Insatiable (28 page)

“All the Phantom Corps are that way with him. They’re way out of your league, Carina. These men and women do dark deeds.”

Phantom Corps?
The name seemed to fit the people she’d met so far. “How do you mean?” Alarm slid up her spine, broke over her skin.

“These Phantom Corps your Daniel owns and runs, they’re shadows. They’re that dry, deadly wind that crops up, and all the animals run and hide. This loyalty they have to Ellis, the way he is, yes, like their father, what is it he does that makes them so efficient?”

“How is that dark? Any more dark than anyone else that carries out orders most people wouldn’t have the courage to do? Are you insinuating Ellis harms them? Forces them?” Their father quite often used the people and things his soldiers cared about to keep them in line.

“I have absolutely no reason to think that. Ellis is a fearsome man. Tall, broad, you can see the intelligence in his eyes, always thinking, examining, planning. But he has, as far as I’ve seen, honor at his very core. His people respect him because he deserves it.”

“Then why the comment? If you know something bad, you need to tell me now.”

“What is Daniel to you?”

She didn’t bother playing games, she knew what he asked. “I love him.”

He growled low in his throat and began to pace. She watched him, thinking how much they were alike though they had not been in contact in so long. He thought about it; she saw the edges of his warring emotions all over his body language. He disapproved; she saw that clearly enough in the rigidity of his spine. But not wholly. She saw the softness of his mouth, had heard the admiration in his voice when he’d spoken of Daniel. His eyes narrowed as he puzzled out how to say it.

He stopped pacing, pausing before the windows again, giving her his back. “So you said upstairs, though I’d hoped it was just a taunt. You’re in love with a man who kills for a living,”

She folded her hands in her lap. “I am. Are you shocked that I know this? I saw him kill men to save me. More than once. He’s also a man who saves lives for a living, too. What do you do, Vincenz? Do you rescue small furry animals now?”

“It’s not the same! Can’t you see that?”

“You’re right, it’s not, but not in the way you’re insinuating. He does a job many others,
most
others won’t do. But it needs doing nonetheless, and you know it. You may find it distasteful, but neither one of us would be here now if it weren’t for Daniel Haws!” She stood. “He’s a good man, a strong man who cares very much about his people and his world. He has the courage to take a step into darkness so you and I don’t have to. I love him for his heart, for his strength and yes, because he walks into places I can’t imagine, all so I don’t have to.”

“I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

She hugged him. “Life is full of hurts. What I feel for Daniel is beautiful, and I can’t regret it, no matter how it turns out.”

He sighed. “How can you even know if what you feel is real?”

“Is that a philosophical question? Because I’m quite certain you would never have the gall to suggest I didn’t know my own mind.”

He laughed. “You’ve grown up well. I’m proud.”

“What is it that brings the envy to your voice when you talk about them? Is it something between you and Daniel?”

He shook his head. “No. He’s been a friend to me. He’s a professional. I had thought one day to be an operative with them, too. I had wanted that when I first arrived. Ellis said no, and guided me out to the Edge. I’m still there, and he was right in many ways. I’ve come into my own, built my own skills, and I’m good at what I do. I suppose I want someone normal for you. A man who is home each night to tuck your children into bed.”

He was different now than he’d been in his youth. She supposed she was, too. What they’d lived through had changed them. She realized it would take time for them to know each other again.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been destined for normal.” She smiled wanly. “But what I have, well, it’s good and right. and I’m grateful for it. I hope you can see that. I hope you can trust me and Daniel, too.”

“I’m working on it.” He held his hand out. “Come on, I imagine they’re working hard on a plan to get us the seven hells out of here.”

D
aniel sighed, shaking his head when she called out her I love you. He held a hand up, cutting off any questions as he walked into the kitchen area, poured himself a mug of kava and took a sip before he spoke.

