Captivated (The Verge Book 2)

by A. C. Thomas

  Life was better that way.

  Jun continued to scowl in his direction, scanning over Theo’s entire outfit but repeatedly returning to the exposed sliver of hip on display. “Where did you get all that?”

  Axel’s tapping at his console doubled in speed as he studied his screen as if his life depended on it. Jun’s scowl proved ineffective when it was aimed his way, so Jun turned it back to Theo. Theo tried not to think about what Axel had said about his new trousers attracting snarly gentlemen.

  “You’re staying aboard,” Jun ordered. “I can’t have you walk around like that.”

  It had been fun, at first, to make Jun frown and grouch about his outfit, but now, Theo was done. He wanted to taste fresh, uncirculated air. He planted his hands on his hips, ignoring the way Jun sucked in air through his teeth as his sweater rode up. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why not?”

  Jun made a broad, sweeping gesture, indicating Theo from top to toe. He sounded a little strangled, voice strained. “You’re too pretty.”

  “Aww, that’s so sweet, Captain!” Marco piped up from the coms.

  Axel snickered and Boom rolled her eyes in response, the pair of them continuing to work at rapid speed at their consoles. Boom’s augmented fingers moved so quickly they blurred when Theo attempted to follow the motion.

  Jun’s ears turned scarlet, to Theo’s delight, as he scrambled to save face in front of his sniggering crew, his tough facade crumbling away. “No, I mean. Yes, you are, but— It’s not safe. You’re not safe, like this. I need to focus on the job, and I can’t be distracted watching you.”

  The new trousers made Theo hyperaware of the sway of his hips as he cocked them coquettishly and twirled a lock of hair around his finger. “You think I’m distracting, dressed like this, Jun? Apologies. Captain Park?”

  Boom jostled Theo out of his pose as she squeezed between them to get to the other side of the console. She grumbled low, “I’ll take your apologies for, once again, subjecting me to the painful experience of witnessing Park attempt to flirt. It’s like watching him try to land a ship. Just pitiful and jarring.”

  Jun snatched one of the small metal devices she held out in her hand, ears still glowing. “I’m not— Shut up, Valdez. I can land a ship just fine.”

  Axel leaned heavily on a button that caused a harsh buzzing sound to fill the bridge for several seconds. “False.”

  Marco shouted over the coms, “Most of a ship, yeah,” while something whirred in the background. “You leave the rest in pieces on the runway for me to pick up and tack back on later.”

  Theo watched as Jun unfolded the device and held it tight against his skull behind his ear until there was a muted click. Then he let go, but the device remained attached to his head, softly glowing around the edges. “All of you. Shut up. Focus on the drop. There’s a reason they brought us out to the Wastes, and it wasn’t to shake our hands and buy us a beer.”

  Grabbing his shoulder to turn him to the side, Theo peered up at the device behind his ear. “What’s that? Can I have one? It would be exceptionally diverting to use Restricted tech, I should imagine.”

  Jun shrugged him off, but he leaned down to remove the device and hold it out on his palm. “Auto-coms. Keeps us connected to the ship, so we can, unfortunately, hear Axel while we’re planetside.”

  Theo snatched it off his hand and held it behind his own ear, waiting for the click.

  Nothing happened.

  Jun took it back with surprising gentleness, running the back of his fingers down the curve of Theo’s ear as he moved away. “You can’t use them without a base. Ours are embedded behind the ears, see?”

  He clicked it back in place and tilted his head for Theo to watch as he removed it again. Theo immediately shoved his fingers behind Jun’s ears to feel for the base, but only encountered skin. Except, there. There was a small raised circle of some hard material just beneath the surface, bumped up against the cartilage.

  “We’ve just received a message from our contact, Captain.” Axel was all business as he cut in, harsh around the edges without his signature humor. “They’re demanding that we go in dark. Disconnected. No live augments. No pads. And…there might be a problem with communication.”

  Jun went laser focused on his pilot, auto-com clenched in his fist while Boom gave a put-upon sigh at his side and started to remove her cuffs. The glow in her fingers faded once the cuffs had disconnected. “Explain,” Jun demanded.

