by Frost, E J
She twists to look up at me. Blinks tearily. “What?”
“Remember what you said? How you knew who it was on that black box? He called Chiara by name, an’ he said her name—”
“Like a father would.” Kez frowns and shakes her head as what I’m saying sinks in. She turns to stare at Tyng. “You’ve done all this to protect Chi?”
“I have four surviving children, Miz Kerryon. They are all equally worthy of protection. I trust you will remember that, Sergeant Hauser.”
I could torture him. Shrug or something, to show my indifference. But torture’s never been my bag. “Yeah, I’ll remember.”
“Then I repeat that our business is now concluded. You may kill me now if you like, Sergeant Hauser. With those knives you have transported in your own flesh. That was extremely resourceful, by the way. You will make an excellent Chief of Security.”
Mike-the-Merc starts in surprise, and that’s all the trigger I need. Before he moves out of position, I flick my wrists. Hard. Mike sees the movement. His eyes, no longer quite so inscrutable, widen. He twists, shivers his body elegantly to one side and claps his hands in the air beside his cheek. Neatly catching the bone blade between his palms.
He turns back to me with the beginnings of a smug smile.
My second shiv hits Tyng square in the eye. Slides into his brain. He smiles, very slightly, before his head rocks back against the bundle of tubing rising from the back of his wheelchair.
Mike-the-Merc drops the first knife with a muttered curse and plucks the second out of Tyng’s eye. But Tyng is beyond saving.
They never expect the second one.
Kez half-rises from her chair. “Hale—”
“S’okay, kitten.” I step around the chair and hold my hand out to her. She takes it and tucks herself tight against my side. I wrap my arm around her. “It’s over.” Her nightmare’s over. Not the way I anticipated, and the consequences won’t be anything either of us expected. But it’s done. “So, Mike.” The merc’s head snaps up from where he’s bent over Tyng. “Looks like you work for us now.”
“My-my contract is with Tyng Enterprises,” Mike stammers, clearly trying to think his way around the ramifications of what’s just happened.
I wave that off. “You heard him. You take your orders from me now and I’ve got a job for you. Here.” I take the Marie’s master control out of my pocket and toss it to Mike. “I want you to find Erin Agosante and give that to her.”
“Hale,” Kez says reproachfully.
I tilt my head to look down at her. “We’ll buy another ship tomorrow. You an’ me. One thing we don’t gotta worry about anymore is our credit.”
“Hale!” She’s not yelling at me for giving away the Marie. She’s yelling in alarm. I glance back towards Mike-the-Merc. Find him turning towards me, leveling a small plasma cannon he must have drawn from behind his back.
A writhing line of light whips past me. It snicks across Mike’s wrist. Burns through skin and bone like a laser. His hand and the gun clatter to the floor. Mike stares for a second, then falls to his knees clutching the cauterized stump of his arm. His mouth stretches in a scream that never quite makes it out of his throat.
I leap forward and snatch up the gun. Train it on Mike and keep it there while I speak to him. “Call your backup right now. If they’re fast, they might get here soon enough to reattach your hand. Then get yourself as far away from Kuseros as you can. Your contract’s fucked. And if I ever see you again, I’ll put a shiv through your eye, too.”
Mike’s mouth snaps shut. He rocks on his knees over his injury, but after a moment, he reaches for his fallen spectacles.
I back away from him, grab Kez’s hand and push her behind me as I back towards the exit. There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded predator. I want Kez well away from him. I watch him struggle to put on the spectacles. He’ll hate me, even more than Kez, for seeing his weakness. Maybe that will balance out owing me his life.
I hear the warehouse door snick open behind me, then Kez pulls me out into the cool night.
I wait until the door closes before I turn and sweep the empty dock with my eyes. Kez had my back and she wouldn’t have dragged me out unless it was clear. All I’m doing is double-checking. The guard that let us get past him with the bone-knives is gone. The surrounding warehouses are dark and quiet. My trike sits a couple of meters away. Right where we left it. The protective cover’s still down. Security holo shimmering on the front wheel lock. Looks untouched.
Kez picks up my left hand and inspects it. “We need to get you to a medcen.”
