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“Could I come?” Her voice shook. “Please. I don’t want to stay here anymore. Not one more day here.”
I whirled around into Mace. “She’s a doctor, pretty much. I can explain later, and this other woman—Clarke held her brother in cryo to make her do what he wanted. Can you let her go? On a ship with her brother, so they can just go? On their way to wherever they want to be.”
He nodded. “Of course. Just wait a minute, miss, until the bombs stop, and I’ll see to it you can take off in peace.”
“Really?” she outright sobbed. “But…”
“No buts,” I practically shouted. “This is good news.”
She sucked in a breath. “Okay.”
I didn’t know what they’d do if I admitted Cambree took me. She was a woman—they’d never hurt her or anyone else who didn’t threaten them—but they weren’t going to be happy about it. I just wanted her to be able to go. She’d find a way to make amends somehow, in the future with someone else. I didn’t need it. I was going home.
“Stop right there.” I winced. Clarke. It was Clarke. And he was there. A red light danced on my head. Oh fuck. He has a gun pointed at my head. “You little bitch, you…”
One second, he spoke, the next, he was flat on his stomach on the floor. Crew lay on top of him, holding him to the ground. “You were always so bad at this. A mediocre soldier at best. Do you remember me?”
Clarke actually whimpered, and I caught my breath. The man tormented us all, took over our planet, killed my father, let us die from things that we should have never had to face, and now he was what? Crying because Crew held him on the floor. I blinked. I couldn’t really believe my own eyes.
“Not so tough when you don’t have your group with you? Guess what? They’re dead or they’re no longer able to hurt anyone, so it’s just you, me, and a few of my closest pals.” He flipped Clarke over before he picked him up and shoved him into the wall, the structure shaking slightly. The room was so silent we could have heard a pin drop, yet Clarke didn’t even move a muscle to fight back.
“You remember me?” Crew repeated his question.
My tormentor nodded. “Yes.”
“I remember you. What a blowhard you were! What a ridiculous waste of space. You should have died on Earth and spared the universe putting up with the likes of you. We were given a chance when Evander fell. They wanted to put us down. We escaped, and we had the chance to be men, like the ones we saw who beat us. Like the humans who fought for their lives, their homes, and their families. Who said no to being hurt by us or anyone else who dared to come and try to take what was theirs. We had the chance to be like them, yet instead you went and enslaved a planet. You abused people with no chance of fighting back against you. You made yourself into some kind of demigod. Guess what? You’re not. Gods can’t die, but you can.”
With a shaking voice, Clarke finally answered. “I wanted us to have what we deserved. We spent years under Evander’s control. For once, I wanted us to be the ones with power.”
“You don’t deserve anything. The universe doesn’t open and dish out things based on who deserves what. The people on this planet lived under Evander, too. They had their resources stripped, their people kidnapped. They finally had a break, and girl babies were being born. Then you showed up and destroyed them again. You hurt the love of my life. Took her from me. I don’t care to hear your excuses or rationalizations. You’re done.”
With a twist of his hands, Crew snapped his neck like it was nothing. Clarke fell to the floor before Crew ripped his head off, throwing it aside. It was the same move he’d used with Net, only there was no fire to burn Clarke’s remains.
We all stared until finally Crew turned to me. He opened his arms, and I rushed into them. He’d killed that man for me—for all of us, but mostly for me. It was all for me. I closed my eyes and let him hold me.
“I need to bring you home. No one will take you from it again without your permission.” He kissed me, gently, like a caress. “But please don’t leave. Please stay, because it isn’t home without you. Either that or take me with you wherever you go.”
I closed my eyes and pressed my head against his cheek. Clarke was gone. His palace was gone. His people were out of commission or dead. I wouldn’t have to prostitute myself anymore, and neither would anyone else.
“He was selling me soon. A man…never mind. I want to go home. I want to go so much.”
Crew scooped me into his arms. “Let’s get things finished here and then we can go.”
I woke up on their shuttle but we weren’t in the air. I lifted my head and Ransom stroked my back. “Hey there. You don’t have to be up. I’d rather if you slept for days and days.”
I rolled toward him and put my head in his lap so I could breathe him into my lungs. He seemed so warm, so real, and I’d missed him. “Why are we still on the ground? The sooner I leave here, the better.”
“We had some logistics to work out before we could take off. A surprising number of people wanted to come with us, for starters. Then we had to deal with the cryo situation. He had so many people locked up so he could blackmail other people. We had to figure out who is in there, who is sick, and who is just stuck in there. Your doctor friend is helping us sort through the cryos. Your friend with the brother left. I’m not sure what her deal was, but she hurried off. There are others… It’s all just taking a little time, but we should be leaving…” His voice trailed off. “Soon. Right now, actually. They’re coming. Stone and Amias are here—still in cryo, but with us. Lydia needs to treat them before we can attempt to wake them.”
The shuttle was filled with my guys, so I forced myself to sit up. “What happened to Timothy?”
“He’s with Gator. They’re good friends, as they do some work together. He was so happy to help. Jumped at the chance. Everyone wants you with us. Chanel, who wants to be your friend, runs a boarding house. I think she’s going to be full of women. Some others will have to step up, too, if we want to house everyone. It’s going to be interesting.” Crew sat next to me. “I need to look at you and just see that you’re fine. You’re pivotal. Essential.”
They were too. “I thought…I thought that would be it. You were stuck. And then I’d be sold off, and you’d never find me in time, because the man who was buying me was intent on hurting me until he killed me. By the time you could come—and I sometimes thought maybe you wouldn’t, because I’m just not used to anyone doing that for me—it would be too late.”
Mace knelt in front of me. “We will always come for you, Raven. You’re our family. Our love. The center of our hearts and our home. We would never not come for you, and we will never be too late.”
“Thank you.” I let my tears fall. I felt things and I didn’t have to hide them. They wouldn’t decide I was too much because sometimes I cried.
