A Menage Made On Madison [The Federation 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  She wasn’t lying when she said she wanted a quiet life. She wanted nothing more. Sure, it wasn’t always possible, not when they had a huge hotel to run and guests to satisfy, but privately, it could be simple. Especially now Rafer was in their lives again. They could live like a regular “couple,” wait until some kids popped along, and bam, they’d be a family.

  Parker fell asleep wondering if families were always this goddamn whacked. She couldn’t remember it being so fucking complicated back on Earth.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next time she awoke, she elbowed Rafer in the shoulder with her arm.

  This was done purposely, as she shouldn’t technically be lying on a bed, so she shouldn’t be horizontal. Which she was. That meant at some point in the notte, Rafer had grabbed her and tucked her in. Bastard.

  Shame he smelled so good. Like vivu flowers and lignin oil. A.K.A. the aftershave version of sex.

  “What the hell am I doing in here?” she complained groggily.

  “You’re in bed, with your mates. Where else should you be?”

  Knox sounded prim. It didn’t surprise her to look over and see he was reading something on his comm unit. Probably a periodical. He did like to read them when they were on vacation.

  “I should be in front of the televisor buying myself an all-in-one sofa, bed, and kitchen unit.”

  “Why buy one of those when you could just use this bedroom?”

  “That would be a great idea if you two jackasses weren’t here as well.”

  “That hurts, maja. That really hurts,” Rafer said.

  She snorted at his mockery, and elbowed him in the belly. “Be thankful your dicks are too low down for me to reach.”

  “She means that,” Knox commented in an absentminded tone. His attention was fully fixed on the news.

  “I really do,” Parker admitted around a yawn. Rolling onto her back, she stared up at the ceiling and then asked, “Since when did we have a bed big enough for three?”

  Prior to this “vacation,” there had been two large beds in the bedroom. Now, there was a single one, but it was capable of fitting all of them.

  “I had the housekeeper buy another,” Knox remarked.

  “You had the housekeeper buy another bed but you let her keep all the crap out there? Stuff you grew out of about a hundred annals ago?” she asked, semi-astounded by that.

  She wasn’t being picky, either. Knox was in no way into sports. He had no time for them. He ran around the complex for a workout, but that was it. Well, especially since they’d had to cut back on sex since it had wiped her body inside out without Rafer around to stabilize the bond.

  He shrugged a shoulder. “I intend to sort through it on this trip.”

  She frowned, then jerked upright. “Are you sulking with me, Knox? Because if anyone deserves to sulk here, it’s me.”

  Knox snorted. “Yeah, because you had to deal with two mothers who were terrified they were about to be raped and pillaged by the Federation last notte.”

  “Made them think, though, didn’t it? You know, maybe they could understand what my mother went through now. Remember, she actually was raped by the Fleet? And I had to fucking watch, because the Fleet is full of perverted scum.” She slapped her hand down against the bed. “Your moms have it so fucking bad, don’t they? I mean, I don’t know how they manage to get up in the morning. It must be so goddamn hard for them.”

  “Shit.” Knox placed a hand on her back, but she stiffened at his touch. “I’m sorry, Parker. I forgot.”

  “Oh, the luxury of forgetting. Your mothers have it piss easy. They always have, and they always will. And you know what, they’re lucky. They really are, because the worst thing that has ever happened to them is having me for a daughter-in-law.” She shook her head, and hated herself for the self-piteous tears that burned the backs of her closed eyelids.

  “Maja, we didn’t mean for this argument to start again this morning,” Rafer murmured softly, and she knew he’d be glaring at Knox behind her back. He pressed a hand to her shoulders and stroked. She didn’t shrug him off like she had Knox.

  “I didn’t want the argument to start full stop, Rafer. I don’t even want to be here. I’m here on some bloody catch. I never thought you two would agree to leave Madison. I just thought if I said it, it would shut him up about my coming here.” She rubbed her arms with her hands, the brisk movement a vain effort to warm up, but it failed. She felt cold. Really cold.

