Sin decided that she didn't want to get drawn into that discussion either. She was having enough trouble fighting off the effects of his smile and his dark gaze. “I see you've got your Shadow. Flown her yet?"
"Nope. Just finishing a refit on her to my specs. I'll have the afternoon to try her out,” he said, his tone casual, but his eyes gleamed with an excitement he couldn't entirely conceal.
She gave him a knowing smirk. “Think that'll be enough time?"
"Probably not,” he chuckled, turning his head to look at the slicer with admiring eyes. “You do make a hell of a ship."
"We like to think so,” she responded, letting her own eyes travel over the Shadow.
She could see that they'd done some lightening of the ship from the interior and had refitted the inside to accommodate Del's large frame. She had a sudden powerful urge to ditch the rest of her afternoon responsibilities and be there for his first flight. She had a vivid memory of her own first moments in a Shadow and wanted to share that experience with the man before her. But shirking responsibility was not in her nature. Her father had not raised either of his children to abandon duty, she thought with a hint of bitterness and not a little sadness.
"Hey,” Del rumbled to catch her attention. There was a faint frown between his brows and his dark eyes were vivid as they caught hers. “You okay?” he asked, raising a hand as he spoke and brushing a strand of hair away from her face.
The whisper of his touch against her temple and cheekbone made her skin tingle long after his hand dropped away. Sin had to break eye contact and clear her throat before she could answer. “I'm fine. Why?"
"You looked unhappy there for a second,” he answered, his voice dropping down into a low intimacy that made warmth spread insidiously along her limbs. Then he raised his hand again, brushing a thumb across the tender skin under her eye as he continued, “And you look a little tired."
The gentle touch brought her startled eyes back to his, only to be captured in that dark gaze as his hand lingered, large fingers settling in a fan from her temple to the edge of her jaw. His thumb made another slow pass along her skin as Sin fought with herself. She knew what she should be doing—stepping away, turning cool, reminding them both of their places in this world. But his touch was warm, his eyes were warmer, and she yearned for that warmth like a woman lost on an ice world.
"Didn't sleep well,” she managed to whisper. “Bad dreams."
His hand drifted down until it cupped her jaw, and his thumb caressed her cheek with mesmerizing leisure. “About what?"
Her father. It was like a splash of ice water in her face. She took a step back out of his reach before turning away. “Nothing important,” she answered coolly. “Enjoy your flight."
He said nothing as she walked out from between the Shadows. There was a round of laughter from the Collective, and she smiled grimly to herself. Kai had them in the palm of his hand—she didn't need to take over just yet. She caught sight of Bib waving excitedly to her from the opposite row, and her smile softened into greeting. She hadn't seen any of the crew after the Pete fiasco. She had a little time to spend with them before she had to herd the Collective up a few levels to get down to the business of the merger. Bib especially would need reassurance from her that all was well. Sin crossed the gap to the other row and the girl waiting for her.
Chapter 6
Touching her had been a mistake. He'd known it before he'd done it, but he couldn't seem to help himself. There'd been a shadow under her eyes and a downward curl to those luscious lips that had called to him irresistibly. And at first, she hadn't seemed to mind. She had stood motionless under his touch, her eyes wide with a vulnerability that made him ache to wrap his arms around her. Her skin had been cool silk under his fingers and the green pools of her eyes had threatened to drown him, but the worst part was that he would have drowned willingly. The powerful pull this woman exerted on him scared him shitless. Especially when she could turn to ice and walk away as though he'd ceased to exist.
Del watched her hug the young woman he'd met earlier—Bibliona Wills, he reminded himself—and tried to get control of the jumble of emotions she stirred in him. He had tried his best this morning to concentrate on the job at hand and not think about her at all, succeeding very well with the help of his new Shadow, until she'd shown up with her herd of sheep. She was all cool businesswoman today in a sharp gray pantsuit that showed just a tantalizing hint of cleavage, charm and power wrapped around her like a shield.
