Contingency Plan

by Robyn Bachar

  Contingency Plan

  By Robyn Bachar

  As the Galactic Cold War continues, the threat of a new Soviet weapon unveils an even darker danger

  No home, no family and only faded memories of the life she lost. After the rebellion destroyed New Hong Kong and left Jiang Chen with a brain injury, she found a new place to belong aboard the Mombasa as its pilot. But after discovering she poses a danger to ship and crew, Jiang leaves, not wanting to risk causing them more harm.

  Security chief Ryder Kalani blames himself for the mission failures plaguing the Mombasa—his sole duty is to protect his crew. Having lost his right arm in the rebellion and now fit with a prosthetic, he’s unsure whether he’s still the capable fighter he once was. The only thing he knows for certain is that Lieutenant Jiang Chen needs his help.

  Jiang doesn’t trust herself anymore, but Ryder does. They’re on the hunt for the Soviets’ new weapon, and Jiang’s forgotten past could lead them straight to it. Ryder just needs to get Jiang to trust in herself—and in him—before the weapon deploys.

  Book two in The Galactic Cold War series

  This book is approximately 65,000 words

  One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

  Carina Press acknowledges the editorial services of Deborah Nemeth

  Dear Reader,

  As book lovers, no matter how much we want our favorite stories to go on forever, we know that eventually they will come to an end. The same is sadly true of my monthly letter to you. While I know some of you do look forward to this letter, we’ve decided that we can no longer continue to include it for some practical reasons, which I don’t want to bore you with. So this will be my last letter to you all. But never fear, the good books will continue to come every month and that is what’s most important!

  Still, I get one last chance to tell you all about the amazing books we have in store for you, and I’m going to take full advantage of the opportunity. Are you ready?

  Powerhouse author duo Alexa Riley follows up their bestselling full-length novels Everything for Her and His Alone with a trilogy of spin-off novellas. First up, in Stay Close, a Russian bad boy will do whatever it takes to conquer her headstrong ways and make her his. And don’t miss the next two novellas, releasing later in 2017 and early in 2018, as well as their third full-length novel, Claimed, coming in spring 2018.

  At Noble House, a first-of-its-kind hybrid fetish club that blends real life with the online, three lovers reunite to explore role play and high-tech toys as they battle demons from the past that could threaten their future. Sara Brookes’s Get Off Easy is only the first in her supercharged erotic romance series, Noble House Kink.

  The male/male romance Ethan & Wyatt trilogy by K.A. Mitchell is now available in one volume in mass market print, audio and digital formats. Opposites attract and ignite on campus as optimistic, open-hearted and sometimes clueless Ethan meets Wyatt, who has plenty of reasons for hiding under his hoodie. Together they face a jealous ex, disapproving parents and the most dangerous test of all: real life together off campus.

  Hot in the City author Jules Court is back with her third contemporary romance novella, Tease Me Tonight. Elizabeth Owens spent the last eight years as the responsible and celibate guardian of her little sister, but now Megan’s left the nest, and Elizabeth’s ready to let her wild side out with firefighter Will MacGregor. The only problem is Will wants a connection with Elizabeth that will last longer than one steamy night, and he knows if he gives in too soon to their attraction he’ll lose her. You can also pick up Hot in the City and Enticing the Enemy in digital, wherever Carina ebooks are sold.

  In Betrayed by Blood, the second installment in Beth Dranoff’s romantic urban fantasy Mark of the Moon series, covert agent turned bartender Dana is drawn back to her Agency past by an offer she can’t refuse from a guy she never thought she’d see again. Lured by curiosity, and torn between freedom and restraint, Dana has to decide whether she’s ready to look to the future while leaving the scars of her past behind.

  Romantic suspense author Katie Ruggle, writing as Katie Allen, joins Carina Press with the first of several erotic romance backlist releases leading up to her fall 2017 new erotic romance release. In her Research & Desire series, we’ll publish Erotic Experiments, Natural Selection, Carnal Chemistry and Double Dose in back-to-back months from July through October. Then look for book one of her new series in November 2017.

  Ten years after he rejected her, the Seduction Squad’s newest recruit, Christie Mason, finally has the chance to get her revenge on Theo Ward, but there are some fantasies that are best left in the past and some taboos that should never be explored in Seduction Squad: Tainted by Amanda Stewart.

  Robyn Bachar’s Contingency Plan is the next in her sci-fi romance series, The Galactic Cold War. Privateer pilot Lieutenant Jiang Chen searches for the location of a terrible superweapon, but when the mission threatens to reveal the dangerous secrets of her past, Jiang’s only ally is sexy chief of security Ryder Kalani, who is battling demons of his own. Start with book one, Relaunch Mission, today!

  Fans of TV show The 100 will want to read Zaide Bishop’s Bones of Eden series. Releasing in three volumes in July and August, these continuing stories have it all, from forbidden love to war to a race for survival. First Fall comes out in early July, followed by Second Heart later in July and Third Wave in August.