  How could her mate just forget what her mom had sacrificed to save her daughter? It wasn’t something that happened every deya, was it?

  How could he forget what she’d had to endure just to make it to this point in her life?

  She’d been cruel last notte, she knew that, but Laro and Hira needed a wakeup call, and she’d been the one to give it to them. After all their years of doling out blank stares and making cutting comments, they’d deserved to have the truth doled out to them.

  It was impossible to compare what her mother had endured to what theirs had ‘suffered’ last notte.

  She climbed out of bed, all flailing legs and arms as she tried to make it out from underneath the covers. She was frustrated and hot by the time she made it out, and she headed toward the bathroom, a room surprisingly similar to those on Earth. They didn’t have particle units here, nor did they have water. They had their version, though. It was a faintly rose-tinted liquid. It looked disturbingly like diluted blood.

  Parker didn’t wait for either of them to speak or to say anything, she just carried on toward the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

  Ten mins later, she was washed and wrapped in a towel. She hadn’t bothered unpacking, and she’d dumped her case in one of the cupboards in the bathroom, so she dressed out of that. When she strode out, she ignored the men watching her on the bed until she reached the door, that is, when she said, “I’m going out in a tuli. I’d appreciate it if you just left me alone.”

  She walked out before either man could reply, and headed toward the principal door of their quarters. She managed to sneak out into the outer corridor, spotting no one as she meandered her way to the garage. Lights snapped on when she opened the door, and she aimed for one of the smaller vehicles. It looked like a bubble car. All rounded edges with a cylindrical body. She climbed in, quickly programmed a destination on one of the virtual maps, and as the gates opened and her tuli’s engine started, she saw Knox rush into the garage.

  Thankfully, the vehicle rushed off before he had a chance to try to talk to her, because she really didn’t feel like shooting the dust with him at that moment.

  With a grimace, she ducked down into the tuli’s bucket seat. She’d steered the car toward one of the outer suburbs of Hypa, where a few businesses had congregated together. She remembered there’d been a deli, and a few other novelty stores. There wasn’t much of a shopping industry on Shuzon. They relied on the EtherLine or the Federation-wide shopping channels for any of the more outlandish stuff. Not that she was in the mood to shop until she dropped, but she needed to get out of there, and the Main Street was a good place to go.

  She could have used the key the Noris gave her two nottes ago, but the questions they might ask had her steering toward somewhere more anonymous.

  Shuzon was, she begrudgingly admitted to herself, beautiful. It was mainly arable land, and, as she’d implied last notte, perfect for farming. Wherever the eye looked, there were patches being used to grow the variety of vegetables common to the Shuzon diet. It was quaint, and sweet. But not for a lifetime. She didn’t want big-city living, but she wanted some energy. Not this slow, laidback pace. After dealing with the hotel for so long, and living literally on the job, how could they go from that to this?

  It wasn’t something she’d have to worry about for a while yet, but it was on the cards at some point in her future.

  Sighing, she prepared to get out of the car when the tuli hit Main Street. She pressed the ‘Park’ button and waited until it found an allotted
space and moved into it. Looking over the ten shops, she ruefully admitted that there wasn’t enough here to kill a lot of time, but there was a café, and that was where she headed.

  Ordering herself a slice of toia kek, a crumbly kind of root vegetable bread, and a cup of weak jun, she sat back and watched the world go by. She watched as teenaged twinlings appeared and met up with friends, then proceeded to chatter and bicker among each other, screeching when one of them said one thing and the other disagreed. She watched as old men came in and had a cup of kaffa, and a bunch of older ladies sat down to do their version of knitting with large mugs of jun in front of them.

  Through it all, she saw how important the twinling relationship was. That indispensability was reiterated every time they came here. But suddenly, in this little café, she saw how much Rafer and Knox had missed out on by Rafer’s enlisting. It must have been very hard to do without each other. Because hell, even the waitresses were a set of twinlings.

