Among Galactic Ruins (18 page)

What sat on it had the breath rushing out of
her lungs.

She circled the desk. “By Suva’s grace.”
A Renaissance bronze in mint
condition.
She’d only ever seen pictures of them in records.
She reached out a trembling hand.

Then she was yanked backward.

A strong arm wrapped around her chest like a
steel band. A hard male body pressed against her back. She
stiffened and shoved her elbow into a firm abdomen. A wet, naked
abdomen. The cool metal of a weapon pressed against her temple and
she froze.

“I’ve already had one woman sneak up on me
today. I don’t plan to make it two.” The male voice was low,
raspy.

“I don’t care what kind of day you’re
having.” She wasn’t violent by nature but she’d been trained to
defend herself on isolated digs. Acting on instinct, she dropped
low and swiped out at his ankles with her foot.

She obviously surprised him, because he
toppled. Pulling her over with him.

For a second, she glimpsed the lean, tough
body of a runner—all firm, sinewy muscle. She had a quick
impression of dark ink covering one of his arms. She didn’t let her
gaze go lower.

He was strong and she realized she’d never
beat him in a fair fight.

He was cursing in a language her lingual
implant didn’t recognize. She scrambled off him, reaching for the
laser pistol that was now lying on the floor.

Her fingers brushed metal. Then she was
tackled from behind.

She hit the floor face-first and all the air
was forced out of her lungs in rush. The man’s heavy weight settled
over her and her cheek pressed against the smooth concrete.

Warm breath tickled her ear. “Now what,
darlin’?”

“Now nothing. Get
off
me.” Eos bucked
her body. But all that did was grind her butt into a hard
stomach.

“Not until you tell me who you are and what
the hell you’re doing in my place.”

She sucked in a breath. “No one met my
shuttle.”

Footsteps.

“Her name’s Dr. Eos Rai.”

Eos recognized Niklas’s voice. Relief
flooded through her. She turned her head enough to see Niklas and a
younger man with tawny hair in the doorway.

The younger man smiled. “Twice in one day
you’ve gotten beaten up by a girl, Dath.”

“Screw you, Z,” the man above her said.

She guessed the one with Niklas was the
former Galactic Strike Wing fighter pilot, Zayn. Which left the
hard, dangerous man on top of her as none other than Dathan
Phoenix.

His weight shifted off her and she sat
up.

Now she knew who he was, she let herself
look.

Tanned skin over hard muscles. Actually, he
was a bit pink, like he had bad solarburn. Not that it detracted
from his blatant masculinity. A washboard stomach and a deep V of
muscle that disappeared…downward. Where she wasn’t going to
look.

One strong arm and shoulder were covered in
black ink. Her heart stuttered as her gaze traced the wild,
masculine design. She pressed her hands together, touching her own
designs. His markings were nothing like the elegant mehndi markings
the men and women on her world were born with.

Dathan grabbed a towel off a nearby chair
and wrapped it around his hips, then he crossed his arms over his
chest. Her gaze met eyes the color of the bright blue-green
mountain lakes on her home world. Hair the color of deepest space
fell around a slightly battered face and a small white scar cut
through his left eyebrow.

“How are you, Eos?”

She forced her gaze away from Dathan.
“Niklas. It’s nice to see you.”

“So you know each other?” Dathan asked with
a frown.

Niklas nodded. “We worked together at the
Galactic Institute of Historical Preservation.”

Dathan’s face tightened. “We’re not real
fond of Institute snobs around here.”

She arched a brow. “I’m on a leave of
absence.” A forced one, but they didn’t need to know that.

Dathan extended a hand, his intense eyes
burning through her. “Well, regardless of your profession, I’m
sorry about the gun in your face. Like I said, it’s been a rough
day.”

She put her hand in his. Ignored the tingle
where their palms met. “Spent in the sun?”

He rubbed a hand over his stubble-covered
cheek and she thought the color in his face deepened. “Something
like that.”

“This is the last place I’d expected to see
you, Eos,” Niklas said.

She lifted her chin, forcing her mind off
the distracting treasure hunter beside her. “I need your help. I
want to hire you.” She let her gaze move over them. “All of
you.”

