“Let’s go finish a war, shall we?” he said, and for the first time Zosha really, truly felt like this might just work out.
They gathered in the cargo bay. Dominic and Annie were staying behind. Rick and Zosha were splitting away from Captain Ingram, Hyde, and Custer to avoid drawing too much attention and then meeting back up at a rendezvous point after forty minutes. From there on, it was all a matter of getting into Sylas Rahm’s compound.
Rick and Zosha headed out first. She took him down to her favorite sweetbread vendor and they trailed around the marketplace, waiting for the appointed time.
Zosha remembered Spinner haggling with a tech vendor for the only decent monitor in the shop when they were barely in their twenties, his eyes narrow and lips thinned with impatience, and suddenly she missed him so much it hurt. She didn’t want to walk into what might be her death without saying goodbye to him.
She tugged on Rick’s sleeve and told him she’d be right back, then dashed into the nearest bathroom and pulled out her comm. She didn’t think she had time to call him, on the off chance he picked up, and she didn’t want to tell him face to face that, despite all his help, she could still very well be about to get herself killed. The habit to run away was, apparently, not something that could be kicked all at once.
She racked her mind for what to say, aware that Rick was waiting outside, and ended up sending a simple about to do something stupid with the Rahm brothers, watch out for the kickback, and thank you for everything. It didn’t scratch the surface of what she owed him or what she wanted to say to him, but it was better than letting her best, oldest, and only friend find out what she’d done through one of his contacts.
She walked back to Rick, and they killed fifteen minutes wandering before they changed course to meet the others.
Sylas Rahm’s base of operations was underground, which wasn’t unusual. Once the population had grown too much for the surface alone, mining shafts from before the asteroid had been converted for civilization were stabilized and turned into housing. Sylas’ compound was several of these tunnels connected and reinforced. They weren’t getting in without permission, regardless of what the shifter thought, so as soon as they reached the entrance she squared her shoulders and walked up to a guard.
“Hello. I need to talk to Sylas Rahm. Unfortunately, it’s important,” she said, trying not to feel like a child putting on an act.
The guard snorted. “I’m sure. Why don’t you come back later?”
“Look,” Zosha said, “can you at least tell me someone I can talk to that’ll pass on a message to him?”
“Can’t, actually,” the guard said. “Go waste someone else’s time.”
“Look,” Zosha said, patience running thin. “This is something that can help your boss and stop me from getting killed, so if you could please just tell me who I can talk to I’ll leave you alone. If not, you’re going to have to deal with me for a while.”
“Look, sweetheart,” the guard said, and shoved her backwards hard. Two things happened at once. The first was that Rick, snarling, stepped forward to catch her. The second was the almost as soon as Zosha stumbled back, a bullet hit the guard’s shoulder. The six of them stared dumbly at the blood splattering the ground for a second, then everything was screaming and motion. Rick spun to face the direction the bullet had come from, drawing his blaster and keeping Zosha behind him. Custer and Captain Ingram followed suit. Zosha squinted through the fleeing shoppers, trying to see the shooter. Behind her, she could hear the guard yelling into his comm.
Fear shot through her as she saw men in black full body armor pushing through the crowd. There weren’t as many as she’d feared, but more than enough to put a bullet in her head.
“I think they saw us,” Custer said, cackling.
“Not now,” the captain said, voice hard.
The black-suited mercenaries advanced steadily, and Zosha and the shifters dove for cover. Most of the stalls were wood or a plastic material, and a blaster bolt tore a hole straight through the side of one, narrowly missing Zosha’s head. She clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. Rick jerked her close, putting himself between her and the mercenaries.
“Shifting!” the captain shouted, then tossed his blaster to the side and stood in the middle of the hail of bullets.
It happened in less than five seconds. His skin rippled, then exploded outwards, fur covering the expanding form. A snapping sound and a slick, organic noise could be heard over the report of the blasters and in the time it took to blink a giant, dark-furred bear stood where the captain had been. Zosha stared.
The bear shook itself off, then lunged for the attackers, who, understandably disoriented, scattered.
“Hey!” a voice behind them yelled. Zosha turned to see two new guards hauling their bleeding comrade into the compound, about five others in identical uniforms streaming out from behind them, energy shields flickering to life around them. They began firing at the mercs, who were forced to scatter.
“Go,” Rick commanded.
