I punched in the destination but routed us through two gates. The engines ramped up as we prepared to exit the atmosphere. As soon as we were clear, the FTL would engage to jump us to the first gate. “I shouldn’t have any difficulty withdrawing your money when we get there,” I said. “Then you’ll have your choice of destinations.” I’d gotten used to having Marcus around. When he was gone, I would miss him.
A few minutes later my stomach dropped as the FTL drive engaged. The transition was butter-smooth, though. The lights didn’t even flicker. Infineon requested a jump point from the gate. Once given, a gate jump point was reliable for two hours. We were eightieth in the queue. With the FTL cooldown showing an hour, it would be a race to see if the drive would be ready before the gate gave us the endpoint.
“There’s nothing else we can do here for now. Let’s get you down to the medbay, so I can run a scan on you.”
“I’m fine,” Loch grumbled.
“You had a very odd reaction to the foxy and you looked like hell when I came to get you at the detention center. Let’s just make sure everything is okay. It’ll only take a second. Please?”
“Fine, but don’t think I’ve forgotten how you tried to stun me.”
That gave me pause. “You remember that?”
He smiled a slow, heated smile. “I remember everything.”
“But you were acting so strangely. At first it was like you didn’t even recognize me. Then . . .” I trailed off with a blush.
“I’ll admit I was out of it at the time, but my memories are fine. If I’d known it was a street dose of foxy, I would’ve been more careful.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know, either. Veronica got it for me at the last second after I saw you on the surveillance camera. I thought I might need it just to get you out of the detention center.”
“I heal fast,” Loch said. “Richard was just toying with me, trying to get me to give up your location. He hadn’t started getting creative.”
“Why didn’t you? Give up the location?”
“Because I figured you’d go back there looking for me. And I made a promise to help you escape. And because Richard would’ve beaten me anyway.”
I skipped the ladder and led him down the stairs. The main part of the ship consisted of three levels. The upper level contained the flight deck and captain’s quarters. The middle level included the crew quarters and mess hall. The bottom level was the medbay, exercise room, and the maintenance access for the engine and life support systems.
The medbay door slid open. As modern as the rest of the ship, the medbay glowed with polished metal and white plastech. It barely looked used.
Loch eased himself up on the diagnostic table without being asked. He might put on a strong front, but by the way he moved, something hurt. He lay down gingerly. I set the scanner to run a full-body diagnostic.
“Is there anywhere in particular that hurts?” I asked while I waited for the scan to finish.
“Well, Doctor,” he growled in that deep, sexy voice. “I do have one area that’s giving me a hard time. Think you could give me a hand?”
It took a supreme effort of will to keep my eyes glued to his face. “I think that perhaps the foxy isn’t out of your system yet.”
The scanner beeped, saving me from further comment. My eyes widened at the list of injuries, listed from most to least severe. I had to scroll to see the entire list.
Bones in various stages of healing were scattered throughout his body, with many in his hands and feet. Both legs had been broken and were still healing, along with a set of cracked ribs. His kidneys had deep bruising around them. Cuts on his sides and back needed to be cleaned and bandaged. And a knife wound to his shoulder still seemed to be bleeding. I looked for the hole, but it was concealed under his torn and dirty black shirt.
“How are you moving?” I whispered to myself. Even if he had nanobots and they were operating at full capacity, most of these wounds wouldn’t be this healed unless they were days older. But he’d been fine on the ship. Hadn’t he? Something didn’t add up.
“Am I going to live, Doc?” he asked as he sat up.
“Of course. But first you need to take off your shirt so I can bandage the worst of it. Then you need eight hours of downtime, minimum.”
“The shirt I can do.” He pulled the tattered shirt off over his head with a grunt. Even his killer abs couldn’t distract from the extensive, dark purple bruising that covered most of his torso. I made a pained sound and reached out to touch him. He caught my hand. “It looks worse than it is.”
