“If I say no?” He said the words so softly, she wasn’t sure he’d spoken at first.
“Then you know I’ll be back every few months to visit my dad. It’s an open offer.
No pressure, no commitments if you don’t want them. Just…a chance to do something different.”
A part of her heart broke. She knew even if everything went the way she wanted here today, they got her dad back and got Tyrell out of the way, chances were Sean wouldn’t go with her in the end. He’d disappear back underground, bury himself and 122
his pain under miles of rock and dirt. It killed her to think of him alone in the dark.
“We’re coming up on the asteroid belt any moment now,” she said, trying to keep her voice neutral, devoid of her fears and sorrow. Pressing the com, she waited for Gaz to acknowledge. “Get the hold ready. This is going to be a snatch and grab from what I can tell.”
“My boy Ryan is standing by. He’s got the loading bots primed and ready to move.
Even if we are getting a full shipment, we should be in and out of there in twenty minutes.”
“That’s too long,” Sean piped in, pressing against Amy’s arm. “I’ll come down to help.”
“No point. The bots do most of the work and Amy-girl will need you to help jump-start the engines to get this bucket back in the sky fast.”
“Gaz—”
“Shove it, miner. We’ve got it covered.” Gaz disconnected the com.
Sean growled and punched the disconnect. “I hate doing nothing.”
“You’re not doing
nothing
. You’re getting my ship ready and keeping your captain calm and ready to run this race. Now I think we’re still having an issue with the nitrogen mixture. Can you check the levels? See if you can smooth them out?”
He gave her a pointed look before rolling his eyes. “I’m not a child who needs to be distracted.”
“Could have fooled me. For a minute there, I thought you were going to take Gaz up on his offer to compare cock sizes.”
“Girl, you kiss your father with that mouth?”
“Fuck you.” She winked, somehow keeping a smirk off her face.
The
Drake
shuddered as they approached the coordinates they’d been given.
Floating dead center was a heavy cruiser, cargo hold already open. Amy couldn’t help but smile as she easily maneuvered the ship into place. She didn’t even bump the side.
As soon as the docking clamps connected, she buzzed Gaz.
“You’re on. Fifteen minutes, on my mark.”
“Fifteen? You’re nuts if you think—”
“Ready?”
“Amy.”
“Mark.”
The
Drake
vibrated softly as the bots began their work deep in the belly. It felt normal, almost reassuring, if it wasn’t for the fact she was loading cargo that would be sold on the black market, killing most of the people who got addicted. Her stomach fluttered with nerves and dread as anxiety ran through her body. Fuck, she hated this.
“We’ll be out of here soon,” Sean said, leaning back into his seat.
“But to where? Tyrell can’t actually expect us to run the race. They’ll be scanning all 123
ships on the starting line, checking for illegal modifications to the hulls and engines. On top of that, things will get pretty nasty out on the field. This ship is going to get beat around a lot.”
“I’m sure the code he gave us is good for many things. I’m assuming we’ll be taking a detour once we get going. Someplace safe for him to get his shipment.”
A loud bang and the ship was shaking violently. Amy froze, waiting for another impact. Gods, she’d hoped they’d be able to avoid this.
“Blaster fire?” Sean asked.
“Nope, asteroids.” The com channel buzzed again. “Gaz?”
“Boost the shields. I can’t get them to modulate properly. It’s going to be a bit rocky until we clear this place.”
Another powerful hit had Amy off balance, falling sideways toward the computer.
Sean reached out and managed to pull her into his lap before disaster could happen.
She hesitated only a moment, reaching out to increase the shielding, before turning and capturing his mouth in a kiss.
“My hero.” She smiled and ran her hand through his hair.
She felt him shudder and the swell of his cock under her ass. The brief contact had her arousal jolting her apprehension away. The pull of wanting to lose herself in his touch, giving up control to him, nearly won out over her other emotions.
“You’re going to be the death of me.” He slid his hand along her lower back, lightly scraping his nails across her skin. “Can’t say I mind though. You are…so beautiful.”
Amy leaned down, rested her head on his shoulder and willed her heartbeat to slow down. They stayed there until the computer told them the cargo bay was loaded.
