The Star Thief

by Jamie Grey

  With a sigh, Renna followed Viktis from the ship. Good thing she’d washed her sexy underwear.

  Viktis’s new ship, the November, was docked in the next bay. It wasn’t as pretty as the Athena, but it was a serviceable beast, large and heavy. The stench of men and sweat and carbonite hit Renna in a wave of choking fumes as she followed Viktis to the commander’s quarters. She wrinkled her nose. “This place reeks.”

  “I thought it best to stick with male mercs for this job. None of them will come down with any maternal feelings for the boy. Unlike you.” His eyes raked over her like a physical caress, and Renna shivered. “By gods, woman, you still make me hard just looking at you.”

  Renna glanced up at him through lowered lashes. “You’ll make me blush, Viktis.” Heat twisted her insides, but she wrenched her mind back to the task at hand.

  “That was my plan.” He pressed a finger to the switch on the wall, and the door swished open. “How about a drink? We’ve got some catching up to do. I want to hear about what you’ve been up to.”

  “Since you tried to murder me?”

  He draped a heavy arm around her shoulders and grinned wickedly. “Since you escaped.”

  His quarters were comfortable and sleek, just like Viktis. She threw herself down into a threadbare chair and reached for the whiskey bottle on the table, along with one of the glasses sitting beside it. She held the glass for a moment, testing its weight before she tugged down her sleeve and used it to wipe out the inside. “Since I have no idea if this thing’s ever been washed,” she said with a laugh when he raised his eyebrow. She poured a splash of whiskey, then handed the glass to Viktis.

  He smiled as he watched her pour another measure for herself. “To old times.” He held up his glass in a toast and sank into the chair across from her.

  Renna mimicked the movement, then took a gulp of the amber liquid. The burn of the alcohol slid down her throat like silk. Damn, she hadn’t had Preill whiskey in years. It instantly set her insides quivering in the best possible way. But instead of enjoying the pleasant buzz, she had business to conduct. And she’d have to be careful with this one. He knew most of her tricks.

  She also knew most of his.

  With a twitch of her wrist, she reached up and pulled the band from her hair. It spilled in dark waves around her shoulders, and she shook it free.

  Game on. Viktis had always been a sucker for her hair. She needed every advantage she could get if she was going to get out of here and save the kid.

  “Ah, Renna. You can still make a man forget to breathe.” His eyes drifted down her body, lingering appreciatively over her chest before he took another drink.

  “You’ve filled out quite nicely yourself, Viktis.” Renna tilted her head just a little, letting her hair spill down past her breasts. “I’m surprised I haven’t run into you before now.”

  “I keep to the Preill system. Plenty of work over there for me and my men. We’ve been busy with some smuggling runs and the like. Nothing too glamorous until I got this job.”

  “So you’re branching out into the slave trade? I thought you had more sense than that, Viktis.”

  “You know better than to ask questions in our line of business. The job paid handsomely, so I took it. I’m sure you understand.”

  Of course she did. She was a merc; she knew how the business worked. She’d never allowed herself to take jobs with slavers, but most of her counterparts had at some point. It was a fast, easy way to make some quick credits, and they all found themselves needing the payout at one point or another.

  But a girl had to have her principles, and slavery didn’t fit into her moral code.

  Renna crossed her legs. Her tight leggings clung to her thighs, highlighting her carefully toned muscles. Viktis’s gaze dropped lower for a moment, and she bit back a smile. Thank the gods for MYTH’s well-stocked supply room. “Who hired you to find this kid? And why’s he so important?”

  He smiled but shook his head. “You know I’m not going to tell you. It’s unprofessional.”

  Renna scoffed into her whiskey glass. “I’m not trying to steal your job, asshole.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Someone wants the boy, and they’re going to get him whether I find him or not. Figured I might as well be the one who gets the reward.”

  Renna shrugged, mentally changing tactics. She’d have to do this the long way. Ah, well, there were worse things than having to seduce a handsome mercenary who obviously still had feelings for her.

