Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5 (24 page)

At least Sonja knew Tron would get on well with her family back on the farm. The big, burly man was exactly the sort of fellow her father would like, in spite of how he’d married his daughter. And her mother would be in heaven over Alice.

Sonja might be bringing both her sisters back married, or at least one married and one possibly engaged, but she was bringing them back home, and that was going to count for something. All she needed to do was get them to the spaceport.

Roan didn’t look too happy. “With this many people we’ll need two boats.”

“I can pilot the first one,” Allan said.

“You’ll have to. Sonja and I will take the second. I can tow the second boat back from the spaceport.”

“Towing is dangerous. The boat will swamp if it bounces about too much.”

“It will be all right if I take it slow. But that’s not the real problem.”

“What is?” Sonja said.

“The real problem is that I only brought one boat over this morning. It’s the bigger boat, but it’s still too small for all of us.”

“So we need to get a second boat.” Allan stood up. “I’ll go with you. There is some stuff I want to pack to take.”

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Roan said. “The longer we delay, the bigger chance there is of getting caught.”

“I won’t be very long.” Allan glanced over at Suna. “I don’t want any kind of delay either.”

Sonja stood up. “I’ll go with you as well,” she said before she could think about it. Why she was suddenly agreeing to help the men bring a second boat here she wasn’t sure, but since she knew she’d be leaving Roan soon, she didn’t want to let him out of her sight.

Roan seemed pleased she was joining them. His smile warmed her. “Let’s go quickly, then. We’ll be back in less than an hour, so be ready to go,” he told the others.

They left the bar. “It would be better to split up,” Roan said. “The more we’re seen together the more likely someone will connect us when it’s known you’re gone. Allan, you go on ahead and get your stuff. Sonja and I will follow in the next shuttle and we’ll meet inside the maintenance shaft.”

The man hurried off, leaving Roan and Sonja to walk more slowly down the pathway. She took Roan’s arm, the better to look like a married couple out for a stroll, she told herself.

The truth was that she was enjoying how his arm felt under her hand. She thought of Sulla and her persuading Tron to give up returning to his home planet in exchange for leaving Ares Five with her. She thought of Allan, who hadn’t needed Suna to say a word. He was prepared to leave without even her complete agreement to marry him.

Allan might be thinking more with his hormones right now, given that he was in the throes of early attachment, but somehow she didn’t think so. He was simply a man who made up his mind fast, and when he did, nothing would change it.

“Do you think Allan would be good for Suna?”

Roan laughed sharply. “He’s got a devious mind, but he’s one of the best men I’ve ever known.”

“What did he do to end up in prison?”

Roan gave her a grin. “You might say he was a security expert…that is, he was great at getting past other people’s security.”

“He was a thief?”

“Very much so. But since being here he’s reformed himself. He might break into my place on a regular basis, but he’s never stolen anything from me other than the occasional beer. He’s also irrevocably in love with your sister, so I know he’ll be the best man he could be for her.”

“He just met her. How could he be in love?”

Roan stopped and turned her face towards him. “I know because I can see it in his eyes. I recognize it in his face. I know that expression, Sonja.”

She could barely breathe. “How do you know it?”

He smiled at her. “I know it, because I’ve seen it in the mirror every morning since we met. I know what I feel for you.”

“Tron and Allan love my sisters, and they’re leaving with them.”

His smile faded a little. “You’re asking me to come again.”

She swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“I can’t.”

She tried not to show the disappointment she felt. “I have to take my sisters away from here. I promised it to them so long ago.”

“I know.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “I know we both have promises we need to keep, honey. Let’s just enjoy the next few hours together.”

They walked together down the narrow, deserted pathway until they arrived at the wider one that led to the Delta Residence shuttle stop. At the end of the path, a familiar figure stepped out of the shadows.

“Roan Duman,” Oran Wilcan said with a snarl. “I’ve been looking for you.”

Sonja took in the bandaged ribs on the man and almost discounted him as a threat, but he raised a stunner, and from the bushes came two other men, both armed with knives.

The newcomers weren’t wearing uniforms, and Sonja wondered if maybe Wilcan had recruited some prisoners to help him rather than rely on his own men. Either way there was work to be done.

She released Roan’s arm and stepped away.

“You’ve found me, Wilcan. What do you want?” Roan said the words easily, but there was a tension that belied his tone. His eyes flickered to Wilcan’s henchmen, so she knew he noted their presence, but he was keeping his attention firmly on the man with the stunner.

“I want what you have,” Wilcan said, waving his stunner at Sonja.

“That’s ridiculous, Wilcan. She’s my wife and you can’t attach to a woman who is married.”

“There are ways of dealing with that.” Wilcan grinned nastily. “Accidents happen a lot around here, and afterward the widow comes up for grabs.”

“I don’t want you,” Sonja told him. “And I wouldn’t suggest grabbing me,” she added. “It would be very unhealthy for any man who tried.”

Wilcan just laughed and signaled to his men. “One of you hold her while I take care of him.”

A man holding a knife stepped towards her, and for a moment Sonja thought that Roan would interfere. He started to step between them but then he glanced at her and, almost smiling, stopped.

Sonja could have laughed out loud. Apparently rather than acting on his normal instincts to protect her, Roan was going to let her have her fun.

He understood her
. Maybe that’s what she was feeling, appreciation for his accepting who she was. That might be why she thought she was falling in love with him. No one had ever appreciated her for herself before.

