3013: STOWAWAY (3013: The Series) (16 page)

“You have nothing to apologize for. This was not your doing. You should have been safe here. The fact you had to draw a blade and defend yourself has me pissed as hell. I’m going to be making some improvements to security around here, and then I’m going to lay into whoever they send to run this station next. These assholes should never have been able to get onto the station, never mind waltz into my bar. They’re armed and in armor. When I find out which of my staff were supposed to be watching the door, I’m going to tear off their favorite parts and make a necklace out of them.”

T’karra eyes flashed red again, and Sonja instinctively moved a little further away.

“Don’t worry, we crazy fuckers never eat our friends. Well…almost never.”

The sound of authoritative shouting came from somewhere nearby and T’karra turned toward it, waving her hand and shouting, “We need a med
-tech over here, and security, too.”

“I need to go see to the others. Let me know when he wakes up, will you? I owe him an apology
, too.”

“Clear our tabs, we’ll call it even,” Trevar muttered, startling everyone.

“Welcome back,” Sonja said, hugging him carefully.

“What the hell happened?”

“You fainted, old man. One little boo-boo and down you went. I swear you’re getting delicate in your old age.”

“Fuck you, kid. When I get this hole in my side patched up, I’m going to kick your ass from here to Orion.”

“Never going to happen.”

She listened to them banter and felt the fear that had coiled around her heart slowly melt away. They were going to be okay, all of them. As the
med-techs gathered around him, Sonja kissed his cheek and then moved back to give them room to work.

“Love you,” he said.

“And I love you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her while you’re recuperating,” Deke said, grinning wickedly.

“You should be hoping he recovers quickly. I did tell you that the first one to insult the other was going to have to watch, and I heard you call him old man. So…”

Trevar was still laughing when they put him on the stretcher and carried him to medical. She and Deke were only a few steps behind them, and Deke was muttering under his breath about the fucked up logic of females every step of the way.

***

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Deke was sitting outside of Trevar’s room, watching the staff come and go as he kept watch over his best friend and their chosen. He had finished the last of the reports several hours ago. He’d felt a certain sense of satisfaction the moment he’d submitted them, adding another nail in the coffins of those who had attacked his family.

Sonja had been bruised and her lip split open, but she was already healing. He had left her curled up in a chair beside Trevar’s bed. She hadn’t left his side since he’d come out of surgery. Her statement was already done, her injuries seen to, and now she was finally resting. When this was all done, the three of them were going to need a vacation somewhere, maybe New Vega. Sonja had never been off-world, so she would have never experienced the decadent delights that New Vega had to offer.

It would be a while before they could make that trip, though. Despite what he’d told Sonja at the time, Trevar’s injury hadn’t been minor. Even with their enhanced healing abilities he was going to need some time to recover. He
would
get better though, and that was what really mattered. It hadn’t hit Deke until he was watching Sonja get treated for her injuries, knowing Trevar was still in surgery, just how close he’d come to losing them both.

He’d been alone since the day his mother had handed him over to the Alli
ance and walked out of his life. There wasn’t a lot of love or gentleness offered to the elite trainees, but no one beat him, and there was always enough to eat. He tried to convince himself his mother’s abandonment was a blessing and not a betrayal, and got on with his life. He’d been alone at first, but then his path had aligned with Trevar’s, the one person he knew would always have his back. If someone had told the lonely, isolated boy he’d been that one day he would have not only a friend, but a brother, and a chosen so beautiful she made his heart ache, he wouldn’t have believed it. Hell, he still found it hard to accept, and here he was, living it.

Deke glanced over his shoulder to where the woman he loved was dozing, her fingers entangled with Trevar’s, and the truth dawned on him in a moment of perfect clarity. The Alliance had always been the closest thing to a family he had, but that wasn’t enough anymore. He wanted the real thing. Hell, he wanted it all, and they couldn’t do it wearing Alliance uniforms. It was time to resign.

“Officer Wilde?” a haggard looking officer interrupted his musings, and Deke stood up to meet him.

“That’s me.”

“Security sent me to update you, and to let you know that there’s a vid call for your chosen.”

“Who is calling?” Deke asked. The list of people he was willing to wake up Sonja for was a damned short one. She needed to rest.

“Her brother, General Grekov. He’s uh… very insistent.”

“Yeah, I bet. It seems to run in the family. I’ll wake her up. What do you need to update me on?”

