In the Black

by Sheryl Nantus

  The pounding in her ears increased as she rotated her hips, lost in the rush of sensations, long dormant, pouring to all points south.

  For his part, Daniel was no slouch, keeping right up with her. His hands grabbed her shoulders, clawing at the well-worn leather to try to get a better grip. He pressed against her, his arousal pushing against her center with unerring aim. His hips bucked once, twice in response to her own frantic thrusting in an instinctive reaction. His almost-painful groan shot through her, tripping every circuit breaker in her mind.

  It was more than enough.

  Sam gasped into Daniel’s mouth as the explosion spiraled upward and outward at that single simple touch, burning her inside and out. The spiked pleasure ran over every nerve ending, slamming her senses with such force that for a second she thought she might faint.

  She slumped in his embrace. His pulse hammered under her lips, his neck damp with sweat.

  They hovered there for a minute in silence.

  “Dang,” Daniel whispered. “You were pretty wired.” He moaned, shifting his hips with a painful grunt. “You weren’t the only one, damn it. Good thing we’re going to be in zero most of the way out of the ship. I’ll need the time to cool down.” He moved again and sighed. “I’m too old to come in my pants and I’m not going to jerk off here.”

  Her eyes shot open, shock and embarrassment wiping out the brief rush of pleasure. She pulled her head up and shoved him away.

  Sam felt the wall under her feet and pushed past him to swim into the wider part of the corridor.

  “We have a suspect to interrogate.” Sam wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, his taste still burning. “Let’s go.”

  Her fingers trembled as she glared at them, her body’s betrayal complete.

  She couldn’t look at him, not yet.

  Only a kiss.

  It’d undone her like a rookie in her first firefight.

  A mischievous voice at the back of her mind wondered what was going to happen when she let him do more.

  She shook her head. “Let’s go.”

  “Okay.” Daniel moved by, not touching her at all. “Next stop, security office.”

  * * *

  Daniel pulled himself along the corridor by the straps, resisting the urge to look back. If she followed, great. If not he expected a swift reprimand and banning from the ship, maybe a complaint to the Guild about him being improper with the captain.

  It’d make the investigation a bit tougher but not impossible. He’d worked plenty of cases where he’d been disliked, even threatened by some or all of the parties involved. It was one of the reasons he was on long-range patrol rather than working a sweet soft desk job, something most marshals his age were aiming for. Do your time in the field and maneuver into a posting at a base or on a colony, your basic nine-to-five Monday-to-Friday job where you locked up the office and went home at the end of the day.

  He wasn’t sure he’d ever want something like that. He was used to going up the down stairs and not caring who got in his way as long as justice was served.

  But he’d never worked a case where he’d fallen for someone after one kiss.

  He resisted the urge to touch his mouth, to try to capture that taste in his memory, seal it away for those long, lonely nights on patrol. Instead he grabbed another strap and pulled himself into the galley.

  The way she’d fallen apart in his hands was, for lack of any other word, unbelievable. She’d been the worst choice for a Mercy captain, a woman with a need to touch and be touched in all the right ways. Being locked away on a ship with sex as the major export wasn’t only unhealthy, it had to be torturous.

  His lips burned. It’d been decades since he’d come from the simple act of pressing against someone but he was at the edge right now—a brush of her hands below his belt and he’d have gone off like a rocket in his pants.

  This wasn’t good.

  He’d had his occasional flings, meaningless encounters with women who didn’t understand the demands of the job. Marshals didn’t tend to get married, not until they’d settled down somewhere and given up or been forced off patrolling. Maintaining a relationship took a lot of work, especially when a woman might not see a marshal for months while he worked the circuit. There weren’t a lot of women willing to make those compromises and those who did often ended up writing Dear John letters not long into the relationship.

  It didn’t dissuade women from trying. There was a certain status assigned to UNS wives and there was always someone looking for a challenge.

  Even when he’d explained his limitations there’d been a wink and a nod as another woman tried to be the one to take him down, change who he was and make him quit the Service for her.

  Sexually, Daniel had never left one of them wanting. They may have cursed his name for refusing to leave the Service and take a security job on a base, but they never complained about him in bed.

  He’d also never left their beds unsatisfied. While they weren’t Mercy women, the majority had been eager enough to let him enjoy himself.

  But he’d never reacted to a simple kiss this way.

  It wasn’t supposed to have been anything more than a tap on the lips, a prelude for things to come. Break the ice and then extend an invitation for dinner after the case was finished and a hopeful temporary hookup before he headed off on his belated vacation with pleasant memories and possibly a mental note to stay clear of the Belle depending on how Keller handled the liaison. Help her with whatever monsters had followed her out of the military and hopefully depart as a friend with benefits, the option open to repeat performances in the future if he ever crossed the Belle’s path again.

  This had gone far beyond that.

  She’d destroyed him with a single kiss. She’d peeled away his protective layers like a surgeon with a laser scalpel and fired up his engines something awful. She’d beaten him to the point of ecstasy with nothing more than her lips.

