Salvation (11 page)

“Do you have a death wish?”
Kain
interrupted his thoughts. It was eerie how dead-on the other man was about his thought process. “Rave wasn’t kidding about the rumours surrounding Walker. You would suffer and it wouldn’t be pretty. No more thinking about this. Will you be okay while I contact the Alliance? We’ll get them up to date on the situation and you’ll be back with Se and Rock in no time.”
Kain
left the room.

Zander didn’t think his heart cared if his thoughts were logical. It might have been only a short time, but he had feelings for his two lovers. And it wasn’t only lust. He wanted to know them, and hoped they’d be able to stand it when he got lost in his experiments.

But he would rather leave so they could have a life without him than have all of them die. His mind was made up. He would have to find a way to contact
Larrison
. That wouldn’t be an easy task. He had no idea where to start and didn’t have much time. The trip to Delta would go much faster this time. They were warping the whole way there with no stops. He’d hoped
Kain
would help him so his cousin didn’t get hurt, but he was just as stubborn as Rock.

He bit his lip, lost in thought. Zander was smart. He could do this. The room he was in offered him no options. It was a kitchen with no real com. His room might have a personal unit he would be able to use. Maybe put out a beacon. He’d have to word it right so
Kain
wasn’t hurt in any way. He’d never forgive himself if something happened to the other man.
Se
would never forgive him.

His mind made up, Zander left and walked quickly to the room
Kain
had shown him earlier.

Two hours later and still no
luck,
and they would be orbiting the planet soon. The only com had to be on the bridge or somewhere he didn’t have access. He’d walked back to the galley for some dinner. He was tired and, if he was honest, cranky. He wanted to throw a fit, but that wouldn’t help anyone.

“Good news.”
Kain
entered the room.

Zander jumped. Guilt made his face heat up. He could feel the burn and could only imagine the colour. He turned his face away. “And that is?” Zander managed.

“The Alliance is going to meet us at Vega Delta. I came to see if you wanted to come to the bridge. I’m going to hail the
Salvation
to give them the heads-up. If they’ve lost Walker they can come on in. Hell, even if they didn’t they can still make their way to the planet.”

“Why would the Alliance help? We don’t have any proof. Do we?” Zander moved away from the counter and headed for the door. He really wanted to talk to Rock and Se. It could be the last time if he was successful.

“First, why do you look so guilty? Then we’ll go to bridge.”

Busted
.
“N—”

“Don’t lie to me. Spit it out.”

“I don’t know who you think you are, but I don’t have to tell you anything. Out of respect for Se though, I’ll let you know that I was going against your wishes and trying to find a way to send out a message to
Larrison
.” He knew he sounded like a child throwing a tantrum, but he didn’t care.
Kain
had no authority over him. Zander crossed his arms over his chest. He was on the defensive.

“I thought you were smarter than that.”
Kain
gave a weary sigh and leant against a counter.

“As you said earlier, you really don’t know me. I may be not
be
a soldier, but I want to protect those I care for. If I can do that by giving myself up, I will.”

“Even if it means you have to die when you don’t have to? You’re as thick-headed as Rock and Se. You all deserve each other. Now follow me.”
Kain
motioned Zander on. He had no choice but to follow. He did need to say goodbye to his lovers, buy why did he have a bad feeling about this?

When he entered the room with the coms, he paused inside the door and waited.

“Salvation,
this is the
Elation,
please copy.”

Kain
tried a couple of times on different frequencies until he got an answer.

Rock’s voice came through the console and it made Zander’s heart lighter. They’d only been apart a few hours, but it felt like a lifetime.

“This is the
Salvation
. We’re heading your way with a tail. Be prepared and keep your eyes open,” Rock demanded.

“That wasn’t the plan, Rock. What happened?”
Kain
sounded interested, but not upset.

“I looked into the eyes of a madman. Is the Alliance on board with helping?” Rock asked.

“They are,”
Kain
confirmed.

“Good. We have a recording of Walker threatening me. I think we could break him in interrogation. He’s about to lose it,” Rock sounded almost happy.

“I like that. There is something you should know.”
Kain
looked towards Zander.

His stomach bottomed out. He wouldn’t, would he?

“Your man Zander, here, has been trying to find a way to contact Walker and give himself up.”
Kain
gave him a shit-eating grin, looking too pleased with
himself
.

Zander had to cover his ears. Se and Rock were very loud in their displeasure. When the buzzing stopped, he lowered his hands.

“You do something stupid like that again and I’ll have your ass so red you won’t be able to sit for a week. Do you understand me, Zander?” Rock glared at him.

“And I’ll fucking hold you while he does it. Of all the dumb—” Se had her hands to her head like she had a headache.

This wasn’t going very well at all.

“Alright.
I get it. I don’t want you two hurt because of me. Why can’t any of you understand that? I might not be a warrior, but I have morals. I—care for the two of you,” Zander whispered the last. I love you almost slipped out but it was too soon for that. Even he knew the trio wasn’t ready for words of love. But he did love them. They had captured his heart and now he might lose them. That thought did not sit well and made his chest ache. He clutched at his shirt where his heart was. He couldn’t let them die. Not while he had a breath in his body.

