“Fuck,” Colt snapped as he looked around. The only way out was the way they had come. They had no choice but to fight. Colt was cool with that. He raised his phaser, waiting for the one who was following them to appear.
He didn’t have to wait long.
The large man grinned evilly at them when he saw Colt and Livewire’s predicament. “There’s no running, boys. I’ll be able to collect that bounty with no problem now.”
“You can take me in when I agree to have my cock chewed off during sex,” Livewire spat at the man. The stranger tilted his head to the side as if trying to figure Livewire out.
“Don’t bother. It’ll only give you a headache,” Colt said as he kept the phaser aimed at the bounty hunter’s head.
“It’d be a shame to kill them.” The stranger nodded his head toward Colt’s arm. “Why don’t you put them down before I subdue you both?”
“That cocky, are you? Why don’t you come get me?” Colt taunted as he took a step back, giving himself enough room to maneuver around. He was getting tired of the chatting. Colt had a mate to surprise, and this asshole wasn’t going to get in his way.
“Do I look that stupid to you?” the stranger asked. “I’m not coming in there. You’ll have to come out sooner or later. I can wait.”
Colt was really getting impatient here. If one person recognized him, then he had no doubt a few more did as well. Soon, more men would come to the alley to try and collect their prize.
“I say you turn your back and let us walk before I show you how a slug has sex. By the way, you’ll do the fucking,” Livewire said from behind Colt.
“You’re a sick fuck. I don’t do guys. And what the hell does slugs have to do with this?” the stranger asked as he kept his gun aimed at Colt.
“Nothing but this.” Livewire pulled a phaser from his waist and shot it in under a second, the stranger hitting the ground with a loud thud.
Colt stood there stunned for a moment before heading toward the mouth of the alleyway. He wasn’t about to stick around to see if the guy got up.
“I told you I didn’t need a damn babysitter,” Livewire boasted as he ran alongside Colt.
“I guess not.” Colt chuckled as he grabbed his gift back from the mechanic. He balanced both in his arms as they made their way back toward their shuttle. Colt hoped no one knew it was theirs. If they did, a welcoming committee would be waiting for them.
“I hope those damn things were worth it,” Livewire said to Colt but cooed at Colt’s arms. “They are cute though.”
“Shut the hell up, and get us off of this fucking planet,” Colt growled as they entered the shuttle. He sat down in his seat, buckling in before cradling his special gift in his arms as they headed back to the Lady Blue.
He breathed a sigh of relief when they left the planet’s atmosphere, and the hull of the Lady Blue came into sight. He turned to look at Livewire, his curiosity about the man growing by the second.
“So, how’d you learn to shoot like that?”
“Westerns.”
Colt’s eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”
“Westerns,” Livewire repeated. “You know, those old movies from earth where they have shootouts at high noon?”
“Uh…” Colt was confused. “No.”
Livewire rolled his eyes. “I’ll show you one on vid night. I have a ton of them.”
“And this is where you learned to shoot?”
“Well, it’s where I got the idea anyway.” Livewire snickered. “I learned to shoot on Paktil. An old friend of mine scrounged up a phaser, and we took turns shooting at targets until we got really good at it.”
“Huh.”
Livewire grinned. “Told ya I didn’t need no stinking babysitter.”
Chapter 9
Pax tried to look like he wasn’t bouncing from foot to foot when he heard the shuttle dock with the ship. But it was hard to wait for the shuttle to finish docking and the airlock to engage. He was so excited.
Colt had left before he had woken up, going off to Nebular Nine with Livewire. Remy explained to him several different times the need for Colt to accompany Livewire and guard him. The last time, Remy had growled and ordered him off the bridge. He wasn’t allowed back until Colt returned.
And now Colt was back.
Pax stood on tiptoe and peered through the small window that looked into the airlock located between the main part of the ship and the shuttle bay. He could see Colt and Livewire through the front window of the shuttle, shutting everything down.
The two men disappeared from view. A moment later, they appeared around the side of the shuttle and started walking toward the airlock. Pax waved when Colt glanced up. Colt chuckled and said something to Livewire.
