CHAPTER ONE
For something touted as a luxury cruise vessel, the rooms aboard the Bountiful Harvest were surprisingly small. Maddison had already made a note to address that issue along with a host of other concerns she had about her newly acquired business. Damn her ex-husband to the void. He’d followed the exit clause of their marriage contract to the letter. At least on paper. The idea of a galactic dating cruise had looked like a good offer until she’d gotten her hands on the reports that now lay strewn across the table. She’d scanned everything and tasked an AI to summarize it all.
That report was now on her tablet, and it told a different, very depressing story.
She set down the device she’d been reading and sighed. “These contracts can’t be enforceable. What they’re offering isn’t legal anywhere in the known systems.”
The silver-haired woman across from her nodded in agreement. This wasn’t news. Not really. They’d talked about this more than once, and Loris knew everything she did. Probably more, given the woman’s uncanny ability to glean information from even the most innocuous of conversations.
She took a moment to look at her friend. Loris was tall and rangy, with long legs currently crammed into too-little space. She’d been a soldier once, and she still walked with the brash swagger of someone who had met death and walked away with most of her body and soul intact.
Loris had been with her for more than a decade. Originally hired by her now ex-husband as security, Loris had become her confidante, advisor, and dear friend. When she’d walked out of her former home, she’d left almost everything behind, but Loris had stayed with her.
She was more than a friend. She was a source of strength and unwavering support, even during the darkest parts of Maddison’s life. Those dark days were over, but a new storm was brewing. Donny Cappa, her ex, had given her everything he’d agreed to in the marriage contract he and her father had hammered out fifteen years ago.
He’d gotten the best of her father back then, and he’d done the same thing to her now. The Bountiful Harvest had been a luxury liner once, the business both beneficial and profitable. Time and circumstances had changed things.
The ship needed extensive upgrades on everything imaginable. The list of deferred maintenance items was shocking, and the estimated cost of it all was… she held back a sigh. The costs were more than she could manage. Once the cruise was over, she’d have to put together a business plan and start applying for loans.
She couldn’t risk a partnership or investor support, not when her ex had so clearly set her up. Anyone she would consider approaching might already have been told not to deal with her, and that was the lesser fear.
The bigger concern would be if she inadvertently sought help from someone her ex had already corrupted or coerced. Apparently, he hadn’t humiliated and hurt her enough during their nightmare of a marriage. The bastard was determined to ruin the rest of her life, too.
She would not let that happen. Nor would she allow the company she now owned to continue doing business with anyone who saw the human women on board as commodities instead of living beings. The crew did their best to protect the passengers, but desperation made some of the women make decisions no woman should ever have to consider.
Human females were reproductively compatible with a number of different species, but in many cases the arrangements were little more than slavery. Humans had never been asked to become signatories of the Unified Agreement of the GLAR, so they had almost no protections.
Some saw them as vermin to be exterminated. Others considered them to be useful minions. Then, there were the ones that the agents for the Bountiful Harvest seemed to cater to these days. They thought of human women as exotic pets at best and breeding stock at worst.
She had no doubt that her ex had moved the business in that direction intentionally. It meshed too well with his own thoughts on women to be a coincidence.
She caught herself tensing her feet and forced herself to relax. Other people stiffened their shoulders or curled their hands into fists when they got stressed. She had learned not to do anything that could be seen as a reaction to her ex’s words or deeds. When she felt stressed or unhappy, she scrunched her toes instead. It was one of the many behaviors she’d adapted to avoid her ex’s notice.
Once she’d calmed herself, she noticed Loris had a distant look and a hard set to her jaw. She knew what that meant.
“You’re doing it again,” Maddison said softly.
Loris shrugged as her expression shifted to one of carefully crafted indifference. “What?”
“You’re listening to the wrong voices.” Loris had used that line on her more than once.
Loris scoffed and tapped a finger to her temple. “I’m alone in here. No voices of any kind.”
“You’re too hard on yourself,” Maddison said, her voice gentle.
Loris gave a curt nod of acknowledgment, but her hands tightened into fists.
That small sign of anger was enough to make Maddison want to pull away. Loris would never hurt her, but life with Donny had taught her to retreat from any sign of violence. Maddison hated herself every time it happened, but it would take more than a few months of freedom to undo fifteen years of conditioning.
