"They got that far before. They stopped when Morley discovered them and turned back. He wasn't going to lead them directly to the artifact. His last transmission came from the top of that mountain," she said, nodding her head to the left. "Before the cave-in."

I shifted my neck and spotted the biggest mountain I had ever seen. It wasn't a place for climbing. It was a place where people died, leaving their corpses frozen for eternity.

"We have to climb that?" I whispered, turning to give Emmy a disgruntled look. She didn't say anything and just looked at me with her big brown eyes. "With Abel's men after us?"

"It will give us the motivation to move quickly."

I smiled for the first time in a long while. Emmy smiled back, and her eyes lit up. She looked fantastic.

I struggled to keep up my end of the conversation, with half of my mind thinking about how beautiful she looked when she smiled. The other half wondered if Emmy had what it took to get up the mountain.

"Definitely motivating. Er...are you sure you'll be able to manage it?" I said, knowing the question would get me in trouble before it was out of my mouth.

"I'll manage just fine. It's you I'm worried about," she said with sincerity.

The nerve of the little wench. "I hope you can keep up with me."

EMMY.

We waited until sundown to get off the spaceship. As the second sun dropped below the horizon, Ven touched my arm, making me jump.

"It looks like there's no one around anymore. Darkness will give us the cover we need to get away. If there's still someone out there guarding the shuttle, we'll have to deal with them. We're not going to get a better chance."

"One more thing," I added. "We can't let them get a head start. If we get onto the mountain ahead of them, we'll be able to move faster because there are only two of us."

"Right. Keep alert." Ven pulled out his gun. He set it to the highest stun setting before lethal. It made me feel nervous and safe at the same time. I was still trying to come to grips with the fact that Ven might be a very dangerous person. He had said he was ex-military. Even if he was bad at his job, he had a lot of training on how to kill people.

I suspected Ven had been an excellent soldier. Once he informed me about his background, I sensed a subtle change in his demeanor. He had given himself permission to act naturally again. When I first met him, I thought he was one of the most mild-mannered guys I had ever seen. Now there was a glint in his eye of pure steel. His face was a mask of concentration.

I knew he could protect me, but I wasn't sure I could do the same for him. If anything happened to him because he helped me, I would never forgive myself.

I followed Ven down a ramp onto the ground and looked around. There was nobody here. At the other end of the spaceport's broad landing pad, there was some activity. A new shuttle was landing. But in our area, the spaceships were all shut down. Their lights were off. Maybe they were left there for the night, or we were in long-term parking. I had no idea.

Jogging lightly across the lot, Ven and I kept to the shadows. As we approached the building, Ven called for a stop on the outside of the circle of lights, giving him a chance to observe the entrance. Heralla was a low-technology planet and had inadequate security. It didn't have people or credits, but it was creating a name for itself as a vacation destination. With its rugged landscape and low population density, it was perfect for people who wanted to get away from urban living.

Even though Heralla had established itself as a wilderness environment, that didn't mean there weren't people here. They congregated in one place, the capital city. It had a population of over seventy million inhabitants, with plenty of culture and interesting things to do.

I had done a lot of research on this planet.

Other than the one city, the rest of the planet held only small towns and vast tracts of wild areas. The last time I was here, I contracted an illness that sent me home. It took me a long time to recover, but I came away with immunity to the disease.

I started making a list in my head of what we needed to do. First, we had to get into the city. That shouldn't be difficult. It was only a twenty-minute hovercraft ride away. After we reached the city, our destination was City Hall, the oldest building on the planet. I hoped to find more information about the Stone Goddess before heading up the mountain.

Morley had given me bits and pieces of information when I talked to him, but he had been too paranoid to send everything at once. He thought Abel's men might be monitoring our conversations. It didn't matter how many layers of encryption he added to our transmissions. He was always worried. He believed if one mind could figure out how to tangle something, another mind could learn how to untangle it.

He gave me all the clues he had, but I would have to figure out a good deal of it by myself. Morley preferred to leave secrets lost to time and hidden away rather than have them uncovered and fall into the wrong hands.

I tried not to think about Morley any longer. But being here brought back all sorts of memories. I returned to my list. Once I had the info that would get us to Zelia's ladle, we would need to get equipment to climb the mountain and buy supplies for the two-day trek.

