Dangerous

by Sharon Green

  "No harm done at all," Tain echoed, seeing that Coleson really wasn't in the least bothered. "One of these days I'm going to show you exactly how little the harm can be considered. You have my word that you won't enjoy the time."

  "I can understand your being upset, Tain, and that's why I authorized a bonus for you," Coleson said, still showing that smile as he laced his fingers comfortably across his middle. "I've even arranged for you to have some leave, during which time you can spend some of the bonus, but I do need you back here in about four days. There's an assignment that - "

  "Too bad, Coleson, but I won't be back," Tain interrupted, this time enjoying herself quite a bit. "Not only did you risk my neck for political reasons, but you went back on the deal we had. I told you that if you ever assigned Killen to work with me I would quit, but it looks like you didn't believe me. This is my resignation, and if you try to fight it you'll find out what nonpolitical down and dirty is like."

  Tain pulled the envelope with her resignation out of her shoulder bag and tossed it on Coleson's desk, and the man's hand slapped down on the envelope as he straightened in his chair. All amusement was gone from Coleson's face, and heavy disturbance had taken its place.

  "Come on, Tain, you can't mean that!" he protested, obviously having taken the resignation only by reflex. "I didn't break our agreement on purpose and you have to know it! Jake Killen was already on the planet when we got word of your capture, and there weren't - a lot of - others to go to your rescue."

  "That's right, you can't lie about there being no one else, not when I saw the others at the base," Tain said with a satisfied nod as Coleson limped through an effort to excuse what he'd done. "You had your choice of three other agents to use, but you were so eager to play your private game that you forgot about everything else. Now you can take your new assignment and shove it up your ass."

  "No, don't do this," Coleson said almost desperately after standing up and putting his hand out with the resignation clutched in it. "You know you're the best agent I have, and I don't want to lose you! Tain, be reasonable!"

  "Goodbye, Coleson, and have a lousy life," Tain said before turning and walking toward the door. Coleson kept trying to call her back, but she hadn't been joking about leaving. They both knew she would have no trouble finding the same kind of work elsewhere, but first she was going to take a small vacation. There were things that needed to be thought about and then forgotten, and she would manage the forgetting. Even if it took a little while…

  * * *

  Jake walked into headquarters, more grimly determined than he'd been in quite a while. It had seemed like an eternity of being worried out of his mind before he and Tandro and Ennie had been able to leave for the base on horses supplied by Gordi, and then the trip had felt like an extension of that eternity. Not until he learned that Tain had made it back herself was Jake able to rest for a little while, not to mention sleep. But when he woke up he was angry rather than worried, and that anger had been growing.

  "Agent Killen," Coleson's secretary said when he saw Jake, the man's expression uncertain. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Coleson isn't available right now. If you'd like to make an appointment I'd be glad to - Agent Killen!"

  By that time Jake was already at the door to Coleson's office, and a moment later he was through the door. Coleson sat stiffly behind his desk, staring at a monitor screen that Jake couldn't see. When Jake walked in Coleson didn't look up immediately, but when he did look up his expression lacked the smarmy charm that Jake usually had trouble stomaching.

  "How could you say that that girl did an adequate job on her first assignment?" Coleson demanded, which told Jake that the man had been reading the report Jake had filed. "It was her fault that she and Tain were enslaved, and that's a truth no one can get around!"

  "What Ennie did was an accident, due mainly to her lack of proper training," Jake answered mildly, enjoying Coleson's agitation. "Once she had some experience to call on, she did rather well."

  "But she brought a native of Oliven back with her!" Coleson shouted, then he seemed to regain control of himself. "She brought a native back with her, and that simply isn't done," Coleson continued more calmly. "It's going to be my painful duty to tell her that the man has to be sent back at once."

  "It would be premature to start enjoying that idea," Jake advised when he saw the vicious gleam in Coleson's eyes. "Ennie has already checked with her lawyers, and they've told her that Tandro isn't a criminal so he can go anywhere he pleases. Besides, she's about to hand in her resignation, citing inadequate departmental leadership as the reason for breaking her contract. You were the one who let her go out without adequate training, you know."

