“Nope, nothing,” Skinny, their comms officer, replied. “No response at all.”
“That’s not like him.” Zero frowned as he cycled down the engines and levered himself out of the pilot’s chair. Beauty was ready and waiting to take his place, his eyes gleaming with anticipation of finally getting to fly Zero’s baby.
He shot out a hand, gripping the smaller man by the shoulder. “Not even a scratch. Understand?” he demanded in a warning growl. “No bumps, no scrapes… I don’t want to hear so much as a bolt rattle on her when you get back. Okay?”
“You got it, big man.” Beauty smiled. It was meant to be reassuring, but… yeah, Zero knew Beauty. The guy might be one of the quietest members of the Warborne, keeping to himself a lot of the time, but Zero had seen him in combat. He was utterly bat-shit crazy, and that gleam in his eye said he was a speed demon.
“Still don’t like it.”
T’Raal, sitting in the captain’s chair in the middle of the bridge, grunted. “Your call. We need supplies from Praxis-Four, so fly us there yourself or let Beauty fly so you can go ‘find’ Sparky.”
His mocking air quotes were accompanied by a small smirk that made Zero groan mentally. T’Raal hadn’t been fooled by his concern for the human ex-con after all.
“Yeah, yeah… I’m going,” he grumbled, grabbing his pack and slinging it over one broad shoulder.
The Sprite was so small he was out of the airlock and walking down the docking arm corridor within minutes. Behind him, he heard the airlock shut and start to cycle as Beauty prepared the ship to leave. His hackles rose for a second, but he forced the feeling down. He was on his own here, yes, but he was more than capable of taking care of himself. And he had an ally on station… if he could find whichever hole the wily smart-mouthed human had disappeared down.
Heading for the central area, he made his way up to the upper promenade levels. Several people watched him with interest as he passed, so he made sure they got a good look at the heavy energy-pistols holstered on his hips. That usually discouraged even the nosiest among them. He suppressed his snigger as they all abruptly found something other than him way more interesting. Like the floor. Or the ceiling.
The upper level contained most of the bars on the stations, so it was empty this time of day. From what he knew of Sparky, that would make absolutely no difference. He seemed to be equal opportunities when it came to sex and alcohol.
Wandering into the bar he knew Sparky frequented, he paused for a moment as if to allow his vision to adjust to the darker interior. He didn’t need it, but squinting was a useful cover for him to scan the interior of the bar.
His grin widened. Sparky wasn’t in here, but his search wasn’t a total bust. There, over the other side of the bar, her back to him, was Eris Archer.
❖
Four hours of dealing with paperwork was more than enough hell for one woman, so by dinner time, Eris was ready to scream. To add insult to injury, the message that had been waiting for her on her personal flex was from her brother. Sighing, she’d ignored it. The third bit of bad luck. The last thing she needed was her asshole twin guilt-tripping her over whatever bee their mother had in her bonnet now.
So she’d escaped to Pat’s bar for her version of “me time.” She always sat at the rear of the bar with her back to the room. It stopped people talking to her and interrupting her little oasis of calm in the middle of the day.
Sighing, she lifted her coffee and closed her eyes, breathing in the steam from the top of the mug. She took a sip and murmured in pleasure. The stuff in the office was okay. It was hot and wet, but that was all that could be said about it. The coffee in Pat’s was the proper filter stuff and a balm to her soul. She treated herself to a couple more sips before she turned her attention to the toasted sandwich on her plate.
She was halfway through it when she became aware of someone’s attention. Her gaze flicked up to the mirror on the back wall to see someone weaving his way through the tables toward her. Not just any someone, but the same man she’d been studying earlier this morning on her security screens.
Allen’s mysterious friend.
She blinked and pinched herself, in case she’d fallen asleep in her office and this was all a dream. But nope, other than a sharp pain in her thigh, nothing altered. Tall, dark and handsome still walked toward her… and she still had a mouthful of sandwich.
“Hey,” he smiled as he reached her table, the dimples in his cheeks as sexy as all hell. “Do you mind if I join you?”
She raised an eyebrow as she swallowed quickly. There were empty tables all around them and men like this? They usually didn’t come on to women like her. She was too tall, too slender and too acerbic for anyone to want to flirt with. Eric had always been the charismatic one, not her.
“Why?”
She groaned to herself as the comment slipped out. Blunt and to the point, it was just this side of confrontational.
But he didn’t seem perturbed. Instead, he grabbed a chair, turned it around, and sat straddled, his heavily muscled arms folded over the back. “Because you’re the most beautiful
