by Mina Carter
“You look like the kind of guy who can give a girl all the action she needs.” Tilting her head, she leaned a shoulder against the crate behind her and arched her back to show her tits off to best effect. She didn’t have much of a rack, but if he was looking at what she did have, then he might miss the heavily armed soldier.
“Oh, hell yeah. I’ll give you more than you can handle, little girl.”
Dark lust glittered in his eyes as he stalked toward her. The sort of look that would have made any sane woman run for the hills. Sick bastard. Behind him, Kelwin glared at her and made frantic gestures that she assumed were orders for her to get the hell out of there. She resisted the urge to reply with an extended middle finger.
Ignoring the former soldier, she smiled up at the predator approaching her and tightened her grip on the knife hidden behind her back. Screw being a wallflower—she was taking her own damn ship back.
“How about I give you a little something to handle?” she cooed, lover-like, as he cozied up to her. Her stomach churned at the feel of his ham-like fist in the curve of his waist. Wrapping her hand around the back of his neck, she used her body as coverage to bring the knife around.
Thunk-thunk.
The beefy pirate stiffened, surprise in his eyes. Nerys frowned, her body tensed for danger. He coughed, the sound strangled as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
She gasped and stepped back. Just in time. His hand slipped from her waist. He swayed once…twice…then toppled forward like a felled tree, narrowly missing her. Stunned, she looked up to see Kelwin looking down the sights of the energy rifle, his expression grim.
“What the fuck do you think you’re playing at?” He slung the rifle across his back and stormed over to her. Anger blasted from him like heat from a sun.
She stepped back automatically, then stopped when she realized what she was doing and leveled a cool gaze at him. “I’m taking my ship back, that’s what. You got a problem with tha—hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
A hard hand about her wrist, he dragged her off the main walkway and into a small gap between two of the crates. Every line of his body radiated tension, like a coiled spring about to snap and release the torrent of rage she could sense inside him. She had no options but to follow or have her wrist broken.
The smell of grease and old air filled her nostrils. Way above them, the fans turned lazily, but the cool air didn’t reach down between the crates. They were just there to keep the hold below oven temperature.
Kel looked over his shoulder and grunted. They were out of sight of the walkway. Swinging her around sharply, he pushed her into the side of a crate. A second later, his hard body covered hers, pinning her against the warm metal as he glared down at her, his eyes furious.
“Just what the fuck did you think you were doing? Do you have any idea what that guy would have done to you?”
Nerys opened and closed her mouth with a snap. Yeah, sure she knew what pirates did to the crews of the ships they boarded. Particularly the women…even the men at times. Solar sailing had never been the safest of occupations—she’d accepted that a long time ago. It just happened to be the one profession her father would least expect of her, and therefore the last place he’d look.
“Of course I did! Doesn’t take a bloody genius to work out, you know?” Fighting the effect of his body pressed against hers, all hard and lean muscle, she went for a snappy, if whispered reply. “And, strangely, I managed to look after myself for years before you turned up. One night of fucking does not entitle you to run my damn life!”
His expression changed, heat joining the fury in his eyes. “Fucking? Was that all it was to you?”
Her heart stuttered in her chest, then picked up and thundered like an orbital train. He grabbed her leg and pressed harder into her. The thick ridge of his cock branded the softness of her belly. Arousal spiked, so intense her knees weakened and threatened to dump her on the deck-plating. Only his hand kept her upright.
His mouth crushed hers, hard and demanding. She whimpered, hating herself when her traitorous body responded to him without question. His tongue drove past her lips to plunder the softness within. Heat hit her, raising the simmering in her blood to a frantic boil. She needed him, needed this…
He shoved away from her, breaking the kiss abruptly. She staggered a little, grabbing the ridges of the container behind her for support. Turning away, he ran a shaky hand through his close-cropped hair.
“These aren’t ordinary pirates.” He fixed her with a steely glare. “They’re here for you. They were talking about a client. You need to tell me, Rhys…is there anyone looking for you?”