The brothers traded a quick glance. She
marveled at the fact that such a quick look and they all seemed to
understand each other. Some sort of sibling shorthand.

“Let me get dressed.” Dathan strode to an
adjoining room. “Why don’t you guys take the doctor to the living
area?”

The living area was section of the warehouse
adjacent to the bedrooms. Lived-in furniture was clustered around a
bank of large screens. A tiny kitchen was tucked against one
wall.

Zayn called out a command and the screens
flickered to life—showcasing the latest sporting craze,
VelocityBall. Eos was not a fan of the new version of football with
a powered ball. Niklas sat in a leather armchair and she watched
him extend the superthin palm-sized Sync communicator until it was
tablet size. He flicked at information on the clear touchscreen
while Zayn prowled to a nearby cold unit and plucked out a drink.
He glanced her way. “Want one?”

Eos shook her head. “No, thank you.” She
wandered to a window. Through the glass, she saw the shimmer of the
huma-dome. “Pretty interesting setup you have here.”

“We do what we can,” Niklas said.

She’d had a taste of what it was like
without the Institute’s large resources this last week. “You miss
your work at the Institute?”

“No.”

She sensed…something. “Why did you
leave?”

Something stirred in his dark blue eyes.
“Dathan needed me. Our father had died and…it was time to come
home.”

She cast an eye across the cavernous
warehouse. “You have pieces in here that should be in museums.
Pieces we could learn so much from.”

Footsteps.

“Locked away for the rich and educated to
admire? Gathering dust in some storeroom somewhere?”

She turned. Dathan looked just as good
clothed.

Worn jeans hung low and his white shirt was
unbuttoned, giving glimpses of that sculpted chest. His ink was
hidden, though, and she was sorry she couldn’t see it.

She looked away. It was dangerous to stare
at him. Dathan Phoenix wasn’t just legendary for his treasure
hunting. “In the hands of people who will ensure their proper
preservation.” She wanted to reinforce the galactic laws, but she
needed to hire these men, not alienate them. She bit her lip
instead.

Dathan shoved his damp hair back and raised
an eyebrow. “Yet I’m guessing since you want to hire us, you need
us to take something for you?”

He had her there. Her jaw locked. No, she
was nothing like this man. “Yes.”

“You going to share, darlin’?”

“It’s Dr. Rai.”

Niklas coughed. Or maybe laughed. “Eos is
one of the foremost experts on Terran artifacts.”

“You won’t get us anywhere near Earth,”
Dathan said. “No one who goes there ever comes back.”

Eos longed to explore Earth, but she knew
the radiation levels from the nuclear fallout of the Terran War
were off the scale. Besides, rumors were that
something
had
survived down there…and it didn’t welcome visitors.

“I’m not after Earth.” She lifted her chin.
Okay, here goes
. “I need you to help me find the last
remaining piece of da Vinci’s
Mona Lisa
.”

Silence.

All she could hear was the gentle whoosh of
the internal environmental system. It made her nerves stretch
tight.

Dathan threw his head back and laughed.

“I’m serious,” she snapped.

He shook his head. “We only take jobs that
have a sure payout. The
Mona Lisa
was destroyed when Earth’s
inhabitants turned their planet into a nuclear wasteland.”

“No. It’s at Star’s End.”

Dathan laughed again, grabbing his stomach.
Eos felt a burning urge to kick him.

“Star’s End is a myth,” he choked out.

Zayn leaned back against the wall, popping a
piece of gum into his mouth. “Legend. Fable. Fairy tale.” He blew
another bubble.

Niklas shook his head. “Star’s End and the
Lost Treasure of the New Louvre have become so muddled with
pseudohistory and garbage no one can be certain it’s even real. No
one really believes the director of the New Louvre sent the
museum’s most precious treasures on an expedition to set up a
distant colony.”

“It makes sense,” Eos insisted. “Earth was
on the brink of destruction. The United Countries of the Americas
and the Northern Federation were decimating the planet in their
bitter war. Lots of people were leaving Earth with the hope of
finding habitable planets to set up new colonies, to make new
homes. What better way to preserve the Earth’s greatest historical
treasures?”

