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Temper tantrums were apparently catching. “We’re all part of the asshole brigade, I guess. Their stares got on my nerves too, so I flipped them off.”
“Meeting with that Dramok went that well, did it?” Kom’s irritability shifted into a more despondent note. He must have still been having trouble with Larsen.
Bernadette’s sympathy card was full of her own situation. She didn’t have space for his. “Actually, it went well, considering Tumsa doesn’t know shit. He did fill me in on Doljen’s criminal history and all the gory details of the clan’s split.”
“Criminal history? An Imdiko? That’s rare.” Apparently, Kom was up for a distracting bit of gossip.
“Don’t look so impressed. It wasn’t anything serious. He lied about being clanned to get in the Kalquorian fleet. They put him in military prison for fibbing.”
“The fleet is a stickler for its paperwork being nice and tidy. They especially hate it when their personnel’s surprised clanmates show up and beg for an early discharge. You don’t lie to the fleet about anything you put in writing. That ranks right up there with treason for the pencil pushers.” He rolled his eyes.
They went their separate ways without him offering insight on what had him in his own pissy mood. If he was continuing to have issues with Larsen, Kom wasn’t eager to share. Bernadette felt selfish, but she was glad to avoid his angst.
Her own temper failed to improve when she entered her quarters and discovered Hal lying on her bed. The jerk was wearing his boots. She took a page from Fod’s buffoons and stared at them until he sat up and thumped them to the floor.
“Sorry.”
“Great. Now how about an apology for refusing to share the whole story on Doljen with me?”
“Who am I to tell you his business?” Hal’s glare might have stopped a Tragoom. Unfortunately for him, he was facing Captain Bernadette Miller instead of a mere armor-hided beast twice her size and strength. When the cause was right, she stopped for no one.
“You agreed to help me. Keeping such information to yourself isn’t helping.”
“Look at it from my point of view. All I have about your history with my Imdiko is what you’ve told me. What if it’s nothing but a pile of lies?”
“Then you should have researched me instead of being a trusting dumbass. Besides, you didn’t keep those fascinating details from me out of distrust.”
“Fine. Maybe I did check into your background to be sure. Maybe I verified all I could of your account. The fact remains, Doljen never told you about being jailed himself. I figured it was none of your business.”
“Another lie?” She wasn’t yelling, but she was coming close to it. “He hadn’t gone to prison yet the last time I saw him. How could he have told me unless he sees into the future?”
“Because he’d already made up his mind that’s what would happen.” Hal stood to loom over her. “Don’t you understand that? He told you he had to go somewhere you couldn’t follow. That’s why he let you go. He was aware he’d be tried. He had no intention of defending himself from the charges. He knew he’dbe incarcerated for his crimes. He didn’t want you to find out, so it wasn’t my place to run my mouth.”
Or Doljen never had any intention of us remaining together.Bernadette had to face that possibility. Damned if she would share such an insight with Halmiko. “There’s more to it than that.”
“You don’t give up, do you?” He laughed and headed for the door.
“No, so you might as well admit why you kept it to yourself.” She pushed in front of him, blocking his exit.
He could have shoved her aside. He could have run right over her, for that matter. But he let her small frame stop him. He stared down at her, fists clenched in frustration.
“Well?” she prompted, unmoving.
“Fine. You want it all? The truth is, you were just a woman he fucked. You shared, what, a few days with him? You think that entitles you to his past with me?”
Each word was a stab to her heart. Doubt had insisted on the same too many times to count over the years. Hearing it spoken out loud was far worse.
He wasn’t done. “I had him for sixteen years. Sixteen years of good and bad times. I saw him at his best, and I saw him at his worst. We had a life together, and no matter how awful parts of it were, that life belongs to us. If either of us has a claim on Doljen, lady, it’s me. Not you.”
With that, he picked her up and set her aside. He left. She chased him as far as the door.
“You gave up your claim!”
He didn’t turn at her shout. He kept walking and disappeared around a corner of the corridor.
At least he wasn’t there to see her cry. He was right, of course. She had no real entitlement to Doljen past or present, beyond the insistent screaming of her heart and soul.
Chapter Eleven
