How many times had that simple act—Sera putting her head in Ash’s lap or on his shoulder when he’d had a hard day made the exhaustion or agitation fall away? The what-was haunted him at times. He knew Kira never offered such kindnesses, just a touch or a moment of quiet. Certainly never to him and most likely not to Perry either.

  Brandt looked up, noticing him in the doorway. “Hey, come in. I was just telling Sera I had to leave at nightfall. I’m hoping Kira will return to her home in Majar so I’m going to try and get her while she may be feeling bad about what happened.”

  “Ah, yes. I was on my way in to relate similar news. I’m actually on my way out now. I’ve been called in to HQ to report and then I thought I’d head home to speak with my uncle and father, see what they know.”

  Sera stood and dusted her knees off. “I’ll be here working. Keep me updated.”

  Ash didn’t like the way she’d physically pulled away from Brandt and saw her hesitance.

  “I wanted to be here with you. We have a lot to talk about.”

  She nodded slowly. “That seems to be the general consensus. But there’s work to be done and people’s lives are in the balance. Go. Both of you. We’ll talk when you return.”

  Three steps and she was close enough for him to draw to his body. “We will, Sera so get that look off your face. It’s different now. You know that. Don’t tell me you didn’t feel it between us not only in Nondal but on the way back. I love you. I need you and we will be together.”

  “We are together.” Brandt spoke from behind her.

  She didn’t speak but looked up into Ash’s face. Every part of her—he remembered thinking he’d memorized every part of her. He used to lie in bed at night after she’d gone and think about the curve of her cheek or the line of her jaw but as he looked just then, he noticed parts of her he hadn’t before. Like a new puzzle, a gift.

  He laid kisses across the bridge of her nose and over her cheeks. She held on to his shoulders without speaking, only holding her face up to receive his affections.

  “I wish I had the time to take you slow and deep.”

  Her cheeks plumped as she smiled against his kisses. “You were just inside me this morning. It isn’t as if you’ll die from an overabundance of seed.”

  “No. I just want you. I need you. Now that you’re with me again, I don’t want to walk out that door. Even for just a few days.” He dreaded it. The idea of not seeing her, even for a few days brought back a ghost of the misery he’d felt those days just before she’d found out at his engagement. He simply didn’t want to be away from her now that she was at his side again.

  “You put a chip in my skull, you can find me within twelve clicks. It’s not like I can run.” She gave him a lopsided grin.

  He held her face gently between his palms, tipping her so he could see directly in her eyes. “Don’t. Don’t make light of it. Not for me, or you. Ten years without you. I never want that again.”

  Her bottom lip quivered just a moment before she firmed up and nodded. “Are you trying to make me weepy?” Her hands fisted and relaxed in the front of his shirt.

  “I’m trying to make you understand. Things are different this time.” A universe different, thank the gods.

  Ceylon, their house manager, buzzed through the house comm. system. “Your vehicle is here, Commander.”

  He kissed her lips softly, taking in her sweetness and that sharp edge of her too.

  “Be safe. Please.” She tugged his earlobe. “And Ash? I know. I know it’s different.”

  He relaxed, happy she’d admitted it. “You’re everything.” He kissed her again quickly. “I’ll be in touch.” He looked around her to Brandt. “Travel safe. Report anything you find.”

  When he left, she watched him from the front door and he touched his fingers to his lips, still feeling hers there.

  Sera watched them both leave. Stood in the doorway and tried not to hurt that they’d had to leave her behind. She understood it. It was part of the assignment and they all had their own specialties and jobs.

  But watching Brandt’s face as he contemplated his sister’s involvement in an executable offense tore her apart. Sera had been the one to uncover the first evidence of her involvement. How could he not blame her at least a little bit?

  And Ash, when he got to HQ in Ravena, he’d be surrounded by ranked people. His own class. Would he remember the importance of his station then? She couldn’t lie to herself anymore, he’d married Kira because he’d had to. What did the future of his position hold for them now?

  If his cousin was involved, it would cause terrible upheaval in the Walker Family. One thing she was pretty sure of, Perry Walker had involvement with Owen Alder and whatever in hells Giles Stander had been doing.

  She needed someone who could get her in some backchannels to do some snooping in the Family networks. And she needed to think. Or maybe not to think.

  Shaking her head, she returned to her rooms and tossed herself on the bed. Just as quickly she got up and moved to the comm unit and pinged her brother. Not surprisingly he was out, so she grabbed her firearms and headed to the range. A little target practice was just the thing to clear her mind while she worked through the puzzle of the whole situation.

  Some time later, after she’d showered the acrid scent of cordite from her body, she’d headed back inside to see Paul had messaged her back.

  “Ceylon!” she yelled as she headed downstairs in search of the house manager.

  “Sub-Commander Ayers, I apologize. You shouldn’t have to come and find me.” He bowed.

  “Don’t be silly. I came to find you rather than summon you like royalty. I need for you to make travel arrangements for me. To Sanctu.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “I’ve got the pretty blonde, thanks Georges.”

  Sera rolled her eyes as the assistant at the front gates backed away and her brother came forward to grab her bag.

