The Dangerous Type

by Loren Rhoads

  Jonan believed she had been in the tomb. To understand why, Revan was going to have to ask him about it. Revan dreaded that more than any assignment his brother had ever given him. Jonan’s judgment regarding this girl was questionable. Now Revan understood that had been true for decades.

  * * *

  When Sloane finally came home, hours later, Doc was stretched out asleep on the sofa, boots crossed at the ankle, gun in one hand across her chest. She cracked one eye, saw him in the doorway, and went back to sleep. Good thing he was paying her to doctor and not to guard.

  Raena had propped herself up in the bed, pillows supporting her joints to prevent them from gouging into the mattress. She looked as if they’d gotten her into the shower, which was an improvement over recent days.

  “Feeling better?”

  “Doc’s a miracle worker, but you knew that. That’s why you’re paying her the big bucks.”

  “You’ve been discussing her pay?” Sloane asked, surprised.

  “Maybe we should be,” Raena shot back. “One more day of gagging down those protein shakes of hers and I’ll be ready to go back to that restaurant for another flower salad.”

  He grinned and sat down on the bed to pry off his boots. “That sounds like a vast improvement.”

  He leaned over to kiss her. Her lips met his eagerly. She set the computer screen out of her lap so she could wrap her arms around him. Sloane basked, happy in a deep way that had eluded him . . . for how long? All his life?

  Somehow, eventually, the kiss dissolved. Sloane turned the screen to see what she’d been up to that put her in such a good mood. With a shock, he recognized the gray wasteland of the Templar tombs.

  “I copied some video before I destroyed your connection to Thallian’s spyware,” she said. “It was only a matter of time before they traced the feed, so I scrambled it up pretty well. Thought you’d like to see this, though.”

  The camera faced a sealed tomb. A handful of men in black uniforms milled around, wandering in and out of frame, carrying things that weren’t quite recognizable in the driving wind.

  “Makes you homesick, doesn’t it?” Raena teased.

  “I never spent much time down on the planet,” Sloane admitted.

  She announced abruptly, “Here’s the good part.”

  Without any more warning than that, half the rock face suddenly sheared off and came tumbling down. The feed hadn’t included sound, so the avalanche unfolded in silence. The graininess of the recording made it seem like something that had occurred a long time ago, to people whom the years would have killed anyway.

  “Would have been nice if you’d programmed in a focus,” Raena said. “I’d like to confirm the fatalities. Two or three that I’m sure of.” She pointed at an arm sticking out from beneath a boulder.

  Sloane didn’t know how to respond. He’d known she was a killer back in the day. For that matter, so was he. But this was more pleasure than he’d seen her take in anything since she’d walked into his office and asked for a glass of water.

  She shifted, too happy to sit still. “Oh, it gets interesting again here.”

  A man ran into the frame. He halted beside the loader, leaning over someone the camera couldn’t see.

  Something about the man echoed the wanted poster she’d been looking at when they first came to Brunzell. “Is that him?” Sloane asked.

  “No. But alike enough to be related. And watch . . .”

  The man put his arm around the other person and led him around the loader toward the camera. The wind-blown debris cleared enough to reveal the similarities between the man and boy.

  “That’s Thallian’s big brother,” Raena said, “and probably his nephew.”

  “Do you think he was there?” Sloane asked. “At the tomb when it came apart?”

  “That would be too lucky.” Raena rolled the screen up and pushed it between the supplement bottles on the nightstand. “If Thallian was under the rubble, they’d be more upset about the avalanche. If he were on the planet, they’d be hustling to assure him they’re all right. No. He’s holed up somewhere, sending his minions out into danger because he’s too cowardly to go himself.” She smiled grimly. “People just don’t change that much, do they?”

  * * *

  Head injuries weren’t so quick to heal as damage from training. Revan wished again that Jonan had allowed him to bring the family doctor along on this jaunt. He had faith that Jain’s hearing would return, but the computer could only give time frames and advice, not actual aid.

