Daggertail (14 page)

“Xave?”

He gripped her hands, tugging her into his lap. “I'm here, Tav.”

“Don't leave me behind, Xave.”

His lips pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “Never.”

She struggled to say more but sank instead into the blackness.

Ignoring the weapon pointed at his face, Macleod sank to the tarmac beside Xave and probed at Tavish's side.

“Don't touch her!” Xave snarled.

“She's not dead, Kovuchenko. Pull your head out of your ass and pay attention.”

Xave blinked in surprise at the pirate captain. “Who are you to her, anyway?”

Macleod motioned to Cian. The other man disappeared into the ship. When Macleod finally met his gaze, Xave knew.

“You're related to her somehow.”

“I'm her brother.”

Stunned, Xave remained silent.

“I didn't know until she said her name.”

Cian returned with a med kit and loaded a hypo.

“The
Tavish
was the slave ship that abducted us from the Terran system. She was seven. I was eleven.” He clenched his fists until they shook with anger. “I tried to keep them from leaving her here.”

“Eleven is too young to stop a band of slavers.” Xave tried to stanch the flow of blood as Cian dosed Tavish with an antibiotic laced with sedative

A grin twisted the corners of Macleod's mouth. “I amused the captain of the
Tavish
with my efforts. He kept me aboard and trained me to join his crew.”

Xave's eyes narrowed, taking in the curling lip and burning anger behind Macleod's gaze. “I don't imagine killing him ended the rage.”

“No.”

“Did you never think to look for her?”

“I couldn't imagine her surviving this long.”

“You did.”

“So it would seem.”

“That's why you want the data. To expose what really happened to the settlements.” Xave left the rest unsaid.

“She needs medical attention.” Cian prodded the edges of her wound. “The sooner the better.”

Xave stirred from the ground, cradling Tavish against his chest. “I would say good-bye, but I have a feeling we'll be meeting again in the future.”

Macleod laid a hand on Tavish's brow. “I'll find her.”

“I'll be back for that space trash in a moment.” Xave turned toward the
Daggertail.

“Wait.”

He turned back to Macleod, frowning, until he realized what the pirate held out to him. Mendez's tiny data card gleamed in the dim light. Xave reached for it slowly, uncertain of Macleod's motives in giving it.

“I owe her,” he said simply.

She was deathly pale, her skin clammy to the touch. He smoothed a stray strand of dark hair away from her face. She stirred beneath his touch. Green eyes blinked slowly, focusing on his face in the dim cabin.

“Xave?”

“Hush, save your energy.”

“Is it bad?”

“I won't know until Doc has a look at you. I'm no good with injuries.”

“Probably because you don't get them.”

His mouth quirked. “Might be.”

“Where's Nathan?”

“The
Quick & Easy
left Janus 5 when we did. I don't know where he was headed.”

“I wanted to talk to him.”

“I'll find him for you later.”

She sighed, her breath whispering over him like a caress. “How can you always be so certain?”

“I'm not. Not always.”

“When? I've never known you not to be a hundred percent sure of yourself.”

“I've been too much of a coward to tell you that I love you, Tavish.”

She blinked several times, her sluggish thoughts taking a moment to process his declaration. “You love me? God, Xave, I've been such an idiot.”

“Only when you left my side out there and got yourself shot.”

“No, with all of this arguing and fighting about what I am.”

“It doesn't matter about the past. Everything you've been through made you who you are, and I love that woman. The fact is that you are mine. And you'll stay that way until we're both old as dust.”

Her face softened, sensual lips curving into a smile. “I love you too, Xave.”

He stroked her face with his fingertips, lingering over the bow in her upper lip and the tip of her nose. She was perfect. Never had another woman managed to have so much fire and zest for life.

“Nathan is my brother.”

“I know. He told me.”

“Why didn't he come for me?”

“He was eleven when you two were separated.”

“But after that. He's a pirate. He has a ship.”

Xave sighed. He had no desire to try and explain the guilt complex he suspected rode Captain Macleod like hell's angel. “Sometimes it's easier to forget than to face something you think was your fault.”

“He thinks it's his fault I ended up at Louie's?”

“Probably.”

Her face eased into a soft smile. “Then I should thank him.”

Xave quirked an eyebrow.

“If I'd never gone to Louie's, I never would've met you.”

Her simple justification threw everything into perspective, stunning Xave to silence.

“I don't remember him very well,” she said after a moment.

“It was a long time ago.”

“I remember that bandanna he had on his head, though.”

“Bandanna?”

“Our father gave that to him not long before the raid.”

“Every father should leave a remembrance for his son.”

