Chapter Ten

 

“Duke? Duke, you in here?” Willa pressed on the communicator outside his house again. Where the hell was he? She hadn’t seen him in days.

Even Kyle, who shared a house with him, had barely seen him lately. Of course, Kyle spent most of his time in the lab the Zerconians had set up for him so that wasn’t a surprise.

“Duke, damn it. If you don’t open up, I’m going to get Darac to break this door down.” That probably wasn’t possible given how solid the door was, but there had to be some way to break in.

Norman growled from beside her, and she patted his head soothingly. He’d quickly become very loyal and protective. Which was a good thing. Most of the time. Five nights ago, she’d been seconds away from orgasm, with Darac between her legs, licking her with a skill that she’d thought only existed in her dreams. Norman must have heard her cries and thought Darac was hurting her. He’d jumped on Darac’s back, biting his shoulder with a ferocious roar.

That had been the end of Norman’s bedroom privileges.

Really, he was a big marshmallow. He let the kids climb all over him without growling. In fact, he got on well with everyone. It was only when he thought she was threatened that he grew all growly.

Well, and whenever Darac was around. She was starting to worry that Norman was a bit jealous of her mate.

She gave up pushing on the communicator and banged on the door.

Where the hell was he? Visions of him lying on the floor, hurt, swam through her mind. What if he’d fallen and couldn’t get up? What if he’d hit his head? What if—

The door swung open and there stood her brother.

“You look like shit,” she told him bluntly. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin a pasty gray, and the dark patches under his eyes indicated he hadn’t been sleeping.

He poked his head out, staring back and forth, obviously searching for something. “Are you on your own?”

“Yeah, well, except for Norman.” She patted his head again.

“Get in here, quick.” Duke grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. Norman snarled at him, jumping through the door just as Duke slammed it shut.

“Duke! What the hell? Down, Norman. Good boy. Good dog.”

“That is not a dog.” He glared down at Norman, who continued to snarl at him, his whole body vibrating.

“Ahh, it might be a good idea for you to let me go. Norman’s pretty protective.”

Duke snorted. “I’m not scared of a shaggy unicorn.”

“He’s not a unicorn. He has two horns. They’re just kind of twirled together so they look like one. And he has a pretty nasty bite. Just ask Darac.”

Duke shook his head and moved down the passage. At least he wasn’t lying on the floor, unconscious. Still, this snarling, ill-tempered, odorous man wasn’t her brother. He grabbed a bottle of Sola and took a swig.

“Umm, Duke, it’s ten in the morning.”

“You want one?”

“No. I’ll pass. What’s going on? I haven’t seen you in days. No one has. You look like you’re not sleeping or eating.” Or bathing.

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah? You sure look it. When’s the last time you had a shower or brushed your hair?”

“I’m not a child, Willa. Butt out.”

Norman growled, and Duke growled back.

“Did you just growl at my dog?” She gaped at him.

“He started it.”

“Mature. Real mature.” She looked around. The place was a mess. Clothes and shoes were strewn everywhere. She nudged aside some dirty socks and took a step towards her brother.

“You guys ever hear of putting your clothes away?”

“Kyle’s a pig.”

Yeah, he was. He was absent-minded and tended to drop his stuff then leave it there. For months. But Duke was usually meticulously neat.

“What are you doing here, Willa?”

“Checking to make sure you’re not dead.”

“I’m not. So you can leave.”

“Thank you, Willa, for caring,” she mocked him in a deep voice. “I’m fine. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m good, Duke. And what have you been up to?” she said in her normal voice.

“Nothing, just moping around like a baby,” she said in her Duke-voice

“You’re acting crazy,” he told her.

“Must run in our family. Better tell me what’s going on, because I’m not leaving until you do, and you know how stubborn I can be. And if I’m not home before the suns go down, then you can bet your ass Darac will come looking for me. He’ll end up on your doorstep. He’ll probably com Rye on the way, and he’ll bring Zuma. Next thing you know; we’ll be having an intervention. That what you want?”

“Just go.”

Stepping forward, she brushed his shoulder with her hand.

He shrugged her off. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Trying to brush that chip off your shoulder. It seems to be stuck. Maybe we should talk to Thor about that.”

“I’m not going anywhere near that quack.”

She frowned. “You don’t like Thor?” Out of all the Zerconians she’d met, Thor was one of her favorites. She’d started to think they were all growly and intense, but Thor actually knew how to smile.

If anyone could get through to Lucy, perhaps he could.

She shook off that thought. She didn’t have time to worry about Lucy right now. She needed to concentrate on Duke.

“He’s been hassling me.”

Okay, things were starting to become clearer. She pushed a pile of clothes off a stool and sat. Norman sat and leaned back against her legs.

“About what?”

“Wants to give me some fancy bionic leg.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” She’d hoped that the Zerconians advanced technology could help Duke. She thought he would welcome Thor’s help, not fight it.

He was silent, staring down at the bottle of Sola he held.

“Duke, what is going on? Why wouldn’t you want this leg? I mean, it’s gotta be better than what you have, right? Is it a painful operation?”

He let out a low laugh filled with zero amusement. “I’m not afraid of pain. Between the prosthetic rubbing my skin raw to the phantom limb pain, I’ve become pretty acquainted with pain.”

