Dark Runner: LodeStar 3.5 (20 page)

“No,” he growled. “No, don’t tell me this is about Logan Stark. That security expert of his, Berenson—he
was
there to get me out of the way.”

She raised her winged brows. “Wow, got it one. Good job.”

Disbelief warred with a strange pain in his chest—betrayal. He should remember how it felt, but he’d forgotten in the thrill of having her. “This is all a fucking setup, with you spying on me for
Stark
? Is he that worried that I’ll steal his woman?”

She stared at him as if seeing him clearly for the first time. And not liking what she saw.

An unaccustomed heat burned in his cheeks. He would not feel guilt over asking her to stay with him even as he pursued Kiri. That was none of her business, or Kiri’s either.
 

“No,” she said. “That is, I don’t know or care about Logan Stark. I’m doing a favor for Kiri. She’s my friend. And she’d just as soon one of her … lovers didn’t murder the other.”

He scowled, hating the way she now stared at a point over his shoulder, instead of looking him in the eye. “Stark really is missing … in my city.”

“That’s the word.”

“So sending Tal off to hunt this slaver was just a distraction?” Darry asked.

Scala shrugged, as if she didn’t know or care about that. “Not like the galaxy won’t be better off without her.”

“I just want to know one thing,” Trix demanded, shouldering past her. “Are you the reason I spent an entire night puking my guts out?”

“Yes,” Scala admitted. “I’m sorry about that part, Trix. I … needed a way onto the
Zharrdul
.”

“So it wasn’t just a coincidence that you were on Quol-Ray?” Darry asked. “Thought that was too good to be true.”

“Thanks for sharing
now
,” Tal snarled at him.

Darry shrugged. “Nah, I meant because she’s so hot.”
 

“Sorry,” Scala said to him too.
 

Tal’s gaze narrowed on her. She was holding herself as tightly as a strung wire.
 

“I just … I owed a favor to a friend for helping me, so when she told me what she needed, I didn’t ask questions,” she said to that point over his shoulder.

“That’s all you’re sorry about?” Tal asked.

“Yeah.” She gave him a searing look. “And that I got caught before you paid me. I could sure use the credits.”

Part of him wanted to grab her, haul her to his bed and spank her ass until she begged him for mercy. Then fuck her until neither of them could move. The other part still wanted to wrap his hands around her slender throat—all of it.

She was working against him, and for Stark, or at least to keep the fucking magnate safe. That placed her squarely in opposition to him, Tal. He could never trust her. And she clearly had never trusted him, not with any real part of herself.

He turned his back on her. “Get to your bunk. I’ll deal with you later. Darry, Trix, stay.”

* * *

Scala took one step toward the passageway and all seven hells broke loose.

A thunderous boom sounded outside the ship, followed by a vibration so violent she was thrown into the wall. She hit her shoulder, hard. It hurt. Trix and Darry fell to the floor.

“We’re under attack!” Dalg thundered over the com. “I’m taking us up—hang on!”

Scala had no choice but to clutch the nearest handhold and fight for balance as the craft leapt under them and then shot forward. She peered through the porthole. Black smoke billowed in the sunshine, then disappeared as the
Z
catapulted up into the sky.

That kind of smoke meant only one thing out here—they were indeed under attack. But who, and why?

“How the hells did she find us?” Darry demanded.

“You think this is the slaver?” The g-forces flattened Scala against the bulkhead as the craft accelerated.

“Who else would it be?” he said. “Tal sure as hells doesn’t have any enemies on Serpentia.”

“But how did they find us?” Trix asked, clutching Darry while he held onto one leg of a seat. “No one knows we’re after them.”

She twisted her head to stare accusingly at Scala through her braids.

Scala’s breakfast threatened once again to rise up her throat. Because there
were
beings who knew they were here, and why. Had Stark’s people merely used her to destroy Tal once and for all?

