Bandits

For my children and my husband, who helped me dream the impossible and gave me the support to achieve it.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to God for giving me a tenacious spirit of positi
v
ity with an active imagination and the energy to do it all
.
To my devoted Beta Readers, Marie Williams, Ebyss, Tom Brigand,
Willow
(Missy), Amanda and Jesse, who helped
me,
create a better story
.
To my son, who wanted me to write a gritty pirate tale
.
To my editor, Autumn who
has
grown with me and been my best sounding board. To my kids and my husband, who continue to give me true and honest feedback for all of my work. I thank you.

More Releases From
Lm Preston

www.lmpreston.com
and
blog
:
http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

The Pack
, 2010
       

Shamira is considered an outcast by most, but little do they know that Shamira is on a mission
.
Kids on Mars are disappea
r
ing, but Shamira decides to use the
criminals’
most unlikely we
a
pons against them, the very kids of which they have captured
.
In order to succeed, she is forced to trust another, som
e
thing she is afraid to do
.
However, Valens her connection to the underworld of her enemy, proves to be a useful ally
.
Time is slipping, and so is her control on the power that resides within her
.
Yet, in order to save her brother's life she is willing to risk it all. Look for book two of the series,
The Pack
– R
etribution
in 2012        

E
xplorer
X - Alpha, 2010
         

For most kids, a trip to space camp is a trip of a lifetime, for Aadi it was life altering
.
After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment
.
Lucky for him, he was eng
i
neered to survive, thrive, and dominate
.
Without realizing he is being trained to conquer worlds, and manipulated under the guise of a camp, he unfolds the plot too late for a change of fate.
Look for book two of the series,
E
xplorer
X - Beta,  Summer 2011
   

Bandits

Daniel rolled over and punched his pillow
.
“Ugh! I give up,” he muttered.

Sleep always eluded him and tonight was no different. Groomed as a thief and mercenary, his mind was ready to act. Most nights it was hard to shut off. He definitely wouldn’t get any sleep tonight with the distant murmur of voices that filled his head and grew louder each second.

“Gambling night,” he spat out. Daniel snatched the pi
l
low from under his head and covered his face. It didn’t help, the angry voices filtered through anyway. He just didn’t get it. Every week it was the same thing. Fights over cheating, his father’s outright refusal to take on any snatch jobs, and then the old man getting chewed out
.
He was sick of his father’s screw-ups.

Daniel shook his head at the thought of another late night caused by his dad’s weekly game with his friends. He let out a deep breath, threw the pillow aside, and sat up on his bed. “Serves him right,” he sneered
.
“Been picking up his jobs for three years now, and I’m ready for my own territory anyway. I’m finished picking up his slack – I’m done doing it…TONIGHT.” He wiped his hand down his face then punched down on the rumpled bed.

Remorse crept up his back. He squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them. Maybe, he should’ve picked up the load his father refused to get from Haden. His father’s best friend and leader of the EBRA, was sick of his dad’s refusal to do his job
.

Daniel looked down at the snoring body of his cousin on the floor
,
and
acknowledg
ed
that
Faulk didn’t have the same dirty blond hair, dimples, or gray eyes as he. No, Faulk was different. His mother’s Asian features dominated Faulk’s face instead. He shoved Faulk’s leg out of his way so he could stand. With a
crack
of his neck, he stretched, and then scratched his bare chest.

“Faulk,” he smirked, “your parents would kill you if they knew you were hiding out here. Hell, my father may kill
me
when I tell him I let you in.” Daniel figured Faulk had the Pierce family’s adventurous spirit. Proven fact, since Faulk dropped out of flight school two days before his graduation, only to land on Daniel’s doorstep.

Faulk had showed up earlier that day with a sack of wrinkled clothes, his flight school uniform and a stupid grin. Daniel let him in, even though he hadn’t seen Faulk in years. The first and last time he’d laid eyes on Faulk was four years ago, when Uncle Kiev came to demand that his father change his criminal ways and come home to Earth.
No way Uncle Kiev would get my old man to change. He’d never give up being a Zukar.
His father had been with the Zukar, a faction of thieves on Merwin ever since he was a kid. Celebrated for his undisputable snatch jobs, his father had become a legend.

The voices in the front room grew louder with angry shouts and the muted sounds of laser fire pierced the air. D
a
niel’s head jerked toward the door, his brow wrinkling. The tingling down his back confirmed this wasn’t the typical weekly banter. He pulled his gun from beneath his pillow. Gripping the handle of the gun, he crept to the door, and pushed it open. He leaned against the door and tilted the gun up, prepared to shoot. Ready to attack, he was stopped by a call from his ten-year-old brother.

