Dark Solstice (24 page)

It seemed to her that the deeper they went, the more evolved the ecosystem. It made sense. No doubt the fissure had retarded growth because of the subzero night time temperatures of the surface, the rupture stealing elements essential to prosperous growth.

Unfortunately, this was beyond her area of expertise. She could see traces of ore and mineral deposits here and there that she could identify, but she didn’t know any more about living things than the next layman. Clearly it was well established, had sprung naturally from the life supporting elements that had come together inside the caverns. She thought it must also be likely that it had all begun with living things that had lain dormant within the caverns until the circumstances came together that awakened them and spawned proliferation at an accelerated rate, but that was only a guess at best.

They continued to follow the virtually flat, even ground that formed the ‘banks’ of the trickle of water than ran through the cavern, covering a good deal of ground in a short space of time and finally stopped to rest and eat.

Kyle glanced at her curiously several times and finally, apparently, decided to yield to his curiosity. “That was a very effective self-defense maneuver you pulled off last night,” he commented neutrally. “They teach that sort of thing to all geologists?”

Rhea stared at him blankly. “Maneuver?” she repeated, confused.

He studied her for a long moment, flicked an uncomfortable glance at Raathe, and finally shrugged. “Forget I asked.”

Rhea considered it, however, trying to remember. “You mean when Grimes and Cook attacked me? I don’t really remember what happened, not very clearly, anyway.”

Something flickered in his eyes. She thought it was suspicion, but it only confused her more.

He shrugged again. “It was so smoothly executed ….”

Rhea studied her food. “It didn’t feel like it. I’d been going over and over it in my head, trying to decide what I’d do. I’d hidden the shard in my gauntlet when I found it, but then I had to take the PEC off and I couldn’t conceal it in my sleeve.” She shuddered. “Grimes kept saying he would cut my throat if I gave him any trouble. I knew he would if … when he decided he didn’t need me anymore.”

She looked up, meeting Kyle’s gaze for a long moment before her gaze flickered to Raathe and stayed. “He didn’t hesitate to kill either of you—believed he had. I thought he had.”

Kyle studied her for a moment and finally uttered a derisive snort. “He planted the suggestion in your mind.”

Rhea looked at him in confusion.

He shrugged. “Would you have thought to go for the throat if he hadn’t kept threatening to cut your throat?”

She stared at him in surprise for a long moment and finally frowned, thinking it over. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “I never thought about killing anyone before.”

Raathe flicked a glance at her and focused on repacking his bag. “It’s just as well you didn’t have to. As dull as that thing was you found, I doubt you could’ve managed it short of trying to saw his head off,” he said easily.

Rhea felt throat close with emotion. “I’m not going to let you take the blame for killing them—either of you.”

Raathe fixed her with a hard look. “Sorry, munch. I never let anyone else count my coups.”

Rhea felt angry tears fill her eyes. “You didn’t do it and I won’t let you take the blame. It was self-defense. I don’t know what kind of sentence it might carry, but it certainly shouldn’t be the same as it would be if you claimed you’d killed them.”

Raathe and Kyle exchanged a long, hard look. Finally, both of them shrugged and allowed the subject to drop.

“Why don’t we just focus on trying to put as much distance between us and having to explain it as we can?” Justice suggested.

Rhea merely nodded, allowing them to lead her from the subject, but she had no intention of allowing them to confess to murdering Grimes and Cook when she knew
she
had killed them. There seemed no point in arguing about it now. If and when the time came, and she was sure it would eventually, then she would confess and accept the consequences. She’d been in the worst prison in the solar system. If she had to do time, she thought she could handle it, and that was preferable to what she would’ve faced if she hadn’t done anything.

It made her ill to think about what she’d done, but she just wouldn’t think about it. She didn’t feel guilty. She saw no reason why she should feel guilty when she knew with absolutely certainty that the men she’d killed had fully intended to kill her. She might have nightmares about it forever, probably would, but her conscience wasn’t going to bother her.

The ‘days’ within the cave system were short. Within a few hours after they’d stopped to rest and eat their mid day meal twilight had fallen. It was as twilight settled around them that they heard the first sounds indicating pursuit.

