Shades of Treason (29 page)

Rykus let a ruthless smile invade his tone. “You’re running scared, Valt. You’re scrambling to cover your ass. The number of people who know the truth about what you are is growing by the hour. You can kill Ash. You can kill me and Dr. Monick, but you won’t be able to stop the others.”

“Everything you know is classified,” Valt said. “Admiral Bayis will be taken care of. So will the few individuals who aren’t under our influence.”

“Who else is under your influence?”

“We have many assets within the Coalition. It would take too long to list them all, and I’m not planning to give Ramie the time to track my location.”

Ash’s fingers paused over the keyboard. She tightened her hands into fists, then took up her typing again.

Rykus wished Valt was an idiot, but he knew exactly what they were doing.

Another Access Denied warning flashed across Ash’s screen. He had to stop himself from pushing her aside and tracing the transmission on his own. He had the training and experience to do what she was doing, but he wouldn’t be able to do it as quickly. Neither would Kalver. Ash had excelled at hack-sig.

“I need proof of life,” he said.

“I’ll send it to you along with the meeting location after we capsule out. In the meantime, I’d avoid ship security. They have orders to arrest you on sight.”

“Wait!” he said before Valt could end the transmission. He searched his mind for some way, some hook, to keep Valt’s attention. “I want you to unlock Ash’s mind. I want you out of her head. Permanently.”

“How do you know I’m not in her mind now?” A smile crept into Valt’s voice.

“Because I’ve made sure I’m there.” He leaned in so close to the microphone his lips brushed it. “I’m her fail-safe, you son of a bitch. You couldn’t undo the loyalty training. You couldn’t undo her love for the Coalition. You couldn’t undo
her
. She’s stronger than anyone in the KU, and you were a fool to think you could beat her down. You messed with the wrong woman.”

The screen flashed red again. Rykus felt red on the inside.

“Your opinion of your anomaly is grossly overestimated, Commander.”

Ash’s fingers flew over the keyboard. Access Denied.

“I’ve been in her body and in her head,” Valt said.

Ash backed out of the coding, went back in. Access Denied.

“I know her better than she knows herself.”

Access Denied.

“I’ll send the proof of life and meeting location.”

Access Denied.

Access Denied.

Access Denied.

Damn it. Ash needed more time.

“Valt—”

“See you soon, love.” Valt cut the transmission.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

ASH’S HANDS FROZE when the comm-cuff went silent. She focused on the Access Denied warning, but there was no ignoring the fury radiating from Rykus. She could practically see the waves of his heat signature blurring the air around him.

It was his typical silent simmer. She countered it with her typical flippant smile.

“Have a little faith, Rip.” She tapped the exit key. The warning vanished, and a cross section of the capsule appeared. Her fail-safe stared at the bright blue dot sitting in the center of one of its cargo bays. He breathed in a lungful of air. Then another and another. By the time he took in a fourth breath, he’d calmed down. His gaze shifted from the screen to her.

She fought the urge to step backward. Rykus saw through her shields and her smiles. He knew her, respected her, and that knowledge made Ash feel far too vulnerable, too attached.

Pulling her into his arms, Rykus squeezed her in a tight embrace and whispered in her ear, “You’re amazing.”

The butterflies that sprang to life in her stomach had jetpacks attached to their wings. They ricocheted inside her hard enough to screw with her equilibrium. For one brief moment, she let herself imagine what it would be like to be with him. To really be with him. To have him whisper other words in her ear, to feel his touch in times when they weren’t likely to die, to go places where they would be safe and could laze around and just be with each other. No stress. No frustrations. No anger.

No chance
.

“I should… I need to…” She needed to get it together. He was her fail-safe. He was a war hero. He was Rest in Peace Rykus, for God’s sake. She’d pledged her life to the Coalition. She’d be a soldier until the day she died—so would he—and if they survived this, the Fighting Corps would assign them to opposite ends of the universe.