Pax wished he could read lips because whatever Colt said made Livewire laugh. When Livewire looked toward him and waved, Pax waved back. He hated the time it took for them to get into the airlock, pressurize it, and then come out the other side. Pax knew it only took a few minutes, but it felt like forever.
“You left me sleeping!” Pax shouted the moment the door opened. He started to throw himself into Colt’s arms when the man suddenly held his hand up. It was only then that Pax noticed the blanket cradled in Colt’s arm. “What—”
“Go get Gigi and Remy for me, and I’ll explain.”
Pax frowned but did as Colt said—sort of. He tilted his head back over his shoulder and shouted for Remy and Gigi.
“I could have done that, Pax.”
Pax shrugged. He was still mad at Colt for leaving him this morning without saying good-bye first. He planted one hand on his hip and shook the other one at Colt. “You shouldn’t leave without saying good-bye. You never know what might happen. What if someone tried to kill you and I never got to see you again? We never would have gotten to say good-bye.”
A chill ran down Pax’s spine when Colt blanched. “What?”
“Nothing, little bird.”
“I don’t believe you.” Pax crossed his arms over his chest and firmed up his jaw. “You’re lying to me.”
“No, I’m not lying to you, Pax. This just isn’t the time to discuss it. We need to wait for everyone to be here before I explain.”
Pax narrowed his eyes then tilted his head sideways. He kept his eyes on Colt as he shouted for the rest of the crew. If Colt wanted everyone there before he explained things, so be it. Pax would insure everyone was there.
“Paxton!”
“What?”
Colt sighed deeply.
Pax smiled when he heard several sets of footsteps running down the corridor. He crossed his arms back over his chest and started tapping his foot. Colt was not going to get out of this with a pretty smile. Not this time. Pax was going to stand firm. He wanted Colt to really understand how upset he was about the man leaving without saying anything.
“What is all the shouting about?” Remy asked when he stopped next to Pax.
Pax just pointed at Colt. “He has something to explain to all of us.”
“Oh?” Remy’s eyebrow arched.
Pax frowned at the strange look that crossed Remy’s face when he looked at the blanket bunched in Colt’s arms. He turned just in time to see Colt nod. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Let’s go to the media room where we can all sit and talk,” Colt said.
Pax started to get a queasy feeling in his stomach. Something had happened down on Nebular Nine. He just knew it. Pax looked Colt up and down, searching for any sign of injury, but he didn’t see anything out of place.
“Come on, little bird, let’s go to the media room.”
Pax wrung his hands together as he followed behind Colt. He hated secrets, especially when he wasn’t in on them. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Pax frowned.
“Were you hurt?”
“Pax, I’m fine.” Colt glanced over his shoulder. “There isn’t a scratch on me. This isn’t a bad thing, little bird, I promise.”
&nbs
p; “But—”
Colt stopped suddenly at the bottom of the stairs leading to the crew quarters. He turned and cupped his hand around the side of Pax’s face. “And I’m sorry for not waking you up before I left. It won’t happen again.”
“Okay.” Pax could see the truth in Colt’s eyes. His mate wasn’t trying to hurt his feelings or be rude. As long as Colt kept his promise, Pax would let it go. If he didn’t, well, they still had icky slimy worms on the ship.
Pax still felt like something huge was about to happen as he sat down next Colt on the large couch. He twisted his fingers around each other as he waited. Pax wasn’t good at waiting. Even he knew that. He got antsy easily.
“What happened?” he blurted out once everyone was sitting. He flushed when Colt raised an eyebrow at him and glanced down at his hands. Pax didn’t understand why he felt like he was in trouble. He wasn’t the one that had something happen to him.
“When Livewire and I were planet side, we discovered that we were being followed. We took care of the problem, but it seems that even though Drake is dead, the bounty on our heads has not been lifted.”
“I knew it!” Pax snapped as he jumped to his feet.
“Pax, sit!”