She had brushed away her herd's questions like bothersome insects, handing them off to her brother with effortless ease, and then she'd decided to torture him with her attention. Bad dreams. It was damned unfair of her.
Del turned away and tried to remember his earlier enthusiasm as he went back to work refitting the Shadow. But it was hard to get much done when every other minute he was popping his head out to look for her. She was moving down the rows of slicers, greeting each of the crew with warmth and affection. She even kissed the big, burly pilot Lynch on his scruffy cheek. Del growled wordlessly on seeing that and thrust himself back into the Shadow with grim determination.
There was another sprinkle of laughter from the Collective, and the sound reminded Del of another of his dilemmas. She had lied to them. Why did she and her brother not want these people to know that they did their own off-lane runs? What did they do on these runs that they didn't want known? Or maybe it was what they were carrying. They were certainly equipped to protect the cargo. Del ran a thoughtful hand over the weapons array and for the thousandth time wondered just what the hell he'd gotten himself into.
"Hey, Del,” a voice spoke behind him, making him jump and twist to face the person. It was Bib, draped languidly against the side of the Shadow. She seemed like an angel, her golden curls pulled back and enormous blue eyes looking out of a round face, but the expression in those eyes was anything but angelic. She was looking him up and down with a jaded appreciation that was far too old for her youthfulness.
Del was acutely aware that she was almost young enough to be his daughter and shifted uncomfortably. He also remembered Kai's warning before he'd introduced her—Bib's ... friendly. Don't get involved with her or I'll break your legs.
"We didn't get much of a chance to talk earlier. Manny's such a slave driver,” she sighed. Her tone when she talked about Kai had an undercurrent of possessiveness, and Del wondered if Kai's warning had been personally motivated. But then he remembered the way Kai had treated the girl, with brotherly affection and gentle detachment. Broken birds.
"Better that than no job at all,” Del answered, eyeing her warily.
"Oh sure,” she said with an airy wave of one hand. “Best job I've ever had. I was just kidding—Manny and Sinsi are my favorite people, and I'm not just saying that ‘cause they're my bosses.” Her little bow of a mouth curled in a cynical way that he didn't like as she continued, “And from what I saw, looks like Sinsi's one of your favorite people, too."
Del looked away from the uncomfortable knowledge in her eyes. “She and her brother got me out of a bad situation,” he muttered.
"Well, no kidding,” she drawled. “You wouldn't be here if they hadn't."
Del frowned up at her. “What's that supposed to mean?"
"Our bad situations are the reason they picked us. We're all good slicer pilots, but the Shays have enough credit to buy the best there is, as bright and squeaky clean as the newest sun.” She cocked her head to one side and eyed him critically. “I'll bet all my next pay receipt that your problem was with the Core."
"Good guess."
"No, it's not,” she snickered, blue eyes twinkling. “That's how it is with all of us off-laners. So what's your story?"
He blinked at her for a moment, trying to absorb this information. “You mean to tell me every one of this crew was Core?"
"Well, not exactly. I used to be a bed partner for slicer jockeys on the Servo Circuit. The law didn't know about it, a'course—to them I was part
of the housing's cleaning and service staff. But the owner of the place had all us girls and boys running special services. She was Core owned."
She talked about being a whore as matter-of-factly as if she was discussing shoes. Del had the horrifying impression that she'd been doing those services for a long time before the Shays came along, which made him wonder how old she'd been when she started.
"So you learned how to slice from the pilots you...” he trailed off uncomfortably, not knowing how to finish that sentence in a polite way.
"Serviced?” she finished for him with a hard grin. “Yup. That was all most of ‘em wanted to talk about after, so I got a couple to teach me.” She shrugged in a casual way that made him want to wince. “It was something to do."
"You couldn't get out of it and join the circuit?"
She snorted and passed a look of contempt over him. “Could you?"
He had to admit she had him there. If the Core had owned the place where she'd worked, it was a sure bet that they'd had claws into everybody like the ones they'd dug into him. It was just the way they did business.
"So the Shays got you out?"
