3013: MENDED (6 page)

“I know.” She toyed with a loose string on the hem of his T-shirt and blew out a breath. “I have nightmares sometimes,” she whispered. “They’re worse when I’m upset.”

“So you don’t want to sleep.” Tariq took both of her hands and brought them up to his lips. “Wait here.” He disappeared into his room, returning just seconds later holding a small disk with a raised bubble in the middle. “This might help.”

“Somnium.” Cami took the disk from him with a grin. “I take this at home. My great-grandfather developed it for soldiers with PTSD.” The drug provided deep, dreamless sleep, and it had been Cami’s saving grace for years. Of course, in her flight from her home in Light City, there hadn’t been time for her to pack an overnight bag. “Thank you, Tariq. For everything. I don’t know how I’d do this without you.”

“I have every confidence you’d find your own way, angel.” He plucked another piece of chicken from the plate and held it up to her. “Now, are you hungry? Or would you like to sleep?”

“I really am hungry.” Cami broke the seal on the short nozzle, held it in front of her face, and squeezed the center bubble. A fine, cool mist sprayed over her skin, making her shiver a little. “Okay, let’s eat and by the time the dishes are put away, I’ll be ready for bed.”

Unfortunately, she hadn’t taken into account the side effects of the drug. By the time she’d finished eating, she could barely stand, let alone help with the dishes. So Tariq carried her to an armchair near the port window and pushed a glass of water into her hands.

“Drink that. It’ll help.”

Before she had a chance to argue, the intercom buzzed to announce a visitor. “I’ll get it.”

Tariq pointed a finger at her. “Sit.” He spoke quietly to the person on the other side of the door through the intercom before allowing them entrance. “I’m actually glad you’re here,” he said in greeting.

“Scarlett!” Cami waved from her perch in the armchair and lifted her water glass in a one-sided toast. “Did you hear? I’m dead.”

Scarlett looked between Cami and Tariq. “Are you drunk? Is she drunk?”

“It’s been a rough day,” Tariq answered, waving her into the living room. “I gave her a sleeping mist to help her rest. She seems to be having…an adverse reaction to it.”

“I’m right here.” She was tired of everyone talking about her like she couldn’t hear them. “And I’m fine.” If her head would stop spinning, she’d be perfect.

“Right.” Scarlett quirked a manicured eyebrow at Tariq. “Anyway, I just brought these by.” She held up two large, purple shopping bags. “A lot of people in the atrium chipped in, so there’s clothes, shoes, toiletries. We had to guess at the size, and some of it is probably too big, but we thought our little bird might be happier with some things of her own.”

Jumping out of her seat, Cami ran across the room and launched herself into Scarlett’s arms, spilling water everywhere as she went. “Thank you! Oh, thank you.” Then she did something no one expected judging by the looks on their faces and burst into tears. “I don’t know what to say.” She hiccupped twice while clinging to the woman. “You are amazing. I love you, Scarlett. You deserve to be happy, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.”

“Okay.” Tariq took the glass from her hand and placed it on one of the end tables before gently prying her off Scarlett. “There we go. Okay, it’s okay, angel.” He patted her back as she sobbed against his chest. “Thank you, Scarlett.”

“Is she going to be all right? I thought these would make her happy.”

“I
am
happy,” Cami wailed.

“She’ll be fine in the morning.” Tariq chuckled as he led her over to the sofa. “Thank you, Scarlett. Let me know what I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me anything. She’s made quite the impression with the vendors. Most of this stuff was donated.”

Cami wanted to offer further thanks for the wonderful gifts Scarlett had brought, but she couldn’t make her mouth work. Her tongue felt too thick, and her eyes burned when her lids began to droop.

Curling into a ball, she tucked her hands under her chin and yawned a “thank you” when someone draped a warm blanket over her. She had a lot to be grateful for, and right then, on the cusp of sleep, all of her problems seemed light years away.

Dressed in a black, long-sleeved T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of black boots, Cami would blend right in with the dock workers, which made their objective much easier. She’d never worn denim, though, and it bunched in places not spoken about in polite company. The boots, while functional, weighed a ton, and they squeezed her feet and ankles. The soft, casual top felt nice against her skin, but she didn’t really have enough in the chest department to fill out the top.

Pulling her sleeves down over her hands, she fidgeted as they stepped off the lift. “Are you sure I look okay?”

“Cami, relax. We’re going to the docking bays, not some gala.”

“I’ve never been to a ball.” Her mother had taken her into the Capital to watch the celebrations when she was nine, but she’d been too young to attend the Freedom Day Gala. “Okay, I’m ready. I think we should start in the cargo bays.”

Tariq nodded as he walked beside her. “Okay, but the ship was docked in Bay E. Why the cargo bays?”

“Well, Bay E is still on lockdown, so we can’t get in there.” It would be the logical place to start, but Cami didn’t think they’d find their answers there anyway. “Once supplies are unloaded into the cargo bays, what happens then?”

“We weigh the freight and the ship,” Tariq answered at once. “If the weight of the cargo doesn’t match what’s subtracted from the ship, we do a sweep of the craft.”