I mutely shook my head. There was no way he could brush this off. Someone had beaten him savagely, most likely while he was shackled and unable to defend himself. “You should’ve told them where I was.”
He tilted my chin up until I was forced to look away from the bruises. “It wouldn’t have mattered. This is not your fault.”
I pushed my emotions down behind a wall of icy calm. “Of course it is,” I said briskly. I stepped around him and opened drawers and cabinets until I’d found the supplies I needed to bandage him.
The knife wound in his shoulder oozed blood as I dabbed at it with disinfectant. “Now you’ve helped me escape twice, so I shall pay you twice. As soon as we land on APD Zero, I’ll make the transfer. Or get hard credits, if you prefer. Then you can disappear before Richard shows up.”
“You seem awfully keen on getting rid of me. Why?”
“I don’t want you to get hurt again because of me. And the longer you stay, the more likely you’ll get caught. I have at least two Houses and a host of mercenaries after me. And if it really is going to come to war, I’ll have to return home. As one of the expendables, I’ll be expected on the front to bolster morale if nothing else.”
Something shifted in his expression. He went from teasing to predator in the blink of an eye. I stilled, my hand frozen halfway to his shoulder.
“Do not mistake me for a little lost lamb. I’ve been dodging mercs for a very long time. I am here because I want to be. I will leave when I’m ready. Nothing you can do will change that. And if you call yourself expendable again”—his voice dropped into a deep, dangerous rumble—“you won’t like the consequences. We clear?”
I swallowed and nodded. I had treated him too familiarly. Somewhere along the way I had started to see the man and had forgotten about the Devil. I finished cleaning and bandaging his wounds with quick, clinical detachment.
If only I could rein in my emotions as easily. The wall was harder to build after you already knew someone. I retreated into my public persona. “I have done what I can,” I said. “Would you like a shot for the pain?”
Loch slid off the table and invaded my space. I straightened and stood my ground. His fingers slid along my jaw in the softest caress. “Don’t hide from me, Ada,” he said quietly.
“It is better this way,” I said. “Help yourself to whatever.” I waved a hand at the cabinets behind him, then beat a hasty retreat.
I stopped to check in on Veronica on the way up to the flight deck. She and Lin and Imma had settled into two side-by-side rooms. Veronica cast nervous glances my way, but I was too tired to deal with her tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough.
The flight deck was quiet. Thirty minutes and we could jump. We’d moved up to tenth in the gate queue. The first jump was to a busy gate on the opposite side of the universe from our destination. Two jumps was a risk, but I needed time to scrub the ship’s registration to leave a false trail, especially before we landed on APD Zero.
While we waited, I kicked off a full system diagnostics test. It might reveal some of the trackers Richard was no doubt using. I also pulled out my com and searched for bugs the old-fashioned way. I found two: a location tracker and an audio bug. I’d have to go through the ship one room at a time if I intended to keep it.
I checked the captain’s quarters while waiting for the diagnostic results. The com didn’t find any bugs. I guess Richard valued his privacy.
The
diagnostic came back with a few questionable items. None were critical, so I disabled them all until I could dig deeper into their functions. A chime announced the gate had given us a location. Five minutes until the FTL drive was ready.
I dozed until the jump woke me. I checked our location and surroundings. We were exactly where I’d requested. I rubbed my eyes and got to work on the first registration change.
By the time we landed in Sedition, the largest city on APD Zero, Infineon had been renamed and reregistered twice. Now named Polaris, it was registered to one of the many dummy corporations I owned. It wouldn’t pass a deep dive, but no one was likely to look that closely. And because it was supposedly a merc ship, the name wasn’t written on the outside. Bonus.
The name changes would make tracking us a little more difficult, but I doubted they would slow Richard that much. Much more interestingly, each FTL jump actually had required just one hour of downtime, even with two jumps back-to-back. That would require looking into, but not tonight. I just didn’t have the mental capacity to dive into an unknown engine system tonight.
