Queen of Swords (27 page)

Chapter Two

“Are you ready, Lieutenant?”
The colonel’s words sounded in Skylar’s mind.

“Yes, sir. I’ve arrived at the rendezvous point.”

“You know how important this mission is to us?”

“I do, sir.”

“Then I suggest you lock down the link. Good luck.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Skylar sent a message to her internal AI unit to break all contact and blinked in the sudden silence. For the first time in many years, she was alone inside her head. It was a strange feeling and not entirely unpleasant.

She’d spent most of her life on active combat duty, but always as part of a team, never alone. Then she’d been promoted to a more strategic planning position, and she’d missed the fighting, but not the barracks life. Now she’d moved on, handpicked to be part of the elite intelligence division. She only hoped she would find some challenge in the job to stave off the restlessness that seemed a constant companion these days.

This was her first solo job, and she’d planned it carefully. She’d factored in everything she could discover about the
El Cazador
and its crew, put that somewhat scanty information together with all possible permutations of events, added a probable fuck-up factor of ten, the highest level available, and this had been calculated as her best-chance-of-success scenario. Still, she wished she’d come up with a plan that didn’t involve her looking quite so ridiculous.

Tugging at the neckline of her silver tube dress, Skylar tried to ignore the fact that even staring straight ahead, she could still see her breasts. She’d never considered herself particularly well endowed, had never given the whole breast thing much thought, but this dress had the effect of making them impossible to overlook.

Christ, she’d give anything for a jumpsuit and a laser gun.

But there was no point in putting this off. Taking a calming breath, she reached across and opened the comm link.

“Kestrel 617, calling
El Cazador
.”

“This is Captain Tannis of
El Cazador
.”

“I’m at the rendezvous point.”

“We’ll be there in an hour.”

The link went dead.

Skylar sat back in her seat as the adrenalin surged in her veins. The game was on.

. . .

“Rico, get your lazy ass out of bed. Our client just called. We’re on our way.”

Rico had been aware of Tannis the moment the door glided open, but maybe, if he kept his eyes shut, she would get the hint and go away. When her booted feet stomped across the cabin, he knew it wasn’t going to happen. He buried his face in the pillow.

“Rico!”

Something sharp prodded him in the lower back until he rolled over and opened one eye. Tannis stood, legs braced, staring down at him, his sword dangling from her fist.

He frowned. “Hey, put that down—it’s dangerous.”

“Actually,” she said, holding up the sword, “
this
is a toy.” She opened her fingers, and the sword clattered to the floor. Tannis drew the laser gun from the holster at her hip and pointed it straight at him. “Now
this
is dangerous.”

“
Dios
.” He went up on one elbow and regarded her balefully through half-closed lids.

They’d docked last night at a spaceport close to the rendezvous point, waiting for the client to make contact, and Rico had taken the opportunity to indulge in a little recreation. He felt good, sated with food and sex, but the one thing guaranteed to spoil that mood was a laser shot in the backside. And he knew from experience she’d do it.

He opened his eyes fully and glared. She stepped back, and he knew they must still be glowing crimson from his recent feeding.

“Shit,” she muttered.

Reaching down, she flipped over the corner of the black silk sheet, revealing the naked woman beneath. Rico followed her gaze. The woman’s eyes were closed, her skin pale with the waxy perfection of a lily.

“Is she dead?” Tannis asked.

He frowned. “Of course she’s not dead. What do you take me for—some sort of monster?”

Though he
had
taken a lot of blood, and the woman was rather quiet. He nudged her with his toe. She rolled onto her side, snuggled into the pillow, and Rico sighed in relief. He was willing to kill if he had to, but he had nothing against this woman—she was only doing her job. Besides killing by accident was just plain careless.

Tannis reached down, running a slender finger across the woman’s throat. The puncture wounds were already closing.

“Neat,” she murmured. “But what have I told you about bringing whores on board my ship?”

Rico pulled himself up and swung his legs out of bed. “Whose ship?”

She raised an eyebrow. “
You
asked me to be captain. So
you
do what
I
say.”

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”

Her finger tightened on the trigger of the laser gun, and he held up a hand. “Okay, Okay. I’ll get rid of her.”

He reached across and punched the comm unit next to the bed. “Al, get in here.”