“Damn it, Zander. I care about you too.
And Se as well.
You have to understand that we have extensive training. We can and will deal with it. Hopefully, no one will get hurt. Now sit tight and don’t do anything stupid before we get there.”

The com went dark before Zander could respond.

“Thank you for that.” The fight went out of him. Luckily, there was a chair there or he would have fallen on his ass. His body couldn’t hold him up anymore.

“No problem. I need you to listen to me. Really listen. Rave and I know what we’re doing. Not only are we Alliance trained, but we had our own psycho to deal with. He went off half-cocked and almost got himself killed trying to save me. I don’t want Se to go through that. Se is Alliance trained as well, and Rock—well, I don’t know about Rock, but I do know he can hold his own. That man is a badass no matter what way you look at it. You’re a scientist. What kind of training do you have that would make you come out of this situation alive?”

Zander didn’t say anything right away. He couldn’t, because the other man was right. What he wanted to do would probably be a suicide mission. No two ways about it.

He looked up to see
Kain
standing close.

“I admit I don’t have much in the way of fighting skills. But this is my problem. Somehow
Larrison
became fascinated with me. Nobody else should have to deal with it. I understand you wanting to protect Se. But I have to do something. I can’t just sit by the sidelines. What kind of man would that make me?”

“A smart one?”
Kain
shot back.

Zander snorted. “So what’s the plan? Go to Vega Delta and wait?”

“That’s it in a nutshell. And we hope like hell that the Alliance and the
Salvation
get there before your admirer.”
Kain
went back to the other side of the ship.

Zander itched to do something.
Anything.
His research.
He still needed to figure out what was wrong with the pox sample he had. Something was off and if he could pinpoint what, he’d have the cure. He was close. He knew it. He’d brought his data with him.

“
Kain
, do you have some space I can use to work? Like a sickbay or a lab?”

“I don’t know if it will have what you need but we do have a small med bay.”

“That should work. I have to check over a couple of experiments I did before Rock rescued me. I haven’t had much time to study them.” Zander felt heat crawl up his body and his cock got hard just thinking about his time with Rock and Se.

Kain
laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Se and Rock would keep you locked up if they could. I saw the way they looked at you.
It’s
how Rave looks at me.”
Kain
smiled.

Zander had to squelch the urge to be the hero. What would he do if something happened to these strangers? Last week if someone had told him that he would be so far outside his comfort zone, he would have—well, probably ignored them and finished working. He had to laugh at himself. He certainly was predictable.

Kain
gave him directions to the med bay and Zander went in search of his sanity.

* * * *

“I can’t believe he was going to fucking turn himself over to that bastard. I thought he was smarter than that.” Rock smashed his hand into the bulkhead. It didn’t alleviate the anger surging through him.

The thought of that maniac having his hands on Zander was almost his undoing. It made him want to turn the ship around and fire the ship following them out of the sky and say fuck the other passengers. Se was his voice of reason.
Even if it was an angry voice.

“I’ll shoot him myself if he even
thinks
about it again. But I know you enough by now Rock and you can’t blow
Larrison
out of the sky, no matter how much you want to. The other lives would be on your conscience forever. No way would I want you to deal with that, and you know Zander wouldn’t either.”

“Not to mention me.
Larrison
Walker will get his. Karma is a bitch,” Rave interrupted.

“Since when do you believe in karma?” Se asked in disbelief.

“Since the day Seth Davidson died and
Kain
was back with me. Don’t get me wrong, it took some work, but that day I knew things would be okay,” Rave answered.

Rock had never seen this side of Rave. It looked good on him. Se wrapped her arms around him.
A calm
settled into his bones. It would be better if Zander were here to share in the moment.

“We’ll get this taken care of and go back to your place so I can finish my vacation. We’ll stay naked the whole time. Eat, sleep and fuck.
Maybe not in that order.”
Se shrugged then hugged him tight.

“Have I told you that I like how you think? We can’t let anything happen to him, Se.” Rock rested his head on top of hers and closed his eyes. Her scent made him hard. Hell, she made him hard. It had been that way for a while. He shouldn’t have waited so long to claim her.

“I know. He’s become important to both of us. It would be as if part of us was missing. Funny how that happened so fast, but it feels like we’ve been with each other for years, not days. There is something right about the three of us.”

It was as if she was in his head.
Scary.

“How long until we reach the
Elation
?”
Rave wanted to know.

Rock moved away from Se to check the console.

“They weren’t that far ahead of us. I would say an hour tops. Is the other ship still following us?”

 
“Yes. They aren’t trying to hide.” Rave looked back over at Rock.

“Good. I kind of hope the Alliance
is
late.”

Rave grinned, “Somehow I knew you would say that.”

“I’m happy to be included this time.” Rock froze at
Se’s
words.