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Chapters (54)
  1. Title Page
  2. Also by Aileen Erin
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Chapter Forty-Four
  48. Chapter Forty-Five
  49. Chapter Forty-Six
  50. Chapter Forty-Seven
  51. Off Balance
  52. To My Readers
  53. Acknowledgments
  54. About the Author

“I really need to know how you ended up here,” he said finally. “I can’t seem to focus on anything else. It’s driving me mad, and Declan wouldn’t tell me anything other than that I had to get here fast or you’d die.”

I didn’t know why Declan wasn’t telling Lorne, but maybe I could tell him a little bit without getting into the details. “It was my fault. We were going to come as planned, but I… I smashed his brother’s face in and popped his arm out of its socket.”

The grin on Lorne’s face made me feel hot all over. “You did, did you?”

“He deserved it, but I did it at work and then was arrested. It caused some complications. I—” I thought back on that morning at the diner. The feel of Jason’s hand… “He deserved it.” All humor in my voice was gone.

“What did he do to you?” He leaned across the table.

I shook my head slowly. There was zero chance of me telling Lorne about that. I didn’t even like thinking about it—how I was manhandled and manipulated—but talking about it? Not happening.

His hair fell a little in front of his face as he reached for my hand. “If Jason attacked you, I should’ve picked you up immediately. I could’ve gotten there just as easily as I got here. Even if you were in jail. I would’ve torn it apart to get you out.”

I slid my hand away from his. In that moment, I knew exactly why Declan hadn’t called him. “You can’t tear apart a jail just because I was arrested. The war—”

“Gods damn this bloody war!” He slammed his hand down on the table, rattling my plate. “How could you possibly believe that you could prevent a war that SpaceTech has wanted for the last twenty-five years? Nothing you could’ve ever done would’ve changed that. They were looking for a reason, and this time it was you. But it’s been other things before. And if this ploy didn’t work, another would have. It wasn’t worth your life. You were almost dead!”

My skin grew bright. “Almost doesn’t count!” I yelled it so loudly that my throat burned, but even as my words hung in the silence, I knew it was dumb. It sounded so incredibly dumb, even to me.