  That’s all for our dear reader letters, but please follow us on social media—Twitter or Facebook—or sign up for our reader newsletter to be kept informed about all our great reads in the future.

  For one final time, fellow readers and book lovers, here’s wishing you a wonderful life of books you love, remember and recommend.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Excerpt from Relaunch Mission by Robyn Bachar

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Robyn Bachar

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Why do you want to play a drinking game about life experiences with a woman who has amnesia?”

  “I like a challenge.” Ryder grinned. “Besides, maybe it’ll jog your memory. That’s why we’re here, right?”

  Jiang blinked at Ryder as he downed a shot of whiskey.

  “Is that a yes?” he asked. “I think that was a yes. I’m getting good at reading you. You twitch this eyebrow when you’re amused.” He gestured toward Jiang’s right eye. She sighed and fought the urge to smile, purely because doing so would prove him right.

  Ryder had a point. He had crossed the galaxy with her in their cramped, stolen shuttle that still reeked of unwashed pirate to discover the secrets of her forgotten past. Jiang’s hope that the sights and sounds of her old home would trigger something had been dashed the minute they landed at the spaceport—nothing on New Hong Kong looked familiar. The colony had been razed during the Core Colo
ny rebellion, bombed into rubble by the Alliance navy until only twisted steel and crumbling concrete stood where high-rises once scraped the sky.

  Jiang remembered every vivid, rancid detail of waking up in the field hospital after the bombardment—the screams of the dying, the sobs of the living who had lost friends and family, and the awful stench of blood, death and gore. But the refugee camps were long gone, replaced with buildings that gleamed with shiny edges that hadn’t had time to wear.

  Ryder ordered another round despite the fact that Jiang’s first drink remained untouched between them on the table. The booth’s automated bartender accepted Ryder’s empty glass, and the screen prompted him for payment options before supplying his new order. Ryder grumbled under his breath as he fed more credits into the machine.

  “You should slow down,” Jiang said. “We don’t have much C3 cash left.” Or cash of any variety, for that matter. Her decision to leave the Mombasa had been spur of the moment, and Ryder’s decision to follow her had been just as spontaneous. They had basic gear and the cash they’d each had on hand aboard the ship, but with the Mombasa’s run of failed missions, that cash didn’t amount to much.

  “Nah, I got that figured out.” Two shot glasses slid onto the table, and Ryder placed one in front of her.

  Jiang slowly raised her glass and studied the amber liquid to fight the effects of his infectious smile. Ryder Kalani was a giant, well-muscled pied piper—one smile could mesmerize a crowd into following him anywhere.

  She held the drink at eye level. Liquids made her paranoid—any synthetically generated drink might carry chemicals that could interact with the sensory implant lurking in her head. Or what was left of the implant. At some point in her missing past, she’d been an intelligence agent. Presumably for the Soviet Union, as New Hong Kong had been one of their colonies, though it now belonged to the Core Colony Collective.

  A recent brain scan had revealed the implant’s existence. Surgery was required to closer examine the device and reveal any clues to who manufactured it, but she wasn’t ready to allow anyone to crack open her skull. For now, chasing leads like this one was her best chance at finding out the truth about her past. “So what’s your plan?”

  “I’m going to win us more.”

  “Win?” Jiang cast a dubious glance at the Pai Gow tables. “I’m not sure anyone wins at those.”

  The bar was crammed with loud, flashing casino games that were certain to devour your savings. The afternoon crowd was a motley mix of locals who had gotten off the morning shift, visiting spacers who didn’t care what the local time was, and tourists who had wandered off between the spaceport and their hotel. Harmless, in her opinion, but something about the place bothered her. Everything was too new—even the dirt scuffed into the floors seemed fresh somehow. The bright colors and upbeat music were trying too hard to convince the audience that everything was awesome, when the truth was that the fledgling C3 government couldn’t agree on anything.

  “No, not that. Arm wrestling.”

  “Is that legal, considering...?” She motioned toward his right arm, which he’d lost in the war. His prosthetic was convincing enough to pass any surface inspection, but if it was scanned they’d be tossed for cheating.

  “Considering that I’m devastatingly handsome? No crime against that.”

  Jiang rolled her eyes and took a cautious sip. The whiskey tasted terrible but otherwise seemed harmless. She didn’t have any sudden urges to report to the Motherland, but then again she hadn’t been conscious of her previous actions. She had been informing on her crew for months, and no one had been more surprised to learn that than her.

  “True,” she said.

  Ryder cocked a rugged eyebrow. “Did you just agree that I’m devastatingly handsome?”

  “Everyone knows that. I’m not sure that arm wrestling is a good idea. We’re here to meet a contact. We need to blend in, not draw attention to ourselves.”

  “It’s a good money-making opportunity, and it seemed safer than cage fighting.”

  “Cage fighting was an option?”

  “Not really.” Ryder shook his head and his thick, dark dreadlocks swayed in disapproval. “We wouldn’t have made any profit. You would’ve been the heavy favorite, and I felt kind of sorry for the other women. You would’ve crushed them.”

