by Bianca D'Arc
Suzette looked them over as they entered the craft. One dark eyebrow arched and her sparkling eyes danced with humor, but she refrained from commenting on their appearance. She had a change of clothing waiting for them and they took turns in the ship’s small lav. Michael contacted his strike team through the secure comm while Leah changed.
After setting the wheels in motion, Michael went aft to change out of his pirate garb and into battle armor. He’d stripped down in the narrow hall, not waiting for Leah to finish up in the even smaller lav compartment. He’d donned the lower portion of the battle suit, letting the sleeves of the flexible underskin hang around his waist while he fastened his boots and the armor plate that went over his legs. He heard the compartment door slide open and looked up to find Leah standing before him.
The sex kitten was well hidden under her starched battle dress uniform, but there was a knowing light in her gaze as it roved over his bare chest. He walked right up to her and cupped her cheek.
“It’s good to have you back, Colonel. Not that I didn’t enjoy Lilla.” He winked and she laughed.
“It’s good to be back, Commandant. And it’s good to finally know what’s going on in this sector.” Michael nodded and stepped back, turning so she could help him with the sleeves. He could do it himself, but it’d be awkward, and soldiers often helped each other. Leah knew just what to do, setting to work dressing him with her usual efficiency. If he noticed the brush of her fingers over his skin more now than he ever had before, he supposed that was to be expected after the intimacy they’d shared.
Of course, they’d never gone into battle together before. All the time Leah had worked for him, he’d never taken her along on a mission where he knew he’d see fire. That she was here now was both troubling and uplifting. There was no other woman he wanted by his side, through thick or thin, but he couldn’t find the words just yet to tell her. He didn’t know how she’d respond, and the uncertainty chipped away at his normal calm. Plus, there was a lot to get done tonight and in the coming days in this messed up sector of space. They had serious amounts of work to do and he didn’t feel quite brave enough to broach the subject of the future and his uncomfortable feelings just yet.
First they had to clean up Smithson’s mess and put an end to the slavery ring. Leah would play her part, as would he.
“I agree wholeheartedly. And even better,” he turned back around to face her, “we finally have a reason to get rid of Smithson.”
“You took a look at the data crystal then?”
“First thing. That…woman.” He bit back the curse he would rather have used. “Is in this up to her eyeballs. She’s the pirate contact. And the payment account is her very own.”
“The bitch!”
Michael nodded. “You know what to do, Leah. I’m counting on you to get the station under control while I go after the pirates.”
A steely light entered her eyes. “It will be my pleasure. I’ve been wanting to kick Smithson’s ass for quite a while now.”
He leaned in to peck her cheek. “God, I love it when you’re fierce.”
She surprised him, placing both her hands around his neck and drawing him close. She cradled his head in her soft hands and looked deeply into his eyes.
“Be careful, Michael. I—” She swallowed hard. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t ever lose me, Leah. I’ll be careful, but you know I have to do this. I can I.D. the ringleaders and do this part of the job more efficiently than anyone else. Trust me, I won’t take any unnecessary chances. I’m a Dom, not a Risker like Ty.”
His lopsided smile melted her heart. “Thank heaven for that.”
She bit back the cautions she wanted to voice. She knew he was a warrior of the highest caliber. He was one of—if not the—best. She shouldn’t worry, but she did. Still, they both had tasks to perform. That he’d leave the station side of things in her hands was a matter of trust that was very flattering.
Sure, she knew she could handle anything Smithson could dish out, but for Michael to trust her with such a task indicated just how much he believed in her abilities. How much he trusted her to get the job done right. She had to trust him just as much. Still, it wouldn’t prevent her from worrying…just a bit.
She reached up to kiss him one last time, then helped him on with the rest of his battle armor. His body would be well protected behind layers of flexible armor. He’d be fighting the pirates while she conducted her own battle on the station.
He pressed a small data crystal into her hand. “Here’s everything you need to arrest Smithson and her entire command staff. I want them all confined and separated until we can investigate and discover which of them were in it with her. I’m also giving you full authority to deal with anything on the station as you see fit. You’ll be acting Commander in this sector until we can get someone else out here.”
“Colonel,” Suzette’s voice piped in over the comm. “Your ride is here.”
Leah clutched the crystal and gave Michael one last hug and kiss. They’d arranged for Suzette to pull away from the station and rendezvous with the troop carrier that held the strike force Michael would be leading. They’d docked with the larger ship and the small shuttle that would take Leah back to the military side of the station was now docking on the other side of the ship. Within a few minutes, Colonel Leah Blackfoot would be back in her domain, on the military side of the station, kicking butt and taking names.
“Give ‘em hell, Leah.” Michael winked at her.
“You too, Michael.”
She left through the small hatch that would take her to the shuttle. She wanted to say more, but there was no time. And truth be told, she wasn’t quite brave enough to tell Michael of her feelings. Not just yet. Maybe not ever.
