by Jamie Grey
Keva spun around, eyes flashing. “We’re not ninjas. This is state-of-the-art armor fabric—light and moveable, but able to stop a bullet. We wear it on special jobs. It’s not something you’ll ever get to wear.” The threat in her voice hung unspoken in the air between them.
Dallas cleared his throat. “Gheewala, take our newest member to the locker rooms and get her showered and geared up. I’ll meet you all in an hour to debrief Renna on the rest of the mission. Dismissed.”
Everyone in the room snapped to attention and saluted.
Captain Finn stepped forward. “Sir, I need to head to the armory and recalibrate my assault rifle. I can take Miss Carrizal. It’s on my way.”
Renna’s lips twitched. Good. The sooner she was alone with this man, the better. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for the usual lusty reasons. She needed answers from him. Now.
Dallas nodded as he left. “Very good, Captain. I’ll leave her in your capable hands.”
“Let’s go.” Finn didn’t even look to see if she was following as she snatched up her pack and coat and hurried out of the room after him.
She studied him from beneath her lashes as they walked. Stubble shadowed his strong jaw, and his black armor accented the muscles of his chest. If it really was him, Hunter had sure grown up.
“So you going to tell me why you’ve changed your name and joined the Marines?” she asked as the silence stretched between them.
He glared at her and turned down another hall. “Inside. Now.” He yanked open a door into a small room full of beeping tech and humming machines. The perfect place not to be overheard.
SIX
The smell of ozone and electricity tickled her nose, and a dull orange helolight did nothing to chase away the shadows in the room. Renna moved closer to the machines, her head spinning, and not just from the noise. By the gods, Finn really was Hunter.
Should she laugh hysterically or run for her life?
“What the hell!” She whirled to face him, preferring to go on the attack. “I thought you were dead.”
He crossed his arms, his blue eyes hard as he gave her his best death stare. “Hunter is dead.”
Once, she’d wanted to lose herself in their gorgeous depths. Now, they were full of hatred. “Why? What happened? Where have you been the last seven years?” Why did you abandon me? she wanted to add, but she pressed her lips together instead.
Finn stepped closer, menace rolling off every lethal plane of his body. Renna backed up until she bumped against a rack of servers, her fingers digging into the steel supports to keep her upright as his heat and scent enveloped her. Dear gods. Part of her wanted to jump into his arms. The other part wanted to strangle him.
“My life is none of your business,” he snapped. “All you need to know is that I’m a MYTH agent now and I won’t let anyone destroy what I’ve worked for.”
“Hunter, please…”
“Don’t call me that. Hunter died in an explosion seven years ago. I’m never going back to that life.” His voice had dropped into a low growl, his eyes hard chunks of ice. “But I see it’s done pretty well for you. Why am I not surprised? Even back then, you were the perfect little merc.” Bitterness dripped from his words like acid.
“We both were.” She shook her head as if that would chase away the fog that had taken her brain hostage. “You and Blur were the best in the traverse. What the hell happened to you? Everything went to hell when we were raided.”
He raised an eyebrow, his lips twisting into a sneer. “Exactly.”
Renna gasped. “You? You betrayed Blur and the gang?” She shoved him away from her, hard, throwing her weight behind it. “You sold us out, you son of a bitch!” Why would he do something like that? They’d been a family. The only family she’d had.
Finn barely moved, rocking back on his heels. Instead, his hand shot out and grabbed her arm. His fingers dug into her soft flesh like claws. “You deserved exactly what you got. You knew what Blur was doing. You knew how many lives he destroyed. And you went along with it. Hell, you encouraged him!”
She wrenched away, rubbing the tender skin of her arm. She didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but right now, she was too distracted by the fury surging through her to care. “I looked up to you, Hunt—Captain. You were my mentor. Do you know how fucked up your death made me?”
