Rayven's Keep

by Wolfe, Kylie

  Nick’s breath shuddered as he struggled for control. He knew it wouldn’t do either of them any good if he gave in to his anger, and he fought to rein in the fury. Retribution would have to wait, because right now he needed to think clearly. Stuffing his emotions into a cold hard knot, he focused on the problem of getting them out of this mess alive.

  Wanting to offer comfort, he urged Tru closer and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She didn’t protest or pull away, but came into his arms with a quiet sigh. Relieved, he held her close, ignoring the fire in his ribs. He made a silent promise to himself that before he was done, Crowder would regret ever laying a hand on her.

  He rubbed his hand up and down her arm while he considered their options. He was still wearing the leather and metal cuff around his wrist, which connected him to his ship and to Siren. He wasn’t surprised Crowder and his men hadn’t bothered to search him thoroughly. They were big on brawn, not so much on brains and probably assumed his blaster was the only weapon he carried. Big mistake.

  Nick suspected they were going to be left alone until Geir showed up. He was sure Crowder had been acting under orders, and being locked in this room meant Geir was not on the planet yet. Obviously, he required them to be stowed away until his arrival, which bought Nick some time, although he couldn’t be sure how much.

  Thinking quickly he ran through scenarios until he had a rudimentary plan. It relied too much on luck for Nick’s peace of mind, but he didn’t have a lot of options. Geir could not be allowed to escape and the only way to be sure was to remain where they were until he could get the authorities to show up. He knew it was risky and dangerous, but he was certain Geir would keep coming after Tru until he got what he wanted unless he was neutralized. This would be their best opportunity to see that happen

  Nick contacted Siren and succinctly laid out what he wanted done.

  “Are you sure this will work?” Tru asked.

  “We don’t have much choice here, Tru. There is no way out of this room other than through the door and I would bet my last credit Crowder and his men are guarding it.”

  “But can Siren handle this? What if she can’t get the authorities here in time? What will happen then?” Her voice shook and she pulled away from him to sit up.

  “I admit a lot is riding on Siren here, but she has already proven herself to be very capable, right? Remember she has already interacted successfully with Zeegret Station. They never knew she was a computer and accepted her requests without question. There is no reason to doubt she’ll be able to do the same here. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you are safe. I won’t allow Crowder to get his hands on you again.”

  She looked at him, her eyes large and haunted with shadows, and he reached up to brush a curl away from her cheek.

  “Okay.”

  Her complete trust in him was humbling, and he struggled with his decision even though he knew it was their best option.

  He had no idea how long they’d been held in the storage unit. There were no windows and only a dim glow bulb overhead. Time ceased to have any real meaning. Tru dozed by his side, jerking awake at every slight sound, but Nick stayed alert knowing it was too dangerous to let his guard down enough to give in to the pain and weariness pummeling him. Instead, he concentrated on the feel of her beside him and the way her hand rested soft and warm on his chest.

  Once she’d drifted into a deeper sleep, he shifted enough to slip his knife from its sheath in his boot and hide it within easy reach.

  * * * *

  Anto Geir’s angry voice carried through the walls and warned of his presence long before the doors were unlocked and shoved open. Nick had just enough time to struggle to his feet and make sure Tru hid, protected behind storage containers in the far corner.

  “Where’s the little slut? Come out, come out wherever you are,” Geir sneered in a singsong voice.

  A snide smile plastered on his sweating face, he strutted into the room. He was followed closely by Crowder and his two cohorts, who were heavily armed and doing their best to exude menace in spite of their injuries. Nick leaned a shoulder against the wall as if he didn’t have a care in the world. It brought Geir up short.

  “Anto Geir, I presume?” Nick straightened, forcing his aching body to move with a fluid grace he was far from feeling. He let the smile drop from his face. His gaze flickered dismissively over Crowder and his men, and he was satisfied to see the shock that crossed their faces when they found him standing instead of insensible on the floor.

  “You must be Rayven,” Geir stated, keeping his distance and glancing quickly around as if to make sure Crowder’s men protected him.

