The Star Thief

by Jamie Grey

  Kojima gave her a sly look. “It’s got to be your reputation that’s got him up in arms. It’s not every mission we get to host the Star Thief.”

  Her face went carefully expressionless. “What are you talking about?” By the stars, had Dallas told everyone?

  “I know everything that happens on this ship. Including all personnel files. Don’t worry, I’ll never tell. But if the rest of the crew knew…”

  “They’d put me in the brig.” Or even worse, turn her in for the billion-credit bounty on her head.

  He smiled but didn’t deny it. “So what was it like? Being on Treze? Stealing the sapphire?” He tapped at his console before turning back to her. “Those aliens are weird, right? Four arms? Gills and scales?”

  She leaned against the hatch frame. “The Trezian military is unlike any other in the galaxy. It puts MYTH to shame. I mean, what could you do with four arms?”

  Kojima slanted a glance at her from the corner of his eye as he adjusted one of the nav points on his screen. “So how did you do it?”

  A small smile curled her lips. “Sorry, that’s classified.”

  “Come on, just a hint?”

  “Sorry, kid, some secrets are best kept.”

  “Hey, you’re not that much older than me.” He sounded pouty for a moment before he realized it and grinned. “Fine. But next shore leave, the guys and I are going to take you out. Maybe after a few drinks, you’ll spill.”

  “I can drink you under the table,” Renna said with a laugh.

  “What the hell are you doing up there, Flight Lieutenant?” Captain Finn’s voice cracked through the intercom, and Kojima jumped. “We’re on approach to Krooss. Have you radioed for our landing berth yet?”

  “No, sir. Doing that now, sir.” Kojima turned back to Renna. “You’d better get out of here before I get in trouble.”

  She took a deep breath and steadied her nerves. The Athena wasn’t that big. She was going to have to see Finn sooner or later, and putting it off made her feel like a coward. And that pissed her off. Renna squared her shoulders and marched to the bridge.

  Finn sat in the captain’s chair watching the holo as the Athena approached Krooss. His gaze flicked to her briefly as she stood at the railing, but he said nothing. Together they watched the spaceport appear and the Athena head to her berth on the west side of town.

  “We’ll be here for three hours. I expect you to stay on board while we refuel.” Finn still didn’t look at her.

  “I thought you wanted me off your ship.”

  “I want you to do your job,” he said, slamming his fist down on the arm of the chair. “And that means following my orders.”

  Well, well. The supposedly unflappable captain was still angry at her. Interesting. Men usually only stayed that angry for one reason: injured pride.

  “Whatever you say, Cap. You’re the boss.” She wandered away, hands shoved into her pockets and her shoulders relaxed. Wouldn’t do for him to see how annoyed she was. She had no desire to see the dirty spaceport, but damn she’d wanted to argue. Just to prove to him that she didn’t do blind obedience.

  Instead, she walked to the officers’ quarters and woke Myka to get some breakfast. Miss Mary already had food ready and waiting for him when they got to the mess, but she wasn’t as kind to Renna. She had to dish up her own plate of rubbery-looking scrambled eggs and some dry toast.

  Mary’s gaze lingered over the boy as she lowered her large frame into the seat across from them. “How’d you sleep, Myka? Is your berth all right?”

  Myka nodded, too busy stuffing himself with breakfast.

  Mary smiled at his obvious appetite. “The Athena is the best ship I’ve ever served on. And that’s been quite a few.”

  Renna paused, fork halfway to her mouth. “Don’t you have a family? Children?”

  Mary’s gaze dropped to the table, and her fingers traced a gouge in the steel. “My Harold and I didn’t have children. And now it’s just me. It’s why I joined MYTH. Figured I’m the best cook out there, why not cook for those’ll appreciate me?”

  “Noble sentiment.” Renna paused. “Have you been with MYTH long? I thought they were top secret.”

  “You’re not the only one they recruited. I’ve been with them six years now. And I must say their offer came at an auspicious time. I’d been planning to leave Logaaine anyway. Things were getting a bit too hot for me to take on any more jobs.”

