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“You’re terrified of those Tallean monsters, always have been. I don’t believe you’ve miraculously gotten over your fear all of a sudden.”
He might be right about her spending last night alone —unlike a certain captain who would remain nameless—but he was wrong about her being terrified. She used to be, sure, but not anymore. Despite knowing who Captain Uzzar really was, Delaney wasn’t that afraid of him at all, though she really should be. She must be broken.
“Now come with me before I get angry.”
Delaney spotted the guard at last and started toward him, not bothering to reply to crazy.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me, bitch.” He grabbed her arm and yanked her down the path.
Delaney screamed as loud as she could. The guard was close enough; he’d hear.
“Fuck. Shut up!” Craig covered her mouth, but he was in such shock that she was fighting back and not cowering like she usually did that he didn’t hold her tightly.
Delaney did the only thing that came to mind. She kneed him as hard as she could in the balls. She screamed again the moment his palm left her mouth. Looking around wildly, she spotted the guard who was now hurrying their way, and Delaney stumbled toward him.
Now that help was here, Craig took off. He got into fights, but only when he was with his friends. And drunk. The guard looked back and forth between Delaney and Craig, trying to decide whether to get her to safety or give chase. He opted to stay with Delaney.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
Delaney rubbed her arm where Craig had grabbed her. It was a little sore, but not too much. “I’ll be fine.”
The guard looked her up and down. “You are not a new colonist.”
“No. But Angie put me in here because I'm trying to get away from—well, him.” She held up her groceries. “I thought it would be safe to go across the street to get some food.”
“I will accompany you next time,” the guard offered.
“Thank you. Appreciate it.”
Delaney returned to her room, her appetite completely gone. Her comm rang as she stepped inside, and she picked it up, glad to see Angie’s name on her screen.
“Hey, Angie. What’s up?” She stood in front of the mirror attached to the door of the wardrobe, rubbing her tender arm.
“I’ve got some good news. They bumped your application to dissolve your marriage to Craig to the front of the line after what happened at The Hideout. You’ve got Holden to thank for that; he’s dealt with Craig and his crew before. You’ll need to go down to the tribunal hall to sign the paperwork in person.”
“Oh, thank god! That ass-wipe just accosted me outside the building.”
“What?! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, the guard scared him away. I’ll go in first thing tomorrow morning.” Their office opened early, and she should be done in time to report to theNew Horizon. Then, before she could chicken out again, she decided to tell Angie about Craig’s new friends. “Look, originally I was going to wait until I was safely away on the ship to report this, but I might as well tell you now. Craig and his friends have been meeting up with this group of people who call themselves the New Earth Militia.”
Angie grumbled. “Jeez. Not them again.”
Delaney blinked. “You know about them?”
“Yeah. Bunch of troublemakers. They want humans to kick out all the Talleans, take over Reka 5, and rename it New Earth.”
Yup. That was them all over.
“He dragged me to one of their meetings. It sounded serious. They were talking about attacking the colony council, and both your mates. They even mentioned stockpiling weapons. Craig has been part of so many of these hateful groups I don’t know which ones are crackpots and which to worry about anymore. I didn’t want to bother you and your mates with false alarms, but this group sounded bad. That meeting was my wake-up call that I couldn’t stay around Craig anymore.”
“Thanks for letting me know. The NEM causes problems for us all the time. They mess with the colony’s perimeter and defenses. The problem is, we don’t actually know who’s leading it. I’m surprised they let you into a meeting.”
“Pfft. Technically, I was just the broad serving snacks. I don’t think they considered me a person. They had strange views about women. They called them Mothers of New Earth.” Delaney scrunched her nose at the memory. “It was weird. Like women were revered, but only because they gave birth to pure humans.”
“And only ‘clean’ women, right?” Angie said in an exasperated tone. “The ones who are untouched by aliens.”
“Yeah. I guess you’ve heard that one.”
