No Quarter (Bounty, Book One) (10 page)

Gar closed his eyes, the muscles in his jaw twitching from the pressure.

“They had Jason’s transponder code hidden under a layer of garbage. I didn’t think of it in the heat of the moment. I only now remembered it was even there.”

“Your boss tried to kill us?”

Gar opened his eyes and glared at Faolan. “He’s a dead man.”

Chapter Seven

Gar had discarded his suit jacket several hours earlier and was now leaning shoulder-deep into the guts of the
Geilt
. Jason had sent a squad after him.
Him!
Those shots weren’t intended to scare Faolan into trusting Gar—a tactic they’d used on more than one occasion—but had been designed to blow him out of space.

“What the hell are you looking for again?”

Faolan had given up all pretense of helping about an hour ago and now stood propped against the wall, arms crossed and his gaze fixed on Gar’s ass—Gar had caught him staring more than once and the older man did nothing to hide his attentions, which wasn’t improving Gar’s mood.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Gar silently counted to ten before standing straight and flashing Faolan a fake smile. “As I said, I’m looking for the tracker Jason put on my ship.”

“Ah, right.” Faolan toyed with his chin. “And how do you know there is a tracker? I wouldn’t think you’d let anyone near your baby.”

He wouldn’t. Not normally. No one other than prisoners and dead bodies were brought on board. Certainly no one was allowed to roam the halls. Faolan had been the one and only exception, which Gar now regretted.

“It’s the only way for him to have found us. It’s not like I had the coordinates previous to you giving them to me.”

“Not a chance he could have intercepted, oh, I don’t know, a transmission of the coordinates, say from your computer?”

Gar’s already fragile hold over his temper shattered. He threw the electro-mag wrench against the wall and strode over to where the pirate stood. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you accusing me of something, Wolf?”

Faolan held his hands up in mock surrender, but Gar could tell he was anything but intimidated. Anger floated beneath the surface of Faolan’s easygoing exterior and Gar knew it would take very little to push the captain over the edge. “I’m not accusing you of anything, Stitt. I just find the whole situation a bit…
peculiar
.”

“Jason tried to kill me. I really don’t give a shit what you think. What I need to figure out is how he tracked me so I can find the bastard without him knowing I’m on the way.”

Faolan didn’t move, his appraising gaze taking inventory of Gar’s reaction. He really didn’t care
what
the pirate thought of him. They were just stuck together until Gar could dump his ass somewhere and go after Jason. Shit, it would mean he’d have to go back to Zeten. His home world held very few good memories for him.

“You might want to ask why Jason would try to kill one of the Guild’s best bounty hunters. You’re not the type of asset anyone would want to lose. What it means is the stakes are a hell of a lot higher than you thought they were.”

“It doesn’t matter. He betrayed me.” The one man Gar trusted with his life had tried to end it. “No one does that and lives to tell the story.”

Faolan nodded once, understanding clear on his face. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

“You wouldn’t live long enough for the reminder to stick.”

Smiling, Faolan pushed away from the wall and sauntered past Gar to the engine. “My earlier question still stands. How did someone get inside to place a tracker here? Wouldn’t an external one be easier?”

“Not with my shields. They are passive-defensive when I’m in dock. A simple touch to the outside is fine, but if you try to attach something to the hull, you get zapped. The shields send out short-range, targeted EMP too. It disables anything electronic not flagged with my ship’s signature within a certain radius.” He paused. “No, the only way a tracker got on this ship is from the inside. Someone came into my ship and placed it here.”

“You think Jason managed to do that when you weren’t looking?”

It was hard to believe. Gar had always prided himself on the level of security of the
Geilt
—been obsessive about it if he were being honest. Jason had teased him more than once about his fussy nature. Sneaking a tracker into his home and rubbing Gar’s nose in it was certainly something Jason would do. The humor factor alone would be incentive enough for the older man.

“I was on Tybal Station longer than anticipated. My information wasn’t as clear as it normally is. If he’d managed to get my security codes it wouldn’t have taken an operative long to get on board and place it. I have a normal maintenance schedule and wouldn’t have looked for anything before then.”

Faolan leaned over the engine, locked his hands behind his back and peered inside. “You’re a slave to routine. Jason took advantage because he knows you so well.”

Suddenly tired, Gar scrubbed a hand down his face and pressed his back against the wall, sliding down until his ass touched the floor and he could lean his forearms on his knees. “I’m an idiot.”

“No you’re not. You made a mistake in trusting someone. Means you’re human after all, Stitt. Flawed and fucked up like the rest of us.”

Human yes, but Jason had been like a father to him. Gar had spent the better part of the last ten years doing everything in his power to please the man. He’d come close to turning into the kind of person he hated. Every day Gar fought the urge to go that step too far, take more than he should, hurt others just a little bit too much. He would walk up to the invisible edge he’d drawn in the sand, only to stand there and stare at it.

He wasn’t like them, the men who’d killed his family.

Gar closed his eyes and did his best to ignore the darkness threatening to eat him alive, inside out. He couldn’t do this anymore on his own. “I still can’t believe Jason would do this to me.”

“Well, life is designed to challenge our perceptions. If it doesn’t, we never learn and grow. We also can never recognize what a
Damasmus
tracking beacon looks like.”

Gar’s head snapped up from where it rested on his knees. “You found something?”

Faolan reached in carefully with one hand and began to rummage around. “Aha!” He pulled out a small silver component that looked strangely like a Zeten sand spider. “Look at that beauty. My dear Mr. Stitt, I would like to introduce you to your unwanted tracker.”

Jason really did try to have him killed. “Bastard.”

“Want me to smash this little shit?”

