THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) (15 page)

“That’s a natural hill?” she asked.

“Yeah. A lot of it is made of catborn.”

She walked to the mine entrance and peered into the darkness. Caleb came up behind her and shone a light down the tunnel. She could see dirt walls. Every few feet there was a pair of upright timbers with another timber across the top, and above the overhead timbers were sheets of something that formed a ceiling.

“That ceiling wasn’t in place before the accident.”

She turned back to him and saw that while she’d been looking into the tunnel, he’d been loading equipment into a handcart.

“I don’t like this.”

“I’ll be fine.”

She reached for him, pulling him toward her and hanging on tight. She didn’t want him going in there, but she couldn’t think of any way to prevent it.

He wrapped his arms around her and gathered her to him.

“Be careful,” she whispered.

“I will.”

She felt him stir, then ease away and reach into one of the storage containers he’d brought. He pulled out a metal helmet with a light on the front and switched it on.

She gave him a long look, wanting to tell him that she had a bad feeling about this. But she knew he wasn’t going to stay out of the mine because she was having the jitters. He had been on this homestead for almost twenty years—and nine of those years, he’d been running the place the way he wanted to, and doing it very well. She couldn’t expect to walk in and start changing things.

She kept her eyes on him, watching him disappear into the darkness, seeing the light on his helmet and not him.

When he was gone, she wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her shoulders

She thought about the first time they’d made love. And the second. She’d thought each time that everything was going to be all right between them, but somehow that didn’t seem to be true. It was as though caring about her made him question his judgment.

Her
comms unit made a chirping sound. She pulled it out of her pocket. When she did, the display cube appeared in the air in front of her. She could see inside the tunnel, as though she was seeing the interior from Caleb’s point of view. She saw his light moving into the darkness and the sides of the tunnel, faintly glowing green in the illumination.

Glad of the contact with him, she kept watching. When the picture winked off, she gasped.

“What happened?”

“I’m fine.” His voice came from the unit. “The
catborn’s interfering with the visuals, but we can still talk to each other.”

“Okay.”

“You might as well wait for me in the hauler.” Caleb’s voice came from the vicinity of her right ear.

“I can’t just sit still.” As she spoke, she glanced around the mine entrance. It looked like Caleb was usually in a hurry to get out of the area and hadn’t spent a lot of time keeping it orderly. “I see some rocks have washed down the hill. I can clear them away while you’re gone.”

“Sure.”

Did he consider that make-work? Or was it something he’d appreciate, like cleaning up the henhouse?

Well, having something constructive to do was better than sitting and waiting.

He had left a shovel in the hauler, and she used it to scoop up some of the smaller rocks and pile them well away from the mine entrance, being careful to stay away from the circle of explosive charges. She alternated shoveling with picking up some of the larger rocks. And as she worked, she kept scanning the landscape, watching out for predators.

The area right around the mine entrance was stripped of vegetation. But thirty meters away there was tall grass and scrubby trees.

She stopped and swiped her hand across her forehead.

“How are you doing?” she asked Caleb.

“It’s going pretty well. I think I can finish up in an hour.”

She could hear him breathing hard and went back to her own project.

When she looked up from her work again, she saw something in the sky that she hadn’t seen before. It looked like a kind of air car. Could it be one of the other men flying his hauler back to his homestead? As she watched it grew larger, and she finally realized that it was heading straight toward the mine.

It set down in the scrub, well away from the force field. A man climbed out. He was wearing a protective suit, heavy boots and a helmet that completely hid his face, reminding her of the cops who had swooped in after the incident with Jerry.

He had something in his hand, and as she watched he pointed it in front of him and moved it back and forth. She heard a sizzling noise and saw lightning flickering over the surface of what must be the invisible barrier Caleb had set up around the mine entrance.

When the barrier was down, he stomped forward, and when he was twenty meters from her, he took off the helmet and tossed it onto the ground.

She gasped when she saw who it was.

Tucker Lowden. The man she had prayed never to see again.

Chapter Ten

Caleb must have heard her gasp.

“What’s wrong?” his urgent question rang in her ear.

“Tucker Lowden found me.”

“What? Who?”

Her skin crawled as she looked at the man who was only meters away. She’d worked hard to fool him, and she’d thought it had worked. She’d been wrong.

Lowden was speaking, riveting her attention.

“You thought you could get away from me, but you were sadly mistaken, bitch,” he said, echoing her own thoughts.

“Leave me alone.” She took a step back. She knew Caleb could hear her talking but could he also hear Tucker?

When he stood staring at her with satisfaction, she asked, “How did you get here so fast? It took us a month.”

“A one-man speed ship. It was expensive.” He laughed. “But it will be worth it, getting to flip you again. And do all those things I love. But we’ll take the slow way back and you can have a month to make amends for trying to give me the slip.”

When she sucked in a strangled breath, he kept speaking.

