by Trisha Telep
“Agreed.”
“The hit on you sounds more old school. Where does Zach go if something happens to you?”
“My parents would raise him. But I’ve already checked with them. They’re safe and they haven’t had any problems. Oh, wow. We’re dining here?”
He grinned, pleased with her reaction as he pulled to a stop at Water Tower Place. Handing the keys to the valet, he felt the first tremor of trouble. Instinctively, he draped his arm across her shoulders as they walked inside. When they were seated, he leaned close. “What’s security like at your parents’ place?”
Her smile was like a fist to the gut. “It would make you drool.”
“If whoever is after Zach knows that detail, they’ll definitely make the grab before he gets there.”
The waiter arrived, took their drink requests and hurried off.
“Why didn’t you just go to your parents when things got rough?”
“Insecurity with a side of paranoia.” She kept her eyes on the menu, but he knew she was aware of everything around her. “Running to my parents felt like an invitation to disaster. Even with their excellent security, it seemed like taking us all out at once would have been relatively easy.” She met his gaze. “Stop frowning. Besides, I’m a grown-up.”
That was true. “But living in obscurity—”
She rolled her eyes. “Might have worked if my uncle hadn’t apparently outsmarted me somehow with Zach’s father. Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure.” He knew he’d do anything she asked. Even beyond this evening, beyond her move, keeping his distance felt all wrong.
“For the duration of dinner could we just pretend we’re not doing the worm on the hook thing?”
Her husky voice slid over him and had him wishing they could pretend other things as well. Not trusting himself, he nodded. The resulting smile and happy light in her eyes unlocked a part of him he’d buried during his years of service.
The excellent food and service paled in comparison to the delightful company. Pretend or not, he could get used to nights like this. Beautiful and intelligent, Lorine put him at ease. It was a feeling he hadn’t realized he’d missed. She flirted just enough to draw him out and make him laugh.
To anyone else, they were simply another couple out for a romantic evening. Even with his senses sounding the alarm of imminent trouble, he struggled to remember this moment with her was just a game.
When his sixth sense spiked, he blinked against the image of sunlight flashing off a windshield. In the soft glow of candlelight at the table, he winced and rubbed his burning eyes.
“What is it?”
“Trouble,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Where?”
His instincts said they’d face that image during the move tomorrow, but something was closing in on them right here, right now. “I usually have more warning.” He pushed his cuff back from his watch, but before he could use the comm hidden inside, the alert came through the tag pressed into place behind his ear. “Threat identified and closing in,” Trina said. “We’ll handle it. Get her out. Car is in the alley.”
Jim didn’t like retreating, but Lorine mattered more than his pride. He glanced around. Who was the enemy? How would they attack? “Go to the restroom,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze. “I’ll be right behind you, but have a shoe ready in case.”
She nodded as she rose, and strolled through the restaurant as if she didn’t have a care. God, she was good.
“Boss?” Jim spoke into the hidden mic.
The reply of two clicks told him Micky was taking down the threat. Resigned, Jim swiped his card through the reader and added the tip.
As he stood, his knee buckled in response to his sixth sense. The enemy would go for a debilitating blow to his knee first. Too bad he didn’t know precisely when they would strike, but now he would be on the lookout.
Nearing the restrooms, he recognized the heavy thud of a body slamming into a wall. He rushed to the door. “Lorine?”
“Gun!”
He jumped aside just as a soft pop sent a bullet ripping through the door where his knee had been a fraction of a second earlier. His adrenaline pumping, he barreled through the door to rescue Lorine.
“Great timing,” she said, a wide smile on her face and her eyes glittering with excitement. Her dress torn, hair tumbled, and her feet bare, she looked like an angry goddess thrilled with her triumph. Dragging his eyes away, he followed her gaze to the man slumped behind the door. “What’d you do?”
“Sedative hypospray in the heel.” She held up the two pieces of her shoe, then clicked the heel back into place.
Impressive. “Recognize him?”
“It’s Zach’s father.”
“Are you sure?” Maybe he’d memorized the wrong faces.
“Oh, he’s had work done, but that’s Zach’s father.” She slipped those narrow feet back into her shoes. “What do we do with him?”
“Backup is standing by.” Jim punched the anonymous code into his cell card and sent the message. With the comm in his watch, he updated Micky and Trina. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”
Handing the gun and silencer to Lorine, he dragged the deadweight dad into a stall and cuffed him to the toilet.
When he held out his hand, Lorine rushed toward him and he savored the feel of her warm body nestling close as they moved through the kitchen and out into the alley. In the car, he flipped down the false front on the dash and turned on the signal jammers. He wasn’t in the mood for more confrontation just now.
“Some date,” she said when they were a few blocks away.
“It’s gone better than some I’ve had,” he admitted.
Lorine stared out the window, watching the sparkling lights fade as he sped away from the city. “Me too,” she said at last.
“Really?”
“You have to admit a covert op adds an edge of excitement to the evening.”
“And you wanted to pretend things were normal.”
She laughed. “I should admit something else.”
Jim waited. Hoped.
“I’ve got a sample of Zach’s blood in my pendant.”
“I’ve got his hair in my pocket.”
