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  Tanith looked at him, puzzlement etched across her face. “In my culture, the marks are considered shameful. We do not expose them in public and we may not speak of them. My mother believed that the true purpose of the Dermatrax was to summon a mate. That there was one true love for each of us and you should stop at nothing to find him. My mother…”

  “What about your mother?” Jake stroked her hair gently. He had half an idea of what she was going to say.

  Instead she gave him a bright smile. “Let’s not talk about that now. It is good having you here like this, Human.”

  Jake heard a noise from the other room. The alarm on his com badge was buzzing. “Sorry, baby, I have to get that.”

  He padded out to the sitting room, looking for his tunic. Seven missed com messages. Damn. “Pete, I’m kind of busy,” he whispered.

  “Jake, you’re kind of AWOL. What do you want me to tell the big guy?”

  In the dim light of the bedroom, he could see Tanith waiting for him. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t walk away from her now. Something had started between them. Something that had nothing to do with Raoul or Atam and he didn’t want to let it go. There was only one way that Strom would permit their relationship to continue. “Tell him the subject is secured.”

  Chapter Three

  Jake tugged impatiently at the fastenings on his dress tunic. He wanted tonight to be over. Of all the crazy stupid things he had ever done, falling in love with a girl he was spying on topped them all. The ring box lay in the middle of the bed. Five carats of the finest Naxos yellow diamonds nestled in an elaborate gold setting. He had bought the ring weeks ago from a trader at the spaceport. Pete had almost gone supernova when he saw it. He had planned to propose to her tonight. They would get a special license to marry from the Cyraelian ambassador and Tanith would travel back to Earth with him. His wife—he never thought he’d like the sound of those words.

  One communication from Cyraelian intelligence had changed everything. Raoul had returned to the city and he was furious about his sister’s new lover. Instead of a romantic dinner for two, he was going to play decoy while Pete and Strom tried to capture Raoul. He had asked Strom if he could move Tanith onto the ship until it was over, but the big guy had refused. Tanith was more useful to them if she stayed on the planet. How the hell was he supposed to protect her with Raoul on the loose? No matter what happened tonight, there was going to be huge fallout. Tanith would never marry someone who was involved in her brother’s imprisonment. He’d be lucky if she ever spoke to him again.

  The cabin door opened and Pete eyed the ring box on the bed. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

  Jake flipped the box closed and dropped it into a drawer. Picking up his weapon, he slid it into the pocket of his tunic. “Yeah, Pete. Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Her human was quiet tonight. They weren’t in their favorite restaurant as they had planned but sitting at a boring function for two hundred people at the ambassador’s residence. She couldn’t understand it. Jake always hated these things. Between the interminable speeches, he had reached under the table to hold her hand, but he didn’t laugh or joke or try to pull her into a quiet corner to steal a kiss. During dessert, he whispered that he was feeling ill and that he had to go. Then he kissed her and almost ran from the hall. Something was very wrong. Tanith made her excuses and followed him, but the rear lights of the Terra-pod were already passing through the gates.

  “Hello, Tanith,” a voice called from the shadows. “Don’t you have a hug for your brother?”

  Tanith spun around. He was a little older, perhaps thinner, but it was he. She ran to him, laughing. “Raoul, when did you get here? Why didn’t you say that you were coming?”

  His cold expression stopped her in her tracks. “Where is he, Tanith? Where is the human you’ve been whoring with?”

  What was wrong with him? Why was he saying these horrible things to her? “It’s not like that, Raoul. Jake and I love each other. We want to—”

  His hand reached out to strike her and she sidestepped the blow, stumbling on the gravel. “You stupid bitch, your lover is a Fleet Command spy.”

  He was wrong. Raoul had to be wrong about Jake. Jake loved her, it couldn’t be true. Raoul grabbed her arm roughly. “Go home, Tanith. I’ll deal with the human.”

  With that, he strode angrily to his Terra-pod and climbed inside. The vehicle shot through the gates at a screeching speed. She felt sick. Raoul was going to hurt Jake. Her eyes raked the vehicles parked near the entrance. She needed something fast.

