Caught by Menace (21 page)

Naya caught the subtle emphasis Halie used when she

said
reward
. Oh yeah. One night with Menace and Naya

understood al about rewarding trust.

A chime interrupted their conversation. “What’s that?”

“The front door,” Halie explained. “Have you used

your control console yet?”

Naya shook her head and Halie gestured for her to

folow. In the entryway, Halie showed her a big green

screen. The word
visitor
flashed in white in the center.

“This alerts you when someone is at the door. You

can tap this corner square to see who it is. If you don’t

want to answer for some reason or you’re busy, your

visitor wil be able to leave you a vid-message that you

visitor wil be able to leave you a vid-message that you

can watch at another time.”

Halie tapped the upper corner and the screen

changed from green to a picture of a man. With his face

down, only his dark-brown hair was clearly visible.

“I haven’t seen many of these guys with dark hair.”

Halie smiled. “Darker hair is common in the men who

have mothers who were taken in Grabs.”

The man on-screen lifted his face. Naya winced at the

sight of such a scarred face. One eye had been totaly

gouged out and was nothing but a puckered scar. A gash

like a lightning bolt marked that same side of his face.

“What happened to him?”

“Terror was attacked on a mission. Vicious had to

sew him back together.” Halie touched her arm. “Please

don’t stare at him.”

Naya glanced at the scarred man on the screen. “I

won’t.”

“Thank you.” Halie walked to the door.

“Is he like Vicious and Menace? You know, scary on

the outside but soft on the inside?”

Halie shook her head and grabbed the door’s handle.

“No, Naya. He’s even scarier on the inside than he looks

“No, Naya. He’s even scarier on the inside than he looks

on the outside.”

With Halie’s frightening assessment ringing in her ears,

Naya hung back and waited. Halie stepped aside and

Terror entered the apartment. His gaze moved to Naya

and then back to Halie again.

“I should have known your little welcoming committee

would have reached Menace’s new woman first,” Terror

said. “Have you finished interrogating her or do I need to

drag her down to a holding cel to get her life story?”

Halie dared to thump his arm. “Be nice, Terror.”

Naya didn’t find his teasing remark very funny. She

warily watched Terror as he strode toward her. He had

an air of mystery around him. The way he carried himself

reminded her of the secret police who had terrorized her

so many times. Her internal alarm pinged instantly. She

knew the type. He might have Halie fooled but this guy

wasn’t what he pretended to be.

Terror stopped a bit too close, purposely invading her

personal space, and extended his hand. “I’m Terror, a

good friend of Menace.”

“Naya.” She quickly shook his hand and tried to let go

but he held tight. His fingertip rubbed her wrist, right

where her pulse beat wildly. She wasn’t amused and

where her pulse beat wildly. She wasn’t amused and

yanked her hand free from his.

Terror’s one eye narrowed. “You’re from Connor’s

Run.” He wasn’t asking. “I hear you ran a pawnshop

down there. I can only imagine what kinds of interesting

things came through your front door.”

Naya’s gut clenched but she schooled her features.

This wasn’t the first time she’d had to deal with some

slick government type trying to get her to incriminate

herself through friendly conversation. “I had a unicycle

come through the front door once. That’s about as

interesting as it got.”

“A unicycle?” Oblivious to Terror’s subtly aggressive

questioning,

Halie

interjected

herself

in

their

conversation. “From the circus three years ago?”

Naya dragged her gaze to Halie. “You remember

that? Did you get to go?”

Halie shook her head. “We didn’t have the money but

I got to see the animals and some of the performers from

afar.” She tugged on the sleeve of Terror’s shirt. “Would

you like some tea? I have cookies.”

Terror nodded. “I’d like that. It wil give Naya and me

time to get to know one another a bit better.”

time to get to know one another a bit better.”

Halie hesitated. “You won’t be rude?”

Terror laughed, the sound dry and harsh. “When have

you ever known me to be rude?”

“Oh I don’t know. How about last week when we

had lunch on the observation deck?” Halie arched a

dark eyebrow. “If you make my guest uncomfortable in

my home, I’l make sure that Vicious makes things very

uncomfortable for you, Terror. Got it?”

He actualy smiled at Halie. “Yes.”

Naya wanted to run after Halie but didn’t move. She

wasn’t about to show this frightening man one glimmer of

weakness. He couldn’t possibly know anything about her

past. Even if he had somehow gotten his hands on her

police reports, there wasn’t anything concrete in them.

She’d never been formaly charged after her arrests.

“Let’s sit.” Terror gestured to the seating area. Naya

calmly made her way to the closest chair. Terror took a

spot across from her, probably so he could watch her

every move. “You must have been very scared when

your number was puled in the lottery.”

“I’m not sure scared is the right word.” Naya didn’t

miss the peculiarity of that question. He asked it almost

miss the peculiarity of that question. He asked it almost

as if he knew she hadn’t been on the original roster.

“What word would you use? Excited? Determined?”

Now she knew something was up. “Resigned.

Hopeful.”

“Realy?” He eyed her carefuly. “You’re lucky that

you were Grabbed by Menace instead of the pilot, Flare.

You caught yourself a very good man. Very wel-

connected,” he added.

“You seem confused. I didn’t do the catching. I was

the one taken down and colared. Menace was just lucky

enough to catch me.”

“We’l see.”

Naya fought the urge to tel Terror to go fuck himself.

