Silver Tongued Devils (6 page)

“I got dressed and an Andovian official
made a huge commotion outside the room. The door opened and I was
dragged out of there to another, nicer suite, injected, and told I
had been given a poison that would kill me if I tried anything
stupid like escape. They had the antidote.”

“You didn’t believe it was poison.”
Brom’s sleep-tinged voice rumbled behind her. He nipped at her
shoulder. “So of course you ran.”

She smirked. “Of course. The moment I
was left alone, I broke out of the room and ran into a port I’d
never seen before. I wanted off planet so I went to the docks,
found your ship and let myself in.”

Na’varr cupped her chin and brought her
gaze up to meet his. “Later you’ll tell me in detail how you did
that.” There was an edge of anger she couldn’t ignore in that
command.

“In excruciating detail. I
promise.”

“And how you broke into my cell,” Brom
murmured the words.

“Yes.”

“Your father mentioned a genius hacker
who worked for him. Am I wrong in thinking it was you?” Na’varr
seemed less angry and more saddened than he was the moment
before.

Her cheeks flamed with embarrassment.
“He exaggerated.”

“Styles would never lie about something
this important.”

There he went saying weird things
again. “What happens next?”

Brom tightened his hand on her hip and
rubbed his hard erection against her backside. “I can think of one
or two things I’d like to get done.”

A pleasant tingle of expectation spread
through her body.

Na’varr smiled with regret and kissed
her with a slow exploration of lips and tongue. “I have a new route
to plan with my navigator so I can’t spend much time in your
company this morning.”

Her disappointment was
sharp.

“Brom.” Na’varr waited for his second
to move his head from behind her. “Don’t leave her alone. We’ll
have to race to the outer ring. Our rendezvous site was
compromised.”

Brom cursed and kissed her nape. “The
traitor is one of ours.”

“It looks that way.” Na’varr gave Raesa
one last brush of his knuckles against her cheek and then turned
away.

He strode from the room with controlled
power in every step. “When did you notice you had a
traitor?”

Brom grabbed her and rolled her onto
her back. He had her hands trapped above her head in a split second
and she bit back a panicked cry. No feral light glimmered in his
eyes. Instead they were cold and dead. Dangerous. “That’s an
interesting question to ask.”

“How so?”

“How did you know we have a
traitor?”

Was he serious? “You just mentioned
it.”

His grip tightened on her wrists and
pain forced a cry from her lips.

“That hurts, you bastard.”

“Raesa,” his tone was perfectly calm
and edged with sweetness. “You’ve been keeping secrets.”

Sudden realization struck her. They
were speaking Arnek. Her mind raced. She could tell him the truth
or throw an excuse his way. Either one could end up
fatal.

“I lived on Sakura Outpost. Of course I
know Arnek.” Mercenaries were constantly flitting around their
port.

His forbidding expression remained and
she shrugged. “You’re pirates. Mercenaries. The dangerous and
deadly monsters of the Crimson Star. I don’t think us sitting
around and sharing our deepest secrets over dessert is in the
cards.”

“He knew you’d understand Arnek. Both
times he’d gone out of his way to speak loud enough for you to
hear.”

Raesa’s shock must have shown because
his ready smile was there in full force.

“You are very interesting, hellcat.” He
nipped at her chin and then rolled off her body.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re going to shower and eat
breakfast while I explain our traitor situation.”

She stared at him and propped up on her
elbows while holding the sheet against her breasts. “You’re going
to trust me just like that?”

“I wouldn’t call it just like that. He
mentioned the traitor in front of you so that means he wants you to
help.”

“You make assumptions about Captain
Na’varr’s intentions. Isn’t that arrogant?”

Brom dropped his shirt and crawled up
the bed. He ripped the sheet from her and pressed a heated kiss to
her throat. His palm pressed on her uninjured shoulder and she
collapsed onto the mattress.

“There is one thing you need to
understand about both of us before we continue.” He pulled away to
watch her. “Na’varr is a cautious and manipulative bastard when he
has to be, but he never makes mistakes in character.”

Raesa cupped his face. “If he made no
mistakes you wouldn’t be searching for a traitor among your
crew.”

“He’s likely a sleeper. An individual
whose personality has been trained to kill on command. His mind has
been wiped and a new identity is inserted. If not that, then he’s
been converted after he came on board.”

She bit back a whistle. Sleeper
assassins were something you read in a space adventure novel. They
were real, but rare, and ridiculously unstable. “That’s advanced
terrorism. What did your captain do to draw so much
attention?”

“He’s been fighting the same
organization your father did.”

“The Andovian Republic?”

“This regime, yes. His goal is to
overthrow the current king and his son and replace them with the
rightful heir to the throne.”

“How will you find your
traitor?”

“Stress makes them break. Anger. Rage.
Part of his personality will reassert itself at some
point.”

“You’re sure it’s a he?”

“No, but we’ll find the
bastard.”

Brom’s lips hovered over hers and she
licked her lips.

She turned her head. “We
can’t…”

His face tightened in displeasure but
he kissed her cheek. “When all this is over with, I’m going to kiss
you until you melt in my arms.”

That’s already
happened.
She kept the thought to herself.
The last thing she needed was to fall for this man and Na’varr.
They were beyond her reach. Her father’s legacy needed to
continue.

“Where are we heading?”

The playful side disappeared in an
instant. “We’re taking you home.”

Pain kicked in before the tears could
come. She needed to get back, definitely, but it hurt to know they
were going to walk out of her life so easily. “That’s good. I’m
glad.”

