An Unexpected Debt

by S. J. Pajonas

  I’m close now, just a dozen meters more.

  Standing outside of room 335 is someone I did not expect.

  Saif has a bottle of champagne in one hand and a tied pastry box in his other. He turns to see me running towards him, and his face morphs from a smile to a frown when Dominic clears the corner behind me.

  “Help,” I squeak, running straight at him. He lifts the champagne and pastry box up, and I slide in under his arms and behind his back.

  “What’s going on?” he asks, but his voice is directed at Dom. “Who are you?”

  Dom stops in his tracks, and I can see the calculating stare from five rooms away. He probably figured Saif was done with me too, and no one but Marcelo and Takemo would miss me.

  But see, Dominic? I have more allies than you think.

  And I’m going to keep growing my network and keep making allies until I’m so untouchable, you’ll never be able to come near me again.

  He takes two steps backwards, opens his hands to his sides with a smirk, and jogs back around the corner and far out of sight.

  “What the hell was that?” Saif asks, but I don’t answer him. I wave my wristlet at the door, and it clicks open. I pull him inside, though his eyes are still on the hallway.

  Shutting the door, I push my back against it and count to five before engaging all the extra security locks from the door panel.

  Saif is dumbfounded, his mouth open in an O, when I turn around to face him.

  “Was that man trying to hurt you?” he asks, setting the champagne and box on the table.

  I nod and press my fingers to my lips. Everything makes sense finally. Dominic was never angry with me because I did anything wrong. He was mad at me for existing. Hell, he knows that if I had never been born and Ana was first daughter, Mom would have passed her over for Jukia in a heartbeat. Being the father of a first daughter has many benefits, but if that first daughter can’t perform, then whoever fathered the eventual heir gets all the winnings. My dad lives a comfortable life of luxury on a planet right now, while Dominic is still working for Mom and living cheek by jowl in a small apartment on Ossun.

  “Who was that?” Saif is right in front of me now. I didn’t see him move.

  I shake my head, but no. I can’t hide this. It’s all going to come out into the open now. I can feel it. I sigh as I pull my fingers from my lips.

  “My mom’s third consort.”

  “What?” Saif’s voice climbs.

  “I was trying to relax in the hot tub when he just showed up. He…” I laugh and shake my head. “He threatened to drown me.”

  “No,” Saif breathes out. “That’s… That’s insane.”

  This time, I press my fingers to my lips to stop the tears. “I know.” I let out a huge breath. “I am so, so sorry.”

  He cocks his head, and the emotions I held down during the escape come rushing up.

  “I’m sorry I pushed you away. I’m sorry I’m so damned difficult. I’m sorry I didn’t keep in touch when we were kids. I’m sorry my family and my life are so screwed up.”

  “Skylar,” he says, and his voice is gentle and kind. Totally what I need right now, but it spurs me on harder.

  “I’m going to make it up to you. I’m going to get my life together, and I’m going to make something of this load of crap that’s been handed to me.” I reach forward and take his hand in mine. “I promise I won’t let you down again.”

  Holding his hand and looking at this sweet man, I know that this is my future. Something different from what I thought it was going to be. I thought I’d be running the family business and still taking care of them all like I was expected to.

  Now, I don’t know what’s in store for me, but I can already tell it’ll be dangerous and challenging… and probably a lot of fun if I can stay alive.

  Saif’s smile returns. “You haven’t let me down. We just had a bit of a rocky start.” He glances at the door. “But I’m concerned about this man.”

  “Dominic,” I fill in.

  “Yes. I don’t think I want you playing any more of this tournament alone.” I open my mouth to protest. “Takemo doesn’t count. He doesn’t have your best interests at heart.”

  No, he does not. He barely spoke to me after our session today.

  I step forward and wrap my arms around Saif. I’m gross from the hot tub, and my hair and body are still wet, but he puts his arms around me too.

  “Thank you,” I whisper. I pull away from him and frown at the wet mark I’ve left on his shirt. “Have you had dinner? We can order something from room service.”

