Damage Control (Valiant Knox)

by Jess Anastasi

  Leigh forced himself not to grin. In other words, Yang was giving Bren and him free license to make Robinson’s life a living hell until he either quit, or—as unlikely as it seemed—completed training.

  “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  Yang sent him a short nod. “Next time, Alpha, follow the damn rules to the letter. The only reason I’m not slapping you with your own infraction notice is because of your pristine record up to now. Don’t make me change my mind.”

  “I won’t, sir.”

  Yang bid them all farewell and then disappeared out into the passageway. For a moment, silence stretched, but then Seb turned on him.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Leigh crossed his arms, only just stopping himself from rolling his eyes. “I just had this conversation with Bren less than five minutes ago. She can fill you in. Meanwhile, I’m going to go see Ace about my jaw and hand.”

  He walked out of the room, ignoring Seb’s bitching, and took himself down the passageway to the transit-porter. While he waited for the transit to arrive, he cast a short glance around.

  Where was Mia? She’d told him she was fine, but he needed to make certain for himself. Unless he could get her alone, however, he knew she wouldn’t admit to any kind of weakness.

  Unfortunately, if they ended up somewhere by themselves, he had firsthand experience of what would become of his self-control. After everything that had just happened, and with Bren knowing some of the truth, the last thing he should be doing was risk being caught alone with Mia, even if he managed to keep himself in check and not touch her. The rumor mill would be spinning at light speed over this event and simply talking to Mia could easily add fuel to the fire.

  So, no matter how his chest ached at the knowledge of her earlier distress and his longing to comfort her in every way he could think of, he was going to have to totally cut himself off from her for a few days, just until the heat died down.

  And during that time, he probably needed to take a long hard look at what exactly he was doing to himself.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mia sat in one of the plastic utilitarian chairs in the passageway just outside the quarantine airlock doors on med level. Commander Yang had insisted she come down here for a checkup, despite the fact she must have told four different people she was fine. But when the commander of the Valiant Knox gave an order, a person had absolutely no choice but to follow it.

  Going to get checked out had been all well and good, until she’d arrived in the ER and found Steve being treated for the injuries Leigh had inflicted on him. At the sight of him bloodied, with his face already turning interesting shades of black and blue, she’d spun and marched right back out again, but had only made it as far as these chairs before her legs gave up on her. She couldn’t have gone much farther anyway, not until one of the doctors cleared her per Commander Yang’s mandate.

  Sitting there alone was not helping regain any of her composure. She could only worry about what this situation may have exposed. Leigh’s reaction to her being attacked and her slip up in using his name in front of Lieutenant Brenner may have revealed there was more going on between them than a simple CO-recruit relationship.

  She’d started chewing on her thumbnail not long after sitting down, something she hadn’t done since she was a kid. But no matter how many times she told herself to stop it and lowered her hand, she ended up doing it again when the dire thoughts got the better of her. Since she still had Leigh’s datapad, she’d even tried getting back into the diagnostics she’d been running, but her brain wouldn’t cooperate.

  Across the passageway, the transit doors whooshed open, and the current subject of her problems strode out of the lift. His gaze landed on her, a range of emotions flashing across his face before his expression became neutral.

  He glanced up and down the corridor, then crossed over and dropped into the chair next to her. Mia’s lungs stuttered, making it hard to draw a full breath as she stared at him, this man who’d become everything to her so quickly, including her possible downfall.

  He took a short breath, not directly meeting her gaze. “I know I asked you already, but are you really all right?”

  She nodded, crossing her arms tight over her chest instead of giving into the urge to collapse into Leigh’s arms so he could make everything better. It wasn’t his responsibility, nor should it be, considering their respective roles.

  “I’m fine. Yes, he hit me and intended to—” The words cut off, her mind refusing to acknowledge the fact Steve had admitted to attacking others, let alone voice it to Leigh. “But I got away before he could do anything worse.”

  She shuddered, forcing down the thoughts on exactly how things could have gotten worse if she hadn’t managed to fight him off. “I’ll just be glad when he’s gone. I don’t want to have to see him again, even if that makes me a coward.”

  “About that…” Leigh cleared his throat and then rubbed the back of his neck. “Robinson hasn’t been thrown out of the program.”

  “What?” A surge of anxiety-driven bile burned the back of her throat, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

  Leigh rotated in his seat to face her more fully. “I’m sorry, Mia. If it was up to me, he’d already be off the ship and headed for grunt work down on Ilari. Unfortunately Commander Yang came to the conclusion that Robinson couldn’t be removed from FP training without it causing even bigger problems.”

  “How? That doesn’t make any sense.” Her words wavered, and she clenched her fists, trying to contain the churning emotions.

  “Well for a start, Robinson’s father is an admiral, and there are too many ways to count how he could make this worse for us. Plus, Robinson is claiming I used excessive force when dealing with him.” Leigh’s expression became frustrated as he shook his head.

  While the feminine side of her had found more than a little gratification over the way he’d punished Steve for what he’d done to her, the pragmatic side of her had to agree that, yes, Leigh probably had used excessive force. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.