  Daniel inhaled, feeling the burning in his blood only increase with the memory of that single kiss.

  Sam Keller was a freaking force of nature.

  He recalled her military service file. Unmarried, the occasional visit with approved courtesans during her tour of duty, but no one special in her life. No family, no friends, no one other than the crew of the Belle, and given her reaction to his kiss, he suspected she hadn’t been visiting Sean or Dane.

  Something had happened to her. Something pushing her into denying the most basic of human needs and punishing herself by being around those who specialized in it.

  He needed to know what.

  He resisted the urge to reach down and tug at his too-tight jeans.

  He needed to do something about that.

  * * *

  Sam scowled at the ship as she made her way through the corridors, keeping the marshal in sight. The kiss had been a mistake, a big mistake, and she couldn’t take it back.

  Problem was she wasn’t sure if she would if she could. The scorching heat, the goose bumps on her skin, the white-hot flash of desire—

  What the hell would it be like to get hold of the rest of him? From what she’d felt, Daniel LeClair wasn’t wanting for much other than a good woman to take him in hand.

  So to speak.

  It was a good alternative to paying Sean. That’s all she needed.

  A few hours with a man, a few hours of white-hot raunchy sex, no strings attached and no commitments, just what she deserved to burn this desire out of her body and what she needed to stay on the job. Get him off, get her off and shake hands at the end of it all.

  Send the good marshal on his way and be done with it.

  All she had to do was find Halley’s killer. This interview with Kowalski would be the key. As soon as he broke down and confessed, he’d be locked up and the marshal would be
on his way with the killer in tow and she’d be fine. Daniel LeClair would be out of sight and out of mind.

  Sam yanked on a strap hard enough to make her shoulder ache.

  She’d never liked lying to herself.

  * * *

  The walk through the base to the security section had been interesting, with the workers avoiding Sam to the point of ducking into side corridors, eyes down. The marshal beside her changed everything. He was a reminder of what she’d offered the miners and they’d lost either through the actions of one of their own or another.

  She felt the pull of full gravity as they crossed the threshold into the secure area. It didn’t surprise her. There were just some things you couldn’t improvise in near or zero g.

  Huckness grunted as the pair entered the office. “Trainer and Swendson on their way. Can’t do nothing until the foreman and the shop steward’s present.” The security chief looked up from the bank of monitors. He eyed Sam, wariness on his face. “Didn’t think you’d come along.”

  “I want to see him.” She forced calm into her voice. Huckness was a vet; he knew the lure of revenge. “I won’t do anything, promise.”

  Huckness chuckled. “Don’t try and fool me, Captain. If he’s guilty you’ll want to dance on his balls with your boots. Don’t blame you but I can’t let that happen.” He winked at her. “Not yet, anyway.”

  Daniel interrupted. “Where is he?”

  “Got him in the interrogation room. He’s been cooling his heels. Figured I’d let him stew while waiting for you.” He got to his feet and came out from behind the desk, pointing at a side door. “Down there. He was quiet enough, didn’t offer any trouble.”

  “None?” Daniel asked. “No resistance at all? I’d expect a killer to be at least nervous about being picked up.”

  The security chief shrugged. “I’m no psychologist. All I can tell you is that he’s an old-timer, done his entire working life here on Branson Prime.” He picked up a file folder from the desk and handed it to Daniel. “We’ve busted him a few times over the years for fighting but nothing beyond that. Man’s six months from retirement. Hell of a way to go out.”

  Daniel opened the file. “If he was getting advice from Halley on how to get a good retirement and she screwed him over it’d be motive.” He studied the pages in front of him. “Could she have given him some bad investment advice? Wiped out his savings through some pyramid scheme?”

  Sam shook her head. “Not that I can see. According to the Guild records the Belle hasn’t been here for the better part of a year, at least not since I took command. Besides, all he had to do was complain to the Guild about his retirement fund being wiped out or being the victim of some sort of scam.”

  “How would they know?” The question from Huckness brought them both around. “I mean, the Guild’s business is supposed to be secret, right? How would they know it was bad?” There was a panicky tone in his voice.

  Sam suspected the chief had a goodly amount socked away for his retirement, not counting on only his military pension to carry him through.

  “If you file a complaint you give permission to the Guild to access your bank records to see if the investment advice was sound or not.” She’d memorized parts of the damned manual because she had to, not because she wanted to. It’d been part of the qualifications to captain the Belle.

  “Once the investigation is closed the information is sealed away, regardless of the outcome. If she wiped some guy’s savings out, he’d be able to complain and get the amount refunded—along with getting her tossed out of the Guild. No reason to kill her, just fill out the forms.”

  Daniel frowned as he flipped through the pages. “Kowalski had next to nothing in his base savings account. Seems he kept sending it home or donating to charities. Barely enough to keep him supplied with the essentials.” He finally looked at Sam, a neutral expression on his face. “Why would he get an appointment with Halley?”

  “Sex.” Huckness answered before she could.

  They both stared at the chief.

