Dramok Tumsa tells Bernadette a story of betrayal.
“I was a brutal asshole in my misery and guilt. It was ugly, Bernadette. I deserved to be taken out and shot for how I treated Doljen. Nothing I said afterward would sway him. He was done with me and Halmiko, for very good reason.”
Bernadette’s brain swam with the irony of it. Doljen had given her reason to stop running from herself and her past…at the very instant he was doing all in his power to escape his own life.
“You and Hal…what went down between you two?”
Tumsa shrugged. “I’d said unforgivable things to my Nobek, as nasty as what I’d said to Doljen. We’d lost our Imdiko. Everything we’d had was blotted out. With nothing left except anger and blame, we had one last ugly fight, then went our separate ways.”
After witnessing how they’d looked at each other, Bernadette wasn’t so sure the two men’s feelings for each other had been erased. Damaged, most certainly, perhaps beyond repair…but not gone.
She had a bigger priority, however. “I can’t believe Doljen vanished into thin air. Damn it, he’s somewhere. How am I supposed to find him if neither of you knows where he went?”
They were quiet, staring at food and coffee gone cold. Bernadette’s thoughts rattled in her head as if caged, but she couldn’t come up with an answer beyond knocking on every door on Kalquor and hoping for a miracle.
Unless Doljen makes contact with any of us himself, it’s hopeless. After years of silence, it was unlikely the runaway Imdiko would reach out.
Tumsa’s reluctant voice broke into her musings. “I might have an idea.”
“Of where to find him?”
“No. But there might be someone I’m acquainted with who has the resources to locate him. It’s a longshot. Probably no help at all.”
“A longshot is more than I have left.” She poured appeal. “Please, Tumsa. I have to speak to him. Even if it’s to close that chapter of my life for good, I have to see Doljen again.”
“All right. Give me a few days while I find out if there’s anything my friend can do.”
Releasing October 7. Pre-order at Amazon, Amazon UK, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords. Purchase now in print.
She searched for the man she couldn’t forget and found a shattered clan she couldn’t resist.
Captain Bernadette Miller was a nun on the moon Europa, hiding from a painful past. Now she hunts the galaxy for the Kalquorian who made her stop running from herself. When she gets a lead on his clanmates, she thinks her search is finally over. What she finds, however, is a clan devastated by broken promises.
Nobek Halmiko was once a star kurble player. Now he wanders space aimlessly, picking up jobs where he can find them, trying to forget the clanmates he let down. When Bernadette shows up asking questions about his missing Imdiko, he has nothing to say. But some women get in a man’s head. Some women don’t take no for an answer.
Dramok Tumsa had it all: a career he loved, the perfect clan, a troubled but talented brother he’d do anything for. Tragedy on the kurble field destroyed it all. Now his estranged Nobek is back, with a beautiful, hardnosed Earther captain who offers him an opportunity to make amends. Can he piece his clan together again? Does he deserve the chance?
Imdiko Doljen is wracked by guilt. He’s hidden from those he let down…including a woman he couldn’t keep. When she shows up in the company of his clanmates, old hurts ignite anew. It doesn’t matter what he wants; he can’t fix the mistakes he made.
The only path to regaining the love Bernadette lost means healing this shattered clan. Is she ready to commit to three men instead of the one she came for? When disaster strikes, she has to call on all the strength she possesses to stop them from falling apart for good.
Releasing October 7. Pre-order at Amazon, Amazon UK, Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords. Purchase now in print.
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