  I take off my towel and throw it next to the bed. His eyes travel down my body, and I inhale. Plenty of men have stared at me like I’m a piece of meat in my lifetime, but when Saif looks at me, it never feels wrong. It’s one hundred kinds of right.

  “We could order something,” he says, his words coming slowly.

  He swallows, and I smile. “I just need to get cleaned up.” I start towards the bathroom.

  “Need any help?” he asks, following me.

  Oh, the delight of imminent sex. I can almost smell his anticipation.

  “So much help. I have no idea how soap works. It’s a complete and utter mystery.”

  I step into the bathroom, and the lights click on. Reaching behind me, I unhook my bathing suit top and drop it on the floor.

  “Thankfully, I am a soap master.” Saif pulls his shirt off, and my insides twist in bliss as he unhooks his belt. He jerks his head at the shower, so I step in and get the water running to hot. I rinse off while I wait for him to join me. He grabs the bar of soap from the sink counter and slips into the shower stall.

  His hands cup my breasts, and I lose all sense of time and place. I groan as he pushes me up against the shower wall.

  “Before I get you clean from head to toe, listen to me.” He slips his leg between mine, edging my knees apart. Oh, yes. The ache in my belly grows as his hand grips my chin, and we make eye contact. “You’re stuck with me now. So wherever you’re going, I’m going. Whatever business you’re doing, I’m doing. You cannot push me away.”

  “I don’t want to.” And I don’t. But someone be sure to ask me how I feel about this the next time I fuck something up.

  My vision darkens as desire rises from between my legs, to my belly, to my chest. He lets go of my chin and slowly starts to sink.

  “Now, you better hold on to something. Because you’re my appetizer for the evening.” He lifts my leg onto the shower seat, dips his mouth between my legs, and I hold on for dear life.

  27

  “You don’t need to get up,” I say, leaning over the bed and gliding a kiss over Saif’s lips. “I’m going to meet Takemo for breakfast.”

  I’m up and dressed, despite the hours of sex and late-night talking. I’m a little foggy-headed and tired, but I’ll pull through with breakfast and a liter of coffee.

  Saif rolls over, and I want to run my hands down his back to his ass to…

  Oh no. I stand up, inhale, and step away before it’s too late to stop myself.

  “I’ll come down in an hour or two to kibitz and watch you play.” He yawns and then perks up. “Oh, wait. I have something for you.”

  He slips out of bed and pulls on a pair of briefs. He searches the floor for his pants, remembers that they’re in the bathroom, and returns with a small jewelry box.

  “Here. I tried to give this to you on the ship, but we got interrupted. I know you wear gold.”

  He smiles as he watches me open the box. Inside is a delicate gold chain necklace with a gold elephant charm. Oh, elephants! I love elephants. They’re like mystical creatures to me. I’ve never seen one in real life, but someday I hope to.

  “I love it,” I say, pulling the necklace out. “Will you?” I hold it up, and he clasps it behind my neck.

  “This was one of my ideas. All the good luck charms from Old Earth. An elephant with his trunk up beckons in good luck.” He leans down and kisses my neck. “I
figured you could use all the luck in the universe,” he murmurs against my skin.

  I press the elephant charm to my chest and hope for excellent hands today. Please. I don’t want to be beholden to Takemo for an entire year.

  “Thank you,” I say, reaching back to run my fingers through his crazy hair. I sigh and step away.

  His smile is devious, but he stays where he is. “After the tournament is over, you’re coming with me to meet my family again.”

  I’ve met his sister and father briefly, but that happened a long time ago, at the end of a far-school camping trip. And I was like fourteen at the time. I’m a very different woman now.

  Meeting the family is something I’ve never done. Hell, I rarely even know if the guy I’m bagging has a family.

  Marcelo was right. My days of sleeping with whomever I want are over.

  Looking at Saif, I suppose I don’t mind.

  “Okay,” I say, keeping my voice light and easy, though my stomach is in knots. They will not be happy about my financial situation. I’m not even sure if I’ll last longer than an hour under their scrutiny. But I won’t back down from this challenge. I’m going to face things head-on from now on.

