I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
Page 4
While Darkbur’s tirade continued, Darius’s gaze caught hers for a second too long. Reason stirred deep in those black pools. Shaw cocked her head to indicate the best direction to escape, if they had any chance of hiding from the sheriff’s army and staying alive.
Darius nodded in return. He clicked off the comms unit and followed her as she made a dash for cover behind a derelict shed at the edge of the salvage yard. The other men had also taken cover behind various detritus. None of them fired any shots at the hidden gunmen and the approaching vehicles. All seemed to understand they were outnumbered.
The cool shade behind the shed was welcome. Shaw leaned her back against the wall, regaining her breath while watching the sheriff’s vehicles trundle ever closer. Darius did the same.
“For the love of Vox,” he hissed, turning to her. “Do you enjoy pissing off powerful men, or what?”
She grinned and holstered her blaster. “Only the stupid ones.”
Chapter 8
REMY
Remy flew the med ship as well as he could. As he neared the center of Naillik, he easily spotted the sheriff’s station. It stood out as the only building with a shining alloy star embedded on the top. Once he dumped off the sheriff and her posse, he could get back to the business of locating that portal and getting home.
“We can land right there.” Sheriff Greyson pointed at the middle of the enormous rooftop emblem. “That is, if you can control this ship well enough.” She raised an eyebrow and gazed down at him.
“I’d gladly let you take over.” Remy jabbed the tiny button to reduce speed with his pinky finger. “I hate these damn controls. I mean, who designed this piece of crap anyway?”
“I’ve seen what you use to steer your ship, so I’m not surprised you find our standards a little too… sophisticated.”
He grinned. “Oh, you mean my 1968 Corvette steering wheel? She’s a beaut, isn’t she? Yup, designed in a more tactile age when automobiles ran on gas, Otis Redding played on the radio, and mankind hadn’t even landed on the moon yet.”
She stared at him for a long moment, and he felt the weight of her unasked questions. How could he even begin to explain his world to her, such that would provide the context of his ancient steering wheel?
“Damn, I left my tablet on the bridge again,” he said. “All my blues...”
“I’m not sure you’re still speaking my language,” she said flatly.
“Nope.” He let out a soft sigh.
The stupid thing was that he wanted to share a bit about himself. Maybe he needed to unload to someone from this world just to prove he and his crew really had arrived from somewhere else—because their unexpected arrival still felt like a bad dream. But until this moment, he hadn’t had a chance to breathe in peace, let alone spill his life story.
“See, back on Earth—”
“Save it, Bechet.” She jerked her finger at his control deck. “Go into hover mode, or else, you’ll overheat the tank and blow us all up. Oh, here, let me.”
She reached over him and jammed a button labeled “axial equilibrium regulation,” which lit up green. As she retreated, her hip pressed against his shoulder, and it took all his willpower to keep his hands to himself.
He inhaled deeply as she retreated from his personal space. As he’d already noted, her curves were in all the right places, designed to make a man look twice and wish he could be so lucky. She even smelled great, despite being covered in the Jay’s engine grease. Her standing beside him, looking over his shoulder, wasn’t half as irritating as it should be.
“Axial equilibrium regulation?” he said. “Of course.”
“Standard terminology.”
“Yeah, got it.”
He caught a skeptical look from Dreyla, who’d taken a seat behind him during the flight from the scrapyard. For once, he wished his daughter wasn’t so observant and downright curious.
“To land,” the sheriff continued, “you’ll need to shut off those thrusters and turn on the three anticollision boosters. Best to do it in descending order.”
He glanced up at her. “You know, I’ve already managed to land this boat once.”
“Just keep your eyes forward, Bechet.”
Sighing, he gazed past her to ensure all his passengers were belted into their seats. Then, he turned back to the console and, playing the fiddly buttons like a piano, strove to make an impressive landing in the middle of the roof. At the crucial moment of touchdown, though, his impish side took over, and he cut the engines too soon. The craft landed with a jolt, and the sheriff stumbled forward, colliding against his seat.
