James crouched to eye level and tightened his hold on my face. “Look at me. Just me. My eyes. What color are they?”
I blinked through the sea of diagnostic information and fixed my gaze on his eyes. Data tumbled between us in a curtain of numbers. I winced and peered through the stream. “Brown. They’re brown.”
“Okay. How many eyelashes do you see?”
“Two hundred and forty two on your right eye.”
“Good, and my left?”
“Two hundred and twenty.”
“How many crew are on this ship?”
“Twelve.”
“And what is your number?”
“One Thousand And One.”
He smiled his kind smile and asked quietly, “How do you feel now?”
The data had subsided, pulled back like curtains before a performance. The streams still thrummed in the background, but now I could ignore it. “In control.”
“If it keeps happening, we’ll have to think of a way to get you fixed, but until then, try and stay focused. It’ll help block the influx of data.”
I searched his brown eyes and found them filled with honest concern.
“I have information, but I’m prevented from telling you. My protocols are blocking it. It’s right there.” I jabbed a finger into my temple. “Right there, James. And I can’t … I just can’t. Why is this happening to me?”
“I don’t know. You weren’t made like the others. I don’t even know if you were made from the same components. Chen Hung could have constructed you by hand.”
Chen Hung isn’t who he appears to be! My maker is a synthetic!
I touched James’s face, right at the corner of his lips, where his smile tucked into his cheek, but that smile faded beneath my fingertips, so I let my hand fall again.
“I found him,” I said. “Chen Hung. I got to him, but I couldn’t move. He made it so I can’t hurt him. But it’s all I want to do. I need to hurt him, James. I want to tell you why. I need to.” I curled my fingers into my palms and squeezed my hands into fists. “But I’m prohibited from doing so.”
“It sounds as though you’re following your own orders, but they’re clashing with existing protocols. That conflict would explain why you’re malfunctioning. I can help you, I think, with the right equipment and enough time.” He straightened and sighed. “Although, where we go from here, is anyone’s guess.” His pause was a heavy thing, laden with regrets. “At least we’re off Janus, I suppose.”
He’d been thinking of his sister. I too had regrets. A pang of discomfort knotted itself in my chest. Guilt, perhaps, though I wasn’t sure. I dismissed it along with all the other nonsense data smothering me.
“Commander Shepperd left some fleet sweats here for you,” James said, his tone still somber. “Your clothes were ruined.”
He bumped a loose fist against the end of the bed. “I remember the name now—Shepperd. Caleb Shepperd was Haley’s boyfriend before the accident, and guessing by the resemblance, the commander is his older brother?”
“Yes.”
I swung my legs over the bed and examined the raw wounds in my torso. James must have spent hours cleaning and repairing the bullet holes, thereby allowing my skin to regenerate.
“But there wasn’t a shuttle accident. Haley was killed.” Not by her father. No. By a synthetic imposter. Maybe I could write it down? “A pen, something to write on, quickly.”
James searched the med bay for a pen and touchpad and then held them out. I snatched them from his hands, and froze.
“No! No!” I threw the pad to the floor. It clattered and skidded halfway across the med bay. “It’s here, right here, in my head—my processes—but I can’t get it out.”
“I’m sorry. I really am. I want to help you. Maybe the commander can help somehow?”
I sighed and poked at one of the impact wounds, studying the pain data as it trickled through my vision. At least that data flowed freely enough without choking me.
“Is that how you knew to contact the commander? You remembered him from when you were Haley?”
“No.” I lifted my gaze.
James averted his eyes and awkwardly scooped up the sweats, handing them to me.
“Chitec sent me to kill Caleb.”
“Chitec did? Who there would do that? Why?”
I took the clothes and dressed while James wandered about the med bay, deliberately facing away from me.
“I’m prohibited from telling you who. Caleb was smuggling Chitec property. I wasn’t supposed to exist, so no one would miss me while I was sent on their errand. I developed a fault and …” The memories flitted through my vision, swarming like the drones had. Memories of Caleb, of his crimes and mine.
