Justin (20 page)

When Deanna entered the apartment, Justin felt his entire being relax.

I’m never letting her walk away from me again.

“Justin, what are you doing?” Deanna demanded.

She again wore her form-fitting coverall, her dark hair tamed into its severe bun. Back to being the tight-assed patroller.

“I’m talking to your mother,” Justin said. “She was telling me about her accident.”

Deanna glanced in surprise at Reda, who pressed her lips together and nodded. Deanna approached the sofa with careful steps, as someone might an injured animal.

“Mom?”

Kayla turned her head. The movement was slow and unpracticed, but she looked at Deanna fully. “Hello, Deanna. Back from work, are you?”

Tears flooded Deanna’s eyes, and she put her fingers to her mouth.

“I was telling your friend what happened to me,” Kayla said. She spoke slowly, the words not formed quite correctly, syllables slurred. “So he’d understand what a pain in the ass it is.” She stopped, and her lips moved into a smile. “He’s quite handsome, Deanna. Where is he from?”

“Sirius,” Justin said before Deanna could speak.

Her mother looked him over, again her movements deliberate, as though she had to remember how to perform them. “I went to Sirius once, when I was younger. No one there looked like
you
.”

“He’s Shareem,” Deanna said in a strangled voice.

Kayla looked puzzled, as though trying to remember the word, then her brow cleared. “
Deanna
. Bad, bad. No wonder he’s hot.”

Justin grinned. “So’s your daughter.”

“She lives for her work.” Her mother sounded disapproving.

“Not if I can help it.”

“Justin,” Deanna said. “Can I talk to you?”

“And now she’s mad at me.” Justin winked at Kayla, took her hand gently between his, and squeezed it. “I’ll be right back.”

Her mother nodded. Justin rose to follow Deanna. As soon as they were across the room, her mother slumped slowly back against the cushions, closing her eyes.

Deanna took Justin to her bedroom. Yep, as he might guess, her private room was neater than neat. Her bed was tightly made, the room bare of everything but a bed, a small nightstand, a console, and a chair. He was surprised Deanna allowed the chair, but she likely didn’t believe in sitting on the bed to work on her computer.

The crimson silk veil he’d bought her rested on her beside table.

Deanna shut the door behind them. She drew a long breath, but instead of shouting, or demanding, or scolding, Deanna flung herself at Justin and threw her arms around him.

Justin caught her to him, holding her close as she started to shudder.

As always, even touching Deanna in comfort aroused him. It had been too long—almost two whole days—since he’d had her. He kissed her hair, stroking her back, making soothing noises.

He wanted this. Forever. Not just sex with her, not just pleasure. But holding Deanna, comforting her, talking to her—being with her.

The rest of it didn’t matter. Not Rees’s plans, or the laws against Shareem, or the problem of leaving Bor Narga. As long as Justin could be with Deanna, none of it mattered.

Deanna’s face was wet with tears. Justin brushed one away and kissed her.

Her mouth was warm. Deanna’s lips answered his, her kiss as hungry as his own. When he pulled back, she sought him again, as though desperate to remain in the oblivion of the kiss.

“Deanna,” he whispered. “It’s all right.”

“No, it’s not all right,” she said brokenly. “I’m happy whenever I see her like that—which doesn’t happen very often anymore—but I know it won’t last. The good days never do.”

“She’s not having a good day.”

Deanna pulled back and wiped her eyes. “This is what a good day for her is. She looked at me. She knew me, knew I’d gone to work this morning. And she was talking to you —coherently.”

“She wasn’t when I got here.” Justin released Deanna and reached for the hypo in the pocket of his tunic. “I gave her this.”

Deanna stared at the hypo in surprise and then outrage. “And what the hell is that?”

“A concoction a doctor gave me. She asked me to tell her how it worked—the doctor, I mean. I think it’s doing all right, but I also think my Shareem pheromones are boosting it.”

“What concoction? What doctor? And why the hell didn’t you tell me you were going to barge in here and
experiment
on my mother?”

Deanna knocked the hypo out of his hand, but the thing was made of tough plastic and only clattered on the floor.

