The ship banked as Ice made her approach to the space station. This should be a simple meet, but after what happened to us at our last stop, I wasn’t willing to take any chances. I opened a comm channel to the entire ship. “Maze, you’re with me, everyone else is to remain confined to the ship.”
I heard at least three groans from the crew, I was almost surprised I hadn’t heard all four. Kyra was the first one to talk.
“Captain, you promised me some new shinies.”
“We can see to those parts after we have the job. If there is time, we can all go get them together.”
“Now you're just being overprotective, Captain. We’ll never get all the gear we need if I have to lug you along,” Kyra said, sounding slightly exasperated.
“Then take, Gabe.”
“Is this something I can avoid being dragged into?” Gabe asked.
“No,” Kyra and I said at the same time.
Kyra laughed. “Fine, I’ll take Gabe, but only because he keeps his mouth shut and is strong enough to haul back all my finds.”
I almost fell into the trap of saying that I was strong enough to haul whatever Gabe could. But I caught myself at the last second. She had set that up nicely. I just shook my head for a second to clear it before directing my next comment to someone else. “Ice, I’m putting you in charge of keeping her busy and on this ship in my absence.”
“I resent that, Captain,” Ice said as the Talon started the final landing procedures.
“What, that I asked you to keep her busy?”
“That you think my sexual prowess is only good enough to keep someone busy.”
There really wasn’t anything for me to say to that. The last thing I needed floating around in my head was thoughts of my engineer and my pilot in bed together. I just tried to ignore her and the brief flicker of them rolling around naked that popped unbidden into my mind. Shoving the thought aside, I moved onto the last piece of business. “Gabe, you’re on ship security. If anything happens, comm us, emergency signal six-one-six.”
“You got it, Cap.”
Walking into the cargobay, I hit the button to the armory. Stepping in I grabbed a pistol and strapped it to my hip. I slipped on my combat trench and slung a rifle over my back. Maze walked into the room behind me and started to gear up.
“You expecting trouble, Captain?” she asked with a smile.
“What I expect and what happens haven’t exactly been in alignment as of late.”
“So, I should bring a few extra clips.”
“Probably wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
It was better to be safe than to take chances. I had no way of knowing if Kyra was taken because someone wanted to target us or if it was just a random snatch and grab. One moment she had been there and the next she was gone. We didn’t exactly get to ask questions afterward. If we were walking into a shit storm, I’d prefer it was me that was targeted. I didn’t think that was the case here, Connor had always been a standup guy.
The ship rocked as she touched down. I felt the docking clamps close around her. I looked over at Maze, and she was ready to go. Now wasn’t the time to tell her how I was feeling but I gave her a flirty wink as I walked past her. That didn’t mean she didn’t look damn good right now. She was wearing those skin tight black pants, with a gun strapped to each thigh. Her shirt was made of the same tight material, but she covered it up with a custom cut leather jacket.
It kept her fashionable, but most people didn’t know what I did. The material her clothes were made out of was kinetic resistant, as well as bulletproof. Well, bulletproof to a point. Even when a slug didn’t break the skin, the impact could still kill you. Basically, it still paid not to get shot, if you could help it.
Maze hit the button for the ramp and started to walk down. I followed her, and as soon as we hit the ground, I opened a channel to Ice. “We're off, lock her up tight, Ice.”
“Captain, I’m already busy putting my talents to use.”
“Just lock the Talon up tight and then you can go back to using your talents.”
“You’re such a romantic, Captain.” Ice’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“I knew one day, someone would finally see the truth.”
The comm cut off, but the ramp started to close. I looked over at Maze, and she just shook her head. Well, it was true, I was a unique and special piece of star junk. There was only one woman in the verse that could tame me, and she was walking right next to me, like always.
As we left the station, I hailed the first autocar I saw. After opening the door for Maze, I slid into the car behind her. I read off the address Connor had provided and paid the fee. So far everything was going to plan, and that had me worried. I shrugged it off and leaned back into the seat.
“So Maze.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“I missed you last night.”
“Did you?” Her eyebrow rose in question, and she watched me intently.
Jesus, what in the hell did that even mean? This is why I was so hopeless with women. It felt like every answer I had ready would just leave me open to being shut down. “Yes.” Was what I managed to get out before my mouth snapped shut.
“Why?”
Oh man, I had meant to come off kind of fun and flirty, not jump right into a real in-depth conversation about our relationship. Now I was sitting here with a stupid look on my face, and my foot planted firmly in my mouth. When I turned to look at Maze, she had an expectant look on her face. I felt myself shutting down, but I knew that I had to make this opportunity count.
“Because I’m a better man with you by my side.” Did that sound as lame as I thought it did? “I’m not really good at this whole thing. I just know that I want you in my life.”
Maze hit me with a smirk. “But I’m already with you every day.”
She wasn’t going to make this easy for me. I hadn’t really expected her to but I had hoped that she would take pity on me. “I mean as more than a coworker.”
