her move, like a wild animal endlessly looking for a way out of her cage, mind working, seeming to have forgotten she held the key to her own locked door.
“My father. That’s how I define value. He was a good man. He fought for alien rights. He was a well-respected general and a humanitarian and an alienitarian and...” She paused, studying him. “Well? Don’t you have anything to say to defend her?”
“I know you’re grieving, and while I cannot understand, as my father was no one to grieve over, I am sorry you are feeling pain.” Dev sighed, hoping she would let the conversation end there. She wouldn’t like his true opinion.
“So you admit my father was a good man,” Violette insisted.
“No, only that I do not wish to argue that point with you. A good man is who your father was to you.”
“Are you saying he wasn’t that to everyone else? Because I know hundreds, thousands who would agree with me.”
Dev finally stood. Honesty might get him killed, but it looked as if Captain Violette needed a strong dose of it. “And I saw what remains of the settlement on Florencia’s Fifth Moon. I saw what was done there, what Jack Stephans had ordered done there. I saw the bodies of the dead shoved into a hole in the floor of a castle and left in a pile to rot. I saw the imprisoned innocent in statue form, blasted apart by lasers in their helpless state, turned to so much dust it coated the room, and at first we couldn’t tell what we were stepping on—children, women, men, it didn’t matter. They were imprisoned and then killed while helplessly locked in stone. I saw a settlement whose people were turned to stone and their lives coated with ice because the weather regulating satellite was destroyed by Federation blasts. Josselyn was one of those imprisoned. The entire Florencia Moon settlements were wiped out. That is who the general is to those people but I can’t bring forward hundreds of witnesses because they’re all dead.”
“My father would never.” Violette shook her head. Her voice rose as she charged toward him. She pointed her finger up into his face. “I won’t believe some woman pretending to be my sister. I don’t care if we have the same mother genetically. She is not my sister. And your repeating of her lies about the general will not help you gain your freedom.”
“I thought I wasn’t a prisoner.” Dev wasn’t sure why he had presented her with the full truth as bluntly as he had. Maybe if she understood, she would give up her revenge. The heat of her expression was centered in her eyes. For a moment, he didn’t know if she’d kiss him or hit him. He leaned closer, knowing which one he’d like best. She did neither.
“You’re not, but…” She took a deep breath and stepped back. “I want you off my ship.”
“I didn’t ask to be on your ship.”
“That point has been established.” Violette regained her composure and eyed him with perfect calm. “Let’s not belabor it again.”
Her mask didn’t fool Dev. He knew well how people hid emotions. By Bravon’s fire, he was an expert at it. If she continued to swallow down her grief she’d become a bitter, hollow shell. What she needed was an explosion, a way to release her pain, and Dev needed a fight to bury his. If she yelled at him, struck at him, then maybe he wouldn’t feel the desire simmering in his blood.
“You brought it up.” Dev crossed his arms over his chest.
Now she looked as if she wanted to throw him off the ship into the black. “You’re wrong about the general. He was a good man.”
“Good men are sometimes born from bad deeds. Everyone has secrets.”
Violette strode to the door. The pain and grief building inside her was too much. On her way out, she stated, “You’re wrong. You don’t know anything.”
Chapter 12
Violette stared at Jo in irritation. “I’ll pay for the extra fuel burn. I said fly us to the nearest port as fast as we can get there. I want the unauthorized cargo off my ship.”
Why were her orders being questioned? It was Gil’s fault she had an infuriating Bevlon captive to deal with. Jo was being overprotective of the ship as if putting it at full speed was going to damage the engines. Isaac insisted they let their prisoner starve so that he’d be weakened and more vulnerable