by Nina Croft
Skylar jumped to her feet. “I’ll come with you.”
“No,” Tannis replied with an emphatic shake of her head. “I’m going to be contacting some people I’d rather you didn’t know about. Stay here and keep Rico out of trouble. Besides,”—she winked at her—“he looks hungry.”
Skylar wanted to argue, but there wasn’t a lot she could say. Rico was still seated when she turned around, his arms clasped behind his head, a hungry, almost sleepy look in his half-closed eyes.
“Now, where were we?” he murmured.
“I think I’ll go and do some research of my own,” she said.
He rubbed his chest absently, a small smile curving his lips. “Come here.”
Skylar had to force herself not to move, but her legs ached with the need to go to him. Was this another of those weird, vampire seduction skills?
When she didn’t move, he raised an eyebrow in query. He placed his feet on the floor, pushed himself up, and took a step toward her. She had the distinct impression she was being stalked.
Picking up her hand, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed her fingertips.
Her legs trembled. She opened her mouth to say something, though she wasn’t sure what yet. Someone tapped on the door, and they both turned to look. Al’s slight figure sidled into the room. He blinked.
“Skylar—?”
“Yes?”
“You said you wanted to see the engine rooms.”
She smiled. “I did, didn’t I?”
Rico was staring at Al, his lips pursed, but he didn’t speak.
“Well,” she said. “Seems I have to go. I’ll see you around.”
She thought he was going to argue, but he still said nothing as she pulled her hand free, turned, and followed Al out of the room. She let out her breath as the door slid shut behind them. Whether from relief or disappointment, Skylar honestly wasn’t sure.
She reached out and tousled Al’s hair. “Good move, kid.”
He grinned, for a moment his expression unguarded, and she looked at him sharply. There was something not quite right about Al, something different, but the details eluded her. She shook her head. Whatever it was, it could wait.
Al caught her staring and ducked his head. “Do you really want to see the engine rooms?”
“Nah, I’m going to slip off to my shuttle, catch up on a few things.”
“Okay.” Al nodded solemnly. “And don’t worry—I told you—I won’t let the vampire eat you.”
“Thanks, kid.”
She made her way through the ship, back to the docking bay. She entered her shuttle, locked the doors behind her, and sank into the only chair with a groan of relief.
She needed some time alone. Her head was a mess, and she needed to sort it out. She scowled. Who was she kidding? Her head was the least of her concerns. It was the rest of her body she had to worry about.
Oh, God, she’d wanted him back there. She rubbed her palm over her nipple, still sensitive from his touch, and a shiver ran through her. She squirmed in her seat as she remembered the feel of his big hands caressing her. The taste of him when he kissed her.
It had taken all of her willpower and ingenuity, not to mention a few bribes, to keep out of Rico’s clutches for this long. Could she survive another five days?
And if she didn’t, would he really be able to tell so much from her blood?
She banged her head against the back of her seat and ground her teeth. She couldn’t believe she was even thinking like this. She’d never had a problem keeping her mind on a job before, though this was the first time she’d ever been alone and cut off from the rest of her people. On the whole, she liked it. She hadn’t realized how much the intrigue and politics had riddled every facet of their existence. She supposed it was inevitable given their natures, but it was wearing. There were no politics on El Cazador.
Just a very sexy, very hungry vampire. Whom she wanted. More than she had ever wanted anything.
But it was more than that—she liked him. Since that first evening, he’d joined them every night after supper and she’d found, once she could relax in his presence, he was amazingly good company. In his deep, rich voice, he would tell them tales of Earth in times before space travel and of how men had finally conquered the skies. He’d taught them poker and was teaching them several other card games, though he hadn’t mentioned strip poker again. It was fun, and fun was something that had been missing from her life for as long as she could remember.
She picked up a photograph from the console in front of her. The man in the picture was as different from Rico as it was possible to get.
Though they did have one thing in common, Daniel was also dead, if not in quite the same way as Rico.
Daniel had been dead for many years now. But that had been his decision. A wave of old bitterness washed over her at the memory. He’d been given the chance to stay with her forever, and he’d rejected that chance. He had made his choice, as she had made hers. She didn’t regret it.
Just sometimes, she wished...
She sighed and pushed the memories away. Reaching across, she switched on one of the holographic screens, brought up a game of solitaire, and started playing.
Maybe she’d just stay shut in here for the next five days.
Chapter Nine
Rico switched the ship to automatic pilot and sat back in his chair, booted feet on the console, arms behind his head. His favorite position. They were on course to intercept the transport ship, and there wasn’t a lot they could do now but wait.
Dios, he hated waiting.
Daisy sat in the co-pilot’s chair, but her eyes were shut. She was dozing—too many late nights playing poker. She’d been hanging around even more than usual lately, but he found he didn’t mind, and at least she was safe from him. He’d never liked his food green—even when he was human.
Across the room, Skylar and Al huddled on the floor, cross-legged, faces close together. They’d pinched a pack of his cards and were playing some sort of game. These days, he never saw the two of them apart. The boy stuck to Skylar like an unwanted burr.