Far slower than she should have moved, Amy pushed herself off Sean, away from his heat, and fell back into her seat with a thud. When they got out of here, she was going to seriously have to cool down her libido.
Forcing the fog of desire from her mind, she pressed in the commands to move them out of the asteroid belt. “Let’s get this shit off my ship as quickly as possible. What does the chip say we need to do next?”
Sean typed in a few commands. “We start the race as normal. When we get close to Argon Four, we’ll receive commands. Think things will get nasty before then?”
Argon Four was just before the midpoint of the track. There would be a lot of jostling for position before they reached the marker and she knew the ship would take quite a beating just getting to there. If they were very lucky, most of the serious racers would be ahead of them, giving them a smoother ride.
“Yeah. Gaz and Ryan will have to keep a really close eye on both the engines and the dust. If the containment units get compromised, there are enough drugs there to kill us all within minutes.”
“Great.”
“Could be worse ways to die.”
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Sean snorted. “Could be better.”
“Like what?”
“Having a heart attack after the best orgasm of my life.”
“That’s just morbid.” Amy rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the computer. “Coordinates punched in. It’s race time.”
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Sean had never seen so many ships in his life. Even at its busiest, Eurus never had a large amount of traffic to contend with. Until a few years ago, they’d been mostly self-contained, even having broken off contact with Earth for nearly a decade. It wasn’t until Kamran took up the title of administrator they’d slowly become an important hub for trading in the sector.
But here, now, there were thousands of ships fanned out in the quadrant, ready for the race to begin. The
Drake
was one of the older ones, though he could tell, one of the better equipped. There were a few large, sleek racers, though Amy assured him they were less maneuverable in space, lacking the thrusters of the smaller ships. He’d been impressed with the flying she’d done back at the pickup point, the little sliding turn that had neatly jumped them out of the oncoming asteroids. She handled the commands with practiced ease, her long fingers lightly caressing the controls. If it wasn’t for Tyrell and his fucking dust, Sean honestly thought she had a shot at winning the race. She was hungry for it, skilled enough to handle it, and all in all, a fucking amazing pilot.
He could kill Tyrell for doing this to her.
Amy had grown quiet since their arrival. He watched as she toyed with the curls of her hair, repeatedly tucking the same strand behind her ear. He knew it was her concern for her father fueling her nervousness. Fuck, they needed to get him back. Not only for his own sake, but also for Amy’s. Her family didn’t deserve this.
They’d passed the ship’s inspection easily. They didn’t even have to provide the code Tyrell had given them. Either the inspectors had already been bribed or else this was going to fast become an anything goes race. He had no problem believing the former, but knew regardless of Tyrell’s influence it would be an insane ride.
Sean looked over in time to see Amy chew at her bottom lip. He’d only seen her do it a few times before, usually when she was nervous.
“You okay?” He made sure to keep his eyes averted, not wanting to increase her discomfort. He also didn’t want to risk her getting even a little aroused. This close to the race, he couldn’t afford to lose his focus.
“Yeah.” She didn’t say anything else right away and Sean was about to prod again when she sighed loudly and threw herself back against the chair. “This really fucking sucks.”
He couldn’t help it, he chuckled. “What does?”
“I’m looking at these sorry excuses for spacecraft, knowing I could kick their collective asses in this race, and I’m not going to even be in the running.”
“I know, baby.” He felt her gaze shift to him and frowned at the shocked look on 126
her face. “What?”
“You called me
baby
.”
Inwardly wincing, Sean tried to keep his body relaxed. It wasn’t really a big deal.
He used terms of endearment every day.
He was so fucked.
“What, you’ve never been called baby before?”
Amy groaned. “Gods, no. Do I strike you as the baby type? Usually, men are either high on my pheromones and the only thing they can manage to get out are drooling noises. Or they are treating me like one of the other captains and
baby
would be the last thing they’d say. Maybe asshole.”
Sean laughed. “Yeah, I can see that going over well.”