  Renna felt her eyes widen. “You were a mercenary?”

  Mary nodded. “In my younger days. Left it all behind me when I was with Harold. He was my moral compass. After he died, it was easy to slip back into the old ways, but I’m getting a bit too old for it now. Wish I’d saved more for my retirement.” She looked wistfully at the boy, then heaved herself to her feet. “MYTH’s been good to me. I’d hate to see anyone double-cross them.” She pinned Renna with a cool stare before returning to her kitchen.

  Renna watched her go. Would that be her in another twenty years? Cooking or cleaning for someone else just to scrape by? Slipping back into mercenary work if nothing legal came up?

  The weight of her empty life made her chest ache. She flitted from planet to planet, never getting attached to anything or anyone. She’d been working toward retirement from the day she’d run away at thirteen, from the day she’d realized this business would kill her just as drugs had killed her mother.

  But no matter what she told herself after every job, she kept getting dragged back in. The promise of credits, the thrill of the chase, proving she could tackle and win the hardest jobs.

  Oh, she’d had relationships—one-night stands or flings with the hunk of the month, but nothing serious. She’d never let herself slip into that trap. And it had felt like a trap, no matter how much she was looking for a connection. Letting herself become vulnerable had never felt safe and rarely even crossed her mind with the kinds of guys she picked up.

  Except once. With Hunter. Finn. Whoever the hell he was.

  She’d been a kid and there hadn’t been anything more than friendship between them, but he’d understood where she’d come from and seemed to accept her as she was. It’d scared the shit out of her.

  And then it had all changed the day the compound was raided. Blur had gone down, a bullet ripping through his chest as she’d watched from her hiding place. Hunter had fallen next, bullets piercing his chest, too. With the two leaders dead, the rest of the gang had given up without a fight, the police rushing in to arrest them all. She’d run for miles to get away from the death of her mentor and the destruction of the only family she’d had left.

  With nothing holding her on that world, she’d stowed away on the nearest transport ship to a distant planet and started over. She’d never looked back. But in her heart, she’d always wondered what might have happened between them if Hunter hadn’t died.

  Renna sighed and took a sip of her tea. Now, here he was. Alive. On the same small ship in the middle of a galaxy. And he hated her. Something had happened all those years ago to turn him from friend to enemy, something big enough to make him betray them all. She just wished she knew what.

  One way or another, it had to do with Blur and whatever games he’d been playing. But she’d been a grunt; she hadn’t had any choice in the jobs she was assigned. She was going to have to confront Finn about it sooner or later, but right now, getting the kid to his uncle was her only job.

  “You all right?” Myka asked, poking her arm.

  She smiled, locking the memories up tight in the back of her mind. “I’m fine, just daydreaming. Finished with your tea?”

  “Yes.” He got to his feet. “Now I need a bathroom.”

  “I think that can be arranged.”

  They were headed back toward Myka’s room when she heard the shouting from the bridge.

  Boom.

  The sharp report of a gun echoed through the ship. The walls closed in as Renna tried to suck in a breath. Dammit. If her implant had still been working, she would have insta
ntly known what was going on. Instead, her sixth sense screamed at her to run.

  “They’re here for me, aren’t they?” Myka’s voice trembled, his earlier self-assurance vanishing in an instant.

  “I’m not sure. But until we know, I think you should hide.” Renna scanned the corridor. Most ships had electrical panels at regular intervals to access the guts of the electrical systems. She ran toward the stairs, searching for a big enough space to hide the boy. There!

  She pulled her nanospanner from her pocket and got to work on the screws holding the panel to the wall. Moments later, she had the panel pulled off. She shone the spotlight on the spanner into the space. Electrical wires ran across the top and there were fuses and fixtures along one wall, but it was big enough for Myka to crawl inside.

  “Okay, this is going to have to do it. Get in and I’ll screw the panel back on.”

  He stared into the dark stuffy hole, then glanced back at her, shaking his head. “I can’t,” he whispered, his face suddenly as pale as the polyplastic covering the walls.

