Salvage Rights (Distant Worlds Book 2) (16 page)

From the center of the
room a voice rang out.  “Surely we get to meet the pretty truthsayer before we start.” 
The words were jovial and loud in the amplified room.  The crowd shifted and
milled until there was no one standing between them and the man who spoke.  He
was a giant of a man.  Close to Tuft’s height and probably a few years older
than Lucan, there was a definite red sheen to his brown hair that he wore long
and wild.  With the stubble decorating his jaw line, it added to the overall
feel of a wild man and increased his almost savage attraction.  Massive across
the chest, she could not tell if he wore nanite armor because, if he did, it
was hidden beneath ship’s formal.  Only his leathers were decorated with a
tartan sash where a sword sheath should be.  He seemed in good spirits, his
smile roguish in a face that had seen a lot of action, so much that at least
one eye showed the glint of cyborg implants.  Though unlike the cyborg security
they had run into at the market with Lord Danvers, his was almost impossible to
spot unless the light was just right.  She knew from her studies that only top
of the line implants were indistinguishable at a glance or touch.  His boots at
least were nanite and reached him mid-thigh.  He was quite the romantic figure,
actually, if you did not meet the deadly intent in those black eyes.  The chill
of death kind of negated the charm of that naughty smile.

“Barnos,” Lucan
muttered darkly, “one of these days you will go too far, and I will be forced
to peel you like a grape. Is today that day?”

Barnos guffawed, and
came forward.  “You always say that Warrung, but you know you prefer a man who
challenges you on occasion.”  He swept his hand across the room, “Unlike the
rest of this rabble who bows and scrapes.”

“Be careful you do not
challenge your way into perdition.”  Lucan raised his arrogant brow.  “I only
have so much patience for you to call upon.”

Barnos ignored the
threats and came to stand like a brick wall before them.  “So do we get to meet
her, or not?”

Lucan reached back and
took Danika’s hand, pulling her into his side.  “Danika, meet Captain Conall
Barnos.  Barnos, my newest employee, the Lady Danika.  Truthsayer.”

“And reader, so the
rumors go,” Barnos added, flashing Danika a smile and a debonair bow.  “Danika,
a lovely name for a lovely lady.”  He switched smoldering eyes back to Lucan.  “And
I understand she has taken up residence in your personal suite.”

“You should be careful
what rumors you listen to, Barnos,” Lucan said with a bite.  “But if you are
asking in your subtle way is she mine, the answer is an unequivocal yes.” 
Lucan smiled with a lot of teeth.  “And you will do well to remember it.”

Barnos smiled at the
challenge, but took a step back and to the side with one final head to toe
scan.  “I was hoping that part of the rumor was false.  Can’t blame a guy for
trying.”

“I can.  I will.” 
Lucan pulled Danika back behind him slightly so that once again she was
protected.  “I understand you have business with me, Barnos.  I assume it is
not to get a look at my newest employ?”

“While she is certainly
worth the look, I do, indeed, have business.”  Barnos shifted to a serious face
and squared off with Lucan.  “I have a job that will take me into your domain
in search of a runner.  I want to get your permission to hunt in your space. 
For the right to do so, I will give you ten percent of my bounty.”

“And who is the runner
and what is he or she wanted for.”

“Murder, rape, the
usual.  However, this one killed an ambassador of the League so they want him
pretty bad, badly enough that the bounty is one hundred thou and you might keep
a look out for League agents crawling about your space.”

Lucan listened to the
last part even as he was looking to Danika and she nodded, Barnos was telling
the truth.  “Very well.  You have my permission to hunt.  Keep the bounty,
unless, that is, you make a mess in my territory or someone besides the
criminal is killed.  If that happens, we will be having a different
conversation and the price will be more than you want to pay.  Do you
understand and agree to those terms?”

“I do.  Though I would
stipulate that I am not responsible for any damage caused by the villain, nor myself
and my men.”

“Agreed.”

Barnos smiled his broad
puckish smile again, and then with a wink at Danika, turned and moved back into
the crowd.  Lucan looked around, his eyes a cold challenge.  “Next.”