  "My skirts are clean on that one," Coleson responded, that smarmy look beginning to come back as he relaxed into his chair. "Her uncle, who is a director, don't forget, told me to put the girl to work at once. If she wasn't adequately trained it wasn't my fault."

  "Of course it was," Jake countered, showing his own version of a smile. "You're supposed to be in charge of this department, and if someone gives you an improper order it's your place to say so and refuse to comply. A challenged order would have been brought before the board if it wasn't withdrawn, and only then would your hands have been clean. As it is it's perfectly clear that you were playing politics, which the head of this department isn't supposed to do. I hear there's going to be an investigation made, and if you're found culpable you'll be gone so fast your imprint in that chair will still be visible."

  Coleson had gone pale listening to Jake, and his left hand turned to a fist on the arm of his chair. The man was finally starting to understand the ramifications of what he'd done, a circumstance that couldn't have pleased Jake more.

  "But warning you to be ready to file for unemployment isn't the reason I'm here," Jake continued, drawing Coleson's angry gaze. "I was told Tain Halliday stopped by to see you when she got back, and I want to know where she went."

  "Where Halliday went is no longer my concern," Coleson returned, his manner suddenly even stiffer than it had been. "She came by to resign, and since I accepted her resignation I don't care if she went straight to hell. My suggestion would be that you go and look for her there."

  "She quit?" Jake demanded, feeling as if he'd been hit hard in his middle. "How could you let her do that?"

  "I decided that this department would be much better off without her, and I do still run this place," Coleson answered, the man's snottiness returning visibly. "With that point in mind, Killen, you can expect your next assignment in a couple or three days. And don't even think about quitting yourself. You have no basis for a breach of contract, and if you walk out anyway I'll have you enjoined from working anywhere else. Now get out of my office."

  Jake stared at Coleson for a moment, that close to quitting anyway, but cutting his own throat would accomplish nothing.

  "Oh, don't worry, I'm not quitting," Jake said, showing a smile again. "I want to be right here when they kick you out on your ass. That's a show I'd be willing to pay money to see."

  When Coleson's lips peeled back from his teeth to show a silent snarl, Jake turned and walked out of the office leaving the door open behind him. He very much felt like snarling himself, but held back on the urge until he was out of the office entirely.

  "Well?" Ennie asked as soon as Jake came out into the corridor, Tandro's expression almost as intense as hers. "Did you find out where Tain is?"

  "Coleson refused to talk about Tain except to tell me that she quit," Jake answered, frustration beginning to fill him. "Since we already know she isn't at her apartment or with any of her friends, I don't know where the hell she is."

  "Can we help you look for her, my friend?" Tandro asked, the calm in his voice acting as an aid to settle Jake down. "I don't know how much help I would be, but Ennie knows her way around almost as well as you do."

  "I appreciate the offer, but you two have your own plans to take care of," Jake said with a sincere smile. Ennie meant to take the t
raining she'd missed from a private source, and Tandro would do the same. Then the two were going back to Oliven to help Gordi abolish slavery, an end they were both determined to accomplish.

  "Do you think you'll find her if you search?" Ennie asked, sympathy clear in her eyes. "If you need professional help, I'd be more than willing to hire some private detectives."

  "If I decide I need the help I'll let you know," Jake assured her, then they all left the headquarters building in silence. Once outside they separated, Tandro and Ennie on their way back to her house, Jake to his own apartment. Tandro had looked uncomfortable in the clothes Ennie had bought for him, but Jake knew the man would get used to wearing more than a body cloth. Most planets weren't as warm as Oliven…

  Once in his apartment, Jake threw himself into a chair and began to brood. He'd already tried to trace Tain's movements, but the woman had obviously covered her tracks to make sure no one followed her. If only she was less of a professional, less able to disappear without a trace…

  A picture of Tain formed in front of Jake's inner eye, Tain the way he'd seen her so often during their time on Oliven. Her beautiful brown hair fell in gentle waves and framed her lovely face and blue eyes, leading his own eye down to the teasing view of that vest. Every now and then the vest had parted to show glimpses of her large and rounded breasts, and that skirt thing had framed her private parts with the promise of an even better view if she moved wrong.

