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  She relaxed a tiny bit. “Thank you, Roman. I must tell you I do not plan to accept that offer unless I am allowed to marry Daniel Haws.”

  Vincenz exhaled hard, and one of Roman’s eyebrows slid up. Abbie burst into the room at Carina’s back.

  “Did he ask you, and neither of you bothered to tell me?” Abbie’s fists rested at her hips.

  She grinned at Abbie a moment. “He didn’t ask me. He’s not here. Anyway, he will ask me, because he loves me and that’s his nature.”

  Abbie shook her head, still smiling. “Oh, of course he will. He probably wallowed around in his I’m not good enough for her place for a while. But what’s the alternative? Letting someone like Alexander grab you up? Pah! My brother is one of the most competitive people I’ve ever known. He’s won you; he won’t give that up. Especially as he’s beyond in love.”

  “Carina, as you can see”—Roman tipped his chin at Abbie—“our Family does not hold to any marriage rules.”

  “I’m as base as they come.” Abbie’s face was solemn.

  Roman clucked his tongue and quickly moved to help his wife into a coat. “Stay warm and safe. I ordered a conveyance for you. Vincenz, can you handle these two?”

  Her brother sighed. “Yeah. But I may want a rise in my credits after today.”

  She and Abbie linked arms and went out.

  Vincenz got them settled in the back and joined the driver up front.

  “Your brother is avoiding us back here.”

  “He may believe we’re discussing our monthly bleed or what happens when you go into labor.” Carina shrugged. “What is it with brothers, anyway? Roman’s brother is a pain in my behind with his constant, mocking flirtation. Your brother has been gone eight days, and I miss him. I want him to see this classroom.”

  “Daniel will be back as soon as he can. Sometimes he just goes. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear. But he’ll always come back. Daniel is too good to get killed. Roman told me Wil says Daniel is his finest pupil in all his time at the corps. As for Alex, he’s an idiot, but a pretty harmless one. He loves the attention, even negative attention.”

  “Family.” Carina shrugged.

  “Wait until you meet Roman and Alexander’s father. Now he—well, I’m trying to avoid him while I’m pregnant because he’s best digested after a glass or two of wine—also has a good heart, but he’s a grumpy pain in the ass. Oh, and don’t start feeling relieved. You’ve only met my siblings. But my father? He and Daniel do not get along. Mainly because Daniel is a man. What a man should be, and his existence only shows my father what he’s not.”

  “My father is a tyrant and a despot who had my younger brother murdered for research. I win.”

  Abbie groaned.

  “He’s an overachiever, my father.”

  They took the rest of the trip in sociable silence, broken occasionally by Abbie pointing out the sights. Her classroom was simple but colorful and, Carina thought, filled with potential. She’d begin the training that all new teachers went through and start teaching right after that. The school administrator was helpful and friendly, and Carina realized she’d been waiting her whole life to mean something to someone in a way totally not related to who she was born to.

  “Still up for lunch at Nyna’s café?” Abbie asked as they traveled back. “We can celebrate and then sneak off to look at the flat.”

  “If you’re sure that would be all right.”

  “Don’t be nervous. Really, they both love you. Even if they didn’t love you already, they’d love you simply because Daniel does.”

  Carina relaxed. “All right then. Daniel must have his own chair at the café. He’s probably your sister’s biggest customer with all the food he eats.”

  Abbie grinned and then sobered. “When we were young there were times when we didn’t have a whole lot to eat. It was . . . hard, being that hungry all the time. Daniel often gave up his portion to my mother or to the rest of us.”

  Carina closed her eyes a moment. “I hadn’t imagined. I’ve teased him about it, and now I feel horrible.”

  Abbie took her hand. “No. Don’t. He would hate it if he knew anyone realized why he eats like such a hog. He would never want pity, not ever, especially from you. We all have our scars, our buttons and issues. I don’t know if he even realizes it. It’s just something I put together a few years ago. Everyone teases him about it. You know Daniel, he’d prefer that to pity.”

