by Dani Worth
“I don’t have solid proof. Not enough.” He veered into a wider tunnel. “It’s hard having to do everything from here. What I can’t get, my brother does. But there are still a few missing people I haven’t found.”
“Like Crichton.”
Bastian called out from behind me and I turned. He pointed to another carved section of rock. Looked like a chair of some sort—notched right out of the wall. “Giants,” he said. “I met a couple of giants in Sector Two once. They were sitting outside a bar, on the ground. The bartender wouldn’t let them back inside because they’d broken furniture.”
“Must have been an old bar.” I’d flown all over the galaxies during the years I’d spent angry, and most places were equipped to handle different alien species. I leaned over to whisper, “Why did you really stop me?”
He glanced around me and I turned to find that Jacks was pretty far ahead.
“I don’t think we should become involved in this.”
“What do you mean?” I hissed. “We are involved. It was our planet, our people.”
He shivered. It wasn’t cold in this cavern tunnel at all. “Bastian?”
“I have—had—dealings with someone from Saturna.” Bastian lowered his voice and I heard Jacks coming back. “He convinced me true evil exists.”
I stepped close and took his hand. “There’s a lot of good around, too. I’ve had to remind myself of that a few times over the years.”
He lifted my hand and kissed it, his gaze not on me but on the man who had stopped behind me. I looked over my shoulder and caught a look between the two men, one that made me lift an eyebrow. Jacks stood there for what seemed like forever. It wasn’t my imagination—heat snapped between them. Bastian tightened his fingers, cleared his throat almost nervously.
Jacks spun around and continued walking. I followed, tugging Bastian with me. We walked another few minutes, the tension thick, strange. I searched my heart and found my anger toward Jacks had lessened. Some of it still remained and probably always would. He could have shared this years ago—even if only via private message. If he was the brain behind Third Degree software, he could have found the means to contact me without giving himself away. This ate at me. But so did what he’d told me. Anyone who lived in mining towns or colonies knew of the competition between The Company and Saturna, but I’d had no idea they would go to such lengths. I wanted to feel smug about the plan backfiring, but I could never feel that way about what happened to Kithra. The complete and utter devastation of my people. I stopped, sucked back a sob.
Bastian pulled me to his side, wrapped an arm around my waist. I hugged him close, turned my nose into his chest to inhale his wonderful, masculine scent. He was real, solid and strong. Alive. He was a reminder that my people did still exist.
Jacks looked back at us and this time, I couldn’t mistake the look that passed so fast on his face. Envy. He’d been living alone on this strange, ancient planet for a long time.
When we walked into his computer room, my mouth dropped open. He had been living here a long time. While his living space was sparse, this was not. Tables filled the room, each covered with electronics. There was a palm-coded cabinet in one corner and a huge comfo-chair faced a wall of vidscreens—with something happening on each one. I stepped close and saw that he had his software up and running, trolling what looked like the entire intergalactic system network. Tiny bell alerts rang constantly.
“The pings are finds. Or possibilities. I have each system set to flag certain words, pull the conversations and the locations and put them into files.”
I started counting pings and reached thirteen within seconds. “This is set up to run at all times?”
He nodded.
“You read everything yourself?” Bastian stepped closer to one of the larger screens and watched as files were highlighted, cut and pasted into folders. “These are illegal scans.” He grinned.
A slight smile twisted Jacks’ lips. “Of course they are. Everything I’m doing is illegal.”
“Nice.”
The men shared another look that sent heat crawling up my back. In the next instant, I was blinded by the thought of the three of us naked on that small bed and the fantasy worked because I could recall every inch of Jacks’ body. I’d spied on him as a teen. My gaze ran down his chest, taking in the muscles. He was a little leaner than before, but still bulky. He had a soft mat of dark brown hair on his chest.
“Vala.”
I blinked to find both men staring at me while I ogled Jacks’ chest. I think I had even licked my lips. My cheeks instantly heated and Jacks’ brows went up. He took a step toward me, glanced at Bastian and stopped, but his hands curled into fists at his side. I couldn’t have spoken if I’d tried. All I could do was think of the two of them naked. With me between them. Desire shot through me so fast, I had to work to stand there and keep it off my face. But my nipples got hard and covering them with my arms would only bring attention to them.
Too late.
Bastian had locked his gaze to my chest and a small smile played about his lips as he dragged his heated gaze up to mine. He looked from me to Jacks and I waited for anger or resentment to fill his expression, but it didn’t. Surprised, I dragged my gaze away, accidentally locking into Jacks’ again. In my next breath, I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. The tension had just sprouted and grown so ridiculously fast, I had to release it somehow.
Then I looked around and remembered why we were all here and felt a return of that exhaustion from the gasses on that ship. I slumped in the big chair in front of the screens.
Bastian, shook his head, then walked to a hand-drawn flow chart against one wall. “Looks like you have a lot of evidence.”
Jacks moved to stand beside him. “I’m still missing three Saturna partners from that time period as well as Crichton. I caught a conversation coming out of a small mining camp on a new planet called Burga One and my brother was on his way there to check into it when I asked him to detour to Kithra’s supply station.” He turned. “I bet there’s a message from him now.”
