by Eva Delaney
I clenched my fists on the controls. Were we never going to be free of this man’s damned fiancées?
Polaris made a strange little sound and then coughed to cover it. I frowned but couldn’t ask him about it with the comms on.
“You could have warned me you were coming. I would have sent out the escort before you arrived rather than scrambling to do so now.”
I sighed. So those ships weren’t here to kill us. Yet.
“I don’t need to warn anyone before visiting my own kingdom,” Antares said in Castor’s voice. “Transmit the location of the private docking bay you will reserve for me.” Antares flicked off the comms and slumped back into the co-pilot’s seat.
“Who the hell was that?” Orion said.
“Since those ships are coming from the palace, I’m guessing that’s Queen Asherah of Etrea,” I said.
“It was,” Po said, his voice oddly small and broken.
I shot him a questioning look, but he kept his gaze on his hands in his lap.
“Well, we can’t land wherever she sends us,” I said, “or we’ll never get off this damn ship to find Winters. Everyone strap in. Orion, you take the co-pilot seat. Antares, grab the navigator’s chair with Mr. Pancake. We need you close by to answer any hails. Someone check that the guards and doctor are still strapped in.
“Rux and Hamal, take the guns, but don’t you dare fire a shot unless I say so. Etrea is full of powerful crime syndicates, greedy noble families, and underground cities. We might be able to hide, but not if you open fire on the wrong people.”
“Aye, aye, Commander,” Hamal said.
“Rux?” I snapped.
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, stomping away.
I eyed the oncoming ships from the palace. At least four dozen moon-jumpers, common on Etrea, small, maneuverable, and lightly armed.
I took a deep breath. I could outfly them.
I had to, because the moment we turned away from those ships, they’d know something was wrong. They would do everything in their power to capture us. They might even call in the fleet from the jumpship.
But if we went with them, we’d be trapped in an enemy docking bay. Again. We’d be unable to leave the ship without fighting through an army. We might as well fight them now, in the skies, where I was the best warrior there was.
I tightened my grip on the controls. “All right, here we go. Hamal, Rux, open fire when ready, but only on the moon-jumpers.” I trusted Orion to open the comms to the gunner banks.
“You got this,” Orion said.
“I know,” I said.
I aimed the Invictus at a maze of crisscrossing scaffolding between two of the moons. The air around them shimmered as we neared.
“Are those—” Orion started.
“Vaporizers!” Polaris shouted. “Cal!”
“I see them,” I snapped. Those shields protected the walkways and scaffolding from debris and ships. They would destroy anything that touched them.
And I was flying right at them.
But the thing about Etrea, the thing that made it special, was that it was built for smugglers and criminals. The upper levels might be the fancy domain of a noble engaged to the prince, but the rest was built for people like me.
The security always had gaps. The crime syndicates who relied on smugglers made sure of it.
“I can’t track these vaporizer shields on the scanner,” Orion said, his voice tight with worry.
“Don’t need to,” I said, clenching my teeth.
I eyed the tangle of walkways. In places, the blue-green light of the gas giant gleamed as though reflecting against glass. I scanned, looking for spots where the air didn’t shimmer or shine.
There! A gap. I dove the Invictus between walkways and into a maze of nearly invisible vaporizers.
One wrong decision, a twitch of my hand, or a moment of distraction and we would be dead.
And the galaxy’s last hope would die with us.
All the ship’s alarms blared, warning of our near destruction and of incoming ships. I spared a quick glance at the scanners. Etrean ships picked their way through the maze behind us.
My stomach clenched. My heart started skipping beats, as though preparing for its oncoming permanent pause.
I smiled grimly and hummed low to the sound of the alarms, turning them into a song to help focus my mind.
I weaved the Invictus through the crisscrossing scaffolding, between the vaporizers. I dodged and twisted the ship around every obstacle. My stomach lurched and the blood rushed to my head and I smiled at it all.