“I don’t know what your deal is, Terror, but if you have

something to say to me, just fucking say it already.”

“Is everything okay?” Halie appeared in the living

room. She took one look at Terror and frowned. “What

are you doing? Did you upset her?”

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Terror

smoothly replied. “You know I’m not very good at

making pleasant conversation, Halie. I think I may have

accidentaly offended Naya.”

Naya couldn’t believe how slick Terror was. She

Naya couldn’t believe how slick Terror was. She

glanced at Halie. The other woman looked supremely

annoyed and not at al convinced. “Terror, I think you

should—”

The front door opened and Menace’s familiar voice

met Naya’s ears. She sagged with relief as he came into

view with Vicious. She had to force her feet to stay stil.

She desperately wanted to jump out of her chair and run

to him.

“Terror!” Menace grinned at the other man. “I didn’t

know you were back onboard.”

“We got back last night.” Terror gripped Menace’s

hand. They clapped each other on the back. “I was just

talking to your lovely wife. She’s quite a catch, Menace.”

Naya wanted to shoot him the finger so badly but kept

her hands folded in her lap.

Menace turned his gaze on her. It was a look of pure

adoration that warmed her skin. “Yes, she is.”

He held out his hand and Naya happily joined him.

She was afraid to ask but had to know. “Is everything

okay now?”

“Everything is fine, Naya.”

Burrowed close to Menace’s strength and heat, Naya

Burrowed close to Menace’s strength and heat, Naya

wanted to believe him but one glance at Terror shattered

her hope. She’d seen that look on the faces of the secret

police investigators who had roused her out of bed in the

middle of the night and thrown her in a cel for weeks on

end.

Somehow Terror had caught a whiff of her past. Like

a dog with a bone, he was never going to let go. He

would unearth every misdeed she’d committed as a

teenager. There was no escape now. The past had finaly

come back to haunt her.

Menace slid an arm around her shoulders and kissed

the crown of her head. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. No

one is going to take you away from me.”

Oh how she wished that were true.

Menace sneaked a glance at Naya as they waited for

the elevator. She seemed uncommonly quiet and almost

nervous. She clung to his arm and nibbled her plump

lower lip.

“Stop that,” Menace ordered softly and brushed his

thumb over her sweet mouth. “You’l break the skin.”

Her fingernails bit into his arm. “Sorry.”

“Are you okay?” The elevator dinged and the doors

parted. He put his hand on the smal of her back and

pushed her forward into the gleaming silver box.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. What is it?” He swiped the

navigational screen and chose their floor.

“Nothing. I’m just tired. It’s been a crazy morning.”

He didn’t care for the half-truths coming from her.

Certain she wouldn’t tel him the truth unless thrown off-

kilter, Menace spun suddenly and trapped her smaler

body in the corner of the elevator. Naya gasped and put

her hands on his chest. Before she could tel him off, he

her hands on his chest. Before she could tel him off, he

captured her mouth in a slow, easy kiss. Naya

whimpered and gripped his uniform shirt.

“Tel me the truth,” Menace commanded and dragged

his lips across her jaw. “What’s wrong?”

She swalowed hard. “Terror scares me.”

Menace chortled. “He scares everyone, Naya.”

“No, it’s not that. I….” Her voice trailed off as she

toyed with one of the buttons on his shirt. “I don’t think

he likes me.”

“He doesn’t like many people. Don’t take it

personaly.” Menace studied her face. He spotted the

tense lines around her mouth. “Did he say something to

you? Because he can be a real son of a bitch without

realizing it.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

“Hey,” Menace said gently and cupped her chin. “I

don’t care what Terror thinks. Don’t give him a second

thought.”

She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Al right.”

Menace decided then and there that he was going to

have a talk with Terror. Naya had had enough run-ins

with the police on her planet to pick up on the vibes a

with the police on her planet to pick up on the vibes a

guy like Terror, the top Shadow Force operative in the

sector, would give off. Terror had investigated Halie fuly

when Vicious had Grabbed her. Menace had no doubt

Terror would do the same thing to Naya but she didn’t

need him giving her the third degree out of some

misguided attempt to protect a friend.

“So what did you think of Halie?” He touched the

pamphlets sticking out of her shirt pocket.

This time Naya’s smile was true. “I think she’s

incredibly sweet and a realy nice person.”

The elevator stopped and he took her hand to lead her

to their quarters. “She’s been good for Vicious and the

ship. She’s an incredible force for someone so smal.”

“She wants me to join her wives club thing.”

Menace tried to imagine Naya sitting around at

Halie’s get-togethers to talk about whatever it was that

women talked about at those things. He couldn’t. “Are

you?”

“I don’t know. I’l go to the first one just because I

have questions. I’l see how it goes.”

Insecurity flared deep in his gut. Questions? He’d seen

the pamphlets Halie had given her. One of them he was

already familiar with because it had caused quite a stir

already familiar with because it had caused quite a stir

after the last Grab. Some men weren’t thriled by the fact

that their women were informed of rights that were

generaly kept quiet, but Halie and other wives had

argued that giving new brides al the information would

foster trust and communication between couples. He

didn’t disagree with that assertion but stil couldn’t shake

the grip of fear that Naya would choose to file for

separation rather than give their union a try.

“I can answer any questions you have, Naya. You

don’t need the wives club for that. Whatever you want to