  The trip to Sanctu had been relatively short. The Walker Family controlled territory neighbored Borran. A little under a standard day and her military transport had dropped her away from the main dock and she’d been met by her contact who’d driven her to Paul’s place and left without a single question. She could really get used to that sort of power.

  She’d grown up in Sanctu. It was where she’d met Ash. As a young woman she’d been enrolled in the language academy in the capital city of Mirum. He’d been—oh gods—handsome and refined. Older, wiser, powerful. He’d worked in the same building as she’d had her first internship. She’d pretended to bump into him as often as she could, and he’d finally asked her name.

  Within months they’d begun sharing a house. Their connection had been so fast, so deep and she’d thought so enduring. Three years later she’d walked away from Mirum and Ash Walker.

  She shook it off, focusing on her brother instead. His spacious and yet totally off the grid compound was in the mountainous region to the south of Mirum. He paid his bribes to the Walker Family and they pretty much left him alone.

  “Welcome. It’s been far too long since you’ve been here.” He hugged her, kissing each cheek. “You look good, a bit sad. I expect you’ll share what you want to and know I want to hear it. Come on up. Lina is here and she’s made a large meal for us. You know Mai and Dai will be crushed if they hear you’re here and you don’t go to see them.”

  Their parents lived in a small working-class suburb outside Mirum. She couldn’t involve them in this mess, nor could she even begin to explain Ash’s presence in her life again. Not yet. She’d have to face them sometime, but she couldn’t deal until she had the rest all tied up.

  “I’m here on business. I can’t involve them right now. I’ll be back later, when it’s just a social call. Right now, Paul, I need every connection I can make.” She paused a moment. “Let’s go inside and see Lina first.”

  Lina, her childhood friend and Paul’s on-again-off-again lady love met her at the door with a hug and a smile. “It’s so good to see you. Come in! Paul, put her bag in the guest room and meet us in the kitchen. Be quick or we’ll eat all the good stuff.”

  All through the meal Sera itched to check her comm to see if Ash or Brandt had been in contact. They hadn’t in the day before she’d been able to get out of Borran and then she’d traveled for some time too. She knew they’d be busy with family and in meetings. It was unreasonable for her to expect them to message her so quickly. Didn’t mean she wasn’t disappointed. Funny how she missed them so sharply. They’d only been a part of her life a short time and yet had become totally integral to it.

  Despite her impatience, the meal had been truly fabulous and the company relaxed her. Paul was an easy going person. They’d always been close, even when he’d chosen a life she never would have. And Lina, well her brother was a fool for not marrying her. They were clearly together in some way though, that much was clear and Sera certainly had no place to question it given her own circumstances. So she just rolled her eyes at him when Lina took her leave at the end of the night.

  “Did you have something to say?” He grinned.

  “Yes, show me your electronics. The good stuff and don’t waste my time with any denials. I need to break into a Family network and I need to do it quietly and quickly.”

  He locked the house and took her down a stairway and into a room totally packed with machinery. “What do you need? I’m not leaving you alone in here. This stuff is my life and you need me. You know you can trust me.”

  She snorted. “Of course I can trust you. I had no plans to ask you to leave. You can do this way faster than I can.” She held out the chip with the encrypted data. “Oh and this too. Do you think you can unlock it?”

  He just looked at her as he snatched the chip from her fingers. “Don’t insult me. Anything else?”

  She explained what she needed and he moved via a chair with wheels from station to station, mumbling to himself. While he worked, Sera updated the information she had with supplemental material Ash had uploaded. He must have received it when he went to HQ.

  The picture it painted, as she added her own intel, was one of a cold-blooded greed that made her skin crawl. Each new thing she pieced into the overall puzzle pointed more and more in Owen Alder and then Perry Walker’s direction.

  Among the information Ash had sent there’d been a note, a quick one. But he’d said he missed her. It made her smile.

  “Gods, what the hells is that?” Paul had moved behind her and he saw the pictures on her monitor.

  “That’s what’s left of a relay station. A relay station the Imperialists attacked. Everyone there was murdered and vital information was stolen.”

  Her brother stilled. “A Family member did this?”

  “I don’t know for sure. I think so, yes. That’s why I want you to get into Kira Walker’s personal network and into Perry Walker’s as well. Someone fed the Imperialists information about the location of this station.”

  “What have you gotten into?”

  “Don’t ask. It’s better you don’t know and of course, you know to never breathe a word about it.”

  “We’re going to crack into that network. This sort of thing can’t be allowed to continue.” He rolled back to his station and began to type quickly.

  Brandt eased himself down from the high window. On soundless feet, he crouched and waited for any other sounds but his breathing.

  Satisfied he was indeed alone in Kira and Perry’s home, he stood and adjusted his night-vision glasses.

  The security had been easy enough to outwit. Two guards on a timed sweep of the property. The internal security had been coded to the main Pela estate so one quick adjustment back at his own home and he’d been able to create a window in the system for himself to get in.

  If his sister and brother-in-law weren’t traitors, he’d have to speak to them about how woefully inadequate their home security was.

