“No.” He cleared his throat. “No. You were right.”
But hell, he never would have chosen to have Brookins and Ash on the same ship. They were both anomalies, which meant they were both slightly crazy. They didn’t know how to fail, and both thought there was no limit to what they could do. If Brookins had been one of his cadets, he and Ash might have been able to work things out. But Brookins had been trained by Arek. When anomalies from different instructors were in close proximity, fights tended to break out. They all thought their instructors were the hardest, the most demanding, and they had an irrationally strong will to prove it with their fists.
The only reason more brawls didn’t break out on warships was because anomalies tended to keep their identities to themselves. It was too late for that with Ash and Brookins. When Ash had escaped the Obsidian, she’d put a bullet in Brookins’s chest. Brookins would kill her.
Or Brookins would try to kill her.
And Ash would try to kill him back.
Hell.
“As I was saying before, Commander, I need you on my team. I need you to keep Lieutenant Ashdyn under control. I want to know who those two men she killed were and where her funds disappeared to.”
“I’m not your spy.”
“No.” Her voice turned cold. “But you are a commander in the Coalition’s Fighting Corps. If you want to remain one, you will follow your orders.”
“My orders don’t include violating a soldier’s free will.”
“They do when that soldier might be compromised.”
“Ash isn’t compromised—”
“Or perhaps it’s you who’s compromised. Charges were dropped against you, but they can be reinstated.”
He turned away from the window, facing her fully and squaring his shoulders.
“They can be reinstated against Ash,” Tersa said. “I wonder what she would do if she were placed back into a cell.”
He froze.
“I wonder what she would do if you were placed in a cell.”
A chill shot up his spine. Tersa had seen it, that momentary look of insane fury that had come into Ash’s eyes when she’d realized he’d stood before a jury in that underground room. The loyalty training was supposed to keep anomalies from snapping, but the program was young. It had less than five years of implementation. It might not be 100 percent effective.
Ash hadn’t liked it when they’d landed on Meryk and he’d been led away for questioning, but he’d prepared her for it. He’d told her his debriefing would take some time. He hadn’t told her charges were still pending against him. If he was suddenly thrown into a cell…
Not knowing how Ash would react… that terrified him.
He made himself breathe, made his fists relax and his shoulders hang loose. Never let opponents see they’re getting to you.
“I’ll do my job.”
“I expect no less,” Tersa said. “And you will be completely professional around her. The fourth indictment against you was dropped, but if I have to reinstate charges, I will.”
Charges of an inappropriate relationship between a senior officer and an individual under his command. He was guilty of that crime. The panel knew it, and yet they’d “found no evidence of wrongdoing.”
“Think about it, Commander,” Tersa said. “Have a good evening.”
After she exited the lounge, Rykus ran a hand over his short-cropped hair. He stared at the polished surface of the nearest circular table. His life had once been just as simple and smooth. It had been structured and promising and full of accomplishments that he could wave in front of his father, who’d never approved of his enlistment in the Coalition’s Fighting Corps. But then Ash had struck across his path. She had blemished his record. He wasn’t the same man anymore.
He didn’t want to be the same man.
“For someone who doesn’t give speeches, you sure deliver a good one.”
He tensed. Ash’s voice came from the back entrance, the one that led to the jogging track. When Rykus turned, a temptress leaned against the doorframe. The bright lights of the rec deck highlighted the curves of her body. Spending time with her on the Fortune’s Citadel had been a mistake. Now that he’d thoroughly touched and kissed every millimeter of her skin, he couldn’t remove her memory from his mind. But he had to. And he had to stay away from her. At least during this mission. It wasn’t just Tersa’s threats. They weren’t supposed to serve together. He wasn’t supposed to be in a position of authority over her.
“My favorite was the part about not coming back from the dead. Lots of laughs at that.”
He deepened his scowl and fastened his comm-cuff back on his wrist. There was temptation in her teasing smile. He wanted to give in to it.
Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Nice of you to finally show up.”
“I ran into a bit of a delay.” She shrugged a shoulder and moved away from the door, which slid shut behind her.
“Who were they?” he asked.
“Never seen them before in my life.” Her hips swayed when she approached.
“Not even when they tailed you?”
She paused a few paces away. “Maybe I thought the prime put a shadow on me. I would have hated to kill one of her people.”
“And maybe you were careless. I thought I trained you better than that.” It was safer to be critical than to be concerned.
“You did.” She propped her hip up on the back of a couch. “I might need another lesson.”
He ignored the suggestive lilt in her tone, demanded again, “Who were they?”
“Hired thugs.”
“Why would they be hired to kill you?”
“You can probably figure it out.”
“Ash.”
She crossed her arms, mirroring his posture, but the way she clenched her jaw betrayed the tension running through her. Likely, his tone was plucking at the loyalty training.
He blew a breath out between his teeth. “Fine. Don’t tell me.”
A vee formed between her brows.
“It’s your choice.” He turned away. He’d find out who the thugs were another way. He wouldn’t use his power over Ash to force the truth from her.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked to the window that overlooked the jogging track. Now that the assembly had dispersed, soldiers and spacers began to reclaim the lanes.
