Greenshift (12 page)

“He just wants you to think
that.”

“Why would he want that?”
Could David not understand the direness of her predicament?

“Because what he’s
really
after has nothing to do with botany. I can’t believe you don’t see this
yourself.” David’s exasperated tone and raised voice made her feel like a
child.

“How would you know, David?
Did he tell you he wanted to dock me or did you just assume that’s the only
reason he’d hire me?”

It didn’t matter that she had
been thinking the same thing since the meeting. Hearing David reveal his
thoughts out loud hurt her because she thought he had been the only one to
believe she was capable.

“Mari—”

“Like I would dock him
anyway. Did you ever consider that? I already have a father, David. I don’t
need another one.” She hadn’t meant for the comment to sting, but Dale’s
words about obedience crowded her thoughts.

“Is that how you think of
me?” David’s tone changed, the anger slipping away. “I didn’t realize
the age difference bothered you.”

“It’s not your age. I just
thought you understood how important this was to me.” The pedestrians
sharing the boardwalk with them stared as Mari’s voice rose with emotion.

David put a hand on her arm.
“Mari, let’s talk about this back on the ship.”

She wouldn’t look at him and
didn’t stop walking, forcing him to keep moving with her. As they made their
way back along the boardwalk to the
Bard
she dismissed thoughts of their
first kiss. The light of late afternoon helped—it didn’t have the same ambience
as the glittery evening.

“If I don’t take this job,”
she said. “I’ll have to go home. Back to Deleine.”

“That seems a little drastic.”

She snapped her head around.
“I’m out of money, David. My family was right. They said I’d return within
a year. I barely made it eight months. I can hear the I-told-you-so speeches already.”

The thought of her parents and
siblings, everyone in her huge family circle, being right about her failure
made her resolute—she’d do whatever it took to stay off Deleine. If it meant
six weeks away from the
Bard
and David, she’d have to suck it up and go.
If he didn’t want her when she got back, she’d deal with that possibility when
it came. Thinking that he actually might
not
want her made her feel a
little betrayed.

Wanting to put some emotional
distance between them, she pulled ahead of him inside the foyer.

“Mari, I think we should
talk about this,” David called to her.

“Not right now, okay?”
She wanted to be alone because she didn’t want to cry in front of him and could
feel the pressure of angry, frustrated tears building behind her eyes.

“So that’s it? You’re just
going to walk away from me instead of discussing this–”

She spun around on the bottom
step of the grand foyer. “You want me to talk? Then listen. Dale was my
last chance. Sean has already been paying the lease on my suite for the past
two months, and I’m still a month in arrears. It’s not fair to keep asking him
for money, even though he tells me I don’t have to pay him back. Designing
Dale’s system for the next six weeks is the only way I don’t have to pack
everything and go home next month. If Dale still wants me in the morning, I’m
taking his offer. Though he might get tired of waiting for me by then,
especially after today.”

It stung her pride to admit her
short comings and how much she had been relying on others. So when David didn’t
respond right away, her anger rose and she started up the stairs.

David zipped up to join her.
“Mari.”

“I’m really tired, David,
and I need to talk to my family about this.” She spoke as she continued
climbing the staircase.

“That’s a good idea.”
He rushed to get in front of her and block her progress. “But can you and
I talk first? I’m just now hearing about some of this and haven’t had time to
process it all. I know you said your finances were running low, but I didn’t
realize Sean was lending you money. We can work something out to make sure you
don’t have to leave. I don’t want to see that happen any more than you do.”

Her heart bumped a little harder
with his words.

“Talk with me, for just for
a minute.” He rubbed her shoulder.

She was about to agree when she
heard footsteps on the stairs behind her. David pulled his hand away like she
was toxic. It was the final blow to her already bruised ego. She looked over
her shoulder to confirm that the approaching trudge of boots was indeed Sean.
He staggered a little and had to grasp the handrail opposite them.

