Rebel Souls (2 page)

What she’d said was a complete mind-fuck, and he knew it. The first clue, the
Avira
’s matte black paint job with a lack of registration, and it sure as the gods’ pit wasn’t because they were a Terran relief ship, the only vessel allowed to frequent space without registration. One glance at her proved they weren’t on a mission of humanity, spreading love and peace, making amends for the destruction of their world.

Shaved heads and flagellation just weren’t her thing.

Neither was getting blown into space dust
.

The paint covered any identifying mark, registering the
Avira
as a legally licensed freighter. Even if it didn’t, they were flying in League space, which gave him the right to search and seize. The League had an agreement with the New Xieran government, to protect their interests, more to a point, keep the port clear of criminals and those who would use the planet as an outpost for smuggling activities. The
Avira
might as well have been flying a Jolly Roger for all the laws they broke.

“Cut your engines and prepare your ship to be boarded.”

Yeah, like I’ll let that happen
.

There were a lot of problems with that, the biggest being her uncle, catching a ride home. He’d retired a year ago and had gotten out of the family business. The League didn’t care. They were still jonsing to execute him for multiple crimes. She’d already lost her mother and father to the League’s hands—no way would she lose her uncle.

The engine-ready light on her panel illuminated, and she smiled. “Not that I wouldn’t like you to board,” she said as she eyed him with sincere appreciation. “I’ve got a sick grandmother at home and a basket of goodies to bring to her. Can I take a rain check on that, muffin?”

His expression didn’t change.
Typical League officer
. A regular by-the-regulation-never-break-or-stretch-the-rules kind of guy. So serious. In some areas of the galaxy, her looks got her out of a lot of trouble, but not here and not with him. What a waste of a dropped zipper. He hadn’t appeared to even take a peek.
Maybe a little more incentive
? She leaned forward giving him a great cleavage shot.

“Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded. We need to inspect your
goodies
.”

Ava sat back, crossed her arms, and raised a brow. “Isn’t that third date stuff?”

He opened his mouth, looking thoroughly insulted. She didn’t give him a chance to make his case. A bright flash on the left side of her holo-dome snagged her attention. The last light blinked, indicating the final engine had transferred power to the bow. Ava blew him a kiss, hit the thrusters, and cut the link. The force threw her forward in her harness hard enough to bruise her ribs. The ship rocketed in reverse through the hole as she focused on mirroring their previous course, hoping there were no surprises.

The
Avira
exited the hole without a scratch or second encounter. Ava released the breath she’d held and turned toward her uncle. He nodded and strode from the deck. He never questioned her judgment and had raised her to do the same. A Frost never surrendered their ship. A Frost never
surrendered
.

It had been the right choice.

They’d been lucky to have a choice this time. Next time could be different. Ava shivered and stared at the stars. Not a League Destroyer in sight. Regardless, a sense of unease lingered, as though they’d reached the end of their kismet. Not something to dwell on. Her cargo and crew were safe and her secret still a secret. She’d have to be careful about that Regulator. Her gut told her he wouldn’t go away, and the same instincts screamed the encounter was only the beginning, and sometime, somewhere, she’d meet him again.

She’d been running from the law long enough to know she couldn’t disregard the feeling. Sitting around, waiting for him to catch up would be stupid. She had business to attend, a ship to deliver and too many regulations to break, starting with getting the
Avira
to the chop-shop and the tiles off the hull.

The process to strip the
Avira
would take about a week. Rebuilding of the ship took a little longer, since the parts needed to be shipped in. When finished, they would have spent a month in the port. After humpty dumpty was put back together, they’d make an illegal run across League controlled space with a cargo hold full of Rebels headed back to the front lines on Nexis.

Ava didn’t feel guilty about hauling them off-world. They fought for a noble cause and the credit way too good to resist, plus she didn’t have to move the nasty stuff again. Someone else would have to do it, and it too, served its purpose. The biradium and quadradium would be separated in a black market refinery, smelted into bars, and transported to the Nexian resistance to fund their efforts toward secession from the League. What happened to the fissile metal after she dropped it off, she didn’t know, but she’d never seen the Rebels use it for bombs, so her conscious remained clean.

