Mesmerized

  Porter cocked his head, examining Andrei.

  “Hair’s longer now. Your sister worked at my tavern for many years before she finally married and hooked up with that husband of hers and hied off to wherever she did.” He grinned, standing and holding a wrist.

  Andrei clasped it, wondering where Hali had gone. Wondering if he should try to find her. He’d tried to find Carmine, his younger brother, but there’d been nothing after he’d been taken by the authorities. Chances were his name had been changed and he’d been fostered somewhere else. Andrei hoped he was well, wherever he was.

  “Walk with me.” Porter didn’t ask as much as he pulled on Andrei to follow, which he did, Piper with him.

  “Piper, why don’t you two just go back to your compound? Come back in a few turns.” Porter lowered his voice as he gestured off toward the town. “These Imperialists, the ones who attacked you. Yes, of course I heard about it.” He rolled his eyes at their silly ignorance. “They want that cargo run. You have a good head for business, Piper. Got people to keep alive back at the compound. Don’t go messing with this rabble.”

  Andrei looked to Piper, loving the curve of her cheeks. He wondered if Porter was trustworthy, and she gave him a short shake of her head. “What is it they’re moving?”

  “Nothing you want any part of, boy.”

  “But, you see, I do want part of it.”

  Porter looked at him closely, as if deciding Andrei’s intent.

  “I had family on Krater.” Which was a total lie, but he was a professional liar, so that worked out well. Krater had suffered so much both sides of the line had heard about it, had been affected by it. Most didn’t know Fardelle had used a primitive version of the portal collapsing device and it went horribly wrong, sealing Krater off to her own fate. Space travel would take two standard years from the nearest ’Verse. Even the private portal had been cut off.

  It had served to turn attention to just what Fardelle wasn’t doing to protect his own people. While most didn’t know he’d wantonly murdered his own people, they knew he was doing nothing to help.

  “These men are not easily played, boy.” Porter narrowed his gaze.

  Andrei didn’t need to tell him he had no intention of playing. He just waited as the gears turned in the old man’s head.

  “I’ll make the introduction. If you want my advice”—he paused to chuckle—“not that you need it. But they’ll know about the others. Cheney survived it, limped away, licked his wounds and was called off ’Verse. Own it.”

  Andrei planned to do just that.

  Porter showed Piper the next cargo he wanted her to run. Clever woman gave him a discount for the introduction.

  By the time they’d finished their business with Porter, Karl was still there, looking agitated. Good. Andrei would take great pleasure in bringing these fuckers down.

  “Do you want me to do the talking on this, or do you want to take it?” she murmured as they walked back toward the table where Karl sat.

  He nearly laughed. Instead, he shook his head. “You take it. You’re right. You have the reputation here.”

  “Jump in if I miss anything. I don’t want to mess up.”

  Andrei took her shoulders and turned her to face him. “You’re doing just fine. I’m sorry to put you in this position.”

  She tipped her chin up, locking her gaze with his. “You should kiss me.”

  Surprise made him a little wide-eyed. “I should? Other than the fact that you’re a beautiful woman with delicious lips, why should I?” Not that he was opposed to the idea in any way.

  “I like it when you cast aside the taciturn thing and flirt with me, Andrei. You should do it more often. And as we’re here having this little conversation in full view of the table of men over there, there should be a reason for it. Don’t you think a kiss is a good reason?” Her teasing smile brought out the dimple at the right side of her mouth. “Also, I want you to.”

  How could he resist?

  He bent his head, meaning to deliver a quick kiss, but she grabbed him, holding him tight, and he was lost in the taste of her, lost in the way she felt there against his body after all this time.

  Instead, she opened her mouth on the sweetest of sighs. He inhaled that sound, inhaled her breath and then her taste, gods her taste, the sweet, hot tang of her echoed through him.

  Images battered him, tearing at his resolve until all that was left were shreds. He wanted her, craved her taste, reveled in it as his tongue found its way between her lips and into her mouth.

  Hot and wet, gods. The inside of her welcomed him here, as he’d dreamed her cunt would. The idea of it, the way she’d yield as he slid deep, the way her inner muscles would hug and give way around him. Gods.

  He’d take her to the solid warm ground they stood on, shove her pants down and fuck her if he didn’t call a halt to this exquisite madness. When he broke the kiss, she tiptoed up and nipped at his bottom lip, sending shards of pleasure through him once again. “Well, I think I was wrong.”

  Every fiber of his being wanted more. It was only from years of training that he restrained himself from going back for more and then more after that. He vibrated with it, unused to having to work so hard at it anymore.

  He managed to say, “About what?”

  “That a taste of you would fix this bone-deep craving you’ve awakened. It hasn’t.” On that, she turned to stalk back to the table, leaving him embarrassingly hard and uncharacteristically flustered.

  “Next time you send thugs to my door, I’m going to come looking for you.”

  As opening salvos went, Piper’s was pretty damned good. Though he was proud, Andrei had trained his face into a mask. No emotions. Standing at attention next to Piper, he continued to sweep the area for trouble.

  “You killed nearly twelve of my men, Ms. Roundtree.”

