Red Sky at Night (Home in the stars, #0.5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

not where they were, but the temps dropped lower in the fall and winter.
    It had been a few weeks since they'd buried their Da, and Ari was beside herself still, not leaving the house and crying all the time. He worried about her. So much that he had Brinn looking in on her too.
    At Carnes Mining, Dante had changed his name on the company rolls and given him a low profile maintenance job on an out of the way clean up crew to ensure they had a means to live. Ari had nearly finished her at-home courses in navigation and management.
    He'd been shocked when she said she wanted them at all. That she did meant she was planning on leaving. He watched her sadly as the last of his family felt like it was slipping away from him. They had breakfast together every morning, but then he never saw her after that. She stayed in her room.
    Brinn happened to be with them this morning. She offered him juice, and he took it, automatically saying thank you distractedly. Ari sat across from him at the small round table, pale and depressed. She'd lost a lot over the last cycle.
    Ari put her fork down with a clink. "I think you two should get married."
    A stunned silence fell in the room. Brinn looked surprised and uncomfortable.
    "Honey, we don't have to do that now with your Da... I wouldn't feel right."
    "No," she insisted. "You need to get married. I've thought this over and it's the only way."
    "We can get married anytime." Brinn began to argue.
    Ari interrupted, " I'm pregnant."
    Arden stared at her. "You're what?"
    "I'm pregnant, Arden, and I need you and Brinn to raise the baby."

CHAPTER SIX
    *

    Arden continued to stare at his sister. His baby sister who was pregnant with Carnes' baby. "What do you mean you're pregnant?"
    Waspishly, she answered, "It means just what it means. I'm pregnant. You were going to get married anyway. If I come up pregnant with an heir for Caden, what do you think that monster will do?"
    Arden thought about it, really thought about it. He knew Carnes was all about his empire and his legacy. He was mad with it. If Ari had a child that was part of that legacy.... "Oh, shit," he said.
    "Right, oh shit. I have to do something. We don't have the credits to run away, so I have to think camouflage."
    She pinned her gaze to Brinn. "You'd do this for me, wouldn't you? I know it’s a lot to ask."
    Brinn turned toward Ari in the motherly, kind way she had that soothed everyone. "Of course, I'd do anything for you, Ari. You're family to me." She bit her bottom lip. "But, honey, are you sure? Your baby? Can you do that?"
    "I would do anything for my child," she echoed back Brinn's words. Brinn took her hand across the table. “I will do it.”
    Arden finally found his voice, clearing his throat, he asked her, "How do you propose that we hide this from our neighbors?"
    "I can hide it, but you have to get married just as you planned." Arden raised a brow skeptically. He didn't see how this would work. But, it was happening, he guessed, whether they wanted it or not. They had to come up with something in a hurry.
    Ari fidgeted in her seat. "I’ve been working this out for a while. Anne Marie works in the clinic. She's agreed to help me have the baby here. We'll just pass it off as Brinn's child."
    It wasn't unheard of, he thought. Women on Taarken did sometimes opt to deliver at home, to avoid the expense of the medical facility. He ran a hand down his tired face. "You know this means Brinn has to play at being pregnant. Why don't you ask her first how she feels about lying to everyone she knows?"
    Brinn cleared her throat and looked at him sternly. " I can speak for myself. Arden, she's not wrong. If Carnes thought this was his child, even a little suspicion, he'd come after her. We know just what he's capable of."
    They all let their minds wander to their recent loss. Arden knew that according to local lore Alec Carnes' father had done something similar once, taking a child from one of the local whores because he believed it