Table of Contents
Open Skies
Book Details
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
About the Author
Open Skies
Yolande Kleinn
Partners for seven years, Ilsa and Kai are the best Professional Finders in the business. There's nothing they can't track down, no matter how hazardous the path or unfamiliar the star system.
Eleazar Dantes isn't the first client to hire them to locate lost family, but he is the most unpleasant. For double their usual fee, though, Kai and Ilsa will tolerate a lot—even Dantes' insistence that he tag along on the investigation. A high stakes hunt is no time for distractions. When Kai realizes his true feelings for Ilsa, his timing couldn't be worse.
Because as the trail they follow grows more dangerous, Kai and Ilsa begin to doubt they'll find Eleazar's missing daughter alive.
Book Details
Open Skies
By Yolande Kleinn
Published by Less Than Three Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.
Edited by Amanda Jean
Cover designed by London Burden
This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition March 2016
Copyright © 2016 by Yolande Kleinn
Printed in the United States of America
Digital ISBN 9781620047224
Print ISBN 9781620047231
For Betsy, who never lets me down.
Chapter One
"I have it on unimpeachable authority that you two can find anything." Eleazar Dantes spoke with a gruff voice, deeper than his short stature might suggest. For all that he was stocky around the middle, there was something delicate about the deeply lined contours of his face, and his suit might have cost more than a year's rent for the office they were sitting in now.
Dantes had introduced himself imperiously, and Kai believed the name was genuine, not least because he had heard it before. Beyond that, despite the fact that Dantes was human, Kai was having trouble getting a read. He knew Eleazar Dantes by reputation, but he couldn't decide what to make of the man as a prospective client. Kai glanced to his left, eyes seeking his partner. Ilsa was perched on the edge of the only desk in the cramped office. Her face, sienna dark with even deeper freckles, was a practiced blank. But Kai recognized the twitch of her left pinky finger atop her knee: a subtle signal of distrust.
Kai shifted his weight and returned his attention to Dantes. The uncomfortable chair creaked beneath him in protest. Dantes sat in a similar chair, but he didn't look the least bit discomfited by the rickety metal edges or the hard back. There was patience in the carbon gray of Dantes's eyes, and his gaze slipped between Kai and Ilsa as though gauging his target. His focus finally settled on Ilsa and her easy perch.
"Miss Vance." Dantes spoke with calm determination, leaning forward to emphasize the subtle plea in his voice. "Whatever concerns you might harbor, I give you my word they are baseless. I'm willing to pay up front for any expenses you might incur on my behalf, and if you're successful, I will double your usual fee."
Rather than reassuring, the generous offer gave Kai pause. And though Ilsa's face showed no outward sign, he knew it had tripped her instincts just as soundly as his own. Their fees were imposing to begin with. For a potential client to offer double wasn't simply unusual: it was potentially dangerous. Whatever Eleazar Dantes intended them to find, he wanted it with a desperation that straightened Kai's spine in alarm. He and Ilsa were a competent partnership—Vance & Othen, Professional Finders had built themselves an impressive reputation—but any customer intent on overpaying was best approached with caution.
"We can't accept your contract if we don't know what you're looking for." Ilsa's steady tone gave no hint of unease or mistrust. She folded her hands together over her crossed legs and rested twined fingers atop navy-blue dress pants. There was nothing but reassurance in her voice when she continued, "There's no need to be cagey with us, Mr. Dantes. My partner and I understand the importance of discretion. Whether or not we agree to take your case, nothing you say will leave this room."
Dantes's eyes cut away from Ilsa and skated sideways, catching Kai with piercing weight. "Is that true, Mr. Othen?" Dantes peered intently at him. "Will you guard my secrets as if they were your own?"
"Would your unimpeachable authority have recommended us otherwise?" Kai raised one eyebrow but kept his expression otherwise bland. He had nothing to prove to Eleazar Dantes. He certainly wasn't going to defend his own discretion to a man who had already traveled seventy parsecs to offer them double their usual rate. He held himself perfectly still beneath Dantes's pointed inspection, waiting out the scrutiny with practiced patience.
If Dantes intended to discomfit a reaction out of Kai, he was going to be profoundly disappointed.
After several awkward seconds, Dantes gave ground. He nodded in quiet satisfaction. "Very well." There was dismissal in the casual shift of his glance as Dantes returned his attention to Ilsa. His brow creased deeply beneath the curl of black-and-silver bangs, and his voice fell painfully somber. "I'm looking for my daughter."
Ilsa's eyebrows rose with surprise, and her eyes darted briefly towards Kai before she echoed, "Your daughter."
Kai shared her surprise, though the startlement faded quickly. It certainly wasn't their standard gig: usually they were hired to track down lost valuables, stolen property, even pets in one memorable instance. But he and Ilsa had certainly been hired to find people before, usually family members scattered during the ugliest years of the war.
War was a rending force. Even now, three years since the Enriu had been driven away for good, there still stood deep swathes of scar tissue across entire quadrants of the Alliance. Kai Othen and Ilsa Vance had been approached a handful of times to search for missing loved ones, nearly always by people who could never hope to pay their baseline expenses, let alone their steep commission fees. It was a point of perfect understanding within their partnership that Kai and Ilsa never turned those cases away.