  “Right on the first guess.”

  “You don’t look so tough. My boys gave you quite a beating by all appearances. Ruined that pretty face of yours.”

  Nick shrugged. “Appearances can be deceiving. You, on the other hand, look exactly like I pictured you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” He took a threatening step forward, but then a hasty step back when Nick crossed his arms over his broad chest, raised an eyebrow and turned his expression mocking. Geir bristled, his outrage almost palpable, but he didn’t move.

  “Just shoot him and let’s be done with this,” Crowder snarled. His gaze darted around the room, his unease unmistakable

  “Shut up. Shut up!” Geir yelled, rounding on Crowder. Spittle flew from his mouth and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. Obviously struggling for control, he added in a calmer voice. “I’m in charge here. No one is shooting anyone until I say so.”

  Geir seemed agitated, his movements jerky. Sweat slicked his face and his fingers drummed against his thigh without any discernible rhythm. Nick was surprised to see the telltale signs of a serious drug addiction and hoped he could somehow use it to his advantage. He wondered if Geir was somehow mixed up in the ring distributing the latest designer drug. Geir didn’t strike him as having the intelligence to mastermind the complexity of a drug ring, but it was a possibility albeit a remote one. A more likely scenario was Geir was just a convenient cog in the wheel being manipulated by someone more powerful. Geir was foolish enough to get addicted to the product he was handling. From there it was an easy jump to assume Lodestone Mining was involved somehow and Nick cursed, believing the problem was much greater than he originally thought.

  “I want the bitch, Tru Creighton,” Geir demanded, snapping everyone’s attention back to him. “Bring her to me.”

  Crowder started to move toward Tru crouched by the storage containers, but paused when Nick moved to intercept him.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he cautioned, his voice hard.

  “You plan to stop me?” Crowder said. “You and who else? Last, I checked you lost your weapon and I don’t see anyone else here except that sniveling bitch shivering in the corner. Get out of my way or I will finish what I started and kill you.”

  “Call off your bully, Geir, before I do something you will live to regret,” Nick ordered, keeping an eye on Crowder. “You don’t want to push me.”

  “Push you! What are you talking about? Push you? Are you crazy?” Geir’s laughter sounded insane. “I’m in charge here and I give the orders. In case you have forgotten, Rayven, I have the weapons and you have nothing. I want Tru. She’s going to pay for what she did and you can’t stop me.”

  “Don’t be too sure,” Nick answered, pinning Crowder with a look, watching closely for any sudden move he might make. Shoulders square, hands loosely at his sides and balancing on the balls of his feet, Nick was ready to move if Crowder so much as twitched in Tru’s direction.

  Tight-lipped, he pushed away the grinding pain in his ribs and the ache of bruised muscles, not allowing them to divert his focus. His knife blade was hidden in his hand, ready to use, and he didn’t doubt for a second his first target would be the thug in front of him.

  “I don’t think your boss is going to appreciate you harming the granddaughter of Maddox Creight
on, do you? I’d bet my last credit whoever he is, he likes doing business in the shadows and harming her is guaranteed to cause him all kinds of problems,” he continued in a conversational tone, risking a shot in the dark he was right about Geir. “You and I both know Creighton is a powerful man and will stop at nothing when it comes to protecting his family. He’s dangerous to mess with, but not nearly as dangerous as I am. I will hunt you to the ends of this universe if you hurt her, and I will destroy whomever you are working for just for the hell of it. Mark my words.”

  “Hey, you didn’t tell us she’s that kind of Creighton,” one of the men flanking Geir complained, frowning. “I ain’t messing with him. You’re not paying me enough for that!”

  His companion nodded in agreement, and dropped the muzzle of his blaster.

  “Shut up!” Geir’s eyes bulged. “You’ll do what I tell you, or else.”

  “Or else what?” Crowder demanded, keeping an eye on Nick. “This was supposed to be a simple grab, no complications. If I’d known who she was, I would never have agreed to this job. No one in their right mind messes with her family.”

