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  “Where’s Gil?” Violette asked.

  They had tracked Josselyn and Evan to the securities building where she’d open whatever the general had left behind for her. The building glistened like all the other shops. Laser protection bars striped the windows and encrusted silver lined the intricately carved signs. It wouldn’t be wise to take their weapons in, so Violette decided to wait. There was only one public exit, and she was staring straight at it.

  “Jo found the ship,” Isaac answered, keeping behind her. “Gil went to place a tracking beacon on it, just in case.”

  She nodded. “Good.”

  Violette’s eyes narrowed as she saw her target. Josselyn wore a lightweight pink two-piece dress. The skirt moved with the breeze, but the tight bodice molded to her, forming a cocoon of hard material. The woman looked deceptively normal, but there she was, the murderer who killed a great man.

  Evan was with her. That undoubtedly meant the others were close. She glanced over the crowd but didn’t see the Bevlon. It was probably for the best. The last time she’d locked eyes with him she’d gone brain numb.

  Violette’s stomach clenched, and her heartbeat quickened as she approached Josselyn.

  “Vengeance,” she whispered. It was as if that one word drew Josselyn’s eyes to her though there was no way the woman heard what she said. “We follow her.”

  To Violette’s surprise, Josselyn didn’t run. Instead, she calmly moved forward, clutching a black bag to her chest. Unbidden, Violette’s gaze moved to it, curious as to what her father would have left for the woman. A wave of grief hit her, but she swallowed it down. She glanced around the busy street only to catch a glimpse of Isaac working his way through the crowd to keep an eye on the situation.

  “You’re braver than I thought,” Violette said when the woman was close enough to hear her. Her breathing deepened. Oh, how she wanted to scream, to hit. She kept calm. “Or more stupid.”

  “I won’t speak ill of your father to you, but the man you knew is not the Jack I did.” Josselyn stopped walking, keeping distance between them. Evan stayed protectively close to her.

  “I think I knew him much better than you.” Violette set her jaw, her eyes narrowing. Inside she trembled with rage and grief, but beneath that stirred a tiny thread of curiosity. Isaac was right. Part of her wanted to know why, needed to know the truth. That thread grew, twisting its way into her psyche. It kept her from reaching beneath the hem of her shirt and drawing her weapon.

  “Before your mother—” Josselyn began.

  “My mother died when I was born.” How dare this woman speak of her mother?

  “Before she married Jack…” Josselyn didn’t move as she hesitated. “She was my mother.”

  A half-sister? Violette snorted in disbelief. “Is that what this is? Mommy left you and so you sought revenge on the man who won her heart?”

  Josselyn didn’t rise to the bait. Violette wished she would. She wanted any excuse to justify pulling her gun to scare the woman. Sacre! She’d even take a good old-fashioned fistfight.

  So, was that why her father felt guilty? He fell in love with another man’s wife? So what? Marriages ended every day.

  Josselyn reached into the black bag and pulled out a holo-box. “You are my sister and I don’t wish you any harm. Long ago, when your father was a young man, he knew me and was protected by my father, Lord Craven. We grew up together in my castle home on Florencia’s Fifth Moon. Jack betrayed us and was part of the invasion that took our homes, our lives and imprisoned me in stone. I’m sure your father was a changed man, but he knew he had to pay for his past sins. Because of him, thousands of our people died, your mother’s people.”

  “My father was a humanitarian. Because of him millions lived,” Violette said. “My mother was a lady, a fine lady he’d saved. I did not interfere before because I promised him I wouldn’t, but that promise is fulfilled, and I will not stop until you pay for what you have done.”

  “I didn’t expect you to believe me, but before you ruin your life chasing revenge and trying to get to me, watch this.” Josselyn tossed the holo-box at her. “Perhaps your father’s words will convince you to find a better path.”

  Violette caught the holo-box but didn’t look at it as Josselyn backed away from her. Evan’s hand glided onto the woman’s arm, and he escorted her into the crowd. Violette slipped behind a group of women to disappear from sight while keeping an eye on her. Josselyn glanced back but didn’t see her.