  While Jain was on the mend, it made sense to give him the computer searches to run. Now that Revan knew they were looking for Raena Zacari—if she’d truly survived the fall of the Empire and the witch-hunts at the end of the War—it would be worth looking into any of her known accomplices. Perhaps one of them had rescued her.

  It was a long shot, but the examination of the grave robbers’ camp was turning up little else. The only thing Revan knew for sure was that after the grave robbers opened the tomb where Zacari had been imprisoned, they’d pulled up stakes and fled the planet. Had the little woman driven them away? Buried their bodies in another tomb? Or had she been what they sought all along?

  Revan spelled out exactly what he wanted. Jain rolled his eyes; he was a teenager, after all. Of course, being a Thallian, he knew his duty. He agreed to see what he could find.

  It didn’t take too long. “Before the end of the War, Father captured Zacari aboard a tramp freighter called the Bluesong,” Jain reported. “Its captain was Gavin Sloane, smuggler, drug runner, and more recently, quasi-legitimate dealer in Templar artifacts.”

  “That’s interesting,” Revan encouraged. “Where do you suppose those artifacts came from?” He looked through the viewscreen at the windswept gray planet outside. “Any word on where Sloane is now?”

  “He seems to have dropped off the face of the galaxy a month ago,” Jain said. “I’ll keep looking.”

  “Good boy. Check to see if Zacari has any living family, too.”

  * * *

  “We’re almost ready to travel,” Sloane told Ariel over the comm. “Where should we meet you?”

  As expected, Ariel smiled, flattered to be asked. It lit her up and Sloane saw the mouthwatering beauty he’d fallen hard for years ago. With a couple of strokes, she sent him a brochure that opened on his screen to reveal pictures of casinos, swimming pools, indoor skiing, ocean sailing.

  “Kai’s a pleasure planet,” she explained unnecessarily. “Weapons are banned.”

  That struck him as funny, coming from a former arms dealer.

  “Safer for everyone,” Ariel said over his laughter.

  “All right. We’ll get in touch when we make planetfall,” Sloane said. “Give us two days’ travel time.”

  “See you then.”

  Maybe this would be okay, Sloane thought as he signed out. If Ariel couldn’t bring her guns, she’d be less apt to lose her temper and shoot anyone.

  The place looked expensive, which might prove a problem if they stayed long. Sloane hoped the concierge could find a buyer for this hideout apartment to refill his accounts a little. And maybe Ariel could get most of the tab on Kai. She could certainly afford it.

  Sloane went into the bedroom to tear Raena away from the other screen. She’d been obsessed with catching up on the galaxy now that she’d decided to live in it and was even teaching herself to speak Galactic Standard. Sloane couldn’t get over the miracle Doc had wrought. Every day Raena looked healthier, strong like she used to be. Her appetite for him had improved, too.

  She smiled up at him, blanking the computer screen before he could see what she’d been up to.

  “Ariel’s ready to meet us,” he reported. “It’s a pleasure planet that’s outlawed guns.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Raena teased as she got up to dress.

  * * *

  Two days later, as they settled into life on the pleasure planet, Raena led Sloane into a beachside bar on the edge of
Kai City. She kept her sunglasses on. The light on this desert planet hurt her eyes.

  The caterwauling over the bar’s sound system was meant to pass as music. Raena sang along, half under her breath, as she stared around the bar. The place was jammed with creatures who’d come in off the beach. There were so many different species in the bar that Sloane only recognized a fraction of them. He noted that he and Raena were the only humans. No one paid much attention to them after a few desultory glances.

  Ariel would be easy to pick out here. So would Thallian’s men, if they showed up.

  Of course, Sloane told himself sharply, that was just paranoid. No way could Thallian trace them to Kai.

  It had been so long since he’d taken any downtime that Sloane barely knew what to do with himself. He couldn’t tell if anyone here was conducting business. Most of them watched a sail race on the monitors. The only money he saw changing hands seemed to be bets of some arcane nature. He couldn’t begin to guess how to get in on the action.