“I was told to inform you and your chosen that the Grekov-Neilson family are currently in custody and being interrogated.”

“
Well, that’s good news. At least they won’t be coming after her anymore. I still can’t believe my in-laws tried to kidnap their own daughter. Family get-togethers are going to be a little strained for a few decades.” He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to banish some of his exhaustion.

“Better you than me,” the officer said and then pointed down the corridor. “Second door on the left has a vid-screen. We’ll route the call to you there.”

“Thank you.”

Deke slipped into Trevar’s room, only to find Sonja already awake. Her eyes glittered with anger, telling him she’d overheard his conversation. She touched a finger to her lips and carefully untangled her hand from Trevar’s before following him back out into the corridor.

“You don’t have to worry about family get-togethers, you know. I will never speak to them again. Not after this.”

“Never say never. They’re your family…”

“Not anymore. Family doesn’t do what they did. You two are my family now…and I do still have three brothers. I know none of them are going to be okay with what our parents did.”

“You ready to face brother number one? Nicholai is on vid for you.”

“Of course it would be him. He’s going to bellow like a bear with a sore paw.”

“He better not yell too much, or he and I are going to be having words.”

She burrowed into his side and hugged him. “And that is one of the many reasons why I love you. Come on, let’s go show my big brother I’m alive and well. It’s probably the only good news he’s going to get today.”

Sonja had no idea what she was going to say to her brother. She’d left his bonding celebration and vanished into thin air. There wasn’t much she regretted about her choice to run, but leaving Nikolai without any idea where she had gone or what had happened to her was not something she was proud of.

With any luck, he’ll only yell at me for the first five or ten minutes…

The room Deke had been told to go to wasn’t much for comfort or style. Beige walls, gray carpet and a couple of well-worn chairs that looked like they might have been new back when mankind still thought the moon was made of green cheese. The vid screen was from this century at least, large enough to take up most of one wall.

“You want to do this sitting or standing, sweetheart?” Deke asked, walking over to the console.

“Sitting. We might as well try and be comfortable.” She settled into one of the chairs, grateful that Deke had thought to send someone to the ship to get them both a change of clothes. The last thing Nikolai needed to see was her in torn and bloodstained clothing.

“I just hope he doesn’t expect me to salute him,” Deke muttered and then activated the screen. He didn’t even make it to his chair before her brother’s face was scowling down at her. There were shadows beneath his dark eyes and it didn’t look like he’d shaved yet. He wasn’t in uniform though, which meant he was calling from his home at Fort Saken.

“Sonja Nadira Grekov, what the hell were you thinking taking off like that?” Nikolai’s dark eyes were full of worry despite the harsh tone of his voice.

“I was thinking that I didn’t want to get sold to a couple of our parents’ cronies like some kind of prize pig. And my name is Wilde-Storm now, not Grekov.”

He glowered. “We’ll talk about your claiming in a minute. You could have asked us for help, sprite.”

“And you’d of done what, exactly? Our parents sent a half dozen mercenaries into an Alliance base with orders to get me back home by whatever means they deemed necessary. One of my bonded is recovering from surgery after getting shot while he was in the middle of a Krytos sanctuary. If they were willing to break stars knows how many interstellar laws to do that, do you
really
think you could have kept them away from me?”

Nikolai opened his mouth, but she waved him off and kept going. She had more to say, and for once in her life someone in her family was actually going to shut up and
listen
to her.

“You don’t know what it was like for me. I couldn’t do
anything
, Nikolai. Not without bodyguards and an electronic leash. And don’t you dare tell me it was for my own protection either. Alayna didn’t need bodyguards and she grew up in the badlands and was a fucking thief for star’s sake! And T’karra is the head of her family and runs an entire sanctuary. Just because I can have children doesn’t mean I don’t have any rights at all. I am a grown woman and I can make my own choices. I had to leave the damned planet to be able to have a say in my own life!”

“So, that cut on your lip, is that one of your choices? And leaving us without a word, not knowing where the fuck you were for weeks, that was your choice? If so, then I am not real impressed with your decision making skills.” He slammed a hand down on the counter and Sonja jumped at the noise. Before she could say anything, Deke got to his feet

“That’s enough. She might be your sister, but she’s my chosen, and if you don’t stop yelling at her, I’m going to terminate this link. We clear?”

Nikolai’s brows knitted into a scowl. “You must be the one who didn’t get himself shot.”

