Dragonfly (5 page)

“I say, do you mind frightfully if I join you?” A smooth hand descended on my shoulder, pressing me down in my seat so I couldn’t get up.

Dragonfly’s warm gaze frosted over at last. “Not at all. So long as the lady doesn’t object.”

I smiled sweetly and gazed hotly up through my lashes, inwardly cursing both of them. “Of course not.”

Malachite winked. “Smashing. I so love a good game.” He took the empty seat next to me, grinning broadly like the filthy rich idiot he was pretending to be. He waved airily at the waiter. “Another round, if you’d be so kind. Capital. I say, who’s dealing?”

Dragonfly gathered the cards into two piles and riffled them together with his thumbs. He offered me the deck coolly, and I cut it, aware of two pairs of eyes fixed on me, one sending shivers of distaste along my spine, the other a hot caress that surely didn’t need much more help from alcohol before I’d do something stupid.

Malachite smiled smugly, and yet another glowing blue martini appeared before me. For my own sake, as well as the mission’s, I shouldn’t drink too much more. I could already see how this night would end. We’d take Dragonfly for everything he had, Malachite would hit on me, I’d tell him to get lost and then I’d go back to
RapidFire
alone and take a long cold shower.

I raised my glass to toast the table and chugged.

Sure I would. Right?

6

Sure enough, two hours and half a million sols later, I was back on
RapidFire
, flushed with victory and alcohol. Dragonfly had taken the loss well on the outside, with a brilliant smile and a promise to win it back with interest next time. I sure hoped the slimy bastard was seething inside. He’d been charming, I’d give him that. Attentive. Engaging. After a while I’d found it difficult to remember who I was supposed to be flirting with.

Time for bed.

My vision wobbling, I tugged off my stiletto heels and swayed toward my cabin, wishing I hadn’t downed quite so many martinis. I hadn’t realized I was this drunk. Lvovs creep up on you. They’re one of those evil drinks where you think you’re sober until you try to stand up.

“Easy,” said Malachite, gripping my waist, steadying me and caressing me at the same time.

Was he still here? Shit.

I slid my arm over his shoulder for balance, but only succeeded in pulling him closer. He brushed his lips across my hair, tempting me. Damn, he smelled fantastic. I wanted to taste him, kiss him, forget what a pathological liar he is and ravish him senseless.

“I can take it from here. God, Nikita, you smell good … I mean …”

“Uh-huh,” he murmured, playing with a loose curl. “First, tell me what you’ve learned about Dragonfly.”

“What?” I didn’t want to think about Dragonfly. All I could think about was the man in my arms and how good his tongue would feel in my mouth. I hadn’t had a real lover, one who knew me, since Mishka. And Nikita …
Did I just say his name? Shit
… Nikita knew everything.

“Dragonfly,” he prompted, pulling hairpins out one by one and dropping them, teasing my hair free.

It didn’t help me concentrate. “What, is this a test?”

“Of course. Isn’t everything?”

“Umm …” I tried to ignore him stroking my lips. I wanted to whisper his name, suck his fingers into my mouth. “He’s clever, confident. Not afraid to bluff. Thinks highly of himself.”

“So?” He leaned closer, pinning me against the wall. Longing stabbed me, deep and delicious, painful. His gaze focused on me, the hot blue of summer sky, and his breath came deep and quick. He was doing a damn good impression of a man who wanted me, and a hot ache blossomed between my legs.

“So … he doesn’t like to lose. His plan will be meticulous, whatever it is.”

“Which means?” He pressed his hard thigh between mine, which made the ache worse.

“Which means … he’s not played tarocchi six nights running for no reason … There’s something in that room he needs.”

I couldn’t help inhaling his scent, pulling my fingers through his crisp hair to make him kiss me.

But he pulled back, teasing me. “Go on.”

“Umm …” I tried to imagine how I’d do it. I thought of Dragonfly, sitting there with his scotch and water and those ridiculous rings, so heavy on his narrow fingers. He hadn’t been paying attention to much except the game and my legs …

“Shit,” I said suddenly. The rings. Nikita had clued me in first thing, but I hadn’t listened. Those rings weren’t platinum. They were stealthplated. Like one-way glass for transmissions, hiding him from view but transparent from his side. The bastard was collecting data the whole time. “It’s the ice. He’s probing the comms-jamming system to get the frequency map.”

