by Jet Mykles
He grimaced, his hands closing into fists. “Why do you have to be such an ice-cold bitch all the time?”
“It’s what I’m good at.” She pointed at the door. “Get out.”
He glanced at his hands, sighed, and relaxed them. “Okay, you’re mad. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I just thought --”
“Get out.”
“Beth, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“Get out.”
He moved toward her again. “Come on, sweetheart --”
By feel alone, she ripped a small pistol from its place in a panel just behind the table underneath the security panel. In the last few years, she’d obsessively stashed them all over the room. With deadly aim, she pointed it at him. “Get out.”
His chocolate-brown eyes went wide, his hands going up. “Whoa.”
“I said get out. If I have to say it again, I will shoot you.”
“Beth, you’re tired. I know you’ve been dealing with a lot, what with not catching the Dragon again.”
She nearly shot him just for that. Ruthlessly, she reined in her temper, recognizing that she was near to blowing. Was this the first time he’d been in her room? Had he been there when she was gone? Was he the only one? “You do not want to test me right now, Darren.”
He studied her, no doubt taking in the cold look in her eyes. She knew what it looked like. She’d seen it a lot in the last few years.
He frowned. “Can I at least get my clothes?”
She checked the time by the display near the food dispenser. “You have three minutes.”
“You --”
“Starting now.”
Grumbling, he turned back into the bedroom. She remained where she was, lowering the pistol. She glanced around the room, trying to decide if anything was off. She’d been so tired when she’d come in the previous night, she hadn’t done a thorough check. Careless. Stupid. Could have been fatal. Was she overreacting about him personally? Probably? Darren was harmless. She had little doubt that he’d intended exactly what he said. He liked to have sex with her, and she occasionally liked to let him. He wasn’t an assassin. But he had become tedious.
“I don’t see what I did wrong,” he griped, returning. His pants were on and his shirt as well, although it was unbuttoned. He sat on her couch to shove his feet into his boots.
“And that is precisely the problem. Anyone could use you as a liability to get to me.”
“What?”
“How did you get a key code?”
It was hard to tell with his rich brown skin, but he flushed. “I got a code from one of the security staff.”
“That’s a huge breach of conduct.”
“She knew I was your lover.”
“That’s no excuse. Who was it?”
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“Fine. I’ll just report it.”
“Why are you being a hard-nosed bitch about this?”
She glared. “Anyone could use you to get to me. I’ve told you that before.”
“No one’s after you, Beth.”
She ground her teeth. He didn’t know the half of it. Most of what happened to her was classified. “And your persistence in believing that makes you an even bigger liability. I should have broken with you ages ago.”
He actually pouted. “Why haven’t you?”
She glared at him. “You’re a good fuck.”
He stared at her, gaping. “You say that so coldly.”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah, but ...” He wiped a hand down his face. “I should get turned on when you tell me that, but all I get is the chills.”
“Your problem, not mine. But, good fuck or not, I can’t afford you anymore.”
“You make me sound like some paid dick.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I never paid you.”
He scowled. “So all I’ve been to you is a walking dick?”
“Your words, not mine.”
“You are such a bitch.”
“We’ve established that.”
He growled, shooting suddenly to his feet. He launched himself at her. He was entirely too slow and must have forgotten she was armed. Or he thought she wouldn’t shoot him. He was wrong. She avoided him with ease. By the time he caught himself on the wall, she was ten feet away, with the pistol again aimed at him. Before he’d fully turned to face her, she fired, taking a small chunk out of his shirt and left bicep.
He yelped, clutching his arm. “You bitch!”
She aimed toward his crotch. “Next time, it’s someplace where it counts.”
He didn’t doubt her this time. “Fine.” He grabbed up his jacket from the chair and stomped toward the door. Blood seeped slowly through the fingers he clutched to his arm. “I hope you’re happy when you get horny.”
She sighed when he left. She checked the security panel again to make sure all codes were different and put back the retina scan for access. She didn’t feel safe, but there was nowhere else she could go at the moment. Muttering to herself, she proceeded to check the dozen other weapons she had stashed around the main room, then went to check those in the bedroom and latrine. She poured over every inch of her rooms and found nothing amiss. There probably was nothing to find.
Then again ...
Chapter Twelve
“They haven’t figured out who gave him the code.” Pol paced the carpet of the high-security suite of rooms in which Beth was now staying. “And he won’t tell us who. I’ve tried to get them to interrogate him again, but no one will listen to me.”
Beth shook her head. “He’s probably still mad at me for shooting him.”
“You should have shot his balls off.”
“Darren’s harmless.”
“Harmless, hell!”
Beth flopped back onto the bed, staring at the steely gray ceiling. “It was probably exactly what he said it was.”
“But it could have been something else.”
Beth shrugged. “That’s how it works. It’s part of wearing me down.”
“Do you think the Dragon got him the code?”
“He could have. Just to make me paranoid.”
“Why not give it to an assassin to kill you?”