Polaris cried out behind me. Antares laughed, the crazy bastard.
“Fuck yeah,” Orion said. “The Supremacy ships have fallen back. They can’t fly through this.”
People on the covered walkways stopped and stared as I whipped past. Others ran for their lives back toward the moons. Warning lights flared on the scaffolding. A moment later the sheen of the vaporizers vanished from the air.
“Okay, scratch that,” Orion said. “They downed the vaporizers and are giving chase. Dagger Star fighter ships incoming!”
“Get Antares on the comms to romance them,” I said.
“I’m not moving from the co-pilot’s seat,” Orion snapped.
“Rux, Hamal,” I said. “Hold your fire. Any ships that go down here will hit those walkways and kill bystanders.”
With the vaporizers down, flying was easy. Almost too easy. Unlike the asteroids around Star Keeper, the walkways didn’t move. I swerved around the scaffolding and aimed toward the nearest moon, scanning its rocky surface for an opening.
“Docking bay open at two o’clock,” Orion said.
“We’re not going there,” I said.
A narrow crack stood open in the moon’s surface. I aimed for it, pushing the Invictus to fly as quickly as it could without jumping into a fraction of the speed of the light.
The dead, rocky surface rose up to meet us. The jagged crack in its ground was too narrow for this wide ship. At the last moment, right before we crashed, I yanked the controls, jerking the Invictus up onto its side. We zoomed into a dark, twisting tunnel.
Polaris started screaming.
I had to keep the Invictus on its side as I jerked around tight corners and rising pillars of rock. I flipped the ship level to dart through a wide opening, then twisted it up onto its side to avoid crashing into a wall.
“Orion, get on the scanners,” I ordered. “And start looking for a cavern or a docking bay.”
“On it.”
There were hundreds of hidden ports in the Etrean underground. We just had to find one before we hit a dead end in this old mining tunnel.
“Anyone following us?” I said.
“No,” Orion said. “You lost them.”
I laughed in relief. Antares laughed his usual mad laugh.
“Up ahead,” Orion said. “You’ll have to make a tight ninety-degree turn.”
I nodded and slowed the ship, but not to a crawl; that would be careless when someone might catch our trail again.
“There!” Orion said.
I eased the Invictus around the corner. It jerked as its side hit a wall, and I pulled it to a stop before a battered hanger door.
Orion flicked on the comms. “Anyone there? This is—”
“Captain Calpurnia Bellatrix,” I cut in.
He shot me a look. “Am I good for anything on this mission?” he said.
I shrugged. “I’m known here among the underground. You’re not. I’m on a new smuggling mission,” I added into the comms.
Silence answered us for a long moment.
“Maybe…they might let me in,” Po said. “Let me try—”
He was cut off by the hanger door groaning open.
I grinned sidelong at Orion, who watched me with his eyes wide and stunned. Impressed, I thought. Maybe he was finally seeing who and what I was now.
“That was spinny enough,” Antares said.
I shot him a smile and he grin
ned back.
Polaris, in the passenger chair, held his stomach and looked like he was about to puke as he stared at the hanger doors. The poor guy wasn’t used to rough flying.
“Hamal will get you some anti-nausea medicine,” I said and turned back to the waiting docking bay. “Welcome to Etrea. Hive of scum, villainy, and excellent shopping.”
Chapter 23
“The good thing about Etrea,” Antares said as we stood around the ship’s open ramp, “is that you can bribe anyone. The bad thing about Etrea is that—”
“You have to bribe everyone,” I said. I eyed the tiny docking bay we had landed in. It was more junk yard than docking bay. Ceiling-high mountains of scrap metal and ship parts lined the walls. The smell of grease and stale fish wafted from the puddles leaking out from under the scrap heaps. The owner stood by in a stained gut-hugging t-shirt.
I curled my lip at the sight of him and turned back to Orion. He stood a bit apart from the rest of us, shoulders hunched toward his ears and head down.