  She saw that, watched at the interactions, and then, after an heura, when she started to miss her mates, asked for the bill. She paid with her currency unit, which was kind of like a credit card, and made her way out of the café, fully aware that she was the only single person in the room. She was just relieved no one had recognized her.

  Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, the girls on the table started talking, loudly and quickly, and in reaction to hearing her name, Parker sped up and ran out of the café.

  She bumped into someone on the street, almost knocking the guy over. She turned around, about to apologize for her rude behavior, but before she could open her mouth, she had to frown as something bit into her arm.

  A pout twitched across her lips, and she scowled as she murmured, “That hurt.”

  They were her only words. Because as soon as she uttered them, she passed out.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “You should have followed her.”

  “I tried. Griljerrd, how many times? I made it into the garage as she was on her way out. By the time I made it into my own tuli, she’d made it down the street and had passed out of my line of sight. I even went to the Noris, but she wasn’t there.”

  Rafer grunted. “You do realize she’s been gone eight heurs?”

  “Yes, I’m quite capable of reading the clock, Rafer.”

  “Even if she was pissed like crazy at us, she wouldn’t make us wonder if she was okay for this long, Knox, would she? Something’s not right.”

  “You only just figured that out?” Knox snapped. “Of course something isn’t right. I forgot my mate’s mother was gang-raped, in front of her, and all to save my felixi from that particular torture. I forgot, Rafer. How could I forget something like that?” Knox slumped down onto an armchair and rested his head in his hands. “It would serve us right if she headed to the landing port. She has enough credit on her ruby currency unit to cross the lukcin galaxy.”

  “She won’t have gone that far,” Rafer mumbled, patting his twin on the shoulder in an effort to comfort him. He wasn’t altogether shocked that it failed. Knox shrugged off his arm and jumped up again. He’d spent the last few heurs jumping up and down, striding about, then sitting down, alternating between condemning himself and griping at Parker for being out so long and making them worry.

  “Yeah, that’s what concerns me. She can’t have gone far, so why has she been gone for ages? I mean, there are like four places in a twenty-mile area where she could have gone. There’s nowhere near enough for her to do to stay out this long. Maybe we should call the Garda.”

  “I think that’s a little premature, Knox. They won’t listen to us until a full deya has passed.”

  “Premature? Do you really think so, Rafer? I mean, we both know something shady is going on back at the hotel. We both know that it’s tied to us in some way. That’s why we all came here. We thought she’d be safe. But what if the olan followed us? It isn’t like we hid our travel plans from everyone.”

  “You might not, but I did. The comm trail shows that we’re currently vacationing in Beocrish.”

  “I wish we lukcin were.” Knox waved a hand. “I’d have had faith in the ghost trails you and your team have laid if Parker hadn’t been gone for eight heurs.”

  “She was pissed off at us, Knox. She wants to make a point.”

  Knox stared at his brother, wondering why he’d suddenly done an about-face. “Rafer, look, forgive me for saying this, but, I’ve been with my felixi for sixty annals. I know how she works. I know what happens when she gets mad at me. Even when I’m an insensitive uti that proves he doesn’t deserve her. She gets mad, like she did last notte. She says things that are inappropriate but irritatingly true, she goes quiet, threatens not to sleep with me, then, she goes and sits in a food hall. I’ve watched her do it, time after time. That’s what she does.” He jumped up. “We should go to the food halls in the vicinity. She might still be in one of them. Griljerrd, why didn’t I think of that earlier? She has my brains in a scramble that woman of ours!”

  Rafer shook his head. “How long does she stay there? Normally, I mean.”

  “An heura? Two and a half, tops. That’s why I’m concerned. She should be back by now to hear me grovel. That’s how this thing works. It doesn’t involve her staying out for eight heurs. I should have gone to the food halls.” He slammed a fist into the wall, and the adobe crumbled about his hand. “Why the lukcin didn’t I try the food halls?”

  “Well, we can’t call in the Garda, Knox. It’s too soon. They won’t listen.”

  “They might not listen to me, but they might to a High Commander of the Fleet.”

  Rafer grunted. “I could get into trouble over this if I pull rank, Knox.”