We need transportation to the base of the mountain. I hoped the entrance to the cave leading to the ladle was at the top.

Once inside, my wits would be the only thing allowing us to find Zelia's ladle. I hoped I was smart enough.

Someone pressed cold metal against my temple. A familiar voice whispered into my ear. "What do we have here?" It was the blond man who had tried to kidnap me on Stalwart. "I believe we have unfinished business, woman."

His hand came around my waist, pulling my body against him so I could feel his hard cock. I pressed my lips together in disgust but didn't move. It would only take a flick of his finger to kill me.

"Put your hands in the air." He directed his command at Ven, who obeyed but watched closely.

"You and I are going to have some fun together before I bring you back. The boss is going to be happy I didn't let you get away." He roughly squeezed my breasts. In the darkness, I wondered if Ven could see what he was doing. "I'm happy myself."

I cut my eyes over to Ven without moving my head. He was glowering and looked like he was ready to jump my assailant.

"Hey man, stand back." The blond man pressed the gun more firmly against my head. "Unless you want her in a coma."

Before he had finished speaking, Ven lunged at us and the gun went off.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

VEN.

For someone who likes to think of himself as a smart guy, that was a dumb thing to do.

Emmy slumped to the ground as I punched the man hard across the cheek. In broad daylight, he could have seen my attack coming from a mile away, but the darkness concealed the blow. The man cursed and leveled his weapon at me. I had already moved into a different position. He looked around trying to locate me when I landed on his back and tackled him.

I was able to knock the wind out of him. He grabbed onto my body and rolled, ending up on top of me. He managed to throw a few wild punches before I pushed him off and got on my feet again. He was a better fighter than I had expected and powerful, but his size made him slow. I was confident that my training would give me an advantage.

My confidence began to wane when he managed to land some hits on my body. He faked a low attack, making me drop my guard, then hit me with a hard hook to the ear. I fell to the ground, a ringing sound blocking out all the other noises and pain exploding through my head.

Fuck, that hurt.

I had made the classic blunder of underestimating my opponent. Now I was in a fight I might lose, and I couldn't do anything about it. I tried to get up but felt dizzy. The guy took the opportunity to kick me. I groaned as he started taking out all his repressed anger on me, swinging his foot viciously at my stomach.

Without warning, he dropped on his back beside me. Emmy had started fighting back. I sat up just as Emmy delivered a blow to his jawbone, directly between the ear and the chin. The thug fell to the ground and didn't get up again.

"Are you feeling okay?" She reached down and grabbed my hand, helping me to stand.

I felt my ribs. I didn't think he broke them, but I would have some severe bruises. I hoped he hadn't done any damage to my internal organs with those kicks.

"I'll be fine. Let's get out of here. He might be only stunned."

"We have a few minutes. I doubt he'll be getting up soon."

She hooked her arm through mine, making it look like we were a couple on a stroll. Our positioning allowed her to support some of my weight. I was still dizzy from the blow to the ear.

"Speaking of stunned..." The bright lights of the spaceport made us both squint as we entered the building. I winced at the falsely conversational tone of voice. "Why did you move when he told you explicitly to remain where you were? He fucking shot me! I could be in a coma or dead right now."

We passed an older man. Emmy gave him a charming smile and then turned back to me, her eyes shooting daggers.

"I could see the settings on the gun and knew you would only get a brief shock. We needed to get away from him. If anyone catches us, your plan isn't going to work." I looked away from her because I didn't want her to see through my explanation.

"That's bullshit." Her voice sounded furious. "You were angry and wanted a piece of his ass."

"Maybe."

We walked out the main door and found a self-driving hovercraft. After we entered the vehicle, I finally allowed myself to relax, ignoring the pain in my head and my side.

Emmy programmed a destination into the hovercraft, then turned to face me again. "Maybe? That was a bone-headed move. You could have gotten me killed." She paused. "I suppose you could have gotten yourself killed as well."

"I thought I was getting us out of trouble." I didn't like the feeling creeping up on me. Had I made the wrong decision? I preferred it when people didn't question my choices.

"What would you have done if I hadn't knocked him out?"

I didn't have an answer for her.

She answered the question herself. "It's simple. You would have been beaten to within an inch of your life, and you would have screwed up everything."

