Eland and Jeanne by Allyson James

Author:Allyson James [James, Allyson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: JA / AG Publishing
Published: 2015-04-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

When Rees entered the room a long time later, Eland raised a hand, warning him to stay quiet.

Jeanne was asleep, curled beside Eland, her restraints gone, a light sheet over her body. Her chest rose and fell as she slept without fear.

Rees pitched his voice low, expert at not waking a sleeping lady. “We need to go.”

The darkness that Eland had been able to push away since he’d come here and found Jeanne came rushing back. “I know,” he muttered. “Damn it.”

He could stay here forever, hide out for the duration, doing nothing but loving Jeanne and sleeping.

“Patrollers are starting to search this section of the city,” Rees said. “We can’t risk that one of Judith’s customers won’t mention the weird-looking guys who came to her back door. If we’re found, shit could rain down on Judith. And on Jeanne.”

Rees was right, though Eland didn’t want him to be.

Reluctantly, and carefully, Eland got off the bed. Jeanne slept on, oblivious. Exhausted. She was strong, but what they’d done today had worn her out.

“I know. It sucks.” Rees’s expression was hard. “But don’t worry. Another woman will come along and want you. Maybe she’ll be as pretty, and as much fun. They always want us,” he finished with a cynical twist to his mouth.

Eland paused in the act of pulling on his tunic. Then he settled the garment and thrust his feet into shoes.

“Rees,” Eland said, passing the man on the way to grab his robes. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Ignoring Rees’s frown, Eland strode out of the room, looping the robes around his body as he went.

***

Ten days passed. Jeanne made herself go home and then back to work, to continue with her everyday routine. The tedium of her existence, however, did nothing to assuage the certainty in her gut that she’d never see Eland again.

But she’d have to live with letting him go. Eland couldn’t be caught—getting himself off-planet was his best chance. She’d started discreetly inquiring about pilots that might be amenable to smuggling Eland and other Shareem off world. She didn’t find many.

Though Jeanne was careful to make these inquiries through go-betweens and was never specific about what human cargo they’d transport, what she learned was that such pilots would charge hideous fees to smuggle outlaws off-planet.

If Eland never came back to Jeanne, it would be a moot point. She wouldn’t know how to contact him to tell him she’d arranged transport for him anyway.

He was somewhere out in the city, lying low. Or he might have found another woman better able to hide him, and he’d do with her all he’d done with Jeanne.

She didn’t like to think about that either.

Jeanne took to heading to Judith’s bar after work every day, hoping against hope that Eland would be upstairs waiting for her. But every time Jeanne plopped herself on a barstool and ordered an ale, Judith would shake her head ever so slightly. He hadn’t come.

Patrollers wandered in and out of the bar from time to time, not asking questions, just looking around.

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