Chapter Twenty One

Raathe, Rhea, and Justice jolted to a halt almost as one as the whine of engines abruptly broke the blanketing silence in the caverns. Turning, they stared back in the direction from which they’d come, although the sound, bouncing off the walls of the cavern, seemed to be coming at them from every direction.

“Skimmers,” Raathe said grimly.

“Shit!” Justice swore.

Rhea glanced from one man to the other, trying to absorb a fact that none of them had anticipated. The warden’s men had transport. “How far away are they, do you think?”

When neither man answered, Rhea turned to discover that they were surveying the landscape around them. “There!” Kyle exclaimed abruptly.

Fully expecting to see armed guards bearing down on them, Rhea whirled to see what he’d pointed out, her heart in her throat. She couldn’t see anything, though, but the ragged walls of the cavern.

“Looks like a promising position,” Raathe agreed, grabbing her arm and hustling her along the path they’d been following.

“Position for what?” Rhea demanded a little breathlessly, jogging to keep up with his longer stride.

Raathe didn’t even glance at her.

“To hold them off if we have to.”

She sent a startled look at Kyle. “Wouldn’t it be better just to hide?” she asked weakly.

“If we have a choice,” Raathe agreed grimly.

The whine of the engines was loud and growing louder when they finally reached the area Justice had pointed out. Raathe and Justice dropped the packs they were carrying and began searching for hand and footholds. Rhea looked up at the crevice Justice had spied in dismay. It looked to be at least twenty feet from the floor of the cavern.

Shrugging her uneasiness off when Raathe glanced back at her impatiently, she surged toward the wall and began scrambling up it behind them. She sensed that both Justice and Raathe kept glancing down at her, but she was too focused on finding safe hand and footholds to look up at them or to try to gauge the distance she still had to climb. Her hands felt raw from gripping the rough rock within moments. Her arms and legs felt like putty. Gritting her teeth, she climbed as fast as she dared, feeling a burning sensation of anticipation all along her back as if the guards were taking a bead on her.

After what seemed an hour at the very least but probably hadn’t been more than ten minutes, two strong hands reached down to her, gripped her forearms and Justice and Raathe hauled her the remainder of the way up. She tumbled into darkness, discovering that the ‘crevice’ appeared to be a cave itself. A few small patches of phosphorous glowed on the walls here and there. Not enough to give off sufficient light to really see the interior, but enough to show her that the black area behind the boulder that formed a shallow lip at the front was deep enough to hide any number of things.

Shivering, trying not to think what might be in the darkness, Rhea righted herself and settled between Raathe and Justice with the boulder at her back, trying to catch her breath and regain control of her runaway heart.

Raathe shoved his pistol into her hand. Rhea looked at it blankly and then lifted her head to look at him in sudden fear.

“I’m going to try to get around behind them,” Raathe said grimly, his expression taut as he met Justice’s gaze. He glanced at Rhea. “Maybe I can lead them away.”

Rhea felt her jaw sag with disbelief. “Without a weapon?” she croaked.

He pulled a long knife from his boot to show her he wasn’t unarmed and then shoved it back into place. Horror washed over Rhea. “But … But ….”

Grabbing her shoulders, he placed a hard, brief kiss on her lips. “Take care of her for me, Justice.”

Justice met his look with a hard one of his own. “I’ll take of her.”

The two men eyed each other assessingly. “You and I are going to have to have a little heart to heart,” Raathe growled.

“Seems that way,” Justice agreed, his own voice hard and unyielding.

“Now wait just a damned …,” Rhea snapped, anger and fear colliding inside of her. Justice cut her off by clamping a hand over her mouth that covered most of her face. She glared at him over the edge of his hand.

Grim amusement flickered in Raathe’s eyes. “Keep your head down, munch.”

Before she could pry Kyle’s hand off and continue the tirade bursting to break free, Raathe vaulted over the boulder at her back. Tearing free of Kyle’s grip, Rhea scrambled up to look down at Raathe fearfully. To her relief, he landed solidly on both feet on the cavern floor below them, allowing his knees to give and absorb the impact of the drop. After glancing around, he straightened his knees, grabbed their packs and quickly hid them from sight and then, hunched over in a crouch, he moved swiftly away, disappearing within seconds, absorbed by the shadows below them.

