Take Two

  “Blake,” he said, cupping the dark, brooding face in one palm and looking earnestly into his partner’s troubled indigo eyes. “I’m not saying we’ll never tell her. I’m just asking you to wait for a while until we get everything settled. Can you do that for me?”

  Blakely sighed deeply and relaxed, letting the tension leak out of his posture as he looked up into the familiar sapphire eyes of his partner. “Okay,” he said at last. “We’ll keep her in the dark for now, Holt. But I want your word that once this is all over and done with we’ll tell her the truth and at least see how she feels about the idea.”

  “Done,” Holt said, breathing a private sigh of relief. Blakely was usually even tempered enough to agree with him in most things, but he could be stubborn when he felt strongly about something. Or someone. You really like her, don’t you, partner? Well what’s not to like? She’s intelligent, funny, and gorgeous. Okay, I admit it, I like her, too.

  He wondered if he could fall in love with Sadie, the way Blakely seemed to be doing, if only he didn’t guard his heart so closely, but they had been disappointed so many times in the past. And the hurt from Gillian was still so fresh in his mind. It was almost impossible to believe there could ever be a fairy tale ending for their partnership.

  Oh, Blake, Holt thought sadly, watching as his dark-haired partner got ready for bed. I want happily ever after, too, but I’m afraid it just isn’t in the cards for us.

  “What do you mean I can’t come with you?” Sadie looked angrily from one set of blue eyes to another. Holt kept his cold and Blakely’s looked tired, as though he hadn’t gotten much sleep, but both sapphire and indigo eyes were utterly impenetrable—presenting a united front. They were sitting in the tiny food prep area with Sadie between them, and Blakely was bitching good-naturedly about the quality of the concentrates they were eating for breakfast when the argument started.

  “It means what I said it means.” Holt wondered why he always had to be the heavy. Blakely had indicated he would support him in the decision to keep Sadie in the dark and out of danger, but he wouldn’t say much to back Holt up. “You can’t come with us onto Iapetus and that’s final.”

  “How am I supposed to get a first-hand account if you two cowboys go riding off on your own and leave me here on the ship?” Sadie demanded sarcastically, putting down her spoon.

  “Look, we took you along to keep you safe, not put you in more danger,” Holt shot back. “I thought I made that clear.”

  “Nothing about you two is clear.” She glared at the tall blond detective. “I’m still wondering what the hell happened to my hand after what we…” she broke off, a deep blush staining her delicate features.

  “We don’t have time to discuss it right now,” Holt said, more firmly than he felt. “Blake and I have to get down to the surface and see what we can turn up. We have to find out who’s behind the mind rapes and keep what happened on Phoebe from happening again. That’s our job.”

  “I could help you,” Sadie argued, recovering from her embarrassment. “I’m good at getting information.”

  “Information on Iapetus isn’t cheap, Sadie. How do you plan to pay for it? Maybe the same way you offered to pay us to take you along in the first place.” Holt knew he shouldn’t have said it. He regretted the cruel words the moment they were out of his mouth, but he was getting damn tired of arguing with her; Blakely wasn’t the only one who’d had a sleepless night.

  Sadie blushed again but this time she held her ground and looked him in the eye. “Look, when you agreed to take me with you nobody said anything about…that.” She flipped her mane of honey-colored hair over her shoulder with a defiant little toss of her head.

  “About takin’ us both on at the same time?” Blakely spoke for the first time. The words were incendiary, but his tone was mild and the look on his mobile face was neutral.

  Sadie looked like she might drop through the floor in mortification. “I…I’m not like that. Not that kind of a girl.” She lowered her gaze. Holt couldn’t miss the disappointment coming from his partner loud and clear through the T-link and it made him angry.

  “But you are the kind who doesn’t mind fucking us separately?” Holt’s tone matched his harsh words and the sapphire eyes flashed fire. “Is that the kind of girl you are, Sadie? Is that something you usually do—trade sex for information?” He was letting this get to him more than he ought to, saying things he didn’t mean, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

  “No,” she flashed back. “At the time it seemed to be the only way to get you to take me along. But it’s not something I usually do, damn it! Not something I’ve ever done before,” she added in a lower voice.

