“I’m serious. You shouldn’t be in here.”
“I know,” he said. “But you’re always safe with me. And when you’re not with me….” He pulled a medallion on a long chain from his pocket and dangled it before her. It spun around, glinting in the light pouring through her cabin’s portal window. “I have a surprise.” He dropped it on her chest between her breasts and leaned back in, pressing closer, until Ava’s breath caught in her throat. “Today is special—monumental.”
“It is, is it?”
His tangled hair hung in a mass of dreadlocks around his face and dirt smudged his left jaw. It didn’t temper his devastating looks. Many an innocent girl lost her virginity to Brodie at the crook of a finger, and Ava was determined not to be one of them.
She tugged her gaze from his and stared at the open door to her quarters, anything to get her mind off him. “You need to get out of here before my uncle comes back.”
“I will if you come with me.”
Ava turned back to him. “My uncle will kick my ass if I leave the ship.”
“What is it the Terrans say? Damned if you do—damned if you don’t?” He cocked his head and gave her a wicked grin. The muscles in her thighs clenched and her heart began to race. Two years older, Brodie had been the leader of a pack of feral children. Now a man, he’d joined the resistance and had quickly climbed the ranks. Taller by a foot and twice as strong, he could easily force Ava to come along, but instead, he asked with excitement beaming from his eyes. “You know you want to.”
Ava snorted and fought the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Brodie Mark, you’re likely to get me into trouble.”
He sat back on his heels and laughed. “I am trouble.” Brodie was as tough as a seasoned soldier and twice as lethal. He’d been forced to fend for himself and had killed to survive since the age of five. Brodie had very few things he valued, and those few things governed his honor code. That code meant he’d never harm a Rebel, or those that served the cause. Most of all he’d never harm her. Going with him should be safe.
She’d first met him on the street as he’d followed a target when he was twelve. She’d tagged along, wanting to get a closer look at his blaster rifle. Brodie told her to go away, but Ava had been persistent, dogging his heels until he’d spun around and knocked her flat. “Not this time. It’s too dangerous for little girls. Someday when you’re older.”
“I’m not a little girl. I’m ten.”
His gaze swept over her as he stared down. “You look like a baby.”
“I’m a Frost, not a baby.”
Brodie’s eyes had popped wide. He gave her a curt nod. “Be safe, Duchess. Go home. You can come another time. I promise, I’ll come and get you when you’re ready.”
It had been the first time he’d called her that, his pet name.
It had taken her years to realize it wasn’t a nickname, but a title, one she’d hold if her mother hadn’t murdered her husband and run off with her father.
“Well, are you coming?” Ava pulled out of her memories and stared Brodie in the eyes. She bit her lip, debating whether it would be worth the trouble she’d get into. Seeming to sense her indecision, he gave her his best pouty face. Ava’s heart skipped, and she fought the giggle. Puppy dog eyes looked ridiculous on the dangerous Rebel. She should tell him.
“Well, Duchess?” Charm, charisma, and heat rolled off him.
He knew she couldn’t say no.
***
Seth grabbed her wrist and yanked her back to him. She twisted, breaking his grasp. Something warm and slick made it easy. He glanced down to see blood drip onto her hand and splatter on his boots. “You need a doctor.”
“I’ve suffered worse.”
“You shouldn’t suffer at all.”
“You’re not from my world, Seth. You can’t possibly know. We can stand around and talk about this, or we can move along—which I advise we do. Staying in one place for too long is a very bad idea. The children might have backed away, but they aren’t the only ones hunting in this neighborhood. You’ve heard of the Mish?”
“Cannibals—here in New Xiera? I thought they were a myth.”
“Not a myth, and we’re in their territory. They don’t care about anything but what they can make at an off-world market from your meat, and if you aren’t the right flavor, they’ll sell you as a slave. New Xierans are highly prized for their sexual abilities, but they’ll take anyone who gives them the opportunity, even if they’re not tasty.” She lifted the medallion. “This won’t stop them.”
