Raines, Elizabeth - Covert [Wicked Missions 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (8 page)

Alayna was the only one who’d met Lukasi Arma once before the guy seemed to disappear. The only time Tanner even thought about him now was when he was working on payroll and saw his name pop up. The payments were exorbitant, so the Fraiquan was obviously doing his undercover job well—acting like a smuggler who got payments under the table. When Tanner had made polite and hopefully innocent-sounding inquiries as to why Luka was getting paid so damned much, he was given no information from his superior, Gareth Pitrana, other than a snappish answer to authorize the payment and mind his own business. Trying to be the submissive bookkeeper, Tanner always obeyed, usually while complaining about his own pay and his family’s circumstances to prime the pump.

“Hey, honey.” Tanner whirled to see Alayna leaning her shoulder against the wall of his cubicle. She was dressed in her security uniform—a pale gray shirt and darker gray pants. Her gun belt held her pulse pistol and a stun-stick. She hadn’t wanted to carry the black stick, especially since Fraiqua’s worst enemies, the Dracorians, used it for torture during their occupation of the planet and still wielded it as their weapon of choice. That damned stick always seemed to represent the sadistic nature of the six-fingered, universally reviled Dracorians. Her direct supervisor had evidently insisted Alayna should wear one to set a good example for the other security guards, so she complied. She grumbled that she’d never find a valid reason to question her superior, but she swore she wouldn’t use it unless it was on a Dracorian. She sounded so much like a Fraiquan, Tanner often wondered if she even remembered being human. God knew his own humanity seemed to slip away a little more each day.

“Hey,” Tanner replied. He entered the last few keystrokes to finish his job before powering down his workstation. “Glad as I am to see you, I hate seeing you still in your uniform. You’re working another night shift, aren’t you?”

She nodded, brushing her long, black ponytail over her shoulder. His gut tightened in response as he remembered the feel of that wavy hair as he ran his fingers through it. The only thing that he, Will, and Alayna had going for them was their growing relationship. Tanner loved them both. Deeply. And he was sure they loved him and each other just as much, though none of them had said the words yet.

The fear was still there—the worry that when this mission ended and they were restored to humanity, this…
joining
would be broken. That they would become nothing more than three people who’d shared an incredible experience, some pretty damned strong emotions, and the best sex of their lives. If any of them broke down and admitted their true feelings, things would change between them forever. No, better to work the mission and simply enjoy each other. At least for now. “How late will you be?”

Alayna shrugged, wishing she could answer him, but she never knew how long a shift would last because the security guards she supervised were so fucking unreliable. She’d begged the head of personnel—her immediate supervisor Eruda Pitrana—to let her come down hard on them, but Eruda always said to leave the discipline to her. And nothing ever changed. Eruda and her two husbands had worked for Cosenki Chemicals since it had reorganized after the wars ended. One was Tanner’s supervisor in bookkeeping, and the other Alayna hadn’t met. He was supposedly a salesman and was away from home often as he tried to rebuild C.C.’s clientele list.

Eruda made Alayna’s life miserable, expecting her to fill in every time a guard didn’t show up for a shift. She tried to get her boss to see that with the high unemployment on Fraiqua, there were tons of better people out there she could hire. She was, after all, the head of security and complained that she should be allowed to choose her own team. Eruda overruled her—a common occurrence—which made Alayna keep a close eye on her. Something with Eruda simply wasn’t right.

“I’ll save you some supper,” Tanner said. “Pitiful though it is.” He strode to the door and set his hands on Alayna’s shoulders. Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her lips.

“Tanner,” she said, her cheeks heating, “you know we’re not supposed to have any displays of affection at work.” She laid one of her hands over his anyway.

“Of course. But you looked like you could use a kiss.” Moving his lips to her ear, he whispered, “When you get home, we’ll make you smile. Will and I will fuck you stupid and then snuggle with you.” His hot breath brushing over her ear and his words made her squirm in need.

“Geesh. Say something like
that
, and now this shift’s gonna seem like it’s twenty hours long.”

He walked her to the main foyer where they met Will. “Rough day?” she asked when she saw the scowl on his face. His ability to hold his temper seemed to slip away a little more each day. The mission and all its hardships were clearly taking a toll on him, no matter how hard he tried to hide it from her.

Today, he wasn’t even attempting to cope. “You could say that,” he said in a harsh tone. “Wanna tell me why Eruda Pitrana had her nose up my ass today?”

Since her supervisor’s name just kept coming up, Alayna had put her in the center of her bull’s-eye. Whatever that woman had her blue fingers in, Alayna was damned well going to find out. “No idea. What did she say to you this time?”

“She’s upset that we’ve got two shipments of betrathlomine we can’t account for.”

“Seriously? Shit, that’s the best news we’ve had since we got here!” Tanner exclaimed. Since betrathlomine was used to make anything from vaccines to something as awful as patrile, the fact it was going “missing” meant they might have finally found a solid trail to follow.

“I know,” Will said, “but she wants me to hunt it down.”

Alayna suddenly knew why Will was frowning. “That means she’s not the one diverting it.”

Will nodded. “I had her and her boys at the top of my list of suspects.”

“Just because she wants you to account for it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not the one diverting it,” Tanner pointed out. “Might be a diversionary tactic.”

“We need to explore that angle.” Their frustration was hers, and it never ceased to amaze Alayna how their emotions all seemed to intertwine. “Speak of the devil…” She inclined her head toward Eruda, who was striding across the tile floor toward the trio. Although by Fraiquan standards, she was a beautiful woman, Alayna still cringed at the sight of her.

“Alayna,” she snapped as she drew closer. “You’re on the clock.”