  She tilted her head and traced a finger across the lip of her glass. “So how’s Serenita? You two were still a thing last I heard.”

  “We had a falling out.” Viktis grimaced and took another sip of whiskey. “She’s changed since you knew her. Hardened.”

  Not surprising. Serenita had always had an edge; it had made her one of the best mercs out there. But the woman had never known when something was a lost cause. She’d see it through until the end. It had almost killed her, more than once.

  “How long has it been?” Renna asked.

  “She left about a year ago. Said she wanted to see new things, take on jobs my crew wouldn’t touch. I haven’t heard from her since then.” His shrug was indifferent, but she’d swear there was hurt in his eyes. Who would have guessed Viktis the Pirate had a heart?

  There was her opening.

  But Renna paused, chewing on her lip. A girl had to have her morals, but where should she draw the line? Sleeping with him to get what she wanted? She’d certainly done it before, but this time…? This time she couldn’t afford to make mistakes.

  Renna set the glass down on the table and leaned forward. “So I wouldn’t be poaching on her territory if I made a move on you?”

  His smile deepened as his gaze wandered south again. “You’d forgive and forget? I tried to kill you, Renna.”

  “And I escaped. It would take a better merc than you to actually kill me.” She gave him a slow, predatory smile. “Besides, it’s been a long time, Viktis. And by the look of you, you’ve gotten some experience since last we met. Maybe a few new scars?” She licked her lips, brow arching.

  Viktis set his glass down as well and stood up. “This is a dangerous game you’re playing, Renna. It could backfire.”

  “Dangerous games are always the most fun.” She stood and slipped out of her jacket. “Besides, I know how much you like to gamble.”

  “Ah, you still know me, don’t you?” He unlatched his holsters and shrugged out of them, setting them carefully on the table. His violet eyes glowed in the flurolamps on the ceiling. “You know I don’t trust you.”

  “No more than I trust you. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves.” Her gaze flicked to the bedroom door, then back. “A secret for a secret?” She tugged her shirt free of her waistband, flashing him a small patch of her stomach.

  “Agreed.” Viktis pulled off his belt, the leather whispering against the fabric of his pants. He coiled it up and set it next to his guns. “But first, let’s make sure we’re not interrupted.” He strode to the door and snapped the lock into place. “If they find the boy, they’ll bring him to me immediately. I’d hate to miss that.” He paused, his expression feral. “I’d hate even more for them to walk in on us.”

  “There is no boy,” Renna reminded him, popping open the button at her waist.

  Viktis crossed the room to stand before her. He played with the hem of her shirt before tugging it over her head in one smooth move. His graceful amber fingers caressed the bare skin of her waist, and she bit back a moan. Dear gods. Her whole body felt like it was on fire.

  “If there’s no boy, what are you doing on that ship?” His voice was a warm murmur as he sucked her earlobe. “I saw the registration. It’s government-owned.”

  “I’m working for them now,” she whispered as she returned the favor and tugged his shirt over his head.

  Viktis laughed. “You’d never work for the government. No lies, Renna.”

  She stared at the golden trai
l of hair peeking above his waistband. Ran a finger across the softness. Tried to calculate the odds. “Fine. I’m their prisoner. They caught me after my last job. It was a setup.” Her voice had a growl that even she couldn’t fake. At least there were a few kernels of truth woven in with her lies.

  “Are you losing your touch, love?” Viktis traced the long scar on her neck. “I can’t believe you still have this. Can’t the doctors take care of it?”

  She swallowed. “I like it. Gives me character.” Desperate to change subjects, she blurted, “Viktis, Hesperia is gone. Destroyed in an attack.” She bit back a groan. Stupid, Renna. Death and destruction were not the best way to seduce someone.

  His hand froze as it traced her collarbone. “Gone? How is that possible? Who was it?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “That’s why there was radio silence so suddenly.” He shook his head. “We’d been tracking a government compound, but then there was nothing.”

