Stark Surrender (14 page)

The blonde met him in the doorway, sliding her arms around him. “Your food is ready, lover.”

“Good, thanks.” He gave her a pat on the ass and she turned to walk with him. But not before she gave Kiri a look of spiteful triumph. Leaving Kiri to face the humiliating truth that whatever, whoever this Logan had become, he’d not only just had Kiri, he had a mistress as well.

She’d just been fucked in more ways than one.

And if what she suspected was true, Logan’s strange, violent metamorphosis and his capture of her, could not possibly have happened at a worse time. She leaned her head on her knees and closed her eyes. Waiting. Because no matter what he said, she was getting out of here. And right now, if she had to hurt him or his blonde to do so, she could do that.

She started as he spoke again from the doorway. “C’mon. You need to eat.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she’d rather starve than eat with him and his floozy, but then closed it. He was right about one thing, she did need to eat. She was so hungry she was light-headed. Although some of that might be from whatever he’d given her to knock her out.

“Did you drug me?” she asked as she slid off the bed and went to him. “No, I know you did. But I need to know what it was.” And if it was safe or not.

He put a hand on the small of her back and moved her through the doorway. “Simple organics. Why, are you an abstainer?” His tone said he didn’t much care.

“Yes—well at least—I certainly don’t take illegals.”

He bent his head to her as he pulled out one of the rickety chairs at the small table. “Then you’ll appreciate that I had you without any aphros. Just me, au naturel,” he murmured in her ear.

Kiri jerked away and plumped into the chair, gritting her teeth to keep from telling him what she thought of his vile wit.

“Nothin’ unnatural, huh?” the blonde said, dropping a tray onto the table. “Then you won’t think much of the food. I doubt these veggie noodles ever met a real veg, and as for the protein, God himself prob’ly don’t know what it’s made from.”

The hot noodles in broth and tubes of protein weren’t very appetizing, but Kiri forced herself to eat. Then she looked around the crowded room as other needs made themselves known.

“I need to use the lav.”

Chewing, Logan lifted his chin at a door in the corner behind the divan, and Kiri gathered up her blanket and scurried into the lav. It was tiny, but thankfully the self-cleaner worked, so it was clean. She sat on the commode, then washed up as best she could in the tiny sink. She eyed the showerdry with longing, but decided she was unwilling to give up even the dubious shelter of her blanket long enough to use it.

In the holomirror, which flickered erratically, her face was pale, her hair sticking up on one side, flat on the other. She tidied it automatically with wet fingers before remembering that she had no reason to primp. She wanted Logan to ignore her, not notice her. Then she snorted at her own faulty logic. Right, like she was going to be able to hide in this tiny apartment.

She fingered her com, and then forced herself to pull her hand away. She daren’t risk contacting anyone until Logan and the blonde were asleep. Then she’d link Kai, and tell him her predicament, but warn him to let the police rescue her. They had combat suits and sensors for explosives. Of course, Bronc probably did too, but for this, she wanted the police to arrive, sirens blaring, lights flashing, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were not to be messed with or fired upon.

She pushed the self-cleaner button, and closed the hatch behind her.

When she sidled back into the main room, she stopped short. Logan stood there, the open door of a storage cubby barring her from moving any farther. He was donning his leather jacket. He already wore leather pants, boots and a belt bristling with weapons. Kiri eyed them covetously, wondering if she could possibly grab one.

Then she glanced up into his knowing gaze and instantly reconsidered. She took a step back, coming up against the closed hatch of the lav. Holding her gaze, he fastened up his jacket, the weapons disappearing from view.

He slammed the cubby, and stepped to her, caging her with his arms.

“I’m going out,” he told her. “But I’ll be back later. Be ready for me, hmm?”

She glared up at him, shaking in the blanket with the effort it took not to shove him away from her as hard as she could.

“You’ll be ready,” he murmured, and flicked her cheek with his rough fingertip before moving away.

“And don’t worry.” Liss waved Kiri’s small laser before sliding it into the belt on her skin tight tunic. “I’m armed, so I can protect us while he’s gone.”

Right. That smirk said she’d use the weapon on Kiri if she had any excuse.

“I’ll set the alarms on the doors and hallway,” Lode added, pausing by the door. “If anyone tries to come in or out, they’ll receive an extremely unpleasant shock. Oh, and the com scrambler is on. Sorry, Tyger, no linking.”

Kiri clutched her blanket cape and stared back at him, refusing to show any reaction to this news. But his mouth lifted in that crooked smile that said he saw right through her.

“And don’t worry about staying up,” he said. “I’ll wake you when I get back. Hells, maybe I’ll wake both of you.”

