“Add it all to my tab.” Elizabeth waved at the box of genebiotix on the tall shelf behind the merchant.

“And when do you plan on picking up this tab?” He lowered his eyebrows as he crossed his thin arms over his chest.

“Put it aside, and I’ll send someone to pay and pick it up tomorrow.”

“This is a shop not a storage room.”

Elizabeth barely resisted the urge to groan. She tried her best to keep a good relationship with the medical merchants of Caspa station; there was nowhere else in the system she could buy this stuff without being asked too many questions. “When have I ever not paid you?”

“Two years ago.” He smirked triumphantly. “You had me order some expensive scanner and never showed up to pick it up.”

She hadn’t been able to leave Mudden. Devon hadn’t sent them on a mission for over a year. 

“You sold it to someone else,” she insisted. She needed those genebiotix. “And somehow your business survived.”

He scoffed and opened his mouth to say more, but then he looked up over her head, smiled nervously, and said, “Fine.” He turned around and got the box down from the shelf in a hurry.

She didn’t need to turn around to know who was standing behind her. Rex was the only person she knew who had that effect on people. And while most of the time she was glad to have him standing by her, it irritated her that she couldn’t manage to get half the respect he commanded.

“Are you done here?” Rex asked, coming to stand beside her.

“Yeah. This is the last merchant. You? I’m gonna need that money.”

He lowered his voice and leaned in closer. “Price is picking up the painting from the artist now.” His breath tickled her neck, sending shivers down her back. She tried not to moan as her hardening nipples pressed against the fabric of her jumpsuit. It didn’t matter that they’d been together for five years, Rex could still turn her on just by existing.

She glared at him. Though his face remained serious, there was a twinkle in his eyes that suggested he’d blown on her neck on purpose. His eyes traveled down her body, his facial expression revealing nothing as they paused briefly on her breasts. 

And just like that, her bad mood melted away. 

She finished up with the merchant, and they moved through the throng of people buying and selling wares at the platform C market, one of three large market places on Caspa. Most people who came to Caspa came to buy. The station prided itself on selling all original technology. Caspa had the only technological society in the system that wasn’t part of Fartech’s monopoly, which was why Elizabeth came here to shop.

She reached out and grabbed Rex’s hand, intertwining her fingers with his. Rex hated public displays of affection. He liked to look tough, and holding his wife’s hand ruined the image. But she had to get back at him for blowing on her neck.

He stopped walking abruptly, her still moving body slamming against his side.

He raised their joined hands. “We’re not on a stroll along the beach.”

“I don’t want to lose you in this crowd,” she answered, keeping her face casual.

He grabbed her wrist with his other hand, extricated his fingers from her grasp and placed her hand on his belt. “You can hold on here.”

He had a way of keeping his demeanor calm and stern that made it hard to tell if he was joking. A few years back his deadpan approach to humor would have upset her, now she knew him better, knew it was his way of teasing her. Even if a small part of her couldn’t help but feel the sting of the rejection.

Rex led the way out of the market platform down a narrow corridor. A stack of crates blocked half of the walkway. Rex grabbed her hips and positioned her between two tall crates, hiding them from view of anyone passing down the corridor. He pressed his body against hers, dropped his head and kissed her.

That was more like it!

She kissed him back, sliding her hands along his shoulders and broad back. Rex was big, and it was all muscles. She could touch him all day long and never get bored.

He broke the kiss to move his open mouth to her neck.

“Did you really need to hide to kiss your wife?” 

“If we weren’t hidden, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

He squeezed her breast and pinched her nipple. She gasped. No one had ever accused Rex of being too gentle. And she loved it. Heat gathered at her core. She wrapped one leg around his hip, practically climbing on him in an attempt to get closer.

Rex laughed. “Is the danger of being discovered turning you on?”

She scoffed. “No.” Rex had a theory that Elizabeth found danger sexy. Maybe he wasn’t entirely wrong, though she wasn’t going to admit it. But in this instance, she couldn’t care less if someone found them. “The guy squeezing my breast is turning me on.”

Rex looked down with a self-satisfied smirk, and she had half a mind to thump him, except his other hand was roaming over her ass and getting really close to the place where she needed him the most, and she didn’t want to discourage him.

He went back to kissing her neck, lowering his hand even further. Almost there. She rose up on her toes to give him better access.

The holo-display of her comm turned on, flashing a message that someone was calling her with a warning of urgency.

“No.” Her voice sounded so whiny that she giggled at herself.

“What?” Rex asked, not stopping his exploration of her body. 

“Harold is calling.”

“Ignor—”

But it was too late. She’d already accepted the call, without video, and patched it through to Rex’s comm too, so he could be part of the conversation.

“We have a problem.” Harold’s deep voice boomed in her ear.

Rex’s hand stopped moving just as his finger had reached the underside of her ass, and she tried to stifle the moan of protest rising in her throat.

“What kind of problem?” she asked instead.

Harold was a recruiter, which was a fancy way of saying that he was responsible for kidnapping women who were matched to Mudden men and bringing them to the planet Mudden to be married.

“One of the matched women disappeared before we could grab her.”

Good for her, Elizabeth thought, though she couldn’t say it out loud without serious repercussions.

“We discovered that she traveled to Caspa station. You’re there right now, right?”

“Right.” 

