“Shall we see if your friends escaped?” Viktor asked.
Yes, that was important, but she kissed him first, needing him to know she cared that he had been injured, that she cared that he—they—had defeated Felgard, and… just that she cared.
His hand slid up her back to tangle in her hair as he returned the kiss. “Or we could stay here,” he murmured against her lips.
“All right.”
He snorted softly and pulled back, though he captured the side of her face with his hand. “I wasn’t truly suggesting that. There are a lot of people still alive around here who may not take kindly to their employer’s death.”
As much as Ankari would have liked to continue with the embracing, kissing, and gazing into Viktor’s eyes, she had to concede to that logic—there was probably something twisted about smooching while a pile of carnivorous plants were finishing their human lunch nearby too.
“How do we get back up there?” she asked.
Viktor tapped his comm-patch. “Sequoia, you still at the helm of that shuttle?”
“’Course I am, sir. Just sitting here, working on some navigational math problems Commander Thatcher assigned me at someone’s request.” The pilot’s cough wasn’t subtle.
“We’re ready for a pickup. Backside of the biggest building here. Grab the others on the way.”
“Yes, sir.”
“He sounded a little bitter,” Ankari said when the communication ended. “Should we be worried that he’ll forget to pick us up?”
“No, pilots need to be mentally challenged. Commander Thatcher would be the first to tell you that. Have you met him?”
“I don’t remember.” Most of the crew was still a blur to Ankari.
“You’d remember him.” Viktor smirked.
“In a good way or a bad way?”
“Can the answer be both?”
“Ah, maybe?”
She must have appeared concerned, because Viktor said, “Perhaps you should have spent more time learning about the eccentricities of my crew before making us partners and agreeing to set up your labs on my ship.”
“Oh, but I look forward to learning about those eccentricities.” Ankari smiled and gave him another kiss.
Epilogue
“I’ll admit, this is much better than I’d imagined,” Lauren said, stroking some kind of fancy cryo-electron microscope with the fondness one usually reserved for a lover. Or at least a cat or puppy.
Ankari thought the lab felt claustrophobic with all the new equipment packing the counters and shelves and cabinets in the small environmental cabin on the Albatross, but Lauren had the space to herself now, so maybe she didn’t mind. Ankari had a small desk—with a chair—in Viktor’s cabin. Since he was on shift twelve hours a day, she could work there without being disturbed, and by the time he came home at night, they were both ready for more physical activities.
“The equipment?” Jamie asked from the doorway. She had been apprenticed to one of the lower-ranking engineers and was getting on-the-job training when Lauren didn’t need anyone to repair or make alterations to her equipment. “Or our new position on the ship in general?”
“Mostly the equipment, but this isn’t any worse than the freighter with the shaggy carpeting.”
Ankari cleared her throat. “Let’s have a little respect for the deceased and departed.”
“De-parted is right.” Jamie snickered.
“Ha ha.” Ankari swatted at her. “Shouldn’t you be down retrofitting our new shuttle, so the interior won’t scare off the clients?” Viktor had agreed to let them fix up the craft that had been damaged on Sturm and install some medical equipment, so they could zip off to meet with clients whenever Mandrake Company had a mission in the same area. “Seeing laser burns on the walls and an array of guns bristling from the front of the craft might not fill someone with the calm serenity we want our customers to feel.”
“I just came up to double-check your paint choices.” Jamie held up a tablet. “I’ve got a couple of robots working on it, but it’s not too late to change things, if there was a mistake. Did you really want the exterior to be… pink?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. I thought that might be... an error.” Jamie sighed in obvious disappointment.
“I didn’t want Viktor to be tempted to borrow our shuttle if his were maimed, blown up, or otherwise indisposed. With as much expensive equipment as we’re putting in there, it should not be used to carry thugly mercenaries down to a battle zone.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
Since Jamie wasn’t enthused with the color, it probably wasn’t surprising that Ankari’s comm-patch chimed a few minutes later with someone else’s input.
“Markovich,” Viktor growled. Though the entire ship was aware of their relationship, he still called her by last name in public—and when he was irked with her. “Why is there a pink shuttle in my shuttle bay?”
“Because I’m a girl and I like pink,” she responded cheerily.
“This is unacceptable.”
Ankari tried to decide if he was truly mad or simply blustering. Maybe he had to look good—suitably surly and authoritative—because one of his men had walked into the shuttle bay with him. “Really, Captain, you never stipulated that the shuttle remain its utterly boring gray color. In fact, you gave it to me without stipulations at all. It’s not as if I have my own spaceship that I can paint and decorate to suit my needs.” She winked at Lauren and Jamie. As guilty as Viktor felt about that incident, she could probably use it as a trump card in arguments for years to come.
He growled again, though no audible words accompanied the noise this time.
“Does he growl that much in bed?” Jamie asked.
“Yes, but it’s a different kind of growl. Much more enthused.”
“We’re not interested in those details,” Lauren said, her head once again bent over her new microscope.
“I might be a little interested,” Jamie said.
“Ah, Jamie, we might have to see if we can find you a nice young man here so you can have details of your own.” Too bad the ship had a lot more bitter, middle-aged men who thought women were something to be rented by the hour.
“Just not that Striker.” Jamie’s nose wrinkled. “He keeps accidentally bumping into me and trying to invite me to his cabin to look at his comics.”
“I’m sure we can do better than that for you. Now, shall we see how that paint job is commencing? I want to make sure it’s a very vibrant shade of pink.”
THE END
Afterword
Thank you for giving Mercenary Instinct a read. I hope you enjoyed the story!
For a limited time, I’m giving away a review copy of Trial & Temptation, the second book in the Mandrake Company series, to anyone who posts a review of this book on Amazon, Goodreads, Apple, Kobo, or Smashwords. Just email me the link to your review and let me know if you would prefer a Kindle or ePub file: [email protected].
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Mercenary Instinct (a science fiction romance) Page 28
