She twisted around and found Gunner sitting on the floor next to her bed.
Relief flooded her as she took in the sight of him: handsome, groomed, and so unlike the prisoner she’d been next to for weeks. They stared at each other silently for a time, neither one of them able to say a word.
“You clean up well,” she said, breaking the silence first with a smile.
“And you’re dressed like a girl,” he teased.
Elodie scooted back and lifted the covers on her bed, inviting him in. Gunner, without breaking the connection they shared, joined her under the blanket. The bed dipped under his weight and her body pressed up against his.
His arm hooked above her head and slid under her cheek and she clasped his shirt hard. He pulled her closer until she was cocooned in his arms. Elodie released a happy sigh as her bare feet threaded through his legs. She rubbed them over his boots as she settled into him.
“Gunner...” Elodie said breathlessly.
“Elodie,” he whispered back, a dark, low rasp she’d come to love. Another hot breath fell across her brow and she closed her eyes to drown in it. To remember everything they’d been through.
Before long, her pulse slowed to a rhythm that matched his and she succumbed to the smell of his heat and aftershave—content.
If this was a dream, she never wanted it to end.
The next time she woke, he was gone.
Chapter Twenty Four
***
ELODIE WAS RELEASEDthat very same day.
The officials brought her forward along with several of the others, and cross-examined their stories. It helped that during the takedown of the pirate organization, the mining ship she’d worked on had been recovered and the records of the employees were still intact.
It proved her innocence.
Those who weren’t freed—or had takenrecruitment—remained in holding until they underwent their trials.
To her disappointment, those who’d left in the escape pods had yet to be tracked down.
But the news she’d received was good: several had shown up at a nearby star port and her father’s DNA was within one of the pods. That was where his trail ended. There were no more data signals for the Peace Keepers to follow and vanishing into the stars wasn’t a difficult task...especially if you started off-world.
