Captive of Pleasure; the Space Pirate's Woman (The LodeStar Series) (51 page)

Zaë’s mother blushed. “Just some self-defense training. Elliane has had it too.”

“Noticed that,” Pede said. “Ringi wants to learn it now.”

 
Zaë said nothing.

“David was wrong, you know,” Braveling said to her, his gaze pained. “You’re perfect just the way you are, my dear.”

She tried to smile at him, but it was a miserable effort.
 

“He was also right about one thing,” she said. “I never had the courage to tell him to get lost, did I?”

“That’s what I heard you doing earlier,” Joran reminded her, with a little squeeze.
 

“I want him arrested,” Braveling said. “I think a stint of hard labor, or mission service on an extremely backward planet.”

Joran shrugged. “Fine with me. That will either make or break him, I don’t much care which. I’m for lasering him, myself.”

“No,” Zaë said, leaning into him. “Let him dirty his hands serving others—he won’t enjoy that
at all
.”

 
“You got it, my lady.” He nodded to Ryder, who leaned down and grabbed the unconscious man by one boot. Pede grabbed the other, and they dragged Woodby away toward the door.
 

“Ouch.” Zaë winced in sympathy as his cheek thumped over the threshold.

“He was too pretty anyway,” Joran said.
 

She tipped her head back and looked up at him. “I never noticed.”

“Know you didn’t. He knew it too, knew he had to do something desperate to get your attention.”

She laid her head on his chest, and closed her eyes, leaning her weight into him. His arms tightened to support her. “You’re exhausted. Need to get you to bed with something to help you sleep.”

She stirred in his arms. “Just you beside me will do that,” she murmured.

He whispered into her ear. “Baby, you sure? Your parents.”

His lady surprised him yet again, lifting her head to give him a look that he now knew the origin of—her parents—haughty and sure of the right to be in charge, yet with a hint of mischief that was pure Zaë. “I think I’ve earned the right to decide where and with whom I sleep. If you’re too timid—“

“Oh, no,’” he cut in, giving her a look. “Now you’re just askin’ for trouble. Never question the courage of a Stark, my Zaë.”

“I was rather hoping for the Storm to blow through,” she whispered, her cheeks pink, her eyes glowing. “He dares anything, or so I hear.”

“For a woman like you, he does.”

***

The next morning, Joran left Zaë sleeping in their bed. He carefully tucked the covers around her bare shoulder and leaned down for a last kiss on her silky hair.
 

Their coupling last night had begun sweet and gentle, in deference to all she’d gone through that long day and night.

But it hadn’t ended that way. As always when he touched her, his lady melted in his hands like warm honey, and he could no more resist her pleas to hurry and have her than he could stop breathing, so they’d ended up locked together in a hard, fast, and hot coupling that had the bed creaking under them, and her soft cries rising in the night, his muffled in the pillow by her head.

He was still smiling reminiscently as he showerdried and dressed in his clothing which had been cleaned and delivered to the suite during the night.
 

He met Logan at the LodeStar hangar just outside Adamant. They were served a delicious breakfast and coffee on board Logan’s cruiser by a smiling flight attendant.

The storm of the night before had dissipated, and the morning was clear, bright and cool on the flat-topped mountain that held the Frontiera SatCom installation and IGSF base.

Xen Sou was waiting for them in the big conference room, and Stone Masterson arrived soon afterward, followed by a trio of uniformed IGSF officers who were introduced as General Hek Brace, Commander Qale and Lt. Ren Mecham.

Ren Mecham blushed when she met Joran’s amused gaze. He bowed politely. “Lt. Mecham. Well met. Congratulations on your promotion.”

“Thank you. Glad to be here.” And glad not to be removed from the Forces in a state of disgrace, her gaze said.
 

He nodded, and they walked with the others to sit around the command center, over which a holovid image of Frontiera and her moons revolved silently, waiting for interface.

Another group of men and women entered the room, and Xen Sou beckoned them to seats.
 

“Good, we are all here, let’s get started.”

Deciding the direction of the rule of a new and burgeoning planetary population took time and protocol, at least when the meeting was being run by an Alliance attaché. But finally, after three hours and much rhetoric, not all of it friendly but all of it determined on a common cause, the emergence of Frontiera as a democratic republic with checks and balances, both civilian and military, was outlined.

Joran was indeed offered the position of High Sheriff, in charge of setting up and overseeing a civilian police force on the planet. He turned it down.
 

“Sorry,” he said, not apologetically. “I don’t see myself as the man to manage on that scale, and anyway, this planet’s population is growing too fast for a network that size to work. Suggest you split civilian law enforcement up into regions—provinces, or the like. Appoint a sheriff of each, and balance that with police forces in the cities, as they do on Earth II. They work with the IGSF, the IBI and the elected officials.”

Xen Sou allowed himself a smile. “Our thoughts are in accord, Mr. Stark. I too feel this is the best plan. Shall we vote?”

Then Joran was more or less bludgeoned into accepting the position of sheriff of the plains region, which he accepted. Hells, he’d been doing it anyway, may as well get paid for it and do it without the IGSF riding his ass.

Besides, if he was going to win a lady’s hand in marriage, which he had every intention of doing, time he went legit.
 

“Now, as to the disposition of the slave gang,” Xen Sou went on. “We have the heads of the different divisions, and they will be dispatched to Deep Six, the prison planet after due process.”

“What we do not have,” he added grimly, “is Midas Vadyal’s credit. We have several blind accounts and of course his physical assets, but the bulk of his fortune seems to have vanished.”

“Really,” Joran said, leaning back in his chair. “Think I may know who to ask.”

He looked to the IGSF commander. “Where’s the rescued slave, the man who was with Slidi?”

