❖
She shivered and nestled against him. Zero didn’t think his heart had ever been so full or his cock so fucking hard.
He held her tenderly against the larger bulk of his body, his hand smoothing over her lower back. She was tiny compared to him, full of curves. His onboard also registered the curviness of her form, giving him statistics on her likely fitness levels and stamina in the back of his mind. He ignored the stream of data with the ease of long practice and concentrated on holding her.
Then he moved slightly, tucking his fingers under her chin to make her look up at him. He’d caught the wince at the comments from the men outside.
“When we get to safety, you’re going to explain ‘tin can’ to me,” he rumbled softly.
She shrugged, not bothering to hide the hurt in her eyes because she assumed he couldn’t see her clearly. His heart ached for the resignation that wrapped around that hurt and rage that surged through him, urging him to break free from the closet and storm after those men. Kill them for daring to hurt her.
“It’s a derogatory nickname for my old unit,” she shrugged. “I was Armored Infantry… We weren’t popular. Other troops thought we stole their jobs.”
“Uh-huh… assholes.” He made a note to check into the Armored Infantry when they were free and clear. It hadn’t been on her station record, just that she’d been medically discharged from her species’ military. He obviously needed to dig a little deeper.
Warning, his onboard spoke in the back of his mind. Remaining in place increases the chance of discovery by 9.73% per minute, rising to 93.74% after fifteen minutes.
“We need to get out of here. Ready to move?” he asked, dragging her out of possible bad memories of the past.
She drew in a deep breath and nodded. “We need to get off the station. Is your ship still here?”
He shook his head. “Nope. They traveled onward to Praxis-Four. We’re going to have to make our own way. As soon as we’re off station, I’ll signal them to double back and rendezvous with us.”
Approval filled him as she nodded briskly at the new information. There were no hysterics or panic at the news the easy way off Tarantus—his ship—was a no-go. She simply moved on to the next problem.
“Okay, we need to secure a ship. I’m assuming my credentials will be wiped and the facial recog systems on the station will pick me up as soon as we move.” She bit at her lower lip and his gaze riveted to it. The need to kiss her again filled him, but he fought it back. He needed to focus, or they were already dead.
“I can handle the facial recog.” He was already in the systems. Altering the recognition pattern so her biometric data matched that of a woman in her mid-fifties who had died several years ago was the work of a moment. It was a quick and dirty hack that wouldn’t last long before it was discovered, but they didn’t need long. They only needed long enough to get off this damn rust-bucket of a station.
“How?” She started to ask but then shook her head. “Not important. Let’s move. If we can get down to the lower docks, we have a chance. The security feeds are always glitchy down there. If we pick one of the smaller transports… we might be able to jack it before its owners get back… oh fuck,” she looked at him, stricken. “We’re about to become fucking pirates.”
He shrugged, easing her away from him and moving to open the door. “Not my first rodeo, won’t be my last.”
5
Eris followed her knight in black combats out of the cleaning closet. As they emerged, one of the cleaning bots cheeped and left its charging pod to slide down the tracks to the floor.
She put her foot in front of it to stop it as she unclipped her ID bracelet and dropped it in the waste receptacle on the top. Stepping back, she grinned at Zero as she let it continue on its way.
“Let them chase their damn tails for a while.”
He pulled her close, claiming her lips in a swift, hard kiss. “That’s my girl.”
She flushed at the comment and being called his girl. Even though she was way too old to be considered a girl and she’d always argued against any of that kind of possessive nonsense from any guy before… with Zero it was different. At his words a warmth spread from the center of her chest, and she followed him as he set off down the hall.
Within minutes, though, it became apparent they’d underestimated how easy it would be to get down to the docking arms and hijack a ship. Every route they tried was blocked by a group of armed men.
“How many of these fuckers are there?” she hissed, peeking around the corner to check out the group they’d almost walked smack-bang into.
Clad in black body armor like the rest, they carried the latest KT-X assault rifles but wore no unit or regiment badges. Despite that, they were clearly military. The way they moved said they couldn’t be anything other than special forces.
Her eyes narrowed. She was a security chief on a backwater station in the ass-end of beyond. Who wanted her dead badly enough to send special forces after her? Someone had their wires crossed somewhere for sure.
But, a clerical error of epic magnitude or not, she couldn’t exactly complain to management, not with a dead-or-alive bounty on her head. She flattened herself against the wall and looked at Zero, trying like hell not to panic.
“We’ll double back,” he said. “I have an idea.”
At least one of them did. She nodded, and they turned to head back down the corridor. The station was in complete lockdown with no one around as they made their way to the lower-level habitat sector. None of the lodgings on the station could be
