Then to his surprise, she spun on her heels and raced into the interior of Nevo’s ship. No one stopped them during take off. Nevo was silent as he navigated them away from Quantoon. Saedra was belted in the seat to his left, Nevo on his right at the front. Saedra rocked in her seat and kept her head down.
It was a good thing. Garik wasn’t sure what would have come out of his mouth if she’d spoken.
Chapter 16
Saedra shivered on the lab table as the medic straightened from her observation of her leg and smoothed down the blue uniformed shirt signifying her role. The smile on her face was stiff and filled with generic pleasantries. She hated Saedra. It was there in the heated blue stare which she couldn’t hide.
“Everything else looks fine. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done for the leg. The damage was extensive and too much time has gone by.”
Understanding the woman was easy since she’d had a translator implanted in her ears. Saedra fingered the smooth skin on her cheek. The scar on her face was gone as well. Pushing off the table, she said, “Thank you. I’m grateful for all the help I have received.”
She’d still have the limp when overtaxed but the other things Maurin had done to her were healed. Once they’d taken off from Quantoon, Nevo Xyman, Garik’s associate had plotted a course for the nearest colony in the Alliance and dropped them off. Nevo had squeezed her shoulder and wished her well before leaving. Saedra took a deep breath and left the medical center. Since then Garik had been quiet and standoffish toward her.
Sure he’d made it a point to see to it that she received a translator so she could understand the myriad of languages spoken around her. He’d even paid for her to be healed as well as the separate room in the high rise they were renting. But other than that, he’d been unavailable.
Insecurities flared. Maybe this meant he wanted to leave her. She wouldn’t blame him. He’d yet to question her about Maurin’s claim in his role as her parent but she knew it was the cause of the rift between them. She’d given him time. Time for herself as well while she tried to think of a way to make him understand what she’d done and why.
Now she needed to act. No more dawdling around letting her anxieties build. As she exited the medical center, she lifted her wrist and tapped out a direct message on the comm he’d also purchased for her.
-Need to see you, tonight.
She didn’t have to wait long before her wrist vibrated from the incoming message.
-What do you need?
Saedra blew out a frustrated breath.
-Its important. I just left the medical center and am heading to my place.
-Are you ill?
Was he worried? She frowned, hating the wall he’d thrown up between them over the last week. It was obvious he was avoiding her but they needed to have this confrontation and she needed to know if he’d stand by the commitment he made.
-I’ll tell you in person. Can you come by? Around 8?
This time the response took longer. After several moments passed, Saedra was starting to fear he wouldn’t answer at all when her comm vibrated.
-I’ll see you tonight.
A relieved breath shuddered from her. Tonight she’d tell him everything and see if they could salvage a relationship. She wanted one more than anything. What she felt for Garik wasn’t a novelty nor a temporary obsession.
She busied herself cleaning up the small rental, which didn’t take much time. It was a basic place with a cleansing room, bedroom, seating area for guests and a small kitchen space for cooking. Far more than Saedra expected but also less. She’d thought to share a place with Garik but he’d led her to this door and pointed to one farther down the hall as to where he’d be staying.
That should have made it easy over the last several days for her to speak with him but he was never there. The few times she tried to catch up with him he claimed fatigue and she backed down. He was constantly busy in meetings with the two Guild leaders who’d arrived on their second day here. They spoke with her briefly and she sensed the curiosity and interest in their stares. That was the last she saw of them.
Saedra prepared a light meal to settle her growling stomach. She paced, changed her clothes three times and gnawed on her thumb nail. By the time the buzzer sounded at her door a few minutes before the appointed time, Saedra admitted she was a wreck.
“Did medical find something wrong with you?” were the first words out of Garik’s mouth.
Saedra licked her lips and spoke through her suddenly dry throat. “No. I checked out fine. Come in.”
She moved to the side so he could enter. He stared hard before sighing. When she let Garik in, he stopped at the side of the door and immediately folded his arms and propped himself against the wall. “This is far enough. What do you need, Saedra?”
The abrupt question caught her off guard. She’d envisioned several scenarios on how to broach the topic but there was nothing welcoming about his attitude. “I wanted to explain everything.”
“Little late for that, don’t you think?”
Saedra resisted the urge to punch him. He was being needlessly stubborn. “I was going to tell you.”
Garik’s lips firmed. “I asked you if Maurin was your father. I asked you repeatedly who your parents were and you denied the truth and avoided telling me.”
Saedra threw her hands in the air and walked away. “Because I knew you wouldn’t listen if I told you the man who captured you and imprisoned you in a dungeon after torturing you was my father.”
His steps stormed behind her and he gripped her shoulder to spin her around. “I warned you about lies!”
The thunderous expression on his face didn’t deter her from yelling back. “You wouldn’t have trusted me!”
“And I still don’t!”
Saedra froze. Dismay and hurt clogging her throat. The claim echoed around them. Her nose and eyes burned with the need to cry.
Garik dropped his hand from her shoulder and jammed a hand through his dark hair. He dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling. “Fucccck!”
The truth she’d wanted to avoid slapped her right in the face. They’d started out on a lie and nothing would ever change those facts. Steel snapped her spine straight. Her heart was breaking but she’d deal with it. “You should leave.”
Remorse drenched his voice. “Saedra...sesi.”
He extended a hand toward her but Saedra ignored it. “This...this isn’t going to work.”
***
Garik knew he’d messed up. The lies about Maurin had been banging around in his head since the discovery. He cared for Saedra—was pretty sure he was falling in love with her but his experience in the past with trust had him circling back around to the single lie standing between them. It didn’t help that two of the Guild Masters had reprimanded him for bringing her.
Their dire warnings and predictions pointed at Saedra being apart of a more elaborate plot to infiltrate the Guild through him. Garik studied her hurt expression and the quivering bottom lip. He was a fool for listening to them.
He drew close and attempted to wrap his arms about her waist but Saedra jerked away. “No. Stop. I want you to leave. You...y-you were right and this wouldn’t work.”
What? He hadn’t said that. “Saedra, let’s talk.”