“Chainor—” Kat began, but he shook his head.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’d prefer to be alone at this time. Forgive my rudeness but I find myself…preoccupied just now.”
“Oh, of course.” Kat nodded. “I’m, uh, sorry if I bothered you.”
“You didn’t,” he said shortly. “Have a good day.”
Then he turned and walked away. He was going in the wrong direction, but Kat didn’t say anything. She figured that he’d find his way to Sylvan eventually.
But in the meantime, what was going on between him and Vicky?
“This has to be a misunderstanding,” Kat muttered to herself. “I saw the way her eyes lit up when she talked about him. Those two belong together—I’m sure of it!”
But what could she do to make things right? Kat resolved to find out and in the meantime, she needed to find a way to keep Chainor here aboard the Mother Ship.
He couldn’t leave until things were cleared up with Vicky because if he did, who knew when he would ever come back again?
Chapter Thirty-five
The knock on her door a few days later surprised Vicky. For a moment, her heart fluttered. Could it be Chain, coming back for something? Maybe he had left something at her house, or maybe he just wanted to say hello.
She ran her fingers through her hair anxiously and grabbed a quick look in the bathroom mirror to check her makeup before running to the door. But when she opened it, her heart dropped down to her shoes.
Instead of Chain standing there, she saw Kat and a woman she didn’t recognize—a very pregnant woman—about her own age.
“Oh, uh, hello, Kat,” she said, pasting a facsimile of a smile on her face. “It’s so nice to see you again. And who’s this?”
“This is my good friend, Lizabeth,” Kat said, as Vicky ushered the two of them into her house. “I thought you might like to meet her.”
“Well, hello, Lizabeth.” Vicky shook the pregnant woman’s hand. She was mystified as to why Kat would come all the way down from the Mother Ship to introduce her to a new friend, but she didn’t actually mind. Lizabeth seemed like a friendly person—at least from the way she smiled and nodded—and Vicky was an extrovert who liked meeting new people.
She ushered them into the living room and got them settled on the couch before offering coffee or tea. The living room was looking better than it had—Vicky had replaced the drapes—though she could only afford cheap ones—and gotten a throw rug to put over the greasy spot by the bookcase, so at least she wasn’t ashamed of it.
“No liquids for me, thanks,” Lizabeth said, smiling painfully. “I’m in my fourth quadmester with twins right now and one of the babies is sitting directly on my bladder. Anything I drink runs right through me and you can’t imagine what a hassle it is to use the restroom right now.”
“No, I can’t,” Vicky said honestly. “Did you say your fourth quadmester?”
“Lizabeth is mated to a Twin Kindred,” Kat explained. “And all Kindred pregnancies take an entire year, not just nine months.” She shook her head. “Believe me, it’s completely miserable towards the end. Although Lizabeth has it easier than I did—I had to carry triplets for that long.”
“Hey, nothing about this is easy,” Lizabeth protested. “It doesn’t matter how many babies you’re carrying—after a certain point, you just want them out.”
“Well, I didn’t have to carry either of my girls for a whole year but I certainly remember reaching the stage where I was ready to get them out of me,” Vicky said politely. Though inside, she was wondering what in the world Kat was here for and why she had brought her pregnant friend. “Um, can I ask why you came, Kat?” she said, hoping it didn’t sound too rude. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but—”
“Not rude at all, doll,” Kat assured her easily. “I came to bring you this.”
She opened her purse, brought out a thick envelope and handed it over to Vicky.
Vicky opened it and was shocked at the amount of money she saw. She looked up from the stack of hundred-dollar bills and stared at Kat blankly.
“What’s this?”
“Your fee for going on the mission to Priima Belle to get the T’lix-Kruthe, of course,” Kat said. “Sylvan was going to transmit it directly to your bank account but then we realized we’d forgotten to get that information from you when you were up on the Mother Ship. So I offered to bring it because I wanted to see you again and have you meet Lizabeth.”
“Well, this is way too much!” Vicky protested, trying to give back the envelope. “I mean, I didn’t even do that much and Chain told me he was only going to be sure I got half of the fee. Surely this is more than that.”
“It’s the whole fee,” Kat acknowledged. “Chainor wanted you to have it all—he specifically requested it.”
Vicky’s heart throbbed at the mention of the big Kindred and she couldn’t help thinking that she would rather have him back in her life than all the money in the world.
“I can’t accept it,” she said again. “It’s too much.”
“Chainor said there was some damage done to your house when those awful Varians came to find the first half of the T’lix-Kruthe,” Kat said. “He wanted to be sure you had enough money to replace your carpet and your drapes and the window in your bathroom.”
“But this is enough for an entire bathroom and living room remodel!” Vicky protested. “Really, I just can’t
