Shit. This was worse than he’d thought.
“Forget the city. We can go to the beach,” Shade said, trying to tempt her. It wasn’t a secret between them that she was interested in discretion, so he added, “There shouldn’t be anyone around once we get past the casino.”
Her eyes widened. “A beach? With sand?”
He nodded. “And water. Waves. Fish. The usual things.”
Tess looked both excited and petrified. Had she never been to the beach before?
“I can’t swim,” she admitted, seeming to deflate.
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Shade almost shuddered at the thought. “The water’s too cold for that.”
Visibly relieved, she turned to Jax, grinning. “Jax. The beach!”
His answering smile was resigned, but genuine. “Enjoy it, partner.”
Partner? Shade instantly knew what that meant. They’d been paired up on Hourglass Mile.
A stab of jealousy struck him square in the chest, surprising him with its sharpness. Had they been lovers? Were they still?
Realizing he was being irrational and even an asshole, considering his own agenda, Shade still replayed any interaction he’d seen between them in his head. They were close, and seemed to understand each other without many words, but they didn’t look at each other like they were anything other than friends.
Whatever relief he felt was tainted. He couldn’t imagine what they’d been through, and yet here he was, poised to rip them apart. He could even do it tonight, with her coming willingly. Unsuspectingly.
Shade started to feel a little nauseous. Was this who he was now? He didn’t like this man much.
“Do I need anything?” Tess asked. She frowned. “Currency units?”
Shade shook his head. He knew she didn’t have a unit to spare. “Just a sweater. It’s cooler outside of the city.”
She nodded and disappeared back into the ship.
Jax stared at him, and Shade waited for the home-before-midnight-hands-to-yourself speech. He hadn’t heard it since he was a teenager, but he knew that look well enough. It was timeless and universal.
“Tess makes her own decisions.” Jax squatted down, bringing their faces closer together. “Just be careful what you do with her good faith.”
That was more spot-on and hit harder than the lecture Shade had been anticipating. Jax flexing a big hand between them like he was ready to wrap it around Shade’s throat and squeeze was exactly what he’d expected.
Shade didn’t step back. Jax had to know he would put up a good fight.
Tess reappeared quickly and hopped down onto the platform to join him. Her slightly hesitant smile always seemed to knock the air from his lungs, and this time was no different. Shade once again had to wonder what the hell he was doing, especially since there was attraction between them. Was he moving toward a decision, or just making everything worse?
His questions didn’t stop him, and they turned and walked toward the elevator tubes together. Shade glanced furtively at Tess. He couldn’t remember a time in his adult life when he hadn’t had to shorten his stride to accommodate a woman.
“Bye, Jax!” Tess called as they stepped into the next available lift.
Jax grimace-smiled at her from the Endeavor. He waved just as the elevator doors shut.
“He hates me,” Shade said as they whooshed toward ground level.
Tess laughed. “He’s just protective. He’s…lost people.”
The smile that had managed to start budding on Shade’s lips died. “You seemed to like the idea of the beach,” he said, wanting to change the subject.
“I saw what I thought was an ocean when we flew in. I was curious.”
“Not used to water, then?” he asked as they exited the elevator, and he guided her toward his small private cruiser. It easily fit two, though not many more. It was space-worthy, but he also used it to get around Albion 5. It was a hell of a lot safer than the public shuttles run by the planetary authorities. He knew that for a fact.
“I’m used to metal, metal, and more metal. Honestly, when I hit water, I might rust.”
Shade chuckled, opening the door for her. “I don’t think it works that way.”
Tess slid into her seat, seeming entirely at home in any kind of spacecraft. “I’ll let you know after the beach.”
Her words gnawed at Shade’s conscience as he rounded the cruiser to his side. What if there wasn’t an after? What if there was? He was feeling less and less inclined to make a decision tonight.
But if he didn’t bring her in soon, then someone else would. She had a massive price on her head. He knew of at least one couple that was bound to be searching high and low for Tess—and they’d be a lot less gentle with her than he would. And Solan and Raquel weren’t the only ones. There were a dozen skilled hunters that could be on this right now, and a dozen others that might just have dumb luck. The end result would still be the same for Tess, but he would be out two hundred million units—everything and more that he still needed to buy back his docks.
Shade opened his door a little too forcefully. His docks. Who the fuck was he kidding? They hadn’t been his for ten years. And if he turned his back on the bounty for Tess, chances were they wouldn’t be his for ten more.
He powered up and took off, staying low to avoid traffic. Tess watched the city go by, seeming to appreciate it but not looking overly impressed. Her Sector 12 accent made him think she’d grown up with enough privilege to make Albion City look pretty basic. So what had turned her into a rebel and a thief?
“Sector 12 has all the best planets and the nicest resorts. How come you’ve never been to the beach?” he asked.
She glanced over. “I told you, I’m from 8.”
“And yet you speak in tones of the galactic ideal.”
She paled and turned back to the window. “I abhor the galactic ideal.”
Shade could tell. “Yeah, me too,” he said.