“Don’t fool yourself, Renna. You were fucked up before you ever met me.” His eyes flicked to the scar running across her neck, his lips curling ever so slightly. She fought the urge to cover it with her hand. She wasn’t ashamed of her past. Not anymore.
His words stabbed into her like daggers. “Whatever our former relationship was, it’s long dead. I tried to convince Dallas to find someone else, but he had to have you. If you even think about betraying me again, betraying the mission, I’ll have you put away somewhere so deep no one will ever find you. Do you understand?” He snarled the last three words in her face.
She blinked at him. “Betray? You were the one who betrayed us!”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Renna. You might be a lying bitch, but you’re not stupid. I’ll put up with you on my ship because I have to, but trust me when I say stay out of my way. Far out of my way.” Finn spun on his heels and yanked the door open. “Move.”
Emotions swirled through her—rage, hurt, sadness. She’d thought they’d been friends—maybe even something more as they’d gotten older—but he’d lied to her. Betrayed her. She was the one who should be furious, not him.
“I don’t have all day, Renna,” he snapped.
She stepped past him, careful to keep a large bubble of personal space. He was coiled so tightly, like a predator on the verge of pouncing, that the smallest wrong move might set him off. And until she could figure out what the hell had just happened, that was the last thing she wanted.
Renna followed Finn down another hall, careful to keep several steps behind him. Her head spun as she walked. Hunter was alive and a captain for a spec ops Marine force. The entire world had shifted, like she was fucking Alice in Wonderland and had just fallen down a giant rabbit hole.
Finn stopped suddenly in front of a door, and she almost tripped over her own feet to keep from banging into him. He grabbed her arm to steady her, but she crashed into the hard planes of his chest, their faces inches apart. His heart beat beneath her own, and the scent of his soap and skin wrapped around her in a wave of homesickness and longing.
Instantly, she was fourteen again, sparring with him for the first time. She’d felt so important, getting one-on-one training from one of the gang leaders so soon after joining. She almost hadn’t minded that he’d easily disarmed her in three strikes and had pinned her to the floor with the solid weight of his body. He was four years older than her; there was no way he’d thought of her as anything more than a kid. But there’d been something about his kind eyes and the lopsided smile he’d used with her that had already had her falling in love with him.
He’d shaken his head at her and helped her to her feet. She’d stumbled then, too, and he’d caught her against his chest, the same scent wrapping around her, making her feel safe.
Renna blinked. Yanked herself out of the memory with a growl. Shoved herself away from Finn so hard he took a step back.
She met his expressionless gaze, ignoring the twist of lust in her gut. It was just residual, left over from a childish crush.
He nodded to the door behind her. “Inside is a locker room and an army surplus area with gear. Load up as much as you need. You have twenty minutes.” Without another word, he turned and walked away.
She watched his rigid frame disappear around the corner and then pushed open the door and stepped into what was basically a very well-stocked surplus store. Uniforms of every rank and color were piled on tables, and one long wall was filled with racks of civilian clothes.
She spotted the locker room door and sighed happily. Before she did anything else, she needed a shower. She wrinkled her nose at the delicate perfume
of rotting garbage that still clung to her clothes from staking out the Cordoza compound earlier, along with the faint tang of her blood from jumping from the Radiowing and her even more recent sweat.
Her face flamed with heat. Finn had probably smelled it, too.
Once she was clean and her embarrassment had faded slightly, she stepped beneath the ultraviolet dryer, and a moment later, her hair and skin were dry. Now to explore the most beautiful thing she’d seen all day: racks and racks of clothing.
She approached a table full of undergarments and held up a pair of panties, frowning at them. “What the hell are these? Do they actually expect me to wear this?” They were soft white briefs, military-issue—a far cry from her lacy thongs back home, the bras with the special enhancements and frilly cups. Her usual lingerie would make even a prostitute blush. Then again, she’d learned most of her fashion sense from them in the first place, so perhaps she wasn’t so far off.
