and as much as he wanted to waste more of it pressed against his mate, she was right. They still needed to get off the ship. “Lead the way.”
EJ shook her head but slid her hands down his chest to just below his belt in a tantalizing tease that did nothing to help him concentrate on the task at hand. Perhaps they could delay just long enough for him to remove...
When he gripped her waist and hauled her back against him, she laughed and wormed free. “There’s no time.”
“You are such a tempting little thing,” he murmured, running his hands down her sides so he could squeeze her ass. “Move quickly or you will distract me again.”
The smile she gave over her shoulder bound up his hearts and soul and everything in his universe, made it clear she was the only soul to match his in all of existence. A knot tied up his throat to know he’d finally found her and yet almost lost her. Might lose her again. Nokx steeled himself to do whatever necessary to protect her. He didn’t have a weapon, save his dagger, but there was nothing in that quadrant that would prevent him from keeping his mate safe.
Chapter 39
EJ
They made it to the guard center before the first message played. EJ stayed to the side with a stunner as Nokx crashed through the door and disarmed the two nervous, inexperienced guards. EJ wondered where the usual guards were; they were slightly more competent, from what she remembered, and at least would have sounded an alarm. The ones there simply backed away and gulped for air as the huge Xaravian loomed over them.
EJ helped restrain them in a sheltered spot under the terminals in the guard booth, so at least they weren’t going to be murdered by the prisoners, then scanned the controls for how to contact a specific cell. She needed to find Gygak, then get her to issue orders to the rest of the prisoners, then she and Nokx could open the cells and unleash chaos. Then they just had to sneak to the escape pods, signal the Sraibur, and make their escape.
Easy. Not a complication or barrier in sight.
Nokx tried to convince her to not descend into the cells, but EJ didn’t want to talk to Gygak over the speakers. She needed to see the Psonil to know whether the criminal mastermind meant what she said. There was always a risk, but EJ had seen and heard enough of Gygak to figure the being’s self-preservation would gain her cooperation regardless of the scheme.
EJ led the way down several ladders and through a maze of narrow halls lined with identical cells and used a portable tracking panel from the guard booth so she could hone in on Gygak’s location. It would also let her signal to open the cells and release the programmed restraints on all the prisoners. Her conscience twinged at the thought of handing it over to Gygak, knowing what the female was accused of, but EJ definitely wasn’t sticking around to do the Psonil’s work for her.
Nokx grumbled uneasily as they wended deeper into the maze. EJ understood his concern. It had taken her weeks to understand how to maneuver through the ship, how to find her way based not just on how things looked but how they smelled and how the air tasted and how the temperature changed as she moved around. It was the only way she found Gygak’s cell in a small corner in the deepest bowels of the prison section.
EJ took a deep breath and patted the still-flashing comms unit in her belt to reassure herself, even if it was false hope. No telling what it was doing, but maybe Violet still looked for her. Nokx folded his arms over his chest. “We do not have to do this. We can go for the pods, and—”
A deafening alarm blared three times, silenced, then blared three more times to alert passengers that the captain had a message. EJ looked at him, her lips pressed together, and strangely enough hoped that it might be from the actual captain and not Nokx’s warning message. Just in case the captain announced they resisted the Slasu boarding parties and asked for assistance to defend the ship.
But no. Nokx’s strong voice, rough and commanding, echoed through every corner of the ship and ricocheted in resounding echoes that made EJ shiver. She remembered that voice from the half-light of his quarters, wrapped up