Ryrik

"Where is she?" I grumbled to myself.

I paced back and forth across our hideout. Over and over. From the moment Amber left on the mission, my feet did not stop moving. Sitting down or staying still was not an option while there was still so much unknown.

I looked down at the device in my hand, showing Amber's position. The tracker wasn't the most precise. I could tell that she was still in Conii's section of the station but nothing more. It especially didn't tell me if she was okay.

"Come on, Amber."

Stuck there, I had no idea how Amber was doing. Was she safe? In danger? Running for her life? Hiding? Completely undiscovered as everything goes according to plan? There was no way to know.

All I could do was stare at the blinking dot representing Amber. I could've completed this mission and gotten her back twice over by now. Why did I let Amber talk me into letting her do it? This plan?—

Suddenly, the dot representing Amber moved. It left Conii's and headed toward our hideout fast. It wasn't long before it was at the hideout.

I waited for a breath and stared at the door. Then three quick knocks rang out. Followed by two slow ones. The secret code we'd set up to know it was her.

I leapt to the door and swung it open. Amber stood there, with her hands full of tiny data chips.

A warmth rose in my chest. A sensation I'd never felt that strongly, maybe ever. All my worry and concern for her melted away in the instant I saw her.

"Ryrik, I?—"

Instantly, I grabbed her and pulled her into the hideout, letting the door slam behind us. I held her close against me for a moment. Her arms wrapped around me in return and her hands scrunched the back of my shirt as she held me tight.

The scent of her hair hit my nose. It was an alluring aroma. Did she wear perfume for this mission? Or was her natural smell this…

"Amber," I finally said after I found the strength to pull away from her. My eyes looked her up and down for any sign of harm. "How did it— Are you okay? Were you followed?"

"I'm fine, I promise," Amber said. "And no, I wasn't followed. I don't think so."

"But how did it go?"

"Believe me, I'll have quite the story to tell you when all of this is over, but we don't have the time right now."

My mind raced with all her possible exploits on the mission. Did she outsmart some guards? Fight off some goons? Sneak past Conii herself to get this evidence?

Then something new hit me. A feeling that I'd never truly had before, at least not in that way. Pride.

I was proud of Amber. She took these matters into her own hands and got the job done. She not only proved herself to Conii and all the others that treated her so poorly, but she proved herself to me, too. I'd never underestimate her abilities again.

"Amber, I…" My instinct was to finish the sentence with ‘love you.' My instinct was to pull her close to me again and kiss her. My instinct was to grab her and never let go.

I loved Amber. That much was suddenly clear. What I felt was love, constant longing for her even when she was in the room, concern for her when she wasn't. I've heard my Vinduthi brothers talk about their mates, and I realized now that love, like they had found, was the only explanation.

That moment just proved that fact to me. She was clearly a strong and formidable young woman. And there would be no one I'd want at my side more.

But I stopped myself. It was not the time for that. Plus, if I told Amber that I loved her… Well, if she didn't feel the same way, admitting it would not be smart.

"You what?" Amber asked, responding to my sudden silence.

"I… Good job," I managed to spit out.

"Thank you," she said back with a smile.

"Did you get everything we needed?" I asked. It'd be best to get back on task before I said something I couldn't take back. There would come a time later to process my thoughts about Amber.

"Oh," Amber explained as she took a step back from me. She held up all the evidence in her hands, which, at first glance, seemed to be a lot of data chips. "I think so. I really do!"

I took all the evidence from her and scanned it quickly. None of it was encrypted which made it very easy. And she was right, she did well.

Baneck's stolen liquor, receipts paid in full to the rival bar owner who bought it. Notes on the new CEO of TROI Corp, with details on selling as much stock as possible. Even Mr. Woviuya's investment tip was there, in shares of investment stock of iridium.

This was exactly everything we needed, and then some more. Conii's time on Thodos III was numbered.

"Fuck," I breathed. "Amber, you're fucking incredible."

"Is it enough?"

"We need to get all of this to Draven, right now!"

"You think so?"

"Come on!"

I grabbed Amber by the hand, and she held onto me. I didn't have to drag or pull her at all. The two of us rushed out the door onto the halls of Thodos III. The two of us ran all the way back to the Black Star Casino.