Very few people from Mudden were allowed to leave the planet, so when they did, they always kept each other informed of their location in case of trouble.

“We’re too far away to make it there. You’ll have to catch her and bring her to Mudden.”

Elizabeth’s body went cold. Catch her? As in, kidnap her?

She gave Rex a panicked look. “Me?”

“And Rex, and Price. You’re on your way home, right?”

“Yes,” Rex answered for her, when she couldn’t find her voice.

“Good. It shouldn’t be too hard. She’s traveling alone. I’ll send you her file.”

“Fine,” Rex said. “We’ll get it done.”

“Good.” Harold let out a huge sigh of relief. “Elizabeth, you’ll have to give her a health check before bringing her to Mudden.”

Rex nodded at her, so she cleared her throat and said, “Yes.”

“I’ll send you the file. We may be out of comm range soon. Don’t come home without her. Kemp will hang me for this.” 

Harold ended the communication. There’d been more than a hint of worry in his voice, and he hadn’t exaggerated. Kemp might actually hang him for being incompetent.

Rex looked back at her, his blue eyes so cold they could have frozen steam.

“I’m not kidnapping that woman,” Elizabeth said.

“I know.”

***********

Elizabeth and Rex took the central elevators down to the dock level where they were supposed to meet up with Price. Her head hurt from indecision and fear.

Elizabeth didn’t like the work they did. They worked for the son of a tyrant who not only oppressed his own people but also orchestrated the kidnappings of hundreds of women every year.

She could only do this job and still sleep at night—albeit somewhat restlessly—because it was the only way off the planet, it kept Rex’s family safe, and they were robbing Devon blind to bring much-needed medical supplies to Mudden. 

They’d come up with the plan four years ago. Devon liked art, and he liked to feel important. Most of the time when he sent Rex out on a mission, it was to bring him back some expensive painting or statue. 

Elizabeth had had an idea. They could use Devon’s money to buy whatever painting he wanted, have it copied, and sell back the original. They then used the money to buy medical supplies that Elizabeth used in her clinic and in several other clinics she’d founded around Mudden. 

She’d begun by training the “midwives” in the different clans. Most were women who fell into the role by necessity. Very few knew what they were doing and most had never had any official training. She’d met a lot of women this way, and found a few who were not only interested in her training in childbirth but in medicine in general. She brought them medical supplies regularly to help them care for their people. 

Rex had joked that she was forming a group of rebels. He wasn’t very far off. These women—she—put their lives in danger to bring better medical care to the people of Mudden. If Devon or his father Kemp found out, they would surely be hung.

But despite the good she knew she was doing, she put her head in the sand when it came to the kidnappings. She had to be civil to Devon and recruiters like Harold, and she could only do that by not thinking too hard about what they were doing. She couldn’t stop them, so what else could she do?

But this? Kidnapping a woman. That was taking things too far. She couldn’t do it. And yet, if she didn’t, there would be trouble. 

They found Price already inside the ship. The Star Companion was a one-man spacecraft with few living spaces. Somehow the three of them made it work. Elizabeth and Rex shared the small captain’s cabin, while Price slept on the pullout couch in the narrow hallway that doubled as a kitchen. Price sat on the couch, drinking a hot beverage when they entered and told him about Harold’s problem.

“Is there any way we can get out of this?” Price asked.

“And watch Harold hang?” Rex’s voice was more somber than usual.

“Better Harold than an innocent woman,” Elizabeth countered. But despite the venom in her voice, she also didn’t want to be responsible for someone’s death, not if she could have prevented it.

Her comm flashed. It was the file Harold had promised.

The first document in the file was a picture. She stared at the smiling face of a twenty-something woman with curly dark hair and a mischievous glint in her eyes.

The caption under the picture proclaimed her name to be Isabela Dominguez. The next document said she was a twenty-four year old mechanic working at a Fartech shipyard in orbit of New Terra. She had no family—like all Mudden kidnap victims.

Elizabeth shared the file with Rex and Price.

The last document described her match, Oran from the Baedden clan.

“Do you know this Oran?” she asked.

Both men shook their heads.

“Baedden is a relatively small clan. I’ve never been there.” Rex’s eyes shimmered behind his holo-display.

 “It says here that he is a candidate for the Baedden clan council and that his chances will be higher with a match.”

“That’s common for a lot of those smaller clans,” Price said. “Men who are matched are granted higher status and power. What do we do?”

“Talk to her.” Rex crossed his arms over his chest.

“Talk to her? About what?” Elizabeth didn’t like where this was going. Rex wasn’t right out refusing to do this like she’d thought. 

She didn’t know why she assumed he’d agree with her. Rex was the one who’d brought her to Mudden. But he hadn’t known at the time that it was supposed to be permanent. He’d thought she’d be back home in three months. Though he’d later admitted that he should have known better; no women were allowed to leave Mudden. It had been wishful thinking on his part that they would make an exception for her.

“We’re not doing this, Rex,” Elizabeth said, a heavy feeling in her heart.

She could ignore Kemp and Devon’s bad deeds if it meant keeping the life she wanted, but she could never ignore that the man lying in bed next to her every night was a kidnapper. The thought of losing Rex made unwanted tears glisten in her eyes. He couldn’t do this. He just couldn’t.

“A lot of the women taken to Mudden are in bad situations. If we talk to her, we might find that she wouldn’t mind leaving her current life behind.”