  Tanith raced through the city until she reached the narrow streets surrounding the spaceport. There was no sign of either of them. As she passed the entrance to a side street, she heard the low thrum of laser fire and her heart dropped. Abandoning the vehicle in the middle of the street, she kicked off her heels and ran toward the sound. She couldn’t let Raoul kill him. Tanith could hear sirens in the distance. A crowd of onlookers had formed at the top of the street, watching the battle from a safe distance. An elderly Cyraelian stepped in front of her. “Law enforcement officials are on their way. It’s dangerous, don’t go down there.”

  She brushed past him and kept going. Tanith crept along a line of parked vehicles until she reached the safety of a doorway. Why hadn’t she brought a weapon? Jake could be hurt. From her vantage point, she could see one man lying in the middle of the street, his arm outstretched at an unnatural angle. He was obviously dead. Two others exchanged fire across the narrow street. Tanith watched as an injured man dragged himself behind a parked Terra-pod. His clothing was dark. It’s not Jake, she realized with shaky relief. It’s not him.

  She could hear a voice coming from the far end of the street, but she couldn’t see him. It was shouting now, but she couldn’t make out the words. There was a brief flash of laser fire and one man flew across the street, colliding with the side of a dark Terra-pod. Tanith glimpsed a pale uniform emerging from between two vehicles. A laser blast narrowly missed him and he returned fire. Then there was an eerie silence. The battle was over. She called Jake’s name and ran toward him.

  “Tanith?” Jake’s expression was a mixture of surprise, guilt and regret.

  Tanith looked beyond him at the body lying on the street and, with an aching feeling in the pit of her stomach, she knew. She tried to get past him to reach Raoul, but Jake blocked her path. She flung herself at him, beating her fists against his face and his chest. “You used me, you bastard. All this time you pretended to love me so that you could kill my brother.”

  Jake reached for her. “Tanith, please, listen to me. It wasn’t like that.”

  Her eyes blazed with hurt and anger. “Don’t touch me, Jake. Don’t you ever touch me again.”

  The rest of the night passed in a blur of questions. She spent hours sitting in the small interview room repeating her story over and over for the security forces. None of them expressed sympathy for her loss. It didn’t matter to them that her brother had been killed. She could almost taste their disapproval. No respectable Cyraelian female would take an off-world lover. It was almost as if she deserved this.

  When they released her at dawn, she caught a last glimpse of Jake climbing into a law enforcement transport unit, accompanied by two officers. He was wearing restraints on his arms. She should have been glad, but the sight of him like that made her heart break. Captain Hallstrom and Jake’s techie friend, Pete, emerged from the building and followed her down the steps. The captain called out to her, but she turned her back on him and ran across the street.

  * * * * *

  The red graffiti had been cleaned away but the words were still faint but visible on the door of her apartment—Die, Wanton Whore. Tanith jumped when she heard the elevator doors open and she inserted her access card into the lock quickly, trying to get inside before she encountered her neighbors. The building supervisory committee had already left two messages, requesting that she contact them. It looked as if she would have to leave.

&n
bsp; When the judges issued their verdict of acquittal this morning, her official bodyguards had abandoned her without a backward glance. She was no longer the star witness for the prosecution. She was just a scandalous Cyraelian woman whose human lover had killed her brother.

  She had gone to the tribunal every day. Not because Raoul’s crazy friends insisted, but because she wanted to see the humans. Strom’s voice had been calm and steady, no matter what the prosecutor asked him. Pete was obviously uncomfortable but determined, and finally, Jake. He had borne the brunt of the cross-examination and his eyes watched her face closely as he gave his answers to the tribunal. Answers she didn’t want to hear.

  Yes, he had been ordered to seduce her by his captain.

  Yes, he had done it to provoke Raoul.

  Yes, he had killed her brother—but only in self-defense.