  “I don’t think you’ve done much of anything, have you, sweetheart?” Blakely asked her quietly.

  “I’m not a virgin if that’s what you mean.” Sadie toyed with the plate in front of her so she wouldn’t have to look into either set of blue eyes as she talked. “Not that it’s any of your Goddess-damned business. I’m just not up for anything…rough or kinky.”

  “Nobody said anything about rough, baby. Holt and I know how to be gentle.” Blakely’s voice was low and he reached out and stroked her cheek lightly. Sadie flinched away from the gentle touch and Holt saw the quick flicker of sorrow in his partner’s deep blue eyes, but it was quickly suppressed. Blakely straightened his shoulders, sighed, and went back to the previous topic of conversation. “Iapetus is a dangerous place for a lady. We’re gonna have to go to some pretty rough joints and if we had you with us we’d have to be worried about protecting you too much to do our job.”

  “I can take care of myself,” Sadie protested. Holt snorted cynically and she turned on the blond detective angrily. “I put you on the floor fast enough,” she pointed out, lifting her chin defiantly and glaring at him. “Or have you conveniently forgotten? You were packing a blaster, but you let me put you down with a measly little tickler because you underestimated me. Don’t make the same mistake twice, Holt.”

  “I am not having this discussion.” Holt pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and wrinkled his forehead; he could feel the beginnings of a pounding headache coming on. “I’m taking a sonic shower and then we’re leaving for Iapetus. Just the two of us,” he emphasized, pointing to Blakely and himself. Feeling angry for letting himself get so upset, he left the table and shut himself in the fresher, slamming the door perhaps a little louder than necessary.

  When he came out, Blakely was waiting quietly on the couch, dressed in his roughest clothing for the trip topside. It didn’t do to look too conspicuous on Iapetus, and Holt had dressed much the same as his partner in faded pants and a ragged shirt, his usual jacket covering the butt of his blaster.

  “You ready, Holt?” the dark-haired man inquired.

  “Sure—you?” Blakely nodded. “Where’s Sadie?” Holt asked, knowing she was pissed off at him, wanting to say goodbye before they left, maybe apologize if he could find a way to do it unobtrusively.

  “Went in the bedroom. Said she wanted some privacy,” Blakely stood up. “You better let her alone for a while, Holt. She really had her heart set on getting this story first hand. I don’t think she’s gonna get over bein’ left behind right away.”

  Holt looked at his partner, incredulous. “You think we should let her come, don’t you?”

  “I don’t see how it could hurt. I’da kept an eye on her.” Blakely straightened the lapels of his leather jacket, checking to make sure his blaster was hidden.

  “Look, I thought we agreed…”

  “I don’t wanna fight about this, Holt,” Blakely cut him off with a dangerous glint in his indigo eyes. “I backed you up like you wanted me to—helped you present, what did you call it? Oh yeah, a ‘unified front.’ But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with you all the time when it’s just us. Personally, I think it wouldn’t hurt to have her tag along. ’S long as we kept her close and made it clear she was spoken for nobody woulda bothered her. Bu
t you were so dead set against it—so dead set against her—I didn’t think it was worth the fight.”

  “It’s not about fighting,” Holt protested.

  “No, it’s about a lot more than that,” Blakely growled, turning on him. “It’s about the way you won’t give her a chance.”

  Holt knew by his tone that the dark-haired man was talking about giving Sadie a chance in more ways than letting her come topside with them. “Will you just stop it?” he nearly shouted at his partner. “Stop talking about giving her a chance to choose when you know damn well what her choice would be. You heard what she said at the table—she’s not that kind of girl.”

  “Yeah, and you talkin’ nasty to her the way you did isn’t gonna change her mind any time soon, either,” Blakely flared right back. “You had no right to say some of the things you did to her.”

