by Natalie Grey
Virgil Baciu settled back into his chair. His smile was confident. He had heard nothing from his contacts in the countryside, but Theo was still missing.
Whatever had happened, it was clear that his rival was not coming back. He thought of Theo’s wife, Mariana, and a cold smile touched his lips.
It had never been about business for Virgil. The truth was that he could never forgive Theo for winning Mariana’s heart. And now that Theo was gone, Virgil was sure it was only a matter of time before he could make Mariana fall in love with him.
But first, he would take everything else Theo had valued—starting with his business. He looked down at the contract on the table in front of him. The people selling him the business were late for this meeting, which irked him, but there were no other buyers now that Theo was out of the picture. They would have to sell to Virgil to avoid bankruptcy, and Virgil had also readied himself to buy Theo’s company for a pittance when word finally broke that the man was dead.
Maybe he should take up skiing as well. He laughed softly to himself.
The door opened behind him, and Virgil allowed contempt to touch his voice.
“You’re finally here. Good.”
“How interesting.” The voice was amused. “I didn’t think you’d be pleased to see me.”
Virgil spun in his chair, his jaw gaping open. “But you….”
“Should be dead?” Theodor Dimitru smiled coldly.
He certainly wasn’t dead, and to add insult to injury, he looked … well, taller than Virgil remembered. More muscular. The very picture of health.
“I’m so glad to see you alive.” The words tasted bitter as Virgil forced them out.
“I don’t think you are,” Theo said quietly. He reached out to open the door, and two policemen came into the room. “And they don’t, either. They know everything, Virgil. They know you hired people to kill me.”
“Wait—how did you—” But Virgil was hauled out of the room before he could say anything else.
Theo smiled after him and then took a moment to look over Virgil’s contract as the business owners filed into the room. He smiled up at them.
“Well, now, gentleman. Should we talk about transfer of ownership? I think I can offer you much better terms than my competitor.”
___
“Thank you so much.” Yelena hugged Ecaterina tightly. “Thank you all,” she added, grinning at all of them. She couldn’t stop smiling these days. Sometimes, she was so happy she thought she might cry—though she thought of what her no-nonsense grandmother would say to that and kept her tears inside. She couldn’t stop the smiles, though.
“How is your brother?” Bethany Anne pointed to the door of the hotel room.
The door opened a second later. “I thought I heard voices,” Alec said, peeking out into the hallway.
“You should be resting!” Yelena shooed him back toward the door.
“I should be dead,” Alec said simply. He smiled at his twin, and then at the group assembled there. “Instead I just feel a bit tired from the healing.” He flexed an arm, “I think my muscles may be getting bigger.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” John nodded. He put his hand to his ear for a moment and leaned in to talk to Bethany Anne. “The Pods will be here to pick us up in a moment.”
Bethany Anne nodded, but she was still looking at Yelena. “So … do you want to come see the rest of the crew?”
“Where are they?” Yelena didn’t understand for a moment, and then her eyes got huge. “Wait. In space?”
“Why not?” Bethany Anne grinned. “You’re both doing well.”
“I can’t leave Bellatrix.”
“You don’t have to. Ashur lives on the ship with me,” Bethany Anne explained. “And, by the way, about Bellatrix—”
“She’s bigger,” Yelena interrupted. “And that’s saying something. And last night….”
“Yes?” Bethany Anne smiled. She had a feeling that Yelena’s nanocytes were doing new things now that she’d been exposed to the pod-doc.
“I had the weirdest dream,” Yelena muttered. “It was like I was…”
“A wolf?” Pete suggested.
“No, not quite.” Yelena shook her head as she tried to remember. “I had paws, though. I wasn’t human. I was….” She broke off, and her eyes got wide. “I was Bellatrix!” She shrugged, “Weird.”
“I don’t think that was a dream,” Bethany Anne suggested. “I would think, based on my time with Ashur, that what you are experiencing is real.”
Yelena’s lips pressed together before she replied, “I really was seeing something from inside of her head, you mean?”
“Yes. And it’s something we could test for you up on the ship. I’m sure the whole team would be interested.” Bethany Anne thought about something for a moment before continuing. “And I think Ashur and Bellatrix are sweet on each other, too, so there’s that.”
“They are, aren’t they?” Yelena grinned. “Well, I suppose I could at least go see it. What d’you think, Alec?”