Beth heard the frustration in her friend’s voice. Pol had been following her through this since the beginning. “I don’t know. To distract me. To put me on guard.”
“Like you haven’t been on guard.”
“To play with me.”
“Play?”
Beth shrugged. “That’s what he does. He stays just out of reach, toying with me. I’m almost sure I’ve only gotten close to him because he wants me to.”
“That’s just ridiculous. He’s good, but he’s not that good.”
Beth had nothing to say to that.
“They found another tap on your personal record,” Pol said softly.
Beth took a deep breath to quell the empty sorrow that welled up. “Bank accounts again?”
“No. History.”
“Again? I thought that file had been raped a long time ago.”
“Don’t use that word.”
“Why not? That’s what it is, isn’t it? Rape?” Beth sat up, unable to contain all of her bitterness. “It’s not physical, but it’s certainly mental.”
Pol came to sit beside her, sliding a comforting arm around her shoulders.
Beth swallowed.
“Are you going to ask for the discharge?”
“I don’t know. I can’t ...” She took another calming breath. “Werner’s got a lead on Dragon that I’ll find out about tomorrow. Maybe we’ll actually catch him this time.”
“And if you don’t?”
Beth leaned into her friend, taking what small comfort she could. “Then maybe I’ll ask for that discharge.”
Chapter Thirteen
Exactly one week later, Beth squatted in the dingy, empty cargo hold of a rundown, decommissioned astroliner, wondering how she’d gotten there.
“Maj
or?” came a subdued voice through her comm.
“There’s no backup?” she whispered, closing her eyes.
“No.”
“The ship’s surrounded?”
“Yes.”
Beth’s gloved hand tightened on the blaster she held between her knees. “No contact with base?”
“No.”
Beth snarled. She’d known this mission stank from the moment Werner had outlined it for her. There was no way in blazes that Dragon was here on this piece-of-shit astroliner, but someone else obviously was. Ever since her team had gotten cut off from their own ship and then from each other, Beth had known this was a trap.
“Fine. The three of you find your way back to the dock. Stay low. I’ll take the north entrance and draw them --” She cut off, hearing a soft scrape in the violet darkness to her left.
“Fox?”
She didn’t answer, eyes rapt on the end of the corridor. She could almost see, but not quite.
“Fox?!”
Scowling, she reached up to flip off her comm unit. The recruits were just going to have to wait. She strained her hearing to try to detect what she feared might be a footfall.
Then the klaxon started, accompanied by whirring lights. The sudden cacophony of sound and light scrambled her senses for a precious moment. She struggled to regain them, a sinking feeling in her gut.
Her eyes almost focused, and she saw the shadow at the end of the corridor, limned by the flashing lights. Was that orange hair?!
She shot wildly, taking the chance she could hit him.
Shouts sounded behind her, forcing her to turn to check it out.
She heard the sizzle before she felt the burn in her back. She shot her to feet but knew it was too late. With a cry of frustration, she fell to her knees, conscious control of her limbs leeching from her brain.
She was out before she hit the floor.
Chapter Fourteen
She found herself bound.
She woke without opening her eyes, maintaining the pretense of being out cold. Trained instinct kept her panic tamped down as she assessed her situation. She was seated in a hard, unyielding seat with an equally hard backrest. Felt like a utility chair with the rubberized seat to prevent slipping and the adjustable leg and arm rests. Binders fastened her thighs to the seat beneath her, and her wrists above her head to the backrest. She listened very carefully as she kept her breathing calm. The low hum of electronics surrounded her, the acoustics giving her the impression of a small room. The hollowness of the sound made her guess she was inside a ship or a utility room on a space station.
What happened? She remembered getting hit. She didn’t remember hitting the ground. Someone had gotten her from behind. Her back felt fine and she’d wakened quickly, so it must have been a stunner. Whoever it was didn’t want her dead. Yet. A chilling thought that she’d just deal with when the time came.
She opened her eyes. She’d been right. Judging from the plated walls, she was in a ship. What she could see of the windowless room was perhaps a meter to either side of her and another two in front of her. It felt like the wall behind her wasn’t too far away, but she really couldn’t tell. A few of the panels on the walls looked like they might open, but none were big enough to admit a human, so the door must be behind her. A freestanding console sat to her left, the monitors facing away.
She flexed her hands. Damn! The muted feeling and a glance up told her that there were nerve binders around her wrists. Similar around her thighs. She could feel, but her movement responses to her extremities were nearly useless. A small current from the binders would keep her circulation going, so whoever had her meant to keep her bound, but functional for the future.
Why am I still alive?
Her armored suit was gone. She was left in her rumpled skivvies. The short, ribbed tank and matching shorts were rumpled but dry, so she must have been here for a while. Any perspiration from wearing her suit had dried. The temperature in the room was perfect, so she wasn’t cold and the seat holding her had long since adjusted to her body temp.
Who had captured her? Who had bound her?
