by JC Cassels
Nix’s eyes widened. “Bo tried to kill you?”
“No. If she’d tried to kill me, she wouldn’t have shot my leg. I’d be laid up in sick bay right now…or in a body bag. She was only making a point.”
“By shooting you?”
“Last time we were together, we didn’t exactly part on friendly terms.” He fastened the waistband of his trousers, then reached up and brushed the towel aside. He pointed to a faint scar on his shoulder. “See this?” He waited for the boy’s nod. “About six years ago, she shot me here to save my life.”
“How does a shot there save your life?”
“I was helping her on a job in the Sixth Sector, and I had to get very friendly with an influential older lady. The lady found out I wasn’t exactly honest in my attentions to her, and was about to have her goons haul me off. Bo had been running surveillance, so when it started to go sideways, she busted in playing the crazy, jealous girlfriend, and shot me. Fortunately, I was smart enough to play dead. It would have destroyed the lady politically to be linked to a murder, so she got out of there as fast as she could. Bo was very pleased with her marksmanship. The studio heads weren’t amused. They had to write the injury into Blue Heaven, the holofeature I was working on at the time.”
“You’ve known Bo a long time, then?”
He pulled a gray undershirt from the hook, replacing it with the towel. “Seven years,” he said. “We used to spend a lot of time together. We were partners.”
Partners? Understanding slowly dawned on him. Nix nodded.
“You’re the reason she has the flight sim?”
“Yep.” Blade pulled the shirt over his head and tugged the shirttail down. “She insisted I learn to fly,” he said. “And you’d have to be a fool to turn down the chance to learn from The Barron, wouldn’t you?”
“Blade Devon is the partner she was training.” Nix shook his head. “Wait a minute…she said she’d kill you if she ever saw you again.”
“She told me that, too.”
Blade leaned against the bulkhead and unrolled a pair of socks. He busied himself pulling them on.
“Yeah but…” Nix tilted his head at him. “She told me that after we went into hyperspace.”
“No kidding?”
“She didn’t know you were on board then, did she?”
Blade grinned and stretched. He scratched the back of his head. “I might have bypassed check-in, and not had a boarding pass.”
“You stowed away!”
A wide grin split Blade’s face. He shrugged in reply, and reached for the scuffed riding boots, turning them upside down and shaking them. A collection of finance cards fell onto his outstretched hand. Blade stuffed them into the back pocket of his trousers.
The magnitude of the situation hit Nix. He couldn’t contain his mirth. If he hadn’t already been a fan of Blade Devon’s holofeatures, he would surely be his biggest fan after that admission.
“Holy Maker! You stowed away on The Barron’s ship…and she didn’t kill you!” He shook his head. “I don’t know anyone who could do that and live to tell about it.”
Blade chuckled and ducked his head. “Well, I’ve never been short of balls,” he said, pulling on his boots. “I was just lucky she wasn’t as angry with me as she used to be.”
“What did you do to make her so mad at you?”
Straightening, Blade smiled. “That is between Bo and me.”
Chastened, Nix’s shoulders slumped. He ducked his head and nodded.
“Hey.”
He looked up and met Blade’s friendly smile.
“Prison food sucks,” Blade said. “Let’s get something decent to eat. If I know Bo, the galley is well-stocked and there’s probably stim tea and sweet rolls. What say we go find out?”
“Sweet rolls?”
“She can’t resist them.”
“I guess you know her really well, huh?”
“You could say that.”
Blade picked up a filthy pile of prison issue clothes and fed them into the autovalet.
“What would you say?”
Blade met the boy’s level stare. “I would say that Bo is everything to me,” he said. “And I will destroy anyone or anything that tries to hurt her. Does that answer your question?”
“No. You said she hates you.”
“She’s angry. She doesn’t hate me. There’s a difference.”
“What difference?”
“She’ll get over being angry eventually.”
“But she shot you.”