Seth frowned. The more he knew Ava, the more of a mystery she became. The children could have killed her, but she’d charged in without thought to her personal safety, received a nasty wound, and saved a drug addict. They’d certainly killed before and if what he saw was normal behavior, they’d kill again. One thing was for certain, Ava Frost wasn’t as cold as she’d like him to think. There were so many contradictions to her icy exterior.
“I still have a job to do, and you’re under surveillance until I get some answers.”
“Fine, then surveil me in a safer location.”
Chapter Six
Brodie pulled Ava down the street. He held her hand, his fingers laced into hers. Energy zinged from the point of contact, making her stomach flip. “You didn’t think I forgot your birthday, did you?”
“It’s my birthday?” Ava stumbled and came to a stop. She’d not celebrated the silly Terran tradition since she was six, and only because her father had insisted. With her father and mother gone, the day seemed to become a normal day, twenty-six of the same hours she lived every year.
Brodie turned around and stepped in front of her. He took her other hand and walked backward, pulling her along. “It is.” He smiled. “I didn’t forget.” Mischief sparkled in his eyes, and Ava’s heart skipped.
“It’s not important.” Ava rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t bother.”
“Your uncle told me your father was Terran, that you celebrated your birthday every year when he was alive.”
She shrugged. “But I’m only half Terran. To the Nexians, it’s insignificant, a waste of time. Our births, our sex—everything about us is engineered from the embryo. Why celebrate the day you became a slave to a government?”
“But you weren’t engineered.”
“Many Nexians are. My mother…it’s not important.” She sighed. Maybe it was. She missed sitting with her family, opening gifts to celebrate holidays from another world. A child of two worlds, Ava never lacked for heritage, and her family had ensured she knew where she came from and who she was. Even so, they never tried to make her into somebody she wasn’t. Strange, Brodie would want to renew the traditions that died with her family.
“I’m Nexian, and I celebrate my beginning, even though I don’t know the exact date.” He let go of one hand and turned, tugging her along. “Almost there.”
She reflected on the direction they’d traveled, through back alleys, down the infamous Slaughter Ave., and deeper into the Blue District, heading for the hovering docks of the darker sector of the city. The star had already begun to sink on the horizon, and if she weren’t in Brodie’s company, she wouldn’t have set foot anywhere near where they now traveled. “Where are we going?”
“I told you, it’s a surprise.”
A surprise could be anything with Brodie. The neighborhood didn’t seem to faze him. A street orphan from birth, Brodie never lived in one spot long, bouncing from abandoned building to abandoned building with other unfortunates. At one time, he even took up residence in the scrap yard, where she’d first met him.
Since he’d joined the resistance, he had a steady income, and it seemed doubtful he’d remained homeless. Yet, he traveled in the direction that only one without a dwelling would go, into the bowels of Lamor’s pit, Nexian hell on New Xiera. Regardless, she knew the surprise wouldn’t include capture by the Mish, or an attack by street orphans. “Should we…?”
“Wherever you go
with me, you’re safe. Wherever you go without me, you’re safe as long as you wear the necklace I gave you.”
Ava reached up and wrapped her fingers around the medallion. “Where did you get it?”
“I broke into a house where your mother used to live.”
Ava’s mouth dropped open. He’d stolen from her grandfather? “Brodie….” They’d execute him if they caught him. Robbing someone on the street was one thing, breaking into the residence of the aristocracy, one of the leaders of the Nexian people, suicidal, and yet Brodie had, for her. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why? It’s yours by birthright anyway.”
“Because it could get you killed.” They stopped at a narrow alley. Brodie looked both ways before guiding her into the alley. He picked up the pace and drew her around a corner to the rear entrance of an abandoned warehouse. He pressed his palm against an electronic pad. It flashed and the lock popped. The door yawned open like a giant ready to devour them. Ava grabbed Brodie’s arm and peered around his shoulder, staring into the dark. “We could get arrested….”