  Ruffling his hair, his face screwed up with confusion, Axel sent the message to the main screen. “See, there? Halfway through, the message switches to something I can’t read. It isn’t Standard or Patch. It’s not even Grunt. I’m a little rusty on that one, but I can usually make it out. I don’t know what the hell this is supposed to be. Code, maybe?”

  The assembled crew all read over the message in tense, ringing silence, finally broken when Jun muttered darkly in Patch.

  Boom gestured angrily at the screen. “Seriously, what in the rusted stars is that? Did you run it through a translator?”

  Theo had never witnessed a person angrily chew a stick of gummy candy, but Axel managed it.

  “No, Boom,” Axel drawled. “I just decided to show it to the captain without attempting to figure it out.” He gave her an insulted glance. “I sent it through three translators. Nothing. That’s why I’m thinking it’s a code.”

  Theo read over the message thrice more just to be sure before he tossed his hat into the ring. “It is. Well, it is, and it isn’t. It’s a mix of six languages, five of which are no longer used in any capacity, including heirlooms. Most written records of them haven’t been digitized. One must consult physical copies of samples in the literature simply to be aware of them.”

  The startled, assessing once-over Boom bestowed upon Theo after that revelation gave the impression she was completely rearranging her perception of him in real time. “You can read that shit, Dr. Campbell?”

  Everyone at the bridge turned to Theo with varying degrees of surprise.

  Jun appeared the least surprised. If anything, he seemed resolved. “Can you please translate for us?”

  Theo suppressed a happy little wriggle at being deemed useful and continued in the professional, polished tone he usually reserved for lectures. “Certainly, Captain. The messenger seeks to convey that they will absolutely not be communicating in anything but these six languages for the remainder of your interactions and demand that you do the same. They believe that doing so will aid in keeping the exchange clandestine and undetected.”

  Theo jumped a little when Marco’s voice sounded over the coms: “Sounds like they’re trying to keep it undetected by us, as well. Pretty hard to negotiate when they refuse to speak to you. Also, Captain, turns out I am gonna need to replenish crystal stores while we’re docked. I estimate about half an hour to get it done.”

  Jun leaned on the console, his head hanging low between his shoulders while he took a deep breath. “Thank you, Marco.”

  Boom reached over and grabbed the auto-com from Jun’s hand, blithely ignoring his irritated grunt. “Dark and disconnected means you can’t use your regular assortment of toys, Park. We’re gonna have to get creative.”

  Jun flicked one of the metal lines embedded in her hands with a frown. “It also means you can’t go with me. I’m the only one on the ship without live augments. Sounds like I’m going in alone and unarmed. Fantastic.”

  Theo grazed Jun’s boot with his own to gain his attention, striking a confident pose. “Not alone, Captain. I possess no augments whatsoever, and I believe you are in desperate need of a translator.”

  Jun’s bark of denial was overshadowed by Boom pulling out a six-inch blade from a hidden holster inside her top.

  “How good are you with knives, Dr. Campbell?”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was universally agreed upon by the Crew, with the notable exception of Theo, himself, that Theo should not be given a knife.

  He and Jun waited in the
docking bay, surrounded on all sides by crates stacked higher than Theo’s head, for Boom to return with alternative weaponry.

  Theo snapped and unsnapped the dark hooded jacket Boom had bestowed upon him to cover up his hair. It was apparently crucial for them to avoid unwanted detection by passersby and surveillance equipment. He looked up to Jun, who stood close by.

  Jun regarded him with a conflicted twist to his lips, and his voice dropped to a growl. “How? How are you the best thing that’s ever happened to me?”

  Theo had the singular experience of being both thrilled by the words and insulted by the tone.

  He scoffed, pretending to brush imaginary dust from his trousers while he attempted to conceal his pleasure at the words. “I suppose you think you deserve better.”

  The bay was cold, but Jun radiated heat as he stepped closer. “You know nothing of what I deserve. Better is not the word.”

  Jun’s hand wrapped around Theo’s jaw, firmly but gently lifting his face to look into Jun’s eyes.

  They were naked and clear of the facade of irritability he had been wearing moments before. Jun leaned in close enough that Theo’s ever-hopeful heart leapt at the possibility of a kiss.

  But, of course, he stopped with a buffer of cold ship air still between them. “I meant it, Theo. You are.”