She grimaced as she righted herself.
He shrugged, then shot Dreyla a mischievous wink. In typical fashion, she rolled her eyes, headed for the side door, and released the ramp. After unbelting himself, Remy rose from his seat and followed the others off the ship.
As he stepped onto the rooftop, the sheriff turned toward him.
“So, Bechet,” she said stiffly, pushing a dark strand of hair behind her ear, “I believe thanks are in order.”
He nodded, smirking, doing his best not to imagine some creative ways in which she might thank him.
She brushed up close to him and then stepped around him.
Before he could turn, he felt those cool hands on his wrists, followed by even colder metal and a snapping sound that produced a sickening sense of déjà vu.
She’d cuffed him. Again.
He whirled around to face her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The sheriff’s face was impassive. Two burly deputies he’d never seen before had sprung up beside her, scowling at him. They must’ve ascended from the station below to greet the incoming ship. Everyone else on the rooftop, from the pudgy mayor to the spindly aflin, looked poised to intervene on Remy’s behalf.
Dreyla dashed forward. “You can’t do that. It’s not fair!” She seemed ready to punch the sheriff in the face.
“No, Drey!” Remy yelled.
Davis and Brand unholstered their weapons and reluctantly aimed them at Dreyla.
“You’d all be dead,” she protested, “if it weren’t for Remy, Tosh, and me saving your asses.”
Tosh nodded in agreement. “It does seem a poor way of rewarding your rescuers.”
Drey’s hand slid to her weapon. “This is complete bullshit!”
Remy needed to do something before the situation got out of hand.
“I can get your meds back,” he blurted.
Silence descended upon the rooftop, amplifying the sounds of the crowded street below.
The sheriff crinkled her brow. “What?”
“I can get them back.”
Her eyes narrowed as she stepped toward him. She poked the tip of her blaster into his vulnerable chest, making his hands jerk involuntarily behind his back.
“I thought you knew nothing about them,” she said.
“I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get them back.”
She sneered. “Is that right? How?”
“Well, I know a thing or two about things like that... stealing, hijacking.” Remy grinned. “Back in my galaxy, I’m the best in the business.”
The sheriff rolled her eyes in exactly the same way Dreyla always did. “How nice for you.”
“How nice for you,” he corrected her. “I get to save your ass twice.”
Sheriff Greyson’s gaze darted between him and Dreyla, but she said nothing.
“You don’t even have to show any gratitude or anything,” he added bitterly.
“I’m letting you live,” she said. “Good enough for the likes of you.”
“My price is going to be considerably higher than that,” he said, winking at Dreyla.
He had this. He’d not only managed to escape the sheriff, albeit with Tosh and Drey’s help, but he’d also pulled off an improbable rescue, hauling Greyson’s pretty ass out of the fire. He had this. He knew it.
“I’m your hoochie coochie man,” Remy said, smiling.
Everyone but Tosh greeted him with blank stares.
At least I will be.
Galactic Blues
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PREVIOUS EPISODES
Galactic Blues Episode 1 - Born Under a Bad Sign
Good pirates fight. Smart pirates run. The best aim for somewhere in between…
After pulling off the heist of a lifetime, Captain Remy Bechet faces harrowing space battles, mutinous scumbags, and a vengeful nemesis from the past—all while trying to protect the ragtag crew he considers family.
Meanwhile, on the planet Vox, Sheriff Lilly Greyson finds herself juggling formidable black-market dealers, horny deputies, and a worldwide crisis in the making.
And for both, the day’s only half over.
If you’re a fan of space operas like Firefly, Defiance, and Dark Matter, then you’ll love the first action-packed episode of the Galactic Blues serial.
OTHER NGU RELEASES
It’s easy to find other Newton’s Gate work. Every release inside the Newton’s Gate Universe will be listed under the C.J. Clemens name. Many of the releases will have other authors listed as well.
Here are some of the current NGU releases:
Deliver or Die: A Newton’s Gate Series (The Delivery Mage Book 1)
By Jamie Davis & C.J. Clemens
A dangerous tech warlord. A devious damsel. Is this smuggler mage getting paid or played?
