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  “Are you kidding?” She flipped it back off her hair, which she now wore loose. “It’s a thousand degrees out here. I don’t even know why I have to wear this in the first place.”

  T’Kar cut his eyes to the suns shining overhead. “Your skin is not used to our suns. I do not want you to burn.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You sure that’s the only reason?”

  He did not answer. She had an unnerving way of discerning what he was thinking about. “It is better if you keep a low profile.”

  Holly put a hand on her hip. “Sweetie, I’ve never been good at keeping a low profile. You can ask any of my crew mates.”

  He did not doubt her. Between her striking beauty and her sultry walk, he suspected she attracted attention wherever she went. “Was that an advantage as a bounty hunter?”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t get involved in nabbing the bounties too often. Since I was the ship’s engineer, I spent most of my time in the engine room trying to keep us flying.”

  He still found it hard to comprehend that a female who so loved attention would choose a job that kept her alone and with a machine most of the time. “You enjoyed being an engineer?”

  “I was good at it,” she said, not really answering his question. “I enjoy a good challenge, and keeping that bag of bolts flying was a challenge, let me tell you.”

  “Our females do not become scientists or engineers.” Even before the sickness, Crestek females had enjoyed lives of luxury. He was intrigued by these offworld women and their demanding jobs. He would have liked to have seen the bounty hunter crew in action, although the female with the wild hair gave him pause.

  “Their loss,” Holly said. “I’ve been working all my life. I’d be bored to death if I didn’t have something to keep me busy.”

  “That, I understand.”

  Holly eyed him. “I’m getting the strong impression that you’re not digging the job your father wants you to have.”

  T’Kar pressed his lips together, glancing around quickly. He did not want other Cresteks to know. Word got around fast in the city, and he suspected that his father had spies everywhere.

  “Don’t sweat it.” Holly leaned in close so only he could hear her. “You’re not the only one with a difficult dad. My dad barely paid attention to me. The only way he noticed me is when he was teaching me how to work on engines. Hence the engineer gig.”

  T’Kar sensed the pain beneath her light words, although he would not mind a bit more indifference from his father.

  Holly slipped inside a covered stall with racks of clothing, and he waited outside as she looked through the garments.

  “Is there any chance I’m going to get my clothes back?” she asked, her red hair popping over one of the racks in the back of the small space.

  “The dirty ones?” He suspected they’d been burned since they were stained red from the blood rains, and covered in at least a day’s worth of grime. “I do not think so.”

  She let out an impatient sigh and called out to him, “Then I’m going to need more than this dress and a sweltering cape.”

  “Select anything you desire.” His attention was pulled back to the jewelry merchant. He glanced once more at Holly’s distinctive red hair, visible above the racks of garments, before moving away.

  He would be able to see her the second she left, he told himself, backing away and keeping his eyes trained on the clothing stall.

  The old lady gave him a knowing grin as he scanned the contents of her display. She extended a finger at a ring of polished gold stones surrounding a larger oval one. “The lady seemed to look at this one longer than the rest.”

  He nodded, feeling a flush of pride at the thought of Holly wearing the glittering ring. He glanced back over at the garment vendor, but she had not yet emerged. “Thank you. I will take it.”

  The merchant quickly pulled it from the case and slipped it into a drawstring bag. “Best wishes on your marriage, sir.”

  T’Kar’s flush deepened and he took the bag from her, returning her small bow. He’d kept the clothing merchant in his peripheral vision the entire time, but Holly had not come out of the stall. He smiled, glad that he would be able to surprise her.

  As he walked back to stand outside and wait for her, he slipped the ring bag beneath his cloak. When he reached the open stall, he did not spot her hair. His heart skipped a beat as he peered deeper into the small space then bent low to look for her feet. She was no longer there. He swiveled his head around and grabbed the merchant minding the store by the front of his cloak.

  “Where did the female with the red hair go?”

  His eyes widened. “I am sorry, sir. I did not see.”

  T’Kar released him and stormed around the racks, as if she might be hiding within them. Nothing. He glanced at the fluttering flaps at the back of the stall. They were not tied closed. He ripped them apart, his gaze raking the dark alley that stretched behind the square.

  She had run, or she had been taken. Bile rose in his throat as he thought of the way his father had looked at Holly. The old man wouldn’t hesitate if he thought it would further solidify his power. A flash of rage made him growl and the garment vender shrink back. He knew he would not hesitate to rip the chancellor’s throat out if he’d touched his mate.

  Fourteen

  It had all happened so fast, Holly hadn’t even been able to scream as she’d been grabbed from behind and dragged out of the stall, a hood of some kind thrown over her head and a hand clamped across her mouth. She’d been dragged away as she’d thrashed and kicked, but only when her abductor slowed was she able to aim a kick behind her.

  She heard a series of alien curses as her heel made contact, but the grip that had her arms pinned to her side only tightened. Luckily, his grip on her mouth slipped, and she bit down hard. Her captor yelped and dropped his hand.

  “If you don’t let me go right this fucking second, my new husband is going to kick your ass,” Holly screamed, thrashing even more and wishing she wasn’t wearing an absurd dress and a ridiculously bulky cloak.

