Two shadows loomed over him. Raquel gave him a good kick, and he heard his own groan as if from a mile away from this place.
He wasn’t military—exactly—but he was close enough. There were a hundred ways to spin what he’d done as treason. It wouldn’t be hard, because itwas.
“The next time you fuck up a hunt like that just because you want the bigger prize all to yourself, we’ll report you for obstruction,” Solan announced.
Shade huffed, a weak sound that reflected the current state of his body. Leave it to the Heartless Duo to think he’d been holding out for the bonuses and not even realize he’d been protecting Tess. That was a relief, he supposed.
He should have known they’d come. No story, not even one about his precious docks, could have thrown them off for long or kept them from wondering why Shade Ganavan was ignoring the biggest hunt of their lives.
They’d probably been on Albion 5 just long enough to track him to this platform, wait for the cover of dark, and then try to ambush Tess when she came back. Only she hadn’t come back. She’d stayed away all night and then shown up at daybreak. With him.
“There was plenty for everyone on that one, even without the live capture or the stolen goods,” Raquel said in a fury. “Now, no one has anything. Bastard.” She plugged him with another dart.
Chapter 21
Fiona raced off as Istumbled back from Jax, shaking. My heart felt ripped out, shattered, crushed. Bonk was gone; I’d lost him. And Shade…
Horror overwhelmed me, tearing through my chest and shredding what was left of it. The ghost of Shade’s touch haunted me. I could still feel him pushing into me, holding me close.
Touches. Kisses. Words that had wrapped around me like promises.Lies.
I curled in on myself. Everything burned. My breath came out in harsh pants, shuddering from my lungs and then sawing back in. My head swam. I couldn’t… This couldn’t…
I blinked hard, trying to clear my thoughts. Trying not to feel Shade anymore. His hands, his mouth, his warmth.
“You’re hurt!” Jax said.
Confused, I uncrossed my arms and tried to straighten. The pain and weight of my awful mistake were so heavy that it was hard to move. Time seemed to advance in slow, straining increments, and it was all I could do just to get from one devastated heartbeat to the next.
So much had happened in so little time, and it all clanged inside me, jarring and discordant. Shade smiling. Bonk purring. Vitamin D. Hot kisses. Shade’s whisperedCome back. Bonk curled up in my lap.
Pull it together. Pull it together, Tess.
I was rocking. I forced myself to stop. I had to figure out what Jax was talking about.
Almost as if from outside of myself, I took stock and found my right hand slicked with blood. It trembled as I lifted it. My hand was fine, besides being wet and red. I glanced at my side, where I’d been clutching myself. It turned out that Shade’s betrayal wasn’t the only thing burning like a deep, searing cut. A bullet had grazed me, slicing a line through my jacket and dress.
Jax dove in for a better look.
“Flesh wound,” he and I said at the same time, his voice filled with relief and mine fighting its way past the tears in my throat. It wasn’t the gunshot injury that hurt.
TheEndeavorlifted off, making us both lurch.
My eyes widened, meeting Jax’s. “Who the hell is flying the ship?”
“Miko?” he guessed. “Or maybe Fiona.”
Well, I sure hoped it wasn’t Shiori. We raced toward the bridge together and burst like a terrified storm through the doors.
“Thank the Powers!” Miko backed off the controls, looking pale and wide-eyed. Her hand shook. It was hard enough to navigate the maze of docks and interwoven platforms with two hands, let alone one. And we hadn’t even gotten to the traffic of the spheres.
Jax ran to his console, and I stumbled over to mine. I took the controls, but my hands rattled too much to steer.
“Jax!” I barked.
“I’m on it,” he answered. I wasn’t sure he was entirely steady either after everything that had just happened, but he was a hell of a lot better than blind, one-handed, or bleeding and quaking. Fiona hadn’t tried. She knew her own equipment inside and out, but she was clueless when it came to a flight console. Too many buttons she’d never tried to memorize.
As soon as Jax took over, Miko threw her arms around me.