  “I paid you good credits to get her, now bring her to me,” Anto ordered. He shifted from one foot to the other, his movements more and more uncoordinated.

  “I don’t think so. I didn’t sign on for this,” Crowder snarled. He backed away, his men doing the same. “We’re outta here.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around, Crowder.” Nick’s smile was full of promise. “You can count on it.”

  Anto tore at his sparse hair. “Come back here! I didn’t say you could leave!”

  “Well, now. Things have certainly gotten more interesting, haven’t they?” Nick said with no small amount of satisfaction when Geir paused for breath. His grin broadened; security awaited the three men ready to take them into custody.

  He’d contacted Siren earlier through the com system imbedded in his wrist cuff and given her their location and instructions to alert the authorities when she heard Geir enter the room. She’d kept the com open to record everything that had transpired. It would guarantee Geir and his men would spend some quality time on the prison moon, Purgatory. They would be gone for a long time if he had anything to say about it.

  Tru left the protection of the storage containers and hurried to his side. Nick spared her a glance to make sure she was all right. Through the soft skin of her throat, her pulse beat like a wild thing, but she seemed steady enough. He wanted to grab her hand and pull her closer, but didn’t dare. He needed to keep his focus on Geir. The effort to remain standing was making his head swim and cold sweat popped out along his hairline. All he had to do was stay on his feet long enough for security to arrive.

  Tru stepped nearer and he stiffened. She stopped instantly when he shook his head. He didn’t want her too close in case things went south in a hurry.

  “This isn’t how it was supposed to happen,” Anto said without inflection, “I was going to have a little fun with you before I killed you, you know? I had it all planned out. Once you were out of the way no one would find out about the shipments and what they contained.” He sneered at Tru. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, my dear. You think this is all about the minerals and the paltry profits from their sale, don’t you? You’re wrong. The minerals were a convenient means to an end. No one would ever suspect there were drugs transported along with the minerals. That’s where the money was–not in a few loads of rock going missing.”

  Tru gasped, and he waved a hand in dismissal. “It was so easy. The played-out mine shafts hid the drugs smuggled in by a transport and from there, I made sure it was dispersed to our clients on other worlds. Simple.”

  “Until you started sampling the product,” Nick added.

  Anto rounded on him, rage twisting his features. “Why shouldn’t I enjoy a little of what we’re selling? People were paying a fortune for twist and I got as much as I wanted for free. How was I to know how addictive it was?”

  His mood did a lightning swift change and he quieted. Calmly, he ran his fingers through his mussed hair and smoothed out the lines of his jacket with a sharp tug. “Unfortunately, my superiors in the organization began to get a little suspicious of me and I had to find some way to fix that. Geotern’s discovery was my ticket out of the difficulty I found myself in. I would be invaluable to them if I could deliver that prize.” He turned to face Tru and his mouth twisted into a cruel line as he continued, “But you came along and ruined everything with your snooping. I thought I had it all figured out, had blocked all your exits and it was only a matter of time before you were mine. It was inconceivable you would find a way off world, that you would hook up with Rayven and leave with him. You ruined everything. All my careful plans wrecked.”

  “Who do you work for, Geir?” Nick asked, watching for any sudden moves.

  The man was coming undone before their eyes and there was no way to predict what he would do next. If he were lucky, Nick would get a few more answers before the security force arrived.

  “I can’t tell you. They have a long reach and will kill me if they think I talked to anyone,” Geir murmured, more to himself than to Nick. “I must keep quiet about what I know. Shh. Can’t tell anyone. They will kill me.”

  “They?” Nick prodded.

  Geir shot a pitying look at Tru, who hovered beside Nick. “You don’t know what you have unleashed, do you? So sure of yourself, waltzing in like you owned the place. So disdainful of me and my position within Lodestone Mining. You didn’t think I noticed, but I did. I have to kill you. It is the only way.”

