“Not even your captain?”
“Especially not him.” Cassia stood from her seat and perched on Renny’s armrest. “You’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. No one could hate you, not if they knew you like I do. And I’m pretty sure Arabelle knows you. Give her time. She’ll come around.”
Renny patted her knee. “I hope you’re right.”
“When am I ever wrong?”
That earned a small laugh from him, which lifted her spirits, too.
When they met the crew at the boarding ramp, everyone was suited up and ready for the brief-but-frigid walk to the compound air-lock, everyone except for Arabelle, who was nowhere in sight.
Renny peered around the cargo hold for her. Before he could ask, Kane raised his helmet shield and delivered a pointed look. “She wants to stay here.”
“But we could be gone for hours,” Renny said.
“Yeah, I know. Unsupervised hours.”
Renny gripped one hip. “What are you implying?”
“Just that she shouldn’t have free run of the ship.” Kane glanced at Doran and Solara for backup. “At least until we know her better, right?”
Doran shrugged and said in a helmet-muffled voice, “A lot can change in two years. Wouldn’t hurt to take precautions.”
“I trust her,” Renny said. “As much as any of you.”
Cassia touched Renny’s arm. “I’m with you, Captain. I don’t think she’ll do anything to sabotage the ship.” When Kane frowned at her, she added, “But let me talk to her and see if I can convince her to come. Some time under the sun lamps would do her good.”
Renny made a go ahead motion, so she jogged to her quarters and knocked once on the door before opening it. She found Arabelle in the same position she’d expected: curled up on the top bunk, withdrawn, and facing the wall. Cassia batted down her feelings of sympathy and spoke the way she would want to be spoken to—with respect instead of pity.
“Hey, I know you want to stay here, but you can’t. This place is a frozen hellhole. You won’t survive an hour on board without the engines running.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but close enough to fool an electrical engineer. “But there’s a beach simulator in the compound…”
Arabelle’s curly head lifted in interest.
“…and because the crew’s here on business,” Cassia continued, “you’ll probably have the whole thing to yourself.”
That was all it took.
Ten minutes later, all six of them trudged down the boarding ramp to the external air-lock chamber, where they crowded inside and waited for the room to fill with pressurized oxygen. A green light flashed and the interior door unlocked, admitting them into the heated compound. They’d just shed their thermal suits and hooked their oxygen helmets to the wall when Gage strode to meet them.
He was dressed in a white lab coat over singed coveralls that had obviously seen a few brushes with the lab furnace. He must’ve left the lab in a hurry to greet his brother, because a pair of safety goggles hung half around his neck, still snagged on one ear. He shook Doran’s hand and gave the rest of them a detached wave.
“Cassia,” he said when he noticed her. His grin confirmed her suspicion that he had a crush on her. If he weren’t trying to steal her best friend, she might’ve returned his smile. “Glad to see you’re okay.”
She lifted a shoulder. She was about to tell him that it took more than a few bounty hunters to bring her down when the distinct clicking of high heels drew her attention to the other end of the hallway, where a young woman about her age was walking toward them, scanning the group as if expecting to find someone she knew. She was beyond beautiful, with long, glossy chestnut hair and the kind of face that made you keep looking. But even more attractive was the way she carried herself, with a confidence so bold she almost glowed.
Cassia liked her at once.
Until the girl moved into Kane’s personal space and curled one hand around his biceps while settling the other possessively atop his chest. Then Cassia stopped admiring the girl and wondered why she was feeling up a total stranger. The answer came when Kane freed himself and immediately glanced at Cassia like she’d caught him doing something wrong. It was the same look he’d given her at age fifteen when she’d walked in on him in the boathouse with one of the palace maids.
“Oh,” she said dumbly as the pieces clicked into place. He was no stranger to this girl. They must have met during shore leave and…really hit it off.
“Cassy…” he began.
“Oh,” she said again, louder this time, because full realization struck her, and now she understood why he couldn’t wait to take a job here. It seemed his benefits package included more than a generous salary and a company ship.
Cassia felt sick.