As We Rise: Rogue (As We Rise Saga Book 1) Read online

  From the corner, Sky tapped at her UAB impatiently indicating that Jo needed to speed things up. At least someone was keeping track of her schedule. Mentally shaking off Rana’s words, Jo rolled her shoulders in attempts to ease some of the tension that settled at the base of her neck. There was nothing to gain by arguing, and by the way Rana’s posture had softened, her observation of Jo’s psyche helped relax her into trusting them.

  “I feel like I should warn you. These files are graphic.”

  “I can handle it.”

  Jo shrugged and swiped the first picture on the display. To Rana’s credit, she didn’t flinch at the swollen purple bodies tangled together in the first crate.

  “That looks like Mac Reed, Sarai Taglia, and Ulvia Quade of the export corporation. They are mid-level executives, but are all backup seats for the Consulate’s parliament.”

  Jo switched from one picture to the other, pausing for Rana’s brief explanation. Each passing photograph was another stone added to Jo’s stomach, and when she swept the final image from the screen, Jo felt weighed down and nauseous.

  “They’re all replacements for the parliament,” Jo stated. Rana sat resolutely still, but her face blanched. A knot formed in Jo’s stomach. How could a woman wake up in a crate on a strange ship and discover that she was marked for death not visibly react until she had seen these photos?

  “How do you have knowledge of these people?” Sky asked in a flat tone, her cowl pulled low over her face. Jo had seen her interrogate people when Apollo was captain. She always hid her face to be more intimidating when questioning someone.

  “Although I am just a woman, I have had the privilege of a man’s education. My father’s other children are all older than me. Being female and perfect, they all were claimed shortly after their first moon cycle. Due to my deformity, he had all his wives sterilized to prevent another abomination. He knew that there would be no future for me as a wife, so he allowed me liberties not allowed to other women,” Rana paused to take a deep breath. Jo stole a glance at Sky, who was still hiding in her cowl, but Jo knew that her appalled expression would match her security officers. “I can see my story troubles you, but my father is a good man compared to many on the Elitian planets. He was protecting his family from being dishonored when he decreed that his wives be sterilized, and he never once spoke a derogatory word toward me. It was my mothers who took delight in insulting me. It was my faulty DNA that caused me to be born blind, the same DNA that rejected seven sets of donor eyes. So naturally, I was to blame for their forced sterilization.”

  “You cannot blame yourself for your genetics,” Jo growled. This type of assholery was why the rest of the galaxy hated the Elitians. That and their desire to conquer and kidnap people for experiments. “I’m surprised they didn’t discover the default in the womb and repair it.”

  “There was no indication of a defect, and even now my genetics cannot explain my blindness.”

  Jo couldn’t help the barking laugh that exploded from her lips. She bent at the waist and clutched her stomach. The muscles in her sides ached from years of disuse and Jo almost enjoyed the burn. Her head swam as if she’d drunk an entire bottle of Lyrian ale. She was intoxicated on absurdness of it all. It took a few deep breaths for Jo to calm down. She wiped at the corners of her eyes where small pools of unshed tears gathered and took in the shocked looks on both Rana and Sky’s face.

  “Come on. That’s hilarious!”

  “I don’t understand,” Rana stated, her brows knitted in confusion.

  “Don’t you think it’s a little bit funny that the Elitians—who are the most scientifically advanced society; who pride themselves on being the best; who worship physical perfection and strive for immortality through science—couldn’t figure out one woman’s blindness?”

  Sky chuckled from her corner of the room. “And she’s the chancellor’s daughter.”

  “I have never seen the irony before,” Rana whispered as her lips curled into a soft smile.

  Jo felt the lightness in the air, and for a moment she relaxed in the calm atmosphere. The other two women didn’t speak either, but Sky slumped against the wall, her lips tilted upward in a small grin, and the slight wrinkle that marred Rana’s forehead was smoothed as she examined her clothing. They too seemed to be enjoying the reprieve Jo’s laughter brought.