“If she hated me, she wouldn’t have shot me in the leg,” he said. His lips quirked in a smile. “There’s nothing wrong with her aim.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Shivering, Bo pulled the blankets higher and tried to burrow deeper into the thin mattress of her bunk. Her hip and shoulder bottomed out against the hard rack. She wriggled, seeking a better position and a spot of warmth. The icy covers shifted around her. She gasped as what little body heat she had leeched from her skin. Her shoulder throbbed. A muscle spasmed in her lower back, radiating pain down her legs.
Muttering a curse, Bo reached up and fumbled along the panel above her. The chrono lit up with the ship’s current time. She sighed and rubbed her hand over her face, wiping the last vestiges of sleep away.
Her prisoner needed medical care. She should have done it before she went to bed.
“How about some light, Sundance?”
Kicking the covers aside, Bo sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bunk, yawning and stretching her aching limbs. The cold air hit her, tightening her flesh and jolting her awake.
The lights rose to a warm glow, not too bright, but enough to make her blink as her eyes adjusted.
“Good morning, Commander,” Sundance said. “I trust you slept well?”
“I froze my ass off,” she snapped. “I don’t like being cold. What the hell is wrong with your environmental systems? Are you trying to kill me?”
“Environmental systems are functioning within desired parameters.”
“No they’re not! They haven’t been functioning within desired parameters for the past two weeks. I keep telling you that, and my quarters keep getting colder! I can see my breath! I don’t like to see my breath in my quarters. Find the problem before I have to build a fire to keep from freezing to death.”
Pushing off the bunk, Bo wrapped her arms around herself for warmth.
Contrary to Blade’s belief, she didn’t sleep naked; not since her quarters got cold enough to hang meat in. She’d taken to sleeping in an oversized gray undershirt he’d left behind. It practically swallowed her. The short sleeves belled wide over her arms and hung past her elbows. The tail of it fell almost to her knees. The Pintubo Racing logo emblazoned across the chest, though faded, was still visible. The material was worn thin and soft in places, holes had appeared at a few seams, but none of it detracted from its comfort.
She shuffled to her locker and pulled it open. Leaning closer, Bo took stock of her reflection, tracing the dark purple shadows under her eyes.
“That’s attractive,” she muttered.
Since when had she cared about her looks? Especially before stim tea?
Her lips twisted. Since the hottest holofeature hunk on two legs decided to break into her ship, that’s when.
With a small shake of her head, she stripped off the shirt and folded it haphazardly. She tucked it between two other garments in the corner of her locker and reached for a set of loose, insulated workout clothes. She pulled them on hastily.
“Sundance, have you run a diagnostic on the environmental systems? Could be a faulty coil on one of the heating units…or the air scrubbers are freezing up again.”
“According to the latest diagnostic, the environmental systems are functioning within desired parameters.”
Bo rolled her shoulders, trying to work the stiffness from them. “Well, look again,” she said. “If you keep freezing me out while I’m trying to sleep, I’m going to take y
ou to Strassis’s Shipyards and trade you in for a luxury yacht. Jermith owes me a favor.”
“You had indicated that you would be placing yourself in medical stasis for the remainder of the journey. The cold would not have bothered you in stasis.”
“Well, if you hadn’t let Blade aboard, I would be in stasis right now,” she snapped. “As long as I’ve got an IC Agent on my ship, I have stay on my guard unless I want to end up dead or in prison. Thanks a lot for that, Sundance.”
“You are most welcome, Commander.”
Shaking her head, Bo left her quarters. If her shipboard computer caved to Blade so easily, how could she expect to remain indifferent to him?
Still shivering, Bo stopped off at the lockers lining the corridor and pulled out a medipak. Guilt over his pain only seemed to compound her own. As miserable a night as she’d had, his must have been worse.
All she had to do was hold her ground until she dropped Blade on Chiron. If she could make it there without disgracing herself by falling into bed with him, she was home free. She’d been celibate for the past five years. What were a few more days?
