Page 46 of Veiled Vixen

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“The soulmate bond.”

“Yeah.” He spins around. “Thanks for reminding that you can’t be trusted.”

“It’s weak, Luck. It’s so weak. We’re barely connected. I’m not even sure it’s real. Because I hate her fucking guts. And it’s not like you and Nyleena were. I don’t secretly want to fuck her. I want to kill her. I can kill her. But not until we get you and Nyleena through the spin node and safe on Earth.”

“You don’t even know that’s where it goes.”

“I know more than you think. I was on Angel Station. I was in a whole other galaxy. I lived inside a spin node for lifetimes in the virtual and months in the real because time was so different in there too. And I’m telling you I’m right. And even if I was wrong, we can’t stay here. There’s only one way out of the ALCOR System now and that’s through that spin node.”

Luck looks at me like I am filth. Like I’m a traitor. Like we didn’t spend our whole lives together.

“I can trick her,” I whisper. “I can get us out of here. She’s vulnerable right now. She’s pregnant and she’s about to lose the babies. She needs to get to Earth too. She told me she would do anything to save them. I can use her to save us.”

“All I have to do is trust you, right?” Luck says in a low, even voice. “Just trust you to take care of everything. Well, I already did that, Valor. And this is what I got. Harem Station is gone. We’re fucked. Nyleena is pregnant with my twins. And no one is coming to save us because you and Tray got caught up in a sex game inside a virtual and forgot the whole motherfucking reason you left here was so you could find ALCOR and bring him home. And oh, by the way, the Baby is… well, not a baby anymore. He wants nothing more than to cut off our air supply and kill us. And the only thing that’s stopping him is a demonic AI no one trusts.”

“Listen, Baby is not what you think. He’s confused too and—”

“Oh. My. Fucking. Sun. Are you for real right now? Everyone up there is just misunderstood? Is that what you expect me to believe?”

I want to tell him about Crux and Corla, but… I decide he wouldn’t believe me anyway. So I don’t.

“I get it,” I say. “But I’m not a traitor. I’m on your side, Luck. I never stopped—”

“Don’t,” he says, putting up a hand. “Don’t you dare tell me you never stopped loving me. Because that just makes what you did that much worse. You fucking left me.”

“It was part of the plan,” I say.

“That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.”

I do know it. I fucked this all up. But I’m not ready to give in yet. “Just… give me two spins, OK? Two spins to get Veila under my thumb and I will get us out of here.”

He sighs and turns away.

“I don’t want to say this, because there’s no way to dress it up and get me cred with you, but I have to. Because it’s true. I’m all you have right now, Luck. I’m all you have. So you need to trust me. You need to think long and hard about all those years we spent together and all those times I saved your ass. All those times I had your back and got you back here, safe and sound. Because I’m still that guy.”

He turns back to me. “Are you sure about that, Valor? Because from where I stand you’re not that guy at all.”

I take a step forward. He doesn’t back up. Just tilts his chin up and locks eyes with me. Daring me to do what I want to do next.

I reach for him and both his hands come up and block me. “Touch me again,” he says, “and I’ll kill you.”

“Fine,” I say, backing off. “That’s fine. You’re with Nyleena. You’re happy—”

“Happy?” He laughs. “I do love her. And we will be together because they made us this way. But what you and I had…” He swallows hard and shakes his head. “You can’t engineer that. And you walked out.”

“I’m sorry,” I say.

He smiles a little. It’s one those I-can’t-believe-you-just-fucking-said-that smiles. “Well, you know what? Before—you know, before this whole thing blew up in my face—‘I’m sorry’ would’ve worked. It would’ve made it all better. But it’s not enough now. Not nearly enough.”

“I understand. I do. But I’m not fucking lying. I’m on your side. I’m always on your side.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Lady says.

“Lady?” I say, looking up at Dicker’s ceiling. “How are you here?”

“I’m sorry, Valor,” she says. “I was asked to listen in.”