Liss giggled. “Ooh, a party.”

Kiri swallowed hard as her supper threatened to come back up. The very idea of being forced into some ménage with Logan and the blonde filled her with revulsion. She refused to acknowledge that the idea also hurt—badly.

“Where are you going?” she asked, around the lump in her throat. Not that she cared, but he didn’t need weapons like that to go to the pub for a drink.

He stopped with one hand on the door, giving her another of those humorless smiles.

“Why, Tyger, I’m going out to kill a few of my competitors.” And with that, he was gone. Leaving Kiri reeling. Logan Stark was going hunting other beings?

She looked at Liss. “Is he—is he really …?” She couldn’t say it.

Liss grimaced. “Yeah. And you better pray they don’t get him first. ‘Cause if he don’t come back, I’ll put you out of here so fast your dainty little head will spin.”

“Do it now, and save us both time,” Kiri shot back. “I don’t want to stay here. You can have him.” Until Kiri got back to safety and brought his brothers to capture him and save him from whatever madness had infected his mind.

The blonde gave her an ugly look. “I don’t go against Lode. And I don’t like havin’ you here, so shut up and keep to yourself, or I’ll give you a beat-down you won’t forget.”

Kiri returned the look with a glare of her own. “You can try. But I grew up on these streets, and I know how to fight dirty. Oh, and did I mention I’m half Tyger? I’d just love to use my claws on that cosmetic-caked face of yours, and see what’s really under the glitter.”

Liss took a step back, one hand to her face. Then she glared and tossed her long hair. “Huh. You don’t scare me. I’m the one who’s armed.”

And I’m the one who’s going to get it off of you, Kiri promised silently. She shrugged. “You leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone.”

Until she was ready to break out of here. Which had to be while Logan was gone. Because being made to respond to him sexually again just might break her.

Chapter Sixteen

Joran Stark stalked back across Logan’s HQ office, which he’d just traversed in the other direction. He raked his hand through his hair for the umpteenth time and shook his head.

“We’re close to a galactic incident,” he told Creed. “I just got off a link with the chairman of the ruling council of Frontiera. Logan missed a holovid op with Prince Azuran of Aquarius himself today, with galactic news crews at the ready. His Highness is royally pissed. He says if Logan doesn’t show up for their formal sit-down in three days, he can forget the oceanic half of the AquaTerraCon deal. And he’s one being who’s just arrogant enough to do it.”

“Damn. Couldn’t LodeStar send someone to meet him in Logan’s place?” Creed asked, raising a brow. “Like Stone Masterson or Clyde Selkire? Logan’s not the only businessman with interests in the expedition.”

“Thought of that, but apparently Masterson has no patience with royalty.”

Creed’s mouth twitched. “That I believe.”

Joran snorted. “Yeah. And Selkire’s off on the high seas somewhere—or under ‘em, who the hells knows with him. Anyway. Prince and Princess Dragolin volunteered to try and calm Azuran down. They’ll be on Frontiera by this morning. The prince really likes Sirena, so let’s hope it works.”

“Azuran wants to meet with Logan, huh?” Creed gave his brother a look. “Wonder if he knows Logan wasn’t always wealthy and powerful.”

“Born to it, you mean?” Joran shrugged. “Logan’s never tried to hide it—and God knows the gossip-mongers have raked over his past. Everyone loves a self-made man, and any dirty secrets he may have.”

He groaned. “I don’t know about you, but I need a drink.” He retrieved the bottle of fine whiskey from Logan’s sideboard, and poured a measure for himself and Creed.

Just as he took his first sip, his com pinged

A sec later, he and Creed were both staring at an agitated Bronc Berenson.

“What do you mean, Kiri’s gone?” Joran demanded.

Bronc faced him stoically from the cockpit of the Lodestar cruiser. “She and Kai decided to drop in on our search. They were only a few meters from me, coming through the crowd, when she just disappeared. Kai said somethin’ to her, then looked back but she was gone. We searched all the nearby buildings, found nothing, except a stairway leading up to a landing pad. A craft had just been there, the pad was still warm to the sensors.”

He straightened. “I’m sorry, sir and Kai. It was my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Kai broke in, his face pale. “It was mine. I shouldn’t have let her come down here. I should’ve been right beside her. I know how dangerous this quarking city is.”

“It happened, so we deal,” Joran said firmly. “Kai, I’m sorry. We’ll do everything we can to get her back immediately.”

“This is because of Stark,” Kai said angrily. “I know it is. It’s not Bronc’s fault or yours either. This is on him.”