“How much digging did you do into my finances?” Ash asked.
This time it was his turn to frown. “What do you mean?”
“When I was on the Obsidian,” she said. “You investigated me. You tried to track down where my credits disappeared to. Did you make any progress?”
“Very little,” he admitted. Ash should have been among the wealthiest 20 percent of the Coalition, but according to the records he’d studied, for most of her enlistment, she’d been among its poorest citizens.
She pushed away from the couch and approached. “They went to Glory.”
“To Glory? Why?”
Her gaze dropped to his boots, then slowly rose back to his face. “Are you going to tell Tersa?”
“I’m supposed to.” His tone had deepened, a reaction to her close proximity. He tried to ward off the heat she caused to ricochet through his body, but Seeker’s God, she smelled good. Despite her terribly fitted body armor and the fact that her hair was falling loose from the band she’d pulled it back into, she was alluring. She always had been.
“It would be our secret,” she said. A simple sentence, not a simple meaning. She wanted him. She’d have him right there, right now if he gave her the slightest sign.
His hand tightened at his side. One small movement and he could place it on her hip.
Get it together, Rykus.
“You haven’t integrated with your team.” He threw the words at her in self-defense.
Ash stiffened. “We were put on guard duty. There wasn’t much need for integration.”
“You know what I mean. If you go into combat, they need
to trust you. And you need to trust them.”
“It’s not a matter of trust, Rip.” She moved away. He’d succeeded, thrown her off her game. A part of him was disappointed.
“I know,” he said. “How are you sleeping?”
She looked sideways at him, a smile bending her lips. “I’d sleep better if you were with me.”
An image of her naked body flashed into his mind. She was spread across his bed on the Citadel, inviting him to take her.
He swallowed back his lust. “I walked right into that one.”
“You did,” she said. Then she reduced the space she’d put between them.
He held up a hand. “Ash. We can’t.”
“That’s not what you said on the Citadel.”
“The tachyon capsule was…”
Her eyebrows lifted, probably waiting for him to say “a mistake.” It wasn’t. What they had between them was only complicated.
He lowered his hand. “I’m in a position of authority over you.”
Ash opened her mouth. He knew her well enough to predict a quip about sexual positions, so he cut her off with an “It’s wrong.”
She folded her arms. “We already had this discussion.”
“We weren’t supposed to be together. To be working together. We were supposed to be on opposite sides of the universe.”
“Yeah. Things are different now. I get that,” she said. “What I don’t get is why you don’t want to give this a chance. Did someone threaten you? Did Tersa threaten you? Because I have a whole arsenal of threats I can fire back.”
The sudden fierceness that edged her eyes made his gut clench. He couldn’t tell her the truth. She’d lose it. She might not snap, but she’d do something rash, something the Coalition couldn’t ignore no matter how much they needed her to detect telepaths. He had to make it through this assignment, be completely professional, then figure out how to make things work with Ash.
But Ash wasn’t the type of person you could simply say “wait” to. When she wanted something, she went after it. So he made his expression cold and merciless. Any normal person would recognize the warning and back off.
Ash sniffed. “I didn’t think you’d cave so easily to a public perception problem.”
“It’s not public perception.”
“If I hadn’t enjoyed the time on the capsule so much, I might feel used.”
“You’re getting petty.”
“And you’re being an asshole.” She let the last word hang for a second, then added, “Sir.”
It knifed through him exactly as she’d intended. He should demand the term of respect from all his subordinates, but Ash’s “sirs” had always felt like shrapnel between the ribs. He didn’t want to hear that word from her. He wanted other sounds on her lips: her heated moans and pleasured gasps, his murmured name.
“You should prep for the mission,” he said.
Ash’s hands were curled into fists. She took one deep breath, two deep breaths, then her fingers relaxed and the tension whooshed out of her.
She toyed with the comm-cuff looped around her wrist. “You hate the prime’s plan.”
“You hate it too,” he said.
“It’s the wrong target. And it feels like a detour.” She let her hand fall away from her cuff. “Did you notice how certain she was about Valt?”
“Yeah.”
“If he’s manipulated his interrogators…”
His eyes locked on hers. “If I find out he’s manipulated anyone, it’ll be a race to see which one of us kills him first.”
Ash’s smile dented his defenses. There were no pretenses in it, just a rare, raw sincerity he’d travel through hell to glimpse again.
“If you find out why she trusts him, you’ll tell me?”
He kept still, careful not to let the emotion he felt in his chest show in any way. If she knew how much those smiles weakened his resolve, she would use the weapon every chance she had.
“I’ll tell you,” he said. “If you elaborate on the ‘to Glory’ thing.”
The light in her eyes changed, morphing into an emotion that bordered on mischievous. “Why do you think I’m sending funds to Glory?”
“If I knew, I would have been able to follow the credit trail.”
“Take a guess.”
“Just tell me.”
“Too easy, Rip.”
