She stumbled over a thick rug, Menari weave by the look of it, and cursed her heels. Immediately a strong hand was on her elbow, steadying her, and she looked up into Gared Tomas’s bottle-green eyes. At once she recoiled, yanking her arm from his grasp, but he only smiled.
“So good to see you, Lira,” he said, and pointed to a low table that fronted a divan of soft brown leather. Sitting on the table were a pair of glasses filled with dark red liquid. “Drink?”
Getting hit twice in a twenty-four-hour period with a stun bolt must have done something to her hearing. That was the only explanation she could think of. No way Tomas was smiling at her pleasantly and offering her a drink.
But here he was, bending and lifting one of the glasses from the table, then extending it to her.
“Is this a joke?” she asked finally.
“‘Joke’?” he echoed, and seemed to consider her question for a few seconds. “No, I don’t believe so. You’ve had a long journey. I thought you might want something to take the edge off.”
Because she didn’t know what else to do, she took the glass from him but didn’t drink. Instead, she held it under her nose and sniffed, then looked at it sideways to see if she could see anything odd about it, a film along the top, a graininess — any indication to show that it had been tampered with.
“Suspicious, aren’t you?” Tomas let out a chuckle and reached for the glass. He brought it to his lips and took a large swallow before handing it back to her. “You see?”
At the moment she really didn’t. Up was down, night was day, Gared Tomas wasn’t trying to kill her. When she put it that way, a drink sounded eminently sensible. So she allowed herself a sip, and realized it was only wine, something heady and dark and complex…although, considering that she hadn’t eaten in hours, even the lightest of white wines probably would have felt heady to her at this point.
“Better,” he said. “Now, why don’t we discuss the situation like civilized people?”
“All right,” she managed. “I truly am sorry about the Mistral, but — ”
“My people have inspected it and found no damage. It could have been much worse. The important thing is that I have it back.”
“A-and your men — ”
For the first time a shadow passed over Gared Tomas’s face. “Morain was a loss. But you were not the one doing the shooting, were you?”
“No,” Lira replied, although she said no more than that. The last thing she wanted to do was attempt to improve her own situation by implicating Rast more than she already had. She took a slightly larger sip of the wine, and wondered if Tomas was going to offer her some food to go along with it. Already she was beginning to feel a little light-headed, the wine clearly going directly into her sustenance-deprived bloodstream.
In fact, she was beginning to feel a lot more than merely light-headed. The room seemed to dip and sway around her, beginning to swirl. Tomas’s eyes were like emeralds, boring into hers. He set down his own glass and smiled.
“Wha — ” she began, stumbling over the syllable. “But you drank some — ”
“I did. I also drank the antidote first.”
Antidote…
Her knees buckled, and she slumped to the carpet. Or rather, she began to collapse onto it, only to have Tomas catch her, lower her to the floor, his arms going around her. Those glittering green eyes came closer and closer.
“That’s better,” he said, his voice a silken threat. “That’s how I wanted you.”
And the world slipped into a merciful darkness.
* * *
Rast glared at the readouts on the console before him and swore under his breath. Still three standard hours to go. This was a good little ship, the best fighter craft he’d ever seen, but it was no Mistral.
And being stuck like this, in a single seat for the greater part of eighteen standard hours, was almost more than he could bear. He’d been trained to endure longer than that with no food and no sanitary breaks, so the physical discomfort wasn’t the worst of it. No, it was wondering what was happening to Lira while he chased after her, the limitations of the little ship’s drive preventing him from crossing the distance between Eridani and Iradia with the same lightning speed the Sirocco-class Mistral possessed.
Still, at least he’d gotten away, had managed to give sen Trannick the slip. That was something. As long as Rast was alive and free, there was a chance. He wouldn’t let himself believe anything else. He’d fought too hard for her and given up too much in that fight to abandon hope now.
