“I don’t want to hear it.” EJ pulled away and stooped to gather up the gear she’d put down. The comms puck could wait. It still flashed like a beacon, so maybe it was a passive contact device, not a direct link. She could fuss with it more later. She needed to get away from Nokx so she could get her thoughts in order. He was too distracting. “You stay here and try to contact the Sraibur or someone who might actually help us. I’ll go deal with the prisoners, and—”
“Not a chance,” he said, his hand sliding around her upper arm to pull her up short. “I know you’re mad at me, EJ, and you have every right to be. I’m sorry. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, if you’ll let me. But first we have to survive this. And we can’t do that separately.”
She stared at his chest, unwilling to meet his gaze. He’d convince her, she knew. It wouldn’t take long at all and she’d fall into his arms and then he’d never figure out how much he’d hurt her. How very disappointed she’d been. And still was. EJ refused to look at him. “I’d be just fine. You’re the one who needs the help.”
A long pause, and she braced for the typical male posturing, the bluster and denial. The Xaravians hated being told they couldn’t do something. She’d seen it enough on the Sraibur. All she had to do was piss Nokx off and he would storm off to do his own thing.
He still held her arm; his thumb moved up and down in a gentle caress—just as soft and easy as his voice. “You’re right. I do need your help. You know this ship backward and forward. I’d be lost without you.”
EJ’s eyes widened at the admission. What was he getting at? What kind of game was he playing?
When she didn’t speak, Nokx eased closer. His breath stirred the hair behind her ear. “I need you, Ellie Jane. Not just today, not just for this. I need you. Every day.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do,” he said. He kissed the top of her head and released her. “And I’ll prove it to you somehow.”
EJ cleared her throat to get rid of any hint that he’d affected her and gestured at the next narrow walkway into the space between the hull and what she thought was the crew mess hall. “If you say so. Look, we need to figure out how many Slasu are on the ship and if we can get to one of the escape pods. If we release the prisoners first, that’ll distract the guards or cause a total lockdown. It’s hard to say.”
Nokx frowned and rubbed his jaw. “Is there a place to access one of their control panels? We might be able to view ship status reports.”
She nodded. “There’s a larger maintenance bay adjacent to the central core generator. We can see from the vents whether anyone is there. It’s deeper in the ship, though, so we won’t be able to receive transmissions from outside. If the Sraibur decides to respond, that is.”
“They will,” he said.
She envied his confidence. EJ just shook her head and led the way into the ship. At least she wasn’t sitting around waiting to be sold off. It still felt like they had a chance.
Chapter 36
Nokx
He deserved every bit of her ire. His failure to protect her from his own crewmates rankled deep in his scales, and it was not a betrayal he would get over soon. His time on the Sraibur was likely at an end, regardless of what happened on the gen ship. He couldn’t imagine wanting to survive if EJ did not, but even if she left him for another port and he carried on alone, he could not serve Faros. Not if the male chose such a mercenary approach, sacrificing an innocent in the name of capturing more worthless cargo.
He studied EJ’s back as she led the way through narrow passages and down ladders, confident and secure in her knowledge. It was a side of her he had not seen much of on the Sraibur, but one he very much enjoyed. He wanted more of it, more of her. More of that hard edge in her eyes when she confronted him and demanded to know whether he believed the ship would actually answer his summons.
Truth be told, he wasn’t sure if they would answer. Wyzak had