  “Would have been sixteen if the rest hadn’t turned tail and run. No one comes to my gates with weapons drawn and walks away unscathed. I don’t know how things work on your side, but if you try it again, you’ll get the same result. Credits are credits, but don’t come here to my ’Verse and insult me like that.”

  She held the other man’s gaze without flinching. He finally shrugged with a sneer on his lips. “As you wish. We still need cargo run.”

  “As I told Cheney, I don’t run treason.”

  Karl’s gaze narrowed, but he said nothing else for long moments. At last he turned to one of his guards and spoke in the man’s ear. “Moore will take you to the cargo and arrange for payment.”

  “Nice doing business with you.”

  Andrei would be damned sure to be certain what they carried wasn’t harmful. He didn’t trust any of them, not at all.

  The winds were rising, and Andrei hurried her along as best he could. It was a small crate, and Moore handled the details for pickup.

  “Winds are picking up. You can run this tomorrow. It’ll be in the usual spot.” Moore looked off to the south where the storm was building.

  Piper nodded, said her good-bye and led the way back to the conveyance.

  “We’re going to have to push it to get back the compound.” Andrei looked at the radar screen and noted the mass of the storm. “This is a big one.”

  Without saying more, she tore from the area, dust flying in her wake. Others were leaving as well, while those at the camp behind them were battening down the windows and doors, getting out of the open.

  “You did great back there.” Andrei continued to monitor the storm while she drove.

  “I did? I worried about pushing back too hard. I suppose it made me feel better to have you with me. I don’t like Karl. He’s worse than Cheney, I think.”

  “Stay away from them as much as you can. I’ll handle the load of the cargo tomorrow. I’ll collect the credits.” He hated the thought of her even being near them.

  “Why? I’m around villainous men doing evil deeds daily. I am a villainous woman doing evil deeds.” She never took her attention from
what she was doing, moving along the floor of the canyons to cut through and get back to the compound faster. The ride was not a comfortable one, and he made a mental note to look at the undercarriage when he next had the opportunity.

  “You are not villainous. You run cargo. It’s not strictly legal, but it’s not what they do. They kill their own people, Piper. They torture them and experiment on them. They are nothing like you.”

  “You see things so clearly.”

  He exhaled sharply. “Why do you say that?”

  “You’re sure of yourself. Of what you’re saying. It makes me feel better. I don’t like being a tattletale.”

  He laughed. He’d done more laughing and smiling in the three days he’d been there than he had in a long time. Probably since Marame, and even with her he kept guarded until it drove her away.

  “Imagine how I felt. Especially the early years in the corps. I was suddenly the authorities. Made me damnable nervous.”

  “What changed?”

  “I got better at my job. Understood it and my place within it. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t believe in the outcome.” The small details were not pretty, but the long view of it was right.

  He’d never felt particularly useful. Never felt as if he’d been born to do anything in particular except get into trouble. But the job had given him direction.

  Ellis had seen something special in Andrei. Something Andrei hadn’t been able to see in himself until two years later. He’d forever be grateful to his boss for that. For the training to get his anger in check, for the sense of direction Andrei finally had at long last.

  He was good at something. At many somethings. He was making a difference with what he did, and to a kid who’d grown up a “dirt eater” with a dying, invalid mother, never enough food in the cupboards and no future, that had meant everything.

  Ellis had given Andrei a future, and he’d be forever grateful for it.

  “We’re going to make it. Barely, but we’ll get inside before the storm finishes rising. Call ahead and let them know to have someone man the gates.”

  Piper concentrated on keeping the conveyance on the road against the force of the advance gusts. She wasn’t so disciplined that she’d been able to put the kiss he’d given her back at Thieves’ Alley from her head. It had shaken her. Though she’d tried to be casual and flirty, that kiss had made her tremble inside. He’d tasted better than she remembered, better than she’d imagined since he returned.

  She wanted more.

  Once they’d arrived back at the compound, he turned to her. “You did a great job today. Thank you.”

  Never in her life had she craved approval the way she had with him. That he thought she’d done a good job meant something.

  She swung down from the cab. “I hate them for putting me in this position.”

  He followed, helping her tie the windscreen cover down. “You aren’t alone.”

  “At least tell me it helps in some way.” She kept pace as they hurried back toward shelter, her shorter strides to his longer.

  “I need this in with them. If only to see what they’ve got in terms of people on this side helping them.” He shook his head at the flash of guilt he saw on her features. “No. You never ran anything that could have brought harm to anyone. Food and clothing, luxury goods. Don’t take on what isn’t yours.”

  “You’re still really good at that.”

  He paused, hauling the door open for her to get inside. “What?”

  “Making me feel better.”

  The confusion and sweet embarrassment on his features got to her more than anything else he could have done on purpose.

  Andrei left her in the kitchen as he headed to his room to update the team. It would be better that way. If he stayed at her side just then she’d want to talk about the kiss. Or want to do it again.

  Gods, he wanted to do it again.

  Annoyed, he put out the scramblers, making sure they were all on and working to distort the signals before he began to dial in to the Phantom Corps team comm.

  After some time to establish the connection, Julian, Vincenz and Daniel showed up on his comm screen.