She touched his hand, her cool fingers brushing the lines on his palm. “Your father gave you an incredible gift when he passed you those genetic enhancements. Don't ever think otherwise.”

Her words touched a place deep inside that was still raw after thirty years of living on the fringe of society.

She chuckled, the sound wheezing through the cabin of the
Daggertail
and drawing him away from his personal reflection. “Nathan liked to climb trees. I followed him one day and got stuck.”

“Did he help you down?”

“No, he left me there.”

“How brotherly.”

She managed a snort. “You were obviously an only child.”

“My parents didn't stay together long enough to have any more children.”

Her hand reached up unsteadily and cupped the side of his face. Xave caught it and held its frail softness against his skin. “They broke the mold after you, Xavier Kovuchenko. You're my one-of-a-kind hero.”

Her words made something swell inside him until he felt as though he would burst.

Her eyes fluttered closed. “I'm so cold, Xave.”

Desperation hit him hard like a kick to the gut. He settled on the bench and gathered her up as gently as he could, trying to warm her with his body heat.

“Hold on, Tavish. We're almost there. Doc will fix you right up.”

“Tell Warrick to stay…” She groaned. “Tell him to stay away when I'm naked.”

“Warrick saw you naked?” Xave asked, his voice rough.

“He saw, but he didn't see. That's a cold man.”

“Yes, he is.”

She drifted off, her breathing shallow but steady. Xave held anxiously to his hope, wishing he'd had a decent med system put into the
Daggertail
. When your body healed so much faster than the average human, it seemed unnecessary. He vowed to change that as soon as they arrived back at base. Keeping tabs on Tavish was a full-time job. And with her luck, he'd need an entire med lab to avert constant disaster.

His thoughts ran in circles. Thoughts of Tavish, of her newfound piratical brother, of Warrick and the hell he would have to pay when he turned up with Mendez's corpse. He hoped the data card would suffice for a live capture. But would it hold the truth he'd sought for so long? Around and around it went, until the control panel bleeped and signaled their approach into Hyperion 4's airspace.

“Xave?”

“Now isn't a good time, Lola. I would have thought you could sense that or something.”

She sighed and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. She wore a troubled expression on her pretty face, and a shadow dimmed her cobalt eyes. He refused to contemplate the possibility that her precognitive talents might've given her some kind of insight into Tavish's situation. Or that Lola's insight might put a negative slant on things if she vocalized it.

“Warrick sent me.”

“How nice of him.”

“Guess he figured I might stand a chance of having this conversation and leaving alive.”

“That bad, huh?”

“With your current mood? I'd say everything is bad.”

Xave stabbed his fingers through his thick hair. “Doc's been in there with her forever. You'd think I'd know something by now.”

“It hasn't been that long. You're just hypersensitive.”

Xave shot her a quelling look. “I mean hypersensitive right now, Xave. Not all that extrasensory bullshit. You're taking everything personally. You've got to relax.”

“I can't relax, Lola. Not when Tav's in there and I'm out here.”

“Well, Warrick requests a little meeting right now.”

“I'm not in the mood.”

“As he put it, you've got nothing else to do, and your pacing is giving everyone a headache.”

“I'll tell him where he can shove his headache too.”

Lola's tone grew disgustingly cheerful. “You do that. Just go do it in his office, so he knows I did my part.”

Xave shoved his way out of Meddac and stalked down yard after yard of dim corridor, grumbling dire threats beneath his breath. When he reached Warrick's private quarters, he was spoiling for a fight.

The doors swept open in front of Xave. Stepping through, he opted to lean against the wall instead of collapsing into an overstuffed chair.

“I've got a good idea what you're about to say, Warrick,” Xave said before the other man could speak. “Considering my decision to bring Mendez's corpse in lieu of the live capture you asked for, I think my resignation from Stone Cold Bondsmen is in order.”

Warrick's dark eyebrows lifted, one arching a fraction higher than the other. It was the most emotion Xave could imagine the man ever giving away.

Deciding he had nothing to lose, Xave forged ahead. “I looked at the Alliance data on Mendez.”

“Did you?”

“The Alliance never required a live capture. They're willing to pay the extermination fee in lieu of live capture and return. The live capture was your stipulation. Was it because of the data card Mendez was carrying, or did you have some other information you intended to get out of him?”

Warrick's upper lip curled. “Since Mendez is dead, it doesn't matter. Your decision makes your question moot.”

Unsurprised by the results of his probe, Xave snorted. “Right.”

“For your information, Xavier, I had no intention of asking you to leave Stone Cold.”

Xave blinked.

“I do think you need to take a break, though.”

“A break?”

“A short vacation from active pursuit, not a pleasure cruise through the Helix system. Surely you can survive that.”

“What am I supposed to do during this short break?”