There were some jobs they took on, not for the sake of money, but because it was the right thing to do. If it put a strain on their resources between paying gigs, Kai and Ilsa both agreed it was a worthwhile price for a clean conscience.
They had never been approached by the likes of Eleazar Dantes. A businessman recognized throughout the halls of galactic commerce must possess better resources. Law enforcement, private detectives, employees answerable only to him—local talent he could hire without putting himself in harm's way. Travel in some sectors was still dangerous, peacetime or not. Surely it was even more so for such a prominent figure. Eleazar Dantes had been rich even before the war. In the years that followed, he had proven himself a mastermind at wartime economics and had come through the conflict with unimaginable wealth.
A man who profited off of violence and death would have enemies to spare. He must have been desperate indeed to travel so far, alone and in person, to put his case before Kai and Ilsa now.
"Her name is Abigail." Dantes pulled a small data screen from an inside pocket of his gray coat. He tapped an indecipherable sequence into the screen, summoning the relevant data, then handed it to Ilsa.
Ilsa peered at the screen with assessing eyes. If their current office were equipped with all the sta
ndard technological niceties, she could have projected whatever she was seeing so that Kai could take in the information simultaneously. But this was a shit building in an even shittier port town—their last real paycheck was getting to be uncomfortably far behind them—and Kai had to settle for waiting his turn. Eventually Ilsa handed the small data screen over, and Kai leaned forward to accept it.
Instead of the list of dates and information he expected, Kai found himself greeted by the image of a woman's face. She was young, in her mid-twenties if he had to guess, and she wore her hair in a thick braid that twined forward over one shoulder. She wasn't smiling. Defiance tightened both the line of her jaw and the set of her shoulders, giving her an air of fierce determination.
Kai liked her already.
"Abigail Dantes?" Paternity was hardly a guaranty that the woman shared her father's name.
"Yes." Dantes took the screen back and tapped it dark, then put the device away. "She'll be thirty this year, if she's still alive." A cloud passed across Dantes's face, an expression both shadowed and ferocious, and Kai found himself sympathizing despite his suspicious nature. He hadn't seen his own family face-to-face since long before the war, but he could well imagine the anxiety he would feel at not knowing they were all right.
"And you've tried to find her before?" Kai pressed. He pretended not to notice the quick glance Dantes cast towards Ilsa. It was a fleeting look, obvious confusion at the fact that Ilsa seemed content to allow the questions to progress without participating. A familiar expression, to be sure. Kai knew full well how he and Ilsa appeared to strangers. Between the two of them, Ilsa seemed the more collected and serious, more intelligent. Her composed demeanor and professional attire made people assume she was in charge, especially when contrasted with Kai's brawnier figure and more casual dress. Dark trousers, faded shirt, worn leather jacket, stubbled jaw: he looked more like a bodyguard than a business partner, and he had certainly used people's prejudices to his own advantage in the past. It was good to be underestimated in his line of work, and Kai never bothered to be offended by faulty assumptions.
But there was no point misleading a man who clearly hoped to be their client by the end of this interview. There was no reason to hide the fact that Kai and Ilsa shared a more balanced arrangement than superficial judgments might suppose. Ilsa preferred to listen; Kai preferred to talk. They both had their strengths. Kai's just happened to lie in the realm of human interaction. If they were genuinely considering Dantes's proposal, then Kai would damn well conduct this interview his own way.
To his credit, Dantes recovered quickly from his hesitation, and he turned his full attention on Kai to answer, "I've hired half a dozen private investigators in the past three years. Every single one of them has reported back with resounding failure. They've all tried to convince me my daughter can't be found." Dantes paused and drew a deliberate breath, visibly steadying himself. "I sent her into hiding during the war, for her own protection."
Kai kept his eyes on Dantes's distressed face, but the eyebrow Kai arched was all for Ilsa. "Why did you need to protect her?" he asked.
Dantes's expression cleared, and he huffed a quiet, ugly laugh that managed to sound angry and exhausted and wounded all at once. "I was... not a popular figure, as you can well imagine. My unexpected success during troubled times earned me a veritable army of enemies, many of whom still plague me to this day." Stubborn pride seemed to straighten Dantes's spine, despite the fact that his posture had already been perfect to begin with. "I will not apologize for seizing opportunities that were rightfully mine to take. But I also couldn't allow my own notoriety to put my daughter in danger. I was besieged on all sides. I trusted no one, least of all my own employees, and I needed to know she was safe."
The explanation seemed perfectly reasonable. It sounded honest and hurt and painfully sincere. But it also sounded incomplete. There was something guarded behind Dantes's stiff-backed pride.
Kai straightened in his own chair, consciously matching Dantes's rigid posture. "Was there someone specific you needed to protect her from?" Dantes's eyes narrowed with displeasure, but before he could protest, Kai pressed, "Mr. Dantes, if you aren't candid with us, there's no way we can accept your commission."
