Owen (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 2) (42 page)

“The value of community and advantages of steady teamwork?” Rick asked.

“A sense of fire-forged camaraderie?” Zosha chipped in.

“The fact that I would hate to do an extra laundry load to get your blood out of my clothing if you did?” Delphine asked quietly, a small smile on her face. Thalia decided she was both terrified and a little in love with her.

“Probably one of those,” Hyde grunted. “Where’s the captain and the others?”

“Leo’s not coming,” said an auburn-haired women followed by a short, tan-skinned man with close cropped black hair. “He declines the opportunity to go through this decision making process again when, and I quote, ‘we all know what’s going to happen, just tell Hyde to borrow a condom from someone because God knows he doesn’t have any of his own.’”

Zosha gave a delighted bark of laughter as Hyde rolled his eyes. Thalia wasn’t exactly sure how to react, but she was pretty sure her ears had just turned red.

“Please,” the woman said, gesturing at the table, “have a seat.”
 

Everyone took a moment to sit down, Zosha leaning into Rick, Delphine slipping quietly into the seat next to Custer, Hyde plopping down next, leaving the only seat available to Thalia between Zosha and Hyde. She settled into it, a bit afraid to lean too far in either direction. It would seem that while she could get through the somewhat homicidal happenings of the past few hours no worse for the wear, social anxiety could still make a dent in her.

“So,” the redhead woman said, “I think you should probably start at the beginning.”

Thalia cleared her throat. “You’re Annie, right? Right. So, there was this journalism grant, right? And the prize was a grant, and so I decided to try it out. My article was originally on incarceration rates in my home town, but about two weeks before the deadline, Captain Strathmore starts sending out wedding invites and it’s like, whoa, that’ll work. Like I told the others, I pretended to be the secretary of a diplomat to find more stuff out about you and Strathmore. Only a week later, Strathmore and the
Appomattox
are on the move and I haven’t completed the article. I submitted the first article I wrote and won, obviously, but I still wanted to know what had
happened
, so I used a little elbow grease and dug up the bounty that was on you and figured out what had happened—or at least, I think I have. It doesn’t matter much right now anyways. The point is, I looked into everyone registered to the
Breakwater
and came across Hyde being framed for murder on Serkot and figured I have this grant, I might as well use it for something good. So I sort of stalked you all and I maybe didn’t cover my tracks well enough because I’m here but so are some of Tillman’s lackeys.”

“And how did the lackeys know to follow you here?” Annie asked.

“I…” Thalia began, rubbing a hand over her face. “I asked some questions. About where Tillman’s support came from, about his policies since he was elected to office, that sort of a thing. I wasn’t as subtle as I apparently should have been, and I’m no tech savant, so in hindsight it’s not surprising that they managed to follow me.”

“About that,” the short man on the other side of Hyde said, leaning forward to stare placidly at Thalia. “If you’re not good with tech, how did you find us?”

“I am perfectly decent with technology,” Thalia retorted, “I’m just not amazing with it. And I just called around acting like I needed to hire you.”

“So, ninety percent of what you do is calling people pretending to be someone you’re not and hoping for the best,” Rick clarified.

Thalia thought about it for a second, then shrugged and nodded. “That’s fair.”

“I have to ask,” Annie said. “If Hyde’s been running from these assholes for the better part of a decade, what makes you think publishing an article will help?”

“I don’t plan to publish it in Serkot,” Thalia explained. “Serkot is one of three major powers controlling that system. The other two are Antrecore IV and Rajan. I figure, with my grant and my award, I can convince some of the better news stations to run my article. Framing Hyde only worked because Serkot already had an anti-shifter bent and people didn’t want to look too closely. Even with the excuse that it’s been seven years the evidence doesn’t hold up. I’m hoping if I can give one or both of the other two powers a reason to launch an internal investigation, they’ll be able to at least unseat Tillman.”

