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“Yeah?”
“If strange illnesses are not concerning you, what is?”
Her other hand came to rest on her belly. “What if I’m pregnant, Q’on? What will we do?”
It seemed an odd thing to worry about. New life was a gift. “We will escape this place and raise it together.”
A tear ran down her cheek. “I’m old, Q’on. Human women tend to have complications when they carry a child this late in life. Did you know we consider women over thirty-five to be geriatric in terms of pregnancy? I'm ten years past that. Something could happen to me or to the baby, and it wouldn’t be anyone’s fault. It would just be a factor of my age.”
More than anything, I wished I could hold her. She was distraught, worried, and I could do nothing but sit on the other side of the glass wall and be useless. As a warrior, I was not accustomed to inaction. “What can I do?”
“Huh?”
I put both hands on the plexiglass and rested my forehead against it, looking her in the eye. “If there is anything I can do to make it easier for you, I will. I will carry things for you. I will provide for you. I will contact any remaining allies I may have on Xalan and get medicines for you. Supplies. Anything.”
Amber smiled and pressed her hands and head to the glass as well, sniffling as more tears flowed free. “That’s sweet, Q’on, but we don’t even know yet if I’m pregnant. They might not even be able to tell this early. I might be getting worried for nothing. I might not even be—Well, now’s not the time to stress about it, I guess.”
I paused to consider this. “Either way, I will take care of you. You are mytyr’il. My mate.”
We sat like that in silence for several moments before the peace was broken by the arrival of Agent Wilson. He stood there in one of the strange yellow outfits that covered his entire body, leaving no room for air. I worried that meant they had found some illness in my cheek skin. Was Amber going to get sick?
“So,” he said, drawing out the word, “when were you two going to tell me about the hostages in your shed?”
Chapter 18
Amber
Shit. They found Ryan and Evan.
I knew they would eventually, but I’d been hoping to have more of a chance to come clean on my own beforehand. With the way we were dragged from the house and then dumped alone in these cells, though, there weren’t many opportunities to tell the agents that I had my ex tied up out back.
“I did it!” I blurted out, just as Q’on said, “Amber is not to blame.”
Oops. We didn’t think to get our stories straight ahead of time.
I rushed to come up with a plausible excuse that didn’t involve Q’on breaking my ex’s bones, hoping that the nanites would slow Q’on down enough that I’d have time to confess sole responsibility for whatever Ryan claimed we did before he jumped on the grenade for me.
“It was all me. All Q’on did was give me the restraints to use on Ryan and Evan. I did it. All of it. Ryan assaulted me, and I had no choice.”
Agent Wilson crossed his arms over his chest. “He assaulted you, huh? That’s not what he says.”
“Of course not! He’s gonna lie his fucking ass off to keep from getting in trouble.”
“He brought a knife to Amber’s home,” Q’on interjected. “He grabbed her with intent to harm. That warranted us diffusing the threat.”
I appreciated Q’on standing up for me, but he wasn’t exactly helping. Agent Wilson wasn’t going to believe a word he said, no matter what the evidence—which I had unfortunately hidden—might have shown.
Agent Wilson strolled up to the wall on Q’on’s side of the room, his gait a little too calm. “And how, exactly, did you diffuse this threat?”
“I did it!” I said again, hurrying to speak up before Q’on confessed. “I broke Ryan’s wrist.”
Agent Wilson raised a dubious brow. “Really?”
It was my turn to cross my arms over my chest. “Yep. Freak accident. Q’on actually healed him, so when you think about it, we left him better off than he wanted to leave us. His buddy Evan even told Q’on that they had come to kill me, so it was really self-defense.”
The agent’s lip curled up in a sneer. “You think we believe that bullshit? Your ex-husband already told us his side of the story, and it’s a lot more believable than your little fairy tale.”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? What fucking lies has he been feeding you?”