Baltimore, 2055. Ex-special ops agent Kurt Carter refuses to resort to killing any longer. Though this mage isn’t above skirting the law with a little magic to smuggle goods through the interstellar portals and back to Earth, he never expected to use the Newton’s gates on a ransom mission for the ex-wife he can’t seem to forget…
With the help of a trigger-happy sidekick, Kurt has no choice but to break into a government building and steal a mysterious sarcophagus. After his ex throws an unexpected wrinkle into his plan, the smuggler mage must improvise to keep an impatient warlord at bay. Can Kurt save the girl and protect his business all without getting more blood on his hands?
Deliver or Die is the first book in The Delivery Mage series of urban fantasy novels with a touch of interstellar travel. If you like magical antiheroes, action-packed space fantasies, and unique world-building, then you’ll love Jamie Davis’s rule-bending tale.
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The Realm: A Newton’s Gate Series
By A.Q. Owen & C.J. Clemens
HELL. HATH. NO. FURY.
Orion’s little girl, dead now this last year, haunts his every hour, waking or not. His ex-wife, deep in the grip of her own grief and a drug problem, has abandoned Orion, deserting him and what scraps remained of their life.
So, Orion drinks. And drinks. And rages. And burns through his fortune. And prays for death. Until he stumbles across his old high-school nemesis, Steve, one night in a dive bar.
This supposed chance encounter turns out to be anything but. Since the advent of magic and alchemy, now strangely widespread after a recent high-profile scientific accident, Orion’s old rival has been conjuring a “plan” for his distraught adversary. A plan Steve swears comes direct from the Almighty himself.
At first, his plan sounds crazy. Hell, Orion thinks, it is crazy: use a divine sword, a hiding spell, and the protection of God to invade hell and slay the devil, using good magic to restore order to the world. And to get the one thing he wants more than anything: revenge.
Not surprisingly, Lucifer has his own plans—and turns out to be the toughest mark this hunter has ever tracked. Not to mention Satan’s legions of bloodthirsty, rapacious demons, who’ve been aching to kill a human for millennia, and his dark agents on Earth, eager to kill their own kind to curry favor with their master.
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Zombie Chaos Book 1: Bloodbath in the Big Easy: A Newton’s Gate series (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Tale)
WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE. GRAPHIC GORE. GRAPHIC SNARK.
What would you do if you received a three-week warning of the coming zombie apocalypse? How would you prepare? What if the warning was wrong—and the undead rose a full week before you were ready?
Joe Daniels may be luckier than most, but heʼs still in a jam. After weeks of prepping, he gets caught in a zombie storm. To accomplish his plans and stay alive, he has to rescue his wife, Clare, and travel 1,300 miles through Americaʼs zombie-infested countryside to the safety of northern Michigan.
But, first, he has to battle his way out of New Orleans. With his cat, Azazel, in tow.
Bloodbath in the Big Easy is the first book in the Zombie Chaos series. If you like the drama of The Walking Dead, the gore of Romeroʼs Dead series, and the humor of Shaun of the Dead, follow Joe on his journey through zombie-filled New Orleans.
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MORE RELEASES TO COME!
Acknowledgments
Galactic Blues was heavily influenced by the terrific characters and entertaining plots of Firefly, Defiance, and Dark Matter. We’re grateful such awesome sci-fi shows exist, and as with them, we hope that our serial enables other space opera fans to disappear into the universe we’ve created.
The Newton’s Gate Universe has brought together over thirty sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, and thriller authors, and while the stories might have a common origin, each one creates its own unique world for you, the reader. We hope you enjoy exploring the many worlds of Newton’s Gate, and we thank you for being an important part of this collective journey.
Characters
While writing Galactic Blues, we’ve had fun developing images to represent our characters, using them as shortcuts to identify each chapter’s POV.
Captain Remy Bechet
Dreyla Bechet
Sheriff Lilly Greyson
Commander Tara Shaw