  "Or moved right, depending on your point of view," Jake murmured, falling into a waking dream. Tain stood naked before him so Jake gathered her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers, and suddenly her own arms were around him. She hadn't been willing to touch him at first, but then she seemed to have no choice. The feel of her hands sliding down his back was so good, so incredibly good, so -

  Jake had to shake his head hard to pull all the way out of the daydream, and then his sense of loss rose to new heights. He wanted Tain Halliday to want him as much as he wanted her, but all that wanting just wasn't going to happen, at least not on her part. He might be able to talk her around somehow, but first he had to find her.

  And how was he supposed to do that…?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jake Killen sat in front of the large monitor, more bored than he'd believed was possible. The slender blonde on the monitor was naked, but she'd put on knee-high, high-heeled black boots and then walked to a full-length mirror. She turned this way and that to check her appearance, and a small smile played on her lips.

  "Did I miss anything?" Matt Reardon asked as he came back into the room carrying cups of coffee. "Did her client get there yet?"

  "No," Jake answered, quickly reaching for the cup that was his. "No to both of your questions, and that probably would be true even if you'd stayed away for an hour."

  Matt chuckled as he took his place in the chair beside Jake's, already knowing that Jake wasn't enjoying this latest assignment Coleson had given the two of them. Matt was enjoying it just fine, as a rest from the usual kind of assignment he got if for no other reason. Matt's hair was a lighter blond than Jake's, his eyes blue instead of gray, and the man was boyishly handsome as well as tall and nicely made.

  Which meant that Matt was usually used as a decoy for female targets, pretending to be an innocent who could be easily taken advantage of. Unlike most of the rest of the male agents in their department, Matt had a vulnerable look that made it seem that he was perfectly safe for messing with. Unfortunately for those who saw him in that way, Matt was almost as hard on the inside as Jake himself.

  "Come on, Jake, you have to admit that the scenery is just fine," Matt said after the chuckle, gesturing to the monitor with his free hand. "Once her client comes we'll get them both on disk, hopefully along with the orders she gives him. We've already established who's giving her the orders she passes on, so once her client obeys her we'll have her employer on charges of illegal interference in business matters."

  "Interference he's already made millions from," Jake was forced to agree. "If not for the little people who have lost money on their investments because of this game, I would have told Coleson to go to hell and walked out. The man only gave me this assignment because he knew it would bug me."

  "Coleson is a bastard who'll probably get away with every dirty trick he's ever pulled," Matt said, no longer amused. "Three weeks ago all the rumors said that Coleson would soon be out of a job, but if it hasn't happened yet it probably never will. The bastard knows how to play his own game too well."

  "If Coleson gets away with what he did to Tain, Ennie and me, I'm going to start a new game," Jake growled, not joking in the least. "Politics won't be part of the new game, but lots and lots of pain will. Pain for Coleson, that is. He's earned everything he'll get."

  "Now, that I want to watch," Matt said before returning his attention to the monitor. "Hey, it looks like boots isn't the only thing she means to wear."

  Jake returned his own attention to the monitor to find that the slim blond woman had put on a half mask of black leather. The mask was the kind that executioners were supposed to have worn back in the old days, with only the woman's mouth and chin uncovered. Even as Jake watched, the woman picked up what could only be called a buggy whip. The thin leather of the tail of the whip wasn't long enough that it had to be coiled, but it still wasn't something that Jake would enjoy having used on him.

  "Was that a knock on the door?" Matt asked, voicing the same question Jake suddenly had. "The blonde doesn't seem to be responding, but I could swear I heard a knock."

  "A very low knock," Jake agreed. "Maybe she isn't responding because - Yes, she heard it too, but she ignored it until she was in the mood to respond."