“Only if you’re willing to tell her the whole truth and let her decide for herself.” She didn’t say that he hadn’t done that with her. That wouldn’t be fair. Rex himself hadn’t known the whole truth. “We can’t just offer to settle her debts and bring her with us under false pretenses.”

Rex’s eyes darkened, and she knew he was thinking about what he’d done to Elizabeth too. It was a topic they didn’t like to talk about. He’d inadvertently—or maybe even recklessly—taken away her entire life. And though in the end, he’d offered to take her back, and she was the one who’d chosen a life with Rex over her old life as a successful doctor on her home planet of Harcan, it was still this thing between them.

She loved Rex, and she didn’t want to lose him, but every once in a while she also couldn’t help blaming him. 

Rex looked down at the ground as if he felt the hand squeezing at her heart as surely as she did. “You decide,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “We’ll do whatever you choose.”

The fist around her heart loosened, and she felt like she could breathe again. “Thank you.” Not that she had any idea what to do.

“I still think we should talk to her. It doesn’t mean we have to do anything. But it’s a place to start.” Rex, worry on his face, looked back at her.

Elizabeth wasn’t sure what talking to the woman would accomplish, but she didn’t know what else to do.

“Fine.”

Price coughed, looking from one to the other nervously. “What do I do?”

“You go see Helga,” Rex said. “We need to sell that painting as soon as possible.”

***********

Rex found out from a contact on Caspa station that Isabela was scheduled to arrive on a passenger ship coming from New Terra in a couple of hours. Elizabeth and Rex made their way to the public docks, which were on the opposite side of the station.

The silence between them felt heavy with things unsaid. The flirty ease they’d shared just hours earlier was gone. She could tell from the stiff set of Rex’s jaw that he was upset. She just wasn’t sure why. Did he disagree with her decision not to kidnap Isabela? Or was he thinking of her accusations?

They arrived at the terminal before the passenger ship. A few people sat on benches in front of the gate, no doubt waiting, like them, for some passenger to arrive. Rex found an isolated spot to lean against a wall with his arms crossed, looking as unfriendly as possible.

“Talk to me,” Elizabeth whispered, taking position directly in front of him.

He looked back at her, silent for what felt like an eternity, and his eyes searched hers.

“At some point you’re going to have to forgive me,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. “Or…” His eyes dropped with his voice.

Or what? Their relationship would never work out?

There was that fist around her heart again.

“I have forgiven you,” she said. But her voice came out all squeaky and unsure, and Rex raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s just hard when this is our life. Doing your government’s dirty work.”

“You’re free to leave anytime.” The harsh tone of his voice felt like a knife to her heart. “You know that you’ve always been free to leave and go back to Harcan.”

He knew very well why she couldn’t leave. Him. 

“Would you come with me?” she asked, more sarcastic than serious. They’d had this conversation before.

The pain in his eyes made her regret her harsh tone. He worried what Devon would do to his family if he disappeared. And had good reason to worry. His mother was getting older, and his brother had five little boys and a nice wife who depended on him, and depended on Rex’s income from Devon.

She didn’t blame Rex for not leaving, but she was struggling with their choice of lifestyle nonetheless. 

But there was no other way around it. In the end, if she couldn’t live this life anymore, leaving Rex might be the only solution. Those damn tears threatened to fall again. She closed her eyes, trying to regain control over her emotions.

“I know you feel guilty, but you’re doing good things, Elizabeth. How many women on Mudden would have lost their lives if it wasn’t for your training and the medication you bring them. The mortality rate from childbirth has gone down since you first came to Mudden. Because of you.”

She opened her eyes, daring to make eye contact, and finding love and admiration looking back at her.

“Would you feel less guilty going back to Harcan? Knowing that you’ve saved more lives in the five years since you came to Mudden than you did ten years working on Harcan. Someone else at that hospital has already replaced you and is doing as good a job. But if you leave, no one on Mudden can take your place.”

The tears did fall this time, but not from a feeling of loss, rather from a feeling of belonging. Maybe Rex was right. Maybe he wasn’t the only thing keeping her there. She felt a sense of duty, a need to help. Rex was the cherry on top, not the anchor dragging her down.

“You really think I’m making enough of a difference?”

“Yes. But you’re not alone. I’ll follow you in whatever schemes you want for as long as you protect the Mudden people.”

“Really? Anything I want?”

“Sure. I’ll be the leader of your rebellion.”

Rebellion?

She liked the idea.

She smiled.

Suddenly Rex grabbed the front of her suit and pulled her toward him. She fell forward, her lips landing against his. He kissed her with a fierce possessiveness that chased away the anguish she’d been feeling and replaced it with love and belonging.

“You’re kissing me in public,” she said, when he pulled his mouth away, though he held her firmly against his chest. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him back.

“I’ll grope you in public too if it’s what it takes to make you stay with me.”

A small laugh escaped her lips as she tightened her grip on him. 

When she finally pulled away from his embrace, she slipped her hand into his. He didn’t push her away this time, instead wrapping his fingers tightly around hers, like he thought he could keep her there just by holding on tighter.

They waited in silence while Elizabeth’s brain whirled a hundred miles an hour. Rex was right. Rather than feeling bad for working for Devon, she should focus her energy on figuring out what more she could do to help the people, especially women, on Mudden.

