by Rachel Clark
She closed her eyes as wave after wave after wave of heat flowed through her, over her, around her. She felt Cooper’s cock begin to pulse inside her, his cum flowing into her body, his love filling her heart. Judging by his soft grunts, his orgasm was no less intense than her own.
“I love you, Cooper,” she said minutes—hours, days, maybe weeks—later as she caught her breath and her body finally relaxed against his once more.
“I love you, too, Avery,” he said in a very serious voice. “And I promise to protect you and Del with my life.”
“Hey,” she said as she rolled over to see his face, “where is this coming from?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, it’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”
“Coop?” It wasn’t nothing. She’d always known he was a protective sort of guy, but it went both ways. She’d die to protect her men as well. It was the way love worked as far as she was concerned. Her parents might not have set a very good example, but she knew in her heart what she wanted in life and she’d found that with Cooper and Del.
Cooper sighed, gave her that smile that said she knew him better than he knew himself, and then pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“The captain wants to move all nonessential crew members onto the support ships and park them on a planet until we can deal with Keytark.”
What? No! She ground her teeth together, ready to argue her case. There was no fucking way she would let them shuffle her aside. “I don’t care if I’m considered essential or not, I’m staying on this ship.”
“I know,” Cooper said, surprising her. Wasn’t this the part where he argued all the reasons why she should sit on the planet and wait for him and Del to come back for her?
“You know?” She didn’t want to seem like she was arguing—he was giving her the victory before the fight had begun after all—but she needed to understand why.
“I know,” he said, rolling her over so that he could spoon up against her back once more. “I know that this mission is very personal for you and Del, and I know that you would hate to be relegated to the sidelines.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and pulled her closer. “I also know that you would find a way to stay involved even if Jordan ordered you off his ship. So, yes, Avery-girl, I know, and I promise to do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
“Coop,” she said as she felt tears well in her eyes. She had no idea what she wanted to say, but he’d just proven that he knew her as well as Del did. Even without the horrible memories of being held as a slave that she and Del shared, Cooper had somehow managed to see who she really was and love her anyway.
“Go back to sleep, Avery-girl. We can talk about it later.”
She snuggled closer, instinctively knowing that Cooper needed to hold her as much as she needed to be held. She also knew that the conversation was over. Despite telling her they’d talk about it later, it was very unlikely that Cooper would ever broach the subject with her again.
Avery woke hours later to find Cooper making love to Del much the same way he’d made love to her. She watched their faces, her eyes filming with tears as she witnessed the intense emotions of their joining.
And when they were done, she lay in the cradle of Del’s body, Cooper’s arms around both of them, and felt more complete than she ever could have imagined.
* * * *
Del watched sleepily as Cooper and Avery got dressed for their shifts. He’d worked the late shift last night so he still had a few hours to get some more sleep.
Avery raced over, kissed him softly, and as always, left in a hurry.
Cooper came and sat on the edge of the bed, his demeanor almost as tense as Avery’s. The difference was that Avery was running late—Avery was always running late—but Cooper still had at least a half hour before his shift started.
“What is it?” Del asked. Last night had been truly amazing, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened with Cooper that he hadn’t told him about.
“We caught the traitor,” Cooper said on a deep exhale.
“And?” Del asked, realizing that there was something really bothering Cooper about it.
“And I can’t shake the feeling that the guy is innocent.”
“How so?”
“We caught Yavef in the act of sending a message to Keytark. He’d already recorded our location, direction, and most likely route to Keytark’s headquarters, even our supposed intention to attack him directly. We actually caught him doing it, but it’s like we were dealing with a complete stranger. I’ve known Yavef for years, but the man we caught seems like someone else.”
“You think he might have been brainwashed like the slave who blew herself up?”
“I can’t see how. Yavef hasn’t been off the ship in months.”
“What about an incoming communication? A video recording or even the correct sound wave pattern could affect the brain of several different species on the ship. Humans are usually less susceptible than some other species, but they’re not immune.”
“So I’d probably be looking for a data stream sent around the time of an earlier attack?” Cooper asked. Del felt both excited to have a possible explanation and terrified by what it might mean.
“That would be my guess,” Del said. “Tee-ani or Sarah would probably be more familiar on what could affect the human brain, but I suspect it would be something visual.”
“So I’m looking for a data stream with a visual component, received before, during, or immediately after an attack on this ship, and knowing Keytark, probably with a self-encrypting or a self-deleting sub command.”
“What will you do when you find it?”
“I don’t know, yet. Analyze it. Break it down to code. See if we can find a way to reverse it.”
Del nodded in agreement. “Just don’t watch it.”
Cooper gave him a warm smile, leaned over to kiss him lovingly, and then turned to leave the room. “Thanks, babe. Get some sleep. Hopefully, I’ll catch up with you at dinner.”
“I love you,” Del said as his lover reached the door.
Cooper turned, gave him a wide smile, winked in his usual manner, and then left the room. Feeling truly loved by both his partners, Del actually managed to fall back to sleep, his head filled with plans for a future with the three of them together.
