Snowburn

by Frost, E J

  “Get rid of these.” She pulls at the stub of one of her dreads. “And even it out?”

  “Sure.” I retrieve my clothes and fish out one of my knives. Kez probably has clippers or something, but I’m better with a blade. I trim the stubs, help Kez brush them out, and even out the resulting ragged mop to crew-cut length, leaving her bangs long. She runs her fingers through her hair, scrunching the stubble, making the wisps stand on end.

  “Nice, kitten.” I’m not teasing her. As much as I liked the dreads, short hair suits her. It gives her face a gamine quality. Makes those big blue eyes even bigger. And I love the vulnerability of her bare neck.

  “Mmm.” She picks up a spiky-looking brush, attached to a cartridge bristling with multi-colored buttons. She clicks a black button, then runs the brush through her stubble, avoiding her bangs. The stubble darkens with each pass, until it’s as black as mine, if I let it grow out. The result is eye-catching. The black stubble makes the long blonde bangs framing her face brighter. Against the black hair, her skin glows like pearl. Her bare neck looks twice as vulnerable. I lift an admiring eyebrow and Kez smiles at me in the mirror. “Better?” she asks.

  “Fuck, yeah. C’mere.”

  She puts the brush down and moves into my arms. Breathes a minty breath up at me. I smile down at her before I claim that clean mouth. Kiss her deep. Her fingers drop to the towel around my waist; she gives it a tug.

  I break the kiss. Lift her onto the counter and pull her thighs around my hips. “Quick and on the counter now, or slow and in a bed later?”

  Kez tilts her head to the side. “Is both out of the question?”

  “Nope, but this is gonna be real quick.” Between the unrelenting ache in my balls and the fact that either door might open momentarily, we might be counting this one in seconds rather than minutes.

  “Quick is good.”

  “Not if you don’t come.” I slide my hand up her thigh. Rub my thumb over her labia and find her slick with more than moisture from the shower.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  She does, and I hold out for seven minutes, and we’re back in the shower by the time Ape pokes his head through to door to tell us that lunch is ready.

  Chapter 29

  After lunch, we sit on Kez’s bed, surrounded by rabbits, with the latest black box between Kez’s knees. I pet Ronnie, who is upside-down in my lap, paws in the air, tooth-purring hard enough to shake the bed. Petting the bunny keeps my hands off Kez, who is pressed warmly against my side. She probably doesn’t want my hands off her, given that she’s been trying to entice me to fuck her again since about five minutes after our last go-round. And I’m going to oblige her, once we deal with Tyng and get rid of the fluffy swarm, because the quickie on the counter may have taken care of my ball-ache, but it did nothing to relieve any deeper need.

  “United front,” I remind her, tipping my chin at the black box between her knees.

  She shivers and works her hand between my back and the headboard until she can put her arm around my waist. “Where should we hold the meet?”

  “Let him pick. Anywhere on neutral ground.” The beauty of my plan is that it gets the knives into any meet with Tyng, anywhere. If Doc Gray does a good job with the sheaths, I should even be able to pass a full security scan.

  “Okay.” She leans forward and fiddles with the side of the box. A holodisplay pops up, with a red eye across it. Kez has turned off the vid again. Smart kitten.

  The response is instant. “Miz Kerryon.”

  She bows her head and tucks herself tighter against my side. “I’ve finished the two runs.”

  “So I understand. At some personal cost, or so my watchers tell me. For your companion at the very least. Are you quite recovered, Mister Snow?”

  “Recovered enough,” I grunt. Perceptive bastard.

  “Very well. Payment was made this morning as arranged. I trust you are satisfied?”

  “Yes,” Kez says. That musta been part of what she was talking about with Gig, or she wouldn’t be agreeing without checking first. She’s very careful about getting paid, as she should be. She also owes me forty percent, but I don’t mention it, and I won’t. She’ll be as careful about paying as she is about getting paid. She’s a good businesswoman, my kitten.

  “Then we can finish this distasteful business,” Tyng says. “Two hours, at the warehouse where we first spoke.”

  Kez stirs against my side, and I clamp down hard on my impulse to interrupt. This is still her show.

