“Nothing to understand. I’m retiring from the fleet, and you’ve just been promoted.”
“So, you’re not arresting Captain Ava Frost?”
“What did you not understand about lacking evidence?”
His XO gave him a strange look and lifted the com to her mouth. “I’d like a security force to escort Seth Reynolds to the brig.”
“You’re locking me up?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t let you do as you planned. I have higher orders from Fleet. They told me if it looked like you were going to abandon your post and not follow through on your orders, I was to finish the job. Ava Frost is to be taken into custody and transferred to League space to wait for trial. You are under arrest for conspiring against the League. You helped her escape once, and you intend to do it again. Do you deny these charges?”
“No, but she’s not going to let you on her ship without me, and you’re in her jurisdiction once you cross the threshold. I’m not going to help you take her into custody.”
“We can pull her ship into League space.”
“And risk a hull breech?”
“That’s what ionic fields are for.”
Seth nodded. But the League destroyer wasn’t the only vessel with ionic shields. If he could get on the Avira, they had a chance to escape. “You’ve been planning this for a while,” Seth said. He wanted to warn her, let her know that the League had used him to set a trap. And he would. As he reached to activate a link to the Avira, Levore pulled her laser. “I’m sorry sir, but you were bait. I can’t let you warn her.” She confiscated Seth’s com, a smug look of satisfaction on her face. “But I’ve changed my mind about locking you up. You’re right, why risk a hull breach when you can convince her to board on her own free will.” She lifted a brow. “And you will convince her, or I’ll blow up her entire ship and anyone who came along for the ride.”
“There could be innocents onboard.”
Levore shrugged. “Collateral damage.”
“Are you willing to start a war over it?”
“That’s why we have you, Reynolds.”
Chapter Fourteen
“What’s taking him so long?” Ava paced back and forth on the Avira’s deck, crumpling her skirt in her hands as she twisted the fabric. “He should have boarded ten mila ago.”
“Relax. He didn’t come all this way to back out now.”
She spun around and faced Brodie. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” He said it as if he meant it, but the look of concern in his eyes told her he’d sensed the same thing she had, an alert of danger closing in, a twinge running up the back of her neck, screaming for her to take action.
“I’m telling you, something feels….”
The screen to the visuals chimed. Ava and Brodie both looked up. “Isn’t that just like the military, hurry up and wait,” Brodie said and opened the link.
“Open the lock.” Admiral Reynolds stood at the hatch with a four-person security team behind him. He stared up into the visuals, anger on his face. “We have a warrant for your arrest, charging you with harboring and transporting Theo Frost.”
“You step through and you’re in my space, Regulator. That warrant won’t stand in Nexian space.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything further. Ava cut the link and turned her seat until she was almost knee-to-knee with Brodie. “He’s under duress. Seth never told Fleet that I’d transported my uncle to New Xiera. He told me he’d let it go.”
“How can you be certain?”
“He’s never lied to me.”
Brodie pulled his lasers and switched them to kill. “Don’t they know it’s bad form to make a groom late for his wedding?” He grinned and nodded at the release. “What are you waiting for? Invite them in.”
***
She opened the hatch and smiled at Seth. “Admiral Reynolds.”
“Captain Frost.” His hazel eyes were everything she remembered, still taking her breath away. A strong hand came up and stroked a stray curl that had her escaped braid, pushing it off her shoulder. A bigger indicator something was up. Public displays of affection had never been Seth’s style, especially in front of his crew. If she hadn’t been certain before, she need only look in his eyes to confirm it. A warning glinted in their depths.
“It’s been a long time,” she said. Ava could still feel the heat. Her body wasn’t so forgetful, and she could see that he hadn’t forgotten her either, even if he didn’t respond. Silence met her greeting, but want blanketed his face, a look so loaded with desire, it made the air rush from her lungs and her heart skip a beat. A silent cry welled up from inside her, an immense feeling of desperation and loss. “I’ve missed….” Oh gods, why did she still love him so much? “You,” she whispered, unable to speak a decibel louder. Her throat had closed up, and pain banded around her chest, making it almost impossible to speak, let alone breathe.
“You’re still as lovely as you ever were.” His fingers moved to her face, softly stroking along her cheek. Sadness creased the edges of a forced smile, and the corners of his eyes held an expression of longing and something else. Hunger? “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
“You flatter.” Ava knew his body better than any woman could ever claim, but she still felt the heat creep into her cheeks like a virgin lover. How could he still want her—after everything she’d done? She’d wasted away in loneliness and guilt, a piece of her dying every day. She balled her hands at her sides to prevent throwing her arms around him. He might desire her, but it didn’t mean he’d forgiven her. She hadn’t even forgiven herself, and probably never would.
