Nick held the section of ceiling easily in the low gravity.

What was difficult was remembering his anger at Raina while she worked across from him, looking both fiercely capable and heart-stoppingly beautiful as she delved into her arsenal of tools to detach the panel from its anchors.

“I think that’s it,” she said, shoving her screwdriver back in her holster. “We need to balance it now.”

“What do you mean, balance it?” Nick asked.

“I mean we balance it on the brackets, so that it exposes the ceiling, but stays up here where we can reattach it when we’re done,” she explained.

He looked at the brackets that came down between the ceiling panels. They were light aluminum, meant for hanging plants or privacy screens - not for carrying a load like the enormous ceiling panel.

“Can’t we just carry it down to the floor?” he asked.

“We could, but it might be hard to get back up here if the gravity isn’t this low,” she replied. “Plus, these are huge. We might end up blocking a door.”

He glanced at the room below and realized that she was right. Between the furnishings and the doorways, there would be nowhere to put this thing.

“Okay,” he said. “But the brackets aren’t that strong.”

“Good thing the gravity is low,” Raina replied.

They stopped talking for a moment to balance the huge panel on the ceiling brackets.

To Raina’s credit, the panel was the right size to stretch between the brackets, and they did hold.

“It’s precarious,” he admitted. “But it works.”

She smiled grimly.

“Now what?” he asked.

“Now we do the one on the other side of the chandelier,” she said.

She grabbed the crown molding and went hand over hand without missing a beat.

Nick followed, trying not to notice the sway of her hair over her shoulder, the curve of her hips as she swung gracefully through the air before him.

Every cell in his body screamed for him to claim her.

She’s human, he reminded himself. And she’s a thief. She wants to take the baby like he’s a prize to be won.

She began wrenching away at the end of the panel while Nick held his end steady.

“What did you mean before, when you said I should tag the baby?” she asked, as if she had heard his thoughts.

I meant it’s not right to sell a baby. I meant he’s not a thing to be plundered.

“I apologize,” he said carefully. “I was angry, so I didn’t express myself well. To me, it doesn’t seem right to treat that small human as if he were a possession. He is an individual.”

Her forehead furrowed.

“Nick,” she said after a moment. “I hope you don’t think my plan was to sell the baby.”

“It doesn’t matter if you sold him or accepted a reward for his return,” Nick told her. “His intended caregivers must be long dead. He needs love and shelter. He shouldn’t be passed around like currency.”

“He will have the love of the entire sovereign nation of New Russia,” Raina said. “He will have every comfort his heart could desire. And they will be able to help him realize his potential. He could make life better for so many people if he has the talent and desire of the man he was cloned from and the resources of a wealthy people.”

Though what she said was optimistic, her voice was sad.

“And what about you?” Nick asked. “How do you feel about surrendering him to become a spoiled princeling, pressured to live up to some genetic potential he never asked for?”

“I hate it,” she said quietly. “I want to take care of him myself. I don’t want to let him out of my sight. I don’t know why, but I feel like he’s my responsibility now.”

A floodgate inside Nick’s heart burst, and he felt as if he would drown in the flow of the love he felt for this small, fierce woman.

“I know why you feel this way,” he told her. “I feel it too.”

BFF20 buzzed his way up to the ceiling.

“The gravity is at point three two,” the drone announced. “Our situation is getting worse by the minute. The baby’s pod must be taxing the system even more than before.”

Nick met Raina’s eyes and saw the panic he felt reflected in her face.

“We have to hurry,” she said.

They threw themselves into the project and soon had the second panel lowered onto the aluminum brackets.

“I’m going to electrify the hull,” Raina said. “Can you go into the dining area and look through the portal ceiling? I want to know if the web responds.”

“Are you okay to do that?” he asked her.

“Yes, my dad was an electrician,” she replied. “I know what not to do.”

Nick paused.

“Go,” BFF20 squealed.

He drifted down to the ground and made his way into the dining area.

Through the glass domed ceiling he could see the smoky tentacles wrapped around the ship and beyond that, glittering stars and freedom.

Could his mate really have found a simple way to get them out of this mess?

“Okay,” Raina yelled back.

Before his eyes, the web constricted, recoiling away from their part of the ship until he could no longer see it.

“It works,” he yelled to her, triumphant.

There was only a bloodcurdling scream in reply.

Raina.

Ice in his veins, Nick cursed the low gravity and his lazy, drifting movements as he tried to rush to her.