Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  Grim’s pointed stare said it all. Nickie felt her face redden as the others fixed her with similar looks of shock, but she ignored them. John was speaking again.

  “Hello? Hello? Are you receiving me, Themis Colony?” There was confusion in his voice.

  Nickie swung her feet down and sat up. “We hear you loud and clear,” she replied. She took her finger off the button and sighed resignedly. “Yes, you have the right place. You have permission to land at the coordinates I’m going to send you in a minute.”

  “Great! I’ll see you there.”

  Nickie’s top lip curled at John’s cheerful tone. She cut the audio link and got up to go meet the not-so-lost prince at the airfield. “Meredith, send him the coordinates.” She pointed at Grim, who was doing his best to look anywhere except directly at Nickie. “Not a fucking word.”

  Grim put his hands up. “I wasn’t—”

  She held a finger up to cut him off. “I said not one.”

  She flounced out, and Grim looked at the others. “You saw that I didn’t say anything, right?”

  Rebus Quadrant, Themis Colony, Airfield

  Nickie waited at the side of the airfield while the ship landed. She was a little unsettled by the presence of the Briar Rose, and that was before Prince Precious even disembarked.

  Mere, that ship looks a hell of a lot different from the Federation ships I remember.

  Things move quickly in the Federation, Nickie. You didn’t expect progress to grind to a halt in your absence, did you?

  No, but look at it. She could tell just from the outside that this ship was much evolved compared to the technology that had been available to non-military persons when she’d still been a part of the Federation. She wondered for a second what else might have changed since she’d been gone, but she pushed the thought away before it could sting her too badly. It’s a good-looking ship.

  I’m talking to it. Or rather to Briar, the ship’s EI, right now.

  What? What do EIs talk about?

  Meredith snickered. Whatever I want it to. That baby EI is no match for me.

  The ship completed its landing, and the door opened far too slowly for Nickie’s liking. A figure in a spacesuit emerged and stood silhouetted in the doorway for a moment before descending the ramp.

  Nickie kept her face straight, but she was cracking up inside. Oh, my God, Meredith, of all the things. He’s wearing a cape. A fucking cape!

  Briar tells me that this is one of his tamer ensembles.

  I hope you're more loyal to me than Briar Rose is to John.

  Meredith feigned outrage. I cannot believe you would even ask such a question. Of course, I’m looking out for your best interests.

  Shit, sorry. I forgot you were sense of humor-challenged. Nickie smirked as John walked toward her, holding his very shiny helmet under one arm. It’s a pity he’s got such questionable fashion sense. He’s actually pretty hot.

  John held out his free hand as he arrived at her position. “Nickie?”

  “That’s me.” Nickie caught a whiff of herself as she accepted his handshake. Ugh, what a day to skip the morning shower. She retrieved her hand from John’s firm grip and ran it self-consciously through her tangled hair. She caught herself and shoved the hand into her pocket.

  John appeared not to notice Nickie’s discomfort. He smiled disarmingly. “Good to meet you. I’m John Deblanc.”

  Is that a fucking dimple?

  It does indeed look to be a dimple, Meredith replied.

  Are you laughing? Meredith, stop laughing!

  Nickie scowled. “What are you doing here? And how the fuck do you know who I am when I only heard of you yesterday?”

  John’s dimple deepened. “Funny you should say that. I was tracking the message my parents sent. I didn’t know you existed until yesterday. I just followed the message, and here I am.”

  Nickie wished Grim had come out to the airfield so she could rub his face in it. She scowled at the prince. “I’d prefer you didn’t know I existed at all. It’s kinda the point of being so far from the Federation. You’ve wasted your time coming here. I don’t want anything to do with Federation business. You should be on your way.” She moved to leave, dismissing John with a wave.

  John reached out to stop Nickie from leaving but stopped short of touching her when she glared daggers at him. “Wait a minute. It’s not exactly Federation business. I need your help.”

