Sunscapes Trilogy Book 1: Last Chance

by Michelle O'Leary

  "You know what precautions to take—"

  "Of course,” Cass interrupted, waving a dismissive hand. “Stop worrying. We'll do the polite thing, then be back and tucked in bed before you know it."

  "Good enough,” Sin said with a smile and turned away before Cassie could ask the question that had been lurking in the depths of her warm brown eyes. She headed back into the Tank, leaving it to Cassie to tell the rest of the crew about the meal. She supposed it was a bit cowardly, but she had such a long night ahead of her, and she was tired already. Dealing with Del was more than she was willing to handle at the moment.

  Fixing herself a solitary meal, she ate it in the pilot's seat while she calibrated the proximity alarm to maximum sensitivity. Nothing would get close to the hauler without her knowing about it—not vessels, people, or even devices, to the size of a small beetle. She also kept an eye on the facility's traffic, incoming and outgoing ships, as well as the local Cortecan vessels. She hummed in satisfaction when she saw the ship she'd been expecting approach the sprawling mining community. It docked without fanfare, and though Sin scanned for them, she couldn't pick up its companions that she knew had to be in the system close by. She murmured in approval and set the hauler to run periodic scans of the newcomer, just in case they decided not to play by the rules.

  Then she set herself to wait. It wasn't easy. She tried to meditate as her Red Sun Mendani had taught her, but her traitorous body kept wanting to fall asleep instead. So she paced slowly around the control room, reciting what she could remember of the Red Order's forms of war and amusing herself by irreverently fabricating what she couldn't remember. She was making a mental note to retain some of her more entertaining creations for Kai when the proximity alarm began to blare.

  Adrenaline sharpening her vision and thoughts, she swung back into the pilot's seat, but then relaxed with a sigh to see that it was only the return of her crew. Resetting the alarm, she tried meditating again, knowing she still had plenty of time. Breathing deeply, she concentrated on finding her center and dispelling emotion, clearing her mind of distractions—and was asleep within ten minutes.

  "Sin,” someone murmured next to her, and a hand settled on her shoulder. Sin took hold of that hand and jackknifed to her feet before she realized that it was Cassie she was about to injure. Letting go, she slumped back into the seat and took a deep breath, trying to get the mad thumping of her heart back under control.

  "Suns, Cass, I almost broke your wrist,” she said with a sharp edge to her voice.

  "I appreciate that you didn't,” Cassie answered while rubbing her hand, but there was a smile lurking around her mouth. “I did call your name a few times, but you were dead out."

  Sin rubbed a hand over her face, shaking her head ruefully. “I was trying to meditate. Mendani T'Zai would send me back to first lessons if he knew I fell asleep instead."

  Cassie snickered and patted Sin's shoulder in commiseration. “You needed the rest, and there's no harm done. The scans all look clean, and the alarm is still active."

  "In that case, what'd you wake me up for?” Sin murmured, shooting Cass a dry look.

  Cassie chuckled. “I thought I'd spell you ahead of time so you could get there early and check the place out."

  Sin nodded and rose to her feet again. “Thanks. I think I will. It shouldn't take long, but keep an eye on that troller,” she said with a nod towards the ship she'd been scanning.

  "Will do,” Cass answered with business-like briskness. Sin shifted past her, but before she could leave, Cassie caught her wrist, her brown eyes solemn. “Please be careful, Sinsi."

  Sin smiled, twisting her arm so she could clasp her friend's hand with gentle reassurance. “Don't worry. That's one lesson I won't be falling asleep on."

  The concern didn't leave Cassie's face, but a fleeting hint of a smile sped across her lips and she nodded.

  Sin left her to the watch, making her way from the control room to the commons room. It was empty, but that was no surprise. It was very late and the rest of the crew would be sleeping. Making her way to a little-used storage compartment, Sin keyed in the sequence to unlock it and retrieved one of the weapons hidden there. Double-checking to make sure it had full power, she tucked it into the pocket of her jacket as she strode from the room and headed towards the cargo bay.

