Thief (34 page)

“Hell, Jace, she’s forcing me to cook—save me before I kill us all!” Garrett exclaimed.

“Looks like you’re doing fine,” Jace said, “but she shouldn’t be out of bed.”

“One more day of looking at the ceiling would have driven me insane.”

“Short trip,” Garrett said, winking at her.

“Would be with you driving,” she returned with a grin.

Payton entered and Jace cornered her. “Should she be up and around?”

“If she thinks she’s ready.” Payton shrugged.

“So now she’s a doctor too?”

“I’ve never witnessed a recovery so swift. If Kraft thinks she’s ready, then she is.” Payton lowered her voice. “I understand you want to protect her, Jace, and that’s admirable, but Kraft isn’t exactly the delicate little flower you seem to think she is.”

“I don’t think that.”

“Then stop treating her that way. Look at her.” Payton lifted her chin. “Kraft is in full command of her faculties. It also looks like she’s able to laugh again without pain. Perhaps you should take a page from her book.”

“I just don’t want her to push herself too hard.”

“I think you’re afraid.”

“Of what?”

“If Kraft can walk, she might walk away.”

Jace considered the remark as he watched Kraft. Payton voiced his greatest fear. It frustrated him that he couldn’t hold Kraft, couldn’t keep her. She would only stay long enough to recover and then she’d be gone. Most like, as soon as they landed on Corona, city of Borealis, Jace would be saying goodbye to Kraft for good.

“She’s like an exotic bird, Jace, it would be cruel to keep her in a cage.” Payton touched his arm. “However, there’s nothing that precludes you from giving her a compelling reason to make your cage hers.”

“What do I have to offer her?”

“She said, very clearly, that she loves you.”

“When she was barely lucid.”

“You think she lied?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you honestly want to know, ask her.” Payton considered. “But then, you’d have to admit the truth.”

“What truth?”

“That whether or not she loves you, you most assuredly love her.” Payton walked over to the stove. “What are you making?”

“A mess!” Overwhelmed by timing the flipping of seven steaks, Garrett stabbed his fork in the air.

“Steady.” Kraft touched Garrett’s back with a gesture that conveyed strength. “He’s doing an admirable job of making chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes with country gravy.”

“You should have started with something simple, like soup,” Payton said.

“Hell, I love this, but didn’t realize how hard it is to make.”

“You’re doing fine,” Kraft assured him. “All you have to do now is mash the potatoes and make the gravy.” Kraft carefully walked him through it and clapped her hands. “There you go. Start serving up plates.”

Beaming with pride, Garrett served everyone then himself. “Do I have to eat in the kitchen since I cooked?”

“I think we’re going to start a new tradition. Everyone, including the cook, eats at the table,” Jace said.

Everyone sat down. Kraft sat beside him on the little bench at the head of the table. In the midst of taking a bite and finding it wonderful, everyone cast their eyes at the empty place where Heller usually sat.

“I’ll take him a plate,” Kraft offered.

“I’m not having my hard work end up thrown against the wall,” Garrett said.

“I’m not having my stitches ripped out,” Payton insisted.

“Let Jace do it,” Garrett said.

“Why would he throw it against the wall or my stitches—”

Jace sighed. “Fill her in, Garrett, while I go attend to our resident bad boy.” Jace filled a plate and left.

He tapped the com on the outside of Heller’s prison. “Heller? I have dinner if you’re interested.”

“Did that—did Kraft make it?”

“No, Garrett did.” Jace opened the door. Heller stood well back with his hands up. “Sit down at the table.”

Heller did and Jace closed the door behind him. He plunked the plate to the table and nodded to it.

“You can eat it or not, Heller, I don’t really care. I’m here to ask you one question. Will you follow my orders or not?”

Ready with his fork in his fist, Heller threw it aside and glared reproachfully at Jace. “Ain’t fair if it changes every day.”

“No, but if it does, will you follow my orders or not?”

Heller kicked back from the table. He flexed his arms and his legs, showing off the power of his young body. In his prime at twenty-two, seven feet and three hundred pounds, Heller embodied fierce male pride. “I won’t sit back and let a woman lead.”

Jace flexed his body. Older, slower, even more so with the wound. He realized the absurdity of competing, on a physical level, with Heller. “Even if she can take you from garbage cans to credit vaults?”