  He glanced at Raena. After an application of logic, he’d persuaded her to wear a blouse outside the hotel room. He still had not grown accustomed to the scars striping her back; they were guaranteed to attract notice on a resort planet where everyone was wealthy or young or could afford the pretense of both. While some people chose to go around topless or nearly so, traffic would stop if anyone got a look at Raena’s back. That was the last thing she wanted.

  She managed to find a flowing jacket, lightweight but opaque, to throw on over her loungewear. The turquoise color was a shock, since Sloane still expected to see Raena wearing black, but turquoise suited her better than the ill-fated gown he’d chosen. He paid the delivery robot without demur.

  Sloane rubbed his eyes. He felt as if he’d spent altogether too much time lately watching her. He half-expected she would vanish as soon as he turned his head.

  Her chin came up suddenly, startling Sloane. For a moment, he feared that Thallian had found them. He reached for the gun no longer strapped to his thigh.

  A smile lit Raena’s face: pure girlish joy. “Finally,” she said.

  A familiar figure stood in the doorway, eclipsing the bright beach outside. The years had carved away Ariel’s softness, but the proud stance remained unchanged. Ariel Shaad still wore her blond hair in a braid and her stark white blouse partially unbuttoned. Her pearly gray trousers fit like a second skin. Sloane found it weird to see her unarmed.

  Ariel lingered on the threshold. Sloane guessed, “She can’t see us in the darkness,” but Raena had already slipped out of the booth. Before he registered her disappearance, she appeared in the doorway, petite beside Ariel’s gaunt height. They might be mother and daughter now, but could no longer pass for sisters, if they ever had.

  Ariel recognized Raena immediately, unquestioningly, and clutched her in a hug.

  Sloane found he had been holding his breath and sighed. An orange-furred waitress smiled at him as she sauntered by.

  Sloane nodded back. “Bring us a bottle of your best green. For old times’ sake.”

  Still in the doorway, Ariel leaned on Raena. Her shoulders convulsed like she was crying. Raena whispered to her and petted her back.

  The green arrived. Sloane cracked the seal on the bottle and poured himself a tall glass.

  Before he swallowed his first bitter mouthful, Ariel said, “I need some of that.” Her voice sounded huskier than he remembered.

  He poured her drink silently, without looking up. Things had ended badly between them: his fault, yeah, but she hadn’t helped. Sloane didn’t feel like apologizing. Listing his transgressions might take the rest of the day.

  Raena slid into the booth beside Sloane and chose a glass from those on the table, the one that had been Sloane’s. She lifted it silently.

  “What are we drinking to?” Sloane asked.

  Raena waited until their glasses joined hers to say, “Old times.”

  The glasses chimed prettily against each other. Ariel held her drink in both hands, turning her face down to it as if she would cry again.

  Raena waited until Ariel had drunk as deeply as she wanted, then took the glass away and set it back on the table. The kiss Raena gave Ariel was definitely not sisterly. Sweet surprise warmed Ariel’s hazel eyes before they slid closed. She returned the kiss.

  Sloane shifted awkwardly, horrified and aroused at the same time. This was not the relationship he had envisioned between them. He knew that Ariel claimed Raena as a sister, even though she’d been bought from a slaver.

  When the kiss continued, Ariel purred low in her throat. Sloane decided to make himself scarce.

  As he slid out of the booth, Raena’s hand snagged his wrist. She tugged, using an inexorable pressure that would be painful to fight. He didn’t wait to see if she’d hurt him to prove her point. He gave in unwillingly, letting her haul him up behind her.

  Raena placed his hand on Ariel’s breast. Sloane squeezed, just to be friendly, and was about to escape when Raena turned to kiss his jaw. Ariel moved her attention to his lips. One or the other of them reached for the front of his trousers, applying a steady pressure that sent sparks up his spine.

  “This is a public place,” Sloane muttered.

  Raena asked, “You have a reputation to uphold?”

  “As a matter of fact . . .”

  Ariel knocked back the rest of her drink and thumped the glass on the table. “Let’s go, then. Bring the bottle.”

  Sloane’s smile felt mean. “You know, Ms. Shaad, I really hate it when you order me around.”