She boarded the shuttle, drawing her mantle of authority around her like a protective shield. There was work to do. Hard work. She had to capture and confine a general and all her staff, and do it without giving any of them a chance to warn the jits of what was coming. Tricky business, but Leah had a plan, and several of her own people in key positions, ready to execute it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Is your team in place, Tracey?” Leah spoke softly into the battle comm. They were communicating through shielded headsets on a coded frequency that only her group could access. None of the station personnel would know what hit them—if this went off as planned.
“We’re ready when you are, Colonel.” Tracey’s quiet voice came back within moments.
So far, so good.
Leah straightened her spine and pressed the access panel that would open the command and control center’s doors. She also had it rigged—courtesy of one of the women who were standing behind her, a wizard tech named Jane—to lockout all command functions the moment Leah entered the proper code.
She keyed it in. Immediately, all station systems would be locked down, waiting for her special override. It would only come when she had the station secure.
Once again she keyed the headset. “Go code Lima Bravo Foxtrot. Repeat. Lima Bravo Foxtrot. You have a go.”
Just that easy, the plan was activated. Leah punched the door hatch and strode into the room, her team flanking her, their weapons at the ready. General Smithson stood angrily from her command chair.
“What’s the meaning of this, Colonel?”
“By authority of Sector Command, I hereby place you and your staff under arrest pending further investigation.”
Smithson reached for her console, but Leah knew it was already deactivated. Any hope the woman had of erasing evidence or getting word out to her conspirators was long gone.
“You can’t do this!”
Leah advanced, noting the rapid deployment of her squad of armed soldiers around the room.
“Kidnapping and turning a blind eye to the imprisonment and slavery of human women is a serious crime, General. I believe you should seek legal counsel before saying anything further.”
“You bitch!” S
mithson rushed her, but Leah was prepared. She hadn’t had to call on her hand-to-hand fighting skills often, but she was no lightweight. She downed Smithson with one quick move, grabbing the woman’s wrist as she tried to punch Leah in the face, and twirling her around into a prone position on the command deck. Leah held Smithson’s arm out at an angle, one knee planted hard in her back, retaining control of the struggling woman. Leah looked up at the general’s staff gathered all around, noting the expressions on each face carefully. Some were plotting, some simply stunned.
“You ladies can do this the hard way and end up like her,” Leah chucked her chin toward the fallen woman, still struggling uselessly in her hold, “or you can go with my people quietly. We’ll be questioning everyone and sorting out just who’s involved in this despicable crime ring. If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ll be freed. As simple as that.”
One by one, the wide-eyed ones stood, followed more reluctantly by the others. They filed out quietly, each put into restraints and escorted to the door by one of Leah’s team. More of Leah’s specially chosen troopers waited outside to take them to detention. The women of Smithson’s command staff would be separated and questioned until Leah’s people got to the bottom of the matter. Already, she had special investigators on site and more coming from Alantia Station. It had been a busy day, and it was about to get even busier as Leah and her team secured the station and restarted the computers, preserving evidence while getting on with the ordinary business of running the station.
She set to work, doggedly ignoring the impulse to check on how Michael’s combat team was doing. They were on comm silence until their mission was secured and she wasn’t going to be the one to break it, though she was tempted to report on her progress, just to hear Michael’s voice. She had to trust him to stay safe and do his job…as much as he trusted her to do her part.
That thought in mind, she began the arduous work of documenting any possible mischief by Smithson’s crew as she made decisions for every sector of the station. It was hard work, especially as they had to deal with ship crews unhappy with the station lockdown, but Leah wasn’t letting anyone leave while Michael and his men were out there battling the pirates.
*
Michael advanced into the jit-controlled areas of the station with his strikeforce. He wore full armor like the rest of the team, only his size and stature setting him apart from the female soldiers he commanded. He wore no insignia, nor did any of his troops. Coded comms delineated who was who among the helmeted, incognito warriors. Only they needed to know who was in charge, after all. Identifying the leaders to the enemy would only make them targets.
He enjoyed the adrenalin rush as he commanded the elite group of fighters. They were the best he’d ever worked with, and that was saying something. Most of them were smaller than him, but he knew beyond a doubt, they could more than handle a man of his size—or the jits for that matter. After some initial resistance, the pirates had been subdued with relative ease.
Ty—also in full armor that easily disguised his identity—sidled up next to Mike. To preserve Ty’s cover, they’d arrested him along with the other pirates, then separated him out when they split up the pirates, with none the wiser.
“How are we doing, brother?” Ty asked on a private comm channel as he checked his weapons.
“We’ve got most of the main players, but can’t seem to find the captain.”
Ty’s helmet bobbed as he nodded. “That’s because he went back to his ship a few hours ago. Some kind of surprise inspection. He likes to pretend he’s still military.”
“Damn. Well, we’ll get the captain when we take his ship. Everyone else has been rounded up and ferried out to our ship’s holding cells. Just a few left here on the station. Comm reports no transmissions left the station.” Michael nodded in satisfaction.
“Leah came through.”
“I had no doubt she would. She’s the most capable officer I’ve ever served with.”
Ty pounded him on the shoulder. The armor took most of the friendly blow, but Michael still felt it. “Is that admiration I hear in your voice, Mike?”