“Oh, we’re a pair.” The short laugh was brittle this time. “Genetic tracking.” She gave a low whistle. “If only we could write this one up for the science journals.”
“This is a first. Better to wait until you figure out how Kristoff managed to tweak Zach.”
“That’s my top priority now that I know he’s safe.”
“We’re not quite out of the woods on that one.”
“What do you mean?”
He hated putting a damper on her mood, but reality was often brutal. “Lorine, do you believe your ex simply wanted custody?”
Lorine thought about it. Pressing the pendant to her lips, she stared out the window again. “No.” Shifting in her seat, she studied Jim’s strong profile, grateful for his expertise and logic. Adrenaline or attraction, she wanted to indulge a fantasy and forget the looming threats.
“We should go forward as if you don’t know anything,” he said. “I’m sorry it has to be that way.”
“Your sixth sense?”
He nodded. “I believe they’ll come for Zach when we’re on the road.”
“And they won’t give up.”
“No.” He sounded so sad, so resigned.
“Jim, the move can wait. Zach doesn’t know what he’s missing. I can get my old job back.”
“No.” He swerved to the shoulder and put the car in park. She could only stare as his big hands flexed on the steering wheel. “You have a right to want a normal life. Zach has a right to a normal life.”
“I think that ship’s sailed. Derrick was convinced Zach was with me tonight.” She twirled the pendant. “His confusion was my only opening. If my uncle wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself.”
“You think Kristoff planted more than a genetic trace in Zach?”
“I think he was demented and evil and anything is possible. With time and the right lab, I will know for sure.”
“The boss’s friends will get something out of Derrick and his pal.”
“I’m sure.” But Lorine didn’t much care about enemies present or future. Jim was right here, filling her senses with a longing she didn’t want to deny. She gazed up into his shadowed eyes and trailed a finger across his smooth, square jaw.
“Got a lab at your farm?”
“Not yet.”
“How’s security?”
Her pulse spiked at the raw desire in his voice. “Lacking.”
“I could fix that.”
“I’m sure.” But she didn’t want to think about anything else right now. He was everything she told herself she didn’t want and everything she didn’t want to give up. “There’s no lab right here.” She watched his dark eyes trace the path of her tongue as she wet her lips. Her pulse leaped. “And the security is great.” A gentle tug on his tie brought his mouth down on hers with a heat and a joy that sent her reeling beyond her darkest fantasies.
She trembled when he whispered her name like a prayer, and under the tender caresses of his warm, strong hands she learned what it meant to be cherished.
Hours later in the warehouse lab, Lorine compared blood samples from her son, his father, and Jim. Even after debriefings and renegotiating with Slick Micky, her body still replayed her encounter with Jim.
“Planning to sleep on the road?”
She glanced up, admiring the way Jim filled the doorway. “What road?” The flash of hope in his eyes confirmed her decision.
“You’re not moving?”
“In your professional opinion is it the smart thing to do?”
“Not at all.” He took a step closer. “But it’s what you wanted for Zach.”
“Zach should grow up happy and strong, not running from whoever will use him. Here people love him, and can help me keep him safe.”
Jim’s expression sobered. “We’re family here.”
He was thinking of the standard warehouse rules. She’d cleared this with Slick Micky and yet she shivered, weighing the risk and reward of taking this next step. Her feelings for Jim, rooted in respect, affection, and desire, had deepened practically overnight to love. Was it the same for him? She said a prayer she hadn’t misinterpreted the emotion behind his actions and kisses last night.
“We could be.” She waited for her words to sink in. When his gaze locked with hers, the intensity stole her breath. “If you’ll have us,” she finished on a whisper.
“If I’ll have you?”
His expression unreadable, she mentally cursed her miscalculation. She’d moved too fast, assumed too much. “It’s more than the security.”
“Lorine.” With his startling speed, he crossed the lab and laced his fingers with hers. “Security is a good foundation.”
“For love.” She kissed him tenderly.
He broke the kiss and cupped her face in his hands. “For love.” His mouth tilted. “You know you’re getting the raw end of the deal with me?”
“Nah. Zach is still a serious security risk.” She smiled as the laughter rumbled through his broad chest.
“We’ll figure it out together,” he said. “Your skills in here, mine out there.”
As tears brimmed, she could only nod. “When the farm sells— ”
“Why sell?” He leaned back. “Let me work on it. When the security’s set we’ll make it a frequent vacation spot.”
His confidence was contagious. “You think so?”
“I promise.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “All of our children will know what fresh air and sunshine feel like.”
He couldn’t have said sweeter words, or given her more of a hope for a truly free future.
End of the Line
Bianca D’Arc
One
She saw the incoming fire too late to save her ship. The one-man fighter was going down, and if she didn’t pop her canopy in the next five milliseconds, she was going with it.
Lisbet realized she had no choice. Hitting the CATASTROPHIC FAILURE button, she checked herself out of her ride split seconds before it blew into a million little weightless bits. Out in the nothingness of space near the galactic rim, she was in no-man’sland, where rescue was hard to come by. She had either a long wait or a slow death to look forward to in the next few hours.