“Thank you for bringing him in. I’m sure she’ll feel better, and he has good contacts as well.” He knew Vincenz would want to talk to his sister about everything, including her parting shot to Daniel as she’d left the room. Daniel considered Vincenz a friend, though not one he saw often. He trusted the other man, respected him. In his place, Daniel had been hypercritical of his sister’s relationship with Roman Lyons.

He knew Carina loved her brother, and he couldn’t help but give in to a tiny spark of fear in his belly that she’d let him convince her Daniel was wrong for her. Even though he was. But wrong for her or not, he loved her.

“She loves you?” Marame asked.

“She thinks so.” Daniel sipped his kava, searching for calm, finding little.

“She does,” Andrei interrupted. “He feels the same. Now, how do we get the hells out of here?”

Grateful for his friend’s words, Daniel pushed away from the counter and headed into the common area and sat at the large table. He drew out his pocket comm. “Let’s get started.”

“We got word you’d been unable to break through. Looked into the pattern of Skorpios and other military on the watch. They’re out this way now because you were sighted by some mercs who sold you out. One turned up dead; imagine that.” Julian shrugged.

“I expect them all to turn up dead before the end of this standard year. Every. Last. One.”

Andrei nodded at Daniel. Such betrayal couldn’t go unanswered, or they’d all do it for the highest bidder. If they had no honor, fear would do just as well. In his seventeen standard years doing this, he’d always found the threat of death, underlined when it had to be, was an effective tool against a coward.

“We’ve got a private transpo at the portal. Top-of-the-line. If we can get to it, it’ll be approved to leave immediately.” Marame had her own comm out, projecting several routes from their bolt-hole to the portal.

“Then let’s be sure to get to it.”

“What we face is two full columns of Skorpios.” Julian looked at his comm. “Data just popped up. They know we’re here.”

It wasn’t so much that Daniel doubted he could get Carina out of there, but he feared what she might have to see to make it happen.

There would be death in great, heaping servings, and his aim was to be sure he served it rather than became it.

“We need heavy weapons. Full magazines. This will not be a stealthy trip, so we need to be able to get through.”

Marame did her job well, outlining the two best routes and setting multiple contingencies should those not work. Their biggest point of exposure would be once they hit the inner core of the portal city. No vehicles were allowed, so they’d have to be on the streets, far less protected, far slower than they’d be in a conveyance.

Daniel did his job to keep his focus off whatever they were discussing downstairs. Her life was paramount, getting her out and to a place where the data could be extracted. If he had to move mountains to make that so, he would. For her.

 

 

S
he came up sometime later, and the look Vincenz gave him told him her brother had mixed feelings about whatever she’d said.

She moved to him, touching his shoulders and squeezing herself onto the bench where Daniel sat so she could be next to him.

It was then she saw the data about the people who’d been caught in the roundup to capture them. The people her father had executed. She looked at it, saw the faces, the files, the names.

“Is there a place to clean up and rest?” Daniel heard the strain in her voice, the emotion. His gaze slid to Vincenz a moment, and the two men shared their concern.

“We should stay low for the next day or so. There are rooms here.” Marame stood and pointed to a door at the end of a hall. “Sleep chambers with a bathing suite located in between. There’s food. Our host may be a smuggler, but he has many fine things to eat in his larder. Enough to forgive many transgressions.” Marame winked.

Daniel grabbed their packs. “Let’s get you settled. There are facilities here for us to wash clothing, I’ve been told. I’m sure those around me would be happy about that.”

Her smile was there but tense around the edges.

“Would you like me to sleep in another room?” he asked once they were in the bedchamber with the door closed.

She looked up, startled. “No! Why would you do that?” She grabbed his hands, and he slid his thumbs over her skin.

“I just want you to be comfortable. With your brother here, I—I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “Trust you to make me feel better, even when you don’t know it and are acting like you have fluff for brains. I would feel uncomfortable with you elsewhere. I’d be wondering if you were trying to distance yourself or if you were angry. I like you near me, haven’t you figured that out yet?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m just fine in here with you.” He looked through drawers until he found some soft, warm clothing that would serve until theirs was clean. He handed it her way. “Why don’t you give me your clothes, and I’ll set them to wash with mine?”