Dantes's face was a practiced blank, but Kai still perceived an internal struggle in his hesitation, not to mention the faint crease that flickered at the center of his brow. Whatever was giving him pause, Kai sensed it nearly sending Dantes into retreat despite the distress that had brought him all this distance.
A moment later, Dantes's spine visibly, if reluctantly, loosened. He still sat straight in the uncomfortable chair, but there was new resignation in the line of his shoulders. "It's private. A family matter that I have gone to great lengths to keep from the public eye."
Kai waited with deliberate patience. He didn't need to glance at Ilsa to convince her to do the same.
Grudgingly, with visible discomfort and no hint of his previous poker face, Dantes answered, "Helena Kanne."
Kai blinked. "I don't know who that is."
"I suppose you wouldn't. She's my late wife's only sister."
"And you think she's a danger to Abigail?" Kai's brow furrowed. "Why?"
A fresh look of discomfort colored Dantes's expression, but this time he didn't hesitate. "I don't like to cast aspersions when I have no proof. Please know these are only suspicions; if I had more, I'd have taken action years ago." A pause, a cut of his eyes from Kai to Ilsa and back again, and then Dantes continued, "My wife's death was no accident. And while I could never prove anything—I could never find a tangible motive, let alone evidence—I know just how few people Lora let close. Helena was one of only a handful of potential suspects, and her relationship with Lora was... complicated."
"Was Helena Kanne's relationship with Abigail also complicated?"
"They were never close," Dantes said. "And all I have are suspicions. I can't imagine a reason Helena would want to hurt Abigail. But I couldn't have imagined losing my wife, either. It was just one more reason to get my daughter safely out of sight. The war made such a mess, even for me. I couldn't protect her any other way."
Kai wanted to press for more detail, but some kinder instinct stopped him. There was uncanny certainty in Dantes's tone. For all his care not to claim sure answers, Dantes had the air of a man with no doubts at all. He didn't just suspect his sister-in-law; he knew who was to blame for his wife's death. Much as Kai wanted more to go on, he sensed Dantes shutting down around the painful topic.
Kai hesitated. He spoke his next words with strenuous care. "Mr. Dantes... The war has been over for three years. Even the most damaged systems of the Alliance have managed to repair basic communication capabilities. Surely Abigail should have been in touch with you by now."
"Exactly." Dantes leaned forward in his chair. Determination glinted in his eyes as he glanced back and forth between Kai and Ilsa. "She should have contacted me by now. But she hasn't. What if she can't? What if she's hurt or lost? What if she's in trouble?"
"She could be dead," Ilsa said softly. Kai stiffened, glaring in rebuke at her clumsy observation. Ilsa's eyes widened for the briefest instant as she realized she'd spoken aloud—that she'd spoken unkindly—and then Kai turned away to find steel on Eleazar Dantes's face.
"I refuse to believe it." Dantes's voice was a dangerous growl. "Until I see a body, Abigail is alive and healthy. If she were dead, there would have been something to find before now."
Kai wasn't so sure, but it would be cruel to argue otherwise. With even greater care, he asked, "Is it possible she doesn't want to be found? Perhaps she's still hiding from Helena Kanne."
A strange look passed over Dantes's face at the suggestion, unreadable shadows and a fleeting grimace. There was something stern, almost accusatory, in his voice when he snapped, "Abigail would never do that to me. She would find a way to contact me if she could. My daughter is no coward. She wouldn't leave me to suffer this eternal doubt." Then, obviously relu
ctant to concede the point but recognizing the validity of the question, he added, "Even if she would, it doesn't change anything. I still need to see her. I need to know she's okay."
Silence closed in through the claustrophobic office, heavy and stifling in the too-warm air of the room. Kai looked to Ilsa again, not in rebuke this time but in question. He could feel Dantes watching them. The pleading weight of the man's regard echoed heavily in the quiet, no matter that Kai wasn't looking at Dantes.
Kai pressed his mouth into a thin line, turned his head a fraction, but otherwise held perfectly still. Ilsa met his eyes. Her own gaze narrowed almost imperceptibly, and Kai knew they were in complete agreement. Wary of Eleazar Dantes, unsure of him, but firmly convinced of his frank desperation. They had never refused to search for missing family before. They certainly couldn't do so in good conscience now, especially with double their usual fee on the table.
It was Ilsa who turned to Dantes and said, "We'll take your case. Will you sign our standard contract?"
"Of course." Dantes nodded somberly. "But with one particular request."
Kai felt his own eyebrows rise high on his face, but he gestured for Dantes to continue.
Dantes looked far too sure of himself as he explained, "I want to accompany you in your search. I want to be there every step of the way."
Ilsa blinked, and her large eyes looked owlish with dubious surprise. "You're joking."
Dantes shook his head. "I've never been a jesting man. I assure you, I am entirely in earnest."
"It's dangerous enough for you here," Ilsa protested, and this time her unguarded words were a sentiment with which Kai fervently agreed. "Your name isn't a popular one, and our investigation is liable to tread through even less sympathetic sectors. It's not safe. You can't very well pack along a bodyguard on a trip like this."
"I don't care." Dantes met their skepticism with level stubbornness. "Either I go with you, or the entire deal is off."
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