  “Just set up a run for Jan Karl.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows rose briefly. “Something we suspected. Ellis will want to hear this. Be sure to scan it before you deliver. We’ll arrange for pickup on the other side.”

  “Fine. Piper made it clear she wasn’t interested in running treason. Karl’s face was beautiful to see. Any answers on our substance?”

  Julian shifted forward. “Downloading the data now. It’s liberiam.”

  Andrei looked down at the data streaming on his screen.

  “It’s a mineral. Rare. Especially so near the Edge. We don’t think it’s found anywhere in Imperialist territory at all.” Julian spoke with Vincenz at his shoulder.

  “Obviously an ingredient in this device of theirs.”

  “That’s what our scientists believe. They’re working on it, reverse engineering to see what it might provide to a device like the portal collapsing one. Still working pretty much blind here.”

  If they could do that, at least a little bit, they might be able to figure out what the Imperialists were taking from Mirage and Parron.

  “Status on other mercenary camps there?” Daniel appeared to be running three screens at once, and Andrei thanked the gods yet again that he didn’t have to worry about any of the details and politics Daniel did. He’d far rather be out in the field than stuck in meeting after meeting all day, every day.

  “The Imperium is having trouble getting their cargo moved. Most of the mercs here are refusing to run it. It does make it easier to work with them after I killed so many of their people. Piper warned them it would happen again if they tried a second time.”

  Julian paused, and on the split screen, Daniel’s lips quivered a moment as he tried not to smile.

  He would not ask.

  “Lots of talk about this Piper lately.” Julian’s amusement would have been annoying if the mere sight of a smile on his face hadn’t made Andrei’s heart a little lighter.

  “Lots of talk for him anyway. Which is five words, three of them being Piper.” Vincenz smirked.

  “So what’s the news on Parron?”

  “Nicely dodged. Next time I’m going to put Carina on. She’ll get us answers.” Daniel sat back in his chair.

  Vincenz shuddered. “My sister united with Abbie would devastate any of Andrei’s defenses.”

  “Moving right along. We’re doing a run for them in the morning. I’ll advise afterward.”

  Andrei severed the connection and scrubbed hands over his face.

  Chapter 7

  Five days he’d been there. Days and nights he’d slept just next door. Right on the other side of the wall lay a man she’d loved for as long as she could remember.

  Earlier that day, they’d been on the way back from a cargo run. Just something quick and not exceptionally lucrative. But necessary in any case.

  He’d sat next to her in the small cockpit of the zipper and had calmly navigated. Utterly unflappable. Even Kenner got a little grouchy when she flew too fast. She liked that Andrei trusted her.

  They’d made the run for the Imperialists. He’d checked the cargo, and it had been body armor. He’d had a grim face as he called in some information back to whoever he reported to. His face had given away nothing until they’d seen exactly what it was. A flash of anger had darkened his cheeks as he’d taken care to catalog every piece, and later he sent that information somewhere. She doubted the cargo would reach its final destination, which did make her feel better for dealing with the Imperialists in any way.

  Even in the short time he’d been there he’d made himself indispensable at the compound. Eiriq had begun to gather the raw ingredients for the new cisterns. There would be three more. Digging and reinforcement of the trenches had started, and not a single person had complained about being assigned to the work crews. Andrei had taught Kenner and some o
f the others a quicker and better way to repair the engines of the conveyances and had, true to his word, begun to work with them on long-distance shooting and hand-to-hand combat.

  When he left, they’d be better for him coming. Even if she’d hate having to go on jobs without him.

  And, as she was just musing in her head and all, she really liked the way he’d been all manly and protective when they’d gone to negotiate their cargo runs. Earlier that day when they’d gone to collect their pay, one of the others had attempted to crowd her, intimidate her with his size.

  Andrei’s hand had shot out, grasping the big man’s wrist and turning it until the lout was on his knees, red-faced and nearly in tears. He hadn’t said a word during the entire incident, but the other man had kept his distance after that.

  He’d packed the cargo into the zipper’s hold and they’d left.

  “I don’t need protection.” Not that she’d minded, of course. She always protected. It’s what she did every moment of the day, and that small span of time when he’d protected her had been, well, like a little present.

  “Don’t need it, no.” He gave her the coordinates, and she got moving. “Deserve it, yes.”

  Three days and the echo of that last sentence, the knowledge that he thought she deserved protection even while able to provide for herself, rang through her brain.

  Five days and she’d begun to get used to having him around. Had begun to get used to the new Andrei, with his intense blue eyes and the quiet way he didn’t miss a single detail. She found herself craving interaction with him. He didn’t say much unless it needed to be said. Each conversation had been a shiny secret she’d tucked away. Each time she got near him, she found herself trying to engage him. Whenever he did, his focus turned to her totally as he spoke.

  It drove her mad. Mad with longing. Mad with ridiculous sexual energy. Eleven years ago he’d been a handsome boy, filled with passion and emotion. He’d called to her as like to like. She couldn’t lie to herself now that she’d wanted to fix him, wanted to soothe and calm him. Part of his allure had been that he’d laid aside his darkness when he was with her.