She looked into his eyes, pondering his words. Had he just claimed to have fallen in love with her? The words sat on her tongue, and as she opened them to ask, he stepped closer, his lips a scant breadth from hers. “Gods, you’re so beautiful.” He captured her lips, kissing her softly. The combination of sweet bread and his kiss sent a buzz through her body. Ava’s mouth fell open, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Nothing but the two of them existed in the moment.
As quickly as he kissed her, Seth pulled away. He tore another piece of the wonderful bread free and slid it along her lower lip, waiting for her to open up and take it.
“I’m really enjoying myself,” she said and sucked his fingers in her mouth along with the bait he’d held, letting the moment take her toward bliss.
“You keep that up and you’ll be enjoying the view of the ceiling in my room.”
She released his fingers, slowly sliding her mouth off, giving him a wicked smile as they popped free. “Promise?” Ava licked her lip.
“I promise that, and so much more.” He grabbed her hand. “But, we have places to go, things to do, and a lifetime ahead of us. I don’t want to rush anything.”
A lifetime. Gods that sounded wonderful. Ava tipped her head back and laughed. “Ah, Legatus Reynolds, you’re such a tease.”
“Ava, I’ve been meaning to….” His com beeped. Seth lifted it and sighed. “I have to go.”
“Now? I thought you wanted to spend the day exploring.”
“I do, but they’ve caught a Rebel Nexian ship outside New Xieran space. My presence is required for interrogation.” He frowned. “We’ve been looking for a shipment of quadradium, and this could be a break in the investigation.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
“Initially—yes.” He handed her the bread. “Can we finish this tonight?”
She nodded. Seth gave her a tender kiss before turning and walking away.
Shit. They knew the Rebels had it, but what they didn’t know was it was already on the planet. Could Brodie have called for the freighter to get it out of the city? She tossed the bread in a waste disintegrator and lifted her com. “Brodie, we need to talk.”
His face appeared in the screen. “Get tired of your lawman?”
“No, but they’ve detained one of our ships just outside New Xieran space, and Seth said they might know where the quadradium is. They’re interrogating the crew.”
“I told you that Regulator would be trouble.” He sighed. “They’re watching the refinery, too. We had to move the shipment outside of the city, but they’re getting too close. We have to get it off the planet. I’m going to have them refit your ship for transport. We need you, Duchess.”
“I told them I wouldn’t haul that stuff again. Only the Rebels. Find another freighter to do your dirty work, Brodie.”
“I don’t trust anyone more than I trust you. Your ship is already here. We can’t get another to the surface. This shipment could mean the end of this war—freedom for our people. If you won’t do it for them—do it for me.”
“Brodie. I’m out. I don’t want anything more to do with this revolution.”
“This is your revolution.”
“It was never my revolution.”
“You owe me, Duchess. Do this one thing for me, and I’ll leave you to your Regulator. I won’t ask for anything else.”
“You’d do that?”
“Do I have a choice?”
She stared into his eyes, looking for some hint that he lied. Nothing. “Okay, then. But then I’m done. I want nothing further to do with this war. I want to live in peace.”
He nodded and the screen went blank.
Chapter Eleven
With a flick of her wrist, Ava sent the zero-G cue ball spinning through the air. It hit a group of floating spheres, swirling with various colored gas. They scattered, moving toward various brightly colored rings that flipped, suspended in mid-air. A violet sphere bounced off another orb, cut a sharp angle to the left, rolled through the air and into one of the gyrating hoops where it was caught in an energy field and held in place. The ring exploded with light, sending shadows dancing across Ava’s features. “I win. Pay up.”
Similar to the Terran game of pool, zero-G was the game of choice for tourists in New Xiera Port. Tournament rooms could be seen in every casino and club on the main strip, and a few individuals even made a living off it professionally.
The goal was to knock your zero-grav planets through the floating hoops. Once they entered a ring, they developed a gravitational field and started to form a galaxy. It appeared easy, but there was a catch. They had to be locked in spectrum order, and every locked planet and ring created a field that could throw the other player’s planets out of alignment, or pull them into orbit around their opponent’s galaxy. The first to lock all their planets in rings, in the order of whatever spectrum had been chosen at the start of the game, won. The more planets you had locked, the harder the game became for your opponent.
The walls, floors, and ceilings were black, to mimic space and served secondly to divert all focus to the planets and game. It took a great deal of mathematics, tactics, and angles, to win and not anyone could master zero-G. Captain Ava Frost had, and Seth couldn’t even begin to hope to beat her. In three moves, she’d captured more than half his planets in her galaxy. No wonder she was a hell of a pilot. Her brain worked like a finely tuned computer.
So, he continued to lose, unable to resist bringing the excitement to her face, the sparkle in her eyes, and the sheer joy she took from the moment. In the last three weeks, he’d discovered that much about her. Everything she did, she committed heart and soul to. From savoring her meal to making love, nothing was taken lightly; every moment of her life was a gift.
Seth shook his head and grinned. He held his cue sphere and pointed it at her. “Nobody warned me you were a zero-G shark.”