When David stepped away from her,
she felt a pang of humiliation, then scorn. After the amazing night they’d
spent together, she expected…what did she expect from David? Some kind of
acknowledgment of their relationship. Even if he had no emotional attachment to
her after they docked, that didn’t mean he should act like they were barely
friends anymore when someone came by.

Mari’s frustration got the best
of her. She met Sean halfway up the stairs, sliding under his shoulder and
wrapping an arm around his waist. He stopped in his tracks.

“You look like you need help
getting to bed,” she said.

He looked at her like she had
three heads. David would think it was just the alcohol, but Mari knew Sean was
baffled by her behavior.

David’s jaw tightened and he gave
Mari one last look before shaking his head in what she assumed was disgust and
walked down the stairs. Sadness washed over her. She hated to admit that a
small part of her hoped David would get jealous enough to rip her out of Sean’s
less-than-enthusiastic embrace. It would have at least been a public
acknowledgment that David cared for her.

“That was a bad move,”
Sean said. “You’re playing a risky game with a guy like David.”

“What do you mean?”
Mari asked, pretending she wasn’t just thinking the same thing.

“You know exactly what I
mean.
Helping me to bed?
This kind of behavior will backfire, especially
using me to try and make him jealous. He can’t stand me.”

“I thought you couldn’t
stand him,” Mari said.

“We have a mutual antipathy
for one another.”

“You’re quite eloquent when
you’re drunk.”

As if in direct opposition to her
compliment, he grunted and guided her up the stairs with light hands on her
shoulders.

It’s not all her fault.

David had been pacing the black
floor of the bridge since that ugliness on the stairs a couple of hours ago. He
was as much to blame for it as Mari was. Maybe more so. He finally convinced
her to open up, then pulled away, leaving her feeling vulnerable and unwanted. It
had given her the wrong impression.

No, it didn’t.

She knew he hadn’t wanted to be
seen touching her so intimately. He as much as showed her that he couldn’t be
counted on when anyone else was around. His boots clomped off the bridge and
down the subtly lit commonway. His reaction practically drove her right into
Sean’s drunken arms. David’s jealousy rose in a fast wave. He planned to
straighten a few things out, starting right now.

Mari’s suite came up on his left,
but he passed right by it. His target waited a little ways down on the right.

He pressed the sensor to Sean’s
door several times, barely allowing the faint echo of the chime to fade before
triggering it again in his impatience. For a moment, his mind wandered to
thoughts he wouldn’t fully let manifest about Sean being somewhere else right
now. He looked down toward Mari’s suite and his whole body tensed. David
contacted Sean’s reporter directly. “Open up, Sean.”

Sean’s look was not welcoming
when the metal door slid open. In fact, David sensed more than their usual
tension, as if the mech tech was prepared for a fight like David had been just
a few seconds ago. Sean Cryer definitely had Armadan aggressor genes inside
him.

“What do you want?”
Sean asked.

“What I
don’t
want is
to discuss this in the commonway.”

Sean moved aside, his rigid
posture slightly threatening. He was only a few centimeters shorter than David,
and though his frame was medium-sized, his shoulders were broad and his muscles
taut and ropy. David could tell when a man was spoiling for a fight, and Sean
was ready to throw down the minute David gave him a reason.

“Would you relax?”
David said. “I came to make sure you got the money I transferred into your
account.”

Sean checked the blue glow of
data scrolling across his palm. “Why did you do this?”

“That’s the money Mari owes
you.”

“I told her she didn’t have
to pay me back.”

“
She’s
not paying you
back
. I am
,” David said. “And her rent is paid up for a year
now, so you don’t have to worry about spotting her again. I would appreciate it
if you kept this between us. I don’t know what kind of relationship the two
of—”

“She’s a colleague and a
friend,” Sean said, agitation creeping into his voice. “Nothing more.
Never was. Never will be.”