  Meaning only to check that all the loading equipment and the slicers had been secured before she left the hauler, Sin was startled to see the lights on full and concerned to hear the unmistakable sounds of someone moving between the Shadows. The alarm would have sounded if someone had snuck aboard, she thought to herself as she reached into her pocket for the weapon, but that logic didn't keep her from sidling up to the closest Shadow and slinking around it with predatory intent.

  The person she was stalking was oblivious to her presence, his back to her as he worked without the slightest hint of stealth on one of the Shadows. Recognition was followed immediately by dim dismay.

  "Del?” she murmured, meaning to ask him what he was doing up, but the words faded from her mind as the vision before her impacted on her senses. He was shirtless and the wide expanse of golden skin and smooth ripple of muscles beneath stole her breath.

  He acknowledged her presence with a quick look over his shoulder and began saying something about fixing the stabilizer, but she didn't hear him. The rushing sound of hot blood through her veins covered his words, as she sagged weakly against the Shadow next to his, unable to take her eyes from his muscular form. There was a faint sheen of perspiration on him, and she licked her lips hungrily as she watched him move, swallowing at the sight of hard muscles shifting under taut golden flesh, the wet curl of hair against the nape of his neck, the bunch and flex of a hard thigh as he leaned forward.

  But through the pounding of her heart and haze of desire, she became aware of the ringing silence and saw his stillness. Raising her eyes with a flash of alarm, she met the stunned knowledge in his gaze with a clench of dismay in her gut. With a silent, frantic curse, she turned her face away.

  Del had heard Sin call his name in a puzzled, questioning tone. Embarrassed both by his sleepless obsession with getting his Shadow in flying condition and by her catching him at it, he'd rushed to explain, gathering his tools with hasty chagrin. He'd been in the middle of telling her that he'd had to reroute the conduits when he looked over his shoulder and saw what was on her face.

  Shock and stunning desire chained him in place as he watched her devour him with her eyes, her lips parted and cheekbones kissed with faint color. She wanted him. All this time he'd thought she was coolly indifferent, tolerant of the attraction he couldn't always hide, but untouched by any similar feelings. Seeing the hungry slant in her green eyes set off concussions of blinding lust in his body that were frightening in their intensity.

  Then she looked up, caught his gaze, and turned away in silent denial. It was enough to drive a man insane.

  Dropping the tools with a clatter, he rose to his feet, turning slowly towards her as he said, “What do you want?” in a voice made rough with desire.

  "What do you mean?” she asked, her eyes darting to his and then away again.

  Anger licked at him, fanning the heat that pulsed in his blood. “You know what I mean,” he gritted through clenched teeth as he took a slow step towards her. “What do you want?"

  She shook her head, a light frown creasing her brow, but she didn't look at him again. “You're not making sense—"

  "Don't give me that, Lady Shadow,” he growled as he took another step closer. “You were just looking at me like I was your next meal. Now, what do you want?"

  That brought her eyes to his, wide with an alarm that thrilled and angered him at the same time. “Del...” she said in a warning tone, raising one hand as if to hold him off.

  He ignored the warning and took the final step, planting his hands on either side of her against the sleek surface of the Shadow and sucking in a breath at the shock of her cool fingers against the he
ated flesh of his chest. “You know what you want,” he said in a low growl, hardly aware of his own words as her scent clouded his mind with sweet fire. “So take it."

  "Del,” she whispered again, her eyes dropping to her hand. He tensed, thinking she meant to push him away, but her fingers stirred and then flexed against him, her nails scraping his skin as her eyes rose to his once more, smoky with desire.

  That look burned away the last vestiges of his restraint, and with a groan he bent his head, capturing her mouth with a hunger driven by the memory of her taste and long nights of tormenting, empty dreams. She responded with a low, luscious sound in the back of her throat and teased him with the hot, silky slide of her tongue as she ran her fingers up his chest and around the nape of his neck to tangle in his dark hair.

  Pressing against her with desperate demand, he was maddened by the yielding of her softness against his taut form and shuddered to feel her fingers sliding under his waistband at the small of his back, her fingernails making their own sharp demand against his skin.