Her heart seemed to be lodged in her throat. Rhea swallowed convulsively several times and yielded to Kyle’s pull as he jerked her down again behind the cover of the boulder.

The sound of the skimmer engines was so loud by the time she managed to regain some of her equilibrium she doubted very much that the men driving them could have heard her if she’d shouted, but the anger and the reason for it had vanished from her mind. Ignoring Kyle, she inched up enough to peer over the boulder. In the distance, she spotted several dark blobs moving rapidly toward them, fast enough that by the time she’d blinked the blobs had resolved itself into three men mounted on personal skimmers. With another blink of her eyes, she realized it was actually six men riding double, one driving each skimmer, the men riding in tandem behind them holding laser rifles trained to either side of the trail they followed and scanning the shadows.

Kyle planted his palm on the top of her head and shoved her down.

She sent him a resentful glare when she discovered that he was still watching the approach of the skimmers. In the next instant, he ducked, as well. For several tense moments, they sat behind the boulder, their ears pricked as the sound of the skimmers grew louder and louder until they knew the men must be almost directly below them. Rhea didn’t even realize she’d been holding her breath until she finally decided that the sounds seemed to be dimming. Sucking in a reviving breath of air, she glanced a question at Kyle. He was frowning, still listening intently. After a few moments, he rose cautiously and peered over the boulder again. She saw the tension ease from his stance.

“They passed us,” he murmured when he’d settled beside her again.

Rhea swallowed convulsively, her mouth dry with the fear that had enveloped her. “They won’t stop looking, will they?”

Kyle shook his head. “I doubt it—certainly not any time soon.”

Rhea dragged in a shuddering breath, trying to reconcile their situation in her mind. She supposed, if she’d had the time and opportunity to assess their situation before, she would’ve realized that it was highly unlikely the warden would just call his dogs off and leave them to their fate. The situation was way over her head, though. She didn’t think she’d really ever even adjusted to the reality of prison life. She’d been thrown off kilter from the moment she was detained, something she’d never experienced in her life before.

It would’ve been hard enough to grasp if it had been a legal arrest, but the situation went even beyond her vague knowledge of crime and punishment, let alone her experience. For the most part, everything that had happened since she’d been detained had been far more like a nightmare than reality—except for Kyle and John. They hadn’t just protected her and taken care of her, they’d given her something ‘normal’ to hold on to in the brief moments they’d shared pleasure. She hadn’t realized, before, that beyond giving her pleasure, the act of sex between them had given her one point of normalcy to cling to, one thing she could hang on to that was familiar, something she thought she’d needed far more even than the release of tension it offered.

Without that—without them—if she’d been thrown in with any of the other criminals, she wasn’t sure she could’ve held on to her sanity at all.

And now even that one harbor was threatened because of the territorialism brooding between her two ‘rocks’. She sent Kyle a troubled glance and discovered that he was studying her.

Wordlessly, he set his pistol aside, pulled hers from her grasp and set it aside, as well, and then dragged her into a light embrace. With gladness, Rhea settled her cheek just above his heart, soaking in the comforting solidness of him, his warmth, his scent, the aura of his affection for her. He loved her. She thought she would’ve felt it if even if he hadn’t told her how much she meant to him when he’d asked her to contract with him.

How could he be a bad man? How could either of them be bad when they cared about her, risked everything to protect her, their very lives?

And yet the law said they were. The law would shield the warden and his men from any sort of retribution if they hunted them down and killed them—which was their intentions. Neither Raathe nor Justice had wanted to say it, but that was what they were facing if they were caught—worst case scenario. The best case would be that they would all be returned to the prison and die there, eventually.

Even if by some miracle Raathe’s transmission had gotten through and the government sent their own people to verify the facts, Raathe and Justice would certainly be returned to prison. She might or might not be released from charges since she’d only killed to defend herself, but either way, she would never get to see either of them again.