“Do you remember the bomb?”
There had been a bomb? The last thing he remembered was Cyra crying and turning him away from staying with her. A straw slipped between his lips and he sucked the cool liquid down, swallowing hurt like hell, but the moisture let him speak again. “Where am I?”
“Med center? On Kolben? Do you remember landing here?”
Cold. He recalled being cold. He had to open his eyes. His arms didn’t move. One was lashed to a hard plane, tubes rested against his skin.
“Try to stay still. You’ve been through a lot. You saved the mine and the spaceport from a bomb.”
Dez took a moment to process what he’d been told. A mine, they must be at Kolben. A bomb. He wrinkled his brow at the man who must be a doctor of some sort.
“We had a ship land with an emergency mechanical failure, but we suspect it was a lie. I’m not sure why they would want to bomb us.”
Fuck, if he was injured. What had happened to—“Cyra?”
“The captain ofThe Treasure?”
Dez nodded.
“She’s fine. No one else was injured but you.”
His mate was alive and uninjured. Dez passed out from relief and pain.
Cyra paused in the hallway, swallowing down the bile that had risen in her throat. Dez hadn’t moved the entire time she’d been in his room. He didn’t know she was there. She taken note of every single wound to his face, his chest, his arms. The gaping holes that crossed his tattoos. The arm that ended in a stump. She cupped her hands to her mouth to hold back the sobs as she folded in half.
Veda emerged a few minutes later. “Oh, Cyra. He’s going to be okay. It will take time, but he will heal.”
“He lost his hand.” The hand that had cooked for her, caressed her, carried her through climax after climax.
“They have a very good prosthetics department here.”
So they were good at saving people from horrific injuries. Ones that he would be at risk for after she left.
“But he won’t be fitted for weeks at the soonest.” Veda patted her arm.
“It was Varik, which means it was my fault.”
“You can’t know that. And even if it was, his actions aren’t your fault.”
“I want to speak to the man they caught. I want to know.” Cyra pushed away from the wall to find Derrain.
Derrain was in the office building where Cyra had originally spoken to him. “Ardkin is being interrogated by the security officer. So far he hasn’t said much.”
The door Darrain led her to had a biometric lock, he held his palm to the sensor and looked into a small round sensor. A heavy click indicated the lock had released. He pushed open the metal slab but stopped Veda from entering. “I only have authorization for one, Doctor.”
Veda took a step back. “If you don’t return her to me?—”
“Yes, ma’am.” Derrain ushered Cyra into a long, narrow, empty space. White walls, white flooring, bright white lighting. The door clicked closed behind her. “This way.”
Cyra followed Derrain through the hallway. They passed several dark offices that had a single window and door into the hallway. After they passed five, Derrain stopped. “He’s in here. There’s a glass wall. He won’t be able to see you unless you go into the inner cell. But if you do, I’ll have to scan you for any objects that could be used as a weapon.”
Cyra bit back the question of whether that was for Ardkin’s safety or hers. It was for his. “Fine.”
She didn’t recognize the man who was much younger than she’d expected. He was pale and blonde. Muscular but lean. She couldn’t see his eyes. He stood facing a side wall, his forehead resting against it. He arched back and banged his head. “Let me talk to him.”
“I’ll go in with you ma’am.”
Cyra jumped. She hadn’t noticed the large figure in black sitting in a chair in the far corner.
