by E. R. Paskey
“Have you told him that?”
Startled, Anna shifted back to face Mondego, only to find him looking at her from underneath his dark, bushy eyebrows. Why would he ask me that? “What?”
“You heard me,” he said calmly.
Anna frowned at him, but shrugged and said, “He knows. It was very obvious I wasn’t getting out of there alone.”
“Neither was he, from the sound of it. You probably saved his life, untying him.”
Maybe, Anna thought, but all she said was, “He seems clever enough. I’m sure he’d have gotten free eventually.” She then grabbed a piece of fruit—an apple; she hadn’t had apples in weeks—and beat a hasty retreat before Mondego could say anything else.
Maybe that was his plan all along, she thought, biting into the apple’s crisp skin as she wandered back to the living compartment. Weird me out so I don’t ask anymore awkward questions…
It was a pretty good plan.
Chapter 13
ANNA WAS STILL IN THE living compartment, seated at the screen-table and poring over the list of items Lobai had hired people to procure, when Deek came to roust her out a few hours later.
“Dinner time,” he said curtly, poking his head around the doorframe. “Cap’n wants you to join us,” he added, when Anna glanced up at him, startled.
“What? Now?” She blinked at him owlishly.
“You’ve been in here for a while,” Deek told her. “We won’t reach Opaline until the morning, so the Cap’n wants everybody to sit down for a meal. He’s a bit old-fashioned that way.”
“I see.” Anna glanced down at the screen-table and began tapping various things, saving different configurations and theories she had dreamed up. “I’ll be there in just a minute.”
“Holdin’ you to that,” Deek warned, but he was smiling faintly. “Because I saw what we’re eatin’ tonight and I’m starvin’.”
Anna gave him a genuine smile. “Seriously. I won’t be long.”
Deek departed and she saved everything before leaving the living compartment and swinging by her cabin to run a brush through her hair. It probably wouldn’t make a difference to anything in the grand scheme of things, but it made her feel a little more presentable.
When she entered the galley, she found everyone already gathered around the table. They all looked at her and she fought very hard not to flush beneath their combined scrutiny. Silently, she took the last empty seat at the table—which was conveniently located right next to Colin. She wasn’t exactly sure who to blame for that, but she was willing to bet it was probably Mondego.
Said cook beamed across her at the table like a matchmaking grandfather; a decidedly strange look for a man who was barely forty.
Within a few moments, it was clear that Colin’s pique had dissipated, returning him to his usual, easy-going, borderline flirtatious self. Anna did note a marked difference in him—he did not joke with her as easily as he had when his crew was not around—but she was alarmed to see the line was slipping as the evening progressed.
Oh, no, you don’t, she thought, mentally narrowing her eyes at him. She wasn’t playing this game. They might technically be married, but she was not about to let his crew think that things might stay that way.
Colin noticed her stiffness, but he greeted it with a half-challenging, half-surprised quirk of an eyebrow. Toward the end of the meal, he leaned closer to her and murmured, “Relax, lass. My crew has no intentions of eating you.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.” She offered him a tight smile, before pointedly engaging Tatiana in a conversation about the difficulty of procuring certain engine parts. Tatiana exchanged a look with her husband before darting an amused glance at her captain, but answered.
Once they had all eaten, Colin placed the sheet of paper Scarlet had given him on the table before him, keeping one hand on it. “I’ve had a chance to research the items Scarlet told us was looking for, and I’m afraid the results are promising in only one respect.”
They all waited with bated breath for him to finish, but he only sent a slow look around the table, his expression unusually grim.
“Well, spit it out, Cap’n,” Deek said finally, unable to contain himself any longer. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”
Colin’s grave expression did not change. “I’m afraid we’ve stumbled into a very dangerous situation. A situation so dangerous, in fact, that before I give you another scrap of information, I’m offering you the chance to leave the Galaxy’s Way on Opaline and find work elsewhere until this blows over.”
Anna just barely managed to keep her surprise off her face, but the others were not so fortunate. Tatiana’s entire body froze, her eyes locked on her captain in shock. Mondego rocked back in his seat as though Colin had decked him, while Deek shot to his feet.
“I ain’t leavin’,” he said emphatically. “Don’t care what it is.”
“You should care.” Steel wrapped in ice filled Colin’s next words. “You should all care.” His blue eyes found Anna’s; she managed to hold his gaze a few seconds before the indescribable group of things there forced her to look away. “What we’re walking into cannot be unlearned, and I fear dangerous people may be after you if they know you know.”
“Wouldn’t they be after us anyway? Just because we’re your crew?” Tatiana demanded, breaking out of her trance to slap a hand on the table. “What good will it do us if you send us away and nobody believes we don’t actually know anything?”
Colin’s Adams apple bobbed as he swallowed. “That is a risk, aye. I don’t believe the chances are great, but — ”
“ — but it’s still a risk,” Mondego broke in. He shook his head. “Frankly, I think we’re better off with you.”
“You don’t know that,” Colin said harshly. He nodded to the piece of paper under his hand. “This has the potential to get us all killed.”
