Tanderon (6 page)

“Well, at least you’re bright enough to have learned that much,” he said with something of a nod, those black eyes only faintly satisfied. “Maybe this time you’ll remember what playing cute tricks buys you, most especially when it comes to me.

If Ringer hadn’t planted that listening device on the doctor’s bag to find out how you really were, he and I would probably be hanging by our thumbs right now. That’s not my idea of what a man normally expects from a partner.”

“You’re absolutely right,” I said with a judicious nod, stirring against the arms holding me. “If we were still partners, you’d certainly have a firm basis for complaint. And I think you can let go of me now. In future I’ll remember to keep my teddy bear close by so this doesn’t happen again.”

“Never mind the smart-aleck comments,” he said in annoyance, making no effort to do as I’d asked. “It so happens we are still partners, and if you don’t believe me you can ask Ringer. He’s the one who makes that sort of decision, remember?”

“Not this time he doesn’t,” I countered, pushing harder to get myself loose. “He lost that privilege when he made his recommendations to the Council, then got so much fun out of delivering their decision. The next time you see him, you can tell him for me that this hasn’t changed anything. I’m not going meekly to 2 to play cadet no matter what anyone does to me.”

“No one can say Ringer doesn’t know you,” Val came back with a wry sound, then turned suddenly to pin me to the bed with his body – which effectively ended my escape attempt. “That’s the reason he now has my room, and I’m your new roommate. From now on one or the other of us will have an eye on you every minute of the day or night, to make sure you end up where the Council wants you. It’s what you get for playing the lone wolf when you had a partner handy, and nearly getting yourself killed because of it. And it’s also something the aforementioned partner happens to think you deserve as much as what he gave you.”

“You’re really pleased with yourself, aren’t you?” I snapped, trying to struggle against the arms wrapped around me – not to mention the weight of a ridiculously oversized carcass. “I wonder how pleased you’ll be when I get even, partner. Now get your hands off me.”

“Oh yes, I nearly forgot how you feel about getting even,” he drawled, totally unimpressed as he watched my useless struggle. “But at least it’s making you call me

‘partner’ again, which is definitely a step in the right direction. Now if I can just get you to skip the threats, I’ll feel as if I’ve accomplished something.”

“Damn you, Val, let me go!” I raged, losing sight of the amusement in his eyes when his head bent and he began to kiss my neck. “I wasn’t threatening I was promising, and there are times when I do keep my promises! You’ll be sorry you did that to me, and you’ll be even sorrier if you don’t let me go!”

“And sorriest yet if I do let you go,” he murmured, most of his attention on what he was in the midst of. “You asked me earlier if I was glad to see you back, and at the time I didn’t answer. Let me answer you now, Diana.”

“Val, don’t,” I moaned, hating myself for the way I immediately reacted to a few stupid kisses. He had gotten me used to being held like that, tight in his arms with his lips caressing my flesh, his giant strength and vitality held back by nothing more than his decision to wait for my agreement.

I was furious with him for the way he’d spanked me, but it had been more than two weeks since the last time he’d held me like that. No matter what I wanted, my body refused to listen to my demands that it wait even longer. From one instant to the next I found it was myself that I struggled against rather than him, and then his lips came to mine and ended the struggle. My arms went around his neck to keep him from pulling away, but I needn’t have bothered. He didn’t go anywhere for quite some time, not until he had thoroughly answered my question.

I stretched as I awoke, and only then realized I’d fallen asleep as soon as Val had let me go. I’d been exhausted from everything that had been done to me, and if I were forced at knife-point to tell the truth, I might even have admitted thinking about trying that hospital bed again. I was stretched out face down on the bed cover and I rubbed my face against it slowly, trying to see how much strength I’d managed to replace with sleep. It wasn’t a whole hell of a lot and I moved around in annoyance, silently cursing Val and “his way of doing things.” He’d punished me and then he’d made love to me, and now he probably thought that everything was fine. Well, it wasn’t fine, not by a long shot, but he still had learning that ahead of him. He’d laughed at my warning and he’d laughed at me, and laughing was something he wasn’t entitled to do.