When she did, handing it all over and retreating into the bathing room, he knew she was deeply bothered by that data. He left the room, put the clothes to wash and returned.

 

 

S
he’d escaped into the bathing suite to work out her emotions. But once she turned the bathwater on, Daniel strode into the room like he’d been invited. She opened her mouth to order him out, but he began to strip off his clothes, and who was she to deny herself the glory of his body?

The smile playing on his lips told her he’d done it on purpose.

“You’re distracting me with your nakedness and your penis.” She slid into the water, dunking herself and surfacing to find him in the water with her.

“It’s not on you.”

She considered making a joke, but then decided not. “Do you have a chip in my head? Do you know how I feel?” she snapped.

“I’ve been doing this long enough to have had innocents get caught up in the mission. But Hartley Alem was
not
an innocent, Carina. He hurt tens of thousands of people. He would have used you, broken you and not cared. That cannot stand. Just knowing someone existed who wanted to harm you made me crazy. Now that I know he’s not a threat, I feel better, and so should you. I’d rather have him and your father’s pet Skorpios die than you or your mother.”

“It’s not him. I don’t care about him. It’s the others. All those people who got caught up in something they had no part of. I brought that into their lives.”

“Your father brought this all on, not you. It is not necessary to kill the numbers he does, but we both know he does it for his own pleasure, to keep people so afraid he can keep them down. For no other reason than to show them all he can. He has no plan. Even your grandfather’s version of leadership had a point. Those deaths are not yours; it lies with him.
All of it
.”

She sighed. He was right, but it hurt nonetheless. Seeing how many people had died because she’d run. It wasn’t her intention, not what she’d wanted. “I hate it when you’re wise, Daniel.” She settled against him as he began to lather her hair.

“Sorry, sweet. I’ll dumb it up just for you.”

Eyes still closed as he rinsed, she smiled and rested against him more fully. “And while we’re discussing your attributes, I need to add a few things. You have honor, true honor, and you have no idea how rare a quality that is. You’re also very handsome and strong, and you have kept me alive this entire time when the weight of the Imperium is trying to hunt me down and kill me.”

“Were we discussing my attributes?”

“You’re messing up this moment,” she said, trying pinch his thigh, finding nothing but muscle.

“Thank you,” he murmured quietly into her ear before straightening. “As for the saving? It’s my job. And, admittedly, I like it that you’re alive. That way I can have sex with you and make you laugh. The difference between that cool, regal voice and your very fine lusty laugh is enough to make a man hard as iron.”

“You’re a flatterer.” She thought back on something that she’d wondered since the first moment he touched her. “Have there been others?”

“I’m not a virgin.”

She snorted and dunked under again, coming back up and pushing on his shoulder so he’d turn around so she could return the favor and wash his hair. “You know what I’m asking. I don’t know why you’re being so silly and making me work hard for it.”

“Ouch! I think my scalp is just fine without the hair pulling, sweet. Ask me what you want to ask me. I don’t want to play games with you.” He froze a moment, obliging and tipping his head back so she could rinse his hair.

“Do you do this on your missions? Ever? You know, having a woman?”

He sighed and stood. She watched quite happily as he soaped up and rinsed. He took the drying cloth she handed him as he stepped out.

“I’ve had women on missions. As in I’ve had sex with women when I was on a job. I’ve never had sex with a woman who
was
my job. But to answer the question you’re afraid to ask me, no, I don’t use women on my missions for sex and then dump them without a word when I get them home.”

She narrowed her eyes at him as he got dressed and then moved to her. He buttoned the back of the simple but very warm winter dress he’d given her earlier, all without waiting to be asked. She liked that. A lot.