From my perch in the back corner I looked over the crowded room, shifting uncomfortably in the shirt we’d ’borrowed’ from Melra’s locker. Not my size, but no one had cut a gaping hole down the back of it. She owed me.

Even with the three small shuttle-like craft lined up near the exterior energy field, the docking bay was the largest chamber on the ship. Which was a good thing.

Xander had crowded the bridge with just his presence. Now that two of his brothers had joined us, plus Zayda, the empty ship felt terribly packed.

It was good to see Ronan. He might have been rough around the edges when we met, but I knew there was a reason Nadira had fallen so hard for him. Rough or not, his rock solid strength shone through.

Mack was a stranger, and a bit frightening. The grim giant scowled at Tobias and the now-sedated Melra. He loomed behind Zayda, one hand restlessly moving over her shoulder, her slim fingers laced through his, as if she couldn’t stand to be away from him.

Or, as if he needed her touch to stay grounded, in control.

I thought about my hands on Xander, his hands on me, and my cheeks filled with heat until I forced my attention back to the conversation.

“We’ve been looking for Stanton for weeks now,” Zayda said. “But the comms have been locked down hard. Tobias, if you’re right, if something’s gone wrong at the agency, you’ve got to let somebody know. And to be honest,” she looked around the small circle, “we’re probably the only ones that can help.”

The slash on his neck now bandaged, the older man still looked haggard and worn. “If you can find out what’s going on that’s one thing. But my oath to the Emperor still stands.”

“Nobody’s talking about your fracking oath,” Mack snarled.

Zayda leaned against him and her mate’s flared temper subsided. “I know that Stanton’s not working for the good of the Empire. He told me as much, back when... well, back when he didn’t think it mattered what I knew.”

Ronan picked up the thread. “Then it looked like he had tied his fortune to General Melchior. But now it seems as if he was using the general’s resources for his own plans.”

“Melchior,” Tobias muttered. “Haven’t heard that name in a while. There were always rumors, but nothing came out of it.”

“Stanton probably suppressed anything that might have been of interest,” Xander added. “But we have too many witnesses to what he is capable of to risk ignoring him.”

“If you want to fulfill your oath to the Empire,” Zayda resumed, “you need to start thinking of him as the enemy.”

I put the pieces together. I’d heard enough in Doc’s lab, heard snatches of conversation between Nadira and Ronan. Something was terribly wrong in the Empire. While the entire rest of the Fringe went along our chaotic, messy lives scrambling to survive, a threat had been growing.

The Hunters had abducted Nadira and me and who knew how many other people from Orem. Even if we wanted to ignore the problems of the Empire, they weren’t going to ignore us. I held my knees to my chest, thinking.

“Fine, information on Stanton.” Tobias’s shoulders sagged. “But I want a trade.” He nodded towards Melra’s unconscious form. “I want help for her.”

Hot anger snapped my spine straight. “She cut your throat,” I blurted out. “Why would we help her? She tried to kill me, kill Xander.”

Tobias nodded. “I know. And that’s why I’m asking. That’s not normal. Something’s been done to her, changed her.” He looked each of brothers in the face, one by one. “And looking at you, I’m willing to bet you know someone who has the skills to find out what it was.”

Xander snorted, but Tobias pressed on. “Do we have a deal?”

“May as well,” Xander leaned back. “You know Doc would want her anyway, just to see what’s up.”

“For treatment,” Tobias snapped. “Not as a lab rat.”

Xander’s full lips tipped up at the corners. “You can do your best to explain the difference to Doc. Good luck.”

“You’ve got your deal,” Ronan rumbled. “Talk.”

“Last I’ve heard, he is on Fentria-3, with a sizable chunk of the agency.” He looked around. “If you’re trying to get to him, it won’t be easy.”

“Nothing about this has been easy,” Xander cracked. “What fun would that be?”

“What’s he doing there?” Zayda frowned. “That whole system is nothing but mining and…” Her face paled “Oh.”

Tobias nodded. “The Themis laboratory. The scientists there made a breakthrough and Stanton’s preparing for the Imperial visit.”

“That’s not good,” Xander cut in. “Isn’t the Emperor a little old to be rocketing around making visits?”

“He is.” Tobias ignored Xander, choosing to address Ronan. “Which is why his grandson, Prince Vandalar, is making his first official tour.”

“An important part of System Security’s function is to prepare Imperial facilities for family visits,” Zayda explained. “But the Emperor or his heir wouldn’t be alone. He’d be surrounded by the Blood Guard. No matter what Stanton has planned, he’d never get through to them.”

“But that’s the problem,” Mack argued. “We don’t know what he has planned. Nothing he’s ever done has been in a straight line.”

Xander pushed from the wall he’d been leaning against. “I’m going to go check it out.”

“Giving yourself assignments now?” Ronan commented mildly. “That’s not exactly how it works.”

“Who else do you have that isn’t either busy with security on Orem or deciphering the mess of the Compound?” Xander snapped back. “There’s something about this I don’t like, something that makes my skull itch.”

Ronan’s eyebrow lifted. “How could I argue with that?”

A wave of panic hit me. “You can’t, they have your picture, remember?”

“But maybe that’s where you come in.” He turned back with a wicked grin on his face. “How hard would it be for the photo to disappear?

I rolled my eyes. “Not that hard. But it’s not like I can rip the memory of seeing it out of Stanton’s head.”

“Then we’ll have to make sure he doesn’t see me. Or that I look a little different.”