She let the other man come close enough to grab her arm then kicked high, hitting him in the chest. While her leg was up, she pulled her boot knife and slashed at his hand. With a shout, he pulled his bleeding hand into his chest, cradling it, forgetting his knife in his pain. She kicked him one more time, and he went down moaning.

The whole thing had taken less than fifteen seconds. Wilcan and his second henchman gaped at her, and she shrugged. “I told you, it would be unhealthy to grab me.”

In the meantime, Roan had pulled his stunner. “I really don’t want to use this,” he started to say.

Wilcan turned and fired. The beam barely missed, leaving Roan no option but to open fire himself. He took out Wilcan, and before the third man could move, stunned him as well.

Now all three men were on the ground. Roan stunned the man Sonja had injured, who was moaning loudly enough to attract attention.

He grabbed Sonja’s arm. “We better get moving before they come around.”

They hustled to the shuttle, and they headed for the relative safety of Beta Residence. “You’ve now stunned a company man, Roan,” Sonja said when they were on their way. “Aren’t you worried about retaliation?”

He didn’t answer right away but looked out at the empty landscape between the bubbles. Sonja watched his dark, handsome face as he did, wondering what he was thinking. Perhaps he was considering leaving with her, after all.

Her hopes were dashed when he shook his head. “I’ve handled goons like him before. The fact he wasn’t with other company men means he can’t report this. There would be too many questions about why they were there. So it is really only Wilcan I have to worry about. Besides, if necessary, I can lie low for the next six months.”

“That’s what you told Barnat and Earny you were going to do, and look at us. We’ve been everywhere since then.”

Roan laughed. “Well that’s all because of you. You’re a bad influence on me.”

They arrived at Beta Residence, and Roan led her to a small building right next to the swimming pool. He glanced at it and gave her a teasing grin. “I never did get you back over here to teach you how to swim, did I?”

“That’s okay.” Sonja took a deep breath. “I wasn’t completely honest with you, Roan. It’s more than the fact I can’t swim. I’m actually afraid of being in deep water.”

Roan stared at her in disbelief. “Sonja, I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”

“No one is perfect. That’s why I want to go with you now. I’ve never been in a boat before, and I’d rather face my fear now than risk panicking later.”

He reached out to her and tugged her close to him. “Don’t worry about it, your secret is safe with me. You stay next to me on the boat, and I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

They arrived at the maintenance shaft to find Allan waiting for them, a small duffle like Sonja’s on his back. He gave them a worried look. “What took you? I thought I’d find you waiting for me.”

“We ran into that company goon, Wilcan. And I’m afraid I had to stun him.”

“He recognized you wearing that?” Allan pointed to Roan’s uniform.

Roan’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even think of that. That’s not good at all.”

“What are you talking about?” Sonja said.

“We have to ask why Wilcan was waiting for me there and why he’d recognize me with this uniform on.”

“How could he?”

“He has a scanner,” Allan said grimly. “One tuned to Roan’s tracking tag.”

Sonja didn’t need more of an explanation. “So he’ll be able to find you in the water tunnels, won’t he? And so will the company officials.”

Allan held up his bag. “I’ve got a tracking neutralizer I can use on the tags of everyone who is leaving. I can also use it on Roan, then reactivate it before we leave.”

“That will be the safest thing. But there is another problem. If Wilcan remembers I was wearing a maintenance uniform, then he and the others might wonder why. They may think about the waterways, and if they do, we could find company down in the flooded parts of the mine.”

Allan shook his head. “Nobody knows the waterways like you do. If someone else is down there, you’ll lose them.”

“I’m just saying it could be dangerous.”

“Most things that are worthwhile are at least a little frightening, Roan.” Sonja took his arm. “Look at me, afraid of the water but I’m going on a boat ride in a dark tunnel.” She put on a brave smile that she in no way felt. “It sounds like fun.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

The first part of the trip actually was fun—or would have been if Sonja had liked rickety carnival rides. Carefully, she stepped out of the elevator that had brought them onto the floating dock. After the shaky ride from the surface, the gentle up-and-down movement of the dock was almost soothing.

Apparently one side effect of Roan having Allan use his computer skills to keep some of the maintenance shafts off the books of both the company and the prison was that no one had spent any time maintaining the elevator.

For a moment she wondered who would do that job now that Allan was leaving. Roan would probably need to find another partner. She still hoped he would change his mind and leave with them, although her optimism on that subject was starting to dim.

He wanted to be with her. He wanted to be with his friend, Allan. But he just didn’t want either of these enough to give up his promise to serve out his term. She respected his integrity, even if it did fall short of her wishes.

To distract herself, she looked at the cavern around her. It was larger than she expected. There was a lamp at the end of the elevator, but its feeble light barely lit the dock. She couldn’t see the other side of the tunnel or much to either side other than a vast expanse of dark water. There was no light outside of what was on the dock, and the blackness beyond was frightening.

It was also cold, and for the first time since arriving at Ares Five she wished she had a jacket.

Tied up to the dock were two boats about three meters long and one and a half meters across, both with small outboard motors. There was space for a third boat, which must have been the one Roan had placed earlier over in Delta Residence.

Allan jumped into the boat in front, leaving Sonja to follow with Roan’s help. He steadied her as she stepped inside. The boat rocked, and she immediately put out her hands to grab the sides.

“Sit down,” Roan advised. “That will slow it down.”

She sat on the seat, crouching low. Roan jumped in behind her and the boat rocked again but less violently this time. The extra weight, Sonja guessed, or maybe there was a trick to boarding he knew.

There was a lot she could probably learn from Roan. How to swim, how to pilot a boat…
how to love.