“And if it does match?”

Tariq shrugged. “We sign off on the cargo and the ship prepares for departure.”

It all added up. “If a supply ship came in with cargo but also needed repairs, what happens then?”

“We unload the cargo in the repair bay and then manually move it to Docks A or D to be distributed.” Tariq slowed his pace, and he turned his head to look at Cami with a sexy smirk. “Which is why a cargo ship would have been in the repair bay when you arrived. Smart, angel.”

Beaming with pride, Cami followed Tariq through the sliding doors of Cargo Bay D. “Like I told General Whitmore, it seems naïve to think this is the first time the logs have been altered. Then I remembered what you said about that smuggler, Jahara, and I just kind of followed it to the logical conclusion.”

Cami knew she didn’t have much real world experience, but she read anything and everything she could get her hands on back home. Her father even had an entire library of actual print books that had survived the war and been handed down through his family. Romance novels, horror stories, crime thrillers, biographies, and books about space and alien races—she’d read them all, many of them more than once.

The mystery novels had intrigued her from an early age, and she’d often imagined herself in the hero’s place, solving crimes and saving the day. Of course, she’d never thought to have the opportunity for such things, but that hadn’t stopped her from inventing her own mysteries to solve. Maybe because of her gift with linguistics, she’d always possessed an aptitude for solving puzzles and remembering details. Now, she’d been given an outlet to put those skills into practice.

“Holy macaroni, what is that?” Cami pointed through the enormous bay windows to the freighter on the center landing pad.

Tariq rolled his eyes. “Angel, we really need to work on your use of profanities. And that is the
Mex Riga
.”

“How do you know that?”

He held his tablet up. “Docking logs.” The grin on his face stretched a little wider. “And I may have heard some of the dock workers talking about it yesterday. Some female from G-Mex Robotics is here today to do updates on the cargo droids.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Cami had only been on the station for two days, but as far as she could tell, the droids weren’t the only thing that needed upgrading. “Maybe she can get you guys some wrist units.”

“We have them.” Tariq huffed when Cami looked at the tablet in his hand. “I’m a mechanical engineer. A wrist unit would only get in the way.” His eyes took on a faraway look, and he rubbed absently at his wrist. “Are you ready for this?”

Cami didn’t miss the dullness in his tone or the way his expression darkened. Though she worried about what had caused the sudden change in mood, she also knew he wouldn’t want to share. “Yes, okay. What’s our cover story?”

“I work here.”

“Yes,” Cami snapped, “but I don’t.”

Tariq blinked at her, and a slow smile formed on his lips. “I knew you had some fire in there.” He nodded to his left and started walking. “Just stay beside me. No one will question it.”

Judging by the way everyone in the bay kept casting glances at her, she begged to differ. Still, she had a job to do, and she couldn’t manage it if she kept arguing with Tariq. As she’d suspected, most of the thoughts in Bay D revolved around her.

“I wonder who she is. I haven’t seen her here before.”

“She looks so fragile. Females like that are too high maintenance.”

“Stupid bitch. She’s not even that pretty. He can do so much better, but it’s not like he’d ever give me the time of day.”

The uncharitable speculation froze Cami in her tracks, and she scanned the area, looking for the owner of the voice. It didn’t take long for her to locate the woman. Standing beside the nearest airlock, the curvy redhead glared at her with so much poison in her cat-like eyes, it was a wonder Cami hadn’t dropped dead yet.

“Who is that?”

“Who? Lorelei? What about her?”

“She doesn’t like me very much, but she sure likes you.”

Tariq cast another sideways glance at the girl. “I’ll talk to her.”

Men.
It apparently didn’t matter the race, they all understood women about as well as a Reemian sand tick. “Just go scan something and forget I said anything.” She’d remember to keep her jealousy to herself in the future.

Thoughts of the dock workers turned to either their work or other everyday things, and only a few still wondered about the newcomer. Unsatisfied with the results, Cami lowered her guards a little more, opening her mind to reach beyond the bay.

“I can’t believe I got stuck working refueling again.”

“I don’t know how the hell to reprogram an air filtration system. Damn Dennison. Why’d he have to go and get himself killed?”

Cami shook her head. It wasn’t as though the programmer had asked to die.

“Yeah, that’s it. So tight. So wet.”

“Oh.” Slamming the metaphorical door closed on the voice, Cami slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. “General Whitmore is, um, indisposed at the present time,” she offered when Tariq looked over at her.

As a consenting adult, the man was free to do as he pleased, and besides, a lady didn’t gossip.

“She has the sweetest laugh, and her lips…fuck.”

Cami almost choked as an image of her own face flashed into her mind. Then her face went up in flames as she watched herself kneel before Tariq in a lewd and provocative position, leaning toward him with her mouth slightly open. “Tariq!” Cami reacted without thinking and punched him square in the stomach. “Stop that. It’s…it’s vulgar.”

The gut-punch didn’t faze him at all, and he didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed. “I told you to stay out of my head. You won’t always like what you find there.”