And so he kept telling himself as those last few hours trickled away, and finally his stolen fighter craft emerged into realspace on the edge of the Iradian system. Anyplace else, and he might have had a difficult time making planetfall in such a vessel, so clearly designed for aggression. But because this was Iradia, he wasn’t challenged at all, only told there were docking pads available in Aldis Nova, for the right fee.
Typical. He transferred the specified units to the ’port authority, or what passed for it in that rough frontier town, and didn’t even quibble at the amount required. He had more important things to worry about.
As he guided the ship down to one of the pads at the ’port on the settlement’s outskirts, Rast wanted to slap himself. True, Iradia’s population was far lower than that of many planets, even his own arid and hostile home world. Even so, there were roughly three or four million people living down there, and approximately thirty settlements scattered across Iradia’s surface. He’d come to Aldis Nova because that was where he’d found Lira the first time, but there was no guarantee she’d be here. Tomas was rumored to have hideouts and safe houses everywhere, including on Iradia’s moon. Lira could be anywhere.
But since he didn’t know what else to do, Rast set down the ship anyway and gratefully pried himself out of the cockpit. At the very least he needed to eat and attend to some other pressing bodily functions. He could go days without sleep if necessary, and might have to, but those other matters could wait no longer.
After locking down the ship and double-checking balance on the credit voucher Hunter Chao had given him, Rast headed out into Aldis Nova. Luckily, he had set down in the late afternoon, and so there was still enough light remaining that the true dregs hadn’t yet oozed out of their hiding places. Not too far from the ’port he found an eating establishment, ordered a meal, and used its rest facilities — none too clean, unfortunately — while waiting for the food to be prepared.
When his meal did arrive, however, he found himself picking at it, and not only because he was uncertain of the overall hygiene of the establishment. No, he couldn’t help berating himself for having no clear plan as to what to do when he arrived here, even though he knew deep down that he’d done the best he could. After all, stealing a fighter craft from the admiral’s flagship was no mean feat. But that feat would count for very little if he couldn’t discover where on Iradia Lira had been taken.
His handheld buzzed, and Rast scowled. Who could possibly be calling him here? After all, this was the handheld Hunter Chao had provided, and so the only people who had its code were Hunter, Lira, and — possibly — Jackson Wyler.
Rast pulled it out of his pocket at once and looked down into Wyler’s grinning face. Surely he never would have said he’d actually be happy to see that smug-faced Gaian, but right now the only visage that would have been more welcome was Lira’s. Calmly, though, he said, “Wyler.”
“Afternoon, Master sen Lhannick,” Wyler replied, using the alias Chao had given him. “At least, I’m assuming from the time/date stamp that it’s afternoon where you are.”
“More or less. Listen, Wyler, we don’t have a lot of time — ”
“I know that. But I’m guessing you’re probably a little stuck. Typical Stacian, going charging in without any real plan.”
Good thing roughly a hundred parsecs separated Rast from Wyler at that moment. But since getting into a war of words wouldn’t help Lira, Rast bit back the fifty or so insults t
hat rose to his lips and instead gritted, “Is this your oblique way of offering some help?”
“You could say that. Just understand that this is for Lira, not for you.”
“Understood.”
Wyler’s image on the handheld looked pleased. “First off, she’s not in Aldis Nova. She’s halfway around the planet from you.”
Naturally. Rast swallowed a few more curses and waited for the other man to continue. When no more information seemed to be forthcoming, he growled, “So where is she?”
“At Tomas’s main compound, about a hundred clicks west of a crummy outpost called Pathi.”
That was all Rast needed. “Thanks, Wyler.” He moved to cut off the transmission, but the hacker quickly said,
“Hold up there, cowboy. Even you should think twice about going in there, guns blazing. Just wait — we’ve got a team on the way.”
Rast didn’t know what a cowboy was and didn’t much care. It was Wyler’s other remark that gave him pause, and made him move his finger away from the “end” button on the handheld. “‘We’ve got a team on the way’? Care to clarify.”