  He raised his hands. “Hey, don’t give me that. You know what the deal is with Mercy women. It’s not only for their ‘services.’ Maybe Kowalski wasn’t going to her for help with the books, if you know what I mean.” A flush came over the chief’s face. “What? Not like I’m the only one thinking it. Not with that portfolio you showed of her with that damned beach ball. You put up pictures like that and you know some men ain’t thinking about the stock market listings.”

  Sam bit the inside of her cheek. It was the honest truth and she couldn’t dispute it.

  Too bad the pictures didn’t show the women and men as they really were, past the faux smiles and giggles to the bitchiness and whining hidden from public view. She didn’t swing toward women but she was damned sure that if she did, Halley would be at the bottom of her list.

  She wondered where Halley would sit on the marshal’s list.

  “He still cashed in the token for a visit, no matter his reasons.” Daniel put the file down. “Let’s see what he has to say.”

  As if on cue Trainer walked in without knocking, the middle-aged man glaring at each of them in turn. A smaller man followed fast on the foreman’s heels, pushing in front of Trainer.

  “Marshal LeClair, I’m Howard Swendson.” He stuck out his hand with a guarded smile. “I’m the shop steward for Branson Prime.”

  “Mr. Trainer, Mr. Swendson,” Chief Huckness said. “The marshal here is ready to talk to Kowalski.”

  “What’s she doing here?” Swendson nodded toward Sam. “She’s got no legal standing off her ship according to the regs.”

  She resisted the urge to shuffle her feet. The man knew his rules and regulations. She’d expect nothing less from the union rep, but if he got in her way she’d have no problem running him over to see justice served for Halley.

  “I asked her to come along to represent the victim and her family.” Daniel leaned in, moving into the shop steward’s personal space. “Is that going to be a problem?”

  “No,” Swendson snapped. “As long as she stays behind the scenes. I don’t want this guy more intimidated than he’s already going to be by having a marshal hovering over him.”

  Sam had to concede the point. Swendson was going to be Kowalski’s only ally and the last thing she needed was to invalidate Daniel’s questioning if a good lawyer got into the game and decided she was interfering.

  “She’s going to stay in the observation room.” Daniel crossed his arms. “Good enough?”

  Swendson nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, Marshal—if Kowalski killed the woman I want him going down for it and going down hard. But he’s still one of my men and until you prove his guilt I’m going to have his back.” He looked at Trainer. “I’m sure you agree with me.”

  Trainer nodded.

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Daniel looked at Huckness. “I think we’re ready.”

  They walked down the hall to the interrogation room, entering the observation area where the one-way glass window sat.

  Sam kept a respectful distance behind the four men. She was there as a visitor and as an observer and didn’t need to muddy the waters.

  “You can watch here.” Huckness waved her to the first door. “We’ll watch the good marshal work his magic.” He watched Swendson as the shop steward continued on down the hall behind Daniel. “Keeping everyone happy.”

  Trainer trailed behind her as she went into the observation room, making Sam uncomfortable.

  She hated having anyone behind her. Especially someone who she wasn’t sure she could trust.

  Huckness took up a position in front of the window and gestured at Sam to join him. Trainer stayed back, not quite out of sight in the darkened room.

  As Daniel walked into the interrogation room Huckness winked at Sam. “I hear he�
�s got a good track record of pulling the truth out of these guys. Been wanting to see him in action.”

  I’ve seen him in action. He’s fabulous.

  Sam shook her head, and then stared at the elderly miner through the one-way glass. He curled his fingers around the sealed water bottle with slow, measured movements. He hadn’t changed from their initial meeting in the hall—the same drab grey jumpsuit, the same sad face, the same lack of emotion in his eyes.

  She couldn’t imagine him slashing Halley’s throat.

  It scared her that she couldn’t.

  * * *

  The elderly miner cringed as Daniel entered the room, releasing the water bottle and dropping his hands into his lap.

  Swendson followed and immediately moved behind Kowalski, leaning against the wall. The two men exchanged nods but didn’t speak.

  Daniel sat down at the opposite end of the table. He unclipped Etts from his belt and placed it on the table.

  Kowalski eyed the black box warily. “That a recording device?”

  Daniel shrugged.

  “Okay, listen to this.” The miner leaned forward, almost touching his lips to the polished surface. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t do nothing to that girl.”

  Daniel said nothing.

  “Look, I know you need a fall guy. I know you want to put this away as fast as possible. You rolled the dice and came up with my name, I get that.” He stabbed the tabletop with a thick index finger, the hollow sound echoing around the room. “But I’m not going down quietly. I want you to know that. I’m gonna go to the Justice base and get the best lawyer and I’m gonna fight you tooth and nail all the way. I ain’t going to jail for something I didn’t do.” He turned to look at Swendson. “You got my back, right?”

  The shop steward nodded, his face expressionless. “To a degree.”

  The angry scar across Kowalski’s right ear flashed scarlet.

  Daniel stayed quiet. His hand went into his front pocket and pulled out the evidence bag. He slapped it down on the table in front of Kowalski.

  “Whassat?” The words were blurred as if he’d used up all his energy with the previous protest.