  He lifted his gaze and caught her with an intense regard. “I don’t want you to worry about this. I’m sure Robinson will wash out soon, and in the meantime, Bren and I will be filling all his spare time with the worst muck work we can come up with.”

  She blew out an uneven breath. Somehow, she had to get up tomorrow morning and face Steve at oh six hundred roll call without embarrassing herself by having a total panic attack. True, he hadn’t really hurt her, but he’d scared her and made her feel powerless. And she didn’t want to relive those horrid sensations in front of the entire class.

  “Mia.”

  Leigh’s voice held power over her and just her name in that deep huskiness was enough to soothe her fracturing calm. She looked up at him, focusing on his face like a lifeline.

  “I will be there, I promise. If Robinson so much as looks at you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, you only need to say the word, and I’ll come down on him so hard, he’ll be wishing he’d left when he’d had the chance.”

  “I don’t want you to get into any more trouble over me.” The vow bolstered her nerves, even as a swirl of concern for him swept through her.

  He leaned a little closer to her. “I told you already, you’re worth it, Mia.”

  Her heart tripped in her chest, and she wished she could touch him, pull him closer and kiss him, show him her gratitude and burgeoning emotions through her actions. But she dared not even touch his hand when they were sitting out in a passageway where anyone could come along at any moment.

  “But if anyone found out about us…”

  Leigh scrubbed a hand over his short hair. “In that regard, I have to agree. Questions are being asked. It might be better if we have minimum contact for a few days.”

  He sent her a guarded look. Did he think she would be upset over his suggestion? No. If staying away was the best thing she could do for him, then he didn’t have to tell her twice.
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br />   “I agree.”

  “You do?” He leaned back from her a little, arching one eyebrow.

  “What did you expect me to say? That I couldn’t live without you, and not to abandon me?”

  He gave a short laugh and rubbed his jaw, where a purple-blue bruise had started forming. “Well, yeah, my manly pride would have liked to hear something like that.”

  She sent him an exasperated glare. “I think I can do without you for a couple of days.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, his gaze heating. “Really? Because I don’t know how I’ll get through even a few hours without you. We’ve been through a lot together this week and I’ve gotten used to knowing you’re here if I need you. For professional purposes only.”

  “Of course.” But she knew what he really meant. Her heart smashed into the insides of her ribs, and she clenched her fists against her sides to stop from reaching for him.

  The airlock doors whooshed open, preventing her from replying. One of the doctors walked out, glancing between her and the datapad he held.

  “Mia Wolfe? Sorry to keep you waiting.”

  Leigh stood. “I’ll leave you to it. Ace, have you got time to take a look at my jaw and busted knuckle when you’re done here?”

  Sub-Doctor Moore tilted his head and glanced at Leigh’s bruise, then gave a low whistle. “That’s going to come out in some beautiful colors. Still isn’t half as bad as the other guy looks, though. You really went to town on him, Alpha.”

  Leigh glanced at her, some of those violent shadows rising in the depths of his gaze. “He got what he deserved. I’ll wait in one of the triage cubicles for you.”

  Before either she or the doctor could respond, Leigh stalked away, disappearing through the airlock doors.

  Sub-Doctor Moore sat down next to her. “Well, this has been an interesting day. I’ve know that guy for over ten years, and I’ve never seen him smash the ever-living hell out of someone before, even when he was a hotheaded recruit.”

  Mia crossed her arms, unsure whether the doctor’s comment required some kind of response.

  But he didn’t seem to notice her lack of reply as he typed on the datapad, then glanced back up at her. “So, how about I take a quick look at your face? It looks like you’re only going to have some very light, superficial bruising. However, Commander Yang has ordered a full physical. Sorry. It might take a few minutes. There are some questions to answer, and then we’ll have to go into the ER so I can give you a quick, full body scan.”

  She nodded, knowing the only way to get herself out of here faster was to cooperate. Exhaustion dragged at her, both physical and mental. Right then, the only place she could think about going was her bunk for at least ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.

  Mia woke up with a start, her heart pounding, mind churning. But not because she’d had a bad dream, or relived Steve’s attack, but because her brain had just ambushed her with an answer.

  She rolled over and groped for Leigh’s datapad where she’d left it on the nightstand after returning from med level the night before. She blinked her eyelids wider to wake herself up a little more, the glow of the screen making her eyes ache for a moment until they adjusted to the brightness. The clock in the top left corner read oh three seventeen. She should have been a zombie at this time of morning, especially considering all the late nights she’d had recently. But the idea that had jerked her from sleep worked more effectively that half a dozen coffees.

  Pulling up the diagnostic system she’d been navigating, she started an entirely new data check. After only a few seconds, the datapad chimed with a result.

  Holy hell, she’d done it. She sat up straighter, clutching the datapad tighter as she read the information scrolling down the screen. All this time, she’d been searching for what the traitor had been doing inside the Knox’s systems, and hadn’t thought to search for where he might have operated from. She might have found the answer in a little used maintenance station on echo launch deck.