  Nickie almost felt guilty about the confusion she was causing John. She didn’t want him here, though. Not him, and not anyone else from the Federation, unless it was her aunt returning. “You’re from the Federation, and that makes it their business. Which makes it not my business. Speaking of, you should call and let them know you’re not dead. You know, stop them worrying and reaching out to busy people who don’t want to be disturbed.”

  John glanced around with a slightly bemused expression. “Yeah, you look very busy doing,” he looked her up and down skeptically, “what, mining?”

  Nickie narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m swamped, thank you very much. Thought you needed rescuing? You don’t look like you do.” She turned her back on him and stalked off toward the Penitent Granddaughter. Meredith, get the ship open so I can lose him already.

  John shrugged and set off to keep up with her. “Yeah, I haven’t checked in recently. Nice of you to come running to save me when you thought I was in danger.”

  Nickie snorted in disbelief. “Why should I? I don’t know you from Adam.”

  Or ADAM, Meredith chipped in.

  Not the time, Meredith.

  You complain when I joke, you complain when I don’t. What do you want from me?

  Silence would be nice. She tuned back in to John somewhat reluctantly.

  “I need help to do this. If you’re being called on to help rescue me, I think the odds are you’re up to the task I have to complete.”

  Nickie paused while she waited for the ramp to descend. “Look, I’m not going to help. You should save your breath. Go call your family and tell them you’re not dead, then you can get back to having adventures you can post on Rich Kids of the Federation without any more involvement from me.”

  She hopped onto the ramp before it even touched the ground and stormed through the door of the ship. Meredith, retract the damn ramp.

  John hopped on after her, wobbling to regain his balance as the ramp pulled him in.

  Meredith!

  I’m sorry, he was too fast. Or the ramp was too slow.

  Nickie wasn’t fooled for a moment by Meredith’s evasion. Whatever. I’ll get rid of him myself.

  John called after Nickie as she made the turn toward her quarters. “Just hear me out, please! This isn’t the trivial matter you’re making it out to be.”

  It wouldn’t hurt to listen, Nickie. He seems rather concerned.

  You bitch! I knew you were slow with that ramp on purpose. She growled in frustration as she entered her quarters and headed for her wardrobe. The prince appeared in her doorway as she was taking out fresh clothing. Nickie nodded at the chair in the corner. “Well, come in then. Start talking. You have ten minutes, and then I’m kicking your ass off my ship.” John hesitated for a moment. Nickie shook her head. “Your ten minutes has already started.”

  John sat down and sighed. “I really do need your help.”

  Nickie took her things into the bathroom and stood in the doorway. “So you’ve said. Multiple times. What you haven’t told me is what you need my help with.”

  She went back into the bathroom and dropped her coveralls. John gasped. “Don’t act like you’ve never seen tits before,” she told him as she stepped into the shower and turned the water on. “Just get on with it, I haven’t got all day. Some of us have to work to live. We’re not all so pampered that we can just spend the day chatting.”

  John shut his mouth and swallowed. “I…um. I don’t know where to start now that I have someone to listen.”

  Nickie sighed. It sounded like he needed exactl
y the kind of emotional maintenance she didn’t accept she too needed. She wasn’t going to take it on for Prince Precious. “Start with this quest your family said you were on. What the fuck is going on with that? Quests are for stories.”

  “Not on my world. I have to complete these tasks, or my whole planet will be at war within the year. My father is sick, really sick, and the vultures are circling. So instead of spending what could be my father’s final days with him, I’ve roamed the sector like a damn nomad. I’ve killed a mythical beast, which made me feel like shit since it was one of the last of its kind, rescued a maiden—who, it turned out, didn’t want rescuing—from the Skaines.”

  “She didn’t want rescuing?”

  “No,” John replied. “She was less of a damsel in distress and more like their damned harridan business manager.”

  “The galaxy is a freaky place.”

  Nickie got out of the shower with her towel wrapped around her and closed the bathroom door while she dressed. She came out a couple of minutes later, drying her hair with the towel. “Sounds like a regular Tuesday morning for me. What do you want, a medal?” She scraped her damp hair into a ponytail and pulled her boots on.