Rolling to his feet, he stretched, raking a hand through his hair and scratching his scalp where the skin tingled. He could still feel the residual buzz of the blood in his system, and he closed his eyes to savor the feeling.

When he opened them, it was to find Tannis, propped against the wall of his cabin, arms folded across her chest. At least she’d holstered the pistol. Her gaze dropped to his naked body. She didn’t look impressed.

“Shower,” she snapped and pointed to the cubicle.

“What are you—my mother?”

“I just don’t want you smelling like a brothel when we meet the client.”

Rico decided compliance was the easier option—besides, she was right—he reeked of cheap perfume.

When he came out of the shower cubicle, Tannis was still leaning against the wall, tapping her foot on the metal floor. Al’s slight figure hovered in the open doorway. The boy peered warily into the cabin. His huge, gray eyes widened as he took in Rico’s naked figure, then shifted quickly away.
Dios
, the boy was skittish, always acting as if he expected Rico to bite. It irritated the hell out of him. The scrawny bag of bones wouldn’t be worth the effort it took to catch him. He was one of Tannis’ strays, picked up starving on some backwoods planet.

“Get in here,” Rico snapped.

Al sidled into the room, keeping close to the wall and as much distance as possible between them, and Rico narrowed his eyes. If Al wasn’t careful, Rico would give him something to really worry about. He flashed his fangs, and the little remaining color drained from the small face. Al stared at Rico as though mesmerized. Rico stared back. Come to think about it, the boy was quite striking, with that pale flawless skin and shock of dark red hair.

“Rico!” Tannis glared at him.

“What?”

“Leave him alone.”

He shrugged. “What did I do?”

Tannis didn’t answer. Instead, she turned to Al, her expression softening. “There’s a woman on the bed,” she said. “Make sure she’s off the ship in the next five minutes.”

Al took in the naked body on the bed. Rico hadn’t thought the boy’s eyes could widen any further, but they did, until they almost bulged out of his head, and Rico had to catch himself before he laughed at the kid and pissed Tannis off even more. Tannis was protective of her crew.
He
could get an arrow through the leg, and all he’d get from her was a load of sarcasm, but if one of her precious little charges was threatened…

Al took a tentative step closer. “Is she dead?”

“No, she’s not bloody dead.” Rico ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus, why does everybody think I go around killing people?”

“Well, it has been known,” Tannis said mildly.

“Only when they deserved it.” He glanced at Al and couldn’t resist adding, “Or when I was
really
hungry.”

Hiding his grin, Rico turned away and hunted for his clothes, scattered around the floor of the cabin where he’d dropped them. He picked up his pants and pulled them on, then found his gun belt lying on the chest by the bed and fastened it around his waist, strapped it down to his thigh. He shoved the laser pistol into the holster just as a faint vibration from the ship pulsed up through his bare feet.

“What’s that?” he asked Tannis.

“I told Daisy to fire up the engines.”

He scowled. Daisy was yet another stray. They’d picked up her damaged escape pod floating aimlessly in deep space after the experimental station where she was living had been attacked and her family massacred. She was crazy about flying, and grabbed every opportunity to take the controls of
El Cazador
. She was okay—a good flier—though her tendency to follow him around like a lost puppy could be irritating. “Well, she’d better not be in my seat.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t dare.” Tannis didn’t even try to keep the sarcasm from her voice.
Smartass.
“But we’re rendez-vousing with the client in orbit, and we should have been there five minutes ago. I don’t want to lose this one. We need the money.”

“You’re
so
mercenary.”

He pulled on his tall black boots and black shirt, then strapped on the leather shoulder holster. He picked up the sword from the floor where Tannis had dropped it and slid it into the scabbard so it hung down his back.

Finally, he pulled his hair into a ponytail. He glanced up to find Tannis and Al watching him and raised an eyebrow in query.

“Poser,” Tannis muttered.

Rico caught a grin on the boy’s face, which was quickly wiped away when he saw Rico watching. The kid wasn’t as downtrodden as he pretended to be, which begged the question—what was he hiding? He made a mental note to find out, but not right now. He turned to Tannis. “You just wish you could look half as good.”

“Yeah, right. And put some dark glasses on. We don’t want you frightening off the client. She sounded the nervous type.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”