“My contact says they spotted Agent Winters,” Antares said, breaking into my thoughts. “But they don’t work for free. To track what she did here and where she ended up going, we’re going to need to bribe them.”
Hamal turned to me. “How much money did General Brison provide for the mission?”
Well, shit. She provided none because I left before the final debrief when she would have given me the money.
We were dead broke.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Castor took the funds card when he captured me.”
Rux rolled his eyes. “You didn’t think to give it to one of us first?”
“We were fighting for our lives,” I said. “Money was not my first thought.”
“Or you were distracted by your fight with lover boy,” he hooked a thumb at Orion.
Ori stared at his feet as he nudged a piece of debris with his toe, his hands deep in his pockets.
Staring at him made a stab of pain go through my heart. Something was wrong, and I had to find a way to help him.
“Nobody thought to ask for the funds card,” Hamal said. “We all had bigger worries at the time. No need to argue over something that is done and over with.”
At least one of these men was reasonable.
“What do we do now?” Hamal said, meeting my gaze. He gave me one of those warm smiles, and I felt heat creep up my neck. I glanced away quickly before it spread and Orion noticed.
“The Invictus is worth a lot,” I said, staring up at the black and red ship. “And we are standing in a chop shop.” I gestured to the small hanger crowded with parts. The owner glared at us, probably for bringing a Supremacy ship to his hidden base.
“You trying to strand us?” Rux grumbled.
“We steal a new ship when we’re ready to leave,” I said.
“Everything is a scam with you people.”
“You’re on a smuggling and hunting mission,” I told him. “What did you expect?”
“What about our captives?” Rux said.
“They’ll be unconscious for a few more hours.” We had hit them with stun bolts before landing. “So, we’ll leave them on the ship. They’ll be the new owner’s problem. If all goes well, we should be ready to leave Etrea before they wake up and snitch.”
I glanced back at Orion who kept his hands deep in his pockets. I remembered something he had said during our flight.
Am I good for anything on this mission?
After his panic earlier, he must be feeling insecure.
I turned back to the crew. “Hamal and Antares, sell the ship to that angry man over there.” Antares would know how to strike a deal with a seedy dude, and Hamal would know how to keep Antares in line without starting a fight. “The rest of you wait here. Orion?”
He met my gaze with sorrow in his eyes. My heart clenched painfully. I nodded at the ship to tell him to follow. “Can I talk to you alone for a moment?”
We strolled up the ship’s ramp and met by the gun banks, far enough away from the open door that the others wouldn’t hear us.
“You gonna help me forget my troubles?” Orion said with a mischievous grin.
“Yes,” I said. “But not like that. Talk to me, Ori, while we have a few minutes to spare. What’s the matter?”
His grin melted off his face. “Cali,” he reached out and took my hand in his warm, rough one. His thumb traced the sensitive skin of my palm and made me shiver, thinking of what else that thumb could do.
Damn, being trapped with men on a small ship was getting to me again.
“Cali, I want things to be like they were before we were framed, before prison, before I lost you.”
“We said a fresh start, to avoid the mistakes of the past.”
“I know, but…” Orion took a deep breath. “A fresh start means being this.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’d rather forget about everything that happened. When I see you, I see who I used to be, and I want to be that again.”
I pressed my lips together.
“We were part of a family then. I want that again, too. But…is there room for me here? I mean, everything I used to do on our last team, you want to do now or one of the other men does it.”
“Ori, I just….” I trailed off, unsure of how to comfort him.
He nodded. “You got used to living without me.”
“Without anyone.”
He stared at our intertwined hands. “I know. You grew up and don’t need my help anymore.”
I tensed. It sounded like an accusation and I didn’t like it. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t need me to help lead the crew. You don’t want me to help you relax or offer comfort when things get stressful. You don’t want me to pilot. You don’t need me to co-pilot because you’re the best damn pilot I’ve ever seen. What’s left for me in your new life? You don’t want old me back, and new me is…the guy who panics and blows our cover.”
