Overlord: The Fringe, Book 2 (37 page)

He tried to speak but couldn’t.

“I not only yanked your whiskers, but I taunted you for a year because I thought it was funny, and there were few laughs in my world.” She offered him a bitter smile. “Pains me a bit to admit, but in retrospect, I did to you what others had long done to me. I played a nasty trick by plastering your Ollies like playbills throughout the Fringe. I didn’t stick around to snicker at you chasing your trackers down, but I knew you would.”

She kissed him softly, lingering on his drug-slackened lips. When she drew away, she had to blink back sudden tears.

“When I found 5K of goods just waiting for me, I thought it was a trap. I ran the job over and over in my mind, and I didn’t see a single hole in my plan. Until Nash jumped out of the middle of the goods. I didn’t anticipate that. I thought I was a dead woman. He sure seemed to take it personally. Then I found out I’d been caught by none other than Never-Fail Nash, a triple-platinum Runner. Someone wanted me alive. You did.”

She kissed him again, unable to help herself, and a sound like a moan grumbled up from his big chest.

“You could have killed me and been done with me, but you didn’t. I don’t know why. Had I known all along you were Overlord, would I have behaved differently?” She shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s a fact I know now. I have to take who you are into consideration. Whether you came for the ship or you came for me, you risked your own hide, and that speaks volumes.”

She straightened, clenching her fists to hold back tears.

“Thing is, Duster is right. You can’t trust me on Windmere.” She shook her head. “Given the right set of circumstances, I’d turn on you, like I’m doing now.”

A lone tear crawled down her face and she wiped it away with a clenched fist. “I heard about Kraft.” She didn’t look at him because she couldn’t bear to see love for another woman shining in his eyes. “She’s alive, and I’m happy for you, but miserable too.”

Finally braving a look at him, she couldn’t read anything in his face, but he shook his head slightly back and forth. She had to get out because the drug was starting to wear off.

“I’m taking
Whisper
. You called this ship a morbid shrine, and after what happened to Kraft here, there’s no way in hell she ever wants to see this ship again, so I’m stealing it.” Mary lifted her chin. “In return, I’m leaving you alive so you can go after Kraft. When you consider this later, you’ll realize that’s a fair trade.”

Mary kissed him, longer this time, because he responded. Weak, yet tugging, his lips caressed hers.

“I love you, Michael.” Dropping her head to his chest for a moment, she took a last breath of him. “I know you love Kraft. Maybe me too, in a way, but I think you love her more.”

Mary peered up at him. “I’m going to disappear. I could sit around and wait for you to make a decision, but I’d rather not. It’s high time I took charge of my own life and stopped living for other people. I’ve decided to go out into the Void and do as I please. How else can I ever discover who I am?” She kissed him again. His lips became more mobile, pliable and intoxicating as the drug wore off. Shocked at the taste of him, how quickly her own need rose, she pulled back.

“You see my choice is not to wait for you to decide. That is power I won’t give you.”

“Mary—” His voice came out weak and breathless.

“Hmm. I must go.” She stood, balancing on her metal cane. “There is a 20Mil bounty on your head. You wanted 600K in damages from me once upon a time. This ship is worth, at best, half a Mil. As I calculate, you are in my debt.”

She lifted his leaden arm and tapped information into his wrist com. “Duster will come for you. By the time he does, I’ll be long gone.”

Mary gave Michael a final kiss. “I’m making the best choice, for all of us.”

She left the shuttle. When she closed the door, the catwalk below her feet shook with resounding finality. She hobbled her way to the bridge as tears streamed down her face. Gingerly, she settled herself in the pilot seat.

On the trip to Taiga, she’d acquainted herself with the wide array of components on the main console and they no longer overwhelmed her.

She understood why Michael considered Kraft his hero. Her ship alone could level Pine Glenn in about ten seconds. Mary knew just enough about math, electronics, computers and speed to recognize the potential weapon in her hands.

Doubt overwhelmed her. She shook her head. “I’m making the best choice.”

Using a slipstream, she tapped Duster’s ship. He was thirty minutes ahead of her and locked on course to Windmere. Duster was also tracking her ship. After tossing up a prayer, she tapped in what she hoped were the right commands.

