Leaving Triad (12 page)

*****

Emily went back to work just as Zor left. She
knew she loved him, but she wasn’t sure if he felt the same since
he just froze after he called her 'love'.
Was that something he
called one of his exes? Or was it just her?
She was dragged out
of her thoughts by a conversation at one of the tables near
her.

“We lost a slave named Jeremy,” one alien, a
Soto, said to another sitting across from him who was a quadruped.
“I got fired over the damned human and had to come home.”

“Oh? What happened?” the quadruped asked.

“We paid seventy-five for him, then he
disappeared,” the Soto answered.

Jeremy? Are they talking about the Jeremy,
her ex that was supposed to be in the brig? It couldn’t be, but she
thought it was strange the crew wouldn’t let her down to the
holding cells.

“Emily, we need six beers over at table
five,” Talia said breaking her of her thoughts.

That was exactly the table the two aliens
were sitting at that she needed to talk to and could overhear more
of their conversation.

“Well, what did he look like?” the quadruped
asked.

“He had blond hair and blue eyes, tall,
human, would have sold great with the ladies, but he got away,” the
Soto answered.

Emily set down the drinks in front of them.
“If you need anything else, just let me know,” she said with a
huge, fake smile. She turned and walked back over to Talia.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Talia asked.

“I need to get down to the holding cells,”
Emily answered.

“You’ll have to wait until the end of your
shift, sweetie, we are too busy for you to be spared,” Talia
answered.

Emily’s shift went by oddly slow that night.
She was too anxious to see if Jeremy was the slave the Soto was
talking about. She needed to know. Finally it slowed down in the
last ten minutes of her shift and Talia let her go early as Henry
was gone helping Zor with the repairs on the ship. She went down to
the brig expecting to have to sneak past a bunch of guards but
there were none there.

She walked down into the dimly lit area and
searched all the cells, but there was no Jeremy. That must have
been why Zor was trying to keep her away from there. He sold Jeremy
as a slave.

She wasn’t sure why but she felt the sting of
anger then, followed by hurt. She looked through the cells one more
time. She was pissed at Zor, it had taken her so long to come up
with the nerve to even think about pressing charges against Jeremy,
but he was gone now and she had no way of finding out where he was.
Angry wasn’t a strong enough word for what she was feeling
then.

Zor had lied to her. That’s all that kept
running through her mind and it made her furious. She had never
lied to him, how could he lie to her so easily? She went up to the
room, ready to yell, but he wasn’t even there. He had to check on
the repairs of the ship but that was hours ago
. It shouldn’t
have taken that long.
She was so beat and soaked with alcohol,
she hopped in a quick shower, hoping he would be back by the time
she got out. She dressed when she got out and since he still wasn’t
there, she left their room.

She went back to the bar and on her way out,
took her alcohol soaked clothing down with her to get them washed.
She glanced around to make sure Zor hadn't come back there, but he
hadn't and neither had Henry. She ordered a beer and handed her
clothes to Sarn for washing.

“What’s wrong, sweetie, you’re downing that
beer like there is no tomorrow?” Sarn asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” she answered, trying
not to snap at her.

“I’ll get you another one,” Sarn returned and
walked back behind the bar. She handed her another beer and took
her clothes back to the laundry.

“Henry’s not back yet?” Emily questioned.

“They are still making some repairs on the
ship, it took a beating flying through the asteroid belt,” Sarn
answered.

“Why does Zor need Henry’s help for that?”
Emily questioned, showing her frustration toward Zor
unintentionally.

“He usually doesn’t. Everyone thought he was
with you when Henry called,” Sarn said.

Emily felt terrible now and a little sick to
her stomach. She chugged the rest of her beer and went down to the
infirmary, barging in the door unannounced. She froze at the sight
of Zor sitting on the bed in the infirmary. The nurse was wrapping
up his arm.

“What happened?” she demanded.

