My lips twitched. “Possibly.”
“Something to look forward to,” Shade said.
“Stick around and maybe I’ll lick your wounds.”
Shade groaned a little, part pain, and part something else. I hadn’t said that with any ulterior meaning, but I realized the train of his thoughts when he looked at me with molten eyes. I blushed, my insides going all fluttery and hot.
TheEndeavor’s stairs were down since Miko and Shiori had been out dealing with the numbers. We climbed them, Shade’s steps dragging as we headed up and inside.
“Jax?” I called out, surprised he wasn’t waiting for me at the door. Everything seemed strangely quiet, even though the ship was powered up and ready to go. “Fiona?”
Some sixth sense made my heart start to pound. Dread was an actual taste in my mouth, and I swallowed it down, letting go of Shade as I sprinted toward the bridge.
“Miko! Shiori!” I screamed.
No one answered. A cold sweat broke out on my skin. Something was terribly wrong.
Chapter 29
“Tess! Run!” Jax’s bellow reachedme as I barreled down the corridor.
I gripped the edge of the open door and swung myself at full throttle onto the bridge.Oh fuck!
“Dad?” I froze solid. The Galactic Overseer was on my ship. He had one heavy arm around Miko’s chest and a Grayhawk to her head.
Fear erupted inside me. I’d watched my father on screens, but nothing had prepared me for seeing him again in person. Or for seeing that sneer I remembered. He seemed to reserve it especially for me. Others would call his face impassive.
Quickly, I took in the rest of him. Brown uniform, brown hair, brown eyes. Medium-tall. Nothing about him stood out until he opened his mouth and managed to convey such dogmatic fervency that people stopped and listened. Theyfollowed.
“According to my tracker, Nathaniel just left. Yet here you are. I’m discovering that he’s disturbingly inefficient when it comes to you.”
Holy Sky Mother.I shook and shook and shook.
Shade came up at my back. He felt warm again—maybe because I’d turned to ice.
“I don’t have what you want,” I lied. There was a chance he hadn’t seen the lab if he hadn’t walked around the ship, or that he didn’t even know what it looked like. From the outside, it was just a hulking cargo space, and theEndeavorwas a cargo cruiser. It fit.
“Then you’ll provide it again. It’s as simple as that.”
I darted panicked looks around the bridge. Jax and Fiona were on my left, a few feet from each other. My father and Miko stood right in front of me, near my console. Shiori stayed close to Miko, silent and petrified. Miko was her life and breath.
I didn’t think anyone was armed. Only Shade and I were.
And Dad.
His finger was steady on the trigger, and I knew the cold-hearted bastard would pull it unless I gave him what he wanted. Actually, I was terrified he’d pull it anyway.
Miko’s small nose flared on sharp breaths.
I held up my hands. “Let her go, and I’ll come.”
Fiona shouted first. “No, Tess!”
The Overseer whipped his gun toward her and shot.
I screamed. Jax howled in anguish. Fiona flew back against the wall with a crash.
Dad pointed his gun at Miko again. The whole thing took three seconds, if that. I ran toward Fiona.