  I slip out of the room before I can second guess my entire life.

  I tip over my wristlet and signal for Ai. “Hello, Captain, and good morning.”

  I look both ways before heading to the elevator. No signs of Dominic.

  “Ai, I need you to keep tabs on my family for me. I’d like daily reports of what everyone is doing and where they are. I especially want to know if Dominic is anywhere near me ever.” The elevator opens, and it’s empty, so I step in.

  “Sure thing, Captain. Let me set up those jobs right now. Just a moment, please.”

  I wait as the elevator descends to the ground floor. It’s only a few levels, so the doors open quickly. Once again, I make sure the coast is clear before I walk out.

  “Captain, Dominic is within the same hotel as you. He’s in a room on the sixth floor.”

  “Really?” I meander through the main lobby to the restaurant where I said I would meet Takemo. “Who’s paying for it?”

  “Hotel records indicate the room is being billed to your mother’s credit account. We have access to that account.”

  I shouldn’t.

  But I will.

  “Cancel the charges and report them for fraud. Then lock his ID out of the account for three days.”

  Ai pauses. “Done.”

  “And Ai? I want to shift our focus from Takemo to Dominic. Think of every way that we can make his life miserable.”

  “You’ve got it, Captain.”

  I’m about to step into the restaurant when Ai pings me.

  “Oh, Captain? Takemo Diaz might be a little grumpy today. I messed up his dinner order last night, had maintenance visit his room around two in the morning, and he got a cold shower about an hour ago.”

  I burst into a laugh as I spot him across the room at a table. He’s cutting his waffles with angry swipes and jabs each bite with his fork.

  I lower my voice. “Yeah, we can leave him alone for now.”

  Slipping into the chair across from him, I order up a stack of pancakes and a side of bacon, plus a bottomless cup of coffee. The coffee appears within a heartbeat.

  “I had a rough night,” Takemo says around a mouthful. “How was yours? Did maintenance visit you too in the wee hours?”

  He pauses to sip his juice.

  “No. My night was quite enjoyable,” I say, and my smile proves it.

  He narrows his eyes. “I hope you slept. One of us needs to be on top of their game.”

  “I’m fine.” I finger the elephant charm and slide it side to side on the chain. Takemo’s eyes follow it left and right.

  “A new good luck charm?” he asks, wiping his mouth with the napkin.

  “Yeah. A gift from Saif.” I love it. It’s just thoughtful enough to reveal what’s to come in our relationship.

  Now, if only I knew more about the other men I’ll meet along the way. Where is Kalvin? And is Takemo a part of my life in the future? What about that mystery man who sat at the table in my prescient dreams?

  “When we were in school, I remember Saif dating the smartest girl in his class,” he says, slicing his waffles again. “She graduated valedictorian, and she’s now a part of some think tank on Sonoma. You… You don’t seem like his type.”

  I blink at him a few times, not taking the bait. The general rumor around the universe is that I’m an air-headed princess who likes booze and sleeping with men… so I guess it’s not so far-fetched that my mother believes this as well.

  Sigh. I wish I had squashed those rumors well before now. But how do you prove you’re smart and capable when people believe you’re a cheater, anyway?

  You can’t. It’s an impossible task.

  Takemo sighs. “Saif is too good for you. I don’t know what he sees in you.”

  Maybe Takemo won’t be a member of my network because I’ll kill him first.

  I smile. “Neither do I, but that’s not stopping him.” I lay my napkin on my lap. “Enough with the insults already. You don’t care for me. I get that. Hell, maybe you wish I never existed.” I lean forward. “You are not the first person to think so. Stop acting like you’re special.”

  A waiter approaches our table with my breakfast, so I lean back and smile at him as he places the plate in front of me. I thank him before I pick up my fork and knife, say a brief prayer, and dig in.

  Takemo is quiet through most of our meal. I eat and pay him no mind.

  We lose several hands in the last few rounds of the day, and it’s all Takemo’s fault.