“I just burnt myself while welding the ship,”
Zor answered. “I told Curly I was fine. The ship is what needed the
attention, but he didn’t like the blistering too much.”

“Well why didn’t you come and tell me? The
bar is on the way down here,” she said angrily.

“Because I knew it wasn’t that bad,” Zor
returned, wondering why she was so angry over such a little thing.
“How was work?” he questioned, trying to change the subject,
knowing he would have been just as angry.

“It was work,” she replied.

Her response wasn’t normally the way she
answered whenever he asked her that. She usually told him about all
the stuff she and the girls spoke about. Was she angry with him, or
was it just a really rough day? “Nurse, am I done here?” Zor
questioned.

“Almost, Captain, just have to finish the
bandage and then you are done,” she answered just as she was
finishing up. “See? Now you are good to go.”

He stood and kissed Emily’s cheek and started
out the door. She followed him, stopping him just as he got out of
the infirmary door. “Where are you going?” she demanded.

“I need to finish overseeing the repairs to
the ship,” he answered. “I’ll be back up in our room in an hour or
so,” he added as he started walking away again.

“One question before you go.”

“What is it, beautiful?”

"Where’s Jeremy?”

Zor froze, then slowly turned to face her,
swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat. He had no idea
what to say. “He’s in the holding cell,” he lied, hoping she hadn’t
gotten down there yet.

“I was just down there. He wasn’t there,”
Emily returned, trying to stay calm since they had no privacy. She
was raging with anger, so bad she could feel it rising in her
stomach. “Why are you lying to me, Zor?” she added as she crossed
her arms across her chest.

Dammit, how the hell did she get down
there? The guards were supposed to keep her out of there.
“I
have to go check on the repairs of the ship, we can discuss this
later.” He hoped if he gave her time that she would eventually calm
down.
Besides, shouldn’t she be glad the asshole of an
ex-boyfriend was gone?

“I’ll meet you back in the room in a half
hour, alright?” He walked out without looking back.

He did not just walk away from her.
She went up to the room and paced back and forth, waiting. She
couldn’t sit down she was so angry. She wanted to scream at him for
all his lies, she felt betrayed by him, and then he walked away,
which was a typical Jeremy move. She had hoped things would be
different with Zor. She had no clue what she was going to say to
him when he got back, but she was fucking irate.

*****

Zor quickly walked out of the ship and went
to see what was going on. He was furious when he saw the men that
were supposed to be guarding the brig. “Why the hell weren’t you
guarding the brig? You two had one job, to keep Emily out of the
brig. She got down there anyway!” he yelled. “I should fire your
asses now, get down there!”

“Sorry, Captain.” they both said in unison
and ran back into the ship, scared, knowing that Zor couldn’t
control his anger once he was already pissed.

“Did she find out?” Henry questioned, his
eyes widening, knowing she must have been angry. He worried about
what would happen between the two of them, he knew if it got too
serious it would destroy both of them.

“Yeah, she is pissed,” Zor answered feeling
sick in the pit of his stomach, he felt ready to vomit.
Why did
he have to lie to her for so long?
She would probably have
still been mad that he took matters into his own hands, but it
wouldn’t have been this bad. It bothered him that she might still
harbor feelings for the human scum. Whatever issues they had, he
had to face them head on.

“I’ve got to get back to my room before she
gets even angrier.”

He walked back up into the spaceship and
quickly to his room. He had never felt so nervous before in his
life.
What would he do if she demanded he take them back to
where he dropped Jeremy off?

He opened the door and saw Emily pacing the
room. He had never seen her angry before, but she was royally
pissed. He couldn’t help but smile at how cute she was when she was
angry. He walked up to her quickly, startling her.

“Before you yell,” he said, then took her
lips in a deep kiss, knowing this might be his last chance to feel
her lips against his. He didn’t let up until she softened in his
arms and returned his kiss. He released her and appreciated the
dazed look in her eyes.

She had to shake off the fuzziness his kiss
had caused. “Where is Jeremy?” she asked trying to remain calm, she
was still angry with him.