  His eyebrows furrowed, and Renna reached up to smooth away the wrinkle. “It’s not safe in this system anymore. No place is safe until we know who they are or what they want. We barely escaped the planet before it was destroyed. The boy is probably dead if he was on-world.”

  “Shit.”

  She smiled, languidly stretching her body until it brushed against his, trying to bring him back to the moment. She slipped a hand down his hard stomach, sliding it lower beneath his pants until she could touch him. Velvet and steel, just like she remembered. His hips jerked as he groaned, and a burst of heat built in her midsection.

  He lowered his lips to her neck, his tongue flicking and caressing the sensitive skin beneath her ear. She sucked in a breath. A girl had to have her morals, but that line was getting further and further away the more he touched her.

  “Who hired you to find him anyway?” she asked again, now that he was distracted. Now that they both were distracted.

  He leaned back slightly so she had better access. “A third party mediator. I don’t know who the actual client is.”

  Renna’s hand stilled against his swollen member, and Viktis moaned again, pushing against her. If she knew Viktis, there was way more to it than that, but she’d get the truth from him soon enough.

  “Why don’t we get a little more comfortable?” she said, tugging on the waistband of his pants to propel him toward the bedroom. She led the way, making sure to swing her hips as she walked.

  After three steps, Viktis growled and reached for her, but Renna moved out of his reach. It was time to rein this thing in. She needed to be in control. “Patience, love. Good things come to those who wait.”

  “You’re killing me, woman.”

  Her smile was wicked as she turned away and unlatched her bra. The straps slid down her shoulders, and Renna glanced back with a half-smile as she let the lacy black thing dangle from her fingers.

  “Gods I’ve missed you,” Viktis growled, yanking her into his arms and pressing his lips to her collarbone. She shivered as his coarse hands glided against her bare skin.

  Her gaze drifted down to his erection, and she smiled. “I can tell.”

  The amber color of his skin and the muscles rippling beneath it made her mouth go dry. The angular planes of his legs and stomach. The hardness of his body against hers. He was perfect. And yet…

  “Things were never the same after you left,” he whispered. His lips brushed against the skin of her breast before his tongue softly caressed her nipple.

  She moaned, her fingers tracing the rigid plates on his head as they stumbled backward toward the bed. “You mean after you tried to kill me.”

  “You know it wasn’t personal.” He flashed her a quick grin before resuming his tongue’s careful exploration.

  “It never is, is it?” Damn him, he knew exactly what to do with it. Heat curled lower in her belly, and she forced herself to ignore it.

  “This seems pretty personal to me.” His hands drifted lower, splaying across her stomach. She swayed, tugging him to the bed. She was running out of time.

  And then he sucked in a breath. “What the…” His eyes widened a split second before he collapsed on the mattress.

  Sound asleep.

  ELEVEN

  Renna pulled her clothes back on as Viktis snored loudly, his bare legs draped over the side of the bed. The man would sleep like the dead for at least another hour. A dash of sleeping powder from Antivia Nine when she’d brushed out his whiskey glass with her sleeve had done the trick. That poison bracelet had been a very good investment.

  Her body still hummed from the Ileth’s touch, and she ignored the heat pooling between her legs. She quickly pushed away the tiny bit of disappointment that curled through her. It had been way too long since her last fling; some good, old-fashioned stress relief might have been nice. Romping in bed with a handsome man was never a hardship, but she was on a job and it was time to get what she’d come for. The cold shower could come later when she was safe on the Athena.

  The desk was the only part of the room Viktis kept tidy. She slid into his chair and pulled open a few of the drawers. Nothing but a worn notebook with a list of past jobs and a few ratty receipts. Not surprising. Viktis had always kept most of his info on his tablet.

  She picked up the device from its stand and switched it on. Encrypted, of course, but easy enough for her to hack. Less than a minute later, she was scanning through his messages.