We lapsed into silence for the rest of the ride. As we pulled to a stop on the corner of a busy street and got out, she put my hand on my arm. I looked down at Emmy's hand briefly, then up at her eyes.

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid. We can figure things out together."

"Did you just ask me to be your partner? I was under the impression that you didn't need any help." I didn't bother to disguise the bitterness in my voice.

"I understand I need help now." I felt my eyebrows go up in surprise. "But I'll never need the kind that's going to get us both killed."

"Fine." I knew I wasn't being graceful, but it was the best I could do. "I won't do anything stupid, and we'll make decisions as a team."

"Great. Let's never talk about it again. I know someone who owes me a favor."

I couldn't stand this woman anymore. I was following her down an alley in the middle of the city, and I was seething. She had called me stupid twice. I regretted coming along on her ridiculous suicide mission, and I could not believe that she had given me shit for trying to save her ass.

What annoyed me most was the idea that she might be right. It had been an ill-advised move and one I would never have usually made. When he started talking about doing things to Emmy, his words had driven me over the edge.

Was I supposed to stand there and listen to him? I saw red and jumped into action. I put my hand to my forehead as I finally calmed down and realized what an incredibly dumb thing I had done.

And that was when I finally understood. In general, I was intelligent, but I had made a mistake. Making the occasional silly decision didn't mean I was worthless.

Sometimes everyone was stupid, and it didn't matter in the long run. I didn't need to let my feelings control me anymore. The world wasn't going to end. In fact, it might be good that Emmy was smarter than me. If I did something idiotic, she could bail me out.

I stared at the dirty wall of the building as she pressed her thumb against a small square on the wall. A screen lit up with the words Please Wait.

All this time I had tried to run away from situations questioning my intelligence. I made sure to get a good job, never be caught flat-footed, and fill my head with knowledge, all so I would never have to feel dumb. In one shattering moment, my sense of self-worth was changing.

I gazed at Emmy, feeling grateful. She would never know what she had done to set me free. "What is it?" She had noticed me looking at her.

"Nothing." I flashed my best smile, liking the way she blushed and dropped her gaze. We were still waiting as we heard the sounds of someone moving around on the other side of the door. "What's taking so long?"

"Morley warned me this person is extremely paranoid. I'm not sure what kind of security he has in place. He might be moving all the furniture away from the front door."

"Who exactly are we going to see? Are you sure you can trust him?" I folded my arms across my chest. Emmy unconsciously emulated my position, holding her arms across her front and making her breasts compress together. It had been hot all day, but now that the suns had set, it was getting cold. I could see goosebumps pebbled across her skin. We both needed a shower and a change of clothes.

I hoped our host could offer us that much.

The thought of her taking a shower was distracting. I tried to concentrate on the task at hand, rather than how her soft naked body would feel pressed up against mine as warm water dripped over our bodies. She was answering my question, and I tried to pay attention while the blood rushed out of my brain, heading south.

"His name is David. Morley said I could trust him completely."

"And you believe him?"

"He was never wrong." She acted like that was enough to explain everything.

I had never met either one of these men. I wasn't trusting anyone until they proved themselves. We needed help before we continued on our way, but I wouldn't let him out of my sight around Emmy.

I wondered why I felt overly protective. I supposed it was because she was my wife, whether in name only or not. She was my responsibility. I would take care of her to the best of my ability.

The door finally opened, revealing a withered old face which scrutinized us. Apparently he hadn't felt the need to enhance his physical appearance as he aged. I had never seen that many wrinkles before.

"What do you want?" His furry eyebrows drew together.

"Are you David?" Emmy said. "Morley sent me."

"Morley? It's too late for him to send you anywhere. A cave-in collapsed on him. He's dead, honey."

David didn't attempt to soften his words. My heart ached as I saw Emmy's eyes fill with tears.

"I know. He was my friend. He said you could help me."

The man shrugged as if he didn't care. "Fine. Come in and tell me your story."

Emmy smiled and stepped through the door. I followed her closely. She might believe David, but there was something fishy about him. I didn't trust him at all.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

VEN.

I hovered behind Emmy like a storm cloud as we followed David into the room beyond the alleyway. I don't know what I had expected. Perhaps a dirty kitchen with stained walls and dirty floors. I had not imagined a full-blown forensics laboratory. Emmy looked around in wonder.