by Mason, Jolie
Em nodded. “I need help speeding up a search and, possibly, hacking a database or two.”
Caden rolled his eyes indulgently. “My gods, but you kids are all insane.”
Luca met Emery's gaze over the desk. “You have no idea, Caden.” Emery met her suspicion with open challenge. The two of them stared at one another long enough to be noticed by the father and son. “Right”, Luca said finally. “I need a shower, a meal and nap. Wake me when you know something, FM Charles. I'll be in my bunk.”
She waved dismissively at the three men left standing among walls and walls of books and computer equipment.
***#***
Emery waited until she was gone before he stood up and pushed the chair toward Jace. “We don't have much time.”
Caden tensed. “What does that mean?”
“It means she needs to know who she was.”
Confounded, Jace asked, “Who she was?”
Looking Caden in the eye, Emery answered, “Luca's been wiped. Ari found her and gave her an identity.”
“Lots of things cause amnesia.” Caden tensed. “You don't know she's been wiped.”
“Caden, you are not a stupid man. Amnesia plus surveillance plus her placement in your way. What part of that does not scream Imperium to you?”
Caden looked angry now, stepping into his space. “Sometime, you can explain to me how you know so much about Imperium tactics.”
“You don't need me to explain a thing. I'm getting her out of this. Are you helping me, or getting in my way? Answer carefully.”
Emery squared off with Caden, who was an able enough guy, but he was out of his league here. Luca needed this solved. She would probably never get over his lie, but he could do this for her. He had this set of skills, and a driving need to see her safe, whole and happy. He tried not to analyze that too carefully.
Luca hadn't been happy since he'd met her. Oh, she'd laughed, she'd smiled and she'd gotten hammered a few times. She had the tough girl act down, but he'd never once seen her at ease. Even Ari, who anyone could plainly see thought of her as a daughter or little sister, hadn't cracked that shell of hers entirely.
Emery had, for all intents and purposes, thrown his life away by refusing to bring her in. Every day he walked free was borrowed time. He might as well use it for something that mattered.
He didn't really understand it, but, since he'd been on the Bell, she'd become important to him, unbelievably so. It wasn't just that she was beautiful, or unavailable, which she was. It was more and less than that. It had become a simple state of being for him.
He was a man. He was a liar. He was a killer. He was… hers.
Emery hadn't put the moves on her once, though he'd thought about it. She didn't hide her body, and there wasn't a man on the ship who hadn't look into those angel eyes and thought about what it would be like to feel that body under him, around him. He'd wondered. He was still a guy.
She was too good for him.
Caden deflated, almost as if he sensed Emery's determination. “Fine. For Luca and my wife, but, when she's clear of this, you blaze. You hear me? You are gone, and we never hear from you again. I won't have this kind of trouble here, not where we live.”
“Agreed”. He nodded once. Jace had watched the tension with one eye, and the screens with the other.
“Your parameters are too wide. Do we have information that might help us narrow this search? Anything about her that would always be true?”
Em thought a moment. “She's O neg.”
Jace nodded. “That would help. What else?”
“She's allergic to shellfish. Likes to dance. She likes poetry.”
Jace clearly wasn't buying the last one. “Poetry?”
“Yeah”, he smiled to himself, lost in memories. “When she's thinking, she'll stand at the viewscreen and watch the stars and recites some of the most…” He looked up to find both men watching him speculatively. “Will that do?”Jace nodded. Emery turned and walked to the door. He needed sleep too, and he really didn't like feeling like the bad guy, even if he had been at one time.
“Oh, Jace,” he'd forgotten a detail. “Look for women with a history of institutionalization. Mental health facilities. Things like that.”
“You think she was crazy?”
He turned sharply. “No, I don't think she was crazy. I think she might have been an experiment. That would mean there's some bastard out there just waiting for my bullet. We find him, and I'll be out of your way.”
He tapped his thigh with his right hand and quickly left the library, furious at the thought of Luca being trapped or even labeled in that way. She was the sanest person he'd met in his life. Which was ironic in its' way, since he'd started losing his the moment he met her.
***#***
They'd been here for almost forty standard hours now. Ari and Caden had a charity event in the city. The Badus had all retired to their separate house on the south of the small estate. It was late as Luca made her way down the hall to the library in her long silken night robe.
She'd belted the rich crimson fabric tightly before leaving the room. It was no use trying to sleep, trying to outrun the dreams. They were coming every night. She might as well try to accomplish something, hence, a late night search for a codex connection was in order.
Luca pushed her way quietly into the library and stopped to stare. His hair was golden brown in the lamplight and tousled as though he'd been running his hand over it. The squared-off strength of his jaw tensed in a scowl at the screen. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't pleased with the results.
She waited a moment before she drew his attention. She took a second to stare at the beautiful image he made. Masculine frustration poured off him in waves, and it hurt how sexy it made him. It hurt because she knew it would be bad for her. He was a trouble like she'd never known.
She knew it in her bones, despite her amnesia.
He growled and threw his scrib onto the hard surface of the desk, making it bounce. His hand ran roughly over the dark curls at his crown, and then his eyes lifted to spot her there.