“Notice you’re not tellin’ her to leave.” Deek jerked his head toward Anna.
“That’s because I’ve already seen the list,” Anna said dryly, before Colin could answer. She raised her chin. “And I wouldn’t leave, anyway. Not before I find out why my crewmate betrayed us.”
“You’d leave if I dumped your sweet derriere on Opaline, wife,” Colin said darkly.
She sent him a sweet smile. “And then I’d sue your sweet derriere for abandonment, husband.”
Mondego cut in before Colin could come up with a retort for that. “Okay, so we’re all staying.” He looked around the table and received nods from both Tatiana and Deek. “Regardless of what’s on the list.”
Colin started to protest, but he took a good look at his crew—and Anna—and realized he was fighting a losing battle. Clamping his mouth in a straight line, he leaned back in his chair and deliberately gathered his composure. When he spoke, any trace of anger was gone. “As far as I can tell, Lobai appears to be gathering components for a very special sort of bomb.”
“A bomb?” four voices asked at once.
Mystified, Anna rocked back in her seat. “What in the galaxy would Lobai need with a bomb?”
“No idea.” Colin shrugged unhappily. “Even if he’s getting it for someone else, that still leaves us with the questions of who and why.”
“I could be wrong,” he continued, “but from the research I was able to do…there aren’t many other things these items could be combined to make.”
Anna made a sound in the back of her throat. “That still makes no sense,” she said flatly. “If he’s buying components to make a bomb, why not just pay everybody and let them go about their merry way? I guarantee you, Vik and I wouldn’t have thought twice about what he planned to do with those microchips. We’d have been on to the next job.” She spread her hands. “And if he wanted to keep people from talking, he could have arranged for everybody to disappear. I’m sure with his contacts that wouldn’t be a hard job.”
Across the table from her, Tatiana and Mondego
both winced.
“But, no. He screws everybody over and then leaves us all alive.” Anna shook her head. “Maybe he’s losing his mind, because that plan doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
Colin’s scowl slowly morphed into a thoughtful frown. “Hadn’t thought about it from quite that angle yet.”
He drummed his fingers on the table. “Even if he is losing his mind, it doesn’t change the fact that he owes us all money for services rendered.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Deek muttered.
Colin fixed him with a half-stern, half-exasperated look. “And if you won’t leave for your own safety — ”
Tatiana and Mondego both shook their heads.
“ — then I guess there’s nothing I can do, short of bodily carrying you off the ship.”
Anna smiled at that, but no one else did. I’d love to see you try, she told him mentally.
“All right, then.” Colin shook his head and made a little gesture with one hand, as though to sweep the previous conversation out of the way. “We’ll be landing on Opaline in the morning. When we get there, I’m going to talk to a few contacts of mine. With any luck, one of them will have information we can use to narrow down the search for Lobai.”
“What kind of contacts?” Anna asked, curious.
Her accidental husband flashed her a surprisingly impish grin. “Never you mind.”
Before Anna could call him on it, Tatiana said, “You can’t leave us hanging like that, Captain.”
“Oh?” Colin turned her. “Captain, remember?” he drawled. “I prefer to keep these cards close to my chest just a little while longer.”
All eyes darted to Anna before darting away, guilty. It took every bit of effort she possessed to keep a black scowl off her face. Instead, she felt frozen with sharp, sudden realization. This is what it’ll be like if I have to stay here, she realized suddenly. Part of the crew until it’s painfully, blatantly obvious that I’m not part of the crew.
Conversation carried on, but the damage had been done. You’ve been suffering under an illusion all day, Anna told herself. For a minute, you let yourself forget you’re the outsider. She didn’t let herself look at Colin, but was aware of his figure in her peripheral vision. You might have shared a fairly terrifying experience, but you don’t know him. You don’t know his crew.
She exhaled slowly, feeling vaguely nauseated. And you are not safe here, whatever he says. She almost laughed—a short, bitter burst.
Anna excused herself shortly thereafter. The party was breaking up; Tatiana was getting up to return to the engine room and check on a few things while Mondego cleaned up the galley, and as for Deek and Colin … Anna had no idea. She didn’t care, either.
Instead of returning to the living compartment, she shut herself in her cabin. Stretching out on her bunk, she locked her hands behind her head and frowned up at the underside of the compartment. I suppose I should be grateful. Colin’s crew was so likeable she’d been on the verge of letting them in—well, except perhaps Deek, who didn’t like her at all—and that would have been a huge mistake.
You can’t trust them, whatever they say, she told herself sternly. Maybe Mal had seen something she hadn’t. Maybe he knew something she didn’t.
Yeah, said a small, dry voice in the back of her head. He might have noticed the way Colin keeps looking at you.
Anna promptly gagged that voice. He’s a flirt. Clearly. Doesn’t mean anything.
A metallic rapping sound come from the direction of her door—someone was knocking.
She ignored it.
A few seconds later, someone knocked again. “Lass?”
Colin. She set her mouth in a stubborn frown and focused on an odd scratch in the overhead above her bunk.