His expression went blank. “Why did you come back? I told Brodie I couldn’t help you if you did.”
“I missed you, Seth.”
“That’s not a reason to lose your life.”
“I have no life without you. I’m tired. I don’t want to be alone anymore, and if it meant I’d die to see you one last time, it was worth it.”
“Ava,” he whispered and the softness returned to his eyes as he touched her lips. “I can’t watch them execute you.”
“Then stop it. You’re a League Admiral, top of the line. You can pardon me. You know they don’t have any evidence.”
“I can’t break the law,” he said. The tone of his voice. The look in his eyes. She eyed his bare lapel. Stripped of rank and command, or had he given it up? By stepping into the umbilical, he’d left League jurisdiction and was very aware of it.
Seth glanced down at her weapons. The corner of his mouth twitched. Ah, so he had chosen. Ava fought the smile that tugged at her lips. She hadn’t misread. That gaze held no hostility, quite the opposite. Seth wasn’t arresting her, but he’d meant what he said, and didn’t intend to break regulations, or the law, any law. He couldn’t change who he was any more than she could, or Brodie could. Seth was a creature of habit. Regulations governed his every move, always had, always would, and the Fleet was asking him to break a big one now. He wouldn’t do it.
He turned and put his back to her. His hands opened, waiting for her lasers to fill his palms. “It’s my duty to uphold all Galactic law. I’ve taken an oath.”
“Then I guess this is goodbye,” she said, but he’d certainly caught the hidden message. To the League, to being a Regulator. It’s time to come home to me.
“I have obligations to the people.” He reached behind him, and she slid her lasers into his hands. His fingers closed on the grips.
“Always a Regulator.” Her hand brushed his as he advanced toward the security team. He nodded to the men at the door, as if to say, go ahead, take her into custody. Ava watched as they passed him without looking. Fools. So used to taking his orders, never questioning his loyalty to the Fleet, they didn’t even look. Their biggest mistake. His loyalty wasn’t to the Fleet, had never been, but to the law, protecting and upholding it. A lesson Ava had learned the hard way. The Regulators were about to breech Nexian treaties and start
a war, and he wouldn’t tolerate it.
Seth swung around, whipped both the lasers from behind his back and fired on the security team as they brushed past, dropping them to the metal decking. They twitched and went stiff, still breathing, and very much alive. His gaze darted to the settings on the weapons, and he shot a smile over to Ava, who lifted a brow and shrugged.
Stun. Gods, he loved the woman. Still not a killer. He whirled around when boot steps shook the corridor behind him. “Get back in the Avira and break this connection.” Seth backed through the hatch while Ava shoved one of the stunned shipmen out of the opening so they could close the door. “Get your engines powered up. They plan to pull the Avira into League space if you didn’t cooperate and turn yourself over.”
“Engines are already fully charged—I figured something was up.”
The hatch slammed shut as Regulators poured into the umbilical. Ava grabbed Seth and shoved him against the blast door. She threaded her hands into his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. “Kiss me.”
The door shook behind them as several shots were fired into it. He didn’t care. Two years he’d hungered for the taste of her on his lips, and he’d be damned if he waited one mila longer. Seth captured her mouth and felt alive for the first time since he’d let her go. The banging, yelling, blasts against the door—everything faded away.
And then she was gone.
“Suck each other’s tonsils later.” Brodie had grabbed the back of her gown and dragged her into the Avira. “We’re tethered to a League Destroyer in case you two forgot, and I, for one, don’t want to wait for them to break that door down.”
“What’s he doing here?” Seth glared at the familiar face.
“Saving your ass, Regulator. Sit down and buckle your harness. This might get ugly.” Brodie nodded over to a woman sitting in the nav’s seat. “I’m sure you’re familiar with Emery, our tech officer?”
Seth nodded. “Emery.”
“Reynolds.”
It was good to know Emery was okay. He now knew she had no choice. To go back to the League after what she’d done—they wouldn’t ask questions. They’d haul her to a disintegration chamber, as they’d planned to do to him. He’d ask later what happened, how she’d managed to join the crew of the Avira, but right now, Brodie Mark was right. He needed to sit his ass down so they could get the hell away from the destroyer before it pulled them into League space and blasted them to dust. He dropped into a seat and adjusted the pressure to the umbilical. “One mila and it will be stable enough to disconnect.”
