot up to the right level. When the doors opened with a resounding ping, he sprinted through them.
He didn’t stop until he reached her door.
Then he jammed his thumb into the intercom button. “Nida? It’s Carson. Open up,” he demanded.
No reply.
He kept his thumb on the button. “Nida, come on. Open up. You left without saying a word. I just want to check up on you,” he couldn’t keep the frustration from his voice. He couldn’t keep it from tightening his chest either, and crawling its way up his throat.
She still didn’t answer.
“Nida? Oh, fuck it,” he took a step back, coming to a quick and hasty decision as he did. Without pause for reason, he overrode the lock.
The door swished open and he ran in.
She wasn’t in the main room. “Nida,” he announced as he strode over to her door.
It wasn’t locked, and he walked in, hesitating and even bothering to knock first.
. . . .
She wasn’t in there.
She wasn’t anywhere in the apartment in fact.
After he searched it, he rested one hand on the kitchen table and swore again. Loudly.
Where the hell was she?
She’d been discharged a little under an hour ago.
Anger rushed up his belly, and hot on its heels came worry.
She may have been discharged—and that was a questionable decision, as far as he was concerned—but she was not in any state to be rushing around town at night.
“Where the hell are you?” he muttered under his breath as he took a step forward and considered the view.
He saw the rest of the Academy complex, and the city stretching out beyond it. Everything was drawn in shades of midnight blue, set off with the sparkling lights of the city.
In the gaps between the buildings, he could see a thin stretch of the bay with a luminescent night sky glittering above.
It was beautiful.
In some ways, he found his home planet far more amazing than the rest of the galaxy combined.
But no matter how startling and still the night appeared, it could not distract him.
He’d already broken the rules by overriding the lock to Nida’s apartment, but he wasn’t done yet.
He accessed the private Academy communication lines from his watch. As a lieutenant, he had certain privileges, and as the head of the Force, he had even more.
Usually you had to have a very good reason to look up a cadet’s personal contact details, and Carson never abused that power.
Today, he didn’t even hesitate as he dug up the number for Nida’s communication device.
He called it. Without pause.
She didn’t immediately answer.
When the call finally went through with a click, he pushed his head back and sighed with relief. “Where the hell are you?” he snapped immediately.
“Ah, who’s wrist device is this?” someone answered.
It wasn't Nida.
“It belongs to Cadet Nida Harper. Now who the hell are you?” Carson spat.
“Ah, I just found this on the street,” a man answered.
Carson froze. The hand holding his wristwatch to his mouth stiffened to the point of turning to stone. “Where?”
“Ah, I’m in the 4th District,” the guy answered.
“Return this watch to the closest Academy cadet or officer you find,” Carson commanded.
“I am one. I mean, I’m a cadet,” the guy said with an awkward cough. “And you are?”
“Lieutenant Carson Blake,” Carson barked. “Take this watch back to the Academy now.”
“Whoa, Carson Blake,” the guy’s pitch changed from one of mild shock to reverence.
“Just take the watch back to the Academy,” Carson demanded. “And what’s your name?”
“Cadet Ye Lai, sir.”
“Well, cadet, you have your orders,” Carson took a step back and closed his eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Lai answered properly.
“Hold on, where exactly in the 4th District are you?” Carson asked pointlessly as he checked the location of the call on his own watch.
“Just outside of Barney’s Saloon, sir,” Lai probably snapped a salute.
“Right. Do you know Harper? Can you see her anywhere?” Carson asked, realising how dumb the question was just as he asked it.
“Ah . . . who?”
Of course Lai didn’t know Harper, otherwise he would have handed her the watch.
Shaking his head and sighing, Carson again told Lai to return the watch to the Academy, and ended the call.
“What the hell is she doing?” he asked as he whirled from the view and headed for the door.
You didn’t just lose your watch. It couldn’t fall off. It was built to sit there on one’s wrist through alien incursions, ship explosions, and apocalypses.
Nope. Nida would have taken her watch off. But why? It was drilled into you at the Academy that you left the damn things on. They were communication and location devices, not to mention rudimentary scanners and computers.
Yet she’d clearly taken hers off . . . for some reason.
Carson swore again.
He’d taken her to hospital, and he’d seen how freaked out she’d been.
“Goddammit, Nida,” he said aloud.
Then he blew a breath of air through his tightly clenched teeth.
Just because she’d taken off her wristwatch didn’t mean he couldn’t locate her.
