Born of Fire

A wedding ring . . .

It’d been a stupid impulse to buy the ring. He’d known it the moment he did it. But as he was buying Shahara her jacket, he’d looked down in the jewelry case and seen its golden diamond stones twinkling. Their fire flashed with the same intensity as her eyes, and he couldn’t resist it anymore than he could resist her.

What a tangled, complicated mess they were in.

Of course, he should be used to that by now. Life was a treacherous beast, and every time he thought he had it tamed, it always turned around and bit him on the ass. But he refused to let it humble Shahara. She deserved better than that.

It’s hopeless. There’s nothing here on the man.

No, he wouldn’t give up. He couldn’t. Setting the ring aside, he kept looking.

“Hey, boss?”

“Not now, Vik.”

Vik extended one arm and shoved him back in his chair. “Dude, listen to the metallic life form.”

Just as Syn was about to tear his head off, Vik entered a code and unlocked Lyche’s files.

But it was the top file that made every hope he had crumble straight to the ground as he realized one truth.

None of them were going to survive.





CHAPTER 19


Shahara paused as she entered the hotel room and found Syn looking ill. It was obvious he’d received bad news.

Again.

There was also an open half-empty bottle of hard Tondarion Fire next to him—an alcohol so potent, it was banned on most planets. That definitely wasn’t a good sign.

“What happened?”

He took a swig of the alcohol straight out of the bottle—impressive and scary. “Lyche is dead.”

The news slammed straight into her gut as she neared him. Surely she’d misheard him. “What?”

His eyes mirrored the disgust on his face. “Fate is indeed one serious bitch . . . He died ten years ago, probably from a disease caused by Merjack’s gas.”

“So what are you saying?”

“Basically, we’re screwed.” He raked his hand through his hair. “I just unlocked his medical files—”

Vik cleared his throat.

“Vik unlocked his files and I found the death certificate.”

So glad I was right . . . Weary and upset, she went to stand by his side so that she could see the report herself.

Sure enough, the man was dead. Not that she doubted Syn, but she was hoping he’d had a concussion that left him unable to read or something.

This can’t be happening . . . They needed to find that chip.

“So where does this leave us?”

“I’m working on it. His wife is still alive. I’m doing a search for her contact information. Maybe . . . maybe she still has the statue.”

“Statue? Why are you looking for a statue?”

“That’s what I put the chip in.”

Shahara frowned. “A statue?” she repeated. “How big was this thing?”

He held his hands up to show her about three feet.

“And you chose that again . . . why?”

“It was there and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, it did work. No one seems to have found it in all these years.”

Holding her hands up, she didn’t say anything else as he reached for the link to call Lyche’s widow.

He checked his chronometer. “It should be middle afternoon where she is. Keep your hopes up.”

They were about the only thing she had up at the moment. C’mon. Answer the call . . . She waited, her heart pounding erratically until an old woman answered his call.

“Fria Lyche?”

“Yes, yes, this is she. Can I help you?”

“I hope so, ma’am. You don’t know me, but I’m looking for a piece of statuary your late husband owned.”

“Merrin had several pieces,” she said, her voice gentle and kind. “He loved to collect all different types.”

“Yes, ma’am. The one I’m interested in looked like an ancient Derridian goddess. Pikra, I think it was.”

“Oh yes, the garishly green one with the snake skin and ruby hair. No matter how hard I try, I can’t purge that nasty thing out of my mind.”

Shahara grimaced at the hideous description. Why would anyone buy such a thing? For that matter, why would anyone hide a valuable chip in it?

Even as a kid, Syn should have known better.

He looked up at her and winked. “That’s the one. Do you know what happened to it?”

“Oh my goodness, would you believe the doctors told him not to go back to his office and remove anything at all, and yet he insisted he go back for that monstrosity? He said it had magic protecting powers instilled in it from ancient times. The only power I ever knew it to have was the ability to make everyone who saw it cringe and curl their lips. I still don’t know why he loved it so. He was like a kid with a pet toy. But once he got sick, I made him get rid of that foully hideous thing. It made my skin crawl to be near it. Evil-looking thing, it was.”

It was gone? Shahara felt ill at the woman’s tirade.

What are we going to do now?

Syn scowled. “Do you know what he did with it?”