When Sparks Fly (18 page)

“He does?” Gem interrupted, shocked.

Zsak frowned. Maybe he ought to have kept
that nugget for himself.

“
Anyway,
he gets word that Jean Luc
is making a bundle selling spiked beer, beer used to export an
illegal substance. He tries to get Jean to come work for him, but
Luc is cautious, doesn’t want to draw attention to himself. He
refuses, in fact, so Cirrus tries to beat the recipe out of him
through Hamish Nasser. Later he kills Hamish to cover his
tracks.”

Gem shook her head. “Is any of this
possible? Is it all conjecture, or fantasy? And are you supposed to
be telling us?” She stared at him in incredulity. “I’d think you’d
get in trouble with someone.”

Zsak shook his head. “I’m only sharing the
barest details. The important thing for your safety is that that
the big boys, the heavy drug runners, see you as competition. Jean
Luc may have been the manufacturer, but you distributed the beer,
ran the actual business. Naturally they think you’re involved. They
want to eliminate the competition, so they sent a sniper. Luckily
for you, Blue was in place and saved your life.”

“He was investigating us,” Gem muttered.

“He was trying to find the source of the
drugs, yes. You’ve got to understand the misery this stuff is
causing; people have died from it, and even if you live…well, it
ruins lives. Blue and I want to stop that from happening, and he’s
got more incentive than most.”

“How is that?” Gem snapped. She wondered if
it had anything to do with her, and if she should be worried.

Zsak considered, as if he could guess her
thoughts. He took his time about replying. “Blue grew up in the
slums of Enjor. His father was an addict. It made life at home
pretty rough.”

Gem digested that. “He told me he was kicked
out pretty young.”

“He told you that?”

“Why are you surprised?”

“He’s usually so quiet about his past. I
wouldn’t have thought he’d open up to you.”

Zsak looked so speculative that she couldn’t
hold his gaze, not with Xera sharing the same expression. Gem
studied the table. She didn’t really want to think about this now,
not with witnesses.

Brandy grunted and swung the conversation
back on track. “So, what about these ‘big boys’? These smugglers.
How do we convince them we’re not competition?”

Zsak smiled grimly. “We put you on
trial.”

Chapter 13

Xera stared at Zsak silently for a moment.
“You know, Officer, so far I’m not liking your solution.”

“Hear me out,” he implored. “If they think
you’re going down, they might pull back the assassins. Why waste
manpower and money when the law will take care of their problems
for them? And with luck, the law will decide you’re harmless and
back off.”

“And without luck?”

Zsak shook his finger at her. “Don’t be a
jinx.”

“She has a point,” Gem spoke up. “You’re
talking about a lot of bad publicity. It will be hard on business.”
More to the point, she didn’t want her family’s name sullied like
that.

Zsak shook his head. “You’ll have to testify
at trial, anyway; or are you forgetting that it’s your brewmaster
who’s up on charges? Right now the investigation’s centered around
him and your sister Brandy, but that can change.”

“Brandy is innocent,” Xera interrupted
hotly. “Why does she have to go through this?”

He pinned her with his eyes. “We have to
prove she’s innocent, or at least that she was working under
duress. That’s the way the law works. At least, that’s how it works
when you’ve been covering for a drug smuggler.”

Xera muttered under her breath and turned
away.

Gem wasn’t happy, either, but there wasn’t
much choice. She tried to look at the bright side: “At least we’ll
have time to catch our breath. The trial is probably months
away.”

“Weeks,” Zsak corrected. “Strings were
pulled.”

Gem stared at him. “Weeks? That’s not
possible!”

“Anything is possible under the right
circumstances. We have all the information we need to prosecute,
and HQ decided it would be less expensive to move the case up the
docket than spend money and manpower guarding you. Some minor cases
were rescheduled. You’ve got three weeks to choose a lawyer and
prepare for the trial.”

Gem hissed. Three weeks of broiling
pressure? Now? What else would she have to take?

Xera put a steadying hand on her shoulder.
Her silent strength was surprisingly soothing. “We’ll get through
this, sis,” she promised.