“And?” James prodded at a few datascreens, idly interested in the ship’s array of medical equipment.
“And I failed.”
He lifted his gaze. “But you said—”
“I killed Caleb because I wanted to, not because I was ordered to. He helped me remember who I was. I remembered Haley—remembered it all. How he’d watched her die. I killed him, expecting to feel complete.”
“But you didn’t?” When I didn’t reply, James rubbed his thumb across his lips, deep in thought. “Revenge doesn’t fix anything. It’s no wonder you came into my lab broken.”
‘Maybe you’re the only one who isn’t broken.’
I reached back to braid my hair, hiding the quiet tears brimming my eyes. I didn’t know whether I cried for Caleb, or for me, or for the girl who thought her father had killed her. I wasn’t even sure why I was crying. Brendan had told me that crying was a symptom of another problem. But I was synthetic. Crying was redundant.
I worked my fingers through my hair and pulled the braid tight. Concentrating on this simple act helped focus my thoughts and drag them away from a past that couldn’t help me.
With my thoughts firmly under control, I faced James. “I saved Commander Shepperd’s life. He’s the type of man to remember. He’s a valuable asset.”
James’s eyes narrowed. “Is that how you see people? As assets or hindrances?”
“Yes. Chen Hung—” I tripped up on his name, swallowed, and tried again. “Chen Hung told Haley that everyone is an asset.”
Run, One Thousand And One. Run!
Closing my eyes, I blocked it all out. Life had been easier when I didn’t have memories to distract me, easier when my orders dictated how to react, where to go, what to do.
I am #1001. I followed orders. Now I don’t know what to do.
“I’ll help you.”
My eyes fluttered open.
“I will help you, Haley.” James’s tentative smile warmed his bright face.
“I’m One Thousand And One.”
“Yes.” His smile broadened, with a touch of sympathy. “I suppose you are.”
Chapter Nine: Caleb
“Why am I not surprised?” Ade Cande leaned in her doorway, dragging her hungry gaze all over me.
I had no idea what time it was, just that it was still dark and I wasn’t yet drunk enough.
The settlement called Irony wasn’t much: one street lined with squat, red-dirt houses, currently empty of miners as they celebrated their most recent haul around the campfire. The mines were a good walk away, but the air in town held that same metallic aftertaste. I had no idea how Ade stomached it. I’d been on their iron-soaked world for less than a day and I was already aching to be back-in-black—if I could get my fuckin’ ship back in the air.
I leaned my forearm on the doorframe, bringing me close enough to see crazy sparkle in her blue eyes. “I came to see if I could talk my way into your place and maybe find the remote trigger.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her head. “And how do you reckon you’re goin’ to talk your way in?”
“With my silver tongue and irresistible wit?”
“I see. Carry on then.”
“Well, that was er …” I scratched my cheek. “That was it.”
Apparently, I had a soft spot for strong-willed psychotic women. Or maybe that should be a hard spot, because having her this close reminded me of how I’d last seen her: sprawled naked across her shuttle’s bunk, high, drunk, and deliciously sated.
“I have no intention of fooling you.” I lowered my voice and loaded it with intent. “In the interest of full disclosure, I just told you exactly why I’m here.”
She smiled the kind of sympathetic smile reserved for idiots and assholes. “You’re a real charity case, like a lost puppy. The kind with rabies that should be shot.”
It was a good thing she needed me, or else she’d likely be the one doing the shooting.
I shouldn’t be doing this while off-my-head drunk. “You wouldn’t shoot me, Ade.…”
She snorted and looked me over more carefully, taking her time, remembering the last time we’d met—or so her lazy smile suggested. Before I’d high-tailed it off her shuttle, taking her credits with me, we’d had the kind of strenuous and delicious fun two consenting adults could have.
She glanced over her shoulder, into her single-story dwelling.
If she had company, it would make my plan to get her naked all the more difficult.
Play nice, I reminded myself.