Tess swung around again. “I do. You do. There must be other people who do, too. Why is it winning? Why is he winning?”
Shade shrugged, going for levity. “I guess people don’t like having to think for themselves.”
“That’s bullshit,” Tess said, leaning toward him.
“Because he has bigger guns?”
She snorted. “Because he doesn’t fear using them.”
Shade felt sweat prick the back of his neck. For fuck’s sake, they’d been in the cruiser for five minutes, and she already had him talking like a Nightchaser.
He tried to steer the conversation to safer territory. “The Overseer brought order.”
“The Overseer brought murder, and I’ll jump out of this boat right now if you start trying to convince me otherwise.”
Shade blew out a breath. This wasn’t a path he’d wanted to go down with her tonight. He already understood that she was radical to the core. “You do realize that most people would report you for a statement like that?”
“Are you most people?” she challenged, facing him straight on.
He hoped not. He sure as hell didn’t want to be. “You got a parachute?” he teased, since she’d just threatened to jump out.
She didn’t look impressed.
“I control the locks, Ms. Bailey.”
Her chin went up. “I can override any lock.”
Interesting tidbit. Was that how she stole the good stuff? “Since the locking mechanism is on my side, good luck overriding me first,” Shade said.
Her eyes narrowed as her razor-sharp gaze shifted over the lighted panels. Her mouth thinned, and she hmphed.
Shade grinned. This was turning fun again.
Tess had spirit. She made every sentence feel like a dare—like she was daring him to be different. To be more. He’d wanted more from the women he’d dated in the last decade, but all he’d found
were people trying so hard to conform that they’d left him feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. Even in private, no one was willing to make a ripple for fear of where that wave might wash up—and who it could drag under. He didn’t blame them, but there was nothing exciting about it, especially in bed. The galactic ideal was boring as fuck.
Tess finally grinned back. “You’re just trying to rile me up.”
“Guilty,” he said with a wink, although that hadn’t been entirely it.
The city disappeared behind them, giving way to green fields and then to a tangle of foliage. They flew over the forest, and Tess inched away from the window while still avidly staring down. She looked like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to jump in with both feet or run away screaming. It was cute.
“We have dragons,” Shade said, nodding toward the darkening treetops. “That’s where they live.”
She gasped, and her head whipped around. “What? Really?”
Damn. He couldn’t help smiling again. “Just kidding.”
“Why would you do that?” Tess’s hand snapped out and thumped him hard across the chest. “Dragons don’t exist.”
His lips twitched. “Maybe they did—at one point.”
She shook her head. “Next you’ll be telling me there are mermaids in your ocean.”
Shade sighed. “Ah, wouldn’t that be nice. I’d come to the beach every day, if that were the case.”
He thought she muttered men under her breath.
Tess looked like she was having fun again. So was he. That was a problem—and yet he didn’t want it to stop.
The cruiser’s com buzzed, and Shade glanced at the caller ID. His pulse surged. Solan and Raquel.
He reached over and rejected the communication.
“Do you need to answer that?” Tess asked.
Shade shook his head. “Nothing important.” Now, if he could just convince his hammering heart of that.
A few minutes later, the casino resort came into view. Tess pressed up so close to the window that it started fogging up, and she had to use her sweater to wipe it off.
“The shore is amazing,” she breathed out. “Such pretty lights.”
“What? The torches?” Shade asked. They lined the long stretch of beach.
She nodded. “It looks so…ancient and exotic.”
That was what he’d always thought. Every time he saw them, he half expected prehistoric tribespeople to materialize with their body paint and drums and start dancing beneath the moons.
“It’s pest control,” he told her. “There’s a scent that keeps insects away from the beach.”
“It’s beautiful,” Tess murmured, sounding like she was caught in a dream and just waking up.
Fuck mermaids. Tess had a siren’s voice that sent his blood rushing south. Shade shifted in his seat. “Let’s go down for a closer look.”
She turned his way again. “Not to the casino, though, right? Just to the beach?”
Shade nodded. Every wily rat in Sector 2 frequented the Star Palace Casino, and there was no way he was bringing Tess into it. He’d gone in exactly once and lost everything. He hated that place.
Next to it, though, was the only safe stretch of beach on this side of Albion 5. Most of the coast was rocky and lined with sheer, often-crumbling cliffs. And here, the waters were all netted off. Nothing that might eat you could get through.
Shade requested a docking space, paid electronically, and then brought the cruiser down to his assigned platform in the beehive-like structure adjacent to the resort. Landing here put them closer to the casino than he liked, but there was no other choice. This was all Star Palace land for as far as the eye could see, and the owner didn’t tolerate anyone on his property for free. The minimum to set foot on the private beach was forking over the docking fee.
With a smirk in Tess’s direction, Shade very pointedly unlocked the doors. Tess smirked back and hopped out, but he didn’t miss the humor in her eyes. It made him feel both warm and cold.
The com buzzed a second time, drawing his attention away from Tess. Solan and Raquel. Again. Couldn’t they leave him alone? Figure things out on their own for once?