  “You husband is the reason we took you,” the voice behind her said.

  Holly stopped struggling. “We? What are you talking about? What does T’Kar have to do with this?”

  The voice behind her was hushed. “We are separatists. We took you so no one would suspect T’Kar of any involvement.”

  “You’re what?” Holly knew T’Kar had helped Max and Kush escape the Crestek city, but she didn’t know much about the alien’s politics.

  “A secret group that believes in rejoining with our Dothvek brethren. It is why T’Kar is willing to sneak you out of the city and return you to your friends who are with the Dothveks.”

  “You’re telling me T’Kar knows about you grabbing me and scaring me half to death?” Holly’s ire rose again. “This was his idea?”

  “Not exactly. We need it to be a surprise so he would appear unaware, and therefore would draw no suspicion on himself.”

  The arms relaxed and finally dropped. Holly took a few steps away before spinning around to face a Crestek in a beige cloak. He was almost as tall as T’Kar, but did not have the same broad shoulders.

  “So, what’s the plan now?” she asked.

  “One of our people is informing T’Kar and bringing him to join us.”

  As if on cue, T’Kar burst around the corner. He ran up to Holly, running his hands down her sides. “Are you unhurt? I thought you’d been taken. I thought you might have…” He turned and rounded on the other man, pushing him roughly against the wall. “What were you thinking?”

  The man’s hands went up in an expression of surrender. “We did not want her disappearance to be linked to you. We needed your shock to be genuine.”

  T’Kar’s breath was ragged and his eyes wild. Holly suspected his reaction had looked entirely convincing.

  “I’m really fine,” she said. “I think he got the worse end of things.”

  The Crestek she’d kicked
nodded up at T’Kar in agreement. She would have felt bad for injuring him, but it served the guy right for scaring her half to death.

  T’Kar stepped back, lowering his palms from the man’s chest. “Good.”

  Holly glanced around the narrow passageway. “So, what now?”

  The injured man cleared his throat. “We need to get you out before more alarms are raised.”

  T’Kar nodded, stepping closer to her. He raised an arm as if to put it around her shoulders, then dropped it. “The tunnel?”

  “We will draw the guards' attention away from the wall so you can get clear.” The man waved for them to follow him farther down the alley, and T’Kar stepped back to let Holly go between them.

  “I did not prepare to leave,” T’Kar said, keeping his voice low as they hurried along the narrow passageway, the tall buildings faintly echoing his words back to him. “I brought nothing we would need.”

  “We have prepared for you,” the separatist said, twisting his neck to look back at T’Kar briefly. “But you cannot take much, since it will all need to be carried on your backs.”

  “You’re coming with me?” Holly asked. “I thought you were just going to get me outside the city.”

  “You think I would leave you to find your way back to the Dothveks on your own?” His voice sounded shocked and a little hurt.

  “I figured my friends would be waiting for me,” she said. Knowing Tori, she’d set up camp outside the Crestek city walls.

  The man in front shook his head. “After the battle, the Dothveks retreated. They lost some warriors and some females. Our scouts reported that they have returned to the sands.”

  Holly nearly stumbled and T’Kar caught her by the elbow. “What do you mean they lost some females? You mean my crew mates?”

  The Crestek glanced back, his face twisted as he realized what he’d said. “That is only what our scouts reported. Their accounts could be inaccurate.”

  Holly followed along without saying anything else. She’d never imagined any of her crew getting killed, although she would be the first to admit that some of them were running low on their nine lives, especially Tori. Her throat tightened at the thought of the Zevrian and her wild temper, then she gave her head a rough shake. No, she refused to believe any of them were dead. Until she knew it for sure, she refused to speculate or imagine the worst.

  She and her team had been in tough situations before, and they’d always prevailed. This would be the same way, even if it seemed a bit more dire. They’d never been marooned on a planet without a ship before, she reminded herself. Then again, they had the help of the Dothveks ,and now she had the help of some renegade Cresteks.

  After all the grumblings she’d heard from the Dothveks about their enemy, the Cresteks were not what she’d expected. Sure, some of them were scary, but that could be said of any species they’d encountered. At least the guy who’d been paired off with her seemed pretty decent. Maybe too decent, she thought, remembering how he wouldn’t touch her, even though she’d practically thrown herself at him.

  As she was wondering why the Crestek seemed so determined not to sleep with her, he spun her around, flattening her to the wall and pressing her back against it, then covering her body with his own, his cloak wrapped around both of them. Without a word, he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her hesitantly.

  Now this is more like it, she thought, as she lifted her arms around his neck and pulled him down. She opened his mouth with her tongue, feeling him jerk in surprise. Tangling her tongue with his, she explored his mouth as his body went rigid against hers.

  After a moment, he pulled back, his eyes burning and his expression dazed.

  “Well done,” the other Crestek said. “They did not see her.”

  Holly vaguely remembered hearing people walking by them. “You kissed me…?”

  “To keep you from being seen,” T’Kar said, not tearing his gaze from hers.

  “Hurry,” the other said, already several steps ahead of them.