Pax sat. He blinked up at Colt in confusion. He couldn’t remember the man ever talking to him in that chastising tone of voice.
“He’s not a puppy, Colt,” Gigi said.
Pax opened his mouth to thank Gigi when Colt interrupted him.
“No, but this is.”
Pax swung around to see Colt kneeling on the floor. He was setting the blanket in his arms down on the floor then peeling the edges back to reveal two small puppies, one brown and one black.
Gigi squealed and dove across the floor to grab the brown puppy up in his arms. Pax just stared as Gigi cradled the small thing to his chest.
“Pax?” Colt held out his hand. “Don’t you want to come see them?”
“It’s a puppy,” Pax whispered.
Colt chuckled. “Yes, it is. It’s also for you, little bird.”
Remy cleared his throat.
“Well,” Colt said, “one of them is for you. The other one is for Gigi.”
“Me?” Gigi and Pax both said at the same time.
“Colt saw them down on the planet. He wanted to get one for Pax,” Remy said as he stroked his hand over the back of Gigi’s neck. “He called me and I asked him to get one for you. I remember you saying how you’d always wanted one.”
Pax watched Gigi hold one of the puppies tight to his chest as he launched himself into Remy’s arms. Gigi was kissing Remy all over the face. The puppy was yipping and licking Gigi all over the face, too. Goodness, the thing was just as bouncy as Gigi.
Pax glanced back at the other puppy. It was just sitting there, his head bowed slightly as he looked around. He was trembling as if he was afraid. Pax’s heart went out to the little guy. He knew what it was like to be in new surroundings and not know anyone.
Pax pushed himself off the couch and crawled across the floor to sit next to Colt. He picked up the puppy and cradled him to his chest. It was only as he held him that Pax realized the puppy was so small, he fit into the palm of his hand.
“He’s just a baby,” Pax whispered.
“Here, you might need this.” Colt held out a vivid blue collar that didn’t look like it would even fit around Pax’s wrist.
“Blue?” Pax asked as he took it.
“It reminded me of your eyes.”
Okay, Colt was so totally forgiven. Pax tilted his head back to look up at Colt. “Thank you.”
Colt smiled. “You’re welcome, little bird.”
Colt smiled as he watched Pax cradle the small black puppy in his arms. He had no idea when he purchased the two puppies that their personalities would match so closely to their owners’. Gigi’s little brown puppy was wiggling and yipping and chasing his tail. Pax’s little black puppy just curled up in Pax’s arms and slept. They were the perfect puppies for the perfect mates.
“So,” Remy said, “tell me about this issue you had down on Nebular Nine.”
Colt lifted Pax and his dog into his arms and sat back on the couch. He could see the others looking at him with curiosity and just a bit of amusement when Pax curled right into his chest and went to sleep, the puppy sleeping peacefully on Pax’s chest.
“There really isn’t much to tell,” Colt said. “Livewire saw someone watching us. He had a vidpad in his hands. I suspect he was looking at pictures of us because the guy suddenly started in our direction. Of course, we tried to lose him but found ourselves at the end of a dead-end alley.”
“So, he was definitely looking for you then?” Tank asked. “There’s no way you could be mistaken?”
“Oh no, he was looking for us, all right. He even said he planned to collect the bounty on our asses whether we were dead or alive.”
“What did you do?” Remy asked.
Colt waved his hand at Livewire. “‘Mr. I Don’t Need a Babysitter’ over there shot the fucker.”
Livewire’s face flushed when everyone turned to look at him. “I didn’t want to be late getting back. And besides, no one gets to look under my lady’s skirt but me. I saw how she looked when left up to you guys.”
“So you shot him?” Tank asked.
“Believe me, Tank,” Colt said, “it was either shoot him or let him shoot us. He wasn’t planning on taking us back alive.”
“So, there’s still a bounty out on us, huh?” Crank said more than asked.
Colt nodded. “Looks that way.”
“That’s going to make getting any jobs a lot more interesting.”
Colt glanced over at Remy, surprised that the man was taking the news so easily. “Yeah, it might.”