And was Kiri a dupe as well, or was she in on it? Had the one person Scala trusted without question used her like so many others in her past?

* * *

Tal didn’t waste time wondering why they were under attack, he simply fought back with the single-minded ferocity that had made him infamous. At least on Earth II.
 

Here, they might have sussed out his identity, but they didn’t
know
him, so while he wasn’t getting any respect, it also gave him the advantage that whoever this was didn’t know how ruthless he was, that he never gave up until he was the last man standing.

The other ship showed up clearly on the
Z
’s surveillance.

“Unmarked Y-class fighter,” Dalg said, working the controls to narrow in on the other craft. “Surplus from the Solar Wars from the looks. And definitely still weaponized.”

“Smaller than the
Z
,” Tal said, bringing her around in a turn so sharp the Z vibrated wildly, but then shot after the other craft. “Probably think that makes us easier to hit. Let’s show them different.”

“You want a kill shot?”

“Not yet,” Tal decided. He hit the
Z’
s superdrive and brought her in low and fast. “Wing ’em. I want them down and vulnerable. Then we’ll parlay.”

“You got it.”

As Tal pulled off on the accel, they hovered for a sec. “They’re bringing the rear guns around.”

“They won’t get a shot.” Dalg sent a laser charge at the other ship’s right wing. It hit, and the other ship wobbled wildly in flight before listing to one side and dropping rapidly toward the desert floor, just outside the Lure Valley, a plume of heat and debris streaming behind.

“Send a warning shot over their bow,” Tal ordered. “In case they get a notion to fire again.”

“They can’t,” Dalg gloated. “I hit their central power stem. They’re just coasting at this point.”

“All right, take the controls.” Tal watched the other ship land, hard enough to send sand puffing out in a minor whirlwind.

“Bring us in just overhead,” Tal ordered “I’ll go down on a hoverpad.”

“Let me go with you, boss. Whoever this is may have a contract out on you.”

“Better yet,” Scala said from behind them, “Let me go in your place.”

Tal twirled his chair and regarded her with raised brows. “Any special reason?”

 
“Yeah. You won’t be surprised to hear, this is maybe—probably—my fault. I was asking questions yesterday, in the plaza, playing my role. Guess I wasn’t being as subtle as I thought.”

Dalg shook his head in disgust, but Tal nodded.

“All right. You’ll come with me. But keep quiet.”

She nodded, relief flashing in her eyes. At least he hoped it was relief and not satisfaction.

He brushed past her. “Don’t relax yet. You’re standing in front of me on the pad. ”

“How gallant.”

“Just ready in case these are friends of yours.”

She glared. “Whoever they are, they’re no friends of mine.”

They stood, locked in silent combat as a small aperture opened in the cabin wall, revealing a space barely big enough for two. Tal jerked his head for her to get in first.

“Ever ridden one of these?” he asked.
 

“No.” She flattened herself against the wall as he crowded in with her. “Seen it done though.”

“Hang on.” He turned so that she was behind him, pulled her arm around his waist, and the bottom dropped out of the tube. She let out a yelp, her arms tightening on his waist.
 

Tal grinned to himself. He’d enjoyed that, at least.

They dropped like stones until they were below the belly of the
Z
, and then the pad jammed upward beneath their feet. Grasping the central control stick, Tal took them down in a swooping turn out from under the
Z
and toward the wounded ship, with Scala wrapped around him like a vine. Seemed he’d found the one thing the Serp was afraid of.

“Get your weapon out,” he called against the wind. “But I’ll warn you. Shoot me in the ass and I’ll make you sorry.”

“Your ass is too fine to shoot,” she told him. “And you don’t have a heart, so I’ll aim for your head.”

He couldn’t help it—he laughed.
 

But as they slowed to one side and just above the enemy craft, Tal stared. The gangplank was down, and a woman stood in the open hatch.
 