  “I suppose.” But her heart hurt anyway. Knowing he had lived with the sharpness of hunger in his belly like that.

  “Here’s what Daniel says about the rest of us. He says Nyna and my mother find a way to heal through their food, I do through my work and Georges does by mimicking me. He’s right of course.” She smiled. “But he misses himself in the equation.”

  “He’d say he was a killer.”

  Abbie looked at her carefully. “And do you agree?”

  “I would, though not how he means it. He thinks I don’t understand. That I don’t know what that darkness he fends off all the time feels like. But I know it takes a toll on him, and yet he keeps on doing it because he believes in it. Because it’s what he was ordered to do by Wilhelm Ellis, and he’d just as soon hack off an arm as to disobey.

  “The darkness he carries around is his toll, I suppose. The price he pays to save us all from that darkness. I find that impresses me far more than his silly idea that he’s a killer, therefore blackhearted and not good enough.”

  “You’re going to be good for him,” Abbie said as she got out of the conveyance.

  Daniel rushed through the disembarking process and began to send all the information he’d been jammed from over the last two days. The transport had suffered repeated problems, and every transmission he’d attempted to send back to Wilhelm or Roman had been scrambled and bounced back. He’d tried to send, at the very least, a status message via other points of access, but nothing worked.

  As a result, Roman didn’t know a thing about Henry Sessions or the destruction of the warehouse complex. Unless House Sessions had reported it themselves, but somehow Daniel doubted that. Especially if they’d found Henry’s body and the coin.

  “Daniel, we’ve been anxious.” Wilhelm’s face showed on the screen of his personal comm.

  “I need to speak to you immediately. My signal has been jammed the entire trip. A quick check with the docking monitors tells me this was not isolated. Transports of this type, leaving in the time frame I did, were all jammed.”

  “Come to the corps HQ immediately.” He heard Roman’s voice over Wilhelm’s.

  He showed his credentials to a soldier who’d been acting as a driver for someone. “I’m commandeering this conveyance. You may report to your superior.”

  The young soldier looked from the credentials back to Daniel, awe on his face. Very few people had that level of clearance. He nodded and stepped away. “It’s keyed in, sir.”

  “I’m on my way,” he said, slamming the door and speeding away from the portal.

  “Daniel, straight to me, please. Your lovely lady has to wait,” Wilhelm said.

  He snorted. “Of course. What do you take me for?”

  “A lovesick fool, which is amusing to watch most of the time. It’s not an insult, Daniel.” Wilhelm delivered those words bluntly, so Daniel believed that. Still, being thought to be soft wasn’t a good thing in his business.

  He nodded and signed off.

  He’d missed her so much, had felt wrong in his skin being away from her. At first, the time on the transport had made him overthink. Doubt. Why would a woman like Carina Fardelle want a man like him? She was educated, refined, powerful, connected at a level Daniel could barely imagine. What would she see in him?

  Once he’d gone, she’d be around other men, men like Alexander Lyons, Roman’s brother; Deimos and Corrin, Roman’s sons. Men who were like her. Men nothing like Daniel, with his rough edges. He was not refined or elegant. He was a dirt hopper who ended up in the corps bec
ause of the darkness that lived inside. Daniel was good at his job, but he sure as seven hells wasn’t a smooth-talking prince like Deimos.

  He’d driven himself crazy with it. Imagining her being charmed and realizing Daniel’s difference. Finding that difference lacking. Imagining coming back and seeing her face and knowing she’d moved on.

  But as they’d traveled and he’d had so much time alone to think, he continued doing it until he realized none of that mattered.

  Daniel Haws knew he was in love with Carina Fardelle, and he meant to grab at that happiness. Whether she’d lost interest when he’d been gone, he had no other course but to hope that didn’t happen and if she was still in love with him, snatch her up and make her stay with him.

  So he’d do his job, debrief and then go to her. He’d hold out his hand, and if she took it, he’d never give her a reason to regret it.

