by Lolita Lopez
“No, I didn’t, Danny. Stop trying to change the subject. Is it true? Is my mother here?”
“Yes,” Dankirk reluctantly answered. “She’s here.”
Naya inhaled a noisy breath. “How long have you known? How long have you kept that from me, Danny? Months? A year?”
“Ten,” he said finally. “Ten years, Naya.”
She sobbed loudly. “Ten fucking years, Danny?”
“She didn’t want you,” he said, tearing up now. “I went to her. The second I learned she’d come back with that new man of hers, I made my way there. You remember that summer when I left you in charge of the other kids in our pack so I could make a trip?”
Still crying, she nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s where I went,” he said. “I found her and her husband, the leader of the Sixers, and I told her that you were alone and living on the streets. I tried to make her see how dangerous it was for a thirteen-year-old girl to be living that way but she didn’t care. She was cold. Heartless,” he added. “I couldn’t bear to tell you. I couldn’t break your heart again.”
Menace’s heart raced as the awful truth was spilled. All around him, the room had grown eerily silent. Like him, they were all affected by the ugliness.
“Her man, Sandy?” Dankirk continued. “He stopped me on the way out and asked me if you were smart or fast or useful. I thought maybe if he could find a job for you he might make your mother take you in and support you. I had no idea he was going to turn you into a gun mule. This whole thing? It’s my fault.”
“It’s not your fault, Danny.” She sniffled and used the hem of her shirt to wipe the moisture from her cheeks. “Even back then, I could have said no. I should have been smart enough to realize that they were using a homeless kid to do their dirty work because I was expendable. I was a nobody, a nothing, but I kept telling myself that I could use the gang right back. I could get myself off the streets.”
“And you did,” Dankirk confirmed. “You just didn’t know the whole story. I thought I was protecting you.”
She laughed harshly. “Well, a load of good that did me. I’ve got the whole fury and might of the Harcos forces bearing down on me as we speak. They think I have an inside line on my gunrunning, terrorist-loving mama.”
“I’m so sorry I lied to you.”
She reached for his hand. “It’s okay. I would have done the same thing to spare you any pain.”
Dankirk shook his head. “What are you going to do?”
She shrugged. “What I always do.”
“What? The right thing? The honorable thing?” He scoffed with irritation. “Naya, just run! Let me cut that damn chip out of your arm. I’ll take you away. They will never find you again. You can start over with me. You can have the life you’ve always deserved.”
Panic seized Menace. What if she said yes? Would he ever see her again?
“I can’t, Danny.”
Selfish as it was, Menace exhaled in relief. He hadn’t lost her irrevocably.
“Why not?”
“There’s no starting over for me. I tried. I got taken to a whole new culture and lived on a spaceship and you know what? My past still bit me in the ass. I can’t outrun it.” She lifted her chin. “I have to face it.”
“Naya, for once in your damn life, will you listen to me? Be a coward. Run.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know the man who is after me. He is not the kind of man who lets loose ends live. The second I stepped foot on that ship and he caught a whiff of my misdeeds, I was marked for death.”
“But you’re innocent,” Dankirk insisted. “You had nothing to do with this terrorist bullshit.”
“Do you think he cares? No, there’s no justice up there. It’s the same crap we’ve dealt with here.” She smoothed her hands over her head and straightened her shoulders. “I won’t put anyone else at risk. If I’m going to die, I may as well go out doing something noble. Look, those weapons are going to get so many innocent people killed. They’re going to bring war to The City. I can’t let that happen.”
“There’s no way you’re getting into the Sixer stronghold.”
“I have to try. Hell,” she said sourly, “if I do manage to walk away from this, it’s straight to Kovark for me. You know what that means.”
Menace knew all right. It meant starvation, beatings and rape.
Dankirk cleared his throat. “I could record a message for Jennie, if you want.”
“No,” Naya refused gently. “She’s got her new life. I’m not about to drag the stinking carcass of our old one into it.”