  “Dammit.” The message she needed had no identifying data, no electronic signature she could use to track down the sender. A few clicks later, she discovered the company who’d contacted Viktis, NavStar Industries, was a front. She didn’t recognize the name, but the information still might come in useful later, so she sent the rest of his messages to her own device. She’d go through them back on the Athena. Never hurt to know what the competition was up to.

  Renna sighed and tucked the device back in its stand on the desk. Well, that’d been a waste of time. She turned to stand, and her fingers knocked into a pile of notes. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground.

  Well, well, what was this? The paper was heavy and smooth against her fingers as she picked it up. Dr. Draven Navang. Bioethics and Biotechnology Specialist. NavStar Industries. The name and company were stamped in embossed black ink, and in the corner was a small logo: an eye with a two spears bisecting it.

  Renna stiffened. Where had she seen that logo before?

  But the flicker of recognition died, and she shrugged. Maybe it would come to her later. She tucked the card into her pocket and got to her feet. Across the room, Viktis grunted in his sleep, and she smiled. He was going to be so frakking pissed at her when he woke up. Good thing she wasn’t the kind of girl who held grudges, or he’d be in serious trouble right now.

  But despite the urge to get back at the merc for trying to kill her, the Athena’s crew was locked in the brig, and Myka was still in hiding. It was time to get the hell out of here.

  Renna unlatched the door and peeked into the hallway. Empty. She crept down the passageway, her boots making no sound against the metal floor. It would be easy enough to find her way back to the hatch, but what might be a little more difficult was calling back Viktis’s mercs and escaping the spaceport before they realized they’d been scammed.

  The bridge lay straight ahead, and a smile curved her lips at the squat console sitting in the middle of the space. That would do just fine. Her fingers flew over the keypad as she hacked the propulsion system and disabled the ship’s engines.

  Viktis and his crew were dead on the ground. Perfect. By the time he got the ship working again, the Athena would be long gone.

  Now all she needed to do was program a simple recall message in the merc’s communicators and set it to go off in sixty seconds, so she had enough time to get back to Finn’s ship. There. A few taps on the console and it was done.

  She peered down the corridor, then sprinted for the cargo ramp. Outside the ship, the fuel station was shadowy and silent, and Renna sucked in a
deep breath. Viktis neutralized. Check. One team rescue, coming up. She paused. Team, huh? Since when? Most of those people hated her or, at least, didn’t trust her further than they could throw her. She wasn’t part of their team. She was on her own. As usual.

  Renna shook her head and started toward the Athena. A moment later, a low tone sounded throughout the warehouse. Dammit! She darted behind a stack of crates, dropping low to hide from the gang of mercs who stomped down the Athena’s loading ramp.

  One…two…three…. Shit. She had no idea how many were left on the Athena. Dealing with them herself was going to be tricky.

  Renna crept from behind the boxes. She was running out of time. She needed to move now. Sprinting on silent feet, she sneaked through the landing hangar and back onto the Athena. Men’s voices echoed from the other side of the ship, and she crept in the opposite direction, toward the lower deck.

  Laughter rang out, and she froze, pressing herself against the wall. A few more men stomped down the ramp, some chuckling, some grumbling, as they returned to Viktis’s ship. Once their voices faded, she moved again, making her way to the stairs.

  Get Finn and his crew free. Get the hell off this planet.

  She took the stairs slowly, making no sound. Carefully, she peered around the hatch and into the brig.

  Dammit. The meaty mercenary was still there, leaning against the wall, picking his fingernails with a knife. Renna pulled back and chewed her lip. She had two options: attack the guy and hope she took him by surprise, or trick him into returning to the ship. She probably couldn’t take the guy without a weapon, so that left option two. Her stomach jumped, and she took a deep breath. It was now or never.

  She marched into the room like she was following orders.

  Mercenary Man jumped as she entered, gripping the knife and glaring at her.

  She kept her whole body at ease, smiling her best I’m-in-the-mercenary-club-too smile. “Relax. Viktis sent me.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed. “Oh?”

  “Didn’t you hear the recall tone? They found the kid. Viktis wants you back on the ship.”