  “We’ll follow her,” Isaac said, joining her side. “We’ll kill them both away from the security cameras and be done with this. Afterward, I’ll buy you a drink.”

  “No,” Violette answered, gripping the holo-box tight. She didn’t want to admit that she’d hesitated. Josselyn had spoken, and Violette had been unable to pull her gun on her. “We’re leaving.”

  “What?” Isaac stiffened. “Have you lost your nerve? Did the two humans make friends?”

  “Stow it,” she ordered. Violette kept her tone hard to hide the doubt she was feeling. “You were right. She doesn’t deserve a quick death. I’ll hunt her instead.”

  Isaac nodded in approval. “Ah, that’s the right spirit.” He directed his stare after Josselyn and Evan. “We’ll take everything she loves first and then you will have your final revenge. This is the better plan.”

  Violette couldn’t answer. She knew what duty called her to do, and yet she wasn’t a killer. When Isaac wouldn’t stop studying her expression, she nodded. “Let’s find the others.”

  Chapter 7

  Dev didn’t like this. Not at all.

  The Glamour District welcomed all kinds of species, but he didn’t feel comfortable traveling within the rich crowd. His crewmen were trying to blend and all his appearance tended to do was the opposite. It always amazed him how many intelligent, educated people still believed demons and devils looked like Bevlons. In Dev’s experiences, demons were much more ordinary and deceptively normal.

  No, that was just an excuse he told the captain. He was lying to himself. The real reason he stayed on the ship was because he was afraid of seeing Violette again. She was inside his head. When he closed his eyes, he saw her face. The idea of her was all he could think about—those emotion-filled eyes, those parted lips, that proud stance. He didn’t want to face her in a fight. He didn’t want to have to choose between his family and an idea. His dreams were filled with her, of moments and touches that could never be. Dev didn’t want those dreams to end, even as they tortured him. Reality had a way of crushing dreams.

  After stopping to check on Parker to make sure the electronic caretaker was in working order, and that the baby’s room security codes were locked in, he made his way back toward his private quarters. Like most rooms on the ship his was small, metal and equipped with all the necessities. The bed unit was attached to the wall, and he was thankful the mattress was spacious enough to hold his larger size. Dev didn’t bother to decorate the walls, and he kept his belongings in an old cargo box under his bed.

  Dev made a move to lie down when suddenly the ship’s security alarm beeped in warning. Without hesitance, he ran out the door toward the cockpit. He thought of Parker and almost turned back around but knew that the security codes were entered correctly since he’d done them himself. The baby would be safe. Jarek had pre-programmed the caretaker unit with every contingency plan imaginable, including a pod function that would transport the child across the stars to one of his parents’ home planets should anything happen to the ship.

  Reaching the cockpit, Dev glanced at the security monitor. The outside hull showed on the viewing screen. Every muscle tensed, ready for battle. Someone leaned close to the underbelly of the vessel. Thankfully, they were not trying to breach the entry hatch. Dev took the controls and launched a tiny camera orb to get a better view. The figure’s body quivered beneath a long coat.

  Dev grimaced. “Blasted drunks. Find somewhere else to lose your liquor.” Recalling the camera to the ship, he automati
cally felt for the gun at his side before going to the hatch to scare the man away. The last thing they wanted was vomit on the side of the vessel. Plus, as mundane as it was, frightening a drunk gave him something to do. Hitting the button to open the hatch, he didn’t wait for the deck to lower all the way before he started walking down the metal plank. He grabbed onto a metal protrusion and leaned over.

  “Out of here, rocket boy,” he growled in his meanest tone. His naturally low voice made it easy to strike fear into others. “Foul up your own ship!”