“What if Jelina or Sarah calls?”
How did she know about those two? Apparently I wasn’t anywhere nearly as discrete with my dalliances as I needed to be. “Who and who?”
“Or Kitra?”
Well of course she knew about Kitra, I’d been seeing her for years. The damn woman had betrayed me for the final time a year ago. Even if I could go back to her, I wouldn’t. I needed someone by my side that I could trust, and I didn’t trust anyone more than Maze. “The only woman I want standing by my side is you.”
“You sure you’re ready to break all of those hearts, Captain?”
“I’m ready.”
“I guess we’ll see, but you are going to have to earn it.”
Well that didn’t sound fair. Hadn’t I already done so by leaking my emotional garbage all over the table just now? Isn’t that the kind of things people in relationships did? I looked back into Maze’s eyes and her expression hardened. She was obviously at war with herself over something. I understood that feeling, crossing over from flirty and fun to a real relationship was scary as shit.
She tapped the gun on her thigh. “If you break my heart.” Then her words just trailed off.
I got the message. Breaking her heart would be bad for my health. Now I just had to figure out what she wanted from me to make it official. She hadn’t given me the greenlight yet, but I was sure my considerable charm would win her over. This was the right choice, for the first time in my life I was making the right decision when it came to a woman, instead of the easy one.
I didn’t know what else to say or how to put it into words so I pulled her into a kiss. It wasn’t the horny kiss of a newly formed couple, but the sweet and tender kiss shared by people that had been together for years. As we broke apart, I knew I had made the right choice. Then I put my foot right back into my mouth. “It’s not like I have a ring ready or anything.”
Maze hit me in the shoulder. “Well you had better just get your shit together now, hadn’t you?”
&
nbsp; Oh, fuck. What had just happened? I was pretty sure she was joking with me, but there was no way to be sure. I was just going to have to go with it, and stall where I could. “Yes, ma’am.” I pulled her in for one more kiss and then sat back in my chair, wondering what in the hell I had just gotten myself into. Love was a tricky bitch, and she hadn’t hit me with anything less than a four by four.
The one nice thing about Connor was he didn’t work out of some shithole. We had seen plenty of those over the last year. After our run in with the Alphamerix Corporation, our status with the mercenary guild was put on an indefinite suspension. That meant the jobs we were doing now weren’t strictly legal, and the people we did them for normally didn’t fit in with high society.
Connor was different. He was a true businessman, and with that came a certain level of respect. It also meant he had work that he needed done off the books. Normally that kind of work would be handled and sanctioned by the mercenary’s guild, but Connor refused to pay their fee. He always spouted something about the people that do the work should earn the credits, but I always thought he just enjoyed saving the creds.
We exited the autocar without incident and started moving towards the tower that housed Connor’s operation. As we approached the luxury tower, a man exited the front doors and headed straight for us. He was in a three-piece suit and was probably one of Connor’s personal assistants. He jogged down the steps coming forward with purpose. His eyes roved over our weapons with interest.
He composed himself pulling his eyes from our guns to meet my own, and said. “Captain Drake, I assume.”
He knew exactly who I was. The scan they were running from inside of the building would have already provided him that information. This was the one part of high society that I couldn’t stand. No one was ever straightforward. So I simply ignored his question and redirected him with one of my own. “And you are?”
“Please forgive me for not offering a proper introduction.” He moved back and gave us a little bow. “My name is Luthar Gibbins, Connor’s personal assistant. Please follow me.”
He started to walk around the building. So that was the reason for his visit. The help couldn’t be seen coming through the front door. I looked over at Maze, and she just shrugged. It was a good attitude to have, there was nothing we could do to change which door we entered the building through, so we might as well just get on with it.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but Connor insisted,” Luthar said, obviously picking up the gist of our silent exchange.
He actually looked concerned that we might be offended by the treatment. A year ago it might have galled me a little, and it still kind of rankled me just a little bit, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Connor paid better than most, and his jobs weren’t normally too risky. I decided to channel my inner Maze and decided to play it cool.
“Don’t worry about it Luthar, we are happy to honor any requests Connor may have made.”
The man seemed to perk up knowing we weren’t offended. “Please stay close to me. As we enter the building, I’ll be disabling the cameras.”
We moved up to either side of Luthar, and he tripped. I caught him before he could hit the ground. Luthar gave me a hasty smile and continued to walk forward.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s just that I’ve just never been so close to someone like you before,” he said sounding nervous.
“Someone like me?”
He stopped and turned pointing at our weapons. “You know someone with a dangerous reputation and guns.”
“Oh, for a second there I thought you were insulting my character.” Maze chuckled next to me. I wasn’t sure if it was in agreement with what I said, or if she also doubted my character. Luthar stopped again looking appalled at the thought. He must have missed the joking nature of my statement, or maybe he was too nervous to pick up on it.