  Swinging her legs out of bed, she tabbed up a message and sent it to Leigh’s comm. It wasn’t until after she’d already hit send that it occurred to her she’d either wake him up, or he simply wouldn’t get it because he was sleeping. So what should she do? He’d want to know about this right away. What if he didn’t get the message until he woke up for the morning’s sessions? Could she really sit here for the next two hours waiting? Well, it wasn’t like she had a choice; she couldn’t exactly waltz down to his apartment and knock on the door.

  The datapad flashed with a return message telling her to meet him at the same dorm transit as last time. She jumped up, throwing on the first clothes she could lay her hands on, and then shoving her feet into her boots and hurrying down to the transit-porter. After that, she got to cool her heels for another ten minutes. Just how long did it take the guy to get on some clothes and catch the transit up here anyway?

  When the doors finally opened, it revealed Leigh in full uniform, his hair damp as though he’d showered and dressed for the day. Although her heart went into a slow flip, and a trill of excitement sung through her body at the sight of him, she must have had a rather peeved look on her face, because he glanced down at himself.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding a tad defensive.

  “You actually showered. That’s what took you so long?” She stepped onto the transit and tabbed in echo launch bay as their destination.

  “I figured whatever this was, I probably wouldn’t be going back to bed. And since inconvenient things—like getting stuck in a transit car—tend to happen when I’m with you, I thought I might as well get ready in case I have to head straight to class from wherever we end up. What’s this all about anyway?”

  She practically wanted to bounce up and down with excitement, but she managed to contain herself. “I found where the son of a bitch slipped up. If this pays off, we might actually be able to identify him.”

  Leigh raised both eyebrows. “Are you serious?”

  “Hell yeah.” She couldn’t help but let a self-satisfied grin surface. “I worked out that someone’s been regularly accessing a maintenance station down on echo launch bay, including the exact time when the guy who shot me got on the transit and disappeared. I’m hoping that if I can access the data at the station, it’ll not only tell us what he’s been up to, but also give us a clue as to who it is.”

  “Damn it, Mia, this is incredible.” He started to shift forward, as if he was going to grab her, but then seem to catch himself and think better of it.

  She dropped her gaze away from him, since in that second, she’d wanted to throw herself into his arms and maybe enjoy a little victory hug. But it was only a few short hours ago that they’d agreed to put some distance between themselves. They were together now only out of necessity in finding the mole. Any contact, even something as innocent as a hug, would put a huge dent in her resolve to protect him from the possible fallout of their relationship.

  The transit arrived on echo launch level, saving either of them from coming up with any small talk to cover the awkwardness. Echo launch deck was the least-used level on the ship, storing engine parts, disused or spare ships and shuttles, and was hardly ever accessed by crew. Logically, that should have made it easy to find who’d used the maintenance station, but she assumed the person had covered their tracks, just like she planned on doing for Leigh and her.

  She didn’t look up from the datapad as she ran the information to find which maintenance station the shooter’s accomplice had utilized.

  “So what are we looking for?” Leigh asked, his voice echoing slightly in the empty space.

  “We’re headed for delta-three bay.”

  Leigh glanced around then indicated the right passage. “This way.”

  Delta-three bay turned out to be a bit of a dumping ground, and they had to clamber over engine and ships parts crammed into the space. Once they stood in front of the maintenance station, she tabbed the lights a little higher.

  A
s she brought the station on line to see if she could glean any clues about the last person to use it, Leigh took a seat on a nearby engine block.

  “Seems like a lot of trouble to get in here when the mole could have accessed the systems from anywhere, right?”

  She watched information scroll across the screen. “Probably, which is why I’m hoping we can find some clues here that I couldn’t access remotely.”

  Except what she was seeing made no sense. According to station logs, this machine hadn’t been used for months. She rechecked the datapad to make sure she hadn’t gotten the bays mixed up, but the logs confirmed this exact location had been used. So which one was telling her the truth?

  “This is going to take a little longer than I anticipated.” She set the datapad down and got to work pulling up more information on the station.

  “How much longer?” Leigh checked his watch. “Messdeck starts serving breakfast in less than an hour.”

  “I don’t know. It depends on what I find.”

  He pushed to his feet and paced the short distance they had between the machinery. She sent him an exasperated glance, causing him to stop.

  “What?” he asked, almost sounding defensive.

  “You pacing like a caged tiger isn’t going to make me work any faster.”

  “Sorry.” He walked over to lean on the opposite side of the console, which was even more distracting, damn him, because now his hands were in her peripheral vision and her mind didn’t want to do anything except imagine exactly where he could put them.

  She gave herself a mental slap as a small section of information jumped out at her. But before she could confirm the notion that had started forming in the back of her mind, a dull clunking sound echoed through the bay and she froze, glancing up at Leigh.

  “What was that?”

  He looked past her, an expression of dawning realization on his face. “The atmospheric doors. Mia, run!”

  He’d barely finished saying the words before he took off, leaping the engine block he’d been sitting on, then scrambling over a hull section and disappearing from sight.