  Kez clears her throat. “I’m sorry, but I had to trade another run to get us off the Clouds. I need two days.”

  There’s a long silence from the holodeck. Kez squeezes my waist. I turn my face to nuzzle her ear. “Hang in there,” I whisper to her.

  “Very well,” Tyng says finally. “Midnight tomorrow.”

  Kez glances at me for confirmation. I’d feel better if Tyng had given us the full night, but I sense that’s stretching his patience. I’ll have to be quick carving the knives. I nod.

  “Thank you,” she says.

  “I’m looking forward to meeting you in person, Miz Kerryon. At last. And to collecting the debt you owe me.”

  “Yes, sir.” Kez shrinks into herself even more if that’s possible.

  “I’m lookin’ forward to meetin’ you, too,” I say, when it doesn’t look like Kez is going to mention me.

  “Ah, Mister Snow. I was going to suggest that Miz Kerryon’s brother accompany her, since it would not be appropriate for her to meet me unchaperoned. If you would prefer to take his place, since I understand you have recently become connected with Miz Kerryon on a number of levels, I have no objection. I trust you will report our meeting to Mister Kerryon faithfully. And you will understand if I am also accompanied to the meeting.”

  “Seems only fair you bring someone if Kez is.” I put the emphasis on one.

  “Even so. Until then.”

  “Yeah.” I lean over and flick off the holodeck. Sit back and put my arms around Kez. She evicts Ronnie and climbs into my lap. I stroke her head into my neck. Hold her tight. “You still don’t want me to kill him?”

  “No,” she breathes into my skin.

  “If it comes down to him or you?”

  “I agreed . . . I said I’d give him flesh.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not what he’s gonna demand. He’s gonna break you. That’s not part of the deal.”

  She shakes her head against my neck.

  “If it comes down to him or you, I gotta know you’re behind me.” I tip her chin up so I can look into her eyes. They’re dry. Pupils contracted so tightly they’re just pinpoints in a sea of blue. I can feel the trembling she tries to control. She’s letting fear eat her up. “I gotta know you’ll forgive me if I kill him, kitten.”

  She puts her arms around my neck. “I’ll forgive you anything.”

  “Then we do what’s gotta be done.”

  “Okay,” she sighs. “Okay, but you have to let me try first. If he demands something I can give . . . even if it’s really bad. I have to . . . will you let me try?”

  “Yeah, I’ll let you keep your word if you can.” I know how important it is to her. And there will be fall-out if I kill Tyng. Bad fall-out. For me and for Kez. I understand that. But none of that is more important than her sanity. She may not know it, but there are worse things than dying. Worse things than what Tyng has threatened her with. I’ve had some of them done to me, and I’ve seen more. I’m not letting any of that happen to Kez. It would destroy the beauty that makes Kez so essentially . . . Kez. “He doesn’t get to torture you. No rapin’. No skinnin’. You’re not agreeing to anything like that.”

  She swallows hard and grips my neck. “I’m not going to argue with you.”

  “Good.”

  She snuffles into my neck. Chokes. I feel the moment she lets fear overwhelm her. Feel the wetness on my skin. The trembling that shakes the whole bed. I don’t try to stop her. Two days ago, I would have. But now I kno
w better. She needs to let it out; otherwise she lets it build until she explodes. So I hold her tight, rub her back, kiss her forehead, and let her cry it out.

  The rabbits huddle around us. Ronnie tries to climb into her lap, but she’s curled too tightly against me. He ends up between my knees with his front paws on her hip, butting her with his soft nose. She reaches out absently to pet him, and then the others when they butt her hand. Looks like this isn’t the first time they’ve comforted her. Maybe it’s the first time she’s had anyone other than her rabbits to comfort her.

  She finally reaches out of our clutch to pull a wipe out of the dresser drawer. She blows her nose. I chuckle.

  “What’s funny?” she asks indignantly.

  I cup her face in my hands and kiss the tip of her swollen, red nose. “You’re beautiful.”

  “Oh, right.” She waves the wet tissue at me. “Really beautiful.”