Every cadet and officer at the Academy were micro chipped. But it was a big deal to access the system that could locate them. He would have to put an official request in. And to do that, he would have to be explicit about why he needed to track Nida Harper down so badly.
He would have to tell people she’d taken off her wristwatch, and that could get her into some serious trouble.
But it couldn’t be helped.
Just as he lifted his wristwatch to make the call, someone called him instead.
Flustered, he answered before checking who
it was.
“And what the hell are you doing?” Travis asked without even a hello.
“Travis?” Carson groaned. “Just get off the line. I’m busy.”
“Yeah, of course you are. Too busy to attend this E Club event, even though in many ways it was organised on your behalf to celebrate all of your incredible achievements.”
Carson groaned again. “I told you, something really important has come up.”
“Yeah, of course it has,” Travis laughed. “You’re too busy to come and help your buddy. Here I am, sitting at the bar, in desperate need of a wingman so I can make my move on the lovely Alicia. But you’re busy.”
The name Alicia grabbed Carson’s attention. “Alicia’s there?”
“Yeah, with her flat mate.”
“Sorry? What did you just say? You mean . . . what’s her name? Bridgett?” Carson took a startled breath.
“Yeah, no, I mean her flat mate. Nida. I think I remember the difference between them,” Travis said, his voice straining as he did. “I may have the lovely Alicia as a distraction, but trust me, I will never forget her flat mate. Nor will I forget what happened to her bedroom door.”
For a second Carson did nothing but stand there.
He couldn’t believe this. But Travis was right—he wouldn’t be mistaken, and if he were making this up, Carson would kill him.
“What? You’ve just gone all quiet on me. Are you finally realising what you’re missing out on? Because Bridgett is here too,” Travis began.
“Listen to me, go and find Nida and check on her,” Carson said quickly and sternly.
“What, why? She just got here. She’s helping Alicia out.”
“An hour ago I took her to hospital, then she walked out without a word. She’s also taken off her wristwatch. Some guy called Cadet Lai found it, and I’m having him take it back to the Academy,” Carson couldn’t get through his words fast enough. “Just go find her and keep an eye on her until I get there.”
“Wait, what’s going on?”
“I have no idea. Just go and check on her. I’ll be as quick as I can,” Carson practically skidded for the door, ploughing out of it as it opened.
Then he ran, as fast as he could, to the closest transport hub.
It took him approximately seven minutes to cross town.
Then he found her.
Chapter 17
Cadet Nida Harper
She didn’t know what she was doing here. Well, looking for a distraction, clearly, but beyond that, this was social suicide.
Not only was she the worst recruit in 1000 years, but the story of how her implant had stuffed up was hot gossip.
Still, when she’d walked in, Alicia had immediately shuffled her off into one of the back rooms.
“I can’t believe you actually came,” Alicia said with a chuckle as she clapped a hand warmly on Nida’s shoulder. “I mean, you actually came.”
Nida nodded. “I love a good chance at embarrassing myself. And as the room out there is filled with the Academy’s best and brightest, I figured it was a great opportunity to really maximise my humiliation.”
Alicia rolled her eyes expressively. Then she did something odd.
Really odd.
She folded her arms around Nida and hugged her.
When Alicia pulled away, Nida was left dumb struck. “What was that for?”
“You looked as though you could use it,” Alicia answered perceptively, “plus, I’m really proud of you. I know these kind of parties aren’t your thing, but you still came to help me out. I have a feeling you're a better friend than all my other so-called buddies.”
Nida smiled.
She didn’t, however, take the opportunity to point out to Alicia that the only reason she’d come here was to take her mind off stress-induced dreams and a terrible bout of hypochondria.
“Okay, so, what would you like to do? You could serve drinks or help out with the entertainment,” Alicia began.
“Ah, not the entertainment,” Nida answered immediately. “But hold on, why are we serving drinks? Aren’t people just going to order their drinks from the computer?”
“We’re going with the human touch for this event. Plus, there’s nothing like a pretty, smiling cadet behind the bar,” Alicia winked at her.
“Well then, I guess you’d better ask Bridgett,” Nida joked.
“Bridgett? Oh, don’t get me started on Bridgett,” Alicia spat.
“What?”
“Never mind. Forget I said anything. But, you, my dear, will be perfect,” with that, Alicia proffered an arm, and waited for Nida to hook her own around it, before she led them both from the room.
It was strange work to be behind a real bar and set with the task of handing out drinks.
But, oddly enough, Nida started to enjoy it.
It was simple enough work. Someone would ask for a drink, then Nida would find the correct bottle under the bar and pour a glass.
It was also strangely soothing.