He smiled but shook his head, “I think I’ll go home and be the responsible twin for once,” he chuckled. “You go, I’ll get home on my own.”
“Can you?” Yelena asked.
“Maybe I’ll need to be tended to by the cute receptionist for a few days.” He winked. “Seriously, I’ll be fine. You go.”
“And you promise—”
“No, I won’t tell Mom where you went.”
“Thanks,” Yelena said, in relief and turned to Bethany Anne. “Okay, let’s go.”
Eric led the way down the corridors and out into the sunshine. There was a scuffling noise in the forest and all of a sudden, Pete started laughing.
“What? What is it?”
Ashur emerged from the underbrush, snow coating his fur. Bellatrix followed him, also disheveled.
“Uh, I don’t think they’re just sweet on each other,” Pete explained. “I think you might have some puppies on the way.”
Yelena sank her face into her hands as everyone started laughing.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Bobby B!” William called out as he strode across the floor of the hangar bay. “That lager came in, if you want to come test it.” He looked at Bobcat’s latest effort to play with a helicopter. “Ah, what’s that you’re working on?”
“Better stabilization for Shelly 3.0.” Bobcat held up a tiny piece of equipment with a triumphant grin. About the size of a marble, it emitted a tiny ticking sound as he plugged it into a drone. “This little beauty means that even our Queen isn’t going to be able to make my girl flip.”
“Was that a problem?” William frowned as he stared at the drone. He stepped back as the blades whirred into motion and the drone rose into the air.
“Hell yeah. Do you have any idea how much force she can summon when she jumps somewhere?” Bobcat mumbled, playing with the controls.
William watched the little bladed devil. His friend was hell on wheels in a real helicopter, but there had been Band-Aid accidents in here before, “I thought she could just … you know, disappear.” He asked, keeping his eyes focused on the little killer.
“She can.” Bobcat maneuvered the drone into the center of the open area. “But let’s just say, sometimes she likes to make an entrance. And I like my girl not to flip over when she does. Watch.” The drone had been loaded with projectiles. As Bobcat pulled a tiny trigger on the controls, the projectiles shot out one by one. The recoil should have sent the drone tumbling, but it barely rocked as it hung in place.
William nodded and grinned, and then ducked and turned as one of the rotors came flying off, “Hey!”
Bobcat’s eyes lifted, “Of course, there are other problems,” he shrugged as he landed the drone. He retrieved the rotor and looked at it, “That should teach you always to have on your eye protection. Now we need to make new blades. But I’ve got Jean helping me with that. Some of the stuff she makes the armor out of, and….” His voice trailed away on a st
rangled note, his eyes not looking at the blade in his hand.
“What?” William looked behind him to see what had caught Bobcat’s eye.
“Uh … hi.” The woman lingering in the doorway waving her hand back and forth was tall and slender. Black hair flowed down over her shoulders, and her grey eyes were large. Her face was fine-boned, her mouth small—but smiling tentatively as her eyes took things in around the work area. “Am I interrupting anything? I’m just exploring.”
“Uh, you should, um….” Bobcat swallowed.
William’s smirk was tiny, so far. “Hi, I’m William. And you are?”
“Yelena.” She stuck out a hand as he walked over to her.
Bobcat had the sudden, strong urge to beat his friend with a broken drone. Well, it would be broken as soon as he hit William over the head with it.
Repeatedly.
“You really should stick to the civilian portions of the ship,” William was explaining. “If you came in with the last batch of civilians—”
“Oh, I thought … uh, I came up with Bethany Anne and Ecaterina and everyone.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry, we met in Romania, and she invited me up. If you’ve seen a big black German Shepherd, that’s my dog, Bellatrix.”
He nodded, “I did hear something about that.” William rubbed his chin. “So you’re allowed to be around here?”
Yelena’s voice was polite, but pretty positive, “Oh, yeah. John said I could look around.”
Bobcat groaned. If he was competing with John, he didn’t have a hope in the world. Except that Jean had John and Bobcat could get John re-focused by accidentally on purpose saying something to Jean.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t get John killed before the truth came out.
The woman stared at him curiously. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Well,” he ran his hand through his hair, smiling. “Bobcat.”
“Bob … cat?” She pronounced the name carefully. “Is that an American name?”
