Chapter Eighteen
Allik could not remember the last time he’d slept as well as he did with Victoria lying in his arms. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the persistent buzzing sound that filtered through his dreams, he would not have woken this soon. Easing himself off the bed so he wouldn’t disturb Victoria, he pulled on his pants and went to answer the door. A sense of dread filled him. It had to be some sort of emergency. There was no reason for anyone to be calling him at this early hour otherwise.
When he opened the door, he found two members of the military police force standing in the hallway in their distinctive grey uniforms. He didn’t know either of the men but the respectful nods they gave him suggested that they were aware of who he was, of his reputation as a warrior.
“I am Dalen and this is Connar.” The older of the two men spoke.
Allik acknowledged them with a nod. “What is it?”
“We need you to accompany us to the courts of justice, sir,” Dalen said. “Commander Rossingham requests your immediate presence.”
“Requests?” Allik queried. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. It was barely morning, too early to be receiving a polite summons from his commanding officer on any routine matter. Whatever Andrew wanted, it was serious.
“Requires,” the other man said.
Yes, that was more like it. Allik nodded. “What is this about?”
The two military police officers shared an indecipherable look. Neither seemed to want to answer him and that was not a good sign.
“Well?” he barked. He had no patience for this pussyfooting around. It was unlike his people to lack directness. The reluctance of these two highly trained warriors to tell him exactly what was going on only increased his sense of foreboding.
“Charges have been made by Earth’s High Council, sir.” This time, it was the younger man who spoke.
“Against me?” Allik needed to be clear. He had, after all, found Victoria crouching over a man she’d just assaulted when he first took her.
“Yes, sir,” Connar replied. “I am sorry, but we do not know the details.”
Allik scrubbed a hand over his face. There was no option but to go with the guards. To refuse would imply guilt and he knew he had done nothing wrong. Honor dictated he should defend himself against whatever charges had been laid. He suspected it was something to do with him taking Victoria. She was prized in her society and they probably wanted her back. Well, that was never going to happen. As he thought about her, he glanced back over his shoulder. He didn’t want to leave her to wake alone and discover that he was gone.
“Very well.”
He saw the relief pass across the guards’ faces. Clearly, they hadn’t wanted to use force to bring him in, although he had no doubt they would if necessary.
“But first I must tell my mate that I am leaving.”
Dalen nodded and Allik bristled at the implication that he was being granted permission. He turned and walked back to the bedroom. Victoria looked so peaceful, her lithe body curled around a pillow. It seemed cruel to disturb her. He pulled a shirt on over his head and put on his boots, watching her closely the whole time. She murmured something in her sleep and he was sure it was his name.
Once he had dressed, he went to the bed and leaned over her. Laying a hand on her shoulder, he shook her gently. “Victoria,” he said softly.
A smile formed on her lips as her eyes slowly opened. She stretched out her arms and gave a contented sigh. She wouldn’t thank him for the comparison but she looked just like a kitten, all soft and warm.
“What are you doing up? Come back to bed.”
“I can’t, sweetheart.” Allik sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. “I have to go out.”
Victoria struggled into a sitting position and fixed a curious look on him. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“Commander Rossingham needs to see me.”
“At this hour?” She looked around the room. “It is still early?”
“It is, but the matter is urgent.”
“Okay,” Victoria said, a note of worry in her voice.
“I need you to be a good girl and stay here.”
A frown formed on Victoria’s face and Allik realized he was doing a poor job of convincing her that nothing was amiss. It was not himself he was concerned for, but her if something should go wrong and he found that hard to conceal.
“Why? What’s happening?” she asked.
“I don’t know yet, but it might be a while before I can speak to you.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed, her brow creasing into a little frown that he would find adorable at any other time. “Allik, you’re scaring me.”
“I know, sweetheart and I don’t mean to.” He ran his thumb along the soft skin of her wrist as he gripped her hand tightly. “I’m sure all will be well, but I need to know you’ll be alright, so just promise me you’ll be good.”
“Okay,” Victoria said unconvincingly. “I promise.”
The sound of a throat being cleared made Victoria reach for a sheet to cover herself. Allik turned to see Dalen standing in the doorway.
“I am sorry, sir, but they’re waiting for you.”
Allik bowed his head and sighed. He really didn’t want to leave Victoria but he knew there was no choice. If he delayed any longer, the guards would be pushed into formally arresting him. Victoria didn’t need to see something like that. He kissed her cheek and got up from the bed.
“Stay put and behave yourself,” he warned her sternly. “And never forget I love you.”
Reluctantly, he let go of her hand and walked to the door. Before he left the room, he turned one last time and looked at her. The glint in her eye spoke of impending mischief. He didn’t know what she would do, but she was going to defy him. It was written all over her face.
* * *
Never forget I love you. If Victoria hadn’t been worried before, that would definitely have made her afraid for Allik. The second he left the room, she leapt out of bed and ran to the door. To hell with being good. She peered out and saw that there were two men with Allik. They looked like officials of some sort. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew that Allik was in real trouble. Despite his attempts to reassure her, he’d looked like a man destined for the gallows and she couldn’t just lie around pretending nothing was wrong.
The moment they left, she grabbed a sheet to wrap around herself. She walked out into the main living area and looked around, trying to decide what to do. The apartment was eerily quiet. It occurred to her that there was a time when she might have wanted to use the situation to her advantage and make a run for it. For as long as she could remember, she’d dreamed of claiming her independence. She could do that right now. She could walk out of here and be far away before anyone realized she was gone. The problem was there was nowhere she wanted to be, other than by Allik’s side. She had to find out what was happening, how she could help him.