“It’s mine. I bought it.” He turned and grinned, nodding toward the door. “Welcome to my home. I’m going to turn it into a club someday.”
“That’s the craziest thing I think I’ve ever heard you say, Brodie. Did you steal the money from my grandfather to purchase this, too?”
He tugged her inside the dark warehouse instead of answering her question, locking the door behind them, leaving her without a doubt he’d financed his new enterprise as she suspected.
“Dance with me.”
Laughter bubbled from her lips. “Dance? Here? In the dark?”
“Then not in the dark.” Brodie’s jacket rustled and objects that sounded like small metal marbles pinged against the floor as he tossed them. “Activate fire globes.” Hundreds of clear balls lit and hummed as the nanites inside mixed chemicals. The thin membranes that surrounded them swelled from the heated air.
“They’re beautiful.” Ava gasped as the orbs took flight like a field of fireflies, spinning and swirling around her head. She whirled around three hundred and sixty degrees, stopping as she came face-to-face with him again. He stood not five feet away, watching her, intensity in his eyes. Ava batted a globe, now the size of her fist, toward Brodie. She smiled. “You didn’t have to go to this trouble.”
“No.” He flicked it with the tips of his fingers, sending the glowing orb back in her direction. “But I wanted to.” Brilliant light whirled inside the lamps, casting a warm glow across Brodie’s face, making his eyes sparkle. He extended his hand. Ava stared at his open palm.
“There’s no music.”
He took three steps and stared down into her eyes. Only a whisper of space stood between them, sending a wave of energy washing over her in a tsunami of heat. Brodie swept his arm around her lower back and tugged her hips to his. His hand grasped hers gently, guiding it to rest over his beating heart. “Here’s all the music we need. Someday I’ll have more, but tonight it comes from my soul.”
“Smooth.” She laughed out and tried to pull her hand away. Brodie held it tight and gave a slight shake of his head. No wonder he had a reputation. If she were anyone but his friend, who knew him better than most, she’d fall for his seduction.
“Is it?” He swung her around the floor.
“I know what you’re about, Brodie Mark.”
“What am I about?”
She stumbled but he caught her, guiding her in the alien waltz as if he were born to dance. Ava tipped her face to the ceiling. “Where did you learn…?”
“Strippers downtown.”
She giggled. “I’m serious, don’t tease.”
“So am I.”
She laughed. Only Brodie. Stars twinkled through the massive crystalline dome that sat overhead. The special glass opened up to allow ships to dock, and was clear enough to let light through, but opaque enough to keep the contents inside hidden from view. On the outskirts of the city, on the edge of the docks, was the only place the domed structures could be found. Combined with the floating globes and otherwise pitch-dark room, it seemed as though they danced in space.
“It’s amazing,” she said as he swung her around. Who would have thought an old star port warehouse could be so romantic. All it needed was lovers.
“You’re amazing.”
Ava’s heart danced in step with Brodie. Perhaps she dreamed? He drew her tighter to his body. Hard, warm muscle made it more than clear she wasn’t asleep, and even more clear she was alive and alone with a primal male.
“I need you,” he whispered. “I’ve always needed you. Marry me.”
Her stomach fluttered. She’d never suspected, never thought Brodie felt that way about her. “Brodie…I….”
“You’ve always been more than my friend. Please don’t say it.” He stopped their dance and stared down into her eyes. “I’ll lose my mind if you say no,” he murmured, his blue eyes filled with heat, igniting an inferno in her stomach that bloomed through her. “Have mercy on my heart, Duchess.”
“Yes,” she whispered and nodded. Inside, her stomach clenched. Was this right? Eighteen years she’d kept her innocence, and though Brodie didn’t feel like the one, she did love him. Perhaps something more could grow between them—that same thing she’d seen between her mother and father. There was only one way to find out. His hands slid into her hair, and he lowered his lips to hers, capturing her breath and will. Ava collapsed against him. Her palm still pressed against his chest where his heart thrummed underneath. Heat. Power. Seduction.