“Nah, it was my call sign and it just stuck.” Bobcat wiped his sweaty palms on his shirt before shaking her hand. It was funny, he’d had all sorts of things he was planning to do today—something really important, as far as he could remember—but he couldn’t think of a single one right now. “So you’re, uh … you’re staying on the ship?”
“Just for now. To look around. And they want to do some tests on me and Bellatrix.” She hunched her shoulders. She was smiling at him.
Smiling. At him.
Dimly, he thought he heard William say something. He looked over at his friend, who for some reason was smirking, “Huh?”
“Lager,” he pointed back behind him, “I said, are you gonna come test that lager?”
“Yeah, be right there.” Bobcat could almost taste the cold beer sliding across his tongue.
Yelena’s face fell. “I’ll get going, then. It was nice to meet you—William, Bobcat.” She gave Bobcat a smile as she said his nickname.
He stood rooted in place. He’d never been so torn. He looked at William in mute appeal, and had the distinct impression that the other man was trying not to laugh.
Beer.
She looked so sad.
But beer.
He heard himself say, “I mean, I could put off tasting the beer, though. Someone should give you a proper tour of the ship, after all.”
There was a clatter as William dropped the drone rotor. His jaw hung open. He closed his mouth and opened it again several times, but no sound came out.
William looked around and muttered, “Where the hell is Marcus when I need a third party bet review?”
“That would be great!” Yelena was smiling again. She bit her lip. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to mess up your day or anything.”
“No, not at all.” Bobcat held out his arm and felt a shiver as she took it smiling to her, “First, let’s go see Jean….”
As they left, William walked quickly to one of the communications panels. He jabbed at the call button furiously. “Meredith! Please, get me Bethany Anne. Now. NOW.”
It was a second before her voice came on the line. “William, what’s wrong?”
William’s voice came out in a rush, “Bobcat just fell for a girl.”
Bethany Anne hummed for a moment before replying, “Okay….”
William searched the best way to prove what he was saying. “No, I mean, he’s showing her around instead of trying new beer.”
Bethany Anne was silent for a long moment.
“You know what this means, right?” William was practically dancing in front of the communication panel.
“Ok, yeah, I believe you William,” Bethany Anne agreed. “I owe three ounces of gold,” another pause, “Dammit! That man should have tried the beer, first.”
But she was laughing when she hung up the call.
___
“This place is wonderful.” Yelena looked out the huge window of the bar, her accent making Bobcat feel tingles up and down his spine. “The best wonderful. Most wonderful? Did I say that right?” she asked as she looked back at him.
“You can say it however you want, if you keep talking in that accent.” Bobcat grinned at her.
Yelena blushed. Something about this mechanic made her want to smile so hard her face ached. Her eyes had locked on him the first moment she stepped into the hangar bay.
She watched him pilot the drone, explain it to his friend. She’d noticed his hands—callused, streaked with grease. Honest hands, as her grandmother would say. And he had a way about him, like he took real pride in his work.
If it weren’t for the fact that he was in space, he was just the sort of guy her parents would be crazy about for her. She could just see him fixing cars with her father, debating skis with Alec, laughing in a pub at night. This wasn’t a guy who needed suits or fine wines to enjoy his life. He just wanted to do his work and laugh with his friends over a beer.
“What is it?” he asked her.
Yelena flushed bright red. She’d been staring at him, she realized. And he’d caught her. She wanted to melt through the floor. She cleared her throat and busied herself with a pretend coughing fit. “Nothing. I am sorry.”
“I’ll get you some water.” Bobcat knew the coughing was fake, but he wanted to be able to grin to himself in private. She’d been smiling when she looked at him, like she approved of him. Him! With the dirty mechanic’s hands and the casual clothes. How long had it been since he’d even tried dating? All the women he’d seen years back had rolled their eyes at how he doted on his helicopters. This girl, though, she seemed to like hearing him talk about Shelly.
She listened. She asked questions.
On a sudden hunch, he pulled her a pint and turned around. She had followed him down from the viewing area. “I thought you might want a beer instead.”
Her eyes lit up. “You have beer in here?”
He was in love. He was absolutely, positively in love. If he’d had a ring, he would have proposed on the spot. As it was, he had only the beer, and so he handed it to her reverently. “Try it.”