Was he seeing things, or did her eyes shift a little at his question? The nagging feeling that had been bothering him since the day before rushed to the forefront again. He knew her from somewhere. Swiftly, he did a mental re-run over the recent images from the Galaxy’s Most Wanted List. It played every morning on the news holo-channels and, like all soldiers, he had a photographic memory. The scan came up blank. Rhys, nor anyone remotely resembling her, was on there.
He let go a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. If she had been a criminal, he would have had no choice. He’d have had to turn her in as soon as they reached port, night of mind-blowing sex or not. But she wasn’t, so he didn’t have to. A fact that pleased him more than it should, considering her dismissive assessment of their night together. Anger warred with disappointment over her words. He wanted to be more than just a casual lay, easily forgotten. So sue him.
“No…” She rallied quickly and gave him a defiant look. “No one that I know of.”
Kel gritted his teeth until his jaw ached. She was lying. So either she knew someone was looking for her, or she’d given someone somewhere cause to.
“Think carefully,” he said, managing not to make it a snarl. “A business deal gone bad, a supplier you’ve fallen out with. Hell, a guy you spilled a drink on in a bar somewhere…anything?”
She gave him a blank look again and shook her head. He clenched his fists at his sides, wanting nothing more than to wrap them around her neck and throttle her for being stupid—for around half a second before he kissed the life out of her. She had the worst fake-innocent look of anyone he’d ever seen, her pink cheeks awash with color that pronounced her guilt. He’d only ever seen that color on one other woman before, years ago. Putting the memory aside, he focused on the woman in front of him.
“They’re looking for you particularly…or a woman on a solar ship. There are two of them left. One below in the crew quarters and the one on the bridge. Very small team, so they’re only expecting you.”
He grinned, blood lust and adrenalin singing in his veins. It was a seductive melody. If his glands had been active rather than switched off at the cellular level, he’d have been awash in so much Euphoria he’d have thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
“Yeah, yeah. No way are they expecting you, Mr. Lean-Mean-Fighting-Machine. Put it back in your pants, big boy, and let’s figure out a way to get my ship back, shall we?”
Her snippy comment cut through the machismo and rage swirling through his veins. Blinking in surprise, he looked at her. There was no way he was letting her near any of the pirates. Just seeing her giving that guy the come-on, even though she’d been armed, had almost frozen him with fear there and then.
“No. There is no ‘we’ here.” He glared at her. “I’m being serious, Rhys. These men are not pissing about. Their client apparently doesn’t care what state you’re in when you get to him. So you can expect a little fun time if they catch you.”
There, that should do it. He’d learned through his extensive military career that even the threat of rape was enough to force compliance in all but the most battle-hardened women.
He hadn’t counted on Rhys.
She shrugged and picked up an energy rifle she must have stashed earlier.
“They have to get close enough.” She grinned up at him throug
h her hair, teeth white against the tanned skin of her face. “And that’s just about close enough for me to cut their balls off.”
He stilled, his rage fading back as he looked at her.
He was in love.
The ground didn’t shift, the universe didn’t quake, a hole didn’t open up under his feet, but the focus of Kelwin’s life changed. He loved her. Loved Rhys. She was the perfect match of fire and determination for him, with a vulnerable inner core he’d only just glimpsed but one that resonated within his soul. The need to protect her warred with the desire to see her in battle—in her full glory. She’d have made a wonderful soldier.
“You…” He slid a hard hand onto the nape of her neck and pulled her to him for a brief, hard kiss. “…are perfect. Don’t ever change. Now, let’s go perform a little vermin control, shall we?”
It didn’t take them long to drop down a level and make their way through the lower decks to the crew quarters. All senses on alert, Kel took the lead, viewing the world through the scope of his rifle. It was a familiar sight, one that would have brought comfort before. But now, with Rhys following silently behind him, he was reminded he had everything to lose.
