A Kiss For a Cure (12 page)

Tomorrow she would say goodbye to Cai, and while she still had time, she’d make a plan. She wouldn’t turn thirty for another year. She could work with it. But she wasn’t going to use Cai.

Chapter 10

Jordan focused on her prioritized to-do list, and didn’t allow her troubled emotions to get in the way. She glanced at a string of lights hung in a window as she strode down one of the main corridors, and her will faltered. It didn’t feel like Christmas Eve. She’d been fine with sending Cai away yesterday, but today reluctance had her dawdling. Her gaze dropped from the lights to the reef beyond the windows.

If she were honest with herself, she didn’t want to send him away, even though it was the best thing for both of them. But if she didn’t let him go, he’d be like one of her sharks. A creature living in pseudo-freedom. She couldn’t save her sharks from an ecosystem unable to support them, but she could give Cai a chance for something more. It was the only present she had to offer him.

“There you are.”

Startled, she turned to face Cai. He had the pack she’d dug out of her closet slung over his shoulder and bulging at the seams.

“I was on my way to get you,” she said, sliding her hands into her pockets. She wanted to touch him. To be held. She’d grown accustomed to his touches. But she couldn’t allow herself to depend on him. “Ready?”

“Yup.”

His eagerness to leave surprised her. They hadn’t spoken more than a few words since their argument and she’d expected him to refuse to go. Maybe even change her mind, but instead he had a bag slung over his shoulder and wore more clothes than she’d seen him in at one time.

Her heart withered a little. Nodding, she turned and began striding to the shuttle bay.

Last night, she’d fought off sleep for as long as possible, so she could enjoy the feel of him holding her. She’d slept soundly, only to wake up alone. In the span of a couple weeks, he’d brought her so much happiness.

Their footsteps echoed with forlorn sadness as they left the corridor and entered the vaulted shuttle bay.

She couldn’t take the silence from him. Before, even when they weren’t speaking, they were still connected through touch.

“When you decide where you’re going, let me know and I can ship your stasis chamber to you, and more serum, okay?”

Cai grunted and gestured for her to enter the shuttle.

She didn’t want to leave off this way, but neither did she know how to fix them. She hoped some day he understood.

Strapping in at the controls, Jordan tried to not flinch when Cai closed the door separating the cockpit from the lounge. She could open the comm, but putting the barrier between them was his move, not hers. She needed to respect his boundaries.

The trip to the station was only forty-five minutes, but she spent that time in silence, staring out at the star-strewn sky. This far out there wasn’t any traffic or shipping lanes, and while she could have put the shuttle on auto, it was good to have something to do with her hands. After all, she couldn’t go back to the lounge and take the chance she’d ask Cai to spend Christmas with her. They would always be friends, but sharing more intimacy made him all the more dangerous to her heart. She needed to search for a suitable husband with a clear head after the New Year.

By the time she thought of something to say to him, she was communicating with the station and getting docking orders. The few times she’d been to the station, she’d been directed to a secure dock. This time, due to the holidays, their orders were changed to one of the lower, public docks. Except for the different location, docking went smoothly. She went through the entire checklist before clearing the doors for opening.

Pushing open the cockpit door, she pasted a bright smile. “Here we are.”

Cai straightened from the chair nearest the door, the pack already sitting on his shoulders. He didn’t acknowledge that she’d spoken. She missed the quick-to-smile man she’d grown to know. The person standing across from her was a stranger.

“Okay then,” she said when she couldn’t think of anything else. She keyed in the disengage order for the shuttle door. “If you need anything, let me know. We’re still friends, Cai.” She wanted to be something to him, not just his soon to be not-wife.

Turning, she gasped. She hadn’t heard Cai move.

He cupped her face with both hands, and she could have cried from that gesture alone. She missed the little ways he touched her, caressed her face and held her hand, and it hadn’t been a full day. She gripped his forearms as he kissed her, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, nipping her lip and trapping her body against the plas panel with his body. She forgot how big and imposing he was most of the time. She wanted more of this, more of him, but it wasn’t right. Cai broke the kiss, removing her hands from his arms, though she tried to hold on longer and draw their last kiss out as long as she could.

