Release (16 page)

But he needed to be patient. He’d see all of her soon enough. He’d have her soon enough. And when he sliced his knife through her soft, white skin and felt the hot rush of her blood on his hands... Risciter shivered in anticipation.

He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and a small bottle that contained the drug he’d slipped in her champagne before. It was a versatile substance. It worked when ingested or inhaled, if it were inhaled in great enough quantities. He began to douse the handkerchief with the drug.

A scream rent the air.

Ariana stirred.

Risciter froze.

Another scream.

Ariana’s eyes fluttered.

Risciter backed away from the bed, melting into the shadows. He wanted it to be perfect. He didn’t want to fight her again. He wanted to make sure that he got it right.

Ariana sat up in bed, looking around, fear in her eyes.

Had she seen him? She couldn’t have.

“Hello?” she whispered.

Risciter didn’t move.

Ariana got out of the bed. She pulled a cloak that was hanging in the wardrobe over her skimpy shift and hurried out of the cottage.

Risciter waited until he was sure she wouldn’t see him, and then he followed.

* * *

Keirth was sleeping in the narrow bunk bed he’d slept in as a child when he heard the scream. Because his mother had often used her quarters to entertain men, he hadn’t stayed there with her often, only in the case of her not having a client, when they’d snuggle together on her large bed. And as he grew older, he didn’t even do that anymore, but always slept in this small room off the kitchen of the main house. It was lined with bunks, and there was still a battered toy box in one corner. There was even one small little girl who’d been asleep in one of the other bunks when Kieran came in. Lilla had clucked at him for sleeping there and made more offensive inuendos about him and Ariana. Keirth ignored her.

By the time there was another scream, Keirth was out of the bed and rushing up to the next level of the main house, where the scream had come from. He fingered his blaster as he ran, turning it on for easy access.

The sound of the scream had alerted everyone. Doors opened on the main hall as he came through, and women’s heads poked out, some accompanied by men, some not.

There was only one closed door. Keirth opened it. None of the doors in the main hall locked. It wasn’t considered safe. The women should always have a way out, that was what Lilla claimed.

Inside the room, Keirth took in the scene. The woman was naked, curled up in the corner with her hands in front of her face for protection. The man stood over her. He was dressed, at least partly. He was wearing his trousers.

“Back away from the girl,” said Keirth.

The man turned to look at him. He had a grizzled beard and crooked teeth. “Who the hell are you?”

Lilla appeared behind Keirth in the doorway, holding her rifle. It was one of the old-fashioned kinds, the kinds that used bullets. People on colony planets often found them more useful than blasters for hunting, since the blasters tended to cook the meat when they killed. Lilla had always had one for protection. Keirth had never considered asking her if she wanted him to get her a blaster. “I warned you, Rilf,” she said. “I had complaints about you the last time you were here. You can’t play nice with my girls, then you can’t come back here.”

Rilf sneered. “Uppity whores is a thing I really can’t stand.” He started for Lilla, his hand on his holster, going for a blaster.

Keirth was quicker. He had his out and pointed before Rilf could draw. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

Rilf slowly took his hand off his blaster, giving Keirth a look of pure hate.

Lilla had her rifle aimed at Rilf now. “You get out of here now.”

Rilf glared at her. But he shrugged into his shirt and left the room.

“I’ll make sure he gets on his ship and leaves,” Keirth told Lilla, following Rilf with his blaster drawn.

Rilf didn’t cause him any more trouble besides spitting out a bunch of curses and nasty names for the women in the brothel. He boarded his ship and took off, still swearing.

Keirth went back to the main house, where Lilla was sitting outside on the porch in a rocking chair, still holding her rifle.

“Thanks,” said Lilla.

“Not a problem,” said Keirth. “You know I can’t stand men like that.” He sat down opposite Lilla on another wooden chair on the porch. His didn’t rock. “You know, Lilla, I don’t understand why you and these women put up with this. There’s got to be safer ways to make a living.”

“I think we had this conversation last time you visited, didn’t we, Keirth?” said Lilla. “If I remember correctly, this conversation is the reason you stormed off the planet.”

