Dek laid a hand on his arm, stroking lightly. “We don’t have to let this get complicated, Sno.”
He wasn’t sure whether to relish or wince at her words. Whether to agree or protest. Did he want this to get complicated? Entangled? Hopelessly reckless?
You’ve had one night with her, you idiot. Okay, not even a night…an afternoon. What the hell is wrong with you?
“So let’s hear it. Why did your parents name you Sno?”
Oh, man. He reeled, both at the sudden change in conversation and the pain that question brought him. But he’d promised to tell her the story. And he never broke a promise.
Sno adjusted the pillows behind his back, taking a moment to regain his equilibrium. “It wasn’t my parents who named me.” His hands clenched the covers and pulled them into a puddle at his waist. “It was my stepfather.”
“So your parents severed their bond and your mother remarried?”
Sno dropped his gaze. “No. My mother and father weren’t bonded. I don’t know who my biological father is. My mother took a bondmate before I was a calendar old. Ironically, she thought it would be the best thing for me.”
“It wasn’t.”
Sno huffed out a breath. “No, it sure wasn’t.”
“So, those faint scars on your back…your stepfather’s doing?”
“Yeah.” The worst of what that bastard had done to him he’d later had repaired, but that didn’t fix the emotional wounds.
“You must have had one Hades of a childhood.”
He turned his head to look her in the eye. “I did.”
“Why did your mother stay with him?”
“She didn’t have the courage to leave.” He drew a deep breath, letting it fully expand his lungs before exhaling. “She grew up as the only daughter of a wealthy Tectolian merchant. Their ship was their home, until the day it was intercepted by a Rathskian patrol. The crew murdered her father. She was raped. I was the result.”
Dek pulled in a sharp breath. She didn’t utter a sound, but slid her hand down his arm to weave her fingers through his.
Death by Rathskian wasn’t a foreign concept to most. But for him, it had been life by Rathskian.
“They let her live,” Sno continued. “The only breathing soul adrift on her father’s derelict ship. I don’t know why they spared her. I don’t know if she knows. She never talked about it.”
She gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. “I imagine not.”
“A passing freighter found the ship and rescued her. They claimed the vessel for salvage and left her to fend for herself on the nearest inhabited planet. Dartis.”
“And that’s why you grew up there.”
He squeezed her fingers back. “Ikkam is the reason I grew up there—a surly freight worker at the planet’s only spaceport, Eliptis. He was crude, callous, and never kind. Not to her, and definitely not to me. She later told me she’d bonded with him for my sake. To give me the home she couldn’t provide for me on her own.” He raised her hand with his and dropped them to the covers again. “Ikkam gave me my name. Sno Telon, because that’s what he said to anyone who asked him who my real father was—‘S’no telon.’ Dockworker slang for ‘there’s no telling.’ I kept it, because it’s a reminder of what I overcame. What I survived.”
She cast her gaze down and frowned. “Sno. I’m sorry.”
He bowed his head. “So now you know the whys and hows of a half-Tectolian, half-Rathskian who was raised on Dartis. My mother died when I was seventeen calendars. I grabbed the first transport off planet right after she was ashed. Eventually, I heard rumors about the Network and their mission to defeat the Alliance. To me, the Rathskians were the Alliance. I went looking for a contact, and eventually…I found one.”
“And here you are.”
He gave her an off-kilter smile. “Here I am.”
Dek laid her head on his shoulder and raised her hand to cradle his cheek.
Hades. Common ground? They’d been born under the same damned stars. Lived nearly parallel lives. Except for…
Well, yes. Her turn to bare some major soul.
“I know how it feels to lose a parent, Sno. I was orphaned at three.” Dek curled a fist over her heart. “My parents were respected LaGuardians who were party to the Network’s formation. Charter members, I guess you could say. On a high-risk mission, they were captured and executed, charged with being enemies of the Alliance. Which they were, of course.”
Sno must’ve heard the little tremor in her voice, because he pulled her closer. Seemed the Rathskians had wreaked havoc on both their lives.
“After that,” Dek continued, “my older brother raised me. He and his Network cronies. I don’t remember any other life. I grew up on a succession of starships—all vessels my brother bought, borrowed, or scavenged for the cause. I never had his eye for spotting the potential in space scrap nor his passion for restoring them into viable crafts. I struck out on my own as a late teen and I’ve served under General X since then. The Network’s always been my life. I never had to go looking.”
“That’s how you made lieutenant commander so young.”
“That, and always reaching for the new challenge. The next test.” She debated telling him about Aroh, about how close their paths had tracked, but decided to keep the darkest chapter of her history buried for now. “The Alliance put an end to my parents, Sno, but someday their empire’s going to meet the same fate. I just hope I’m around to be part of it.”
“So do I.”
She offered her hand. “Common ground.”
He took it. “Common ground.”
“So now you know why I will be going back with you tonight.”
Lines formed around his hard-set jaw, but he didn’t try to talk her out it.
“Explain to me how you crossed the infrasound barrier without being dropped, and how you managed to leave a secure site without being seen.”
His intense expression didn’t change. “Looks like you’re about to find out.”
“I’ll take that as your begrudging agreement.” She folded her arms and leaned back against the headboard, once again a lieutenant commander who had a mission.
11
Just prior to dusk, Sno hoisted and secured his backpack, readying himself for the return to Site D. He didn’t give Dek a verbal cue, but by his actions and abrupt change in attitude, it was obvious he was back in mission mode.
Dek closed and locked the door to the veranda, quickly dressed in her field garb then braided and secured her hair to regulation specs. When she reached for her jacket, he nixed it with a gesture. “You won’t need it in the cave, and you can’t leave it near the site where it might be discovered.”
“It’ll get cold after sundown.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he answered brusquely.
Well, he’d definitely switched gears from the considerate lover who’d just shared her bed and pleasured her body. But he wasn’t fighting her on making it a joint mission in spite of his misgivings, and that was what truly mattered to her.