“See you,” he said against her lips, and stepped away.

The loss of his hands, the contact, even the heat from his body made her shudder. Leaning against the bulkhead, Jordan sucked in a breath.

He was gone.

Cai left, just as she’d arranged for him to. From the station he could catch a transport going anywhere. She’d set him free, but why did it hurt?

Sinking down into one of the chairs, she leaned forward and cradled her head in her hands. She’d done the right thing, she was certain. She needed to move on to her own problems.

Footsteps brought her head up and her heart tried to leap out of her chest. Was he coming back?

A deckhand stepped into the doorway. “Excuse me?”

She blew out a breath and leaned back in her seat. “Yes?”

She could have her breakdown later, in the comfort of her own quarters. She’d give herself until everyone was back from the holidays before figuring out where her life was headed.

“This is the Fuller Center shuttle?” He waved a tablet at her. “Double checking orders. Are you Jordan?”

“Yes, on both accounts.” She pushed to her feet and met him halfway.

“If I can get your confirmation there, and there, please?”

“How soon before I can take off?” Because staying around longer would mean she ran the risk of going to find Cai. She accepted the tablet and blinked at the blank screen. “Um, I think your tablet malfunctioned.”

A hand wrapped around her face, pinching her nose and covering her mouth. “You aren’t leaving for a while, baby cakes. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes, and your momma’s buying.” His other arm clamped her arms to her sides before she could react.

The blood rushed in her ears. She tried kicking, but the deckhand shoved her against the wall. Fear paralyzed her. She felt dizzy. He wanted her dead. Whoever this man was, he would kill her, because her parents weren’t the bargaining type.

* * * *

Cai sipped the syrupy coffee and watched the second hand on the clock hanging across from him. It was time to stop playing nice. Jordan might think they were finished, but they weren’t. Even if she didn’t want to be married to him now, it was still his job to protect her. She’d set him free, but it was up to him where he went. His transport back to the Fuller Center wouldn’t leave for another hour, which was fine because in the end, he still got Jordan.

He knew her unspoken desires and her regrets, because he more than felt them–he experienced them as she did.

Another minute ticked by.

Their bond was that strong, just from their brief time together. He couldn’t imagine how closely their souls would be interwoven once she got over her martyr act.

Panic erupted in his chest and he reeled back in his seat. Bile filled his mouth. The emotion had all the sense and feel of Jordan’s, but she was supposed to be on her way back to the Center. Gripping the table in front of him, he fought down the feedback he shouldn’t be getting. All around him, pieces of her flew in a halo only he could sense.

Awestruck, he sat in the flimsy café chair, experiencing the ultimate myth. They didn’t just click. She was his other half, the one who meshed so completely that if she weren’t human, they would become a single entity.

Despite the gravity of the moment, something wasn’t right. No matter the strength of their budding bond, he shouldn’t be able to sense Jordan at great lengths. Or was she nearer than he thought?

Tamping down on his own reaction, Cai dipped mental fingers into the feedback. The overwhelming terror had him squeezing the table so hard he bent the edge of it. It threatened to drown him. Adrenaline coursed through his body, responding to the emotions that threatened to overwhelm his own.

This was why true mates were so dangerous. They could twine together so that one was lost in the other. Compartmentalizing Jordan’s fear taxed him. The muscles in his arm clenched as he strained against the overpowering tide. He slammed a mental lid on it, and dropped back into his chair, heaving. The sights, sounds and smells slapped him back into reality.

Standing, Cai focused on walking as calmly as he could to the nearest public terminal. He locked down the part of him that raged to find Jordan. Finding people, protecting them–he was a professional at that. It was time to channel his ability, so he could have a chance at wooing the woman who completed him. His bones felt like jelly, and a few people gave him suspicious looks, but he ignored them. Leaning a hip against the terminal kept him upright. He could still sense Jordan’s fear battering at him. Tapping the screen, he brought up the general search. It didn’t matter if the ship logs were public or not, it didn’t take him long to pull up the entries for her shuttle. Instead of having left a half hour ago, the shuttle was moved to another dock for repairs. Which meant Jordan was still on the station.