And if she came to the conclusion that she was needed there, and that it was her choice to stay, then maybe she could finally really forgive Rex and move past this blimp in their relationship.

She recognized Isabela the moment she walked into the station. That curly hair of hers was unmistakable. 

They’d agreed Elizabeth would speak to her alone. Rex had a tendency to scare people who saw him for the first time. It was partly his size, partly the nasty scar that spanned the length of his face, which he refused to get rid of, but mostly it was his gruff disposition.

Elizabeth walked out in front of Isabela, looking around her as if lost. 

“Excuse me,” she called out to the woman. “Do you know where platform C is?”

Isabela smiled nervously, like she wasn’t all that eager to talk to a stranger. “No. Sorry. I just got here.”

“Is this your first time on Caspa, too?”

“Yes.” Isabela turned away as if to leave the conversation, but Elizabeth kept pace with her.

“Are you visiting someone?”

“No,” she said, looking around like she wished someone would come and save her. 

Elizabeth didn’t blame her, it was well known that Caspa was full of opportunists who took advantage of tourists. Only a few meters away from them, she could see a merchant hassling an old lady to buy nutrition bars from him.

“The cheapest you will find on all the stations,” he was yelling after her.

Elizabeth looked away, focusing on Isabela. “Are you on vacation?”

“No.” Isabela turned to face her, a look of frustration on her face. “I’m here looking for work. I was in a bad situation before. I heard that mechanics are in high demand on Caspa, so I came here. I’m searching for freedom. You know?”

Freedom.

“Yes,” Elizabeth said, more sure than ever about her decision. “Good luck!”

“Thanks.” Isabela turned and walked away.

Elizabeth let her go and returned to Rex, who still stood in the same spot, watching her.

“We’re not kidnapping her!” She glared at him and dared him to argue. She wasn’t backing down.

He bent his head. “Good.” 

Then he reached out to her, pulled her to his chest, and hugged her again.

***********

“We could tell Kemp that Isabela never arrived on Caspa. It’s not like he could check it out himself.”

“He could send someone else to check,” Rex said, his voice neutral. “But you’re right that it’s not likely.”

The question was, could they risk their duplicity being discovered with such an obvious lie?

“Price,” Rex said, grabbing her arm to make her stop walking. The holo-display of his comm activated, and his eyes unfocused.

“He can’t find Helga. He says her place was trashed.”

Worry twisted Elizabeth’s gut. Helga had become a friendly acquaintance over the years. She was the one who resold the items they stole from Devon. Because they needed to give Devon all the original certificates and receipts of purchase for his art, they couldn’t resell it legally. Besides, they worried that if the art resurfaced, Devon could find out that his were fakes. So they used Helga. She resold the original artwork as stolen to clients who paid a reduced price and didn’t advertise their new ownership. It was a perfect solution. It meant that they usually only pocketed half of the money that Devon paid for the painting, but even half bought plenty of medical supplies.

Helga was a bit of a shady character, but Elizabeth liked her cynical approach to life. And she also liked that they could have open conversations without fear that the other one would get too personal. There was a silent understanding between them that they could keep their true identities secret.

They hurried to Helga’s “house.” 

Because of a sudden growth in population, Caspa station hadn’t been able to keep up with the increased need for housing. Some of the refugees had claimed large empty corridors and put up makeshift houses for themselves that after ten years had become a permanent part of Caspa’s architecture.

Helga’s own lodgings were made from repurposed metal sheets erected to form walls and some fabric covering on top to make a roof. It looked like it could fall down at any moment but had, in fact, remained upright for more than seven years, according to Helga.

Price waited for them inside. He hadn’t been exaggerating. Every piece of furniture had been turned upside down. And everything else lay on the floor of the single room in one giant heap.

“Who could have done this?” Price asked.

Elizabeth feared the worse. Most of Helga’s contacts were criminals. Any one of them could have done this.

“Is there any chance the Caspa station police got to her?” Elizabeth asked, without much conviction.

“It’s not like them to completely destroy a crime scene.” Rex had had to deal with the station police a few times in all his years passing through Caspa. He even had a few contacts there.

“Can you ask them?” Elizabeth stepped over a pile of clothes, moving them around with her shoe, in case anything of value lay underneath.

“Not without implicating myself.”

“Is there any clue as to where she could have gone?” Elizabeth asked Price.

“I think the evidence suggests she was taken.” He indicated the mess around him.

“If she was taken, they wouldn’t need to trash her place.”

“Maybe she fought them.”

Elizabeth shook her head. The way everything was turned upside down suggested they’d been searching for something.

“I sent her a message,” Rex said. “I told her that if she’s in trouble, we have a ship and can help her.”

Elizabeth smiled gratefully at him. 

They searched the room but found nothing of interest.

They had nothing else to do but return to the Star Companion. Rex and Price searched for other potential buyers on Caspa. They needed that money or Elizabeth wouldn’t be able to pay for all the medical supplies she’d ordered. People were relying on her to get those needed supplies to Mudden. She hated letting them down. 

Elizabeth was sifting through the ship’s storage for anything else they might sell if they couldn’t offload the painting. 

She was searching through a box of replacement ship parts when Rex ran toward her down the narrow corridor.

“Helga made contact.”

“Is she alright?”

“I don’t know. She said she’s hiding in a hotel. She needs help leaving the station.”