  He’d been in the home a few times, enough to know where the home network was located and he quickly made his way there. Where he found some real security. Interesting.

  The panel on the door took some time for him to get past and he was glad he’d brought his tools with him. One ear listened for external noise while he focused on the intricate task of hacking their electronic locks to get into the network room.

  When he finally did get in, he discovered the room was empty of the central processing unit for the network as well as Kira and Perry’s personal comm units.

  He blew out a frustrated sigh. It was one thing to take a personal unit, he did that while traveling all the time. But anther entirely to remove the central unit. Totally unnecessary unless one had something of great value to protect. Or something to hide.

  Leaving the room, he reset the door and did a sweep of the rest of the house, just in case they’d left any other comm units. But he’d quickly discovered all other comms had been removed as well.

  He made a mental note to see if there was a way to look into the Family network to get into Kira and Perry’s personal system. He’d tried but had run into walls. The Families had built major protections for themselves into the legal framework of the Federation. Their networks were protected by the law in all but the most extreme cases. It did seem as though this sort of situation would qualify though. He’d need to run it by Ash when he spoke with him again.

  He thought of Sera as he let himself out of the house, this time through the back door. He missed her and needed to get the hells back to her side as soon as he spoke with his father.

  “Brandt, you can’t be serious.”

  Brandt looked at his father and scrubbed his palms down his thighs. “I am. I’m in love with her.”

  “She’s a concubine! You can’t be thinking straight.” His father pushed up from his chair and began to pace.

  Kira had been nowhere to be found and Brandt needed to tell his family about his intentions with Sera before he left to get back to Borran.

  “She’s not. She’s on my team. She was only posing as a concubine.”

  “Well that’s a small mercy I suppose. Who is she then?”

  “Her name is Sera Ayers. She’s from Sanctu. And I’m old enough to know what love is. I’m thinking just fine.”

  “Bah, love.” His father waved a hand and then paused, picking up on Brandt’s not giving Familial affiliation for Sera. “Did you say she’s unranked? She may as well be a concubine, Brandt, for all the good it does you.”

  “I’m not with her for status, Father.”

  “That’s clear. She has none and she’ll give you none. She’ll drag you down. She’s nothing.”

  Brandt stood, a flush heating his face. He physically jerked back, fists clenched at his side. For a few long moments he had to concentrate on his breathing to keep from saying something they’d both regret.

  Brandt respected his father more than any other person he knew and he couldn’t recall ever actually standing up and feeling as if he wanted to strike out in anger at him.

  It wasn’t absolutely necessary that he have the permission of the head of the Family to marry but he wanted it anyway. Not that it would stop him from saying what needed to be said. “Don’t you dare, ever speak that way about her. She is everything. I love her. She’s strong, smart, self-made. You think Kira is self-made? You think these women Mother parades past me every three minutes are self-made? Have any of them ever earned anything on their own? I thought that was important to you.”

  Viktor Pela sighed and touched his son’s shoulder. “This is a mistake. You have a duty to your Family.”

  “I’m doing my duty to my race right now. Every day. As does Sera. I’m not a first or second son. Marius will marry politically, you know that. Ivan has already. It isn’t necessary for me to do it too. Stop making excuses.”

  “Your mother will tear the walls down around us all.” His father threw his hands up in the air.

  “I imagine so. Which is why I’m telling you and not her. I would like your seal on the papers. And then I need your quiet on the situation until my mission has been completed.”

  “You want me to give you permission to marry an unranked woman and then you want me to keep it a secret? You don’t wish to have a joining here in Majar? On the grounds?”

  “It’s going to take all my charm to convince her to marry me to start with. I don’t know that I can also work in a ceremony with eight hundred attendees. Right now, it needs to be quick and quiet and then later, we may do a joining here.”

  His father took the papers and looked them over. Brandt breathed a sigh of relief when his father finally signed and stamped his seal on them.

  “Why the hurry? Is she with child?”

  “No. I want to extend my protection and status to her.” He took the papers from his fathers’ hands and tucked them in an inside pocket. “It’s complicated but, oh gods, do you remember the woman Ash was with when he married Kira? The one he loved and wanted to be with?”

  His father shot to standing again. “You told me after I signed the papers? This Sera is that woman? I thought she left?”

  “She did. Ash offered to make her his mistress but she didn’t want less than marriage, less than the total love and attention of her man. She left and rose in the ranks of the corps. To lieutenant.”

  His father’s eyes softened as approval replaced his outrage. “An unranked female? And she’s young. She must be an exceptional soldier.”

  Brandt hid his smile. “She is. And she’s on my team. You may as well know she’s with Ash too. But only one of us can marry her and I want it to be me. I want to protect her from any retribution that may come of what we reveal in this investigation. And I want to protect her from any censure for being involved with us both.” He paused. “She’s a good person. Honorable. Strong. Courageous. Everything a man would want in his mate.”

  “You have to tell your mother. Not right now, I understand your situation. But I’m not risking life and limb, hells, I don’t even have all my limbs to risk! You have to do it when the time comes. Go, go with my blessing.”