Thief (27 page)

“I never lied to you.” She may have danced around the edges of the truth, like she’d done at Michael’s, but she’d never once outright lied to him about who she was. When he’d asked, she’d told him she’d been in the military for five years. She just never specified which military.

Jace dismissed her claim with a roll of his eyes. “I guess it’s my fault for not asking the right questions.”

“What did you expect me to do? Blurt it out the first time I laid eyes on you? I was afraid to tell you. Afraid of what you’d think of me.” She struggled in her handcuffs. “Afraid of what you’d do to me.”

Heller yanked up, but she refused to even wince.

“You should be afraid. If you feel anything right now, which is probably a real reach for an IWOG fetch, you best feel stark terror. Because I got a world of possibilities at my fingertips, Julie. I could do anything I want to you. Maybe I’ll turn you in for the reward.”

“I’ve already given you ten times that. I’m willing to give you fifty times it or more.”

“I’ve been harboring an IWOG fetch.” Jace leaned close to her face. “One I actually paid good money to save. You think any amount of script is going to pay me back for that?”

A tremble raced through her.

“I’ll bet there’s a boatload of folks who’d pay handsomely for you, given the sum total of your skills: Fairing’s cook, an object reader and a fully trained IWOG assassin. You’re worth a fortune.”

He touched her face possessively and she flinched.

“Perhaps my little investment with Trickster wasn’t such a bad one after all. I could parlay you into a hefty retirement fund. Go legitimate, like you suggested.”

“Do you have any idea what will happen to me?” Her belly clutched at just the fleeting thought.

“What do I care?” He shrugged and winked. “I got my use out of you.”

She closed her eyes, wishing that when she opened them, she’d be almost anywhere but here.

“And I’ve got no problem selling a heartless killer back to her own kind.”

“You don’t understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t. I don’t understand how anyone could willingly work for those bastards. Frankly? I don’t want to wrap my head around such a conundrum because I really don’t care. You’re lucky I didn’t just blow your worthless head off when you walked in here.”

Kraft nodded, amazed she was still alive. Apparently, the Void wanted her last hours to be filled with nothing short of pure misery. “What are you going to do with me?”

“I have to collect some bids. And thanks to you, I got plenty of money, therefore, plenty of time to decide who I’m going to sell you to.”

Jace ordered Heller to escort her to her room. Jace had prepared it by stripping the room of everything but the bed, the table and a chair. Jace took her inside while Heller stood guard at the doorway.

“Okay, Julie, this is the drill—I’m going to un-cuff you then re-cuff you with the longer pair. If you so much as wink, Heller here is going to blow your head off. We clear?”

Kraft looked into Jace’s deadly-serious eyes, then down the barrel of Heller’s gun. Heller would gladly blow her away at the slightest provocation. “Crystal clear, Captain Lawless.”

Jace slipped off the cuffs then slipped on a pair with a long chain that looped to one of the huge, exposed pipes. “Hands up, Julie.”

Kraft lifted her hands and Jace removed her belt of blades. He tossed them on the bed then opened her shirt to get at her money belt. He slipped that off and tossed it to the bed. He didn’t bother to button up her shirt.

“Enjoying the view?” She nodded to the bed. “You leave that in here for me, or you?”

Jace’s eyes narrowed at her suggestive tone. “Heller, take her stuff and stow it in my bunk. I think little Julie and I need some alone time.”

Heller leered at her, scooped up her gear and left.

Jace slapped the com and locked the door. “You think I’d toss it all aside for another tumble with you?”

“No, I’m just wondering how much you’re going to wring from me before you toss me to the wolves. You seem to be a man who’s mighty concerned about getting his money’s worth. So, tell me, are you going to make me cook and fight while you hold me captive for sale, or just whore?”

“Perhaps.” Jace stepped forward and unbuttoned another of the small black buttons on her shirt.

“You’ve got a dark streak in you, Captain Lawless. Just the thought of having me at your tender mercies is making you harder than that gun at your hip.”

“Maybe it’s the thought of killing an IWOG bitch that’s got me all hot and bothered.” He grabbed her wrists. “And I ain’t letting you get your hands on my hardware.”

“Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

“I thought being called a girl would make your head explode.”

“That was Danna, not me. The only thing I don’t like being called is Julie, which will ensure that’s all you’ll call me.”

He yanked her against his body. He looked down into her face. “You really want to explore my dark side? You might want to think carefully about that. I’ve got a powerful hate for anything IWOG.”

“So do I.”

“Maybe you’re as hot as a firecracker because you think once you get me between your legs you can kill me.”

“Why would I do that?” She undulated against him. “I want all that anger and fury pounding into my body. So do you.”

Jace kissed her hard and merciless. Even knowing what she was, he still wanted her. With a gasping groan, he pushed her away and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Deny it to yourself, but you still want me, Captain Lawless.”

“You’re my big payday, nothing more. Maybe I’ll sell you to Michael for 15Mil. I wonder what he’d do to you if he knew you were IWOG scum. Because, surely, he doesn’t know.”

“No, he doesn’t, but I thought you were too honorable to sell me to a man who—”

“I no longer care.” He slapped the com and the door opened. “And apparently there really isn’t any honor among thieves.”

Jace kept her chained up in her room. She searched it from top to bottom, but didn’t find anything she could use to escape.

Her chain allowed her the run of the room and the bathroom, but not a one of her considerable skills would get her out of this fix. Even with the right tools it would take hours to pick the lock on the cuffs. A week with a very sharp file would hardly make a dent in the thick chain. She’d have better luck trying to teleport herself off the ship than she would bringing down the pipe her chain was affixed to. The pipe was made of durosteel and was as thick as her thigh.

Jace had put some serious thought into keeping her captive.

“That man is so much more than pretty.” She shook her head and looked around the room for the umpteenth time, hoping against hope she had failed to see something she could use to get out. “Even if I do get out of here, where the hell am I going to go?”

“That’s why you’re not getting out of here.” Jace entered the room with a plate of food. “If you did, you’d kill me and my crew and steal
Mutiny
.” He set the food down on the table.

“Lord on high! If I wanted to steal your ship don’t you think I would have done it when I had the run of it? Don’t you think I would have done it then when it was a mite simpler? Or hell, maybe you think I’m insane and really like to challenge myself.” She flung her arms up and the chain clinked merrily.

“Or maybe I just think you didn’t have a compelling enough reason until now.”

“Ah, yes, trust issues. I’ve treated you so horribly since the moment I met you. I only saved your life—how many times?”

“How do you justify being an IWOG assassin?”

“I don’t.”

“You mean you can’t.” Jace crossed his arms.

“That too.”

“What did you think I was going to do when I found out?”

“I didn’t give it much thought.”

“You didn’t think I’d ever find out.”

“I’d hoped.”

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. She refused to fight back. She went limp and closed her eyes in resignation.

Jace let her go. “You don’t even care, do you?” His breath came in short, painful gasps.

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t see why I should. I don’t have any control over what you do, knowing my truth or not.”

“It changes everything.”

“Does it.” She spoke without asking a question.

“Stop doing that.” He clenched his hands to fists to keep from shaking her again.

“Just tell me what you want and I’ll do it.”

“How dare you turn this back on me!”

“That’s exactly what this is about.”

“It’s about me? You unbelievable—”

“Bitch? Fetch? IWOG ditto-head?”

“Stop it!”

“Got ya. It’s okay for you to call me all those names, but I can’t do it.” She took a deep breath. “How does this grab you? I’m nothing but a worthless IWOG fetching ditto-headed bitch.”

Jace recoiled.

“Too much or not enough?”

“This isn’t going to work.”

She laughed. “You seem staggered that I agree with you. Oh, I get it. You thought I was going to stand here and
defend
myself. Well, you know I’m not an idiot. Why the hell would I waste my time? You don’t want to hear an explanation. Even if you did, you wouldn’t believe it. There’s nothing I could say that would justify my life to you. And frankly? I thought you’d seen enough of my present that my past wouldn’t color me that darkly.”

“I never could manage to look through black.”