Luca waved. “Couldn't sleep either?”
“Just feeling the deadline. Nightmares?”
She grimaced and moved sideways, almost giving him a wide berth at the desk. “What else?” She curled her legs underneath her body as she took a seat near his cold fireplace. Like Caden needed a fireplace here in Hell.
“Same dream?”
She nodded. “Nothing new”, she answered his unspoken thought and stared into the cold stone echo of a fire that hadn't been lit in some time.
Luca heard him push back the chair. She turned her it's-all-right smile on him. “I'm fine”, she told him, but she heard the hollow sound of the words herself. He planted his feet in front of the fireplace and her chair, but he wouldn't look at her.
“It's not going to happen.” He said it simply and dreadfully. “We'll have to go where Ari found you.”
“Sensor? Talk about a needle in a haystack.”
He nodded again.
Luca wiped a hand over her eyes, suddenly exhausted. “Maybe I'm better off not knowing.”
His hand landed gently on the side of her curls. “It's always better to know your enemy.”
She moved her hand fractionally peeking up at him. “You're that sure I have one?”
“You're not? After those men on Clarion?” He whispered his next words. “You're lovely, Luca.”
How many times had she heard that? She looked at him, then felt shock and surprise roll in like a tide. His gaze roamed her face, even as he spoke in a reverent tone one might use in a church. “Really beautiful.”
“For all we know, it's fake as Santa Claus.”
He wanted to argue with her, but thought better of it. He squatted in front of her, putting them eye to eye. “You're like an angel, Luca.”
She leaned closer to him to seductively whisper in his ear. “No, I'm not. I'm not some symbol of a dead religion. I'm flesh and blood.”
> His hand gathered in her hair and his teeth pressed together a moment before he said to her, “You should study your history better. Angels were creatures of vengeful wrath, great joy, and sometimes good news. You're all of that and more.” His hand clenched in her hair, causing a gentle tug on her scalp. His expression held her in it's grasp just as tightly.
“ You are something beyond flesh and blood.” She swallowed. There was something unsaid in all that, something he clearly didn't intend to share. His eyes fell away from hers, and the crooked, little ironic smile he'd perfected appeared at the corner of his mouth. She looked away and closed her eyes for a moment, to rest them from the unexplored beauty hidden in that little smile.
Just like that, the moment was broken. He stood straight again, and paced back to the console at the desk. “Why don't you curl up on the sofa over there and see if it helps to sleep here?”
She chuckled. “you're going to protect me from my own brain?”
“If I have to”, he answered, causing her good humor to dry up and her heart to skip. He'd always seemed like her, a party boy always playing. That's not what he gave her tonight. Tonight, he showed her the primitive warrior that hid beneath that playboy skin.
Confused and exhausted by his strange behavior, she did as he suggested and curled up on the deeply earthy sofa along the wall. She hadn't believed she could ever go to sleep again, but she did, one more time. Just because she wasn't alone? Or because he was there to chase the demons?
***#***
Emery stared at the vidscreen, until his vision blurred. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he tried one more time to focus. A movement on the sofa drew his attention.
Her blond curls peeked over the thin blanket he'd fetched for her when the desert temperatures outside dropped. She'd slept soundlessly for a couple hours. He looked at his datapad. It was near sunrise. He turned the swivel chair away from the screen and the useless console. He'd found exactly nothing.
They had three profiles of women who could be her, but nothing solid enough to follow. Sensor Prime was the best bet. She had been hospitalized a while before she'd been released when her memory never returned. They would start at the hospital records center, and move on from there.
He looked over at her one more time, as if he couldn't help himself. Normally, Em wasn't this close to her. They met once a week for a drink and to go over the ship's roster and schedule. They passed in the halls. On rare occasions, he sought her out in her quarters to discuss business, but this constant exposure to her was hell on his peace of mind.
Her cheek sloped gracefully away from him. She curled away from him on the sofa. She had vivid eyes of blue, sharp and observant, and this way of moving that caused him to overheat when she walked too close. The woman was sex walking.
Emery sat there staring at her back intently, planning his next move. They'd been hoping to find her identity in the ether. It wasn't really surprise that it wasn't going to just fall out of thin air given who would have something to hide here. They would have to go looking for her identity in the last place she had one, possibly. It was possible she'd been dropped off on Sensor and not from there, but it was the only lead they had. If that didn't work, he'd have to do something much riskier.
He'd have to catch one of the operatives and make him talk. It wasn't his favorite thing. Information extraction was a necessary evil in his work, not that it was his work anymore.
His eyes fell to her slim form once again as he wondered for the hundredth time if he would have done it. If it had been someone else, someone who didn't make him go soft, on the inside, at least, would he have said no to Morgan? Would he have sacrificed himself for just anyone? He'd never been notably heroic.
It was a moot point, he thought. What's done is done, and it had been her.
He would be hunted. It was all but certain there would be a bounty on him already. He huffed a breath. She was in as much danger from being near him as she was from her past.
Pushing away from the desk, he went to the chair nearest the couch and sprawled out in it. He'd take a nap, then talk to Ari about where they found her.