That was her Brodie, her friend, someday her husband, and tonight—her lover.
***
Ava stepped into the club and glanced around. She lifted her scarf over her nose and surveyed the room. Ever since Brodie was killed, the place had changed. Drugs were pumped intentionally through the vents, meant to lower inhibitions of the patrons and conceal the illegal activities of those who’d developed more of a resistance to them through continuous exposure. When Brodie owned the place, he’d never had allowed it. A ping of sadness bounced around inside her as she thought of her friend. Gods, she missed him. Life on New Xiera wasn’t the same without him.
Actually, it had gotten worse. Places like the seedy club in the Blue District were well known to be hangouts for slave traders who preyed upon unwary tourists stupid enough to wander into them.
Even if the drug didn’t affect her as badly as someone not used to it, she chose to inhale as little as possible. A clear head in this part of New Xiera meant the difference between freedom and finding yourself on a menu, or a slaver’s ship headed to an off-world market, as was her father’s unfortunate circumstance before he met her mother.
Seth glanced over at Ava and followed suit, lifting the collar of his shirt over his mouth and nose. The common freighter’s shirts they both wore were designed to block dust and atmospheric pollutants. Nowhere near as efficient as his military issue respirator, but also not as obvious. She had to give him points for the foresight. At least he’d blend with some of the patrons in the room as every freighter had one version or another of the shirt, and they liked to hang out in the District. Plus, the charcoal lining would serve its purpose in the smoky bar, catching most of the drug and tempering its affect. Obviously, the Regulator had done his homework and came prepared. Another bit of information to tuck in the back of her head.
Ava scanned the room, sweeping the area the same way she’d surveyed the street outside. Slavers sat in the corner, eyeing her like fresh pickings. She fixed them with a challenging stare and flicked her laser to kill. They quickly turned their attention to a table of female tourists, easier, more gullible prey. She’d warn the women before leaving and call a shuttle for them.
“I thought you said not to set your laser from stun.” Seth’s voice snapped her back to reality.
Ava turned to him. “I did. In here, it’s not good to leave it on the setting.”
“Then why are we here?�
�
“I have a date.” On the right, a group of miners laughed and joked, already halfway drunk on booze. Armed like a Terran Assault Squad, they could be a problem. Not as dangerous as the slavers, but someone definitely worth keeping an eye on. Good chance sometime during the night, a fight would break out and most likely over the women. The good establishments in the city fostered a calm atmosphere.
Here, they fostered anything but.
In the Nexian club, they didn’t care about love and relationships. They wanted to line their pockets and do it by disarming the patrons. Sometimes they even added chemicals to the booze to strengthen the result and make their prey more compliant. The best place to sit was near an exit, close to fresh air and a quick escape, where she should wait for her contact. Brodie taught her about survival, and she’d taken the lesson seriously.
The hairs on her neck prickled. A predator watched. Ava turned around, looking toward the rear door and then over to a table next to it. Her gaze landed on the man who watched her as intently as she’d studied the room. She blinked once, twice, and grabbed Seth’s arm to keep from dropping to the floor as her knees went soft.
***
Ten years before….
Brodie escorted Ava down the walk. “Hurry. I don’t want to be late.”
“Where are we going?” Two months after her birthday, her uncle made port in New Xiera again, and as expected, Brodie showed up at the ship the moment her uncle left, let himself into her room and roused her from another nap. As always, his timing was impeccable. Ava blinked the sleep from her eyes, not quite awake and a tad on the grumpy side. Not knowing where they were going made her even crankier.
What surprise did he have for her today? It wasn’t a holiday, Nexian or Terran—nothing special to celebrate. Still, Brodie moved with a sense of urgency, nearly taking her off her feet with his brisk stride. “Slow down,” she huffed. “I’m not used to the gravity here.”
Rebel Souls Page 6