“Very good,” Nikita murmured, and our mouths met, tasted, explored. The desire in his kiss felt real enough. His hot, dangerous taste made me drunk with memory and anticipation. In my mind, I tied him to my bed and devoured every sculpted inch of him, hot and sweet and wet on my tongue …

He slid tempting fingers into my hair. “Make love to me, Carrie. You know you want to.”

My insides melted, hot and aching. It was so long since I’d heard my real name, since I’d wanted anyone like this. He knew by heart all the things that moved me, and he was doing them, one by one. He kissed me deeper, tilting my head back, his tongue teasing me into response. He made me feel wanted. It was a lie. I didn’t care.

Don’t do it. Don’t say his name.

I turned my head away, testing the urge to throw him down on his back and take him. “This is a bad idea.”

But he’d trapped me, giving me nowhere to go. He teased me, brushing hot kisses across my throat. The cool plastic wall did nothing to soothe my burning skin, and I shivered.

His lips curled on my collarbone as he smiled. “But I’ve missed you. You were never like the others.”

I murmured, arching my back to lean into his kisses, and for a long, sweet moment I believed him. He’s that good.

Sweat trickled between my breasts, and he tugged my hair back so he could lick my throat, spreading delicious kisses downward, heat crawling over me. He crept hot fingers under my skirt, and I longed to draw him to me, feel him inside me.

His fingertips brushed my tender flesh, teasing, and it felt so horribly good. I wanted his tongue there, on me, in me. When he felt how wet I was he slid his fingers into me, one long, smooth stroke, and my breath caught.

I fought through swimming senses to think about something else, anything that would give me the presence of mind to make him stop. Much as I wanted him, much as I longed to pretend I was young and carefree again, just for a few hours, I couldn’t let him manipulate me like this.

I pictured my shatterjay, pressed against his perfect throat, deadly ultraglass spearing into his bloodstream. But much as I loathed how he’d betrayed me, I didn’t wish him dead.

I thought of Mishka, wounded and gentle, the last man I’d had a chance at loving before Dragonfly blew him to bits, but remembering Mishka only made my longing worse.

Instead, I brought Dragonfly to mind, cool and smug, flirting with me, nothing but hate in his cold, murdering heart. I imagined they were his lips burning my throat, his dark hair brushing my skin, his elegant fingers sliding into me …

I caught Nikita’s wrist, tugging his hand away. “Don’t.”

He grazed my collarbone playfully with his teeth. “Don’t what? I haven’t started yet.”

I pushed his face away. “Then don’t start.”

He groaned theatrically, wrinkling his nose, but he planted a fond kiss on my forehead and let go. “You’re wasted on these other men, Aragon. You’ll realize that.”

“No doubt. Go away.”

He lingered at the top of the gangway, ruffling his blond hair, seductive. “Sure you won’t change your mind?”

“Good night.” I thumbed the door shut behind him before I could.

Nikita isn’t one to force when things don’t go his way; he just lies a little harder next time. Next time, I’d be ready for him.

Sure I would.

I walked unsteadily to the bathroom and peeled my sweaty dress off, stepped into the white plastic cubicle. “Shower,” I mumbled, “cold.”

Water sprayed in four directions, and I closed my eyes, letting the bitter fluid wash over me. Gradually, the fire in my blood cooled, and Nikita’s delicious, poisonous fragrance sloughed off. But the imagined caress of Dragonfly’s hands didn’t, and I crawled into bed feeling cold and sick.

***

I woke with a distant headache to the mouth-watering smell of frying eggs and tomatoes. My stomach rumbled. I sat up, bewildered.

Nikita grinned at me from the galley. “Afternoon.”

I was glad I’d pulled the quilt up with me. “How did you get back in here?” I mumbled, before I realized it was a stupid question. He’s worked for Axis all his life. The security system on a Phoenix wouldn’t give him even a moment’s pause.

He sliced tomatoes with a flick of practiced fingers, knife blade glinting. The nerves and muscles in his hands are nano-tuned for precision. I’d seen him cut an enemy’s throat with that same easy gesture.

“Thought you might be hungry,” he said.

Like he actually cared. All he knew was that I used to like it when he cooked for me.

He wore dark pants and a pale blue shirt that set off his eyes. He was fresh and gorgeous, effortlessly elegant, one of those rare men who looked equally as good in clothes as out of them. I felt doubly glad I’d gotten rid of him last night before anything humiliating happened.

