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She breathed low and deep, tamping down the tension of waiting three days and not knowing when he’d return pouring out of her. ‘You took your time.’
‘Seems you needed it to study up on me,’ he quipped with a straight face.
She shook her head at him, exasperated, and he responded with a phantom smile.
‘You meant it when you said things take a while on Eden II.’
‘Apologies,khamila,’ Kainan said, dipping his head with genuine feeling. ‘Some things take time. A few of my brothers had to leave their duties elsewhere in the System to meet with you. Their travel back took a few days. We’ve also had to juggle our logistics to manage a new rush of traffic from all the ships that now can’t land on Dunia. So it’s been a little busy, to say the least.’
That’s when she noticed deep creases on his brow and a haggardness around his eyes that could only mean a lack of sleep. She instantly felt a stab of guilt at her misplaced assumptions.
‘Have you slept and eaten recently?’ she asked, concern for him rising out of her unexpectedly.
His golden eyes intensified even further, and his voice dropped impossibly lower. ‘You’re worried about me, Selene?’
She felt his timbre reverberate through her, and her heart started hammering again. Finally, she gave him a wry smile to pause the serious jolts of care she felt for this man she hardly knew cascading inside her. ‘I’m simply wondering if you’d rather be freshly rested and on your game or exhausted and making mistakes when negotiating with me?’
His lips quirked once more.
‘Well played, but let’s park that for a later discussion. Come,’ Kainan commanded. ‘The Sable Riders are ready for you.’
Selene turned to Rina, exasperated. ‘I have to go. I’ll be in touch.’
‘Good luck …khamila!’ her friend called out with a cheeky grin before the holo screen winked out.
Selene barely had time to throw on a decent pair of boots, shrug her shoulders into a knee-length cape and grab her comm tab and bag before Kainan rushed her out of the apartment.
He now strode noiselessly beside her on their way to goodness-knew-where. She longed to ask, but she doubted he’d volunteer any intel, so she pumped her legs and lengthened her stride to keep up with his fast, panther-like prowl.
He led her through a dizzying maze of corridors before stopping before a nondescript grey doorway. He punched a code into a keypad beside the door and used his wrist comm once more for further authentication. The keypad gave a soft beep, and the doorway smoothly slid open.
He gestured, ushering her in before him.
She stepped into a large, expansive room dominated by a huge table. Thick, textured walls surrounded the room on three sides. One of the solid walls was covered in backlit shelves of books, artefacts and antique pieces from all over the System.
The fourth was made from what she made out to be high-density anti-ballistic clear plex, overlooking an extensive area on the floor below that looked like an empty bar and dining club. In the corner, she spotted a plex elevator which she assumed travelled between both levels and beyond.
Two figures sat at the sprawling table of dark textured altiphyte wood polished to a mirror sheen. A second pair of men huddled in a corner.
The sleek gyrfalcon was on a perch next to the table, watching the room keenly.
The four men looked up and studied her coolly.
Kainan’s voice rumbled behind her. ‘Selene Munene, meet the Sable Riders, also known in our official capacity as The Sable Group.’
She stepped closer to the table and gazed at her new acquaintances as calmly as she could manage.
The one closest to her was just as significant in size as Kainan, a hulking figure with a mass of short jet-black hair with blue streaks, a bushy black beard and silver grey eyes, with a stubborn jaw and a swathe of jagged scars down one side of his face. His massive feet were slung up and crossed on top of the table.
The man beside him was also tall, with angular, dark features, a roughly shaven jaw, a beard and penetrating eyes with hazel irises ringed with glowing sapphire flecks. He leaned back in his oversized chair to study her unhurriedly.
Kainan pointed to the scar-faced man. ‘This is Kage, call nameShadow. He’s our ship designer, tech head and all-around maestro. He also runs our mini armada. Next to him is Xion, call namePhoenix- head of internal security on Eden II, privately overseeing law and order on the rock.’
Two other men glanced at her from the other side of the room.
One sported a magnificent sheathe of dead straight white and silver hair that fell to his back in a long, smooth sheet with a braid to one side. His skin was pale, and so were his white irised eyes that he seemed a ghoul, albeit a very handsome one. He wore a close-fitted black jumpsuit with the same crest on his shoulder as Kainan. She assumed this was The Sable Group’s insignia.
He jerked his chin to her, his pale eyes keenly raking her face.
