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Present day
The afternoon after her disappointing encounter with
Halmiko, Bernadette met with the station’s dockmaster, a Dantovonian named Bik.
With her cargo set to be offloaded and a promise from Bik that he’d inform her
if a shipment for Haven Colony came up in the next two days, she headed back to
the Rogue.
As she navigated Nove’s crowded corridors, she scanned the
beggars huddled against the walls without being obvious about it. There almost
as many as those with jobs who dashed about the station performing their tasks.
Nove was due a purge. No doubt the station’s administrators were readying a
transport to take the homeless and offload them on the Galactic Council’s overrun
charity bases. For a week or two, Nove would be free of the desperate sleeping
in corners and alcoves, asking passersby for money or work. Then they’d begin
drifting in again, desolate wretches with tragic tales and only a sliver of
hope for the future.
Bernadette kept a lookout for children and women, those most
likely to be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous that numbered among those
who frequented Nove Station. She’d pass on her ship’s name and dock to them,
written on scraps of paper. Those who answered the summons would be granted the
opportunity to hitch a ride on the Rogue to a friendlier port where they
could be sent on to relatives or friends. If she couldn’t convince them to come
with her, she’d at least guarantee they’d received decent meals and a safe
place to sleep until she left. What wasn’t spent on ship’s maintenance and crew
pay went to refugees. She’d cast aside most of her vows as a nun, but charity
to those less fortunate remained her primary goal.
That, and finding Doljen.
She’d bequeathed scraps of paper with the Rogue’s
location to three women, two with children, when she reached the merchant
concourse in the center of the station. The wide, circular space boasted shops
on its outer walls and a maze of portable kiosks one had to wind a path around.
Sellers cried out to passersby, hawking their wares, creating a din that
Bernadette had learned to fend off by inhaling pain relievers before she
arrived.
It was a scene so chaotic with colors, textures, angles,
curves, odors, aromas, stenches, and noise, it was difficult to make sense of
any of it. Yet, as if drawn by a magnet, Bernadette’s gaze immediately fell on
a hulking Kalquorian. Halmiko.
He stood at a stall, which glittered with blades of every
size and configuration imaginable. The proprietors, Beonod twins, were as
silvery as their wares. They watched Halmiko eagerly as he perused the
collection of knives and daggers and weapons Bernadette couldn’t have put a
name to.
She snorted. His chest was crisscrossed with bandoleers. A
belt cinched his waist, and a second rode lower on his hips. Straps circled his
beefy thighs. In every pouch was the handle to some sort of blade or blaster.
No doubt, like most Nobeks, he had more weaponry hidden in his knee-high boots
and probably the black leather gauntlets he wore on his heavily scarred arms.
The man was already a veritable porcupine bristling with pointy objects, yet he
was shopping for more. Even his two-pronged beard had points, for heaven’s
sake.
She wasn’t sure why she sauntered to him, considering how
useless he’d turned out to be in her search for Doljen. Nonetheless, she
approached. He didn’t acknowledge her, but he was a Nobek, so he knew she was
there.
“The first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have
one,” she told him.
“What problem do you think I have?” A smile twitched his
lips.
“An addiction to knives, apparently. How many does one man
need, Hal?”
He glanced at her then. Maybe it was her pointing out an
obvious obsession. Maybe it was her mocking tone. Maybe it was being called
Hal. Either way, his expression shifted to suggest irritation.
“How goes your search for my Imdiko?” He shook his head at
the blade the male Beonod offered him.
“We’ll see when I reach Haven. Shall I give Tumsa your
regards?” She caught herself eyeing a decorative jeweled sword fit for an ancient
Earther king. The Beonod female noticed and made as if to take it out of its
protective glass case.
Bernadette waved her off. “No thanks. I’d cut my own arm off
with that thing.”
The Beonod giggled and winked.
A definite frown from Halmiko. “I’d like to find out what
happened between you and Doljen.”
“Yeah? Tell me exactly where on Haven I can locate Tumsa.”
“He isn’t hiding, as far as I know. Ask around.” Halmiko
looked her over, his gaze evaluating. “You look better with your hair down.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment? Let me try. You look
better with my eyes closed.” Bernadette patted the coiled bun of her hair. “At
least I have hope of improving my appearance in the light of day.”
She was lying through her teeth about his looks. His
features were a touch craggy and rough, yes, but handsome, framed by jet-black
hair that reached to his waist. That double-spiked beard gave him a devilish
aspect. In a good way.
A hint of warmth within told Bernadette she was perfectly
fine with his appearance. He probably would have looked even better without the
grim set of his features, which occasionally drifted into a morose expression.
He relaxed. There was no smile, but he proved her assessment
correct as his countenance eased. When his irritation faded, he was striking. He
turned from the knife display to the Beonods’ shared chagrin. He made a show of
sizing her up.
“Let’s go somewhere private. When I strip off my clothes,
you won’t give a damn about how my face looks. You won’t be able to take your
eyes off all I have to offer.”
“You have nothing I’m interested in, unless you can tell me
where Doljen is.”
“Did you fuck him, little girl? Is that why you’re so
determined to find him?” Halmiko took a step toward her. No softness now. He
was brutish with sudden anger.
His fury was red hot, and Bernadette met it with ice-cold ire.
“I want to find out if he’s all right. If he’s in one piece. Safe. In short,
I’m doing what you, as his Nobek clanmate, promised and failed to do.”
Rage turned him into the demon he’d only vaguely resembled.
Halmiko abruptly loomed over her, threat etched on every inch of him. His growl
filled her ears, erasing the racket of the marketplace.
He froze, a terrible gargoyle hanging over her. His gaze
slid from her face to the blaster she’d shoved into his rock-hard abdomen.
“You can back up now, Hal,” she purred.
A new emotion was added to his anger. His pupils dilated. He
licked his lips as he retreated a step. “Quick draw, Matara. Impressive.”
“Thank you.” She pretended she didn’t notice the telltale
spicy scent that came from him. Anger and arousal were a dangerous mix when it
came to Nobeks. Even if she’d considered for a single moment taking him up on
his offer of sex, she wouldn’t do so in his current mood. “I’ll leave you to
your shopping, big guy.”
She left him there, holstering her weapon as she walked off…purposeful
strides, but not too fast. Running from a Nobek was more dangerous than fucking
him when he was angry.
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.
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