Ava set the coordinates for another shortcut, one few people knew about, just a little out of her way. She handed the controls over to the nav officer and rolled her shoulders. It would be a month and a half before they returned to space, and she had to pack for some much needed rest, relaxation, and beach time—tides should be low during this phase of the month. A walk under the radiant star would be wonderful.

Even Rebels needed time off
.

Chapter Two

That bitch. From the moment he’d seen her, he’d tagged her as trouble. How in a spinning star did she slip his trap, and where was the ship he’d sent to cover the other side of the wormhole? As if in answer to his question, his backup burst from the wormhole in a vortex of multi-colored energies.

Seth groaned and threw his head back to stare at the ceiling. He’d given them a direct order to stay put, not follow her through. Because of their inability to follow instructions, she’d escaped.

Two weeks before, New Xeira Global Intelligence informed him they’d found a smuggler’s hole in this sector. They claimed the criminals utilized it at a steady rate, but because of their lack of resources, the planetary authorities had been unsuccessful stopping them. Seth wasn’t surprised to see the smuggler’s ship take advantage of it to escape his wing vessel. He’d intentionally monitored and planned to use the hole to ambush any who were exploiting it. What had been a surprise was who had fallen into the trap.

No doubt he’d just met the legend: Captain Ava Frost, a woman as cold as her name. No one else could pull a stunt like that and get away with it. Seth was good at this game, thought he knew every trick a smuggler might try, and she’d knocked his ego down a notch. Apparently, he still had something to learn. The last thing he’d anticipated was for Captain Frost to blast backward through the wormhole. He couldn’t shake his amazement that both vessels hadn’t collided.

And what a beauty. Rumors he’d heard on the streets, in the ports, even onboard his ship, all called her striking. Understatement. Captain Ava Frost was gorgeous. A no tricks or smoke screen, all natural, sexy, curvy, way-too-beautiful-to-be-a-criminal, woman.

Everything about her was beyond striking, from her black silken hair to her cocoa eyes that were so deep a brown, they appeared as pools of ink. Her skin had that star-kissed glow, not brown, not red, but the radiant golden tone of someone who made their living on a planet, not as she did in space. Beautiful like an island girl from his home world, Earth; Seth could easily envision her in with a grass skirt and flower lei.

Most female smugglers had a rough edge. Many were brutes, more masculine than his toughest male crew. He’d seen them around, swaggering down streets and through space stations, wearing facial hair, lacking any femininity defining them as the fairer sex. With the dangers they faced, he could understand why they adopted the persona. As for Captain Frost, no one would ever mistake what gender she claimed. Seth’s cock snapped to attention the moment he’d seen her.

Why would a woman like that be out here, breaking the law? She could be a holo-star, wife, mother, or model. The woman defined dirty sex and every orgasmic dream he’d ever had, but that didn’t matter, and his attraction had little to do with his duty. Regardless her beauty, if he caught her hauling illegal cargo, she’d get the same treatment as any other criminal.

Nobody had been able to prove she smuggled illegal materials for the Nexian Resistance, but it would only be a matter of time. Eventually every criminal got caught. When she slipped up, he’d be there. Innocent people didn’t paint their ship black and frequent this sector of the galaxy. No, she’d broken more than the minor laws of painting her ship black and eliminating the registration numbers. She’d risked death over a fine. Nobody would go through a wormhole backward if they’d nothing to hide, and he planned to find out what she protected.

But not today
.

He turned toward his crew. They’d earned shore leave. They’d spent the last twelve months chasing smugglers, pirates, slavers, and any criminal that dared to venture into League-controlled space. Now they’d stop chasing and wait for the ones who had escaped to circle back and leave the planet they took refuge on. Seth knew that sometimes the best way to catch prey was to let them come to him. Criminals, like anyone else, didn’t like to change. They had patterns and habits, no matter what planet they were from. She’d be back, he’d no doubt, but he didn’t expect her to mindlessly wander into a trap either. The woman had more brains than that. Patience was the name of the game here, and a little of it would go a long way.