“Then what?”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“Then you’ll just go back…oh.” It hit her. “You’re afraid to hope. Because what if you hope and then it doesn’t work.”

“And I’m straight back where I started.”

“But at least you would have tried,” she told him. “How exactly would this new leg work?”

“The leg will move with my thoughts. Something about sensors in the muscle connecting the brain to the leg, I don’t know, I don’t talk doctor-speak.”

“It is risky?” She hadn’t thought of that.

He shook his head. “Thor said that risk is minimal. But right now, I have nothing. The track is gone. I don’t have a job. Do you know how many women want to fuck a man with one leg? Zero. Oh, I get the odd one here or there. But that’s it. All they see is what’s missing.”

“Then they’re silly bitches who don’t deserve you.” And if she ever met any of those cows she’d rip 'em limb from limb.

He snorted. “No, they’re not. They just want a whole man.”

“You are a whole man.”

“And you’re my baby sister who loves me,” he pointed out. “You’re not exactly impartial.”

“Duke—”

“No, I don’t need some sort of damn pep talk. I’m not twelve. Besides, I’ve heard it all from Rye, I certainly don’t need it from you. Don’t even know why I’m telling you all this, must have had too much of this stuff.” He shook the empty bottle.

“I have nothing, Willa. And if I start hoping, it’s going to be damn hard to go back to having nothing again.”

“First of all, you don’t have nothing. You have me, and Rye, Zuma, and Kyle, when he gets his head out of the clouds. We need you.”

“You have Darac. The others are fine. There’s nothing for me here.”

Panic curled in her gut. “Bullshit. You saw what it nearly did to Rye when we lost L1ochlan. We can’t lose another brother, Duke. We can’t. And I won’t let it happen. If you don’t want the operation, that’s fine. But at least let us all sit down and talk to Thor about it.”

He shook his head.

A tear slipped down her cheek, and she moved off the stool towards him. Ignoring how he tried to back away, and the odor emanating from him, she wrapped her arms around him.

“I can’t lose anyone else, Duke. I can’t lose you. Please. Please.” A sob shook her body.

“Oh shit. Are you crying? Darac is going to kill me for making you cry.” He ran a hand over her head. “Don’t cry.”

“I’m not letting you go.”

“Willa.”

“I’m not letting you die.”

“Whoa. Whoa.” Picking her up, he placed her on the counter. He held her by the arms and stared into her face. “Nobody said anything about dying.”

“You said we’d be all right without you. You want to leave.”

“Leave, yes. But not die. Jesus, Willa, I’m not that bad.”

“Really?” She sniffed. How embarrassing. She hated crying.

“Really. I just think I need to leave. I feel useless here.”

“Okay. Okay, I can deal with that. I don’t like it, and I don’t want you to go, but I kind of get it.”

He frowned. “You like it here, don’t you? Is someone being mean to you?”

She grinned. “I’m not five anymore you know. I can deal with the bullies on my own.”

“There’s a bully?” He stood straight and for the first time looked like his old self.

“No, silly, there’s no bully. You probably haven’t noticed since you’ve turned into a hermit, but there’s not a lot of jobs for women around here. Well, that don’t involve cooking and cleaning, and we both know I’m useless at that.”

He rubbed his stomach. “I’ll never forget the pancakes you made for my birthday last year.”

She rolled her eyes. “You were fine the next day.”

“I spewed until I passed out!”

They grinned at each other, and she finally let the panic go. He wasn’t going to kill himself. He wanted to leave, and that sucked. But if he was okay, she could deal.

Maybe.

“I’m going to talk to Darac about going on the next job with the crew. Rye hasn’t replaced me yet.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Think Darac is really going to let you go off without him?”

“No. But I don’t want to go without him. I want him to come with me.”

“Do you think Darac will want to do that?”

“He was willing to live on Joyadan and work with the crew before the Coizils attacked and we moved here. I think he’ll agree.” Maybe. He wouldn’t be happy about it. He didn’t like her being in danger. But she had to have a purpose or she was going to go insane. Her people were settling into Zerconian life. Soon they wouldn’t need her, then what would she do?

“Uh-huh.”

“You could come with us. Rye is always asking you to crew with us.” Duke had an amazing knack for getting people to talk. He could read people. Could tell if they were hiding something or being honest.

“I’d be a hindrance.”

“The only reason you never crewed in the past is because of your leg, but if Thor can fix that…”

He scowled. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re stubborn?”

She grinned. “Just once or twice.”

“Fine. I’ll talk to Thor. But that’s all I’m promising.”

“Really? Cause I kind of had one other favor to ask.”

He sighed. “You want me to speak to Darac? All right, but—”

“No. No, I can speak to Darac. It’s just, umm, well—”

“Spit it out.”

“Could you possibly shower, because you really stin—eek,” she squealed as he grabbed her, tickling her.

“Stink, do I?”

“Duke, stop! Stop!”

Norman snarled. Duke stilled, looking down before letting out a huge laugh. “Well, at least my leg is good for something.”

She glanced down, bursting into giggles.

“Norman, let go.”

Norman snarled again as he bit down on Duke’s leg.

Duke sighed. “The wheel’s spinning but I think the hamster is dead.”

“Don’t be mean. Norman’s lovely.” She pulled the dog off. “How was he meant to know you’ve got an artificial leg?”