“It would be an opportune time to break in your new partner.”

A partner? Xave was certain the man was kidding, except that Warrick didn't kid. Ever. Bondsmen were loners. It was part of the way they functioned. They worked together on occasion, usually when mission overlapped by being in the same area by chance or when someone needed backup for a tricky inmate. But they didn't operate on the buddy system. They didn't even socialize in their free time.

What game was Warrick playing?

“You want me to train some green bondsmen while on a break?” Xave asked.

“Yes.”

“And who is this lucky individual I'll be initiating?”

Warrick leaned back in his chair, an actual smile twitching at one corner of his mouth. “Tavish.”

“
Tavish
?”

“Surely you can see by now that she's got a certain knack for the work.”

“I guess so, sure. But I still have to go back to Janus 5 and beat her freedom out of Louie.” Xave's voice grew tight. “She hasn't come out of Meddac yet either.”

“Tavish is one of us now, Xave. I take care of my own.” Warrick slid a holo-pad across the desk.

The image contained an official document releasing Tavish from her bond at Fat Louie's. An addendum notified her that her Alliance-issued prostitution license was no longer valid. A grim smile twisted Xave's features. None of that was any problem for him. But the final decisions rested with Tavish. She'd earned the right to choose her own future.

Xave lifted his gaze to Warrick. “Assuming Tavish agrees, dare I ask what this is going to cost me?”

Warrick's penetrating stare ate through Xave's composure. “We have the same goal. I only ask that you stay long enough to see it through to the end.”

“No matter what that might be.”

Warrick's nod was barely perceptible. “Doc has just released Tavish. She seems fine. She wasn't opposed to the idea of working with you, even though I casually reminded her of your tendency toward bullheadedness.”

Xave didn't wait around to hear the rest of Warrick's diatribe on his character flaws. Pushing away from the wall, he exited the office with a few lengthy strides and made it halfway down the corridor before he caught a whiff of Tavish's distinctive scent behind him.

Pivoting, he found himself struck silent by the sight of her. A part of him had been afraid he'd never see her again. But there she stood, having survived against the odds, as she had her whole life.

“Hey.” Her voice was soft, uncertain.

She had dressed in another green shirt, a pair of nondescript, low-riding pants, and boots. Her dark red hair hung loose. It fell halfway down her back, a few locks slipping over her shoulder to rest against the curve of one firm breast. She had a slight hitch in her step, as if her side was stiff and a little sore. But her green eyes sparkled when she met his gaze.

He reached out and snagged her hands, wanting to feel the warmth of her living skin. “I thought I'd lost you.”

“Still don't think I'm tough enough, do you?”

“No, Tav, I know you are. It's me who folded under the pressure.”

“What pressure?”

“The pressure of never seeing you again, of never saying those words to you again.”

She tilted her head mischievously. “Which words would you be referring to?”

He lifted her arms, locking her hands behind his neck and lowering his face until their foreheads touched. “I love you, Tavish.”

“I love you too, Xave.”

“I'm glad you still admit it.”

“We might as well come clean with each other anyway.”

“Why is that?”

“We're going to be working together now. With our communication issues, love will be the only thing keeping us from killing each other.”

He chuckled.

“Well, love and mutual acceptance.”

He sighed. “What are we accepting now?”

Her expression sobered. “The past.”

“The past is done with. You don't belong to Louie anymore. You belong to me.”

“Warrick told me. But I'm talking about your past too.”

He clenched his jaw. She would never understand how it affected him that it didn't matter to her that his father had been a rogue Gen 8. Xave had functioned his whole life believing himself a biological anomaly who'd never fit in anywhere. A man doomed to roam the known systems like his father, never finding the woman who could complete him.

“You put my past to rest, Tav.”

Her soft smile expressed emotions neither of them had the words to verbalize. He pressed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose.

“Only one thing left, then.”

“Finding the nearest bed?” He swept her into his arms.

“Besides that.”

“I don't want to think about anything else right now.”

“I need a bondsman-worthy handle, Xave.”

“What's wrong with Tavish?”

“Nothing, but it needs more.”

He pulled her lower lip into his mouth, sucking until he felt her nipples harden beneath her shirt. “What does it need?”

She reached up and placed her palms on either side of his face. “It needs some wasted syllables at the end. I suppose I could go with Macleod. But who wants to be associated with a pirate? I think I need something a little better.”

He froze.

“I already told Warrick, but I guess I should've asked you first. I think Tavish Kovuchenko suits me just fine.”

“Are you proposing?”

She nodded. “Marry me, Xave.

“Uh…well…”

Her broad smile was full of mischief. “I'll take those wasted syllables as a yes.”