“Don’t have a mila. We’ll be in League space and fair game in half that time.”
Ava rotated her seat, studying the information on her holo-dome, and narrowed her eyes. “Not enough time. Emery?”
“Already on it.” Emery nodded at the controls. She typed so fast Seth could barely see her fingers strike the holo-keys. “Oh no. I don’t think so, dickhead. Not on my shift.” Three more key strokes and she lifted her hands, blowing out a breath. “Well, that was fun. I’ve jammed the drives to their main thrusters. It should buy us a couple of mila, but nothing more.”
“Thanks, Emery,” Ava said and engaged the engines.
“My pleasure, Captain.” A smile tugged on the corner of Emery’s mouth, and she turned to Seth. “Your new tech officer wanted to get into a pissing match. I think he was a little surprised when I pissed back.” She glanced down at the control panel, lifted a brow, and punched a button. “Didn’t think your lights were important enough to protect them from hacks, did you? Yeah, call me a dumb New Xieran slut again, you pile of reptillia crap. Let’s see how you like fixing everything under strobe effect.”
He looked at Ava and cocked his thumb at his former tech officer. “You’ve been hanging out with her?”
Ava shrugged.
Seth smiled. And she’d appeared to have rubbed off on the otherwise peace-loving-somewhat-quiet tech officer.
“Engage the ionic shields, and I’ll break the link.” Ava buckled her safety harness.
Seth could do nothing but stare. They were hooked to a League destroyer, and she didn’t look the least bit rattled. Calm, cool, and he could see her calculating her next move, weighing the pros and cons, the way she did when she played zero-grav. And damn, he’d forgotten how sexy she looked behind the controls of a ship. And that gown did things for her breasts that should be a crime.
“Engage the shields, Reynolds. You can ogle my cleavage later.”
He flicked the switch. “She’s all yours.”
“Hang on.” Ava rolled the ship, tearing off the umbilical arm and ripping a hole in the side of her ship. The pressure remained stable, even though half the side had been torn free and left hanging on the destroyer. “And that’s why I have ionic shields, Captain. Well, and to smuggle illegal goods, too, but that’s in my past,” she said as she set course for Nexis.
“What’s in your future?” Seth turned back toward Ava as the visuals lit up, glancing down at her chest and back up, grinning.
“They’re requesting a link,” Emery said, but it doesn’t look like they’re charging up for a fight. I don’t think they want to take a chance with….”
Seth raised his hand. “I asked you a question, Frost.”
“A wedding, which we’re already late for.”
“I’m not going down there to watch you marry Brodie.”
“No, you’re going down there to marry Ava, and it’s about fucking time you manned up.” Brodie lifted his laser and pointed it at Seth. “We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. You chose, but any way, we are doing it.”
He hadn’t put much thought into what he was doing after he deserted the League, he only knew he wanted out. He hadn’t stopped to think that he might be kissing another man’s wife. Even with Brodie’s laser pointed at him, it was the happiest moment of his life. Under any other circumstances, he’d whoop and sweep her into his arms, but all things considered, it wasn’t the time for celebration yet. That would come later when he had his wife in his arms. He pushed the barrel of Brodie’s weapon away from his face before the Rebel got any ideas. “I don’t care how, as long as she’s mine tonight.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Brodie holstered his weapon. “Welcome to the Underground, Regulator.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“The link,” Emery reminded them as it chimed again. “We going to answer this?”
“What do you want me to tell them, Ava?” Seth asked.
She smiled. “Tell them to quit harassing innocent Nexian citizens and go write a few tickets in the shipping lanes.”
Seth punched a button and opened the link. “My pleasure.”
~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~
D. L. Jackson is a writer of urban fantasy, science fiction, military romance and erotic romance. She loves to incorporate crazy plot twists, comedy and the unexpected into her worlds. As a U.S. Army veteran, she naturally adores men in uniform and feels the world could always use more. She does her part by incorporating as many sexy soldiers in her novels as she can. When she isn't writing or running the roads, you can often find her online chatting with her peers and readers. Grab a cup of iced coffee, pull up your virtual chair and say hi. She loves emails and blog visits from her readers.
You can visit D.L. at
http://authordljackson.com
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Rebel Souls Page 14