  Jo’s UAB chimed, breaking the spell. It was a report from Haedus.

  The crew has reported to their positions and, unlike me, they are well rested.

  The snarly tone in his message meant he was verging on transforming into a sleep-deprived beast.

  “I have to finish my morning duties and relieve my XO from the bridge before he starts destroying things,” Jo sighed. “We will be ejecting the crates today, and I will drop the GC officer off at the nearest military post. You’ll have some freedom soon.”

  Jo turned to leave when Sky appeared next to her, grabbing at her elbow. “One minute, Captain.”

  “Sky, I have to…”

  “This is important,” Sky whispered. Jo’s fists clenched as aggravation boiled just under the surface, but she pushed it down and with a soothing breath, relaxed her hands. Sky wouldn’t knowingly keep Jo from her duties without reason. She was a stickler for order.

  “Go ahead,” Jo grunted and leaned against the doorframe.

  Sky nodded and turned to Rana. “Can you tell me what you remember the day you were captured?”

  Jo was equal parts pissed that she didn’t think to ask that question and relieved that Sky took up Jo’s slack.

  “I was finishing lunch in my private study when I felt a small prick in my neck and all went dark.”

  “How many rotations ago was that?” Jo asked. The answer would decide their next steps.

  Rana pulled up the date on the holoscreen, “A little over one rotation.”

  Jo nodded and stared at Sky, who glowered at the floor with pinched lips.

  “What?” Rana stood suddenly and took a few steps before pulling to a stop abruptly.

  “It seems you were drugged during our meeting with Eltanin. Either he doesn’t know you were added to the shipment, or he waited until the final moments before taking you. The latter makes the most sense, since he would have been privy to the contents of the other crates as one of the board members of the military corporation, and if what you tell us is true about your father, taking you would cause quite a stir. Don’t you think?”

  Rana nodded. “So they waited till the last possible moment to capture me. It’s quite brilliant a scheme. My schedule is independent from my father’s, and it could take weeks for them to notice my absence.”

  “It seems that way,” Sky added. “Thank you for the information. I won’t be able to calculate when the word of your disappearance will get out. This situation is now even more precarious.”

  “Then we’ll have to keep our eyes open and our weapons ready.” Jo patted her blazer before turning to Rana. “Thank you for the information.”

  Jo walked out of the room and turned in the opposite direction of Sky. It was time to face the other unwelcome guest on her ship. Her insides twisted in anticipation and dread. Jo’s bone-deep desire to skip this one duty swelled within her, and she was tempted to forsake her inborn pragmatism for even the slightest reprieve from the anxiety churning inside her, but the unwelcome reaction abated as quickly as it arrived. If ignored, Raiden could bring down the entire GC fleet on the Kismet. That and she had to constantly resist the urge to throw herself at him.

  Being a responsible captain was turning out to be complicated.

  Seventeen

  When Jo arrived at Raiden’s room, the butterflies that were gently fluttering in her stomach when she left Rana swarmed in a brutal attack on her innards. She couldn’t tell if her physical reaction was because she was annoyed at Raiden’s presence on her ship or if it was a hormonal reaction to their past encounters.

  It was probably both.

  Right now, Jo needed to finish this
damned job, get the rest of her credits, and return Raiden to his command, so she could get Rana off her ship without embroiling her entire crew into some political coup. With that thought steeling her resolve, Jo swiped her wrist over the panel and stepped inside.

  She should have knocked.

  Raiden stopped mid-step with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Jo’s body shuddered with desire. She drank him in and wasn’t ashamed to linger on the way drops of water trickled along the lines of his abs down to the defined V that ended with the towel. When she finally found the strength to wrench her gaze away and connected with Raiden’s burning stare, she was almost ready to mount him, consequences be damned.

  Until his lips curled into a cocky grin. “Like what you see?”

  “If I didn’t, we wouldn’t have slept together before,” Jo replied, trying to sound unconcerned by his sinewy body glistening right in front of her. “Get dressed. We have business to discuss.”