"They bought me,” she said simply, and an icy shiver ran down his spine. He wished she hadn't made it sound so much like slavery.
"Why? Why would they go through all that to get people like us if they can have the best?"
"I don't know,” she said and shrugged carelessly. “I guess they're trying to make up for what the Core did to us."
Del frowned, unconvinced. He was having trouble picturing the twins as benevolent humanitarians, zipping around the galaxy saving lives. “What do they care? What's in it for them?"
She smirked at him. “Why do you care why? You're clear of the Core, ain't you?"
He shifted to a more comfortable position in the Shadow, studying her intently. “You don't know or you don't want to tell me?"
She watched his muscles move with bright appreciation, before meeting his gaze with a sultry look in her blue eyes. “Big Del, I'll tell you anything you want."
He gritted his teeth and tried not to squirm. He had a feeling that's exactly what she was looking for. With grim resolve, he kept eye contact with her and said, “Then tell me what you know about them."
"Sure!” she exclaimed with a bright smile and settled herself further against the Shadow with an arm above her head, revealing an expanse of skin at her waist as she did so. It also brought her close enough to reach out and run a light hand down his arm. “Jinx used to be a slicer pilot for the Core's courier service. Except they always had him running bad stuff. He did it because they kept him hooked on Blue. To a junkie, nothing's better than a free fix."
Del shifted out of her reach as casually as he could. “I was talking about the Shays."
"Cassie—you met Cassie, right? The Core framed her for murder. They told her to build some high tech weapon or something and she told ‘em to go to hell. She's like some kind of genius, but she couldn't stop them from killing her research partner and making it look like she did it. They had all the proof, too, and she didn't have scrap."
"Bib—” he tried to stop her, but she talked over him.
"Lynch now, he's been here longer than anybody, back in Father Shay's time. Zeke Shay was the one who brought him here. Poor Lynch used to run a slaughter pit—"
"All right, chatterbox!” a gruff voice cut her off, and she spun on cat-quick feet, a bright smile on her face.
"Big Lynch!"
"Little Bib,” the large man rumbled, a stern frown pulling his heavy brow over his deep-set eyes. “You goin’ on about things that ain't your business again?"
She set a small, placating hand on his folded arms and looked up at him with guileless blue eyes. “Just telling Del what he wanted to know."
Del frowned at her, annoyed that she'd try to put the burly pilot's disapproval off on him. “What I asked was what the Shays get out of saving us Core rejects."
Lynch turned that heavy-browed glower on him. “They saved you because Ezekiel Shay raised the twins to know the difference between what's right and what's wrong. They're about as different from Quasicore as a star is to a black hole. Just thank whatever star knows your name that they chose you and do your job."
With that, the large man grasped Bib by the elbow and led her away. She went without protest, still smiling up at Lynch fatuously. It was almost as though she'd forgotten Del existed. He shook his head in bemusement. His relationship with the crew was not starting off well.
Kai came around the end of the next ship, his glance going from the receding pair to Del with some amusement. He stripped his jacket off with impatient movements as he asked, “Bib misbehaving again?"
"You could've warned me,” Del muttered with a baleful look.
Kai snickered. “I did."
"That's your definition of friendly?"
"Think I should have said very?” Kai asked, shooting him an amused glance as he rolled up his sleeves. “Don't take it personal. She's like that with everybody. She's got a very needy nature—fallout from her childhood."
"She doesn't look like she's out of childhood yet."
Kai's expression turned solemn. “She stopped being a kid a long time ago."
After the story she'd told, Del wasn't surprised to hear that.
Without another word, he and Kai went back to work refitting the Shadow. It didn't take them much longer to finish. Less than an hour later, Del was running the final diagnostics on the systems while Kai watched over his shoulder.
"Good,” Kai murmured as the results came in. “It could use a tweak or two, but it's close enough to get you into vacuum. Out you get, Giv."