  Each response had been like a knife in her heart. She dug her nails into her palms, trying not to cry. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. It had all been a lie. Everything that happened between them was a lie. All the nights that she had lain with Jake, loved him. How the human must have laughed at her. She held Jake’s gaze until he flushed and turned away. At least he had the grace to look ashamed.

  Her evidence hadn’t been compelling enough to convince the tribunal otherwise. She hadn’t seen Jake shoot Raoul. She had glimpsed laser fire on the street and her brother had died with a weapon in his hand. Despite allegations of criminal activity on other worlds, Raoul had never been convicted of any crime on Cyraelia and her people didn’t extradite their own citizens. On the face of it, Raoul was an innocent man, shot dead in an alleyway by an off-worlder.

  The judges were undecided. Just when it seemed that Jake might be convicted, the humans offered to bring irrefutable evidence of Jake’s innocence. It was then that she discovered that her former lover was tech-enhanced. With the aid of a holo-projector linked to Jake’s cerebral implants, Raoul’s last minutes were played out for all the court to see. Jake had taunted him with remarks about their sexual relationship, trying to enrage her brother. How good she was in bed, how willing, how sweet. She watched Raoul emerge from the darkness, his eyes dark with rage as he fired his weapon. Finally, she heard Jake’s words as he returned fire. “This is for Ingrid.”

  She could feel the stares of the other people in the courtroom. Her cheeks blazed with shame. Jake’s words had utterly humiliated her. He had painted her as being little better than a whore. Not only had he seduced and betrayed her, but he had done it for another woman. She had left the courtroom then without a backward glance. After the dreadful weeks of the trial, she was glad to be alone again.

  Tanith sat down heavily on the couch and emptied the contents of the envelope onto the table. The authorities returned Raoul’s personal effects to her after the tribunal had issued its verdict. There wasn’t much to show for a lifetime. Access cards to his vehicles and her home, some large denomination credits, at least they would be useful. She might not have a job for much longer.

  In a small black wallet was an image of the two of them together when they were children. Raoul was taller than she, the big brother with his arms around his little sister. Out of the wallet tumbled a platinum chain with a half-moon pendant. She picked it up, toying with it between her fingers. The writing on the back of the pendant wasn’t Cyraelian. Raoul must have picked it up on his travels. Tanith fastened the chain around her neck. It was hers now. She would wear it in memory of him. A slow tear welled up and rolled down her cheek. She was so tired of everything.

  * * * * *

  The Terra-pod pulled up outside the custody unit and Jake climbed into the passenger seat. Pete clapped him on the shoulder. “Good to see you, Jake. The ship is leaving for home in a few hours. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “How about making a little detour first, Pete?”

  “If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, the answer is no. Forget her, Jake. There are plenty of other women out there who aren’t half as much trouble.”

  Jake reached for the door. “I guess I’ll have to go alone then.”

  Pete muttered under his breath as he entered the destination on screen and they headed toward the west of the city. Jake watched through the window as the second sun set. It was good to be outside again. The Cyraelian authorities had treated him well enough, but there wasn’t a single night that he didn’t miss Tanith or that he wasn’t racked with regret for what he had done to her. Raoul had deserved to die, but Tanith would pay the price.

  Every day during the trial, she had sat in the same seat. Apart from the state bodyguards, she was always alone. The worst day had been the cross-examination, when he had to tell a courtroom full of people how he had seduced and betrayed her. She waited until he finished giving evidence and then she left the courtroom. He hadn’t seen her since then.

  He understood enough about Cyraelian culture to know what the future held for her. Without Raoul’s protection, Tanith would lose her job and her precious home. Worst of all, she would be vulnerable to others who lived on the edge of society. Jake’s hands clenched into fists at the thought of his beautiful Tanith with someone like Atam Sorza. He was never going to let that happen.

  By the time they reached her apartment block, it was almost dusk. Pete switched off the engine and they sat in silence. “What a mess.” Pete sighed. “What are you going to do, Jake? I mean, what can you say to her?”