I suddenly wondered why he’d want me back, after the way we broke up. Apart from the fact that he wanted everything. I shivered, on my guard. Maybe something more sinister was going on here. Did he know about my conversation with Surov the cat-man? Was he bribing me to stay on Renko’s team?

With the quilt still tucked around me, I climbed out of bed and thumbed the door closed. I pulled on my black flight suit and boots, tugged my hair into a black velvet shrinkband. When I emerged, he’d set the little table with my breakfast: two golden-fried eggs on cheese toast with tomatoes, topped with pepper, and a glass of fruit juice. I sidled into the metal chair opposite him, uneasy. I was ravenous but didn’t want to show him appreciation he didn’t deserve.

“Thanks,” I muttered, and started to eat.

He put on a wounded look, his big blue eyes wide. “Why scowl at me? I didn’t do anything. Nothing you didn’t want, anyway.”

I stabbed at the toast with my fork. “This isn’t about what I want. It’s about you.”

“So I wanted it too. I missed you, Carrie.”

“Give up, okay? Stop calling me that.”

“It’s true. I’ve never forgotten you.”

My fingers itched to claw that earnest expression from his face. But I knew he didn’t understand the problem. He thought this was how real people acted.

I didn’t want to have this conversation. Didn’t want to drag up past stupidity. But it was too hard not to argue, with all those years I’d hated him washing back over me like a cold ocean. My fingers tightened around my knife. “Really? How about on Volkus Sept? That prison hulk? You sure as hell forgot about me then. You were my backup and you deserted me.”

“You know how that happened. It was an operational imperative.”

His soothing tone raised my hackles, and I forgot I was supposed to be keeping cool.

“You were screwing one of your operatives, Nikita. Doesn’t sound very fucking imperative to me.”

I hacked into my eggs, spilling yolk on the white plastic table, and shoved a forkful into my mouth before I could say anything else. The fact that he’d cheated wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t even that he’d abandoned me on a shattered station with two hundred misogynistic Empire-hating mutants and no weapons because he simply couldn’t be bothered.

It was that I’d believed him when he said he loved me.

The eggs tasted fantastic, which only made me angrier. I glared holes in the table and ate until the plate lay empty.

When I looked up, he was sitting at my console, flicking through a data chip, the display flashing colored diagrams in three dimensions.

“Vault specs,” he said, like we’d been chatting about the weather. “Take a look.”

Curious despite myself, I slouched over and peered at the display. Esperanza aren’t coy about their security. It’s one of their biggest selling points, and they want every petty criminal and slime-dwelling terrorist in the sector to know exactly how hard it would be to pull any stunts there.

For starters, the physical security is imposing. The vault itself is built from fusion-grade septurium, which means you can’t blow it apart without taking the entire station and the loot with it. Guards patrol seamlessly around the clock, and state-of-the-art visual, audio, infra-red and chemical surveillance systems pick up anything they miss. And quantum anti-jamming systems—ice—blanket the entire station except for the spaceport. They stop dead not only transmissions that might fool with the security systems, but any unauthorized transmissions at all.

Even if you do get lucky and reach the vault alive, and somehow get inside, there’s no way you’re leaving with the loot. Everything going into the Esperanza vault is not only chemically coded for a specific person, but quantum coded for a specific date and time window when it can be removed. If you don’t have the cipher key, there’s no way to crack it open, and in a thousand years no one has come up with a reliable way to break quantum crypto. The rules of physics don’t allow it. It simply can’t be done.

In my professional opinion, the vault probably couldn’t be cracked. But Dragonfly obviously thought it could. He’d found a weakness. And it had something to do with six nights of tarocchi and a handful of stealthplate rings.

I jammed my butt into the command chair next to Nikita. “Any idea what his plan is?”

He shifted over to give me room, the display frosting his perfect face with silver light. His eyes shone, fascinated. He was as captivated by this as I was. “None. That’s why you’re here. You’re the security expert. How would you do it?”

I chewed on my lip as I scrolled the data. “Well, let’s assume that whatever he’s doing with the ice has worked. No ice means the electromag security systems are vulnerable, so let’s count them out as well. Assume he can bribe the guards, fool them, distract them somehow. He might even be able to fool the biochem with the right samples. But there’s still the crypto.” I stabbed my finger at the display, and a glowing blob popped up around one box in the flow diagram. “He can’t get in or leave without it.”