Total pages in book: 175
Estimated words: 166095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 830(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 166095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 830(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
I bite my lip, because that sounds awful. I know Jamef has a lot of artificial parts, and the thought of them working against him hurts my soul. “What do we do?”
“If we’d have known about it earlier, maybe we could have done something.” The look on her face is hard. “But that keffing idiot didn’t say a thing. I don’t know how long he’s been hiding this from us. It’s like he thinks he doesn’t matter.”
She looks furious at the thought.
I touch the glass again, wanting to reach through and hold Jamef’s hand. “He has hang-ups. We all do. He’s been on his own for so long that he probably thought showing weakness was a bad idea.”
“But we’re his mates,” she protests. “If he can’t show weakness to us, who can he show weakness to?”
I shake my head, because I don’t have answers. As we’ve been worrying over Jamef, Bethiah told me all about their venture into the casino satellite, and how Jamef tried to hide the fact that he was in pain. He’s seemed off for the last few days, but I thought maybe it was due to Rhonda or stress over the job. Fresh tears spring from my eyes. “I hate that he didn’t trust us more.”
“Well, when he wakes up, we’ll just have to show him how much he means to us,” Bethiah says. “Right after I finish murdering him for scaring us like this.”
I manage a watery chuckle at that, wiping my wet cheeks. “So what do we do now? How do we fix this?”
Bethiah moves to my side. She wraps her arms around me from behind, resting her chin atop my head. “We have to leave him here in med-bay, in stasis until we can get him somewhere they can help him. His limb work-up is too complicated for me to even attempt to look at, and I assume if he knew how to fix it, he would have. We need an expert. There’s a famous male that deals with prosthetics on Three Nebulas, but he’s expensive.”
My heart hurts. “Too expensive for us, you mean?”
“Nah.” She squeezes me tight. “We robbed Lord Nerit and he had a fat chunk of credits on him. Anything we lack, we can sell some of Rhonda’s crap. If she doesn’t like it, well, it doesn’t matter.”
I hug her back, my hands on the arms she has wrapped around me. “But you said you two now have bounties on your heads. How do we get to Three Nebulas station if you’re wanted?”
“That’s the tricky part of things,” she agrees. “And we’re going to need to refuel at least once before making it to Risda. Jamef comes first, though. Simone and Rhonda are just going to have to wait to get to their destination.” She pauses, thinking. “My cousin has prosthetics, but he doesn’t know how to fix them. Still, he might have some ideas we haven’t considered. We need to go see him. We can hide out at his place.”
“We can? Where does he live?”
“He’s operating an old abandoned station. People sell scrap to him.”
A guy running a space junkyard. Sounds about right for someone in Bethiah’s family. “If he can help us with Jamef, I’m all for it. How long until we get there?”
“A few days. He’s out in the middle of nowhere. Jerrok’s not exactly a people person.”
“But he might be able to help Jamef?”
“If he doesn’t slam the door in our faces, yes.”
“He’s your family. Why would he slam the door in your face?”
“Fluffit, have you met me?” At my wry snort of laughter, she continues. “Besides…I owe him some credits.”
I groan.
“It’s fine,” Bethiah assures me. “He’s got a mate and she’s a real softy. She’ll convince him that it’s a good idea to help us. We can always offer to sell Rhonda to them for meat for their pet carinoux.”
“A…carinoux? I’ve never heard of it.”
“You’ll see it when we get there. And I’m surprised you didn’t say that we couldn’t sell Rhonda for meat. You didn’t even protest, fluffit.”
I hold onto her tighter. “That’s because Jamef’s life is at stake here. I don’t care if we sell Rhonda for spare parts if it means making him better. He’s all that matters right now.”
“You’re growing more and more vicious every day,” she tells me. “I approve.”
I don’t know that it’s viciousness as much as just being protective of my mates. I gaze down at the sleeping Jamef, and my heart hurts. When he wakes up, we need to make him realize how important he is, and how he can’t keep secrets from us.
Secrets destroy everything.
One Hundred Twenty
BETHIAH
Dora refuses to leave Jamef’s side, even though he’s unconscious. Our fluffit is steadfastly loyal, and it makes my heart proud. “You have to run the ship,” she tells me as she caresses the glass, hypoallergenic dome covering him. “But I can stay here and watch over him. He’d do the same for either of us.”