Swallowing back a sarcastic retort, she simply nodded, showing the deference a good Fraiquan should give her boss.

“Tell your husbands farewell and come with me.”

“I’ll see you both at home,” Alayna said in Fraiquan. Switching to Hungarian, she added, “I’m going to stick my nose up her ass for once.”

Will and Tanner gave her handsome smiles, bowed their heads, and headed out of Cosenki Chemicals together.

Not a word was exchanged until Alayna and her boss reached the loading dock. Then Eruda focused her intense eyes on Alayna, sending a shiver through her. This wasn’t a woman you crossed. “I called Josen off tonight because I needed you here.”

“Why?”

Eruda drummed her fingers on the guards’ podium, a semicircular table equipped with the viewscreens for the security cameras. “I understand you have some…money problems, that you might have some trouble with gambling. Was I misinformed?”

Alayna’s face flushed hot. “I don’t have a
problem
. So I like to bet on races and play a few machines.” She affected a nonchalant shrug. “I don’t lose all the time. Besides, I’m due.” The gambler’s fallacy—a mantra for all who lost the majority of their bets. She tugged at the collar of her shirt, trying her best to look uncomfortable and then realizing she truly was. The undercover role was starting to get the better of her. “Why are we even talking about this?”

“I’m offering you a chance to make some extra money.”

“How?”

“C.C. has been contracted to act as a private supplier for an off-world client. We’ve been helping them for almost a year.”

“And?”

“This client doesn’t wish to be named, and the work C.C. does for him is…off the books, so to speak.”

Swallowing her desire to shout a “hallelujah” that after four long months the snake had finally crawled out from under its sheltering rock, she settled in to do her job—her
real
job—and bring Eruda and her smuggling ring to justice. “Off the books? That doesn’t sound too…legal. I mean, what with Resources Administration’s agent always going over our shipping books and constantly monitoring our exports.”

Eruda waved that concern away with the flip of her hand. “An R.A. agent is of no concern.”

Probably because you bought her off.
She wanted to dance a happy little jig at knowing they might bring down someone inside the Fraiquan government as well. Could this reach all the way to the head of Resources Administration? R.A.’s job was to supervise the export of all the planet’s resources to be sure profit wasn’t earned at the expense of the planet’s ecology. “No concern? How is that possible?”

“Do you need the money or not?” Eruda snapped. “From what I’ve heard, your husband was in line for refugee rations this week.
Twice
.”

Her pride felt smacked. Sure, she was playing a role, just a fucking role. But the implication that she wasn’t taking care of the men she loved hurt all the same. “I need the money.”

“Good. Then I want you to meet some associates of mine. I’ll be back”—she checked her watch—“in about two hours.”

* * * *

It came as no surprise when Eruda returned with Lukasi Arma as one of the people she obviously wanted Alayna to meet. She’d introduced him, along with several other people, on Alayna’s first day. She hadn’t seen him since. Damn, but it was hard to hold back her enthusiasm. Everything was going to start happening.
Finally
. “Mr. Arma. It’s good to see you again.”

“Please. Call me Luka. We’re going to be working together, after all.” He offered his hand in greeting, something that might have been seen as a slip if the Fraiquans hadn’t quickly taken on the practice since Drake Keller had been ambassador. They’d courted the United Continents for more and more trade and had quickly adopted many of Earth’s customs as well as embracing their music, art, and fashion. The only thing that hadn’t seemed to catch on were holoflicks and holoseries. Fraiquans evidently didn’t want to see humans on their viewscreens. An odd sort of discrimination in Alayna’s estimation.
Sound like humans. Dress like humans. Just don’t look at humans.

She shook his hand and then reached for the other male Fraiquan. He held up a large hand that was covered in a thick, black leather glove that probably made it difficult for him to move his meaty fingers. Since many Fraiquans wore gloves, she didn’t give them too much thought. “If you’ll forgive me, I don’t follow
human
customs.” The last two words were said with a sneer and a bit of a lisp. He gave her a half bow, something more in tune to his species. “A pleasure, Ms. Pariago.”

“Alayna. Please,” she said with a bow of her own.

“Call me Priam,” he replied.

“You work for Resources Administration?”

Eruda actually gasped, making Alayna turn to stare at her. “Priam Sisson doesn’t
work
for Resources Administration,” Eruda finally said. “He’s the
director
of R.A.”

Alayna needed every ounce of her training to hold her emotions in check. Sure, I.D.E.A. knew that patrile was killing all the good that had happened after the horrible Rhotan System wars. And of course, they knew that Fraiquans, despite their reputation for being the “good-guy underdogs” of the galaxy, were involved in the patrile epidemic. But to find out this conspiracy to spread the drug reached all the way to the Fraiquan government at the ministry level?

The mission had just taken on a whole new level of importance.

Eruda settled a hard stare on Alayna. “Starting tonight, twice a week, I need you to authorize nighttime shipments of betrathlomine. These shipments will be paid for in universal credits by Luka.” She nodded to him as he nodded in return. “You will bring those unis to me the next day.
After
you subtract a thousand for yourself, of course.”

“And you don’t want me to log any of this?” Alayna asked. She swept her hand toward the viewscreens. “If those shipments are leaving the dock, how am I going to avoid having them recorded?”

“That,” Luka replied with a sly smile, “is what you’ll be receiving the thousand unis for.”

Through an ongoing discussion on how she was going to help these people steal one of the main ingredients in making patrile twice a week, Alayna watched Priam. The way he leaned against her station made her think he was downright bored. His hands rested against his sides, but something about them bothered her. While she’d dismissed them earlier, now, she couldn’t seem to stop staring at them. Was it the gloves? The fact those fingers were so damned big? Those stupid mitts of his made it hard for her to concentrate.