He walked to another wall with one lone vidscreen next to another boxed food simulator. He tapped the screen. “There is.”
“Aren’t you going to watch it?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, my brother can be er, colorful.”
“Anders seemed like the colorful one.” Bastian chuckled.
“Anders was on the ship?” A real grin stretched Jacks’ mouth and I held my breath. That smile completely transformed his sharp features. It was that damned smile that had permanently glued my already sticky heart to him all those years ago. I heard Bastian suck in a breath and had to swallow my amusement.
I clicked a button and propped my feet on the footrest that popped up. “Is Anders not usually on the ship? Because he seemed pretty comfortable there. Comfortable enough to be giving your brother a hell of a bad time. They lovers?”
“Hell, no. Anders drives my brother nuts. They used to work well together, but I think they had a falling out over a girl.”
I shook my head. “Doubt it. Anders made it pretty clear he’s hot for your brother.”
Laughter shook Jacks’ shoulders. “I might want to be around for that showdown.”
“Why did your brother drop us here without seeing you?”
“Like I said, I’d already pulled him off an important lead on Crichton. We’ve had them before and none have panned out, but he was hot on the trail. Clay is kind of tenacious when he’s on the hunt.” Jacks crossed his arms, pulling my gaze to the nice muscles I didn’t remember him having before. “I asked him to drop the Tracker and go.”
I pulled my gaze from his arms and met his eyes. “Why would you do that with the lizard things all over the place?”
“You saw them?”
“We were dropped right into a nest of them.”
Jacks’ stood up straight, dropped his arms. “What? The landing spot is by the water.”
“We woke in
the woods.” Bastian poked around the pile of electronics on one of the tables.
“You were unconscious and left in the trees?” Jacks turned and put his hands on his keyboard, fingers flying.
The pirate captain’s face suddenly appeared on the screen. “Why are you tapping out all that when you can just talk to me? I’ve left two messages.”
Jacks growled. “If you’d read what I was typing you would understand, Clay.”
Clay shrugged. “Well, I’m here, so spill. But first…did you enjoy my gift?”
“You’re an idiot. You not only brought the wrong woman, but you kidnapped an innocent.”
I turned, lifted my eyebrow and mouthed “innocent” to Bastian.
“I saw the ring on her thumb, Jackson. She isn’t the wrong woman. You didn’t need that damned Tracker there anyway. And the innocent? Really, brother. I know how you like those pretty men.”
“Clay, shut up.” Jacks turned and stared at my hand.
I curled my thumb into the middle of my fist.
He turned back to his brother. “You dropped them in the trees.”
“No, I gave Juniper the right coordinates. Right by the waterfall.”
“They woke up with the typhons.”
Clay closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. “They lived?”
Jacks waved us over. “Come say hi to my idiot brother.”
Bastian and I walked into his view and waved.
“Why didn’t you tell me they were listening?”
“Would you have cared?”
Suddenly Anders’ blond head appeared over Clay’s. “He wouldn’t have. Hey there, Jackson man. Life getting a little more interesting out there?”
“Was taking Vala and Bastian your idea?”
“Nah, that was all the captain’s. He said you needed some sexin’ up.” Anders winked. “So does he, but damned if he’ll let me take care of that for him.”
Scowling, Clay pushed him out of the screen. “I should have dropped this asshole, too.”
Jacks looked genuinely surprised by the byplay between his brother and the coder. “Talk with Juniper. It’s not like him to make that kind of mistake.”
“I sort of beat him up,” Bastian murmured.
“Really?” Jacks looked Bastian over again. “I’m impressed. He’s huge. But he still wouldn’t have dropped you somewhere where you’d be killed. He’s a gentle giant.”
“Gentle, my ass,” I said, lifting Bastian’s T-shirt to show the faded bruise on his chest.
“Juniper looks worse,” Clay pointed out. “I’ll talk to him. I’m sure it was a mistake.”
“Kind of like the one you made? That Tracker is still out there trying to find me. She’s good. You need to go after her before she triggers too many curious people.”
“After the lead, Jacks. Can’t let him get away this time.”
“I’m not even sure that was him.”
“Who else would send that sort of message to his mother?”
Jacks scrubbed his hands over his face. “Dammit, Clay, we’re so close. I wish you’d grabbed the right person.”
Clay leaned into the screen, opened his mouth then must have thought better of what he’d been about to say. Instead, he offered his brother a quick smile. “I believe I did grab the right people.” He leaned back. “I’ll contact you as soon as we reach the mining colony.” He flicked off the screen.
Jacks turned. “I am so sorry they left you in the trees.”
“Typhons?” I asked.
“The big lizard-snake things. I don’t know what they’re really called but they made me think of the old Earth myths.”
“The one with the body of a snake and the head of a man?” Bastian asked.
Jacks crossed his arms. “Yeah. Only some of the stories say he had a dragon head. Seemed to fit.”