There was some general
milling and then a skinny man with dreadlocks stepped forward.  “I also have a
business proposition.”  He came closer while he spoke.

Danika blinked hearing
the discord behind his words.  “Lie,” she said distinctly.  She looked at Lucan,
her eyes wide in warning.

The room had fallen
silent at her words, so quiet you could hear the nervous rustling of someone’s
clothes.  Danika studied the man even as he twitched, trying to decide what it
was about him that was setting off more than her truth saying alarms.  Lucan
raised his brow and looked from the man to her.  She shook her head
vigorously.  “Something is not right,” she whispered, trying to be circumspect
even as the sound carried far afield in the quiet room.  Lucan motioned Tuft
forward, and Danika noted that Barnos gave himself plenty of room in case
action was needed.  She had yet to know, though, if he was on their side or
not.  All she could tell without touch was that he was a dangerous man, and she
would bet money he had smuggled in some form of weapon into the meeting space.

Tuft stepped forward,
his blaster in his hand, and did not get two steps before the man pulled a
weapon from his shirt.  A second later, he hit the floor at their feet, a large
whole decorating his forehead.  Danika stepped back with a gasp, her ears still
ringing from the blast.  Lucan walked forward and kicked the strange looking
weapon out of the man’s hand.  It skidded into the open, and the crowd jumped
back, making a wide circle around it.  It looked like a long knife, not
metallic, something synthetic maybe, but Danika was too busy
listening
to
the crowd to identify it.

“Did he come alone?” 
Lucan asked, the question foremost in her mind as she looked up to see him
talking to Tuft.  Tuft shook his head grimly, his blaster still out.

Lucan turned to the
crowd.  Pulling Danika farther behind him, he held her there while he looked
over the grouping.  His eyes had taken on a cold frost.  “Which one is it?”  He
asked low, looking through the crowd slowly, his grip on Danika’s arm almost
painful.

Danika tilted her head
in closer concentration, then turned, looked to their left, and pointed.  “There,”
she said,
hearing
the echoes as emotions ran hot.  Barnos raised a brow
and smiled when it appeared she pointed directly at him.  She huffed out a
breath even as Lucan was tensing.  “Move, Barnos!”  The order rang through the
room.  Barnos actually laughed, though she was seeing nothing remotely funny
about the situation, but he moved, revealing a well-dressed man half-cowering
behind where he had just been standing. 

Tuft was across the
room, his blaster trained before the man could consider pulling a weapon.  However,
Danika knew suddenly that was not his intention.  “Don’t touch him, Tuft! There
is something wrong with him.”  She motioned to the people around them.  “Everyone,
back up, don’t let him touch you.”  Everyone did, leaving a wide space between
the man and anyone else in the room.  The man started to shake harder, his eyes
pin-wheeling crazily.  When Lucan would have moved forward, she held him back
by grabbing his bare forearm hard where he had rolled up his sleeves.  She
shook her head, meeting his surprised eyes.  “He wants you to touch him.  There
is more danger here than we see.”

He studied her, then
the man, not moving closer.  “Can you tell me what kind?”

Danika looked back at
the man who stood so petrified before Tuft’s blaster.  She could feel him
beginning to panic, and something else, a weird determination and fatalistic
attitude that spoke volumes.  “Shoot him!” Danika yelled without another second
of hesitation, and though Tuft looked to Lucan first, Barnos did not.  Even as
his body braced for some action, the man fell with a wet gurgle, clutching the
knife protruding from his throat.  By the time he hit the floor, the blaster
hole Lucan had made in his forehead had already ended his pain.

Lucan looked from the
synthetic knife in the man’s throat to Barnos, who shrugged, “I would feel
downright naked if I left all my weapons behind.”

When Tuft would have
moved forward, Danika grabbed Lucan’s arm again, hard.  “No one touches that
body!”  Lucan was once again looking at her.  “Tell your doctor to bring a scan
and hazard gear.  I think we should get everyone else away from here.”

Lucan studied her and
then turned to the assembled brigands.  “Everyone to the other side of the
room.  Now.”

