Atrophy by Jess Anastasi Read Free Book Online Page B

agreed, but neither had she run screaming from the room.
    He inhaled over the last echo of the harsh emotions tightening his chest. “Hide me until we get to wherever this ship is headed.”
    “We’re bound for the Rim. We’ve got a delivery to make.”
    The news made this already bad situation worse. The Rim was a giant space station. Like some planets had rings of debris and ice, the Rim entirely encompassed and rotated around Yarina. It was the IPC’s central planet, where government sittings were held, the highest justices upheld, and where almost all IPC government leaders resided.
    “Well that’s about the last place in the entire universe I want to go. How about after that?”
    She shrugged. “It depends on where my brother decides.”
    “Your brother?” A foreboding sensation crept into his brain, subtle as a nail pounded into his skull.
    “Rian.”
    Great . The war hero, whose mere name could make a seasoned soldier piss his pants, was her brother. If he’d thought before he couldn’t bring himself to choose death, he might as well have not worried. Sherron would make sure he got good and dead, probably in the most painful way imaginable.
    “That’s what I get for sneaking onto the ship of a trained assassin,” he muttered.
    “What did you say?” Zahli’s gaze was sharp as she stared at him.
    “Your brother and his training? Another inmate said he’d gotten to know Rian about two or three years before the Assimilation Wars finished, that Rian had been working as some sort of super, government-sanctioned assassin.”
    A flash of surprise crossed her features, so fast he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure he’d really seen it. Surely she’d known what her brother had done during the war?
    One of her hands skimmed over his shoulder and he forgot all about her brother. Except that was ridiculous. What was he, a puppy starved for affection? Had twelve years on Erebus turned him into some kind of head-case who got all mushy the first time someone showed him any decency? He shifted, putting some distance between them.
    Zahli stared at him and he could all but see her mind working behind her expressive gaze, saw the moment she’d come to some resolve.
    “I’ll help you. You put yourself on the line to save me yesterday. If you ended up taking the blame— This is the least I can do. You can stay in my room.”
    He glanced around the small cabin, basic quarters of a padded bench along one wall, small desk with crystal display set into it, and double bed pushed up against the outer bulkhead beneath a high, elongated viewport. On the opposite side was a locker and privy facilities. Yeah, being locked in here for days and weeks on end was so not going to be fun. Especially with Zahli flitting in and out. Sleeping only a few feet apart. Showering while he sat out here and pretended there wasn’t a naked woman in the next room… He flashed hot and cursed at himself for being just as bad as that bastard officer who’d attacked her yesterday.
    The door slid open, catching them in a blinding flood of light.
    “Zahli, how frecking long does it take you to—”
    Tannin shoved to his feet as Rian stopped mid-stride and looked over them both, his expression blank. Deadly vacant.
    Zahli edged in front of him and took a step backward, as if protecting him when Rian’s fists clenched. “Rian—”
    Tannin only caught a flash of movement from Rian before pain lacerated his left shoulder. The impact sent him backward, glancing off the edge of the bed and crashing to the floor. He rolled onto his back, jaw locked against the blazing pain as he grabbed the knife buried all the way to the hilt, high in his chest.
    Zahli dropped down next to him and covered his hand. “Don’t pull it out. If he hit something vital, you’ll bleed out before I can get our doctor.”
    “Zahli, get away from him.” Rian’s warning came out at not much louder than a growl.
    “Rian, you’re such a frecking ass sometimes.”