Page 30 of Cloverleaf Station

“It’s no trouble.” Elenus’s voice was as soft and smooth as the sheets Kieron was lying on. “Sleep well.”

He did.

Chapter thirteen

Doing nothing for days was painful.

Or, well, it should have been painful. Every time in the past, when Kieron had been obliged to put aside his goals because of his body, he’d been filled with shame and anger. Bodies weren’t supposed to give out when you needed them. They were supposed to be strong, and if they failed, that meant you needed to focus more on your mental control so you could force them to do what they needed to do.

Kieron had learned from a very early age the necessity of being able to push himself to, and past, his self-imposed limits. He’d also nearly died from doing that more than once, so when he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to do as much as read a book for the next few days, thanks to the blurriness of his new eyes as they adjusted, he was prepared to put up with it. Badly.

It was different this time around, though. Kieron wasn’t alone or surrounded by people he loathed or, at the best, preferred to avoid. This time it was just Elenus and Catalina, and as much as he’d disliked Elenus plenty when they first met, the man was … growing on him. Partly because, now that he had what he’d come for, Elenus had relaxed enough to bring out the charm. He was effortlessly cheerful, easily conversational, and slightly flirtatious.

If Kieron had met him like this first, he knew he would have hated the man. No one put that much effort into being perfect without having something to hide.

But the Elenus that Kieron had met first had been a complete asshole. A raging dictator, a threat-slinging jackoff, a force to be reckoned with. That was his real face—or at least, that plus the charm was his whole face. Kieron could trust that.

He could argue with it too. It was easy to get in the mood for a good fight after he found he still needed help to get up out of bed the next morning. Help getting to and from the bathroom was one thing, but accepting help doing something as simple as getting dressed was … hard. Especially when Elenus kept tsking about the state of his clothes. Jerk.

“It wouldn’t be too hard to go and get the Lizzie, I could—”

“Mmm, no.” Elenus angled the shirt so that Kieron could get his arm through the hole without straining himself. “Neither of us are in any shape for that, and I’m not about to send Catalina out by herself.” He straightened Kieron’s collar, then grabbed a pair of socks. “Let’s see your foot.”

Kieron complied with ill grace. “I really ought to be running more simulations to find—”

“Zakari’s ship, it’s being done, Catalina is backing up the station’s computers as we speak, and there are literally thousands of algorithms taking in new data to support that, so no.”

“I could at least make sure Moritz is—”

“No.” That was where Elenus’s new charm fell away. His voice went cold, his warm eyes became harsh, his expression turned feral. “No, that fucker stays down in the cold unit where I put him. No checking on him, no giving him attention, no attending to his needs. He’s got the basics for survival, and he can fucking deal, or I can jettison him out an airlock and call it an accident. Which, I’ve got to say, would make me feel good.”

He leaned a little closer. “He tried to ruin my company. He stole my child and tried to sell her into slavery. He nearly killed you. Deysan can go straight to the center of a black hole as far as I’m concerned. I’m only keeping him alive right now because a trial will make it all the easier for me to seize his assets once he’s convicted.”

Kieron didn’t shrink away. Backing up had been bred out of him. “Which you’re sure he will be.”

“Sure enough to bet the satisfaction of my heart on it, yes. As soon as the season here is over, a prison ship from Gania will arrive to take him home.”

Kieron raised an eyebrow. “You trust him to a prison ship?”

“I’m sure as fuck not going to let him fly around with Catalina and me.”

That begged the question of how Elenus was going to get both his ships back to Gania, but that was probably a matter best saved for another day. “So what do I do now?” Kieron finally asked.

Elenus shrugged. “Whatever you like to do with your free time. Find cute catterpet vids, watch porn, hang out with Catalina and me. Not all at the same time; she’s at that stage right now where she’s curious about everything, and I might be prepared to tell her how a ship is made, but I don’t think I can take a question about where babies come from.”

Kieron sighed. “I usually read but looking at a screen for too long makes my head hurt.”

“That does suck. What kind of books do you like?”

“Anything adventurous.” Aaand cozy domestic comfort reads too, but Kieron wasn’t ready to reveal that illicit desire to Elenus’s too-keen eyes yet. He still felt embarrassed about having such a strong reaction to books that were nothing but descriptions of people living calm, enjoyable lives with no drama, but it was so miraculous. The only time he’d cried since Zak’s death had been when reading a description of an Old Earth woman in Japan making red bean cakes, of all things. The memory of his miniature breakdown still threatened his cheeks with heat.

Elenus suddenly smiled. “How about a foray into amateur theater?”

“If you’re expecting me to act anything out, the answer is no.”

“No, no, not you acting something out. I’d like to get Catalina more exposure to literature and the arts and give her more practice expressing emotions through words and reading out loud to you could be just the thing for her. Here.” He grabbed Kieron’s tab off his bedside table and handed it over to him. “Pick one of the least violent books you like.”

“Any other parameters you want to throw my way?” Kieron asked, not as sourly as he would have liked. He was already intrigued by the prospect of reading out loud to her. He’d never been read to before—not fiction, not a story meant for pleasure instead of instruction. Doing it for someone else felt oddly exiting.