“She turned on her own, for that IWOG transport job, and that attack ship. She’s no better than an alley cat.”

“Kraft saved you.”

“No—”

“Who knew how they’d attack?”

Heller remained silent.

“Kraft knew.”

“Because she’s IWOG scum!”

“Because she was once IWOG. She turned on those who crafted her. She made it so we could live, Heller.” Jace slapped the table. “Look at me. We are alive, right now, debating this because of her. I will not argue another fact with you until you grasp that one.”

“She turned on her own.”

“So did you.”

“Because I wanted—”

“And that makes what you did okay? Tell me, Heller, when is committing mutiny okay? When Kraft did it or when you did?”

“Ain’t a fair question.”

“Because you’ve got no answer. It’s not so black and white, is it, Heller? Right and wrong takes on all kinds of shades of gray. Kraft may have gone against the IWOG, gone against her roots, but in the whole of the time we’ve known her, she has not crossed us once, has she?” When Heller crossed his arms and folded into himself, Jace slapped the table hard. “Has she? Don’t you shy away now, Heller. You answer up.”

“No, she’s not crossed us.”

“No. Kraft hasn’t. What seems a lifetime ago, on a derelict Basic, Kraft could have hacked my head off.”

“I could have killed her first—”

“If you had pulled the trigger do you honestly think we’d be alive debating this right now?”

“Jace, that ain’t a fair question—”

“Why not? Seems damn fair to me, Heller. Know it then or know it now, that was the biggest haul we’ve ever taken. Ever, Heller. And we can thank—” that crazy wonderful and strange woman, “—Kraft. You grasp that now or I’ll kick you free.”

Heller locked his arms around himself, clutched himself hard. “Why, Jace? IWOG gives no favors.”

“Then you acknowledge Kraft gave us a favor.”

“She wants
Mutiny
.”

“Really? Why would she wait until now?” He shook his head and realized he used the same argument Kraft had given him. “You took her money belt to my bunk. You looked in it, didn’t you?”

“She said she had 500K and I—”

“Wanted to make sure she wasn’t lying. You looked, you counted it. Kraft did indeed have over 500K in that money belt, didn’t she?”

“So what if she did?”

“She had that money ready to go buy her own ship. She doesn’t want my ship, she wants her own.”

“Kraft read that table at the Den of Ishtar. And at the Double Whammy. She’s a reader, Jace. She cheats at cards and everything else.”

“Did she cheat when she took you to your knees?”

Heller hissed out breath between tight lips. “She tricked me.”

“How? My understanding is she told you she would take you down with two fingers. Did she lie?”

“No.”

“Tell me one lie Kraft has ever told you.”

Heller thought about it long and hard. “Kraft didn’t lie, but she never told the truth neither.”

“And now you can ask her every question in your mind and she’ll answer it.”

“’Cause you told her too?”

“Because that’s the way she is. Ask her. She’ll tell you. Ask her to show you how to drop an opponent with two fingers. One will get you ten that Kraft will.”

“Why would she show her enemy—”

“That’s it right there, Heller. You are not her enemy. You are part of her crew. And Kraft would die defending you. She damn near died trying to save us all. She had no idea that you wanted to leave her to die on the floor like a stuck pig.”

“She lived, didn’t she?”

“Not with your help.”

“I wanted you to live.”

“At her expense.” Jace slapped the table hard. “You thought you had to choose when you didn’t.”

“Kraft isn’t—”

“What?” Jace stood away from the table. “Tell me, Heller. Blast her hard and fast, because that woman made it so my crew lived. Kraft made the wind turn to me against fifty hard-core fighters. We fought off an IWOG attack ship because of her. If you look to blast her, you best have something spectacular.”

“You make me compete against—”

“You make yourself compete against her, not me. Kraft has proven herself, again and again, and I can’t fault you for not seeing it when I’ve had such a difficult time.”

“You love her.”

“And if I do, what does that mean for you?”

“Jace, you’re asking me to give up—”

“What?”

“I would have killed them if not for her—”

“Fifty IWOG? How good do you think you are? Kraft took out, by her blade, over twenty, and you and I and Garrett and Payton took out twenty with automatic weapons. She got up close and personal, not us. Who wiped the ship, Heller? Who wiped that fucking ship?”

