He took her chin in his fingers, tilting her head. He found the small switch near the top and pressed it.
She gasped.
“Are you okay?”
She cleared her throat. “Yes. It tingled.” She turned the other way so he could see her left side, and he did the same with the other. She gasped again.
“Get rid of these too, in case there’s a tag on them.”
With shaky hands, she shoved them in the reclamation chamber with the necklace, then hit the “deactivate and disassemble” button. A hum, then silence.
She sniffed again. “I feel like shit,” she murmured, swaying in front of him. “Those things drained everything out of me.” She sniffed again. The next one turned into a sob.
Realizing she was about to lose it completely, Mace adjusted their trajectory and wrapped both arms around her. His body armor got in the way. While he unclipped the sections and fumbled them over his head, her crying intensified. Shoving the weight of the pieces behind the chair, he pulled her close.
She resisted a moment, then turned her face into him, cheek pressed against his chest. Her whole body melted as the next sob escaped her lips. Fingers clenched into his uniform. Her curls tickled his chin, giving him a dose of her sweet scent.
Tears dripped onto his chest.
“You weren’t responsible forOrion,” Mace murmured against her hair. “It was an inside job, four engine cores blown at the same time.” But she kept crying. He held her tighter.
The whole time onOrion, she’d had a tracker blaring her position and she hadn’t said a thing. Of course she hadn’t. She was CORE. At every turn she’d told him she wanted to go home. She’d never hid that.
His chest cracked at the thought of letting her go.
But when they arrived at their next location, there might be the opportunity to give her what she wanted, get her home in the safest way possible—as a civilian, and smuggle her to family who would have the power and influence to protect her. Hopefully Lexi would be able to help.
Would he be strong enough to go through with it?
Did he have a choice?
This thing between them…he couldn’t think straight when he was around her, made problematic choices. But the bigger question of trust pressed down on him. Would she have told him about the tracker if those nodes hadn’t been attached to her head?
Because if she hadn’t, with the place they were going next, he didn’t know if he would have been able to forgive her if she’d brought the CORE to them.
Chapter thirty-two
Niatriedtostretch,stiffness cramping her muscles. Her elbow hit something hard, making her eyes fly open.
The canopy’s viewer showed the never-ending view of stars dotting the black of space. A masculine and minty scent enveloped her. Shifting her weight, she turned. Pain shot through her nape and spine from being so scrunched. Mace’s biceps flexed beneath her cheek.
Her parched and swollen throat screamed when she tried to swallow.
“Here,” Mace murmured, the timbre of his voice rumbling through her body. He passed her a thin ration tube.
Twisting off the cap, she sucked back the gooey mass. It moistened her tongue and throat while settling the growling of her stomach. She shoved the leftover packaging into the reclamation compartment.
Mace wouldn’t allow her to hold her body away from his and pulled her flush against his chest. Resting her head on his shoulder, she relaxed. A flutter erupted in her stomach when his lips brushed her ear.
“How long was I asleep?” she asked, her voice heavy with fatigue.
He touched the front panel and it beeped. “Sixteen hours.”
A long time.Maybe it had something to do with the mind moles.Or the guilt.
The arms around her middle and the lips against her head couldn’t erase what had happened, how she might have had a hand in it despite Mace’s assurances.
“What did they do to you?” he asked quietly against her ear.
