Page 7 of Rebel
All three turned to face me as I entered.
I crossed my arms under my breasts. “What are you going to do with Vex?”
Tide, Lore, and Xavier all stared at me. They’d been in deep conversation when I stepped onto the bridge but had stopped abruptly. What had they been talking about?
I dropped my hands to my hips. “I know it can’t be good. So, I have a solution. You need to give him a ship so he can go wherever he wants to go. Just a ship, no questions asked. He saved my life, and I’m not taking the risk that your government will lock him away again.”
“It’s not our call to make,” Tide said.
Xavier shot him an indecipherable look. “But we will do everything in our power to make sure he gets fair treatment.”
That sounded weak at best. “What will happen if you can’t get himfair treatment.”
It was Lore who answered. “He’ll be executed.”
My breath stalled, and blood rushed in my ears. Executed? I’d thought the worst they could do was lock him up, but they’d kill him?
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Vex risked death just for being with me, for saving me, for shielding me when Marick fired his fucking weapon. After everything he’s been through …” I stared at them, searching their faces for something, some kind of reason, some understanding. Anything.
This couldn’t be Vex’s story. I couldn’t just go back to Earth and leave his fate to the Athion government.
I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat. “Give him a shuttle. I know you have one. You can say he escaped in it. Please.”
Lore frowned as if considering.
Xavier opened his mouth to speak, but Tide beat him to it.
“No,” he said. “I’m not putting a mark of incompetence on my record, and I’m not letting a Trad take our shuttle. It’s called a lifeboat for a reason, and it stays on board in case we need it.”
“Tide, come on …” Xavier held out his palms placatingly.
Tide’s silvery gaze sharpened in anger. “Enough. We report to base on Athion, and we hand over the Trad as promised.”
Anger choked me for a moment, stealing my ability to speak, and when my words finally broke free, my voice was the lash of a whip. “Stop calling himthe Trad. His name is Vex.”
Tide blinked slowly, unaffected by my tone.
Anger would get me nowhere. I had to stay calm. For Vex. “I thought you two were getting on?”
Tide looked down his nose at me, his huge frame straightening. He was a formidable-looking Athion but stern all the fucking time, like right now. Right now, he was unreachable.
“We’re on a small ship together; it makes sense to get along.” His lips curled in a smile that was barbed, and his gaze flicked to Xavier. “And from the sounds coming from your cabin earlier, you and Vex were doing some serious getting along.”
Xavier’s face paled, and my heart sank. His throat bobbed, and he tore his gaze away from me and fixed it on the floor.
Fuck it, anger it was. I curled my hands into fists. “I bet you hung out and had a nice listen, didn’t you, Tide? Did you get off on it, huh? How long has it been since you were with a woman?”
I was done being cowed. This wasn’t who I was. “You know what? Fuck you. I’ll sleep with whomever I want. I don’t belong to anyone, and I certainly don’t belong to your Athion government, and neither does Vex.”
“Maybe not,” Lore said. “But right now, Athion is your only way home.”
His words were a slap because he was right. I was beholden to them whether I liked it or not.
I turned on my heel and stormed from the room, rage a hot coal in my chest. There was no way I was leaving Vex to the mercy of an alien government that hated his kind. There was no way I’d go home until he was safe.
4
TIDE