***#***
He found Ari the next day smiling at three squealing children by the rock formation pool in the back of the residence. It was decadent by any standard because of the huge amount of water involved in the middle of a desert. Apparently, Caden had used this place to test out a new deep welling technique that he thought might help the locals. The reclamation equipment that cleaned and recycled the pool water must be expensive and hidden well. Sometimes, it was really hard to wrap his mind around how rich Caden Carnes had to be.
“Ari”, he said as he approached. “Can we talk? I need any details you can remember about finding Luca.”
She put a hand over her eyes to look at him. “You do, do you? I need a few details myself, maybe we can negotiate a trade.”
He looked warily at the former captain of the Bell. Her dark hair danced about her face in a small breeze, making her seem whimsical, until you looked in her eyes. Her eyes held the cold steel of a decisive and somewhat deadly woman. In other words, he needed to pass inspection, or Ari might disappear him to the desert. Okay, he thought. He could kiss the ring, if he had to.
“All right. You start.”
She gestured toward a glass top table with chairs on either side. “Have a seat.”
“My husband tells me you have a few unusual skills?”
He leaned forward awkwardly. “I prefer to think of it as a varied experience.”
“You've been working for the Imperium. Why should we trust you?”
He tapped a hand silently on the glass, wondering if there was a way out of this woman's questions. He really doubted it. Finally, he answered, “Because, I'm the reason she's not dead or on a transport back to wherever she came from, and all of this”, he gestured at the pool. “Was paid for by working for the empire.”
She nodded. “Fair enough. What's your interest in this?”
“I don't understand the question”, he returned.
“Yes, you do. Why are you not headed for the nearest port of call?”
He let his gaze rest on the nearest palm blowing gently in the breeze.
It took a long moment for his answer. “I don't know. She matters.”
Ari folded her hands across her abdomen and leaned way back in her chair. “You love her?”
“How would I know?”
“If you don't know, who does?”
“Look, my life hasn't exactly included relationships. It still can't. Right now, I'm the best shot she has, and I'm willing.”
“All right”, she said. “We found Luca wandering the port. She was disoriented and hungry. We bought her food and took her to an enforcer office where they scanned her for chips when they found out she remembered nothing. She had one. It stated she was a Jane Doe recently released from Prime Medical with no successful treatment. She'd been on the streets since then.”
“How long was she on the streets?”
“Two weeks. More than that and she'd have been toasted. Sensor has some pretty mean streets.”
“What did you do then?”
“We contacted a guy I know”, she said slyly.
“A counterfeiter guy you know?”
She nodded. “He made her an identity so she could work. We asked her questions, brought her on board, showed her around. Wasn't long before she'd latched onto the controls and told us just what they all did. She was a pilot, so I put her on my crew. Everybody won.”
“What's the name of this guy you know?”
“Sar Jenkins. He worked the Prime port last I checked.”
“Sarcoff Jenkins?” Emery's stomach dropped to his shoes. Ari stopped smiling.
“Yeah, why?”
“How did you meet this guy?”
She sat up straight. “Same way I met everyone I ever knew off Taarken. Deliveries. Why?”
“He was a plant. An operative. He's also dead now. Damn it.”
&
nbsp; You're sure?”
He laughed harshly and put his head in his hands. “I killed him.”
Ari's normally healthy, tan features blanched. “You?”
“Oh, gods.” Sar had set up her new identity which meant she'd been meant to end up exactly where she was.
“What does this mean?”
He looked at her. “Basically, we may be fucked. It's a cleaner job. Retire the operatives so the truth can't be traced. Do it soon after they've performed their part of the job. She's high priority. Sar was targeted as a rogue agent, but it's more likely he was a loose end which mean someone really does not want her found for some reason.”
He hadn't been watching Ari because he'd been marveling at the completeness of his screwed state. When he finally turned to look, she was pointing a side iron right at him. He kept his hands cautiously on the table and made no sudden moves.
“If you killed him, you were part of this.”
“I'm in this to my neck. Ari, you don't need that.” He pointed to the gun.
“You let me be the judge of that.” She raised an eyebrow. “Convince me.”
“My first assignment on the Bell was recon. I assumed she was a retired, low value asset. It had that security level. I was to report on her state and intentions. I did.”
Ari looked skeptical. “And?”
“And then I was ordered to deliver her.” Quickly, he added, “An order I refused. That got me nothing but a bounty, Ari.”
“Okay, but I only have your word.”
“And unless you want to call my handler, that's all I've got.”
“I'll bite. Who's your handler?”
“Imperial High Command officer. Valek Morgan.”
Ari proceeded to use words he hadn't known could be made into swears. She holstered her weapon. “I knew it. That franta. Everyone has been a plant apparently.”
“You've met?”
“Yes.” She said nothing else. “What do we do now?”
“Now, we head to Sensor.”
***#***
The dirty, noisy dock on Taarken was almost bearably sweltering today, Luca realized, as she followed Em toward the slip containing the Carry Bell with her cargo bay doors wide open to allow for easy boarding.
