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And yet…Her gaze slid up to the shifter’s towering shoulders as he preceded her through the door. Yes, she’d needed to test him, but if she were honest with herself, she’d insisted on helping him don his armor simply because she’d wanted to touch him.
His tanned, smooth skin had felt like velvet over steel. And the way his cock had grown under her gaze…Stop it. Get your mind on the job.
Casus looked up as they walked into his office. He was seated behind an ostentatiously massive desk, his ’borgs flanking him like bookends. As Rance fell into a snappy parade rest just behind her, all three came to full alert. Even the guards looked nervous. And Casus was one deep breath from panic.
Not that she could blame him. Rance had looked intimidating stark naked, but fully armored he was huge, a gleaming human weapon. But it was more than just the armor. He exuded a calm, deadly confidence that nobody in the room had a prayer against him.
Zarifa turned her head to watch as he gave Casus a long, cold look that suggested he was remembering every time the other man had tortured him. He smiled, slow and chilling.
Casus went dead white.
Oh, sweet Lady, Zarifa thought, fighting a panic surge of her own. Can the nanobots take Rance down before he kills the little idiot?
If he murdered a man who hadn’t attacked her, he was dead. And Zarifa herself would be detained, which meant officials would discover her true identity in short order. Gerik would arrive to haul her back to Throneworld within hours, and everything would be lost.
Just as she started to activate her nanobot control ring, Rance spoke, his deep voice as smooth and courtly as any knight’s. “Milady? You said we’re on a tight schedule.”
He wasn’t going to attack. The relief was dizzying. Zarifa managed a nod. “Yes. Yes, we are.” She turned to the slaver, who had frozen in his chair like a bird hypnotized by a snake. “I believe that compl
etes our transaction.”
“Yes.” Casus blinked and swallowed with a visible dip of his Adam’s apple. “Yes, fine. Your funds have transferred. Take him.”
Rance didn’t even give the man a second look as he walked from the room. Suppressing a relieved grin, Zarifa followed him down the corridor past the slave cells and out into the space station beyond.
Casus slumped as the outer door closed behind Mad Dog and his aristo bitch. Sweat slicked his underarms beneath his expensive velvet jacket, and his heart hammered like a volehare’s. For a moment there, he’d thought the fucker was going to tear him apart.
But then, Casus had been having nightmares about wolf fangs sinking into his flesh since he’d acquired the hulking bastard three months ago. Doing favors for the regent could be lucrative, but sometimes it wasn’t exactly safe.
He turned toward Aaren, the chief of his guards. “Did you get past Selan’s image shield?”
The big man shook his head. “I couldn’t crack her system defenses. Hell, I couldn’t even get proper readings on her true height and weight, much less what her face looks like.”
Casus felt his jaw drop. A former stellar guard, Aaren could make a slave’s nanos dance to his tune like no one else. “Why the seven hells not?”
“I can’t be sure because of her shielding, but I suspect she’s got an Imperial Combat-grade nanosystem. Those bastards are designed to be unhackable.” He frowned. “But an aristo courier wouldn’t have a system like that. I’d expect her to top out around a Nova grade. And I’ve hacked those before.”
“Think she’s military? Maybe some kind of special ops agent?” Though everyone had nanos—for communication and emergency healing if nothing else—it was illegal for civilians to possess the same systems the Empire’s warriors used to enhance their speed and strength.
“Could be, but I’ve met elite forces soldiers before, and she’s a little too jumpy. The lady does ice bitch aristo better than anybody I’ve ever seen, but there’s just a hint of fear underneath. I think she’s running from somebody—and it’s not some corporate rival after whatever file she’s carrying.”
Casus came to full alert, smelling the profit of his dreams. “You think she’s the fugitive?” The one whose name they dared not even mention.
The guard shrugged. “Maybe.”
“All right.” Casus drummed his fingers nervously on his desk. “I’d better report in. Just in case.”
“That would be wise,” Aaren said in such a mild tone that Casus knew he’d damned well better get on the comm to Throneworld.
It was midshift on Market Station, and the main concourse was crowded with shoppers. Spacers and elaborately dressed aristos strolled along under the massive transparent dome, while tourists stopped to gape upward, shameless in their awe. Rance couldn’t blame them. Overhead, the Cordovo Nebula gleamed against the black of space like a woman’s silk scarf, a shimmering veil of purple and red dotted with gemstone stars.
The view inside the concourse wasn’t nearly that elegant. Merchants pushed massive antigrav carts displaying wares from a hundred worlds. Spidersilk in countless shades, robot toys that pranced and sang, even spices from the Freeworlds that gave Rance a pang of homesickness. A naked slave girl danced in front of one of the dealer shops, her voice musical and lilting as she invited passersby to sample her wares. Yet despite her bright smile, there was desolation in her eyes.
Fucking aristos.
Selan glanced at the girl as they passed, and a spasm of pity—and oddly, shame—crossed her face. Pity he could understand, but what the hell did she have to be ashamed of? She hadn’t made the girl a slave.
Frowning, Rance eyed his new mistress, then turned to scan the surrounding crowd with all his senses, both wolf and nano. He spotted no one who seemed to have an assassin’s unhealthy interest in her.