Arresting her wouldn’t get him very far. He needed proof of crimes before he could take her into custody. That would come with the careful gathering of evidence. Every encounter, every time they met, she’d give him a little more leverage. When one wanted to catch a fox, they didn’t leave the chicken coop open, hoping the fox would walk inside. They followed the chickens when they got out. He need only track her funds back to their source. A name here, a ship there, eventually he’d have enough to piece together a warrant and go after her and the people she supplied—wherever she chose to hide.

He had no illusions that it would be easy. Captain Frost defined elusive. League ships would sight her, she’d escape and it could be as long as six weeks before she’d reappear. Her ship, like its name, was a ghost. As far as he knew, nobody in Fleet had ever had face-to-face contact with her. She knew a thing or two about escape, but he wasn’t the same as the predators she’d crossed paths with in the past, and he now had a face to go with the ship and name. She’d screwed up.

The planet below had been too close not to be part of the equation. Down on its surface were answers to why she traveled through the wormhole and had been in this sector. Either she headed into deep space, or whatever she did took a long time to accomplish. Seth was willing to bet she hadn’t gone into deep space and if he hung out long enough, she’d return. Next time he’d make sure she’d have nowhere to go, next time he’d be on the other side of that hole and with evidence.

She’d come back, and she’d use the smuggler’s hole. He’d bet his commission on it. Captain Frost didn’t look like an idiot. The woman would take her time and lie low. There were things out there far more dangerous than the League Regulators, and she wouldn’t hang out in space while she waited. Yeah, she hadn’t left the sector, and she’d show up when she thought the League let their guard down.

“Let’s make port for a little R and R. Everyone’s dismissed for shore leave except for the wing ship that didn’t stay put. Tell Elena she can monitor the traffic through the hole until I return. The rest of the crew can report back in six weeks.”

Captain Wilson, his first officer, nodded and opened the ship-wide com. “Please fasten your seatbelts folks. We’re going to New Xiera Port for shore leave.”

Cheers erupted throughout the ship. A happy, rested crew would give him a more aggressive chase, and after the stunt Captain Frost pulled, Seth knew he’d need them to be. Gods, what a planet to take leave on. New Xeria was a wet dream, the number one resort planet in the galaxy. Leave couldn’t get any better than that, and the crew of his wing ship would think twice before they didn’t follow orders again.

He nodded to his first officer and left the command deck. He’d pack a bag and head for the beach. It felt as if it had been a millennium since he’d stuck his toes into warm sand and grounded himself to a planet. There was nothing as peaceful or beautiful as a New Xieran beach at starset, and he planned to be viewing that starset in under an hour with a drink in his hand, watching pretty women walk by in next to nothing—soaking in a little peace.

Even Regulators needed time off
.

***

Aloha
. Seth blinked. Perhaps he’d soaked in too much radiant energy, but the woman walking down the beach in a very tiny, red bathing suit appeared to be the same smuggler who’d called him “muffin,” and she sure as hell didn’t look like any relief worker he’d ever laid eyes on.

His drink slipped from his hand and drained into the multicolored sand. With a jolt, he reached next to his seat and fumbled through his pack for his com, keeping his gaze locked onto her. “Gods!” He yanked his hand out when he remembered he’d left the damned thing in his room. As she walked past, he had to blink to believe his luck. No way, twice in the same day, did he intend to let her get away.

His gaze drifted to her ass. Of course, he couldn’t identify her by her ass, he’d only seen her face, and it would be impossible to be certain without getting that damned radiashield off her eyes to look at them.
But that mouth, that face, those breasts
…. Seth hopped up and snagged his pack, throwing it over one shoulder. Just because he was on vacation didn’t mean he stopped being a Regulator. If the woman walking in front of him was the elusive Captain Frost, he had a duty to gather evidence for her arrest.

Yes, he had to prove it had been her in the unmarked ship, operating outside of Trade Laws. He’d follow, and maybe she’d lead him back to the
Avira
, which had to be at the port docks. She wouldn’t go far from her ship. No captain ever did. Besides, he could think of a lot worse jobs than tailing the enticing Captain Frost.