It was empty.
No sign of a tall, pain-in-the-ass treasure hunter.
“Fuck.” He narrowly resisted the urge to slam his fist into the wall.
Justyn also muttered a curse, and followed Mal and Xander as they approached Arar.
The man was shaking. “She…hit me. She took it.”
Mal crouched down. “You’re okay now. What did she take?”
“M-my invite. To my friend’s party.” He blinked his eyes, still a little dazed. “She was gorgeous, like a dream. I wanted to fuck her?—”
Before he realized what he’d done, Nik grabbed the man around the throat, yanked him up, and slammed his against the wall. “Where did she go?”
Arar’s eyes flickered around like crazy, not landing on any of them and avoiding Nik completely. “I don’t know, man.” When Nik shook him, Arar’s voice rose. “I don’t, I swear! She was here one minute, whispering hot things in my ear, the next she hit me, took the invite and was gone. Like a fricking nebula ghost.”
Nik released him and watched him drop back onto his butt.
“Xander, don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
Malin’s voice yanked Nik out of his dark thoughts. One glance and he saw the CenSec was as tense as a board and obviously ready to hurt someone.
“I’ve failed.”
For the first time, Nik heard something in the cyborg’s voice that wasn’t just mechanical blankness. Desolation? Despair?
“No.” Mal had a hand pressed to the cyborg’s arm.
Nik’s frown deepened. He really didn’t like whatever the hell was going on with his cousin and this Centaxian. She was going to get burned…badly.
“Without the invite, I have no way to get to Technis. My planet….” With a shake of his head, he pressed his hands to the wall, his head dropped to his chest.
“It isn’t over yet, CenSec,” Nik said. “Everyone spread out and look for Darc. Justyn, get to the front entrance. If she didn’t make it out already, stop her from leaving. Xander and Mal, search the dance floor. She might be hiding somewhere in the crowd. I’ll search these back rooms. We still have a chance to find her.”
Xander visibly pulled himself together. With a short nod, he left with the others. Nik looked down at the nightclub owner sniveling at his feet.
“Get out of here.”
The man swiped a hand over his mouth, lurched to his feet, and practically ran out of the room.
Okay. Think. Where would Nera go?He raked a hand through his hair. He’d brushed up against Nera countless times on various hunts. Usually, he was the one with bruises. She was deadly, no doubt about that, but damned if that kept him from obsessing over her.
His brothers kept telling him she was going to kill him one day.
He suspected that was true.
It didn’t stop him from being drawn back to her. Again and again. Half the time he didn’t know if he wanted to kill her or fuck her brains out.
Where would Nera go?
He knew the answer in an instant.
Nowhere.
Nera Darc didn’t run. She sauntered—when it suited her. And she didn’t hide by cowering in a crowd.
His hands dropped to his sides. “You can come out now, Nera.”