  John shook his head. “That was all pretty easy to do. For my final task, I have to obtain a rare medicinal plant from the center of a volcano.” He explained before Nickie could interrupt. “I need to get the plant because it will heal my father and prove my worth as a leader in the eyes of the people. Then he can take a back seat without war breaking out. I’ve located the planet the volcano is on, but I really don’t fancy my chances alone. So here I am, asking the prickliest woman I have ever met to help.”

  Nickie scoffed. “Seriously? I’d kinda assumed you were dicking around on a treasure hunt or something.”

  “So I gathered. Nickie, I have never met anyone as abrasive as you, but I have to hope that with a name like Grimes you have the skills I need to get this done.” John’s tone was deadly serious. “The future of my people is at stake, and I wouldn’t be here asking for your help if I could see any other way around it.”

  Nickie chose not to respond.

  John sighed and rested his head in his hands. “I need a partner, Nickie.”

  Nickie balked. “Yeah, no. I don’t do partnerships.”

  John noticed the way she tensed with her reply. He softened his voice. “You do helping, though, don’t you? That’s what you’re doing here, isn’t it?”

  Nickie turned away. “What would you know? Maybe I’m just hiding. Don’t assume you know me or my motivations.”

  John shook his head. “Hiding from yourself, maybe. You don’t think you’re up to the task.”

  Nickie sneered. “Stick your reverse psychology up your ass. I’ve been conditioned against that shit by smarter people than you, and I’m perfectly capable of doing whatever I need to do. I just gave up fighting other people’s battles a long time ago.”

  John smiled. “I don’t believe you.”

  Nickie shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck if you believe me. It’s the truth. It’s too much effort to give a shit about anyone.”

  John’s smile deepened, making his dimple wink. “Like these colonists? Are you really telling me you’re not here to help them?”

  Nickie scowled. “That’s different. I owe them, and I pay my debts.”

  John shook his head. “I think you’re lying. I think you do care underneath all the attitude. The snarky remarks. It’s all a front.” He fixed her with a searching gaze. “You have fire in your eyes. You were born to war, just like I was.”

  Nickie burst out laughing. “That’s priceless! You were just telling me how you want to avoid war.”

  “I want to avoid it because that’s what’s best for my people. I never said I didn’t feel most alive in the heat of battle.”

  Nickie was thrown again. What was it with this man? She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to kiss him or punch him repeatedly. Mostly the second. Maybe just a little of the first. It was too bad she wasn’t going to find out. She sighed and headed for the door. “Come on,” she commanded.

  John’s face lit up. “You agree to help me?”

  Nickie laughed as she strode down the corridor. “Fuck, no. Your ten minutes are up. I’m taking you to get some breakfast, then you can get your princely ass on that shiny ship of yours ‘cuz I’m sending you on your way.”

  John hurried to catch her again before she left the ship without him. “Cool. I could definitely use a meal. Besides, that’s like, what? Another thirty minutes or so to change your mind. I’ll take it.”

  Chapter 9

  Nickie

  Rebus Quadrant, Themis Colony, Mess Hall

  Adelaide stopped in the middle of telling Raynard her plans for the day and frowned at his distant stare. “So then Keen proposed, and I said yes, of course, as long as we can have Grim officiate.”

  Raynard snapped out of it. “Huh?”

  “Oh, so you were listening.”

  Raynard rubbed his stubble with a hand. “I’m sorry, Addie. My mind is on the meeting this morning.”

  Adelaide tutted. “Your mind is always on council business these days. You take no time for yourself.”

  Raynard stared at her. “What do you want me to do? Abandon everyone?”

  “No, just don’t abandon yourself.” Adelaide nodded at the lines that had appeared recently around his eyes. “You haven’t slept properly in weeks, and you’re barely eating. You can’t keep running this hard forever.”