“I don’t want to leave you,” Zosha protested.
“And I don’t want to see you get shot. We came here geared up to fight. You didn’t.”
“But…” Zosha started, then swallowed around the lump in her throat. She didn’t want to be responsible for his death. She didn’t think she could live with herself.
Rick hesitated, then leaned in and pressed a hard kiss to her mouth. It took her a second to realize what was happening, but once she did she grabbed his shoulder in an attempt to pull him closer. They broke apart breathing heavily.
“I will come back safe,” he promised her. “I want to see that through.”
Zosha tried to say something in return and found that she her throat had tightened and she couldn’t speak. Instead, she pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth and dashed towards the door.
As soon as she was inside, one of the new guards hit the button to close the door. She turned to see that Rick had stood up, skin rippling the way the captain’s had.
“Wait!” Zosha yelled. “The bears are on our side!”
The last thing she saw before the doors closed completely was Rick erupting into his bear form, back to her. She sent a silent prayer to whatever might be listening for him to come through this safely.
“That was the weirdest fucking thing I’ve seen since I started working here,” one of the new guards, a tall blond man, said.
“He’s new,” the other one told Zosha, hauling his injured friend up and looping an arm under his shoulder. “Alright, I’m going to get Davison to medical. Take her to the boss.”
“On it,” the blond said. He gripped Zosha’s arm lightly and began to walk deeper into the compound.
Zosha let herself be led away. Something in her heart wrenched painfully at leaving Rick behind and she told herself he’d be fine. He had to be.
The guard stopped in front of a door and knocked on it three times.
“Come in,” a voice said from inside.
They went in.
Sylas Rahm had grey streaking his temples and cold blue eyes. He sat back in a large padded chair behind his desk, calmer than Zosha thought anyone who had people trying to shoot up his compound had any right to be. The light from the holoscreen on his desk lit him up, making his angles more severe.
“Thank you,” he said, nodding at the guard, who nodded back and then walked out, closing the door.
“So,” Sylas said lazily. “Tell me what all this is about.”
“It started with me picking the wrong pocket,” Zosha started, steeling herself. She told him about Lan Doro’s first barely avoided attack and all the running that followed. She told about sneaking through Dalos XI and onto the Breakwater. About being found. She only left out knowing Spinner, out of habit, and the truth about the Breakwater crew’s genetics.
“…and there’s four of mine still outside,” she said, winding down. “And seeing as they can’t do much business for you if they’re
dead, I think it would be best if you tried to keep them alive. Sir.”
Sylas contemplated her, eyes running over her as though she were a passably interesting problem to be solved. “You know, he said you could be a bit pushy. I see he wasn’t wrong.”
Before Zosha could ask who told him that, a very familiar voice sounded from the holoscreen.
“I am never wrong,” Spinner said, sounding as though he had a very large headache. “Hello, Zosha. Next time could you please try to give me more than fifteen minutes of a heads up before you get yourself shot at?”
“Did you pick a side?” Zosha demanded, ignoring his question. “You’ve never picked a side before.”
“You never got this close to being assassinated before,” Spinner responded. “Besides, do you have any idea how hard it’s been to get decent information from Lytos recently? It was time to put an end to this silly spat.”
Sylas raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“Also, I—oh. That’s interesting.”
“What is it?” Sylas asked.
“Well, good news, I think your friends survived,” Spinner said. “Of course, I can’t be completely sure that those are, in fact, your friends. Zosha, do you have something you’d like to tell us?”
“Ah, that,” Zosha said as the door behind her opened to reveal two of Sylas’ guards, one of the black-clad mercs looking somewhat traumatized and handcuffed, and four bears.
Zosha felt something warm rush through her veins as she saw them, looking roughed up but alive. She all but flung herself at Rick, wrapping her arms around his wide neck.
“I am so happy to see you,” she whispered into his fur. He made a deep noise in the back of his throat and pressed his nose against her neck, which she chose to interpret as reciprocation.
“Zoshanna,” Spinner voice filled the room, low and deadly. “I have been out of contact with you for less than two days. Please tell me you haven’t managed to not only find but fall in love with a bear shifter in that amount of time.”
“Well, I mean, it’s a little soon to say it’s love, I think,” she told him. “But he’s really pretty and I like his smile, so it’s probably getting there.”
