“You’re not going to kill me in any way at all,” Jake growled in answer, rage having risen in him at sight of the slaver. “The last time we met you were protected by the presence of a large number of men as well as having put a drug in me. Now you’re alone and the drug doesn’t work, which means I’m going to show the world what a stinking coward you really are.”

Himlin paled just a little when he realized that he couldn’t order Jake around any longer, but then he snarled and came at Jake again. After all, he had a knife and Jake’s knife was in a saddlebag, so what was there to worry about? Jake could almost hear the man thinking like that, which made Jake smile as he answered the unspoken question. He waited for the next slash to go by before he moved in, then his left hand was wrapped around Himlin’s right wrist and his right fist was being thrown into Himlin’s face. By the time Himlin fell to the ground, Jake had already gotten the knife away from the slaver and had tossed the weapon out of reach. Then Jake reached down to Himlin’s fancy vest, pulled the man upright again, and hit him a second time. The third time the slaver went down he was unconscious, and Jake’s rage had been calmed just enough to let him think about other things. Tain had been hurt…

Turning quickly showed Jake that Tandro had gotten some cloth out of his saddlebags and had bound up the wound on Tain’s left arm. The woman looked a bit pale, and that disturbed Jake more than he’d thought it would. After all, the slaver had cut Tain just to get her out of the way so he could reach Jake himself…

“Listen to me, all of you,” Tain said suddenly before Jake could say a word. “You’re to stay as Gordi’s houseguests for a full two days at least, and none of you is to try to stop me now or even follow me. In case you were wondering, those were orders.”

And with that she turned and hurried away, leaving them able to do nothing but stand and stare after her until she was gone from sight.

“Why did she do that?” Jake asked no one in particular as he tried to figure out the answer on his own. “She’s hurt only because she was in Himlin’s way, so why didn’t she stay with us?”

“That’s not why she was hurt,” Ennie said, and Jake turned to see the girl staring at him oddly. “She saw that man before any of the rest of us, and she deliberately got in his way before he could stab you in the back. If not for her, you would be dead now.”

Shock hit Jake worse than it ever had, even during the time he’d been Himlin’s slave. Tain had let herself be hurt just to save his life? She must have seen Himlin only at the last second, otherwise she would have been able to interfere with the slaver in a different way. And if she let herself be hurt like that rather than see Jake hurt, he had to mean more to her than she’d been admitting…

“My guess would be that the woman doesn’t want to be near you now,” Tandro said, faint disturbance to be heard behind the calm of his voice.

“Either she thinks she can’t trust you, or she doesn’t trust herself.”

“Or both,” Jake said, feeling more than a little weary as he remembered what Tain had said about being tired of waiting for him to consider her. He hadn’t even really thanked her for getting him and Tandro out of

Himlin’s clutches, which was downright inexcusable. But she still felt something for him, and was afraid he would find that out if she stayed…

“Gordi, you’re the only one of us who’ll be completely free once we get to your house,” Jake said, turning to look at the big native. “Would you be willing to order some of your people to go after the woman? If she passes out from blood loss while she’s alone, she could die.” “I’ll be glad to send my people out as soon as we take care of this garbage,” Gordi said, nodding toward the still-unconscious slaver.

“All you have to do is tell me where to send my men.”

Jake opened his mouth to answer, but the words he wanted refused to come. He had no idea where the hideout they’d just left was, something that made him curse with feeling.

“That miserable female,” Jake said bitterly once the cursing ran down. “She must have had something like this in mind even before we left wherever we were. If she happens to survive and we catch up with her, I’m going to beat her within an inch of her life!”

“I think you’re going to need that antidote first,” Gordi suggested, speaking when Tandro and Ennie simply exchanged a glance and then stayed silent. “If you don’t have the antidote, you probably won’t get very far trying to punish her for being a fool.”

Jake would have loved to argue, but there was no sense in wasting his breath. Tain Halliday had waged a better campaign against Jake than he had against her, and now she’d left him behind. Not having to take any more orders from the woman should have made Jake feel really good, but the thought of Tain being wounded and all alone made his insides curl. All he could do was pray she survived long enough for him to kill her. If she didn’t, Jake didn’t know what he would do…

Tain walked into her department’s headquarters on her own world, no longer feeling odd wearing real clothes. She’d gotten out of the town on Oliven by using the tunnel under the warehouse, first changing into the smock the women had left for her. She’d also been able to remove the red armbands, so there hadn’t been anything to bring her to anyone’s attention in the woods. The wound on her arm had given her trouble, of course, but that hadn’t kept her from getting some food and water from the women’s hideout and then finding a farm with a horse to steal.

She really had been only a couple of days from her people’s base, and having the food pack meant she hadn’t even stopped to hunt. She did stop to give her stolen horse a rest every few hours, but once the horse seemed recovered she went on. When she reached the base she turned the horse loose to find its way back home, let her people doctor her arm and give her the antidote to the drug, and then she made them give her a ride to the nearest liner station. She was much too tired and aching to want to pilot herself, and seeing that she meant to take a liner was the only thing that kept the base personnel from insisting she stay until she was in better shape.

And all that pushing helped to keep me from having to do any thinking,

Tain admitted privately as she made her way to Coleson’s office. I spent most of the liner ride sleeping, and now I have the strength to keep myself from thinking about anything I like. At least until I’m out of this place… “Ah, Agent Halliday,” Coleson’s secretary said with a smile when he looked up and saw Tain. “Right on time for your appointment. You can go right in.”

Tain nodded her thanks and continued on into Coleson’s office. The room was larger than anyone really needed for a work space, not to mention that it was so poshly furnished it must have cost a fortune to decorate. But it wasn’t just an office, after all, it was a political statement about

Coleson’s position and standing. Coleson was very much a politician, and that was only one of the reasons Tain didn’t return the man’s smile of welcome.

“I’m glad to see you back, Tain,” Coleson said warmly as she approached his ten-acre desk, then he gestured toward the line of chairs in front of the desk. “Have a seat and you can give me a synopsis of what your report will say.”

“Thanks anyway, but I’d rather stand,” Tain said, watching the smile fade from the man’s face. Coleson was handsome, well-built, and extremely charming, which was why people thought he made a great department head. “I’ve already sent copies of my report to everyone I could think of, but you’ll probably be able to get it quashed anyway. Still, I’m hoping that someone uses the thing to beat you over the head for at least a little while.”

“What are you talking about?” Coleson demanded, most of the charm no longer apparent. “What could you have put into your report that you think will harm me?”