  “You’re beautiful. Snot and all.” Would Marin ever have let me see her blow her nose? Would Mouse? I lived in a four by six cell with Mouse for months and I never saw her blow her nose. I never saw her cry. I only saw her use the damn zap can a couple of times, usually while we were on lockdown. She was careful to hide those sorts of things from me. At the time I thought she was trying to maintain some privacy. But now I realize it was because Mouse didn’t want to let me in. She was afraid of me, no matter how gentle I was with her. She’d been hurt too bad to ever trust anyone completely. Kez has trusted me from the start. I can’t let anything happen to her that would damage her sweet trust.

  “You’re insane,” Kez says, drawing me back to the here and now.

  “Absolutely,” I agree. “Now you want to call your rat friends and set up this run so you and me can have some real alone-time?”

  She nods. Snaps together her viewie without uncurling from my lap. She scrolls through picture after picture until she finds the furry face of Rat-Wisdom. Taps it up and waits.

  When she doesn’t pick up after a dozen rings, Kez sighs. “She might be sleeping. They’re nocturnal.”

  “Real rats are crepuscular,” I say.

  “Creepy-what?”

  I chuckle. “That, too.”

  “So are rabbits. But as soon as I let ours have free run of the house, they adjusted to our schedule. They nap a lot, though.” She finally takes pity on Ronnie, spreads her knees and makes a lap for him to wriggle into. He flops across her thighs with enough force to shake the bed.

  “You are a big fucking lump,” I tell the bunny, just as Kez’s viewie connects with a soft chime.

  The picture’s of Rat-Wisdom, but it’s Acker who appears on Kez’s viewie as the call connects. “Lightfoot,” he says, his deep voice resonating in Kez’s small room.

  “Acker.”

  “Has something happened?” Alpha Rat asks. The little tech is good. No doubt Acker can see Kez’s red eyes and swollen nose.

  Kez shakes her head. “We’re ready to do the run.”

  “The food will be in Nock at dawn. I’m sorry, I cannot arrange it any sooner.”

  “That’s okay,” I say. That gives me and Kez the night together, which suits me fine. “Have it dropped at Nock Port, berth SM2662. The Pack know we’re coming?”

  “Yes. Diamond has given me the following message: Swift Wings.”

  Kez nods. “I know that entrance.”

  “They will be waiting for you. They have the . . . items you have asked for.”

  I arch an eyebrow at Kez.

  “I put the message on the K-Net board as soon as we cleared the Cloudline,” she clarifies.

  “We do not trade in human parts,” Acker growls. “I want this understood.”

  “Loud ‘n’ clear,” I say. “Remember what you said about the measure of a man?”

  “Yes,” he says slowly.

  “That’s why I need them.”

  Expression is hard to read on Alpha Rat’s furry face, but I think he looks surprised. “Very well,” he says. “I will . . . trust you in this.”

  That must have been hard for him to say. I nod in acknowledgement. “So, when’re you comin’ to Nock?”

  “I . . . have not yet made any plans.”

  “Dinner. Next fiveday. I’m cookin’. Bring whatever you want to drink.”

  Kez knocks me with her elbow. “Snow.”

  I give her a squeeze. “If it’s a date we can’t keep, I’m sure Acker will give us a raincheck.”

  “Indeed, I will,” Acker says. “May I bring my Wisdom?”

  “Yeah, anyone you want is welcome.”

  “Thank you,” he says slowly. “We will . . . look forward to it.”

  I nod into the viewie before Kez taps it off. She leans her head against my shoulder. “Do you really think we’ll be able to keep that date?”

  “I think if we start livin’ like there’s nothin’ beyond tomorrow, then Tyng’s already won.”

  “He scares me so much,” she whispers.

  “I know, kitten.” I hug her close. Rub her back. I can’t promise her it will be all right. I don’t want to lie to her. But I give her everything I can. “You’re not gonna face him alone.”

  She wraps her arms around my neck and hugs me fiercely. Which makes the rabbit getting crushed between us wriggle indignantly. We break apart laughing.

  With her backpack at the bottom of the bay, Kez has to resort to another of her black nylar bags for her equipment. I stretch on her bed, in the middle of a sprawl of rabbits. Most of the rabbits are watching her pack, probably hoping for the appearance of something edible. A couple are sleepily licking each other, while Ronnie has flopped on his side along my forearm and is alternatively licking my wrist and his own paw. I scratch him behind the ear. I’ve never been around animals that weren’t predators before. Kez’s rabbits are very peaceful. Very cuddly. Wholly relaxing. But when one of them climbs up and settles in the small of my back, I object.