  “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t think it was necessary, Rafer. She should be back by now.”

  The two brothers eyed each other for a second. When Rafer nodded and headed for his comm unit, Knox blew out a relieved breath. He didn’t know what was going on with Parker, but this wasn’t right. Nothing about this was.

  * * * *

  Parker blinked open sore eyes and squinted at the bright light filtering through her lashes. It was weird for her eyes to be sore. The last time they’d been sore, she’d had conjunctivitis. And she’d been eight. That was a hell of a long time ago, and the sensation was a peculiar one. But then, when she thought about it, and took a moment to catalogue her injuries, everywhere was hurting, and hurting seemed to be an understatement.

  She groaned as her body came back online, then winced as cold bars dug into her back. She remembered that sensation, and, aching or not, her eyes popped open to take a look at her surroundings. When she saw the cage, she wanted to cry. Then scream, then sob.

  They’d stored her in a cage like this prior to the slave auction where Knox had purchased her.

  Exactly like this.

  Just big enough for her to lie flat out, tall enough for her to crouch. It was like a coffin cage. She still had nightmares about this fucking horrible contraption.

  Even though every part of her ached, she sat up and brought her knees into her chest and thanked God that she was at least fully clothed. The last time she’d been in a cage like this, she hadn’t been, and every inch of her skin had been exposed to the metal of the bars. It had taken two skin grafts to repair the scar tissue that came from an electric charge being buzzed through the cage with such a ferocity that it had seared her like a goddamn steak—she’d been scarred for annals.

  It was hard not to panic. It was hard to breathe. It was hard not to cry.

  Her vision began to blur at the edges as panic overcame her. It downright turned to black when she heard faint noises echo around the room. Then she realized why she couldn’t really see anything. A light shone directly overhead, allowing her to see her captivity but very little else, because the rest of the room was in darkness. A blackness so deep she felt like she’d been buried alive.

  The fanciful if hideous notion plunged her over the edge. She screa
med. Screamed like she’d hadn’t screamed for ages as a terror she’d not known for close to seventy annals filled her. Without Knox, she was alone, unprotected. A nobody.

  Fear pummeled her like she was a one-hundred-and-forty pound boxing bag, and still, the yells kept coming. A voice echoed through the darkness. She heard it, but didn’t stop shrieking long enough to make out what the person said.

  “Goddammit, shut the hell up. I’m trying to move you onboard.”

  Parker blinked. The voice penetrated her panic by the sheer oddity of hearing English. Spoken by a native. Without any help from a ULT translator. “Are you human?” she asked, her tone shaken, but she sounded like she’d swallowed a bag of stones from all her caterwauling.

  A snort was her reply. “Well, I’m American. I refuse to answer to species.”

  She blinked again. Astounded at the retort, she tried once more, “Where am I?”

  “I’m trying to transfer you over to The Lady.”

  “What’s The Lady?”

  “You’ve never heard of The Lady?”

  “You mean the…? Oh my God, I’ve been kidnapped by pirates? Are you fucking kidding me?” She shrieked again when she realized why there was a huge goddamn light being shone in her face and she was surrounded by darkness. They were transferring her by beam into space. Like she was a fucking piece of cattle.

  A chuckle was the only answer she got, and she decided to keep quiet. The last thing she wanted was for the beam to waver, because if it stopped surrounding her, by no less than a quarter of an inch, she’d be a new ingredient in the black soup. Knowing that death was a quarter-inch away sent a different shard of fear through her, but it was tempered by the knowledge that The Lady had captured her. For whatever fucking reason, she didn’t know. One thing was certain, she’d be able to rip a new one on the bastards, and in English.

  The knowledge humans had her filled her with confidence. The Lady was a little-discussed source of shame for the Federation. She only knew of it because the hotel sometimes did business with the smugglers. If one of their guests had a peculiar predilection for something, an item that was hard to attain through the normal channels, personnel contacted Knox, and he contacted The Lady, a stolen ship crewed by escaped human slaves. Or so the fable went.