  The two of them watched as the blond woman finally left the mirror and strolled to the door. She held the whip in her right hand, opened the door with her left, then stepped back. A moment later a naked man entered, but it wasn't possible to tell exactly how tall he was. He entered crawling on all fours with his head hanging down, and didn't stop crawling until he was in the middle of the room. The blonde had stalked past him to wait at the point where he stopped crawling, and when he stopped he immediately kissed her boots.

  "You're pitiful and you disgust me," the blonde said to the man, her voice filled with vitriol as she stared down at him. "You're barely able to follow simple instructions, and if you thought you'd get away with such unacceptable behavior you were wrong."

  "Forgive me, Mistress," the man begged in a low, servile voice without raising his head. "I tried to do exactly as you told me to. If I didn't do it right I'll certainly try again."

  "Yes, you certainly will," the blonde agreed, her tone hard and allowing for nothing in the way of compromise. "But first you'll be punished for doing so badly the last time. We'll start off easy, then work our way to the more serious punishments. Take the proper position."

  "Yes, Mistress," the man said at once, and then he was leaning on his forearms instead of his hands. That position put his rump higher in the air, and the blonde wasted no time ignoring the offered target. She caressed the man's bare backside with the end of the whip she held, and then she brought it down hard across his behind.

  "Ow! Thank you, Mistress!" the man exclaimed, quivering with the pain but making no effort to protect himself. The second stroke of the whip brought the same response, as did the third, forth, and fifth strokes. The sixth stroke brought a louder exclamation of pain, and Jake noticed that the man was now beginning to writhe.

  "That really has to hurt," Matt observed as the whipping continued. "Look at how red his behind is starting to be, but he's not doing anything to protect himself. I don't understand how someone can enjoy having that done."

  "We all have our own needs and desires, and as long as we indulge them with others of like mind there's nothing wrong with it," Jake answered. "It's when people try to force their lifestyles on others that you run into trouble…"

  Jake had been trying to resist, but seeing the way the man twitched
and writhed every time the whip struck his behind, a set of memories forced themselves into Jake's consciousness. He'd been punished that way himself once, and no matter how the man on the monitor viewed the matter, Jake hadn't enjoyed being treated like that. The memories dragged Jake back to the time when he'd been forced to bend over a wooden form, as naked as the man on the monitor, the instrument of punishment a switch rather than a whip.

  And not doing anything to protect myself was an order rather than a choice, Jake thought, unreasoning fury turning his hands into fists. I felt it every time that switch reached my bottom, felt the blazing pain and the worse humiliation, raving inside my head over not being allowed to defend myself. If I'd suddenly been freed I would have tried to kill everyone in reach, in the process probably getting killed myself. But even knowing that in advance wouldn't have stopped me…

  "Yeah, I guess that being forced into someone else's lifestyle is worse," Matt agreed, only faint reluctance coloring his words as he saw Jake's point. "I'd hate having that kind of thing done to me, but that guy would probably hate never having that done to him again. People are never easy to understand."

  "Some people," Jake qualified, having no trouble understanding what had moved the man behind Jake's own punishment. The man had been a slaver, and he'd been trying to terrorize Jake and his companion Tandro into withdrawing the complaint that they'd lodged against the slaver. He'd also had Jake and Tandro drugged, but apparently hadn't considered the drug enough of a weapon. Even though it had been enough…

  Distantly Jake had been aware of the woman speaking to the man while she whipped him, and hearing the last of her instructions told Jake that it was a good thing the episode was being recorded. The woman had been giving the man his new orders, and once she passed on the last of it she paused in the whipping. The man was now crying softly, his body writhing slowly to the pain he'd been given.

  "You now have your instructions, but I know you're too stupid and inept to remember them all," the woman said, the same contempt in her voice that had been there earlier. "As time goes by I'll be quizzing you on what you were told, and every mistake will bring you that other kind of punishment. You do remember that other punishment, don't you?"