  “Get the bunny off my back.”

  “Helas, shoo!” Kez admonishes, looking up from folding some clothes into the bag.

  There’s no change in the weight on my back.

  “That is a fucking heavy rabbit,” I observe.

  “Females get that way. Particularly after they’ve finished breeding. Helas, I mean it. Get off.”

  The rabbit doesn’t shift.

  “You realize this is a challenge,” I tell Kez.

  “Oh, I know. She’s asserting her dominance. If she starts humping your butt, you’re her bitch for life.”

  “If she starts humpin’ any part of me, she’s stew.”

  Kez chuckles, then reaches over and removes the bunny, depositing the large white ball onto the floor. “Ow, bad rabbit.” She sucks on one of her knuckles.

  “She bite you?” I ask, watching the rabbit disappear through the hatch in Kez’s door, kicking her back feet at us in indignation.

  “Yes, and damn if she doesn’t have sharp teeth,” Kez mutters around her knuckle. She returns to her packing, pulling a box from underneath her bed. I lift an eyebrow at the contents. She’s got more equipment in the box than I’ve used in all my escapes put together. She takes two coils of snake chain and loads them into the nylar bag. Then a collection of straps and D-rings which look like they might be useful for some bedtime activities as well as whatever she’s planning. When she takes out a flat fabric circle, twists a tab on the side and it pops up into an impact helmet, I raise an eyebrow.

  “You know the drop off in Kuus?” At my nod, she says, “It’s exactly that. A drop.”

  “What’s Swift Wings?” I ask.

  “The old Swift Wings floater factory. It blew up about ten years ago. No one knows what they were doing. Something with chlorine azide, I’ve heard. Carved a twenty-meter hole into the side of the mountain. Kuus City tried to develop it, ‘cause it’s close to the mines, but it’s unstable. There’s an entrance to the Deeps at the bottom, but it’s a long drop down. We’ll need to rappel.”

  “Can we land the Marie at the bottom?”
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  Kez lifts her head in surprise, tilts it to the side as she considers, then tosses the helmet back into the box. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “’Cause you’re thinkin’ like a runner. Don’t worry, a couple of weeks on the Marie an’ you’ll be thinkin’ like a pilot.”

  Her mouth twists and she looks away.

  That was not a happy look. “Kezra,” I say softly. Her eyes snap to me. “What’re you thinkin’?”

  She shakes her head. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

  “I told you, you don’t get to keep any secrets from me.”

  She puts her hands on her hips. Trying to be tough. But she doesn’t quite manage it. Her head is down; she won’t meet my eyes. And I can see the tremor in her shoulders. “After tomorrow I’m not going to be good for anything other than being your co-pilot. He’s going to cripple me, isn’t he?”

  That would be my guess. But there are a lot of other options. Any of which would destroy some of her beauty. “That would fall into the category of breakin’ you. Thought we agreed he doesn’t get to do that.”

  She lets out a long, shaky breath. “Hale . . .”

  “No, lemme make sure we’re clear. He doesn’t get to break you. Are we clear?”

  She nods firmly. “Yes, we’re clear.”

  “Good. Now you can stop worryin’ about it. Finish your packin’. We got places to go.”

  “We do?” She tilts her head. “Where? Food’s not landing until dawn.”

  True. And Doc Gray’s agreed to postpone his house-call until sunset tomorrow. Which has freed-up our evening nicely. I want to cook dinner for her, which means we need groceries. “We need to do some shopping.” And there are some things I need for dessert. Like lubricant.

  She rolls her eyes. “You love keeping me in the dark, don’t you?”

  “Don’t want you gettin’ bored, kitten.” Actually, I’m just not used to sharing my plans with anyone.

  “There is no chance of that.” Kez tosses more clothes into the bag, then seals it shut. “If we can just land your ship in the Sink, then I’m all set. I don’t need anything else.”

  “Then say your good-byes.” I give Ronnie a final pat before I climb off the bed and pick up Kez’s bag.