I locked the ship down tight. In Universal Time it was morning and I’d been up all night. On APD Zero it was just after eleven at night, so no one would expect us to leave the ship tonight. I’d already paid the docking fee for a week. Now I needed at least a few hours of sleep or I was going to fall on my face at the first opportunity.
I stumbled toward the captain’s quarters with a jaw-cracking yawn. I closed and locked the door. I didn’t really think anyone on the ship would attempt to take me out, but you never know how a scared mother will react to a situation where her kid could be at risk.
I continued through the sitting room into the bedroom, only to stop in the doorway. Marcus Loch lay sprawled across my bed, wearing only black boxer briefs and barely covered by the sheet. He hadn’t been here earlier when I checked for bugs.
My eyes were gritty with lack of sleep. I was entirely too tired to deal with this shit. The urge to kick him out was nearly overwhelming, but he was injured. I sighed softly. The sofa would have to do for tonight because I didn’t think I could make it downstairs to a crew bed.
“Come on,” Loch said. “The bed is big enough to share. Sleeping only.” His teeth flashed white in the dark. “Unless you have other ideas.”
I entered the room. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to talk to you, but you were so deep in whatever you were doing you didn’t even notice me enter the flight deck. So I waited here. Then when you still didn’t show, I decided if I was here anyway, I should sleep. Doctor’s orders.”
“We already said all that needed to be said.”
“No, we didn’t,” Loch said quietly. “But that is a discussion for later. Get in bed before you fall down. If you want, I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
Spite and hurt almost had me blurting the demand. Only the memory of the livid bruises stilled my tongue. “No funny business,” I said.
I stripped down to my T-shirt and underwear, put my smart glasses on the nightstand, then crawled into bed. Loch hauled me close when I would’ve hugged my edge. I protested and tried to wiggle away. “Just sleep, Ada,” he murmured against the back of my neck. “I’ve got you.”
I focused on relaxing each muscle, one at a time. I had only made it halfway before the warmth and security of Loch’s body at my back lulled me into sleep.
Chapter 14
I awoke with the pleasant stiffness that meant I had slept deep and long. I had forgotten to set an alarm, so no telling what time it was. An arm tightened around my middle when I would’ve rolled over, and Loch nuzzled the back of my neck.
“Morning,” he murmured.
I stiffened. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d woken up with a man. As the daughter of a High House, I had to be careful, both because I was completely defenseless during sex and because many men thought they could use my body to win my heart—and therefore my name. My hookups had been with men I’d trusted, but even then it wasn’t usually a stay-the-night kind of event.
Loch’s thumb drew a distracting little circle on my waist and all thoughts of being careful scattered. He slid his hand under my shirt, and his palm blazed a trail of heat up my body. When he stopped at my ribs, I arched in invitation. His hand remained where it was.
I huffed in annoyance and he chuckled. “Did you want something?”
I wanted his hands on my breasts, his mouth on my nipples. I wanted him inside of me. The sheer force of my desire shocked me. I took a deep breath and reined in my wayward body. “I want many things,” I said honestly, “but I should get up.”
Loch pulled me over onto my back and pressed up against my right side. His hand slid out from under my shirt and I shivered from the loss. His grin told me that I wasn’t playing it as cool as I thought. It also made him unbearably sexy. Down, girl.
“What is your plan for the day?” he asked.
I shoved aside my desire and mentally sorted through all of the things that needed to happen today. “The bank first, I think. Then I can decide if it’s worth renting a room or if I should just keep running. Plus it’ll be done if I get caught.”
“I will go with you,” Loch said. “What else?”
“Talk to Veronica, scan the ship for trackers, figure out what supplies I’ll need and purchase them, update my sister . . . really, the list goes on forever. What time is it?”
“Almost ten, local time,” Loch said.
