Rescuing Rory by N.J. Walters Page B

wasn’t your fault.”
     
    Rory could hear Kal talking to her but wasn’t registering what he was saying. It was impossible to hear him above the harsh gasping of her own breath. Her chest was so tight it hurt. She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. She felt lightheaded and her vision was dimming.
    She could still hear the last transmission of her father’s voice. One second he’d been swearing at the emergency beacon and shutting it off manually. The next she’d heard fear enter as he’d yelled that one of the outside hatches was opening. Before she could scramble to the panel to override the system and shut the door her father was gone, sucked out into space with a small portion of their cargo.
    “Breathe.” Somehow she was lying flat on her back with Kal sitting next to her, his large hands gripping her shoulders. His green eyes were fierce. His command absolute. “Breathe.”
    Rory managed to suck in a lungful of air and hold it briefly before slowly releasing it. Her head was pounding but she no longer felt as though she was going to pass out.
    His fingers tightened around her and she knew she’d have bruises on her shoulders. “It wasn’t your fault. Do you understand me?”
    Obviously he was the one who’d misunderstood. “I was responsible for the maintenance on those doors.” And that would haunt her for the rest of her days.
    Kal shook his head, causing a lock of hair to fall over his broad forehead. “No. It’s too pat, too easy. This new guy Adam was head of security?”
    Rory nodded, wondering where he was going with this.
    “Don’t you think it’s a bit too much of a coincidence that an emergency beacon is set off on the cargo, which would be easy for a man with his skills to do? Then one of the doors you’d done maintenance on only two days before suddenly malfunctions.” Kal shook his head. “This Adam Brecker planned your father’s death. He came aboard, got used to the routines of everyone on board the vessel and once enough time had passed that he was accepted, he set up this accident.”
    Rory thought she might be sick. If what Kal was saying was true her father had been murdered. It hadn’t been an accident at all. And Kal wasn’t done yet.
    “So he discredits you, the only other person who could really challenge him for control of the ship. After all, I assume your father had a will and left the ship to you.”
    Rory nodded, still trying to wrap her head around such a betrayal. “The three men left from the old crew all stood beside me. They knew I loved my father and would never hurt him. But Adam convinced the others it was neglect at best, greed at worst. After all,” she bitterly continued, “what could you expect from a woman.”
    It still infuriated her how easily the rest of the crew had gone along with Adam. Several of them were only too happy to condemn her because she’d turned down their sexual advances. She’d never told her father about that. In hindsight that had been a mistake. He’d have fired them and hired new. But she’d wanted to handle the situation herself. Being the lone woman on board a deep-space trader was hard enough without having the men grumbling about her getting preferential treatment.
    Kal cupped the side of her face and rubbed his thumb over her cheek. “He set you up to take the fall for his dirty work.”
    Rory closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She hadn’t seen it. In her grief, she’d never suspected her father might have been murdered. She’d been too devastated, thinking some neglect on her part had killed him.
    “What happened next?” he asked.
    Bitterness ate at her guts. “Some of the men wanted to make me the ship’s whore but the three long-time crew members wouldn’t hear of it. They claimed it was a horrible accident. I was locked in an empty cabin. I think Adam feared a mutiny. Before anything was settled, he took me off the ship. I think he must have slipped something into the food or water he brought me