Focusing on the capsule cross section, she said, “Luxury cargo bay.”

Rykus let her slip out of his arms. Whatever he was thinking, he kept it to himself. “We need a plan.”

“We need more people,” Kalver said, approaching to look at the tower screen.

“If capsule security is looking for me, others might be too.” He glanced at her. “Does Valt know we tracked him?”

She almost answered the question, but the pressure at the base of her skull warned a response could lead to a blackout, and she couldn’t risk that right now. That’s how Jevan had pried his way into her mind the last time. He’d threatened to kill Katie if she didn’t kill Stratham. She hadn’t had a choice.

“Not a chance,” Kalver answered for her. “She broke through his security quicker than I could have.” His gray eyes appraised her. “Nice work.”

She didn’t acknowledge the compliment. She’d come too close to failing. The only reason she’d located Jevan was because he’d underestimated her.

“We have less than an hour until we capsule out.” Rykus scowled at the screen. “How long will it take to reach that bay?”

“Twenty minutes,” Kalver said.

That was Ash’s estimate too. If they didn’t encounter resistance and if Jevan stayed where he was. If he moved…

She could locate him if she tried. If she relaxed her mind like he said. But that was risky. He’d almost undoubtedly be able to locate her then too, and she did
not
want him inside her head again. She didn’t know his capabilities. If he could sift through her thoughts…

“Hold on,” she said. “I can’t know your plan.”

Rykus slowly shifted his gaze to her. “You’re compromised?”

“We’re operating independently,” she said.

“No.” The change in his tone was abrupt. “We’ve already had this conversation. You’re not going in alone.”

Rykus’s will closed around Ash. It grabbed her puppet strings and pulled. She fought against the tugs and maneuvers, then met her fail-safe’s gaze. “We’re operating independently.”

“If Valt can get back inside your head, you shouldn’t go at all.”

“I’ll make sure Katie escapes.”

“
We’ll
make sure she escapes.”

She lifted her chin.

Rykus’s scowl deepened. “You’re not—”

“She’s right, sir,” Kalver interrupted.

Rykus looked at the other anomaly, giving Ash the chance to breathe.

“‘Keep your enemy ignorant,’” Kal said, quoting words Rykus had drilled into them on Caruth. “If Valt learns our plan, we die.”

She didn’t want Rykus involved in the rescue at all, but he wasn’t the type of man who’d stay out of the action.

Rykus crossed his arms. “We go together or we don’t go at all.”

Ash let out a short, humorless laugh. “You’re not leaving your fiancée behind, Rip.”

He opened his mouth. Closed it. She was almost certain he was going to say “
ex
-fiancée,” but it didn’t matter. Rykus still cared for Katie. Ash used that fact to resist her fail-safe’s will, to twist the invisible hands that manipulated her strings into making her care more about Katie’s safety than his command to stay together or stay behind. Nothing short of outright compulsion would keep her from going after Jevan.

Standing to her full height, she met Rykus’s gaze. The pressure of his presence made the air in front of her seem thick, the air behind her thin. She wanted to step back. She made herself step forward instead.

“She’s an anomaly, sir,” Kalver said. “She can handle the situation.”

“Being an anomaly gives you an edge,” he said. “It doesn’t make you bulletproof. I’ll contact capsule security.”

“They’ll arrest you,” Ash warned.

“I’ll explain what’s happening.”

“They won’t listen.”

“One of them might. I’ll convince them to check on Katie. Valt won’t be able to hurt her then.”

He was wrong. Valt would kill Katie. Then he’d kill Rykus. They had to make this work on their own.

“The Coalition trained me to do the impossible,” she said. “This is my job. I survive what others would never be willing to risk.”

“You survive because you work as a team. You don’t run off solo with no plan and no intel.” The words were angry, but there was a note of resignation in them. He was breaking.

“Damn it,” he whispered, fists clenched. “I don’t want you to do this.”

