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The room is dimly lit, and he’s inside a glass tube that’s glowing an eerie red. The steady beep of his heartbeat is the only sound in the room, but to me that is the sweetest music I’ve ever heard. Pressing my hands against the glass, I look down at his peaceful face. His eyes are closed, and his lips are parted.
“Hey, Snow White. I’m here now,” I whisper to him.
I swear his head turns toward me, just a tiny shift, and the wrinkle between his eyes smooths at the sound of my voice. I’m sure it’s just my imagination, but I don’t care. Seeing him, knowing that he’s okay, has some of my tension relaxing.
Until I scan the rest of his body. Particularly his injured leg. His clothes have been cut away, with a cloth draped across his waist. One leg is wrapped with a clear sleeve made up of pulsing lights. Scanning down past the wrap to his toes has me gasping, because instead of a healthy pink—or rather gold—they are purple.
Whatever the wrap is doing, it’s not going to be enough.
I sense, rather than hear, someone else come into the room behind me.
“His leg,” I whisper.
“We’re doing what we can to keep blood flow to it, but even stasis might not be enough to save it,” Zell says from the doorway.
I swallow past the lump that seems to have permanently moved into my throat. “And if it can’t be saved?”
“He’ll be pissed,” Zell sighs. “But he’ll live.”
The breath I didn’t realize I was holding rushes out of me.
But he’ll live.
Relief floods my body, because that’s all I fucking care about. That he’ll live.
“Your mate is a hard male to kill,” Zell snickers, and my head snaps up.
“What does that mean?”
His smile falls from his lips, and he takes a step back. “Uh, nothing. Just that he’s…stubborn.”
“What else happened to him?” I ask, swiveling my head between Volethos and Zell.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about. We got to him in time and were able to resuscitate him—”
“Youwhat?!”
Suddenly Danielle is standing between us, pushing Zell out of the room. “Come on, let’s get out of here and let Shae have a moment with her man.” She throws me a sympathetic look over her shoulder. “I’ll be back shortly, and we’ll talk, okay?”
I nod, leaning heavily against the medbot before turning my attention back to Volethos.
“When all of this is over, you and I are going on a vacation,” I tell him. “Somewhere safe. Where no one will be trying to kill us.” I’m sure it’s just my imagination again, but I swear I see his lips twitch.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
Shae
* * *
“That’s it!” Danielle huffs, storming into the room and yanking away the blanket I have draped over my shoulders. “You need a break and to get out of this room!”
It’s been two days…or maybe five. Fuck, time means nothing since Volethos went into the medbot. I’ve been keeping a constant vigil over him. Watching his vitals. Watching as the purple slowly consumed his toes. Then his foot. And now his calf.
All the while, I talk to him. I tell him everything that has happened. How the Federation took over Kurrahstka’s station. The sex workers who were there against their will and treated the worst were taken into custody, not to be imprisoned, but for medical treatment and rehab. Then they’ll have a chance to go home, wherever home is, or to go somewhere safe where they can start over.
The rest of the workers were given the chance to leave, or to stay. Those choosing to stay were allowed to take over the station. To run it themselves, within Federation guidelines, of course. And theywouldbe watching.
The rest of Kurrahstka’s staff were arrested. Including Kurrahstka, who, much to my disappointment, didn’t die when I shot him. Although he earned himself lifetime imprisonment on a prison planet, so that feels a little like retribution.