  Shit. He’d been trapped inside that cage for gods knew how long. She couldn’t make him do it again. Renna squeezed his hand and fought back her own panic. There was no place else for him to hide here, and there was no time to find another place. “Myka—”

  A scream came from the front of the ship, and she jumped.

  “We’re running out of time. You’re going to be fine. You can do this, okay? I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” She cursed under her breath as that word slipped out again. She didn’t know if this was a promise she could keep.

  Myka squared his shoulders, swallowing thickly. “I can do it.” He stared at the hole in the wall. “I’m tough.”

  She could have kissed him, but she merely smiled and squeezed his hand again. “You’re the toughest kid I’ve ever met. Now get in and stay quiet no matter what.”

  Myka nodded. “I promise.” He climbed into the dark hole.

  Renna could barely see the whites of his eyes as he stared up at her. “Take my spanner. It has a light on it. Use it if you need to.” She shoved it into his hands, then lifted the panel back into place, tightening the screws with her fingers.

  She pressed a hand against the metal grate. “Be safe, kid. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” There was no answer as she rose to her feet. Myka was already wrapped up in his own nightmare.

  Another shout echoed through the ship, and Renna’s heart thudded in her chest in time with her pounding feet. Whatever the hell was going on, she needed to get to the bridge. She needed to find Finn.

  Rough arms yanked her to a stop before she could clear the passageway. “Going somewhere, lady?” The man towered over her, and when he smiled at her, a black hole gaped where his front tooth should have been. Her gaze fell to the tribal markings tattooed on his forearm.

  Pirates. They must have been waiting for the Athena in the fuel station.

  She immediately forced herself to relax and give him her sexiest look. “Guess not, big guy. Who do you work for?”

  He leered at her and yanked her down the passageway. “Does it matter?”

  “Actually, it does. I know most of the mercs in this star system.”

  “This isn’t a social visit, lady. We’re here for the kid.”

  She shrugged, which was difficult with his meaty hand holding her arm. “We don’t have any kids on board. You’ve got the wrong ship.” By the gods, did Myka have a tracker on him or something? How did these people keep finding him?

  “Boss says it’s the right ship. Now stop talking and move!” He jerked her down a set of stairs to the lower deck. “The rest of the crew’s already inside.” He gestured his blaster at the brig door.

  She stopped just inside the room and frowned. Of course. Because that’s how today was going. Captain Finn and the rest of his team pressed against the bars of the holding cell.

  She’d left her own pistol in her cabin, and Myka had her nanospanner. There was no way she could fight back.

  The merc opened the cell door and shoved her inside. Corporal Bokal caught her before she fell.

  “Thanks,” she said, tugging at her jacket and righting herself.

  He nodded. “Any time.”

  “Where’s the cargo?” Finn breathed into her ear.

  “Hidden.” She eyed their captor, who lounged against the door. His leather pants were well worn, and his black shirt looked like part of a gang uniform. There were only a few crews who operated this far out in the system. Fetah and her team of pirates, but they usually focused on in-space raids. Brencic, whom she hadn’t heard from in over a year. And then her stomach clenched.

  These men belonged to Viktis.

  TEN

  Just her frakking luck. She took a steadying breath before turning to Finn and leaning close enough that she could smell his shampoo, the scent of his skin. Her lips barely moved as she whispered, “I know these mercs. And I can get us out of this, but you need to trust me.”

  “You run with some nice people,” Keva muttered, her eyes flashing with anger. “Criminals and pirates. And Dallas expects us to work with you?”

  Renna gave the woman a withering glance. “He does. Because I’m about to save all of your lives.”

  As she spoke, a tall Ileth alien, with broad shoulders and amber skin highlighting his chiseled face, strolled into the room. Cranial ridges sloped back from his forehead like hair, and his violet eyes scanned the captives in the brig.

  “Good day,” he said, sketching a bow. “I do apologize for this intrusion, but you are carrying cargo we need. Where is the little boy?”