“I’m sorry if I have offered any offense, Captain Drake. It’s just the weapons that have me on edge. I normally operate in more of a boardroom type function for Mr. Connor.”
This time I almost laughed “You’re fine, Luthar, we don’t shoot people for giving offense.” Luthar stumbled for a moment before collecting himself and moving forward.
Maze hit me in the shoulder. “Don’t mind him, Luthar, he’s just kidding around.”
“Oh, that’s good to know.” Luthar opened the door to the elevator and scanned his card for the penthouse before stepping out. “Connor will be waiting for you upstairs.”
“Thank you, Luthar. I’ll make sure to tell Connor how well you did today.”
Luthar turned and walked away. Maze waited for the door to close before she hit me, again.
“You’re kind of an asshole,” she said with a smile.
“Come on, he’ll get over it. If he’s going to be working for Connor, he’ll be dealing with a lot worse.”
“I said kind of an asshole. That doesn’t mean I didn’t find the look on his face when you talked about shooting people, priceless.”
And that is why Maze was the perfect woman for me. She gets me, right down to the bottom of my grubby little soul. The turbolift rose quickly, and the doors opened to the floor Connor reserved for himself in this building. The man actually owned several on this planet and rented out most of the space to other companies. He also wasn’t waiting at the elevator to greet us, so that meant we had to show ourselves in. I knew exactly where to find him.
The first half of the floor had been converted into Connor’s private offices. He did business there every day, sometimes with as many as a hundred people working. Right now it was slow, and only a few heads could be seen over the rows of glass cubicles. The board room at the end of the aisle had the windows fogged, indicating that was the best place to find Connor, that and the giant of a bodyguard stationed outside of the door.
The guard clocked us as I finished giving him the once over. He lifted his wrist to his mouth and spoke into it as we moved closer. You could always spot the rookies by how they spoke into their comms. Seriously guy, they can hear you when you don’t lift up your arm, that’s the whole point.
Two more guards came to join him as we covered the last few feet to the door. The guards moved to either side of the giant and waited silently hands behind their backs. The giant turned towards us and started speaking. His voice came out deeper than I would have expected almost like the bass was turned up to high on my vid system.
“You’re going to have to leave your weapons here.”
The other two guards moved forward to take them. “Un-fog the windows,” I said moving my rifle into the ready position. The guard I had covered moved back a step. By the way the second guard was moving backward, Maze already had him covered as well. The massive guard stood impassively to our show of force.
“If you want your meeting, you’re going to have to give me your weapons.”
My first thought was I should just shoot this asshole in the leg to knock him down a few pegs, but that would piss off Connor, and probably scare a bunch of people in his office. I didn’t want Connor to have anything to hold over me during negotiations, so that was out. “The only way you’re getting hands on my weapon is if you un-fog the windows so we can see who is inside of the room. If you don’t then have fun explaining to Connor why whatever bit of work he wants done, isn’t.”
The guard lifted his wrist to his mouth and started calling for backup. “And for fuck’s sake, stop lifting your wrist to your mouth every time you activate your comms, it makes you look like it’s your first day on the job.”
“Captain, if we are going to shoot these guys and get out of here, we need to do it now,” Maze said from beside me.
I didn’t bother to look, I knew if she said it, she had seen something to justify it. Screw it, this was a losing deal for us either way. We might as well make a point before we left. I flexed my finger alongside the barrel ready to shoot and then the double glass doors opened.
Connor stepped out and stopped talking almost im
mediately. He paused to run his hands through his shoulder length blonde hair before speaking again. “I’m going to have to call you back.” He tried to step around the large guard, and the man pushed him back. That was a bad idea.
Connor kicked out at the back of his knee dropping the man to the floor. As the man landed on his knees, Connor hit him in the head with an elbow sending him sprawling forward. The other two guards moved forward to help the semi-conscious man back to his feet. I made a quick motion towards Maze, and we both slung our rifles behind us.
“Well don’t stand out here all day. Come in,” Connor said, turning back into the office.
“It’s good to see you again Connor,” I said pulling the doors shut behind us.
“I wouldn’t have thought so by the way you were about to shoot my men.”
“That was just a little misunderstanding.” He gave me a flat look that said I had better have a much more elaborate explanation forthcoming. “They wanted us to give up our weapons and refused to defog the glass.”
“You think I’d set you up?”
Maze stepped into the conversation. “We just have to be careful, Connor. One of our associates just had a run in with some bad people, and it has all of us a little on edge.”
“I should have known something was up when I saw the rifles.” He shrugged, almost chastising himself for not thinking of it sooner. “Anything I can do to help?”
“We took care of it already,” Maze said, not missing a beat. “So who’s the new guy?” She tilted her head towards the door.
“He’s Luthar’s cousin, not sure he’s really going to work out.”
“Luthar seemed nice, though,” I said with a smile.
“What did you do to my assistant?” Connor asked almost laughing.
Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1) Page 11