“When I’m open like this, I can’t just pick and choose whose thoughts I’m getting.” If she could, it would save her a lot of embarrassment. “Just keep your mind on your work, okay?”

“Prude.”

“Barbarian.”

Grabbing her around the waist, Tariq lifted her with one arm until they were nose to nose and growled.

Cami rolled her eyes and pressed a kiss to the corner of his snarling mouth. “I’m not afraid of you, so put your fangs away and let me get back to doing my job.”

“I could snap your spine right now, just by squeezing.” He tightened his hold on her waist a little to emphasize his point. “That doesn’t scare you, even a little?”

“Romantic, but no, I’m not scared of you.” She pushed at his shoulders and squirmed against him. “You are starting to annoy me, though. Put me down.”

Tariq laughed, gave her a quick peck on the lips, and set her on the ground. “There’s that fire again. It looks good on you.”

Though she maintained a neutral expression, on the inside, Cami quietly preened at the compliment. She’d always been taught to control her emotions, though truthfully, her father would have been happy if she didn’t feel anything at all. Knowing Derrek had been driven insane by his gift, leading him to commit unthinkable acts, she understood why her family would fear her. Still, understanding didn’t make it hurt any less.

The time for being a lady and hiding behind manufactured walls of indifference had passed. If she wanted to survive on her own and help find a dangerous killer, she’d have to follower her instincts. To do that, she’d need to trust the feelings she’d spent years trying to suppress.

Watching Tariq from the corner of her eye, Cami smirked. No, feelings weren’t such a bad thing at all.

* * * *

As far as tracking down any useful information went, the day had been a bust. Tariq couldn’t be too upset about it, though, not when he’d give anything to have Cami as far away from the mess as possible. Unfortunately, instead of being disappointed, the day’s failure had only pushed Cami to dig deeper.

“The repair techs think Bay E will be open again tomorrow. Well, that was the update as of 1:30 this afternoon.” She strode confidently across the atrium, waving her hands in animated gestures as she spoke. “If they do have it operational, I’d like to do a quick scan there in the morning, but I doubt we’ll find anything.”

“Probably not.” Likely, most of the same crew working the cargo bay would be back to Bay E come morning.

“Right, but it’s worth the stop.” Her brow furrowed, and she cocked her head to the side. “I want to go to the Rusty Spigot.”

“No.”

“Tariq, I think someone in there will know something.”

“No.” She had no business among the bottom feeders who haunted the pub. “It’s too dangerous.”

“You’ll be with me,” she argued.

“It’s not happening.” She could beg him until she turned blue, but he refused to let her enter that snake pit, not even if he accompanied her. “That place isn’t—Cami? Cami, where are you going?” Changing directions, he grunted as he marched after her. “What are you doing?” Tariq caught her upper arm and pulled her to a stop before she could enter the Hat Trick.

Easing her arm free of his grip, she continued into the shop and selected a dark blue, knit beanie from the shelf. “I’m buying a hat.” She pulled the woven material on over her head and tugged it down around her ears. “I’m tired of my hair being in my face all the time, and this will hide the scroll mark.”

“You could have just said that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you actually cared about what I have to say.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”
Stubborn, foolish, naïve pain in my ass.

“I heard that.”

“Good,” he growled back. “And just how do you plan to pay for that?” Tariq pointed to the hat on her head. “In case you’ve forgotten, you have no credits.”

She spoke without looking away from him. “Antok, how much for this hat?”

“How do you know his name?” Tariq had been on the station for nine years and didn’t know the shop owners name.

“For you, no charge, Cami. Although, I think the pink one would look better with your dark hair.”

Grinning widely, Cami thanked Antok as she switched out the blue hat for a soft pink one. “Tell your mate I said hello!” she called before casually strolling out of the store.

“He’s mated? How do you know he’s mated? And why the hell do people keep giving you free stuff.”

“Because I’m nice to people, Tariq. You should try it sometime.”

“I’m nice to people.”

Cami snorted. “Yes, like that cargo handler you told to throw himself out of an airlock because he asked you to sign off on a shipment.”

Technically, the guy had interrupted his conversation with Cami to demand he sign something two other people in the bay had clearance to approve. Well, that, and Tariq had also caught him staring at Cami’s ass more than once during the morning. As far as he was concerned, the idiot deserved worse.

“Why are you trying to pick a fight with me?”

“I’m not.”

She’d been combative since he’d refused to take her to that awful bar. Tariq just didn’t know why. “Are you even listening to yourself? You’re being a child.”

Cami stopped dead in her tracks and spun around to jab her finger in his stomach. “No. You’re treating me like a child, and it’s…it’s…
you’re pissing me off
!”

Hearing the expletive—however minor—issue from her own mouth must have surprised her, because her eyes widened, and she clamped her lips together. Adorable little snorts escaped through her nose, followed by muffled giggles, which eventually turned into a full belly laugh. Never in his life had he seen one little swear make anyone so happy.

“I’ve never cursed before,” she explained around her chuckles. “I’m not supposed to lose my temper, and I’m definitely not supposed to curse.”