“That was some nap,” Val’s voice came from my right, and I twisted my head around to see him where he’d been before, stretched out on the other side of my bed, hands tucked behind his head. He was dressed again even though I wasn’t, but I couldn’t have cared less. Considering the fact that I’d been raised on a nudist planet, clothes aren’t the same all-consuming passion with me that they are with everyone else. I looked at Val with a lot of resentment rolling around inside me, and he crossed his ankles and chuckled.

“I can’t imagine why you’re looking at me like that,” he said, pretending it wasn’t his fault I felt like such a fool. “You did ask for it, you know, all of it, and when you ask for something all you can expect is to get it.”

“That sounds fair enough,” I replied with a nod, giving him a sober look as I rubbed at my left shoulder. “Getting what you ask for is nothing more than justice.”

“I’m glad you see it that way,” he answered, satisfied only because he didn’t know what I meant. He sat up on the bed, stretched till his muscles cracked, then turned his head to look at me again. “I’m also glad you woke up when you did. Ringer is ready to order dinner in, and I can use it. You’d better get dressed.”

He got off the bed then and went toward the sitting room, and I lay there and watched till he’d closed the door behind him. My insides felt hollow enough to do justice to any meal, especially since I hadn’t had anything to eat after breakfast that morning, but the coming meal probably wouldn’t be pleasant. I would be alert for any openings to freedom I might find, and Ringer was bound to be just as alert to see that I couldn’t take advantage of them. I slid out of bed and headed for the bathroom, shrugging off any urge to fret. If an opening came my way I’d go for it, no matter who was or wasn’t watching.

Showering was an interesting experience, too interesting to keep up for very long when I found it impossible to wash without getting the wrist bandages wet. I was almost tempted to take the bandages off to see what shape my wrists were in, but the pain had dulled to a bearable throb and I didn’t want to wake it up again. Val had obviously believed what I’d said about the bandages being no more than decorations and it hadn’t done me any good. When I saw I couldn’t keep the bandages out of the water, I turned the shower off and let the blowers dry me.

I dressed slowly and carefully in a clean shorts outfit, brushed briefly at my hair, then went toward the sitting room. The door opened before I reached it and Val started in, but he stopped when he saw me coming and stepped aside to let me through. I looked around carefully as I walked toward the table Ringer already sat at, but Ringer apparently didn’t notice. He grinned when he saw me, and then chuckled as he got to his feet.

“Maybe we should have thought to put Diana’s plate on the mantle – even though we don’t have a mantle,” Ringer mused, talking to Val but still looking at me. “I have a feeling she’ll be happier standing up for a while.”

“No sense in spoiling her,” Val disagreed, obviously playing along with Ringer’s light mood. “If she’s pampered now, she’ll lose the effect of having gotten a good whacking.”

I stopped short of the table and fought not to clench my fists, but Ringer laughed and nodded.

“You’re absolutely right,” he told Val, clapping him on the shoulder. “I’m still new at this, so I’ll take your advice. Come closer to the table, Diana, so you can – if you’ll excuse the expression – sit.”

I growled low in my throat and whirled to go back where I came from, but Ringer’s voice stopped me in mid stride.

“Hold it!” he ordered, the amusement gone from his tone. “You were willing enough to throw Valdon and me to the dogs, but having to pay for your cuteness doesn’t sit as well, does it? Well, that’s too damned bad about you! You’ll come back here and take whatever ribbing we care to give you, or we’ll carry you back.”

I stood where I was for a minute, then turned slowly back to look at them. The smiles were gone from their faces, and two pairs of black eyes were showing me just how pleased they were with the thought of what I’d almost done to them. I held their gazes for the space of a few heartbeats, then shook my head.

“I only tried to throw you to the dogs,” I corrected Ringer. “You and your friend there did considerably more to me. How long do you plan to be offended?”

Ringer had been holding a linen napkin in his hand, and he threw it on the table then leaned both hands on his chair back.