His expression hardened. There would be no mercy for these pirates or their client. Once he was done here, he would drop Rhys off someplace safe—the cloud hotel on Uvarian Four perhaps, for a taste of the luxury missing from her life—and head out to track the client down. He was a threat to the woman Kel loved, which meant that whoever he was, wherever he was, he’d just signed his own death warrant.
A small tap on his arm got his attention. Rhys signaled to the second of two doors as they approached. Relief rolled through him. The other door led to the service corridor at the back of her bedroom. He didn’t want her to see the mess he’d made of Bob back there.
He nodded and covered the door. His movements were precise and practiced as they reached it, and then the pair of them were through with a minimum of fuss. He hated entry points—they created a natural bottleneck any soldier worth his salt would avoid. Plus, those Alkarian bastards had loved to hide above doors and drop on the unwary with claws and teeth like some kind of gory practical joke. At least the pirates were human and subject to the same laws of gravity he and Rhys were. Still, it didn’t stop the instinctive check of the darkness above as they passed through the doorway.
A door slammed up ahead, hidden around the next corner. Kel froze, his hand snapping up into a fist at shoulder level before he remembered Rhys wouldn’t have a clue the field signal meant stop.
She froze anyway, so close he could feel the heat of her body against the bare skin of his arm. Her breathing was irregular, the slight hitch betraying how scared she really was. A rush of tenderness pierced him, the emotion sharp and new.
He motioned her toward a doorway—the slight alcove meager cover—as the sounds of a room being searched filtered down the corridor. It wasn’t much, but it would provide a little protection—enough for her to get a few shots off if he fell. He didn’t plan on falling.
He stabbed a finger at her and pointed at the floor to tell her to stay put, then indicated himself with a thumb and made walking motions. Her eyes glittered in the darkness, her lips flattening into a stubborn line.
Please sweet…not now, he begged silently and reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Using two fingers to point at her eyes, he motioned the way they’d come. Her gaze flicked from him to the door. Finally, she nodded and turned, covering their rear.
He paused for a second just to look at her. The dim light in the corridor caressed the curve of her cheek, the gold hue of her skin shimmering. What would she look like in the full glory of sunlight? Heat gripped his body, his cock hard in an instant as he imagined her spread on silk sheets. When they got out of this, when he’d found the mysterious ‘client’ and dealt with him, Kel was going to book the penthouse suite in the cloud hotel—the one with the view of the system’s triple suns—and make love to her under permanent sunlight.
When he didn’t move, she flicked him a curious glance. Shaking himself out of the daydream, he put all thoughts of pleasure from his mind and headed down the corridor. With each step he took toward the corner, his senses expanded. His hearing sharpened, the hiss of steam from the pipes overhead almost deafening. His nostrils flared, filled with the scent of grease, old air and his own body.
A bead of sweat detached from his skin and rolled down the hollow of his spine. Without the air-cyclers of the upper decks, the place was nearing sauna heat. He tried to ignore it, reaching the corner and pausing to listen. No footsteps, but there was muttering coming from farther down the corridor. Sounded like the guy had decided on a little bit of pillaging while he looked for Rhys.
Kelwin moved around the corner smoothly, looking through his sights, finger on the trigger all the way. He hadn’t survived the war just to get sloppy now and buy the farm at the hands of some asshole pirates.
The corridor was empty. Two rooms down, a door was open and light streamed into the hallway. More muttering and the sound of things hitting the floor issued from inside. Kel shook his head and moved up to the side of the doorway.
The pirate was in the back of the room, to the right. Kel’s fingertip stroked the safety catch as he stepped into the doorway. “Hey, fucktard. Didn’t your mama ever teach you stealing isn’t nice?”
Chapter Eight
The pfft-pfft of energy bolts shattered the silence in the narrow corridor. Nerys jumped at the sound and bit her lip to stop herself crying out or doing something equally stupid, like dropping her gun. Despite her bravado in front of Kelwin earlier, she’d only ever had to use her weapon once before.
