“I’ve been trying to buy back an empire I lost after my parents died in a freak shuttle accident,” he finally said. “It turned out my father was really, really in debt to an asshole named Scarabin White. That’s the person you met on the dock of the casino—the one who gave me the silver money clip with the engraved bird’s head.”
I remembered. I’d wanted to wash my hand after that man had touched it. It hadn’t been hard to see that he was rich, powerful, and used to getting his way.
“White owns that whole place—the resort and casino—and my father…liked to gamble, it turned out. I had no idea until ten years ago, when his debt suddenly transferred to me. It was… It felt overwhelming. I’d just lost my family, and I wasn’t used to running things. I’d just finished my engineering studies and had come home a few days earlier. Instead of trying to work off the debt like I should have, I went for a quick fix. I went to that stupid casino and gambled him for everything. I bet it all—and lost.”
“Oh, Shade…” I could imagine the devastation of that, how he must have felt, especially right after losing his parents. It must have been doubly awful, because he didn’t seem like the kind of man who made reckless, impulsive decisions.
Although maybe he did. He’d thrown it all away to protect me, hadn’t he?
“So, he got what you—what your father—owed him?”
“Oh, he got ten times what I owed him,” Shade said bitterly. “But that was the only deal he would make, and I just wanted it over. I was young and an idiot and figured I couldn’t lose, since I’d never really lost at anything.”
I was starting to piece together the picture. The golden boy. The privileged life. The shock of loss and a bad decision. Bad decisions made a person grow up fast—and maybe do things they would never have previously considered.
Shade shook his head, obviously still disgusted with himself, even after all these years. “I got White to sign an agreement, though, before I threw the dice. I made him promise to sell for a certain price—a huge but mostly fair price for all that—no matter when, if I had the currency to pay him one day. After ten years of hunting down the Dark Watch’s most-wanted criminals and doing important retrievals, like finding abducted officials and officers—real under-the-radar stuff—I was more than halfway there. Your bounty would have finished it, and then some.”
I swallowed. Well, that sucked.
Standing there, Shade looked so dejected that I began to reevaluate our situation, thinking that maybe I needed to comfort him, too. I didn’t agree with the things he’d done, but I couldn’t fault his motives. In fact, I understood them more than I probably should have and was in no position to judge. What wouldn’t I do for Starway 8? I was about to give my blood to the enemy and allow them to re-create the serum just to keep two people safe. Was that a wise choice? Probably not. But I was making it anyway.
Shade had been working toward something on Albion 5, and now there was a good chance he’d never set foot on his home planet again, let alone reclaim his family’s legacy. His was now a life on the run, probably forever—or for as long as it lasted. There was no way out of this.
Unless we somehow overthrew the Galactic Overseer and defeated the Dark Watch, and what were the chances of that?
Chapter 31
Shade felt like an asshole, standing there in the hallway, confessing his sins. Tess even looked sorry for him, which made his gut twist. He didn’t deserve her sympathy.
“It’s the docks, isn’t it?” she asked. “All the towers?”
He nodded, not surprised she’d picked up on his knowing more than was typical about the history of the docks, their prices and quality… Yeah, he knew exactly what he’d lost.
“Every single one on Albion 5—and on the rock under construction next to it.”
She made a strangled sound. “Great Powers, that really is an empire. I can’t believe you gave that up.”
Shade felt himself go rigid. “I didn’t give it up. I lost it. Like an imbecile.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not then. I mean now…not even a week ago.”
That decision? It had been hard—until it had been as simple as taking his next breath.
Reaching out, he swept Tess’s bangs back from her face and