Love,her mind supplied, and she flinched away from the word like it had burned her.
“You’re thinking too loud.”
She turned. Wei-Lin stood in the doorway between the rooms, arms crossed, her expression unreadable.
“Sorry?”
“Your face.” Wei-Lin moved into the room, settling into one of the chairs with the easy grace of someone who was comfortable in her own body. “It’s doing that thing where your eyebrows get all frowny and your mouth does this—” She demonstrated, pursing her lips and furrowing her brow in an exaggerated expression of worry. “—and it’s making me nervous.”
“I’m not?—”
“You’re worrying about him.” It wasn’t a question. “The captain. Whether he’ll come back.”
Melissa was silent for a moment, then sighed. “Is it that obvious?”
“Only to anyone with eyes.” Wei-Lin’s tone softened slightly. “For what it’s worth, I think he will. Come back, I mean. That male is devoted to you in a way that’s almost embarrassing to watch.”
“We’ve only known each other for a few weeks.”
“Time doesn’t mean much when it comes to connection.” Wei-Lin shrugged. “I knew my husband for six years before I admitted I loved him. A waste of six years, if you ask me. I should have just kissed him the first time I wanted to and saved us both the trouble.”
“Your husband—” She hesitated. “Is he…?”
“He’s dead.” Wei-Lin’s jaw tightened. “We were supposed to be on our honeymoon. A research cruise through the Galapagos. We were three days out when the Vedeckians came. They took me and killed him when he tried to stop them.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I plan to make them pay.” She said it with the matter-of-fact certainty of someone who had decided, absolutely and irrevocably, that failure was not an option. “They picked the wrong woman to kidnap.”
“They picked the wrong women,” she corrected.
“Point taken.”
They sat in companionable silence for a few moments. Through the open doorway, she could still hear Sarah’s voice—low and soothing, reading something aloud to Katie. The girl had finally started talking, just a little, in the last hour. Asking for water. Asking when they could sleep. Small things, but signs of life returning.
“The other one—Sarah—she seems to be holding up better than I expected,” Wei-Lin said eventually. “Considering what they used her daughter for.”
“She’s stronger than she looks.” Melissa thought about the pale woman’s quiet determination, and the way she’d held herself together even when facing armed guards and chaos. “We all are, I think. When we have to be.”
“Mmm.” Wei-Lin studied her. “And you? How are you holding up? Really?”
It was the kind of question she would have deflected a few weeks ago. She would have smiled and said fine and changed the subject. But something about this place, this moment, the strange intimacy of shared danger, made her want to answer honestly.
“I’m terrified,” she admitted. “I’m exhausted. I’m angry in a way that I’ve never been angry before, and I don’t know what to do with it.” She looked down at Robbie, sleeping peacefully in the crook of her arm. “But I’m also… hopeful? Which is scarier, honestly. Hope means there’s something to lose.”
“Hope is what keeps us fighting,” Wei-Lin said quietly. “Fear is useful, but it’ll only carry you so far. Hope is what gets you the rest of the way.”
“That’s surprisingly optimistic for someone who threatened to sue the entire Patrol.”
“Optimism and vengeance aren’t mutually exclusive.” Wei-Lin stood, stretching. “Get some rest, if you can. Something tells me we’re going to need it.”
She disappeared back into the other room, leaving Melissa alone with her thoughts and her sleeping son.
He’ll come back,she told herself again, settling onto the narrow bed, Robbie tucked warm and safe against her side.He always comes back.
And if he didn’t—if the worst happened—she would find a way to survive. For Robbie. For the other women. For herself.
But gods, she hoped he came back.
