“And Desideria’s mother?”
“Commandeered a ship out of the hangar. Since she was leaving and not coming in, security didn’t realize they’d screwed up until after she was gone. I hacked her flight plan and she’s headed straight to Exeter, no doubt to execute her sister and niece.”
Oh yeah, this was bad. And he had no doubt that Darling’s speculation was right. Sarra wasn’t exactly known for her calm rationale.
She’d be out for blood.
Caillen growled as his thoughts kept coming back to one truth. “They’ll kill her if she comes out of hiding.”
“Yes, they will.”
And if she wasn’t Desideria’s mother, he’d say good riddance. That kind of stupid needed to be strained out of the gene pool. But in spite of everything, she was Desideria’s mother and he couldn’t let her die.
“Where are you?” he asked Darling.
“In my fighter, heading after her. I’m hoping I make it in time to stop her from committing suicide. If not, I plan to go down fighting beside her stupid ass.”
Saddest part? He knew Darling would stay true to those words.
Which meant they were all heading to the gallows.
22
“You should tell Desideria our mother is still alive.”
Caillen arched a brow at Chayden’s comment. “You need to pilot and not worry about it. We need to tel ass as fast as possible.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Chay, what good will it do to tell her her mother’s alive if her mother gets herself killed in the next hour? Really? Call me provincial, but to me it seems cruel to say, guess what? Your mom’s alive. Oh wait. She was alive. Now she’s dead again ’cause our worthless asses couldn’t save her. Sorry, hon. Hope you’re okay with me jerking your emotions around and stomping on them. And while I’m at it, you got a newborn puppy I can kick too?”
“He has a point.”
Chayden glared at Fain for that last comment. “Stow it, Hauk.” Then he glanced at Caillen. “Fine, but when she wants your head over the fact you neglected to tell her about this, remember I’m the one who tried to save your hide.”
“And here I thought I screwed up metaphors.” Caillen focused all of his attention on catching up to Darling. Honestly, he didn’t want to give Desideria any more bad news. He wanted to be able to tell her that her mother was alive and well. To see the joy and relief on her face, not the sadness.
I can’t believe I’m out to save the life of a woman I detest. It would be a public service to let the bitch die.
But Desideria’s happiness meant more to him than that.
Fain cursed, drawing their attention to him.
“What is it?” Chayden asked.
“A hornet’s nest.” He pushed his images up to the main monitor for all of them to see what he was looking at.
Caillen winced as he saw a sizable army heading straight for them. “League fighters?”
“Can’t make the markings. But I don’t think so. They’re not shooting at us.”
Chayden hailed the newcomers.
No one spoke or even breathed while they waited for the response. At first all they had was static.
Until a soft voice broke through the stillness. “We’re here to assist.”
Caillen gaped at the last thing he’d expected to hear.
Desideria’s face showed on their com screen.
Amazed, he gave her an arch stare. “What are you doing, sweetie?”
Her smile warmed him. “I’m saving you. You can’t go in there alone. I mean, you can. But I don’t want to see you hurt. After you left, it dawned on me that I have an army at my disposal. So here we are, assisting you until your name’s cleared.”
He shook his head at her. “Don’t you have a government to run?”
“It’ll be okay for a few hours. With Narcissa arrested, there’s no immediate threat.”
Chayden muted them. “You better tell her.”
He was right.
This time.
“Feed the transmission into the bunk room.” Caillen unstrapped himself and headed off the bridge to talk to her alone. There was actually a lot of stuff he wanted to talk to her about. But this wasn’t the time or place.
The one thing though was the tenderness in his heart for a woman who put everything on hold to come to his aid. She didn’t know about her mother or the fact that his name was cleared because his father was still alive.
She had no reason to be here.
Except to keep him safe like she’d said.
And this time he knew what name to give the confusing feelings he had inside him where she was concerned. He loved her. Loved her in a way he would never have thought possible. He trusted her and he would give his life to keep her safe.
Those thoughts hung heavy in his mind as he turned on the link in the bunk room and saw Desideria’s beautiful face again. Oh yeah, that was what he needed.
No, what you really need is her naked in your bed.
There was that…
“Hey, beautiful. I have some news for you. Are you alone?”