  Shaking with need, he clasped her hips and lifted her, pressing her back against the curve of the Shadow and growling in primitive answer as she captured him between her thighs. He was unable to stop the slow thrust of his pelvis against her core. The sweet, agonizing pleasure that spiked through him was reflected in her gasp and the seductive tense and flex of her smooth muscles as she sank her teeth in his lower lip. On the verge of exploding, he began to frantically tug at her clothes with hands that shook.

  The crash of sound that echoed in the cargo hold was as shocking as a club to the side of his head. Dazed with confused alarm, he lifted his head, but he was totally unprepared for Sin's reaction. With a heave that nearly toppled him to the ground, she shifted his bulk away and twisted like an angry cat, landing beside the Shadow and pulling something out of the pocket of her jacket. It looked like a stinger, a weapon that was illegal in anyone's hands but the FPA. With sinuous and deadly grace, she rounded the end of the slicer—only to stop and straighten with a hissing curse.

  Del pushed to his feet, trembling from both unabated desire and shocked reaction. Stepping to the end of the slicer, he stared from Sin's disgusted expression to where Jinx lay in a tangle of tubing at the threshold of the lift to the engine room. The young man was cursing in a distracted way as he fought with the stuff that had twisted through his limbs.

  "Jinx, what the hell are you doing up?” Sin snarled.

  Del couldn't argue with the frustrated anger he heard in her voice. He was feeling a whole galaxy of frustration himself. Leaning against the Shadow and trying to get his breathing back to normal, he watched Sin tuck the weapon into the waistband of her pants at the small of her back and tug the jacket over it. She did this with swift and furtive efficiency as Jinx freed himself enough to look up at them, and Del realized that she was hiding it from the boy.

  "Oh, hey, boss. I was just, ah ... well, I had this dream about the converter system, and I wanted to check it. I found a bunch of stuff down there and was just gonna stow it...” He scrambled to his feet, and Del could tell by the sheepish humor on the youngster's face that he hadn't seen their heated encounter. “Tubing came undone and tripped me up a little bit there."

  "You need your sleep, Jinx. Just leave that garbage and get your ass to bed."

  He wilted in the face of her stern disapproval like a scolded puppy. “Yes, ma'am,” he mumbled and scurried towards the exit.

  When he was gone, Del asked in what he thought was a remarkably calm voice, “What are you doing with a stinger?"

  Sin's expression took on a flinty resolve that raised warning signals in his overstimulated brain. “That's none of your concern. Get cleaned up and get some rest. We've got a long way to go yet before we're home."

  Then she turned and headed for the hatch as if there was no more to say. As if nothing had happened.

  Del started after her with a snarled curse under his breath. “Wait just a Sun-damned minute! Where the hell do you think you're going?"

  "Out,” she snapped over her shoulder at him, the swift glance she sent him full of narrow-eyed warning.

  "With a concealed weapon? That's asking for trouble, Sin!"

  "As I said, that's none of your concern—"

  "The hell it isn't!” he snarled and caught her arm, pulling her to a stop. But he let her go immediately, and not because she glared daggers at him. Touching her again when his body hadn't even started to cool off was too enticing by half. “You made it my concern when you gave me that contract. I'm in your business up to my eyeballs, and everything you do affects me and everybody else you've got working for you."

  "I don't have time for this,” she said and turned away dismissively, but he stepped in her way.

  "Damn you. Make time!” he growled. “Why the hell are you acting this way? Are you just going to ignore what happened back there?"

  She lifted her head, and he nearly winced at the hard glint in her eyes and the cold mask her face had become. “Yes, I am! I'm going to ignore it because it was a mistake and because it won't happen again. You're my employee, Del. We had no business doing what we did. I have to go."

  This time when she moved towards the exit, he didn't try to get in her way. He turned stiffly, jaw clenched against the bitter hurt her words had caused. “You can't go out there alone. It's too dangerous."

  "I'll be fine,” she said in a distant voice, not bothering to look at him. “I won't be gone long."