  What the ever-loving fuck is going on? I told him I wouldn’t agree to his little bet if he was going to throw the matches. Is he just mad at me now?

  He’s making decisions the opposite of what we agreed upon, and his bidding has been erratic all day. I wish I could talk to him, but it’s forbidden. So I try my hardest to salvage those hands, but I make no progress. Tension rises at the table as our opponents chip away at our lead like a sculptor working on his lifelong masterpiece. A point here. Two points there. My stomach clenches as each hand gets more frustrating than the last.

  What a waste of my time and patience.

  Patience is not something I have a lot of, and now it’s all gone.

  When the end of play finally, blessedly comes, I shake hands with the people who beat us, bow to the recorder, and stalk out of the room to the service hallway. This area is quiet since the catering kitchen is closed for the event. Pacing up and down the hall, I go through the match points in my head and calculate our place on the leaderboard. We took a hit, but I think we’re going to be okay.

  “Do you want to tell me what happened in there today?” Takemo asks, charging at me. “I thought we were on the same page.”

  “So did I. And yet, I bid and played based on your bids like we agreed to,” I say, pushing the words out through my grinding teeth. “And you played like none of that mattered. Did you think I was just going to forget our agreements? That I was too stupid to remember the detailed bidding strategies we laid out before we started playing?”

  He places his hand on his heart. “Are you saying that I fucked this up?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

  His eyes narrow. “There’s no way you can prove that. You haven’t been playing to win.”

  “Excuse me?” My whole face must be on fire because it’s hotter than hell. “Do I need to go over each hand in detail for you? I have them all memorized.”

  He pops backwards. “You do?”

  I step forward and poke him in the chest. “I do. Every hand I have ever played of any game ever! I have them all memorized. I can detail every hand I played with the dads years ago. They thought they could push around a fifteen-year-old homebody girl with nothing better to do, but that’s not something I’m going to let you get away with.”

  When he says nothing mor
e, I lose it.

  “What the fuck, Takemo? You give me such a hard time about playing to win, and you’re in there throwing hands? Look, there’s a time and place for everything. It’s match points,” I say, slapping the back of my hand into my other, “and we can afford to sometimes lose in order to gain, but that’s not what happened in there today.”

  He’s still silent, staring at me, so I wait, my anger rising, and rising, and rising.

  “Jesus,” he says, shaking his head. “You really are smart.”

  His tone is so disbelieving that my anger overflows, and I whip out and smack him across the face. The moment slows down, like some crazy kung-fu movie I used to watch with Dad. Takemo’s head cranks to the side, and his eyes close. Ow. My hand stings, and my eyes fill with tears, but I don’t regret it. Not one bit. Takemo’s slowly turning head gets burned into my vision, and my brain locks onto his hand, cradling his red hot cheek.

  “Skylar.” Saif’s voice from behind knocks me out of my trance. I turn and look at him, and I drop my head. Shit. Tears roll down my face.

  “I’m sorry,” Takemo says, right as I’m about to open my mouth and say the same. “I’ve been spying on you for months, years now, actually.”

  The heat of my anger bottoms out, and a chill ratchets up through my spine.

  “Your mother came to me for the loan, and I knew it was going to be a problem without you onboard. No sane person sells their business out from under a competent first daughter. But she told me you were untrustworthy. That all you did was drink and fly and fuck.”

  I gasp as if someone has slapped me and close my eyes.

  This is what Mom thought of me, well before now.

  Takemo is wrong. I’m not smart. I am so fucking stupid.

  “She said that you showed no signs of being competent enough to take on the family business. She had one of her men with her, Dominic. He backed up everything.”

  He pulls his hand away from his face, and I swallow hard, looking at the red patch under his stubble.

  “I was too cocky, and I said yes right away. I knew what was going on with your cousin and that it would be easy money. But I started to feel guilty that you weren’t aware of the deal. So I followed you on the duonet for a while, thinking I’d run into you and tell you about the loan myself. You were making top marks in flight school, studying all the time. The teachers there kept saying how good of a student you were.”