Elizabeth stood up. “Let’s go.”

She moved forward to get to the ship’s exit, but Rex didn’t budge, his large frame blocking her way.

“You should stay,” he said, his voice carefully even.

She made a face at him. She wasn’t going to argue about this.

Rex sighed, reached behind him, pulled a stun gun out of his belt, and handed it to her.

She smiled at him. He’d obviously known she wouldn’t want to stay behind and had come prepared.

“You’ll let Price and I take the lead?”

“Of course. If someone attacks, I won’t help. I’ll just hide behind you.” 

She said it as a joke, but Rex had a serious look on his face and said, “Good.”

She wasn’t going to pretend that she was near as good as Rex in a fight, but he’d taught her self-defense, and she wasn’t useless either.

***********

They found Helga in a hotel room, like she’d said, looking disheveled but otherwise unharmed.

“Did you all have to come? You’re not exactly inconspicuous.” She looked Rex up and down in particular.

“You said you were in trouble.” The small room felt crowded with the four of them. Elizabeth walked to the other side of the bed and sat down on the windowsill, trying not to look too uncomfortable by the fact that there was nothing but empty space behind that glass. It didn’t matter how much traveling she did on Rex’s ship, she was a planet girl. 

“I am.” Helga sat down on the bed. “I need a ride off of Caspa. You said you have a ship, right?”

“Yes. We do.” Price’s mouth curved into a flirtatious smile, and Elizabeth was surprised to see Helga smiling back. Had she missed something there?

Rex frowned.

“I’ll pay you,” Helga added. 

Would her payment be enough to get at least some of the medical supplies?

“Where do you want to go?” Elizabeth asked. She wanted to help her, but she also wanted to know what they would be getting themselves into before making any promises.

“Anywhere in uncivilized space.”

“Why?” Rex asked.

Helga hesitated. “One of the collectors of stolen art discovered that one of the paintings I sold him was a fake. He wants his money back plus interest. But it was a lot of money. And I never had it in the first place. I’m just the intermediary.”

“Who sold you the painting?”

“I thought I knew, but she disappeared. Whoever she was, she conned me—and Mark Winslow.”

“Mark Winslow?” Elizabeth gapped. “As in the CEO of Fartech.”

“Yes. Except he never met this woman and blames me entirely.”

“The CEO of Fartech buys stolen art?” Elizabeth had a hard time believing it. “He has all the money in the world, why doesn’t he just buy it legitimately?”

Helga shrugged. “It’s more exciting this way, I guess.”

“So you have to come up with the money to pay Mark?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah. Except that will never happen. The piece I sold him was too expensive, I’ll never make enough money to pay him back. And now, he’s sent assassins after me. I think he knows I don’t have the money and wants to make an example of me. To show others that no one crosses him. He wants my head.”

Elizabeth shook her own head. It didn’t make sense. The CEO of Fartech wasn’t the kind of person to send assassins. She didn’t know him personally, of course, but he was a well respected businessman—and scientist.

“Will you help me?” Helga looked at Rex this time.

“There aren’t a lot of places in the system that Fartech can’t reach.”

Although Rex sounded grim, he hadn’t said no either, and Helga looked a smidgen relieved.

Suddenly, the door burst open. Elizabeth barely had time to drop to the floor before laser fire flew over her head and hit the glass window behind her. 

What kind of lunatic uses laser fire on a space station? was the first thought to cross her mind as she kissed the carpet under her.

She looked up in time to see Rex shoot his stun gun, but he missed and the guy ran back out into the hall. Rex ran to the door but remained inside, peeking out.

Price, who had thrown himself protectively over Helga, ran to Rex. “Who was that?”

“An assassin,” Helga said. “They’ve been coming after me all day.”

Rex turned his troubled gaze toward Elizabeth. “Come. Stay behind me.”

She got up, nodding. As her heart beat against her chest, she felt a surge of excitement that made her almost giddy.

She followed his instructions and stood behind him as he looked out into the hallway. “Price, you keep Helga safe.”

Price nodded, a determined expression on his face, and Helga stood behind him.

“One, two, three,” Rex whispered.

Rex and Price stepped out into the hallway at the same time, each pointing their weapon in opposite directions.

When Rex gave the hand signal, Elizabeth and Helga followed, staying between the two men.

“This way.” Rex led the way in the opposite direction from which the attacker had gone.

 They reached the end of the hallway where the elevators were located.

“Incoming,” Price called. 

The attacker was back, and he’d brought a friend. The two started shooting. Rex pushed Elizabeth behind a plastic fern, squatted down, and shot back. One of the attackers shook from the stun attack and fell to the floor like a brick.

The other cussed and retreated again.

“Go,” Rex said to Price, pointing at the elevators. “I’ll cover you.”

Price nodded, grabbed Helga by the wrist, and ran through the opening doors.

Rex looked at Elizabeth too, but she stood her ground. He didn’t say anything, probably debating with himself whether it was safer to send her away or keep her with him.

“I’m hiding behind you,” she said to make it clear which she preferred.

He bent his head once in agreement. Price told the elevator to take them to the third floor, probably thinking they would be safer taking the stairs from there rather than going straight to the lobby.

The hotels on Caspa were built along the central pillar of the station with hundreds of levels each.

Rex grabbed Elizabeth’s hand and ran back through the still open bedroom door. They hid against the wall and waited.