Wyler’s miniature face looked almost abashed. “Well, I might not have been completely truthful with you.”
“About?” Rast growled.
“I might not have been working quite as outside the lines as I led Lira to believe.”
“Speak plainly, Wyler — I don’t need your Gaian double-talk.”
A sigh. “I’d forgotten how literal you Stacians can be. All right, then — I’ve been working with the Gaian authorities for some time in various capacities. Some of sen Trannick’s behavior has been under suspicion for some time, but no one could put a finger on what he was up to until he used you to get at Lira so she could be removed from her post in the Chlorae system.”
“That was all a setup?” Rast demanded. Good thing that Wyler was so many light-years away, or the Gaian would have run a strong risk of being throttled. “I thought you said Admiral Horner was clean.”
“He was — is, I mean. It was one of Lira’s crew who reported her, um, activities with you to the admiral’s office. He had no choice but to remove her. Turns out that crew member was being paid well by sen Trannick’s agents to report anything suspicious about his captain’s behavior. He was going to make sure she was removed one way or another…although I’m guessing he came up with that particular scheme because it was the most amusing. But we also knew that Lira wouldn’t leave it alone forever, and counted on her getting in contact with me for assistance.” Wyler hesitated, and a rueful smile touched his mouth. “What I didn’t count on was her detour to Iradia, but that’s worked out to our advantage anyway. The Gaian authorities have been trying to nail down Gared Tomas for years, so that’s a nice little bonus.”
“Wonderful for you. And so you had no idea of the Eridani connection until your hacker friend unearthed it for you?”
“None. As soon as Lira relayed that information to me, I sent it on to the Eridanis. They’re working things on their end, but unfortunately weren’t fast enough to catch up with Daos Senn before he handed Lira off to Gared Tomas’s agents.”
Typical. No doubt the Eridani agents involved had to waste precious time to send politely worded communiques back and forth before they decided on a plan of action. While he couldn’t deny how much his home world had been helped by the Eridanis, he also knew that having any sort of extended dealings with them made him want to tear his hair out.
He’d heard enough. “Speaking of wasting time, I’ve already done enough of that. Lira’s been here on Iradia in Tomas’s hands for almost twelve standard hours. I’m going in to get her.”
“But the team — ”
“ — can mop things up when they get here. I’m out.” Rast cut off the transmission and shoved the handheld back in his pocket, then got up from the table and swiped his voucher at the kiosk on his way out of the restaurant before hurrying back to the ’port to retrieve his ship.
Wyler might not have provided exact coordinates, but the information he’d provided should be enough. The stolen fighter craft had fairly powerful scanning equipment and should be able to zero in on Tomas’s compound once the ship got within twenty kilometers. After that, well, Rast would just have to see. He hadn’t been that impressed by the crime lord’s defenses the last time he’d encountered them. True, this time he would be confronting Tomas on his home territory.
On the other hand, he’d also be coming in while flying one of the Stacian navy’s most advanced starfighters…
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lira dreamed that Rast was kissing her, mouth insistent, his tongue touching hers, tasting hers. But something about the shape of his mouth was wrong, and the feel of his lips was wrong, and his very scent was wrong. So her dream self pulled away, and she opened her eyes, and that was when she realized she hadn’t been dreaming at all, that it was not Rast pressing his lips against hers, that when she opened her eyes and saw bright green meeting them rather than shining copper, she realized it was Gared Tomas violating her with his mouth.
Gasping, she pulled away — at least as far as she was able. Because then she saw that she lay on a bed in an unfamiliar room, and her wrists were bound to the head posts of shining carved stone. The suit she’d purchased on Eridani was gone, and in its place was a thin-strapped gown of moon-moth silk so sheer she might as well not have been wearing anything at all.
