Chief Lovell also introduced them both to his top lieutenants. All four of them had been with him since he took the job. All four seemed intimidated to meet them and said little.
Chief Lovell joked that they had seen the vids of the firefight in the mall and how they had taken care of the three in the lobby. “You two are their idols,” he said laughing.
Two of them actually blushed at that, which almost caused Mattie to laugh, but she managed to keep a straight face. What she did learn about them was that all four of them had young families on the station. She had no doubt that would make them defend this station even more.
Chief Lovell gave them all his men’s backgrounds as well and asked Red on the side to double check his men with deep background checks through the DI sources. Lovell was taking no chances at all.
Mattie really liked that as well.
They were going up against someone as ruthless as General Jarvis, and someone smart enough to elude the Sector Force for years. They couldn’t take any chances at all.
Thirty minutes after arriving at the Chief’s office, she and Red were headed for lunch at a restaurant Lovell suggested called Karen’s Café.
Mattie was feeling better about the security of this station, but even more worried now that they didn’t really have a lead on how General Jarvis was going to attack the Sector Force. Even with the Sector Force on high alert, a good attack could still get through.
Karen’s Café looked more like an old-fashioned mall diner that could be found on most any planet. It was tucked off to one side of a small shopping wing near the lifts to one section of the resort. It was clearly the kind of place that employees and those who were regulars at the resort ate at. A normal fresh-off-the-liner visitor would never find this place.
Mattie loved it at once.
There were old-fashioned cloth seats on the booths that could hold six people, soft jazz was playing in the background, and the smell of baking fresh bread filled the air.
At the moment there were only two tables with customers. Two cleaning staff at one small table, clearly in some sort of relationship, and two security staff at another. The two security men saw Mattie and Red come in and turned white, quickly paid and left.
Mattie knew, without a doubt, that she and Red’s reputation had spread ahead of them. But that kind of reaction was normal when someone discovered she was a member of the Sector Force. It wasn’t something she really ever told anyone except an authority that needed to know. But now, here on the station, it seemed most everyone in the security force knew.
Red just laughed as the security men fled. “Do I need a shower that badly?”
“Don’t worry,” Mattie said. “I’ll help you scrub all the hard-to-reach places later.”
“Promises, promises,” Red said.
“No promise,” Mattie said. “That’s a threat.”
Laughing, Red led the way to a large booth and a woman wearing a checkered apron with long blonde hair came out of the back, smiled at them and asked, “Water?”
Both she and Red nodded yes and she retreated into the back. Mattie sat across from Red so she could see his face and they could go over the data they had just gotten.
The menu came up under the table surface. Mattie studied it, trying to decide what she wanted. She had become so hungry, she really couldn’t decide.
Red, on the other hand, glanced at the menu in front of him, clicked the off button and sat back.
“That easy?” she asked.
He laughed. “The Chief suggested the cheeseburger, made with meat from an animal raised on a nearby planet, and that I should order it with a side of the bread and thin skins, whatever that is.”
She clicked off her menu as well. “Make that two.”
When the waitress came back, Red ordered for the both of them and then pulled out his data pad.
Mattie did the same and they both started scanning the plans the chief had given them of the abandoned station.
It soon became clear to Mattie that the only area that could have been used fairly quickly and contained was the port area. Most of the construction on the station had stopped far before much more than just the structure was in place. Everything had been left open to space. The port and construction bays were closest to being finished when the place had been abandoned.
Red mentioned that and she said, “A lot can be built in three years,” she said.
“But since he was clearly planning on taking over this station,” Red said, “why would he have bothered with much more than the basics. No one knew he was out there.”
Mattie stared at the images on her data pad, mostly agreeing with Red. “You think he would have fixed the repair bays to build ships and the port area, building living quarters in that area only for workers and crews.”
Red nodded. “Exactly. But how did the General get people to follow him out there?”
Chief Lovell had just come in and headed toward them. He overheard Red’s question.
He pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the table. “I can tell you exactly how. By threatening families.”
“What?” Mattie asked, afraid of the answer, but having a hunch as to what the Chief was about to tell them.
“Every person on that attack ship had a family on a nearby planet. All of them are now dead. That bastard general killed women and children.”
Mattie felt her stomach twist into a tight knot.
“Damn,” Red said.
Mattie glanced up at the chief. “Are you checking all families of all employees on the station?”
“As we speak,” the Chief said. “So far most families are on the station and clean, including everyone who works in this restaurant. Thought you might want to know.”
He patted the table and stood to leave.
“Thanks, Chief,” Mattie said. “Very good work.”