To Del, the diagnostic results were as close to perfect as he'd ever seen, but he didn't argue the matter. The time he'd spent on the ship with Kai had taught him that the other man knew more about slicers than anyone he'd ever met before. If Kai was willing to show him later what he meant by ‘tweaking,’ Del was willing to wait. Especially if that meant he'd get to fly her now.
Levering himself out of the Shadow, he followed the other man out from between the slicers.
"Hey, Cass!” Kai hollered down the row, and the little woman poked her head out from under a ship. Kai waved her over, and as she wiggled out from under her vessel, he continued in a lower voice to Del, “Cassie's going to be your slicing partner for the next couple of days. She's the best technician we've got, and if your new ship is going to have problems, she'd be the first to spot them."
Del nodded in acknowledgement, watching the woman approach. She had long, dark brown hair plaited down her back and lively brown eyes. Her face had a delicate beauty and what he could see of her in her coveralls was just as fine-boned. She looked as though he could snap her in half, but there was a leashed energy in her movements that suggested it wouldn't be as easy as it looked.
"What's up, Manny?” she asked in a quiet, reserved tone much different from her strident hollering at Pete the night before.
"Del's about to take the new Shadow out, and I need you to partner him. You up for it?"
"Not a problem. It'll give me a break from rerouting circuits.” She gave Del a nod and faint smile.
"Cassie's our resident genius,” Kai said with a teasing quirk to his lips. “If she can't fine-tune your Shadow to match you, nobody can."
"Cut it out, Manny.” She frowned at Kai. “You make me sound like a geek."
"That's because you are a geek, Cass,” he said with exaggerated care, then gave a low laugh when she curled her lip in a menacing snarl. “You two have fun out there now.” He clapped Del on the shoulder and yanked on Cassie's braid as he strode away.
Cassie caught Del's gaze and rolled her eyes. “The man's a menace."
"Tell me about it,” Del muttered, thinking of Kai's quicksilver changes of mood from dangerous to playful.
His answer seemed to amuse the small woman. Her lips compressed in a smothered smile and her eyes twinkled, but she didn't comment. “Well, let's g
et this show on the road.” Raising her voice, she said, “Control!"
"Cassiopeia Draegen,” a toneless, echoing voice answered and she winced, darting a glower along the row of slicers as someone guffawed.
"I've really gotta get that thing to stop using my full name,” she muttered. “Control, lift number ten to the docking bay, please."
"Acknowledged,” the mechanical voice answered and a large crane-like arm swung over their heads to stop above Del's Shadow.
Cassie began moving towards the door leading to the docking bay, and Del followed reluctantly, watching over his shoulder as the arm unfolded large clamps to grasp his Shadow. Hadn't the twins said something about the conveyors and clamps malfunctioning? He hoped like hell that Kai had worked that glitch out with Spec. He'd become very attached to his ship in a very short time.
"You look as nervous as a new father,” Cassie murmured, watching him with amusement in her brown eyes.
Del scowled down at her, annoyed that his feelings had been so obvious. “So you're named after a constellation, huh?"
She grimaced. “Touché. I'll be taking you out to the training area, a ship-free designated zone that has sections both in and out of the atmosphere of the gas giant we're circling. The planet provides ideal conditions to test and stress the machines to their maximum."
"Sounds like fun."
She grinned up at him. “Doesn't it, though? Excited about your first Shadow flight?"
"Well, I don't think it'll be boring,” he said, trying to spot his new ship out of the corner of his eye without giving himself away as they passed into the docking bay.
Cassie chuckled and led him to an empty docking pad, pointing out the Shadow ship as it came out of the maintenance bay. The conveyers seemed to be transporting it with effortless ease, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief.
The arm twisted the Shadow into place and lowered it to the pad with barely a bump. The clamps released and the arm swung away as Cassie said, “Thanks, Control."
Moving forward, Del surreptitiously checked the skin for marks from the clamps as he opened the slicer and slid in. But the conveyer had been as gentle as if the ship was a newborn—he couldn't see a scratch on her.
Sunscapes Trilogy Book 1: Last Chance Page 9