“Fuck me,” he muttered. She was one of the most beautiful females he’d ever seen. Serpentian, from the long waves of auburn hair wafting in the hot wind, to the tips of her elegantly shod feet. And every piece in between, all displayed to perfection in her clinging halter and pants of pale orange satin. Her face was a work of sensual art, enhanced by cosmetics and a slight smile.

He brought the pad to a stop and looked her in the eyes. A jolt of recognition hit him. Here was a woman who knew her own power and her appeal—just like him. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she was as crooked as the legs on that ugly garganta lizard.

Two males hulked behind her, and he could see another in the shadows of the interior. He had no doubt they all had weapons trained on him, as well as recognition tech. And since he went out of his way to look distinctive, he wouldn’t be hard to ident.

“So,” the woman said in a voice like an alto bell. “You’ve been working very hard to find me, Tal Darkrunner. May I ask why?”

He smiled at her. “After you tell me why you were shooting at my ship.”

She gave an admiring look at the
Z
. “I didn’t want to. But I have certain beings after me. A woman alone can’t be too cautious these days.”

He shrugged. “If you know who I am, you know my business. But I don’t know yours.”

“It’s her,” Trix said in his ear. “We’ve got her! She’s Slidi.”

The Serpentian smiled at him. “Why don’t we discuss it over a drink?”

“I’d love to,” Tal said. “I always did believe in mixing business with pleasure.”

“Fuck, you’re going
in
?” Darry demanded.

Scala hissed with displeasure in Tal’s other ear. Tal’s smile widened. “Try to trip me and I’ll toss you to those guards of hers,” he warned her under his breath.

“No worries,” she replied, her breath like silk in his ear. “The worst fate I could wish on you is to end up in
her
arms. Go for it, earther.”

He brushed his thumb over her tight fist. “I will. Just as soon as you let go of my belt.”

Chapter Thirteen

Scala fumed as she paced the hot sand in the shadow of the bitch’s ship.
 

Tal had dumped her. He’d left her out here while he stepped onto that slithery bitch’s craft like a desert bunny hopping right into a trap.
 

She glared at the two hulking guards standing by the closed hatch of the other ship. They were watching her through their face shields, gazes avaricious. One was human, the other she wasn’t sure about, just that he was an ugly slimer that she wouldn’t touch unless it was with a lethal kick.

The little laser Tal had given her was burning a hole in the pocket of her new top, a sleeveless vest of gharial leather that she wore over tights she’d chosen because they were the same pale green as a certain lying, cheating sand snake’s eyes.
 

“You got a pretty mouth,” one of the guards said to her. “Why don’t I show you how a real man can use it?”

His partner sniggered. “I’ll have the other end.”

Scala turned and glared at them.
 

“Maybe it’s time to get my new outfit dirty,” she mused. “After all, Tal paid for it.”

“Don’t do it,” Darry warned in her ear. “They’re just flapping their ugly jaws, Scala.”

“Yeah, wait for Tal,” Trix added. “I’m sure he’ll be out in a few minutes. After he gets the intel.”

“There’s a joke in there somewhere,” Scala retorted. “But I’m not in the mood for laughs right now. Kicking a few heads in, now, that would cheer me up.”

“Are you worried about Tal?” Trix asked. “Little late now, isn’t it?”

Scala winced. She guessed she deserved that. “Yeah, I’m worried about him. But if you’re waiting for hearts and flowers … don’t.”

“Oh, so he’s just your ride out of here.”

Scala cast a deadly look up at the Z. “Don’t make me come up there.”

Darry broke in, his voice cool but not sharp as Trix’s. “He’ll be okay, Scala. He always is. And anything he can get to help us bring down Mordacity … is worth it.”

“Yeah, but he hasn’t been up against a sociopath like Slidi,” Scala said. A beautiful, sensual woman with eyes that said ‘I’ll do anything you want’. Scala had wanted so badly to draw the fancy little laser weapon and shoot her, watching that look directed at Tal.