Or not, he revised, glancing at his companion. He knew what, or rather who, the hunters were after.
Tess grabbed her sweater. “They’re not giving up. I’ll let you take that while I wait by the railing.” She nodded toward the edge of the platform before shutting her door again.
Tess was clearly a woman who valued privacy and didn’t begrudge him his. Could she be any more perfect?
WANTED flashed through his mind. Yeah, he supposed she could.
Then again, she probably wouldn’t have been half as interesting if she’d been your typical law-abiding citizen.
They were docked one-hundred-and-seventy-two levels up and over a cliff, but she still went straight to the edge and leaned against the barrier, looking out. An ocean breeze tossed her loose hair around, and Shade thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life as Tess framed by a dusky, dark-blue sky and the first stars of the night.
Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzzz.
Scowling, he crushed his finger down on the com like he wanted to pulverize it. “What?” he barked.
“Why the hell aren’t you out on this hunt, man?” Solan asked in response.
“How the fuck do you know where I am?” Shade asked.
“Raquel might have added a little something to your cruiser the last time we met up.”
Shit. That called for an immediate sweep for tracking bugs. “Met up? You mean when you followed me and stole my target and my reward.”
Solan scoffed. “Lighten up, Shade. You get all the good ones.”
Shade clenched his fists, wanting to punch something. These two had sunk to a new level. “That’s because I work. Not because I swoop in at the end with illegal weapons and screw colleagues out of what’s theirs.”
The call went to video, and because they were on his contact list, it happened without him having to accept. He glared into Raquel’s resort-tanned face. Solan hovered behind her, the black man a little far back to clearly see in the grainy video feed.
“I have books about how to play nicely with others,” Raquel told him. “They’re for a five-year-old, so probably right at your level.”
Shade snorted. It was hard to believe that Solan and Raquel had a child. They were the ones who needed to learn about fairness. And fucking safety. The kid probably played with knives and drank poison.
Solan’s teeth flashed at his wife’s jibe. They were in their cruiser—so anywhere in the galaxy. Great.
Their daughter was doubtless at home in Sector 6 with a caretaker, probably setting the house on fire.
“You want to lecture me about playing nice?” Shade asked, incredulous. “You threw a fucking firebomb at my head!”
Raquel’s don’t-give-a-shit shrug came with a little smile. “Your hair will grow back.”
It hadn’t been long to begin with, but it hadn’t been this short.
“What do you want?” Shade asked, his molars grinding in the back. “I’m busy.”
“Too busy to go on the biggest hunt of our lives?” Solan asked.
Shade knew he needed to come up with a good excuse right now for not having moved yet, or they’d swoop down on Albion 5 and Tess. “I’m working on something already. It’s about my docks.”
“Your docks?” Solan asked.
“Fuck you,” Shade said.
Raquel glanced over her shoulder at her husband, tutting. “You know how sensitive he is about those towers.”
Solan barely had eyebrows, but they still went up. “All the more reason to go on this hunt. He could buy them all back tomorrow.”
Shade darted a look at Tess. They had no idea.
And Solan clearly wasn’t buying his story. He ne
eded to add a layer.
“Since you’ve obviously put a tracking bug on my ship, you know I’m at the Star Palace Casino. I’ve got a meeting with Scarabin White.”
“Why? You don’t have the money,” Raquel said.
“I’ve got enough to make a decent offer,” Shade lied. “If he accepts, I’ll buy what I can on Albion 5, forget about the rock next door, and get out of the hunt. Never liked it anyway,” he muttered.
Solan leaned closer to the camera. “Or you go on one last hunt and buy it all. We can work the case together. We each take a third. With this prize, you can have everything you want and more.”
Not true. A third would only be enough if they doubled the bounty by turning over whatever it was that Tess had stolen.
And then there was the bonus for a live capture…
Shade shook his head. It didn’t matter. There’d be no splitting of anything. If he chose to, he’d take it all.
“If you’re calling me with that offer,” he said, “it means you have no idea where this woman is located.”
Raquel’s face pinched. She had two expressions: bland and bitch. He didn’t like either. “You’re the best tracker,” she grudgingly admitted.
“You need me,” Shade said. “I don’t need you. This conversation is over.”
They muted their voices but didn’t disconnect. Shade thought about hanging up on them, but they’d just call back.
“Half,” Raquel said when they unmuted the conversation again. “You get half, and we bring her in together.”
“That’s a pretty hypothetical half, since no one has a clue about the target,” Shade said. His eyes wanted to find Tess again. He forced them not to.
“Really?” Solan asked dubiously. “Nothing? No research? You haven’t been looking at all?”
“No. I told you, I’m working on a deal with White.”
Someone striding out of the elevator doors caught Shade’s eye. Speak of the devil. The scumbag himself had just walked onto their platform and was making a beeline for Tess.
Shade couldn’t even be surprised that White had shown up immediately, although he’d hoped to avoid him for once, despite resort security keeping track of any ship that docked here. Scarabin White took every opportunity to grind Shade’s face into what he’d lost. Tonight would be no different.
Nightchaser Page 12