He noted the teasing in his brother’s voice, but refused to rise to the bait. They still had work to do. It was clear Leah was doing her part, now it was up to them not to let any of the pirates slip away.
“Let’s load our troops into the pirate shuttle and take their ship.”
The plan had been hatched hours before. The pirates kept a troop shuttle nearby to transport them back and forth from their ship to the station. Ty had supplied the intelligence that most of the pirate crew was on the station at the moment, and it certainly looked like they’d rounded up most, if not all, of the command staff. With any luck, only a skeleton crew would be left on the pirate ship. When Mike and his crew arrived in the pirate shuttle, they’d swarm on board and take them by surprise. If all went as planned.
They left the cleanup to troops that had been selected especially for the mission of ferreting out the stragglers who hid in the bowels of the station. They were under Leah’s command and would be reporting back to her from the moment Mike left the station.
The pirate shuttle was cramped, but the design would stand his team in good stead. Used for raiding parties, the shuttle had been equipped with quick-release hatches that allowed the maximum number of fighters off at one time. It would be relatively easy to board the pirate ship with this kind of equipment, and better yet, the crew left on board the pirate ship wouldn’t realize, with any luck, that they were being boarded until the last possible minute.
Ty had secured the comm codes necessary to dock with the ship and all went off without a hitch, until they hit the hangar. Mike offloaded with the first group of troopers, only to meet heavy resistance. This was no skeleton crew.
It wasn’t the full contingent of pirates, but this crew was more battle-ready than Mike would have liked. Apparently their captain routinely ordered any and all approaching shuttles to be greeted with maximum firepower, and this was no exception. The bloodthirsty bastards opened fire the moment they saw the battle armor. Their own crew wouldn’t be armored and armed, ready for a fight.
Mike dropped to one knee, laying down suppression fire as best he could while his troopers swarmed around him, searching out covered positions. They leapfrogged their way across the hangar, suffering a few casualties, but nothing life-threatening thanks to their superior armor. Mike’s own armor took a few hits, but he was leading the charge, in the thick of the fighting.
God, how he’d missed this!
Being in command was a deep seated need, but there was something about putting your own life on the line that fired adrenaline like nobody’s business.
Mike had worked his way up the chain of command when he’d been younger, fighting and then leading as he learned and excelled. He hadn’t been in combat in far too long. Not that he relished bloodshed, but he felt a sense of purpose on the battlefield that was all too often lost in the offices of command. Here he knew clearly who the good guys and the bad guys were.
In this case, the bad guys were jits. Kidnappers and slavers, these men were scum and Mike had no qualms about blowing them away when they tried to do the same to him.
*
Leah sat in Smithson’s old command chair, working steadily, when a comm interrupted on a private channel. Leah motioned her comm tech to record and punched the receive button.
“Where’s Smithson?” The pirate captain looked angry. Very different from the over-the-top barbarian she’d met earlier. He didn’t seem to recognize her at first—until she smiled.
“You!”
“Colonel Leah Blackfoot of Sector Command.” She nodded her head politely, while the pirate sat back, clearly shocked. “You’re under arrest, Captain. You and your men are ordered to stand down immediately and surrender your ship to the forces already on board.”
The man stared at her for so long, she wasn’t sure what he might do. Then he started to laugh, shaking his head as a gru
dging sort of respect entered his eyes.
“You’re good, Lilla. Or should I say, Colonel? You had me fooled. I was scrutinizing the men when all along I should have suspected the girl. Damn, but you’ve got brass balls, woman!” Leah had to stifle a laugh. “What happened to Smithson?”
“She’s currently enjoying the hospitality of the brig. I’d be delighted if you’d join her.”
“A captain never surrenders his ship.”
Leah watched the door behind the man open over the comm. She thought she recognized the big build of the two soldiers who entered first. It had to be Ty and Michael. The pirate captain saw them as he turned—too late to get off a shot.
“Looks like you don’t need to surrender, Captain. You’ve been taken honorably in battle.”
“You’re a worthy adversary, Colonel.” He bowed his head, surrendered his weapon, and spoke a few words in his own tongue she didn’t quite follow as Michael and Ty cuffed him and passed him over to the waiting troopers.
One of the armored men stepped forward to face the screen and nodded as a transmission came through over the headset all members of the operation wore.
“We’ve secured the ship and will be heading back shortly.” Michael’s voice came through loud and clear. Leah had never felt so relieved. He was alive and sounded just as in control and strong as he always did, though his armor was blackened in places. He’d taken a few hits, but looked like he was moving all right to Leah’s eyes.
“Glad to hear it, Commandant. We’ll leave the light on for you.”
“Good work, Colonel.” Did she hear a hint of pride in his voice? She wasn’t sure, but the approval felt good. “We’ll be there shortly. I’ll meet you in Smithson’s quarters after I finish up here. Gather your best evidence team. I want to see what we can learn from her belongings. If this crime ring goes any further, I want to know it. I’ll also need a second evidence team to comb this ship for information.”