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NINETEEN
Seraphina cupped herelbows and stared out the shuttle window into the vast darkness. Tremors rolled up and down her body. Delayed shock. She nibbled her bottom lip and took a quick glance around. No one paid her any mind. She’d morphed into a young man with dark hair and brown eyes.
The secondary identity was one she’d preplanned and had identification to match. Her ticket was accepted and she’d boarded with no issues. This was the first part of a three shuttle trip to avoid suspicion and make her way back home.
Her mind strayed to those last few moments with Rook. The sex sharing had been unexpected yet she wouldn’t have changed a thing. Thoughts of him whirled through her head.
She’d come so close to being caught. If he hadn’t let her go, she’d be in enforcement custody right now. Despite what he claimed, the Jutak warriors, Alliance or whatever organization he belonged to, would find a way to make sure she ended up on a prison colony. If that happened, Seraphina would never see the light of day again.
Her heart rate spiked and she immediately veered from thoughts of being captured. Tapping her finger against her thigh, she reviewed Niehl’s death and tried to see where she’d gone wrong. Or at least how she didn’t realize someone else had arrived to kill Jarad’s right hand.
The information she’d received hadn’t mentioned another player but she was sure it had to be known. Not that she cared. Niehl was dead and that was all that mattered. The last on her list of retribution was Jarad. If Rook was to be believed and she had no reason to doubt it, any move made on the other man would be tracked diligently.
Her lips firmed. That just meant she’d have to be as careful as possible. Like he’d cautioned. Another jab of pain lanced her heart. Letting her go had crossed a line for Rook. She’d seen it by the look on his face, known it by the way he’d grasped her in that last hug.
But he’d done it. He’d risked a lot and allowed her to escape. She couldn’t ignore what that meant any more than she could ignore how she’d felt because of it. His actions brought back the emotions from their night at the Ice Ball and tempted her to believe in him again. To believe the connection between them was real.
Her chest constricted. When she’d dropped her morph during their sex sharing, she’d known another truth. She was falling for him. Probably from the night they’d met and he’d further dug his way into her heart today.
Around her, passengers stood to leave. The shuttle doors opened. She jerked upright and glanced around. They’d landed at her first stop and she’d missed it by daydreaming. She gathered her duffel and joined the exiting crowd. That couldn’t happen again. She had to remain sharp and on guard.
In the cleansing room, she morphed again, opened her duffel and broke down her laser into its three separate parts. Withholding a sigh of regret, she tossed the duffel into a recycle chute.
She shoved the cases for her laser and her expensive nano suit into a drawstring sac she’d purchased for that purpose and stood. The older woman facing her in the mirror was rail thin, face sunken with wrinkles and gray eyes narrowed by thick lashes. She had a misshapen shoulder that caused her to lean to the side when she moved.
When she walked out of the cleansing room, she was certain the station recording devices wouldn’t connect her to Tempest. Like Rook insisted, she’d blown the fake persona from existence with the touch of a button on her portable comm and had no intention of resurrecting her again.
Tempest would stay dead this time. Her work was done.
It would be tricky returning to Pi Vista for Jarad. Security would be heightened but nothing would stop her. Not after coming this far.
In a few days, she’d regroup, kill Jarad and use the face he wouldn’t be able to ignore.
***
The shuttle flightback to Enotia was made in silence. The Alliance had sent someone to take the individual they caught responsible for killing Niehl Quai.
Rook stared straight ahead, feet stretched out and kept to himself. His team seemed to recognize his need to be left alone. Not even Hahn tried to agitate him.
Leaning back on a sigh, he stared at the wall in front of him and searched for any regret for his actions. Tempest had been in his grasp and cuffed. A few more minutes and his team would have arrived to take her as they had the other assailant.
Every possible outcome from her arrest flipped through his mind, none of it good. It didn’t help that her words and impassioned speech about right and wrong with the person who’d killed her friend bothered him. Outside of his team, he didn’t concern himself with others. If he lost someone he cared about, would he avenge their wrongful death?
Yes. The emphatic answer came immediately. If anything happened to Seraphina, he knew without a doubt that he’d be out seeking the one responsible.
And that was the reason he let her go. He understood vengeance in a way not many could. The woman who raised him had been particularly cruel. Learning the old woman died alone and unloved had filled him with vicious pleasure. He believed in those who did wrong suffering the consequences.
His life had been one terrible day after another until he’d grown old enough to leave. How different things could have been if someone had cared enough about him to seek revenge.
Kjar’s unnerving stare caused Rook to glance his way but the other man didn’t speak. It was no guess what was on his mind. Kjar like the others knew Tempest had been in that room with him. They just didn’t understand why he’d let her go. And it was obvious he had.
Smaller footprints in the dust covered floor, the scent of sex lingering in the air. Yet, none of them challenged him on his lie. Their support was unexpected and appreciated. If the situation was reversed for any of them, he realized he would do the same.
When Ghost Unit arrived at their base, Kyele met them at the entrance. “Meeting in the conference room. Need to debrief about what happened today and next step.”
They fell in line and followed him inside. As soon as they took their seats, Kyele wasted no time getting to the point. “The man you caught is Umir Azri. He admitted to being the shooter and accepted a contract via the dark site to kill Niehl Quai. Techs already attempted to trace back the buyer who set up the hit and came up empty. No trail or way to identify the one responsible.”
“Could it have been Tempest?” Rook asked. What if she’d hedged her chances by hiring someone else to help her?