The computer vid system chose that moment to spring to life. The pinched-nose face of a woman in her mid- to late-twenties filled the screen, the spinning logo of the TyCo Shipping Corporation spun behind her.
“Welcome racers! TyCo Shipping is pleased to be bringing the Catallian race back to the Devanian system.”
“Shit,” Sean whispered. “Did you know it was Tyrell’s company?”
“I had no idea. They’d never announced who was backing it.” Amy pressed her hand to her chest. “This is such a bad idea.”
He was beginning to agree with her. “Don’t panic. We can still do this, get your dad back.”
“Sean, our plan counted on the fact we’d be able to use the racing commission’s resources to put pressure on Tyrell once we got him out, have them run interference.
It’s really not looking like
that’s
going to happen now.”
“I’ll think of something.”
Gods dammit, he fucking better.
“Just get us to the rendezvous ahead of the others. We’ll get your dad out, even if I have to go in myself with two laser blasters and break him out on my own.”
The woman had continued talking, verbally reviewing the rules of the race and the route they would take. Barrier after barrier was being placed in front of them and the chatter on the ship-to-ship coms began to explode. This wasn’t what people had signed up for and it was becoming painfully obvious Tyrell was going to push the limits. It would serve to piss off the pilots, making for a harder race.
His attention snapped back when he heard the word penalties.
“Any ship having found to go out of bounds will be immediately disqualified from any chance of winning the prize. We’ve spread
Riax
radiation along the border of the route. That should keep everyone in line.” The small grin on her face looked far from pleasant.
“Are they serious?” Gaz’s voice crackled through the coms. “
Riax
will eat through the hull!”
“Three guesses where we are supposed to drop off the dust,” Amy responded.
“That bastard has us all tied up nice and neat.”
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The woman on the vid leaned forward, so her face nearly took up the entire vid screen. “Good luck, racers. I hope to see you all at the finish line. Captains, start your stardrives.”
“Here we go,” Amy said, pressing buttons to start the ignition sequence. Looking over at Sean, she paused and smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Everything. Being here, helping with my dad. I couldn’t have done this on my own.”
“Bullshit. I have no doubt, Captain Amy Bryson, you could do anything if you put your mind to it.” He could feel the heat rolling off her body, the unmistakable scent of her beginning arousal in the air. “Stop right now, unless you’ve suddenly developed the ability to fly in a race with your hands behind your back and my tongue on your pussy.”
Amy groaned. “After? Gods, please say after.”
“Oh, most definitely after.”
“Captains, on the third tone, you will launch your ships.” The woman smiled, too perfect teeth filling the screen as she crossed her hands on the table in front of her.
“Good luck!”
The tension in the cabin shifted, the mood heavy and the air thick. Neither of them said anything else, waiting for the computer to announce the beginning of the race.
Sean was stunned to realize his heart was pounding and there was a hum of excitement making him squirm in his seat. This is what had been missing from his life—excitement.
The computer made a low tone as Amy punched a button on the computer, bringing the stardrive up. On the second tone, she fired the engines, but held the ship steady. The final, high-pitched tone signaled the ships.
Light burst ahead of them as engines came to life. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Sean imagined the powerful roar of flames blasting from them. There was, of course, no sound at all. But the mental image fit perfectly with the jolt he felt as the
Drake
leapt to life. Amy let out a small, clipped laugh as they immediately overtook three shuttles, diving ahead of them into the fray of ships. As hard as it was, he tore his gaze away from the look of adoration on Amy’s face and forced himself to concentrate on the computer readings. It wouldn’t do to get themselves killed now.
“Gaz,” he spoke into the coms. “There’s a drag on the third engine. Might be a leak.
I need you to take a look at it fast.”
“Or it could be we are racing this bucket with her belly full. I’ll see what we can do.”
For a few tense minutes, it looked like they might slip out of their position, sixty-fifth out of three hundred. Sean tried to unclench his jaw and tapped in an adjustment to the coolant system. With a lurch, they bolted forward with a burst of speed that made his head spin.
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“What the hell did you do, Gaz?” Amy shouted down to them, laughing. “We just skipped past six ships.”
