CHAPTER 17
Forebears, but Xaviara’s hot. She was soft as a summer breeze and sharp as a knife’s edge. Her compassion stoked something deep inside him, something he thought didn’t even exist. He thought he was happy focusing on his career and protecting his prince, but now he wanted to protect someone else.
A mate.
He wanted nothing more than to throw away his self-restraint and bury himself inside her, but they needed to worry about Lianndra right now. Besides, he was serious about pursuing a relationship with her, even if she seemed hesitant. Once this was all over, once Camlan and Manda were safe, they would sit down and have a long talk. Maybe fully clothed, maybe not. Either way, he would make his feelings clear and show her how committed he was to attempting a long-distance relationship.
Thinking about the more serious side of things calmed his raging erection. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them.
Xaviara was grinning at him. “I love that I can get to you like that.”
“I love it, too.” Now under control, he said, “Unlock the door,” to the ship’s AI.
“What next?” said Xaviara, her face falling from its mischievous grin into the concerned expression she’d worn when they were sorting through their suspects. She picked up her tablet, abandoned on one of the keyboard ledges, and ran a thumb along an edge.
“We haul her into the brig and interrogate her until she cracks.” Nicholen pressed his link. “Security team, find Lianndra Verrytto and bring her into custody.”
“She thought stirring up your rivalry will throw you off the trail.”
He nodded. “She’ll have set something up to sabotage the rescue attempt. This organization is not known for mercy. They take no prisoners, and the trincaar has probably been on their hit list for years. It’s a wonder she waited so long.”
“Opportunity,” Xaviara said. “She’s probably been waiting for years to have the perfect setup, and our delegation was just that.”
“Yes, makes sense.” His link beeped.
His second-in-command’s voice came through. “Lianndra isn’t in her bunk. We’ve searched the public areas, but she’s nowhere.”
“What?” Nicholen’s pulse raced. “Find her!” To Xaviara, he said, “She’s disappeared.”
She frowned. “Figures, but this ship is only so big, right? It’s only a matter of time. What are we going to do while they look?”
“I have an idea,” he said. “We’re going to recruit Piotr to hack into her console and stop whatever she’s planning, before she can strand Manda and Camlan on the planet forever.”
“Oh, boy,” she said. “Good luck to us.”
* * *
“Why should I help you?” demanded Piotr.
Xaviara wanted to strangle him yet again, but she held her irritation in check. They were locked in the library. “You have got to be kidding me. You’re a member of this delegation. It’s your duty—”
“You accused me of being a traitor!”
She sighed.
Nicholen sat in the chair to her left, the same place they’d, well, humped. Such an indelicate, immature word, but there was little else she could use to describe it, and the mere thought of it gave her goosebumps. He glanced over, a smile playing across his lips—oh, no, he’s reading me again—but that only served to make her goosebumps get goosebumps. She clenched muscles deep inside herself to quell the rising desire.
“Are you really telling me that you’d leave the head of this delegation and your boss stranded down there? Does the life of the Captain of the Royal Guard mean so little to you?” said Xaviara. They’d opted not to reveal Nicholen’s true identity to Piotr. Keeping his secret seemed the prudent thing to do until they had no choice.
Piotr blinked and then blinked again, a nervous habit he’d have to quash before he could lead his own delegation. Xaviara prided herself on noticing these details: he was close to cracking.
“You know not helping us is a punishable offense,” she said. “You’ll go to prison.”
“Fine!” He spat the word. “You don’t have to threaten me. I’ll help you. But you didn’t have to be such an ass kisser in front of the prince earlier.”
Nicholen, prudently, stayed silent.
“I wasn’t being an ass kisser.” She kept her voice even. “Nicholen asked for my help in finding the saboteur, as Manda’s second-in-command.”
Piotr tsked loudly. It was a wonder he didn’t roll his eyes. “Second-in-command, my eye. First of all, we’re both aides. Second of all, you’re an ass kisser with her, too.”
“I can’t help that I take pride in my job!”
“Like I don’t?”
“You’re the one that inserted that video in my presentation!”
“You’re the one that dumped coffee on me!”
Xaviara’s cheeks heated. He’d spilled the secret of her immature behavior in front of the man whom she was hoping would become her lover. She and Piotr glared at one another, and she took in a deep breath. Calm down.
“I appreciate the chance to see the inner workings of the human delegation,. It’s nice to know that the kadyyza aren’t the only ones with hidden rivalries…” said Nicholen.
Xaviara would have laughed if she wasn’t so irritated.
“… but we have a job to do. Are you going to help us or not, Piotr?”
“I said I would.”
“Don’t sulk.” Xaviara couldn’t help but get the jab in. “We came to you because we needed someone with your expertise.”
Piotr snorted. “Don’t flatter me.”
“We’re not,” interjected Nicholen. “I have a duty to protect my people, which includes those under my care in this delegation. If you weren’t the right man for the job, I’d go to the one who was.”
Piotr’s lips twitched. He was suppressing a smile. “Thank you. It means a lot.” Don’t flatter him, indeed. “Yes, of course I’ll help. Tell me, what do we need to do?”
* * *
The security team searched the ship, and then, at Nicholen’s order, searched it again. Lianndra wasn’t in the engine room. She wasn’t in the ductwork. She wasn’t in a supply closet. She wasn’t anywhere.
On the bridge, he had Anthony complete a scan of the surrounding solar system while slipping out of geosynchronous orbit and skirting to the other side of the planet. The magnetic field made the scan difficult, but Nicholen was satisfied that no starships were waiting in the area. If she’d mattransed off the anchor ship, that would make their job a whole lot easier: they could shut down all transmissions in and out until the rendezvous time, cutting her off. But if she were hiding inside somewhere—but where?—she had physical access to the computer systems.
He slept restlessly, wishing he could distract himself with Xaviara. But they’d made a decision and he would stick to it.
By the morning, his team still hadn’t found her. “Keep looking,” he ordered. It almost seemed pointless to continue, but they had to do something. In the absence of the woman herself, he had to trust that Piotr and Xaviara would be able to stop whatever she was planning.
The time for the rendezvous approached.
Nicholen opened his link. “Are you ready?” he asked Xaviara and Piotr.
“Ready,” came her voice.
“And you?” he asked Anthony.
“Yes, sir.”
Anthony’s fingers were deft across the controls, and information scrolled across the small data screen above his hands. He punched the button for the display, and the wild planet popped onto the wall at the front. It shone verdant and glittering. The planet was gorgeous. What must it have looked like a thousand years ago before the terraforming? A dry dust bowl, perhaps, or an ocean planet with still, icy water.
“Breaking orbit,” said Anthony.
Breathtaking and lush, the planet filled the wallscreen as they descended.
“Searching for communication signature,” said Samantha. “Nothing yet.”
Camlan and Manda have to be at to the pickup location. If they weren’t, all this worry about Lianndra would be moot. But both were resourceful, which he knew from his background check on Manda and his long history with the trincaar.
“Descending into the mesosphere,” said Anthony.
The planet loomed below, the colors resolving into more subtle shades: a forest green section in the top left, a milder green in the bottom left, and the blue of the ocean with cloud cover in the bottom right.
Nicholen realized he was gripping the console in front of himself, and he relaxed. I fucking hate being along for the ride.
“Still nothing,” said Samantha. “I’m sure we’ll have them soon, though.”