“I don’t know,” Zor answered truthfully.

“Why isn’t he on the ship?” she returned,
believing that he was still lying.

“I couldn’t stand to have him on my ship
anymore,” Zor answered, hoping not to say anything to make her even
madder, he fucked up big time when he kept this from her and he
knew it. “I got rid of him.”

“What did you do with him?” she demanded,
trying to control her anger, but shaking from how angry she
was.

“There is a rule that says if he owes a large
amount of debts, or has done damage to another person’s property,
the captain of the ship can sell the person into slavery to make
back the debts owed.”

“You sold him into slavery!” she yelled
furiously, but not quite as loud as she wanted to scream.

“Yes and I am not sorry for it. He deserved
it,” Zor answered, not wanting to fight with her, but feeling
unremorseful for getting rid of the jerk.

“You lied to me about it, Zor, what are you
going to do next, sell me?” she spat back, immediately regretting
her words, knowing the words must have stung worse than it would
have if she had just slapped him instead.

“No! Emily, I would never sell you!” he
answered appalled, yelling at first but trying to keep his voice as
calm as possible.

“I thought you would never lie to me either,
but that’s what you’ve been doing for weeks now.” She was furious,
but truth was if she didn’t care about him so much it wouldn’t have
hurt her this much that he had lied to her.

Zor’s eyes widened by her extremely harsh
words, did she not know anything about him. “I only did it to keep
you safe. I wanted to kill him for the atrocities he did to you. If
you really think I would sell you into slavery, then there is the
door. You are free to leave at any time.”

“So what, now you want me leave?” She knew it
was too good to be true, to finally find someone that wasn’t going
to use her or hurt her like she had endured for years.

“I never said I wanted you to leave, but I
won’t force you to live with someone that you have no respect for.”
Zor didn’t want her to leave him, but he was not going to keep her
prisoner here if she didn't want to be with him.

“How could you sell someone in to slavery,
Zor?” she asked, holding back tears with everything she had in
her.

“It was either that or kill him, which would
have gotten me killed because of the stupid human protection laws,”
he answered, still trying his hardest to remain calm and watch his
tongue at the same time. “Is that what you want?”

“No, but you shouldn’t have lied to me about
it. I thought he was still down there.” Emily felt the anger rise
again at the thought of being deceived by the man she was falling
more and more in love with.

“Why do you care so much about what happens
to the human scumbag? He tried to rape you, Emily, left you in the
infirmary, took all your money. Why the hell would you put yourself
through more just to care when he obviously never did outside of
the money and the sex? All he ever did was beat and hurt you.”

“Why does it matter?” she spat back, angry,
feeling a burning feeling in her stomach.

“Because, Emily, it’s obvious that you still
care about the human that treated you like dirt on his shoes.
However, when I ask you to quit your job, you refuse.”

“What does my job have to do with
anything?”

“I can’t stand watching every other male, and
some of the females, shoving their fingers in your clothing. You
are mine and I won’t share you.”

She was stunned into silence, but Zor had
more to say.

“It pisses me off that I have treated you
with kindness and consideration and the only thing I ever asked of
you was that you quit your job, but you refuse. I wonder if Jeremy
had asked you to quit whether you would have done it because it
seems that you did everything he asked of you.”

“How could you say that? I did what I thought
I had to do to survive,” she returned.

“I can’t stand seeing people touch you,” Zor
stated. “You would have done anything to appease Jeremy, but you
can’t quit your job for me.”

“You think I still have feelings for Jeremy?”
she questioned, her heart stopping.

“Well don’t you?”

Emily started packing up her suitcase then.
Tears started flowing, she couldn’t believe he was trying to say
she still had feelings for the man that was so brutal to her.

“What are you doing?” he asked, feeling his
heart jump into his throat, he felt terrible for what he said.

“You don’t trust me obviously,” she stated,
more hurt by that than anything Jeremy had ever done to her.