Read Online Colonist's Wife by Kylie Scott - Free Book Online Page B

but his voice stayed calm. “Thanks for the offer.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Very.”
    “All right.” The chief’s lips thinned and his eyes honed in on her husband with a kind of bleak, unhappy understanding. “They’re expecting word back. Wouldn’t you like to send something yourself?”
    “No. Thank you.”
    The chief’s gaze slid to her, but she had nothing to offer. She knew nothing of this situation with his family, not yet.
    “All right.” The chief lifted a hand to the scanner and the door silently opened. “Let me know if you change your mind, Ad.”
    “I will.” Her husband blinked repeatedly as the door slid closed. His jaw moved as if he were grinding stones with his teeth.
    His father. How horrible. Her heart ached for him.
    Her own parents had passed in a shuttle crash four years ago. It had been devastating. The loss had crushed her for a time and Con had been her solace, her strength. He hadn’t always been about greed and duplicity. Once upon a time he’d just been her boyfriend, the supposed love of her life. But he’d loved money more than he had her.
    Louise placed her hand on Adam’s and squeezed it tight.
    “Five to six hours?” he asked, continuing their earlier conversation without missing a beat. “So if I come and help we could be out of there in under three?”
    Huh.
    She nodded and he nodded right back.
    “All right,” he said. “That still gives us plenty of time to get into a good position for the lights.”
    “Hey.” Louise turned, stepping in to him ’til their chests pressed together. She cupped his face in her hands and his dark stubble scratched her palms. Her husband, her man—no matter the extraordinary circumstances that had brought them together—had to be hurting. The vacant gaze and the tautness of his mouth attested to it. She needed to comfort him, to do what she could. “Talk to me.”
    No response.
    “Adam?”
    He looked into her face and grimaced, put his warm hands over hers and moved them down onto his cotton shirt. “I’m fine.”
    “But…”
    “Louise, I haven’t talked to my parents since they disowned me when I was seventeen. So yes, I’m fine.”
    “What happened when you were seventeen?”
    His hands tightened over hers and his blue eyes looked as if they carried the pain of the world. He spoke through gritted teeth. “I ran with a rough crowd when I was younger. Too stupid to know better. We got into a bar fight one night and someone died. It was an accident, but… He was about to shoot my friend, so I shot him. He died.”
    “Oh.”
    Adam had killed someone. Adam was…Adam was a killer. Her husband. No. It didn’t fit. It wasn’t right. She’d seen a killer at work and he hadn’t cared one iota for the blood spilled or the life lost. The killer had enjoyed putting a bullet into Con’s brain, the sick fuck. Her stomach roiled at the memory.
    This pained Adam. Two decades later, the weight of it still bowed his shoulders. He looked as if he had aged simply in the telling. His eyes were tired, sad. It didn’t make sense. Her hands started shaking, a fine trembling he couldn’t help but feel.
    “Did you go to jail?” Grimly, she forced herself to maintain eye contact.
    “Only the four months awaiting trial. My parents had money, hired the best lawyers. They didn’t want the family name stained.” His hands slipped away and hers did with them, falling back to her sides. Everything around her felt cold and quiet. Adam didn’t look at her. “They cut off all contact with me afterward. I was disavowed. I had nothing. That was when I joined the army. The war was just getting going, so they were desperate for people. And I’d already proven I was willing to pull the trigger, so I went right to the top of the class.”
    She swallowed hard. “That’s everything?”
    “Yes. I suppose someone should have warned you.”
    “Adam, you were just a kid…”
    “I was seventeen.”
    “Which is still a kid.”
    “It’s not