Joran opened his mouth, but Bronc cut him off with a slight shake of his head. “If you’re right, that’s good. Because we’re getting’ close to Mr. Stark. I can feel it.”

“That’s good,” Joran said quietly. “That’s good. We find him, we’ll find Kiri.”

“We’d better,” Kai said, his husky voice cracking. “And soon.”

* * *

Lode was especially wary as he stalked the dusky streets that night. His dream woman had been with a brother and at least one other man when he grabbed her. If they saw him before he saw them … well, that couldn’t be allowed to happen. He wasn’t giving her up.

He prowled the streets of Astra Quadrant, stopping to listen in on a few conversations. Always listening for something that might be useful.

Then, passing an alley, he heard screams over the music pounding from a bar. All senses on alert, he stalked through the fetid, garbage stench of the alley to the back of the bar. Three GloJacs stood laughing as one of their number raped a pretty Serpentian against the wall—a barmaid from what was left of her costume.

Lode drew his laser, savage satisfaction roaring through him. Such easy targets for his anger. The gangers fell with almost comical looks of surprise on their drunken faces.

The Serpentian leapt out of the way as her attacker dropped with a hoarse cry, blood welling through his charred jacket. Lode aimed at his prone, writhing body.

“No, don’t kill him,” the woman called.

Lode stopped, laser still aimed at the ganger, who lay groaning beside his fellows. “No?”

Ignoring her own near nudity, she bared her teeth. “No. I want to do it.”

He lowered his weapon. “Be my guest. But then you’d best link the cops, before more of his kind return.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will.” She bent and yanked a blade from one of the dead ganger’s jackets, and advanced on her attacker, vengeance garbed in the shreds of a tiny dress. “Kill my father, will you?” she hissed, “and shove your pathetic little tool in me? GloJac, huh. You’re just a worthless belly-crawling sand lizard. And I’m gonna skin you out.”

The ganger was screaming as Lode walked away. But of the shadows that slid away as he exited the alley, none of them went to the ganger’s rescue.

Lode ignored them all as he strode on his way, satisfaction ramping him up for a time. But even this savage glow drowned in the drumbeat of pain in his head and his dragging exhaustion. He needed his dream woman, needed the surcease of her body and the comfort of her arms—if she didn’t try to knife him with one of his cheap kitchen blades, that is.

Wincing at the bright strobe of holomarquees, he stopped in for a drink at Raly’s on his way back to the apartment. He hadn’t been in for several nights, careful not to establish any routine that he could be tracked by.

The bar was nearly empty, the few patrons deep in their own drink. After pouring them both a small whiskey, Tok let him know two different pairs had been asking about Lode.

“The first were gangers, I think,” Tok said. “Had the look of those GloJacs, even though no jackets in sight. They threatened to break out our window—until Raly showed them her big weapon. The second group … I don’t know. Military, maybe. But they had a holovid, and offered a hefty reward for intel about you, and for keeping quiet about their inquiry.”

Since Lode had killed two GloJacs that night and wounded another—mortally, he hoped, he was not surprised they’d stepped up their search for him. It helped that they were arrogant, thinking the city dwellers so awed that all they had to do was bluster and smash a few windows.

But the other group worried him. Were they the ones who destroyed him—or tried to—come to finish him off? And with Kiri’s brother and his allies searching for him as well, now he had three different groups after him.

Could he find his own answers before one of them got to him? And just as importantly, could he keep her safe through it all?

But as he turned the corner, staying well in the deepest shadows to scan the street before stepping out, he froze, then cursed harshly, rage boiling up through him.

Two armored cop sliders were parked in the middle of the street, and two helmeted, uniformed officers were helping a small, slender woman with short, dark hair into one—Kiri. As he watched, the hatches closed, and the vehicles lifted off.

A lone man armed only with lasers could do nothing against their fire-power. He’d had his dream woman for only a night, and he’d already lost her.

“No-oo!” he roared into the darkness. Footsteps scurried away, some denizen of the night frightened from the shelter of a doorway. He ignored them.

His eyes filled with strange, hot moisture, and for a moment he sagged against the mildewed, stinking wall behind him.

Why the quark should he care anymore about finding answers, or anything else for that matter? For one hot, glorious moment he’d had something in his grasp that made this cold, wet hell worth living in … but she’d fled from him. After taking him into her arms, into her body, and giving him a pleasure so great it finally let him relax, at least for a time, she’d turned her back on him. Why had she run away? Didn’t she understand he’d kill or die to keep her safe at his side?

He straightened, and turned back the way he’d come, letting his fury and hurt morph into cold rage. Nothing mattered but assuaging it, and the best way to do that was to bathe it in blood. Others, his own … he no longer cared.