“You didn’t ask.” She smiled back.
Reaching into his pocket with his free hand, he flipped a chip toward her. “Shall we go for three out of four?”
“It’s your money. Lose it any way you want to.” She rolled her cue ball from the back of one hand down her arm, across the back of her shoulders, and to the other hand, where she gave a flick of her wrist, sending it spinning before him. “Rack ’em up, Regulator.”
Last night they’d made love like there wouldn’t be a tomorrow. He’d held her in his arms, told her of his dreams and why he chose to be a Regulator. He’d wanted it to go on forever, but his leave was drawing to a close and soon duty would pull him back to space.
It didn’t need to be the end of them. He wanted her to come with him and continue the love affair that had bloomed between them these few weeks. They had so much in common, and yet, so much they still needed to learn about each other.
Ava wasn’t unlike him. He too had been an orphan, raised by a relative, his grandfather, who served and retired from service as a Regulator. His parents had been killed in an off-world ship jacking, and their deaths had set his course from the age of five. Knowing how crime destroyed families, he’d vowed to fight it to his dying breath, to protect innocents like his parents, leaving one less orphan in the universe to fend for themselves. He’d discovered the Rebel shipment was somewhere in the city and knew it would be only a matter of time before they tried to move it.
As Seth racked the planets up, his com beeped. He lifted his wrist and stared at the message. Shit. Duty called. Again. “I have to go. I’ll see you tonight?”
“Sure, unless you’re scared.” She waved her hands at him, shooing him toward the door. Even if she didn’t want to see him, he could never stay away. Not now that she belonged to him.
“Do I look scared?” Gods, he’d fallen hard. He gave her a serious look and cocked a brow.
She gave him a smile. “We’ll finish this later then. I need to practice anyway.”
He laughed and pulled her into his arms, lowering his mouth to hers. Tonight,
he’d make love to her, tell her how he felt about her, and ask her to come away with him. He broke the kiss, tapped his finger against her nose. “You do that. But prepare to part with some of your ill-gotten gains. I’m not taking it easy on you.”
She gave him a salute and he walked out, feeling as though he floated in the clouds, happier than he’d ever been. Tonight was the night he’d ask her the question that had been on his mind since the altercation in her cabin with Brodie Mark.
***
Shortly after Seth left the zero-G room, Ava’s com beeped with a message from Brodie. She glanced down and knew her date with Seth tonight would have to wait. She’d contact him once her ship was in space and on route, letting him know she’d be back in three days. They’d refitted the tiles, and she’d have to get the quadradium off the planet before they found it. Staying in Seth’s room every night also kept the Regulator away from her ship while they rigged it for travel to Nexis and another refinery.
As Brodie had said, the shipment was critical to the success of the Underground. A final push was to be made on the Capital, and if everything went as planned, the Revolution would end and her people would finally be free of Nexian oppression. Most of all, she could move forward with her life—her obligations to her people and Brodie, settled.
This was what her parents had lived and died for, what she’d been born into. This was the moment when all things in her life came to a head, the grand finale before she retired from smuggling, walked away from this life and became a respectable League citizen and mother.
She lifted her com. Seth would understand. Livings had to be made. She’d meet up with him after she’d finished the job, tell him about the baby, but a nervous twist in her stomach had her hair standing on end. Would he be angry she’d kept it from him? She didn’t think so. The look in his eyes reflected what she felt. If what she saw were true—he loved her.
Ava pressed the com and opened the channel, staring back into Brodie’s handsome face. He didn’t smile, he didn’t frown, but remained all business, cold, and disconnected. Another twist and her belly was in knots.
“Good morning, Duchess.”
***
“Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded.”
Where in Lamor’s gate had that Regulator ship come from? She hadn’t expected to exit the wormhole and find a fully armed League destroyer waiting for her. Worse yet, it wasn’t Seth’s ship, and at the helm of the other ship sat a woman, not willing to give her a second to pull a plan together.
“You have no reason to detain me,” Ava said.
“I’m under Fleet orders to search any ship that uses that wormhole.”
“Whose orders?” Ava narrowed her eyes. Seth wouldn’t have set his hounds on her. He trusted her, loved her. Regret squeezed her heart. She’d betrayed that trust. Just this one time and she’d never do it again.
“Legatus Seth Reynolds ordered it.”
Her heart thumped against her ribs. Then again, he always seemed to choose duty first. “I assure you, this isn’t necessary. We have an empty hold.”
“Then you won’t mind standing down while we inspect it. Either cut your engines, or I’m blasting a hole in your ship.” The woman didn’t smile. She meant every word, but Ava couldn’t chance she’d find the shipment bolted to the sides of her hull as tiles. They’d be extra thorough, knowing the Rebels were moving it soon, using additional equipment to conduct their searches that would put the entire crew at risk.
Yes, her hold was empty. The heat from the Regulators was too much to risk giving the Rebels a lift, too. It didn’t make this trip any less dangerous. If caught, her life with Seth would be over, and her entire crew, including herself, would be executed. She cut the com; hit the forward thrusters, hoping to pull the trick she’s used before, only on half power.