  T’Kar grasped her hand and pulled her along with him. Holly followed, not sure whether to be outraged or just confused. She knew kisses, and that kiss had not been about creating a distraction. At least, it hadn’t been by the end.

  After winding through more dank alleys, the man leading them ducked inside a dingy building. Holly hesitated. “Is this the same tunnel you used to get Max out?”

  T’Kar nodded. “She was just as uneasy about going inside.”

  Holly appraised the grimy door. “Yeah, no kidding.”

  Shouts somewhere deeper in the city made the other Crestek poke his head outside. “You should hurry. Someone has sounded an alarm at the marketplace.”

  Before Holly could move, T’Kar pushed her inside, closing the door behind him. A bundle was thrust at her by another man, and she squinted through the dim candlelight to see the outlines of several more Cresteks. The room smelled loamy, and she noticed that the paving stones on the floor were damp.

  “So, this is the resistance,” she said. She wondered if these few people made up the entire movement, or if there were more.

  “There are more,” T’Kar whispered, as if reading her mind. “But we must be careful about being caught together.”

  Holly had run into more than a few rebel groups in her time. Their pilot, Caro, had even been part of a rebel group, although she’d never revealed everything about that part of her past.

  Holly looked around at the concerned faces illuminated by the flickering light. “Thanks for helping me.”

  T’Kar hitched the pack he’d been given onto his back and pulled her toward a gaping hole in the wall. “We should go.”

  “We will see you soon, brother,” one of the others said to T’Kar.

  T’Kar did not respond, but he clapped the man on his shoulder and nodded. Holly looked at T’Kar as he stepped into the darkened tunnel and extended his hand to her.

  She took it, following him into the blackness and wondering why he hadn’t told his friends he had no intention of returning.

  Fifteen

  T’Kar paused once they reached a widening of the mountain pass, peering up at the two suns as they slipped farther down in the sky.

  “Are we finally stopping?” Holly asked, swiping the back of her hand across her brow. “We’ve been running for ages.”

  They hadn’t been running, of course. As soon as they’d cleared the walls and gotten far enough away from the city that they couldn’t be easily seen, they’d slowed to a walk. But she was correct that they had been trudging along for a good while. T’Kar wanted to get as much distance as possible between him and the city before his father dispatched guards to hunt them down.

  “Sit,” he said. “We can rest and eat.”

  Holly flopped down, leaning her back against the shimmery rock wall. “I’ve got to tell you. This is not my idea of a dream honeymoon.”

  He crouched down and opened his pack, pawing through it as he looked up at her. “Honeymoon?”

  “An Earth tradition. Something married couples do right after their wedding.”

  T’Kar pulled out a metal cylinder of water, grateful it was still cool to the touch. “I did not intend this to be a honeymoon.”

  “No kidding,” she muttered, sliding her cloak off her shoulders and fanning herself with one hand.

  He passed her the water, trying not to notice that the fabric of her dress was damp with sweat and clinging to her full breasts. “What is the purpose of a honeymoon?”

  Holly unscrewed the cap to the bottle and took a long gulp. “Wow. That tastes good.” She held it out to him, but he shook his head, and she took another long drink. “Mostly, it’s so couples can get it on.”

  T’Kar found another identical water cylinder and took a sip. “Get it on?”

  She grinned at him, cocking an eyebrow. “You know, the thing we haven’t done yet.”

  He was grateful for the cool water as he was sure his cheeks had reddened. “And why is it called a hone
ymoon?”

  She shrugged. “Something about couples drinking only honey mead for a month after they were married. An ancient Earth thing. Way before my time, but the term stuck. Basically, it’s supposed to be the time when everything is perfect and magical.”

  He glanced around them at the soaring rock walls, the sheer drop down to the ground below, and the blazing heat of the suns. They were both sweaty and their sandaled feet were covered with dirt from the tunnel. “So, much like this?”

  Holly burst out laughing. “Yeah. Exactly like this.”

  The sound of her laughter made him smile, and his heart beat faster as he watched her dab at her eyes. He pulled a linen-wrapped bundle from his pack and handed it to her.

  She sighed with pleasure when she saw it was bread like the kind she’d had at breakfast. “Now we’re talking. Your people do know how to bake some pretty delicious bread.” She eyed him as she swallowed a mouthful. “So, tell me again why you’re so hell-bent on leaving the only place you’ve ever lived?”

  “Would you rather I let you journey alone?”

  “No, but I don’t think I’m the only reason you’re here.”

  He accepted the piece of bread she tore off and handed to him. “You are correct that I am not sad to leave the city, but I do not know if I ever would have left if I did not have a good reason.”

  She smirked at him. “And I’m a good reason?”

  Even though he knew she was teasing him, T’Kar did not laugh along with her. “You are more of a reason than you know.”

  Her flirty smile flickered, and she lowered the bread. “I don’t get you. On the one hand, you laid a kiss on me in the city that practically curled my toes, but then you tucked me into bed on our wedding night without as much as a slap on the ass.”

  “I do not like to live my life according to someone else’s wishes.”

  “Okay,” She tore off a bite of bread and chased it down with a gulp of water. “I’m guessing the someone else you’re talking about is your father?”