Born of Ice

I love her.

In spite of the lies. The deceit and aggravation. In spite of everything, this woman meant the world to him. And he didn’t want to see her hurt.

“I don’t want to lose you, Alix.”

“Then you understand how I feel about you.”

He pulled her lips to his for a quick kiss. “All right. We’ll do this together, then.”

She inclined her head to him. “Together.”

But then he realized exactly how many enforcers had been sent after them. It was actually ridiculous to go to this kind of effort for a runner. There were far worse criminals in the universe.

Hell, he was related to most of them.

The attention would have been flattering had he been in a better mood. As it was . . .

He wanted to kick their asses into oblivion.

Alix led him to a small dip in the woods where they had some degree of protection from their pursuers. “I think I have an idea. Can you fly one of their airbees?”

“Yeah.”

She nodded and he could see her calculating something in her head. “How much charge do you have in your blaster?”

“Three-quarters.”

She smiled. “All right, then. Let’s play dead.”

Devyn wasn’t sure about her plan as she had him lie down on the grass. She lay by his side. He had an idea of what she wanted, but he’d rather blast his way out.

Trust her. Something much easier said than done, but in the end, he listened.

Within seconds, the probers were there to check on them. Devyn waited until the first one got off his airbee and came over. The moment he touched Devyn, Devyn grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. His partner shot, searing the blast across the man’s chest.

He screamed as he went down. Devyn pulled his blaster out and shot the other one. He grabbed the link from the one who’d fallen closest to him and put it in his ear so that he could keep tabs on the others.

“They’re headed this way.”

Alix nodded as she slid onto the seat of the airbee. Devyn got on in front of her. Wrapping her arms around his lean waist, she slid closer to him and held tight while she tried to ignore how good he felt in her arms.

Devyn kicked the thrusters into high gear. They rose up and shot forward at a speed that was terrifying. While she’d seen airbees before, she’d never actually ridden one.

This was scary.

And as the enforcers realized that there were two of them on it, they gave chase.

“Hold on tight,” Devyn warned.

Alix buried her face against his shoulder and locked herself around him with both her knees and her arms.

Devyn shot through the brush, hoping to shake the enforcers off them. But that was no easy feat. Especially given the fact that with two peole, they were at a severe speed disadvantage. Airbees were designed for a single rider, and while Alix didn’t weigh that much, it was enough to be deadly to them.

Through the link, he could hear that they were setting up a trap for them.

He shot left, away from the trap, deeper into the woods. The little bastards weren’t making this easy for him.

Why should they?

’Cause I don’t want to die . . .

And as the enforcers closed in, he began to see a dismal end to their chase.

Until Alix drew his blaster from his holster and opened fire on them.

To his shock, she was an amazing shot as she took them down one by one.

“Girl, you’ve been holding out on me.”

She laughed in his ear. “I was my father’s gunner.”

“I can tell.”

Laughing, Devyn headed for the town. It didn’t take long to reach it, but as they pulled in, he realized it was crawling with their enemies. Everywhere he looked, he saw a uniformed officer, either local or League.

Damn, who would have thought . . .

He abandoned the stolen bee in a full lot, so that hopefully it wouldn’t be found for awhile.

Alix glanced around nervously. “You think the others have been caught?”

“No. Nothing’s been said through their link. They’re still hunting all of us.”

Alix let out a breath in relief. “Where do you think they are?”

“Hopefully somewhere waiting on us.”

They skirted around a group of enforcers who were questioning the locals.

“There they are!”

Devyn let fly an expletive that made her blush before he pulled her down an alley. The guards fired shots that narrowly missed them.

He turned to the right and ran down an even tighter alley that turned sharply to the left. Alix ran in front of him until she got to a fence that cut her off.

Devyn picked her up. “Climb.”

She moved as fast as she could until she was on the other side. He landed beside her. Leaning back against the fence, he clutched at his chest as if his heart was hurting.

“They’re calling in reinforcements.”

Her stomach sank.

Devyn pulled her toward a building on her left where he quickly picked the lock and let her in. They ran down the hallway to a small lobby.

“Freeze!”

She turned and gasped.

It was Whelms, and his blaster was aimed straight for Devyn’s head.





CHAPTER 13