She worried her lip with her teeth. The darkness surrounded her in its comfortable cocoon of heat and dampness. She’d told him pirates were a problem. They were, but not on Icaria. Even the pirates were more sensible than to pull a heist on the most dangerous route in existence. It wasn’t a random attack, though. As soon as Kel had said “client”, she’d known.
Her father had found her.
Kelwin appeared at the corner, urging her on. Without a word, she pushed off and followed him. They didn’t speak; there was no need for words. Violence and death hung in the air like an expensive perfume. She turned the corner. Ahead, the light from an open door splashed across the darkened corridor in an oasis of color. Kel walked on ahead, his shoulders creeping up as he passed the door. Tension radiated from every line of his body as he turned to look at her. His expression was grim, the expression in his eyes resigned as he waited.
Unsure, she paused opposite the doorway. Why had he stopped?
“Take a good look, Rhys. This is the kind of man I am.” His voice was soft but tinged with sadness. “When this is done, I’d like to see you again…see where this thing between us goes. But I can’t do that unless you see who I am. What I am.”
He wanted more than a one-night stand. For a second, she focused just on that point, her heart leaping in joy. The fact that he found her interesting enough, pretty enough, the fact that he wanted to be with her when most of her own family had ditched her at the first sign of trouble with her father… Warmth spread out from the center of her chest, a fuzzy feeling she instantly clamped down on. She didn’t believe in love. Did she?
Curiosity won out. She glanced sideways. A quick look. Death looked back in the form of the guy sprawled out over the floor, a blast burn in the center of his chest. His open eyes stared sightlessly up at the ceiling. The smell of burnt flesh and leather lodged in her throat. Before tonight, she’d never seen death up close. In her father’s house, people just disappeared or “moved on”. She’d been eleven when she realized that meant permanently, and her charmed existence had become a gilded cage.
“Oh…”
“Breathe. It helps.”
Taking a deep breath—and regretting it as the smell crawled into her nostrils and took up residence—she turned back toward Kel. Her gaze traced the geometrical pattern of the
flooring plates. She didn’t need to keep looking at the body. The image was indelibly marked in her memory. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to look at Kelwin.
Sadness framed his features, the expression on his face heart-wrenching. Whoever said guys didn’t wear their hearts on their sleeves didn’t know jack-shit. Kel’s heart was out there and bleeding on the deck.
She nodded, released the breath she was holding, then smiled at him. “Okay, that’s three down, one to go? You want to make him walk the plank, or should I?”
Walk the plank indeed. Trying to contain the sappy grin that wanted to spread over his face, Kelwin led the way up to the bridge deck and the lone remaining pirate. He had to admit, as positions went, the bridge was one of the most defensible on the ship. Technically higher ground, the only way up to it was via the two ladders at port and starboard or the hatch to the crew quarters. In the event of boarding, it was the one area of the ship that could be easily controlled with a minimal force.
Scouting out from the secondary access hatch on the cargo level, he trained his rifle on the balustrade above them as Rhys emerged. All it would take was for the guy to look over the side and it was game over. The skin between Kel’s shoulder blades itched, the sweat that had slicked his skin while they were below decks drying rapidly in the temperature-controlled cargo deck.
Feet silent on the deck-plating, Kel and Rhys moved quickly to the port ladder. Both sides were risky—once either of them set foot on the ladder, they were vulnerable to fire from above. And Kelwin had no doubt that if the pirate on the bridge saw either of them, he would shoot first and ask questions later.
Before Kel could signal, though, Rhys settled in by the ladder, training her rifle on the balustrade. He shot her a quick smile of approval, slid his rifle on its sling across his chest to his back and started to climb. Some of his ex-colleagues would have gone macho all the way, gun in hand, and tried to climb the ladder one-handed. Usually that way led to landing on your ass, which was not an option in front of a woman he wanted to impress.