* * * *
Cooper stared at the offensive little piece of code and prayed for patience. He couldn’t open it, so he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain it was the one they were looking for, but it contained the self-deleting command that he’d suspected Keytark’s message would.
If it was the one, they’d been damn lucky. The transmission had been received moments before one of their automatic hourly backup runs. The original file had done exactly what it was designed for—self-deleted after it had been read—so the backup copy was the only copy they had. If they were to open it, not only would they have another programmed “traitor” in their midst, but they would also lose the chance to analyze the code.
He heard the door open moments before G’ntriel and her husband, Judge, stepped into the small room.
“Any luck?” Judge asked. Judge was the biggest, ugliest, meanest-looking human Cooper had ever met, but underneath it all the man had a heart of gold. It didn’t, however, stop him from using his appearance to scare the hell out of criminals, pirates, and slavers the galaxy over. His wife, G’ntriel, was his perfect match. She was the strongest empath any of them had ever known. They were a good partnership, both in love and as the people to take over the ship when Jordan stepped down.
“I think I found the transmission, but I need to break it down line by line. It’s too dangerous to actually watch it.”
“I agree,” G’ntriel said in her distinctive singsong voice. The other G’trobians on the ship—G’baena and Kam, Trey, Ben, Ruth, G’darlee and G’deece—all had the same accent, but theirs were less pronounced. G’deece, being the youngest, was already adapting to the people around her. They were
mostly humans and G’deece was quickly learning to use contractions when she spoke. These days she sounded more like a human teenager than the traumatized G’trobian child of violent, selfish fathers who’d beaten her mother to within an inch of her life.
“How’s Yavef doing?” Cooper asked.
“Sarah has him sedated. The longer he goes without sending the message he feels compelled to send the more agitated he becomes. She is worried that his programming contains a suicide command if he doesn’t fulfill the compulsion to contact Keytark.”
“Sounds like something Keytark would do,” Cooper said in agreement.
“We wanted to run an idea by you,” Judge said in a very serious tone. Cooper was glad that he was sitting. Judge usually let others do the talking, only speaking when it was absolutely necessary. If he had something to say, Cooper would bet his life that it was very important.
“Shoot,” he said, trying to sound casual.
“Keytark rules with an iron fist. He’s the reason that the slave trade is so organized in this sector. If he were to die, it would throw the entire organization into chaos—at least for a little while.”
“And that might just give us the window of opportunity we need to disrupt the slave trade for a very long time,” G’ntriel added.
Cooper nodded in agreement. None of them were delusional enough to believe they could ever shut down the slave trade for good. Wherever there was money to be made, there would be criminals. It was just how the world worked. But if they could disrupt the tightly organized slaver syndicate for a few years they would save thousands of lives.
But it wasn’t like they’d ignored the information before. Assassinating Keytark wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. They literally had to infiltrate his inner sanctum, smuggle in weapons, bypass at least four dozen personal guards, kill Keytark—again no simple task because he was of a species notoriously difficult to kill even with very large projectile weapons—and then somehow get back out before anyone noticed.
At the very best it was a suicide mission. At the worst it would mean capture, torture, and a very, very slow death.
“How would we get in?” Cooper asked, still running scenarios through his head—none of which would work.
“Before Sarah sedated Yavef he kept asking about Del and the purple-haired bitch.”
“We’re fairly certain he was referring to Tee-ani,” G’ntriel said. “It seems that the brainwashing program Keytark sent is urging Yavef not only to report our position and intentions but to also abduct Del and Tee-ani. Keytark probably wants Ben and Trey as well, but we think maybe he figured out that wherever Tee-ani went they would follow.”
Cooper nodded in agreement.
“Was the communication addressed to anyone in particular?” Judge asked.
“Not that I can tell,” Cooper said. He hadn’t opened or even tried to decompile the code behind it yet, but it didn’t seem to be addressed at all. It had actually slipped into the system in the disguise of a routine frequency scan. It was a reasonable assumption that Keytark was targeting anyone with engineering experience. Any one of them could have opened it. Cooper was suddenly very glad it hadn’t been him or Devlin. They’d set a trap to catch a traitor without even realizing it could have been one of them. Thank god it had worked the way they’d hoped.
But then the meaning behind Judge’s last question finally began to sink in.
“You want to send someone in? Have someone pretend they’re the one who opened the file?”
“It might be our best chance to get close to Keytark.”
“True, but what’s going to happen when he turns up without Del and Tee-ani?”
G’ntriel grimaced as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. Hell, considering the fact that her skills seemed to be growing every damn day, she probably did.
“You’re going to take Del and Tee-ani into that asshole’s inner sanctum?”
“Coop,” G’ntriel said quietly as Cooper’s internal emotions swirled angrily, “Del has already volunteered to go. He knows the layout. He grew up there. He is our best chance at success.”