  Theo tried to twist away, disappointment bubbling in his stomach at the denial of a kiss. The wasted dream of Jun’s lips upon his. “What am I, exactly?”

  The only thing softer than Jun’s steady gaze was the brush of his thumb down Theo’s jaw. “The best thing.”

  Jun’s attention fell to Theo’s lips, the damp heat of his breath whispering across Theo’s upturned face as he swayed even closer and closed his eyes in tremulous anticipation. Finally.

  Finally.

  Boom clattered into the room, and Jun wrenched his hand away with a long step back as she dropped an armful of weapons on the floor between them. Theo eyed the pile thoughtfully, trying to determine which he was going to use to kill her with for the interruption.

  Jun refused to look at him and, instead, crouched over the pile. But it was clear he’d been affected, his back still heaving with uneven breath as a wash of color stole over his cheeks.

  Theo would have found it endearing if he weren’t so incredibly frustrated.

  Boom squatted beside Jun, the cuff of her boots slouching low to reveal more than a hint of knife. “You’re lucky we had this crate of outdated Verge tech. They’ll use just about anything over there, and half of this shit doesn’t even have the capacity to Connect.”

  With a sneer, Jun held up a battered, rusted ray gun pinched between his thumb and forefinger. “You really expect me to use this stuff, Boom? I might as well just hit them with a rock.”

  Theo picked up a rifle nearly as long as his arm, and yelped as Jun immediately yanked it out of his arms with an admonishing grunt.

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  Boom handed Theo a palm-sized, square device with a single button covered by a plastic dome, currently latched shut. “Here. You get a single-use stun detonator. That should take out anyone within a twelve-foot radius. Just hit the button, drop it, and run. You’ve got about five seconds to get out of range.”

  It was blocky, and unattractive. Theo turned it over in his hands with a disappointed sigh. “It lacks a certain amount of flair, though, doesn’t it? Couldn’t I have something with just the tiniest bit more style?”

  Jun decided upon an ancient-looking ray gun and a set of black iridescent metal blades. He tucked everything away so efficiently on his person that Theo would never have detected their presence if he had not personally witnessed the concealment.

  Jun then turned his attention to Theo, tugging his jacket open. He shoved Theo’s stun detonator into a hidden interior pocket of the jacket, tucked up under Theo’s arm in a very discreet lump. “There. Do not use this except as a last resort. Basically, if I’m not dead, leave it alone.”

  Theo grasped his arm as he tried to pull it away, fingers tight with alarm. “Dead? Do you anticipate such an outcome as a likely possibility?”

  Jun pried his grip away with careful fingers, allowing a fleeting squeeze, just once, around Theo’s palm. “It’s best to stay alert and prepared when making contact on these sorts of deals.”

  Theo observed as Boom examined and discarded several weapons, then decided on a discrete pistol that disappeared into her modest cleavage. “Why do you engage in such business ventures if they are so dangerous?” he asked her.

  Boom shrugged as Axel joined them in the bay. She tossed another detonator at his head, laughing when he scrambled to catch it. “High risk, high payoff.”

  Axel clipped the detonator to his belt and made a rude gesture in her direction. She ignored it entirely, and Theo stepped back to get out of the line of the daggers Axel was glaring.

  “I see,” Theo said. “Nothing ventured, and all that. Still, couldn’t you find employment less likely to result in catastrophe?”

  Axel’s anger turned to Theo with sharp, clipped words in a sarcastic tone. “Well, you know, dollface, turns out that galactic subterfuge requires funding and an absolutely massive set of balls. Right, Captain?”

  “Shut up, Axel.”

  If Theo had thought Axel’s tone was sharp, Jun’s would have left the smaller man bleeding.

  Axel made an exaggerated gesture with his organic arm, ending with a snap of realization. “No, yeah, I forgot. Your supersecret plan that only everyone on this ship already knows about, including your new boyfriend, judging by the work you’ve given him. Yeah, I’ll be sure to keep mum on that, Park.”

  Jun took a heavy step toward Axel, who flinched away, face going blank and white as sim-parchment beneath his freckles. Jun took a slow, deliberate step back, hands held palm out at his waist. “I’m not going to hurt you, Ax. I don’t run that kind of Crew.”

