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From one irritable form to another! Nic thought as he entered the bedroom to find Natt waiting. Before the Hocna could open his mouth, Nic held his palm out. “I don’t know anything yet. Don’t bother asking.”
With a sigh that rivaled any his mother would have made when faced with another of Gilda’s transgressions, Natt’s head fell to his chest. Nic wondered when the other male had last had a full rest.
He tossed the binding for his hair to the seat of a chair in the corner as his other hand reached for the closure of his shirt. “You need to try to rest. If we need you... your fuel rods are depleted beyond hope.”
“My sons are out there. What if she abandoned them somewhere? Some slaver could have picked them up.”
The shirt landed on the arm of the chair. “Why would she do that? Surely, you knew her well enough to believe she would take care of them, didn’t you?”
The expression on Natt’s face when he lifted it stalled Nic’s hands as he reached for the weapon concealed beneath his arm. A complicated mix of sorrow and... guilt. What did Natt have to feel guilty about when it came to his actions? Unless... The weapon and his comfort forgotten, Nic pulled the other chair over and sat, his knees nearly touching the gelbed.
“Why did you pick her? Wasn’t there anyone else? Let’s have a little more detail here.”
Head down, Natt sighed again. “No, not a soul. It’s not easy being the lesser line in a royal house. There was no other form I could trust.”
“So, why didn’t your wife leave with them?” Nic knew she died. He’d played the holo of the interview with Natt several times. Somehow, he’d missed this guilt before.
“She didn’t want to leave.” Natt speared his hands into his hair. “With everything going on, I hadn’t realized how ill she’d become.”
“Why didn’t you toss her into a medbed and fix it?”
“We weren’t a SUN world. I knew nothing of the Life Foundation before leaving Hocte. We didn’t have that technology.”
Some of his irritation with the other male eased. “Sorry to hear that. The hacker was the only individual available to you?”
“She was.”
“You must have had some faith in the female to let her take your children away.”
“I can’t even be sure she has them.”
What the fuck? Nic straightened in the chair. “Explain.”
“I put them, my sons, on the ship. I think she was on it, but can’t be sure. She had to use another name and...”
Sympathy for Natt flooded him. “Yeah. I get it. You had to take drastic steps to keep them safe. I understand things better now.” So, why the guilt?
“I became friends with Unda. She knew things were out of control. When I asked her to take my children, she agreed.”
Natt had answered his question with that. They were friends, then again, he’d had a mate. Nic wondered how friendly Natt and the hacker had become. “First, I’m not trying to judge you here, but I need all the information I can gather. How close did you and the hacker get? Physically close?”
His hands left the side of the bed and Natt straightened. “Never. Something was there; I’ll admit it. Neither of us... a kiss, one before she left with my sons. Trevia, my mate... I cared for her. I tried to get to Inved. He was the reason she died. Had I reached him, I would have ripped out his throat with my teeth.”
“Cease right there.” Nic rose and before he could stop himself, pulled the other male upward into a hug. “You are one messed-up life form. Slow the fuck down, Hocna. There’s nothing wrong with shedding tears for your loss and fear for your children. You need to get some sleep. How the hells are you going to help us get the information on Unda if you can’t think straight? I’m going to do something you may be unhappy about come morning, but I feel it necessary.”
Keeping the other male close, Nic sent a little prayer up as he’d seen his mother do throughout his life. He hoped Hocna physiology was similar to his and that he didn’t use too much force. He used the pinch on the neck his father had showed him.
Natt collapsed in his arms. The male had been running on a depleted fuel rod for a long time. Natt needed to get some rest. As exhausted as he was, Nic hoped, once knocked out, his body would take over and keep him down for enough time to recharge.
“Lights, ten percent. When the door shuts, put them on zero until movement.”
The male wasn’t as heavy as he should have been. Natt seemed to be killing himself with worry. Nic had no plans to wake the other male. It would be best if he stayed here while they made inquiries.
After shutting the door, Nic looked around at the small sitting room. The gel couch wouldn’t allow him to stretch out. It looked as if the floor would be his bed for the night. That is, if he could sleep.
He chuckled. At least he hadn’t taken his pants off. So what if he wandered around without a shirt? Too worked up to stick around the room after dealing with both Natt and Ivanda, he left the room and walked down the hall.
In the main part of the building, life forms still filled the place. It didn’t matter what time it was; he understood the enterprise ran constantly. Shoulders back, head high, he walked toward the restaurant, not the food court. Not sensitive about his partial state of undress, he still didn’t feel like being the center of attention.
He noted a few females eyeing him and smiled. Ivanda might not like what she saw, others thought differently. He got a few appreciative examinations from several males as well. In the restaurant, he asked for a table out of the way and a pot of hot tea.
“Do you wish to be seen? Or stay private?”
“I’ve got some thinking to do. Private, if possible.”
“We can accommodate your every wish.” The Gossican hostess grinned at him before showing him to a small table.
He picked up on the implied meaning, but he wasn’t in the mood. Cute, she had a selection of piercings in both her ears. A small chain dangled from the very top of her pointed ears and connected to the last ring in the lobe. The tips of those pointed ears were erogenous zones. If he tugged on one of those chains, she’d go wild. Before she walked away, she flicked one chain with a fingertip. He knew an invitation when he saw one. Too bad he’d already met Ivanda.
The server she sent his way, a young male Liderian, grinned when he came over to take Nic’s order. It seemed he would get a menu for the tea choices. He waved it away and asked for anything from Nippon.
Tucked in a corner, he had a great view of the others in the restaurant. On his left side, he could see out into the games area. Gilda had a part of this. With a shake of his head, he once again wondered if she understood how rich Tanu truly was.
If Mother was still inclined to give his sister a hard time for marrying a Selvian, he might need to tell her about Tanu’s partnership in the Palace. Neither Gilda nor any offspring would have money worries. He decided to do Gilda a big favor and send a couple of brochure holos home. Much as they grated on each other’s nerves at times, they still looked out for one another.
The tea arrived and he poured a cup. He could almost see through the delicate material it was constructed of. Still, nothing distracted him as he hoped. What the fuck happened between him and Ivanda in the hall? For all her carrying on, he could have sworn he detected something else under it. Maybe he was growing on her.
A reply hadn’t come from the witch yet. It would be forwarded to him, Nic knew that. Why it was taking the female this long to respond worried him. That, along with everything else, had him sitting in the restaurant with nothing on but his long pants looking more like a Fjellskoglander barbarian than he had in a long time.
He should take the advice he gave Natt and get some rest. After finishing the tea, he rose. Time to catch a few hours before they went looking for a tiny little asteroid in an entire conglomerate of the damn things. It was all out of his hands for the moment.