“I’ve just gotten out of Asgard, thanks to you. I have a dubious second-in-command, who half the time, I wager, is imagining all the ways she’d like me to suffer, or—Well, anyway, let’s just say there’s some tension there. I could really do with some no-strings, simple company.”
“Did you just call me simple?”
“Erm.” Shit. “No?”
She raised both eyebrows. “I got burned by you.”
“Honey, we all get burned in the black. Chalk it up to experience and let’s move on.”
Her tight smile tucked her lips into her cheeks. “You’re all kinds of philosophical when you’re drunk, huh?”
“You were a pirate when I left you in the black. You can’t tell me you didn’t have your beautiful blue eyes on my ship the whole time you were sweet-talking me. You’re just sore I fucked you over first.”
“Is that right?” She nodded slowly. “Starscream? That bucket of junk? She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”
That’s my baby. And Ade had no fuckin’ idea what that little ship was capable of. “Trouble, huh? Just like me?”
“Something like that.” Her lips twitched. My charm was squeezing through the chinks in her armor.
“I had to take you out of the game, just for a few days while I blasted out of there.” I touched the collar of her leather coat. She inhaled sharply. That’d be her heart skipping. “So, I left you in the black? It ain’t no different to what you’ve done to others. You had enough life support to last until someone breezed by and picked you up, obviously, because you’re here. And looking exceptionally stunning as an iron guard, I might add.”
She slammed the door in my face.
I must be losing my touch. I needed that fucking bomb off my ship and soon. Her personal vendetta was screwing with my schedule.
I sighed, threw my gaze high, stared into the russet night sky, and prayed for the fucking universe to give me a break. When no answer came, I shoved my weary self away from the door. I’d have to drag my ass back to Starscream, where there was no chance of sex, and no alcohol.
“Cale …” Ade’s voice cut through the quiet and pulled me up short.
She strode with purpose, hand tucked in her long coat pocket, chin up, and eyes bright as if she owned the fucking street. Maybe she did. The red-tinged nightlight flared through the deep reds in her hair. Every inch the fantasy, she was too damn pretty to be stuck in this mining settlement. As a pirate, she’d had a ship and a crew. I couldn’t imagine she’d given that up by choice. What I’d seen of KP-92 wasn’t exactly inspiring.
“You know”—I tucked my hand into my pocket—“if you didn’t need me, I’d wonder if you were about to make good on your threat to ki—”
My assumption abruptly ended when she brought her hand up—too slowly for a slap—slipped her fingers into my hair, and yanked me into the kind of kiss that, in some systems, would get you arrested for assault. Couple the invasive thrusts of her tongue with how she slid her hand down my back and cupped my ass, and it took about three seconds for me to catch on. Thoughts of the shit I’d had to deal with promptly vanished beneath her rough groping. The fact that she was already fired up had me instantly hard and hungry. I wasn’t even aware she’d backed me up until I stumbled against the wall of someone’s house. She tasted like the alcohol I’d been drinking all night—too sweet and slightly metallic.
“I hate you.…” she panted, molding every inch of her tight body against mine. “After what you did to me, I should kill you.”
She tore my shirt from my pants and drove her hands up my chest.
Holy shit. I’d forgotten how she ran scolding hot and freezing cold, with no warm-up in between. Fucking Ade was like charming a cobra; I was just as likely to get bit as screwed. I worked her leather waistcoat open, pulling at the ridiculous amount of unnecessary buckles and ties until I finally had my hands on the smooth curve of her waist. No weapons.
Savoring the touch of her bare skin, I held her still, just for a few exquisite seconds of calm before the storm hit. And hit she would.
She clasped my face on her hands. “I hate that I let you win. I hate you, Shepperd.”
It wasn’t hate dilating her pupils. Hate didn’t have her pressed against all the best parts of me. She rubbed her thigh against my cock and yanked all my thoughts right there.
“I ain’t exactly fond of you either.”