“You’re swearing, Jace, you don’t do that—”

“I do now. I’ll swear up one side and down the other if that’s what it takes to make you see the light. Kraft saved us, Heller. I don’t care how you carve it, we are alive because of her. You accept it or I’ll kick you free.”

“So she’s staying.”

“I don’t know, but for the time she’s here you are going to get along with her, and everyone else too. Now, do you want to stay locked in here or eat with the rest of us?”

“As long as she doesn’t think she can boss me—”

Jace shook his head. “What’s the chain of command?”

“You, then Garrett, then—Kraft—then me.”

“Grab your plate and let’s go.”

They went back to the kitchen and everyone made a point of greeting Heller warmly, even Kraft.

“This is really good, Garrett,” Heller said.

“Thank you, Heller,” Garrett said, “Kraft helped me.”

“That’s a good idea, you teaching everyone how to cook something.” Heller barely managed to make eye contact with Kraft before his gaze darted back to his plate.

“I’d be happy to teach you to make your favorite, if you want.” Kraft took another bite.

A long pause spun out.

“I like that chicken thing, the spicy one.” Heller glanced up at her then away.

“Kung Pao Chicken.” Kraft nodded, licking gravy off her lips. “That’s a good one.”

“And beer.”

“Okay. I’d be happy to show you how.”

“This is so sweet I think I’ve got a mouthful of cavities,” Garrett said, rolling his eyes and clapping his hands to his chest. “It warms the cockles of my heart.” He wiped an imaginary tear from his cheek.

“What are cockles, anyway?” Bailey asked Payton.

Payton searched her memory. “It’s not a medical term.”

“I think it’s a clam from Earth,” Kraft said.

“Then why would you have them in your heart?” Jace asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe Garrett’s just a clammy guy.”

The conversation degenerated into a discussion of weird idioms from Earth and everyone tossed out their favorite, then the conversation became a discussion of oxymorons. What could have been a terribly awkward moment wasn’t because everyone tried very hard to get along. Jace could see it took tremendous control for Heller to refrain from making his usual nasty comments and Jace was proud of him. When he offered to do the dishes, you could have knocked the rest of the crew down with a feather. But Jace knew Heller was trying desperately to atone for what he’d done.

“I’ll help,” Kraft offered.

Heller gritted his teeth, but said, “Thanks.”

Everyone left, but Jace, still not trusting Heller to be alone with Kraft, eavesdropped from the bridge.

“They told you what I did,” Heller said.

“I grasp it, Heller.”

“Gonna get back at me?”

“No.”

Jace couldn’t hear what they were doing but he imagined they passed dishes. “What you did is between you and Jace. I was just the catalyst.”

Heller grunted. “I don’t know what that word means.”

“A catalyst starts a chemical—actually, it’s not the best word.” Kraft sighed. “I’m not holding a grudge against you, Heller. I don’t want to fight with you. I think it’s unlikely we’ll ever be friends in the full sense of the word, but if we both try, I think we can get along. I’m willing if you are.”

“That’s what Jace wants.”

“Well, Captain Lawless has a good reason for it. It’s hard to run a crew when two of them are fighting. It’s harder still when one of them has a death wish on the other.”

“Yeah. Does that mean you’re planning on sticking around?”

Jace’s heart seemed to stop beating for a moment then thundered in his ears as he waited for what she would say. He heard a loud crash.

“Shit howdy!”

“I got it,” Kraft said.

Heller continued to swear.

“Don’t worry about it. Soapy water is going to do this floor a world of good. You finish up the dishes and I’ll swab the deck.”

They worked silently for a while.

“If, uh, you’re gonna show me how to make beer and that chicken thing, could you also show me that finger thing?”

“Finger thing?”

“Yeah, that thing you did to my hand.”

“Sure. I’ll also show you how to get out of it.”

“There’s a way out of it?”

“For every trick, there’s a treat.”

Jace didn’t have to see her face to know she’d just made that slow, lazy and sexy smile.

Chapter Twenty-eight

“We’re about a day off from Borealis,” Jace said, entering the kitchen where Kraft sat drinking a foamy beer and playing solitaire. “Should you be drinking that in your condition?”

Kraft sighed. “It’s one beer, Captain Lawless. Why don’t you grab one and see if it can improve your sullen disposition?”