“Wasn’t me. That was
my
boy. Let me tell you, he’s going to get a big treat for his little move when I get him home.”
“Shove it, Gaz.” Ryan’s voice echoed in the background.
“Oh, I’ll shove it, all right. Right up your—”
Sean cut the coms. “Thank you very much,
Gaz
.”
“The boy is in love. Leave him be,” Amy said, chuckling as she throttled up the engines even further.
“I don’t care what he does, I just don’t want details.”
“Trust me, if Gaz thought you did, you would get them in all their glorious—”
The rest of what she was going to say was cut off as the ship jerked violently, throwing them hard to the left. “Amy?” He twisted his body back upright, and reached for her. “What the hell?”
“Someone’s trying to ram us.” Getting to her knees, she checked their status.
“Shields are holding thanks to our little boost we needed for the asteroid belt.”
“Then let’s get them back.” He flopped down into his chair, and boosted their power. “Ramming speed, Captain.”
“Shit, yes.”
He shouldn’t have been as excited as he was at the idea of ramming another ship, but he couldn’t help it. Sean laughed out loud as Amy throttled up the engines, aiming at just the right angle to drive the
Drake
toward the other vessel. What he wasn’t expecting was for them to bounce off their shields like a springboard, sending them flying ahead of the next three ships.
“Where the hell did you learn to fly?” He laughed, adjusting the coolant flow to compensate for the sudden change. Light from the stars filled the small compartment, casting a soft glow over everything.
Amy smiled. “My dad. He would have loved this.”
“He
will
love this, as soon as we free his ass from Tyrell. We should be approaching the coordinates of where we need to deviate from the course route in about twenty minutes.”
They worked their way through the pack, pulling up and out of sensor range as much as possible. Sean winced at the moan from the hull buckling from the sudden change in direction. A few quick adjustments and Amy had them flying smooth again.
If he was lucky, his stomach would recover sometime this week.
“There’s another ship coming in hot, about four hundred klicks off our asses,” Amy said, leaning closer to the computer. “Wait, I think I know them.”
“Were they on Eurus?” This wasn’t going to bode well for their plan if they had a large number of other pilots and crews to deal with. “Should we try to let them pass?
129
Go in after?”
“Maybe. It’s the
Sicox
. Bunch of assholes. Probably willingly signed up with Tyrell when they heard the money involved. Any chance to get around the authorities and they’re all over it.”
“Great. That’s just fantastic. So on top of dealing with a masochistic drug dealer, we get to deal with some gun-happy psychotics. This will be fun.” He grinned and shot her a wink. “Can we do it again next week?”
Amy looked at him, shocked for a moment, before bursting out into laugher.
“You’re insane.”
“I’m starting to agree with you.”
“I’m going to swing off course and get us out of their computer scanner range.
Maybe we can let these guys pass us, let them get their load off and get out before we dock.”
As Amy slowed the ship, Sean tensed, his hand flying out to stop her. “No, don’t.”
“What? Why the hell not?”
The grin he was starting to get used to wearing slipped back onto his face. “We can use them. It will give us enough of a distraction to see what we can find out.”
“You don’t think they will actually have Dad there?”
“Why not? If they are planning on killing us, they’ll want to have the least amount of effort put into it. It means all targets in one place. With the other crew on board, we can use them to occupy the guards while we look for your dad.”
“I stand by my earlier statement. You’re insane.”
He turned to look at her. “We don’t have a lot of options here. This makes the most sense given the circumstance and might help us get him out faster.”
Amy closed her eyes, her breath hissing out between her teeth. “If you get us killed, I’ll never forgive you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
The computer began to beep and the vid screen activated. “Warning. You are approaching the race boundaries.
Riax
radiation has been deployed and will damage your ship. Warning.”
Amy shifted in her seat. “Get ready everyone. This is going to be nasty.”
It was surprisingly quiet as they slipped over the invisible line of the track and into the out-of-bounds area. Sean had been expecting a jolt, a shake, something to indicate they were now slowly starting to disintegrate. He wouldn’t have thought anything wrong if it wasn’t for the bright red warning on the computer, indicating the increasing strain on the shields from the radiation.