Keirth sighed.

“I know your mother got a raw deal,” said Lilla. “But that never would have happened here. I protect my girls. You know that.”

It was exactly the thing he’d said to Ariana that afternoon. He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “What happened tonight could have gone wrong. Rilf was a pretty stupid man, but they’re not all that stupid.”

“This isn’t really about safety, though,” said Lilla. “This is about you not approving of what we do here, isn’t it? Keirth’s the high and mighty one. Claims he’s not bothered by the same urges as the rest of humanity.”

Keirth shook his head. “That’s not what I said. I only think that people don’t have to give in to their urges. They could fight them.”

“Why fight them? There’s nothing wrong with sex. You wouldn’t exist without it. It’s natural.”

“What you do for a living is not natural,” he muttered.

“It’s the most natural thing there is. They don’t call it the oldest profession for nothing.”

He leaned back in his chair. The porch was nothing but dark outlines against the blue-black of the night sky. He gazed out at the hulking shapes of the ships in the docking bay. Everything was quiet and still.

“That girl you brought here is in love with you.” Lilla didn’t sound like she was teasing anymore.

“She’s not,” said Keirth. “She couldn’t be.”

“You might feel like you’re so damaged inside that there’s no way anyone could find it in themselves to care about you, but that isn’t so. And you don’t seem damaged. You seem strong and confident. It’s not as if you don’t have anything to offer her, you know, even if you have been so stubborn about ‘fighting your urges’ that you wouldn’t know the first thing about pleasing her.”

Keirth stood up and went to the railing of the porch. He gripped it with both hands. “She’s from the nobility, Lilla. A woman like that doesn’t see someone like me as an equal. You can’t love someone you don’t respect.”

“You saved her from a man trying to kill her, didn’t you? She’d respect you for that.”

“She kind of saved herself, actually. She hit him over the head and knocked him out.” But actually, referring to what happened to Risciter made him think of something else. He turned to face Lilla. “If she did feel anything, it would only be because she’s confused. She’s been through a lot in the past few days. She might have some silly ideas in her head, but given time, she’ll get over them.”

Lilla got out of her rocking chair, leaving the rifle propped up against it. She put a hand on Keirth’s cheek. “You’re determined never to let anyone in again, aren’t you?”

He pulled his face away.

Lilla crossed her arms over her chest. “We could use you here, you know? I told you that the last time you were here too. You made things a heck of a lot easier with Rilf. Men respond better to men for some reason. They’ve always got to test me, and that means I shoot more of them than I’d like. Give up on chasing this mad man through the stars. Let your mother have peace. You and the girl you brought could stay. You could give her the time you think she needs to get over her feelings, see if they actually do go away.”

“I can’t, Lilla. You know I can’t. I have to find Risciter.” Keirth looked out into the night again, at his ship. Once he was sure Ariana was settled in, he’d go.

What Keirth didn’t know was that Risciter was standing in the shadows just beyond the edge of the porch, listening to every word he said.

Chapter Eleven

Keirth walked back into the main house. He strode through the kitchen and into the great room to make sure that everyone had calmed down after what had happened. To his surprise, he found Ariana, huddled inside a robe, perched on a couch, her hair mussed from sleeping.

“What happened?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Someone got fresh with one of the girls,” Keirth explained. “It’s okay. Nothing to worry about. I took care of it.”

The other girls in the room made sounds of relief.

“You can go back to bed,” Keirth said.

Ariana stood up, shaking her head. “I don’t want to go back there alone. I think there was someone in the cottage.”

Keirth narrowed his eyes. “Did you see someone?”

“I saw something. I don’t know. It was dark. But I’m not going back there alone.”

She must have been awakened by the scream. Keirth remembered her bad dreams on the ship. The poor girl had probably been confused. He didn’t think there was actually anyone in her room. But after what had happened with Risciter, he figured it was normal for her to be frightened. “I’ll walk you back, then.”

“Thanks.” Her eyes were full of gratitude.