Her nickname for him was distracting. So was the way that thin braid had slipped from her hair band. His fingers ached to reach out and touch it.
“You’re procrastinating,” he said. Ash had probably made the braid slip free on purpose.
“Maybe.”
He let out a sigh. Then he played her game. “You have a child you’re taking care of.”
Ash burst out laughing. It was the reaction he’d wanted. Genuine emotion from a woman whose every glance and movement was calculated.
“That doesn’t even count as a guess,” she said. Her eyes were as clear and vibrant as he’d ever seen them.
“Just tell me. What’s important to you on Glory?”
“You really should be able to figure it out.”
He frowned. More than three-fourths of Glory’s population was destitute. Crime was rampant. So was corruption. Things hadn’t improved at all until a few years ago, when the aid organizations began to more effectively distribute…
His eyes widened.
“The aid workers?” he said, remembering from her records one brief reference to an individual who’d sponsored Ash’s enlistment into the Fighting Corps. “You’re funding them?”
She slouched onto a couch cushion and propped her feet up on the low table in front of her. “In a way.”
“The Coalition would be able to trace that.”
“True.” She crossed her ankles. “But I’m not funding them via the Coalition. The government wouldn’t use the credits the way it should.”
“So the money is going where?”
“It’s going directly into the pockets of Glory’s crime bosses.”
He felt his jaw go slack. “The bosses you escaped?”
“Yep. The bosses who control everything, including who is and is not allowed to operate businesses in certain precincts.”
“GalactiCorps is an aid organization, not a business.”
She shrugged. “The only reason the workers aren’t dead is because I pay for their protection. It’s bribe money, Rip. The Coalition would have discharged me if they’d found out.”
He shook his head. He wasn’t denying the truth of what she said, but the reality was slow to sink in. His anomaly was protecting aid workers on Glory, a planet she despised. Ash put on a front of being hard, independent, and remorseless, but she had a heart she kept hidden. He’d seen glimpses of it before, but he’d never known just how deep her compassion could go.
“You surprise me sometimes,” he said softly.
She gave him a small half smile. “It’d be a boring universe if I didn’t.”
Boring and cold and gray. Since he’d allowed himself to admit that he’d fallen for her, she had become the spark that linked the galaxies together. Without her, life was as dead as a world without an atmosphere.
“You haven’t transferred anything in two months,” he said, another piece of the puzzle slipping into place. “That’s why you were attacked.”
“Probably.” She lowered her feet from the table, leaned forward to rest her arms on her knees, then changed both the pitch of her voice and the subject. “I know a secret.”
The words dangled there in front of him, a musical lure he should sail away from.
Leave, he ordered. Leave now.
When he glanced at the exit, she stood. Her steps toward him were smooth. Deliberate. He stiffened, and Ash stopped and arched an eyebrow.
“Afraid of what I’m going to do in a public lounge?” she asked.
“No.”
“I was just going to tell you an interesting bit of information I picked up.” Her gaze traveled down his body, the
n back up. “That idea wouldn’t have entered my mind of you hadn’t flinched.”
“I didn’t flinch.”
“You really think I’d try something here?” She waved her hand toward the Fleet-blue couches.
“It wouldn’t be your worst place or timing.”
She laughed. The sound speared straight to his heart and wrapped his willpower around her fist. He should have left the moment she’d walked in. He almost started for the exit now, but the end of her laugh didn’t have the same amount of amusement as the beginning of it had, and when he looked closer, he saw the pain she tried to keep hidden behind her green eyes.
The worst timing had been when they were on Ephron trying to evade capture by the Coalition soldiers who’d murdered War Chancellor Hagan. She’d been out of her mind with grief over her lost teammates and… Well, Rykus had obviously been out of his mind too. He’d kissed her, not with the intention of what came next, but to bring her back from her nightmare.
“Sex in a combat situation.” Ash dropped her voice to a whisper and eased closer. “Incredibly hot but a very bad idea. You preferred the tachyon capsule.”
She was close now, close enough he could reach out and touch her. If he wanted to.
He wanted to.
But he knew what she was doing. She was diverting his attention away from the fact that she still hurt.
He’d do anything to take that pain away. He could do it. All he needed to do was take her into his arms. But then he’d be lost. He wouldn’t be able to do his job.
“What’s the secret?” His voice sounded rough.
It took a few seconds, but she buried the hurt away, covering it with another smile. “I believe we’ll be entering the time-bend in ten hours. Then we have almost a week until the scheduled meeting with the Sariceans. Any idea what we’re doing with that time?”
Military exercises and drills. The Kaelais was a new ship with an unfamiliar crew. Captain Furyk intended to break her in, but the sparkle in Ash’s eyes said that wasn’t the complete plan. “Enlighten me.”
She moved behind him. “Us anomalies always thought you were spawned straight from hell.” She moved close enough that he could feel the heat of her body but not her touch. “Imagining you as a child, with siblings and parents and all those relationships normal people have… It just wasn’t possible.”
Shades of Honor (An Anomaly Novel Book 2) Page 7