“She’s happy. I saw her last week. It was a good thing you did, helping her escape with Josef.”
“I’m glad.”
Dankirk hesitated. “When I met your man, I thought he—”
She held up her hand. “I can’t.”
Menace’s chest ached at the pain filling her voice.
“Some things are too good be true, huh?” Dankirk remarked.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice quavering. “Although, with my track record of being fucked over by the people I love, I should have seen it coming.”
It took every last bit of strength and control Menace possessed not to crumple to the ground. She had all but admitted she loved him in the same breath she called him out for betraying and abandoning her.
“I never wanted to be one of the men who let you down.” Dankirk said the one thing Menace wished he could say to her.
“I know.” She inhaled a cleansing breath and cleared her throat. She spun around and hopped onto the bed. Her determined expression grew larger on the screen until Menace realized she was nearing the video feed. The view wobbled as she punched the ceiling and tore the camera free. Her beautiful tear-stained face filled the screen. “If you want your guns, come and find me, Terror. But you better move fast. I’m probably not going to make it to nightfall.”
The satellite feed turned to static. Beside him, Pierce frantically tried to connect with the team on the ground that was supposed to be watching her. He pushed his earbud firmly into place and cupped a hand over his other ear. “What? You’re sure?”
“Pierce.” Terror spoke his fellow operative’s name in a growl.
Pierce shook his head. “She’s gone. The team rushed the room the moment they realized she was going to run, but they weren’t fast enough. She and her friend went out a window. They tracked down her ID chip in an alley. They swabbed the blood spatter on the wall for DNA but it’s obvious that it’s hers. She got a sixty-second head start on them and four and a half minutes on us.”
Menace rounded on Terror. “What’s your gut telling you now, Ter?”
“That I’m going to get back our weapons and annihilate a gunrunning gang by nightfall,” he responded matter-of-factly. “Whether she’s guilty or innocent, it makes no difference to me.”
Menace went numb with the realization that he didn’t know this man. “No difference? You dropped an innocent, unarmed woman in a dangerous place and gave her an impossible assignment.”
“Impossible? Hardly,” Terror scoffed. “You obviously don’t know your own wife, Menace. Her record and her history tell me that she’s tenacious. With enough motivation, she’ll accomplish any task.”
“Motivation?”
“You and Hallie?” He gestured to Vicious’ wife. “You’re Naya’s weaknesses. All it took was the threat of putting you in prison and having Hallie arrested and taken away from Vicious to convince Naya to use her considerable skills to our advantage.”
Hallie gasped and Menace gaped at Terror. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me?” Terror’s voice slashed like a razor. “What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t you realize we’re at war? Every day, I have to make decisions that would make the rest of you piss your pants. Unlike you, I don’t have the luxury of rigid principles. I’m charged with protecting our people. Whatever the cost.”
Menace was reminded of something Naya on
ce said to him. “Collateral damage.”
Terror’s hard expression faltered. “I never wanted it to go down like this, Menace. Hurting you was never something I wanted, but it was unavoidable. Naya’s ties to these people, whether she was aware of them or not, were too rich a resource not to exploit.”
Menace saw red as Terror moved to a console and picked up a radio and earpiece. As he gave instructions for grid searches, Menace tried to suck air into his deflated lungs. The viselike grip on his chest convinced him he was having a heart attack. The knowledge that he’d been so expertly played by Terror cut deep. The fear that Naya, his beautiful, stubborn Naya, might not see tomorrow made him sick.
Pierce approached him. He withdrew something and extended it to Menace. “We’ll get her back.”
Menace’s throat tightened at the sight of the Naya’s collar in the other man’s hand. He took it from Pierce, running his finger over the blue leather and silver tag. It occurred to Menace that they might be successful in rescuing her, but he would never get her back, not in the way he’d once had her. She would never forgive him.
“I know The City very well,” Pierce continued. “I have some contacts there.”