  “Just women?” Jiang frowned.

  “I know, right? Who does gendered cage fights? It seems very un-communist of them.”

  “It is.”

  “Plus, we need to look like we’re enjoying ourselves.” Ryder leaned back and swirled his whiskey. “It looks suspicious if two spacers show up at a bar and don’t have a good time. Security here is tight. I make three plainclothes security guards and a dozen or so cameras that aren’t as cleverly hidden as they think. Hence my proposal of playing a drinking game about life experiences with a woman who has amnesia.”

  He had a point. The location’s security was one of the reasons their contact had agreed on the meeting place. They were supposed to speak with the former building manager of the apartment complex that had collapsed on top of her. She assumed she had lived there but couldn’t be sure—most of New Hong Kong’s data had been destroyed. She had located a few of her financial records that had been stored off world, and a year’s worth of rent payments were among those. Hopefully the manager would remember her, or her family. The building had only housed two dozen units—surely they had run into each other during her tenancy.

  Even a small detail would be helpful at this point. So much of her life was a blank—a dark, empty void like the blackness of space. Other memories were blurred, like old vid footage played over and over until the image was staticky. The faces of her smiling daughter and loving husband were almost unrecognizable, as unfamiliar as complete strangers. It was a thin hope that the landlord would be able to fill in some of the gaps of her Swiss cheese memory, but it was all she had.

  “All right,” she said, “if I remember correctly, the rules of the game are that you make a statement, and you drink if it’s something you’ve done.”

  Ryder nodded, his expression solemn. “Such is the way of my people.”

  “Brat. You go first then.”

  “Never have I ever killed a man with a cooking utensil.”

  “Wait.” Jiang held up a hand. “Any knife can be a cooking utensil. Does it specifically have to be a culinary tool?”

  “Yes,” Ryder clarified.

  “Oh. Inside or outside of a food preparation area? Because we got into a fight in the galley on that one raid, remember? With that psycho chef with a ponytail. He wasn’t even supposed to be on the ship.”

  “Oh, right. That was a great job. I learned a dozen French cuss words from that guy. Cheers.” Ryder clinked her glass and they both took a drink. “I guess that was too easy. I forgot you were with us on that mission.”

  Jiang fidgeted with her glass, an amber tornado swirling in the middle. “It was supposed to be a simple job, and we needed all hands on deck. No one expected to encounter a homicidal cook.”

  “That’s what makes the job fun. Okay. Your turn.”

  “I’m not really good at drinking games,” she said. “Or trivia.”

  “You can’t give up yet. Here, we’ll ask three questions each. Fun questions,” Ryder amended.

  “I’m not really good at fun either.”

  “Why not?”

  Jiang blinked and set her drink down—it was a simple question with a complex answer. Even the booths were new in this place, and the firm cushion refused to give as she leaned back. “It seemed wrong to have fun, at first. Because I lost everyone. I lived, and they died, and that wasn’t fair.”

  Much to her surprise, Ryder also set his drink aside and took both of her hands in his. “I know.”

  Something solemn passed between them when their
eyes met. Ryder understood. He’d been an Alliance marine. Jiang had read his file once—the captain wanted Jiang to be familiar with the history of the Mombasa’s crew. Ryder’s file combined with the years Jiang had worked with him had convinced her to allow him to accompany her on this adventure. Ryder Kalani had survived hell and was still tough, capable and as dependable as a sunrise.

  “I don’t...” She trailed off, then picked up her glass. “Never have I ever had sex in zero g.”

  Ryder laughed and they both took a drink. “That’s too easy. Every spacer has sex in zero g at least once. It’s like a rite of passage. My turn. Let’s see...never have I ever had sex in the cockpit.”

  Ryder took a drink, and Jiang’s brow furrowed as she pondered her answer. Not in the Mombasa’s cockpit, though she probably could have if she had put the effort into it. She’d bounced from boring job to job before joining the Mombasa’s crew, and she’d barely wanted to work in those cockpits, much less frolic in them.

  “No? Not even once? Damn.” Ryder sighed. “There goes my fantasy of you and the captain having naughty pillow fights while the rest of us were off board.”

  “I’m not her type.”

  “Pity. I guess she is into pretty troublemakers, and you’re more smokin’ hot badass.”

  “Flatterer.” Jiang frowned in mock disapproval, but a wave of appreciative heat tingled through her body down to her toes. It was a bit of a turn-on to know that he considered her attractive; she was older than him. Or at least she thought she was. Her birth records might have been falsified. “My turn. Never have I ever given someone an orgasm so intense they passed out. Legit fainted, not faked.”

  “How can you be sure it’s an actual faint, though?” Ryder asked. “I like to think my partners are always honest about how hard I’ve rocked their world, but I understand that sometimes they just don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

  “I’ll accept that you were confident that it was a legitimate faint.”

  “Okay then.” Ryder and Jiang both drank, and shared a moment of smug smirking over their respective sexual prowess.