as he held her. He kept assuring it was going to be okay…but she knew it wasn’t.
* * * * *
Blade felt gutted as he gently eased out from under Hailey. She’d fallen asleep, having exhausted herself with her tears. He wanted to rage and scream. If he’d been born instead of produced, he could give her everything she deserved. A man who could father her children and live on her home world.
He dressed quietly and fled the bedroom, bypassing the living room and exiting their cabin. He paced the hallway, just trying to expel his anger without breaking his fists by pounding them bloody into a wall. Hailey didn’t need that guilt on top of everything else. He needed to at least pretend to have his shit together while she was with him.
He finally wore himself down enough to lean his back against the corridor wall and sink down into a crouch. His head sagged, and he let some of his pain seep out with his tears.
The door near him swished open, and he whipped his head toward it. It wasn’t Big who stepped out. Gemma carried an empty cloth sack as she walked toward the lift.
“What are you doing?”
She squeaked and spun. Then she grabbed her chest. “You almost gave me a heart attack.” She walked toward him and dropped her hand.
“Clones don’t have heart issues.”
She stopped and really looked at him. “You look like your puppy just died. Things are going bad, huh?”
“Hailey said she loves me.”
She bent and put the sack on the floor, before sitting on it. “This upsets you?”
“I can’t keep her. I’ll destroy her life if I do.”
“Did she say that?”
“She just cried herself to sleep in my arms. I’m sending her home even if she asks to stay. I have to do what’s best for her.”
Gemma crossed her legs. “Mistake number one. Never make choices for a woman.”
He glowered at her. “She’ll never forgive herself if she has to abandon her parents to be with me. Not only that, but I can’t even give her babies to replace her family. That’s another thing I’d take away from her. She’ll find someone else to love, and he’ll let her keep her family. He’ll…” He had a hard time saying it because it hurt. “They’ll have children together. That will help her heal from this pain.”
“You’re breaking my heart, Blade.”
He looked away from her. “I want to kill him with my bare hands, and she hasn’t even met him yet.”
They both remained silent for long minutes. He figured she was being polite by not leaving him alone. He cleared his throat. “Where were you going with a sack?”
“I like how the material feels. It’s soft. I found it in one of the closets. I’m going to ask the tailor robot if there’s more of it, and if I can have some pants made. The ones I have are a bit stiff.” Gemma cocked her head. “There’s got to be a solution for you. We just need to figure it out.”
“There isn’t one. Her planet is a mining colony. They have port authorities who police all incoming and outgoing traffic, to prevent theft of the minerals they harvest. Anyone who lands there will be scanned. They’d kill me.”
“There’s no way to sneak around that?”
He shook his head. “They’ll be able to track anything that enters the planet. A ship that veers off course to their landing port will just be shot down.”
“So going there is out.”
“Yes.”
“Does Hailey have any other family besides her parents?”
“Not that she’s mentioned.”
Gemma seemed to be thinking.
“It’s hopeless.”
“Never say never. If we can’t get you there, is it possible to pay someone who can pass a hand scan to go there and kidnap her parents?”
He gawked at her.
“What? You just spent a lot of time with pirates. Don’t judge me for a drastic suggestion. I’m thinking outside the box. I also may have spent way too much time watching television in my old life. Think it about it, though. You could have them kidnapped and brought here. As a parent, I would forgive that, under the circumstances. Be with my kid, or never see my child again. No-brainer. God knows this place is big enough, and you could lock down parts of the station to prevent them from escaping if they ever tried it.”
“I’m not stealing her parents!”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“Nothing solves the fact that I’m sterile. She would be giving up the opportunity to ever experience motherhood.”