The enemy Jits had won this battle, though hopefully not the war. Skirmishes on the rim had escalated in recent years as the Jit’suku empire looked for ways to gain a foothold in the Milky Way. The expansion from their home galaxy was fueled by the comparative ease of travel via an inconvenient wormhole and several jump-points – that had been created before humans had realized how the Jit’suku truly viewed the human race.
Inferior. That’s what the Jits thought of humans. Inferior in every way to their warmongering race. Though they looked very human in appearance – if built on a bit of a larger scale than most humans – Jit’suku society was one that most humans had a hard time understanding.
They prized warriors and seemed to scoff at diplomats and anyone who wanted to negotiate. The only thing the Jits understood was conquest, it seemed.
Which was why they’d been fighting so long and so hard out here, on the rim of the Milky Way galaxy. Lisbet was just the latest in a nearly endless rotation of human fighter pilots who had drawn the dreaded, but vital, duty of patrolling the rim.
With vast reaches of emptiness between nearly lawless stations, dangerous jump-points, and the occasional star system, rim duty was enough to drive anyone crazy. But she welcomed the emptiness of space and the loneliness of her own thoughts after this humiliation.
She’d been on this patrol for over a week with nothing to report. Then this. A Jit’suku battle cruiser had appeared as if from nowhere, and blasted her before she could even get a message out. He’d been lying in wait behind an asteroid. Lisbet had known to be cautious, but honestly, her thoughts had been elsewhere. As soon as she had spotted the giant ship lumbering out from behind the cover of the asteroid, it had already been too late. Her signals had bounced back – jammed. A moment later, a blanket of weapons fire had appeared on her screens. She’d been blown already, and she had known it.
Popping her canopy and stranding herself in the middle of nowhere in the emergency pod had been her only choice. Not a great one, but there’d been no other way to get away from all the incoming fire. The bastard giving orders on that battle cruiser hadn’t been taking any chances that she’d get clear and report back. He’d thrown everything but the kitchen sink at her, and she hadn’t stood a chance.
“Human, this is Captain Fedroval of the battle cruiser Fedroval’s Legacy. Warrior to warrior, I give you the choice. Would you prefer the fast death of missile fire or the slow death of suffocation when your air runs out?” He spoke directly into her emergency pod.
For a moment, Lisbet thought of ignoring the short-range communication from the cruiser. He was still blocking her long-range transmitter, but he’d allowed her enough bandwidth to broadcast to his ship. Big of him. Damned Jit’suku bastard.
“How do you know I’m not the advance scout of a much larger force? Could be my battalion is on my heels and will pick me up after they blow you to kingdom come.” Oh, how she wished that were true. She’d get a lot of satisfaction right now at seeing the Jit’suku ship blown into a million pieces.
There was a slight delay in the answer; she’d expected one right away. The captain probably knew she was bluffing. If he’d been hiding out behind that asteroid for any length of time, he had to know hers was merely a patrol craft on a regular route.
“Who is this? What is your name, rank and gender?”
He sounded mad now, for some reason she couldn’t imagine. And why would he ask her gender? That seemed odd in the extreme. But she’d play along. She’d be on her own out here for a long while – if he let her live after this encounter �
�� and she was going to have a lot of time, alone with her thoughts, before her air ran out. Might as well talk to someone while she had the company, even if he was a damned Jit.
“Lieutenant Lisbet Duncan of Earth. And I’m female, not that it should matter to you. I’m a qualified pilot and graduated top of my class from pilot training.”
While there had always been a lot more males drawn to military life than females, Lisbet wasn’t too much of an oddity. Many women had the natural skills needed to fly shuttles and other spacecraft. She was unique in that she’d requested fighter duty. She liked shooting at things, and would’ve tried for a gunner position on one of the big battleships if she hadn’t qualified as a pilot.
“Prepare for retrieval.” The order was brusque, and the harsh voice sounded even angrier.
“Now just wait a damn minute!”
A moment later she saw two small craft launch from the battleship and head straight for her. The bastards were going to pick up her pod. She was going to be a prisoner of war.
Dammit!
Although . . . it was probably better than dying alone in the vastness of space. At least if they picked her up, she might have a chance to do some damage to them before she died. She didn’t like the idea of being tortured, but she’d trained for it, like all the other pilots, and thought she was mostly prepared. She didn’t know much anyway. She wasn’t privy to any battle strategies or troop-deployment information. She only knew her current mission and those she’d been on previously. Not much of value to the Jit’suku empire.
Sure enough, the two craft flanked her and deployed sturdy microfilament netting that encompassed her pod. As soon as she was secure, they flew her back toward the cruiser.
The ship was even larger than she’d thought. It had the latest in Jit technology, from what she could see of its outboard arrays. This was no battered old warhorse. This ship was battle-ready and gleaming, though she could see a few spots where repairs had been made after engagements with human forces, no doubt.
The two patrol craft deposited her inside a gleaming hangar bay, bumping her only once as they set her down. The nets retracted and they parked on either side of her ship. She waited patiently inside her pod, gathering what little information she could. Her instruments told her the hangar bay was pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, and she saw big Jit’suku men working on various craft parked nearby without breathing gear.