  “Daniel, please come in before Abbie sees you.” Roman beckoned from behind his desk. “Or before you and Carina get behind a closed door with a horizontal surface.”

  Daniel stepped inside after waving to Marcus. “I do have self-control, Roman.” Daniel sent his brother-in-law a look as he fell into a comfortable chair. “Anyway, even my sister can’t hear me from across town. Her powers are mighty, but not that mighty.”

  “They’re here. Abbie stopped in just before you showed up. They’ve been to the school where Carina will teach.”

  He grinned. “Nicely done. She made quick work out of securing a position.”

  “Yes, yes. It’s all lovely. Now, your report?” Wilhelm indicated he should speak. “By the way, this signal jamming situation is being investigated. My people are ripping that transport apart.”

  Daniel nodded. “I found the smuggler. I’m surprised they haven’t reported the loss of all their warehouses on Parron.”

  At that, Roman’s eyes widened and then narrowed dangerously. “You’re telling me this was another Family?”

  “Sessions. I monitored the broker who led me back to a hotel where Henry Sessions was staying. I have a recording of the deal.” He tossed a disc onto the desk. “It’s attached to my report as well. Should be in your personal comm files by now. I sent them when I was still in the portal yards.”

  “Fill in the details.” Wilhelm leaned closer.

  “Millions of credits for small-scale tactical explosives. Their warehouses held stolen military material. Also on the disc. Stacked to the ceilings. I’ve assigned Andrei to work with one of the comandante’s other special teams to figure out what depots are missing their munitions.” Daniel had contacted Andrei right after he’d spoken to Wilhelm, and he had no doubt Andrei had probably already mobilized and was on his way by then.

  “Whoever they are, wherever they are, they’re missing enough material to severely curtail their ability to repel an attack. Roman, in part of the conversation I overheard, Sessions went on and on about you giving rights to those who didn’t deserve it. The unranked. I imagine Sessions isn’t alone in the sentiment.”

  Roman held up a finger to stay the rest of the story. He called his assistant. “Marcus, call an emergency meeting of the Governance Council. Attendance is mandatory. I’m on my way to the chambers now.”

  Marcus’s voice shook a moment but firmed as he clarified and got to work.

  “How do you want to proceed with this, Roman?” Wilhelm asked.

  “They will be stripped of status. There’s no way Henry’s brother was unaware of his actions. I want them arrested and brought here. The entire top tier of Sessions is to be arrested and taken into custody. Max security.”

  He put on a suit coat, smoothing down his clothing. “I want them, every last one of them, to be turned out of Sessions holdings. They are now my holdings. They will surrender every factory, every shop, every piece of land and home. All of it is to be in House Lyons hands by the end of the day. I don’t care if you send every last fucking soldier available to Lumina, it will happen, and it will be done.”

  Wilhelm nodded and stood. “I need to get to work then.”

  “What do you need me to do, sir?” Daniel asked Wilhelm. This was serious shit; he needed to keep his focus.

  “You’re on call. You know the procedure here. You’ve been out, and now you’re grounded for a solid twelve hours’ mandatory rest. You went on two high-profile missions in a row. Sit your ass down and sleep, or have sex with your lovely lady. Whatever. If I need you and no one else will do, I’ll contact you.”

  Roman called Abbie’s name as they all exited the office.

  “What? Seven hells, Roman Lyons, don’t bellow at me.” Abbie came down the stairs, Carina right behind. “There you are, Daniel! I have a grievance with you. We’ve only now learned of your return. We learned from Marcus. We love Marcus, of course, but expect better of you. And oh my, what happened?” She came to an abrupt halt, her affectionate frustration with Daniel replaced by her attention to her husband’s face.

  Carina rushed around Abbie and into Daniel’s arms. “You. You’re here, and you look so handsome and a bit tired, but still handsome.”

  Even in the seriousness of the moment he had to take her face in his hands and kiss her softly. “I’m back, and I missed you.”

  Her eyes widened, and she blinked several times. Her bottom lip even quavered a moment, but she held it together and sent him a smile.