The attacker walked by a few minutes later, this time with two new helpers.

“Stay here,” Rex mouthed to her.

Before she could comment on the lunacy of fighting alone against three armed thugs, Rex stepped out into the hallway and shot one of the thugs in the back. The other two turned toward Rex, weapons firing.

Elizabeth held her breath when he ducked back into the room, the shots narrowly missing the side of his head. He waited while laser fire shot incessantly down the hall. Elizabeth wondered if their weapons would overheat.

The moment the firring stopped, Rex sprung out, aiming and shooting his stun gun. Elizabeth heard another body hit the ground. Suddenly, Rex rushed forward. Elizabeth stuck her head out in time to see Rex kicking the thug in the chest, sending him flying back and causing him to lose his grip on his laser pistol. Rex placed his large boot on the man’s solar plexus.

“Who sent you?” he asked.

The thug spit, which didn’t go very high since he was lying on his back and probably didn’t have the effect he’d hoped for, especially when it fell back down and landed on his own shoulder.

“You know what?” Rex said in a bored voice. “I don’t care.”

He stepped back a meter and shot just as the guy jumped to his feet.

Elizabeth tried not to look too lovestruck as Rex gave her his self-satisfied smirk. He had enough ego as it was.

“Grab their weapons,” he said, leaning down to pick up the man’s discarded pistol.

“You think we can sell them to pay for the medical supplies?”

Rex gave her a puzzled look. “I was going to add them to my collection.”

She rolled her eyes as she grabbed the other two pistols and slipped them into one of the large side pockets of her suit.

They heard shouting toward the elevators.

“What now?” Elizabeth groaned.

“Come.” Rex grabbed her arm and pulled her down the hall at top speed. He found the emergency stairwell and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Elizabeth had to scramble just to keep up with him and not fall flat on her face.

***********

Unfortunately, their footsteps were anything but quiet as they made their way up. When they heard the door bellow them open, Rex opened the next door and pulled Elizabeth out in front of him. She nearly ran into an older woman pulling an anti-grav suitcase.

“Watch it,” the woman said, scowling.

“Sorry.” Elizabeth didn’t have time to do more than smile apologetically as Rex pulled her along again.

“Let’s take the elevator,” he said loudly.

As soon as they were out of sight of the old woman, he found a supply closet and shoved Elizabeth inside, stepping in behind her.

He closed the door carefully. There was barely enough room for the two of them, and Rex pressed into her backside, pushing her chest into a box of what smelled like cleaning supplies. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back against him.

“If I were alone, I’d confront them,” he said, sounding irritated.

“But since I’m with you…”

“We’ll hide.”

“Not exactly a great hiding place.” She couldn’t see anything in the dark.

“There are two hundred floors in this building, they can’t possibly check every supply closet.” Elizabeth hoped he was right.

They heard shouts out in the hallway, then footsteps stomping closer and closer.

Then they heard the old woman’s voice saying, “…elevator.”

Elizabeth’s heart banged against her chest. “Do you—”

Rex put his hand over her mouth. The shouting outside was getting louder. She suddenly became very aware of Rex’s hard body behind her as adrenaline flooded her system.

She pushed her ass back against Rex, smiling against his hand when he groaned and tightened the arm around her waist. 

The noise started to die down, getting further and further away.

“Is this turning you on?” Rex loosened the hand over her mouth but didn’t remove it. She stuck her tongue out and licked him. “They could find us at any time.”

She nodded, her pulse drummed in her ears and in more sensitive locations. She bit down on his finger. She’d meant it to be a love bite, but got a bit carried away.

He growled, as if trying to restrain himself and not make a sound, and moved his hand away. “Elizabeth!”

There was no sexier sound in the world than Rex saying her name.

“Remember the first time we were stuck in a closet together?” she asked.

They’d only known each other a few weeks then. They’d been hiding from a mob intent on finding her. She’d asked him to kiss her but he’d refused, saying he wasn’t allowed to kiss a woman he wasn’t married to. She hadn’t believed him and suffered one of the worst embarrassments of her life.

“I remember. I spent a lot of time afterward thinking about what I should have done differently.”

He’d told her this before but she didn’t mind playing along.

“What would you have done?”

He dropped his mouth to her ear. “Kissed you for sure. Maybe more.” His lips spread into a smile against her neck.

“What more?” she whispered, butterflies filling her belly with anticipation.

“If only you were wearing a dress, I could show you.”

She snorted. Whenever they left Mudden, she liked to wear her Harcan jumpsuits. The jumpsuits were standard fashion on Harcan, where the strong winds got into any opening they found.

She liked wearing her suits. They were comforting. They made her feel normal again.

Rex much preferred the dresses that women wore on Mudden, but she couldn’t wear those in space without standing out like a sore thumb. Besides, it was what the dresses represented that bothered her most. They represented a life of confinement for the women brought to Mudden. 

Anyway, Rex was only teasing. He’d seen her naked. He didn’t really care what she wore.

She unlatched the clip at the neckline that kept the suit hermetically sealed, and it came open all along the front, letting in the cool recycled air of the station. The suit had a built-in support system which meant that she didn’t need to wear a bra. Her breasts jumped as they came out of their restraints.

“Show me,” she said.

