Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (classic novels for teens .txt) 📕

the sub, you don’t know us nearly as well as we know you. I’m guessing here, but my guess is that that’s why he’s wound so tight. I know it’s been bothering the hell out of me. It was bad enough before.”

“Tell me about it,” Caleb muttered, realizing there wasn’t much point in trying to deny it. Not that he saw any point to it at this juncture. They all knew the game was on—except it was on hold until they tied up the damned case.

The sooner the better, as far as he was concerned. It wasn’t just sleeping alone that was bugging him. No romance meant no romance! They couldn’t speak to her, couldn’t even approach her about moving to the colony, let alone attempt to try to negotiate any kind of agreement.

And, as loathe as he was to admit it, that worried the hell out of him, having her in the colony and available. Of course, they had to keep her close since she was in protective custody, which meant keeping everybody else away from her, but he still didn’t like it worth a fuck!

That hadn’t stopped the rest of the bastards down at the center from plying her with every enticement they could think of! And it wasn’t likely to stop any of the others in the market for a woman either! The bastards were probably plotting some way to cut them out right now!

He didn’t know why Ian was complaining any damned way! They’d agreed he could be lead man! So he’d jumped the gun a little! It wasn’t as if there was anything typical about this courtship—starting and ending with the fact that they couldn’t even openly court her!

He supposed, upon consideration, that it might have been worse if she was on the market, but it wasn’t much of an edge when they still didn’t know that she would consider moving to Atlantis, let alone consider their suit!

What they needed, he decided, was an enticement that nobody else would think of. It had to be something beyond the ordinary, something that might get Anna to thinking along the lines of taking up permanent residence when they couldn’t actually ask her to consider it.

The germ of an idea came to him while he listened absently to Joshua and Ian discussing possibilities for getting Anna’s data chip back.

She’d lost everything in the explosion. He supposed just about anything they could think up in the way of a gift would be good, but they didn’t really know what Anna liked. That was the catch.

He sure as hell hadn’t been able to tell from the junk the bastards at the center had piled on her. She’d seemed pretty damned pleased with all of it, and he knew she couldn’t be. She’d just been happy to get presents.

She liked music, he thought abruptly—the classical stuff. She’d had something playing just about all the time he’d been on watch.

The problem with that was that he hadn’t actually recognized anything by name.

He’d realized it was classical, but he wasn’t a big music buff.

Chapter Eleven

“Back so soon?” Joshua asked cheerfully when Simon returned about an hour later.

Simon’s face darkened. “I didn’t actually have that much to take care of at the office.”

“Oh. I thought maybe you’d remembered it was your day off.”

Simon’s face grew darker. “I’m High Guardian. I don’t actually have days off,”

he muttered, searching the kitchen cabinets a little absently and finally pulling out something to cook. He was starving. He hadn’t realized he hadn’t gotten around to eating anything before he left. He’d missed breakfast and noon had come and gone.

“What was that music Anna was playing at her place all the time?” Caleb asked, joining Simon and Joshua in the kitchen and settling at the table.

Simon flicked a blank look at him. “Classics.”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “I know that. I just wondered if you recognized any of it.”

Simon frowned thoughtfully. “I know I heard at least one piece that was Beethoven—Chopin. It seemed like there was more Tchaikovsky, though. Why?”

“I was just thinking about our situation and it occurred to me that we might convince Anna to move here without actually asking her outright just by making her feel at home, you know? It’s going to take us weeks to get to trial no matter how fucking hard we work to put the case together. And, until then, our hands are tied.

“She’s going to be bored out of her mind in a little while, though, if she doesn’t have anything to do that she’s used to. So, we produce them. It makes her a lot happier about being caged, and maybe she gets to thinking this wouldn’t be a bad place to settle once it’s all over.

“If you think about it, it might not be such a bad thing for us either. Assuming we can convince her, we’re going to have to make some adjustments anyway. And it would give us something to do to keep from going off the deep end.”

Simon frowned at him. “I see one problem with that.”

“What?”

“We’re all going to look, and feel, pretty fucking stupid if we get everything all cozy and comfortable and she lights out for land again,” he said dryly.

Caleb felt his belly tighten uncomfortably. He glared at Simon in annoyance. “I still think we have a better chance of preventing that if we get her used to the idea first.”

Ian joined them in the kitchen. “He’s right. We have to think about the practical side of forming a pod anyway. This is a bachelor household. We’re either going to have to look for another