Or she’d thought he was breaking. The gravity in his words, the worry, ordered her to stay as effectively as a direct command. She spun away from her fail-safe, breathing hard and battling the grip of the loyalty training.

“Ash?” Rykus moved toward her.

“I have to do this.” She forced the words out of a tight throat. She hadn’t been prepared for the tender fierceness of his voice.

“I said I don’t want you to, not that you can’t.”

She braced her hands on her knees. “Your words always have a pull, Rip.”

Kalver watched silently from the doorway. She stared at him, hoping to find her resolve again, but his stony face offered no support. If their fail-safe didn’t want her to leave, Kal wouldn’t allow it.

Rykus let out a breath. “I know. I’m…” He stopped, gently gripped her arm and made her straighten to meet his gaze. “Just make sure you survive.”

Pure, sweet oxygen entered her lungs again. His permission liberated her, but underneath the new freedom was a resentment, not toward her fail-safe but toward herself. She was usually mentally stronger than this. She didn’t know if this weakness was because she’d slept with him or because she still wasn’t one hundred percent mentally and physically. Whatever the case, she didn’t like it. She couldn’t let it continue.

So she reverted to the strategy that usually worked when her fail-safe was too demanding, too pissed off, or too intense. Tilting her head slightly, she smiled and let her gaze suggestively rake over him. “When we survive this, Rip, my offer to skinny-dip in the Liera River still stands.”

If they’d been back on Caruth, Rykus would have had her counting comets. If he’d still believed her a traitor, he would have thrown her to the floor. If he’d reacted in any of the ways he should have, there would have been no hint of hurt in his eyes. But it was there in the brief tightening of the muscles in his face. He knew she was pushing him away, and he didn’t like it.

She turned away before she apologized. On her way out of the small room, she met Kalver’s gaze. “I’m heading in the front door.”

That was all the planning she was willing to risk. They’d have to wing this op.

Kal acknowledged her words with a nod, then he held out his sidearm, a Berick 910. It was an accurate, durable, and easy-to-conceal pistol. “No fear. No failure.”

Ash took the weapon. “No fear. No failure.”

She stepped into the corridor, on her way to kill the bastard who’d murdered her brothers.

Rykus achieved the impossible. He stayed still and silent as he watched Ash leave. Every instinct screamed this was a bad idea. He wanted to go with her, to watch her back, to protect her. He didn’t want to use her as a damn diversion.

“I can get us into the weapons locker,” Kalver said.

Rykus drew in a breath, held it, then released it through his teeth. The decision was made. All he could do now was focus on building a plan and be there when she needed him.

“How?” he asked. He would be there armed and ready to kill.

Kalver nodded toward the comm-cuff still docked in the medical tower. “I’ll break the locker’s inventory system, then show up to repair it. The problem is time. We need to move quickly if we want to help Ash. Best way to do that is via the public corridors. If capsule security is looking for you—”

“They’re not,” Rykus said. “Valt was bluffing. If security was looking for me, they’d be here already. How long to get to the locker and then to the cargo hold?”

“Without any problems, half an hour.”

Rykus moved closer to the tower’s screen. The capsule cross section was still there, that blue light blinking with Valt’s last known location. Half an hour gave them little time to locate Katie before the capsule entered the time-bend and Valt contacted them via the cuff again. That was assuming, of course, that Valt stuck to the schedule he’d given.

He undocked the cuff and stuck it in his pocket. “Let’s get to that locker.”

Kalver didn’t move, and the way he stood there staring past Rykus indicated he had something to say.

Rykus waited.

“Sir, what are your intentions, sir?”

Two
sirs
in one sentence; Kalver was angry enough about the intimacy he’d seen between Rykus and Ash that he was fighting the loyalty training. Good. He should be pissed off about it. There should be zero intimacy between Rykus and his former cadet.

“You can kick my ass later, Kalver. Right now, my only intention is to keep Ash alive. Get moving.”