“You weren’t home,” Justin said in reasonable tones. “It’s working, Deanna. Once I tell my doctor friend, she can put together enough of it so that your mother can get to Ariel and the treatment center there.”

“Treatment center.” Deanna nearly spit the words. “On Ariel. The best in the known universe. Sure, I’d love to send her there, but
I can’t afford
the treatment center on Ariel, let alone get her to Ariel. You know that.”

“But I can.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I made a lot of money on Sirius. I had my own offloading company, and it was very lucrative. The money from it is in accounts even Bor Narga can’t stop me from accessing. My doctor friend said she might be able to treat your mother herself, but she’s in hiding, and she thinks the Ariel facility will be more comfortable for her.”

“In hiding? What do you mean she’s in hiding?”

“Long story.”

Dr. Laas, the brilliant researcher from DNAmo, who still had a price on her head for inventing the Shareem, had never left Bor Narga. She lived in an underground complex, hidden from the world, served by an annoying computer called Baine.

Dr. Laas was a genius. She’d saved Calder from certain death at DNAmo, when the other scientists had been ready to flush the plasma-burned Calder as a loss. She’d helped Ky when he’d recently suffered the aftereffects of an experiment, and she’d helped Rio and Nella hide out and get to Ariel. Dr. Laas wouldn’t leave Bor Narga, she said, because the price on her head extended to every known galaxy. And besides, she’d add, she didn’t want to leave all her Shareem.

Rees had agreed to contact Dr. Laas and tell her about Deanna’s mother’s problem. Katarina, Calder’s lady, had gone to visit Dr. Laas, and the two of them had researched her case—Baine was good at hacking into records. They’d come up with this little hypo, which Katarina had given to Justin.

Apparently the concoction would help her mother’s brain temporarily connect neurons or something. Katarina had explained it to Justin in medic-ese, until Justin had grabbed the hypo and said, “Whatever. I stick it against her neck and click. Got it.”

“Justin.” Deanna pressed her hands to her face. “This is crazy. I can’t get her to Ariel.
You
can’t even leave the planet . . .”

“But Katarina can, and Brianne and Talan can, and Rees has a couple of friends on Ariel—one happens to belong to the ruling family there. We’ll wrap up your mom, stick her on a transport, and you and the ladies will take her the hell to Ariel. When she’s better, you’ll all come back.” He forced a grin. “Unless you fall in love with the weirdness of Ariel and want to stay there.”

“I won’t if you’re back here.” Deanna snapped her mouth shut after the words, as though she’d not meant to say them.

Justin’s heart flooded with hope. “Deanna, you’re killing me.”

“You’re killing
me
. Why would you do this?”

“Because you need it.”

They looked at each other, the room quiet, the red of the folded veil the only vivid color in it.

“I don’t know what to do,” Deanna murmured.

“It’s simple. Take your mom, get on a transport to Ariel, and check her into the facility. While she’s in treatment, go to a spa or shopping or whatever women like to do. I hear there’s lots of that stuff on Ariel. Enjoy yourself.”

Deanna shook her head. “I can’t let you pay for it. I arrested you. If you pay for something for me, especially a something as costly as a treatment center, for the gods’ sakes, it will be viewed as corruption. I could be arrested, transported, or imprisoned. I shouldn’t have even let you give me the veil.”

Justin stared. “You are kidding me.”

“Not kidding. The patrollers take corruption very seriously.”

“This is your mother’s life, Deanna.”

“I know!” Her shout rang through the room. “I know that. Way more important than the rules of the damn patrollers.”

She scrubbed hands through her hair, breaking the bond that held it back. Her hair tumbled down, loose and beautiful, the way Justin liked it.

“Please let me think about it,” she said. “I have a lot to process right now.”

“Think about it all you want. The offer stands for as long as you need it. I’m not going anywhere.”

He wasn’t. Helping Deanna, making sure she and Sybellie were all right, was more important to him right now than breaking free of Bor Narga.
One thing at a time.

Justin went to her and gathered her to him, and they stood together for some time, holding each other, sharing comfort. Then Justin gave Deanna one last, lingering kiss, and left her alone.