Plans whizzed through Gar’s mind—everything from smashing it and disappearing forever to placing it on a garbage barge to wait for Jason’s men to show up. “Not yet. We’re lucky this planet is causing problems with the signal. It will give us some time to come up with a plan. We can use it to throw him off the scent before we are ready to get to your ship.”

Faolan grinned. “Decoy. I like it.”

“Thought you would.” Gar pushed himself up, brushing the invisible dust from his pants. “I have an escape pod we can stick it on and send through the dimension gate. Should keep him running in circles for a little bit at least.”

“As long as he doesn’t send anyone to come collect us in the meantime then we will be good.” Faolan tossed the tracker to Gar. “We’ll need to move quickly. How much longer does the ship need before she can jump?”

Gar looked at the chronometer ticking down on the monitor. “Not long. Twenty minutes.”

“Just long enough for us to get the pod ready.” Faolan grinned and started to stride past. “Let’s get moving then.”

He almost made it past Gar when the older man stumbled, as if he’d tripped over his own feet. Gar’s arm flew out to catch him around the waist, pulling Faolan in tight against his side.

“Let go,” Faolan snapped. “I’m fine.”

“Your legs gave out.”

“I tripped. Just clumsy.”

Gar huffed out a breath. “Wolf, I’ve known you for two days now and prior to that spent a hell of a lot of time reading your file. Clumsy isn’t a word I’d use to describe your sorry ass. What the hell is going on?”

A blush dusted Faolan’s cheeks. “There’s nothing wrong. Just didn’t get enough rest.”

“You slept for over ten hours. How is that not enough?”

Faolan straightened and pushed away. Gar immediately missed the other man’s warmth, but did nothing to stop him. Faolan didn’t meet his gaze, instead he set about tucking the hem of the shirt into his low-riding pants.

“Some days I need more than average. Don’t let yourself think there is something wrong with me. I can kill you faster than your average space pirate and still make it back to my ship in time for last meal.”

Gar recognized the dismissive tone as one he used himself on many occasions. It shouted to the world that while yes, there clearly was a problem, he wasn’t about to air it to everyone so kindly back the hell off.

“Would never question it, Wolf.”

Faolan straightened. “Good. Now let’s get that tracker to the pod so we can find my ship. I’m dying for some real clothing.”

“Got a problem wearing my stuff?” Gar snorted and tried to act casual even though he made sure to keep close to Faolan as they made their way through the ship. “I’ll have you know that shirt cost me two hundred credits and is handmade.”

“The pants are a bit big though.”

Gar nodded, but wasn’t about to admit they’d belonged to his father. “Wasn’t going to give you the good ones.”

“At least I know where you spend all your money. Should have guessed it was on your clothing.”

The idea that Faolan had put any thought at all into his monetary spending habits was interesting in itself. “Where did you think I was spending it?”

“Until I came on board, I would have said booze or drugs. No one leads as clean a life as you appeared to.”

Given the image he’d taken great pains to cultivate, it wasn’t surprising to Gar to realize others would imagine he had a much darker side than even what he showed the world. He didn’t—he couldn’t afford to be weak, not when he was still on the hunt for the man who destroyed his family, murdered his father. Someday he’d find the bastard and when he did, Gar would tear his world apart.

“Pretty boring, I am. You’re far more interesting, Wolf.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Faolan stopped once they reached the secondary passage which led to the escape pods. “You want to lead the way? Unless you want me to crack a few of your codes, in which case, I’m game.”

Gar shouldered his way ahead of Faolan and was about to type in the security code, when he paused. “Actually, would you?”

Faolan frowned. “What?”

“Hack in?”

“Seriously?”

Gar let his hand fall to his side and did his best to ignore the confusing stir of emotions—his need for revenge mixed with a desire to have Faolan close. Swallowing, he swayed closer to Faolan, enjoying the heat of the other man. “Someone broke through my defenses. The only way I can fix it, make it stronger, is to have someone try to replicate what was done. If you can hack in and tell me how to fix my security, I’d…”

Faolan waited for a moment before he pressed his shoulder against Gar’s back. “You’d be what? Grateful? Need to pay back my kindness? I remind you that you still owe me a debt, bounty hunter. You don’t want to rack too many up or I may just steal you away.”

Gar looked up and couldn’t stop the small smile from slipping across his face. “I’d appreciate it.”

They stood there until Faolan broke out in a grin. “Careful, Stitt. I have a feeling we might be moving away from a hunter and mark relationship to becoming dangerously close to friends.”

“Not possible. I’ve only known you two days.”

“You wouldn’t be the first to be wooed by my charm, wit and devastating good looks.”

Gar rolled his eyes. “No fear of that happening.”

Faolan stepped back, cracking his knuckles. “Give me room, kid. Let me show you what a professional scoundrel can do.”

Instantly regretting the decision to let this happen, Gar bowed deeply at his waist and swept his arm wide in invitation. Faolan didn’t press any of the buttons immediately, instead leaning forward to inspect the panel.

“Third tier…bio lock…three years old…” Faolan muttered before dropping to his knees to gain access to the control panel beneath the console. A gentle press against the corner of the metal had the hatch pop open, exposing the vibrant colors of the circuitry.

“That came off disturbingly easy.” Gar tried to move closer to get a better look. “How did you learn to do that?”

“You’re in my light, Stitt.”

Gar jerked up and back. “Sorry.”

Faolan looked at him and winked. “Just trying to impress you with my speed.”

“I’d rather go for quality.”

“Everyone’s a critic.” Faolan let out a sharp bark of laugher as he pulled a small electrode from a small hidden compartment of his belt. “Now if I just put this here.”

The door beeped mournfully twice before it slid open. Gar shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”

“Hacked in less than two minutes. I’m getting rusty. I used to be able to crack any third-tier security system in thirty seconds.”