  He looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “Addie, there isn’t room for me right now. I have a duty to the people of this colony. If I stop…there just isn’t time.”

  “What about us? Is there time for that?” She tried to keep the quiver from her voice as she reached for his hand to comfort him.

  Raynard pulled his hand away. “I can’t, Addie. I just can’t.”

  Adelaide’s heart broke for him. “We’re all hurting. That’s no reason to isolate yourself. I miss you.” She tried to capture his gaze, but he looked away. “Raynard. Please.”

  “Addie… I… I have to get to work. The meeting is in half an hour, and I have things to prepare still.”

  Adelaide let out a small choked sob. She wiped her eye with the corner of her sleeve and stood up just as Nickie entered the mess hall with a strange man. “Then go. But don’t be surprised if one of these days you come looking for me and I’m not here.”

  Nickie strode ahead so that John had to hurry to keep up with her. No point in letting him get comfortable since he wouldn’t be around for more than a beat.

  She pushed open the door of the mess hall and went inside without waiting for him.

  Adelaide and Raynard were clearly in the middle of something. She looked around the mess hall for Grim and Durq and headed to the breakfast line when she spotted them sitting with Keen.

  “This place is nice,” John remarked as he joined her. “I’d love to know how a Yollin and a…is that a Skaine? How the hell did a Skaine end up living with humans?”

  Nickie rounded on him. “You leave my Skaine alone.”

  John’s eyes widened. “You keep him as a slave? That’s extreme. Hang on, that’s not why you’re out here, is it?”

  “What?” Nickie scowled. “No, you dumbass, he’s on my crew. And he’s sensitive, so if you upset him you’ll have to deal with me, okay?” She held her tray out with a little more force than necessary to receive her scoop of eggs.

  John held up his hand in apology. “Sorry, I just assumed.” He snickered. “How does it feel to be on the receiving end?”

  She ignored him and went to sit with Grim and Durq. John followed and sat across from her at the table. “Grim, Durq, this is my new shadow Prince Pain-in-the-Ass. He’s only staying for breakfast, so don’t get too attached.”

  John grinned and leaned over to offer his hand to everyone around the table. “John Deblanc of Reinek, at your service.”

  Grim craned to get a better look at John�
��s outfit as he pumped his hand. “Cool cape,” he marveled.

  Keen was similarly entranced. “You know, I don’t know why capes ever went out of style.”

  John soaked up the attention. “My thoughts exactly. There’s no reason a man can’t go questing and look good at the same time.”

  Nickie laughed. “You’re joking? I see the cape, and all the ways I could use it to incapacitate you.”

  Grim waved her off. “Ignore her, John. She’s terminally grumpy. Tell us about this questing. What is it?”

  Nickie ate her breakfast in silence while John launched into an explanation. Grim, Durq, and Keen hung on his every word, but she’d heard it already. She had more important things to consider.

  Like…

  Shit, like what? She couldn’t think of a single thing.

  Nickie zoned out completely. Despite her earlier protests, what did she actually contribute here that couldn’t be done by someone else? Maybe Prince Perfect was right, and she was hiding from herself. She’d been here a few weeks. Long enough to get involved, but she’d done what she always did—kept herself on the periphery. She’d avoided being roped into meetings, and skipped almost all of the community gatherings.

  Not that she wanted to be involved. She wasn’t cut out for management. Still, although she’d avoided all that tedium, she hadn’t exactly filled her time with anything that broke the monotony of the routine she’d fallen into without even noticing.

  John was drawing a crowd with the animated retelling of his quest so far. She listened along with the others and actually, this time around it didn’t sound quite as ridiculous as when he’d told her in her quarters.

  It could have been something to do with the energy he put into his narration. She couldn’t help but smile as he reenacted his battle with the beast. He told it so well she began to wish for a good fight herself. But as she’d told Meredith, that wasn’t a likely outcome as long as she was here.

  John jumped up onto the bench and planted a foot on the table as he slashed the air wildly with his imaginary sword.