  He reached under his jacket, pulled out a small, palm-sized blaster and aimed it at Tru. Reacting instinctively, Nick shoved her away just as Geir fired. Agony shrieked across his shoulder, igniting nerve endings and leaving him struggling to breathe through the excruciating pain. The force of the shot spun him to the floor, and he dropped his knife.

  Fighting to stay conscious, he wobbled to one knee, trying to gain his feet as the room swam before his eyes. Desperate to locate Tru, he blinked to clear his vision while struggling with uncharacteristic clumsiness to reach his knife. It slipped, his blood-covered hand making it difficult to hold.

  From what seemed like a great distance, he heard shouts as uniformed men burst into the room and forced Geir to the ground, ordering him to stay down and put his hands behind his head. Chaos reigned as Anto was removed, screaming he had to kill Tru at the top of his lungs.

  The knife clattered to the ground, let loose by his nerveless fingers, when Nick realized help had arrived and his strength gave out. He managed to grab Tru’s hand and held it to keep her near, while medical personnel swarmed over him and stripped off his outerwear to expose his wound. Faces swam in and out of focus, and he bit back curses as hands explored his injuries. A groan wrenched through his tightly clenched lips when pressure was applied to his bleeding shoulder. The world went gray and sound receded to a distorted echo in his head as he endured this new assault pushing him to the edge of his control.

  Nick sagged with relief when he was given something to shut off the waves of agony pounding his abused body. Marginally aware of what was going on around him, he clung to the small, warm hand anchoring him to the world. He refused to let go even when he was lifted onto a MedTransport to be taken to the medical facility.

  Drifting in a pleasant haze, he closed his eyes and felt a goofy smile spread across his face. He couldn’t seem to control it and felt laughter bubble just below the surface. He tried to open his eyes to share this problem with Tru, but they refused to cooperate and it suddenly seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

  He gave in and accepted the swirling multicolored world behind his closed eyelids and decided to let someone else worry about the drug-induced smile, which wouldn’t go away.

  Chapter 18

  The astringent smell universal to all medical facilities tickled Nick’s nose and irritated his dry throat. He licked dry lips, aware of a raging thir
st making it difficult to swallow. His thoughts were sluggish as he debated with himself if it was enough to make him want to leave the half-dream world he currently inhabited to ask for water or if he should just let himself drift away again. His body felt heavy, the effort to move impossible to contemplate. The drugs given to him earlier were keeping him pain free, but experience warned him any sudden movement would bring the waves of pain crashing back without mercy, so he lay still.

  Thinking took too much effort, and he could grow to appreciate the medicinal smell surrounding him. It meant he could keep the world at bay for a while longer, so he drifted off, seeking the dark cocoon of sleep to give him its comfort. Time had no meaning there, dreams didn’t harry him with regrets and despair, and Anto Geir was no longer a threat.

  Anto Geir.

  Nick frowned and his mouth tightened, stopping him from fully sinking into the welcome oblivion he sought. There was something he needed to do, something about the name swimming in his thoughts, causing his heartbeat to increase and making him shift uneasily in his bed. Pain lanced through his shoulder. He stifled a groan.

  The soothing darkness behind his closed eyes began to lighten and swirl with gray, gradually resolving itself into colors. Lashes, which felt glued together, parted reluctantly and the blinding light revealed through barely cracked eyelids shot shards of pain through his brain and shocked him back to full lucidity with cruel suddenness.

  “Sonofabitch,” Nick croaked. He squinted against the brightness and tried to focus. The sound of his voice, weak and barely a whisper, was an unpleasant surprise.

  At the rustling of fabric to his left, he turned his head in time to watch Tru launch herself out of her chair to reach his bed. She looked disheveled. Her curls were a riotous halo surrounding her head and her eyes large and bruised-looking in her worried face. Raising his hand off the bedcovers took tremendous effort, but it was worth it when she slipped her hand into his and held on tight. She knelt beside his bed and pressed her forehead against the back of his hand. The wetness of unchecked tears dashed against his bruised knuckles. He raised his other hand to let his fingers slide through her hair before tracing down her wet cheek and lifting her chin so he could see her face.