  Axel was still pale as he rubbed his hand behind his neck, but he faced Jun without fear. “Yeah, I know, Captain. Old habits die hard, I guess.”

  Jun’s posture was rigid and his expression sincere as he spoke low and fervently. “I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. You won’t ever work for a rough Crew again, not while I’m around.”

  The bright, flickering lights of the cargo bay gave the illusion of tears in Axel’s eyes, there and gone by the next flash of light. “Saving the galaxy one scrawny little shit at a time, right?”

  With a surprising display of camaraderie, Jun clapped him once on the back. “If that’s what it takes.”

  Marco scooted past them, his metal augment clanking more heavily against the flooring of the ship than his organic foot, despite wearing the same boots on each one. He opened the bay doors with a flourish and a broad, cheeky smile. “Stay safe, Captain. I’ll go get Sylvia a bellyful of crystals and have her ready to go for you.”

  The unexpected sight of Axel and Boom descending down the ramp behind Theo sent him puzzling. “I was under the impression that the pair of you wouldn’t accompany us.”

  Axel glanced up from where he was picking at his teeth with a narrow attachment. “Oh, we won’t be going to the drop. I’m just running out to grab some nosh, and who knows what nefarious scheme Boom is up to?”

  Shoulder checking him on her way past, Boom jogged down the ramp onto the scuffed metal flooring of the dock. “We’re out of regen and bandages.”

  Theo grunted as Axel’s elbow connected with his gut conspiratorially. “See? Med supplies. Nefarious.” He pitched his voice to be heard by Jun and Boom up ahead. “For your victims, perhaps?”

  Boom didn’t check back over her shoulder, but there was no doubt to whom her response was addressed. “Keep talking and find out.”

  Axel stopped midway down the ramp, arms flung wide. “Did everyone just hear her threaten me?”

  With hand outstretched, Jun waited at the bottom of the ramp (to Theo’s delight and surprise) to assist Theo down onto the floor. “I dunno. That sounded m
ore like a promise to me.”

  Axel clomped down the rest of the way, muttering under his breath, “Disgraceful, the way they treat me around here.”

  The group completely ignored him.

  The dock was sparsely populated, with a few broken-down older ships being disassembled right next to newer freighters and speedships fueling up. There was a distinct lack of color, everything cast in shades of gray from the DreiXian’s clothing to the ships. The only exception to the monochromatic theme was the occasional poison-bright flash of neon flickering beneath a layer of grime. It made Theo want to toss out a bucket of paint to brighten things up. Or an army of polishing cloths and some very strong cleaner. It was entirely possible that the buildings could be brightly colored beneath the muck.

  He faltered as something soft dropped onto his head.

  “Here.”

  Theo batted at the material Jun had dumped atop him, struggling his way free of a thick, gray, circular scarf which bore a remarkable resemblance to the blanket on Jun’s bed.

  He clutched it against his chest, turning his face up to Jun, utterly charmed by the clumsy gesture. “You’re lending me one of your scarves?”

  Jun shrugged, eyes trained on the people bustling around them as they turned out of the docks onto a busy thoroughfare lit on all sides with dirty, glowing signage advertising myriad things. “It gets cold, sometimes.”

  Theo slung the scarf around his neck, rubbing the soft, thick yarn between his fingers. His shout of surprise was muffled by the material when Jun reached over and roughly pulled his hood up over his head. He then did the same with his own.

  “Keep that on; don’t let anyone get a good look at you.”

  Theo nodded, bumping shoulders with Jun as he held onto his new scarf. “Quite right. Wouldn’t want them to discover how pretty I am, right, Jun?”

  The fact that Jun actually stumbled over nothing at Theo’s words lit a bank of warmth in his belly. It spread through Theo’s limbs and brightened his smile as he laughed and laughed.

  Axel spread his arms wide, casually stepping over a pile of refuse that oozed green slime across the grimy metal walkway. “Welcome to the Wastes. The crotch of the galaxy. Hot, damp, and reeking of piss. This is the spot where every rancid piece of flotsam this side of the Verge comes to do their dirty deeds. The land of shame and shadows, disaster and decay, regret and—”