“It does.” Bastian nodded. “I love to read ancient Earth texts about mythology.”
“Well, that’s good. You’ll have something to do here.”
“You have books?”
“Books?” Jacks looked at me.
“He likes old-fashioned books. He’s always reading them on Kithra.”
Jacks shook his head. “I have handhelds. They’re loaded.” He sighed and leaned his backside on the table behind him. “I am sorry my brother involved you two.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “But in a way, I’m kind of glad, because I want to know what happened to my planet. You said you were close? Maybe we can help.”
“Not close enough. I don’t know how long you’ll be here.” He gestured toward the simulator. “Luckily, I’m fully stocked. My brother will be bringing refill shipments within two months and this is the summer season here, so there are a lot of native edible plants and fruit.”
“Jacks, we can’t stay here two months. My family has to be worried. Can I call them and let them know I’m okay?”
“The people looking for me are some of the best Trackers and hackers out there. The line I use with my brother took months to build because I have it bouncing off signals all over the worlds.” His mouth turned down. “But I’ll begin building new threads and get a line to someone in your family. Someone on Kithra?”
My shoulders slumped at the thought of not talking to my sister for months. “My sister, Yaira.”
He looked at Bastian. “And you? Who do we need to contact for you?”
“I have no one.”
Jacks blinked. “You lost everyone in the explosions?”
Bastian shook his head, auburn hair falling silkily around his face and partially covering one eye. “No, my mother took me off planet when I was young. She’d planned to go back to her family, but they were all killed. So was she—off planet.”
I watched Bastian, the way he held himself still even as he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. It was impossible to imagine being that alone. Even when I’d taken off on my own, I knew I had family caring about me no matter where I went. “He grew up in an orphanage on Sector Two, Jacks.”
Jacks closed his eyes. “I know that place.” He turned and looked at all the vidscreens on the opposite wall, watched as his software searched, found, cut and pasted. Hundreds of conversations tagged, just in the short time we’d been in the room.
It hit me then. Jacks had sacrificed his entire life to right what had happened to Kithra. He lived alone here, in hiding, and he had never given up. He worked day and night, looking at these files, searching for the truth.
He was still the good man I’d been so crazy about as a girl. And I didn’t know how I felt about this knowledge.
Chapter Seven
“I call it the court.” Jacks pushed open the heavy door and walked outside.
I hesitated. Trees. Lots and lots of trees filled the open space. Big, like the ones that housed the lizard monsters.
Bastian grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. “I told you about this place. No typhons out here.” Bastian sighed happily. “Take a look around. It’s beautiful, like Kithra.”
Jacks reached over his head and tugged two red orbs from a leafy branch before handing one to each of us. “It’s some kind of fruit, but like nothing I’ve tasted before.”
It was the size of my palm. I squeezed the lightly fuzzed skin, feeling a slight give underneath.
“Go ahead, try it. It’s safe.” Jacks turned and strode through the trees. “I had all the food here tested. Stay away from the yellow fruits that look like apples as well as anything green. Ironically, anything that color holds a lot of nutrients, but something in it doesn’t agree with the human digestion system. Or mine, at least. You two can try.”
Gwinarians and humans had the same insides. I wouldn’t be trying anything that made him sick, even though my people had adapted to Kithra, giving us slightly stronger digestive systems.
Thick vegetation lined the path. Insects and other larger creatures scurried over leaves and branches. Some of the insects buzzed so loudly, I expected them to fall from above and land on our heads at any
second. I saw another one of those huge, black bugs like the one that had crawled over my hand the first day in the forest.
“I think this was the main gathering place for whoever once lived here. The vegetation grows fast, so I have to come out here and cut the path every week.”
“You have ground lasers?” Bastian asked.
“No, I use an old-fashioned scythe. It’s great exercise.”
“That would explain the muscles,” I murmured. Then I forgot how to breathe. In the middle of his court, there were rectangular stone pools surrounded by tall trees with long, feather-leaved branches that offered shade in the harsh light. Water plants decorated the edges of the pools, round and velvety-looking in colors of yellow, blue and green. He had four lounge chairs lined up by one of the larger pools.
“My brother and some of his crew make an effort to stay long enough for a swim. He brought the chairs. They’re comfortable. Juniper threatened to leave with them the last time they came.” He laughed and shook his head. “Don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. We’ll take them inside with us. I can sleep on one of these and you two can use my bed while you’re here.”
I walked to the chair, sat and leaned back. “Oh, these are nice. I wouldn’t mind sleeping on this myself.”
“Sleeping alone is no fun.” Bastian knelt by the water, pointed at a plant with floating, round leaves. “These remind me of Earth lily pads. Are they safe to touch?”
“You can touch most everything out here. The water is safe for swimming, though I wouldn’t drink too much of it. I do use it to restock the simulator where it’s filtered heavily.”
I sat up. “Jacks. We’re both used to working. If we help you read the conversations, could it help get you closer to your goal? I just got back to Kithra. So did Bastian. We really do want to get home soon.”
“You can help. And I’m sorry my brother messed up.”