Sighing, Renna slipped into the boring underwear, then grabbed a satchel from the pile on the floor and stuffed it full of clothes. Panties and bras, tight-fitting shirts of some shiny dark material. Heavy leggings and fitted pants made from bulletproof fiber. Most of this stuff she’d only heard of or seen on the black market—military-grade, agent-approved street clothing. The kind they used to blend in off-world but could still serve as protection in a street fight.
She pulled on a pair of leggings and a shirt, then shook her head. The clothing she was nabbing probably cost more than three months’ rent on her apartment in the city. When her bag was full of the necessities, she scanned the room again. No ninja suits, but she beamed as her gaze fell on a rack of coats.
As soon as she slipped the new coat over her shoulders, she knew it was the one. The knee-length black leather fit like it had been made for her, soft and supple against her skin. It had a military cut, with silver buttons lining the front and a slit in back. It looked almost ordinary, but she’d seen these coats before. There was a special weave added to the leather to make it bulletproof and element-resistant. Usually, they were reserved for commanding officers.
Even better, it felt like she was wearing nothing. Always a plus in her line of work, when one wrong move could mean getting caught. Or worse.
Like today.
She added a shiny new blaster and a holster to the pile, and a heavy dark sweater, just in case. Finally she snagged a brightly colored scarf from the table and wrapped it around her neck. Black might be her preferred choice of clothing, but a girl had to have a little pop of color once in a while.
She shoved her own pack inside the new satchel, along with the rest of the new clothes. Less than fifteen minutes had passed when she hefted the bag over her shoulder and approached the door to the hallway. To Hunter…Captain Finn.
Renna chewed her lip. She’d always assumed Hunter was his real name, but now that she thought about it, everyone in the gang had used a nickname. Blur. Edge. Chase. Hunter. They’d even called her Spyder, an Old-Earth nickname for a thief.
Pull it together. Whatever had happened between them was a long time ago. She looked out for herself now, especially since she was stuck in this situation for the foreseeable future. Her skin still prickled with anger, both at MYTH and at herself for getting caught. Now she’d have to figure a way out that wouldn’t get her executed—or worse, exposed as the Star Thief.
But right now, she had to face Finn. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to let him walk all over her again. She pinned a smile to her face and ran a hand through her long hair. Time to put all her experience over the last seven years to good use.
But when she pulled open the door, Finn was gone, replaced by a fidgeting woman with wide brown eyes and dark hair. Renna hid her relief and held out her hand. “Sergeant Gheewala, right?”
The woman nodded, though it looked more like a twitch. Her skin was soft and warm as they shook. “Captain Finn asked that I take you to the briefing room. Please follow me.”
Sergeant Gheewala headed back the way Renna had come earlier. Her small, dancing steps were as far from military as possible, and her nervous tics could be deadly in the line of fire. This woman was as much of an anomaly on the ship as Renna.
“So, I noticed the major didn’t tell me what you do on the team. Care to enlighten me?” she asked.
Gheewala gave a half-hearted smile. “I’m just the empath. I’m not important.”
Renna forced her jaw to stay closed. She’d only ever met one other on her travels, and that woman had been bat-shit insane. The people with the gift—or curse, as it was—had a genetic mutation allowing them to sense things, depending on their skill or ability. The one she’d met on Krooss had been able to hear people’s thoughts and had gone crazy with the constant bombardment. Only a steady dose of clay had kept her coherent enough to even function.
“Have you been with MYTH for long?” Renna asked, trying not to look directly at the woman. She knew most empaths preferred to stay in the shadows, to not be the center of anyone’s attention. She totally understood the feeling.
“I was a founding member,” Gheewala said proudly, her voice lilting with the accent of her home world. Renna placed her somewhere in the Inner Quadrant, those planets who’d first joined the Coalition. From the way she spoke, Renna guessed her family had been wealthy and well-educated.
“So that’s how long?”