* * *

Logan had been gone for over two hours by the time Liss finally fell asleep.

Kiri stayed quietly in the bedroom, watching from the shadows as the blonde lounged on the divan, drinking wine and watching a holovid, which ironically was of a lonely shifter who kidnapped a brunette human, bearing her off to his remote stronghold to be his bride.

The brunette actress spent most of the vid with her enhanced breasts on display, emoting such great lines as ‘Oooh!’ and ‘No, stop!’ except that of course her eyes and body conveyed the opposite. Kiri wished the male lead would just toss the airhead off the ramparts of his castle and free the audience and himself from that cooing little voice.

As the pair clinched at the end, Kiri glowered at Liss’ profile. “Come on, go to sleep, bitch. What are you, a bottomless well of wine?” She was so sleepy herself that she had to keep pinching herself, the tiny pain keeping her awake.

When Liss’ head finally lolled onto the back of the divan and she began to snore, Kiri shot off the bed. She left her blanket behind, and stole naked from Logan’s room. She held her breath as she tiptoed past Liss into her tiny bedroom. It was furnished entirely in red and metallics, and looked as if a cheap jewelry kiosk had exploded. It reeked of Liss’ heavy perfume.

Kiri couldn’t find her own things, and she didn’t have time to look. The bitch had probably hidden them to sell. Luckily Liss didn’t believe in putting her own things away. Kiri dressed hastily in the first garments she found, a stretchy black catsuit that was too big, especially in the chest. Then she found a pair of boots, black stilettos, but all Kiri saw were other similar high heels strewn around the tiny room, so she kept the first pair. She grabbed a jacket and two of the scarves that were draped everywhere.

Carrying the boots, jacket and scarves, she ghosted back into the sitting room. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that the laser now lay on the divan beside Liss, the cerametal winking at Kiri.

Kiri tiptoed over to pick it up, and with it aimed at the sleeping blonde, backed cautiously away from the divan to the apartment door.

She turned her head, eyeing the lock. Hells, it was a keypad. She sighed with irritation.

“Liss!” she yelled. “Wake up!”

The blonde sat up with a jerk, and gaped at Kiri. “Hey,” she mumbled. “You’re not s’posed to have the laser. Give it back.”

Kiri aimed and fired. The laser beam struck the other end of the divan, and the cheap fabric melted and began to smoke.

Liss let out a drunken shriek. “You shot my divan!”

“Tell me the code to open this door, or the next shot is for you,” Kiri said.

Liss believed her. “Um—three-seven-four-one-one,” she said quickly, lifting her hands to her chest. “Don’t shoot me.”

“Only if this doesn’t work,” Kiri assured her. She tapped the numbers into the keypad, and the lock clicked open. She pulled it open, cast a quick look out at the hallway, which thank God was empty, and backed out of the apartment. “Don’t try to follow me. I won’t miss my next shot. Oh, and tell Lode he can kiss my ass!”

Then she slammed the door—which was not alarmed the way he’d threatened—and raced down the narrow passageway to the elevators, praying none of the apartment’s denizens would appear, and especially not Logan.

She stuffed the scarves into the toes of the boots, because Liss’ feet were a lot bigger than hers, yanked them on, pulled on the jacket, and linked the police.

Her original plan had been to link Kai first, but she did not want her brother flying into what might be a deadly situation. As cold and weirdly as Logan had behaved toward her, Kiri wasn’t sure he wouldn’t attack Kai.

As she exited the apartment building, she caught the gaze of a lone passerby sauntering along the street, a Pangaean from the look of him. Looking down, she realized Liss’ garish jacket was glittering in the reflective lights of a passing slider. She stepped back out of sight, grimacing at the stench—the space was clearly a handy latrine for locals.

She remained in her hidey-hole, gripping the laser till her hand shook. Shooting a divan was one thing—shooting a live being entirely different. She prayed she wouldn’t have to do so.

The Pangaean walked on, and she sagged against the wall, her legs rubbery with relief. But she wasn’t out of danger yet. After living here most of her life, she knew exactly what kind of predators stalked these streets, and Logan might return at any moment too. Please, please let the cops come soon.

Two NSPD sliders arrived within moments. Kiri breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw their lights flash through the fog. But as they set down in the middle of the street and the hatches open, disgorging uniformed officers, a wave of sorrow and anger hit her as well.

Because it was Logan from whom she was fleeing.

As she teetered out into the street in her too-big stilettos, she saw a tall man rounding the corner. It was him! She scurried faster, skidding to a halt by the slider.