“Orion,” I said, “I always wanted old you and new you and every kind of you. I loved you even when I thought I hated you.”
He smiled at me with his eyes gleaming, as though about to cry.
“You’ll always be a part of me. You’re ingrained in my heart like my own blood.”
“But you used to need me; you don’t anymore,” he said.
“True, but now I want you. That’s better because it means I choose you freely.”
“Fuck, Cali, can I just pretend to be who I used to be? Pretend to be…I don’t know. Useful? Needed?”
I frowned. “There will be plenty for you to do before this mission is over, just not the same things you used to. Plus…there’s something else I want you for.” I grabbed his round ass in both hands and yanked him against me.
Orion grinned that mischievous grin. He pushed his knee between my thighs and forced my legs apart.
I glanced sidelong down the corridor toward the open ramp. “The others might hear or even see.”
“Good,” Orion growled against my mouth. I shivered. “They’ll see that you’re mine.”
I pulled back from his lips and he groaned in frustration.
“You don’t own me,” I said.
“At this moment, I do.” Orion tangled his fist in my hair and pushed his lips to mine. His kiss was hot and fierce, and my mouth opened for him automatically.
I pressed a hand against his hard chest and forced him back a step. I glanced at the open ramp door and back at Orion. He was breathing hard. His jade eyes had gone from sad to hot and hungry.
Like when he was younger. Like when we were both younger and things were easier.
“Fuck it,” I muttered, hooking a finger into the waistband of his pants and pulling him between my thighs. “You want to be useful? Give me that cock. Quick and hard. Make me come.”
“Yes, Commander,” Orion said with a smirk.
This wasn’t a good time, but after days in tight quarters with these attractive men, I couldn’t turn h
im down. When Orion thumbed my nipples through my flight suit, all reason fled my mind.
We didn’t have much time, so I unhooked his belt buckle and yanked his jeans down around his taut ass. I hooked my hands underneath his tight briefs and pushed them down.
He was already hard, his length reaching toward me.
He chuckled against my mouth. “You’re thirsty, Commander.”
“No, I’m soaked and you’re going to take a drink.”
Orion smiled. His hands rubbed over my hard nipples before grabbing the front zipper of my flight suit and pulling it down.
I let go of him to slip my arms from the suit and he pushed it down past my knees. I hadn’t shaved because there were no sonic skin treatments on the Invictus, but Ori didn’t care as his hands grazed my thighs.
I didn’t bother to pull my boots off. No time for that. I stepped on the suit to pull it all the way off. Thanks to Orion’s rough, skilled hands, my panties came down right away. I shuddered where his hot, calloused hands—a warrior’s hands—trailed over my skin.
Fuck, I needed this. I needed him to clear my mind of the other men.
Orion dropped to his knees, and I slung a leg over his broad, strong shoulder. He grabbed my bare ass with both hands. Tangling a hand in his soft hair, I pushed his face against my pussy.
Orion complied, his tongue working its way from my opening to my clit and back. I bit my lip to stop myself from moaning so the others wouldn’t hear.
I looked down at him and he turned his green eyes up toward me, meeting my gaze with that hungry, needy look. He sucked my clit into his mouth.
“Fuck, yeah,” I said. His tongue pressed against my most sensitive spot, rolling up and down. With every movement of his mouth, hot pleasure rolled through me.
My orgasm was building fast. No wonder I kept having misplaced thoughts and feelings about the others. All I needed was a good fucking.
“Cock, now,” I ordered.
Orion chuckled; his breath hot on my wet pussy. I moaned, low and quiet in the back of my throat.
“Against the wall?” he said, looking up at me.
I nodded.
We had done this before and moved perfectly together like a common maneuver in our fighter ships. He stood and grabbed my ass, hoisting and pressing me against the wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he thrust inside me, one long smooth movement that filled me right to his balls.