Shit, no wonder I felt like I’d slept hard—I’d been asleep for nearly eleven hours. That was plenty of time for Richard to catch up with us if he’d managed to track me straight here. I pushed myself up and out of the bed.
Shower first, but for that, I needed my bag of clothes. While I stood thinking, Loch rolled out of bed. All of that gloriously exposed skin drew my eye, but the bandages refocused my attention. His abs were barely bruised this morning; just a faint yellow hinted at what had been.
Even with nanobots, healing that fast was incredible. Maybe he’d spent some extra time in the medbay before he came up to talk last night?
My eyes dropped lower. His boxer briefs did very little to conceal the impressive erection tenting the fabric.
“Sweetheart, you keep looking at me like that and we’re going to be back in the bed in two seconds flat.”
I lingered for a long second, torn between keeping my distance and gobbling him up. It was already going to hurt when he left. What was a little more pain?
He must’ve sensed my hesitation, though, because he turned away with a growl. “I put your clothes bag in the bathroom. After you get dressed, I’ll meet you in the mess.”
I showered—with hot water, soap, and shampoo—then put on the pale blue tunic and dull gold pants I’d tried to wear on TSD Nine. I draped the blue and gold scarf over my shoulders. Before I went out, I’d wrap it around my head and neck until just my eyes were visible as extra insurance against recognition.
The mess hall was half dining room, half galley. Two long tables that each sat eight took up most of the room. They were upgraded models with plastech tops modeled to look like wood.
A gleaming industrial kitchen lined the back wall. A state-of-the-art commercial food synthesizer was placed next to an old-fashioned fridge and stove. The extra weight alone proved that this was Richard’s personal ship—no merc captain would bother with real food prep when a synthesizer could do it for a fraction of the cost and weight.
Loch sat at the end of the first table and gestured me to a seat with a covered plate. I sat and removed the thermal cover. I was greeted with steaming eggs, bacon, and toast. I looked up in awe. “Thank you,” I said.
The corner of Loch’s mouth tipped up. “While I appreciate the fact that you think I can cook, you should thank Veronica. I just saved you a plate before Tiny ate it all.”
I took my time and savored the first real food I’d had since the Mayport. Though simple, the eggs and bacon were delicious.
“Whe
re is Veronica?” I asked when I was finished.
“Last I heard, she was planning to let the kid burn off some energy in the fitness room.”
“Okay. I need to stop by and see how much I owe her and how she’d like the money, then I’m ready. You?”
“I’m ready.”
I could hear the shrieking laughter even before I made it all the way downstairs. Veronica’s voice came from the fitness room, artificially low. “I’m gonna get you!” By the time I made it to the door, Veronica had Lin pinned on the sparring mats and was tickling him breathless.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I said after Veronica had helped her son up, “but I’m getting ready to go out and need to talk to you for a second.”
Veronica pushed her messy hair behind her ears and came over, expression wary. “Should I get Imma to watch Lin?” she asked quietly.
“No, this is not that talk. I’m headed to the bank. How much do I owe you for the supplies and how would you like to be paid?”
Shock, surprise, then mild offense chased each other across her face. “You don’t owe me anything,” she said. “If anything, I owe you.”
“But—”
“No,” she snapped, low and fierce. “I would’ve paid anything to get off that planet. I would’ve given up every last penny. Paying for the supplies that allowed my escape is the least I can do.” She looked like an avenging angel and it transformed her from pretty into stunning.
I bowed low. “Thank you,” I said. “I accept your gift with gratitude.”
She smiled and the stunning goddess was once again a pretty woman. “I should’ve known you would understand.” She returned my bow.
I did understand. Knowing whether to accept a gift on first offer or to refuse once or more was part of my lessons so I didn’t embarrass our House. And if I had refused her generosity, it would’ve been an insult. But not only that, I also knew about the burning desire to be the master of your own future.
“Do you need anything while I am out?” I asked. “Or do you want to go with us?”
Polaris Rising Page 15