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“It wasn’t a date,” Micki wailed, unable to contain her pain at the betrayal of her hopes.
“What do you mean?”
“He paid for my time.” She couldn’t go on, her chest too tight to breathe.
Tassia rushed to get her a glass of water from the kitchenette. “I don’t understand. Why would he pay tov—I mean the two of you have been?—”
“He only took me to the ball so we could do a performance for the audience there,” Micki said. “I got the Guild minimum. I was there to dance for all his friends and the donors. To perform. I’ve been so stupid—I thought he loved me. I thought we had a future beyond the show but as usual I was being dumb.”
“Don’t say that.” Tassia hugged her again. “He seemed so nice and I mean he was so attentive when the two of you had dinner with us. I can’t imagine he doesn’t care about you.”
“Not enough. Not nearly enough.”
CHAPTER NINE
Josh Benfield had cycled through every emotion in the book in the last twenty four hours. When Micki didn’t return to their table, he wasn’t too concerned but finally he asked one of the servers to go into the ladies’ room and check on her. When the woman emerged to say there was no one in the bathroom, he became alarmed and alerted his security team, afraid she might have been kidnapped. He left the ballroom and the hotel gave him a room, where he sat and waited, calling her handheld over and over but the calls were unanswered.
His head of security knocked and came in, looking grave. Josh stood up and braced. “Well?”
“A woman matching her description left the hotel alone shortly after your dance, sir. She caught an independent cab and the bellboy overheard her request to be taken to the spaceport shuttle terminal.”
“And the bastard kidnapped her?” Josh said, anger suffusing his mind.
“No, sir, he delivered her to the spaceport and she took the CLC night shuttle back to the Nebula Zephyr. All indications are she’s safely aboard.”
“Then why doesn’t she answer the damn com? Is she ill? I need to get up there right away.”
But when he set foot on the Nebula Zephyr again, he met with a wall of resistance. When he requested Security go perform a wellness check on Micki, the Ship herself entered the conversation and said Dancer Allwell was fine and had friends with her, so the officer in charge declined to pursue the matter any further and couldn’t be swayed.
Josh sat in his suite and called and called, sent flowers, which were refused, and finally begged the Ship to let him go to her.
Which is why he was now standing in the crew quarters on Level 15, repeatedly jabbing the access request button on Micki’s door and begging her – begging her – over the com to tell him what happened.
He heard a door open and close further down the corridor and fell silent, not wanting to be overheard.
Liam appeared, in his security officer uniform. “I’m sorry, Mr. Benfield, but passengers aren’t allowed on crew decks without authorization. Obviously she isn’t going to answer the door or let you in so I’m going to have to ask you to come with me to the gravlift.”
Josh was tempted to refuse but Liam’s face was set in determined lines and had the authority on this ship to enforce his request. “Did she say anything to you? Or to your wife? I need to know what happened at the fucking ball to cause her to do this.”
As they walked toward the gravlift, Liam considered his questions. “Sir, with all due respect, I’ve known Micki as long as I’ve known my wife and I’m not going to betray her confidence. She’ll either tell you herself or she won’t. How did you get to our quarters on your own anyway?”
“The Ship allowed me to come,” Josh answered.
“Maeve does like to meddle sometimes,” Liam said. Side by side they entered the grav stream and headed toward the upper decks. Liam paused at Level Six. “This is me. Please don’t go to our residence level again with or without the Ship’s permission.”
“I won’t. Like you said, it’s useless if she won’t let me in or even speak to me.” Josh swallowed hard. “She had the ship send the cleaned dress and the shoes to me today.”
The security officer hesitated. “When you had dinner in my quarters I thought you were an all right guy despite all those billions but I gotta say it was quite a dick move to let her think it was a date, as much as you meant to her, and then for her to find out she was only there as a paid performer.”
The allegation hit Josh like a punch in the gut. “Is that what she thinks? Why would she?—”
With a shrug, Liam said, “That’s what your assistant told her. The credits hit her account, Guild rates. You tell me.” He left the gravlift.
Josh let the antigrav carry him upward toward Level A and the fury rose within him.
Sydni bounced into his suite with a big smile, carrying data files. “I’ve got the Morganstern prospectus right here, lots of interesting aspects to it?—"
“You’re fired,” Josh said. “Put the files on the desk and go. Benfield Corporation is no longer paying your fare on this ship so we expect you to disembark immediately. Benfield Security is waiting outside the door and will see you get on the next CLC shuttle. Ship’s Security has also been alerted.”