“And they’ll definitely launch the investigation if they have the cause to do so,” Zosha said. “Serkot’s been steadily increasing the fine trade ships have to pay to dock there over the last five years, which is disrupting trade flow.”

“And Antrecore IV’s main source of money, not to mention political sway, comes from the export of neulithium crystals,” Delphine added.

Zosha nodded. “They’ve been trying to get an exemption, but Serkot hasn’t granted it. Even if Rajan stays out of it, Antrecore IV would get involved just for the chance to get rid of the fine.”

“Exactly,” Thalia said.
 

“And you need me for all of this,” Hyde said, resigned. “I guess I’m in, as long as I don’t have to go back.”

“Hyde,” Custer said very, very seriously, “if that’s because you actually did kill that man, then you know we’d help you cover it up.”

“I didn’t kill anyone, you half-brained shitlark,” Hyde said, irritation clear in his voice.

Thalia blinked. “You’ve killed, like, five people in the two hours I’ve known you.”

“I didn’t kill the specific man they’re saying I killed seven years ago,” Hyde ground out, glaring. Thalia put her hands up in surrender.

“So are we going to vote on what to do with her, or…?” Rick asked.

“Of course we’re not putting it to a vote, we’re going to help her out and then she’s going to stay with us forever and probably end up sleeping with Hyde,” Zosha said, rolling her eyes. “That’s just what
happens
to us.”

“I… am on board with this plan,” Thalia said.

Hyde smirked. “I’m flattered. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering you stalked me halfway across the galaxy.”

“Oh, I’d sell you to a Miclorian Inquisition squad for a half-eaten bag of chips,” Thalia said, which was a filthy lie because she’d been half in love with him by the time she’d finished her investigations on Serkot, “but you’re very pretty.”

Rick coughed. “Okay, so, this was funny at first, but now I realize that there is no context in which I want to see Hyde flirting.”

“And I’d respect that, except you and Zosha can’t seem to manage to keep quiet. Or engage noise mufflers,” Hyde drawled. The short man next to him snorted and Delphine looked incredibly wooden. Apparently, smuggler ships had the same issues Thalia’s dorm freshman year had.

“If we could get back to what we came here to talk about,” Annie said calmly. The room immediately quieted and refocused on her. “Zosha’s right. Hyde, you brought her, she bunks with you. Get her settled in, then have her talk to Rick about seeing if she can do some work for us while she’s here. Zosha, talk to your friend, see if he’s got anything that’ll help us. Delphine, you’re staying with her if she’s not already staying with someone else.”

“I hate to ask,” Thalia said, “but about the people after me…”

Custer laughed. It sounded surprisingly genuine. “What, those discount thugs Tillman’s sending after you? Please. After the shit we’ve already gone through, that’s child’s play.”

“But we still can’t afford to be complacent about them,” Annie said with a pointed stare in his direction. “They don’t need to be good, just lucky. Any other questions?”

“No. Wait. Actually,” Thalia said, “and I know this is a long shot, but can I interview some of you?”

“God, why?” Hyde asked.

Thalia shrugged. “Habit. Extra information for my article. Information for another article. Getting to know the people I’m imposing on. Take your pick.”

“That’s fine,” Annie said, cutting off whatever Hyde opened his mouth to say. “But respect it if they don’t want to answer questions and no recordings without permission. Lastly, if you’d like to talk to anyone about what you’ve been through, any of us would be happy to listen.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I have maybe three emotions and they’ll all whiskey,” Thalia assured her.

Annie raised an eyebrow. “The offer stands. If no one else has anything to say, then we’re done here.”
 

The squeal of chairs being pushed back filled the air as people filtered back out of the kitchen.

“Treat her right,” Custer snickered as he walked past. Hyde put his hands on the table to push himself, only for the short man to grab his wrist.

“Dominic,” Hyde said in a voice that managed to be threatening and patient at the same time.

“Not worth getting disemboweled over,” Dominic said softly.

