Chapter 11
Jack picked up the napkin that Rikki had knocked off her chair when she left. She had hurried away, anxious to leave Krell. Not that he blamed her. She hated it here. She usually worked jobs where she was more comfortable—her last was on a cruise ship.
And that had gotten her into the worst mess of her life.
He crumpled the napkin in his right hand and stared at the remains of the burger on his plate. Having two of those gut-busters in less than twenty-four hours wasn’t good for him. He probably should have had the special soda and nothing else.
He sighed. Rikki had left him shaken. She rarely got upset. Never, really, not since they were children.
She had met a man on that cruise, an assassin with the Assassins Guild, and had fallen for him. She swore she hadn’t, but Jack knew Rikki.
For the first time in her life, she was in love.
And if what she told Jack was true, she had fallen for the worst man she could possibly have found.
He set the napkin down and smoothed it out. She had asked him for his help. He wanted to do more than vet the guy.
Jack wanted to punch him. Just for upsetting Rikki.
Jack would find out everything he could about the man, even if it put him at odds with the Assassins Guild. He was already at odds with the Rovers. What would it matter if he offended the other large group of assassins in this sector?
He smiled without humor and started to stand, when a hand caught his left shoulder and forced him back down. He started to worm away, but the grip got tighter.
“Don’t move,” said a familiar voice he thought he would never hear again. “Pretend like you’re happy to see me.”
That wasn’t hard. He was. He had to exercise great control over his face to keep from grinning like an idiot.
Skye stood next to him.
He turned, grabbed her by the waist, lifted her, and stood up all at the same time. He brought her close, hugging her like she was a long-lost girlfriend.
He had thought she was lost, just not that long ago.
Her body remained stiff for one half second, then she wrapped herself around him, burying her face in his neck, like she had done the night before.
When she had been naked.
He was instantly aroused and he knew she could feel it.
But to his surprise, she didn’t look at him and grin. Instead, she wrapped one hand around his head, holding it in place.
“I just overheard something,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but there’s a man on this station who wants to kill you. He’ll get paid if he does it here and soon.”
She spoke so softly no one else could have heard it.
And he couldn’t lean back to see her face. So he kissed the spot behind her ear instead, then whispered, “How could you know this?”
“I overheard it,” she said. “You have a ship?”
“Yeah,” he said, his heart sinking. Was this some kind of scam?
“Let’s go there. It’ll be safe.”
“Not if someone is after me,” he whispered.
“I want to show you an image of who is,” she said. “I have no idea who he is.”
Jack’s heart rate had increased and not just because he held Skye. “Show me now.”
“I can’t,” she said. “He might track the information.”
“I have a jammer,” Jack said.
This time, she rocked back and looked him in the face. Normal people did not carry jammers. Normal people had no reason to shut off any access to the various nets and webs and information flow that constantly swirled around them.
His gaze met hers. Her surprise seemed genuine. Or maybe she was just a good actress. Maybe she had known who he was all along.
“All right,” she said. “Is the jammer portable?”
“Yeah,” he said softly.
“Well, then,” she said with a smile. “I still have my room.”
That sentence should have made him happy. It didn’t. For all he knew, Skye was trying to isolate him. It was an Assassins Guild trick—pretend to fall for someone, get him alone, and then kill him.
But if Skye was using that trick, why hadn’t she killed him the night before?
He only had a second or two to decide if he could trust her.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to smile. “Well,” he said. “Let’s go back to your room. After all, I fit there.”
Her smile seemed genuine. “Yes,” she said softly. “You do.”
Chapter 12
Jack followed Skye to her room, deliberately hanging back just a bit. He had left his jammer on. He had two internal links, which was probably two more than he should have had. Most assassins and most Rovers had none.
Internal links meant that someone could receive instant communication. It also meant that someone could be tracked easily.
Unless he had a jammer.
Jack had lied to Skye. He had three jammers, one internal as an enhancement, and two that he carried with him. He had had only the external one on when he sat down with Rikki. As he made his way to Skye’s room, he turned on the internal jammer.
His heart pounded. He had no idea what she was about, but he had decided to trust her.
Even so, it felt odd.
She unlocked the door and pushed it open. The room looked no different than it had when he left it, except that dishes sat on one of the tables. Apparently, Skye had ordered some room service breakfast.
He worked hard at not looking at that couch. It was too short for him, but he had liked it anyway—or at least, he had liked how they had used it.
Skye did not seem interested in using it at the moment.
In fact, she had moved far away from him, as if she were afraid he was going to jump her when the door closed.
“Still have your jammer on?” she asked.
He nodded.
She pulled out a tablet, then poked at it. He hadn’t seen many tablets outside the Guild. And Rikki had a few. Assassins seemed to prefer disposable communications methods to links attached to their bodies.
His heart rate increased.
Was Skye an assassin? Had she fooled him after all? He had heard about the Black Widow assassin, a woman who toyed with her prey before she killed them. She slept with them, and sometimes got deeply involved with them, then murdered them, and moved on.
It couldn’t be Skye. He would know, wouldn’t he? He was an information guy.
