point. I still had a ship to run, and that would have been an upset.” He frowned.
I decided to take it as an apology. I had put him in a difficult position. In retrospect, his reasoning made sense.
“I see. Well, thank you, just the same. Have a good day, Captain.” I turned to
leave.
He stopped me. “Actually, Dr. Morgan, you can call me Nicoli when we’re
alone. As you so generously pointed out this morning, I’m not your captain.”
This time I caught my jaw before it flopped open. He was offering me an
olive branch. I didn’t know what a friendship with him would entail, but I
couldn’t consider him my enemy any longer. Besides, I was already in danger of
genuinely liking this man.
“Okay, thank you. And I suppose, when we’re alone, you may call me Dr.
Morgan. Will that be all?” I mimicked the way he usually said this, only smiling.
He laughed. “In fact, no.” He retrieved the small device he’d been holding
before. He glanced down at it and back at me. “It says here that you’ve ordered
fifteen pounds of chocolate.”
“Actually, that is a typo.” I tried not to blush. “It should be twenty pounds.”
I could still hear his laughter resounding down the hall as the doors to the
elevator shut behind me.
www.samhainpublishing.com
109
Anna Scarlett
Still, I hoped he’d order the twenty pounds.
I stopped by the lab to check in with Dr. Folsom before heading to my
quarters. The long line of patients had dissipated from the hall, the lab just as empty.
She accosted me with a dirty look. “Lt. Horan was just here.”
I bit my bottom lip, tried to appear remorseful. “Is he okay?”
“Do you care?”
“Sort of.” At least, I didn’t want him dead.
“Whatever happened to ‘do no harm’?” She folded her arms across her chest.
“It was self-defense.”
“He wasn’t going to hurt you.” I thought she might start tapping her foot
like my mother.
“He had his hands around my neck. I didn’t know his intentions.”
When she huffed, I knew we were coming to a close. “Well, he is okay. You just rendered him unconscious.”
“I did check his vitals before I left, if that makes you feel better.”
She raised a surprised brow. “It does. Where did you go?”
“To speak with Captain Marek about the situation.” Like a grownup, I wanted to add.
“And?” Again, I was surprised she hadn’t initiated the foot tapping.
“He promoted me,” I crowed.
She unfolded her arms, eyes wide. “He did?”
“He didn’t want Lt. Sheldon to arrest me, so he promoted me instead.” In
summary, anyway.
“Lt. Sheldon tried to arrest you? For what?”
110
www.samhainpublishing.com
Degrees of Wrong
“Well, apparently she was misinformed about what had happened.” I tried
to extract the acid from my tone.
“Oh, that’s a bunch of malarkey. She found a way to get you out of the
picture and she went for it.” She wagged her finger at me.
This unsettled me. I’d assumed Lt. Sheldon just disliked everyone in general.
I didn’t realize she had a specific focus to her malice, and that somehow I’d come to be that target. “What picture?” I asked, taking a seat at her desk.
Dr. Folsom made a repugnant face, complete with wrinkling her nose. She
sat on her desk, folded her hands in her lap and eyeballed me. “If she feels
threatened in any way, she’ll take action to protect herself and her assets.” She sounded like a politician trying to answer an uncomfortable question as vaguely
as possible.
“I really hope you didn’t intend for me to get anything out of what you just
said.”
She huffed again. “Oh, good grief. Fine. She’s been after Nicoli since she
stepped foot on this ship. She must see you as a threat to her mission.” She said this with a little grin, which made the conversation that much more irrational.
“But he’s engaged,” I hissed, feeling the echo of a certain mess hall
conversation. I remembered the way Lt. Sheldon had frowned at me when she
left with Captain Marek that day. He’d nodded in my general direction. Could
the polite gesture have set her off? I couldn’t imagine that Lt. Sheldon, in all her loveliness, could be that insecure.
“So, since she doesn’t care about that at all, she assumes that no one else
does, either? That no one has morals?” That I didn’t have morals?
Dr. Folsom shrugged. “Nicoli is quite a catch.”
www.samhainpublishing.com
111
Anna Scarlett
I couldn’t disagree with that any longer, but I wasn’t willing to agree with it
out loud. “How can she see me as a threat? Look at her. I can’t believe he’s
managed to hold on as long as he has. She’s breathtaking.” The admission tasted
sour in my mouth.
“Nicoli has never paid her any more attention than any of his other
lieutenants. By the way, what are you? A lieutenant as well?”
I nodded.
“Good. Anyway, he’s impartial to her, despite her efforts. She really has
endurance, that one.”
“I can’t imagine what kind of beautiful his fiancée must be, if he’s not
tempted by Lt. Sheldon,” I said, awestruck.
“Of course she’s beautiful. But you can’t think Nicoli so shallow as to want a
trophy wife.”