“Bastard!” she spat. “I knew you were low, Tomas, but I didn’t realized you’d stoop so low as to take a woman when she’s unconscious and can’t fight back.” Even as she spoke, though, she began to think things hadn’t gone quite that far. Her body had none of the usual post-coital tells. Still…
He didn’t appear offended, but only grinned and pushed a few strands of her hair away from her neck. The touch of his fingers trailing across her skin made shivers run down her back, and not in a good way. “I didn’t ‘take you,’ Lira, although I was sorely tempted.” His hand moved from her neck to the swell of her breasts, its heat penetrating the flimsy silk as if it weren’t there.
She forced herself not to react. That was what he wanted, she knew — to see her try to squirm away from his touch. Or maybe his ego was so massive that he thought she would actually enjoy it. Instead, she remained still, glaring up at him. “So why the whole bondage setup? I have to warn you that I’m not really into that sort of thing.”
“Oh? Pity.” He lifted his hand from her breast and smiled, a smug smirk that made her wish her hands were free so she could wipe it off his face. “I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t try to get away.”
“And you thought there was a greater likelihood of that if I’d stayed in my own clothes?” As soon as she asked the question, she regretted it, because his gaze flicked downward, toward the obvious outline of her aureolas through the thin silk. She swallowed, trying not to breathe too deeply, to do anything else to draw his attention to places where she really didn’t want it.
The grin broadened. “That suit looked very uncomfortable.” To her relief, he sat up and moved a few inches away from her.
She would have preferred a few light-years, but any additional distance was welcome at this point.
“No, Lira,” he went on, “I made you an offer some weeks ago, and you turned it down. A blow to my ego, but one I got over soon enough.”
No real surprise there; only a day after she’d told him she’d be a pilot or a mistress but not both, he’d had her take him and an overly painted local girl to his hideout on Iradia’s moon. At the time she’d wondered if he’d done it to let her know that she was certainly replaceable and definitely hadn’t broken his heart. If he even had one.
Lira said nothing, though, and only arched an eyebrow at him, trying to show that he might have her bound and all but naked before him, but she wasn’t about to let him intimidate her.
“That was some initiative you showed, stealing my ship and running off with that Stacian.” Tomas paused, and ran a contemplative
hand over his chin. “I have to say that surprised me a little. I hadn’t thought your tastes were quite that exotic. That’s…promising.”
She tilted her head to one side. “Is there a point to all this?”
The amused expression faded somewhat. “The point, Lira, is that I thought you were just a down-on-her-luck former GDF captain. I didn’t think you had any flair, so to speak. But I still need a pilot, and now that Morain got himself blasted into the next world, I need a second-in-command. And I want someone in my bed I can rely on. I know if you give me your word to execute your…duties…faithfully, then I can trust you.”
There could be only one explanation for such a proposition. He had to have gone completely insane. “Gared, I stole your ship. I was accessory to the deaths of two of your men. And now you want me to be your — your — ” She broke off, unable to find a reasonable analogue for the concept of pilot/mistress/majordomo.
“I know,” he replied calmly. “You’ve proven that you’re not nearly as by-the-book as you first led me to believe. As for the rest?” He bent down toward her, and she forced herself not to flinch, not to give any indication how much she loathed the idea of his mouth touching her again.
Then a distant rumble seemed to echo through the room, and Tomas straightened immediately, eyes narrowing. “What the hell — ”
Another rumble, closer, and more obviously an explosion. Across the chamber, a piece of local pottery tipped off a shelf and shattered on the stone floor.
At once the crime lord was on his feet, any thoughts of wooing Lira abandoned for the moment. As he headed for the door, he called over his shoulder, “Don’t go anywhere.” Then he was gone, and she was left alone.
Her solitude wasn’t exactly as welcome as she’d thought it might be, considering that she was still tied to the bed and that the compound was clearly under some kind of attack. A little rush of joy went through her as she thought of Rast. Maybe he really had come to save her, improbable as that might be.
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