  “Aye,” Raiden replied, his voice low and growly. Jo had to grit her teeth to stop herself. From what, she didn’t know anymore, but she was tired of not being in control of this situation.

  Just as she opened her mouth, Raiden dropped the towel. If Jo had been any other woman, she probably would have been embarrassed or at least averted her eyes, but she’d seen Raiden’s dangly bits before, and although they weren’t so dangly at the moment, this was familiar territory.

  “Nice as always, Raiden, but you summoned me here, and I don’t have time for this. I need to relieve Haedus. Should I come back later when you’re dressed and ready?” Jo stood with her arms crossed, proud that her voice didn’t shake or dip low like it did when she was fired up. Because right then she was as hot as the Lenorian Dessert on Drachonis, but nowhere near as dry.

  “No need to rush off. I’ll be ready in 5 seconds,” Raiden stated as he turned around, giving Jo a nice view of his delicious backside. Jo unabashedly stared as he slipped on his black military slacks—without undergarments. Once his pants were securely fashioned, he turned around and slipped a black fitted tee over his head. “Better?”

  Jo’s body screamed no, but with him fully covered she could finally focus on her task. “What do you need, Raiden?”

  “There are many things I need,” his voice husky and sensual. “But I know you won’t deliver unless it has something to do with this ship. Am I correct?”

  “Look, Raiden—” Jo leaned against his desk. Partly to give her wobbly legs something firm to balance against and partly to seem nonchalant. “I know what you want, but I am not on R&R, and I’m not about to lower my shields during a sensitive job with you on board, capable of bringing the entire GC armada down on my ship.” Raiden opened his mouth, but Jo swiped her hand in the air, cutting him off. “Let me finish. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. Not really. When we did speak before, it was only superficially. I have no clue where you hail from. How old you are? Do you have family? What exactly is your job? And for that matter, how in the hell did a non-Elitian become an officer? Hell, can’t you see that I cannot trust a word out of your mouth when I don’t know you?”

  “May I speak now?” Raiden asked, the cocky smirk still plastered on his face. Jo nodded in acknowledgment. “You may think you know exactly what I want, but I don’t think you could wrap your mind around what I desire from you. You’re so closed off, but I have made it my mission to get you to see that we long for the same thing.”

  Jo snorted as she held in a laugh. She didn’t know what to make of Raiden outside the bedroom, but this insightful, emotional openness wasn’t what she expected.

  Raiden’s smirk melted into a flat line as he watched Jo’s reaction. “You may think I know nothing about you, but I noticed everything when we were together and I listened—even when you weren’t speaking. You’re 20 years old and your birthday is coming soon. I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact day, but I know it will be here in roughly forty rotations. Your mom died when you were very young, and your father never got over her loss. He raised you on this ship with a mixture of criminals and vagabonds as the only family you’ve ever known. This ship and its crew mean more to you than your own life. You give them your all, even risking your limbs to save a single person from cannon fire.” Raiden paused and pointedly looked at Jo’s artificial leg.

  “You push anyone away who doesn’t prove that they are worth your time. You feel a kinship with me, which is why we always seem to find each other. The last time we were together was the only time I have seen you cry. You thought I was sleeping, but I saw and knew that your father must have died. No one deserves your tears more.” Jo had tried to keep herself from reacting to each truth he dropped, but at the mention of her father, she stiffened. Jo narrowed her eyes at Raiden. How dare he know so much about her when she thought she was being closed off?

  Either Raiden didn’t know how his words affected Jo, or he didn’t care. “That night your eyes were tender when you looked over me. Like you were memorizing everything until we met again. I know what you were doing because I do the same damn thing every time we are together.”

  Jo pushed off from the desk and turned to leave. She didn’t have to deal with this. She could be spending her time on a million other things, and none of them would leave her feeling this open and raw. Jo lifted her wrist to swipe over the lock panel but paused when Raiden spoke out again.