I glance at it. Shake my head. Blood has smeared across the back of my hand, but it’s just where the absorbent wrist guard has overspilled. The bleeding’s stopped, and the accelerated healing that G.D.F. built into my ancestors’ genes to make them more efficient miners has already started closing up the holes. If I eat well for the next couple of weeks, the grooves will even fill in. “Your place or mine?”
“Mine. We need to tell Chi her father’s dead.”
“And that she’s the new head of the family.”
“Yeah, and that.” She shakes her head. “Fuck, I never saw that coming. What are we going to do?”
I smile up at the night sky. The Broken Moon hangs low over the industrial blocks and high-rises of Hemos. Tyng’s city. And for the foreseeable future, our city. I should be resentful of how he manipulated us. But I’m not. We’re alive. Kez is safe. And our future is back in our own hands. Even better, out there, far beyond the Broken Moon, there’s a pleasure planet with our names on it. “First thing we’re doing is bookin’ a five-day on Yrillo. Then we’re buying the boat that’ll get us there.”
Kez snorts. “You finally managed to give away your ship.”
“Yeah, I did.” Hopefully Erin’ll be smart about using it. “C’mon, kitten. Let’s get out of here before Mike’s backup arrives.” I lead her to my trike.
She stands beside me, shifting from foot to foot while I unlock the trike and retract the cover. “Are we really going to do this? Run things for Chi and her family?”
“Maybe.” In the short term it’s the best way to protect Kez, and the people she cares about. Doing that thing I do best will be a fuck of a lot easier with the resources of Tyng’s empire at my command. In the longer term, I suspect that Kez’s feelings on the subject will prevent either of us from making Drug Baron a permanent career. Besides, we’d both miss flying. But that’s a worry for another day. Tonight, we should be celebrating our strange, unexpected victory.
I swing onto the trike. Reach back and grab Kez’s hand to pull her onto the trike behind me. My hand brushes against the collection of straps, bangles and beads she wears around her wrist. Feeling them, something clicks in my head. The why of our rushed trip back to her place before the meet. “This how you got the monofilament in there?”
“Yes.”
Sneaky kitten. She didn’t give me even a hint she intended to take a weapon into the meet. But she must have known the guard would make the same mistake I did. Thinking it was nothing but jewelry.
Kez puts her hand on my shoulder for balance and climbs on behind me. I let her get settled. Smile to myself when she slides her hand down the front of my pants.
I twist my head so I can look over my shoulder at her. She smiles at me uncertainly. I waggle my forefinger at her until she leans in close enough to kiss. “Smart kitten.”
She grins and relaxes against my back. Presses her cheek against my shoulder, her breasts against my back. Mmm. Now that the adrenaline from the confrontation with Tyng is ebbing, I’m thinking about bed. Maybe she is, too.
“Ready, kitten?”
“Uh-huh.”
I fire up the trike and wheel it between the warehouses toward Nock. Pass a sleek black skimmer humming determinedly the way we came. Probably Mike’s backup. I give them the bird before I open up the trike’s engine. Listen to its roar fill the quiet night. Giving voice to our triumph.
; We pass the nearly intangible boundary in the urban sprawl that separates Hemos City from Nock. The last weight of our confrontation with Tyng falls away. Hemos may have been Tyng’s city, but Nock is ours. The place both Kez and I have chosen. Ahead of us, Kez’s bed waits, with the promise of all the many pleasures that sleeping with Kez holds. Beyond tonight, tomorrow’s got more challenges than terrors. Kez wants a ship to cement our partnership. I want a ship to provide an escape from Kuseros if things get to be too much. And there’s that whole sex-in-zero-gee thing. So tomorrow we’ll buy a ship.
And if there’s time after ship-shopping, then I’ll begin settling some scores. I’ve got a long list.
Think I’ll start with Kincaid.
About the Author
E J Frost is an ex-patriot American living in the wilds of North-West England.
Connect with the author on Facebook (EJ Frost), Twitter (@ejfrostuk), and LiveJournal (ejfrostuk).
Watch for the sequel, Throwing Fire, coming soon.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
About the Author