“Let go of me,” Cody spat, thrashing. “You can’t do this. I have rights.”
“You have a detention cell,” Sam said flatly. “In the control tower. Added it myself many years ago, just in case. And, as a former officer of the Alliance Defense Force, Icanarrest you.” He looked at Holly over Cody’s struggling form, one brow raised. “I assume you approve?”
“Yes.” Holly’s voice sounded like gravel, but she got the word out.
With a nod, Sam calmly walked toward the spaceport with Cody, thrashing and cursing, locked under one thick arm.
The square was quiet again, except for some surprised conversation:Did you know Sam was in the Alliance Defense Force? He never talks about his past... He must have seen some terrible things... Do you think he fought in the Tak-Voalt war?
To Holly, Sam’s ex-military status explained the cybernetic body parts, the discipline, the composure. But it also raised more questions. Like why did a military veteran choose a place like this to put down roots? But that was a question for the future. Now was a time for other things.
Holly stood in the middle of her community, surrounded by people who had just put their bodies between her and harm, and she couldn’t speak. Her throat was sealed shut and her eyes burned and her hands trembled. If she opened her mouth just then, she was going to fall apart in a way that could not be reassembled easily. And she’d spent enough time in pieces recently.
The crowd parted in a quiet shifting. Kind words murmured, gentle touches to her arm, shoulder. They each took a step backhere, a turn of the shoulder there, until the space between Holly and Rasker was clear. Even her parents slid away, leaving her to face the man she’d accused of playing her.
He stood where he had stood throughout his presentation, in front of the broken fountain, his d-pad at his side, and his face open. Unguarded. Afraid, a little, as if he wasn’t sure if what had gone wrong between them could be fixed.
Holly crossed the space between them. Her legs were unsteady and her heart hammered. Bean pulled at the leash, and she stopped in front of Rasker and looked up at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
He held her gaze. “I tried. Twice. In the control tower, after the inspection notice came in.” His eyes crinkled. “And there were all the messages I left on your comm.”
Which she had turned off. Holly closed her eyes, remembering his muffled words.A lead. Leverage. The game.Ah, she remembered. The exhaustion. The overwhelm. The hopelessness.
“Before that, I didn’t have enough to make a case. Everything I had was circumstantial. Patterns and suspicions and a campsite in the woods. None of it was proof.” He paused. “And I was aware that you were starting to doubt me.”
Holly winced.
“You had every reason to,” he said. “I know what it looked like. The station was failing and the consultant who’d come to buy it was disappearing for days at a time with his d-pad. I understand why you pulled away.”
“I’m sorry.” Holly closed her eyes briefly.
“Don’t be. You were protecting yourself. I would have done the same.” He took a breath. “Holly, I wanted to tell you what I was so close to proving, but I could see that you were finished. Finished with fighting and struggling. Finished with me.” His jaw tightened.
“You went professional.” Her words sounded more like a croak than a voice. “You turned back into the cool consultant. I never liked that guy.”
“I know.” His mouth moved between a grimace and a sad grin of acknowledgment. “I didn’t know how to reach you, Holly. I guess, I was trying to protect myself from being hurt, too.” He ran his hand through his hair. “The entire time I was investigating Cody, I thought you had a safety net. Even if the worst happened and the station was lost, I believed you would walk away with a significant sum from the sale.Justbefore you came to see me after the inspection, I had convinced Rest ’N Recharge to make an enormous offer if you decided to sell. Enough that you would never need to worry aboutnits, or Sol-Arc, or any of it. You could make your own future, wherever and however you chose.”
Holly stared at him, processing everything he was telling her. He didn’t know that she’d officially quit Sol-Arc.Thatwas how distant their relationship had become.
“When you told me the will gave you nothing,” he said, “that the proceeds go to a statue and the lowest offer is taken, I was so furious with Cody,andyour grandfather, I wanted to beat both to a pulp for causing you pain. I could barely see, I was so angry.” His gills flared, seemingly, at just the memory. “You told me once that your biggest fear was failing this place and the people here, and I was terrified that I’d failedyou. I couldn’t figure out how to tell you that despite investigating your cousin for weeks, I hadn’t managed to stop Cody in time.”
The honesty of it made an ache in Holly’s chest. She had spent days in bed believing he didn’t care. Believing the consultant had been the real man all along and the rest had been performance. Believing she had been foolish to trust him, foolish to fall in love, foolish to let herself be carried through a doorway by someone who would walk out of it without looking back.
She had been wrong.
“I thought you didn’t care about me,” she said, and her voice broke on the last word.
“Holly.” He stepped closer. Close enough that she could see the fatigue in every line of his face and the raw, unguarded feeling in his eyes. “I have cared about you since the morning you called me a condescending snob and said you didn’t like me. It only grew from there. Wherever you were, I found myself wanting to be there. I craved seeing a smile on your face, and then it became my goal to put it there.” His hand came up and his fingers brushed her jaw. “I cared about you every single day I spent on this station, and the days I didn’t.” He gestured toward the dome, toward the dark sky beyond it, “I was trying to find a way to save your home.”
Holly’s vision blurred. “Rasker.” There were many things to say. So many feelings to unravel, but all she could do was say his name, and throw her arms around his neck. His arms closed around her and pulled her close against him. A shuddering breath escaped him, as if he’d been aching for this contact. She breathed in his scent, sea spray and wood, and sank into it. Into him. “Thank you. I love you. I—I have for a while, and…” She pressed her eyes closed. “No, that’s all I’ve got. I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. And thank you.”
“I love you, too, Holly. I want to stay.” His voice was muffled in the crook of her neck. “Here. On Moone’s Landing. With you. Not as a consultant, not as a guest in room seventeen. As someone who belongs here, if you’ll have me.”
“Stars, yes,” she said, and kissed him.
Forty-Seven