Rick made what Zosha hoped was a pleased sounding noise.
“Fantastic,” Spinner said, voice practically oozing sarcasm. “Any other bombshells you want to drop on me?”
“Yes, but not right now,” Zosha said, already not looking forward to breaking the news to Spinner that he’d accidentally hidden her away on the ship of the people who took out Strathmore.
“Would you like a private room to, ah, change?” Sylas said with an impressive amount of composure for a man talking to a bear.
The bear Zosha assumed was the captain nodded.
“In that case, could one of you please escort these gentlemen to somewhere where they can shift without being disturbed? I imagine they’ll also need a change of clothes.”
One guard nodded and stepped back into the hallway. Zosha gave Rick one last squeeze before stepping away from him. He bumped his shoulder against her chest before turning and following the guard. Once they were gone, Sylas beckoned for the captured mercenary to be brought towards him. The remaining guard hauled him forward, then pushed him on the ground, one boot at the small of his back and a blaster pointed at his head.
“I am going to ask you a series of questions. You will answer these questions with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ no more and no less. Do you understand?” Sylas asked the merc.
“Yes,” the merc rasped out.
“Excellent. You work for my brother, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And you were sent here to kill this girl.”
“Yes.”
“You were told to do this because she stole a notebook that contained information on my brother’s U4 trade.”
“Yes.”
“This information has the potential to end Jackson’s little coup.”
“Well, then. It looks like everything’s in order. Kill him, please.”
Zosha barely had time to look away before the blaster fired.
“Sorry about that. I don’t mean to doubt you, but in this business one should always double check,” Sylas said.
“I completely understand,” Spinner said. “Zosha, you good?”
“About as good as can be expected,” Zosha answered, trying not to breathe in with her nose. Blaster-cooked flesh was one of those scents she could live without.
“Glad to hear it. So. What’s he like in bed?”
“Spinner, oh my God,” Zosha choked out.
“What? I want to know what’s new in your life. You don’t talk to me these days. You just send me messages about your inevitable death that you’re lucky I saw before it was too late. Now, is he the gentle type or the hair-pulling type?”
“This isn’t a conversation I want to have next to a dead body!” Zosha said, trying to keep the hysteria out of her voice. “And I haven’t slept with him yet.”
“Pity. The changing room has cameras. You’re in for a treat.”
“Please stop looking at the naked bear shifters. Please.”
“Well, I can’t anymore. They’re heading back to you,” Spinner informed her primly. “Also, if you wanted to thank me for talking to the delightful Mr. Rahm here, you could ask your boy and the one with the hand where they got their prosthetics done. I’ve never seen any that can shift like that.”
“Will do,” Zosha replied, relieved at the subject change.
Captain Ingram, freshly clad in an extra guard uniform and looking much cleaner than expected, threw the door open and strode in. Zosha, who hadn’t seen him in his element like this yet, had to admit he was much more intimidating on the job.
“Mr. Rahm. Sorry about the mess,” he said, smiling wryly.
“Occupational hazard,” Sylas answered with a dismissive wave. “Your associate here has filled me in on your proposal. I’ll admit, I’m intrigued.”
“You should be,” the captain said as the other shifters filed into the room. Rick immediately crossed over to Zosha and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I’m not prone to false modesty, so I’ll tell you up front that I run one of the best smuggler ships in the galaxy. We’re head and shoulders over the half-rate idiots your brother uses, and I think we’ve already demonstrated our loyalty.”
“Are you okay?” Rick whispered to Zosha.
“I’m totally fine. You’re the one that was getting shot at. Are you hurt?” Zosha asked, smoothing a hand up his side.
Rick snorted. “Don’t worry, the mercs were so bad I almost felt bad for killing them. They were really into the ‘spray and pray’ school of shooting,” he reassured her, pressing a kiss to her hairline.
“Did you know that the standard decorum for most negotiations doesn’t involve feeling each other up in the corner like teenagers?” Spinner drawled.
“Shut up,” Zosha told him, stepping back from Rick fractionally. He dropped his arm from her shoulders, grabbing her hand and winding their fingers together instead.
Spinner sighed. “I break one of my oldest principles and plead your case to a criminal overlord, and this is the thanks I get. Such a thankless child.”
“You’re half a year older than me,” Zosha muttered as the captain arched an eyebrow.
Winston (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 3) Page 18