“Thank you,” Delphine said with a small smile. She turned to Thalia. “Would you like to see where you’ll be staying for now?”

“I’ll take her. I don’t trust her alone in my room,” Hyde said, slipping his arm out of Dominic’s grasp.

“We can all go. It’ll be a party,” Thalia said, leaning down to grab her bag. “A really, really awkward party.”

Hyde sighed. “Just follow me, and don’t touch anything.”

The space on the ship that wasn’t reserved for cargo or the massive amount of machinery required to both run the
Breakwater
normally and to allow it to access its namesake ability—which was surprisingly well documented for something Thalia assumed was supposed to be a secret—was actually fairly small. Not cramped, exactly, but Thalia could see why she was sharing a room (that is, purely for logistics reasons and therefore not anything that should be causing butterflies in her stomach). The hallway was straightforward, with five doors leading to five living spaces, each with a keypad by it. Hyde walked up to one and hit the enter button. The door swooshed open.

“What’s the point in having a keypad if you don’t require an access code?” Thalia asked as they stepped inside.

“When you’re living with seven nosy assholes, five of whom have enhanced hearing and can decipher the code from the sound of the beeps, a code is sort of useless,” Hyde said, spinning on his heel and plopping onto his bed.

Thalia looked around the room. It was insanely clean to the point that she wasn’t sure anyone actually had ever been in it before. The only sign of life was a tablet on the bedside table and the multicolored stickers on the intercom over the bed.
 

“I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised that your room looks like a hotel room,” Thalia told him, “but I am anyways.”

Delphine snorted. “It’s because he can’t bear to be parted from the communications station. He can hang up on anyone he doesn’t want to talk to there.”

“Not a social butterfly, is he?” Thalia asked.

“Watch it,” Hyde growled.

“More like a depressing, pessimistic moth,” Delphine answered, smiling serenely.

Hyde stared at her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you developing a sense of humor is one of the worst things that has ever happened to me.”

“Are you comfortable being alone with Hyde?” Delphine asked, ignoring him.

Thalia took a moment to consider the man who snarled and threatened and hadn’t once seemed to genuinely consider leaving her behind. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

Delphine inclined her head slightly. “If you need me, shout. My hearing is excellent.” With that, she turned and walked out the door.

“So…” Thalia started after a moment of heavy silence. “Your crew. They’re interesting.”

“That’s a diplomatic way of phrasing that,” Hyde muttered.
 

“I mean, there’s not a whole lot of ways you can describe Custer, from what I’ve read. He seems like a handful.”

“Yeah, a handful of live dynamite,” Hyde said, leaning back. “His defining characteristic used to be ‘masturbates with his metal hand.’ Now it’s ‘ended up in a committed relationship with the splice assassin sent to kill us.’”

Thalia tucked that little tidbit of information about Delphine away for a rainy day which, courtesy of being spaceborn, could arguably be any day she chose. “They’re good people, though. Or at least, they seem like it.”

At that, Hyde actually laughed. “Oh, no one on this bird is a good person. Closest we’ve got is probably Zosha just because she doesn’t kill people directly. But we’re hospitable.”

“Right,” Thalia said, drawing out the vowel. “’Hospitable’ is exactly the word I would use for you.”

“Not dead yet, are you?” He asked, eyebrows raising.
 

“The ‘yet’ part sort of ruined the effect I think you were going for there,” Thalia replied. “Can I sit?”

Hyde gestured broadly. “Go for it.”

Thalia pulled the chair away from the oddly spotless desk pushed against the wall opposite the bed and sat gingerly, allowing her bag to fall to the floor.
 

“So if I start asking you questions, are you going to shift and bite my head off?” Thalia asked, rummaging around for her main tablet.

Hyde looked at her, considering. “How about this. You ask me a question, I ask you one.”

Thalia looked up. “Okay? I mean, I’m not very interesting. You’ll be disappointed.”