Rex chuckled and shook his head, but did as she asked, sliding the hand already around her waist inside the suit, to lay flat on her naked belly. He grazed up her torso with the palm of his hand, cupping gently when he reached the underside of her breast.

“I’d have massaged you over the dress at first.” He massaged gently as he spoke. Not in the self-assured way he’d touched her earlier behind the boxes of crates, but tentatively as if it really was his first time touching her. “Then as the kiss intensified, I’d have pulled your top down and touched you skin to skin.” 

He gently circled her nipple with his thumb.

“Rex,” she whispered.

“Then, if you seemed amenable, I’d put your breast in my mouth.”

He rolled her nipple between his thumb and index finger. She shivered. “I’m very amenable.” Of course, he couldn’t do what he said from his position behind her. “What next?”

Rex’s chest vibrated against her back as he laughed.

“I’d lift up your skirt.” He dragged his other hand up her leg, the fabric of her jumpsuit bunching up. When he reached her hip, he lowered it again, this time in the front, reaching down to cup her mound and rub his fingertips against the underside of her pants. Her inner walls clenched.

“Still amenable?”

“Yes.” Her voice shook embarrassingly with need.

“Then I’d slide my hand inside your underwear.”

She leaned her head back on his shoulder, enjoying the feel of his fingers sliding inside the top of her underwear, and dragging against her folds. She opened her legs wider. As needy as she was, he had no trouble sliding two large fingers inside her, squeezing her clit between them.

 “That’s definitely what you should have done.”

He moved his fingers out and back in pushing deeper. “I’m here now, Elizabeth.”

She grabbed onto his forearm, turning her head to kiss his neck.

“If only you were wearing that dress, I could do so much more.” 

He pressed his hips into her ass, his erection leaving nothing to the imagination.

Elizabeth wasn’t going to let a layer of fabric stop them. She removed the arms of her jumpsuit and wriggled it down past her hips. Rex pushed her underwear down, and she leaned forward. Using his fingers to spread her open, he entered her from behind.

She loved the feeling of Rex entering her, making her complete. He moved in and out of her, the palm of his hand still pressed against her most sensitive part. He increased his speed, keeping her locked in place with his fingers as he moved almost completely out and slammed back in.

A yell escaped her lips. 

“Shhh.” Rex removed the hand still massaging her breast and placed it over her mouth like before, never slowing down his movements.

He took her hard, using his fingers to tease her.

With his fingers inside her in front and his cock hammering into her from behind, Elizabeth felt full, complete, his. The anguish that pained her heart from their earlier fight melted away. 

His. Completely. Forever. 

A few more hard strokes, a press of his fingers over her clit, and she came undone, glad for Rex’s hand still over her mouth muffling her cries, because she certainly had no self-control when it came to this. When it came to Rex.

Rex came with a moan, pressing his mouth against her neck to dampen the sound.

Staying inside her, Rex wrapped his arms around her. “I love you.”

She laughed, leaning her head back against his shoulder. “Sure, you say that now that I’m naked.”

He took those words as an invitation to cup her breasts again. “Well, I sure wasn’t going to say it when you were in the jumpsuit.”

She elbowed him in the ribs.

“I take back what I said before.” His voice suddenly turned serious. “You can’t leave…I mean…of course, you are free to do whatever you want, but…I don’t want you to.”

“Rex—”

“I wouldn’t physically stop you if you wanted to go back to Harcan, but I would beg you to stay.”

“Beg? You?”

He smiled against her neck. “Yes. I would also arrange for you to get attacked on a regular basis so we could hide and have sex in every closet on Mudden.”

“Sounds fun.”

“I’m very fun.”

Elizabeth couldn’t restrain the laugh that escaped her lips. She couldn’t imagine that many people associated the word fun with Rex. But she did find him fun. And she wanted him now after five years more than she ever had.

She twisted her head back to kiss him. “I’m going wherever you are.”

He let out a breath of relief. “Good.”

“I love you, too.”

***********

They met up with Price and Helga back at the ship.

“Did anyone see you come aboard?” Rex asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“We came back to the ship during the fueling rush. There were so many people around, I doubt anyone noticed her.” Price ran his hand through his hair nervously.

“What now?” Helga asked.

“We have to leave,” Rex said. “Before anyone finds out we were the ones involved in that incident at the hotel. That hallway had cameras.”

“But what do we do about Helga?” Elizabeth asked. “It’s not like we can keep her hidden. We’ll have to report her as a passenger when we leave Caspa.”

Caspa followed strict immigration rules. They used heat sensors to see how many people were on board arriving and departing ships. Even though the people living on Caspa liked to consider themselves rebels when it came to technology, they didn’t want the station to become a hub for illegal activities.

“Vivian could probably help us out there.” Rex folded his arms over his chest.

Vivian was Rex’s ex-girlfriend and not all that friendly since the breakup, but she was favorable to bribes.

“That doesn’t solve the problem of where to take Helga,” Elizabeth said. “We can’t afford to take too long of a detour. We have to be back in twenty days.”

“Anywhere within ten days of Caspa is fully under Fartech’s control,” Helga complained.

“And anywhere that isn’t, you don’t want to visit on your own,” Rex said, his voice hard.

“Mark will find me wherever I go.” Helga buried her face in her hands, her long dark hair falling forward to cover her face.

Long dark hair…

A crazy idea came to Elizabeth. 

No. Helga would never agree. And yet, she had no other choice.