He nodded. “I’ll contact you both if I run into anything with any of the staff here. I have a hunch this is all just starting.”
Mattie felt the exact same way.
She looked up at the hurt in Red’s eyes that he was trying to push back inside. Innocent families had been killed.
She reached across the table and rested her hand on the back of his. “We’ll stop this monster.”
He nodded. “Of that, I have no doubt.”
The image of General Jarvis’s beady little rat-eyes came clear to her mind and all she wanted to do was put a final bullet between them after causing him a great deal of pain first.
Neither one of them could finish their lunch, although they both tried. After that news, it just didn’t have much of a taste.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
RED WENT WITH HER to her suite and helped her check it for any devices or tampering. She felt good with him at her side, sometimes a little too good, but she wasn’t going to question that just yet. Between the two of them she felt a lot more confident that they would catch most anything coming at them.
On the way up the lift to her apartment, they had decided, not for sexual reasons, but for strategic reasons, that they should stay together until this was finished. So she was going to move her stuff to his suite.
She had laughed and kissed him when he asked if she minded.
“Silly,” she said. “You’re the one with the pool.”
He had to admit, she had a point.
Then he went silent.
“Come on, admit it, you are remembering me pulling myself up naked out of that water. Right?”
He actually tried not to blush, but failed.
She kissed him before the lift doors opened and then led the way to her suite, giving him time to get his thoughts back on the job at hand, even though hers were not completely there either.
They scanned her room before opening the door. Nothing had been touched in her suite and no one had entered or even tried to enter since she had left. She gathered up her bags and they went to Red’s suite and did the same before opening his door as well.
Again
his suite was clear and had not been disturbed in the slightest.
She went into the huge bedroom and dropped her bags on one dresser while he stayed in the living room. Then she looked around. His small travel bag was tucked over near a closet. Since his ship was so close, he hadn’t brought much here at all.
She desperately needed to change clothes and maybe just lie down and stop for a few minutes, let this problem they were facing sink in. Sometimes she did her best thinking just lying still.
But with Red out there, she also needed to be close to him again. Very, very close, before resting was going to be possible in any way.
She stripped naked, tucking the clothes she had been wearing now for more than a day, back into her bag. Then she headed into the living room with one of the large, fluffy white bathroom towels in her hand.
“I need a swim,” she said. “Want to join me?”
He glanced up and his eyes widened slightly. She loved that she had that effect on him.
The pool and the fantastic view of the nebula colors over it felt as amazing as the first time she had come out here. But this time she didn’t want to stare up at the colors, because beyond that beauty was someone truly a monster, truly ugly, and she didn’t want to think about that right at that moment.
So she kept her focus on the pool and not the wonderful beauty overhead. When this was all over she could enjoy that again.
She had already done a lap of the long pool when his naked body cut into the water and came up swimming on the other side of the pool.
They both did about ten fast laps before stopping at the shallow end.
“That felt good,” she said, moving her shoulders around and then leaning into the stone side of the pool and pressing her arms hard against the stone to stretch them even more. “I needed to loosen up a little.”
“It did feel good,” he said. “Drained out some of the tensions.”
She almost made a wise crack about not too much draining she hoped when he moved over closer to her, then behind her, and started to rub her shoulders.
“That feels wonderful,” she said, learning her head forward, enjoying the smooth feel of his strong hands on her back and neck.
He clearly had been trained in some aspects of massage, because he knew exactly what kinks to work out, how much pressure to apply where, and how long to work one muscle before moving on.
She was starting to melt under his hands and all she wanted to do was turn around and kiss him. She could feel his arousal moving against her butt under the water.
Finally, when she couldn’t take it any longer she said, “Let’s do something really unusual this time.”
He sort of slowed the wonderful motion of his hands and moved to one side of her. “And what’s that?”
“How about we make love in a bed?”
“You sure you want to risk it?” he asked.
She couldn’t see his face, but she knew he was trying to keep the smile from showing by the sounds of his voice.
“I know, it’s kinky. But I’m game if you are.”
With that he laughed and pushed himself up out of the pool, standing above her, clearly aroused. He smiled down at her, knowing full well what he was doing to her, what kind of view he was showing her. Just as she had done to him in the living room yesterday.
Then he offered her a hand out of the pool.
“That wasn’t what I was thinking of grabbing,” she said as he lifted her with ease with one arm from the water.
“You grab it here and we don’t make it to a bed.”
“Unless I do this,” she said.
She took a firm hold on his manhood and then started toward the door to the apartment, pulling him gently along behind her.
He did not hesitate and she loved the feeling of him in her hands.
A couple places along the short distance to the bedroom she almost decided the carpet was good enough again. But somehow she kept going.
