Pleasure lit up her eyes, and guilt smote him again. He wished this could be a real date and not a fact-finding mission. “The craft fair isn’t in Willow Wood, I take it?”
“No, it’s in Glen Lea, quite a distance away, but as it happens, they never got there. The transport crashed en route. They’re waiting on a tow. I have no idea where they’re staying; I forgot to ask. They won’t be back until tomorrow night.”
That’s what he needed to know. Now, all he had to do was intercept Bragg before Rogers and Glenn did.
“How did we get talking about your friend?” he asked, making eye contact. “I’m much more interested in you.” Did he sound sincere?
She blushed.
I’m such an asshole.
Chapter One
Planet Refuge, eight days later
I can’t believe I married this asshole.Amity glowered at Marshall Clark, but, engrossed in studying the flat, barren terrain, he didn’t notice, which pissed her off more. If justice still existed in the galaxy, he should at least be aware of her contempt.
Maybe if she’d had sometime, she could have come up with a solution. But, everything had happened at warp speed, and she’d had to decide on the fly whether to go with her friend or stay on Terra Nova. The former meant she had to marry the man who used her or stay behind and spend life on the run from evil government operatives. She’d faced a double bind. There were no good options, and, frankly, she considered it a toss-up as to which was worse. Not an hour went by that she didn’t second-guess her decision and wish she’d chosen to take her chances with Dark Ops.
It’s not fair! I was an innocent bystander!
She averted her face from her husband-in-name-only and caught the gaze of her best friend, sitting beside her on the bench seat stretching across the wagon bed. Unlike her, newlywed Faith was ecstatic.
The men had taken up the “window seats” by the side gates in case they popped open.
“Don’t want to lose you,” Marshall had said, the sardonic twist to his mouth suggesting he wouldn’t be too upset if that happened.
If only he’d given some sign he wanted to marry me.But he hadn’t. He’d created the dilemma, placing her in a no-winsituation, but he acted like he considered the marriage a major sacrifice and imposition.
The conveyance hit a bone-jarring bump, and she grimaced.My ass is going to be sore tomorrow.There was no padding on the hard wooden seat and no suspension. The conveyance reminded her of the horse-drawn wagons that crossed the prairie hundreds of years ago—except it was motored. The lucky driver sat in a climate-controlled cab. Passengers had been stowed in the rear with the luggage. Arriving with only the clothes on their backs, they’d each been given a duffel and secondhand clothing.
“I’m sorry things worked out this way,” Faith murmured.
“It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you.” They’d both been victims of circumstances outside of their control. She rolled her shoulders, trying to dislodge the scratchy rice under her shirt. The overexuberant wedding officiant had pelted them with the grains.
“It’s my fault,” said John, Faith’s new husband.
Amity’s marriage kind ofwashis fault. His pursuit of Faith had set all of this in motion, butJohnwasn’t the one who’d wined and dined her, pretended to like her to gain information, and then kidnapped her, thus forcing her into afait accompli. She scowled at Marshall.
“I don’t blame you, either,” she said to John.
Marshall looked at her then, his expression as readable as words on a page.But you blame me?
Yes, yes I do!
She wasn’t stupid. Logically, she knew the situation was complicated.
Both men were clones, and, until very recently, indentured to Dark Ops, a clandestine government agency operating outside the law. Cloned from Faith’s late husband, John had fallen in love with her from afar. He wasn’t supposed to have any contactwith her, to prevent anyone from learning about the top-secret cloning program.
But Amity had signed Faith up for Cosmic Mates. Fearing Faith would remarry, John had rushed to Terra Nova with Dark Ops agents, including Marshall, hot on his tail. Intending to desert, Marshall tried to rescue his former subordinate and secure sanctuary for both of them. But the other agents had captured Faith and planned toeliminateAmity as a witness.
That’s what Marshall had explained to her, anyway. She had no recollection of the events because he had “rescued” her by drugging and abducting her. One minute, she’d been searching for her missing friend, and the next, she’d awakened on a spaceship headed to Planet Refuge.
Upon arrival, she could have returned to Terra Nova, but Dark Ops might have hunted her down. Planet Refuge, which granted sanctuary to persecuted peoples, was the only place in the galaxy where safety was guaranteed.
But her and Faith’s asylum requests had been denied, failing to meet some arbitrary threat threshold.
The former Dark Ops agents whose applications had been accepted were allowed to bring wives.