  When he looked to where the man had been leaning, he frowned. The drunk was gone, but there was something not right about the scene. It was too clean. Dev didn’t stop to question his initial instinct as he turned to run back into the ship. His hand lifted to the security scanner on the hatch. As he pressed his hand flat, a sharp pain radiated from his stomach, and then another. The feeling of electrical current ran through him. His vision blurred as the plank beneath his feet moved. He swayed violently. Someone had shot him with electric darts. They seared his clothing and flesh, burning hotter with each passing second.

  Dev’s knees trembled, but he kept his footing long enough to hear the ship’s security system beep as it armed itself to protect the child. The sound was the last he heard as his body tumbled backward. His head struck metal, and he rolled off the rising plank into darkness.

  Chapter 8

  Violette stared at the holographic image of her father in a shiny white suit. He looked a lot younger than she remembered him being though this particular recording was as familiar a childhood memory as any. Tapping her finger on the holo-box, she drew her hand back. She’d played it nearly twenty times in the last hour, yet found herself listening again to the well-known voice. She missed her father, missed seeing him and hearing him. Nevertheless, the words were as unbelievable to her now as they were when she was eight.

  “Josselyn, I’m glad you are well.” Jack’s image said. Violette ran her finger over her scar as the recording played. “It’s what I’ve hoped for these last, long years. By this time and because you are still alive after the term of your imprisonment has ended, we have probably spoken. Knowing the temperament of your family, we have not spoken kindly. So much has happened and changed since that day long ago, and I have to force myself to remember that you don’t know the good I’ve tried to do. All you know is my sins. I cannot take back that which was done, but I can give you a new life. With these papers, you will never have to explain your age or your past. As my daughter, a general’s daughter, you will have the freedom to pass by Federation ports unhampered. I cannot leave the life I have chosen. The Federation has granted me the home, which I so longed to be a part of in those years you knew me, as a reward for my services. I know it is not the land it once was, but all it is, I give to you.”

  Her father continued on to explain modern space life as if talking to…well, to a woman who’d missed the last hundred years of technology. He walked through how to use space credits and identification papers. He gave Josselyn directions to a mostly automated personal vessel with navigational guides to assist her in flying it. On the ship, the woman would find clothing and a machine to download knowledge into her brain to help her function in the new time. The general had thought of everything, even supplied a list of possible new home worlds and directions to them, should she decide to relocate. Violette listened to all of it with a stone in her stomach, lump in her throat, and a heart that ached so badly she wanted to cut it out of her chest.

  “If, by some miracle, you can forgive me, I would welcome you back into the family,” Jack continued. “Though it remains my greatest wish, I fear you will never take me up on this offer. What you might not have discovered is that your mother was my wife. I will not presume to call myself your father-by-marriage though legally speaking I am just that, which is why the papers I give you call you my daughter. Do not toss those papers aside. You will not be able to survive in the current world without them. I want you to know that I took care of Lady Craven, but she was never the same after our world was destroyed. I did not tell her about your fate. I did not want to give her false hope.”

  A tear slipped over Violette’s cheek.

  “From our union, you have a sister. We named her Violette after the moonflower petals your mother dearly loved. Our Violette is strong willed and smart. She reminds me of you as a child, rebellious to a fault, but with a heart bigger than the entire universe. Lady Craven did not survive the birthing. Please, for your mother, do not seek revenge against your sister for my crimes. She is your blood. I sometimes long for what we could have been to each other, should life have been less cruel. I don’t blame you for I see the impossibility of us now, but you must know that I loved you then, as part of me continues to love you even now. I would have proudly been your husband, but you know that. You know all of that. I sometimes forget how fresh the events must be to you. There was so much death between us. That said, if there is to be another death, or more to the point if I am dead, I hope it was in atonement of my sins and that you will be able to forgive me now. I am truly sorry, Josselyn. All I ever wanted was to be a part of what you had. I never meant to destroy that which I loved so dearly.” Jack sighed, and she could see the pain on his face. He nodded once before the holo-box turned off.