Cooper wanted to rage over the fact that they’d discussed it with Del before talking to him, but he was sane enough to realize that Del had probably been dealing with Yavef in a medical sense when all of this was learned. It didn’t stop the disappointment that Del had made the decision to go on what was essentially a suicide mission without talking it over with the people he loved first.
“I’ll go with him,” Cooper said decisively. This wasn’t up for discussion. If the man he loved was going to give his life in an effort to protect others, then Cooper was going to be right beside him.
“Devlin has already volunteered,” Judge said evenly.
Cooper gave him a look that should have reduced him to ashes. “Devlin is going to the planet to protect his family. End of discussion.” He gave them a moment to process what was essentially an order, and then asked, “What about Tee-ani? We can’t let both of our medical staff go on a suicide mission.”
“We agree,” Judge said. “We feel that to turn up without Tee-ani will create suspicion, but she has worn so many disguises over the years that we feel confident that Keytark wouldn’t realize if we sent a different human female in her place.”
“Who?” Cooper asked as a suspicion on where this discussion was heading snuck into his brain.
“Cooper,” G’ntriel said, her eyes filled with sympathy, “you know she won’t let Del go anywhere without her. She’ll find a way to join you, even if we leave her off the mission.”
Tears stung the corners of his eyes as Cooper tried really hard to drag back the emotions. Only this morning he’d been dreaming of the type of life he’d like for the three of them to build together, but now it seemed it was useless fantasy. Even if they accomplished their task and killed Keytark, there was very little hope that they would make it back alive.
“We will do everything we can to help,” G’ntriel assured him. “If there is even the smallest chance that we can get you back out of there we will find it.”
“I know you will,” Cooper said quietly. He glanced around the small room and wondered what the hell to do now. Decompiling a data file suddenly seemed far less important than it had ten minutes ago. He stood up from the desk and paced the room. “Can you…” He had to clear his throat before he could continue. “Can you get someone else to take over here? I…um…”
“Go and spend some time with your loved ones, Coop,” G’ntriel said with tears in her eyes. “I promise you that we will find a way to bring you all home safely.”
Judge nodded in agreement and Cooper gave them a jerky nod and left the room.
* * * *
Del had no idea how he was going to tell Cooper and Avery what he’d volunteered to do, so he was both relieved and terrified when Cooper’s gruff order came through the ship’s communicator.
“Del. Home. Now.”
He glanced at Tee-ani, saw her nod of agreement, and left the medical area quickly. He reached the mess hall entrance just as Avery came rushing out.
“What’s wrong with Cooper?” she asked as she grabbed Del’s hand and urged him to run to their cabin.
Del shook his head, but wasn’t able to stop tears from filling his eyes. He couldn’t answer Avery’s question. He just shook his head and ran through the corridors faster. When they stepped into the room, Cooper grabbed them both in a fierce embrace.
“Coop, what is it? Has something happened?”
“Yes, we’ve found a way into Keytark’s base.”
“But that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Avery asked with tears filling her eyes. It was obvious that not knowing what was going on was frightening her badly. Unfortunately, explaining it wasn’t going to make things any easier. Del loved Avery and Cooper. He never wanted to leave them, but it was the right thing to do. Keytark had to be stopped. Del was their best chance to do just that.
“I volunteered to go on a mission to assassinate Keyt
ark. He wants me. I’ll be able to get closer to him than anyone else.” Del was also fairly certain that he’d be punished, abused, and likely tortured to near death over and over as well, but it was worth the chance to try and kill the man who brought cohesion to a criminal organization. Without him in charge, they had a real chance of shutting down the slave trade for many years.
“I’m coming with you,” Avery said. It wasn’t a request. It was a demand. But he couldn’t let her do it. She and Cooper had a chance to build a happy life together. He had hoped to be a part of it, but it was at least comforting to know that they would be together even after he was gone.
“I know, Avery-girl,” Cooper said calmly, but he wasn’t able to hide the deep shudder that went through his entire body.
“You know?” Del asked, stepping out of the embrace. Cooper gave him a sad look and nodded. Del shook his head. “No, you don’t know. She’s not coming with me. She’s staying here and making babies with you.”
“Don’t you dare go making decisions for me, Del,” Avery said, also pulling out of Cooper’s embrace. “I make up my own mind. I’m coming with you. End of story.”
“Cooper,” Del said in a pleading tone, “don’t let her do this. Keep her here. Fuck, tie her down if you have to.”
“Good god,” Avery said. She’d gone way past angry. She now looked deeply hurt. “Do you think so little of me, Del? Would you take away my hard-fought right to choose my own fate?” Tears leaked from her eyes as she faced him. “Do you think my instinct to protect you is any less than your instinct to protect me? I love you, Del. I won’t let you face this alone.” She turned to Cooper, wiped ineffectually at the tears streaming down her face, and gave him a sad look. “I’m sorry, Coop, but I have to go with him.”
“I know,” he said, gathering her in his arms once more. “I know how important this is to both of you.”
“You’re letting us go?” Del asked, realizing as he said it how ridiculous the question was. They’d just spent the last few minutes making it clear it was their own decision to make, nobody else’s.