“I am simply trying to spare you the pain of losing not one, but all three men.”
“Fuck you.”
“Very well. It is your loss, Doctor Hypatia.” Rawin turned and left with her friend.
Aaron watched them go. “Em—”
“Don’t say it,” she said, her tone growling. “Don’t fucking say it.”
Chapter Fourteen
They wouldn’t let Emi take Caph and Ford with her. Because of the charges, and a so-called witness to them, they were required to remain in custody until the settlement fight. Emi and Aaron were escorted back to the hotel by Baltin, who acted mortified.
“Doctor, I am so sorry I did not stay. I should have made other arrangements and gone with them myself.”
Emi liked Baltin and sensed her genuine anguish over the situation. “It’s not your fault,” Emi gently said. “I know in my heart Rawin planned this with her friends.”
“I fear you are right. But she is a fierce fighter. One of the best. She has never lost.”
“She’s not going to be a match for me,” Emi assured her despite not feeling the bravado herself.
“I hope you are right. I would truly hate to see you lose. I will return in the morning and bring you breakfast.” She left them alone.
Emi plunked down on the bed and turned on the vid screen. She didn’t understand a word of the broadcast, but there were pictures of her and her men. She changed channels. Another newscast, featuring them. And another. And another. Until she found a channel with a cartoon.
Hell, it was better than nothing.
Aaron sat next to her on the bed and pulled her close. “It’ll be okay, babe.”
“Yeah.”
He kissed the top of her head. “They’re okay.”
“Yeah.”
He sighed into her hair. “I miss them, too.”
“I’m not going to lose them,” she said. “Whatever I have to do, I’m going to kick that bitch’s ass.”
“I know.”
Emi felt the tension and worry in Aaron that night as they tried to sleep. Not so much worry for himself as worry for her and the twins.
She knew she dozed during the night but wasn’t sure how much sleep she actually got. When the sun rose the next morning, she pulled on the same clothes she’d been wearing when they arrived, including uniform trousers with cargo pockets, comfy, loose enough she could move around in.
As she felt a bulge in one pocket, she stuck her hand in and wistfully smiled when she pulled out Caph’s little Halloween surprise.
She fought the urge to cry as she tucked Bucky back in her pocket. Maybe it would be a good-luck charm.
Baltin delivered their breakfast. “I will come back for you in an hour to take you to the grounds.”
They ate in silence. Emi kept her meal light, not wanting a full stomach to slow her down. She couldn’t help but think about the twins. She knew they were probably okay, that Mauri would ensure their safety. Still, she missed them.
Would this morning be the final time she ever saw them? She talked a good game, but what if she did lose? How would she get her guys back short of returning with a lander and a shitload of guns?
She suspected the DSMC and ISTC wouldn’t overturn the Moran laws and risk an interstellar incident over three men.
Aaron tried one more time. “Em, listen to me. I—”
“No.” She cut him off, not letting him speak it. She’d felt the resignation in him ever since he awoke. He wasn’t sure she could win and was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the twins.
The feeling of dread she remembered from the sim session, when Aaron sacrificed himself for all of them, slammed into her.
“We could guarantee they’d be free,” he quietly said. “They could be with you.”
“Aaron, crew first.” Her anger boiled. “I can’t believe you’d even think it! No fucking way am I letting that bitch take any of my husbands. Crew always comes first. You yourself taught me that. Crew first.”
He studied her for a moment before he nodded. “Okay.” In the privacy of their room, he pulled her tightly to him and held her, burying his face in her hair. “Okay, sweetie. You’re absolutely right. Crew first.”
Apparently, situations like this brought out the party animals in the normally reserved Moran women. As they were led into the arena, Emi stared at the full stands, eager faces watching and anticipating a hell of a show.
She couldn’t help but make the comparison to old-Earth gladiator games.
The large, sandy field was marked by a white circle in the middle. The combat area.
When she spotted Caph and Ford, naked except for their collars and G-strings, bound, and seated on a bench to one side of the circle, she raced over to them and hugged and kissed them.
“Jesus, are you guys okay?”
“Nothing harmed but our fucking pride,” Ford snarked. “You all right, babe?”
She nodded, stroking his hair and Caph’s. “I get you two back to the Bight, I’m never letting you out of my sight again. You got that?”
“Fine with us, sweetie,” Caph softly said. “I’m so sorry.”
She pulled his head to her chest and buried her face in his hair. “It’s not your fault.” Emi couldn’t shake that certainty. The twins had a fairly bad track record for getting into trouble before she joined them, but most of that was, especially early on, designed to keep Aaron thinking he had to look after them and to distract him from his grief over Kelsey’s death. Since Emi joined them and Aaron’s deepest healing finally started, the twins had been virtual angels.
Emi also knew without a doubt that Rawin had set them up.
As she turned and looked across the arena, she spotted Rawin laughing, grinning, and talking to two women. She shook hands with them and gave them hugs. One Emi recognized as the one who filed the report.
“Ford, is one of those the woman who helped you two in the store?”
Caph and Ford looked at the woman as she turned and walked into the stands. “Yeah, that’s her,” Caph said. “She saw the whole thing. She’d even talked with us and helped us find stuff. We weren’t anywhere near that other woman. She came into the store and looked like she was looking for something. Then she walked right over to us and then started yelling for guards. That one there didn’t bother standing up for us, either.”
Emi locked eyes with Rawin. The Moran woman’s lips curled into a sneer. Then, she winked at Emi.
That fucking bitch.
Emi now knew beyond all doubt this was a scam for Rawin to get her hands on Aaron after Emi refused her offers. But fuck, to so blatantly orchestrate something like this?
The guards made Aaron sit on the bench next to Caph and bound him to it. The men wouldn’t be released again until someone won the contest. Then the winner could claim her spoils.
Aaron’s brown gaze bored into hers. “You can do it, sweetie,” he softly said. “Just be careful. Take your time.”
Emi nodded and kissed each man once more. Then she stood across the circle from Rawin and waited for the signal to begin. Mauri had a seat in an ornate box at one side of the arena, close to the circle. When the Moran leader stood and raised her arms, the thousand or so women filling the stands immediately fell silent.
“We are gathered here today to settle a debt. If Dr. Hypatia wins, her men go free. If Rawin wins, as the appointed proxy for the injured party, she earns the right to claim the men as hers to do with as she pleases. The rules are this—a fight to the finish, and you may not lift or carry your opponent out of the circle. First warrior completely out of the circle loses. Step inside the circle, both of you.”