“You don’t know the people she knows,” Hallie interjected, her gentle voice so out of place in the war room. “But I do.”
Vicious turned toward her and put both hands on her shoulders. “No.”
Hallie shot him a daring look. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not risking you.”
“There’s no risk, Vicious. Just get me on the ground. I don’t have to go near the danger. I only need to talk to a handful of people.”
Vicious glanced at Menace. Sympathy flashed in his pale eyes. “Even if I wanted to let you go, Kitten, it’s impossible. You heard Orion. He’s grounded all flights.”
Orion shook his head. “I’m not about to rescind that order. If Naya wasn’t the mole on the ship, there’s still a traitorous bastard among us. Someone sent that data blast that gave away the position and timing of our weapon shipment. I won’t put my pilots in harm’s way.”
Hope faded within Menace. If he had to, he’d mount a one-man rescue operation, but without a ship to take him to the surface it would be impossible.
“I know this is difficult for you, Menace, but my hands are tied. If the hazard were any smaller, I’d be willing to look the other way.”
Hope surged within him. Of all the pilots in this end of the star system, Hazard was the only one ballsy enough to steal a ship and take a covert rescue mission to the surface while the threat of a Splinter attack loomed. “I understand, sir.”
The admiral nodded and glanced around the room, silently communicating his permission. His gaze lingered on Terror. “I’ll give you a reprieve until this issue is resolved. When it’s done, my order stands. I want you off my ship and out of my sight.”
“Happy to oblige, Admiral.”
Menace couldn’t believe how cool Terror behaved. The realization that things would never be the same finally started to sink into his thick skull. It wasn’t only Naya who he would lose but Terror as well. He finally understood the kind of pain Naya had known when her own blood used and abandoned her. It was the same heart-rending agony that Terror had caused with his callous treatment of Naya.
Forgiving Terror for what he’d done seemed impossible to Menace. He could only hope that Naya’s kind heart wouldn’t shut him out indefinitely. She’d already proven herself to be a better person than Menace could ever hope to be. Whether she wanted him back or not, Menace would do everything in his power to save her. He’d promised to protect and fight for her. He intended to keep that promise.
Chapter Eighteen
“You want me to do what?”
Naya ignored Danny’s outburst and continued to rifle through the box of clothing in the safe house bedroom. “I want you to go to your communications guy and wait for a message from Hallie.”
“Why the hell would I do that? She’s one of them.”
Naya sat back on her heels and glared at Dankirk. “She most definitely is not. I’m sure she got my message by now. I also know that Terror is probably shitting bricks trying to track me down. She’s his best chance at finding me. If she thinks she can help me, she’ll do it. So you go back to your com man and wait.”
“For what?” Dankirk grabbed the first-aid kit and sat down on the edge of the small bed. “Give me your wrist. You’re bleeding again.”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t have jabbed your knife four inches into my arm!” Her wrist throbbed incessantly. Her friend’s surgical skills were sorely lacking but he’d gotten the job done.
“I told you I didn’t know what I was doing.” He unwrapped her arm and applied another wad of thick gauze on top of the already soaked dressing. Like her, he’d learned enough first aid to know that removing the bottom layer of a dressing and dislodging the clotted blood was a no-no. “We need to get you some antibiotics.”
“Why? I’m probably going to be dead by sunrise.”
“Don’t say that,” he admonished. “You’re going to make it out of this.”
“And do what?” She’d been asking herself the same thing. The one thing she wanted she couldn’t have anymore.
“Look, I know you loved him, but he turned his back on you.”
The need to defend Menace overwhelmed her. “You don’t know him. You don’t know Terror either.” All the things she had been thinking during the long flight to Calyx poured of her mouth. “I don’t think he willingly gave me up. I think Terror played us both. Menace is so damn decent he probably believed that lawyers and judges would sort this out. He believes Terror is his friend. He has no idea what that man is really like.”