  Holt could hardly believe what he was hearing. Had Blakely gone crazy over this girl or what? In all the years of their partnership they had never had a serious falling-out over a woman. Sure, they bickered from time to time but no female had ever been able to divide them like this. It frightened the blond detective deeply to see what was happening between them.

  “Blake,” he began. “Look, I’m sorry but…”

  “You could be a little nicer to her, Holt.” His tone was suddenly quieter but no less intense. “Try to let yourself be a little more open. I know Gillian hurt you, but Sadie’s not Gillian.”

  “Blake,” Holt started again, but his partner turned away from him and headed for the Navicom where the entrance to the landing craft was located.

  “That’s all I got to say, Holt. Now can we please get going?” Blakely threw over his shoulder.

  Holt frowned—they would have to sit down and talk about this, really talk, not just yell, later. He strapped himself into one of the passenger seats and watched as Blakely maneuvered the controls, sliding the little craft smoothly from the docking bay and out into the blackness of space.

  Neither one of them noticed the small form crouching quietly at the rear of the craft.

  9

  Sadie waited a good ten minutes after Blakely and Holt had left the craft to disembark herself. She pulled the oversized shirt and sweatpants she had pilfered from Blakely’s pack close around her and clutched the shardi-knife she had also found hard in one hand, a slightly more effective weapon than her tickler. Securely fastened in the scarlet wig once more, the Overlook-Me chip sizzled warningly and she estimated she had only a few hours before it died again, but she hoped that was all she would need. Her plan was to tail the two detectives and find out as much dirt as she could for her mind rape story. She thought it wouldn’t hurt to try and get a little personal dirt as well. Maybe if they thought they were unobserved the two men might drop some hints as to the strange bond between them and the mystery of how her hand had healed so quickly. Both their mouths were shut tighter than a Venusian virgin’s legs on that subject, but Sadie knew it had something to do with the strange, almost electrical current of desire and pleasure she felt every time they both touched her at once. The memory of their mouths on her, the long, strong fingers inside her, thrusting so sweetly made her blush all over again. What was it about them that made them want—no, need—to share a woman?

  Sadie shook her head. Later for that. Right now her job was tailing Detectives Holt and Blakely and finding out everything there was to find out. A Solar Pulitzer didn’t just fall in your lap for the asking; she had better get going.

  As she stepped out onto the crowded, dusty street, and began to make her way cautiously after the broad, retreating backs of her men, Sadie mentally reviewed everything she knew about Iapetus. It was one of Saturn’s bigger moons, she knew, and it was tidally locked in its orbit around the ringed planet. That meant the same face of the moon was constantly facing Saturn because the immense gravitational pull from the planet it orbited didn’t allow Iapetus to rotate on its axis the way Old Earth and the rest of the planets did on their path around the Sun. As a result, the side of Iapetus facing away from Saturn was constantly bright, while the side facing toward the ringed planet was in constant darkness. Sadie shivered at the thought—there were stories about the things that lived on the dark side of Iapetus—creatures that preyed on anyone stupid enough to cross the boundary from bright into dark. She knew that the main atmosphere dome where they had landed was located mainly on the light half of the moon, but a tiny section of it straddled the line into the eternal night of the other side. She only hoped Blakely and Holt had more business on the light side.

  As she walked down the crowded street, trying to keep a discreet distance between herself and the detectives and hoping her chip would hold up, Sadie looked around at the dingy town. New Gomorrah was a dirty, hopeless-looking place, even by Outer Rings standards. Wobbly, jack-leg structures stood crowded together everywhere, like drunks leaning against each other to keep upright. They were mostly made of flimsy sheets of green semi-opaque stay-gel because of the prohibitive cost of importing building materials. The result was that all the buildings appeared to be made of half-melted lime-flavored gelatin. The main streets were paved, but the side streets and alleys looked like they might be hard-packed dirt. Sadie didn’t want to find out for sure, preferring to keep to the cracked sidewalk on one side of the main thoroughfare.

