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“I need answers. That bitch tried to kill me. I have to know why.”

Rane’s eyes narrowed. “Agreed, but we go together. Prodigy isn’t a safe place to be right now, anyway.”

Shame landed on Nell’s shoulders. “They will be able to fix this? I have no idea what those explosives are. I had no clue what I was doing.”

“Don’t worry about that. It will get sorted. We’ve got an appointment to keep.”

Nell nodded. She would get the answers she deserved. Doctor Kingsbury had tricked her, and she was determined to find out why.

Chapter 20

Rane’s fingers were clenched around the navigation stick on the shuttle as they waited to dock on Starland.

They weren’t the only ones to head to Starland to escape what was going on aboard Prodigy. There was a queue of six ships ahead of them.

Rane struggled to keep his anger in check after finding Nell floating to her death in space.

He couldn’t stop reaching over and touching Nell’s knee. Rane had come so close to losing her. He’d been calling her on the comms for ten minutes before she’d responded. When she had finally answered him, she’d sounded drugged, like she didn’t care what was going on, and had been content to float away and die.

He touched her again. This time, she grabbed his hand and held on tight. “Everything’s okay. I’m okay. You got to me in time.”

“If I hadn’t,” he breathed out.

“That doesn’t matter. We’re here now and getting answers out of this bitch.”

The ten-minute wait to dock did nothing to calm Rane. He’d pin that twisted doctor to the wall for screwing with Nell.

Once they were docked, Nell kept hold of his hand as they hurried out of the docking bay and along the corridor to Doctor Kingsbury’s office.

“How did she convince you to go into space?” Rane asked.

“I’ve no idea. It’s like she planted the memory but took away how she did it.” Nell rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s almost identical to my abduction memories or, rather, the lack of them. I know it happened, but I don’t know how.”

Rane glanced at her. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll get her to talk.” Whether she wanted to or not.

“This is it.” Nell looked up at Rane, and he squeezed her hand.

“You’ve got this. She’s not getting away.”

Nell opened the door to the office.

Doctor Kingsbury looked up from her desk. “Nell! I’m surprised to see you.”

Rane remained by Nell’s side as she stalked in. “I bet you are. Did you figure I’d be dead by now?”

Doctor Kingsbury blinked rapidly as she stood from her chair. Her gaze shifted to Rane, and she frowned. “Is this the alien who’s been influencing you? We talked about this. You agreed to stay away from him.”

Nell closed the distance between them and jabbed her in the chest. “You tried to make me end my own life. You made me plant bombs on Prodigy and jam the doors open with an access code. What the hell for?”

Rane focused on Doctor Kingsbury as Nell yelled at her. There was something off about her. She was hiding something. He stepped closer and extended his neck frill.

Doctor Kingsbury took a step back and glared at him. “You stay away from me. I do not give you permission to manipulate me as you’ve done with Nell.”

“Nell is not being manipulated by me.” Rane tilted his head. Doctor Kingsbury’s electromagnetic waves were odd. Her signature displayed two conflicting life signs.

He sniffed the air and looked at the desk. Three intensely scented oil burners were lit. He picked one up.

“Keep away from those.” Doctor Kingsbury made a grab for the burner.