“I thought that guy I hired at the spaceport could bring you to me. But he was a
pissant. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

When he advanced on her, she took another step back. “Your boyfriend’s in the mine. I found out there was a bad accident here with his dad. The poor guy got buried under a
slatload of catborn. I think we can arrange the same thing for the son. Nobody will think anything of it. And nobody is going to worry that you’ve disappeared.”

She fought the sick feeling rising in her throat, because she knew that Tucker wasn’t lying. He was perfectly capable of murder—and a whole lot more.

Her beamer was on her hip. As she remembered that, she saw that Tucker had the same thought.

“Use two fingers and take your weapon out of the holster. Drop it on the ground.”

She did as he asked, her mind scrabbling for a way out of this. Would Tucker kill her? She thought not. He wanted her alive, and he wanted to punish her for running away, but she was sure he’d enjoy giving her a painful burn to teach her a lesson.

The
comms controller was in her pocket, and she knew she could use it to set off the charges Caleb had planted around the mine area. Too bad he’d already walked past them before she knew who he was. But he’d been wearing a helmet, and she couldn’t just blow up someone who’d arrived on the scene.

Tucker was in front of the explosive charges now. But what if she used them as a distraction?

And what about Caleb?

Tucker must be close enough for Caleb to hear him now. Which Tucker wouldn’t
know. And he wouldn’t know how these comms units functioned.

That gave them an advantage, but it also meant Caleb was finding out things about her that she’d been afraid to tell him—learning about her past in the worst possible way. Still she couldn’t worry about that now. The only thing that mattered was saving his life. She had to buy him time to get to the front of the mine.

“If I go with you quietly, will you leave my husband alone?” she asked.

“Your husband! What a joke.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“Well, that makes it more likely that I want to kill him.”

“No!”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because I’m cooperating.”

“Yeah, you’re real cooperative. I’m guessing you let him do anything he wanted with you.”

She didn’t answer.

“Didn’t you?”

“We made love.”

He laughed again. “Yeah, with a man who doesn’t know a furrow from a
wellhead.”

Tucker’s focus was on her, and behind him she saw a flicker of movement. A shape rose out of the underbrush, and she was pretty sure she knew what it was. Not a
granling. The other thing, a borgan.

The
granling was like a bear on old Earth. The borgan was cat like. It was smaller than a granling, with green fir that lay sleek against its streamlined body. It padded silently forward, moving through the scrubby grass with the grace of a predator that knew it was the master of its environment. And with the force field down, it had its opportunity to strike.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you get away, did you, bitch?” her nemesis asked.

“I thought I’d fooled you.”

“Your mistake. You think I couldn’t bribe the information out of someone?”

“I hoped,” she answered because she was trying to keep him talking.

“I’ve brought explosives. That should take care of lover boy.”

“They’ll catch you.”

“I don’t think so. And I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to keep me talking to give your boyfriend a few more minutes of life.”

He took a step to the side. ‘The explosives are in the hauler. We’re going to get them.”

“No.”

“I’ll shoot you.”

“Go ahead. And then I won’t have to worry about you coming after me anymore.”

“In the thigh. That’s not going to feel so good. And then I’ll take care of Caleb Raider.”

In the grass, she saw the
borgan crouching down, getting ready to spring. But Tucker must have seen her gaze flick to the threat behind him.

He whirled and gasped as he saw the monster stalking him. Raising his beamer, he shot a hot stream of energy at the beast, hitting it in midair as it leaped.

The animal made a hissing noise and went down, but Tucker had taken his attention off her. Knowing she had only seconds to act, she tried to calculate the best place to explode one of Caleb’s charges.

Pressing the red button, she shouted, “Five.”

An explosion went off to Tucker’s right. As he staggered back, she dived for the beamer he’d forced her to drop on the ground.

Just as she reached it. Tucker whirled back to her. Before he could shoot her, a stream of fire drilled him in the chest, and he fell backwards into the weeds.

Caleb emerged from the tunnel entrance, his weapon in his hand.

He walked toward Tucker, stood over the man and drilled him again.

Then he pulled his comms unit out of his pocket and moved his fingers over it.

“What is the nature of your emergency?” a voice asked.

“This is Caleb Raider. I am at my catborn mine. Someone came to try and invade the property. I believe he’s from off world. He has explosives in his hauler. I drilled him. You’ll find him just outside the mine entrance. I’m leaving for my homestead. You can come and get him.”

“Got it,” the voice said.

Through the dispassionate speech, Beka stood in stunned silence. Caleb had said nothing about Tucker’s real reason for being here.

When he was finished with the call, he turned to her.

“Come on,” he said in a tight voice.

“Where?”

“Back to the homestead.”

She swallowed hard and walked to the hauler. When she was inside, he used the controller to close the door to the mine. Then he climbed into the other side of the hauler, took the controls and lifted off quickly.

She cut him a sidewise glance as they lifted off and headed for home, seeing the stony expression on his face.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”

The words and the tone of his voice made her feel sick. Sicker than she’d felt when Tucker Lowden had held her at gunpoint. As she huddled in the seat, she fought not to start shaking.

