Born of Ice

“Other than being stuck with Zarina, yeah. Taryn wants me to head out to you in a fighter so that you have at least one of us at your back.”


“No.” He glanced around, wondering if someone was listening in on them right now. If they were, he wasn’t about to give them anything they could use. “I don’t need any more supplies. We’re doing good on groceries.”

“You conniving little bastard. I gotcha. We can still send someone else in.”

“That’s all right. We don’t eat that much. We’re really careful with the garbage, and I have more than one compactor on board to take care of it.”

“I get it. But you need us . . . you have Nero get word out, preferably in time for us to actually help you, and as soon as we can, we’ll rendezvous.”

“Yeah, takeout works. It’s been awhile, but I could use some.”

Sphinx laughed. “All right. Watch your back.”

“You, too.” Devyn clicked off the link and ground his teeth in anger.

This was getting fugly.

He switched his console on to record Paden’s current porn channel before he went to inform his crew that they might be bugged, too. Which made sense. What better evidence than to have them in their own voices chatting about illegal activities. And as he walked, worry set in. What had he said to Alix? Had he admitted to doing anything illegal?

Dammit, he was always so careful about that. But had he fucked up?

He was sure he had. The only question was, who had heard it and had they recorded it?

Your luck . . . you know they did.

I am such an idiot.

He knew it was always a possibility and yet . . . in the comfort of his own ship, it was easy to forget that anyone could theoretically access their audio. Because of the complexities of it, most people didn’t.

But they could . . .

Disgusted with his carelessness, he found Sway on the bridge, sexing with his wife over the audio. Great. Everyone was having sex tonight but him.

Well, if anyone was listening in on their equipment, Sway’s foreplay should screw with their heads. He cleared his throat just as Claria verbally licked a part of Sway’s anatomy that Devyn didn’t even want to think about.

Sway sat up straight and threw the mute on. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“My ship, and last time I checked, I was captain. Sorry for the coitus interruptus. While I’m glad you two have made up, we have a situation. I need you to say good-bye to the wife, throw on the autopilot, grab Vik and Nero, and meet me in the command room.” Without waiting for confirmation, he reversed direction and went to find Alix and Omari.

They were in the galley, talking with the door open. He paused as he heard his name.

“I think your father’s wonderful, but I’m not stupid, Omari. I know what happens to slaves like me. All I want is to save my sister and my mother if possible. What happens to me isn’t important. I just don’t want Tempest to get hurt any worse.”

“We’re not going to let you get hurt, either.”

“I know you have the best intentions. But I don’t believe in dreams. Only reality, and it’s a very harsh thing.”

Manashe stuck his head up as he finally caught a whiff of Devyn. Sitting up, he wagged his tail, alerting Omari that they weren’t alone.

Devyn walked forward to pet the dog’s head. He motioned for them to remain quiet before he led them to the conference room. The others were already there and seated.

Vik scowled. “What’s going on?”

Devyn didn’t answer as he picked the loudest, most offensive music he had to blast over the intercom.

Alix and Nero flinched and covered their ears.

“What the hell is this shit?” Nero growled.

Devyn picked up the pad from the table and disconnected it from the computer so that his words wouldn’t enter their possibly compromised network. He wrote on it.

Taryn has been arrested. Starla is being detained. We have reason to believe we’re being spied on. Everything we say is compromised.

He passed the pad around the group, one by one, so that they could read it.

Sway switched to military sign language, but Devyn stopped him. He motioned to the vidcams.

Vik rolled his eyes before he plugged into the network slot in the wall. “For shit’s sake . . . there.” The music stopped instantly. “I have the room secured.”

Devyn looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Could my father access us?”

“Probably.”

Devyn held up his pad. “Then we use this . . . Just in case.”

That paranoid or that bad? Nero’s voice exploded in his head.

He looked at Nero and shot his thoughts back at him. That bad.

Nero nodded. Anything I can do?

Get out of my head and let me think while I write.

Nero held his hands up in surrender before he crossed his arms and waited for Devyn to write out what was going on. Once he was finished, he passed the pad around for everyone.

I know we’re heading into a trap. I want Omari off the ship immediately. Nero, can you launch an escape pod and take him?

“Oh, hell no!” Omari snarled as soon as he saw it. “Forget it.”