I bent her over and she caught herself on the worktable, splaying both hands on the metal surface as I kissed my way down her back while my tail twitched its way up the inside of her leg. It was madness to take her here, in the tailor’s workroom, but the woman drove me mad. All thoughts of the Vandar waiting to return to his workspace or other Vandar who might be walking in the corridor fled my mind, and all I knew was the thrumming, pounding need to be inside her again.
“Wrexxon,” she said, but this time there was no lilt in her voice. “Why is my best friend’s name on this list?”
Chapter 29
Jasmine
Skye's name glowed on the holographic display, fifth from the top of the Imperial execution list, and I couldn't breathe.
My best friend. The girl who'd known me since we were children playing in the frozen streets of the colony. The woman who'd stood beside me through my parents' deaths, who'd helped me build the resistance network from nothing, and who'd offered to fight the Vandar warriors to give me a chance to escape.
I yanked the sheet back up to cover my breasts and whirled around to face the Raas. "When were you going to tell me?" My voice came out strangled, barely above a whisper. Then louder, fury rising like a wave. "When were you going to tell me that someone from my colony, my rebel network, my best friend was on the Empire's hit list?"
Wrexxon's expression had shifted from hungry desire to something guarded and shuttered. “She was not always on the list. We received this intelligence after the attack.”
“But you knew.” My voice cracked, betraying my dismay. “You knew she was someone to me.”
“I suspected she must be, which is why I did not want to worry you.”
I pulled the sheet tighter around my body as if shielding me from his words. “Worry me? You were more interested in fucking me than in protecting me.”
Something hot flashed in his eyes that wasn’t desire. “You are upset.”
“You’re damn right I’m upset.” I flailed a hand at the workshop. “You have me fussing with fabrics while my best friend is in danger.”
The heat that had sparked in his eyes hardened. “You think I am doing nothing? You think I don’t want to save your friend? You think I wouldn’t do anything in my power to save you from pain?”
I drew in a breath, stunned into a moment’s silence. “So, we’re going back for her?”
“We are.”
I eyed him, sensing something else skittering beneath the surface of his reassurance. “You aren’t still planning to drop me off at the Vandar hidden hole, are you?”
His brows quirked at the term hidden hole. “I am not.”
Breath rushed from me in a whoosh.
“But you cannot be a part of the mission,” he continued. “You cannot leave the ship.”
I snapped upright. “What? But it’s my home. You’re insane if you think I’m going back without seeing my sisters.”
He mumbled something under his breath about feeling insane, but then he held up a hand to forestall my complaints.
“Jasmine, I think it’s a trap."
The words sliced through my arguments like a blade. I stared at him. "What?"
He crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “Don’t ask me to prove this because it’s a warrior’s instinct, but your friend’s name appearing on the list after you were rescued feels too easy. Not to mention the fact that the source of this information has now gone silent.”
“You have a source for Zagrath information?” My voice fell to a whisper. “Do you have a spy?”
“One we can no longer reach.” He ground out the words. “It's bait, Jasmine. They're trying to draw you back to that frozen planet. They'll be waiting. Not just for her. For you."
As much as I wanted to argue, his reasoning made sense. If I were in his shoes, if my resistance had received intelligence from a now-missing source, I would have questioned it just the same.
“But what if it isn’t,” I said, my voice softer. “It might be real intelligence and a genuine threat to Skye's life. And even if it’s a trap, that meant the Empire was still going after her. Using her as leverage still puts her and my sisters and friends in danger.”
”All this is true,” he said with maddening calm.