That wasn’t what I’d said at all—or at least I didn’t think I did. At this point, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions, exhausted as I was. Besides, it didn’t matter what I thought about Nicoli and his fiancée, trophy or not. I would leave
the worrying about such things to Lt. Sheldon.
“Well, I think in time, she’ll come to realize I’m not a threat. The only time he speaks to me at all is when I’m in trouble.” I grimaced. “Eventually, she’ll see
that for herself.”
“Yes,” she agreed, grinning. “She’ll see.”
I yawned. “Well, I’ve been granted permission to go take a nap, so…” I stood
up to leave. “See you at dinner?”
She smiled. “Sure.”
I didn’t see Dr. Folsom at dinner. I slept through it.
112
www.samhainpublishing.com
Degrees of Wrong
When I finally awoke—from the sleep I couldn’t in good conscience call a
nap—the “sun” had already set in my room, the clock illuminating a bright
eleven.
I decided at once to go to the gym. It was the only way I could exhaust
myself enough to sleep a little while longer until morning. Although I wouldn’t
be reporting for roll call anymore, I didn’t want my days and nights reversed
either.
So, I headed toward the torture room. I passed one man in the halls who
inclined his head toward me and said, “Lieutenant Morgan.” Since I didn’t know
the proper way to return the greeting—or his name or rank, for that matter—I
nodded.
Obviously, the good news of my promotion had spread. I wondered how
large a part Lt. Sheldon played in the distribution of it, and how many versions
of the story circulated. I wondered about Lt. Horan’s take on it, a
nd if they had to sedate Stanley in order to get him to stop laughing.
I entered the gym and chose my usual machine, selecting Stadium Track
course, which seemed self-explanatory. The program included sprint intervals,
and I looked forward to the punishment as I began my warm-up.
As the warm-up gave way to the actual run, I focused on the mirror wall
ahead of me and concentrated on my form, keeping head up and stomach in.
Eager for the beating, I increased the speed. The sweat dewed, then trickled, then gushed, the soft humming of the belt beneath me drowning out the quiet echo of
the room and hypnotizing me into a concentrated trance.
My peripheral caught movement. Startled, I flashed a glance to my right to
find Captain Marek starting the machine next to mine. He nodded once in
greeting, then smiled. I glowered at him. Also, I tried not to trip.
www.samhainpublishing.com
113
Anna Scarlett
The clock displayed half past eleven. I looked at Nicoli. The clock. Nicoli
again. He didn’t get it. I labored with each breath already, too much to inform
him with any dignity that he was in breach of contract—and I certainly wasn’t leaving.
The stadium zoomed by—sprint mode. I changed my pace to match, talking
now an impossibility. Still, I managed to throw furious glares in his general
direction until the sprint tapered down to a run.
He wouldn’t look at me.
Then I noticed a small detail about my machine, one I didn’t see before.
Though the stadium hologram encompassed me, I could see the tiny version of
the track in the lower left corner of the input screen. It displayed your progress as you circled the stadium, to show where exactly you were in your lap. A green
dot represented my location.
A red dot represented Nicoli’s.
My head snapped toward him, and I confirmed with my own eyes that he
too had selected the Stadium Track setting. He was in the middle of his first
sprint, making it look effortless, his speed set slightly higher than mine. I glared at the red dot on my screen as it gained on the green dot.
Nicoli was racing me.
I couldn’t tell whether it was anger or adrenaline or both, but the next sprint
came with great ease as I put more distance between myself and the devil red
dot. I increased the speed on my virtual jogger and glanced over at him. He
grinned at me.
He increased the speed by one for the next sprint, and I think I actually
growled out loud. I increased my speed by two, felt my legs protest with the
strain. I cursed them in their weakness—Nicoli’s shirtless torso was only now
budding sweat.
114
www.samhainpublishing.com
Degrees of Wrong
My chest burned with the fire of inhale, exhale. My legs, tormented into
submission, grew numb in their obeisance. Still, they trekked on.
And the red dot continued to close the distance.
We began the last lap, my impending defeat obvious. We held neck and neck
for a moment, his breathing steady and rhythmic, mine unreliable at best. He
overcame me half a lap before the finish line. I never caught up.
As his machine slowed him to a cool-down phase, I sprinted toward the
finish line. There was no pleasure in completing the run, no sense of
accomplishment in second place. Second place was last place.
My jogger slowed as well, and my legs seemed to be confused with their new
commission. They felt big and heavy and stiff as they started the cool-down lap. I put hands on hips and tried to gain control of my lung function. I couldn’t speak yet, which meant I couldn’t curse yet either—but it was coming.
Nicoli’s jogger stopped. He grabbed his towel to wipe the sweat from his
chiseled body. I glowered at him and, although he wouldn’t look at me, I knew
he could sense my irritation. He continued to smile for no particular reason.
My jogger stopped, and I tried to organize my breathing into a pattern that
could be life-sustaining. I grabbed my towel too, but it was too small and
inadequate to absorb the puddle collecting on my body.
