my apology, Hailey? I didn’t mean to be an overprotective ass. Gemma has been through some tough stuff, as well.”
Hailey immediately shook his hand. “Totally understandable, and we’re good.”
Everyone seemed to calm at that point, and she felt things hadn’t gone too bad. Her worst fear had been that Big would hate her for being human. Instead, he just seemed leery. After everything that Blade had told her, she could understand that.
Big blocked the corridor and met her gaze once again. “There’s one more thing we need to discuss before you leave this shuttle.”
“Okay.” She waited, noticing that Blade’s hold on her tightened and his body felt tense again.
“You seem okay with us being clones, but other humans aren’t. We’re hated and feared. The fact that we dared to free ourselves, to no longer wish to be slaves, somehow makes humans believe we’re a serious threat. We just want to live in peace.”
She nodded. “Peace is good. I’m all for that. Some people are idiots. I’m not. Promise.”
“The authorities or a hit squad would be hired by Clone World to come wipe us out if they find out that we’re still alive, and where we’re located. They’d slaughter us just because we’re breathing and no longer under their control. I need you to swear that you’ll never reveal our location or anything about us, including that you ever met us.”
She offered her hand to him again. “I swear. Shake on it? On my planet, that’s as solid as it gets.”
He reached out and took her hand again, gently clasping it. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry that people have been so terrible to you. It isn’t fair or right. I really mean that, Big. Blade is the best man I’ve ever met in my life. I would never do or say anything to hurt him.”
Big let her go and smiled. “It’s really good to meet you, Hailey.”
She hoped meeting Gemma went smoother.
Blade took her hand and all three of them left the shuttle. The hangar, she saw first thing, was completely enclosed. It probably meant they weren’t on a planet. Otherwise it would likely be like the port on her own planet. An open field for shuttles and transports to land.
The next clue was the sheer size of the enclosed room. The Morgan wasn’t a small shuttle. It had dwarfed all the other privately owned shuttles that visited Prospect. Wherever they were, it probably wasn’t another ship. A station?
She remembered Blade mentioning where the pirates had kept him. There were supposedly a lot of those way stations abandoned from the old days, when space travel had taken a lot longer. They were used for refueling and resupplying ships, otherwise everyone would have died. As technology advanced, they were no longer needed. A voyage that had taken months turned into a matter of weeks. Then days.
They exited into a tall, wide corridor. Shop signs caught her eye. Beneath them were stores with open doors. A glance inside them showed empty shelves and racks.
It was even bit stranger when the corridor widened and even more shops were revealed. Big led them past the shops to a lift. She clutched Blade’s hand a little tighter. It wasn’t like the lift on the Morgan, which could probably hold three people, max. The one she stepped into could accommodate about twenty.
“Are you well, Hailey?”
She forced a smile at Blade. “Yeah. Just a little overwhelmed.”
Big frowned. “Why? You’re safe here.”
“This is my first time on whatever this is. Not that I’m asking for hints. I’m not. It’s just that before I was kidnapped, I’d never left my planet. Now I’ve been on a shuttle, and this…” She took a deep breath. “It’s so big, and there are no windows. That’s unsettling for me. We have windows in every room of our house except in our cellar, where we store food. It’s under the house and completely enclosed to help keep everything cold.”
“Baby, it’s okay.” Blade tugged her against his side, releasing her hand to put his arm around her waist. “Are you suffering from claustrophobia?”
“No. Everything is too spacious to feel closed in. It’s just…strange.”
The lift doors opened and Big stepped out into another wide corridor. “You might want to activate all the monitors in your cabin, to give her views. Gemma and I had the one next door to ours prepared for you. It belonged to someone of importance and has most of the same features as our home.”
“Thank you.” Blade led her out of the lift.
Big stopped