“What happened?” She sounded both outraged and scared as she drew back.
I didn’t know how to answer. So much had happened, and it was all so raw.
“Men are assholes,” Fiona said.
Jax grunted, seeming like he wanted to take exception but was too busy making sure we didn’t hit another ship as he guided us through the troposphere.
Shiori, who was sitting in the navigator’s chair, took exception for him. “You are unfair to one who has always been good and honest with us.”
Fiona grunted, as thoughshewanted to take exception. I had to agree. Jax was good—no doubt about it—but if he were honest, even with himself, he and Fiona probably wouldn’t have been in separate bedrooms for the last few years.
Fiona inserted herself between Miko and me, the bridge’s medical supplies already in her hands. I shrugged off my jacket, wincing at the movement, and then let Fiona cut a big hole in my ruined dress.
Her brow furrowed as she squirted me with saline.
Shit, I knew that look. It meant stitches. I sat, keeping my arms crossed over my chest and hoping she’d miss the lingering needle marks. Her attention was on my waist, and she didn’t look up.
Miko joined her grandmother at the navigation controls. “As soon as we reach the thermosphere, I’ll activate the coordinates for Starway 8.”
“No!” Everyone looked over at me like I was nuts. “Jump us to Flyhole. We’ll get lost in the crowd while I sweep for tracking bugs.”
Jax’s face turned thunderous. “You arenotgoing on a fucking spacewalk with a hole in your side!”
“It’s a scratch,” I said. “And I’m not leading bounty hunters to the orphanage.”
His face reddened, except for the scar on his cheek, which whitened instead.
“Jax!” I flung my hand toward the window.
His eyes snapped back to where they should have been, and he quickly adjusted our course out of the way of the huge transport that was bearing down on us.
“Argue when we’re in the stratosphere if you want, but we need to sweep the exterior for bugs, and you know it.” At least Shade had never come inside—something to be grateful for. But he was way too smart not to track the ship, and those other two hadn’t looked dumb, either.
I gritted my teeth when Fiona stuck the suture needle in and then grimaced at the pull of thread. She did it again, and the pain actually helped to focus my thoughts and settle me. Every sharp prick drove Shade farther from my heart. Each painful tug erased his touch. This was my reality, and I didn’t even have a shot to numb myself to any of it. I was stupid to have forgotten.
“Then I’ll go,” Jax announced.
Jax hated zero G. And he could barely cram himself into a space suit.
“I’ve been outside a lot more often than you have. I’ll be faster and more efficient.” I winced. Stitches sucked. “Really, Jax, this is just a scratch. Fiona’s hurting me more than the bullet did.”
Fiona half looked up, giving me the hairy eyeball.
“There’s about a hundred percent chance those bounty hunters are on our tail right now,” I said. “We’ll lose them with a short-range jump to Flyhole that won’t take much power. Then Jax—you squeeze us into some supply line or other, like we’ve been there all along. I’ll go out and sweep for bugs and then get new stickers up, hopefully before the hunters can locate us again with any precision.”
The hunters or Shade. There was no forgetting he was one of them.
A sharp ache lanced my chest. I scowled. I wanted to pummel him.
“I don’t have those coordinates set,” Miko said.
“Then do it,” I told her, my whole body clenching from another prick. We needed to be anonymous again—now.
I glanced down.How big is this scratch?Crap. Six stitches so far.
Fiona tugged, knotted, cut. “Done.”
Thank the Powers. I blew out a breath.
