Chapter Four
Ryston
“I want to talk to my lawyer. Now.”
From the gleam in Rachel’s eyes, I knew she was adamant. We weren’t getting her to transport without the conversation.
“Very well.” The warden turned to an underling who was looking on, gave the signal for the request to be put through.
Rachel paced the transport room as we waited.
“Rachel?” A male voice came through some speakers hidden in the wall.
She looked up, hope alighting her beautiful features. “Hi, John. I was…um, broken out of jail.”
“Yes, I’ve heard. I got a call a few minute ago.” He paused and there was silence in the room. “Warden Egara did the right thing. Going off planet is the only thing guaranteed to keep you alive.”
“But—”
“You will be dead before the week is out. The women who are serving life sentences without parole have nothing to lose. They will kill you and there will be no consequences for them. For you…”
He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.
“This is bullshit. This can’t be happening.” Her voice broke then and tears slipped down her cheeks. I looked to Maxim to go to her, to soothe her, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. Not yet.
“Do you want to die?” Warden Egara asked.
Rachel wiped the tears from her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Of course not! But I want to be able to decide my own fate!”
“Rachel,” the lawyer’s voice cut through the room. “You do have a choice. You go back to jail and wait for a shiv in the shower, or you go with your mates to a new world and you live.”
“It is your choice,” Warden Egara added.
“Those aren’t the choices I want. I want to go home, to my job, to my fucking cat!”
“That life is gone. I will work on the appeal, on seeing justice done, but you need to take care of yourself. Get the hell out of here,” John insisted.
She spun and faced us, her hair swirling over her shoulders as she moved. “I don’t know you. Either of you.”
Maxim finally spoke up. He put his hand to his broad chest. “You know me, here. The match, it was almost perfect. Our minds need time to catch up. Deep down, you know I will take care of you.”
“This isn’t what I wanted,” she countered, studying our sizes as she crossed her arms over her chest. So brave.
Maxim slowly shook his head. “I am sorry, mate. But I just found you. I don’t want to lose you. I can’t stand by and allow you to risk your life.”
She sighed, turned away. She ran a hand over her face, groaned in frustration. “God. This is unreal.”
“You will die, Rachel,” the lawyer repeated. “Go. Fuck all these bastards. Get the hell out of here. You have a chance at a new life. Live it.”
She shook her head, but the lawyer couldn’t see her. “This isn’t my life,” she repeated.
“It is now.”
Turning on her heel, she faced Warden Egara. “The rules of the Interstellar Brides Program state that I have thirty days to accept my match, correct?”
The warden nodded while my stomach plummeted. I wasn’t familiar enough with the rules of the match to have known this.
“That is correct. You may refuse the match within thirty days, however—” the warden walked over and took Rachel’s hand, “—you have been matched to the Colony, therefore if you reject Maxim and his second, the testing center will match you to another warrior there. You will not come back to Earth.”