I could've easily ran ahead and made it to Draven with the evidence in less than half the time. But that wouldn't be right. It was Amber's victory, too, so I matched my pace to hers. She deserved to revel in it.

Once we reached the casino, we just sprinted through the crowds. The smart guests jumped out of the way. But a few unlucky folks not paying attention got tossed to the side by me.

We went straight to Draven's office. I didn't bother to knock or anything. I slammed the door open, and we rushed in.

"Ryrik!" Draven shouted from behind his desk. Thankfully he wasn't in a meeting or with his mate, or I would've been in a lot of trouble regardless of how good this evidence was. "What's the meaning of this?"

"We got it! Well, Amber got it!"

"Got what?" Draven demanded. "Tell me already!"

I tossed all the evidence Amber brought back onto Draven's desk. He then tentatively looked at it. I watched as his eyes widened and his mouth went slack.

"Evidence of everything Conii has been up to lately. All her evidence to undermine the Black Star Casino by targeting our guests and using privileged information to hurt them. Everything that's made our operation look shady to the guests recently can be linked back to her."

"Holy fucking shit," Draven muttered as he poured over the evidence. "This is what we've been waiting for."

"That's what I was thinking," I said. "If we play this right, we could use this to actually take down Conii once and for all. I mean look at some of these notes."

I showed him some of the data crystals that had the banking and personal information of Jarino Mordoran.

"Conii has the finance info for the Chief Magistrate of the Ardrik Federation?" Draven asked, astounded.

"Yup," I said. "And a half dozen other high up Federation officials," I said.

"Collect the others," Draven ordered. "I want to have a meeting on this in fifteen minutes. In the meantime, I'll contact the Ardrik Federation. This is the kind of shit that makes people disappear." Draven"s mouth curled into a feral grin with the final two words.

"Yes, sir." I took Amber's hands and led her out of the office.

"The Ardrik Federation?"

"Let's just say, with evidence like what you got, Conii and her whole organization are about to be fucked, legally speaking."

"Good," Amber responded quickly.

Ten minutes later, I'd followed Draven's orders. In his office were him, Amber, me, Laux, Sakkar, Thelev, and Jalik. Draven was in front of everyone going through the evidence collected.

"All of that clearly points to it all being Conii's doing," Draven continued as he passed the evidence around to the others in the room. "I don't need to tell all of you how much of a pain in our sides Conii has been."

"This is her boldest move against us yet," Jalik said while he scanned some financial records. "How did we let this happen? How did we catch on?"

"We have Amber to thank for that," I chimed in quickly.

Next to me, Amber squeezed my hand. The other Vinduthi in the room looked at her with approving nods.

"And now, thanks to her help, the Ardrik Federation is going to get Conii," I continued. "We won't have to worry about her ever again and will barely lift a finger to make it happen. Right, Draven?"

"Not exactly."

"What the fuck do you mean?" I responded quickly.

"Right before you all got here, I got off comms with a federation representative. I sent over all the evidence. But all they had to say was ‘we'll get to it.' Which I think we all know what that means."

"Bastards," Sakkar spat.

"We can't wait any longer!" Amber called out.

Everyone looked at her. But she didn't stand down. Not many humans would be brave enough to speak out of turn in a room with six Vinduthi. She was truly something special.

"My friend, Isa. Conii is holding her captive to try to get me to work for her against all of you!" Amber continued. "Once she realizes that won't be happening anymore… I don't even want to think about what will happen!"

"She's right," I agreed. "We can't just wait for something that might never come. We know where Conii is, so we have to strike. And after everything she's done to help us, we owe it to Amber to save her friend."

Amber squeezed my hand again. But we didn't look at each other. We kept our eyes on everyone else in the room. They needed to know how serious we were about this.

"I agree," Draven said, breaking the silence.

"You do?" I asked.

"Of course," Draven said. "We have a chance, a real solid chance, to end the threat of Conii once and for all. I hoped the federation would do it so we could keep our hands clean, but that's not an option. So, it's time to act."

"And save Isa, too, right?" Amber asked.

"Yes," Draven said, looking Amber in the eyes. "You have my word. Your friend's safety is a top priority."

"Thank you," Amber responded.

"Now, get every available soldier, guard, fighter, whatever that we have. If they aren't currently on shift protecting our guests, I want them gearing up to storm Conii's compound. It's time to end this."