“Psst,” Nickel whispered from his bedroom doorway across the hall.

Daniel turned his angry gaze on his younger brother, whose short, light brown hair stood on end
.
Nickel’s gray eyes filled with concern on his rounded face as he shook his head at his brother’s stupidity. He gestured in their coded sign la
n
guage
.
“No, too many.”

Daniel’s mouth thinned. He raised his free hand to m
o
tion for his brother to stay put, and crept slowly along the wall leading to the front room. Whispered arguments had elevated into shou
t
ing. More laser fire went off, and a smoke bomb followed, filling the long hallway with thick smoke before Daniel could make his way down. Daniel held his breath and fought his way through. His eyes burned, and his lungs fought to breathe. He narrowed his eyes and felt around in front of him. With his gun at the ready, he frantically searched for his father in the dull, smoke-filled room.

“Humph! The bastards ran.”

Coughs sounded behind him. Daniel knew his brother and cousin were not far behind. The roar of an engine lit the night. He ran toward the front door to pursue the men who fled, but he tripped forward, stumbling over a firm body. He used his free hand to brace himself before falling face first on the floor. The smoke started to dissipate out of the opened door and Daniel didn’t have to look at the body to see whose it was. The punch of dread hit him dead in his chest when he pushed himself back off the slightly rounded stomach of his father’s large form.

Daniel held back a sob and swallowed. “Keep Nickel back! Keep ‘
e
m back,” he yelled. He sat back on his knees and forced his angry eyes to land on his father.

“No!  Damn! Who-did-this?” His lips formed a scowl. Tears from the smoke and his grief fell slowly. Balling his fist, he punched down on his bent knees as grief and desolation caved in on him. Anger at his father - even dislike -didn’t take away the fact that he loved the old man and wanted him there with them. “Arghhhhhh!” His fist tightened, “I never wanted this. I’ll kill them. Why didn’t you just yell for help? I would’ve saved you,” his voice cracked. He raised his fists and pushed them against his eyes to stop his tears.

Daniel heard his brother cry behind him. “No, no...
Dad
! Please don’t be dead. NO!”  Nickel tried furiously to fight his way out of Faulk’s firm grip.

Daniel’s muscles tightened, and years of training as a thief reminded him to
shove
those sappy feelings of regret down. “Don’t let him go Faulk. Not yet.” He quickly pulled himself together. His expression grave while he examined his father to see if he was breathing.
Nothing, he’s gone. The old man’s …gone.

With a grunt, he tilted his father’s body for a better look, just to be sure. His eyes traveled over his dead father, up and down his back. The finality of his father’s fate sat heavy in his gut. The laser left a hole clean through his father’s leg, but it was the knife to his heart that ultimately caused his death. His father’s body landed with an eerie, lifeless
thump
when Daniel released him. Daniel looked at his father’s grayish--blond hair and the shocked expression of his death in his eyes, and
sc
r
eam
ed out. Anger at his father’s killers - even at his father’s carelessness choked up within him.

Nickel broke free of Faulk and ran into Daniel’s back. He collapsed to his knees, laid his head on his father’s stomach, and cried in loud, choking sobs.

Putting his
sorrow
aside, Daniel reached back to console his little brother.

“Daddy, no..no.” Nickel cried and kneed the floor in a
n
ger. “Why, Daniel? WHY him?
Our Dad?”

Faulk came and put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “D
a
niel, I’m sorry man. I’m so sorry. Maybe…maybe I should call my parents.”

Daniel stood up with a glare. “Don’t,” he forced out the words through gritted teeth. “Your parents don’t know this place. They’d make things worse. Trust me -much worse.”  His mouth thinned as he watched his brother cry.

“You gotta be kidding me! Your father was murdered, right
here
,” Faulk pointed to the floor
.
“Here, while we were in our beds, dude. Cold blooded with us in the house. Who’s to say our asses aren’t next?” Faulk yelled, and then pushed Daniel’s chest.

Daniel grabbed Faulk’s shirt, balled it up in his hand and slammed him against the wall. “You came here uninvited. You wanted to live here, but you don’t…Look, you- don’t- know- the- Zukar. Outsiders stay the hell out of our business. Don’t try your Earth logic on this planet. I’ll handle it.” He jammed his index finger into Faulk’s chest
.
“And by the way, the next time you push me, you best be ready for a beat down. Now go to my room and pack up my weapons – all of ‘em. I’ll take care of Nickel,” Daniel forced out, trying to hold onto his anger at Faulk’s misplaced judgment. He pushed Faulk into the wall in disgust, and then let him go with a jerk, releasing his wrinkled shirt.