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Eros covers her hand with his own and squeezes. “No. Hear him out, Sunshine.”
“A shifter detective alerted us to where they were. We were set up to go in for a meeting with the males your uncle was working with. That’s when we bumped into Eros outside the building where they were being held.” I run my hand up her bare arm.
“But...? Because you wouldn’t have that look on your face if there wasn’t a ‘but.’” Annabelle blinks at me. I didn’t even realize I had a look on my face.
“The sister ship of one Nico commanded sent in a helio and extracted them. And then destroyed the evidence.”
Her head tilts up. “Extracted them? What do you mean extracted? Are they okay? What do you think will happen to my cousin and my aunt?”
“The government has them. Or rather, the military does,” I add.
“The Omicron. Lachlan is the commander,” Nico grunts out.
“Nico’s right. Commander Lachlan will keep them separated from the crew.”
She turns in my arms. The back of her head rests against my chest. “And I can’t talk to them?” she asks Nico.
“The Omicron’s cloaked, for sure. Even if we knew their exact coordinates, it wouldn’t be possible. They would have to initiate the communication.”
“Yes. I understand.” Annabelle nods. “Marlee’s on a sub.” Annabelle jumps up, bouncing off the sofa. “They captured my cousin and are bringing her here?” Annabelle hovers over Nico and pokes him in the chest.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it, Little Krill. I didn’t take your cousin. I have all the mates I need. Only you.”
“Nico!” She pokes him again. “You know what I mean. You get on your block and tell that nincompoop of a commander on the Omicron to turn his ship around and take her back to Boston. Marlee is not the same as me. She’s not going to handle all of this as well as I did.” Annabelle crosses her arms over her chest. I’m in trouble because I can’t help but stare at her breasts being pushed up towards her face.
A deep vibrating noise from Holter snaps me out of it.
“What? You don’t think I handled it well?” Annabelle asks.
“No, Belle. That’s not what I meant at all.” Holter glares at me, and I look away from Annabelle. “Commander Broderick Demic of the Centauri, Commander Lachlan Barakat of the Omicron—they’re not like Nico. And things are different now. If they touched her, claimed her? Lachlan or Broderick wouldn’t make it a day when they returned to the Veiled City.” Holter’s leaving off the fact that while the commanders have good records, they’re no Heroes of Hestertåtten, nor do they have the clout of their mothers having been my mother’s best friend, like Nico does. Lachlan and Broderick would simply vanish in the night at the hands of someone like Eros, never to be seen again, if they mated with Marlee.
“Oh, then it’s fine.” She throws her hands up in the air and growls. Chompers taps the glass with his tail. “Did you not hear what I said? She’s a country girl. She needs sky and fields and animals.”
“We have all those things. Not really sky, but the other things.” Eros stands next and puts his hands on her shoulders, drawing her into his chest.
Annabelle turns in Eros’s arms, moving toward Nico. Nico, who’s glaring at me like this is somehow my fault. “Annabelle?” I glance up.
“Start texting,” she demands of Nico.
“We don’t text. We’ve been over this already.” Nico’s eyebrows are up.
“Fudging shrimp wrappers. You know what I mean, just message him. He’ll see it when he turns his block on.”
“I can’t. To talk to a ship when it’s underway, you have to have a special connection,” Nico says.
“Nico’s right,” I say. “Or . . .”
“Or what?”
“Nole, my brother the governor, is on the Omicron, and I might have a way to reach him.” One that I shouldn’t have. But Nole wasn’t about to go on the doomed Skyrothasian mission without one.
“Then get texting, bucko. Excuse me—messaging.” This time, Annabelle sits on Nico. He wraps his arm around her like a seatbelt, with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Okay.” I turn my block back on, ignoring the twenty or so messages from my parents.
Annabelle’s stomach lets out a growl. “Excuse me. My stomach can wait. This cannot. Get those fingers moving, golden one.”
I can’t help but smile. She’s taken up the nickname Eros gave me, the one I detest, and turned it into something that makes me smile.