“Yes, you will,” Zsak assured them. Maybe he
didn’t care for the tense atmosphere, for he added, “I have a
feeling you’ll do all right. Meanwhile, we’re moving you and your
sister Brandy to another location. Somewhere more secure. You’ll be
safe there until the trial.”

“Moving us? Where?” Gem asked. She was tired
of surprises.

Xera smiled, but there was mockery in her
eyes. “You mean you can do better than a hotel room?”

“This isn’t a hotel,” Zsak said, with a
sweet smile of his own. “Why do you think you haven’t been allowed
to see where we are, why you’ve been escorted in and out whenever
you want to leave? But yes, we do have something else in mind.”

“Bring it,” Xera said. “Preferably before I
die of boredom.”

Gem would have cause to remind her of
that.

“I can’t believe we’re stuck on
his
ship.”

Gem looked at Xera in resignation. If it
wasn’t Brandy saying it, her other sister was chiming in. Nobody
was happy about being stuck on a starship with Detective Azor. Even
though it was a large vessel, they saw far too much of the man.

“He’s like a cold, dead fish,” Brandy chimed
in. “One with teeth, of course. Big, sharp, pointy ones.”
Denigrating Azor was one of her favorite pastimes.

“Grim,” Xera agreed. “I don’t know why they
couldn’t have sent Zsak instead.”

“Zsak wanted to stay near Blue,” Brandy
pointed out, giving a sideways glance at Gem.

Gem looked away. She hadn’t spoken to or
about Blue in days, not since she’d seen him in the hospital and
given him grief. It was starting to wear on her conscience, the way
she’d treated him. He was right that he’d saved her life, no matter
what lies he’d told. He’d taken a bullet for her. Cooling anger had
a way of leaving regrets.

“It’s not as if Blue could leave the
hospital yet,” Brandy continued, blithely rubbing it in. She’d
decided to take up the cop’s cause, having cast him as the hapless
hero in this drama. It was unclear why she championed him but
despised Azor. Then again, for a villain, Azor was admirable pretty
good choice. He had the bedside manner of a stick. As far as Gem
could see, he had absolutely no redeeming personality traits. If
she wasn’t so sick of her sister’s complaining, she’d have been
tempted to join in maligning him.

Brandy stared at Gem, asking, “How long
until our next teleconference with our lawyer?” She was
understandably obsessed with the woman’s progress.

“Not for a while. But you read the last
email. She seems to be doing well,” Gem soothed. The woman was
expensive, but she’d come highly recommended. Hiring her had been
one of their last actions before leaving Polaris.

“You need to get your mind off it,” Xera
said. She stood up and grabbed her sister’s wheelchair, then pushed
it over to Brandy’s bed. “Why don’t we go for a walk?”

Brandy groaned. “There’s nothing to see
here. Besides, we’ve already gone for a walk today; twice.”

Xera flipped the covers off Brandy’s legs.
“Then we’ll go a third time. Sitting around moping won’t help you
any. Besides, we haven’t toured the bridge yet, and the captain
said I could take you around it today. After that I’ll take you
down to the flight simulators and teach you how to fly.”

“My hands are broken,” Brandy said tersely,
as if Xera hadn’t noticed.

“Your head is going to be broken, too, if
you don’t stop feeling sorry for yourself.” Xera calmly helped her
sullen sister into her chair. She then wheeled her out of the room.
“Coming?” she called to Gem from the hallway.

Gem trailed along, feeling oddly as if she
were on vacation. Other than trial preparations, which were largely
out of her hands, she had nothing pressing. She’d spent some of the
time working out with Xera, some playing games with her sisters and
some watching movies. While there were moments of boredom, she had
to admit the free time was rather nice.

The rough, rubberized surface under her feet
dulled any echoes in the ship. The craft was large, military in
design, built for function. There were precious few frills onboard,
though Gem did enjoy the occasional glimpse of stars out the port
windows. Sometimes she just stood and admired those points of icy
fire, imagined that they were diamonds of light on a coverlet of
black velvet. It was soothing to let her mind wander in such
ways.