A brief pause, and then Colin’s muffled voice said wryly, “I know you’re in there, lass. Open up, will you?”
I think not, she thought, not moving a muscle.
“Very well then. You leave me no choice.” A dramatic pause. “I’ll have to use the override code.”
Oh, no, you don’t. Incensed, Anna rolled off her bunk and crossed her cabin in a few angry strides. Before Colin could punch in his override code into the keypad outside, she opened the door and gave him the fiercest glare she could muster. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s my ship,” he said simply. “And I need to talk to you.”
“And this,” Anna motioned to the cabin behind her, still blocking the doorway, “is my cabin.”
“So it is. May I come in?”
Colin gave her that devastating grin again, but Anna’s anger rendered her at least partially immune. Her glare turned mutinous. “What do you want?”
His grin slipped and then disappeared altogether, to be replaced by a puzzled frown. “You’re angry. Why?”
Anna snorted. “As if you don’t know.” She wanted to flop on her bunk again, but was instinctively wary of putting herself at a disadvantage like that. Or letting him in, period. She settled for leaning up against the doorframe with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“I’m afraid you have me at a loss.” His frown deepened as he clearly tried to work out what was wrong. “What has happened to upset you?”
“I’d prefer to keep that close to my chest for now,” Anna said icily, throwing his words back in his face.
For a second, Colin just looked at her, and then his blue eyes widened. “Ah. That.”
“Yes. That.”
“I’m being cautious, lass.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “That much is obvious.”
Colin took a step toward her. “If you understand, why are you angry?”
Galaxies, the man is dense. Anna lifted her chin. “Regardless of whatever legal bind we’ve landed ourselves in, I’m not your wife, I’m not part of your crew, and you made it blindingly obvious to your crew that you don’t trust me.”
He arched a black eyebrow. “Blindingly, eh?”
The smile tugging at his lips just made Anna even angrier. “Go away. Leave me alone.”
Colin did not move. “I seem to recall taking you on as a temporary cook, which I believe technically makes you part of my crew.”
“You’ve already said you don’t need two cooks.”
“Doesn’t mean you’re not part of my crew, lass.”
“Stop calling me that,” she hissed, balling her hands into fists. “I have a name!”
“Of course you do. Everybody does.”
They were practically nose-to-nose now. Anna wanted to shove him, to slap that infuriatingly smug look off his face, but her brother had raised her better. Viktor didn’t condone physical violence except as a last resort, and however satisfying it might feel to hit Colin, a part of her knew she’d regret it.
Words filled her; she knew with sudden, crystal clear clarity what she needed to do. In a low, barely-controlled voice, she said, “You can drop me on Opaline tomorrow. I’ll stay there and find another way to get home.”
Shock washed over Colin’s face, but almost immediately he covered it and narrowed his eyes instead. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do,” she snapped. “If we could pick up a trail from Scarlet and follow it here, so can my brother.”
Colin took another half-step toward her; they really were nose-to-nose now. Anna barely had time to register how much he’d violated her personal space before his blue eyes bored into hers and he was talking again.
“You don’t know how long that will take. You could be on Opaline for days, weeks, or even months. What will you do?”
“I’ll get a job,” Anna said airily.
“You honestly think Bear didn’t give up your names when he betrayed you?” Colin kept his voice level, but it was made of iron. “You think he didn’t tell them they’ll be able to identify you by your arm?”
Anna inhaled as sharply as though he had struck her, but maintained her mutinous expression. “I’ll manage.” She bared her teeth at hi
m in a feral smile. “I’m a pirate, remember?”
“Only by happenstance. Do you really want to take the risk of ending up in prison on Opaline waiting for the Federation to come collect you?”
A cold chill ran through Anna at the very thought, but she locked her knees in place and stood tall. “I’ll take my chances.”
“As your captain, I’m ordering you to remain with the ship.”
“You’re not my — ”
Colin covered her mouth with a warm hand. His pupils were dilated, making the blue iris of his eyes a thin ring. “Oh, but I am.”
Chapter 14
ANNA NARROWED HER EYES AT him. She had half a mind to bite his hand, but even as the thought flittered across her mind, something twisted in her gut. She didn’t know what he’d do…and she was fairly sure it would be too dangerous to find out.
“Stay with the Galaxy’s Way tomorrow, Anna.”
It did not escape her that he’d used her name.
Time seemed to freeze as they stared at each other, seconds elongating into an eternity.
Finally, suppressing a resigned huff, Anna nodded once.
“Thank you.” Colin dropped his hand, one corner of his mouth pulling up in a smile that went nowhere near his eyes. “I’d hate to have to explain why you’re in Federation custody when your brother finds us.”
His left hand was still curled around her shoulder, warmth from his hand soaking into her skin, and as her anger faded, Anna realized once more how close they were to each other. Her heartbeat picked up; she felt her face begin to flush. This close, she could smell him again, and galaxies if he still didn’t smell good. Her mind threatened to go a little hazy on her, her vision closing down until all she saw was him.
Clamping a titanium lid down on those thoughts, Anna lifted her chin and forced herself to set her face. “Is that all?”