  “I’m from Carme in the Agrótis district of its capital. My family are grain farmers who own the entire top level in the greatest sky farm in the city. We are well respected among the laborers and the Agri-Corp representatives. Our family has been earning them credits for many generations.” Raiden paused for a moment and Jo turned around, forgetting her earlier agitation. For the first time, she was discovering something of worth about Raiden, and she wanted to know every detail he was willing to part with. “When I was 15, the medical and rejuvenation corporations came to our district and took my grandmother, two uncles, and eight distant relatives that lived on our level. Before then, I hadn’t been exposed to the cruelty of the corporations. I wanted to storm the Elitian capital and steal her back, but that night my father explained what they do with the people they take. Anger built inside me at the thought of them using my grandmother’s body for spare parts and experiments. So I left home.”

  Raiden paused again and stared at Jo, his eyes searching hers with a longing that pulled at Jo’s heart. She had the urge to give him whatever he needed to erase the ache from his expression, but she had no clue what he was looking for, or if she would be willing to give that part of her.

  With a resigned sigh, Raiden continued. “I joined the GCM shortly after. My test scores saved me from grunt work. I scored high enough to do any job available to me, but I chose Operations Analyst. As a child, I often enjoyed games with complex simulations, and my job in the military is not much different. Since my job requires certain security clearances, I had to go through officer training and was assigned an Elitian mentor to guide me until they trusted me enough to not be constantly under surveillance. It took me eight years to work up to lieutenant—a feat that is mighty impressive for a non-Elitian. Don’t you agree?”

  Jo nodded.

  “I think I answered all your questions,” Raiden stated as he slipped on his boots. Jo stared at him for a moment, a million more questions burning in her mind. She checked her UAB. They had to leave now if they wanted to eat before Jo was needed on the bridge. Although they were running behind on time, Jo couldn’t stop the question that aggravated her the most from slipping out.

  “Why did you join the military if you hated the corporations for taking your family?”

  Raiden nodded and smiled as if Jo had discovered the answer to life itself. “Why indeed, Jo?”

  Jo tried to contain her irritation at Raiden’s non-answer, but she felt her face crumple in a scowl. Just as she was starting to understand Raiden, he twisted her up again. Jo seethed as she swiped her wrist across the panel and stepped to the side. Witho
ut looking at him, she gestured for him to hurry up. As he passed, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Don’t be mad, Jo. You have to know trust is earned in both directions.”

  Raiden smiled sadly at Jo before stepping out of his room. She followed a few paces behind, her eyes trained on his back, but her thoughts were lost in a fog. Jo had never once guessed that Raiden didn’t trust her. She wasn’t the one in the employ of the Consulate, although she technically was a contracted employee until this current job was complete. Raiden wouldn’t know any of the circumstances behind her decision to accept a government contract. That thought sobered her. Was she no better than he? No, he chose his service, and for Jo, this was one job out of desperation.

  Besides, what did it matter if he trusted her or not? She didn’t care. The thought felt heavy and bitter. It wasn’t the time or place to examine her opinions on the matter, but a relentless tugging on her subconscious demanded her attention. Was there was a part of her that wanted Raiden’s trust? If so, what did that mean?

  None of this matters. Jo packed away anything that didn’t pertain to her current situation and stepped into the galley.

  Eighteen

  The galley was mostly empty except for Elek, Siaren, and Jax. After nearly two rotations of almost non-stop work, the three men were slumped over their trays with matching bruise-like marks darkening the skin under their eyes. The coloring was alarming on Jax, his pale skin enhancing the discoloration to a ghastly purple. Siaren yawned between each bite. Guilt turned Jo’s stomach.

  Her orders had put them in this state, and she hated to see them so worn down while she felt rested. Jo rushed through the line, piling on meat and bread without looking at what she was grabbing, saying a quick good morning to Chitra, and trying not to laugh at the nasty glare she threw at Raiden as he followed her through. Jo clomped over to the table where the men were sitting and threw herself into the seat next to Siaren with a grunt. Raiden sat quietly across from her, studying the others at the table.