Dathan shifted. “It’s the Holy Grail of the
crazy.” He tilted his head. “You crazy, Dr. Rai?”

“No.”

He stalked closer, circling her. “What’s a
fine upstanding astro-archeologist like you doing searching for
something that could ruin your career?”

He was getting too close. “Finding the last
fragment of the
Mona Lisa
would be a crowning
achievement.”

Niklas leaned forward in his chair. “The
Institute thinks the expedition never left Earth.”

“My research indicates otherwise.”

Dathan watched her. Silent. Like a
predator.

“I found a journal.” Well, partial records
of a journal but they didn’t need to know all the detail. “Written
by the daughter of one of the head colonists. She didn’t want him
to go.”

“Maybe he never did.”

Eos held his gaze. “She talks about how much
she missed him.”

“Plenty of Star’s End hoaxes out there.”
Dathan shrugged. “I think I have a record of a man who opened the
first strip club at Star’s End.”

She ground her teeth. “I’ve seen an archived
document from the New Louvre that shows they packaged the last
known fragment of the
Mona Lisa
ready for transport. It was
loaded onto the starship
New Hope,
which was headed for
Star’s End.”

Silence again.

She knew it was big.

Dathan raised a brow. “You’re telling me you
have a verified document that links the New Louvre to Star’s
End?”

She huffed out a breath. “No. I couldn’t
take it—”

“I didn’t think so.”

“I’ve heard of the document,” Niklas said.
“Institute ruled it a hoax. The last fragment of da Vinci’s
masterpiece perished when Paris was nuked at the beginning of the
Great Terran War.”

“It isn’t a fake.” God, they were her last
hope. She knew it’d be a hard sell, but she didn’t think treasure
hunters would be worried about verification of documents.

“Didn’t your mother work on the original
authentication?” Niklas asked.

“Yes.” Dr. Asha Rai had been one of the
Institute’s most talented. “She never believed it was a fake but
bowed to pressure from her team. That belief led to her death.”

“How?” Dathan asked.

Eos felt the familiar tightness of grief.
“She went on an expedition to find Star’s End. She was killed by
space pirates.”

Dathan leaned closer and her chest
tightened. “I’m really sorry about your mother, but do you really
want us to scour the galaxy searching for a mythical old Earth
colony?”

She smelled him now. Some citrus-scented
soap and warm male. “I hear you’re very good at finding
things.”

They stared at each other.

Zayn snorted, breaking the moment. “Not so
good at holding on to them, though.”

Dathan flashed his brother a narrow look
before he turned back to Eos. He caught her chin. “Why isn’t the
Institute backing you?”

Oh, she really didn’t want to go there. She
tried to jerk away from his touch. “They don’t have enough
evidence—”

“I want the truth, Doc. You smell a little
of desperation.”

Her spine stiffened. “It’s an old promise I
intend to keep and the Institute isn’t interested. Now, do you want
to hear what other information I have or not?”

His eyes narrowed and he moved closer. His
chest brushed against her. “Not really. This is already more
trouble than it’s worth.”

“I can pay you.”

One dark brow rose. “How much?”

She thought of the last e-creds in her
account. It was more than most people saved in a lifetime, but she
knew it was no fortune. “Five million.”

He snorted. “Not enough to tempt me.”

Eos
had
to convince him. “I have more
information that helps narrow down the location.”

His gaze was so sharp it felt like it cut
through her skin. “I’m listening.”

She shook her head, ignoring the heat coming
off him. “I won’t tell you until you agree to take the job.”

“That’s asking for a lot of trust, darlin’.”
Dathan stepped closer still. They were plastered against each
other.

Something told her he was seeing what would
make her back away. She stayed where she was and lifted her chin.
“I guess trust isn’t a commodity you have in abundance.”

Those intense eyes burned through her.

“You can trust us, Eos,” Niklas said.

She shook her head. “Trust the most
notorious treasure hunters in the galaxy? Not with Star’s End and a
Da Vinci relic worth a trillion e-creds.”

Dathan’s grip on Eos’s jaw tightened, the
rough calluses on his fingertips abrading her skin. She felt like
he was staring straight inside her.

“You have a location,” he said.