  Was it an apology or a love letter or a justification of some past tragedy? Was Josselyn a daughter or fiancée? Though it filled in a great piece of the puzzle, it only caused more questions to arise. What had happened? And how did this information change the fact that Josselyn had killed a great man, her father? If Josselyn was imprisoned that had to mean the woman had done something wrong. Violette knew the general. He would never harm an innocent person. Never.

  Violette crossed her arms over her chest and sat back. Her shoulders hit the metal wall of her sparsely decorated captain’s quarters. In reality, the only thing separating her room from the rest of the crews’ was that she was in it. Otherwise, they were identical.

  Her father’s voice echoed through her. Sister?

  What kind of strange family history lesson was this? The general wanted to marry Josselyn a hundred years ago. Instead, there was a betrayal, and he married the mother—Josselyn’s mother, Violette’s mother. Josselyn was frozen in a Federation prison for some crime related to the treachery, thawed, came back to kill the old man who knew her in their youth, and was now walking around looking and acting the same age as Violette with a birthday technically in the prior century.

  Just thinking about it made her head hurt.

  This bit of news did put a small crimp in her plans. As far as Violette knew, Josselyn was her only living relative—unless of course her father had more secrets floating around the universe. The general would demand that she respected the shared blood.

  “Well, he’s not here, is he?” Violette said to the empty room. She slammed her fist back into the wall, making a satisfying bang against the metal. Three seconds later an answering bang vibrated back. She felt more than heard it. Her mind came to full alert. The vibrations sounded again, louder this time. They became a steady beating against the metal of her ship. She knew every noise Racing Banana made. This was not one of them.

  Forgetting her personal concerns as she went to investigate, Violette ran her hand along the corridor, feeling for the vibrations. They grew stronger toward the back of the ship. She imagined the rest of the crew to be sleeping—even the pilot. On board a vessel it was hard to keep track of day and night since they were in deep space, so they kept the ship’s lights on a dim timer. It helped regulate sleep patterns and kept the crew from going crazy.

  The noise was coming from the cargo hold. Violette grimaced in annoyance. “Blast it all, Isaac, if you smuggled another unsanctioned creature onto this ship again, I’ll have your Corge ass!”

  The small room was crammed full of metal boxes and rubber-coated crates. There was barely enough room to maneuver down the narrow aisle between the stacked cargo. Seeing movement, she stiffened.<
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  “Sacre, Ghost, you startled me. Is that you making all that noise? What’s going on?” Violette took a deep breath, only to have the renewed banging pull her attention.

  Ghost pointed at a large crate in the back and then moved to disappear into a narrow opening between two boxes. Violette glanced after him as she passed. She’d barely be able to get her hand into the tiny space.

  “Thanks for the assistance,” she yelled sarcastically after him. The pounding became louder. She stiffened, apprehensive of what she faced. There was no telling what manner of creature her crewmen had smuggled on. Gentling her voice, she stepped lightly. “Easy there.” The banging stopped. “There you go. What’s in there making all that noise? Huh?” She fingered the latch but then drew her hand back. Without a shipping label or any idea of what she’d be unleashing, she couldn’t just blindly open the box—no matter how curious she was to see inside. Moving to peer into a dark breathing hole, she whispered, “I just need to find out what you are before I let you free.”

  She saw movement and leaned closer.

  “I am Salebinaben Johobik en Dehauberkelsain en Thoraxian en Yyrtolzx Devekin, and you will release me immediately,” a gruff male voice answered.

  The last thing Violette expected was to get an actual answer. A man? Someone on her crew abducted a man?

  “Ah, I, ah,” she stammered, trying to reason what was happening on her vessel. Some captain she was. Apparently, they were in the kidnapping business, and she didn’t even know it. “What are you doing on this ship? Are you a stowaway?” She couldn’t help the hopeful note to her voice. Sure, that was it. A person sneaked on and accidentally latched themselves inside a crate…with a manual iron lock on the outside of the box…in the back cargo hold of a secured ship…on a special dock reserved for Federation…oh, blasted nova. This was bad.