  Sadie followed the occasional glimpse of Blakely and Holt’s leather jackets through the slow press of people, none of which paid any attention to her, thanks to the noninterference field her Overlook-Me chip cast around her. The atmosphere dome overhead was supposed to simulate day and night, but she couldn’t tell if the grimy gloom that seemed to pervade the city meant it was getting toward evening on Iapetus or if the air was just too polluted with haze from the passing dust-crawlers to look bright at any time.

  Looking around her, Sadie noticed that the population was mostly male, which wasn’t unusual in the Outer Rings. Not many women wanted to come this far from the more civilized inner planets to the backwoods of the Solar System. The ones that made the journey mostly came with a man who was looking for work. Miners, trawler pilots, and star-diggers all came seeking the outrageous salaries offered by the interstellar mining companies to those who didn’t mind risking their necks in deep space. All too often, however, it was a gamble they lost. The women who came with them then had to make it on their own, and there weren’t many jobs for women in the Outer Rings. Well, Sadie amended to herself, not many respectable jobs, anyway.

  Everywhere she looked, on either side of the road were large, neon signs. “Real Pussy” read one. “Tired of pumping Prosties? Try some Genuine Old Earth Vag,” read another. Beside it, a large crimson neon vagina flashed. Sadie thought it looked like an ad for pulsating VD, and there were endless variations on the same. A few of the nicer looking establishments had signs that offered both human and cybernetic prostitutes, but the all-human brothels had them beat about three to one. Prostie brothels apparently weren’t as big a business here on Iapetus as they were on the other inhabited moons, Sadie thought. She wondered what Blakely and Holt expected to find in this place.

  Just as she was passing by another house of ill-repute, this one with a huge sign that read, “Male/ Female/ Prostie/ Human/ & Large Mammal Encounters. No Taste 2 Perverse,” she noticed that Blakely and Holt had stopped walking. They conferred for a moment, the blond head and the dark close in intense conversation and Sadie wished she was close enough to hear what they were saying. She dared to edge a little nearer but only caught the end.

  “…careful, Holt.” Blakely had a hand on his blond partner’s shoulder and was looking into the sapphire eyes intently. “The Slice is a rough place. I don’t like you goin’ in without back-up.”

  “I’ll be fine, Blake,” Holt replied, but he reached up and squeezed the hand that rested on his shoulder. “We’ll never get everything done if we don’t split up. You talk to Sheila and see if you can get those things you wanted and I’ll try to catch Snuggly before he goes off sh
ift.”

  Snuggly? They have an informant named Snuggly? Sadie thought in disbelief. And he worked in a place called “The Slice”? This she had to see. When the two men parted after one last intense look, she marked the large, bulging green doorway that Blakely entered and then turned and followed Holt through the crowd.

  Holt was easy to follow; he was nearly a head taller than everyone else in the grimy press of bodies and his blond hair shone like a beacon in the gloom. Sadie was still angry with him, both for underestimating her abilities and for the nasty things he had said at breakfast. Still, she reflected, Holt was a man of deep loyalties, and she had gotten the distinct impression that he was angry on his partner’s behalf more than his own when he made his hasty accusations, but what had she done to offend Blakely that made his blond partner so irate? Sadie shook her head. It was maddening to be so close to the mystery and yet be unable to figure it out.

  She was mad at Holt at the moment, but more and more she found herself caring for both men in a way that she found a little frightening. The emotion she had for them was certainly stronger than anything she’d had for her ex-fiancé Gerald, and she had been with him for three years, whereas she had only known Blakely and Holt for two weeks. To be honest, she was falling more than a little bit in love with the two detectives, Sadie admitted to herself. If it had been one man only that she was having feelings like this for, she might have considered going to bed with him, but she liked both of them and there was no way…I’m not that kind of girl, she insisted to herself, trying to ignore the disapproving little voice in the back of her mind that insisted she’d certainly been acting like that kind of girl lately.