I racked my brain trying to think of all the people she’d encountered on this mission. Who could have betrayed her?
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Urgoth fixed me with a hard stare. “That’s because you betrayed her. You sold her out. Someone offered you something you couldn’t refuse. What was it? Money? No, that’s not your style, is it? The chance to be free of Imperial Command. And you took it.”
“What? Where the fuck is this shit coming from?”
“A beta double agent sent me an interesting recording of a conversation between you and Regin from a couple of days ago. You’ve been suspected of being a traitor for a while.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I’m not a traitor.”
“You’re a gun for hire. You kill people with no compunction. Of course you have no loyalties. Right now, security are on their way here to imprison you. You’re nothing but a dirty criminal.”
Alphas entered the room. There were at least half a dozen of them, all built like enforcers. I fought them off but they kept coming. The first couple got thrown across the room easily, but as the fight went on, I started to get tired. Six-on-one wasn’t fair odds. Not when we were all alphas.
“This is a set up! Someone’s stitching me up!” It was all I managed to say before one of them landed a haymaker and I went down like a demolished skyscraper, hitting the deck with an astonishingthudthat reverberated through the air. I think I dented the floor. At least, that’s what it felt like to my shoulder.
I was overpowered. Defeated. Game over.
Fuck.
They dragged me out of the room. I struggled all the way to the brig but there were just too many of them.
***
Natasha
I was in the medical bay on the ship. Doctor Kavat was working at his desk. A huge alpha nurse I’d never seen before was at another desk.
“Where’s Ryon?” I asked, looking around the otherwise empty room.
Kavat got up from his desk and came over. His expression was somber.
“Has something happened to him?” I was starting to get worried. They pulled him out... didn’t they? I could’ve sworn I saw him on the ship.
“I’m sorry, Natasha. Ryon was the one who betrayed you.”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t believe you. Everyone on this ship just wants to keep us apart. Where is he?”
“In the brig. Facing sentencing for his crime.”
The world seemed to fall away around me. I didn’t know what to do. I’d never really understood the Scottish legal system and I’d lived all my life there. What chance did I have of helping Ryon here, where I didn’t even know what the laws were, never mind how they treated suspects or sentenced criminals. All I knew was there was a prison planet out there, and Ryon had been sent there before.
“I don’t think he did it.”
Kavat gave me a pitying look, like I’d just told him Santa was real or Elvis lived. “He’s an undercover agent and a convict. He’s trained to lie to people far more suspicious than you. Urgoth has proof of his betrayal.”
I folded my arms. “Evidence isn’t proof. I know that much.”
“Yes. Well, in this case, Urgoth says the evidence is incontrovertible.”
So Kavat hadn’t even seen it for himself? He was just accepting Urgoth’s word for it? Urgoth had lied about so much already to further his own agenda. “I want to see it.”
Kavat sighed. “I appreciate this must be difficult for you to take in, given the close nature of your relationship with Ryon, but you are only going to upset yourself if you see proof of this.”
“Evidence,” I corrected him. “And fuck off with your patronizing mansplaining attitude.”
Kavat held his hands up. “I really don’t think you should get involved in this.”