Chapter 6

Lil, I got you the special holographic concert tickets you wanted. After four hours lining up in the rain. This better be the concert of the century.

—Message from Bowen Knight (17) to Lily Knight (13)

KAIA HEARD FAR too much love in Bowen Knight’s harsh demand. It wasn’t pride that made him ask to be hidden away. It was a fierce love that sought to protect his sister from the consequences of the choice she’d made to enroll Bowen in this experiment. Lily Knight might mourn her brother, but she’d die without guilt, without horror.

And Bowen’s parents would pass on never knowing their son was trapped in a living hell.

Kaia took another physical step backward.

No one had warned her that the cold and merciless security chief of the Alliance was also a protective brother and stalwart friend. No one had told her that the man building a deadly army would also be willing to walk into his darkest nightmare for a minuscule chance at giving his people an answer.

Shoulders stiff, she clenched her stomach.

Remember Hugo.

It was a brutal reminder that this same loyal and loving man had had a hand in the abduction and probable torture of her childhood friend.

Remember.

This time the reminder was older and steeped in a child’s anguish, for humans had been responsible for all the terrible losses of Kaia’s life. Bowen Knight’s people liked to think of themselves as the underdogs, but Kaia knew too well that humans could be cruel and self-serving and murderous.

“We’ll meet again for a further assessment after I’ve had time to review all current data,” Attie said to Bowen after agreeing to his stipulations about what to do should the experiment fail. “In the meantime, I assume you’d like to get out of bed?”

A curt nod. “I want to have a shower.”

“I’ll have an orderly come and assist you.”

“I’m sure I can do it myself once you unhook all these wires and tubes.”

No, Bowen Knight was not a man who’d ever be anything other than in control. Even fresh out of a coma, there was an authority to him that had Attie hesitating. Kaia stepped into the breach—her cousin was brilliant but didn’t do well with confrontation of any kind. “If you fall on your face and drown in two inches of water, it makes the entire experiment moot.”

His eyes flashed dark fire at her. “A compromise, then. I’ll get myself to the shower, but the doctor can position an orderly outside the room.”

Attie frowned. “I’ll increase the pulse on the muscle trainers.” After doing that, she took him through the mobility tests a second time around. “Hmm, you should be able to move well enough to take a short shower.” She glanced over. “Kaia, can you grab the alarm?”

Knowing exactly what her cousin wanted, Kaia stepped out of the room and made her way to the medical supplies closet inside the lab farther along the corridor. As she walked, she breathed deep. In and out. And she made herself remember.

The hazy summer nights on the beach when her papa had rocked her to sleep while her mama read her a story.

The laughter as her mama dived with her into the deep, Kaia swimming in the slipstream created by her larger body.

The delight when her papa let her fingerpaint on his big white canvas.

The stomach-aching fun at Hugo’s poker parties where they bet using toothpicks and unshelled peanuts.

All three were gone now and there was only one common denominator: humans.

Kaia wrenched open the closet to retrieve the alarm.

Attie had removed most of the wires and tubes connected to Bowen Knight’s body by the time she returned. The only ones remaining were on his arms—and Attie was currently decommissioning those one by one.

Kaia accidentally met his gaze when she entered. He broke the contact almost at once, a dark reddish flush on his cheekbones.

She nearly stumbled.

Gaze going to the connections Attie had thrown into a biohazard container, she realized this dangerous and intelligent man was embarrassed. So much so that he was still avoiding her gaze even though he’d never once looked away previously.

Kaia busied herself going over to the far wall, keeping her back to him while Attie finished. “If you decide you want a view,” she said, “put your hand on this hidden panel.” She lifted up the square cover cunningly camouflaged into the wall. Beneath was the black matrix of the panel.

“But,” she warned, “you’ll probably have an audience, so make sure you want to be seen when you open the window.” It was hard to keep a secret on Ryūjin. Everyone knew Atalina’s subject was the security chief of the Human Alliance. Some—the ones Hugo had trusted with what he’d found—were angry.

Others were as curious as a nosy pod of dolphins.

There were apt to be a few “casually” waiting around nearby right now—people would’ve noticed Attie’s rush to Bowen’s room and how long she’d been in here.

“There.” The sound of the biohazard container being shut. “You’re no longer tethered. I’ve also removed the two muscle trainers you had on your face, as your facial muscles are reading as fully mobile.”

Turning, Kaia went to hand Attie the alarm, but her cousin had picked up the biohazard container and said, “I’ll dispose of this and organize an orderly. Make sure you explain how the alarm works, Kaia.”

Kaia wasn’t prepared for the suddenness with which she found herself alone with a half-naked Bowen Knight who still had a hint of red on his cheekbones. Her fingertips tingled. She wanted to brush them across the red, soothe his discomfort.

Squelching the impulse, she held her breath and slipped the strap attached to the small personal alarm over his head. Her thumbs brushed accidentally through his hair, the soft strands sliding across her skin like a caress. And his eyes, they watched her with a focus that wasn’t as ruthless as it should’ve been.

She withdrew her hands as the flat disk of the alarm settled against his chest. “Squeeze it if you need assistance,” she told him, “and the orderly will respond. It’s waterproof so you can take it into the shower.”

He set his jaw, nodded.

And Kaia knew that despite his intelligence, he had a pride as idiotic as all six of her male cousins. “Wait—I’ll be back in three minutes.”

She was breathless by the time she returned . . . and he’d managed to swing his legs over the side of the bed in the interim, the hair-rough skin of his lower legs and thighs capturing her gaze. The edge of the blue sheet hovered far too high up those thighs, his hand fisted in it to keep it across his hips.

Skin threatening to burn, Kaia snapped her focus to his face.

He was breathing hard, his other hand braced on the bed and his head slightly lowered. She dared look down, saw that he was flexing his feet back and forth. Already checking his strength, already figuring out his capabilities, already becoming a risk to the station and all the people within it.

Her blood chilled.

“Here.” She thrust the cane toward him. “Use it. Even if you only lightly hit your head in a fall, it could ruin the experiment.”

Bowen Knight closed the fingers of his free hand over the smooth head of the cane. “What would I do without your tender care?” he said with the faint hint of a smile on his lips.

Narrowing her eyes, Kaia stepped back. He hadn’t spoken to her in a biting or harsh or even sarcastic tone. It had been . . . She didn’t know what it had been, and—she told herself—she didn’t care. “Shower cubicle is there.” She pointed out the doorway about ten feet from the bed and to the left. “Any questions?”

The ebony of his hair caught the light as he shook his head, the waves of it far too soft for this hard man.

Fingers curling into her palms, Kaia spun on her heel and headed to the door. She was about to step out when he said, “Kaia?”

She halted but didn’t look up, not trusting her body and its stunningly traitorous response when it came to the security chief of the Human Alliance.

“Thank you for the window.”