Bought: A Science Fiction Romance Adventure (Star Breed Book 11) by Elin Wyn

Author:Elin Wyn [Wyn, Elin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-28T04:00:00+00:00

Serra

I was back.

No matter how hard I’d tried to break away, how hard I’d studied, how hard I’d fought.

Here I was again, walking into the Duke’s court.

Julia and her guardsmen led the way.

Jenke stalked silently by my side.

After his first shocked look at Julia’s declaration, he hadn’t looked at me.

Hadn’t said anything.

I couldn’t blame him.

I should have told him, let him know what we were walking into.

After so many years away, I’d done my best to forget everything about Tevnet Station.

Surrounded myself with things of beauty, safe in my quiet gallery.

Nothing could touch me there.

Where the only records of betrayal and infighting were artifacts from long-ago wars, relics to be safely categorized and shelved.

With no further need to try to avoid attention, we reached the base of the Duke’s tower quickly.

Jenke looked up at it, eyes narrowed.

Probably deciding how to take it over, I decided.

“They don’t want you,” I said. “There’s no reason for you to go inside.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“Think this Duke person might have information about our missing security expert?”

I nodded reluctantly. “It’s possible.”

“Then whether or not they want me, I want them.”

I kicked myself. Caught up in my own thoughts, I’d somehow forgotten the real reason we were doing all this.

Find the security expert, get the falcon back.

Reunite Jenke with his brothers.

That’s all it was.

Now there was no more time for talking as we entered the tower.

The lowest floor was filled with people from all over the station, eyes fixed on the screens before them.

Some laughing in excitement, but most scowling, tapping their screens again and again.

“Do I even want to know?”

“Games of chance,” I answered as we followed the ramp up, the crowded, noisy floor falling away behind us.

“It’s a distraction from life’s hardships here.”

“How much chance is left in those games?”

I glanced up at him. It was so easy to forget how smart he was, behind that massive wall of muscle.

“A little bit. Not a lot.”

We continued upwards, passing the floors where the pricier table games were held, the richer denizens of the station clustered into exuberant groups as small fortunes were lost either at the roll of the dice or the shuffling of the dealer’s cards.

Jenke watched as a man staggered away from a table, face gray with fear. “Doesn’t look like everyone’s having a good time.”

“There’s penalties if you lose too much,” I said softly. “Just like everything else in life.”

At least the next level was quieter.

The archways leading off the ramp into the open space were force shielded, but I knew that behind the golden haze, the Duke’s minions were busily working, transferring credits, doing all of the small administrative tasks that were necessary for any organization.

Legitimate or not.

The spiraling ramp wound in tighter circles now as the tower narrowed towards the top.

Twice we paused for guards to wave open doors at Julia’s approach, their eyes scanning both Jenke and me for potential threats, deciding that we could be handled by what lay before us on the other side.

At each gate, the band around my chest constricted, until my breaths were shallow.

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