Al whispered something in her ear, and Skylar threw back her head and laughed. Rico’s irritation flared. With a jolt of shock, he realized he was jealous of a scrawny boy. He couldn’t ever remember being jealous before, not even when he’d been human.
For a moment, his mind flailed in panic. What the hell was happening to him? What was it about Skylar that made him feel this way? She was beautiful, but there were beautiful women everywhere. What made her different? He had his suspicions. Perhaps it was time to share them with her.
Skylar chanced a peek at him, as if she could feel the intensity of his gaze. She raised an eyebrow when she found him watching her, and then turned, dismissing him.
He rose to his feet. Definitely time to have that chat.
As he stepped toward them, the door slid open. Janey hovered in the doorway, peering into the room. As usual, her clothes were tasteful, her hair and makeup perfect, four-inch heels supporting endless legs. Now, there was a beautiful woman—who did absolutely nothing for him.
Janey caught sight of him and sidled into the room, taking a circuitous route so she wouldn’t pass Skylar and Al.
She came to a halt at his side, almost touching, and tiptoed to whisper in his ear. “I need to talk to you.”
“Well, talk.” Rico returned his attention to Skylar, who was doing her best to pretend she wasn’t watching him with Janey.
“It’s about that thing you asked me to do.”
Reluctantly, he focused on Janey. “That thing?”
Her brows furrowed, and she glanced around before starting, “You know…”
When he didn’t answer, she glared at him. “You asked me to check if that space cruiser was still hanging around, and you told me to be discreet.”
The words were spoken loud enough to waken Daisy, and she jumped up. “Space cruiser? Where?”
“Now look what you’ve done,” Janey sn
apped.
“There’s no space cruiser. Go back to sleep,” Rico said soothingly to Daisy. He turned back to Janey. “You, come with me.” He put a hand on the small of her back, mainly because he knew Skylar was still watching, and steered her from the bridge. Once the door closed behind them, he faced her. “Well?”
“Actually, there is a space cruiser.”
He looked at her sharply. “You found it?”
She gave him a smug smile. “Of course. It was easy once I knew where to look. You were right—it was following us, just beyond our normal sensor range.”
Rico shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to fathom the implications. This was one of those rare times he’d actually hoped he was wrong. But even knowing, he still couldn’t work out what was going on. He paced the narrow corridor while he tried to decide what his next move should be. Whether he should even have a next move, or whether he should just wait it out and see what happened next.
But he was fed up with waiting.
Patience had never been his strong suit.
Tannis would be furious if he got them all blown to hell, or even if he got them blown up just a little bit, and they missed the deadline to intercept the transport ship. He briefly considered discussing his suspicions with her, but dismissed the idea almost at once—however mercenary Tannis was, she wouldn’t risk her crew, and he wasn’t ready to give up on this yet. Besides, he didn’t think the risk was that big. It all depended on…
The door to the bridge opened, interrupting his thoughts.
Skylar stood there, arms folded across her chest, her gaze narrowing on him and Janey. “Daisy keeps rambling about a space cruiser. Is something happening?”
Suddenly, he knew what he was going to do. He was going to take the fight to the enemy—if they were actually the enemy. He really didn’t know, and that irritated the hell out of him. He gave Skylar what he hoped was an enigmatic smile. “It might be.”
“And are you going to tell us what?”
“Why spoil the surprise?” Pushing past her, he strode onto the bridge and sat in his chair. Next to him, Daisy watched, wide-eyed, while the others came to stand behind him. “You might want to sit down and fasten yourselves in. The ride might get a little bumpy.”
They didn’t move. “Actually, before you go, Janey, can you give me the last coordinates?”
“Last coordinates of what?” Skylar asked.
He ignored the question and waited while Janey reached across and punched in the numbers. She was right; the ship was behind them, just out of range.
He pressed his comm unit. “Tannis?”
“What?” Her tone was grumpy, and he suspected what he was about to say wouldn’t cheer her up any.
“If you’re not already strapped into anything right now, you might want to consider it.”
“What the…”
He closed off the connection and settled back in his seat, locking his safety harness in place. Everyone was still standing. Was no one capable of taking orders anymore?
“Sit,” he roared.
Rico gave them ten seconds to comply, and then hit the new coordinates. The Cazador slowed, shuddered, but before the ship had time to come to a complete stop, he hit the boosters and sent her into overdrive. The engines shrieked as she spun and shot off in the opposite direction, the force of her speed pushing him back into his chair.
Behind him, someone crashed to the floor. They really should have listened.
It was only seconds before he saw the speck of the space cruiser on the screen. They were hurtling toward it, but he didn’t slow down. They had to do this quickly, before the other ship realized what was happening.
The ship grew bigger, definitely the same one from the attack the other day. If attack was the right word. He locked on the lasers and fired. The Cazador wasn’t powerful enough to do any real damage, but he was betting he could still wind them up.