They were back at the farmyard only a few minutes later. Without looking at Caleb, she got out and walked stiff-legged into the house, into the bedroom, where she started opening drawers and taking her clothing out.

She piled them on the bed and then found the crate that she’d put into the storage bay. As she began to stow her things, she blinked back tears. Against all odds, she’d found the right man. Now that she’d lost him, she knew she should have been honest with him from the first.

When the light in the doorway changed she brushed the tears out of her eyes and looked up. Caleb was standing there watching her.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Packing my things.”

“You want to leave?”

She took her bottom lip between her teeth. She hadn’t been honest with him, but now she knew that she had to be—no matter what it cost her.

Raising her chin, she said, “No.”

“Then why are you packing?”

“Because I figured you’d want me out of here.”

Instead of agreeing, he said, “Maybe you should tell me the stuff you didn’t say.”

“Can I sit down?”

“Yeah. In the front room.”

He moved aside, and she walked into the sitting area, where she lowered herself into one of the armchairs.

Maybe the worst had already happened, and it wouldn’t make any difference if she spouted everything.

“I told you I grew up on a farm,” she said in a flat voice. “Not a very prosperous farm because my father drank up a lot of the profits. But he figured out a way to make extra money. When I was fifteen, he invited a guy out to the house to take my virginity. It was a very successful transaction for him, and he repeated the experience several times. Well, not the virginity part. He didn’t want to eat up his profits with an operation to make it seem like I was still intact.”

She couldn’t look him in the face as she spoke. Instead she kept her gaze on the hands that were twisted together in her lap.

“After the fifth guy, I stole the money I knew he was hiding in the barn and ran away—to Mitchell City. I didn’t know much about the city. I suppose I could have gotten in worse trouble than on the farm. But actually, I was lucky. Do-gooders found me, and I got into this kind of workhouse where they took in kids living on the streets. I got to go to school and work to earn my keep—in their laundry and the food prep area. That was the best time of my life. Pathetic, isn’t it?”

She rushed ahead, anxious to get the story over with now that she’d started. “But then I got too old to live there. They had to make room for new kids, and I had to move out. They gave me a month’s rent and found me a little room and a job like I’d had there, but it didn’t pay enough credits to live on. I didn’t have a lot of options, and I went looking for someone who could help me out. I met this guy named Eddie Platman who seemed decent. And he
was
, more or less. I thought that maybe the two of us were making a life together. I tried to be a good partner to him, and I thought it was working out okay. Only it turned out he wasn’t seeing our relationship in the same terms. For him it was just a convenience. He had someone at home who could cook for him and do what he wanted in bed. He was a man who liked his creature comforts. But he also liked to gamble, and one night he didn’t have anything to put up—except me. He lost me in a pounders game—to Tucker Lowden. He’d been watching me for weeks, and I was sure he wanted to take me away from Eddie.”

She made a strangled sound. “I guess you could tell Tucker was very taken with me. Very possessive. Very controlling. Very cruel. I knew I had to get away from him before he killed me—or I killed him. But I was sure he’d do something awful if he found me. So I started making arrangements to join a bride shipment. I did it in secret. And I thought I’d gotten away with it. Only he must have figured it out and sent that guy to get me at the spaceport.”

She swallowed hard and forced herself to keep going. “No relationship had ever worked out for me before, so I was nervous the whole way to Palomar. Then I met my new husband, and it was you. You proved you’d fight for me. And when you got me off alone, I started getting to know you. I liked you right away, and I could tell you were decent, better than any other man I’d ever been with. But it was hard for me to completely trust anyone. I thought that if I made it good in bed for you, you’d . . .” She raised one shoulder. “I don’t know, maybe you’d bond with me. Making love with you was freeing. It made me feel wonderful. And I was sure you liked it, too. But then I realized that it wasn’t working the way I wanted. You could tell I was hiding something, and that was pushing you away from me.” She kept her head down. “And yes, you were right. Not all the brides got a contraceptive implant. We had the option, and I took it because I hadn’t met you yet, and I was afraid that I’d end up with a guy who wouldn’t be any better than Eddie Platman. And I knew I’d have enough trouble on my own on Palomar. I was afraid to have a child to be responsible for, too.”

When he said nothing, she forced herself to raise her head and looked at him, startled to see tears in his eyes. No man she had ever met would have let a woman see him so vulnerable. That knowledge made her throat close. What had she thrown away by not trusting him?

He spoke for the first time since they’d been sitting opposite each other.

“Who broke your wrist?”

“Tucker.” She dragged in a breath and let it out.

“And back on the farm, what about your mother?”

“I told you, women aren’t equal to men where I come from. Mom was too afraid of Dad to go against him in anything. So she let those men rape me, then gave me a pill that would keep me from getting pregnant after.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them before saying the hardest part. “You can give me a ride back to Listerville, and I’ll be out of your life. I hope you have better luck next time.”