Sonja took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “This is Deacon Wilde, my bonded. Trevar Storm is the one recovering down the hall from me right now. So, are you done yelling at me like I’m six years old now?”

“Maybe. I’m not make any fucking promises. Deacon, I’d like to say it’s nice to meet you…but I’ve seen the footage of you and my sister getting naked up against a window, so I’m not exactly your biggest fan right now. I haven’t slept much since my baby sister vanished off my base, and now my parents are under arrest for a list of charges that will keep their lawyers busy for weeks, if not years.”

“I
am
sorry I couldn’t tell you where I was. I knew you’d be worried, but you know they have us all watched as much as they can. There wasn’t much point in my ditching my guards, tossing my wrist unit, and then sending a message telling them exactly where to find me.”

She stood up and Deke flashed her a smile before wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders and drawing her in close to his side.

“When did our parents lose their fucking minds?” Nikolai muttered.

“Nik, who are you bellowing at? Is that Sonja? You bastard! You didn’t tell me you were finally talking to your sister. I am going to make you pay for that later.” Alayna bounded into view, her dark hair tied back in its usual braid and a bright smile on her face. “Hey there! I hear you went and got claimed and then stabbed someone. When you decide to cut loose, you really don’t go by half measures, do you? And we really need to improve our communication skills. When we talked about stealing rockets, that was supposed to be a figure of speech!”

Nikolai’s face crumbled into a look of outraged horror. “You…you told her to steal a rocket? What the hell were you thinking, woman?”

“I was thinking that you turned your backs on your parents and did your own thing, so why shouldn’t Sonja? Besides, that conversation was the day your parents tried me to bribe me into leaving you and Colin, so I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly.”

Deke lowered his head to Sonja’s ear and whispered, “Your parents tried to bribe her into leaving? After she was claimed?”

“Uh huh. Long story,” Sonja whispered back.

Alayna laughed. “It’s not really that long a story. They gave me money and told me I wasn’t good enough for their son. I gave it back and told them to get out of my house. Then Nik growled and Colin glowered, and both of them pounded on their chests and that was the end of it. Oh! And as it turns out, I am totally good enough for their son, only they don’t know it yet. I got my DNA results back after you left!”

“Oh, no. She wants to hear about that, you can tell her in person when she gets back to Earth.”

“I’m not coming back,” Sonja said.

“Like hell you’re not! You need to come back here and run the damned company. I’m sure as hell not doing it.”

“Well, neither am I. Get Scott to do it, he’s the one they were grooming to take over anyway. And I mean it, I am not coming back. I always wanted to travel space, and now I can. You three got to do it, while I was stuck on Earth. Now it’s my turn.”

Deke was so proud of Sonja he was having a hard time not applauding her as she stood up for herself. This day had been a long time coming for her, and he knew it wasn’t easy standing up to someone as intimidating as her brother. “Trevar and I have already discussed this, and we’re in agreement. Sonja wants to see the galaxy, and we’re going to show it to her.”

The woman Sonja had called Alayna smiled at him and waved her hand slightly. “Oh, hi there. I’m Alayna. Don’t pay any attention to the grumpy general, he’s always like this before morning coffee. So, you’re my new brother-in-law?”

“I am. Deacon Wilde, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. Take good care of Sonja, and I’ll stay nice. Hurt her, and I will hunt you to the end of the universe.”

“Alayna! Quit threatening my bonded, will you? I swear he’s going to think my entire family is insane if you two don’t quit it. Deke and Trevar were my choice. And yes, I got a choice, which is more than my brother and Colin gave you. So, let me go over this one more time. I’m happy. I love my bonded. I am not coming back to Earth to run G-Mex, or for any other reason except to visit you…if you quit being so bossy, Nikolai.”

Nikolai threw up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. So long as no one tries to make me run the company, I’m happy.”

“Six months under your care, and we wouldn’t have a company left to run, and honestly, I wouldn’t do much better. Do you really think Scott needs to come back and run things? I mean, the charges, are they that serious?”

Both Nikolai and Alayna nodded. “It’s too early to be certain, but it looks bad. Mars for the rest of their lives, kind of bad.”

Deke cleared his throat. “I’ve seen the preliminary reports. They came in while you were sleeping, Sonja. The two survivors both identified your parents as their employers. They had orders to bring you back alive and without permanent injury, but that anything up to permanent was perfectly acceptable.”

Nik scrubbed a hand through his dark hair, his frown deepening. “Fuck. I haven’t seen that report yet.”