  Viktis had changed in the four years she’d last seen him, but his voice was still smooth and polite. Not the voice of a merc, but a politician. If his family hadn’t been murdered, he eventually would have taken a seat in the Coalition Senate. But his parents had been too influential, too popular with the masses. They were a threat that had been eliminated by the other houses on Ileth.

  Luckily, Viktis’s silver tongue had spared his life, and the merc who’d been hired to kill him took the boy on as an apprentice instead. When Renna met him a few years later on a job, Viktis had taken over the merc’s territory. He’d even shown Renna a few things himself.

  Until he’d tried to kill her.

  She stepped forward, tugging at her shirt. Why hadn’t she done something better with her hair this morning? “By the gods, someone up there sure has a sense of humor,” she drawled, leaning against the cell door.

  Viktis’s expression froze, shock flashing across the harsh planes of his face before he masked it. “Renna Carrizal. I thought you were on some Outer Rim world, living in luxury.”

  She smiled sweetly. “Or dead?”

  He shrugged apologetically. “You know I didn’t have a choice, my dear. The job paid well, and you were getting a bit too close to my territory for comfort.”

  She felt Captain Finn’s disapproval like a hand pressing against her back. She ignored it and let her gaze travel across Viktis’s broad shoulders. “And here I thought saving your life all those years ago had been a good deed. Ah, well, all good deeds are punished in this business, aren’t they?” She let her eyes drift down to his lips, then licked her own. Slowly.

  Viktis chuckled. “Nice to see you haven’t changed, my dear.”

  “Nice to see you have.” Her gaze lowered deliberately down his lean body, the leather jacket and tight breeches he wore showing off his lithe frame. The Ileth were a handsome race, and Viktis had definitely aged well.

  “You still running that old bucket of junk?” she asked.

  “The Monet was a beauty. But, no, I have a new cruiser. Won her in a card game.”

  She laughed and tossed her hair. “That’s so cliché.”

  Viktis grinned. “For a reason. It seems to happen more frequently than you’d expect.” He turned to the mercenary guarding the door. “Get her out of there.”

  The man obeyed. A moment later, Viktis grabbed her arm
and pulled her into a tight hug. “Damn, it’s good to see you again, Renna.”

  She hugged him back, making sure to rub her hands along his torso. Not only was he impressively muscled, she discovered he had two guns strapped to his waist and a knife slipped into a side pocket. He’d come well-armed. She expected no less.

  When she stepped back, he seemed reluctant to let her go, keeping one of her hands in his. His amber fingers were long and rough, and even back then, he’d known exactly how to use them to pleasure her.

  “What in the stars have you been up to these past few years?” he asked.

  Renna shook her head, clearing away those long-forgotten images. “Not really the place for catching up, love. How about you tell us what you came for and then we can send you on your way.”

  He scowled and ran a hand over his jaw. “We’re here for the boy. Once we have him, we’ll let the rest of the crew go. As long as they don’t try to be heroes.” He paused, his lips tightening as he studied her. “How about you come with us, Ren? I know you can’t really be part of a bunch of Marine stiffs.”

  She laughed, fighting to keep her voice light. “Afraid so. And we don’t have a boy here, aside from Kojima, our pilot. I think you have the wrong ship.”

  From the brig, the pilot protested her choice of words, but Finn shushed him.

  A smile tugged at Viktis’s lips. “You’re lucky I like your games, Renna.” Still holding her hand, he turned to his men. His face went hard, like he’d pulled on a mask as he barked his orders. “Search the ship. Kill anyone who gets in your way. When you find the boy, bring him to me immediately.”

  “I promise there’s no boy here, Viktis.” Renna nestled against his arm. “But you do have me. How about we go get reacquainted?”

  He smiled down at her. “My thoughts exactly.” Viktis headed back toward the stairs, but Renna paused and frowned at Captain Finn, shaking her head ever so slightly. She’d take care of Viktis and then come back and rescue the crew. As long as they didn’t do anything stupid in the meantime.

  Finn’s eyes widened, and he nodded back.