Instead of retreating, Maddison stood from her chair and leaned toward Loris. She forced a laugh as she moved to put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. She understood the source of Loris’s anger now, which helped. “I know that look. You’re thinking about my former husband.”
They never said his name out loud. In part, because invoking his memory always darkened the mood, but there was more to it than that. She’d learned not to use his name when they’d lived together, because he was always listening. Always ready to dole out punishments if he thought she’d said something unflattering about him.
That fear still lingered. It didn’t matter that he was on the other side of the galaxy. Part of her still worried that he would come back one day.
Loris patted her hand. “I imagined what his face would look like if we launched him out of an airlock and into the void. You should try it sometime. It’s cheaper than therapy.”
“Tsk. Tsk.” Maddison pretended to be scandalized, but the idea did have some appeal. “You know I love you, but it still worries me that you have moments when you sound like a psychopath.”
“I’m not a psycho. I’m a soldier. There’s a difference.”
Maddison lifted one brow but said nothing. What could she say that wouldn’t alienate her dearest friend? She would never understand how anyone could deliberately hurt someone else.
“There is. When I choose violence, it’s because I’m protecting someone or something I value. A client. An ideal…” Loris covered Maddison’s hand with her own. “Or a friend.”
This was the one thing they never agreed on. Maddison believed that violence was never the answer. Loris saw things differently.
“I hope you never have to make that choice again. At least, not for me. I want nothing but a calm, quiet life where I can do something that matters.”
That’s what Maddison wanted now, a chance to build something meaningful. If that was too much to achieve, at the very least, she wanted to do more good than harm.
Maddison moved her hand off Loris’s shoulder to gesture around the small cabin. “I think this company has potential. It could be exactly what I need. The personnel can stay, for the most part, but everything else needs an update. Including this ship.”
She liked the crew of the Harvest. They were kind and competent, most of them seeming to want their passengers to achieve their goals and find some semblance of happiness by the time the cruise came to an end. In fact, some of them had become even more engaged and considerate of those still on board. Maddison felt for them, too. They were all good people, but for a variety of reasons, they had not found a match.
Then again, that might not be such a bad thing. While some of the passengers had found promising arrangements, Maddison now knew that many of them had agreed to contracts that, at best, gave them money in exchange for companionship and, at worst, were little more than breeding contracts.
Loris tipped her head in agreement. “I hope so. It would be nice to think that romance isn’t entirely gone from the galaxy. Who knows?” her friend added with a small grin. “Once you’ve gotten this company sorted out, maybe you’ll find a nice fellow who falls madly in love with the owner.”
The idea made her stomach tie itself in knots. Trust another man after what she’d endured? No. “I doubt that’s in the cards for me. But I have every intention of using this matchmaking business to find someone worthy of you.”
Loris threw back her head and laughed. “Me? Stars, no. I’m quite happy on my own, thank you. Love is for other people. The ones with kindness in their hearts and hope in their souls. You know damned well I have neither of those things.”
That wasn’t true. Loris did have a kind heart, though she didn’t show that side of her to many people. “You are one of the kindest—” Maddison never got to finish her sentence.
The deck beneath their feet heaved and then dropped, making her lose her balance. A second later, alarms erupted from every speaker, filling the cabin with noise that could only mean one thing. Something terrible had happened. Fear closed an icy fist around her chest and squeezed. For a split second, panic overwhelmed her, but then Loris’s firm voice drew her back from the brink.
“Go bag. Now. Get it and meet me at my cabin door. Move!” Loris was out the door a moment after she spoke the last word.
Maddison obeyed without question. They’d drilled this sort of scenario until her reactions were automatic. If there was trouble, she followed Loris’s directions quickly and without question. Until now, drills were all she’d ever done.
She stuffed the data tablet she’d been using into the go bag. In a moment of insight, she kicked off her dress shoes and grabbed the pair of runners she used when she went to the ship’s gym. Her hands shook as she pulled them on, and her mind raced as she tried but failed to make sense of the alerts and announcements coming through the speakers.
All she knew for certain was that something had gone wrong. That meant that the ship, the crew, and all her plans for the future were in jeopardy… and so was she.
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