To her relief, she saw both of her shuttles tumble out into space as she kept
Whisper
on course. Over her slipstream tap, she heard the alarm sound in Duster’s ship.

Hissing a vulgar word, she abandoned plan A. Duster saw the shuttles right away. She slipped a compact of plastimirror out of her pocket and slapped the pliable metal to her wrist com. It bonded instantly.

Keeping one eye to Duster’s ship, she remotely tapped the shuttle controls and set each on a full-throttle course directly opposite
Whisper
as she turned her ship on a direct course away from Duster’s.

She’d made one target into three in the blink of an eye.

Duster had thirty minutes to intercept
Whisper
or the shuttles. Even though his ship had two shuttles, they wouldn’t have the range to pursue any target for long. Duster would have to decide which ship to chase, because he couldn’t go after all three. If he were monitoring Michael’s wrist com, he’d go for Michael’s shuttle. Or so she hoped.

She riveted her gaze to Duster’s ship as the wide scanner tracked its path. To her relief, Duster turned to intercept the shuttle she put Michael in.

“Sometimes, boot-licking toadies pay off.”

She grinned as she considered the main console. She had at least thirty minutes to disappear.

“And a whole lotta ways to make that happen.”

Michael had recovered by the time Duster caught up to the shuttle. He docked to the main hatch of
Elusive Grace
.

Fastening his short robe closed with a belt that barely spanned his waist, summoning as much dignity as he could, Michael left the shuttle and entered the main cargo bay where Duster waited with a compressed grin on his face.

Through clenched teeth, Michael muttered, “One word and I’ll not only make you wear this damn thing, I’ll make you eat it afterward.”

Duster seriously considered the threat and wisely said nothing. Straight-faced, he tossed him a bundle of clothes. “Four times now?”

“Don’t push me. I’m primed to push back.” Michael tossed off the second-hand robe and yanked on a pair of flax-colored work overalls. “Where is she?”

“Mary?” Duster asked with blinking innocence.

“Don’t get cute.” Whatever she’d injected him with had left him with a hell of a headache.

“Gone. And before you snipe at me, I didn’t help this time. Both shuttles launched from
Whisper
, then
Whisper
went full burn opposite my course.” Duster held his hands out as if to ward off Michael’s wrath. “Sensors indicated you were in the port shuttle, the starboard shuttle was empty, and Mary was in
Whisper
. I went after you.”

“She’s switched bracelets before. How did you know I was in the damn shuttle?” Duster had made the right call, but Michael was still furious that Mary bested him yet again.

“Shortly after the shuttles detached, your old wrist com on Mary went black.” Duster tapped the updated wrist com on Michael’s wrist. “This techno-wonder confirmed you were really in the shuttle.”

“And Mary?” He felt compelled to inquire after her safety even though he was peeved she’d tricked him again. It had to be love. Nothing else could make him feel this way. Simultaneously he wanted to wring her neck yet wrap her in the safety of his arms.

“She disappeared.”

“Mary made an entire ship disappear?”

“Yep.” Duster leveled his gaze. “I’m going to say this for the umpteenth time, and I hope you actually listen: Mary is dangerous. She not only made
Whisper
disappear, but she disrupted an entire quadrant. The only reason you were able to dock your shuttle to my ship is because she wanted you to.”

“How?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. Scary Mary, she of the dangerous mind and clever execution. He couldn’t wait to hear the details of how she’d foiled them all yet again.

“She detonated
Whisper’s
sensors like a bomb, flinging a shock wave of EMF in every direction. Every ship in the quadrant went black for at least a second, shields up or not. Your shuttle awakened because she shut the electronics down to protect them from the blast.
Elusive Grace
only survived because she forced us to shut down. When we got back online, she wasn’t there anymore.”

“Not even the wrist com?”

“All she had to do was cover it with plastimirror.”

He’d forgotten. Michael rolled his head back and glared at the ceiling. “That woman.” Her sneakiness, her cleverness, her amazing criminal mind intrigued him to a degree that stunned him.

“Mary is nothing short of intensely dangerous,” Duster said. “I don’t know what happened on
Whisper
, but it’s damn clear she wanted to get away. Let—her—go.”

“Same song as before.”