Her first mistake was to pull the same trick twice, her second, to have her ionic shields down to conserve power. The bolt hit the hull just outside the deck, punching into the plasma shield and through the metal exterior. The deck exploded, sending Ava across the interior, where she hit a control panel. Sharp pain burned around her ribs, centered in her belly. She slammed her hand over the pad to activate the Ionic shields, bringing them up and resealing the hull, but also stranding her ship in space with the League destroyer and its captain with her panties in a knot, breathing down their necks. The plasma shield may have kept them from losing pressure and oxygen; however, it didn’t stop the damage. Her ship was going to need serious repairs.
Not only her ship. Pain, gods, and lots of it. Did she break ribs, rupture her spleen? When she looked down to address the area in question, all she could see was a large shard from one of the tiles buried in her belly, the same way she’d buried the knife in Brodie’s shoulder. No. No. No.
Not a sliver, it started wide and had at least a foot of metal visible before it disappeared into her flesh. Her skin had seared to it in places, melted from the heat of the blast, puckered like a badly sewn garment. In other spots, her flesh had torn free when she’d been thrown, and from those openings, dark blood spurted out with every beat of her heart.
My baby. Please no. She grabbed the metal shard and tried to pull it free. Crew members rushed to her side, yelling, but she couldn’t hear a word, only a roar in her ears as the room began to spin in a blur of lights and faces. No. Save my baby. Save my son. She hadn’t had a chance to tell him. Ava opened her mouth, but only blood bubbled out. They were going to raise their son away from this violence. Stop. No. Take it out. It’s killing him. They pulled her hands from the fragment, caught her up under her arms and behind her knees, placing her inside a cryo tube. Hands tore the front of her shirt open. Her torso had gone numb and it didn’t hurt, but gods, she was cold. Blood coated her hands and continued to pump from the wound. Her son. She tried to lift her arms to reach for the fragment, but they refused to respond. Images of her life slipped across her vision in slow motion, as though she watched from the window of a freighter.
***
Flash.
“Catch me, Daddy.” She giggled, running around the wreckage in the junk yard, her braid swinging around as she dodged here and there.
“Come here, you little scamp.” Her father raced around the other side of a fuselage and caught her up in his arms. “Gotcha.”
She squealed as he tickled her.
“I love you, Ava.”
“I love you, too, Daddy.”
Flash.
“It’s my birthday?” Ava stumbled and came to a stop. She’d not celebrated the silly Terran tradition since she was six, and only because her father had insisted. With her father and mother gone, the day seemed to become a normal day, twenty-six of the same hours she lived every star cycle.
Brodie turned around and stepped in front of her. He took her other hand and walked backwards, pulling her along. “It is.” He smiled. “I didn’t forget.” Mischief sparkled in his eyes and Ava’s heart skipped.
Flash.
“Gods, that was incredible.”
“Just wait for the encore,” she whispered, and wiped the corner of her mouth with one hand. The other gripped his laser. A pity to ditch him just as things were getting fun, but she had a meeting tonight and no time for a play-date with a hunky Regulator.
As the weapon powered up, he patted his thigh holster—now conveniently empty. “Are you going to shoot me?”
She cocked her head. “Should I?”
Flash.
He stood there, breathing heavy, desperation on his face. Three weeks of torture had passed, and she hadn’t heard from him once. Yet he’d come back, despite his duty, despite who she was—despite everything.
Her stomach flipped when she caught the heat in his eyes. He ran his hands up her shirt, cupping her breasts underneath. Work-roughened hands. The hands of a warrior. Gods, she loved his touch. The pads of his thumbs grazed her nipples, and she arched into him, growling low in her throat. The pain of want. The taste. No more denial.
He pu
lled his mouth away. “I need you now.”
“Take me inside the Avira.” Her heart pounded against her ribs. “Or take me here. I don’t care, as long as you take me.”
Flash.
“You’re going to have a baby, Ms. Frost. You’re around three weeks pregnant.”
Her breath hitched. How? She’d…. “That can’t be possible.” She eyed the test results. “I had taken measures to prevent it.”
“For Nexian women, not for Terran women. You have two ovaries. I assure you, you’re carrying a baby.”
My gods, she was going to have a baby—Seth’s baby.
***
The lid dropped down and the glass frosted, blocking her view of the outside, sealing her tomb. So this was it, her punishment for turning on her people and taking up with the enemy. She gave her crew a wry smile. Blood trickled from her lips and rolled down her chin. What a fucking way to go. The cell filled with frigid liquid that quickly turned pink.
She blinked once, twice as it washed over her face, pouring into her mouth and nostrils, pooling across the surface of her eyes.
Then darkness.
***
Seth bolted down the hall, alongside the cryo-cell, a casket shaped tube of solid glass. Ava was packed in a nearly freezing form of liquid oxygen. Her face was gray, her beautiful lips, blue. He’d ordered his wing ship to watch the wormhole and not to let another smuggler slip past. He hadn’t expected them to fire on the Avira without first contacting him.
Rebel Souls Page 11