Cursing himself, her parents and anyone else he could think of, Cai headed back to the docking bay, the maelstrom of fear following behind him as an invisible cloud only he could sense. Abduction had always been a possibility. It was surprising from a professional stance that she only had him to protect her. With her parents important political position, he’d have expected a small army to be charged with her security. But Jordan’s current lifestyle was safe, cocooned in her research facility, with people around her who knew to watch out for her because she wouldn’t think to do it herself. He’d known all of that, and he’d left her alone.

The stink of fear was thick in the docking bay, different and older from that which accosted him at the cafe. He paced up and down, peering into the hatches of what ships were there, but it was Christmas Eve and few people were around. If the same people who approached him about taking part in Jordan’s abduction were behind this one, he didn’t know how he would identify them, but he’d make them pay.

Leaning up against the wall across from where they’d docked, Cai tipped his head back and closed his eyes. It was easiest to catch the lingering trail of Jordan’s initial alarm, but it faded, probably because she was either rendered unconscious or went willingly. His hands closed into fists. If she’d been hurt, he’d be hard-pressed to not return the favor. His people were peaceful, but she was his mate, whether she’d realized it or not, and her life was the most important things to him.

* * * *

Jordan rocked forward on her knees and tried again to twist her arms around another way, but she couldn’t. The cuffs bit into her wrists, and the gag made it hard to breathe. How had she been this stupid? How many times did she need to be lectured and warned about safety?

Her fear was wearing off, only to be replaced by anger. She couldn’t blame anyone but herself for making herself easy prey. But, that didn’t mean she went willingly. Rage focused her.

Already she’d learned her lesson about making noise. That earned her the gag and cuffs. If her assessment of her location was correct from the brief glance she’d gotten of her surroundings while being restrained, she was in some kind of office. She’d glimpsed four walls and a desk before the door slammed shut. That didn’t give her much to work with. Eyeing the bottled products in the closet with her, she was disappointed to see they were predominantly used to clean.

Wedging her face between the door and shelf next to her, she squinted to make sense of the labels. Her recent dabbling with Cai’s serum had honed her rusty chemistry knowledge. Most common cleaning products, when combined, could be dangerous. She couldn’t make a bomb or a sedative gas, but she could do something.

Contorting her body, she twisted around to put her back to the shelves and reach her bound hands into the cubby. The drain cleaner for the shuttle bay would have to do for an acid. Looking over her shoulder, she wedged the bottle between her feet and used her fingertips to twist the top off the bottle.

Leaning forward, she rested her forehead against the back of the closet and sucked in a deep breath around the damp gag. Her heart was pounding and she was already nauseous. If it weren’t for her own stubbornness, she wouldn’t be here. She could be curled up in bed, with Cai, but instead she was crammed into a dusty closet.

She repeated the process of unscrewing the tops of two jugs of bleach and the industrial strength glass cleaners. She did her best to line them up at one end of the closet while she faced the opposite side. Leaning against the door forced it to unseal at the bottom. If she contorted her arms just right, she could pour most of the liquid out of the crack.

A little bleach, pour in some ammonia and she would have chloramine vapor. If she messed up she could do some permanent damage, but if she were dead, they couldn’t use her. She held her breath when she added the acidic cleaning products to the mixture pooling outside of the closet. Her eyes watered almost instantly as the chemicals reacted on contact. She doubled over and coughed into her gag after she’d poured out all the bottles.

Shifting her weight, she let the closet door seal back, but the fumes still filtered in. Her head hurt and her stomach rolled.

Concentrating on what she could hear, she listened for the telltale deep sound of a man coughing. She prayed they opened a door or the fumes irritated them so much they moved her.