  “We need to go to the Governance Council right now. House Sessions has been trading weapons with the Imperialists,” Roman told his wife.

  Abbie’s shock slid away, replaced by outrage. “What will we do? I mean, I have my own ideas on this, and you know I’d be happy to expound on that. But I know this is tenuous, and you have my support for whatever direction you take.”

  Roman paused a moment, cocking his head. “Tell me. What do you think, Abbie?”

  “I think you should burn Sessions to the ground and, as the old saying goes, salt the earth after. They need to know.”

  “Know.” It was clear Roman understood what she meant.

  “We’re on the verge of war. This sort of succor to the enemy cannot be tolerated. You’ve tried to be gruff, you’ve levied fines and put people on trial. And still they continue to put this Federation at risk. These are our people; we can’t let this sort of egregious offense against us go without the kind of response that will put a stop to anyone else thinking they can get away with it.”

  Roman’s smile was bloodthirsty, and Daniel understood. He understood this was exactly what Roman had planned from the start. If she’d been too far the other way, he’d have perhaps softened or worked it through with her.

  “I agree.”

  “As do I,” Wilhelm grunted before going back to his personal comm, where he’d been issuing orders since they’d left Roman’s office.

  Carina stepped forward . “You have to. I know you’ve decided this, but if you waver, let me tell you my father will not respond to mercy. To kindness or compassionate second chances. My father knows the lash; that’s the language he speaks, and it’s what he will hear.”

  Roman nodded. “Thank you, Carina.”

  “Would it help you if I said as much? At the Governance Council?”

  Daniel turned to look at her. Seven hells! She did not just volunteer to head into the heart of what would surely be a firestorm of controversy. He shook his head, but she just patted his arm.

  “We can be united. It’ll bolster your position as well.”

  “Can you not say anything else?” Daniel grumbled.

  “She’s right, you know.” Abbie shrugged. “Come on, we may as well all go together.”

  “I’m not taking twelve off,” he told Wilhelm, who looked at him long without speaking.

  “Fine. If you’re working, you can change into a uniform on the way.” Wilhelm turned on his heel, heading for the doors. Before Daniel could follow, Marcus came jogging up and handed him a uniform, freshly pressed.

  “I overheard and took a chance you might need one. I had it rushed over from
your office.”

  “Marcus, I can see why my sister loves you so much. Thank you.”

  “I’m in whatever conveyance Daniel will be changing his clothes in,” Carina called out.

  Daniel groaned inwardly. Being with this woman would probably teach him a few things about keeping his composure in public. Or something. She was lovely to look at. And to know she was his.

  “We don’t have time for that, young woman. We’ll be at our location in short minutes.” Wilhelm frowned at her, and she rolled her eyes.

  Still, Wilhelm got into their conveyance, and he nearly laughed aloud at both of them.

  “You left it? The marker?” Wilhelm asked, meaning the coin.

  “Yes. They know. And they know we know.”

  “Only men could ever use those words in a sentence,” Carina muttered, looking out the window. She reached out and took his hand.

  Chapter 23

  Carina smiled as she watched Daniel shrug out of his clothes and into his uniform. He and Wilhelm were discussing what Daniel had found, and his attention was solidly with his boss. Leaving her free to fantasize about him and think about their future.

  She’d had a lovely afternoon with Nyna and Clementine Haws. Daniel’s women, she’d come to think of them all as. Clementine was a lot like her own mother, and it had been bittersweet to sit and enjoy a meal the way she’d most likely never be able to again with her mother.

  It had been an impulse, but she spoke with the building’s owner about the flat, and Abbie had insisted on paying a good faith deposit. In the end, she’d decided to lease it for her and Daniel. Carina hoped he came back still in love with her, because she’d drag him home every night by the hair if he thought he was going to leave her behind.

  They pulled up near a side entrance. Wilhelm held an arm out. “You two have a few minutes alone. Not too much alone, mind you. But I want to check security myself, and you are off duty until I say otherwise.” And with that, he got out, leaving them blessedly alone.