“His name is Kai te Nawa,” Logan added.

“He’s here at base, resting.”

“Bring him up here.”

When he arrived in the conference room, Kai te Nawa looked more…normal. Although even in a dark business suit, his ornate slave collar gone, he still didn’t look like an average citizen. With his dramatic beauty, and aura of smoldering intensity, he looked more like a musician, Chaz Jaguari style, or even a fashion model that bots might be patterned after for a fashion or scent campaign.

He walked into the room, and set the gold collar on the table before him before he sat.

“You’re here to clear up a bit of a mystery,” Joran told him. “You’re a free man now. Hope you’ll begin that life by helping the law.”

Kai raised his brows in a silent question.
 

“Yeah, you know what I’m talking about,” Joran said. “Where is it? What’d you do with Vadyal’s credit? You told Slidi you had the codes.”

Kai shoved the slave collar forward with one finger. It lay coiled on the edge of the command center like a small but vile snake. “The code is here. The key lies elsewhere. A failsafe, in case anyone discovered I had the data.”

Joran nodded. “And where’s the key?”

Kai smiled faintly for the first time. “Why in the safest place I could find. In the possession of a woman of honesty and virtue.”

Joran’s chest tightened and the hair stood up on the back of his neck. “Zaë?”

Kai nodded.

Joran shot out of his chair, and leaned over the table, barely able to contain his fury. Logan moved to forestall him, but Joran ignored him for once.

“Why did you choose her?” he demanded. “Of all the slaves there, why did you choose Lady Elliane to put in this kind of danger?”

“Because,” Kai said. “I knew at once who she was.”

 
His face paled as he clearly saw Joran’s rage go supernova, but he went on. “I recognized her. And I knew her parents were the sort of beings who would support my efforts to bring down a slave gang, even if it meant delaying their reunion with their daughter. I hoped she was also that kind of person.”

“You sent her off with a buyer,” Joran accused, his voice quiet and deadly. “Knowing that likely she’d be raped as soon as she was out of that auction ring. You let her go to that fate? That makes you as bad as Slidi and Vadyal.”

Kai shook his head stiffly. “No,” he said, meeting Joran’s gaze. “Because you see, I knew who you were, too. A Stark. That meant you were ruthless, but also a man of honor.”

Joran stared at him. Then he shook his head, some of his fury dissipating, though not all of it, because it could so easily have gone wrong for his woman. “Luckily for you, I believe you. Otherwise, there’d be no safe haven for you on this planet.”

Kai bowed to him. “I would expect nothing less.”

“Where is it?” Logan asked.

“It is on her comlink. She has three pearls embedded in the shell covering. I added a fourth, a black one. Inside is a microchip with the key to the information here.”

“I will take that,” Xen Sou said, beckoning for the necklace.
 

One of the IGSF officers slid it along the table to him, and he opened his attaché case and placed the collar inside, then snapped it shut.

“Retrieve the key,” he ordered. “Commander Brace will take charge of it. This is a vast amount of credit, some of which will now flow into a Frontieran governmental treasury, while a portion will be used to search for other victims of the slavers, throughout the galaxy. There must be no question of corruption here.”

Kai didn’t look upset at all to be giving up enough credit to buy a small world. Joran met Logan’s gaze and smiled to himself. He’d bet not
all
of Vadyal’s fortune would be going to the places stated by Xen Sou. And that was fine with him. If anyone deserved a share, it was a man who’d been kidnapped as a young boy, and was only now resurfacing, free at last.

 
***

“Great God,” Joran muttered to Logan as they waited outside to board the IGSF cruiser. “Glad that’s done.”

Logan nodded, but he was watching Kai, who stood a little ways away, the morning wind ruffling his dark hair as he gazed out over the jagged, white-capped mountains.
 

“You headed back to F City after this?” Joran asked.

Logan blinked slowly, and focused on Joran. “Yes.” He smiled faintly. “I have a very special delivery I wish to make in person.”

“Taking Kai to meet his sister,” Joran filled in.

Logan nodded. “Kiri’s been waiting a very long time for this.”

“You tell her yet?”

“I linked her last night.” Logan’s gaze softened at the memory. “She’s a tough woman. This was only the second time I’ve seen her weep.”

“Glad you’re able to give her that,” Joran said. “Maybe this can be a gesture that lets you start to heal whatever went wrong between the two of you.”

“I don’t know,” Logan said. “But I certainly mean to try.”

Joran smiled, knowing that meant it
would
happen, it was just a matter of how long it took. All indications said Kiri te Nawa was as stubborn as Logan himself. Should be a hell of a show.

“Think he’ll manage to assimilate, though?” Joran asked quietly, gaze on Kai. “He’s nearly feral in some ways. Can only imagine the shit he’s been through. Not a big fan of poking around in minds, but maybe it would do him some good. We could take him to Indigo with us.”

“We’ll leave that to him and Kiri,” Logan said.
 

Joran’s brows flew up at this, and Logan grimaced. “I’m trying.”
 

“Big step for you,” Joran said. “But I know you’ll become an expert at backing off, just like you are at everything else you set your mind to.”

“Quiet,” Logan warned. “I’m still your older brother, and don’t forget it.”

Joran merely grinned.

“But,” Logan went on, “I would like to invite you and Lady Elliane and her parents to travel as my guests, aboard
Orion
. She’s due in here next week, next stop Indigo. The voyage would give you some down time with Lady Elliane before her treatment.”

 
“Thanks, we’ll take you up on that. I do like flying LodeStar, all the luxuries of home, and then some.”

They exchanged a wry look that acknowledged that the luxuries they now enjoyed were far, far beyond the ‘home’ they’d known as boys on the mean streets of New Seattle, Earth II.