She headed for the small lounge that housed the ship’s galley and rec area. The rec area also served as a pass through to the port side of her ship, and she needed a cup of stim tea before she escorted him to the lav. Hell, she might even take him a cup.
Teeth chattering, Bo rounded the corner leading into the rec area. She stopped dead in her tracks, gripping the bulkhead handhold to keep from stumbling forward. Larger than life, Blade Devon sat with Nix at her dining table as though he belonged there. The two of them carried on like old friends.
“Sundance, we really need to have a talk about internal security,” she muttered.
“You didn’t even notice there was something wrong with your visor?” Nix asked incredulously.
Blade shook his head and leaned closer to the boy. “It was the middle of the second leg of the race. I was already exhausted, and my eyes were stinging anyway. So I put my helmet on and left the way station as soon as the mandatory rest period was over. I made it roughly halfway to the next checkpoint when my eyes swelled completely shut…”
Not only had he circumvented her security, he’d gone exploring, showered, and changed into a pair of faded black work trousers and a gray undershirt bearing the sharp red, green, and black Pintubo Racing logo, twin to the one she slept in, but in much better condition. If not for the beard, it could have been a scene from five years ago.
“No way!” Nix said. “You were riding a hovercycle, in that terrain, blind?”
Blade nodded, and took a sip from his mug. He set the mug aside and, with his fingers, traced a map on the tabletop. “I was headed north up into the mountains toward the Krashik Pass when I realized there was something wrong. I called my brother who was my crew chief, and told him about my problem. About that time…BAM!!” He slammed his fist into the palm of his hand for emphasis. “I hit the side of the mountain head-on.”
Nix jaw dropped, and he stared up at Blade with something akin to hero worship. “No way! Were you hurt?”
“Hell yeah, I was hurt!” Blade grinned. “I broke my collarbone, three ribs, dislocated my shoulder and ended up with a pretty severe concussion.”
He lifted the tail of his shirt, baring his torso. “And this is all I’ve got to show for it.”
Bo’s knuckles whitened as her fingers tightened around the bulkhead railing.
A jagged scar traversed his ribcage, traced his sculpted abs and disappeared into the waistband of his trousers.
Holy Maker! This was her punishment for calling him flabby.
He’d always joked about having great abs, but that was when he maintained them in a gym and sparring with his brother. There was a world of difference between a body maintained in a gym and one tempered in the fires of battle.
Bo sucked in a deep breath. Her icy toes curled against the cold deck plates.
He glanced up, and met her stare. The mischievous gleam in his eye said he’d known she was there all along.
Bastard!
He took his time pulling his shirt back down.
“Good morning, love,” he said pleasantly, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary for him to be sitting half-naked in her galley.
Bo clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering.
No doubt he’d bared himself for her benefit. It would be just like him, and now he was probably congratulating himself on successfully making her drool over him like a lovesick fangirl.
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “How did you…”
He raised one hand in a small wave. “Problems with authority, remember?” he said, cutting her off.
He held her stare in silent challenge.
“Of course,” she growled. “You’re Blade Freakin’ Devon. What was I thinking?”
He didn’t look at all bothered. If anything, he looked as though he were amused by the whole charade.
Nix grinned at her. “Hi, Bo. I thought you were going to be in stasis for the rest of the trip.”
Bo glared at Blade. “Change in plans.”
Blade nodded toward the medipak in her hand. “Is that for me, or did you want me to take a look at your back and shoulder?”
Nix’s smile faded. “What’s wrong with her back and shoulder?”
Blade slid out of his seat and approached her. “An old injury that bothers her from time to time,” Blade told him with a dismissive smile. “That’s why she wanted to put herself in stasis. Since I’m here, she doesn’t have to.”
“So that’s not just some fake stuff on your bio? You really are a medic?”