“Over ten years. Prior to that, I had a post on Vesper Nine, monitoring commuter traffic and interplanetary communications.”
Renna’s heart skipped. This woman was a tech empath. She’d heard of those, rarer than rare, who could recognize and intercept ship signatures, digital and light ray communications, and other particle sensory details. Most tech empaths committed suicide or overdosed on their choice of drug before they reached adulthood, but those who learned to control their abilities were highly sought after by the Coalition. The military was very lucky to have her.
She didn’t have time to ask any more questions as they came to the main communications area where she’d first entered the compound. The same workers sat at their same stations, and a jolt shot through her. It had been less than two hours since her arrival at MYTH headquarters.
Two hours and her life would never be the same.
“Dallas has pulled together six of the best MYTH agents I’ve seen for this mission,” Gheewala continued, interrupting Renna’s racking thoughts. “I hope it’s enough.”
Renna raised her eyebrows. “You mean to tell me he’s only sending six people to save the galaxy? What—did his budget get cut recently?”
“I don’t think you understand. Six MYTH agents is like having a full platoon of other soldiers.” The sergeant pressed her finger to a scanner, and a door slid open, leading down another corridor.
Renna cursed under her breath. MYTH’s facility was huge, and she had no idea of the layout. Dammit. She desperately needed to fix her implant or find a new one before they left, but she’d bet her life MYTH didn’t have the resources on site for something like that. Cyborg tech—especially black market—was frowned upon by most governments.
They walked for almost a minute in silence before turning down another utilitarian hallway. Gheewala finally stopped in front of a plain steel door. Inside was yet another standard-issue table surrounded by chairs made of some inexpensive but long-lasting polyplastic.
Dallas and the rest of the team were already waiting for them. “Please have a seat, Renna. We were about to get started with the debrief.” He pointed to one of the empty chairs, and she slipped into it, crossing her arms.
“Is this going to take long? My feet are starting to get itchy.” Always a good sign trouble was on the way, trouble she didn’t want to be a part of.
“We have medicine for that,” Gheewala said, pausing in her scan of the room to focus for a moment on Renna. She looked very concerned.
“It’s a figure of speech, Sergeant,” Renna explained kindly.
Across the room, Keva snorted and quickly press
ed her fingers to her lips, turning away. Dallas took his spot at the head of the room, but Captain Finn stayed on his feet near the door. He’d changed out of the ninja suit into a crisp black uniform that looked almost as stiff as his spine.
The major paced, his shoulders around his ears. “Comm chatter has picked up in the last hour. We need to get you on your way ASAP. We’ve had reports that the planet they held Myka at prior to Hesperia has been attacked.”
“Status?” Finn asked.
“Destroyed.” Dallas tugged at his collar. “Dr. Aldani has been notified that Myka is safe. He assures us he has been working on the tech to get us inside the bunker. We need you to go to his labs on Iniros to pick it up and deliver the boy, but your route will have to be top secret. No one must know where Myka has gone. Even our own controllers will be told you are going to another planet. I will, unfortunately, be unable to communicate with you due to the sensitive nature of the mission and the chance of interception. Captain Finn has his orders and will fill you in on a need-to-know basis.”
Dallas turned to Renna. “What I am about to say is not to leave this room.”
She smirked. “I’m a thief. I know how to keep a secret.”
“You also know how to sell them to the highest bidder,” Keva muttered.
Renna clenched her hands in her lap. Someday she was going to knock that smug smile off that woman’s beaky lips, and it wouldn’t be in the sparring ring.
“I assume you’ve heard about the attack on Banos Prime three years ago?” Dallas asked, jerking her out of her dark thoughts.
She nodded. The murder of ten thousand civilians was always big news. “Myka said his parents had been killed there.”
“Correct. They were there as scientists, ostensibly working for the mining colony doing research. In reality, they were part of the MYTH team investigating a strange mineral found on-world.”