smiling. Bonk purring. Vitamin D. Hot kisses. Shade’s whispered Come back. Bonk curled up in my lap.
Pull it together. Pull it together, Tess.
I was rocking. I forced myself to stop. I had to figure out what Jax was talking about.
Almost as if from outside of myself, I took stock and found my right hand slicked with blood. It trembled as I lifted it. My hand was fine, besides being wet and red. I glanced at my side, where I’d been clutching myself. It turned out that Shade’s betrayal wasn’t the only thing burning like a deep, searing cut. A bullet had grazed me, slicing a line through my jacket and dress.
Jax dove in for a better look.
“Flesh wound,” he and I said at the same time, his voice filled with relief and mine fighting its way past the tears in my throat. It wasn’t the gunshot injury that hurt.
The Endeavor lifted off, making us both lurch.
My eyes widened, meeting Jax’s. “Who the hell is flying the ship?”
“Miko?” he guessed. “Or maybe Fiona.”
Well, I sure hoped it wasn’t Shiori. We raced toward the bridge together and burst like a terrified storm through the doors.
“Thank the Powers!” Miko backed off the controls, looking pale and wide-eyed. Her hand shook. It was hard enough to navigate the maze of docks and interwoven platforms with two hands, let alone one. And we hadn’t even gotten to the traffic of the spheres.
Jax ran to his console, and I stumbled over to mine. I took the controls, but my hands rattled too much to steer.
“Jax!” I barked.
“I’m on it,” he answered. I wasn’t sure he was entirely steady either after everything that had just happened, but he was a hell of a lot better than blind, one-handed, or bleeding and quaking. Fiona hadn’t tried. She knew her own equipment inside and out, but she was clueless when it came to a flight console. Too many buttons she’d never tried to memorize.
As soon as Jax took over, Miko threw her arms around me.
“What happened?” She sounded both outraged and scared as she drew back.
I didn’t know how to answer. So much had happened, and it was all so raw.
“Men are assholes,” Fiona said.
Jax grunted, seeming like he wanted to take exception but was too busy making sure we didn’t hit another ship as he guided us through the troposphere.
Shiori, who was sitting in the navigator’s chair, took exception for him. “You are unfair to one who has always been good and honest with us.”
Fiona grunted, as though she wanted to take exception. I had to agree. Jax was good—no doubt about it—but if he were honest, even with himself, he and Fiona probably wouldn’t have been in separate bedrooms for the last few years.
Fiona inserted herself between Miko and me, the bridge’s medical supplies already in her hands. I shrugged off my jacket, wincing at the movement, and then let Fiona cut a big hole in my ruined dress.
Her brow furrowed as she squirted me with saline.
Shit, I knew that look. It meant stitches. I sat, keeping my arms crossed over my chest and hoping she’d miss the lingering needle marks. Her attention was on my waist, and she didn’t look up.
Miko joined her grandmother at the navigation controls. “As soon as we reach the thermosphere, I’ll activate the coordinates for Starway 8.”
“No!” Everyone looked over at me like I was nuts. “Jump us to Flyhole. We’ll get lost in the crowd while I sweep for tracking bugs.”
Jax’s face turned thunderous. “You are not going on a fucking spacewalk with a hole in your side!”
“It’s a scratch,” I said. “And I’m not leading bounty hunters to the orphanage.”
His face reddened, except for the scar on his cheek, which whitened instead.
“Jax!” I flung my hand toward the window.
His eyes snapped back to where they should have been, and he quickly adjusted our course out of the way of the huge transport that was bearing down on us.
“Argue when we’re in the stratosphere if you want, but we need to sweep the exterior for bugs, and you know it.” At least Shade had never come inside—something to be grateful for. But he was way too smart not to track the ship, and those other two hadn’t looked dumb, either.
I gritted my teeth when Fiona stuck the suture needle in and then grimaced at the pull of thread. She did it again, and the pain actually helped to focus my thoughts and settle me. Every sharp prick drove Shade farther