“I really am.” He looked her over. “You’re shivering.” Reaching out, he took the medipak from her. His hand brushed hers. “Your hand is like ice.”
“I sleep better in the c-cold.”
He placed his hand on her forehead.
“Not that cold, you don’t. Hey, Nix, get her a stim tea, will you?”
Bo jerked away.
Nix jumped up and retrieved a mug from the galley stores. He set it on the table beside Blade’s and filled it from the carafe.
Blade slipped one arm around her, pulling her up close against his side.
“I don’t need you t-to take care of me!” Bo shoved against him, but he only tightened his hold on her. His body heat seeped through her clothes. She resisted the urge to burrow into his warmth.
“I can see that,” he said. “Your lips are a lovely shade of blue.”
He slowly walked her to the table and set the medipak down. With one hand, he opened it and pulled out the medical scanner. With a flick of his thumb, it hummed to life.
“Stop fighting me, Bo,” he said, taking her vitals. “This is important. You’re in the early stages of hypothermia.”
“I’m f-fine.”
“You’re not qualified to make that call.” He handed the scanner to her. “See for yourself.” He pulled her against his chest, rubbing her, trying to bring heat back into her cold limbs. “Nix, go get a blanket from that locker over there.” He nodded toward a bank of equipment lockers across the lounge.
“Get your hands off me!”
He ignored her efforts to push him away. She may as well have been shoving at a boulder for all the good it did her.
“She may be worse than I thought,” Blade said. “In a more advanced stage of hypothermia, a patient will show confusion and fight you while you’re helping them.” His blue eyes gleamed with mischief.
With a sigh, she stopped struggling. “You’re an unp-principled bastard, you know that?”
He grinned. “So I’ve been told.”
Somehow, he cocooned her in a warm, emergency blanket without loosening his hold on her. Ignoring her outraged squawk, he scooped her up and deposited her on the sofa. He propped her up against a pile of cushions and sat beside her, pulling her legs across his lap.
“Where’s that stim tea?” he asked Nix.
Soon she was settle
d in, drink in hand, while Blade’s hands rubbed warmth into her bare feet. Closing her eyes, Bo inhaled deeply of the wispy tendrils of steam rising from the mug, savoring the aroma and the heat that warmed her cold hands.
She would never admit it out loud, but she’d missed this. Nobody made stim tea as well as Blade.
Her shivering gradually subsided, and her tense muscles finally began to ease.
Opening her eyes, she peered into the dark liquid swirling around her mug. She took a sip, letting it fill her mouth in an explosion of flavors that brought back a wealth of memories better left buried. The tea traced a path down her throat.
She lifted her gaze to the man who’d prepared it.
It was strong and smooth, just the way she liked it.
Just like him.
An amused smile teased the corners of his mouth as he met her stare.
“Oh, shut up,” she said.
His smile widened.
“You’re a stubborn woman, Barron, but I’ve always found that you will respond to reason – eventually.”
The nature of his touch on her bare skin shifted subtly to a more sensual stroke. Bo tried to pull her foot from his grasp, but he tightened his hold.
She glared at him.
He shook his head and mouthed the word, “No.”
With a small sigh, she relaxed against the cushion and took another sip of her stim tea. Truthfully, she didn’t really want him to stop.
“And you say I’m stubborn.” She studied him over the rim of her mug. “What happened to your limp?”
“I took care of that after you turned in,” he said. “What’s going on with Sundance? Why are you halfway to hypothermia?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s really starting to piss me off.”
“You didn’t tell me you knew Blade Devon,” Nix said. “Blade Devon! The Guardian himself! He told me he was the partner you mentioned.”
Bo said nothing, but glared at Blade.
“I was in the shower,” Blade said by way of an explanation. “It was an awkward conversation.”
He grinned and looked to Nix once more. “She’s antisocial when she first wakes up,” he said amiably. “It’s worse when she’s cold. Do you think you can give us a few minutes? Let me get her warmed up and in a better mood.”