She sat up and he moved with her. The
mood was dead. Raesa smoothed the hair back from her face and eyed
the gorgeous man in front of her.

“You turned pale.”

Raesa drew the sheet up. “The
ambassador wanted everything burned to the ground. I’m not sure if
I’m ready to see it.” That was definitely part of the truth. The
rest of it wasn’t worth talking about.

“Let’s eat first. Then you’ll tell me
exactly how you broke into our ship and rewired everything to suit
you.”

She grimaced. “Tell me you have some
type of caffeinated beverage with breakfast.”

“Of course.”

Raesa grabbed her tunic and shimmied
into it. She pulled it down and found Brom openly staring at
her.

“What?”

He smiled. “You’re suddenly full of
energy.”

She strode to the low table where food
waited. When had someone come inside? “I haven’t had caffeine in
months. There was a killer shortage on Sakura.”

Brom laughed and sat on the floor
across from her. He reached over and poured her a cup of dark
liquid. “Welcome to the pleasures of piracy.”

She took the cup from his hand with a
quiet thanks and inhaled. Raesa sighed in pleasure. It was real,
honest-to-goodness, coffee. Fresh. She sipped slowly with care of
the heat. It scalded going down but she was happy.

“I’ve never seen that kind of intensity
over morning caffeine.”

“Be careful. You keep serving things
like this and you’ll never get rid of me.”

He stretched out on the floor and
propped his head up to watch her. “So this is the way to your
heart.”

She smirked. “This and great food. I’m
easy.”

Brom rolled over onto his back and
clasped his hands behind his head. “I wouldn’t say you’re
easy.”

Raesa took another sip and set the cup
down. It really was too hot to enjoy at the moment. “What would you
call me then? I’m pretty sure you were there when I came undone
multiple times.”

The smile died on his face. “Your lust
is out of your hands. If you didn’t bond with a man, it really
would poison your body.”

She leaned over his head. Her hair
tumbled around them like a curtain and she brushed her fingertips
along the stripes on his cheeks. “The moment you came the first
time I should have been fine, right?”

“I don’t know. For men it’s different.”
His gorgeous eyes hid a world of sorrow.

“If it was all about sex and the drive
of a drug, I wouldn’t be here, doing this.” She brushed her lips
across his forehead. “Don’t underestimate me, Mr. Raine. I wasn’t a
sheltered kid by any means.”

He reached up and gripped the back of
her head to bring her forehead against his. “Don’t wait until the
pain becomes unbearable. It might trigger another feral episode,
and I can’t protect you that way.”

She closed her eyes and sighed. All the
mental prep in the world couldn’t stop her from falling for this
man. He’d already curled up inside her heart.

They were being hunted, and it was
pissing Na’varr off. He stared down at his star map. It was unusual
to use real paper for your trajectory plots, but Na’varr’s paranoia
made it impossible to trust electronic storage. Raesa proved in a
rather understated and terrifying fashion how easily his security
could be breached.

That woman was more than he imagined
possible. If she was telling the truth, it meant he had a way to
take back his life without making his people suffer through more
unnecessary bloodshed.

He looked at the map. Rockville Outpost
was wiped out. The place was a rat hole, but a necessary part of
his operation. If Sakura was taken down like Raesa thought, it
meant five of his strategic resupply points had been
targeted.

It made sense, though. Sakura and
Raesa’s father were the heart of his information network. If his
old friend had been using his daughter to gain access to ship
information, then Na’varr held the key to their freedom in his
hands.

He palmed his face. Her open lust and
sweet responses were genuine. Even Brom was captivated. It took
guts to face down the hybrid when he went feral and she didn’t
hesitate. She was either courageous or foolish. Knowing her father,
it was the first.

Grief welled up in his chest. Mason Daw
had hidden in plain sight after the bloody coup d'état had killed
off most of the royal Andovian bloodline. All those years he’d
continued his service and never once asked for anything from
Na’varr.

You served your prince
well, Mason. All the way to the end.
He’d
trained the girl too. How deep did her knowledge go? Was she
brought up to take her place at his side?

Na’varr’s cousin and uncle were still
tracking him. This was all the proof he needed. Who were they
after, though? The pirate Anderson Na’varr or the Andovian blood
prince Naesha Varrian? Either way, his leak was among the crew and
they were running out of allied support.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

Na’varr looked up to see his stoic
navigator waiting patiently. “Mace, look at this.” He gestured for
the man to approach before pointing to the Sakura
outpost.

“Our enemies are targeting the places
we like to do business. Normally I would look for new haunts, but
this place is important. We need supplies we can only get here, but
we’ll be going in without the regular logistical support we’re used
to.”

Mace rubbed his stubbled chin with the
palm of his hand. The sound of whiskers scraping against skin was
the only sound for a minute. His unfocused gaze told Na’varr he was
considering their options. The navigator was one of the best and he
hated the idea of losing him if he was the traitor.

“We’ll have to use an out of the way
jump point on the border to get to Sakura without drawing
attention. If our supply chain is compromised, it’s expected that
the ports we bribe will also be so.”

Na’varr had considered the same thing.
He let his navigator continue. Experience told him that Mace had to
talk out his thought process.

His navigator came up to the map and
pointed to a gate within a day’s jump from their current location.
“I did business with this group for a few years prior to the
Crimson Star.” His gaze locked with Na’varr’s. “These Imperials
will cut you down and sell you for organ stock the moment you turn
your back. They’re corrupt so there’s no guarantee we can make it
through.”