David studied Sean’s face, but
all he saw were bloodshot eyes with dark circles underneath them and a
weariness that was unexpected for his young years. David relaxed a little. Sean
obviously had his own problems, and though he might be secretive about most of
his life, he had no reason to lie to David about Mari.

Sean regarded him for a moment.
“By the way, I asked around about Mari’s client. Couldn’t find much.”

David nodded his head. So it had
simply been David’s jealousy convincing him there was something wrong with Dale,
aside from a poor taste in scentbots and a penchant for roving hands.

“Then I owe Mari an apology.
At least there’s nothing to worry about, I guess.”

“I don’t think you
understand what I’m saying,” Sean said. “His file is a little too
clean. Much of it isn’t even public, which means he’s got an Embassy protector
keeping things tidy. Maybe you could use your military connections to find out
more.”

“Thanks,” David’s
protective instincts engaged again as Sean practically confirmed the
bittersweet truth that Dale was hiding something. “I appreciate it.”

“Is Mari in trouble?”
Sean asked.

“I hope not,” David
muttered as he left.

Good thing Ben stayed in the
fleet.

David had four brothers, Ben
being the middle one, therefore also being the loudest, most talkative, and
probably the most personable of them all. Though Colin was in between them,
David and Ben were always closer because Colin had no interest in the Armada,
choosing to become a civilian engineer instead. Ben, on the other hand, may
have been even more gung ho about the military than David, or maybe because of
David, wanting to be just like his big brother. But instead of following in
David’s footsteps, Ben joined a special operations unit which moved around
within the fleet, never sticking to a steady rise in rank aboard a particular
ship, like David had with the
Protector
.

That gave Ben, as a simple
lieutenant, access to more classified channels than David ever had as a captain.

When Ben’s familiar grin and dark
brows appeared on the airscreen, David was struck by how much he and Ben were
starting to look more alike the older they got, even though many people didn’t
think so. With only seven years separating them, David thought Ben still seemed
much younger.

“I need some information on
a guy named Dale Zapona,” David said.

“Oh, I see how it is. Use
me and abuse me, but don’t call just to say hello.”

“Hello, Ben,” David
said. “Can you do a background check on Dale Zapona?”

“Of course. And while I’m
doing the search, maybe you can tell me how your run-in with that asshole
Killian Doje went, or better yet, who you’ve been docking. Because word has it
you were seen last night kissing a little blonde Socialite along the boardwalk
on Carrey Bay.”

To prove his point, Ben replaced
his image with a vid. It was of David and Mari’s kiss.

“Or was she just someone
you met that night? How old is she? Her Embassy file said nineteen, but I can’t
imagine you with a teenager, even one who looked like that.”

“
She’s
none of your
business, Ben.” David’s tone was light, but held a subtle warning.
“How do you even know about her? Or Killian?”

Ben’s image flicked back on
screen.

“Your romantic interlude
got picked up by a voyeur just like your reunion with Killian. I have an alert
on all the family in case anyone’s in trouble.”

“Or because you’re a bigger
gossip than half the Socialites in this system,” David said.

“Come on, I can see not
wanting to talk about the asshole, but give me some info on the blonde. What’s
her name?”

“Like you don’t already
know,” David muttered.

“Boston. Sweet name. But
you called her Mari when you said she was beautiful.”
Ben could barely
contain his glee.
“Why is that?”

“Why do you bother to ask
questions you know the answers to?”

“Just making
conversation. You know, I haven’t seen you kiss anyone like that since Lyra,
though you do seem to have a thing for blondes with tight asses. And in that little
blue dress that Bos—that Mari was wearing, it was pretty easy to see her—”

“At least I have a personal
life. Do you even remember the name of the last woman you docked?” David asked.

That actually silenced Ben, and
David wished he could have taken the comment back, sensing Ben must have been
sensitive about the topic. They hadn’t talked in months, but he knew Ben better
than any person in the system. When he got quiet, something was wrong. Kind of
like Mari.