The sound of a door shushing open behind her served as warning that answers might be forthcoming. She was too keyed up to close her eyes and feign sleep.
The first thing she saw was orange hair. Orange like a blazing fire, shining in a long ponytail over one broad shoulder. It fell forward in loose waves just past her right arm, followed by a face that had haunted her for many standards now.
Surprise and anger warred for dominance in her brain, winning out over fear. “Dragon.”
He smiled brightly, leaning over with his weight on the back of her seat. “Hey there, Fox.” His voice was deep as thunder and ridiculously chipper. “How’s it going?”
She breathed in through flared nostrils. “I’m a bit tied up at the moment,” she said, keeping her voice calm to match his. “Think you could lend me a hand?”
He made a tsking sound with his tongue and shook his head, causing the loose orange bangs to fall over one twinkling green eye. “Afraid not.” He eyed her wrists with a smirk. “You’re right where I want you.”
Her heart leapt and her mind raced. This wasn’t happening. “Oh?”
“Yep.” He stepped forward, taking that big, luscious body to stand before her knees and turning in front of her. “Right where I put you.”
The son of a bitch was posing, and damned if she didn’t look. He’d gotten bigger. Wider. More filled out. He’d been muscular before, but somehow he was all mature now. In all the right places. His green flightsuit hugged every line of every muscle, bulging with his biceps as he crossed his arms over his massive chest. His hair was much longer then when she saw him last, well past his shoulders, and the bangs probably reached the tip of his nose when they weren’t tossed out of the way. Those emerald eyes still gleamed. He was better looking than the last time she’d seen him. Damn it.
“Why did you put me here?” she demanded, pinning her gaze to his face to stop it from wandering to other prominent bulges below his waistline.
“I caught you. I get to keep you.”
“Care to run that by me again?”
He laughed. “I get to keep you. At least for a little while.” He hooked a foot into the rungs of a stool that sat before the console and brought it to the floor between her legs. “Until we get where I’m taking you.” He sat.
“Until you ...?” She hissed in a breath when those big, warm hands splayed on her thighs, just above the restraints, just below her shorts. You’ve got to be joking! He didn’t intend ...? “Care to tell me why you kidnapped me?”
The look he turned up to her could almost be innocent. Except that she knew there wasn’t a remote chance there was an innocent bone in his body. “Certainly. I was paid to catch you.”
“What?”
“That whole mission you were on? It was a trap.”
“A trap. Why?”
“To catch a fox.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s funny. I’ve been trying to catch you for years now.”
He watched his fingers trail over her brown skin. “I know. Ironic that I ended up catching you, isn’t it?”
Dozens of questions and demands buzzed in her head, making it hard to choose just one to ask. “Who paid you to catch me?”
He cocked his head to the side, blazing hair falling over his shoulder and tickling his nose. “The Emirate.”
“What?”
He nodded.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Actually, it was one of the Emirate VIPs.” He shrugged, his attention dropping back to his hands as he rubbed them over her thighs. “It’s the truth, but I doubt you believe me.”
“Of course I don’t believe you.” This was a surreal conversation. “Why would someone hire you to catch me?”
“Maybe you’ve been saying or doing something bad?” He quirked an amused brow at her. “Have you been a bad girl, Fox?”
Her nostrils flar
ed. He couldn’t be telling the truth. Could he? Could the Emirate itself be behind the attacks and accidents that had plagued her? That would make a certain amount of sense, but why? Not catching Dragon was her only true black mark, and that wasn’t cause for such a rash action. Did the mole reach as high up as she’d suspected? “So your boss in the smuggling ring does work in the Emirate.”
He sat back on the stool, wry amusement lighting his face. “My boss?”
“The smuggling ring you work for.”
He shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong, Fox. I don’t work for the people you’re after.”
She scowled. “Of course you do.”
“No. That’s what you’ve been made to think.” He laughed. “Ironically, I’m the one who planted the information for you to find out about them in the first place.”
She gaped. “That’s absurd.”
His laughter grew. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me, but it’s true.”
“But you just said that someone in the Emirate hired you to catch me.”
“They did. But this was a one-off job. They don’t even know that it was me who took it. We worked through negotiators.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
He reached out and let a hand run down her bare shin, watching his hand as it went. The idle play of his fingers over her sensitive skin was driving her distraction. “It does if you know the full story.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
He studied her a moment, his mobile lips curved into a delighted smile “I think I’ll save that information for now”
She glared. “Negotiators. So you don’t know who hired you.”
“Oh, I’ve got a pretty good idea.”
“Who?”
“We’ll discuss it later.”
“We’ll discus it now.”
He gave her a look. “I don’t believe that you’re in any position for demands, Fox.”
She struggled not to react that that heated look. She was bound, yes, but she didn’t have to just sit back and take it, so to speak.
He shrugged, dropping his gaze back to watch his hands play lightly over her bare skin. “Stars, you’ve got beautiful skin, Fox.”