Once back in the cottage, Keirth turned on all the lights and, with Ariana watching, searched every nook and cranny of the small house. He looked in the wardrobe. He looked in the bathroom. He looked under the bed. “There’s no one else here.”

Ariana was hugging herself. “There was, though. Maybe they’ll come back.”

“I don’t think so.” Keirth patted her shoulder. “It’s understandable that you’d be a little jumpy after everything that’s happened. But you’re safe here.”

She turned to face him. “Couldn’t you stay here with me?”

What? Why was she asking him that? He took a step away from her.

She stepped closer. “Please, Keirth, it isn’t as if we didn’t sleep in a bed together before. I’d feel so much better if you were here.”

Could what Lilla said be true? Was this some kind of ploy to try to get him to lie with her? Perhaps she thought if she seduced him, his honor would keep him bound to her. But whatever she was thinking, she obviously wasn’t thinking clearly. He could see that she definitely was frightened. It was this fear that motivated her to want him, Keirth knew it. “It wouldn’t be right. I can’t.”

“All right, fine,” she said. “Then I want to sleep somewhere else.”

“You’d be the most comfortable here,” said Keirth. “There aren’t any other open beds where you’d have any privacy.”

“I don’t care about privacy. I don’t want to be alone,” she said. “Why won’t you stay here with me?” She grabbed onto his shirt, turning her pitiful expression up at him.

He wrenched her off of him. Her robe slipped off her shoulder, exposing her white skin and a hint of the lacey shift she wore underneath. Involuntarily, Keirth found himself stiffening inside his pants. He turned away. This was precisely why he didn’t want to sleep in the same bed with her. He hadn’t forgotten how uncomfortable he’d been that night on Trioth, lying next to her with his body excited. He didn’t want to go through that kind of torture again. She didn’t understand that. He shut his eyes and took several deep breaths, willing himself to relax and hoping he could stop his arousal. But his cock only perked up further. Keirth shifted on his feet, trying to disguise it as he turned back around.

She hadn’t fixed her robe, so he did it for her, yanking it back up.

“I can’t stay with you,” Keirth said.

“Why not?”

“I’ve told you. It’s indecent.”

“Just because we sleep in the same bed doesn’t mean anything will happen between us,” said Ariana.

“And who’s going to keep it from happening? You?” He glared at her, because he wanted her, and because she had no idea how much her body taunted him.

“Both of us,” she said.

“It’s not exactly the easiest thing in the universe to sleep next to you.” Keirth started for the door. “I’m leaving. Go to bed.”

“No.” She was behind him, tugging on his arm. “I’ve been thinking, Keirth. We stole the chief’s ship. He wanted to turn us in for money. We got away, but how do we know he didn’t track the ship. It was his, surely he’d know how.”

“Triothians don’t know anything about ships.” She was being ridiculous.

“You didn’t think they’d be in contact with the rest of the universe either, but the chief found out we were on the run. If he could give someone our location, wouldn’t they pay for that as well?”

Maybe she was right to be concerned. He considered. “So, you think someone tracked us to Scranth and was stalking around your bedroom?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I don’t feel safe.”

This was about her feeling safe, was it? “Well, let’s go look at the ship, then.”

“The ship?”

“Let’s go look for a tracking device,” said Keirth. “If there’s no tracking device, I want you to calm down and go to sleep in your cottage. By yourself. That a deal?”

“I don’t know...”

“Is this about your safety or not, Ariana? Because if there’s some other reason you’re trying to get me to sleep in your bed—”

“No, I’m only frightened,” she protested.

“All right then. Is it a deal?”

She nodded.

* * *

Risciter eased into the darkened room upstairs in the main house. From the bed, he could hear gasps and grunts. He could see the shadowy forms locked together as he approached, his drugged handkerchief at the ready.

They saw him at the moment he struck, but it was too late.

The man was on top of the whore, and Risciter thrust his knife into the man’s neck at the same moment he covered the woman’s mouth with his handkerchief. She struggled, blood pouring out of the dying man onto body, but the drug worked quickly.

She was senseless in moments. Risciter drew his knife across her throat.

This whore was tainted by the attentions of the other man. He left the room in disgust.