*** *** ***

Deanna sat with her mother for a long time after Justin left. The apartment seemed emptier without him. When she’d walked in tonight and seen him, she’d been struck by how well he’d filled up the room. Justin’s big body had taken up half the sofa, his muscular arm stretched across its back, his long legs extended, Justin relaxed and comfortable.

So masculine against the fragile femininity in the apartment, and yet, he
fit
there. Her mother and Reda had watched him in surprise, not fear. He was a lion amidst lionesses and cubs, protecting, not threatening.

And now the apartment wanted him back.

Kayla remained mostly coherent and talkative for the rest of the evening, wanting to know all about Justin. Where had Deanna met him? What was their relationship? Why had Deanna been keeping him a secret? Unkind of her daughter, to not share she’d become friends with such a beautiful man.

Her mother seemed almost normal, except for her slow movements and her struggle to keep her speech from slurring.

As the night wore on, though, the drug wore off, and her mother relapsed to silence, but not an exhausted one. Kayla decided, of her own accord, to go to bed, where she fell quickly into a peaceful sleep.

There was no way Deanna could deny her mother treatment that would bring her back to her old self. No matter what the cost.

Deanna believed Justin when he said he could pay for it. He still owned the house on Sirius, and she knew that businesses on Sirius could be prosperous. Siriuns believed in hard work and lots of it, and were perfectly happy to reap the rewards of that work.

As a patroller, Deanna had been trained to be suspicious of even the most helpful person—what did they hope to gain? But she could only sit still and be grateful to Justin. He was a Shareem—a factory-made pleasure slave supposedly existing to sate his clients.

To Deanna, he was a warmhearted man who loved his daughter and was generous to his friends.

She loved him.

Deanna knew what she had to do—all of it. The choices were tough, but she knew that when made for the right reasons, they’d be the easiest choices in the universe.

But though she went to bed resolved, Deanna was uneasy about one thing. Sybellie had never called.

Justin stumbled awake the next morning to answer his door that was insistently chiming. If Braden was behind it, up early and chipper, Justin would have to kill him.

The door shot open to reveal Deanna silhouetted against hot Bor Nargan sunlight. “Hello, Justin.”

Much better than one of his annoying friends, but she was definitely chipper.

“Can I come in?” she asked.

Justin blinked, rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand, and moved aside. “You’re being polite? Not barging in using your patroller codes? Not that it was ever a bad thing for me.”

“I don’t have the override key anymore.” Deanna walked inside past him and waited for the door to close behind her. “I turned it in, along with my stun gun and my badge.”

Justin removed his hand from his eye to look at her fully. Deanna smiled back at him, appearing perfectly sane. She wore a black, kind of loose bodysuit today, her hair up as usual.

No, not as usual. Instead of the severe bun she always wore, she’d braided her hair and wound it into a coil. The style was soft, more feminine. She’d also knotted the red veil he’d bought her around her neck like a scarf to accent the black coverall.

Justin found his voice. “You look hot.”

She went pink. “You look asleep.”

“I
am
asleep. I dreamed you walked in here and said you turned in your stun gun and badge.”

“I did say that. I resigned.” She looked happy she’d just quit the job she’d once confessed was her entire life’s purpose. “As I am no longer a patroller, I can take my mother to Ariel without conflict of interest. My captain assured me that this was true, when I told her what I wanted to do and why.”

Justin’s eyes widened. “What
exactly
did you tell her?”

“Nothing about you or your private accounts. I said a friend was helping me pay for my mother’s treatment, and that I was quitting first so I wouldn’t be accused of corruption. She agreed it was the best thing to do.”

Justin’s mouth was dry. “But what are you going to do? You want to be a patroller. You love arresting people, and stunning them, and cuffing them. It’s your life.”

“Very funny. The people I love are more important than my career. I can always start another career. I’ll set up my own bodyguard service, maybe, or an investigation company.” Deanna let out her breath. “You handed me something I desperately needed, Justin. It was a no-brainer.”

Her face glowed, and her mouth wouldn’t stop smiling. She was relaxed, for the first time since Justin had met her, not tense about anything. She’d made her decision, and it had given her wings.