  She relented with a shaky smile. “Sorry, Gavin. Old habits and all. Could we please get out of here?”

  Raena drained her glass and turned it upside down on the table, looking at him expectantly.

  “Fine.” Sloane grabbed the bottle as he stood.

  As they stepped out into the glare of the afternoon, Raena wrapped one arm around Ariel’s waist and captured Sloane with her other hand. “No arguments,” she said softly. “No blame. Mistakes were made; let’s leave it at that.”

  No one protested.

  Raena put a little bounce in her step.

  After they strolled a short distance up the boardwalk, she asked Ariel, “How was your flight?”

  “Fast. I’ve added a new drive to my racer. You’d like her, Gavin. She’s built for speed.” Ariel met his eyes over the top of Raena’s head.

  He tried a smile on her. She smiled back. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

  Ariel’s gaze returned to Raena as if magnetized. “What did you do to your hair? Looks like you lost a knife fight.”

  Raena shrugged. “Thought I might set a fashion.”

  Ariel rubbed her hand over Raena’s head, which led to another round of kissing.

  This time Sloane laughed. “Take it back to the room, you kids.”

  “You’re coming with us,” Raena told him.

  “Wasn’t planning on it. Looks like you need some time alone.”

  “Please, Gavin?” Raena asked, like she was normal. Like she was tame.

  Ariel had sneaked around behind him and hugged his back. “Come on, Gavin,” she purred into his ear. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

  * * *

  They shed their clothes without looking at one another. The women wrestled Sloane onto the bed, one on either side of him. Ariel held his face in her hands, kissing him with intensity that—while it didn’t forgive him anything—was meant to remind him what he’d been missing. One of her long legs hooked over his hip.

  Raena snuggled against his back. Her feathery hair tickled the nape of his neck.

  Just as he was getting accustomed to that, Ariel pulled Raena up over Sloane into a kiss more enthusiastic than the one he’d been enjoying. The position suspended Raena’s breasts in just the right position. He used enough of his teeth to ensure she’d hold still.

  Someone’s hand slipped between Ariel’s hips and his own to grasp him hard enough to be just below the threshold of discomfort
. He jumped. The kiss above him dissolved. Everyone leaned back to steady their breathing.

  It was Raena’s hand. Should’ve guessed that. And she hadn’t let him go.

  Ariel asked, “You want him first?”

  Ariel’s thumb—it had to be Ariel, he was mostly certain—kept a steady rhythm, up and down, the slightest range of motion. The pressure was constant, never hurried. Not being able to see whose hands held him spooked him.

  Raena shrugged. “Why don’t you go ahead? I’ve had him more recently.”

  “Hope he’s showered since then.”

  Sloane complained, “You two talk too much.”

  Raena slid away as Ariel shoved him onto his back. She looked like she was feeling mean. Sloane reached for her, hoping to gentle her, slow her down.

  Raena got to her first. With Ariel’s braid wrapped in her fist, Raena drew Ariel’s head back for a kiss. From the awkward angle of her throat, Sloane wasn’t sure how Ariel could breathe. He hoped Raena knew what she was doing.

  Apparently, she did. Sloane felt the fight go out of Ariel’s body. She settled against him, slightly askew and thoroughly distracted.

  Sloane shifted, aligning her better. Determined to be gentle, he pressed up into her. Her body opened for him, welcoming him with that familiar shudder. He was amazed at how familiar it felt. He had missed her so long that he couldn’t remember the last time they fucked. He sort of wished she’d punish him for that.

  * * *

  Thallian seemed to wake up as the last cuff snapped around his ankle. At least, it felt like he opened his eyes. The sleep chamber was so dark he couldn’t see a thing.

  He tugged experimentally and felt metal bite around his wrists. The bonds had almost no give. His limbs were stretched to their full extensions so that, if he struggled, he would break his own skin. He thrashed anyway, until he smelled his blood on the air.

  How had his assailant gotten through the family’s security? Why, after they had him immobilized, did they abandon him? In the total darkness, the room echoed as if empty.