“How do you feel about perming your hair?” she asked.

“My hair?” 

“What do you have in mind?” Rex asked.

“With curly hair, Helga could pass for Isabela, especially to someone who had never met her.”

“Pass where?”

“On Mudden.”

Rex scowled and Price gasped. 

They weren’t ever allowed to mention Mudden in front of strangers, but she needed to in this case. She didn’t want to blindside Helga the way she had been. She would only do this if Helga agreed of her own free will, knowing all the facts.

“Mudden?” Helga asked.

Elizabeth told Helga the whole story while Rex and Price looked about to jump on her and shut her up at any time. But Rex had said he would stand by her side, so she gave him a firm look and kept talking.

“You want me to go to Mudden and marry a stranger?”

Elizabeth sent Helga the file that Harold had sent her.

“His name is Oran.”

“He’s cute,” Helga said, her eyes unfocussed behind the sheen of the holo-display. “Are all you Mudden men built that way?”

“Pretty much. It comes from working in the mines from age thirteen. Except for Rex. He works out. He likes to keep a certain image.” Elizabeth winked at Rex, who still looked like he wanted to scold her. 

“Mines?” Helga shook her head. “This is crazy. Can I leave if I don’t like it.”

“No.” Rex answered, that was the worst part of the deal. Elizabeth enjoyed a certain privilege because she’d saved the life of Devon’s wife and sons, and because she couldn’t have children. But no other women on Mudden were ever allowed to leave. If Helga went, it would be forever.

“She could marry me instead,” Price said, a childish hopeful smile on his face.

“And how would we do that?” Elizabeth asked. “Oran was already matched. He may already know by now. He’s waiting for Isabela. The only option on the table is passing Helga for Isabela.”

Helga bit down on her lower lip. “And you’re sure Mark can’t get to me there?”

“No one is allowed on Mudden. All unauthorized ships are told to leave or suffer consequences. I don’t see how he could reach you. I doubt it would be worth the trouble of creating an interplanetary conflict.”

“It’s this or we leave you to fare for yourself at the next station on our way to Mudden.”

“Is this Oran nice, at least?”

“We don’t know him,” Elizabeth answered. “But if you think he might be interested in joining a rebel group, you’ll let me know.”

“Rebel?” Rex asked.

“It’s an idea I had. I’ll fill you in later. What do you say?”

Helga took a deep breath in, then out. “Do you know how to perm hair?”

Elizabeth spent the next hour doing Helga’s hair while Price picked up as many medical supplies as he could with the last of Helga’s money. They’d paid Vivian off to pretend there were only three people on the ship instead of four.

Once on their way, Elizabeth left Price and Helga alone in the cockpit to look for Rex. He was in the cargo bay, exercising in his underwear. Elizabeth spent a few minutes just watching him before asking if he wanted to talk.

“It’s a dangerous plan,” he said, wiping himself down with a towel.

“But also ingenious, right?” She gave him a smile as cocky as one of his.

He smiled.

“Isabel and Helga are both safe. Harold doesn’t get hung. We don’t have to come up with an excuse for why we didn’t bring back Isabela. And Oran gets a wife. Win-win-win-win-win.”

“But she’s not his match,” Rex said. “What if they don’t get along.”

“Please, that algorithm is wrong as often as it is right.”

Rex knew that very well. His father had been terrible to his mother.

“In fact, I’ve been doing some thinking. I want to ask Devon to make me a recruiter.”

Rex sat down on the bench he’d been using to lift weights. “You want to be a recruiter? You want to kidnap women for a living?”

“As a doctor and a woman, I’m really a perfect candidate. I can get closer to women and find out more information about them than a man from Mudden.”

Rex raised an eyebrow at the insinuation. Alright, he was a man from Mudden and he’d managed just fine to get her. But it didn’t diminish her point.

“You couldn’t even kidnap Isabela,” Rex protested. “Besides, why?”

“I was in a position to save Isabela so I took it. But I can bury my head in the sand all I want, it doesn’t change the fact that women are being kidnapped. If I were the one recruiting them, I might be able to make a difference at least.”

“How? Kemp won’t let you get away with taking less women.”

“No. But I could choose which women. I could focus on women like Helga, who need to escape. And I was thinking about what you said too, about men having more power when they’re matched. I could indirectly pick which men get power, and favor the ones that support our cause.”

“I don’t know how much control you’d have. You’d have to follow the algorithm.”

“I don’t know either, but I’d like to try. And, most importantly, I could bring the women we need. Midwives, doctors, scientists, I would choose who comes to Mudden.”

“To what end? What’s our ‘cause?’”

“Getting rid of Kemp and Devon. Ending the kidnappings.”

“That’s dangerous.”

“And ambitious.”

Rex’s brows drew together as he considered her proposal.

“Will you support me?”

He grabbed her hand and settled her onto his lap. “I already said I would.”

“You’ll help me?”

“Yes.” He leaned in to kiss her neck.

“Do you think it can be done?”

“Anything you put your mind to can be done, Elizabeth.”

Goosebumps formed along her forearms. Rex really had that kind of faith in her.

“So what do you say?”

He didn’t seem to know what to say as he stared at the ground in front of him.

“Are you with me?” she insisted. She needed him by her side.

This time he smiled, that crooked self-satisfied smile of his. “Forever.”