Now was the moment they should retaliate. But he didn’t think they would. Of course, if he was wrong they would all be space dust in about two seconds, and while he liked to think he was never wrong, there was always a first time.
The other ship wouldn’t even have to shoot. They could just keep going, slam into them and El Cazador would be smashed into tiny little pieces. The bigger ship probably wouldn’t sustain more than a scratch.
He held his breath, fighting the urge to change course as the image of the space cruiser filled the screen.
Mierda. He was wrong. They were going to crash.
At the last minute, the cruiser veered. The power of her back-thrust washed over El Cazador, rolling her, and for a minute, he hung upside down from the harness. He ignored the crash and subsequent yelp as someone collided with the ceiling.
When the ship righted itself, the screen was empty. Rico released his breath and assessed the place for damage. A few red buttons blinked on the console, but nothing too drastic.
Skylar was picking herself up off the floor. He should have guessed she’d be the one to disobey orders. She winced and rubbed a spot on her hip, but otherwise she appeared okay. Perhaps he would offer to kiss her bruises better… later.
Everyone else was where they should be. He paused to study Al. The boy’s eyes gleamed with excitement. He caught Rico watching, and the excitement was immediately replaced by abject fear. Strange. Very strange. But Rico didn’t have time to ponder the young boy right now.
“That was great,” Daisy said. “Can we do it again?”
Rico grinned. He clicked open his harness and crossed to where Skylar leaned against the wall. “You okay?”
Her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to answer just as Tannis strode onto the bridge, radiating raw fury, her head bleeding from a small scalp wound.
Another one who couldn’t follow orders.
“Do you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Tannis snapped.
“We had someone on our tail.”
“Who?”
“That space cruiser that we bumped into the other day.”
“I’m not getting this. Did they attack?”
“Not quite.”
Beside him, Skylar snorted. “This big, stupid, brain-dead, blood-sucking idiot thought we’d attack first.”
“All-dead, actually,” he inserted cheerfully.
Tannis frowned. She reached up and rubbed at the blood trickling down her forehead. Rico followed the movement. Danger always whetted his appetite, and he had to rein in his hunger.
“I don’t understand.” Tannis shook her head. “You attacked that space cruiser?” Her voice rose with each word. “The space cruiser that’s bigger than us, faster than us, with ten times more firepower?”
“I wanted to know if they would finish us off. And the answer is no. Whatever they’re after, they don’t want us dead.”
Tannis didn’t look impressed with his explanation. “And what if they had wanted us dead? Then, guess what—we’d be dead!”
“But they didn’t.”
She gritted her teeth and made a visible effort to bring herself under control, then spoke into the comm unit. “Trog, what’s the damage?” She listened for a moment. “Hey, don’t shout at me. I’m not the one who nearly blew up your engines.” She turned back to Rico. “The cooling system is fucked. I suggest you get down there and fix it.”
Rico took one last look at her fixed expression and decided the cooling system sounded like a good place to be. Besides, he needed time to think.
. . .
Skylar watched him go.
What the hell had that been about? Her hands shook, and she knew it wasn’t just the physical shock.
How had he known the ship was tailing them?
“Have you got anything to say?”
The question cut into her thoughts. Tannis looked pissed. And who could blame her? She had a madman flying her ship. It hadn’t occurred to Skylar when she’d done the computations for this mission to factor in that the pilot was a complete suicidal idiot.
&nbs
p; Or was he?
She couldn’t get away from the nagging doubt that Rico knew more than he was letting on. But that couldn’t be the case. Otherwise, why was she still alive?
“Well?” Tannis asked.
Skylar frowned. She’d already forgotten the question. “I think I need to go lie down.” Not waiting for an answer, she turned and walked away.
Al caught up with her in the corridor. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No.” She set off again and then stopped. “Where’s the cooling system?”
“Down on the lower level, next to the engine room. Do you want me to show you?”
“Thanks, but I’ll find it.”
She felt Al’s gaze boring into her back all the way along the corridor, until she took the ramp down to the lower levels. She had to find out what Rico knew, whether her mission was compromised.
Shit. She was totally fucked if she had to get out now. No way could she set this up again in the time left. Her first mission, and she had messed it up. She just wasn’t sure how. Maybe Rico had picked up that message she’d sent, but she’d been quick, and the frequency wasn’t something they monitored. And that was days ago, why wait to confront her?
She knew she’d arrived at the cooling room from the billows of steam wafting under the black door. She pressed her hand on the door panel. Nothing happened. It figured she wouldn’t be cleared to go anywhere on the ship. For a moment, she considered turning back, but she needed to know. She tapped her hand on the door. Still nothing. Drawing her laser pistol, she hammered on the metal with the butt.
The door glided open. Rico stood in the opening. “Skylar, what a nice surprise.” He glanced down at the pistol still clutched in her hand. “Planning on shooting somebody?”
She was tempted. Maybe she could shoot him, toss the body off the ship, and no one would be the wiser. She was almost certain he hadn’t shared whatever it was he thought he knew.