  He watched her step out of the hatch, her cold rejection still stinging across nerves stripped raw by their earlier passion. On impulse, he moved forward to keep the hatch from closing and watched her as she headed for an exit. Where was she going with a stinger? Grimly pushing what had happened between them to the back of his mind, he thought about her actions for a long moment before spinning on his heel and striding back to his Shadow. Yanking his shirt out of the slicer, he jerked it on as he headed out of the hatch with long, hard strides. Whatever she was doing, he was damned sure going to find out what it was this time.

  He caught sight of Sin as she disappeared through an exit and jogged quickly after her. When he reached the corridor, he was just in time to see her take a left turn down a different passage. The corridors were nearly empty. He supposed that she'd chosen this time on purpose to do whatever it was that she was doing.

  Keeping Sin in sight, he followed her past what he guessed was the public nightlife of the facility, a series of progressively more listless bars, before he saw her disappear through an entryway. With slow caution, he approached and looked around. There wasn't a soul in sight, so he slipped through the entrance and into the darkness beyond.

  "Nobody said you could bring a weapon!” Del heard a rough voice say from a dimly lit area ahead of him. Inching forward, his eyes adjusted enough for him to see that he was in some sort of storage room.

  "Calm down, Tracer. It was just for my protection in getting here. I didn't hide it from you and I've even given it to Stan for safekeeping,” he heard Sin answer in a light tone. “Are you still so afraid?"

  "Search her,” the rough voice responded.

  Del made his careful way forward through several stacked canisters as Sin's mocking laughter echoed around him, the sound bouncing off of the high ceiling. He saw light between stacks and made his way there, careful to keep concealed as he peered around the canisters.

  Sin had her back to him, her stance casual and relaxed. In contrast, the three men who stood before her were bristling with attitude and aggression. One of them held her stinger, though he didn't quite have it trained on her.

  "Rule number one, boys—no one touches me. Besides, does it look like I'm carrying any more weapons?” she asked playfully, running a hand over one sleek hip with a mocking tilt to her head. “Can we just get down to business?"

  "Abantium,” one of them said abruptly.

  "That's the name of the game,” Sin replied, her voice still holding to that light and playful tone. Del had a feel
ing her expression would be something different, though.

  "We could just take it. The Cortecans got it now."

  "We've been through this,” Sin said with exaggerated patience. “Your skippers are no match for me and mine. Shall we try it without bloodshed this time?"

  With a thrill of alarm, Del realized that these men were the hijackers that they'd fought off earlier. What the hell did Sin think she was doing?

  "You'd fight for it still? But you delivered and the Cortecans paid you, right?"

  "Why not get paid twice?"

  This answer seemed to put the men at ease even while they exchanged sour looks and glowered at her. The one with Sin's weapon, the one she'd named Stan, let his arm relax at his side.

  "Core don't give us enough cut for this shit,” one of them grumbled, and Del felt the ground drop out from under him.

  His brother had been right. She really was dealing dirty with the Core. She and her brother might be treating him better than the Core had, but they were still playing the same tired, nasty games and using him to do it. Bitter, disillusioned anger filled him and made him reckless.

  He straightened and stepped out into the open. “Suns curse you, Sin. What the hell are you doing?"

  He became the center of attention as the three pirates eyed him with dangerous animosity and Sin cast him a frown over her shoulder.

  "Del, you shouldn't have come."

  "Who's this piece of Krell dung?” the one with the rough voice snarled.

  "Stop foaming at the mouth, Tracer. He's with me,” Sin answered with careless ease, as if she couldn't see the hostility building on their faces.

  "We said come alone!” Tracer shouted and backhanded her, rocking her with the blow.

  Del had never felt such instant, blinding fury. His vision vanished in a sea of red and he lunged forward with a snarl, but Stan made an inarticulate cry of warning and aimed the stinger at him. Dragging himself to a halt with an effort, he stood panting and clenching his hands into fists, watching as Sin raised a slow hand to wipe at her mouth, and then looked at the blood on her fingers. Seeing it made Del shake with violence.