Everyone moved, giving
both of them a wide berth and a lot of speculative looks.  Lucan waited until
it was just them, and Barnos beside Tuft.

The other captain
shrugged.  “If it’s all the same to you, I will wait with you to get my knife
back.”

That, Danika assumed,
was his way of saying he was in this, and Lucan must have agreed because he did
not send him away.  Instead, he motioned and Tuft did something on his wrist icom
that had a wall forming between them and the men across the room.  Finally, a
new room was formed, leaving the four of them with the two bodies.  They could
no longer hear anything from the other room.  Then he turned back to Danika.  “What
are you suspecting?”

“I cannot even say; all
I know is what he was feeling at the end.  I would just feel more secure if the
doctor examined him.  Something was not right with his emotions at the end.” 
She shook her head.  “It is just a gut reaction.”

He showed her where her
nails had dug furrows into his arms.  “A little stronger than that, I think.”

She gasped at the
damage and grabbed his arms to look at them more closely.  “I am so sorry.  I
didn’t mean to cut you.”

He looked down at her
from a head above, his eyes heated while he looked at her, and Danika felt the
desire that always touched her when he was around flare up.  “Don’t worry,
little Bruha,” he rumbled low, his eyes capturing hers, “just your smallest
touch cuts worse.”

Danika sucked in a
breath as she felt the kick of his words in her stomach.  Slowly, she forced
her hands away from him, but she was powerless to look away.  It was only when
Barnos spoke that she was able to focus on something else.

“Little Bruha?” he
asked, his voice dropping low and full of shock.  His eyes had moved back to
study Danika and he missed the way Lucan tensed beside her, although she felt
the tension ratchet up from both men — Barnos with a swift greed and intense
calculation, and a steely resolve from Lucan before he cut off everything and
went cold.  Danika kept her eyes on Barnos.

“Captain Barnos, I
would regret having to watch another man die here today.”  He heard her
carefully phrased and neutral words and then turned his head and really saw
Lucan.  His whole body stilled; Danika did not have to see Lucan’s face to know
that Barnos saw his own death in his eyes.

The big captain raised
his hands above his waist and very carefully took a step back.  His face went
neutral.  “Just kneejerk thoughts, my old friend; no credits are worth dying
for, not even the amount your little Bruha truthsayer would be worth.  And like
you, I do not peddle flesh.”

Lucan did not say
anything and Danika could feel him struggling with his own kneejerk reaction to
kill the man who threatened what was his.  Danika took hold of his arm again. 
It was like grabbing granite he was so keyed up.  “What he said was the truth.”

Luc still did not look
at her, but he relaxed incrementally.  “That ever changes, you try to take what
is mine, or cause her a moment of trouble, I will kill you in the old ways.  It
will not be as clean and painless as that.”  He pointed to the bodies on the
floor.

“If the day ever comes
when I court death,” Barnos said, the humor returning to his voice, “I will be
sure to pick an easier method than the one you would meet out.”  He turned as
Doctor Avia walked into yet another appearing door.  He shook his head at the
sight of the long-legged doctor followed closely by Kira who looked them over
and headed directly to Danika with worry on her beautiful face.  “Though just
once I would like to be the one inundated by beautiful women while you watch
with envy.”

Lucan finally turned
back to Danika, his tension fading minutely; he grabbed her arm and pulled her
into his side, just as Kira reached them.  “Are you well, Sir?  Lady Danika?”

“We are, Kira,” Danika
said, reaching out and taking Kira’s hand with her free one, “but you should
have stayed away until you knew it was safe,” she chastised.  She sent soothing
waves toward the nervous girl and heard Barnos grunt from the other side of
their circle.

“What is that?” he
asked, surprise clear on his face.  “I feel like I’ve been wrapped in a warm
blanket and given a toddy.”

“That is Danika sending
Kira warm thoughts,” Lucan said, one side of his mouth creaking up.  “A not
unpleasant phenomenon, wouldn’t you agree?”

Danika blushed, and
tried to step away from them, but Lucan held her fast.  Kira looked at her, her
face scrunched.  “You are sending me warm thoughts?”

