Hotbloods 6: Allies

“Do you know where it is?”

It was only then that I realized I had no clothes on, except my underwear. “Please tell me that you did this, and I wasn’t running around naked?”

Navan laughed. “I undressed you. I didn’t want you falling asleep in your clothes.”

“Where are my pants?”

Navan picked them up off the floor and handed them to me. Frowning, I rifled around in the pockets and found a screwed-up ball of paper in the depths of one of them. I remembered Kirin saying something about drawing the Salty Siren’s location on a map for me, but I couldn’t remember her actually doing it. And yet, I held the evidence in my hands. There, before my very eyes, was a hand-drawn map, showing the route from The Empty Purse to the Salty Siren. To my relief, I found the chunk of opaleine that Cambien had given me, too, tucked away for safe-keeping—my drunken self hadn’t let me down.

“What’s that?” Navan asked.

“Directions to Stone’s hangout. Seems my drunken mind can still do a few things right,” I said, relieved.

“We’ll keep an eye on the compass in that location and see if another green dot shows up. If it does, then we’ll know that Lauren is still with Stone,” Navan said. “With your president off on his tour with Ezra’s acquaintances, we stand a better chance of it actually being Lauren this time.”

I nodded, feeling the tablets start to work. “Plus, we won’t be alone when we ambush Stone. I saw the way those pirates cheered last night. They won’t be able to resist a bounty that big,” I said wryly, still wishing I could turn back time. “I guess, for now, we’ve got ourselves some allies in all of this.”

“Yeah, allies who are only loyal as long as the money’s good.”

I shrugged. “At least they’re on our side, which makes for a nice change. And they were chanting ‘Riley’ last night instead of ‘Fed-Smasher,’ which is a considerable improvement in my books.”

“I don’t know, I think ‘Fed-Smasher’ suits you,” Navan teased, lifting my chin to kiss me on the lips.

“I haven’t brushed my teeth,” I protested, knowing my breath was sour.

“I don’t care,” he murmured, catching my mouth in his.

Wrapping myself contentedly in his embrace, I cuddled against his chest. With his strong arms around me, I wondered if we could get away with spending the day like this. I didn’t feel like facing the universe and all its madness today.

“What’s everyone else up to?” I asked, nuzzling Navan’s neck.

“Bashrik’s cleaning vomit off the gangway, Ronad is taking a bath, Angie’s in one of the dressing rooms, and Mort has gone for a walk,” he replied.

I frowned at the last one. “He left the ship?” In a place like this, I was more than suspicious of the shifter’s motivations.

“It’ll be fine, Riley. He’ll come back to us—he’s got it good here. He’s not about to up and leave all of that,” Navan assured me.

“You were the one who told me not to trust him!”

“I’m not saying I trust him. I just… He was really starting to get on all of our nerves,” he admitted sheepishly. “He’s not going anywhere, though. You can believe that.”

“How do you know?” I protested, feeling anxious.

An amused expression drifted across Navan’s face. “Because Ronad slipped a tracker into one of his folds. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for making him do it,” he explained. “Anyway, as long as Mort isn’t alone on this ship, and able to steal it, I don’t care what that shifter does, or where he ends up, even if it’s in a Junkyard crusher.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” I said instinctively. Mort was annoying, but he didn’t deserve a fate like that.

“I just mean I don’t care what happens to him, as long as he doesn’t find a way to steal our ship from under us,” Navan replied, his tone a little softer. Looking apologetic, he added, “You should probably get ready to face the day. We need to prepare for Stone’s arrival.”

I groaned, pulling the covers back over my head. “I don’t want to do anything today! I want to lie here and remind myself why it’s a bad idea to accept drinks from strangers!” I grumbled, my voice muffled.

Laughing mischievously, Navan slid beneath the covers and pinned me down, kissing me all over, his hands slipping down to the curves of my waist. It was good I’d taken those tablets, because otherwise I’d have puked all over him, as he suddenly started to tickle me beneath the ribs, his fingers dancing across my skin. I writhed and screamed, trying to wriggle free of his tickling hands, but there was no way I was winning this fight.

“Do you give up?” he asked, chuckling.

“I surrender!” I howled, collapsing in a fit of giggles as he threw back the covers and wrapped me up in his arms, rolling across the mattress with me gripped to his chest. He nuzzled into my neck, making a low growling sound.

“You know I hate to use such torture techniques, but sometimes there’s no other option,” he said, releasing me.

I picked up a pillow and smacked him across the head with it, before darting away, leaping off the bed and onto the floor, wielding my stuffed weapon with skill. “You’ll never take me alive!” I squealed, a grin spreading across my face as he chased after me, grasping a pillow in his hands.

“Sneak!” he said, cornering me in the far side of the room. I flung my pillow, but he was too fast, ducking in underneath and enveloping me in his arms, squashing the pillow flat to his chest so I couldn’t smack him with it anymore.

“You win again!” I giggled, as he smothered me in kisses.

“You let me win,” he corrected me, grinning. “I know the damage you can do with a pillow. You went easy on me.”

“Ah, you know me too well.”

He brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear and gazed into my eyes. “So, you going to get ready?”

I nodded slowly.

He smiled, kissing me again. “That’s my girl.”

Peeling myself away from the embrace of my boyfriend, I headed for the bathroom. After taking a quick shower and getting dressed, I decided to go see how Angie was faring.

Bashrik told me she was still in the dressing room. I found her standing at the far end of the alien walk-in closet, looking completely in her element. She was playing with the holographic technology that allowed a person to see how certain clothes were going to look before they wore them. She flicked through some of the onboard dresses, which could be printed in the same fashion as the food.

I rapped my knuckles on the doorframe. Angie whirled around.

“Riley!” she cried. “I was just coming to see you, but I thought you might still be sleeping. How’s your head this morning?”

“Terrible. Yours?”

She laughed tightly. “Same. I felt like hell until Bashrik gave me some of those miracle pills.”

“So… what do you make of what Kirin said about Stone?”

“About him being a good guy?”

I nodded.

She shrugged. “I think pirates probably have a warped idea of what a ‘good guy’ is. He took Lauren, without permission—that’s not the action of a good guy.”

“That’s what I thought,” I mused. “From what she said, though, do you think Lauren might be okay? You don’t think that she might be the—”

“The new, smart girlfriend? No way! Lauren’s not an idiot; she’s not the kind of girl who ends up with Stockholm Syndrome,” Angie assured me. “I imagine Stone makes a habit of picking up pretty young things across the universe and forcing them into… well, who knows what. Lauren was probably having none of it, so he found himself a different girl to add to his harem.”