Page 75 of Badass Alien Boss

“What will happen to him?” Ruyn asked Tervik. “Any chance he’ll get a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation?”

“It’s not my call, but he might. I can’t promise.” He started to leave. “Thank you for contacting me.”

“You were on your way, so it’s moot,” she said.

“But many family members wouldn’t have done that.” He reached the door and turned. “I knew all along you weren’t involved with the cartel.”

“You’re kind of an asshole,” Michaela said.

“That’s been said before.” He saluted and left.

She turned to Ruyn. “How are you doing? Are you all right?”

He stood rigid and still, unspeaking.

She slipped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight.

“I knew…he had to be involved in something illegal. I had no idea it was this bad. The cartel. He could be convicted of treason.” Ruyn’s shoulders shook as tears slipped down his face.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Two weeks later

With equal parts hope and dread, Ruyn emerged from the hovercab. Dr. Kurur had notified them yesterday that his colleagues on Oberia had developed apossibletreatment they couldtry. Dr. Kurur had rattled off a long scientific explanation neither of them understood and then ended with, “The chances are 50/50 that the treatment will work.”

At Michaela’s prompting, he’d further explained the serum developed by Dr. Stratos had deactivated the nanocyte only half the time in lab tests.

“So, you don’t know if it will work or not,” Ruyn said.

“I am optimistic,” Dr. Kurur had said.

She squeezed his shoulder, and they entered the medical facility. A check-in kiosk instructed them to wait in the comfort station. “We’ll know one way or another very soon,” she said as they took their seats.

“I expected better than 50 percent,” he said.

“It might be better than that. Dr. Kurur said the serum might prove more effective than 50/50 with a live host rather than a blood sample.”

“It might be worse, too,” he said glumly.

He’d had too much time to envision worst-case scenarios. After his brother’s arrest, Korsan Enterprises had been raided, computers and documents seized, and the office shuttered by order of the magistrate. The subsidiaries were still operating—as far as he knew—but Korsan Enterprises had folded, rendering its employees jobless.

“If the worst happens, researchers will keep trying,” she said. “They’ll use the information they gain from you and tweak the serum. One way or another, they’ll find an answer, and you’ll be cured.”

She’d been the voice of optimism. He appreciated the support and positive attitude, but attitude didn’t equate to fact. His fate rested in the hands of chance.

If the treatment failed, for Michaela’s own good, he would need to break it off. It would tear him apart, but he loved her too much to ruin her life and limit her to a less-than-complete relationship. Loyal to a fault, she would never walk away, so he would have to do it. Somehow, he would find the willpower.

And that was the crux of his despair. Not his health, not the future, but leaving her.

If there’d been any doubt sexual intercourse with him had caused her anaphylactic shock, it had been dispelled by two weeks of abstinence. She hadn’t had a single allergic reaction.

“Ruyn?” A nurse-tech appeared. “We’re ready for you now.”

Michaela stood. “I’d like to go with him.”

“I’m sorry, but you’ll need to remain here.”

“It’s all right.” He got to his feet. “I can handle this on my own.”