I sighed. Out of all the brothers I’d seen, Xander would be most likely to pass as unmodified. If you didn’t look at his height, or the breadth of his shoulders, or his hard muscles…

Stop it, Loree.

The conversation had moved on.

“The Queen’s going to be tight, Mack growled. “Taking that one to Doc,” he pointed at Melra, “this one wants to come back and help us at the Compound,” Tobias nodded, “and taking her back to Orem.”

I realized he was pointing at me.

“No. I’m going with Xander.” The words surprised me even as they slipped past my lips, but I knew in my gut it was right.

The grin slid from Xander’s face to be replaced with the same shocked expression as when he’d first seen me in Doc’s lab. “What? No.”

I turned to Ronan and Mack who wisely had remained silent. “If he’s going to be infiltrating a research lab, I assume it has tight security to begin with?”

Zayda nodded. “It’s devoted to working on new power sources. They’re a little jumpy.”

“And even if this was a normal Imperial visit, security would be tighter,” I pressed on.

“That’s why it’s going to be a tricky mess,” Tobias interjected, glancing around the room.

“And with the one person there who you know is responsible for half the things that have happened to this family, you don’t think it’s going to be even more difficult? That having someone there to manipulate systems isn’t going to be necessary?” My voice stayed even, level, but the fury behind it threatened to bleed through.

“No one’s saying you’re not good, and I agree your skills would be useful, but it’s not safe,” Ronan soothed.

“I don’t think any of you,” I deliberately did not look at Xander, “get to make that decision for me.” I took a calming breath. Another. “The mission is going to need technical help. What other options do you have?”

It was like some sort of crazy puzzle. Mack refused to leave Zayda , The Queen only had two chairs on the bridge, and a bunk for one more.

“Why not take this ship?” I asked

“Trackers.” Tobias shook his head. “All SysSec ships have them, ostensibly for rescue ops, but really because the Agency is paranoid for a living.”

So Zayda sat in Mack’s lap while he piloted, Ronan took the other bridge chair, and Melra was loaded into the bunk.

Tobias’s jaw twitched as they carried her onboard.

“You wanted her to get help, right?” I shifted my weight, enjoying the simple pleasure of my muscles bearing me, moving me around. “Doc’s odd, maybe. No, certainly. But she’s the best.”

Xander moved around the docking bay, refusing to talk to me. He didn’t have to take me. I couldn’t make him.

But his silence hurt.

I used the tablet, starting a search on Cintha’s brother Daix. If he’d been picked up by SysSec, this was a prime opportunity to check their files.

Nothing popped right away, so I set spiders to crawl deep into the files. It might take a while, but something would shake loose.

And Xander still ignored me.

I sent a message off to Nadira, explaining where I was heading, asking her to keep her ears open. After hitting send I closed comms down quickly. She’d have a few things to say about my choice, and right now, I didn’t want to hear them.

Xander had called Tobias over to a small ship at the side of the docking bay. The two of them talked with low voices, pulling panels off the stern and replacing them, until Tobias came back to pace more.

Xander stayed by the ship, head and shoulders buried in an exposed tangle of wires. Even silent, his presence drew me to his side. Even if he was being an idiot.

I put a hand on his back, wishing for the closeness we’d shared just a few hours ago. “Hey, talk to me.”

He froze, the muscles tightening under my fingers. “You should go back to Orem. Ronan’s going to check in with Nadira. You know she’ll be worried.”

With long strokes, I smoothed the knots out. “The only place I’m going is with you.”

He sighed, withdrew from the panel. “Just long enough to have Doc and Nadira take a look at you?”

“Right.” I laughed. “And while I’m getting checked out, you’re off?”

The hurt look was adorable. “You don’t trust me.”

Stretching up on my toes, I lightly kissed his scowling lips. “I trust you. To always try to keep me safe.”

“That’s not a bad thing, is it?”

But his arms wrapped around me, and at least for the moment, we were good again.

The alarm sounded throughout the docking bay and I tensed.

“Incoming ship, please move behind the security line.”

My mouth went dry. We were well behind the second energy shield, the yellow crackling energy screen slicing the room in half.

But in my mind I could still see the Hunter, arms flailing as I sent it into the dark.

The sleek lines of the Queen slid into berth like a knife cutting water.

The instant they landed the exterior shield snapped back into place and as atmospheric pressure was restored the interior shield dropped.

Mack disembarked,, then reached back to lift Zayda out over the shallow steps.

Ronan had decided he would stay behind on Orem to explain the situation to the rest of the team there. Nadira would be thrilled. I grinned, happy for my friend, hoping maybe she’d be a little too distracted to be angry with me for long.

Tobias shook his head. “They can’t have gotten to Orem that quickly. What did they do with Melra?”

“Sure they did,” Xander reassured him. “The Queen’s pretty fast.”

“Nothing’s that fast.”

“On the way to the Compound,” Xander rested his hand on Tobias’s shoulder, “you can ask Zayda all about it.”

I hung back. “After they take Tobias, they’re coming back for us?”

“No.” Xander replaced the panel, patted the clunky recon shuttle. “We’ll take this. We think we got the trackers out, but it won’t matter much.”

“But as soon as we hit the atmosphere on Fentria, won’t they know something’s wrong?”

“We’re not going there yet.”

I folded my arms. “I’m not going back to Orem.”

Xander’s jaw twitched. “No. You’ve won, but you might not like it. We’re going to Outlander Terminal.” He glanced down. “Just as soon as I find a new boot.”