She was rushed off her feet, and simply didn’t have the opportunity to worry about how cold her left arm felt, or whether her dreams would return that night.
Plus, no one seemed to recognise her. Or if they did, they were too busy to say anything.
Just as she relaxed into her work, someone she recognised walked up to the bar.
Bradley Marshall. He was from her year, and once upon a time, they’d had classes together, before he’d been selected for the training program into the Force.
Whereas everyone else had stood a respectful distance away, he rested his elbow onto the wood, leaning as far in as he could. At first, he had a flirtatious smile curling his lips, then he blinked quickly, clearly recognising her. “Harper?” his tone distorted with disbelief. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Serving drinks,” she answered blankly. “Now what do you want?”
“This is an E Club function, right?” he looked around, then back at her. “You do know where you are?”
She pressed her lips together but didn’t answer.
He laughed at his own mean joke. “Apparently not. Or did they let you in because they’re trying to keep you quiet?”
Her lips pressed tighter together.
“What exactly happened to you, anyway? You’re the talk of the Academy. Carson Blake had to save you from yourself,” Bradley let out a snap of a snide laugh. “Apparently if he hadn’t been there, you would have impaled yourself with a frigging training block.”
“Hey, do you need a drink?” Alicia walked up behind Bradley and hit him on the shoulder.
Bradley turned around and shot her a suggestive smile. “Yeah, you offering?”
“Oh, god no,” Alicia shook her head, “but I am offering to kick you out, how does that sound? You either shut up and ask the bar mistress for a drink, or you leave.”
Bradley spluttered. “Excuse me? You can’t order me around.”
“No, but I can,” a man said as he walked up behind Alicia.
It was Travis, Carson’s friend.
He shot Nida an odd, worried look, then turned his attention back to Bradley. “Stop being a dick, and that’s an order. Now get a drink and piss off,” Travis shot Bradley a stern look.
Though Bradley looked indignant, he didn’t say anything more. Neither did he order a drink. He simply walked off muttering to himself.
“Oh, look at you,” Alicia giggled as she smiled at Travis, her appreciation as bright as a thousand suns, “you’re a hero.”
“Thanks,” Travis laughed. Then he turned that worried glance back to Nida. “Are you okay?”
“Ah, yeah. He wasn’t really bothering me,” she shrugged her shoulders.
Travis looked uncomfortable. He also appeared to assess her closely; his darting gaze crossed over her face and settled on her right wrist. “Um, you sure you’re feeling okay?”
“Ah . . . yeah?” she managed.
“Are you trying to spook her?” Alicia crossed her arms.
&n
bsp; “Not really,” Travis answered, still clearly uncomfortable, “I’m trying to figure out if Carson is playing games with me.”
At the mention of his name, Nida pressed a hand to her mouth.
Carson.
Damn.
She’d left him in the hospital.
She’d walked out without a word.
He was probably still there.
“What’s he talking about?” Alicia glanced at Nida, sudden excitement lighting up her smile. “Has Carson come to see you?” her voice dipped with interest.
“Oh . . . ah,” Nida began.
“He said he took you to the hospital,” Travis said, still looking confused as he assessed Nida, “but you appear to be fine.”
“Hospital,” Alicia’s voice became sharp, all playfulness gone. “Nida, what’s going on?”
Nida took a step back, enjoying the fact the bar had little lighting compared to the rest of the room. Maybe if she descended far enough into the shadows, people would forget she was there.
“Nida?” Alicia snapped again. “What’s going on?”
Before Nida could answer, she heard someone call her name.
A man.
He marched up to the bar.
Carson Blake.
She swallowed hard.
He reached the bar and didn’t pause—he jumped right over it.
The move was smooth, fast, and coordinated.
With a thud, he landed right next to her.
She gave a soft yelp in surprise.
“Are you alright? Why did you come here when you left the hospital? And why didn’t you say anything? And why the hell did you take off your watch?” he snapped, irritation arcing through his voice.
She blinked, still pushing a hand into her mouth.
Even under the dim light of the bar, she could see his expression. He was shocked and angry, very angry.
“Why did you take off your watch?” he repeated, lowering his voice as he glanced around him.
People were starting to stare. Which was fair enough, as Carson had just made a stellar entry by marching in, jumping over the bar, and shouting at the bar mistress.
Though she was shocked, she had the presence of mind to pull up her right sleeve, intending to show him her watch was still very much there.
The only problem was it wasn’t.
She clutched at her skin, dragging her fingers across it, confirming with a shudder she’d lost it.
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