“Well, good evening, Dr. Morgan,” he said, startling me. Before I could
answer, he hurried to the door. I glared after him, wishing my legs would
volunteer to pursue.
Instead, they walked to the nearest weight bench and seated me on it. I had
wanted to exhaust myself tonight, not encounter a near-death experience.
My first thought was that Nicoli had not only infringed on our verbal
custody agreement, but he had intentionally provoked me in the process.
www.samhainpublishing.com
115
Anna Scarlett
Because this conclusion contradicted his behavior this afternoon—when he
rescued me—I forced myself to consider alternatives.
The prudent thing would be to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps
he’d mistaken the time. And maybe he was already going to choose the Stadium
Track, and hadn’t even noticed that I’d chosen it also. And it could just be that he always ran at that speed. After all, no one could deny the impeccable shape he
was in. Maybe he left so quickly because he had a pressing matter to which he
needed to attend. At midnight.
Still, I was a doctor—I didn’t rely too heavily on coincidences.
Our truce didn’t resemble peace so much as it did war. The olive branch I
thought he had offered me now appeared to be a thistle.
On the way back to my quarters, I contemplated all the ways in which I
could wreak havoc on the handsome captain.
I found I could be quite imaginative.
116
www.samhainpublishing.com
Chapter Eight
I slept with a corpse-like peace, well into the late-morning hours. I awoke to
the sound of an alarmed Dr. Folsom trying to gain access to my room.
Without moving from the bed, I bid my security mechanism to allow her
entry, surprised it could understand the words through my yawn.
When she entered, I could see her surprise at my still being asleep. “Elyse?
Are you not feeling well?”
I could’ve answered that in so many ways. “Fine. Sleepy.” I yawned for
emphasis.
“Oh. Umm, Nicoli’s been asking for you. I told him you were probably
sleeping late since you didn’t have to wake up for roll call. But when you didn’t show up for lunch…” She shrugged.
I yawned again—a real lung-bursting one this time—and sat up. I could feel
the cowlicks in my hair from sleeping with wet-head, and surmised by Dr.
Folsom’s expression it wasn’t a small amount of volume I’d have to deal with. I
yanked the covers off and planted my feet on the floor. I’d lost a sock sometime
in the night.
I shuffled through the blankets looking for it. “Your little golden child,
Nicoli, is the reason I stayed up so late.” Immediately I realized how that
sounded and wished I would’ve said something else, anything else of a less scandalous nature.
She walked to the bed, retrieved the sock from the floor and handed it to me
with a smirk. “Is that so?”
Anna Scarlett
“Er, well, more or less. He’s taken up irritating me as a pastime. And
between you and me, he’s a natural at it. No doubt that’s why he’s looking for
me this morning. Must’ve found a new way to be a pest.”
I collected the makings of a clean, black outfit and headed for the bathroom.
Dr. Folsom followed, turning her back when I ran the shower.
“Actually, he said it’s about some research you requested.”
“Oh.” I was almost disappointed. That hadn’t taken long at all. Apparently,
I’d have to be civil to him long enough to get what I needed.
I ripped open the shower curtain and stepped in, shutting it with like
enthusiasm.
“What exactly did he do?” she asked.
“Nope, not telling. Absolutely not.” I needed no further opinion on it,
especially from someone as biased about Nicoli as Dr. Folsom clearly was.
“I’ll just ask him, then.”
“Good luck with that,” I told her, calling her bluff.
She sighed in defeat. Or at least that’s what I thought, until she changed her
tactics. “You know, everyone’s waiting to offer their congratulations on your
promotion. When you didn’t show this morning—well, let’s just say there were
some very curious whispers exchanged at breakfast.”
“Oh?” I said, taking a stab at nonchalant. “What’s the latest story? Anything
resembling Lt. Sheldon’s accusations?” I told myself it didn’t matter, but deep
down I knew my skin just wasn’t that thick. It mattered. A lot.
“I really wouldn’t know. At least, I don’t think I would know.”
I eased back the shower curtain, shampoo threatening the rims of my
eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you?”
“Well, now, that depends on you, doesn’t it, my dear?”
118
www.samhainpublishing.com
Degrees of Wrong
I closed the curtain again with deliberate control. “I suppose I’ll just have to
wait and see, then.” I wasn’t falling for her shameless trickery.
I heard what I could only guess was Dr. Folsom stomping her foot, and then,
“Oh, come on. Why won’t you tell me how he’s been irritating you?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t care to hear all the reasons why you don’t think he would
intentionally annoy me. He can, after all, do no wrong in your eyes.”
She chuckled. “Are you so sure he’s doing it on purpose?”
I ripped the curtain open and pointed an angry finger and some water at Dr.
Folsom. “See! Right there! That’s exactly what I’m talking about. He is doing it on purpose. I’d bet my degree on it. And yours.” I closed it again and dumped too