Kraft tilted her head curiously. “The black of my past invalidates everything I’ve done since I left the IWOG eight years ago.” She nodded. “Hell, I guess I should have just stayed with them. According to your philosophy, what’s the point of correcting a mistake?”

“A mistake? That’s what you call it?”

Kraft shrugged. “Okay, a big mistake.”

“You killed innocent people!”

“Did I.”

Jace shook his head as if one of them was completely insane and he was utterly baffled as to which one.

“You seem to be of the mind you know my whole life story so why don’t you just tell it to me.”

“Stop turning this back on me.”

“Again, Captain Lawless, this is more about you than me. I’ve dealt with what I did, you haven’t. All you hear is IWOG assassin and that sets you to hating me.”

“Did you think it was likely to do any else?”

“No, I didn’t. But I thought you knew
me
. I thought you knew enough about me that maybe you’d ask first before you condemned me. But, hell, I guess it doesn’t matter who I am to you. Seems to matter a hell of a lot more who I
was
.”

Jace considered the floor for a moment, glanced up at her face, then to her restraints. With a wince, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Kraft felt sorry for them both. It seemed inevitable that they would dance this terribly awkward painful dance and she wondered how deeply their daggers were going to cut.

Chapter Twenty-three

Jace brought in a plate of food. The last plate sat congealed and untouched.

“Hunger strike?”

“Yeah.” Kraft nodded from her cross-legged position on the narrow bed. “I’ve opted for slow death rather than an instant death by eating that garbage.”

“You think it’s poisoned?”

She snorted laughter. “I wouldn’t feed that dreck to my worst enemy.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “If it smells that bad, how good could it possibly taste?”

“It’ll keep you alive.”

“Well there’s a selling point.” She rolled her eyes. “I should eat that garbage because I’ve got so much to live for.” She made a face at the food then laughed. “Do me a favor, Captain Lawless, if you’re not going to kill me outright, at least don’t try to kill me with a sorry excuse for a meal. Let me cook.” Kraft flung up her arms and the thick chain danced and clanged against the metal frame of the bed. “Hell,
make
me cook. I’d rather do that than just sit here contemplating my navel.”

Heller leaned into the room. “Chaining her to the stove ain’t a bad idea. I wouldn’t be against putting her through her paces in here either.” Heller cupped his crotch and leered at her.

“Come near me with that in mind, and I’ll kill you.” Kraft said it utterly deadpan. “I won’t even think twice.”

Heller flinched then pointed his gun at her head. He cocked it and the click resounded in the mostly bare room.

“Pull the trigger.” She lifted her hands, palm open, to her shoulders. “If I’m dead you can do whatever you want to me, because at that point I will cease to care. But you damn well better make sure I’m dead first.”

“Maybe I’ll get a little something from the doctor,” Heller threatened.

“Payton better be awful quick. Anyone comes at me with a loaded syringe and I’m apt jam it in their eye.”

“Really?” Jace asked. When she turned her razor gaze on him, he almost flinched. Bound, Kraft seemed far more dangerous than when she’d been free. Confinement did not sit well with her, and captivity not at all. But in her eyes he saw her weakness. When she’d glared at Heller, she’d meant every word she said. But now, when she looked into his eyes, Jace saw the smallest flicker of doubt. “If I came at you with a loaded syringe, would you jam it in my eye?”

When she hesitated, he smiled. “Heller? Go get Payton. Tell her to bring her bag.”

Heller’s leer about split his face. Thundering footsteps pounded down the hall to the infirmary.

“You wouldn’t.” Her face went pale.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.”

“I’ll give you the only thing I have left.”

“I’m not much interested in your honor at this point.”

“What about my love?”

Jace didn’t move a muscle as he contemplated Kraft, sitting motionless on her bare prison mattress. A part of him wanted to believe that she loved him, but he feared it was only a trick to get him to relax his guard.

Heller almost shoved Payton into the room. Her hair was in wild disarray, a cloud of strawberry blond around her startled green eyes.

Casually, Jace turned to Payton and said, “She’s got scratches on her wrists that need tending to.” He turned and walked away.

“Aw, Jace!” Heller whined, following him.

Kraft let out a wavering sigh of relief.