She went to the communications device on the wall by the front door. It looked complicated, with lots of different buttons. She had seen Allik using it but had never really paid attention to what he was doing. Blowing out a frustrated breath, she pushed the largest button and a female voice spoke to her in a language she didn’t understand.
“Uhm, sorry?” Victoria said, unable to make out a word of what the woman was saying. Since she had first set foot on the military transport ship, everyone had spoken to her in her own native tongue. It hadn’t occurred to her that she was going to have to learn to speak Taar-Breckian.
“Name?” The voice returned in English.
Victoria frowned. Did the woman mean her name, or for her to say who she wanted to contact?
“I’m Victoria Walton,” she said.
There was a moment’s silence and then a response came back. “Okay, Victoria Walton, you have permission to proceed.”
Victoria wondered if that meant her name had been recognized on some system. The thought of being acknowledged as a person in her own right was ridiculously exciting.
“I’d like to speak to Commander Andrew Rossingham,” she said, deciding that she might as well try to reach the head man himself.
A brief silence followed and then the woman responded with, “Not authorized.”
Victoria cursed under her breath but she wasn’t really surprised. Rossingham was an important man and she didn’t actually know him. He was hardly likely to let just anyone contact him.
“Caroline Rossingham, then,” she said. Surely, she would be able to get through to one of her closest friends. Again, the woman came back to tell her that she was not authorized. So much for friendship.
Victoria considered her options. She was a human being so surely she would be able to contact Earth’s ambassador. He owed her a favor, after all, for looking after his baby niece on the transport ship.
“William Barron,” she said in a clear voice.
There was a longer silence this time and she held her breath until the response came back. “Unavailable.”
“Fuck!” She was unable to prevent herself from cursing loudly.
“Terminating service.” The woman sounded offended and the call disconnected.
Victoria shook her head despairingly. Clearly, she was not going to get information this way. She needed someone with higher authority to make enquiries on her behalf. Her heart sank as she realized there was only one option. Taryn. She was going to have to go and see him and that meant facing Lucy after she’d been so horrible to her. She hated having to grovel, as she suspected Taryn would force her to, but there was nothing else for it. Allik needed her help and, besides that, she really did want to mend her friendship with Lucy. Like it or not, it was time to eat some humble pie.
* * *
Allik paced around the cramped cell in the Royal Citadel and tried to get his head around the crimes that had been laid at his feet. Individually, the charges were extremely serious, but the three combined could result in his imprisonment for life, or worse if he was sent to Earth to face justice. The High Council, it seemed, had accused him of murder, kidnap, and theft. For good measure they had thrown in a charge of unlawful trespass. Victoria’s stepbrother had, it seemed, been the one to instigate proceedings against him.
The charges were ridiculous. He had killed no one in cold blood, far less a human. When he took Victoria from the Town Hall, the security guard they said he’d murdered had been very much alive. Not that he’d even been the one to strike the man. Victoria had done that before he got there. Allik had not committed theft either but he suspected now that Victoria had been stealing something from her stepbrother’s offices when she was interrupted by the guard. He had never questioned her about that day so he couldn’t be sure what it was, if anything, that she’d taken.
Technically, he was guilty of trespass. He had known at the time that he shouldn’t set foot in the Town Hall without an explicit invitation from someone with authority. As for the kidnapping, well, yes, he had taken Victoria against her will but she’d not suffered any ill effects as a result. In fact, he felt sure he had liberated her from a far worse fate than becoming his mate.
Of course, when he took Victoria, he’d been acting on orders from a superior officer. Not that he could admit that publicly. The High Council would not be pleased to learn of the mission to rescue the women they sought to persecute for forming an illegal society. Tensions between his homeland and Earth were running high as it was. He knew that his commander did not want to escalate things until he was ready to act, so he would have to maintain his silence.
Allik looked up as the door of the cell was unlocked. The two men who had come to his home stepped into the room. The younger man was carrying some heavy-duty chains with him.
“The hearing will commence in a few minutes, sir.” Dalen could barely look him in the eye. “A video link is being set up with Earth’s High Council and they will expect…”
“They will expect me to be in chains,” Allik finished for him.
“Yes, sir.” It was Connar who spoke this time. “I am sorry, but the humans require it.”
“Very well,” Allik acquiesced. He was not going to put up a fight over something so minor. It was humiliating to be shackled, of course, but he needed to keep hold of his temper and respond to the charge in a reasoned manner.
He stood perfectly still as manacles were placed around his wrists and ankles. They were of an archaic variety with actual metal chains linking them and he imagined they were being used to satisfy the High Council’s need for theatre. A thick metal collar was placed around his neck and he could feel the tiny pulse emanating from it that warned him he would receive a massive shock if he stepped out of line. He had seen what happened to men when these collars were activated and he had no intention of allowing such degradations to happen to him.
“Ready, sir?” Dalen checked.
Allik nodded and began to walk down the corridor, flanked by the two men. They encountered nobody else on their long journey to the courtroom and once they got inside, he discovered there was no audience. Usually a trial of this magnitude attracted onlookers. He wondered if Rossingham had deliberately convened the hearing early so it could be done more privately.
“Everyone was commanded to stay away.” Connar seemed to pick up on the thoughts running through his mind. “As a courtesy to you.”
Allik nodded. It was a privilege to be afforded privacy in these most undignified of circumstances but he feared such considerations would not be extended to him once this hearing was over. He might be innocent but he knew the only way to demonstrate that would be to declare Victoria’s guilt. That was something he could never do. To save her, any price was worth paying. Whatever the consequences might be, he was going to plead guilty to all charges. He would leave here a convicted criminal, disgraced and shunned by his people, but she would be safe. That was all that mattered.