I took her hand from my face and guided it to where she’d know just how much I didn’t like her right back. A shudder of pleasure rolled through me. I needed this. Needed it so badly I could almost let it happen.
She smiled against my lips and darted her tongue out, leading my mouth on a chase to capture hers. I growled out a warning, clamped hold of her hips, and switched positions, pinning her back against the wall. She bowed into me, pliable and luscious. She’d been an animal in the sack—all nails and teeth and daggers. She liked her daggers in places weapons weren’t designed to be. Some of her kinky shit was too rich even for my blood, although I’d quite happily get lost in her madness all over again if it meant forgetting.
She wrapped a leg around my thigh, pulling me in so close that I couldn’t stop myself from grinding against her.
“Not here …” Lust had wrecked my voice, turning it gravelly.
“Where?”
“My ship.”
I nipped at her lip, her chin, her neck, and eased back so I could get my hand inside her panties. Her need-soaked eyes locked on to mine and urged me on. I worked my fingers over her clit while she rocked against my hand. Her short, sharp breaths burned against my cheek.
Fuck fleet, fuck Fran, fuck the Candes, fuck it all.
Right here, right now, nothing mattered but the feel of Ade, wet and ready.
I pushed closer, moving with her, needing to feel her. “My ship—we won’t be disturbed.”
Her whispers tickled my neck. At this rate, I wouldn’t make it back to Starscream. I had to stop. As much fun as a quick fuck in someone’s yard would be, I wanted more. Needed more. I pulled my hand back, but she clutched my wrist and growled—fucking growled.
“My ship,” I repeated with the kind of self-control I didn’t know I possessed.
“Yes. Yes!”
I kissed her, slow and hard. I was taking what I could, while I could. “Good.”
We made it back to Starscream, but I wouldn’t get much farther than the hold. Ade wrenched off my shirt, popping a few buttons, and then she was on me all over again. Lips, teeth, tongue, all finding the most deliciously sensitive parts of me. I had to prize her off to pull the hold’s door’s lever,
and even then she had me bent over the control box with a fuck load of knobs and switches digging into my ass.
“New cargo, Captain?”
Ade froze at the sound of Fran’s crystal clear voice echoing through the hold. The door slammed shut with a resounding boom.
Sprawled half naked over the controls, I stole a languished kiss from Ade’s lips right before she saw the truth in my eyes and recoiled with a hiss. Her fears were confirmed when Fran stepped out from behind the Candes’ cargo, pistol in hand and aimed true at Ade’s chest.
“What is this?” Ade demanded, shrugging her clothes back on.
If Ade’s semi-naked state aroused Fran, she didn’t show it. My second-in-command was all cold-hearted business.
“This, sweetheart, is what happens when you fuck with a fixer.” Fran tapped the cargo beside her. “You put a bomb on Starscream.” She clicked her tongue. “Bit of advice: don’t ever mess with a fixer’s ship. They take it real personal-like.”
I slid off the control pedestal, scooped up my shirt, strode in a wide arc around Ade, and stopped beside Fran. “It’s against the law to fly with primed explosives, didn’t yah know?”
Fran cast me a sidelong glance. “Took your time.”
I snorted and held out a hand. “Almost didn’t make it at all.”
She handed over the pistol.
Ade tugged her waistcoat closed and crossed her arms. Her glower could have set the world on fire. “Let me out of this tin can now, and there won’t be any retribution from the family.”
“Let me think—no.” I flicked the safety off the pistol. “This is how it is. You are my insurance should any of you Cande fuckers get any ideas about blowing me, my second, or my ship into itty bitty pieces.”
Her snarl returned. “Caleb, when the family hears about this—”
“Captain Shepperd. I think we’ve established we aren’t on first name bases.”
She ground her teeth. “Is my job so damn difficult that you have to run away with your tail between your legs? Cowards, both of you.”
I strode closer. “You put a bomb on Starscream. You crossed the fuckin’ line.”
Girl From Above Escape (The 1000 Revolution Book 2) Page 10