Danika dropped her
friend’s hands.  “I do not mean to intrude; I just sooth you when you become
nervous.  I can stop if it is intrusive.”

Kira opened her mouth
to say something, then closed it again, looking at the other men surrounding
them.  Instead, she stepped to Danika’s side and took her free hand back, and then
actually attempted to glare the other men down.  Danika felt like laughing, but
worried it would embarrass the girl all over again.  Instead, she sent another
wave of peace to the girl along with gratitude.  Kira turned her way and smiled
one of her genuine smiles; Danika had no choice but to smile back.

“Fuck me, that’s nice,”
Barnos said, his eyes heated and on the two women.  “I would offer you for at
least the other one.” Then his eyes moved to Tuft who bristled beside him.  “But
I like my head where it is.”

“Then we understand
each other,” Lucan said in return, his eyes only leaving Danika for the moment
it took to get his words said.

They all waited
together until the doctor finished her scan.  Then she very carefully covered
the man with a hazard blanket that was strong enough to work as a blast
shield.  She walked a wide path around the shrouded figure and scanned the
other body before covering that one as well.  She came to them with a grimace
on her face.  “Tetrino,” she said baldly and everyone stilled.

Both Lucan and Tuft
moved to stand between the bodies and the ladies.  It was a useless move but
one they did without thinking, and one not lost on Barnos, who had already
raised a brow at the prognosis.

“How,” Lucan said
hitting icy rage in under three seconds, “did they get their hands on Tetrino? 
How much and how was it distributed without killing them outright?”

“How they got it I
cannot say, but only the first one I examined had it on him, and it seemed to
be very carefully smeared across his clothes.  Chances are good he would have
died anyway when he tried to take them off, but anyone else he came into
contact with would have died first.”  She looked around the room.  “It’s
actually amazing no one else died just brushing up against the man.”

All the men turned to
look at Danika; Lucan ran his thumb down her cheek in a brief caress that had
Barnos raising the brow again.  If possible, he looked more surprised at the
affection, than the news of a bio agent in the room.  “Amazing,” Barnos said,
and Danika wasn’t sure if he was agreeing with the doctor or referring to Lucan’s
touching her in that soft way.  Either way, she agreed with him; it always
amazed and soothed her when he did that.

“Tuft, see what you can
find out about the men, and have a biohazard team lock down their ship and go
through it, in pieces if they have to, then I want a scan team in there.  I
want you to find out where they have been, and who they have been talking to. 
Someone wants me dead very badly; let’s find out who.”

“Sir,” Tuft said,
bowing his head and then with one quick look of warning at Barnos, he left the
room.  For his part, Barnos chuckled at the look, but was very careful to keep
his distance from all the women in the room.  However, he did give the doctor one
long roving eye and a wink when she finally noticed him.  She sighed, shook her
head, and then went back to her lethal shrouds.

“One thing I can say
about these meeting days of yours, Warrung.  They are never boring.”

Luc raised a brow and
skewered the man with a look, his voice dry when he spoke.  “Anything for your
further entertainment Barnos, you know that.”

Barnos snorted his
amusement and went to watch the doctor’s backside as she worked.

Standing close beside
Lucan with Kira on her other side, Danika finally breathed out the tension she
had been building up, aware as she did so that a reaction was finally setting
in from the adrenalin slamming her system.  Her hands were shaking.

“You were right,” she
said, when Lucan took her hand and pulled her closer to the heat of his body,
his eyes looking her over when he felt her shivers start.  “I earned those new
clothes.”

He smiled, and it
almost reached his eyes.  “Yes you did.”

Her eyes crinkling as
she thought about it.  “And the room remodel,” she finally added.

“That as well.”

Then she looked around
the room one more time.  Then murmured, “Probably not the bathroom remodel yet.”

Lucan chuckled.  “Give
it another day,” he said, pulling her closer against his heat, so that she
could feel his buried armor, and the foreign call of affection warming her. 
She exhaled her tension and leaned against all that comfort, wondering when he
would revert to the cold warlord he showed the Universe.  Right now, she was
content to bask in the warmth he offered and let the rest lay.