“Maybe,” Danny said with an unhappy grumble. “It doesn’t really matter now. You can’t go back to that world. In a few months, you won’t even remember him anymore.”
She didn’t think that was possible. What she’d shared with Menace eclipsed anything she’d ever felt for any other man. She didn’t know if her heart would ever recover from this one.
“Let me come with you,” Danny pleaded as he wrapped her arm. “I can help you.”
She shook her head. “You can help me more by getting a message to Hallie. She needs to know where they take me so the Harcos team that comes to retrieve me can get their hands on the weapons, the Sixers and maybe even the Splinter cell. If Terror gets what he wants, he’ll leave Hallie and Menace alone.”
Dankirk put up both hands. “Wait. Back up. Who is going to take you where?”
She rolled her eyes. “The Sixers, Danny! Finding their headquarters is going to be impossible. You don’t even know where it is. Anyone who does know sure as heck isn’t going to tell us. The only way to get to their stronghold is to have them drag me right into it.”
“So what? You’re going let them take you?”
“I’m not going to give them a choice. I’m going to make the rounds of the underground and drop crumbs. They’ll have to come get me so they can question me. They’ll want to pump me for information before they finish me off.”
Dankirk grimaced. “It’s a big risk, Naya. They might just walk up to you and pop you right on the street.”
She swallowed hard. “They might.”
“I’ll put my eyes and ears on you but I’ll tell them to stay back. They won’t lose you. You better hope Hallie comes through.”
“She will.” Naya didn’t doubt her new friend for a moment. If Hallie could help, she would.
“If those sky warriors engage the Sixer crew, the distraction ought to buy you some time to escape. It won’t be much time but it’s a chance.”
“If I get an opportunity, I’ll take it,” Naya promised. “I’d love to see my twenty-fourth birthday next month, but it’s out of my hands.”
Her arm patched up and her plan laid out, Naya dug through the secondhand clothing until she found an outfit. She stripped down to her undies and bra and hopped into the loose-fitting cargo pan
ts and a blue-and-white-flannel shirt. An old belt helped keep her pants in place. She stuffed her feet in a pair of slightly too-large men’s boots and shrugged into a brown jacket with an even darker hood. Winter had come a few weeks early to Calyx. She needed to stay warm.
“Here.” Dankirk thrust a sheathed knife and small pistol into her hands. “You’ll need these.”
“Thanks.” She slipped the knife into her boot and tucked the gun into the back of her waistband.
“My offer still stands, Naya. You can come with me and we’ll go to the colonies. You can leave all this behind.”
“I can’t.” She turned him down gently. “If it was just about me, I’d be tempted to say yes. I can’t let Hallie or Menace get hurt.”
“Even though he hurt you?”
Naya sighed. “It’s not that simple, Danny. You can’t possibly understand the kind of pressure Terror exerts. It’s not like the secret police here. This guy—he’s unfeeling. He’s a monster. He doesn’t care who gets hurt so long as he accomplishes his mission. I know what he did to make me come here and attempt this. I can only imagine how he twisted Menace’s arm.”
He looked as though he wanted to argue with her but didn’t. Instead he hugged her tightly. “Good luck, Naya. Be safe.”
She lingered in her friend’s embrace, enjoying the comfort of another person’s heat and strength. His friendship and love bolstered her courage. Pulling back, she cleared her throat. “I’ll see you soon.”
Naya fled the safe house through a side door. She breathed in the cold, crisp winter air. She’d gotten so used to the climate-controlled interiors of the Valiant that the chilly wind burning her cheeks and nose was something of a novelty. She burrowed down a little deeper into the brown coat and pushed her hands into the pockets.
Head down, she traversed the dirty streets in search of the bars, pawnshops and secret gambling dens where the kind of lowlifes she needed were sure to be found. She made sure to talk loudly and stupidly at every stop. She wanted people to hear her asking for a place to buy a gun or that she was looking for work of the smuggling variety. She wanted a big, honking sign on her back that said “kidnap me!”
