Keep Away (Starship for Sale Book 3) by M.R. Forbes

Author:M.R. Forbes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Amazon
Published: 2022-05-25T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

I took the cell, glancing down at it, my entire body cold, my head beginning to buzz with tension and fear. I closed my eyes as I brought the phone to my ear, trying to calm the insidious side effects of my tumor, rearing its ugly head at one of the worst possible times.

“This is Ben,” I spat into the phone, desperate not to sound desperate or afraid. I could sense the squeaky quiver in my voice betray me.

“You shouldn’t have gone home,” the woman on the other end said in a raspy voice, as if her throat was as dry as mine. “You made it too easy.”

“If you hurt her…” I started to say. It always seemed so cheesy and cliche in the movies to make the threat, but faced with the real situation, they were still the first words that came out of my mouth.

“Don’t be stupid,” the woman interrupted. “We don’t want them. You know what we want.”

She said them, which meant they had taken Sheri and probably Nick, too.

“How am I supposed to get it to you? You took our ship.”

“Which we’ll be able to use to set up a new transit,” she replied. “As I’m sure was your intent when you stopped at the hardware store to pick up quite a few tools. What I haven’t figured out is where you’re headed now? You took out the unit we left behind to capture you. Impressive. You saved the Frasiers from the fire. Good work. I pegged you for Fresno, but it seems you’ve had a change of heart. Too bad. We could have ended this sooner if you’d run headlong into our next setup.”

I looked over at Keep. Whatever satellites Sedaya’s forces controlled, they’d been watching us since they locked on to Flippy. Obviously, it had taken some time to move their people in from wherever they were based. But now that they were getting into position, it would only be a matter of time before they had us surrounded.

So why call now? I figured they hadn’t called earlier because they didn’t have a number to use. Phoning Mom had changed that.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” I replied, gaining confidence from the idea. I pulled the phone from my face and put it on speaker so Keep could hear, and also so I could rest the phone in my lap. My hands had started shaking hard enough to make it challenging to hold onto the device.

“I’m sorry, too. Honestly, Ben, I would have preferred to keep your family out of this. We don’t know one another, but I’m not a bad person. I just have a job to do.”

“Honestly, I don’t care,” I said. “You’re okay with holding people hostage and burning down their homes. News flash, you’re a bad person. Sorry to break it to you. You made your point that you’ve got eyes on us at all times. That doesn’t seem to have helped. Since this is business, make your offer or go away.

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