“Guess we’ll just have to be a little more careful who we do business with then.”
Colt blinked. “That might be a good idea.”
“Then I suggest we get the doctor to where he is going then start looking around for a computer expert. From here on out, I want every job researched before we agree to anything. No one, and I mean no one, is to leave the ship without being fully armed, and I’d prefer if none of you went anywhere by yourselves. We have strength in numbers. We need to watch each other’s backs.”
“Yes, Commander,” they all answered.
“I’d also like it if we kept the off-ship expeditions to a minimum if we could. The less exposure we have the less chance of someone trying to collect the bounty on our heads.” Remy reached over and tapped Gigi on the dome. “That specifically pertains to you, angel. No leaving the ship until I say otherwise.”
“Remy—”
“No, Gigi,” Remy said sternly. “I need you somewhere safe.”
“Fine,” Gigi grumbled and went back to playing with his puppy.
“If there’s anything you need, just make a list. I’ll see that you get it.”
Colt couldn’t wait to have the same conversation with Pax. He didn’t think he’d have as much trouble keeping Pax onboard as Remy would have with Gigi. Pax didn’t like leaving the ship. That worked perfectly for Colt.
“Why a computer expert, Remy?” Gigi asked as he glanced up at his mate.
“The Federation of United Planets has a database with records on everyone within several systems, specifically the Turok System, the Andromeda System, and the Galaxias System. If you were born in any of those three systems, there’s bound to be a record of you in that database. If we have a computer expert then we might be able to tap into those records.”
Gigi’s forehead wrinkled for a moment then he laughed. “Oh, you mean like a computer hacker.”
“Yes, angel, a computer hacker.” Remy grinned. “But we call them computer experts, not hackers. Computer hacking is illegal.”
“Cool.”
“I’m so glad you approve.” Remy chuckled then stood to his feet. “Come on, angel, let’s go to the kitchen and get your little puppy something to eat. I imagine he’s pretty hungry right a
bout now.”
“What do puppies eat?” Gigi asked as he climbed to his feet. “I don’t want to give Bob anything that might make him sick.”
Remy’s eyebrows shot up. “Bob?”
“Yes, Bob.” Gigi held the puppy up so they were face-to-face as he walked out of the media room. “Doesn’t he look like a Bob to you?”
Remy rolled his eyes as he started to follow after Gigi. He glanced back over his shoulder and stared at everyone. “Bob?” he mouthed, his eyes wide, then turned to follow after his mate.
Colt started to chuckle. Crank followed right after him, then Tank and Blade and finally Livewire. Pretty soon, the entire room was roaring with laughter.
“Bob? Gigi is naming his puppy Bob?” Colt couldn’t wait to find out what Pax called his puppy. It was bound to be entertaining.
“You see those?” Pax knelt down and pointed to a pellet the doctor had dropped for the slugs. “You can never, never, never, never eat one of those. No sniffing, licking, or eating them. Not even a teeny tiny taste. They are very, very, very, very bad for you. Understand, Hercules?” Pax stared at the little puppy with a stern face, as if conveying to the puppy how grave the situation was. The puppy gave one small lick to Pax’s chin before pulling back.
Hercules? Colt chuckled as he watched Pax lecture the puppy once more before standing.
“And you are not allowed to go anywhere without letting me know first.” He wiggled his finger at Hercules but glared at Colt.
“I said I was sorry, little bird,” Colt groaned. “I promise never to do it again. Hercules and I will always check in with you first before going off on any hairy missions.”
Pax cocked his head as his fingers played over the puppy’s fur. Hercules seemed content to stay in Pax’s arms forever if his pet parent just kept right on rubbing him that way.
“What does hairy have to do with it? I just want you to say good-bye.”
Colt walked over to his mate, cupped his face, and then locked eyes with the man who made him look at life through innocent and wondrous eyes. “I’ll never say good-bye to you, little bird.”
Glenn, Stormy and Hagen, Lynn - Pax's Blues [Lady Blue Crew 2] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 10