Even though the circumstances were not
ideal, she enjoyed the recaptured time with her sisters. Knowing
that they would again go their separate ways (assuming everything
went according to plan) made their interaction even more precious.
Xera would again leave with the Galactic Explorers, and Brandy
would eventually vanish, too. Gem had realized this over the past
few weeks. She’d also discovered that what made The Spark precious
was her family. When her family was gone…

She shook her head. She didn’t think she’d
toss the inn aside, but maybe this was a wake-up call. It was
surely time she made room in her life for more.

It was a little embarrassing to find that
she wasn’t sure how to go about building a social life. How did
people make friends? Real friends, and not employees? There was a
big difference when you weren’t focused on efficiency and
expedience. She wasn’t sure she was prepared for it.

She thought about Blue and sighed. It was
the fourth time in the past hour. She was going to have to do
something about that man. Did she owe him an apology? It was hard
to reconcile her anger over his deceit with her concern for his
injury. There was no question she owed him gratitude for the
latter.

Why had he seduced her, though? She was
confused and hurt over that. Had he really desired her, or had he
been cold enough to manipulate her to further his investigation?
She couldn’t see how it would have helped him. From her point of
view, she’d have thought it would have complicated his life.

Zsak had hinted that Blue was in love with
her. Maybe she was softhearted, but she couldn’t see him leading
her on. If Blue loved her…She shook her head. She was going to have
to confront him sometime. Later, though. After she’d considered the
situation for a while.

Honestly, what could she say to the man?

“Man, you’ve got to snap out of it,” Zsak
remarked with concern. “The doctors say you’re setting back your
recovery with all this tension.”

Blue looked silently at his partner. He
didn’t want to talk about it.

Zsak shifted uncomfortably. He’d always
hated being the go-between, but he viewed this as a necessary evil.
“Xera says Gem is depressed. She says that whenever she tries to be
upbeat, she gets a smackdown. Even Brandy is trying to cheer Gem
up, which is really saying something. I can’t imagine what that
looks like.”

Blue glanced at him sideways.

Zsak sighed. There was nothing for it but to
be honest, especially since he’d been equally honest with Gem. “I
think she loves you. This thing with her…I think it will pass.”

Blue grunted. “Not one lousy call. She chews
me out and then leaves. She’s cutting her losses and not looking
back.”

“Or she’s nursing a wounded heart. Look, why
don’t
you
call
her?”

Blue’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t into
begging. He’d never done it in his life. “She won’t talk to
me.”

“But you haven’t even tried to call
her!”

“I’ve thought about it,” Blue remarked.

Zsak scratched the back of his neck. He let
his gaze travel around the barren room. “Maybe you could send a
gesture of some kind. You know, something she can’t return.
Something to make her feel guilty for ignoring you…soften her up.
Women always like feeling wooed.” He grinned.

“She’s on a starship. What could I send? And
how?” Blue was tired of doing nothing, however. Maybe it couldn’t
hurt.

Zsak thought a moment, then grinned. “I have
the perfect idea.”

Gem stared incredulously at the quartet of
singing crewmen. They’d come up to her in the mess hall and told
her they had a message from someone who was thinking of her. And
then, just like that, they’d burst into a love song.

Xera looked at them before glancing at her
sister with unholy glee. “Betcha I know who that’s from.” She
laughed.

Gem shook her head in disbelief. “He
wouldn’t.”

The lads finished their song and bowed to
the thunderous applause of the crew; live entertainment was always
welcome aboard ship. “Blue says hello. This is from him,” their
leader explained with a grin. He handed her a greeting card and
left to get his dinner.

Gem drew a sharp breath. She stared down at
the card, almost afraid to see what it might say. When Xera reached
for it, however, she blocked her sister’s hand and slowly opened
the envelope. It said simply, “We’re not done.”

Xera read over her shoulder. “Well!”

Gem flushed and folded the card closed. “I
guess I should call him.”

Brandy had watched the scene with interest.
She awkwardly put a potato chip in her mouth. “Yeah. No telling
what he’ll have the crew do next if you ignore him. Maybe it will
be acrobats.”

The thought was enough to galvanize Gem. She
found herself at a message center a few minutes later. She stared
at the communication device, but couldn’t think of what she would
say if she spoke to Blue in real time. It’d be so awkward, and
fighting for words didn’t appeal to her. Besides, there was always
that horrible lag when talking from a ship…