  Jake looked down at his hands. “There’s no point in talking to her. I know that she won’t listen to me and I don’t blame her.”

  Pete looked around him impatiently. “Then what the hell are we doing here?”

  “She’s coming back with us, Pete. I’m not leaving her behind. Now will you help me or not?”

  Pete started up the engine. “Okay, Jake, but you owe me for this one.”

  He parked the Terra-pod near the service elevator at the rear of the building. The security codes hadn’t been changed since the last time Jake had been here and they made their way up to her floor. Pete was still hesitant until they reached the door of Tanith’s apartment and he winced when he read the words. “Jake, if we’re caught doing this, neither of us will see Earth again.”

  Taking a small laser tool from his pocket, Pete worked on the lock until he heard a soft click and they hurried inside. The apartment was in darkness, except for a lamp in the sitting room, which he switched off. Along the corridor, Jake could see a chink of light under the bathroom door. He went to the bedroom and dragged the quilt off the bed. Knowing Tanith, she wouldn’t leave willingly and they would need something to wrap her in. As he turned, his foot brushed against the bag on the floor. He looked around the bedroom. The images were gone from the shelf and a dark outfit hung neatly on the back of the door. Tanith was leaving.

  The bathroom door opened and she stepped into the gloom. “Damned lamp,” Tanith muttered as she walked toward it.

  “Leave it,” a voice called from the shadows.

  Jake’s strong arms wrapped around her and he carried her toward the bedroom. Her treacherous human was back. Tanith kicked and squirmed in his arms. She managed to free one hand and used it to punch him in the face. “Let me go, Jake. Put me down.”

  He tossed her onto the bed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. She had drawn blood. “Just listen to me. I came to tell you that I’m sorry, Tanith. Please believe me, I never meant to hurt you.”

  The human’s face looked strained and he had dark circles under his eyes. He obviously hadn’t been sleeping well. Served him right, she thought bitterly. “You lied to me, Jake. Everything about us was a lie.”

  “Tanith, please don’t…”

  Why was he unhappy? The human didn’t care about her. The nights they had lain together in this room meant nothing to him. She was just another job. They probably laughed at her—the stupid Cyraelian female falling for someone like him. “Get out of here, Jake. I won’t be providing any more amusement for you and your human friends. Leav
e me alone.”

  Jake’s hands grabbed her upper arms and he pulled her toward him. His eyes blazed hot with anger. He exhaled slowly and released her arms. “It was never like that, Tanith. What we had together was real. Look, I know what I did was wrong. I know that it will take us time to get over this, but my ship is leaving tonight and I’m not going without you.”

  Oh, he was good. For a brief moment she almost believed him. Did he really think that she was that stupid? That she would fall for his lies again?

  The bedroom door opened and Jake’s techie friend popped his head inside. “I hate to interrupt such a sweet reunion, but Atam’s Terra-pod just pulled up out front. We need to get out of here.”

  “I am not going with you.”

  “Sweet merciful stars, you are such a pain.” Pete’s arm whipped around her chest and the other pressed hard against her neck and then everything went black.

  The corridor was empty and they carried the quilt-wrapped bundle into the service elevator and down to the waiting vehicle. Pete placed her unconscious body in the backseat while Jake slid into the front. “I’ll drive, you sit with her.”

  Pete eyed the rolled-up quilt nervously. “What am I going to do if she wakes up?”

  Jake grinned into the mirror. “Pray.”

  He eyed the clock on the dash. They would have to drive through the city if they wanted to make the ship on time. He didn’t want to annoy Strom any more than he already had and showing up late with a female prisoner was going to seriously annoy him. The bundle began to wriggle when they reached Central Avenue and Tanith’s head emerged from the quilt. “You techie creep, what the hell did you do to me?”

  “It’s called a carotid artery pinch. Would you like me to show you again?”

  “Pete,” Jake yelled from the front.

  Tanith kicked furiously, trying to dislodge the quilt. Her foot struck the window, attracting a stare from the driver of the vehicle in the next lane.