“And I’ll keep singing it until you hear me.” Duster sounded frustrated and exhausted. “If you haven’t grasped the truth, let me lay it out. You’re alive because that woman just couldn’t bring herself to kill you.”

“Remarkable Mary.”

“Scary Mary.” Duster nodded, dead serious. “You’re lucky to be alive. For whatever reason, she spared you.”

“Care to know why?”

Duster flashed him a tight, what’s-your-deal wink.

“She heard you about Kraft. Mary admitted she loves me, but she thinks I’m hell-bent to go after Kraft to declare my undying love.”

“Are you?” Duster asked pointedly.

“Do I look like I’ve been sitting around mourning Kraft lately?” Michael pointed to the discarded robe.

One look at the fluffy blue heap caused Duster to laugh. “When you got here, you looked like you were ready to have your hair set and your makeup done.”

“I asked for that. Point is that Mary’s convinced I’m hopelessly in love with Kraft, but I’m hopelessly in love with Mary. Everyone knows it for a painful, and at this moment, rather embarrassing fact. Everyone but Mary herself.” Michael shook his head with a sigh. “Can’t say I blame her. If someone did to me what Emmet did to her, I’d have serious trust issues too. And before you even remind me, yes, I jerked her around as well.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Duster spread his arms wide.

“You don’t have to. I know what you’re thinking.” Actually, Michael could smell what Duster was thinking. “I apologized to her.”

Duster lifted his brows. “I guess she didn’t believe you.”

“Actually, she did.” Michael was certain of her acceptance. He smelled love emanating from her body when they’d come together in Tan’s bedroom. He saw love in her eyes as she’d explained and said goodbye to him in the shuttle.

“Then why did she run from you?” Duster’s flippant tone grated on Michael’s already raw nerves.

“She didn’t run. She let me go because she loves me.” A small, sad smile lifted the edges of his mouth.

“You’re fooling yourself.” Duster laughed as he looked at the discarded robe.

“No, I’m not.” His sober tone stifled Duster. “Mary thinks I’ll be happier with Kraft.” Seeing a knowing smirk dart across Duster’s face, he warned, “Don’t you dare ask me if that’s true.”

Duster swallowed hard and gave him a razor gaze. “You play so much it’s difficult to know when you’re telling the truth.”

“Mary let me go because she loves me enough to let me love someone else. You said love is what you do, sacrifices you make. Look at what Mary did, and tell me I’m wrong.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Mary kept a careful watch on the console. Blacked out, she hung not more than thirty minutes from Duster’s ship. He couldn’t see her. She could see him. Once he’d intercepted Michael’s shuttle, Duster turned his ship toward Windmere. She waited until they went beyond her sensor range and then brought
Whisper
to life. She turned the one direction Michael would never consider.

“Right back at him.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

“This is ridiculous.” Michael tossed the reports to his desk and paced the cool marble floor in his office. “They should have found
Whisper
by now. Mary had to have sold the ship, because she doesn’t have the script to run it.”

“It’s gonna take time.” Duster sat with his feet up on the desk, sipping from a fresh cup of coffee.

“It’s been a month. The longer we take, the farther away she gets.” Michael fought to keep his frustration from showing, but he knew his voice and posture clearly conveyed his growing irritation. “How did she manage to vanish into thin air?”

“Because she doesn’t want to be found.”

Michael gritted his teeth. “That may be so, but she also doesn’t know everything she should.”

“So, you just want to find her to talk to her,” Duster said with a courteous yet patronizing tone.

“Yes.”

“Good gods, Michael.” Duster laughed. “You couldn’t even say one word with a straight face.”

“Fine!” Michael shook his head. “I want to find her because I’m so hopelessly in love I’m about to go out of my mind with worry. Now, can we move on to the part where we actually find her?”

“Nope. Not until you really fess up.” Duster sat up and planted his shiny boot-clad feet on the floor. “You’re not worried about her at all.”

“Since when did you become psychic?”

“I know you. You’re not worried about her. You want her.”

“Obviously.”

Duster laughed again, more heartily than before. “And I know Mary. She’s fine, broken foot and all. No one is gonna take advantage of that woman. Hell, Never-Fail Nash himself is so afraid of her he won’t go after her a second time.”

“When did you ask him?” Damn. Michael held on to Foster Nash like an ace up his sleeve.