She chose me.
But even that relief couldn’t temper the fury still coursing through my veins. I glared at Torran and did not put away my plas blade. “What. The. Fuck.” I took a breath to prevent the rest of the rage from spilling out. “Explain, now.”
“Burbus,” he said, his accent lilting over the word, “are highly protected, as I’m sure you know. They are not pets for offworlders. The punishment for stealing one is death, and all Valoffs are authorized to carry out the sentence.”
“So you’re executioners without the need for judge or jury. Sounds about right.”
“You’re still alive,” he pointed out quietly. “Luna, as you call her, has chosen you as her family. That takes something extraordinary and cannot be coerced.”
“I found her nearly dead, thanks to your soldiers. After she healed, she wouldn’t return to the wild. I tried.” I didn’t owe him anything, but I felt compelled to explain myself.
Torran nodded, his earlier anger either forgotten or carefully hidden. I had a feeling it was the latter. “She would mourn your death and separation is not an option. You are responsible for her now.”
I snorted. “I’ve been responsible for her for years. We were fine long before you arrived.”
Luna curled her tail around my neck and rubbed her head against mine. She was trying to soothe me. I reached up and scratched behind her ears while I tried to get my anger under control. We’d found out early on that she could sense emotions better than we could.
“If I’d tried to grab her out of the air, what would have happened?”
“I would have killed you,” Torran said without inflection.
I huffed out an unamused breath. “I am not so easy to kill. Would I have been able to move her?”
He pointed at the ground. “I could kill everyone on this ship without moving from this spot,” he said flatly. It wasn’t a boast so much as a statement of fact.
Cold chills broke out along my spine, raising the hair on my arms. All Valoffs seemed to have some telepathic ability, which was dangerous enough. Telekinetics were less common, and strong telekinetics were rare, thankfully, because just one could turn the tide of battle.
A strong Valovian telepath could take out a squad of humans without mental shields. A strong telekinetic could take out a battalion, and the shielding didn’t matter. If they couldn’t pierce your mind, they could crush your body.
Luna shifted restlessly and chirruped at Torran. He tilted his head and listened. After a moment, he continued the conversation as if he hadn’t just threatened to kill everyone on the ship. “You would not have been able to move her unless I had let her go. You could have hurt her. And you can tell your man behind the corner that he is no longer needed.”
I was happy for Eli to remain exactly where he was, so I responded to the first part of Torran’s sentence. “You could’ve hurt her.”
“She was in no danger from me.”
The sentence was perfectly neutral, but I heard everything he’d left unsaid. Inviting him onto my ship had been a colossal fucking mistake, and one I couldn’t fix without bankrupting us.
“You wear the shoulder guard for her?” Torran asked, changing the subject.
“Yes.” The word was clipped and cold, but civility was beyond me right now. I started down the hallway toward his quarters, then stopped and spun back to him. Luna purred louder, but I was beyond soothing. “Threaten my crew again and I will invoke the hostile client clause on the spot. Are we clear?”
Torran’s eyes narrowed. When I didn’t back down, he inclined his head in agreement.
The clause was a standard part of my contract, but one I’d expanded just for this job. It gave me permission to confine them to quarters until a suitable station could be reached, and it broke the contract in such a way that I kept the initial payment.
If the Valoffs objected, a neutral arbitrator would be hired at the destination station to determine if the clause had been invoked with cause. Threatening to kill my crew once might be allowed to slide, but repeated threats were certainly cause, and Torran knew it. If the arbitrator ruled against me, then I’d be forced to pay back the initial payment and make an additional hardship payment, so invoking the clause wasn’t something I would do lightly, but I would keep my crew safe.
Torran’s eyes moved over my shoulder, and I turned to find Eli leaning against the wall, with a plas rifle held loosely in his arms. His lips were pressed into a flat line and his eyes were clear and cold. It was his killing look, and I hated that Torran had put it on his face.
“We’re fine,” I said, my voice calm and soothing. “Go help Kee with her project.”
“Who do you think sent me here?” he asked softly, his gaze still locked on Torran.
“I have the situation in hand,” I said, sinking command into the words.
Luna hopped down from my shoulder and went to sit in front of Eli. When he ignored her, she chirruped at him. He glanced down and sighed, his mask breaking. He patted his T-shirt-covered shoulder. “Come on, you little menace, let’s go see what Kee is doing.” Despite his wording, his voice was soft with affection.
Luna leapt up with a happy chirp and Eli didn’t flinch, though I knew just how sharp her claws were. Eli nodded to me, gave Torran a flat look, the threat clear, and then turned and disappeared around the corner.
“Kee,” I said, subvocally.
“I’m on it. I’ll put him to work. And I’ve got eyes and ears on you.”
I led Torran to the room next to mine. Yesterday, I’d thought myself so clever, keeping my enemies close, but now I wished that I’d put him somewhere much, much farther away. Like a black hole at the edge of known space.
That might be far enough.
I opened the door. “Here’s your cabin. Your crew will be in the nearest rooms,” I said with a wave back the way we’d come.
I stepped inside and Torran followed. He took in the bright green walls without comment. The door slid closed behind him. The room felt claustrophobically small in a way it never had before, and my head throbbed.
After a second, I dropped my extra mental shields. I needed the practice, but giving myself a migraine on the first day wasn’t beneficial. And I had the sinking feeling that no amount of shielding would protect me from Torran if he ever truly wanted to do me harm.
I shoved the thought aside and focused on the here and now. “You have private facilities, so you won’t have to use the crew head. Extra linens are in the wardrobe. If you need anything else, ask me or Eli.” I glanced at the stack of linens on the bed and eyed him dubiously. “You do know how to make a bed, right?”
One corner of his mouth tipped up. The tiny grin transformed his face, softening the harsh lines of his features. He went from a beautiful, coldly distant statue to a warm, handsome man made of flesh and blood.
The change sent a jolt through my system. I ignored it.