They actually made it to the bed.
Barely.
She lay on the bed, face down and he went to work on her back again, this time rubbing and kissing at the same time, working his way over her neck and then down her spine.
She felt like she might melt right into the soft bed.
When he reached her butt, he worked both cheeks over gently, rubbing, kissing, then worked his way down her right leg and back up her left leg.
As he came back up he kissed her between her legs and she raised up and pushed back, almost without realizing it, trying to tell him to keep going.
The sensations of his attention on her crotch ran up and down her body, seeming to follow the path his gentle kisses had taken.
His tongue found places and did things to her that she didn’t know were possible or even desired.
How was this possible that she could feel like this?
Part of her mind, deep down inside, asked that question and the rest of her brain just shouted that she should let go, enjoy everything he was doing.
That part of her mind won easily, riding with the waves of pleasure he kept pushing her over.
A flick of his tongue here, a lick there, a driving push next, then back to a flick.
Impossible to take for long and she could feel a release coming, building.
She pushed up and against his hands and face and mouth and tongue.
That wonderful tongue.
He held her solidly in place, increasing the tension, the movement, the exacting flicking and touching until finally she came in deep, shuddering waves that seemed to take her from the room completely.
He never stopped, making her release last and last and last until finally it crossed over from pure pleasure to too much sensation and she pulled away.
She flipped over onto her back and lay there, breathing harder than she ever did even after an intense workout in a gym.
He smiled down at her, his face wet with her juices, and then eased down and kissed her, supporting his weight on his elbows.
She could taste herself and him at the same time and she kissed him back long and hard and as she did he moved slowly to a position between her legs and gently entered her.
And she came again, even harder and more intensely as the first one.
He held still, letting her release subside, kissing her gently, and just as she started to relax under him, he started moving, first slowly, then quicker and quicker inside her.
He felt wonderful there, as if he completely belonged inside of her.
It felt as if he had brought every nerve in her body alive for the first time.
His kisses on her lips and face and then neck sent ripples through her that matched the sensations of him moving inside her.
And finally she could no longer hold back, or want to even try.
She came again, pushing hard up against him, trying to be inside of him at the same time he was inside of her.
He joined her, his complete release filling her and sending more and more waves of pleasure up and down through her body.
Never, in all her life, had she lost such control, given herself over to another person so completely in any moment of time.
Together they both rode out the last of the pleasure and then just at the right moment he rolled over on his side, pulling her with him, keeping himself inside of her.
He pulled her close and held her against his strong chest, like he never wanted to let her go.
She felt the same way.
She held him back, hard.
After a moment they both relaxed and he let her pull her leg out from under him.
Somehow he still managed to remain inside of her and she pressed against him, wanting him to stay inside.
A few moments later she could feel herself drifting off toward sleep, being held by a man she didn’t know could exist.
For a second she opened her eyes and looked up at his handsome face.
His eyes were closed, his face showing complete trust and relaxation.
She closed her
eyes and pulled him close.
And together they drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
RED AWOKE WITH MATTIE still tucked against his chest. She felt perfect there, so perfect that he didn’t want to bother her by moving. But they both had far, far too much to do right now to allow for too long of a nap.
Her warm skin felt fantastic against his skin, her soft breathing brushed against his chest like a child’s light touch.
He stared at the top of her head where it was tucked against him and then her wonderful, toned body pressed against him. In all his life he had never felt this attracted to, or connected with, another person.
And yet this person sleeping against his chest was one of the deadliest law enforcers in the two known sectors of space. He admired her, liked her, feared her, and was falling for her, all at the same time.
How was that possible?
He would think about that question later.
Right now the two of them had a monster to stop named General Jarvis. There were people to defend against Jarvis. There were innocent people all over this area of space that needed their help. Situations like this were the very reason Red had started Innocence Incorporated.
And if he and Mattie and their two organizations didn’t succeed at stopping this monster and soon, a lot more innocent men, women, and children were going to die.
He gently eased away from her, their skin sticking together slightly.
She moaned and tried to hold him, but he kept easing away.
“That’s just mean,” she said, not opening her eyes as he finally pushed away completely from her. “I was enjoying that.”
“We’ll do it again,” he said, leaning forward and kissing the top of her head. “But right now there’s work to do.”
He rolled away and off the edge of the bed and stood.
“Slave driver,” she said, rolling onto her back and stretching.
He stopped and just stared at that wonderful body of hers. For a moment he thought about just crawling back onto the bed with her, then somehow managed to kill that idea. More hours would go by if he did that and they didn’t have more hours right now.
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