“This isn’t a game,” he growled, the expression in his eyes still showing anger. “I know how you operate, Diana, and it’s fine against an enemy, but ruthlessness has no place when you’re among your own! What you set us up for wasn’t just a lark, something to be forgotten as soon as it was avenged. You used your abilities against your own people, and you’ve got to learn not to do it again. I know you have no more conscience than I do, so you’ve got to be taught some other way. Now, come over here and sit down.”

Ringer really seemed set on this lesson kick, but somehow I had the feeling he was more concerned with what Val thought than with his own injured dignity. Agents of all grades tend to play rough – Special Agents naturally playing roughest of all – and Ringer had never been one to climb on a high horse. He’d played enough games in his own time, tending to reply in kind if any of his people turned rougher than he liked, but he’d never gone moral and righteous before…

The two watchers were waiting for me to come back, so I shook my head a second time and retraced my steps. I was in no shape to try fighting them again, and argument would have been futile.

By the time I got back to the table, there was a look of anticipation on Ringer’s face.

I should have known he had something else up his sleeve, but I suppose I’ve grown trusting in my old age. He moved closer to the third chair at the table just as I reached it, and then he drew it back from its place.

“This was prepared especially for you,” he told me, a faint grin showing again. “Be smart for once and accept it without a fight. You’ll only end up in it anyway.”

I looked down to see what he was gesturing at, then immediately stared up at him with a rage I could barely hold in. Aside from the thick pillow someone had put on the seat of the small armchair, a metal chain was arranged all down the left side of it, wrapped around the left arm and leg. Ringer knew how I felt about being chained, and his grin faded when he saw the expression that must have been in my eyes.

“Just take it easy,” he said softly, making no move toward me. “You lost all right to any consideration when you made your first play against us. If you don’t like what it bought you, there’s nobody else to blame. Just sit down and take it quietly.”

I tried hard to get that look out of my eyes, but getting the feeling out of my mind was harder. I glanced down at the chain, forced myself to take a deep breath and unclench my fists, then looked back up at Ringer. If all bets were off, then they were off on my side, too.

“I’ve never taken it quietly,” I told Ringer, pushing the chair closer to the table. “Are you sure this is the way you want it?”

“I’m positive,” Ringer growled in answer, utter conviction showing in his eyes.

I shrugged very slightly, moved in front of the chair, then lowered myself into it. It was the perfect opportunity for Ringer to start his heckling again, but he didn’t waste the time. Instead he opened the thin bracelet-cuff attached to the top of the chain and closed it again around my left wrist, then he crouched down next to the chair. The chain wound around the side of the chair arm, reached down to the leg below it, and hung free in a pile of chain atop a second bracelet-cuff.

Ringer took the pile of chain, wound it around my left leg and the chair leg together, then brought the rest of it back and attached the second bracelet-cuff to the rear left chair leg. I glanced around to see that Val was occupied with a bottle of wine in a chilling bucket. The bucket still stood on the serving cart, about five feet away from the table. When I returned my attention to the man I worked for, I found Ringer’s eyes on me. He still hadn’t risen out of his crouch by my chair, but his original grin had come back and then some.

“This bracelet was a gift from the station security people,” Ringer told me softly, his forearms resting on his thighs. “In case you haven’t recognized it, it’s the old-fashioned model used just before they brought out single-set static holders. That ring on your wrist won’t open until the ring on the back leg of your chair is opened.

That ought to tell you not to waste your time trying the lock your can reach.”

Ringer grinned wider as my left arm involuntarily lifted as high as the cuff would let it go – about two inches from the chair arm – and then his eyes went to Val where he stood with the wine.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself,” he murmured, shaking his head at Val’s back. “Any other man treating a woman the way he did would be apologizing for a month while taking cold showers. But him?” He shook his head again, then brought his gaze and grin back to me. “How does it feel to be put in your place?”

I choked on all the words I wanted to say and reached for him right-handed, but he straightened up fast and moved out of my reach with a laugh. I was so mad I started to pull at the wrist cuff with my left arm, but a stab of pain ended the move before it really got started. It felt as though no matter what move I made it became the wrong one, and I could just see myself showing up at 2, the agent training facilities, with the rank of cadet. Every agent I knew would laugh him or herself sick, and I’d end up with more challenges from newcomers than there are hours in the planetary day.